SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Rebecca Finch from Ames, IA 10-9-24
[Music] Welcome again to shark farmer radio. Hey, I'm your host Rob Sharkey. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford. Don't want to call the beans today. I don't know. Just, I don't know. Well, you don't want them to get too dry, right? Oh, they're too dry. Okay, we don't want them to get drier. Yeah, and this is our most difficult farm. We're going to do the beans today, hopefully. It has lots of terraces and lots of rocks, right? It is for hunting. It's not, yeah. Yeah, we wonder every year, like, why do we keep this darn thing? Well, because the hunting's fantastic. That's right. That's fantastic. So hopefully you get the beans done today there. We'll stay there and do the corn tomorrow, and then we'll be done with that farm, our hardest farm. Nice. It's kind of a little dance, right? Changing out the head, moving to beans when you have to. Yeah, and there's no room. There's no room to do anything. It's just, oh, it's frustrating. Well, this is the farm that your combine head just fits between two trees. Two giant oaks, yeah. You had to whittle out a little part. A few inches into one, so I'm like, well, it continues to grow. Mother nature will understand. Machinery gets bigger, so we're in trouble. All right. Today, we're going to go out to Ames, Iowa. We're going to talk with Rebecca Finch. How are you doing, Rebecca? I'm good. How are you guys this morning? Good. For people that don't know much about Iowa, where's Ames at? It's smack dab in the middle. Uh huh. Home of the farm progress show. That's right. You're pretty close. Yep. Yeah. Do the locals, do they, do they hate that show? Um, I don't know. I mean, I think maybe traffic-wise, there for a few days, that's probably a big thing, but I think businesses probably love all the extra people in town. Yeah. Not much for hotels in that area, though, is there? No, not over by Boone. You really have to come over to Ames to find a place to stay. Yeah. Yeah. We did a little Airbnb. It wasn't bad. Had a bat. Had a bat in it, right? We did get a bat. Yeah. A little excitement, you know. Yeah. Uh huh. All right. You're farming there. What are you raising? Well, we raise corn, bean cows, and kids. This is what we like to say. We have a family farm, our kids are the fourth generation on this farm. We, I say we raise corn and beans. It was a row crop, and then we have a full blood, scimital herd here that we do breeding stock with. Excellent. Now, did you grow up on a farm? I grew up on a very, very small little farm in Missouri. Um, like 40 acres, my parents had, I don't know, 30, 30 head cattle, and we had some hay. That was pretty much, that was our farm. But my uncles down the road, they did. They, they had hogs in, in cattle and row crops, so I grew up around it. Mm hmm. For sure. Went to a Northwest Missouri state. What were you studying there? I study ag business, and honestly, I, I wasn't going to be a business major, but you know, you get a lot of ag scholarships when you got a little bit of ag background. So, playing a game, I stayed with that. I think, you know, I'll switch over halfway through, and then, um, I started doing some traveling. I did some study abroad programs and ended up, it just, I just stayed ag business. They hooked you. They hooked you. They didn't let you leave. Once you got in, you didn't leave. You know, and that ag department was really good. I, you know, it's probably why I stayed with them. So. Mm hmm. Well, where all did you study abroad? Oh, I did a semester in the Netherlands, and then that kind of got my travel bug going, and I came back and I was at a, an ag show in Kansas City with our, with Northwest Missouri state. And I learned about a program that would take me to Germany for a year. And so, I thought, oh, you can apply between 18 and 24. So, I applied thinking, oh, if I don't get it this year, I can try again. Well, I got accepted. So, I, uh, my junior year college, I went over to Germany for a year, and did a language school for two months, and then they send you to a school based on, um, what your background is. So, I was ag, and they sent me up to, um, the Northeast part of Germany, and, um, and, or sorry, Northwest part of Germany. North of Berlin for a semester, and that really made me have to learn German, because a lot of people up there, um, they, they learn English, but they don't have the opportunity to speak it. So, they're like, uh, you speak German with us. So, that was a really, a really fun experience. And then we had to work for, um, a semester. I bet you that when you get immersed in that language, it really helps, because, you know, I took German and high school. You didn't know any German before I went, and that was, that was a great program. That is fantastic. If you use it every day, it's not like a clash you take, you know, you're forced. That's right. You kind of have to learn it if you're going to