Barn Talk - Generational Wisdom on the Farm: Doug & Amy Larson's Story of Faith, Family, and Resilience

Episode Date: July 31, 2025

Welcome back to Barn Talk! In today’s episode, Sawyer and Tork welcome Doug and Amy Larson from Minnesota—well-known faces in the online ag community and the family behind a thriving YouTube channel documenting everyday life on their farm. The conversation kicks off with the Larsons sharing the heartfelt reason behind their trip through Iowa—supporting a friend’s family facing childhood cancer—before diving into stories from their own long journey together, from high school sweethearts to building a multigenerational farming operation. Get ready for laughter, nostalgia, and wisdom as Doug and Amy recount early years living in a “temporary” mouse-infested farmhouse, learning the ropes of farming, and figuring out family life on the land. The crew talks honestly about what it’s like marrying into a farm family, the highs and lows of ag economics, lessons learned from the 1980s and ‘90s farm crises, and how those challenges shape their perspective on gratitude and resilience today. Amy shares about the realities—and occasional loneliness—of being a farm wife, and the joys she found in community and faith. Plus, you’ll hear behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the rise of the Larsons’ YouTube and social media presence, including how “Dougo” became an unlikely internet celebrity and why sharing real farm life matters now more than ever. The episode touches on the changing nature of farm work, navigating generational transitions, and why authenticity resonates in a world hungry for the real deal. So whether you’re a farmer, a YouTube fan, or just love a good story about family, grit, and finding meaning in the everyday, pour yourself a cup and settle in—this is one episode you don’t want to miss! Shop Farmer Grade 👇🏻 https://farmergrade.com/  SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 "Share and Support Our Podcast" 09:01 Eager High School Escape 11:39 Cultural Differences in Marriage 17:23 Late-Night Wall Scratching Experience 24:56 Financing House Renovation with Pigs 28:59 "Drying Corn vs. Cash Rent" 35:34 "Father's Favoritism Sparks Tension" 37:08 Chet's Costly Toolbox Debate 44:13 Reflecting on Hardship and Resilience 48:00 Evaluating Market Timing & Profitability 53:41 "Changing Interest Incentives" 59:49 Homeschooling for Stress Relief 01:04:20 YouTube Success Story 01:14:29 Unsure Leadership Style 01:15:16 Farming Growth Challenges 01:21:56 Planning Retirement in Warmer Climes 01:27:18 "Post-Harvest Challenges and Faith" 01:34:20 "Robert Kennedy Jr.: Political Hypocrisy" 01:37:36 Supreme Court Ruling Inefficiency Critique 01:42:47 "Political Lobbying Critique" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's something else here now. Something new. From. Exclusively on Paramount Plus. It's the series Stephen King calls Scary as Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi Vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules.

Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in names. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a really great guest episode.

We got some folks coming down from Minnesota that it was kind of an impromptu podcast, scheduled guest. a good friend most of you if you know farmers in the farm community you'll probably know who these people are they got a great operation they got a great YouTube channel they're part of a great YouTube channel

online showing what they're doing on their operation every day and I had a great conversation with their oldest son and he he said that hey these my parents are going to be in the area and we love your podcasts.

We'd love to have, I can't make it down there right now, but hey, they're in your area, so if you want to have them on, give them a shot. And I said, well, hell yeah, let's do it. So we're kind of just whipping this one out off the seat of our, I don't know what you say. We're flying by the seat of our pants. Flying by the seat of our pants.

Yep, that's what we're doing. And so it's going to be a really great episode. I'm excited to dive into it and hear all the wisdom. I'm going to be surrounded by a lot of, wise seasoned folks out here. So I'm going to probably do a lot of listening to today's episode and chime in where I can. But I'm just going to soak it all in.

We should have episodes like this more often. I know. I could just, it'd probably make everybody happier listening or wash it too. It would. You just shut up and listen. But before we get into it, if you guys get any value from the show,

please, please, share it out with the people that you know. If you can get value in a lot of different, ways. If you laughed, if you're related to us on something, if you learned something, all that we ask is you share it. It's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the podcast. And we found it's the best way to grow podcasts organically. So we appreciate all of you that do do that and help us out with sharing the show. Another thing you can do is leave a review on Spotify or Apple. The more that you guys do that, the more it makes our show credible.

so we can get more guests to come on the show like today's guests, great people to tell their story. And last thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is support our direct-to-consumer-meat business, farmergrade, farmagrade.com. We got Waggou, beef, pork, chicken, all on the site, pork that we raise here on our farm, and you can always use code Barn Talk to save 10% off your order. Just got a new fresh batch of pork and a fresh batch of Wagoo on the site.

So gearing up for Q4, if you own a business or you want to get somebody a holiday gift, get thinking about it now because holiday season is approaching faster than you think. It'll be here before you know it. But yeah, what are you thinking today? Are you pumped? I'm looking forward to this because it's, if I'm right, I think that our guests today are about my vintage. and I'm looking forward to getting a little perspective on, really I just want them to say to me everything that I throw out there. Yep, that's exactly right.

Nice. I don't know if that'll happen or not. But yeah, it's going to be a good one. Okay. Without further ado, let's get into it. Well, we're live. So Doug and Amy Larson, welcome to Barn Talk. Hello.

We appreciate you guys making the trip. What brings you down to southeast Iowa today? What are you guys up to? I'll let Amy answer that because she's the one that is friends with. We are headed to Perry, Missouri to visit a friend. Kayla's Chronicles of Kayla, she has a YouTube. And their son has cancer, age 14. And so we're going to meet him and support them.

and cheer them on. We've been through a lot of tough stuff too. Yep. And understand that just seeing people and getting a hug and a little bit of cheery and a little bit of crying and support them. So that's the main reason for the trip. We're finding a lot of cool places to stop in Iowa. Yeah.

Friends that we're meeting with. And now today we get to meet new friends. Yeah, we sidetracked you. Yeah. you thought you had you're getting uh you're getting uh pulled off course along the way so we appreciate you making time for us i'm glad that it worked out yeah yeah i talked to chet all the time he's like i got to get down there i got to get down there i'm like dude whenever you want to make the trip we're here for you but he's like well dougo's got me beat he's he's gonna beat me down there

i said hey that's fine we'll make it work yeah so when you get home talk it up for all it's worth like man you really missed out yeah yeah Yeah. So how long have you guys been together? When did you guys meet? When did this all kick off? Well, it was, we were, what, 17? We were in the same grade in high school. High school, sweethearts? How did we start dating? Well, there was a, I'll just say I was pretty nervous to ask her face to face. So I stuffed a rose in her locker and ask her for a date. Look at that.

And here we are. Will you go out with me this weekend? Doug Larson. There was a couple of Dougs in school. So I didn't want no mistake. That would have been a major letdown. One red rose. And we went to Crocodile Dundee, the very first movie.

Nice. Nice. In Wilmer, which was one hour drive, which was a big deal. Yeah. And yeah, we've been dating ever since. So that was 1986 was our first date. November 22nd. Wow.

Did you remember that date? Doug? I knew it was in November. Yeah. Yeah. 22nd is what? The first date. The first date.

And then the 27th of. August is our anniversary. Good. When's my birthday? That is also the 29th? Yes. Wow. I was like, I was starting to get nervous because I was like,

I was like, this is not a good place to get those questions wrong. I'm sorry that it turned into an interrogation there, but you got extra points for pulling all them off. So our first date was on the 22nd and then on my birthday. which was a week later, he sent me a half a dozen roses. Well, look at that. I thought he was romantic at that point. I'm not so sure anymore.

Flowers have gone up. They have gone up a lot. They have gone up a lot. That's true. Yes. That's true. Yep. So you grew, so growing up, were you close to where you started farming?

I mean, what's the? Yeah. Me and my two brothers, mom, dad lived on the same farm yard as grandpa and grandma. Okay. So I think the folks got married in 66, 67. And I was born in 68. And dad bought a trailer house, brand new trailer house, 12 foot by 65 foot. Pulled it up on the yard there.

I don't know how they chose where to put it, but it was a little bit away from grandma's house. Yep. So every time it stormed or something, we'd evacuate the trailer house and run for the farmhouse because that thing was two by two walls. And that was something. Yeah, but you didn't know any better, so it was all right.

No, all right. It was average to us. Yep. So by the time you got out of high school, or when you were in high school growing up, what did you think like did you always think that i'm going to farm that i'm going to fit in the operation or yeah i think so that was no i couldn't get out of school quick enough i mean that was we were in or i was in f f f a and i think we got work release at two o'clock or something like that so

yep i got to drive most of the time in the later years there and i had dust in the back back end of the car leaving town at 2 o'clock as fast as I could. Yeah. So did you know what you were getting yourself into? No, this is not what I knew. I'm a town girl as he affectionately calls me. And I did have actually an ex-boyfriend tell me, you know, he's a farmer. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah, well.

