The Ruminant: Audio Candy for Farmers, Gardeners and Food Lovers - e.63: Winter Work Ideas for The Idle Farmer

Episode Date: November 28, 2015

This episode features submissions that came in from listeners after I asked you all what you do in Winter to make ends meet, if not farming. Your answers? Snow removal. Substitute teacher or para-teac...her. Organic inspector. Animal technologist. Plus more!  With thanks to Scott Humphries, who came up with the idea for this episode, I'm pretty sure.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, it's Jordan. This episode of the Ruminant Podcast asks the question, so what do you do for work in the winter? For many of you, it's farming, but for many of you, it's not. And for a subset of that group, the specific answer is, not a whole heck of a lot. Got any ideas? Well, I do as a matter of fact. After podcast collaborator Scott Humphries came up with the idea for this episode, I asked all of you to write me about what you do in winter. What follows are, I don't know, five or six ideas. Stay tuned. This is the Ruminant Podcast. I'm Jordan Marr. The Ruminant Podcast and blog wonders what good farming looks like and aims to help farmers and gardeners share insights with each other. At theruminant.ca, you'll find show notes for each episode of the podcast,
Starting point is 00:00:45 as well as the odd essay, book review, and photo-based blog post. You can email me, editor at theruminant.ca. I'm at ruminantblog on Twitter, or search The Ruminant on Facebook. Okay, on with the show. All right, so first up, we have Jeff Cooper. Jeff's from Kansas, and he suggested that for people in northern latitudes, there may be some options getting work in snow removal. Here's our conversation. Awesome, Jeff. Okay, I'll jump right into it just in case you're pressed for time here. So we're going to talk about your winter work idea, which is using a snowplow which I thought was a
Starting point is 00:01:26 it was a great idea I'm really glad you shared it but um first of all so when you wrote me you mentioned what you were thinking is that if you're a farmer in a northern climate that gets snow and you have a three-quarter ton or one ton pickup truck anyway you know you could you could invest in a plow for the front of the truck and then have an opportunity to make some winter income that way. Absolutely. Right.
Starting point is 00:01:50 So do you have a rough sense of what it costs to get a plow for a big pickup truck? Used, in fact, I was just looking online the other day. It looks like around here used between $2,000 and $5,000. Now you're going to have to install it. Both of my trucks, I have bought with plows on them. And that's actually, you know, a pretty good way to go. You know, since I was already in the business, you know, if I'm looking for a truck, I'm looking for one with a plow on it. Ah, okay, okay. But, you know, snow plows can be had for, at least in this part of the world,
Starting point is 00:02:38 I'd say between, you know, good used ones between $200 and $3,500. Up north, we buy some stuff from up north uh you know and i say up north i mean like nebraska but uh you know it seems like this you know the further north you go the more um you know common the snow equipment is so you know it seems like it's lower priced and that sort of thing. Just a supply and demand kind of thing. There's more plows. There's more trucks with plows up in that country. Another thing I thought about, and I don't want to just run over you here,
Starting point is 00:03:16 but another thing I thought about, you know, you talk about the BCS a lot in your podcast. Don't they have a snow blower attachment they do they do they have uh they have a snow blower for sure and i i wouldn't be surprised if you can get a blade as well uh so i'll finish your thought you're thinking if you were going to do smaller scale snow removal and you owned a bcs then there's maybe an opportunity just to haul that thing around and do some removal for people. Without a doubt. That is, I mean, I love that kind of interchangeability. You know, it's like, that's kind of the thing with us. Like, okay, we've got these big heavy trucks. You know, let's find a way to use them in the wintertime. I mean,
Starting point is 00:04:02 that's essentially what it comes down to. Same thing with mowers. I've got a four-foot blade that I put on a ZPR mower. We plow with that. Same thing. We don't have a skid steer anymore, but we did. Same thing. All this stuff that you need to have anyway, might as well be getting some income out of it in the wintertime.
