Shaun Newman Podcast - #481 - Robbie Kaschl

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

Well.. stuck in Kelowna one should have recorded a podcast, but I had other things on my mind. I eventually found my way from Kelowna all the way back to Lloydminster and this was the final leg of the journey with Robbie. Robbie is a proud family man and the owner of Culligan Water in Lloydminster. He is one of the many Good People who helped me along the journey to get back home. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Patreon: www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast

Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday. We were having a little bit of an interesting weekend. I was supposed to do some things in Kelowna, as you all know, and I did some of those. And then I was supposed to sit down and do a couple interviews, and then this fire took over. So I'm sitting in a truck, and I'm going to run through the podcast sponsors, and then I'm sitting with Robbie Cashel, one of the many people who's helping me make it all the way back home. So it's been an interesting journey. Either way, today's episode brought to you by Canadians for Church. truth, non-profit organization consisting of Canadians, believe in honesty, integrity, and the principal leadership in government,

and as well as the Canadian Bill of Rights, Charter of Rights, and the Freedoms and Rule of Just Laws. They have a couple of shows coming up. MacMora on August 24th in Calgary and Rodney Palmer, September 20th in Calgary. For tickets, go to CanadiensforTruth.ca. And stay updated. Go to Facebook. Search Canadian's Truth and you can find all their stuff.

there. Tyson, Tracy Mitchell, Michko, Environmental. They're always looking, well, they're looking for equipment operators, farming experience is a bonus. They're also looking for labor, seasonal, or full time. As you know, Mitchco, I work for them once upon a time. And, you know, it'd be funny, I'm sitting with another business owner from Lloyd Minster, and I'm always, what I enjoy about the Lloyd Minster businesses,

is family-owned and operated. Mitchco is certainly that. So it's a fun environment to get into. They pay very well. here was the $20,000 you could make in a summer working for them and that was just starting. I'm like, whew, anyways, Robbie's nodding, is that? If you want to find out more information, go to MitchcoCorp.ca, or give a call 780214, 4,0004. Once again, they're looking for equipment operators.

Farming experience is a bonus. They're also looking for laborers, seasonal, and full time. Prof. River, Clay Smiley and the team over there, they specialize in importing firearms from the United States of America, pride themselves in making the process as easy for all their customers as humanly possible. And they do all the paperwork and jump through every hoop that a firearm owner has to do now. And I always say, if you're going to go jump in hoops, why not have a little bit of an expert sitting beside you? Then that would be Profit River. Just go to Profitriver.com.

They are the major retailers of firearms, optics, and accessories serving all of Canada. And then finally, we got Windsor Plywood, Builders of the podcast Studio Table. Um, for everything, wood, these are the guys. Certainly, deck season, I'm not going to say is winding up on us here, because August has been absolutely beautiful. But if you're still, uh, looking for different chunks of wood, I would suggest, uh, getting in there and seeing what they have to do. I was, I was picking Carly's brain at, uh, Neunar Hockey the other day, Robbie. And I was saying to them, you know what, do you guys have round trunks of wood? Because I would love to have, uh, you know, like a river table kind of thing, but in a round chunk of wood, almost like a stump.

I guess they build those. They put two pieces of wood together, and they'll make it for you. Anyways, I don't know. Maybe the studio is going to be having one of those. I thought you'd be looking for a hockey puck. Not a hockey puck. No, no. Either way, if you're looking for mantles, decks, windows, doors, or sheds,

stop in Windsor plywood today and get them to hook you. Okay. Monday, this is Bode's... I tell you what. I bet you Robbie did not think I was going to be like, hey, by the way, thanks for picking me up and driving me back from Calgary. But we're going to sit and chat anyways. And he's like, I don't know if I want to be on a podcast. I'm like, you have no choice, folks.

Sean's not getting home after being gone for five in some days and trying to scramble around Sunday night. It's not happening. I'm sitting stuck in a vehicle. This has been like a wild journey. I left Tuesday and flew to Colonna from Lloydminster, which was a cool experience. I don't know if you've ever seen Lloyd from the air, Robbie, have you? Yes, yeah, yeah. And seeing your own area from the air is, I understand why people get their pilots license, I guess now.

Well, you always pick out your house. When you're flying over, you've got to find your house, you know, your friend's houses. Snap the picture, text it to them. Well, that's fair. I was more shocked at looking at the places maybe I've never driven before. Like, you know, there's grid roads you haven't gone down that are relatively close to Lloyd. I'm like, what the heck is that? Now I'm going to have to go down range road, whatever, 15 or, I don't know, 26 or, well, not 26, but you get the point.

Yeah. Saying places that don't exist. Anyways, for the listener, Robbie, I was hoping you could just give a brief introduction to yourself because, I mean, obviously the listener's going to like, who's Robbie Cashel. And I'm going to be like, well, he's a business owner in Lloyd Minster, Culligan Water, and everybody in Lloyd knows who you are, or most do. But the listener certainly across Canada is going, well, who's really? Robbie. Robbie Cashel. Son of Carl and Patty Cashel. We moved to Lloyd Minster from Lethbridge in 95 with our family to take over Nutter's Balkan Natural Foods many, many years ago from the Phipps family. We live in the community for, well, since then. I've left for a couple years to go to school and

aid architecture and come back and try my hands in the family business here. But wife and kids, married Don Anderson, who was a local from Lloydminster, as well as we have two boys. They're just turned 18 and 14, Quentin and Ashton, and then a year and a half ago,

we adopted two girls from Haiti, me lows and me lose. Did I hear, now, I've got to, I'm going to learn lots of new things on this trip, obviously, folks, as I always do, but did you say you went to school for architecture?

