Farm Wife Builds Trust Through Authentic Social Media and Generational Land Ties

Kylie Epperson [00:00:00] How we look at life, how we interact with them, how we as parents, show them what's right and wrong. They're gonna pick those things up. I firmly believe in learning at home. Kindergarten teacher, friend of mine said, I can teach your kid the ABCs, but I cannot teach them to be polite. Hi everyone, I am Oliver Crow, a second grade student and

Vance Crowe [00:00:23] An aspiring YouTuber, and you're listening to the Vance Crowe podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad you are here. Today we interview Kylie Epperson, who is the Grateful Farm wife, which is an Instagram channel that I became familiar with because we both gave a talk at the same event and I followed her on Instagram. And I don't follow very many people. I find that Instagram is one of those holes that when I fall down it, I don't feel very good about myself. But if you go to the Grateful Farm Wife page, you see a woman that is sharing her life as the wife of a, of a hog farmer that also raises corn and soybeans and is raising three children. And everything about her posts make you feel connected and in some ways joyful or at least excited that you two can face the chaos that comes with raising a family. So, I'm excited to get to this interview with Kylie. Before we get there, I wanna talk about the private interviews that I've been doing. You know, during the Christmas season, I decided that I would take a few hours and instead of recording podcasts, I would offer people a chance to have me interview their child, their parent, or even their grandparent, to tell family stories, to talk about their values, to talk about why it is that they do what they do and the stories that they want to live on. For many generations, as I've done this, it has been a profound experience and the people that have done it have written me letters saying how much they've enjoyed it. They've asked to do even more longer interviews. And I have found this to be one of the most wonderful gifts that I've been able to contribute into society.

Vance Crowe [00:01:57] So if you have someone that you would love to capture their stories and you don't know how, or you want somebody like me to sit down and do it with them, I'd be happy to do it. And you can find out more by going to store dot Articulate Ventures. Another thing that we've been doing is a lot of virtual reality. In fact, several members of the Articulate Ventures community just in the last week picked up headsets. And so every single week we have more and more people coming to our virtual reality field trips. These are the types of activities that we do in the Articulate Ventures Network where you get to try out new technology, you get to do book club activities, or last night we did a movie night where we watch a movie that maybe wouldn't be one that we would ordinarily watch. And then you get together with a group of people and you talk about it and everybody brings their spouse or their partner and you get to meet other people from the network. This has been one of those enriching activities and we have found that even though coronavirus is going on, and even though we're spread throughout the entire continent, it is really easy for us to get together, share ideas, have some comradery and experience things that we wouldn't experience on our own, like virtual reality or books that we would never have thought to read. So if you're interested in joining a community of people that are all about building each other up, exploring ideas and making each other better, you can do that by going to Network dot Articulate Ventures. Anyway, we're gonna get to the interview with Kylie Epperson, the Grateful Farm wife. I'm so glad you're here.

Vance Crowe [00:03:29] Kylie Epperson, welcome to the podcast.

Kylie Epperson [00:03:33] Hello, how are you?

Vance Crowe [00:03:35] I'm doing really well. So you're an unusual character for me in that you are only known to me through Instagram.

Kylie Epperson [00:03:42] Sure. But

Vance Crowe [00:03:42] The reason that I find you to be so interesting is I think a lot of other people have a, a different sort of posture on Instagram, and yours is all about family and happiness and finding a way through all the clutter and the chaos. And I find it to be something that makes me feel better when I see it, as opposed to so many of the other things. So how did you get into Instagram and and why is this your take on the, on the reflection you put out there?

Kylie Epperson [00:04:11] Well, I'm really glad to hear that you are interested and enjoy my social media platform because I think it is just that social media right now is so heavy and it's so overwhelming at times and it's, it's at our fingertips every single day. So to be a person that someone can come to and see light and positivity and really reality, 'cause there's still a lot of that in, in my Instagram and my social media following is, is very reassuring. I got started in Instagram probably, I mean, I've had it since college, so 10 plus years, you know, but it used to be pictures of me and my friends and that was, that was that. But I would say I've gotten into more intentional Instagram when we had a, some tragic things go on on the farm, which we can totally get into. But I decided that there wasn't enough agricultural individuals sharing their story, especially hog farmers. We are hog farmers, our family is. And so that was kind of my initial like, Hey, I should do something with this. I should be more intentional with what I'm sharing. And I think agriculture is so important. So from there, being a mom and a wife and a farmer and all of these things, it's almost been more of a, a shift over the last couple of years to just sharing our real and sharing the ways. I always feel like people that can trust you and they know what you do well, then they trust maybe your profession. And so if they can trust me as an individual, as a mom, as then they can also trust me as a farmer and our family as a farmer.