communicate. Uh-huh. What is, what are they speaking in the Netherlands? Is that Dutch? It's Dutch. Oh, so I, I also went to a business, I went to a business school there, and they, and all the classes were in English. So that one was, that was definitely more of a study abroad program where you, you know, you can go for a semester, and it's not, you know, you didn't have to know a language. Say in Netherlands, Germany, what was the third one? Um, well, I was in Germany again for, um, I did a program with you and I, and University of Northern Iowa, they have a, um, a childcare, a program where you go and work on military bases. And, um, so I, I, I still had that travel bug in me, so I went and, I went and did that for a semester after I finished college and got some, you get master's class courses through that program. And so I thought one time I wanted to teach, so I thought, oh, this could be a good introductory into that. And then that made me realize I didn't really want to teach. You gotta know those things too, right? You gotta find out what you don't want to do. All right. We gotta go to break today. We're in Ames, Iowa. We're talking with Rebecca Finch. Go follow her on her Instagram, R-Fenn 85. That's R-F-I-N-85. When we come back, we're going to talk more about her farm. We'll be back 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. You know what annoys me? Uh, when we crackle, when we're on air, bad internet, is that what that is? I think so. Every now and then, we get a crackling sensation and it's just really fantastic. And it makes me just love rural internet all the more. Yes, we shouldn't complain. No, no, I will catch myself today because other people are going through much worse today. So I will not complain about our internet. Okay, back to me. What I'm annoyed about is when you order something online and they say one to two business days, liars, and then you, you make the order and then you get something that says, oh, it was shipped on the fourth, but you know what it could take as long as seven days to get it to UPS. It hasn't even got to UPS. No, that's where they get you. One to two business days before they might think about handing it. Yeah, once they give it to UPS, they know what they're doing. Right. That's one to two days. It just has to get there and it hasn't yet. But that's okay. Yeah, it's something that we're going to use for harvest. It's these stupid rapid radios. I wish I wouldn't have ordered them. If you order them, don't believe what their website says. Well, you know what, we can always use them next year. I'm already canceling because I mean, we'll be done. Yeah. Well, you know, there's field work. Yeah. Did you enjoy watching our last show last night? Yes, absolutely. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Season nine is done. You liar. You are sleeping. Hey, I saw it three times before it ever aired. I was watching the Vince McMahon documentary on Netflix. Oh, good golly. Going through my childhood, but you you fell asleep. Brother. All right. Today, we're in Ames, Iowa. We're talking with Rebecca Finch. Go follow her on Instagram, our fin 85. She was talking about how she was studying abroad in a Germany in Netherlands. Where'd you meet your husband, Rebecca? We met at Northwestern State. Mm hmm. Was love at first sight? Well, you know, we saw each other a lot in hallways, but he was a football player. And at first, I mean, I don't know, it wasn't, I wasn't, we didn't grow up with football. So I wasn't like, you know, enamored, like he likes to tell our children that I was. And so, but we did, we met at school and we had, I think we had a couple of ag classes together too. So yeah, that's how we met. And he drug me up to Ames from Missouri. Okay. And you were falling in love and you knew if I married this guy, then we're going to farm. Were you okay with that? Well, actually, I always said, no, I'm not going to, I'm not going to marry a farmer because I don't know. I just, I think I saw that growing up and I'm like, yeah, I don't know. But I, you know, obviously God's got different ideas for everybody. And here I am. Uh huh. Yeah, sometimes growing up on your farm, you're like, this is really hard. This isn't going to be funny. And then darn it, you meet, you meet the football player. That's right. And you meet the love of your life. And well, there you are. Did you guys really meet in a bar? And this is a story that you tell your kids. We might have seen each other in a bar once or twice, but wait, we usually say we met in the halls at school. Yeah, that's what I tell our kids to. Right. That's exactly what you gotta tell them. Well, I don't think we met in a bar. I mean, being that we were high school, sweetheart, honey, I'm pretty sure we didn't meet a bar. I stick to that story, whatever, whatever works for you. Whatever you want. And how many kids you got? We have five, five kids here, earth side in, we got three little, three little ones up in heaven. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. What's the ages? Oh, well, we have an almost 11 year old should be 11 here in a month, all the way down to seven months. Oh my gosh. How do you even have time to talk to us? Well, got one sleep in three in school and one's out here with his little blue hot wheel tractor, you know, like, or what are the what are like the 14 year, the 20 volt tractor, you know, I don't understand. It's a tractor, but it's blue. Yeah, he's got a little blue tractor. What? I don't get it. I don't get it either. His favorite tractor has always been our blue new ballons. Did it. Oh, oh, grandpa and grandpa found this blue. You know, it's like one of those little four wheeler Jeep type things. So he can go and he drives that thing all over the farm. We don't hear him right now really because she bribed him with Froot Loops. So the kids, I mean, do they get out and help much 11 year old with the farm? Well, I tell you between all the school and then the sports activities, we, they do spend some time out there, but I think our three year old probably spent the most time in the tractor than any of his sisters combined. So you just, just kind of, you just never know what each one's going to do, but we're, we're involved in softball and volleyball and basketball. So the girls are, the girls just have us running. Yeah, you guys, you get to run the silage choppers out there? We do, we do run silage choppers. We actually hire out for that because, you know, we only need them for, I think we do about 60 acres of silage, corn silage for our cattle. Yeah, but do they let you run them? I always wanted to run one of those. Those things look awesome. I haven't sat it. I haven't sat it in our, our three year old got offered this year. And I think he was like, I don't know these people. So, yeah, he was a little shy about it. So he didn't climb in, but they would have let him if he'd wanted to. But those things are, those things are crazy. Oh my gosh. They are like the instrument of evil. I just, they are so cool. They are. Well, it's cool. It's got to be fun to raise that many kids out on the farm and just, I don't know, kind of get away from the whole hustle and bustle sometimes. It is good. I tell you though, we, we do like to have our kids, the friends come out and hang out because, you know, we are, we're right on the edge of Ames. We're kind of, we are role, but you know, we get to towns in five, ten minutes and a lot of these kids have no idea about, about farm life. So it's kind of fun. It's fun to bring their friends out and, you know, let them, let them go out and see the tractors or, you know, see the cattle and they come during, we calve in the winter. So like January to April, we calve inside. And so they, we always bring friends out so they can come in and actually, you know, see cattle right up close and, and so it's, it's fun. It's, it's really good to, to, to, with this lifestyle. I just love it. Well, and it's nice for your, your kids to bring their friends out because probably so many of them have no idea how, you know, what happens and how a cow gives birth and how you take care of them and, and it's probably, yeah, just to be able to touch one. Yep. Sure is pretty cool. Yeah. All right. Uh, today we are in Ames, Iowa, outside Ames, Iowa. We're in Iowa. We're talking with Rebecca Finch. Go follow her on her Instagram, our fin 85. Is that the year you were born, Rebecca? She's not saying it. You can't ask that. Did we say is it? Could we ask anything? Legally obligated. We'll be back with Rebecca 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. I'm just saying if you order something and they say one to two days, you should have that one to two business days. I agree. I agree. Okay. All right. It's time for Ames, Iowa's favorite radio segment. We're in the world as well. Well, what do you have for us today? Today I'm in Ames, which is a city in Story County, Iowa, approximately 30 miles north of Des Moines, best known as the home of Iowa State University. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ames also hosts the USDA Animal Disease Center and the USDA Plant Inspection Center. Big on USDA stuff. Right. Yeah. Other than that, we got some notable people. Cape Fear actor Nick Nolte lived in Ames. Oh, we were just talking about that movie. Yeah. Well done. Well, yeah. Good movie. Cartoonist and musician Robert Crum or R. Crum moved to Ames in 1950. He illustrated many album covers, most prominently cheap thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company. He also did a graphic novel version of the book of Genesis, which is really like in-depth. It's not like, it's like a comic book, but it's not like, for kids, it's like a very accurate, biblical visualization. A graphic novel of Genesis. That's fantastic. Yeah. It's pretty cool. If you have a young adult who likes graphic novels, that would be a good thing to get them. I feel like I read that. Six days to read it. It's like, yeah, it's like, it's like 300 pages. Oh my gosh. Okay. There's a lot that happened. It's accurate to the Bible. It's accurate to the Bible. We also got Jane Espenson, writer and producer for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek the Next Generation. Man's a hero. Right. John Darnell, musician from the indie rock band The Mountain Goats, Lee Sheng Hui, the president of the Republic of China or Taiwan, graduated from ISU. Really? Yes. Nava Morris, the second oldest person in the world, and the oldest American, aged 114 years, lived and aims her entire life. Oh, 114. 