Yes, yes. I went to Nate, two years at Nate, architectural technologist. Came back to Lakeland College here to start my architecture degree, but a friend of mine needed some employment or needed some employees in Emmettant, so I decided after my first semester was to jump into the workforce. Yes, I've worked on some small and large buildings throughout Alberta. Have you? Yeah. Schools. Yeah.

So you go from wanting and become an architect, correct? Am I correct in that thinking? Yes, yes. More just trying to, you know, get buildings built and the process and design behind them and understanding them and putting pen to paper. I guess at that point it was more, you know, using the computers. But yeah, I just like the design and the making things into into, something useful. So how do you get from architect to the water business?

You know, once upon a time when I first came home, my wife's like, well, what do you want to do? I'm like, I was looking at jobs and Colligan had a sales position and I'm like, well, I could go sell water. She's like, sell water. Why would you want to do that? I'm like, people will always need water. Well, do you still want to?

Always trying to find new people, new good people. Yeah, it was definitely a process. of it, we had it pretty comfortable. We had a first child. He was, you know, a year old, living in Spruce Grove. I enjoyed working with my architecture firm. I was actually downtown at the university as a project manager building, the A-Rift building, where they have, you know, testing facilities. Like there's a level four lab in the basement. Anything higher than that is Winnipeg, a level five labs, so high containment. It was a lot of fun, but at that point, my My dad was trying to get out.

You know, he built up the water business himself and, and it was just trying to get out. It was a lot, a lot of lifting. And, you know, we had Eminem meets at the time and nutters at the same time. So something had to give. And he tried selling it to a competitor, but wasn't able to, wasn't able to come to terms with it. You know, you try to give him 15 cents on the dollar for it.

We ended up approaching mom and dad, you know, because we, you know, spent a lot of years working for other people. And I was like, well, this might be an opportunity to work for ourselves. And, you know, we put our business plan together. And, you know, my wife wanted to be a stay-at-home mom for a one child there now or then. And I think, you know, I think in a year or two, you'll be able to stay at home. And we can make this work and put a lot of sweat equity into it to make it so. So it was definitely a different transition.

And the eyes you're giving me now about why would you go from architecture to, bottled water. I got a few of those. Well, it's interesting. You come from a family by the sounds of it of business owners,

entrepreneurs, like, you know, like not somebody who worked for the same company for 50 years and retired and, you know,

I've got a great pension. It's more like, you know, like Nutter's is a specialty shop, right? I mean, and Eminem Meets is another specialty shop,

both very good at what they do, I might add. Yeah. I had no idea, I guess. And, you know, sometimes in the history of Lloyd or the history of our area, sometimes I laugh at how much you just glaze over and you have no clue up, you know, you don't actually pay attention to who does what. You kind of just get in the day by day. And if it enters your friend's circle, maybe you notice it right away.

But there's a lot that kind of goes, you know, on and you never really, if you never really cross past, you know, you were, you know, when we first got in this truck three hours ago. We got talking about how, you know, we basically cross paths, right? Because for the listener, we do a Thursday morning men's group, and Robbie's one of the guys in there, right? So, you know, a little bit of the story here is Tuesday I fly from Lloyd to Colonna do three shows in roughly 24 hours with a list of different characters. Tamara Leach was on stage, Dr. Charles Hoff was on stage. A 16-year-old from Winnipeg, Terry Johnson was on stage, and the list goes on. Kid Carson called in to one of them, he was in video. And so, you know, Thursday after we leave the show, I look out.

And, you know, it's funny how your brain rationalizes this thing. I look out, and Tamara's going, are you seeing this? I'm like, oh, yeah, look over, and the fire is literally coming down the far side of the lake. Like, you can just see it going down the hill. Like, when I think back to it, I'm like, why wasn't I, like, going, holy, crap, we got to get on the road right now. You know, I just, I don't know. So we drive back to Vernon, and I look up, I get up at 5 in the morning, check on my flight,

says it's still good to go, you know, so you rationalize it to yourself, and you get in the vehicle and you go to the airport, and it's a little smoky, but, you know, it's still not bad, even though the firehead come down the other side. Anyways, you're like, you know, in hindsight, sometimes you're like, man, you're a moron, or you just like glaze over things. So I get to the airport and the plane's taken off. I'm like, well, planes are still taking off. Perfect.

I'll get on a plane and I'm out of here. And while I'm sitting in line, there's like two people ahead of me. They come over the intercom, airspace, closed. Do not take anyone's bag, blah, blah, blah, and pandemonium breaks loose. And, you know, I wanted to talk to you about good people. And, you know, Lloyd Minster has its fair share of good people, I'd argue. And I've interviewed a lot of them. But good people, when you're around, you know,

When you're in situations like that really come to the forefront. And, you know, Grant Milner and his partner, Kathleen, you know, took me in and were fantastic while the world is just going insane. You know, and they were the first, you know, people just like, you got a place. Don't worry about it. If it gets really, really terrible, we've got a vehicle we're out of here, right? Just happy to help you. Just happy to help you and make sure. and I was with a lady Kim Kennedy who was working with Tamara and she was travesting from Toronto

and we made sure a family from Calgary gave her a ride to the Calgary Airport right and got her back to Toronto and you know as things worked out I wrote on a plane there for the Lloyd Minster even the even the podcast faithful Sam Saeed who played in the world's longest hockey game him and his girlfriend Chelsea were there and we're talking back and forth and they're trapped downtown Kelowna. And we get talking yesterday morning. You know, now it's been one full day of, like, pandemonium, and there's rental cars at the airport. Found out, here's a fun fact.

