SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Emmy Lou Armstrong from Chuckey, TN 9-30-24
[Music] And welcome again to Shark Farmer Radio. Hey! I'm your host Rob Sharkey. We're in this studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. Studio powered by Bex Hybrid. It's a little under marine. William is harvesting. What I'm in here, and it's soybean, so we can get away with that. But today, he's got no phone. Apparently, the world of the iPhones and Verizon's have collided in no bueno. Yes, I'm kind of glad I don't have an iPhone today. Yeah, me too. I'm on the ops center. So I'm seeing, actually right now, he has jumped into the the auger cart and is loading the truck. I will say I do love John Deere Ops Center for that. You can literally see where every piece of our equipment is all over the farm. I think I'm finally getting used to the machine sink, too. That's different. So what that syncs your combine with your auger cart, grain cart, whatever everybody goes by. I love that. That's fantastic. Well, it is. But, and then we upgraded cart. So now the cart we have is taller. I'm going to say it's about a foot taller, which makes me nervous. So it takes the option of, so when I slow down, I'm used to the cart going forward. Now when I slow down, the cart slows, it stops with me. And it just, it freaks me out. And it does it for you? Yeah. That's super cool. But I'm getting used to it. It hits in the middle of the cart, and then you've got these buttons that are not labeled. If I have one complaint about John Deere, it's put like a F for forward and reverse on the two buttons. I have a label maker. I could just make it. You can't put a label maker on the monitor. All right. Let's go down to a Chuck E. Tennessee. We're talking with our friend, Amy Armstrong. How are you doing, Amy? Hi, I'm doing good. How are you all? We're doing good. You've, we've talked to you before. You got a dairy and a creamery and a centennial farm. So much going on. It's so fantastic. You guys are extremely busy. But today, I want to talk about what you're going through down there in Chuck E. Tennessee. Tell me about how much rain you guys got. So we've got a rain gauge in it. I think it tapped out at maybe six inches. We dumped it out and we let it fill back up. And it was like another three and a half inches. So I'll say about, just directly on our farm, about nine or ten inches for what we were able to catch the water levels they set at the river. They tapped out as they went well above their little richer scale or whatever you call it. So they don't even know like how high, like how many feet of water we actually got. I was shocked to see the flooding. I wasn't expecting it. Along with so many other people didn't know it was going to be that bad, but just like a hurricane effect. It took out so many of your bridges and you saw, oh my gosh, houses being washed down. I mean, it's so awful. Like, can you even comprehend the full scope of what's happening around you? Honestly, even just like being here and then flipping through my phone and looking at pictures, like I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully comprehend what I've seen. There were literal houses like double lives floating down the river and we went by a tomato field. I feel like hundreds of acres of tomatoes are gone. So right in the middle of the field, there was that double life that was on social media floating down. Oh no. The family was, you can't drive to it because of all the how deep the mud was. They were going in and they were pulling things out and I don't think I'll ever forget. I've seen a man in the car window as we were driving by and he was sweating and he just looked tired and he had like a cutting board and some other household things. And like as we were driving by, I got that gut feeling, I just got that like crunch on the gut and it took me a second to realize that he was going in trying to salvage some of his normalcy, some of his belongings, anything he could. I was talking to my therapist this morning and I was like, I don't know if that was just a cutting board that he got from Walmart. I don't know if it was a wedding gift or whatever it was, but it was something to take with him. And once I realized I grabbed my husband's arm and like peers just like slowly just performing and I was like, I just realized what these people are doing. They're getting things from their house. Yeah, you know, fires are horrible, but I mean with a fire, it's gone. Flooding, I always thought would be just heart wrenching because yeah, there's your memory, but now it's ruined. Yeah. Oh, it's crazy because I have been through the fires, not personally like my home or anything, but I lived as a vehicle when Jatlinburg and Pigeon Forge was on fire. And we've seen that all of like everything just being engulfed and coming closer in and it's like the water in the fire left you can only, you can't, you can only run so far, but