Starting point is 00:04:24 I mean, that's my thought on it okay Jeff well look no one's ever this the next question is totally going to be the answer is regionally based and no one's going to hold it against you if if they find differently in their region but can you give me an idea in your region during a good winter of snow what what you can make on a job like you know what what is what is the going rate for some for snow removal let's just talk about the plow on the truck since that's what you're you know more about truck i charge the same for trucks with plows and skid spears um 135 dollars an hour per piece so i only i go out with two. I never, ever go out with one just because you
Starting point is 00:05:10 could have breakdowns. I mean, since I, since I have these properties that are depending on me, I have to have backups and, you know, we have to get it done on deadline. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I should, I should, I should say, because you mentioned in in your email to me through your landscaping business you already have pre-existing relationships with property managers and owners and so you naturally they naturally asked you to do some winter maintenance like that so you'd be you'd be you'd be coming out to large uh snow removal situations exactly exactly we don't have any seasonal contracts. Some people in the snow business do that where you get paid X amount to take care of the property no matter what. Yeah, right. And if it's a heavy snow year, it costs you more. And if it's a light snow year,
Starting point is 00:05:58 you're laughing. Exactly. So we don't have any of that. But we have a mixture of hourly rate and flat rate. And that's, to me, a good way to go. You know, you're sort of diversified that way. $60 an hour on the hand shoveling and the snowblower work. So if that would help people with their, you know, with their BTS pricing, you know, that's where we are down here. I don't have any idea what it would be like somewhere else, but that gets us competitive around here. And Jordan, another idea I had, and sorry to just... No, go for it, Jeff. And, Jordan, another idea I had, and sorry to just... No, go for it, Jeff.
Starting point is 00:06:47 A good way, like let's say someone like you or someone that had a, you know, a small-scale farming operation. You've got a BCS. You're looking for a way to make some winter income. I would be looking for a landscaper who needs some help and sub on with them. That would be a great way to get started um like currently i am looking for someone to take my houses over because i had a guy who was a painting contractor you know he's not a competitor um but what i'm worried about is another landscaper being on the property. Yeah, right, of course.
Starting point is 00:07:27 Getting their foot in the door by taking over the contracts that you don't want anymore. I get it, yeah. This is a cutthroat business, man. We're all sort of friends and acquaintances. I'm in a town of 50,000. So, you know, everybody kind of knows everybody,
Starting point is 00:07:52 but they won't hesitate to split your throat to get, to get, I mean, it is, it is cutthroat, man. So you gotta be really careful. Yeah. You know,
Starting point is 00:07:59 who you're bringing on. And, uh, that's actually how I got a lot of my commercial, um, work is i'm subbed on with an irrigation contractor that does all my irrigation work and in turn you know he sets me to do snow work i do some mowing for him i do some other you know landscape install stuff whatever so i mean to to hook on with another landscaper or to hook on with a landscaper
Starting point is 00:08:26 would be a great way for, you know, a small scale farmer to get involved in it. And you'd be solving someone's problem, I can almost guarantee you. Yeah, right. And so if I came to you with my BCS and you knew I was a farmer so that I'm not going to be competing with you for landscaping contracts and I had the BCS and you were you'd just be handing me jobs and and it's mutually beneficial yeah you'd be hired right away I wish you were here well I gotta get I gotta get the snowblower first I don't own it yet but that's that's step one step two is move to kansas but i'll let you know when that happens so anyway i mean that's the gist of it you know uh uh you know it's all about solving somebody's problems no removal is is a big problem for people yeah that's a it's a great point it's a great point um well jeff thank you before before we wrap up you uh you bought a farm that's a great point. It's a great point. Well, Jeff, thank you. Before we wrap up, you bought a farm. That's a new venture for you. And so I just want you to at the very least tell me the name of your farm or farm to be if it's not started yet.
Starting point is 00:09:43 We're thinking of the name right now. Okay. You know, I didn't want to name it. I'm not really into that kind of thing. But my wife, you know, is set on it. And I think it's important from a branding perspective. And I'll tell you what, Jeff. Let's have some fun. Whenever you get that farm name figured out, get a hold of me.