If they evacuate the airport, the rental car guys have to stay there. That's what the Hertz guy was telling me, because they still need to give out cars and get people to where they need to go and everything else. Now, I don't know at what point they're like, the building's on fire, and we've got to go. So I literally went in there. Yeah, who makes that decision of when it's safe? I don't know.

Or unsafe. I don't know. And so I literally go in, talk to the guy. They got a couple of cars. And I'm like, so how's the last couple days been? He's like, I'll never forget this in my life. Fair enough. Get in, what did I say?

Is it a Corolla? Toyota Corolla, yeah. Toyota, a white Gramomobile with a lawnmower engine. and go in and pick Sammy up. So now I'm driving back with Sam Saeed and his girlfriend, who I rode out there with on the plane. And you're like, well, I mean, at least I'll have a good company, right? Great conversation.

And when I put up the SOS of like, I'm not in harm's way, at least yet, and I need some help. All these good people just throw up their hands. They're like, okay, well, we could get you here. You know, Mother Newman, as all mothers are. I'll drive it. It's only 11 hours and 20 minutes. I'll come get you.

I'm like, please do not. Robbie Cashel is texting me, folks, and he's going, I'll just drive out there to get you. I'm like, Robbie, you're in Calgary. Mom would be great on the podcast. She has been on the podcast. Yes. And I'm like, well, now she's kicking herself because she, you know, everybody's kicking

herself. They would have been like, if I would have just picked up Sean, I would have been forced to have been on the podcast. That's what I'm doing to Robbie right now, folks. I hope people will learn from this. Put Sean on a tough predicament. And regardless, dad always said, you know, at,

hmm, I got to think about this. I want to say, I was asking him about some of the toughest days in his life when he was on the road trucking, and he got teary-eyed, and he talked about good people. And I take that as, like, surround yourself good people, because good people will help you out

when times get difficult. I was curious, if you've had any interactions through your life with good people. Yeah, there's been a few instances. And I usually, you know, usually try not to reach out and ask for help and, you know, until things are pretty dire. But, you know, but it could be the littlest things. One of my friends, Ken McDonald, we, my boy, is probably about 1 o'clock in the morning, probably about four years ago. he had some extreme stomach pains and I had in you know home alone with the other kids and I forget

where my wife was but I needed I needed to get up and go I need to take my son to that son to the hospital and so you know just reached out to our our on boxer to a to a few men on Facebook or on our boxer group and just asked him hey I got around to the hospital can anyone can anyone help and Ken's like yeah just look yeah come right over it was about 1130 1230 night and he came over and uh like just you know as a work night and everything just came over watched the kids um and we're probably at the hospital for three and a half hours he probably never got home to four o'clock in the morning but he was just happy to happy to drop everything and and and come come to our aid um no questions asked didn't ask for anything you know Netflix was on he

i think you watched rambo that night and fell in love with that movie um but yeah that was that was most recent instance of help. Like you asked, you put it out there. You put it out there yourself and it was nice just to see people coming to your aid without any questions or out any circumstances or anything they need to be given. They're just serving to serve. I glazed over one name too, and you picked me up from their house. I text Marty Britton and his wife Tammy.

They live in Airjury, so I showed out to them too. Oh, they were lovely. They were part of the journey as well. I'm driving. So we get the rental car. And I'm like, once I have the rental car and I'm going to Calgary, I'm like, I'll sleep in a hotel. I don't really care at this point. But I've got good friends there and I'm like, I'm just going to text them.

I text them at like, I don't know, we got in at 830 folks, I think by the time we left the airport. And I want to say I text them at six on a Saturday. I said, hey, got a place for me to hang my head. Yeah, what's going on? And his wife was going to him, well, what's Sean doing? I don't know. He just said he needs a place to stay. What did you ask anymore?

Well, no. And she's going, made her weird, right? And he's like, I don't know. I guess he's driving or something. Well, did he call you? And then I did call him. And I'm like, hey, I'm just going to be in for the night. Can you pick me up from the airport?

I had a little trouble in Colonna. And he's like, yeah, sure, not a problem. What time you end? I'll call you from the airport. Okay, sounds good. She goes, so what is he doing? Well, I don't know. He's driving from Colona by the sounds of it.

You know, no questions asked. Those are, well, I mean, once again, folks, I'm sure everybody has a few of those. I'm pretty fortunate. Hopefully they've been the servant of that too, and no questions asked, helping out others. Pretty special, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. You know, we close in on, it's been a bit of a journey home. And me and Robbie just stopped for a meal and then catch it.

Like, I'm just like, I'm wearing. the same clothes I flew out on. So Sam will get a chuckle out of that. Because I literally fly out on Tuesday morning in this outfit, okay? And the audience can't see me, but Robbie's not on his head. And then, you know, I got, okay, I got enough clothes for here and here. Okay, good, and whatever. So then it comes to the day to leave.

I've got no clean clothes anymore. So I wear my first one over again, right? And so I roll in to pick Sammy up and it's like deja vu. I literally have the same outfit on. So then today, I'm like, well, I mean, I just got to get five hours home, folks. I'm like, what the heck does it matter? Robbie's not going to care. He's never seen it before.

So we sit down to eat, and I grab the ketchup bottle, and it explodes all over me. So now I got ketchup all over my. I just like, by the time I get home, my wife is going to think I was on death's doorstep. You know, it's like, what happened to you? She's not going to allow us to travel together anymore. Yeah. Regardless, me and me and Robbie have been having a wonderful chat about, You know, I think of the Chinese proverb about the Chinese farmer.