He did a good sales job, Doug. He did. He did. And by that, I mean, I just, it's just a completely different culture, family culture. Yep. And everything revolves around farming and, and it's, yeah, just took some adjusting. But here we are.

Yep, here you are. Amy just did a speech for a local what, but. It was a soil and water conservation district. They did a farm her evening, and I've done speaking in the past. and they asked me to speak about farming to women about the joys and stresses. And I start my list and I've got stresses, you know, quite a long list. And I'm like, I maybe better find some joys in this. Of course, there's many, many joys in farming too.

Yeah. Yeah, I've never really talked about what it's like to be a farmwife. So that was good to evaluate for myself. And hopefully encouraged. In fact, I did have a, a, young wife with two little kids saying thank you for talking about how lonely it can be. Yep. Yep.

I think that when we get done here, you need to make one more stop right at my house and you can give your spiel to my wife, Trisha, because she's lived the same thing. And we talk about that a lot that, you know, she, She was a town girl, didn't know anything about farming, definitely didn't know anything about pigs. And she had three criteria when she was dating. She didn't want to marry somebody shorter than her. She didn't want to marry a farmer. And she didn't want to, what was the other one?

Oh, blonde hair. She didn't want somebody with blonde hair. So I really knocked it out of the park. But the culture shock of the, the culture shock of, that. And I think if you asked her, the other side of it is she grew up and her dad, everybody in her family worked a, I guess you'd say a conventional job. And a lot of her memories of her parents was her dad getting off work at four o'clock and then a couple of his friends stopping by the house and then they would play cards on Friday night or whatever, you know.

And we didn't have that. When she married into our family, you know, it's like you said. It all blends together and it's the farm and it really wasn't much else. And we're 31 years in now, but I can tell you that there's one. of us had definitely had more patience and it wasn't me so anyway that's good that you're doing that that's exactly exactly it's i i did write that in my speech my dad was home at five we had supper together and weekends were for our chores and togetherness sundays were for church and it was pretty you know pretty steady unless dad had meetings or something but yeah this whole like eat whenever

kind of thing is up and down. Up and down. Very much so. Our youngest son, he would, it was really, it was interesting over the years is how much it meant to him when we all sat at the table. And then I, it kind of grieved a little bit of,

you know, it's just, it's different, but not wrong as we've learned. Yep. From different. Not wrong, just different. It's an occupational hazard. What I like to say is it's like, if you like we we like to plan when things are going to go wrong and that's that's like obligations and

vacations and outside things that you're planning to do those are the guaranteed times that something's going to go wrong so it's kind of how it works out but anyway always something happens so when you two when you two got married did you move into the trailer? No, the trailer was that, like I say, it was built out of two by two and the folks built new house in 82 and trailer house got sold to the guy that designed the new house. And I'll never forget thinking, man, this guy builds new houses. Why is he going to live in a trailer house? But that's how that went. And we actually, uh, moved into an old farm yard that was four miles roughly away from the home place.

And, well, let's just say it had been abandoned for how many years do you think? Enough. Yeah. So the windows were nailed shut or nailed over. They had nailed sheeting over them. And the plaster ceilings were cracked and falling down. but we got to live there for free if we kept up the yard and fixed up the house a little bit. Yeah.

And we'd done that for, it's supposed to spend a short time, but that turned into... 15 years. With the mice, the snakes, the salamanders, the bats. You name it, it was in that house. And I think it was, well, when the mice were just all the time. And so I would wait to like midwinter before I would, you know, every utensil I take out of the drawer would have to be washed before using. Otherwise, I was washing everything 100 times. So I thought, okay, we've slow. The trap line has slowed down. So I think it's safe. I'm going to clean everything. All the drawers, all the things. And then one evening I open up a drawer and you could see the little poops in the drawer. He had just walked in the door. And she had been already, or we had been talking about doing something different.

And I walked in the door and I seen her open up that drawer and slowly closed it again. And I knew, oh, boy. There was going to be a serious conversation about where you were going to move and it wasn't going to stay here. That was the beginning of the real, I don't know, negotiation. Negotiation. I never thought I would get to that. I don't think it was an ultimatum, but I had, it was, you know, I was supposed to be temporary. We're 15 years in. You put your time in, for sure. That's enough now. Yeah. Yeah, that was. When the bats were scratching in the wall next to our bed, I'd like. So the fall, the mice would move back in. That's, and I think you have to live on the farm to understand.

on how that all works. But so then you battle the mice and then I don't know, for whatever reason, the bats, they somehow were getting in the attic. Yep. And then down into the wall right by our headboard of the bed. And then two in the morning start scratching away and you'd beat on the wall.

They'd quiet up for a little bit. Yeah. But it's good. I mean, it's good to, I think we appreciate what we have very much now because of what we're right through cistern water didn't they it had a well on the yard but it wasn't hooked up to the house we finally dug a line into the house and got so-called uh running water but it was it was very hard

cistern water yeah that cistern water maybe don't even know well you you got to live that one to yeah so you know for us we have cisterns for a hog buildings okay but um a lot like the old four square, we have an Airbnb, and it had a huge cistern in it, and it caught all the city water dumped into it later, but when that house was built, it caught all the rainwater off the gutters, went in the cistern, and that was the water they used.

And that's what you bathe in. Yeah, and when you tell people that, they're just like, you know, they're just dumbfounded, like how. Whatever was laying on the shingle from the birds flying over. Yeah, well, that's, you know, that's settled to the bottom. Yeah, that settles out. You put the end of the pipe from the pump.

So that place had a gas engine in the basement. And so they had running water when they wanted it. You'd fire up the gas engine and it would pump water and then, you know. But yeah, those were the days. Yeah. So when you were farming, when you got started farming, were you guys, I know you were in hogs. Were you in hogs all like for a long time from the start?

Yeah. Was it rocrop and hogs? Tell us a little bit about the operation from when you were a kid to, you know, growing up. I grew up with the livestock on the farm. There was no farrowing house. It was just a straw barn that you had, I think we were just taking down that barn last week. and maybe the rest of it will be gone when I get back home. I don't know.

Farrow to finish is what we finally got into there. I think dad built a Lester farrowing house and nursery in 77. And then when Randy and I, my brother and I, got out of high school, 88 was my first year farming, which was the big drought. there was pretty much nothing for a crop five bushel beans and I don't know why we even harvested stuff but um also the year we got married yeah got married that year and and then uh where was I going with that the hogs and yeah Randy and I in 92 because we were working with all the dad stuff and it's like well and dad did not want us to rent land he he he he

didn't have much for equipment. Couldn't hardly get done what we had. So we thought, well, we'll just add on to the barns here. So Randy and I bought or built a new 20 stall, Farrowing House and nursery, and then added on the finisher and went with that until, well, 08 was our last last year. So we had just gotten the barns paid for. And we should have been making money and they took all the money. out of the livestock.

08 was a good time to decide that. So we, very similar. I mean, we grew up. We had when I, so I'm 54. I was born in 71.

We had 200 sows fair to finish. And that's what we did. We built our first confinement in probably, so we built our first finisher in 72. And then we put all the sows inside. in 75 and 76 and we ran up. And then when I got out of high school, I bought a place and started Farrowin

and we combined all the sows. We converted everything here to farrowing and nursery, and then everything where I lived was finishing. And we had 400 sows. We thought we had the world by the tail. And then after 95, we realized that we were the tail. And then in 98 was when we were like, you know, this is, I don't think this is going to work. And that's when we got out was in 98.

And I think that story, if that didn't convince you, then 2008, that was a, I was on the better, I was on the better end of it by 2008. I was selling hog billings by then. I was working for a contractor that bill hog buildings. But 08 was a very thin year. We didn't sell much that year. I remember that. So. Yeah, and I shouldn't say, I don't exactly, I think maybe it was 90s. when Randy and I said that was it. We're done bleeding the pork stuff. But dad and mom, because mom took care of the farrowing and nursery all the time.

Without her, that would have been an even worse story with us trying to do that. But dad said, well, if there's a barn on the yard, it's going to have hogs in it. And we said, okay, if you want to raise them for nothing, go ahead. but we still got the help with them. So we were back to square one as far as that goes. Yep. But when you think about your childhood and early on, I mean, the pigs were the, I mean, that's what paid the bills because good year, bad year, you ground the corn.