Kylie Epperson [00:05:44] So that's kind of how I got started and it, it, it's just evolved along the way.

Vance Crowe [00:05:48] How did you come up with your name? Because it's very unique, the Grateful Farm wife.

Kylie Epperson [00:05:52] The Grateful Farm wife. Well, I think the name the farm wife term can be somewhat controversial among farm wives or farmers. I don't get offended if someone calls me a farm wife. I also consider myself a farmer. I also consider myself a wife. I mean, that's a, that's a proud term for me to be someone's wife, my husband. But I would say having that grateful mentality, even when things are really tough, it just, it just seemed really like an easy term. The Grateful Farm wife. Like I love being a farmer. I love being a farm wife. I'm grateful to have that opportunity and to have that grateful outlook on life. It just seemed like a no brainer. So I don't know where it came from, but,

Vance Crowe [00:06:33] Well, so then did you have to change it partway through? 'cause you didn't have that up when you were in college, right?

Kylie Epperson [00:06:37] Yeah, it was just Kai 22. I don't know what it was in college, but yeah, you can just change it on Instagram. And so once I started actually like making waves or trying to really become something, I kind of like rebranded, I guess you could say, and to the Grateful Farm wife. But I like for people to call me Kylie. Like I like for people to know my name Kylie Epperson, because it is, I'm proud of my name, but the Grateful Farm wife seemed like it would attract a wider crowd as far as followers and getting my name out there and, and sharing what we share.

Vance Crowe [00:07:10] It's interesting when you think about the, the term wife being like almost a negative term, we certainly in the Western culture have this sense of somebody describing themselves as the wife of someone. Seems like it's a denigration. Why do you think that is?

Kylie Epperson [00:07:27] I don't know, maybe, I mean, it almost seems like a submissive term in, in some way, shape or form that because we identify ourselves as someone's wife that we are somehow less or anything like that. I also think farm Wife gets a really interesting, like, oh, they're just at home. They're being the housewife. They make the meals. Maybe they do the books. Like that isn't an important or relative term. I'm here to tell you that farming is a straight up business and any part of that operation, whether it's, you know, applying chemicals to the crops or whether it's raising the animals or raising the kids or cooking meals for the guys or bookwork, bookwork, that's a really big deal. And so I don't know why being someone's wife has such a negative connotation. I feel like it's kind of a culture we're in right now, especially, you know, women not wanting to be identified as someone's wife. I don't know, for me, I think it's, it's an honor to be someone's wife. It's an honor to be a part a mom. I don't really know why we don't like it.

Vance Crowe [00:08:30] Yeah, I mean, in my take, like it's one of those things where it's a mutual benefit, right? Yeah. Like

Kylie Epperson [00:08:35] It's,

Vance Crowe [00:08:36] If you take somebody on as your husband, they have a responsibility to you the way you have a responsibility to them. And it's like, it's like an honor to be able to say it because not everybody gets that. And even if people get it, they don't necessarily get the one that works out or they don't know how to make the right kind of sacrifices. So to me, even to think about my wife describing herself as my wife, like that really makes me feel empowered and wholesome and good. Yeah. Yeah.

Kylie Epperson [00:09:03] Well, and you, you choose that when you get married. You, you agree to get married to someone as an equal partner, like they're your husband just as much as I'm Jordan's wife or my husband's wife. And so for him to say like, oh, my wife now, whatever follows that sentence, then, you know, usually he's talking nicely about me. But it's, it is a prideful thing when you get married, you make that decision to be someone's partner. And I do not in any way, shape or form see it as a negative thing to be a farmer's wife.

Vance Crowe [00:09:31] Yeah. And like you were saying, I think one of the things about your Instagram that's really interesting is your, your pictures are polished, right? Like, you know how to take a photograph so that you frame things so that people feel like, ah, but at the same time you're framing chaos. I look at what you have going on and I'm like, oh man, thank God I don't have to be sitting there doing books while children are going absolutely crazy around in the side.

Kylie Epperson [00:09:55] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:09:57] It's just like, it's a different, I I think that your frame up of Instagram seems to be disconnected from the social status game that I see played by most other people.