I'm a Chinese farmer, Chinese farmer proverb. I can't remember. But it's the maybe. Have you heard the maybe? You haven't heard the maybe? Maybe I have. Okay. Well, it goes a little like this.

Chinese farmers, horses run away. And all the townspeople come and say, oh, isn't that terrible? And he says, maybe. And then the next day, all the horses show back up with 10 wild ones. And all the townspeople come and say, isn't this wonderful? And he says, maybe. And then while trying to break the horses, one of them bucks off his son, breaks his leg. And all the townspeople come and say, isn't that's just terrible?

And he says, maybe. And then the day after, the Chinese army shows up wanting to draft young men to go to war. And they can't take his son. And all the townspeople come and say, isn't that? I'm wonderful, and he goes, maybe. And, you know, it's funny, in the middle of all the chaos, I recall things like that where it's just like, so what am I here for, you know?

Like, what's the big guy got me stuck here for, and who am I supposed to enter encounter, and what conversation am I going to have? I'd be much more comfier at home. Yeah, like, I mean, just want to be home, you know, But I guess the adventure isn't over just yet. Not that the adventure of life is ever over, is it? Maybe.

You'll be leading towards this, but if you, you're a journey in Colonna. You know, you went and, you know, talking about serving, you went and served and, you know, talked to hundreds of people over the last few days. But, you know, it's like, what was your purpose there? What was your job? besides doing that and you met some incredible people. And it also reminds me what your mom texted you this morning about the hierarchy.

Now let's just jump right into it. The hierarchy of Christ, you know, you put Jesus first, your children, your wife, then yourself last. You know, we're talking about good people serving. Jesus is that exact example. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, I'm in Kelona, I took the Bible. Bible.

I was reading it. And, you know, nothing too crazy, folks. And I'm in the Second Corinthians for those keeping track, you know. I started this a while back. And I read this the one night. And I was like, you know, because I've been, you know, like, do you go all the way across the country? You got to be on stage.

You got to do everything. And could you have a couple ofasparillas at night and, you know, and whatever else? And I'm, I've been wrestling. I'm like, I don't really need it, and I don't really want it. And anyway, so I'm, I flip open the Bible, and I'm reading through First Corinthians. And I've been saying this a lot. First Corinthians, for the most part, didn't blow me away. But then the longer I read it, the more it irritated me in the best possible way.

So then the more I read it, then I had to flip back pages, and then it started to play with my brain. And I've been stuck on First Corinthians. Well, now I'm done it, but I've been stuck on First Corinthians for what feels like a month. And I mean, it's only, so I've been, for the listener, I've been doing about a chapter a day. It's 16 chapters. So that means I took twice the time on First Corinthians. That really bugs me because I'm like, no, I'm, you know, get through it and okay and whatever. Anyways, long story short, folks.

I read, um, on that and I flip by it now. Come on, Sean. Bad company corrupts good morals, become sober-minded as you ought and stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. And I sat and thought on that for a very long time, like a very, very long time. Like a very, very long time. What's it?

What's your shame? Like, what is that? And, you know, I find it, I find it curious that, as we record this, you know, obviously Robbie didn't go to church today. Sean certainly didn't go to church today. So we've been sitting discussing a few different things on a Sunday, driving as we can for five hours stuck in a vehicle together. It's been a very interesting chat.

But speaking to your shame, you know, is that not your deepest part? that you don't let anybody into, and your shame is, you know, I don't want to have a beer, but you have three or four, and then you wake up hung over, and you feel shame for that, or you eat something that you're telling yourself, I need to eat healthier, let's say. And then you go out and you gorge. And the next day you wake up, and you feel shame. And what it's saying is, I'm speaking to that. And you know exactly what that is.

And so, you know, I go in the middle of it, it just kind of rocks all of me, to like, okay, I'm just not going to have any, I don't need anything. thing while I'm here. And thankfully, I had my head on my shoulders when all of a sudden the world starts to burn, literally, you know, and I just go back to that bad company corrupts good morals, become sober-minded as you ought and stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. And I tell you what, I never thought I'd read a scripture on the podcast, but so be it. It's like... Right in front of you, you just grabbed it. Well, I mean, at the end of the day, I'm just like, ugh, it's been an interesting

48 hours to say nothing else. Like, it has been an interesting 48 hours. And if it ain't First Corinthians, because me and Tanner Nadegh were talking on Friday, and I'm like, I just had a string of strange, not strange podcast, I shouldn't put it that way, but like, definitely God-focused podcast. I had Shannon Halliday. You know, went from Viva Frey to Shannon Halliday to Tanner Nadee, and now I'm sitting with Robbie Cashel on one of the strangest

well not strangest a very interesting way to get back home from being on the other side of the planet where you couldn't fly out and everything else and helicopters and airplanes and everything and you know was it ever in grave danger? No but I mean

the fire was probably as a crow flies let's say three miles away and you watch it come over a hill and you're like well didn't it jump the like it could it could have been harrowing it didn't the the fire jump

lake oakenhaganagan yeah yeah it did um you know and i don't want to listen how it jumped how it started all that that you know they'll eventually figure that out um but yeah like talking to the locals you know they're like i'm like well is a fire ever been this close well no i mean they've had bad fires but it always stays on the west side so i'm told folks so i'm told um but yeah like it was you know i'm talking to the the the west check guy. I'm going, okay, uh, so like, when do you think the airport will be open back up? He's going, well, as long as there's a fire burning five miles radius of the airport, we can't have flights. And I'm going, well, it's already within that, and they haven't got this thing stopped,