Starting point is 00:10:04 I will record you saying the name, and I will randomly insert it into a podcast episode with no explanation whatsoever. And anyone who listened to this episode will know it. How's that sound? That's cool. All right. Thanks so much for your work on this. It means a lot. All right.
Starting point is 00:10:25 So option one, if you don't have enough work in the winter, maybe blow snow. But if you don't like that idea, well, why don't you listen to Jim Riddle? You'll recognize Jim's voice from episode 61. He's the farmer who talked to me about his mostly blue fruits,
Starting point is 00:10:42 perennial fruit farm. And he also talked to me about the Mostly Blue Fruits Perennial Fruit Farm. And he also talked to me about the prospects of being an organic farming verification officer. Here's our conversation. Jim Riddle, I'm just wondering, you have so much experience with organic inspection and training inspectors and setting standards and the like. And I'm just wondering whether you think becoming an inspector is a suitable part-time job to pair with farming. Yeah, well, and I was an organic inspector for 20 years and, like you said, helped train inspectors and know a lot of inspectors out there. and um i well as far as mixing that with a farming occupation i it depends on the type of farm and the amount of workload attention you know because success in farming is based on timing you need to
Starting point is 00:11:38 act when a crop needs cultivated or crop needs planted or harvested or whatever you need to be there at that time, especially if you're doing fresh-type things. Or if you have livestock and animals, you need to keep an eye on things. So that's a very demanding profession to begin with. And so organic crop inspections need to occur during the growing season when the crops can be observed. And so if you're doing organic produce as a farmer and then you're doing inspections of other organic farms, that can be a conflict.
Starting point is 00:12:18 It takes you away during the critical moments. When you're out looking at somebody else's clean fields but the weeds are growing at home and you get a break in the weather where you should be cultivating, that can really detract from your farming operation. That said, if you have enough certified organic operations within, say, a driving distance, 100 miles or something, where you can get away and do inspections two, three days a week and still be able to manage your farming operation, that can work out. And if you get qualified, trained to do livestock inspections, those typically can occur a little more flexibility in terms of the timing of the year.
Starting point is 00:13:14 And if you go beyond that and get trained to do processing operations, those can happen any time of year. operations. Those can happen any time of year. And so that can actually be, you know, pretty good revenue, a good winter income if you're qualified and have the comfort level with food processing. And so, you know, it is a different skill set, but it can be very complimentary. It is a different skill set, but it can be very complementary. It depends on the type of farming operation. If you're doing cash grains and you have some big blocks of time available during the growing season and you're not putting up hay, which is very time sensitive, that can be a good mix. you know that can be a good mix so jim what uh you know can you give me a sense of what it costs uh financially and also in terms of time to become an inspector well the training which uh yeah person would go to ioia.net to find out the schedule and the cost. But there are inspector trainings around North America,
Starting point is 00:14:28 different times of year, different locations, and different levels. So if you're new to it, you'd really be looking for the basic organic farm inspector training. and those are typically, I believe, a four-day course in the neighborhood of $1,200. So a significant investment, but not a huge amount of time. And for the returns, it actually is a pretty good investment because, well, your next step, once you're trained successfully and pass the test and everything, then you would accompany a veteran and experienced inspector in some kind of a mentorship or apprenticeship and start working your way into it. But then eventually you should be looking at the potential of $300 to $500 a day for inspection services and doing anywhere from one to no more than three inspections in a day.
Starting point is 00:15:35 It's just a lot of attention to detail, and you can't rush through things. You need to really be observant. And I imagine if you're going to consider this, you have to be someone who is comfortable with being detail-oriented and being okay with lots of paperwork. Right, right. Yeah, you need to be comfortable with the computer, with paperwork, and be self-directed because there's not somebody looking over your shoulder.
