Getting Naked: The Podcast - You Gotta Have Faith | Valerie Bertinelli | Faith Ford

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

In this episode of Getting Naked: The Podcast, Valerie sits down with her long-time friend and five-time Emmy nominee Faith Ford for an intimate look back at her iconic television career on Murphy Brown and Hope & Faith. The two dive into the emotional realities of moving back home to Louisiana, navigating the shift into caregiving for aging parents, and discovering renewed confidence and creativity as women in show business. To hear the "Full Reveal" segment where Faith talks about her unique fitness regimen head over to Valeriesplace.com to sign up.

I am so excited about today's episode of Getting Naked. We have one of my closest and dearest friends that I've known for 35 years. Her name is Faith Ford. You all know her and love her too. I have a really fun recipe for you today. You saw how easy that was. Look at all that flavor we packed into chicken breasts. I love the flavor of maple syrup, especially for these kind of muffins.

I see all of your comments. I swear I do. You are wondering, where's my show? This is so dang delicious. Smells divine. That's a jalapeno pauper. Oh my God. It's so good.

Yes, I'm back, and I am cooking for all of you. All right, Sophie. What are we reheating today? Welcome to Nal Vow's cooking. Guess what we're going to make right now. We're alive. Hi, everybody. How are you?

You have to go to Valerie's Place. That's where you can see our book group, this podcast. That's where you can go for all the cooking that you want to see. Oh, yes. I've missed cooking for you. I'm glad I finally get to do it again. I'm dancing. That's how good it is.

So head to Valerie'splace.com and go ahead and sign up. You guys are the original members, and I can't thank you enough. It's happy time. Hi, everybody. Thanks for showing up. Thanks for coming by. Before we get off on today's episode, I just want to give you a quick reminder to stay tuned for the full reveal. And that is for only Valerie's Place members.

You can get the full reveal. You can get early access to all the podcasts if you're a member of Valerie's Place. So if you want to become one, just go ahead and move on over to Valerysplace.com. Sign up and you will get all of that I just told you. Okay, I have a guest today that I'm so excited about. I have loved this woman. Basically, the whole time my son's been alive. She was Wolfie's first kiss when he was just like 16, 17 months old.

I still have that picture. And we just became fast friends because when you meet her, when you know her, you know why. Like, you can't not be friends with Faith Ford. Hello, Faith Ford. Hi, honey. So this woman has been nominated for a million Emmy. She's been nominated for Golden Globe Awards.

You probably all know her as corky on Murphy Brown or as Hope on Hope and Faith, which always drove me crazy because you should have been Faith. You could have just switched the names. Oh, no, I wanted it that room. Why? I fought for Hope. I wanted Hope.

I just wanted to be the mother, housewife piece of work. But why didn't you just make the mother, housewife, which is so you, which, you know, and make that name. Train wreck, too. Yeah. We're both train wrecked. That's why we love each other so much. Yes, exactly. I just, I liked that I was a different name.

I just, I felt like it was too confusing. That's all. Yeah, yeah. But it was still a great show. And you and Kelly had a wonderful chemistry together, just as you had a great, chemistry on Murphy Brown. Rappore. I have good chemistry with you too. We just haven't worked together yet. I can't believe that. I can't believe you were never on hot in Cleveland, although I must say, thank God you turned the roll down because then I was able to go up for it. Because I hear that it was

offered to you before it was offered to me. I don't think so. I think it was just a general, don't you love this script. And I said, yeah, but I just don't see the person that I am in it. You know what I'm saying? And I heard rumors of Betty White, and I thought, well, I can. I could be Betty White. I'm just not old old enough yet. But I'm going to get there. Yeah, yeah, but you're still behind me. I'm the only person who can't wait to be my real age. I know. I've been 80 since I was 20. Yes, you have. And will you have another birthday coming up in just a month? Yes. Yeah. How old are you going to be this time? What? You're 60? I'm 62, but it feels too young sometimes. You're such a baby. I'm still, I'm always going to be four years

ahead of you, Derek. I mean, you just, like, that's just the way it is. All my favorite friends are so much older than me. Not that I don't like my younger friends, but they're the ones I identify with more. You know, you're like around my sister's age. You know, it's like, that's just, I don't know what it is, but I've always loved older people than myself. Well, you've always been an old soul in a youngster's body. And, and, and, and, yeah, you just, you're just, you've got that, I mean, you've always been an amazing. cook. You've always taken care of people. You're just, you have that mothering kind of instinct. And like, okay, and you mothered me, you mothered my son. Do you remember how we first met?