Kylie Epperson [00:10:08] I often wonder if I put too much of a happy spin on things because life is really genuinely crazy around here. We just had our third child in December and our na I got, I call her a nanny. She was a babysitter. She did some of my laundry. She was amazing. I never took her for grin. She was the most amazing woman that helped me out. When I would go to work two days a week before we had our third kid, she moved away in August. And so in August, I have a three and 5-year-old that come to work with me as well. And that's not as big of a deal because they can play, or, you know, they somewhat are self-sustaining individuals at this point. They maybe need help going to the bathroom. Okay. So that's no big deal when you throw a newborn into the mix. It is actually, it's really hard. I'm, I'm finding it to be hard work stresses me out right now. And so to show the reality of it, but then still saying like, okay, look at how, like I'm very blessed to, to be able to keep the kids there and raise them on the farm and show them hard work. That, that idea, I try to continually remind myself and bring myself back to that when I am in that like, stage of chaos. But that is really a true reality for farm wives and for farmers and, and for a, a lot of individuals is raising their kids and, and still having all of these responsibilities that you have. And kids obviously come number one, but, but when you're running your own business, that also is very, very important. Like, bills don't stop coming and it's not easy to say like, I'm gonna take maternity leave and someone's gonna come do my job for me, or someone's gonna find that person.

Kylie Epperson [00:11:45] Well, I have to find that person. Lucky for me, I have a mother-in-law who's amazing who's helping me out, but it's not easy. And so to frame that, I wanna frame it in a way that like people want to watch because no one wants to see me in tears crying in the closet because I need like five minutes to myself. But in the same breath, they, I think it's really important to share with as many people as I can reach the reality of this like Midwestern United States life of farming.

Vance Crowe [00:12:15] Yeah. And I think that that's such a tenuous line to walk because I watch other people that I think use their pain or their struggles or sometimes the, the things that they're not able to grapple with as a form of, let me show off my victimness and that victimness should give you, you know, oh, like, it's, it's like a weird cycle that is not going to be pos like no one's going to win in that scenario other than you will get attention for it. And I never see you do that. Yeah. And I think that's why you've never been booted from my, I I, that's why I follow you. I think.

Kylie Epperson [00:12:49] Well, I appreciate that. I do think that there is like struggle and pain, like our family we've experienced, our first pregnancy was a miscarriage, and so we did go down that route I did recently, but it was more, instead of playing the victim, it was more of a like uplifting. Like I know so many people go through stuff like this, like it like you are not alone. It's a very taboo topic to talk about, especially publicly, especially when it's really fresh and it's happening to you. And so I offered my pain from that in that regard as almost like a, like you can, you can get through it. It sucks right now. It's so hard. There's nothing, there's nothing more painful I don't think than, than something like that. But like you said, it's not, oh look, I had this big struggle happen to me, poor me, poor me. It's, let's stand back up and get back on our feet and keep moving forward because that's what we have to do. We don't have a choice. We don't have a choice to sit and wallow when other people rely on you when you need to keep pushing through, right? Don't you think?

Vance Crowe [00:13:50] Oh, a hundred percent. You gotta get through it. I mean, and, and like some of that, it is good to talk about because my wife and I actually had two miscarriages on, on our path to having our first child. And I was in my thirties and no one had ever told me, Hey man, this is a possibility. This is something you could have happened. This is something that you're gonna have to help your wife navigate. This is gonna have to be something that you yourself are gonna have to face. And so there is that fine line because you don't wanna be like, Hey, everything's sad or not normal or not positive, let's just push that out. And, and yet at the same time, pushing it in only makes people's lives more complicated. You're asking them to carry a burden. They can't do anything to help alleviate for you.

Kylie Epperson [00:14:32] Yeah, I'm sorry that, that you had that happen to you. We actually had two as well, and I actually, it's not even the word possibility. It's like, it's rather possible like the, the statistics on having a miscarriage are are hot, are

Vance Crowe [00:14:45] Yeah, like one in 10 or something like that. One in 10

Kylie Epperson [00:14:47] Pregnancies

Vance Crowe [00:14:48] As well as they know. Yeah,

Kylie Epperson [00:14:49] Well and like one in, one in four women experience it. Well that's a lot. Wow. When you think of how many women are in the United States having babies and, and I think it's just one of those things that you just have to get through. But that's one reason as my social media, the Instagram has evolved it, you know, my primary target audience audiences women 18 to 40 and people in their childbearing years, people that are living this like toddler life people who are doing a lot of the same thing, whether they're farming or not, they're in a lot of the same stages of life as I am. And so it's, it's evolved into the fact of like, hey, let's talk about those things. Like let's talk about miscarriage, let's talk about working with your kids during all of this stuff that's been going on in the last year with staying at home and working and having to, to teach your kids school. Like God bless those parents because my kids aren't in school yet and I'm just trying to do what I need to do and keep them alive, let alone actually teach them something.