Starting point is 00:16:04 You've got to really follow through and get that report turned around in a good, timely manner. And, you know, maintain your own schedule. So you need to be good at managing your own business affairs as well as reviewing other people's business affairs. And, you know, sadly, too much of the time is spent looking at records. You're not out in the field or looking at the equipment near as much because that's what's interesting and fun, and that's where the farmer opens up and tells stories. You're only there a few hours one day of the year,
Starting point is 00:16:43 and it's up to the records to verify that somebody's complying with the organic regulations all those other days. And last question, Jim. I know every region is different, but generally speaking, is there demand for new inspectors at this time in North America? Well, we certainly haven't seen the growth of organic farming that we'd like to see, just because in the U.S. the government programs really reward farmers for staying conventional. There's disincentives for going organic. But there still is a growth, and now with low conventional prices for both dairy and cash grains, there's more and more farmers who are looking at the organic option.
Starting point is 00:17:39 And if you're in an area with kind of a hotbed of organic producers, the demand and the work availability possibilities I think are pretty strong. But I'd really encourage anyone looking at it to contact the major organic certification agencies that operate in the area that you're willing to travel. And say, are you looking for inspectors? What kind of inspectors? You know, do you need livestock inspectors in your area? And do the homework before you invest the time and money into taking the training to at least have a chance that, yeah, there is an interest, there is an opportunity. Jim Brittle, thanks so much.
Starting point is 00:18:19 Yeah, well, thank you. All right. So now you're going to hear from a listener from Minnesota called Brooke. Sort of. Brooke submitted an idea, but she didn't want to be recorded for the episode. So I asked Google Translator to fill in for her. Here you go. I just got through the intro to your episode 55, where you mentioned working on an off-season episode. 55, where you mentioned working on an off-season episode. One thing that came to mind for me was an off-season job that I work that is a great complement to my farm work part-time substitute
Starting point is 00:18:52 paraprofessional at the local schools. This is a great option for me because it is flexible, meaningful, and well-paid. I select the subshifts that I want and get a little extra income in the off season. This complements my winter farm planning and research work and other part-time job very well. This is a job that is very needed in most communities and so meaningful to the kids we work with. I am not sure what the minimum requirement for schooling is, but a background check is required I have a bachelor's degree in my district I have a website I can look on to see when subs are needed from this I can select the shifts that work into my schedule I learned recently that in some districts subs are on call this is a great paying seasonal job for me that is needed and meaningful as a para we are working with
Starting point is 00:19:44 special needs kids such as autism and other learning disabilities. At times I have also subbed in the lunchroom or as a playground aid, which tend to be shorter shifts. Substitute teaching is also a possibility, even without a degree in teaching. I believe a bachelor's degree and a license is required for that. My year-round part-time job is for a Unitarian church. This is nice because we don't hold services for two months in the summer and my workload lightens during that time. Brooke, thank you. Very well spoken, if a little monotone. So at this point, I wouldn't mind sharing an insight of my own, although I'm not going to talk about the specific work I do in winter, at least not yet. But one thing that I've come to appreciate over the course of five years is that if I'm going to be serious about making some winter income that isn't from farming, you need to know when to pull the cord on your actual
Starting point is 00:20:42 farming season. I think this is particularly relevant as a veggie grower. For the first few years of my business, I tried to wrangle every last dollar out of the garden, which took me into generally, I don't know, mid to late November before I was actually fully winterizing the garden and turning my back on it. And that becomes problematic because it's usually by the end of January or certainly by mid-February that I have to be in the nursery again. So if I seriously want to think about making some money in the off-season, that doesn't really give me enough time to kind of get anything done and make that money. So I've learned to just let some of the last bits of income go in the garden. This year I probably left, I don't know, maybe $2,000 in the garden, but it's $2,000 that I would have had to spend a whole bunch of time trying to get,
Starting point is 00:21:32 selling it in small amounts of, I don't know, $100 and $200 and $300 at a time. It's early yet. We're now only about, I don't know, five weeks since I shut down the garden, but no regrets so far. And so I would just, I would strongly suggest that if you want to be serious about making some money in the winter, think about just not worrying about that last couple thousand or thousand or whatever it is, because it may mean that by shutting down early enough, you'll be able to turn your attention properly to your winter work and actually make more money in the long run. Okay, so now we're going to hear from a listener called Seth Stallings, who got a hold of me to tell me