Yeah. Do you want to tell us about it? Do you want to tell everybody about it? Well, okay, first off, my ex-husband came home and he had been playing golf, which he did a lot. He had a lot of time on his hands. And he said, I just played golf with Ed Van Halen. And I said, you mean the singer? And he said, yes. And I said, well, how about that? How did that work out? He goes, it was great.

He goes, and by the way, he wants you to meet his wife. And I said, well, does his wife want to meet me? They were like arranging this arrangement, right? They did, they did. Yeah. And so I said, I thought that they met at a gas station. They did. At that cocaine gas station as well.

but he came home and said he met him and he said, you should meet him sometime, and then he came home and said, this is the time. And I said, this time right now, and he said, yes, and said, he wants you to come up right now. And I went there, and I think you were like in your house. And he said, just, just this like, just go on in. Go on in there. And I'm like, but I've never been in.

So I go in through the garage, everything. And I'm like, hello, hello, Valerie. And you came out and you were like, ah, oh my gosh. I can't believe it. You were really great because I thought, I would not like when someone prearranged and I didn't even know they were coming, you know. But you were so welcoming from the time I came in and I came into your office and then I think you fed me something. And immediately we bonded, didn't we? We did immediately. And Wolfie just adored you from the first moment. Oh, he was such a cherub. I mean, he looks like, like pictures of him as a baby look just like you.

Yeah. Just like me. Because I had that picture of the three of us where Wolfie's in the middle, and then there's pictures of me and Ed at the same age. And the three of us, you can't tell us apart. It's crazy. Yeah, and you and Ed just basically like you could be a brother and sister. Easily. It was crazy. Yeah.

Which is so odd because he's Dutch Indonesian. I'm Italian, English, Irish. Like, how do we look so much as this so similar? I don't know. It's something back in there. And you're also royalty. I know. I saw you on who do you think you are. Was it Henry? No, is who do you think you are? Yeah.

I saw you there. I know. My mom was so happy to find out that she came from royalty because she's always loved her English soaps and she loved anything royal. She was always doing all that kind of, you know, looking into it. Hey, speaking of moms, how's Pat? She's good. She's actually up, up. And I go and bring her something actually Campion made breakfast this morning. He stuck a keesh in the oven. And I brought her over that. Yes, he's a, he's a good husband. He is. He really is

amazing with my mom. In fact, I think it's because he lost his mom when he was when she, you know, he was a young age. And so all the kids helped out. You know, seven children and his family, Irish California. So I think that's just basically why he's so good with older people. It's perfect.

Yes. He helps with my dad. Then he's helped helping with my mom. And he's good with you? I would never do The old person that you are? Yes. He just takes, listen, let me just tell you something. It's like, when he's out of town, it's like, oh, my life, I just go, no, I can't do anything. I wouldn't have been able to do this if camping hadn't been here.

Not because I couldn't do it, just because it's just like one more thing to add to my. For the audience, they may not know that you no longer live in Hollywood. You live, and you never really lived in Hollywood. We lived a mile from each other in the valley. We're Valley Girls. But you now live in Louisiana where you were born and raised. What brought you back there? You know, L.A. was not really as happening, and I was having to travel everywhere anyway.

And when dad had his, you know, he got sick. Once he had his aneurysm, it was all about being with him as much as possible. Yeah. I loved Charles so much. He was so good. He was such a good man. He had a second one. He had a second one.

And then we were really like needing to be home more. Yeah. And so we just sort of knew. it was going to be just a matter of time. And I think at around 2012, we just put the house on the market. And it was a good idea in L.A. It was a good idea because the first person who came to see it wanted it. Oh, I love, I wish I'd known. I would have bought that house. I loved that house so much. It was so beautiful. I loved your kitchen. Oh, it was insane. You had the best kitchen. It was good. And then, and I loved it. And, and, and, and, and I loved it. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,

