SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Daryl and Ann Gotz from Carlton, MI 10-8-24
Unstoppable, unshakeable, but it rolls off the town unfreakable, it's unavoidable, you show relatable. Re-between the lines, start to loosen up your mind. And welcome again to SharkFumber Radio. Hey, I'm your host Rob Sharky. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. Studio powered by Bex Hybrid, still in the, the throws, the, the midst of harvest. Things seem to be going well. We're ahead of, you know, every time I get a little down on myself about where we're at on harvest wise, I do look at the calendar and think that we are pretty free head of schedule. I think it's like we're ahead. Yeah, it feels like we're ahead. Everything's just so dry. It's crazy because, you know, when people are doing beans, I mean, the amount of dust this year is insane. Because I feel like it just hasn't been that windy, but yeah. Things have been going well. We replaced a belt. So we were down for just a little bit, but besides that. That was a quick fix. We haven't picked any, I know. Not a cheap belt, but a quick fix. I saw the service truck and I'm like, no. I've replaced it before. And they've got a tool. It's like an extension tool. I don't know. You have to do the tensioner on it. And literally that would take me like 30 minutes to do. And it's like, all right, harvest, is it worth it coming out? And it's like, yeah, yeah, kind of worth it. Yeah. Plus he brought the belt with him. So today we're going to go up to Michigan. So put your hands out and get ready to point. We're going to be talking with Darryland and God's. How you guys doing? Good. From Carlton, Michigan. Where's that at? So Monroe County, it's the most southern eastern county in Michigan. So we're just above Toledo, Ohio, and just below Detroit, Michigan. Close to Canada. Very close. Yeah. Do you ever go there? Actually, I was up there. Oh, two, three weeks. So I went up to the farm show up in Woodstock, Ontario. Oh, yeah. What's that one called? Canada's outdoor farm show. Yeah, they're horrible at naming farm shows. I mean, farm progress show. I mean, that's what you need. Oh, they're a Canadian. Yeah. Did you smuggle anything back in? No, I did not. Uh huh. Even like the the candies, the chocolate candy that have the toy in the middle that's illegal in the States, you didn't bring one of those back. No, I figured I didn't want to I got I took a wrong lane going into Canada. So my customs experience in the morning on the way over was just I it was early in the morning I was trying to get up there, went in the wrong lane and yeah. So on the way back, I nope, I didn't even bring a pop of water enough that I got across the border. You didn't want to get probed. No, those customs people, they don't have a sense of humor. I'm sure. Yeah, they don't do they? No, they're kind of take the job a little serious. Yeah. You and Ann, how you doing, Ann? Good. And Ann, where are you from originally? Right here. Oh, you didn't go very far. Where'd you two meet? At the bowling alley. So that's awesome. Such a Michigan thing. Were you competing against each other? No. No, she was bowling a friend of hers invited me along and she kind of set us up. And so I was I'll just say I was watching Ann bowl. Oh, okay. Who's the better bowler? Oh, her. Yep. Oh, absolutely. Oh, okay. You guys are farming up there, but neither one of you have grew up on a farm. Is that right? No, I grew my mom had a little cider mouth that my grandpa's, but we didn't have an orchard or anything. We just did a cider, you know, a little press behind grandma's house and we did that when I was growing up. But really nothing other than that. Oh, cool. About three, four weeks out of the year and people brought their apples to us. And then we pressed them. Oh, that's fantastic. Okay. So this cider mill, was it like built in the 1800s? That kind of an old mill? Yes. Yes. So this is cool. So your grandpa bought it, your mom ran it. So you and your sisters, is that what you did in the fall then every year is is people brought in apples and you guys press a cider? Yeah, but with my mom, my mom and us kids had to get up in the morning before we went to school and help practice, you know, and then when we got home, we had to, you know, take the truck with the pulp and, you know, we just, and my grandma was still, I sold my grandma's house. She would cook for us and we all work. So was this like the old type where you didn't like have the giant, they would screw it down and just, yeah, yeah, yeah, it turned the whole, you had to turn the whole wooden thing around and then I had the wood, you know, press it down with it. They'd be on the other side, they'd pull their truck in on the other side, and then they put it down into the, had a like a conveyor auger system in the, on the one side of the garage, auger it up to the top where the nights were, and then it would chop them and drop them down on the table and then you would, they would fill there and they had like a special blankets and we'd wrap them and then you'd put the next pallet on and then you'd put about five more bushels in and then when you got five pallets on there, you twirled the, twirled the home table around and then it pressed it. Yeah, but you got to turn that thing as a kid, could you? No, you had to have two people. Yeah, I mean, it was heavy. Oh, this is fantastic. You know, as I got older teenager, I could turn it, but