so we ain't flying for days, you know? Anyways, I'm jumping around on you. And now we're in construction, so, you know, it's, it's, I'm just going to, you know, it's, I'm just going to narrate our drive home to all the lovely listeners. They're probably like, I didn't know what Monday was going to be, you know, but I'm back home, so, or almost. Well, back to that, that, that scripture there, shame, you know, everyone, everyone has, you know, God speaks to many people and, and, you know, shame could be, you know, you know, what you just had for lunch, you know, I wish I something else or or maybe there's a there's a heavy burden from a from a childhood that that that that's affecting you shame shame can be the guilt of of

many things and it's it's you're carrying it yourself is not it's not an easy burden hmm you want to read that passage one more time ah sure you're gonna make me flip it back open now I gotta go dig in here folks yeah mm-hmm I mean, it's not like I got anywhere to go, you know? And we're doing 50 right now. It says, and I skipped one part, so I'm glad you made me reread it. So it's 1st Corinthians 15, 33, and 34. Do not be deceived.

Bad company corrupts good morals. Become sober-minded as you ought and stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. do not be deceived. We talked about that earlier about the, um, all the new age religions out there. And, uh, you know, some of it sounds sounds really good. Uh, what was that, uh, coincidence? You put a word to it. Well, there's, there's coincidences and I think what follows coincidences and somebody may correct me on this is synchronicities.

Synchronicities, yes, yes. Um, but to keep it simple, which is as, as God intended, you know, intended, you know, it's either good or evil. So if it's, if it doesn't glorify God, you know, this new, new religion, new direction, it's not good. And, uh, well, here's the thing that the good and evil thing is, is interesting to me because doesn't, um, now once again, you'll correct me here and listeners will correct me and I'll And I hope everybody will have a little bit of patience with me here as I slowly walk the walk. But, you know, one of the things that's always, I don't know, unnerve me, confuse me, is they shall disguise themselves in the light.

So that is good. The light is good, I think, right? Overall, the light is good, folks, is it not? So to me, I think that's what's so interesting about all the different New Age stuff. stuff. And I'm not here to say what is right or wrong. I, you know, I keep telling Robbie, what I, what the Bible keeps telling me is, you know, God will judge. Okay, fair enough. That's, that's good enough for me. Absolutely, we're not to judge. I don't, I don't have to worry about anything. I just got to worry about myself and certainly, uh, um, the people near me and, and I, and I get it,

but to me, that's what it says. And then on top of that, I just go, you know, like, one of the reasons why I started reading the Bible is I go, I went. I went, went, you know, if I'm going to learn from some smart people, this Jesus guy was probably one of the most talked about guys on the planet, right? Fair? I don't think there's any argument there. So I started reading the red letters, which is the words, you know, if you're not familiar with the Bible, which I think most people are. But if you're, let's say you haven't read it, you know, it's the red letters in the Bible or most Bibles. I assume that's most Bibles. And, you know, that's fascinating in itself, because Jesus, when he took it. talks in his parables and everything else. You're like, wow. But eventually you get to the point where you're like, I just, I'm missing something. And you need the story. So then you go back and,

and for me, I started in the New Testament, tried starting at Genesis. And certainly I've heard the story of Genesis and everything else many a time. I don't know. I just, I keep hearing from a lot of people that starting in the New Testament is the way to go. I don't know if that's true, but for me, it's working. So I start. and when you start reading the story and how it intertwines with Jesus' parables and everything else, man, it is fantastic. Add a little prayer in there, and all of a sudden, I go, it's the most calm piece I've ever felt in my life.

I don't need, I just don't need anything else. Right? So there's a lot of new age stuff out there. A lot of stuff that's been around for a long time, right? some will say it's a new age others will say well this has been around since the time of jesus i mean he's talked about different things in there so maybe it isn't so new age i'm like oh that's fair enough i just go like at the end of the day i don't know i do it worse for you but over on this side i started reading that and i'm like oh i don't i don't think i need anything else i think it's i think it's

sitting here right in front of me you know and and and the longer i read it the more i'm like hmm I mean, things are starting to become a little more clear. At least that's from my eyes. Yeah, you're sitting, you're growing, you're learning, you're conversing with God and your prayer, and you're growing yourself. You know, you'll get to a point where, you know, the devil will, the enemy will pervert his word.

You talked about, you know, disguising themselves in the light, wolf and sheaves clothing, you know, even the demons know of Jesus it's uh it's uh well I would think they know the best I would think they know oh yeah man

you know you know I highly don't they can stand in his presence because I would think they would be well I don't know blown away dissolved I think of like

I don't know there's a what's the what's the the snap of the finger by uh Thanos folks and then everybody just dissolves away. It's like, you know, something like that. I don't think, I think they'd be, I don't know, do they run?

Do they fly? Do they flee? Do they disappear? I don't know what they do, but they ain't sticking around, that's for sure. Yeah, they're gone. But you spoke there earlier about good people and your three sponsors, Mitzko, Profit River. You got Borgotilage Tools.

you got Carly Clawson, Windsor Plywood. Windsor Plywood, yes. And actually one that I normally would have on here is, but since it's, this has been a weird day, folks, I'm just going to release this as raw as it gets and you're going to have to deal with it. The one that I didn't do normally

and has been on everyone is Hancock Petroleum for the tail of the tape. Jason, yeah, yeah. But, you know, again, talk about good people. I know four of those businesses and their stand-up. You know, when I came to this community or came back to the community

and started the water company, they were one of my first customers, you know, Jason, I've met, I've met them all. And, you know, when I needed to buy handguns, they were there to get me some guns. You know, when I needed some thoughts on weed control, they were there helping me there. And they're just, there's some good people.