114 years. Yep. And Frank Spedding, chemist, creator of the Ames Process during the Manhattan Project. The Ames Process is a process by which pure uranium metal is obtained. It can be achieved by mixing any of the uranium halides commonly uranium tetra fluoride with magnesium metal powder or aluminum metal powder. Yeah, we've been doing that for years. Ames, Ames, whatever. All right. Thank you, Will. Today, we are in Ames. We're talking with Rebecca Finch, and go follow her on her Instagram, RFEN 85. Rebecca, you guys, tell me about the charity Loving Tanner. Well, about six years ago now, we had a daughter who we found in the gestation that she had tried to meet 18, which is a chromosome disorder. She had three of the 18th chromosome, and she passed at 36 weeks in utero, and so Loving Tanner is a organization that puts kumacots into hospitals so that parents who lose a child have the ability to spend more time with their child once they pass, because it's a cooling blanket machine that you can use basically to wrap the baby or child in and kind of help be able to be with them longer. And we did not have that opportunity with our daughter, and when we found out about that, we decided that that was something that we wanted our hospital or local hospital to have. So we partnered with them, right? Oh, it was about a year after she was after she had passed. We actually got one funded on her on her first birthday and had it put into our local hospital. Are they expensive? They are. They're about $3,000. So yeah, so we used her memorial money, and then we helped fundraise to help pay for that. That's an amazing way to remember her and to help other people when they struggle through such a hard time. That's amazing that you guys were able to do that. Yeah, it was a very beautiful project for us. Psychologically, I mean, does that help? I honestly, I wouldn't know. I think that that would have, I mean, it depends. I mean, like we were able to spend about six hours with our daughter before we decided that we needed to, I don't want to get, it's not graphic, but like she was starting to change. And that was very hard. Like, I mean, she was born a baby, like, you know, she was born like a perfect little little baby and then you start to change because her body wasn't, wasn't cooled so that she could, so that we could stay with her longer. And I think seeing that change was hard, whereas, you know, if we had this thing, we would have been able to spend a little more time with her. Well, very sorry to hear that, but very nice to be able to raise money to do that for other people. You are active in your church. You do meals ministry. What's that? So there's a ministry at our church. That's called, it's called the meals ministry group. And if there is like a family that has a new baby or somebody who's going to have a surgery, who could use some meals, we set up a signup genius and I send it, I have a list of volunteers through our group and I send it out. And, you know, with the new babies, we give about 14 meals to the family over a couple weeks. You know, we spread it out to two or three meals a week and just to just to bless our families, we've helped in taking care of some elderly people who somebody had a knee surgery and so not able to be in the kitchen. So a couple meals a week, homemade meals, just a nice blessing for families. Well, that's very nice. I mean, that's a lot of people take that for granted, but I mean, if you are out there on your own and you aren't able to do that, having something like that would be would be incredible. Yes, and signup genius makes that so simple. You just go on. Yeah, you go online and you just pick the time and day. It's all, you know, on your own. Genius. And that's the wonderful thing about it. You know, I have about 80 volunteers in our group. And so you send it out and people, if they have free, then they choose a date and they sign up for a meal. So it's really, it's really a wonderful thing. Best place to find you is on Instagram, RFN 85, is that correct for Rebecca? Yes. Yep. All right. And I won't ask again about the 85. I can't ask a girl at her age. Come on. I do. We do have a farm, a farm Instagram account that I should update a little more often than I do, but it's a Finch family farm. All right. Perfect. Thank you, Rebecca. Everybody else? We'll catch you next time. Thank you. Carrotiful. Carrotty. Carrotiful. The next shake up.