And, I mean, that's what, that's what we always said. Not how you got your marauda. Yeah, that's, dad would let us each have, I think we had 100, 100, head of feeder pigs and that was our we got free ground feed for them and all that but we worked for free then and we bought cars and gas yeah we're in high school with that i i always tell people it maybe sounds bragish or whatever but back then it was never if you were going to make money on hogs it was just how much yep and that was that was good stuff i i wish it would be that way again but yeah it was so good that that's maybe why the why we're in the shape

we're in well it could be yeah and but i think that was the that was the end you were getting to the ends of the times where like the only determining factor as to how much money you wanted to make with raisin pigs was how much work you wanted to put in because it wasn't it wasn't nearly as automated it is today although it was a lot better when we put them inside but but my dad tells the story when he and my mother redid the house that I live in now. It was in, they moved in there the year I was born. They moved in there in 71, but they started redoing it in 69. It was actually my great-grandparents house.

But I asked him, you know, when I was trying to redo a house, buy a house, redo a house, and all that, I'm like, how, you know, how the heck did you do this? and he's like well he goes when when gander started the guy at the carpenter that was going to do it when he started he was I just asked gander I said so how much money you think you're going to need every month to get this done

and gander said well I think it's going to take this much and you know it's going to take us it's going to take us like nine months to do it so it's probably going to be about this month so he just held back that many gilts the year before they started and he had pigs out in the field and he finished him out

out in, you know, 10 but 20s. And he's like, I just knew that I had to have this many pigs to load up to take to Oscar Meyer to pay Gander every month. And we just ferroed that many more pigs. And that's how we did it. And I was like, it doesn't work like that today. Right. Yeah, we had everything.

All of our feeders were out on dirt lot with the little building that they could go in at nighttime or get out of the sun. but yeah i'll never forget the smell of the dirt lot you have to smell that one after a rain and yeah and then it dries out and gets the big cloud of dust going that's got a very unique smell yep absolutely you're 100% right i i remember very little of that uh because i was pretty young when we put them inside i do remember ringing sows i do remember running them through the shoot and ring and sows and that's a sound that you don't forget either so the good old days yeah yeah so were you you as you grew up was grain farming more more your thing

did you find more interest in grain farming and wanted to be in that or you didn't really mind it was like didn't know one didn't know the difference from one of the other dad and grandpa never had much they had the home 80 a quarter north maybe two miles and that was that was it till i was maybe ninth, tenth, grade or something like that. And then dad ended up buying 120 acres south of us five miles. That's all we ever had.

And I've 88, a farmer east of the farm, a couple miles, had some heart issues, so he retired. And I rented it the first year. Randy was still in high school. So I farmed half the farm. Then the next year, then Randy got out of graduated,

and then we rented the rest of it. And from there, I think it stalled out for quite a few years. And I don't know, we just slowly added a little bit every year. And where we're at now, it was all kind of just luck. Yeah. When we started building grain bends, the guys that we build with, they always said, well, what's future look like? I just laughed and I said, well, I don't know. I'm just going to try to stay in business. Yeah.

And it's too bad. A guy doesn't have an idea. He might have a hope, but you don't know. Because the bend site, it's, our bend site is typical of everybody. The bends next to the grain leg are the smallest. and you're now auguring or transferring all the corn to the farthest biggest been. It's just the way that it is. Yeah. So when you started rent and ground, were you crop renting it or cash renting it?

The first few years was sharecroft. That was a 50-50 deal. Right or wrong, I don't know it. But now Chet still does some sharecropping with some. That's a rarity anymore, though. Yeah, and it's kind of a hassle, but because we're set up to dry our own corn. And when you got to haul it to the elevator, they get you pretty good to do that. But it's working.

Yeah. I'd rather have the cash rent thing that's in the good years, we always usually give a little bonus depending on how good it is and stuff. but nothing in our contracts seeing how much. It's just kind of, and everybody's very happy with that. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero, more like Habinier, yes.

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And then it got to be pretty ugly there a couple, three years. So we did renegotiate a little bit. Yeah, there's give and take. and I always tell my landlords if I'll give it if I can get it. Yeah. But you know how that, if you start bleeding the turnip, you're going to. Yeah, that's right. What about the 80s, 80s farm crisis?

I mean, what did that look like for your family? Was that a hard time for the farm? I mean, it was hard for a lot of people. Yeah, I would say that they had so little that it, did not. They didn't have no debt, very little debt. They built a new house. I think he said that it was 20%, 21% interest. For whatever reason, well, you know how that is. If you don't have a lot of debt, that's just like a cancer. And I think everybody nowadays, we all have debt. So, yeah. And we talked about that a couple weeks ago. I feel like. Like if you were raised in livestock, like if you were raising hogs through the 80s and you didn't have debt, the hog market ran a little bit contrary to the grain markets. Because a lot of guys that had livestock weathered the 80s a lot better than people that were just grain farming.

That really helped. I know it helped us a lot. So. When you were young and you were talking about it, when guys would ask you like, what's the future look like? Well, the future is now, I guess, a little bit. Like, when you, when you were at that time, what did you think the future would look like? Does it look like? Yeah.

Is your reality what you thought it'd be now? It's way past. Never, ever would have. Yeah, did you ever think you'd be farming on the scale that we are all farming today? No. I, looking back and I really struggled with that a lot, is when you set your level of what you hope, for and you hit it. And it's almost like, okay, now, now what, do we keep going or are you supposed to be happy with what you have? But then as we always met those goals, it seemed like there was a little

bit less meat on the bone, so you needed a little bit more to stay going. But yeah, no, I, that we are very blessed for where we're at though I yeah and I don't want to make it sound like we got a gravy train but we just have we're more responsible to take care of more than I ever thought we'd have to yeah well I think we're all I think as a society not just an ag but everywhere unless you have the perspective of having to plan for what rodent infestation is coming next. Like, unless you've got that as a reference point, I don't think most of us,

and even if you've been through that, we get very conditioned to all the things that we take for granted that we never even dream that we would have as an opportunity or the way we live. The lifestyles we live now, my parents and my grandparents would have never even,

they would have felt guilty. Actually, my grandparents, parents would have, they would have felt guilty, spending the money on the basic things that we think are a necessity. Oh, I think I'd get my back end chewed for spending some of the stuff that we've spent on our residents or stuff like that. Everybody was happy to mow the weeds kind of on the lawn. And now we think we want to have a nice lawn.

Yeah. That has to be mowed three, four times every three, four days. Oh, my gosh. It's been a, yeah, if you don't like mowing your yard, this is a bad year. It is a bad year. And I just yesterday, I finally mowed around all the hog buildings all in one day, which is the first time we've gotten that done. And the kid that usually mows for me, he's been gone.

And so anyway, I mowed everything. and all I could think was, you know, I think I could plant corn closer to these hogboys. I don't know why we actually have this much grass anyway. I think next year we're going to get it a little, we're going to try to hug it a little closer because, man, it's ridiculous. It can be just, it's a whole day. Yeah, it is. Sometimes if you really go for it, for sure.

But talking about, you know, are the things that we take for granted today. So, and I've told this story before, but I'll make it short. So a guy that went to country school with my dad and then didn't go on to high school, only went to the eighth grade and then started farming. He was a, he was, he had a very particular personality and probably not a lot of, well, I don't think he needed many friends, to be honest. He was just one of those guys that he was just, you knew exactly where he stood on everything, whether you wanted to know or not.

But he had kind of a special place for my dad. He was one of the few people that he would stop by and talk to him once in a while because they grew up together. But he worked hard for everything that he got, and he was very successful, and he accumulated some land. But he had three sons. And the ground that they put in, hay or oats.

He didn't charge him rent on that. He didn't charge the boys rent on that. So they always bailed a pile of hay, which I didn't like those guys because I was one of the kids that, you know, I bailed hay around in the summer. And I was like, good Lord, these guys got a lot of hay ground. But anyway, he came over to our house one day, and he was mad as a hornet because they had bought a boxcar magnum.

And that was the first cab tractor that they'd had that, and they bought it new. And he was livid. And he informed my dad the whole litany of, it takes three generations to make a fortune and only one to lose it. And these boys of mine are working overtime. And if they got enough money for a tractor like that,

they're paying rent on everything. I mean, he was just, it was the end. They were going to ruin him for everything he had. And they turned out okay. But I mean, in his mind, that was just an absolute, there was no need for anything that nice. It was gluttony.

You're exactly right. That phrase might have been used. I don't know. I was pretty young. But I'll always remember that. That's like when Chet, when we built a new shop, it's been 10 years ago now. And Chet wanted to have this big toolbox.