it's like, I live in my kitchen, so now this is like one big everything room. So it's more like a cabin. Is your cookbook still a bit? I mean, I still have my copy of your cookbook, but you wrote a cookbook. When did you write it? It was the same, it came out the same year I started Hope and Faith, so 2006. Oh, wow. And so I was doing, yeah, I was, I had done Pacifier that summer. It was 2006, seven. And it was like, I was trying to finish it. I got hope and faith when I was starting. on the cookbook. So I had to finish it very fast. You know all this through the summer because they wanted to launch it at a certain time. It was just a, but it was the reason I wanted to do it was not because I think I'm such a great cook. You are. You taught me parts, you taught

me a lot about cooking. Well, it's really, it's all your house for red beans and rice and for gumbo. Well, it's all country, right? It's country and Louisiana and Seoul. And it's very universal, but I wanted to preserve my mom's recipes, my grandma Kor's recipes, some of my grandma Bernice, my aunt Brenda, even my sister threw in some. So it's kind of like a cookbook preservation situation. Because I went to this cookbook preservation society thing one time. I thought it seemed interested, interesting. And oh my gosh, I said, that's why we do cookbooks. And that's why I did it. And I'm so glad. Same. I wanted to put down my non-neutral. these recipes, my mom's recipes, and make sure that I always had them available.

Because my mom had so many different cookbooks. And you are amazing cook. I, you know what? Not when I first met you. I got better and better because you inspired me. You really did. You were so. You were always a good cook. The problem is, is that you don't live in a place that has limited restaurants. Oh, you're right. And treat yourself. I don't really have that. I can go to a mom and pop sort of buffet style country. And it's really good. It's probably really good in Louisiana, isn't it? Yeah.

Oh, it's ridiculous. I mean, we have to drive for an hour to go to one in Jonesville, and then we can go and get the best brisket ever made in, you know, like the brisket house and Gina where my dad's from. But, you know, you have to kind of drive for these places. Yeah. And so otherwise it's chains in a couple of places, but so that's why I cooks mostly. I have a really fun recipe for you today.

You saw how easy that was. Look at all that flavor. packed into chicken breasts. Love the flavor of maple syrup, especially for these kind of muffins. I see all of your comments. I swear I do. You are wondering, where's my show?

This is so dang delicious. Smells divine. That's a jalapeno popper. Oh my god. It's so good! Yes, I'm back and I am cooking for all of you. All right, Sophie. What are we reheating today?

Welcome to Now Vow's cooking. Guess what we're gonna make right now. We're alive. Hi, everybody. How are you? You have to go to Valerie's place. That's where you can see our book this podcast, that's where you can go for all the cooking that you want to see.

Oh, yes. I've missed cooking for you. I'm glad I finally get to do it again. I'm dancing. That's how good it is. So head to Valeroy'splace.com and go ahead and sign up. You guys are the original members, and I can't thank you enough. It's happy time.

Have you always cooked as a young child? Because your mom was always a great cook. Well, my mom says that I, see, I was born with a crooked leg. Right? Did you know that? I didn't remember. What? I had nothing to do with cooking. No, but I mean, this is so interesting because just super side note,

I'm reading Jane's new book right now, Daphne and me, which is coming out in October for anybody that wants to know. You can go pre-order it. And I'm learning stuff about Jane that I never knew, and I've known her for 30 years. Anyway, go ahead. Well, you don't talk about it, really. I was a baby. I was an infant, and then I went into a cast from the waist down,

and evidently, mom said I was colicky. The fact is, I kind of with the first six months of my life, I was in this cast. You were a comica. You were in pain. Yeah. So I said, Mommy didn't mention that fact. And I remember at one point, my dad pulled out this brace that I did remember because I wore that until I started to walk, like toddler age. And so he had to screw my little booties into this bar.

And he brought that out one day. They took it out of the cedar chest. And I immediately went into tears. Oh. And I was like, why am I crying? And he said, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry about this out. I didn't mean.

I said, no, I don't know why I'm crying. Why am I crying? And he said, well, it wasn't a good time for you. You know, it was hard. And then years, years and years later, I went to see this hypnotist that said she could help me get pregnant. And do you know that she got to a year or between six months and a year and I started crying uncontrollably?

and she, when I was hypnotized, and she could not get me to stop. She had to bring me out of it. And then she said, I can't realize what happened. It was like, I kept seeing this piece of metal, like a, it felt like a, like a steel wall or something. And I said, oh, it must have been that steel little bar that I had that they screwed my booties into. She said, what? And I said, well, I was born with a crooked leg. But, I mean, I look back at it.