And those three businesses, specifically, you know, If you need something, they'll be there to help you out. You know, it's one thing, you know, I was sitting with, you know, like we're in what's considered, and I'm putting it in parentheses, folks, Colona. You know, it's like, where would you move if you could? Colonna. It's like it's so beautiful. And somebody asked me, where would you move if you could?

And I'm like, well, this will shock, people. Lloyd Minster, the only knock I would fix is the ability to have the biggest names come through it. so if I could if I you know I like I like everything you know sir do I wish we had a little milder winter sure okay do I wish there was a big lake in the middle of town that we could sure but like there is nothing well that you can that you can um like what is a substitute for good people like the most beautiful scenery surrounded by jackals or wolves no I want I want I I want good people when you have a problem. They're like, boom, let's help these people.

And every time Lloyd has a problem, they're a lot of good people, step up and figure it out. Well, you think of the forest fires up in Fort McMurray. You know how everyone just kind of dropped everything and came together to help. You know, people are just trumping and one-ton trucks going up there. This is an incredible community. You know, you don't hear the, you know, I shied away from the news. lots in the last few years so I you know I don't even have cable and rarely watch it but you

don't hear these these stories of of the salt salt of the earth you know rooted grounded families just dropping everything and going helping people and maybe maybe that'll wake up some people here you know with with these fires in BC and maybe people will be stepping up to that yeah well I You've seen it, though. I meant, you know, as you talk, I keep remembering different parts of it. Now, I hopped in, you know, Grant, the man I stayed with, he was trying to get to the airport to come pick us up. He's about 12 minutes away.

Yeah. And he says, I can't get on the highway. It's like, it's jar. It's, yeah. If you can find a way here, get away here. So we walk out and we get in a cab. And it's a young man from India. 22, I believe.

He'd been in Kelowna for four years. Yeah. And he did. It's his home now. And he didn't want to take my mom. money. The 12-minute cab ride took us an hour and the meter's up over 50 bucks and I'm going, you're taking my money. And as we're doing it, he's trying to like, he's trying to help. He's like, you guys are in a tough spot. I don't want to take your money. This is what you can do.

You can do all these different things. You can fly out of here. So as we're stuck in traffic, this guy's helping me and this lady from Toronto try and find her way back. And for a young kid to be like that, I mean, I think is pretty cool. So I actually, I gave them the money and then some because I'm like, not because I'm trying to pat myself on the back, because I'm like, pay it for it again to somebody else. Because what you're doing here is incredible. This is the type of people you want to have around you while the world is literally burning. And Lloyd, in my humble opinion, is filled with him. Yes.

I don't know where to go. Maybe this is where we call her quits. You have any thoughts, Robbie? To me, it has been an interesting. 168 hours, maybe longer than that, maybe shorter than that. I can't thank everybody enough who reached out, who worried about me. You know, I joke about my mother. Like, I don't know who she's got, I don't know if she's got an Apple,

what do they call those things where they can see your location? Apple tag. Apple tag? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if she's got an Apple tag on me or what. Or if she's just, like, I mean. Mother's intuition. Before the airport shuts down, she's texting me.

And I'm going, like, what does she watch? probably the news I mean I assume but then like you know so anyways helps to have a you know I'm not arguing about having a mother worried about you but the list of people that reached out and then certainly helped get you back to where you needed to get to I don't know I go I can't say thank you enough and I mean you're on the list now and I mean Robbie uh Robbie folks was like oh I'll just drive to get you I'm like you're in Calgary yeah and I'm like that's like seven hours one way It's like 14 hours before we even get back to where you started. Yeah, what's your point?

Okay, all right, fair enough. Well, worst case scenario, brother Dustin was sitting in Invermere. He offered the same thing. And I'm going, well, you're a little closer, but you're still like four hours one way. Yeah, just say the word and I'll be there. If you need it, we're gone. I'm like, all right. Okay, fair enough.

We got options here. You know, Shane Getson, the MLA of Lax St. Ann, has a plane. and like just a little you know I don't know two-seater I believe Shane I hope I'm I hope I'm right on that and he's like you say the word and I'll get as close

as I can and I'll fly in and we can pull you out I'm like well all right well I'm not on fire there's probably people who need that support more than I do I'll figure this out right but you know I don't know what the world would be without good people like that to help you out when you need it

it's a good feeling knowing that there are those good people I think Sean E'd be one of those gentlemen who someone needed something. You'd drop everything to go help them as well. Well, normally in our world, I would argue, that call doesn't come in that often, right? I mean, thankfully. And usually when somebody in your circles, like, we need to do this, they ain't saying, in my humble opinion, they ain't saying that every month, let alone every year.

Like, I mean, when do you ever hear of everybody getting stranded and going? Kelona. Now, in fairness, it sounds like there's been fires there, so I don't want to make light anything here. And it sounds like the fires in BC happens more than, you know, obviously, I vacation out there. But overall, what happened to Kelowna isn't happening every second day. So when the call goes up, you mentioned Fort McMurray. When the call goes up, I like to think good people answer. Well, those are big calls, too. Like, what about all those little ones? Volunteering at the olive tree once a week. No, needing volunteers at the men's shelter for a little bit.