And I'm like, you don't need to waste whatever it was, $3,500 or $3,000. whatever it was. It's just like, why? Because Randy and I had our little kids wagon with two toolboxes on that. If something broke down, you just grab them, throw them in back, you could fix whatever it was wrecked. You don't need to waste money on a big toolbox, but boy. You went around and around on the way. Yeah, I was not too happy about that. Yep. That was not good. Yep. Now Storlock brings him all kinds of boxes. Yeah, now they've got three, I think, boxes and not that let's just say if I was a mechanic full-time mechanic and I would be that guy that would have his toolbox locked all the time because every time I go over to them there's tools

missing they're not back where they're supposed to be and I'm spending more time looking for him yeah I could always find it in my little wagon yep there you go sounds like us that is exactly We always have tools. We always have a project. And we always are like, yep, yep, yep, I think we got it all. And then you get over there and you're like, nope, got to go back. And the worst is when you need that one thing and you go to where that one thing is. It's not there.

The one ranch that's missing. The whole set is there except that one that you need. Yeah. And then on a farm, you start going down the mental list of where's the next most likely place that that is. You know, first it's like, oh, it's probably over here on the bench and the shot. Okay, it's not there. Oh, it's over at the grain bin.

Oh, it's over at the hog. Okay, it's here. Oh, I hate that. I think that's gotten to be a bigger issue is that it seems like Yao's got to order parts now. So when you do work on a project, nobody puts nothing away because you aren't done. Yep. Well, three days later when you're. When something else breaks.

Right. Now you are missing what you need out of the box. but yep you just kind of walk it off as I say walk it off yeah so what's the farming operation look like today so your brother is involved you got Chet what what's it all look like now Randy and I everything we do is 50 50 Chet's got his roughly 22% is his size Eric He has his rented acres from his mom, his grandparents. That's the big swede, right?

Yeah. Okay. So we do some back and forth custom farming type of deal with him. And so, and Brody is Randy's son-in-law. And I don't know. So the future, I don't know what that's all going to look like. but so far that's where we're at. The owners are Randy, Doug Chet,

and then Eric and Brody and the other guys are employees. I guess they go in that category. Yeah, yeah. When did you guys start having kids? When did that kick off? Oh, that was late 97? That was born in 95, so you're married in 88.

That was 95, Stone was 98. Nice. So 20. Yeah, I should know that. You should know that. That's okay. Hey, he did pretty, he did pretty good. I'm impressed with the date and birthday and the anniversary. Yeah, he's the same age as Clay.

Yep, my brother's, my, my brother was born 95 and I was born 2000. Okay. So. Young stuff. Yep, two boys, same thing. Young stuff. Yep. Yep. I don't feel young anymore.

Brickin 25. Yeah. I feel like time just flies now. ancient. You get out of school and you're like, years just go by. Quick, quick, quick. It's crazy.

That's because we're all so busy. I know. I know. Too busy almost. Yeah. So when you guys look back on everything that has transpired, what do you think was the toughest patch that you guys went through? Whether that be farming or kids or,

You as a couple, you as a family, anything. I guess I always go back to the when there was a, we weren't the greatest marketers back in the 90s. It seemed like we could never, there's a big farm show up in Fargo, big iron. And we could never go to that because we were always vacillating out the soybeans out of the grain bends. And it's September 15th.

farm show. And we had to get the beans out of the bend to put the new beans in the bend. And it was just, I remember saying that one time that we, because we ran old equipment all time. And we lost, or missed out on the opportunity to make, not just the combine payment, but we could have bought a brand new combine for the money that we let. from not selling it the right time. Yeah. And I think we were just so focused on the livestock and just working that I don't even know if there was, I suppose there was, but we didn't know about it.

You could say, I don't know if people were doing the, what do you call it, marketing for farmers. That was nothing. I remember being offered to hire somebody to do that. that for you, but yeah, there was, it was, we needed a big, the worst summer I had was we needed a big fuel tank for the farm, wanted to buy transports of fuel, semi-loads. And there was a old tank, big, thick, heavy-duty tank, 18,000 gallon. And I was so worried that we weren't going to be around the next year that I did not want to go through the work of put it they only wanted

three hundred dollars for the tank but I didn't want to move through the work of setting it up and then maybe not not being around and I don't know what year you think that I'd had to be it was 98 yeah in my talk I wrote that I remember how broken you were thinking that the farm was not going to be able to support us and that you would have to find something else to do. Yeah. And it's when we turned 30 because we had a, that was a big thing in our area. When you have turned big birthdays, you have a party.

And I had to go to the coin jar to get that. I had to have a garage sale to buy the boys winter coats. And so that's, what, 20? what is, 27 years ago. And I think that's, to your point about, you know, that people don't know. And the YouTube world doesn't know. They see what we have now.

Right. But they don't see what we, what how little we had and how hard we, hard they work to keep it all going. Yeah. Yeah. And I wasn't worried about, I wasn't worried about him providing.

You know, I was sad to see him so disappointed that this wasn't doing. Well, I just couldn't believe that you could literally work yourself to the bone. And at the end of the year, you maybe were breaking even or barely breaking even. And that was the worst thing that I think I can say I went through. For the farming end, for the family end. There's a lot worse things. Yeah, when you get down to the health issues and stuff like that. I mean, now you're in a whole different issue.

But that's a, you know, there is a period of time in there. And it's that transition like I talked about where your success in farming used to have a direct correlation is if you were willing to put in the time and do the hard work, you were going to be successful. Right. But then as expenses grew, rent grew, and your market price stagnated, then it all changed to the point where, yeah, you know, the curse, I don't know if you, in Iowa that on public television, they had a show called Market to Market. Every Saturday after cleaning barn would come in and watch it.

And my mother was pretty sure that if Sue Martin lived a county over that my dad would be trying to quarter. Because we did that exact same thing when it came to beans because we never sold our beans. Because Sue Martin always thought beans were headed higher. And my dad loved her. Like, yeah. And so we just held on and held on. would sell them for less. Yeah, I think I remember she said it was going to be $18 beans one time. We're smiling and yeah. My dad drank that Kool-Aid for a long time.

Because the corn, so we ground the corn. And so beans were the only thing he had to speculate on. And he just hated the idea of not selling them for the high. Now, but in his mind, I don't think he ever had like a time, like a timestamp, within what period of time did you want to sell them for the high? Because we missed many highs. Right. And then we would send up selling at the low. So anyway. What always bothered me with the, with once it's in the bend. And if you are happy with, you pick up out the numbers, say a dollar a bushel profit or whatever it is. If for some stupid reason that that market goes up $3, you can make three year advance in one year. And that, when we were able to do that a few times, but then I would love for somebody

to do the, I've always told Amy, if I could find somebody smart enough to look back and see where we've sold, selling the way we have sold, and where, if you, if you, few years, contract and just assure yourself something who actually is ahead. I don't know, but I do know that those years that you think it's coming to an end because you've lost your butt. That's not too good asleep that you have for a few months there. Do you guys do all your own marketing still to this day or do you? Chad and Eric have now hired a couple, three different and we, Randy and I do have a couple

Different ones. Randy still does most of the marketing. I think he's getting thick of that or the responsibility of it. It is nice to have a non-family member to complain about when they don't market it right rather than it be you. I mean, that's the biggest thing I hear from guys. I ask, I ask them, you know, if they use somebody and they, if they say yes. and then I ask him, are you happy with me? It's like, no, I'm not. And I would get somebody better. But it is nice to be mad at them and not mad at myself. So I guess I'm going to keep using them.

That's the thing. You always get differing opinions. Guys are like, oh, yeah, I used them. And they're pissed off at them. But then they keep using them. And you're like, I don't know. It's a weird thing. Some people are like, no, I'll never hire that out.

And then there's some people that have it hired out. And they say it's not good, but they stick with it. And there's people that say it's great. So it's like, yeah. Well, I think it's there again. Some of that is just born in natural for some farmers that are good at it. Yeah, yeah. Understand it.

Yep. For me, if I had to do it myself, I think I'd be just more or less on the, we're just going to contract so many today or I don't think I'd be into all the stuff that you can do. I just don't understand it enough. Part of it over the years, what I've observed is there's so, married to it. It's in the bin. They've worked so hard, so many hours, so much money invested. Yay, we've got it in the bin. And now it's like healing their fingers off of it to get them to sell it. And that has, so I said it's a pretty, it's a math problem. And that's how I have always looked at it.

But it doesn't matter how I look at it because it's, it seems like it's an emotional thing. versus a math, which to me math is pretty simple. You have a break-even price. You can get more than that, then let's sell some. Then we'll sell some more. And so to me, it seems, and I know that's very simplified, but it still is about the math. And I've never had the opportunity.

I've always said, give me 10,000 bushels and see how I do. And still, how many, let's see, it'll be 30, seven years we've been married still have, I should get that. I think I'll give it to you this year. Maybe my new kitchen could come if I. I don't think you could maybe contract a profit that is coming. That's right. And that's how do you start when things are so terrible?