That's amazing that your body has held on to that trauma for your whole life, you know. And it's buried. And they say, you know, the body holds the trauma and we hold our emotions. And that's something that I think so many people don't even realize that those kind of emotional, scary moments, even when we don't even remember them, it stays in our body. How did you, did you ever, were you ever able to do any more releasing of it? Well, it's interesting. No, because I did that in New York and I left New York to, when the Hope and Faith went down, and I never reunited with her.

So it's just sort of unresolved. Interestingly enough, I was never able to conceive. Isn't that interesting? Which always seemed amazing to me because you are such a mothering influence. but I think God just had a different plan for you. You're mothering influence in every other way. Yeah, and I tend to overmother pretty much everyone that's in my life. It's not even something that I can control.

I'm just always observing and I always play moms and I feel like I have children in a way. And sometimes even adult people, I feel like they need that in my life in their lives. and I need it too closely because I come in handy. They ask me questions and I, if they want the truth, I'll tell them. Yes, you do. You've never held back from that. You know what I always remember because I read a lot of horoscopes and I read, and I, you're such a Virgo.

Like you are, so I'm wondering what your rising sign is if you have any more Virgo in there because you are one of those people that is so loving but also very particular about how you, like, you would always come into my house and you would, like, move a candle, or you would lay a book a certain way, and you would make my house look so much more beautiful just by moving a few pieces. Well, I didn't really move it right away. I think I would pick up the frame and look at it and say, this is such a neat picture, and then I would put it back sort of slightly in a different place.

But I always loved it. I love, I'm like, there's faith. She's fixing me up. But, you know, you wanted to know. I know what all of that stuff is. I know my rising is Capricorn and my moon is Capricorn. So I am triple Earth.

Oh, Capricorns are good. I don't know what it is, but every time I look up birth charts, I always think of you. Because you were such an incredibly strong, and you still are, a very strong influence of good in my life. Like, you don't have a fucking mean bone in your body,

and I'm always like, I need to be more like faith. I need to be more like faith. That's not to say that you don't have judgment. You don't have a mean bone. You don't have a mean bone. But you get angry, but that's not mean. I hope not.

That's just, it comes from a righteousness place. I think there's a, listen, you couldn't be in my life if you were just me. No. When someone's just, that just means they've got issues that they haven't resolved. Right. So they're just taking it out of everybody else. Yeah. You're not mean.

You just have a thing for justice. Oh my God. I hate injustice. It just drives me crazy. So I'm having a real good time. Oh, it's just let go and go. Sorry, we're not going to get political here. Control is really real. You know, when you start, when you start looking at me, this is the way I can get. I can, I can breathe and be calm and everything. But when you start messing with my earth and my climate and all of that stuff, I get really, really. in a million sense because you know like I'm living in a rural area I was raised in an area where my grandpa Walker my mom's dad he hunted he fished he brought things from the land he raised cattle he chickens pigs I mean we ate off the land and so there was not pesticides there was not that it was not perfect and it was just I'm not saying there isn't a time

for it but I just can't when it comes to the environment I I just, where's only one earth? And even though I don't have kids, because I don't have kids, everyone's kid and everyone who I even don't know, I fall in love with a lot of children. Yes, you do. But that is, you have a very good point. Because as, you know, growing up in a hunting family, growing up in an agricultural family, growing your things, I would think more farmers and agriculture and cattle people, like you would be so much more for saving our gorgeous earth than for. destroying it. I don't I don't understand what's what's happening like where where we went wrong. Well, no, I was just saying what happens is what I'm hearing around here is that people just get

these they didn't know. They just get these offers like you can't refuse for money for their land and they just think about you know their kids don't really want to farm anymore and whatever, but now they're starting to do it. The younger generation are starting to do it now. Yeah. And they're like we might not feel like our parents, but we're going to do it. Yeah. So I'm encouraged with that. Yeah, I am very, very encouraged by the young people coming up behind us. Wolf always jokes with me and goes, okay, boomer, you know, and yeah, I'm a boomer. But hopefully I'm not that boomer.