Starting point is 00:22:09 about the gardening program that he runs in conjunction with some of the public schools in his area. Here's our conversation. Great. Well, Seth, I noticed at the start, you mentioned that you have separate work as a garden manager for a school. at the start you mentioned that you have separate work as a garden manager for a school that's probably really seems like really compatible in some ways with with having a farm um so could you just briefly describe that position as a garden manager with a school yeah uh roughly it's i have the same contract as a teacher. So it's about 220 days, which gives me about eight weeks off a year. Unfortunately, I don't take those eight weeks off during the summer because even though our school, we're a charter school, we have a modified schedule. So our
Starting point is 00:23:02 students are only gone six weeks during the summer. So they're gone all of June and half of July. So usually, you know, we're getting stuff started in the spring. Students are getting like a summer garden started. And so I stick around to maintain everything while the students are away. And then when they come back, you know, we pick things up again. So I take some time off during the summer like normally i work monday wednesday friday at the school um but and then
Starting point is 00:23:31 i usually just take all my time off during the winter and catch up on farm projects like as i am able to kind of thing so in the last two years our winter project has been having a baby, so that's kind of our winter thing right now. Right. Okay. So this charter school, is it a private or public school? It's a public school. And there's just in public schools in Oklahoma, is it common for these gardening programs to exist? No, we're one of the few.
Starting point is 00:24:07 The school is in South Oklahoma City. We have about three acres total, and then I have about one acre that I have plowed up, and most of it's in cover crops, but I'm working on transitioning it to a permanent bed kind of system and then breaking it down into kind of like quarter acre sections that we use. This fall, I've had 205 sixth graders coming out for an hour. Well, it's broken down into eight classes, so one class comes for an hour each morning during the week to do a fall garden kind of thing. So, okay, so essentially with this job, though, you're given, you're essentially run a curriculum through the school year where there's different classes that come for one hour a week to learn about gardening and do some gardening and farming.
Starting point is 00:25:03 Correct. And then I also kind of like, I do some kind of all my own farming there. Well, that's not a good way to say it. My job also includes raising food for our cafeterias. So I'm kind of a teacher farmer and then a farmer together, if that makes sense. Yeah. I'm wondering, do you have a teaching education or certificate or or was it enough for the school that you were just experienced with farming and
Starting point is 00:25:31 gardening it it was just enough for the school that i had experience my i have a bachelor's degree in anthropology so not exactly related but uh i guess it was close enough yeah okay so so seth um we're almost done i i just i'm really curious to know it was this just a lucky break for you is this a one in a like a very rare job to be able to score or do you think other farmers might be able to find positions like this or even encourage schools to create positions like this um i think both. I think I'm really lucky to have this job. It just happened. I mean, it just kind of happened that they had a relationship with the superintendent of the school and I was just there on happened to be there for some meetings and I got hired and I didn't even put in an application or anything. So it was kind of rare
Starting point is 00:26:22 in that sense. But also, I think more and more schools are becoming aware of this. And I'm really fortunate in the fact that our board and our superintendent is like 100% behind it and actually has funding. Like they did the legwork to get funding for my position. So they pay me really well actually for this type of work. I'm making like $16 an hour and they're paying my insurance as a part-time worker. So I can't complain at all for the type of flexibility I get. I guess it really varies and really depends on what the administration looks like. So I'm really fortunate i guess and to have that so just based on whatever knowledge of this of school systems in general that you have how would you
Starting point is 00:27:13 where would you encourage a farmer to start who was going to look into whether something like this could exist or could be created in their school district where would where would a starting point be who would who in the who in your school district would you approach would you go after the superintendent would that be the first place to go uh potentially i mean there's a i met a guy the other day um he is a science teacher at a school in north oklahoma city and he has done some of the legwork to, like, reach out to parents and say, hey, you know, like, I want to start including some gardening in my science classes, and he teaches high school, and he's got parent support. So I guess you could go about it several different ways.