I know that I wouldn't do that. I know that I wouldn't give Tricia any because there's already so many things that she has to tell me that she was right about. I don't think I could take giving her one more thing to rub in my eye and go, Well, see, I told you. It's a possibility. I know. I know that's selfish, but I just don't think I'm emotionally strong enough to take another ding like that.

Maybe that's the issue here. I don't know. It could be. It could be. What's more stressful? What's a more stressful time? The 80s or today as far as just... Well, or maybe the 90s.

Or yeah. Most stressful period of time in your journey of farming. I don't. I would... I would say the 90s were definitely. Yeah. And the older you get, I guess we were naive enough or stubborn enough, whatever the word would be.

Before we had kids, we never, ever, if the banker says, no, you can't have that money or we're not going to bar you that. We tried anything and everything to find some way to get it. And never ever thought one thing about not borrowing as much as we could get. It worked out, but now the kids came. I would say when the kids got older is when I think we got a little more. Well, maybe we better not try to stick our neck out for all of that. Be happy with just something on a smaller scale or something.

Well, and we've talked about this many times, but, you know, we went through that period where there was really no incentive not to have that money borrowed because the cost of having it was nothing. I mean, the opportunity, if the opportunity was there, the money cost you almost nothing if it was a profitable endeavor. But now we're in a different, we're in a different spot because now it's not as bad as it was like we talked about you know 20% interest but your margin is so poor that that interest that it's it's a big number and these guys well yeah I mean what I was used to all the way up till I was I don't know 20 21 3 3 and a half it's like this is great yeah we never even never even really figured yeah in on the equation

And it was just like, well, that's such a reasonable moment. We break that much stuff in a year, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because we had Rob Brennamet on here. He has a lot of hogs. And he was telling his story about going through the 90s. And he was talking about 20% interest.

And we had people that commented on that podcast like, there's no way. There's no way. And I'm like, no, it was. It was. That's legit. you know, you know, people always say or they always, you know, parents always say you're never ready to have kids. Like you're never, you're never going to, is you're never going to be ready, right? You just got to do it. And like when I think about having kids, it's like, man,

money is tight today. Everything's getting more expensive, whatever. But I was talking to Chet, you know, we've, we've talked a few times. And he was like, we made a, you made a comment on here before, like, you know, your kids don't know. They really don't know when you're, you're, young and how how how how the households running like you don't know if you're broke or not it's just like this is life and i'm enjoying it because i'm a kid and he just told me that story about you know mice he was like he's running around trapping mice and he's like i loved it you know you just oh the biggest thing at nighttime and if you've seen one run across the kitchen floor you got the flashlight and the BB gun and laid down underneath the oven and tried to nail them under

there. Yeah. I have a picture of the two of them in the kitchen and Chet's got the mouse by the tail and the BB gun and they're still smiling. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. What's like what would you say about that, you know, that when people say that like any advice or any, any thoughts on that thought of you're never, you're never ready to have kids? Just, you know, like what's your guys's experience with it? I would say that's a true statement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you're going to They don't know what you don't know. And you have no idea what it means to raise a child. You don't know how they're going to be.

I remember Chet was very colicky. And many years later, I find out it's from milk. Yep. But I remember we had a cat in the house. And Chet had such a icky tongue. We had, and I don't think I'll use the word I use. But there was poop everywhere. There was poop on the floor, poop on the wall, poop on everything because he was just had icky diapers.

Yeah. And he was little, little guy was so full of pressure. And it was what time of the night you woke up to change them? Four in the morning or three in the morning. I was not a happy, no. And starting the washer and it was, I was. And then in comes this sweet cat rubbing against my legs. And I'm like, oh my gosh, was that ever easy?

Just pour a little food in the dish, a little bit of water, the end with the cat. And here I've got all over the plane. Yeah. Yeah. That was, I mean, you just don't know what you don't know. And I didn't know why he didn't feel good, you know. Yeah. And you don't, there is no handbook.

You don't know. And they're each very, very different. Yeah. And so you don't even know how to raise him, how to discipline differently. The money will always manage it. you'll always figure out and it's worth it of course and um but i don't know why you'd wait yeah you know well it's like when i talk we trish'll ask the boys you know if they will be talking about whatever it was in the in the 90s and they don't remember anything the only thing they

remember is on Friday nights they could stay up late and we let them build a tent in the living room and we all slept in the living room or they'd sleep on our floor like that's what you remember you don't remember any of the rest of them. Krispy cream donuts on Saturday mornings in that rental house watching cartoons when you were redoing this house yep yep you don't know when you're a kid you just like yeah this is great and they you know in our case that one of the joys that I had and the list was the generational relationships that kids had being at the farm, being able to go to grandmas and help in the garden and learn. Chet was like practically you'd trip over him because he's always around you.

He always wanted to be with at the farm. Yeah. And I, wow, I know that somebody asked me, well, how did you teach Chet everything? I never had to teach him nothing. He was with me all the time. Just followed you around. He's seen what needed to be done, how to do it. So if you don't, if you don't allow them to be with you at the farm, you're going to end up with something that maybe isn't going to be at the farm. And we homeschooled. Boys were in second and fourth grade when we started. And a lot of it was, that was very, very anxious at school.

hated it and wanted to jump out the back end of the bus. He even had talked to Stonehow, you know, they would have this all figured out what was going to be said and how he was going to cover for him. And it was just so stressful for all of us, so far away from town and long bus rides. And so we had that extra opportunity also where we get done with school in the morning and off to the farm they'd go in the go cart and go to ground.

and go to grandma's and. Yeah, they could do school in about the time that the bus ride would have got them to school, to get our back and forth. Because I think it was almost an hour and a half bus ride if they'd went to the school that were in the district of. Yeah. So, yeah, it would almost spend three hours and they got going at school right away in the morning and close to dinner they were done.

Yeah. So Chad always knew he wanted a farm. I believe so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So when the social media thing kicked off and that idea, what did you think initially?

What were your thoughts? All you have to do is watch the first few videos. You'll catch the vibe. Yeah. Yeah, Nikki. And I think she was old. I think that was one of the very first ones. It was a muddy fall.

We bought tracks for the combine. First time we had ever had tracks about some used off-brand tracks. And we were trying to install them, me and Chet. And here's Nicole with the camera as we're attempting to put the first track on the combine. And, yeah, it was, well, you can tell that I was not. thinking this was a good idea. And I don't, I think at the end or at the somewhere there, a month later, whatever, maybe longer,

I just kind of settled on the idea, well, if most people that aren't farmers think that we're out here destroying everything and not taking care of the land. And if we can try to teach something, or show our lives to everybody. You'll tolerate it. It will be okay then. But then I find out that most of the farmers that are farmers that watch,

and I'm like, why do they want to watch people work farm stuff when they do it all day long? Well, so they can tell you what you're doing wrong. There is some of that. Oh, yeah. Go through any video of us fixing something. There are a lot of really smart people out there. The bulk of the comments are doing it this way.

How you should have done it. What you did wrong. Use this instead. Yeah, there's a lot of tools out there I don't even know are made to do these things differently and easier. It's just the old saint. We know what we know and that's normal to us. If I come visit you on your farm, I might learn something or I might think, boy, those guys, you know, you only know what you know. Yep.

Amy, what did you think of the social media when it kicked off? Were you, were you, what did you think initially? Well, I know that Chet and Doug spent a lot of time on Snapchat back and forth. And I think you got on Snapchat because you wanted to defend yourself. Yeah, that's how that all started. And a friend of Chet suggested, I think that you should get on Instagram told Chet. And then so then the Instagram thing started. And then you got an account on Instagram.

And so it started kind of that way first. And then I think it was Cole the Corn Star that reached out to Chet and said, you know, you're not going to make any money at Instagram. You should be YouTubeing. And Chet's like, no way. And I think for me it was like it was kind of fun to watch. So Nicole and Chet, Nicole is Chet's late wife. Yep.

And I don't know if people know the history of that. But anyway, they started it up. and they start putting these videos on and I'm like, why? You know, and I understood the idea of the educating, and I think that was a great idea and everything. I remember when Chet told me he got the first $100 YouTube, Google, AdSense, check, I was showing everybody, like, can you even believe? All they're doing is working and they put it out there

and now they're getting money for it. It didn't even make any sense. And I was excited to watch from the, outside and to see how they worked on improving it and learning and and I think it was that was enjoyable to me and it's we've there's no way you could um ever be able to add up all of the amazing opportunities we've gotten from yep I and who would have ever guessed when I was chasing mice around we would be going to Kentucky and we'd be going to Boone Iowa for farm shows yeah people would want to talk to us.