You know, I like to be, I don't like injustice. I like fairness. I like kindness. I like treating people the way I want to be treated. And I think if a lot more of us kind of did that and loved our earth and loved our environment, we, a lot more good things would happen, but I don't know what to do about what we're in. So we're not going to talk about it. Why don't you talk about Murphy Brown?

And I mean, we were actually working on the same lot for a while. Yes. Yes, you. You used to get in trouble because you would come over to my lot and I used to get in trouble and I used to come over to your stage because they couldn't find Faith or Valerie when it was time for rehearsal. It's like, oh, go look at Faith stage or go look at Valerie stage. And Candace would say, faithy. stop your playtime and come over and work, you know,

because she was really, she's a tourist like you. She was really like, bam, bum, bum, you know, you run a tight ship. Don't let anybody, you know what she's like. I do like a tight ship. You really do. Yeah. You do.

I was like, I can't be late. It's Valerie. Valerie would never let me be late. But I've gotten much better about that because I have to make doctor's appointments for my mom and everything. So like what used to be an hour, like I allow an hour to get there, you know, because we have to drive to small towns for the best doctors sometimes. And I'll take her and stuff.

And I've taken her down to Lafayette to get Dopplers done on her brain and stuff. So I'm so used to getting her ready and stuff. And like this morning I said, Mom, it's not going to be normal. I can't get you ready before Valerie. But, you know, it'll happen later. So I give a shower every day. And, you know, I do therapies with her. I spent every night in the hospital with her when she was in rehab.

I mean, I literally was, I was committed to this. Yeah. And I still am, you know. You are so good to your parents. Yeah. But you have a tight, yeah, you have a very tight relationship with them and your sister, Devin. You're all about family. And I think that's another place where we really connected because you and Ed had a very special

relationship. Like he loved you. You adored him. And I have to tell you, because I don't think I told you when it happened while we were doing while it was happening. but after Ed passed, I was with Wolfie at his house. And you were one of the very first people to call and talk to Wolfie and talk to me and talk to my brother Patrick. And it was, like you grounded me in that moment because I didn't know how to take care of my son in that moment because he was in so much grief and pain.

We all were. but like then faith calls and you were just all love and kindness and wolfie was hearing stories about his dad that only you knew that only you and ed had between you i have the best picture of you me and ed where ed's wearing some gilly silly like clown hat i don't know it might have been on one of our vacations to you know jackson hole or something but like you and ed had something special together and it was really lovely and I just I never got to thank you because I was just so appreciative then but I didn't know how to to thank you for calling and the timing of your call couldn't have been more perfect. Oh well I can't stop myself. I'm like well I shouldn't

probably call but you know I just go with when I feel like I did with you guys because I really loved your unit I mean you three it's it just you're very very close you're you're your family is like really close. Yeah. And that's what I experienced with my family. And Jane's like that with her family. Jane is exactly like that. Yeah.

Yeah. And so in that way, we share that bond. And when Wolfie kissed me that first time, I thought that is not like just a little thing. That to me felt like he felt completely safe. Oh, it's pure love and safety. Yes.

Yeah. I mean, kids just don't do that, you know? No. And that was just, the thing I loved about Ed and you is that you were so honest and open with each other. To a fault. To a fault. And with me, Ed would just come right out with his truth. And you have to understand, I just have to not say anything or I tell the truth.

Yes. I cannot. I know. I can't. Yeah. I can't. I just would rather be quiet and listen. Yeah.

You know. So that's what Ed, I mean, immediately just came right out with his truth. And it was like, oh, we're being honest. Like, yay, it's my favorite thing. Yeah, he is definitely, yeah. But you, so you went through it all with us. You saw the great times. You saw the really, really challenging, difficult times.

Ed and I were at your wedding to Campion, which was the most beautiful wedding. It was, oh, my God, your wedding to Campion. And I had the best time with Ed there. Like, it was one of those rare times where Ed and I, you know, Will Fee stayed home and Ed and I just, it was like a date night for us. And it was, oh my God, I loved your wedding. Oh, it was really, I wanted it to feel that way, first off, because I wanted it to feel like we were

in this barn. It was great because Clint Eastwood, his place, you know how I found out about that? No. Brooke Shields, I ran there and ran into someone. Yeah, and she came up to me. I don't know how we got in the subject again. I said, I'm getting married, and I said, did you get married in Carmel? She goes, yes, you have to get married there.