There's still good people who are needing to need it help and doing that. Just locally, we talk a lot about the big events where people drop everything and go. There's many different little things in our community that day-to-day still need to get done. And you're absolutely right. And those are the people who don't look for the credit, but should get a lot of credit, because they're doing a lot of great work, you know, I don't know, behind the scenes, if you would. Well, the clubs, Rotary, Lions Club. There's many different, I think Glenn Fagnan, he's always there.

You never know he's there, but he's always serving something in our community. There's incredible people. Maybe that's one of your next podcast is have a heroes week. And bring them in. They can talk about, now they're not going to want to talk about what they're doing. But they're going to, they can maybe talk about the needs they see in the community and rally, you know, Lloyd Minster to help its own. That's especially in, like, Lloyd has not escaped what's going on right now.

You've seen the amount of homeless. I was saying, you know, took my wife to a movie at the May cinema. And, you know, I give the May family a lot of credit. They got Sound of Freedom still in, you know. Incredible movie, by the way. Yeah, well, and I mean, like, isn't it? And so, anyways, my wife and I have gone to movies since we first started dating, which is in December 16 years ago.

And when we go to the May Theater in particular, she's always like, you know, we always get a, well, we didn't always have a babysitter, but, you know, now we do. And she always goes, well, you want to go down a little early and, you know, go for a walk downtown. And, you know, it feels awkward to walk Lloyd's downtown because we don't have this, I think it's gotten better, but it's still always never been, like, walking downtown, let's say, cloner or something, right? Yeah. and I don't know how you ever get it there, but that's a question for Lloydminster as a whole, and maybe I'm often saying it isn't closer than I give credit, you know. But in probably 14 years of bringing my wife to the May Cinema Theater,

because I don't know in the first two years if we ever went there, but, you know, maybe. We'll go 14 years. Never once have I walked around downtown and been like, there's something a little, like, I don't know if I'd let her walk by herself, and I'm not saying my wife was in imminent danger or anything. But this last time, you could see the homelessness. There were strange things going on.

I don't know if that's drugs. And just wandering people. And, you know, we talk an awful lot about Emmington. We talk an awful lot about Calgary. Everyone knows about Hastings in Vancouver. You know, on the news, they're talking about Toronto, with immigrants now having nowhere to stay, and now they're on the street, and et cetera, et cetera.

But you know, when you talk about Lloyd Minster, we're not immune to that. And, you know, I just saw it the other night when my wife and I went for a date night and walked around. And we do that normally. And it's the first time I've ever went, huh, there's something going on here that maybe I don't know how to address it, to be honest, Robbie. Yeah, that's a big one. You know, there's, you've got the men's shelters. You've got some women's shelters. you've got who is down there.

Tyler Lorenz. Talar Lorenz, yeah. Residents and Recovery. You have the Native Friendship Center. There's a lot of good things happening down there. But yes, there's definitely a need to go down there and see what we can do to help. Now, to the answer of that, I don't know if anyone knows the answer.

Well, I tell you what, if you know the answer, just light up the text line, and go to the show notes and hit me up with the text. Because, I mean, maybe somebody's got the answer. Maybe they're sitting in Lloyd. Maybe they're already doing it. And they're like, I just need to, you know, I could use some help. I don't know. To Robbie's point, maybe we should be talking a bit more about it.

You know, instead, because, like, you go play noon hour hockey. And you bring it up in the hockey room or you go up for, you know, you have a friends over and you get talking about, everybody's seeing it. It's like one of those things where everybody's seeing it. Yeah. All at a distance, you know, but I guess I'd be more personally involved too myself. You know, say if it's a family member down there. Yeah.

Or a person you went to school with grew up, that extra connection. Be more top of mind, that's for sure. Well, I really appreciate you waiting around, picking me up, driving me the last leg the journey and um throw on the mic in front of my face I'm like hey uh hey Robbie you know for the phone you know it's like getting the vehicle I'm like you know I don't have a podcast from wrong and he's like okay yeah sure and I'm like so we got two options here either I just start talking to myself which I've only ever done once here or I put a mic in front of you

and while we drive you talk and yeah you know man I'm like No. Okay. Here goes the mic. There it is. I could not allow you to work, you know, get home at 7 o'clock tonight and have to work until 10 or midnight and not see your family. Well, we find a way, don't we, folks? Either way, if there's a... I don't think I missed anyone, you know? Like, certainly the group of people out in Colonna. you know, Gary who brought me out there and then got us to the airport, you know, and then for things to go sideways, Grant and Kathleen for putting me up for the family

that took Kim all the way back, the cab driver that, you know, is just an excellent young human being. Like, I just, I admire that, you know, when he doesn't want to take your money for him while sitting an hour in traffic. That story brought me joy. You know, like, isn't that something? Yeah, that's awesome. And then the list goes on, you know.

Did he get his name? Well, he put, I put his name in my phone as Sing. Sing the Kelowna cab driver, and I was the funny Alberta man. So, I don't know. So if he has any fans in Colonna who come across Sing, yeah. Tell him, thank you. Yeah, well, yeah, we stayed in touch for a little bit after just because I was, you know,

he said if I needed any help or I needed to get back in a town just to call me and he wouldn't charge me. And I was like, well, if I call you, I'm going to pay, right? Like, you know, like that's, I mean, wonderful, but I'm, you know, like, I have the means, I guess. I'm going, I need to pay it forward. Yeah. Because at some point, it's paid for me. I mean, I think of Grant and Kathleen. They certainly did that.