Starting point is 00:28:00 You could find, maybe approach any science teachers that, you know, are interested in including that in their curriculum. Because I think a lot of administrators, they want to see a curriculum connection. And so maybe start with a teacher or start with parents. Yeah, if you want to get their parents excited about it, I think the two ways to convince administrators that things are a good idea are convince the parents and then have the parents put pressure on administrators or, you know, demonstrate that a garden is a really useful curriculum tool. So I think, you know, and find
Starting point is 00:28:39 a sympathetic teacher that would want to work with you to include that in their curriculum, and then you can really start justifying it. And then, or even you can approach it from the more food service side. If you've got a sympathetic food service provider that would love to start incorporating local food, the whole kind of farm to school kind of stuff, that could be like a good way to approach it too. So yeah, I mean, as far as most school programs are volunteer based, and I think that really has affects their longevity. I'm in my third year there.
Starting point is 00:29:22 And I think just now, because I've been there and i've been paid i've been able to forge a lot of relationships with like oklahoma state extension and master gardeners and a lot of these kind of bigger name groups that do ag across the state are starting to take notice of us because we've been here three years and we're starting to make progress and 200 kids are coming out into the garden and they raised two thousand dollars and we've gotten grants and so now the whole university system is starting to give us money to do different things and and actually do legwork for us that we're not having to do. So, um, I don't know, maybe we're just, I'm just really fortunate, but I think the sympathetic administration and actually paying me to do this
Starting point is 00:30:11 job has been really key. Um, and it was really good for me because I basically got to start a farm from nothing and get paid to do it and make all my mistakes. So now that I'm, so I'm getting ready to kind of start my own vegetable venture and add that onto the pasture poultry. So I've, I've already started a vegetable farm and now I get to do it again. Well, that's great, Seth. Thank you so much for sharing. Um, Seth, what's your last name? Uh, Stallings. All right seth stallings from amistad farm in oklahoma uh thank you so much and and uh yeah um well thanks very much for coming on yeah thanks for the podcast i really enjoy it
Starting point is 00:30:54 okay so the last submission came from tracy who farms in squamish british columbia tracy raises animals on her farm and she also helps take care of them at a local vet hospital. And she told me a bit about that. Okay, so Tracy Robertson, thanks a lot for joining me on the podcast. Thank you. Tracy, what's the name of your farm? Stony Mountain Farm. And what are you doing there?
Starting point is 00:31:22 I raise all free range, so completely outdoors. Lane hens, broiler chickens, turkeys, and large black heritage pigs, as well as I have four sawn and angora goats. Cool. That's awesome. And you wrote me because I'm putting this episode together on winter work or pairing other types of work with farming to make ends meet or to fill out your annual work schedule. What are you doing? What have you paired with your farming? I am a registered animal health technologist at a local veterinary hospital, which I've been doing for seven years now, pretty much the same time that I've been farming. That's really cool.
Starting point is 00:32:11 I imagine there's kind of some overlap between the two jobs, I mean, in terms of what you're learning at the veterinary hospital and what you're doing on your farm. Totally. Most of my stuff that I do at my veterinary hospital is small animal but throughout school I learned about large animal and they kind of go hand in hand recognizing different signs of anything that's happening and plus my best friend is a veterinarian so I can pick her brain all the time.
Starting point is 00:32:41 Okay, that's really cool. So let's start with simple. What is an animal health technologist? Can you dumb that down for a dumb guy? Yeah, no, I'm basically in human medicine. The equivalent would be, I wear many different hats, but it's kind of like a registered nurse but for animals um but i also take x-rays do lab work take blood um i'm an anesthesiologist if like i know how to monitor anesthetic i put animals under anesthetic i wake them up i take care of critical um critically ill animals um yeah everything that could could happen in a vet hospital, deal with emergencies, anything like that. Okay, so clearly one requirement is that you have to love animals.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Yes. What about the education? What does it take to be able to get that job? So I did a three-year distance education program offered through Thompson Rivers University out of Kamloops. Yeah, so it's learning all aspects of veterinary care, as well as some large animal and lab animal as well. Okay, so you're in my region of British Columbia. Yeah. And specifically, Squamish is situated very near a very large city of Vancouver. And it's a decent sized little city in itself.