But the best part is all the people that we get to meet. I mean, we get to meet you guys today. We wouldn't have met you. Right. You know, we wouldn't be able to, this amazing community of farmers. And I love it. I, that's awesome. Yeah.

Yeah, I think with that being said, it, it scares me because we've all put somebody where only the one is supposed to be put. And believe you, me, don't think that this stuff is something that you should strive to be because I'm just, or we're all human and we'll all let you down if you stick around long enough. So. Yeah, I know. We have the same feeling. It's, it's weird kind of. It is weird. Because you're just doing, just doing what you would normally do. And you're just shooting the, you know, pushing the play button or start button and thought button. And you're just talking about what you love to do.

Yeah. And people want to watch it. And now Doug and I have a YouTube channel. Yeah. Which was originally mine, Amy. And then gradually, I've like, so Doug's at the forefront because he's the popular one. And. Well, you started it out for a much.

For a different reason. Different reason. keep doing it. Yeah. And then I had him on a couple times and I'm like, what's going on? I'm getting notices from YouTube or something and people are watching it. Well, the one that really took off was I was talking about unanswered, unanswered prayer.

Yeah. Some people say that there's unanswered prayer, which is untrue. There's always answered prayer. It just isn't maybe sometimes always the answer you want. Yep. And it was talking about when we lost Nicole. And for whatever reason, reason I think YouTube attached it to one of like following one of Chet's or whatever like you know

the suggested video next the one weekend that got sick and I go what's going on and then just like you need to do more and I like I don't know how to do it and he the two tips that he gave us or or me was first you need to be consistent and second you need to learn to edit and I'm like I'm not learning to edit because I was just wing it one 10 minutes. video straight through posted. Yep, yep, no cuts. No cut, didn't know how. He grabs my phone, shows me I-Movie, and about two seconds is showing.

I don't, no, I am not techie, I'm not. And, but then I kept thinking, you know, he knows what he's doing. He just said be consistent. So it was Sundays. And I started to learn to, really, it's quite easy on I-movie. Just, it kind of puts them together for you. and then you just have to figure out what you want to cut out. Yep.

It's crazy. But anyway, so we now do twice a week and a lot of Duggo stuff. And people, I cannot believe it. People watch us work at our house and put the boat in. And there's always DIY stuff that we do at our house. And you've always got a story. I mean, many, like these do not. They're going to run out someday, I'm sure.

I don't think they will. And then I say, no, we can't. Nope, that's it for the footage. And so I'm trying to produce, manage him. Oh, you got a manager now. You really have hit the big time. How much do you charge? Oh, you don't want to just sign here and press hard.

Yeah. So it's more like your guys' channel is like home life, farm life, just DOI projects around the house, just all that. I think at the top of it, I say life on and off the farm. Yeah. Cool. And it's basically it. Yeah.

So you're on the farm. You got one camera here and then you're coming home. You got another one. You're just... I've had that a few times and it gets so overwhelming. You don't know who you've... What you've done on this camera and where you ended on the other one. Yep.

And then you're talking to your Instagram people and... We were filming the other day and I go, these people don't know what you're talking about. I think those are the Instagram. I must say that over here. Oh, no. And maybe we should. I don't. The only reason we still do Snapchat and Instagram is we started it out the way we did because,

well, that's just the way it started. And then we went to the, or Chet went to the YouTube and wanted the Instagram and Snapchat for kind of the every single day. behind the scenes type deal. But I don't, I know I'm not getting as many viewers on that anymore. So I don't know if I should continue

to take the time to do it. I feel like, you know, we all kind of wonder like why, why, what about this is interesting to people? Yes. And all I can, my theory is that our society

has had had its fill of insincerity as far as, you know, the popular, whether that be athletes or well, news people, you know, celebrities, all those people.

And nothing is true. Like, the lives that portray versus their reality, so many, so much of that has come out that it's nothing,

like it's all, it's all orchestrated. It's all fake news. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I mean, and so people I think

have grown so tired of that that they just really enjoy people that are just real and that aren't, like that's their authentic selves. And they may not agree with everything they do, but they know that it's, it's authentic.

And I think that that, That's the, I think that's the draw. Whatever, whatever profession you're in, I feel like there's probably a, there's probably an audience of people out there that find that really, really interesting, which I guess I don't know if that's good or bad, but I feel like that's where we're at. Well, yeah, I just think people, there's less trust out there than ever before in food and in media, in politics. And I think people, in entertainment, I think people want real.

people doing real stuff talk about real things. They just want normal. They want normal. And someone they can relate to. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So. They had like it is, huh?

Yeah. Yeah. We don't always, but. That broad definition of normal. Yeah. This is true. It's my favorite George Carlin bit is the driving and he says that anybody that anybody that drives slower than you is an idiot and anybody that drives faster than you

is a maniac. And it's basically like. Your normal is all the people that you hang out with that are just as crazy as you are. That's normal. A little too crazy, a little more crazy, a little less crazy, weird or nuts, you know. It's like, yeah, it's crazy. What do you think the biggest misconception in pharma is that consumers have or just people have that you guys see and deal with? I guess I would just, there seems to be a lot of, a lot of.

thinking that you can't lose money or it's it's just maybe we borrow the phrase uh put seed and ground and water it and yep it just ain't that's not let the gravy roll yeah it if it was easy everybody would do it uh and there's a reason why there's only a few of us out here and I often wonder many times a week, why am I doing this? But I don't know. I do think that it used to be a lot of fun. It still is fun, but there's less of it. Yeah.

It just is getting to be. What used to be a lot of fun, huh? Well, I think as the farm is growing, we never hired nobody. Yeah. I mean, if you had to do something, you just slept less. Yep. And now you're an HR manager. Well, no, I'm not, but I maybe should be.

Yeah. But I don't know how to be because that ain't what we grew up with. We don't know what. I have no idea. When I give off a list of things to do, I just kind of say it thinking somebody is going to do. Well, do they want me to pick out? one or two names out of the four or five guys to do that certain thing. I'm bad at that.

I'll admit that. I don't know. I would rather somebody pick out of the list of what to do. I don't like telling people what to do. I just never have. I'd rather do it myself than to have to tell somebody you go do this or that. And I think is, you know, what you're talking about. talking about is that's one of the downfalls of growing a farming operation because on the one hand,

all the expenses, all the inputs keep going up. And so, you know, just to stay, just to stay where you're at, you're having to grow. But then the flip side of that is I know so many guys that at the end of the day what they really, they enjoyed, they enjoyed the work of planting a crop and harvest a crop.

But now they're not the ones doing a lot of it because congratulations, now they are the HR manager. They are the equipment fleet finance manager. They are the

grain marketing manager. They are the rent negotiator. They have all these hats that are wearing, and it gets back to that joy. It's like they look out there and employee number three is running the combine. And that's really all, you know, like all of us started, and we all thought, boy, it sure be nice. It sure be nice to have equipment that doesn't break down. And, you know, we could just plant all the corn or harvest all of it. of corn and not have anything go wrong. Boy, that would really be nice. But it's just this,

I think that's one of the biggest struggles we have in agriculture is you end up having to wear a lot of hats that you never intended on wearing. Yeah. And it's, it's, well, we're still learning. Yeah. I always thought at some point you would perfect everything that you have done for most of your life and you'd know how to do it perfectly. But I used to run a soybean combine. And in the old many years ago, mom used to run one dad and I. And then I think mom got out of it.

Randy took over. And now Randy and I are not in the combines at all anymore. And I, yeah. and now we're trying to keep everything moving instead of actually doing the stuff that needs to be done. Here's a, this isn't on the list, but I wanted to ask you this. So something that's happened to me just in the last, really like in the last year, I feel like, I feel like I'm hitting that age. We're now then people younger than me look at me and they think I'm supposed to have

wisdom, but I don't feel like I'm that person. And it kind of freaks me out. Like, it's that same thing. Like, I always thought, like, I always felt like my dad. Like, that was wisdom. Like, right or wrong, he knew everything about everything. But maybe he felt like you do now, though. Well, gosh, I hope not, because he lived to be 99.

I hope that at some point I actually do feel like I know some stuff. But now then when people ask, like, people start to, you get to an age and people start to look at you like, you're supposed to have it figured out. And I'm like, oh, boy. That's just a weird, that's, that's all part of getting older, but it's pretty weird. There's also a flip side to that. Sometimes the young guys don't, don't respect the wisdom. True. I am very bad at telling a person how to do it, but by gosh, if I see him doing it, I can,

oh, no, don't, don't do it that way. But that goes back to, I think. I just know how to do it. I don't remember how to do it until I am actually physically doing that job. So I don't know. Some guys maybe are meant to have a bunch of employee. Any farm that has nothing but employees, I cannot, I wouldn't want to have nothing to do with that.