Vance Crowe [00:15:52] So there, I

Kylie Epperson [00:15:52] Can't imagine,

Vance Crowe [00:15:53] There's a concept that we talk about on the podcast a lot called Somewhere versus Anywhere People. And it's, it was put together by a guy named David Goodheart and he basically is describing that the world is made up of two primary groups. He also says there's a third group, but the two primary groups particularly I think with our age group is you went away to college and the whole time in college they were saying you should go out and become a person that is cosmopolitan. You can live anywhere, you can move from city to city. All of your relationships will be transactional. If you don't like this work or you don't like this community, just pick up and go find another one. And you know, so you are living this kind of exciting, esoteric, cosmopolitan life versus the somewhere person who says, I'm gonna go live where I'm from, the community that's there is one that I can't replace. And it's one that if I tried to replace something would be lost. So I care about being somewhere as opposed to anywhere you had the chance, you went away to college, you were exposed to many of the same things that other people that ultimately became anywhere. People like me, it seems like you're a somewhere person. Why are you a somewhere person?

Kylie Epperson [00:17:05] I'm for sure a somewhere person. I have very strong family ties to not only my family, like my blood family, but also my friend family and where I'm from. Did I need to come back and live in my hometown? No, but I've been dating my husband since we were in high school. We're one of those like cliche high school sweetheart couples. And especially in the farming community, you strongly tie yourself to your community because of physical land ownership. For one, you, you don't have a choice to pick up and sell your land and go back. That land is something that you acquire over time. My husband and I are fourth generation farmers, so that land has been in the family years and years and years. And so for us to just be like, well, you know, we're gonna go live somewhere else and do something else for five or 10 years and then maybe come back to the farm, I feel like it would've almost been disrespectful to our family to make those decisions. But with all that being said, we love where we're from. The community is great. We were raised in it. We, we, we do have strong ties to it. And so to be anywhere else seems silly. College was great, don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed going over to a neighboring larger town and kind of experiencing city life. But I could tell you very quickly that that's not somewhere that I necessarily wanted to see myself raising my family. I wanted to come back, I wanted the kids to be raised in a, a lifestyle similar to the one that we were raised in as well.

Vance Crowe [00:18:37] So you knew then when you were, when you were in college, you weren't like, ah, I'm gonna go get my Chicago job or my New York City job? No,

Kylie Epperson [00:18:45] No way. No, I was dating Jordan. He was, he's two years older than I am. And so he had purchased a nursery in his first 40 acres back at about 30 miles from where I grew up. And it was kind of the, in the plan, right? I was, I went to school to be an educator and I, after getting my master's degree, I taught for one whole year before we built a 5,600 head state of the art brand new sow unit that we were either going to have to pay someone to do the bookwork or it was kind of always in the cards once we had kids that I would probably come back and help be a part of that business. And so go get college degree and then not use it. And that's okay because look at where we are now. But I started doing the bookwork in that regard. But it was never, it was never something that I ever desired. Like college was great. I loved it, I enjoyed it. I thrived, I did things that I would never have done if I stayed living at home. I'm very grateful for the friendships and the opportunities, but like home is home and that is something that I, I just couldn't replace.

Vance Crowe [00:19:53] I mean, so you, I'm

Kylie Epperson [00:19:54] Glad there are anywhere people, you

Vance Crowe [00:19:56] Know, you kind of described like the, the cliche of the high, you know, the high school sweetheart, although it's not really a cliche anymore as much as it's like an extreme rarity.

Kylie Epperson [00:20:05] It is.

Vance Crowe [00:20:05] When, when I think when most people or most anywhere people hear that you married your high school sweetheart, do you get the sense, well, I'll just ask it more directly. Were you ever at a point when you were like, oh man, I may be making a horrible mistake. Maybe there's so much more out there for me. What if it's, you know, this guy that I started dating, but there's something else. And not to denigrate your, your relationship, but like it has to have crossed your mind.