But then, you know, Sammy and Chelsea riding with me all the way back, splitting a car so we could all get all get back, you know. And then Marty and Tammy for answering their phone on a Saturday night and throwing my, you know, throw on me a bed. And now you, it's been an interesting. journey and I appreciate you answering the call even for the podcast because I was saying to Grant he's like well why don't you just take a day off I mean I think everybody would understand

and I'm like I just no I don't want to take a day off what's your passion too it is yeah and I mean it's it's been an interesting journey all the way back you know we bounce around the Bible we talk a few things there good people you know a little bit of both

Robbie. How is the water business, by the way? It's fluid. My wife hates that joke. No, it's, it's, it's steady. It's fun. It's, it's fun treating water, solving water issues, delivering water. What do you think the one thing that people don't know about Colligan that you guys do? Because when I think of, when I think of you, I'm like, oh yeah, the Colligan water machine in the office building and that's what Colligan is. The one thing, the biggest thing I believe that people don't know about water and Colligan water is the complexity of the water. What's in your water? You know, good or bad?

You know, what to treat it. You've got your working water, you know, your house water or your or your site, your steam, your steam plants, you know, needs good water. Your drinking water needs to be clean and healthy and taste good. You know, your laboratories need very high quality water. Manufacturing needs high quality water. There's a lot of moving parts, you know. So, you know, drinking of the garden hose, you know, once people understand what's in their water,

they may, you know, reach out for some kind of professional treatment on it, just to make, just to clean it up a little bit. What do you think, what do you, like what's in my water, Robbie? Maybe I like drinking from the garden house. Oh, I do too, especially cold day. I'll go ahead and drink it absolutely. I'll just, you know, you hear the advertisements about chlorine. There's a lot of rumblings from the states about PFOAs and PFOS's,

different, uh, chemicals, specifically Dow chemical, and they're polluting of the water. It takes six years for one molecule of water to reach every point on the planet. Cycling around. Say that one more time? It takes six years. Six years for one molecule of water to the full cycle of the planet. from raining to underground to to snow it circles the planet so there's certain chemicals in the

states that you can pull out a sample of water in China and have some chemical properties from there no kidding yeah yeah so do you think if people were to investigate their water and I probably partially maybe knew this but I don't know if we acted on it. It's kind of like your food source. Like if you clean that up, would you know, have you heard or seen people like, say, their health is improved or they've noticed different things? Or is it that small trace amount and it's not that big a deal? Well, years ago, you know, 50 parts per billion arsenic was okay for you. In recent years, there was 25 parts per billion. Arsenic is good for you. Now I believe it's less than

and five parts per billion is good for you. So it's a changing, it's a changing target. So what, well then I'm kind of curious as a homeowner. It's like, okay. So if Culligan's looking at all the homeowners of the area, what do you try and, I don't know, not to sell them. Maybe to sell them. You're like, you know, most people should have this in their house.

Like do you, like water's, we don't need. We try not to sell. Ultimately, yes, we need to sell some equipment or sell a service of some sort, sell a delivery of water, sell a bag of ice to keep everyone employed and don't make a profit and to give back to the community. But we've had exceptional growth just educating people on what they have, what our options are, and allow them to make a decision that's best for them or their family, their parents, their animals, whatever, whatever they need. And what it drives most people towards you? Because I'm like, you know, living where we do, you know, it's not like the water tastes awful.

It's not like it comes out brown or what have you. You know, out on the farm you can get some interesting waters coming out of the wells. So I'm like, oh, I'm the farm, you know, and on and on it goes. What do most people come to you? Like, what do they interested in being? You mentioned the word educating, and I think that's a great one. What is it most people from our area are coming to Culligan because what drives them there? What brings people into Culligan?

There is years ago when we bought, before we bought Culligan, you know, we're family ran business. We've been in the community for a very, very long time. Dad started in 95 out of the old Nutter's building with bottled water and we just grew and expanded. Eight years ago, we bought Colligan. And so there's a few things. There's the brand recognition. Some people are Colligan through and through. They're on their second softener in 45 years,

and they just keep on going to Colligan. We're locally owned. We're one of the few in Alberta and Saskatch and that are locally owned. There's some corporate colligans in larger centers and service. I've been hauling water nice for 18 years and we still have some of the same customers

that have been there before my time. That's pretty cool with the loyal fan base. Loyal customer base, fan base. Yeah, fan base. Hopefully all of you are still here, my loyal listeners. I'm a water rock star. There you go, right? Yeah, we won't put that in there.

Or you'll just do it because of that. Oh, no, it's definitely staying. Come on down to your local Culligan store where you'll meet Robbie Cashel, the Water Rockstar. And we'll be able to test how many people have listened to this podcast by how many people come and say that to me. Well, you're going to show up to Thursday morning with everybody going, ah, it's the Water Rockstar. Oh, they call me that anyways. You know that. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Well, thanks for doing this. Thanks for coming to get me. I appreciate it. I don't know. Where the heck are we right now? Have we made it to... I think we're between Vagerville and Manville. Yeah.

I think. So we're getting close, folks. We're getting close. Either way, appreciate you. Tune it in. I'm a spontaneous guy. This is about as spontaneous as it gets. I'm glad you threw this at me because if I,

If I knew this was coming down the pipes, I probably wouldn't have slept last night. Yeah. Well, you've done great. I don't think you've... Public talking is definitely not in my wheelhouse. I don't think it's... Well, you surprised me then. How's that?

Well, thanks again, Robbie. Appreciate it. And I'll let you continue just driving. How would that be? Yeah, I'll throw on some good music and I'm pretty sure we'll chat some more.