That would drive me nuts. I don't think I could do it. What are you guys excited about? As you look forward from where you are today, what do you think is, what gets you excited for the future? or what do you think is an opportunity for your operation? Could be family too, I guess.

It could be anything. I guess that's one of them questions like the grain band guy asked me. I don't know how to ask you that. Opportunity to stay in business. Yeah, it just hopefully. Yeah, right. Finish it out here. And I guess my new last few years, I just,

my prayer has been. to let me know when enough is enough or when to say okay that's it the I always thought I'd be that guy that would be in the tractor till he was couldn't get in the tractor I don't foresee that happening anymore I think I might come or want to drive a tractor every once in a while but the days I could not do what we used to do I mean we'd wake up and our hair was still wet from the shop from the night before, it was just ridiculous, but, and many people have done that. Nothing special about that.

It's just whatever drives a guy to do it. It happens. Yep. And what was the question again? You asked it. What are you excited about for the future? Well, we just got new titles, Grandma and Grandpa. Yes.

So we have Little Lily. Chet got remarried for people that don't know the story to Jean-Marie, and they have Lily, who's four months old, and she's lots of fun. And so I'm excited about what that looks like, because that's a role we've never had, a title that we still are like, when they say grandma or grandpa, you're like looking around. Where are those people at? Who are you talking to?

That's for older people than us, you know. but I'm excited about that and I don't know and I don't see how this is going to happen but I'm excited to be going to Arizona or somewhere warmer and not be farming or I don't know how we're not going to farm but I want to figure out a way that I can get away out of Minnesota for an extended period of time for some warmth so we just started researching that last winter. And I fell in love with the spot, but it's a little too populated for Doug.

So we've got a lot. I mean, it's just a research kind of thing because we're 56. Doug, there could be a new ultimatum coming. Well, yeah. Get me out of the snow now. It's fun to go down and look at how, I always heard of the guys, the snowbirds, you know. Yeah.

And I always thought of them from being North Dakota big sugar beef farmers or whatever. But I always have the, how do you leave the farm? Yep. And expect everybody else to do the work. And you're down. Goof and all. Yeah. I just hats off to those guys that have figured out how to do it.

Well. And that's why it's harder to get excited about it because I don't know how it's going to happen. Right. I don't know how we can do it. So we had, as Sawyer said, we had Rob Brennamet on, and Rob has a huge hog operation. He's one of the biggest, he's one of the biggest producers in the country, really. And he has a place in Florida, and he said, you know,

I didn't know how that they were going to make it without me. And he goes, now we've done it long enough that, they actually they're actually nervous when they hear that I'm coming back because they know I'm going to mess everything up. Yeah. Sounds like you just got to rip the band-aid, kind of, a little bit. Yep.

That's what he did. That is. But he said, you know, that everybody's adapted to where now when he comes to the office, they're like, oh, man, Rob's back. He's back.

Just when we got this thing going right. So you may be fine. Yeah. Maybe fine. Hey, at least when you go down there, you're making content still. You can just say, hey, we're still working down here. And it's a write-off. Yeah, it's a rain-off.

There you go. We're making content. You can give the Costco update, what samples are for that weekend, you know? It's unlimited. Who had the biggest, who's had the biggest impact on your guys's lives and like, what's the best lesson you learned from those people if you had to look back? I know that's a That's kind of a tough question

Kind of a paint brush Yeah I'll think while you go Oh That's hard to pick a person I could pick a situation I did not like farming And I was mad

About it I was mad I was alone so much I'm raising the boys by myself basically And very angry and it was a situation that happened in our old church that I was really what they coined hurt in the church was very hurt in the church we were going to and it was a band-aid and it was a two-by-four and it was all kinds of stuff that like this isn't working and I need we need to do something

different and so we ended up going I ended up I decided because he's farming and it's October, and I'm going to go to a different church because some friends of mine had this cool church. And so I would put it into more of a group of people that changed my life, showing me a different perspective of faith. And pretty much the other part was that I had to be humble and admit that I can't stop my feet, I can't complain, I can't keep on feeling sorry for myself, I am the one that needs to change. I'm the one, I mean, I'm married here, and this is what he's going to do, and I need to accept it, and down on my knees literally in front of the dishwasher, and asking the Lord to change me. And so I would say it's the Lord would be the one, but it's just

different influences and timing on things, and being hurt enough and being sick of that. I didn't like being mad. Yep. And finally just like, I'm done with this. And so it took a little bit. And I think he noticed, change. I hope so. But then the real problem happened after harvest and, you know, make hay when the sun shines.

Most of the time we very seldom do we take a Sunday off. But we do, if we can, but we can always look back at the end of harvest and pick out the few hours or two days that if we'd have kept on, we'd have been done and we wouldn't have to struggle here. Is that a faith problem? Maybe. But the real issue when Amy done what she did, then she had to bring me to the different church. I thought you were going to say the problem was that you told her you'd meet her at church, and then you went She never showed up because she was at the different church.

She didn't get the message. We grew up Lutheran, just, you know, the denomination of sitting the pew real still and forward. There was movement in the new church auditorium or in the different songs. Yeah, that was, that took me a long time. And I can't say I still am comfortable with the different way of worshiping and stuff. like that but I don't know but it's all for the best it yeah definitely was for the best what about you who had the biggest impact on on your life and what lesson do you learn from them i don't know if i guess i would say maybe my mom with the way she worked i mean she still will

go out in the garden at nine o'clock at night she shouldn't be out there hips are shot and knee is broke or whatever is the matter with that now. But anybody who thinks that they need to send their wife to town to work to keep the farm going, I don't believe in that. They wouldn't men for mom taking care of the hoghouse or the Farrowing nursery. And then we were, I was there, you know, and I just don't, I don't believe that, you have to send your wife or don't let the bank or tell you, you got to send your wife to town to get a job because there is ways of making money at the farm, different ways.

So yeah, I think that's the family that works together, I think, is going to stay on. You haven't talked about any politics yet. No, you better not. Well, I did know. We usually keep that between us too because we don't like to. Here's the beautiful thing about what we've done today is I think that this is the cleanest episode that we've ever done. That is true. And then when you said we haven't even talked about politics yet, well, that could jeopardize the entire.

This whole thing. I've been all for not. I've been being polite for Amy and now she's telling me to get on talk about politics. You might ruin me. I might have to venture off. I mean, I don't know. I know that Chet has told me, Mom, you just don't talk about politics and religion. And I'm like, well, I've already, you know, I talk about my faith. I have to because it's part of me. Yeah. And I would talk about politics.

Yeah. I can't. I can't stand the comments. But I hear you guys, you know, that's a thing. Yeah. Well, what do you think about what's going on today's world? How do you feel overall? I have very strong feelings about it.

I am, there's definitely needs to be a major change. And that is starting to happen. And I'm very glad to see things hopefully can be followed through. Yep. It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart. Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise. Two days only. Tuesday, April 28th and Wednesday, April 29th.

Open your PC Optimum app to get your coupon. Yeah. Well, so our, you know, I think, I think within our audience, because we don't really hear a whole lot from people that I would say probably don't share our views because it probably makes them so mad that they. Don't watch or don't listen. Well, there's a few. There's a few and I love them.

They like to listen and then comment. Yeah, I love it. But, you know, I'm not, one of the problems we have in our country is that we're so divided, but it's the parties, it's the people running the, run in these political parties, and their goal is to divide

because that's how they stay atop the mess that they've created. But the truth of the matter is, and my dad used to say, this about politicians. He said the, you know, he said the problems with politicians are that if you put them in a wash machine and pulled them out, you couldn't tell one from the other because they're all about themselves. And if they're in power, they're all about staying in power. And like today, there are an awful lot of hot button issues that people are very passionate about. And the last few elections, people have tried to make it about this issue or that issue, whether it be abortion,

whether it be the border, whether it be women's rights, gay rights, whatever you want to pick. And the thing that drives me crazy about all of that is whatever you want to believe on all those subjects, that's up to you. That's between you and the Lord. But the truth is, uh, we aren't going to have like your hot button issue that you want the government to fix. If the government doesn't get their butt and gear, they're not going to have any money to fix anything. And we keep voting these people in that claim that they want to fix. If we ran our farm, the way the United States government has run theirs, we'd all be living in the streets.

We'd be down in Cancun. And, yeah, yeah. The flea scene of America. We just, and that's by design, all of this, all, everything else that is fed to us to get us mad about somebody else that doesn't have that view. That's so that we don't unite about the one, to me, it all comes down to we really have to get our country back. because it's been hijacked by a bunch of people that their number one priority is to stay in office and enrich themselves.