Kylie Epperson [00:20:31] I think I would say not ever to the point of like, am I in the wrong relationship? Am I in the wrong spot in my life and the time? I'm, I'm sure that that probably, it may have at some point when I was super stressed out and, and wondering what's going on. But I would say, and it's more the reality that I second guess like what job I was going to take, what, what path, what to get back to the farm. Like did I want to still live? I did sign language in college and I loved it. I, I absolutely loved sign language, American sign language and I almost changed my major, but then I really had to reevaluate like, is that a job? That would be something that I could do in my hometown? No, I'm an hour from anywhere. And so that was something that I really had to battle with. So I went ahead and got my teaching degree knowing that it really probably wasn't what I wanted to do. I wouldn't say relationship wise that I ever felt that way. Jordan and I have been this really interesting couple our entire life and we grew up together. I mean, we know each other from infancy almost. I mean adolescents, this is basically, but when you get older, when you're in your teens, it is infancy 'cause you are babies and you don't really know what life is like. But I don't think so. I do think people look at you and go, oh, high school sweethearts. Like it is definitely a rare, a rarity that they get married and that they stay together. I think a lot of times high school sweethearts do travel down this path of this is what we know, we are not gonna take any risks or any chances on anything else because this is comfortable.

Kylie Epperson [00:22:10] And then that's why a lot of high school sweethearts do actually end up in divorce. I, we have friends that got married and that we all got married within a year. We were all high school sweethearts. There's four couples. We all starting from July till July of the following year, we were in each other's weddings. And one of those couples, sadly, after having two small children, did, they just didn't make it. They, they weren't in love anymore or they really in love when they got married. I don't know. I'm lucky that we're not like that, that Jordan and I have grown together as a couple, but also as a business business owners. And I think that definitely adds a, a different layer of dynamic to our relationship because we have to be professional and make really big life decisions for our family, but also for our business. Like those decisions affect us together, but it, it just adds a different layer, a different dynamic to what we do. And I think that's probably one of the reasons why we're so su like successful as a couple.

Vance Crowe [00:23:08] It is like the rare couple that can do business together because you have to be able to shift the, the way in which you interact with the other person in a, in a format that isn't, that isn't isn't normally taught to, to couples. My wife actually does my books and one of the things that we first had to get over was I was like, when we first started to sit down being like, don't judge my purchases. Like I'm running this business and I don't need any judgements. And she never did. And she actually became a far better bookkeeper than anybody else I'd ever worked with because she'd be like, okay, just show me the receipt. Where is the receipt for this? I don't care what it is, I just want it all of the bookkeeping to work. Yeah. But if she wasn't like that, if she decided that she was gonna dig around and start making other decisions, that would be a very, very different relationship.

Kylie Epperson [00:24:00] Well, Jordan likes to buy tractors and those are big ticket items. So I do give him a little bit of a hard time when he comes home with new John Deere paperwork. But that's exactly it. If it, there's things that are no-brainers for a business. And so Jordan runs the operating side of the business. He's out there day to day putting his boots to the ground and you know, keeping everybody in order. We have a, I would say we have a, a rather sizable farming operation. We have about seven employees on farm between the hogs and the row crop that come to work every day. They report to Jordan or to my father-in-law. And we run that business, they, they're with us all year round full-time employees. We have about 30 other employees at our s sow units that report to managers on those facilities that still kind of fall under our wing. And so Jordan is that person. He is the one, like, they're not gonna call me if something breaks down. Like we have water lines frozen right now. I'm not that person, but they're gonna call me if they want, have questions about their health insurance or, or these other things. So there's a, as a couple, we have different dynamics and as a business owner, we definitely try to stay in our own lane. So if Jordan has to get new tires, he doesn't call me and ask me those questions. Like it, he just does it. And, and he knows that's gonna be my answer. Do we need it to make the business work? I trust your opinion, go do it. Like I'm not going to, if it's a $500,000 combine, sure, yeah, we're gonna talk about it and make sure that that's, that's in the cards and that's in our budget. But if it's, you know, 700 or $800 worth of tires or something, we're not gonna, we're not gonna battle over that.

Kylie Epperson [00:25:36] We just don't question things like that. So I think the idea of staying in our own lane as a business owner and then that helps us just to be like more relaxed and open as a couple, I don't know, it just works.

Vance Crowe [00:25:50] So as you are in the, in the Instagram world, right, you're in the social media world. Yeah. So you're able to see what is going on with anywhere people, right. And in a, in a strange way because of social media somewhere people can be anywhere, people, 'cause you can pull that phone up and you can look at anything. Yeah. What do you think is, what do you think the people living in the city or living anywhere lives don't understand about somewhere people?