Starting point is 00:34:12 So I realize that every region is going to differ. But what were the job prospects like? Were you confident from the get-go that you'd be able to find something at a veterinary hospital? Everything kind of fell into place for me. hospital? Everything kind of fell into place for me. After our dog had passed away, there was another dog at my vet clinic that was a bottle baby. He'd been raised from a day old by one of the girls who's now one of my co-workers. And I ended up adopting him. So then I'd always, my vet clinic, I'd always gone to. So then when they heard that I was thinking about doing a career change, they approached me and said that they would support me through school.
Starting point is 00:34:51 Because part of the program through Thompson Rivers is you have to work at a vet clinic and you have to have a veterinarian sign on to support you through the training. So my vet, the whole practice kind of embraced me and helped me through it so it's and including were you were you were you working there in a limited capacity while you were doing the school or do you mean support you just like kind of mentoring you no mentoring but I also work there 40 hours a week. Oh, wow. Well, that's cool, though. So then you did know, I mean, one way or the other, it just sounds like this is a good way for someone, if they're considering this, is to go and find out
Starting point is 00:35:35 from the veterinary hospitals around first if they would be supportive of the notion of someone going to school so that they can actually work for them. Yeah. And you definitely want to know that this is a field you want to go into because there is ups and downs as with any, and, and, you know, I experienced it on my farm as well, that, you know, emotionally and all of that. So they always recommend, and anytime someone approaches me about the career, I'm always like, you really want to know it's something you want to do,
Starting point is 00:36:10 because you just need to make sure that you can deal with certain aspects of it. Well, if you don't mind my asking, what, if you don't, I don't know if you want to say the exact amount you make, but like what can an animal technologist make? Is there a range you can share with me? What can someone expect to make? I don't really know the range. It's not anywhere near as what someone would make in human medicine.
Starting point is 00:36:38 I think the range is usually like $35,000 to $45,000 a year kind of thing. Right, But okay. But still, um, meaningful work at a, at a half decent, uh, wage. Yeah. Okay. Uh, cool. And then I guess one of the last questions is how compatible has it been to with farming? I mean, so how are you structuring, like how much are you working at the hospital and how easy is it to balance with what you're doing on the farm? I do have to cut my hours back during the summer months just because that's when I do the most amount of raising because like raising all the chickens and turkeys outdoors, I can't do it during the wintertime. chickens and turkeys outdoors. I can't do it during the wintertime. I just, with the wet coast, I just don't think that they would really want to be outside during that time. So in the summer, I usually, like this year, I worked about 20, 22 hours a week. And right now, I've increased my hours for the winter and I'm working about 30 to 40 hours a week, depending. Like the next two, I'm doing about 50 because we're short-staffed.