And I'll tell you what to do. And so she told me, and that's how I knew about it. I didn't even know about this place. Oh, it was so gorgeous. Yeah. And he had this thing about Carmel. He could protect the airspace and everything, you know, so the helicopters couldn't fly over. There was not one.

Not that I needed that. But there was not one. It was so private and so lovely. And it was the most magical night. Thank you. And I didn't do very much, literally, Valerie. I really let them do it. I'm shocked.

I really didn't. I mean, I just said, can I get this kind of cake? I wanted like a chantilly cake. Oh, yeah, we'll do that. Fresh berries and everything. Good. This was good. Hey, yeah.

Purple lavender, yeah. And that's why it was like, I just let go, you know. It was just great. Is that challenging for you? No, because I was with Campion. Yeah. And I was just so happy to be with Champion. And basically from that point forward, when I met Campy and it was like, he said, you know what,

have you ever had long hair? Because remember I had that bob? And I said, well, yeah, but, you know, I cut it a long time ago. Remember we both cut our hair? Yep. Short? Oh, yeah. Like we had little boy haircuts.

I think I have a picture of us in Hawaii with those little boy haircuts. And we had done this really goofy picture so we could send it to Jane. Yes. Yes. And it's like we did that. And it was sort of great. It was this really great thing when I met Campion because he said, have you ever had your hair long?

And I said, yeah, pretty much my whole life. And I said, why do you like long hair? And he said, yeah, and I said, okay. It's gorgeous. Oh, well. I've never seen your hair this long. Oh, this is shorter. I mean, I can't, let me just tell you, it's grown this much since I,

it's like I got to cut, this guy that comes over here and he cuts my hair. and he'll trim it for me, and he'll cut it like up to here, like normal. And then this is just, it seems like it just grows like, well, it's the summertime. Yeah. Mine grows quick in the summer. We just, I mean, I love talking about this personal stuff with you because I don't think there's a lot of stuff that people don't know about faith that they're getting to know, which makes me happy because I just love you so much and I want everybody else. Well, everybody already loves you. I mean, one of our producers is like, you have no idea. This is like really exciting for me because Murphy Brown was one of my favorite.

it shows and he just loved your character. So anyway, tell us a little bit about Murphy Brown and and pull that because you and Jane roomated together for a while. And she talks about that in her book. Yeah. Yes, yes. Actually, I talked to her recently and she was just telling me she was reading. She was so cute. She was, I'm going to read an excerpt for me for you. And I said, okay and so my mom was sitting there with me and she started reading and my mom starts crying because that's what's gross in that happy cry yep and she's like I always know when she's crying happy and she laugh cries and I said okay you got mom she's she's crying now but you know and the thing that I think about Jane when we met we met an acting class yeah and yeah and then

Tara Carcian, I got them to get an apartment with me because I wanted to move from the Valley into West Hollywood to be closer to class and auditions and things like that. So I found this apartment and Jane and I shared the bigger room, bedroom together, and Tara got her own bedroom and bathroom. But the long story is short, we didn't have money to have a bed. So we got Tara's sister's king-sized bed mattress and we put it on the floor and we had these little nightstands they gave to us. We just kind of put it all together. But that was so great to have girl, like girlfriend, roommates.

Because I was living in a studio apartment by myself in the Valley. Yeah. No, you shouldn't be by yourself. Oh, no, it wasn't a good thing. No, you are meant to be around people that love you and that you love. That's your good, happy place. Yeah. I mean, it is.

I don't really, I'm not a loner. So if you ever think that I'm living alone, I always have at least two or three people around me. That's just the way it goes. It's like my neighbors next door. We have a little gate entrance that they come over to us and then we've got another neighbor. I know they live across. And it's like then another neighbor, we know all of our neighbors, even though we each have a good amount of property. Even though you basically have a lake in your backyard. No, it's like a little pond. It's a frog pond is what really. It looks bigger than that to me. No, it's not. The people next door have one that you can actually, well, let's just put it this way. We did have a gator.

You had a gator? Yeah, we had one. It was a little gator. Well, it is Louisiana. It was only about four feet off. How are the dogs out there? Well, I was afraid of buddy, my little dog, and I said, he's going to be dinner. But Campion came in one night, and I put this on my stories, and I'll let it go, because I said, this can't be there forever, because people are going to just think, what has happened to Faith?