Kylie Epperson [00:26:16] Ooh, good question. I I think that anywhere people don't understand maybe the reason why or the reason behind being somewhere people, why would you wanna stay at one spot when you can go travel and do anything and see anybody or anywhere, any place. And I think that there's just a shift in priorities. And it doesn't mean that our priorities are any less valuable or less in any way, shape or form. It just means that to that particular person, the priorities are different. So for me, my priorities are to be that somewhere here in our home, to be able to spend lots of time with my parents, to be able to spend lots of time with Jordan's parents and, and to, to really value that family dynamic that we currently have rather than being anywhere people, that's just something that is not of, of a priority to us. And so I think that that is the idea. Like I feel like anywhere people wanna say like, why, why would you wanna live in rural Missouri? Like why would, that is not somewhere that I would wanna live. You know, maybe politics aren't what I would agree with or how, where's the nearest Walmart, you know, how easily accessible are things are, are, you know, medicine or, Hey, I just wanna go get Chick-fil-A. Yeah, that's an hour away from me. Like, we don't have that around here. And so I think they just wanna know why, like what is that value level for you to pick one person in Missouri or one place in Missouri.

Kylie Epperson [00:27:49] That would be what I would guess. What do you think? I mean, you

Vance Crowe [00:27:52] No, I think, I think that's right and I think, I think there is this concept among anywhere people that the, somewhere people chose that either because they didn't have any other options or that, or that they were afraid in some way.

Kylie Epperson [00:28:08] Yeah. And

Vance Crowe [00:28:08] When, when I look back on my choice to become an anywhere person, and now I think I'm definitely trying to become a somewhere person, I think that I looked back on it and thought, how could I be successful here? The things that I count as success don't exist here. Right? And now looking back on it, I say, well that's silly because you can choose whatever you want to be success. But I, I honestly thought that anybody that stayed where they were, they were by default not succeeding.

Kylie Epperson [00:28:40] Complacent. Like, that's just normal. They didn't wanna take a risk. And I think maybe for some people that is true. I don't, I don't think that that's a very wrong opinion of people who stay at home. I think some people just do that. That's what they know that they're comfortable with that. Does that mean that they're settling? I'm not sure that we, every person would have to, I think, define that for themselves. But I, I could have gone anywhere. Decent grades had opportunity at my fingertips. I could have really done whatever I wanted to do. I do, I do believe that, but that's not what I wanted. And I would say that partially my relationship with Jordan and, and being in that like long-term relationship did play a role in me coming back maybe to my own community. But I think I always would've been a somewhere person. And I think I always would've ended up somewhere like home. So I think I could have, I could have been with someone else. I could have married someone else. I could have went and got a different job, but I still don't think you would've found me like in the city. I still would've found some rural area outside of the city. You know, it, I think this is just the walk of life that I would've chosen no matter what path it took me to get there.

Vance Crowe [00:29:51] And like, so a big thing that we talk about on the podcast is your Damon like, and we use this to describe the inner voice that tells you like, hey, go this direction, or you're curious about this thing. And so it prompts you to, to go explore in this area. Is that, was that one, do you feel like you have like that voice in the back of your head? Do you, do you know the thing that I'm describing here,

Kylie Epperson [00:30:15] I am gonna be honest and I do not. I I don't, I don't know. I think that there is definitely like something deep down inside of you that says, like pulls you one way or the other. But I don't, I don't know. I don't know. I'm gonna be honest and say, I don't know. I

Vance Crowe [00:30:34] Think that's awesome because most of the time people come on and even if they do agree, their, their agreement like ends with the Yeah, I have that. But like you can tell that they're not on the same page. Sure. For for me, the, the, it is not an easy thing to distinguish, but I would say that one, there's, there's these times the easiest way for me to discern it is when I'm trying to exercise, right? Yeah. And you know, when you get out of the pattern of exercise and then you're starting to get in and you're like, all right, I'm gonna start running it rough. It's rough. Yeah. And then, and then you do it one time and you're like, oh, that's pretty good. Maybe you do it the second time, but then the third time it's like, oh, you know, my, my feet are really hurting or it's raining outside so you don't have to. And I, I refer to that as the voice of resistance, the thing that says it's okay to go back to bed. And once I started being able to distinguish that voice, then I could start distinguishing all these other voices that I have in my head. And I call them voices. Not because I think I'm schizophrenic, but because, you know, you ha i I don't, when you're thinking, at least when I'm thinking I'm having a conversation with something that I don't control, it's not like I'm using one voice over here and then parroting myself to another one. Yeah. I'm having some sort of conversation.