you can't take everything with you like eventually. You're going to look back and to see that it's engulfed and you're right, like the houses and all of that is still there. Someone's got to clean it up. It's like going through it twice. Yeah, yeah. Now, are you able to get around? I mean, are the roads closed? This was the most incredible thing actually, like the silver lining, I guess, or the heartwarming part of the story. So, yeah, we lost a lot of bridges, but some of them just fell in. One said, I give up before the water even gets here. It was like, oh no, one of those things, it just like laid down and played awesome. And that was our main, like our on the main highway getting in and out of that I use on a regular basis. Oh, so you're kind of, well, we've got to get into it. We've got to take a break, but we got to get back to this. Today, we're talking with Emmy Armstrong from Chuck E. Tennessee, and go follow her on Instagram. Horse Creek Farms East 10 TN Tennessee Farm. We'll be back. [music] This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground, where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io, that's commonground.io. [music] Tomorrow, we'll start on our podcast, not an agriculture one. We've talked to Stacks, though, and we had her on the XM show. Yes. An amazing story. Oh my gosh, yeah, she's talking about working for the Capitol Police, and she was injured on the job as a parks officer. No, no, she was training to be a SWAT team. And that's, remember, they were all, she was, you fight off all the people? Well, she did all three of those things, yes. And yes, she was, she was trained at that time, got hurt, and then she talks about the incredible pain she was in. And the surgery that followed, that fixed the pain after two years of struggling with it. And she's got this, it's like an eight-year battery, and you can see it through her skin. Yeah, it's underneath the skin. It's like she has a, like a skull. It's a chukanya, exactly. That drops tomorrow at sharkfarmer.com, a sharkfarmer podcast section. Today, we are in Chucky, Tennessee. Emmy, where is Chucky in a great state of Tennessee? Yeah, we're in Green County, so we're just a little town over here by the highway. Okay, is that northeast, west-south? Oh, yeah, yeah, that's way east, Tennessee. So we are about an hour from Asheville, an hour from Virginia, Kentucky. We're like right here on the, right here on the tip. So did the rain, did the flooding, I mean, did it get much into more of western Tennessee at all? I think that they, friends were saying that they got some rain. I don't think that they've seen the entrance and see what we've seen here. Yeah, again, Emmy Armstrong from Chucky, Tennessee. We have horse Creek farms on Instagram, so you were talking about the bridges that were washed away. You guys have a dairy. What did you do? Yes. So we lost the power and they quickly restored that. However, we're still out of water. So we started to get some water from the creek and we were trying to heat it up and that was just not working. It was just, you know, we couldn't wash with it. We opened the way in the field for the cows to get down to the spring. So we were pretty lucky there that we didn't have to have water towed in for that. But when it comes to washing our lines and sending off our milk, it's so important that we have clean, fresh water to keep all of the bacteria milk that I could get into the raw milk situation. But we won't go there today. The bacteria that milk grows is just insane. So luckily, and thanks to Laura, we were able to get a neighbor behind us and use them very well to wash the lines so that we can continue to ship our milk. Our entire county is out of milk. I mean, out of water, I'm sorry. Our entire county is out of water. So there's no running water, restaurants are closed, businesses are closed. I mean, the whole county is shut down. So we were talking about the bridges being out. We were worried that even if we could get clean water and, you know, we were able to ship a product that was suitable for human consumption, that there would be a no way for a truck to get in. So we were blessed in the way that they opened up the Asheville Highway so that that truck could come in. But then we were faced with another problem. The road to Asheville, which we sell our milk to Appalachian co-op, and they take our milk to Asheville, North Carolina, to Milco. That roadway on both sides of the road washed out. So we are no longer able to ship to our normal location. Our milk collar and their company have been amazing as in the fact that they've come all the way, several hours away, picked up our milk and took it back to Athens. So that is fantastic because you guys would have just, if you didn't have a good hauler, you would have just had to dump the milk right and been out that. Well, I hate to throw them under the best, but we've had a hauler that would have just been like, well, sorry