yeah, as a kid, we just go out there and fill up the jugs and some of the people would make their wine in there. So you'd have the yeast in the bottom of the glass jars and for some people would request to have grapes for us and she would always do the grapes very last just because of the stain and the color. She had to really scrub that stuff out of it to be able to press the apples again. She pressed every other day. So she would have a day of recuperation because she would press from about five in the morning till seven, eight o'clock at night and then at seven, eight o'clock, then you had cleanup. Oh, boy. Oh, I'm well aware how much people in Michigan like to drink. All right, today we're up in Carlton, Michigan. We're talking with Darryl and Anne Gatz. When we get back, I want to find out how these two got started in farming. First, Jen. Oh, yeah, we're going to hear a story. All right, after the break. 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. Tonight is the very last brand new episode of season nine season nine. Yeah, and we're going to start from our TV season 10 and then in about a week or two taping down in Nashville. If you can believe that season 10, let's get harvest over with first before we start messing around with that stuff. Hey, that's the plan. That's the plan. But yeah, we'll be doing you've got a speech in Nashville. So we're kind of we're doing the speech and then you're asking people questions down on Broadway. Yeah, I remember when you booked that speech. We get speeches for office. Yeah, for planning and harvest and like, no, we can't. So you always like throw some stupid number out there and apparently this group can afford it. So you're going to leave the farm for a couple days. That's the way it goes. That's all right. My brother-in-law is actually Tom is actually going to come up and run the combine on that Monday. So we generally try not to work on Sundays. And so we're going to probably eat a Saturday afternoon is all probably. Yeah, that's not too bad. No, that's not too bad at all. Yeah, shows is tonight. RFD TV 830 central get Dan cell on our the farm from Texas. He's so fun. He really is fantastic. He is not. We interviewed him at commodity classic. So that was a good time. Yeah, it was like seven o'clock at night, which was we got it in before his bedtime. So that was nice. Today we're in Carlton, Michigan. We're talking with Darryland and Gots. Now they met in a bowling alley. It's pretty much all we know. Was it like one of those moonlight like the strobe lights going on? Yeah, no, it wasn't that it was the lights around. So like I say, when I say I was watching in, I could see her. Yeah, you know, the smell of the foot fungus spray, they put no shoes is intoxicating. Okay. All right. So you guys you did that farm. You started farming at 16. Tell me the story. So I grew up from where where the farm is now just about, I don't know, two, three miles as a crow flies just northeast a little bit. My mom always had an infatuation with horses and wanted to be out in the country. And I guess at some point my dad gave in. And so we moved to the country when I was 18 months old. And as I grew up, and you know, my mom and dad didn't stay together. And she kind of dated a farmer and that lasted a couple of years. So I got a lot of fender time with him when I was probably from like two to four. And then he met somebody else. But I was just a kid and I thought, well, he's out in the field. That means I got to sit on the fender, right? And so his wife, his new wife didn't like the fact that his ex girlfriend's kid was on the tractor. But oh, yeah, I was too little to know that anything was, you know, wrong with that. And he of course, you know, unfortunately, lost his farm there in the early 80s crisis. And so that that I lost that opportunity. But we still lived out in the country. And you know, anytime there's a tractor, I just ride my bike and watch and everything. And I thought, well, that's what I want to do when I grow up. And I was 16 years old. I went to my grandma and I asked her for a loan and she loaned me money. And and I had a $35 a week payment to her. And she had a ledger and I had a ledger. And every week I had to go make a deposit in her account. Grandma made you pay weekly. She had a ledger. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. And then when we would see each other, because we didn't see each other all, you know, every day or anything, because she lived about 60 miles away. When we get together, we would compare ledger. So in case, you know, she missed a deposit or something, we made sure we were up to snuff and she'd always check on me. But yeah, I joke around and I say when she gave me the money, I bought a I bought a tractor, a pair of boots and a grease gun. And I still have the grease gun. The tractors long gone and the boots were thrown into trash years ago. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What year was that? 1990. I cannot keep a grease gun for more than two years. There are pieces of garbage. Well, you're yeah, but those are the new ones. The 1990s stuff were pretty decent. Now I can tell you, I don't think that grease gun works, but I won't throw it away. Oh, no, absolutely not. That means too much. Well, I've got a bunch of them. Well, that's the only one I keep. The other ones, they go in the scrap bin and off they go. What tractor did you get? So the first tractor that I gave a shot with was a international M. Oh, that's fantastic. Okay, so now if you didn't know, you know, if you've never done your own crop, was it a real learning curve the first couple years? How did the crops go? So one of the first couple years, I think it was a long learning curve, but the first year, I think I borrowed a plow from a neighbor. I ended up picking up a disk at an auction and then here locally, Carlton Farm Supply. They let me borrow a planter and I planted 30-inch row soybeans as a first crop. And as the season went, and I go out there and walk the field and go, wonder why nothing took. And so probably later in the year, one of the guys that was working there at the shop, I was talking to him and I said, I don't know what I did. No soybeans grew. And he said, well, you didn't have the planter set up right. And I go, what do you mean set up right? And so he actually took me out to that planter and he took the seed boxes apart. And he showed me how you were actually supposed to put the seed disk in there. And I went, oh, okay. I mean, he had a lot of help from a lot of friends. Soybeans will grow on top of the ground. You know, like I say, every part of it was a real trial. I mean, I didn't know what I was doing. And you know, you're 16 years old, you're full of, you know, piston vinegar, you know, the world. You're going to set it on fire. So I maybe embarrassment. I didn't ask a lot, but it took me probably into my mid-20s where I finally said, I got it. I got to find out what am I doing. So I started asking people about, you know, the agronomy part of it, the planting depths. And instead of acting like I knew what I was doing. And it's taken off. It's been a long, long road to get to where we're at, you know? Yeah. So like those first few crops, did you get anything off of them? No, no, nothing. How'd grandma get paid? I worked. Yeah. My mom helped me get started with a landscaping company. That was actually a legit company for a 16 year old. She had connections in real estate. And I did a lot of vacant houses, incorporate moves and stuff. So I had, I really had access to making pretty good money as a 16 year old kid. And so yeah, grandma was... And he spent it on the farm. I did. Making no money. So let me get this straight. You were farming not making any money, but your off-farm job paid for it. Well, if that... You were a farmer. All right, today. Talking with Darryl and Anne Gott. When we come back, we're going to find out about 20 started getting some crops. We'll be back. All right, after the break. 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. Saving ahead. So we don't have war in the world as well. Sorry to disappoint. He'll be so. His five listeners. Today, we're talking about Darryl and Anne Gott from Carlton, Michigan, first generation farmer. Now, when you said you were farming at 16, when did you two meet? What age? I think she was 20 and I was just right around my 19th birthday. So I might have been 19. I might have been 20. I like the older girls. All right, Anne. So you met this guy and he was farming. Were you okay with that? Yeah. See the positivity? So Anne, you knew what you wanted to be. When you were probably 15 years old yourself, you became a registered nurse. Have you done that your whole life now? Yep, and I've always worked in geriatrics. It may look a bit of a cute, but that's 30, 30 years I've been doing that. So working in the geriatric wing, like at the nursing home and that, that's like difficult, right? I mean, that's not always an easy job, but you started doing that when you were a teenager. Why did you like working with older people versus, you know, anybody else in your city, like pediatrics or something? I was very close to my grandma. We did a lot for her and I just, I just love the elderly population. I just, even the ones that are feisty, those are the ones that I love them all. I love my job. So, and I, you know, I've thought about, like I said, my daughter, my daughter's an ICU nurse and I thought about switching, but I don't think I could ever leave my people. Well, that's good. So the sunflowers, tell me about those. But also the sunflowers, Anne's always planted a little bit around the house here. And then we bought a farm. Basically, it's the, the, if you're heading into Monroe, which is the big town south of us, it's the last farm going into town on the main road, or it's the first farm coming out of town. And it's very narrow up by the road. And it opens up back into the whole farms about 48 acres. And it's in town. It's, yeah, it's technically in town. And the first year, we thought, well, put some sunflowers out there, make it nice for the people. And with that kind of, we just really been playing with it. And then there is a assistive living across the street and they enjoy watching, you know, so. Oh, I love that. So you're always taking sunflowers into Omartja. Yeah, taking sunflowers over there into work. And after I get done for the day, I just drop them off different places. And this year we figured out though, because I used to drop them off because obviously I work full time. So I used to just drop them off and not leave them out there. So this year I figured out I could leave them out there. And we just put a little box out there and people will actually, I mean, nobody takes it and it's not even just, yeah. And they really honest people here. So yeah, I think that's the best way to do it because people actually give you more than