And there are people that are guilty on both sides of the aisle. And I think one of the most, like, in your face examples of that was Robert Kennedy Jr. when he goes up on Capitol Hill and all of those Democrats just are going off on him. Well, what's funny about that guy is he's a lifetime Democrat.

And if Hillary Clinton would have won the election back when she ran against Trump and she would have put him up for the same position that he has today, all those Democrats that were going after him, they would be praising him. And by the same token, all those Republicans that were just saying how great he was,

they would be the ones that were just absolutely trying to demolish the guy. To me, he is the perfect example. The man hasn't really changed. It's just what side of the aisle that has put him up there, and they are so entrenched that it is the party above all else, and it has nothing to do with the men and women in it. And if you step out of line, you're dead to me. It's terrible.

And literally, there is a dead woman in Minnesota because she stepped out of the party. I don't know. She didn't agree with how they were voting. And she was dead the next day or close. And there could have been a few more. Her and her husband were both killed. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Like, this is, it's, it's beyond what we could possibly imagine how bad it is, really. And with homeschooling, I never liked history, but we spent a lot of time on history and not only just history as we know it or whatever, Egyptians, to Romans, the Greeks, you know, Spanish, everybody wanted that their motivation was power. Yep. And it's like they're addicted to this and how much money can a person make? I don't know. But I think there's so much blackmail. Whatever this, all this nasty pedophile stuff is, he's got a lot of people that they're using it as leverage, I think. And it's so bad.

I don't think we could even imagine it. how we could never come up with how crooked and how awful. And how deep it runs. Tangled not just in the United States across the world. Because I'm reading stuff. I mean, I'm making myself. I just wish we could fast forward whatever amount of years that we need to, if the truth comes out so we don't have to waste our time thinking about it,

talking about it, fighting about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, didn't Trump just try to get a, he just had a judge try to release the, something about the scene. And they denied him. They denied it.

It's like, how can you tell the president no on that? It's kind of insane. It's another, it's another ruling will have to go to the Supreme Court. I mean, it all runs so slow. It's just, they're just, basically, you know, they're just trying to sandbag. Whoever's in power tries to get as much done

any way as they possibly can as fast they can, and the other side does everything they can to try to stonewall it. And as a result, nothing really gets done. And we, the American people, pay the price. And to your point about history, and I've said this so many times, we are so arrogant as a society because we truly think that somehow we are smarter and better than all of the generations that came before us. And I'm like, do you not think the Romans thought they had it all figured out. They conquered just about the entire civilized world. Do you think the Egyptians didn't think they had it all figured out? They ruled longer than any civilization in history, well, that we know of anyway. It's like, we're not, we're not any smarter. We have better

toys. Well, we think we do. I don't know. But we all are, we're all flawed. And we're all just arrogant enough that we believe that what has happened to all these other societies can't happen to us because we are smart. But at the end, we end up relying upon people that are motivated by power. Yeah. And then at the end of the day, as a young person, I just look around, it's like, I don't care what side of the aisle you're on. If you, if you show me that you're for the American people and you can actually, we can actually see that sense, that feel that, that you're for us and your actions of what you're going to do in office, you're going to do that?

Great. I support you in that. But there are very, very few politicians that I think aren't bought and paid for by the establishment. And that when you have money in politics, nothing's ever going to get done for us the way we need it to get done. Because they always are going to have a vested interest. of, oh, I'm getting greased here, or I'm getting greased here to do this or vote on this bill this way. And they don't even think about us.

I mean, most of them don't even think about the American people. That is the problem. And it used to be when you elected somebody, they served your country, and then they went back to do what they were already doing before they became a politician. Now it's a career thing. Right.

It's the money. It's the money. We're getting in, we're staying in as long as we possibly can. But it used to be, no, I'm going to go serve my country and then go back to what I already was doing. Right. And yeah, and then like we all, yeah, we, you know, we're talking about, you know, the deficit and printing money.

And honestly, that is the biggest issue because sustainability, keeping this country intact, if we just keep printing money, and the dollar falls, and, I mean, we're going to be in terrible shape if that happens. I mean, a lot of people will, but if we lose the dollar, that's, that's, you're not going to have to worry about your Medicaid. Yeah. Because there will be no Medicaid. You're not going to have to worry about them raising the Social Security two years

because you're not going to get Social Security. You're going to keep paying into Social Security, but you're going to get nothing out of it. And you're going to pay a lot more for a lot of things. And what happens when people that have gotten that free, you know, that help, that aid, that free stuff, when they can't get that anymore, what are people going to do? Well, we've already passed that. We have passed the point where there are more people in this country that get more in benefits than what they pay in taxes. And a majority of Americans don't pay tax.

And so you have a majority of people who can vote. And when they get free things, they like to get free things. And so they'll keep voting for free things. And once you get on that bandwagon, I'm just glad. I feel sorry for your generation. I tell Soria this. I'm just happy that I'm as old as I am and as poor health as I am so that I will hopefully arrive at death's door when the good word takes me and I won't have to deal with all this. Yeah, I mean, not going to lie, it's, it makes you worried as a young person. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if you guys felt this way at our age, but. Well, I think it, it's crazy. What year unemployment.

That used to be, and I would have been maybe old enough that I should have known or been paying attention, older teenager. I think it was like two months. Eight weeks, yeah. Eight weeks. I think you're right. And if you didn't find one, you did not get any more money. And why? How much better of a plan?

I mean, it's a help. it's to get you through whatever happened at that time to get you to the next place you need to be you had to prove that you were applying the places yes well now it's gotten to be a big game and they've just given more and more away and yeah i i i try not i don't get into politics too much and i i shouldn't even say but i think the lobbyists once that stuff got i just it just don't make sense to me that you give your money to a lobbyist so that they can go down there and do whatever they do, buy or whatever they do with it. They buy the vote.

It don't make sense. Yep. Yeah. Well, look at that. We took that for spend, didn't we? Yeah, we did. We did. Pretty mellow.

So how do people find you? What is the name of your guys' social media? So I Instagram is Amy's Blessings. The YouTube title is Doug parentheses Dougo and Amy Larson. But I think at Amy's Blessings is on there. What are you? I don't know. You made up the count for me many years ago.

I have no idea. Was there ever a push to add Amo to change you to Amo so you can have Dougo and Amo? I haven't heard that. yet, but maybe it will be now. Yeah, there you go. That's good, actually. And I did survive my whole entire life until five years ago without a nickname. So I don't know how I feel about the whole thing. Yesterday we got out of the vehicle to go have lunch in Clear Lake Iowa, and we were walking

in, and I could see this gal looking at us, and she hollers out, Dougo. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, we just got out of the car first stop, and we had a photo op right there. How do you feel about people just calling you Duggo? Do you like Duggo? You surrendered to it? Just different. You didn't like it at first for sure.

Because it was kind of a making fun of him for doing a Duggo like when you used to get, when he got stuck. When they first started and they were always getting stuck in the mud in the tractor. Yeah. And so people, it's somebody started. They pulled a Duggo. Oh. So it was a dumb. thing. It's like, way to go, Doug, you know, kind of thing. And then it just, well, that I don't blame you.

And yeah. Yeah, it, it, like I say, I've survived my whole life without a nickname. His Instagram is Dodge Boy, Doug, I think, or something like that. And then Larson Farms too. And Chet's, yeah, Chet's YouTube is Larson Farms. Yeah, nice. Which I think that'll pop up right away when you. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Cool. Yeah, that's, we'd love to have. New people were at. I don't know what we have. That's a whole other conversation about why don't people subscribe. They just watch. I mean, it's not a big deal to hit the subscribe button.

It doesn't bother you. It doesn't cost you anything. Yeah. It's easy. I think part of it's our short attention span culture. People just, they jump from one thing to the next. And then once YouTube knows the algorithm, your stuff will pop up a lot of times. and so they just don't make the connection to subscribe. Well, yeah, it's the thing about YouTube, it's like the subscribers are awesome,

but it's all about the views at the end of the day, you know? And it's like, I think Chet has a lot more, tremendous, a lot more views and subscribers. But I've always thought it's so strange that if you kind of watch regular, why don't you just subscribe? Because that is a very good, I mean, the more. subscribers you can have that just helps a lot better for sure yeah well we appreciate you guys making the trip it was a really great conversation we had a lot of fun we actually made a wrong turn we just stopped here for directions yeah

yeah I'm glad I'm glad we can provide some shelter for you for a little spit stop but yeah we appreciate a lot go follow what the what these awesome people are up to guys if you got any value from show, share it out with the people that you know, leave a review on Spotify or Apple, and we'll see you back here next week for another episode.