Kylie Epperson [00:31:49] I would like just talk, hearing you explain that I still am not like on full 100% level of knowing. But I will say recently being a new mom and, and even a first time, second time, third time mom, there is a very nasty voice in your head that's called hormones and it can be really mean to yourself. But I do have conversations like that. Like maybe I was neglectful or like kind of, I felt, let's just say my son was crying a lot and I was patting his back and I decided to go lay him in his crib for a while and then I go pick him back up and then I go take a shower. 'cause I say I need a break. And there's this conversation that I have with myself while I'm sitting there like, I'm such a bad mom. I'm like, I was horrible that I didn't hold him or that I couldn't handle it. That's the biggest one for me. Getting up in the middle of the night. You know, I wake up at 10:00 PM after I just have fallen asleep and I'm not nice, actually not nice like me to my husband or anybody that comes in my path. I'm not nice. And so I have this conversation then once I calm down and realize like, hey, this is just real life and we have to get through this. I tell myself like, why can't you handle it? Like what? And I don't know who that is in there. I don't know who

Vance Crowe [00:33:01] Me. Well, and that's so ing just even the words that you're describing, I tell myself, right? Yeah. Like this, this thing, it's, I I find this conversation to be an interesting one to have because somewhere down there, there's this thing that you're talking to that you know is you, but you can't make it do anything at all. You can, you can only, like,

Kylie Epperson [00:33:22] I just need it to be nicer. I need it to be like, oh, you look great today. Like you are killing it. But I, it doesn't usually say that. It's usually more on the negative tone of like, okay, like why didn't you workout harder, like you said on that workout? Or why didn't you, why weren't you able to get up four times last night and then function with your toddlers the next day? That goes through my mind all the time right now. And I thought that I was past that we're almost eight weeks postpartum. So we're, I'm really in like the fresh stage of, of three kids and it's getting better every day. And I know, I know in the back of my head that like, I'm doing the best that I can and during the day, light hours I'm totally fine. But like the second it gets dark, it's like that person rises from the ashes and is so mean.

Vance Crowe [00:34:08] Have you, has your, has your child started to like smile and laugh yet

Kylie Epperson [00:34:13] Just starting to, we're entering that stage of where he doesn't look like a newborn and he's actually starting to like, have features that he is smiling and starting just to talk back and, and I know, I know it's coming. And I think that the, the difference between maybe our first kid and now when you're in the heat of your first kids, if you're listening and you're gonna have one kid just hang in there. Everything is a phase. You'll hear that a thousand times. But it really is. And so, you know, weeks three, four, and five of my, our third son, I just kept, I was, I mean I was, I felt like I was dying. Like I actually, my muscles hurt. I was, felt like I was getting sick because I was so sleep deprived. And I kept telling myself, it's just a phase. It's just a phase. It's just a phase because that's truly what it is. But when you're in the trenches, it doesn't feel like that. It feels like I have to wait two more weeks before this passes. What? Like, I'm never going to survive. I don't know where I was going with this conversation. I've, I now talked myself into a circle, but it, it is just,

Vance Crowe [00:35:11] Well I'm the same way. So like, one of the things that I did not know about having a child was that you weren't gonna get a baby to laugh or smile at you. Yeah. So like that was one of those things that I was expecting I would be able to immediately interact with the child. And what I, what nobody told me was the child, when they're first born until eight weeks, 10 weeks, something like that, they have two phases. Neutral and, and upset. Yes. And like, neither of them give you any negotiating power. All you have is I want you to be in the neutral phase. And if you're in the, if you're in the angry phase, I've gotta do something because you can,

Kylie Epperson [00:35:45] How do I get there?

Vance Crowe [00:35:47] And it's just, it's like dealing with a terrorist, right? Once you have smiling, now they've got something they can negotiate with you on and you can figure out how to, how to make them happy. But that whole section of life is something that when they portray it in the movies or they portray it on a commercial, they only portray it as the negative. And there's certainly those times when you're like, I do understand why people shake their babies because there's nothing I can do here. But you also don't, when you're watching the movie or the commercial have any sense of connection between that the, the parent and the child. And like, even when they're super, super upset, you're still like, you're mine. I'm, I'm, I'm responsible. I don't have any other choice but to be here. And even as much as my one voice is telling me, set you down and go walk away from the screaming, there's some other thing deep inside of you that's just like, you're here. This is just what we're doing.

Kylie Epperson [00:36:42] Yeah. Like, you signed up for this, right?