like what you would ask for. They're like, oh, they, they are taking donations while honey, you have a 20. Yeah. And he's like a 20 for one flower. She's just like, put it in there. It's time to go bowling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times, even when I'm there, people be like, oh, I don't have cash. And they're like, oh, just, you can come back later. It's not a big, you know, they're like, you can take, I can take these flowers and come back. I'm like, yeah, just whenever you see me out here, just come back. So, I mean, I do it because I enjoy it and they seem to make people happy. And I like doing it. So it's kind of like a stress relief thing. Oh, that's awesome. Now you found out how much people really enjoyed them when they got sprayed and didn't come up last year, right? Yeah. Yeah. I have a lot of people angry and myself too. And my, oh, my mom loves them too. So and she likes to go out and talk to people. So this year, we were adamant with the sprayer. And I've known him for years. It was a different guy this year that sprayed in it last year. And I just explained to him that Ann knows where you live. Oh, my gosh. Michigan. If like, if by chance you kill the sunflowers and you hear that there has been something tragic happened to me, hide your neck. I would never do that. But yeah, here before that, they thought the guy that was spraying his corn thought they were red, weed, and also be there last year. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think that was a second spray. The first spray they did perfect in the second spray. He went, Oh, look at that giant ragweed over there. I better kill it. Oh, so they were like, like how big? Oh, yeah. They were ready. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. Yeah, they were looking real good. They were they were. Yeah. So people met, you know, people were asking about them a lot. Yeah. And we didn't realize that even the people that just don't even stop and purchase them, but actually watch them grow throughout the year. And we found that out through Facebook. There was comments on Facebook and then I was tagged in some stuff and realized, Oh, wow, we are we're topic of conversation. How many, how many times did you comment? It actually wasn't me that sprayed him. Oh, well, nobody knew why they weren't there last year. They just knew that there was no sunflowers last year. And so we, and we didn't realize people didn't realize we didn't do it. We just thought, well, they're not going to know, but yeah, it was they were talking. It was on, you know, you know, they didn't have them last year, but they're back this year, the excitement and really the community really excited us. And we're looking at things for next year and different things to do and push the sunflowers later into the season. And it isn't huge. I mean, out of that 50 acres, we don't do half of it. Heck, we only do maybe an acre and a half or so, two acres. That's quite a bit though. It is. It's a lot of flowers. Like, you know, Ann said to me, you know, the season was getting there and the flowers have come up. She says, I don't think we planted enough. I don't know if there's enough. I looked at her, I go, you do realize there's 25,000 planted there. She's a true farmer. I don't think we planted enough. Is that mean there's going to be 25,000 flowers? And I go, well, we wish, but no, but it's up there. And then once they flower and it came out, she's like, well, there's a lot of flowers here. So you need to do it in thirds. A third sunflower, a third, a canola and a third flax. Oh, yeah, really get into it. Yeah, it'd be beautiful. You have purple, yellow, and then flowers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do people stop and take pictures like the old Instagram stuff? Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. We'll put out some straw bales and things like that, just so they can take pictures. I'll see that's fun. People do their scene with pictures. You're going to try some different different flowers this year and maybe have them come up at different times, space them out a little bit too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would be cool. Different types and maybe some, maybe some different greenery to put it on just the, I actually kind of like now, at first I wasn't sure how to do it, but now I like to actually, we got a lot of basis. So we'll put them in basis and I like to make arrangements. So, this is going to become a business. They got a little side hustle going on. You're going to be doing 48 acres of flowers. I'll never quit my day job though. I never, never say never. For sunflowers, Dan gets bigger and bigger and bigger every year. Yeah. We'll be having the giant slide and the corn maze and all that stuff. A little agritourism. Are you guys, if we get to that point, we'll invite you guys up with the cameras and you can put us on the TV program. Absolutely. Well, we'd have to get paid in some of that alcohol exciter you guys got. Do you guys, are you on social media at all? We, not really. A little bit, but yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. I want thank you guys for coming on the show. It's fun to meet you down at technology days. Darryland and Gots from Carlton, Michigan. Thank you so very much for doing a show, but don't go anywhere. Sean Haney is coming up next. He does not like sunflowers. I don't know what the deal is. Catch everybody next time. [Music]