But this is just the day in the life. So it basically came in and said, Faith is a huge snake on the driveway. It's the biggest snake I've ever seen. I mean, the tail is huge and it's got like stripes on it. And I thought, so he goes outside. He goes, I said, do you have the hoe? Do you have a flashlight? And he goes, yeah, because if you got a poisonous snake, I mean, you kill it with a hoe.

You got to have a long-handle hoe. So that's what I've done. And so I send him out. And then I go, I said to mom and said, Mom, do you think I should let him do it alone? And she says, no. She says, you better go check. So I did. And I went out there and said, he said, he said,

said, it's not a snake. It's an alligator. And I literally, I couldn't, I could, I was just laughing so hard because he just knew that it was a snake. So then I ended up calling our local deputies and I said, can you come and see this thing? And she said, well, we don't really do anything about gators. That's the wild life and fisheries. I said, well, can you send them over? She goes, well, they're not working tonight. They don't really work. And they said, what size it is? I said, it's not big. And it said, well, we'll send him somebody. So he comes in with his. It's big old lights. It comes down the driveway. And I stop him at the thing.

I said, we've got a gator. And I said, I just was wondering if you could remove it friendly. And he said, well, we don't usually do that. And I said, yeah, I heard, but it's really small. You could probably fit it in your trunk. He said, well, let me see it. And he looks at it and he cuts out. He goes, no, we can't do anything about it.

He says, we don't really move them. The wildlife and fisheries won't even move it until it's at least six feet long. Oh, wow. I said, so I've got to wait for it to kill everything in sight. I mean, I've got rabbits. I've got squirrels. I've got a little possum that I kind of like, you know? I said, I really, that just doesn't seem right.

And so I said, okay, well, I'll see you later. And I said, we got to do something. So we told one of our neighbors a few doors down. He said, oh, well, you know what? He said, I'll just come with my sons and I'll just get it. I said, you mean capture those? Oh, no. And I said, you can't shoot the gator.

No. You can't shoot it. It's a baby. It's a baby gator. I said, you just need to get it to that pond across the road. It's a big pond. It's like a lake. That's where we should take it.

He goes, well, I can't do that. And I'm like, oh, gosh. So I thought, what are we going to do? We just have to keep a lookout. And so the next morning, Campion said, I looked it up. I said, do they climb fences? So I actually found a huge gator climbing the chain lines. link fence online and they said yes they do they absolutely can climb fences so that's so he was never

he was gone and we never saw it again he heard you guys talking he heard the gun he's like i'm out of here i think we scared it yeah i mean you david is an animal control officer in michigan he could have come down and picked it up for you he's picked up all sorts of animals out there my brother well i should have known yeah of course and he loves his animals too. Yeah, I know you do. We all deserve to live unless they're a brown recluse, which can make your hand rot off. We don't want it. We don't want those, but we have things that don't here that we can't afford to let live, like water moccasins. But usually if I see one, I stay clear. And we just put out snake away and garlic. Garlic does it? And that kind of, oh yeah. And the more you mow, the more you

mow, the better off they stay away. Speaking of mowing, okay, you know what, I'm going to save something for the full reveal, because we're going to go to the little section where people at Valerie's Place can sign up and they get a special section that's not on Spotify and it's not

on YouTube. If you are a Valerie's Place member, you can access this, and if you're not, go to valer's place.com. So stay tuned for face little trick of clearing her head and staying in shape. I have a really fun recipe for you today. You saw how easy that was.

Look at all that flavor we packed into chicken breasts. Love the flavor of maple syrup, especially for these kind of muffins. I see all of your comments. I swear I do. You are wondering, where's my show? This is so dang delicious. Smells divine.

That's a jalapeno popper. Oh my god. That's so good! Yes, I'm back and I am cooking for all of you. All right, Sophie, what are we reheating today? Welcome to Now Vow's cooking. Guess what we're gonna make right now. We're alive.

Hi, everybody. How are you? You have to go to Valerie's That's where you can see our book group, this podcast. That's where you can go for all the cooking that you want to see. Oh, yes. I've missed cooking for you. I'm glad I finally get to do it again.

I'm dancing. That's how good it is. So head to Valerie'splace.com and go ahead and sign up. You guys are the original members, and I can't thank you enough. It's happy time.