Starting point is 00:37:52 So, okay, so I just want to get really quickly back to the demand for the technologist position because you had a really great arrangement headed into even just doing the schooling. Yeah. In general, I mean, within your profession, is the sense that there's too many technologists in your region? No, I think there's always people. They're always looking. Like, there's always vacancies for it. And you don't have to, like, there's,
Starting point is 00:38:16 if you're wanting to work with animals that you don't want to do, like the technologist side, you can also become a vet assistant. You do more reception, but you learn, like, the aspects of a vet hospital. So they're always in demand. And with how animals are becoming more family members and important family members, people are wanting, like, ultimate care for them. And as we learn more about preventative care and stuff,
Starting point is 00:38:41 it just seems people are paying more attention to their pets. So, yeah yeah it's definitely a field that there's a lot of a lot of demand for people in it cool well tracy robertson of stony mountain farm thanks a lot for sharing this will be i think really uh really helpful for the listenership really good hey it's jordan so i was at a dinner last night and i met a veterinarian from a local city around me colonna and because of my chat with tracy i asked him a couple questions about animal technologists and he told me that here just as tracy said is the case in a lot of places there's a huge demand for technologists he also told me that the pay around here in a smaller
Starting point is 00:39:25 interior city in British Columbia is a little bit lower than Tracy suggested, which I imagine differs from region to region. But around here, technologists get paid around $15 to $20 an hour. So not in the stratosphere, but not too bad if you're otherwise wanting for winter work. The other thing my conversation with the veterinarian last night reminded me is that I've run into a couple people that have suggested that another pretty good source of income that I think could be worked around your farming is to become an animal cremator. So I'd have nothing else to say about that, but that apparently there's only one game in town doing that, and then it's a highly needed service, and that if you've got the stomach for it and perhaps are willing to invest in some
Starting point is 00:40:09 infrastructure, that could be a very good source of income that could probably easily be worked around your farm work. So that about does it. Thanks again to everyone who contributed. Now, it occurred to me that after asking all of you to submit ideas for this episode, I should probably do the same. But since I don't really want to talk about myself in the first person, you probably don't want to hear me talk about myself in the first person any more than I have to. I typed up a classified ad instead. It'll give you the gist. Help wanted. The universe is currently seeking an experienced off-season veggie grower to fill the position of Winter Jordan Marr. This is a four-month contract involving some loosely or even ill-defined combination of crop planning for next season,
Starting point is 00:40:55 hosting a poorly recorded podcast, paid administration of a small non-profit farm apprenticeship organization, going for beers in the middle of the day with your winemaker friend because what the hell, you have the time, spending the rest of the day feeling guilty about that, both in terms of the calories you didn't need, fatty, and the time not spent producing a better podcast or, you know, grooming or just, I don't know, finally figuring out what to sell in that online store you keep telling yourself you're going to start. Key responsibilities include... present, which definitely rules out making slaw again. 3. Striving to attribute your failure to realize your ambitions to household chores and feeding the horses rather than the truth, which is that you read way too much crap online. 4.
Starting point is 00:41:54 Almost ruining what should be a really enjoyable part of the year due to your general neuroses and your tendency to get all existential as soon as you have idle time. But then having a genuine moment of clarity sometime in November in which you realize that your life is actually pretty good, things are going well, and that you're going to be just fine. Key benefits include emails from your listeners, which are gratifying. Compensation is commensurate with experience, so pretty low. Please note that we are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate against any race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. That said, preference will be given to bearded, slightly chubby white guys whose workout playlists include Holly Holy by Neil Diamond and Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, but who would rather nobody know about that.
Starting point is 00:42:39 Potential applicants can send inquiries to editor at the ruminant.ca. Okay, it's really over folks. That's really the end of the episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And I will just very quickly remind you that I'd love to receive an email from you outlining an insight that you made on your farm this year, something that you figured out that you think other farmers would want to know about. Why not record it on a voice memo on your smartphone and then just email it to me, editor at theruminant.ca. And if it sounds good, I'll put it on a podcast, or if I need to talk to you about it, I'll line up a time to phone you and we'll record a new conversation. Thanks for listening, and I will talk to you next week. meant to be, ah don't fret honey, I've got a plan to make our final escape, all we'll need is each other a hundred dollars and maybe a roll of duct tape and we'll run right outside of the city's
Starting point is 00:43:40 reaches, we'll live off chestnuts, spring water and peaches peaches will own nothing to this world of thieves and live life like it was meant to be Because why would we live in a place that don't want us A place that is trying to bleed us dry We could be happy with life in the country With salt on our skin and the dirt on our hands I've been doing a lot of thinking Some real soul searching And here's my final resolve
Starting point is 00:44:42 I don't need a big old house or some fancy car to keep my love going strong. So we'll run right out into the wilds and graces. We'll keep close quarters with gentle faces and live next door to the birds and the bees and live life like it was meant to be. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,

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