for your look. Oh, yeah, we were really, really blessed with these guys that are really working hard to help us. Well, is there other dairies in the area? I mean, is that a heavy dairy place? So compared to the way that used to be years and years ago, but especially before my time, not really. We only have about 13 dairies that are shipping, but there are several in our area that would have been faced with the same situation. Even though they may not have had to cross the bridge, you get to them, they still needed a place to take that milk too. So it helps out, I would say, well, just in our county and then outside of our county, at least 15 dairies. You know, when you were saying you were getting water from the creek and heating it, do you have water for your family? We've got bottled water, and we are actually going to be able to go to a place that has well water and do a small loan of laundry. I'm potty training my son, if you know now. Oh, you're forcing. Oh, that's hard enough for anyone here. Oh, gosh. Oh, no. And then we're all going to get some showers. So, yeah, we've got bottled water to drink, and then, you know, it's, we're high time. It's our time to get a shower. So we're able to have the creek now to do that. So are the river. Well, anytime you lose electricity or water or whatever, it's like, it's, you don't, you don't even know it until it's gone. And it's like every aspect of your life seems to be revolved around it. Yes, you don't realize how many times you go in to cut the faucet on to wash your hands or art. My favorite is when we come in from the barn, we grab the hose, the sprayer boots and we're like, well, craft. So the well, is that an electricity deal or what's, what's keeping you from having water? We are on city water. And so actually, our extension office reached out to us. We're going to look, this is not the first time this happened to us. We had a freeze a couple of years ago, and we were cut off from water supply and this didn't affect the entire county. It affected like our community. But hopefully the NRCS, they have some additional resources to help us get a well. It's definitely something that we are going to look to try to implement in the future because it may never happen again, but if it does, I want to be prepared. Yeah, just a backup. I would, I would definitely, that would be awesome, you know, a situation like this. Yeah, you've got a dairy, you've got a creamery, you've got all this going on. I know, but you know how much I would love to be on city water instead of messing with these stupid wells. All right. Today, we're talking with Emmy Armstrong from Chucky, Tennessee. Go follow her on Instagram, Horse Creek Farms. When we come back, I want to talk about how the community is dealing with it. This is what I love. You got small town, rural town, America. America. You need to come together. This is one we shine. We'll be back with Emmy, right after the break. [Music] This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io, that's commonground.io. [Music] It's unnerving, having William out there working without a phone. I don't know why. We have a truck out there and a female truck driver. There you go, ladies. And she's doing a fantastic job. I'm assuming she has a phone, but we've got the cart and the combine over there. And so he's got no vehicle, no phone. You kind of can't complain today being that Tennessee has no anything, right? Wow. Well, she just threw me under the bus. It's very under the bus. I can't complain about that. Little problems today. Well, you're without a phone too. Well, it's like just a spotty connection. Over here in Nashville, we're pretty much fine. Okay. Where your studio is is horrible for service anyway. Oh, yeah. I honestly didn't know that there was a Verizon thing until you all said it earlier because I'm just used to the studio, not. He's used to the squirrels chewing the wife. All right. Well, what do you have for us today? Today I'm in Chucky, which is an unincorporated community in Green County, Tennessee, located on the Nolichucky River from which the name is derived. The defunct East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad formerly had a station in Chucky, the current brick train depot, built by the Southern Railway in 1906. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Oh, it's still up. Several farms in Chucky that date from the community's earliest settlement in the 18th century are included in the Ernest Farms Historic District, also listed on the National Register. I bet Emmie knows that because they have a very old centennial farm. Just past the Ernest Farms Historic District sits an imposing, L. Bell-shaped brick mansion known as Glazed Hall, built in 1943 by Lawrence Glazed Jr. The house sits on a rise overlooking the Nolichucky River within sight of the Old Smith Bridge. I'm a big fan of their donuts, by the way. Okay. The bricks used to construct the mansion were all hand-fired on the farm. While Lawrence Glazed Jr. and his wife Elizabeth died from an illness in 1949 before the house was to be completed. And in the 1890s and early 1900s, Chucky was home to aviation pioneer Edward Chalmers Hufaker. Trained as an engineer, Hufaker's 1895 paper, The Value of Curved Surfaces in Flight, gained the attention of aviation enthusiast Octave Chanute, who helped Hufaker secure employment at the Smithsonian Institution, where he would work with the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1901, but left after one month due to consistent disagreement. Oh, the stupid Wright brothers. The first U.S. truffle orchard to successfully produce commercial quantities of culinary grade black paragord truffles is located in Chucky. Okay. Tom Michaels, who had written a PhD thesis on truffle cultivation, started cultivating truffles in the area. In the year 2000, after observing, the area's limestone soil was similar to the soil of paragord region of France, where black truffles are native. I didn't think you could grow them. But anyway, okay. You need limestone soil, apparently. No. But the first year that truffles were harvested from the orchard, it included 2,500 hazelnut trees growing on 20 acres of land, and 30 pounds of truffles were produced in the first year. I'm sure that's a big deal, but I don't care. It's a massive yield of truffles, 30 pounds. We got some notable people here. We got Glenn D. Broils, member of the Tennessee House of Representatives. And we got Ricky Morton, American professional wrestler operating a wrestling academy in Chucky. Oh. Plus you got the doll, Chucky the doll. Right. Ricky was described as the consummate babyface tag team with Robert Gibson, and he's been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. His skill at driving audiences into a sympathetic frenzy by convincingly selling pain gave rise to the expression "playing Ricky Morton." Oh. Okay. All right. Very good. All right. Today, we're talking with Emmy Armstrong from Chucky, Tennessee. And her family have been suffering under the flooding. But Emmy, you have an event like this. Tell me about how the community comes together. Yeah. The community really came together. So there was no way to get in or out. We were called the island for a few days. So even if they wanted, even if emergency personnel wanted to come in, they would have to come in by helicopter. And so the Mennonite community, they worked from Friday, Saturday. We went maybe about two or three o'clock in the afternoon. You were able to get through once the water went down on side by side the four millers up through the part of the bridge that was still standing. And so they were transporting bottles of water and fuel and clothes and people that were stuck on the other side. People that were in need of medications, you know, diabetics and heart patients that were unable to get their prescriptions still or needed to get to the doctor or, you know, whatever that they needed. They were just side by side, going back and forth all day long, even for a ride. And then those within the Mennonite community, they bought in bulldozers and tacos and equipment. And then they began moving dirt so that they could build up a road and they packed it and packed it and felt it was pretty solid. At that point, later in the evening, the county had brought fuel to help virtual these and they brought gravel, not so that they could pack the lock in. And again, this was unsolicited and unasked for. And then the county kind of looked like whatever. And then they didn't get people to help this. And this is going to be, you know, the Thursday place to get, you know, any kind of emergency people or health in and out of the community here on the south side and the south central side of Washington County in New York. They all came together and they built that road and they stayed until about 6.30 yesterday morning. So that thanks family. I think we may have been working the night before that we're serving lunch, hot food at the elementary school along with diapers and clothes, anything from friends, products to dog food. It was exciting. Oh, gosh. Well, I tell you what, I mean, if people want to find you on social media, where do they go? Yeah, so we've got a farm page or street farms vary. I've got that's Instagram. I've got East under 40 and under so far on Instagram and on TikTok as well. We will be promoting a t-shirt for there's a group of women's farmers. So we're very promoting that t-shirt. So that folks can start with the envy. Well, Emi, I want to give you our prayers and our thoughts. I know you have it from the entire country. Obviously farmers and rural people are strong. They'll come together, they'll get over this stuff. Man, that's a tough situation. So Emi, I hope everything gets back to normal as quick as possible. Go follow her again, Horse Creek Farms on Instagram. Everybody else, we'll catch you next time. [Music]