Vance Crowe [00:36:44] Like you

Kylie Epperson [00:36:45] Had a baby and now you're, now you're stuck here. And stuck is like a relative term because I don't wanna say stuck sounds so like bad, it has a very negative, you're stuck here. But like you said, it's like what, it's what you chose to do. And as much as you wanna say like, I need five minutes, you know that that baby is gonna cry for that entire five minutes and not just cry like level 30 cry screaming to where they can't catch their breath and now they're gonna be gassy. And that's my issue is like I horribly, horribly predict the future, especially with a newborn, with the kids in real life. I, I, I very much try to stay in the present because I can walk myself down a very, very tangled path if I'm like, well what now? Well if this happens, then this is gonna happen. And, and I go very negative, very fast in my brain. And so I've learned that I can't do that. Why can't I do that with my kids? We have a bad nap. Well, in my head I'm already preparing for the next thing. Like that means sleep's gonna be bad tonight, which means he is gonna be horrible. I'm gonna be up all night, which means that I'm gonna be tired and tomorrow we're gonna have to do this and this and go to work. And I'm already upset about that and it's four o'clock in the afternoon the day before. And so that's where I can easily try to relate to people saying slow down. And I have to tell myself that. Like, I don't ever look in the mirror and say, Kylie, slow down. But I do have that inner conversation with myself. Like, okay, take a deep breath. Because in reality, like at some point things are going to go okay, between now and tomorrow at at four o'clock in the next 24 hours something is going to go right, hopefully

Vance Crowe [00:38:24] Hope.

Kylie Epperson [00:38:24] So

Vance Crowe [00:38:24] What did you learn about yourself that you didn't expect by becoming a mother? What, what changed with you?

Kylie Epperson [00:38:31] I can live on a lot less sleep than I ever thought I could. My, my less sleeping in college was like because I drank too much and I stayed out too late or stayed up studying or something. Not on the same night obviously, but I can function on a lot less sleep. And your values change what I once thought was valuable all of a sudden is much less valuable because kids are so exhausting, but so incredible at the same time. If, if they didn't cause me so much less sleep and like mentally like kind of crazy at the newborn stage, we would have like four or five kids. But I think that we've fully extended our level of craziness with this third one. And then our business also kind of like limits that. And so I think I've learned also, I can't be everything for everyone without taking care of myself. I very much value working out and that's kind of my, that's kind of my self care if you, if you will. And so I take that time, like if my big kids wanna play with me right now and it's workout time, I'm like, guys, I need you to be more patient and and go do something else. Go play, go read your books. Go do something else because this is time for me. And so learning those limitations and those limits that I have to set for myself, limitations in the regard that you have three kids to take care of and you can't always tell them, no, go do something else. Or, or you know, you don't always get that workout in or that self care, but also setting limits for yourself to make yourself a priority.

Kylie Epperson [00:40:05] I didn't really do that for myself until I became a mom and I didn't even really do that for myself until after like my first kid was older.

Vance Crowe [00:40:14] My good buddy Jared McDaniel talks a lot about how when you become a parent you actually have to burn off so much of your childhood that a big part of having the first child is that you're lighting so much of, of yourself on fire. Things that you thought were intrinsically a part of who you were or what you just had to have in order to be you. And now you're discovering like, oh my god, one, I can't do it, so that's gonna get lit on fire. And two, if I wanna be this other thing that I now want to be, that I've gotta burn it off fast enough that I can be that parent. And, and I, I, from what he's told me is that as you have your second and your third child, there's less burning off of you because you've already started to figure that out. There's still things you're burning, but the the biggest transition is the first one. And God, I hope so because there's no i there's no more left to light on.

Kylie Epperson [00:41:08] You just have one, you just have one kid.

Vance Crowe [00:41:10] Yeah. Just six, six months old. Yep.

Kylie Epperson [00:41:11] I say just lightly because kids are awesome. Like, congratulations six months. Like everything will change rapidly until like they're three and then it starts to really slow down. But you are absolutely right. I've never heard that analogy or, or that you are absolutely burning off anything you thought Jordan and I always joke, what did we do with ourselves before we had kids? Like what were we actually doing like in our spare time? 'cause I can't remember, but I know whatever I was doing was valuable to me. Like whether that be maybe catching up on a Netflix show or reading my book or going and, and socially hanging out with friends. What did we do? 'cause I don't remember because now our time is completely filled up with things that we wanted, but still different than what I thought, you know, at the time that I wanted. And I think that's a really good point. Your first kid is really hard. It's so hard 'cause you make a whole entire life adjustment. Like you had to take care of your, you know, 30-year-old self and that's all you had to do. And 'cause your partner could take care of themselves obviously. And so if you wanted to eat, you ate, or if you wanted to take a shower, you took a shower or go to the gym. And when you have a kid they say, no, you can't do that right now. When you want, you may still get to do it, but it's not like

Vance Crowe [00:42:30] There's

Kylie Epperson [00:42:30] No time schedule with kids and, and you just learn to go with the flow. First kid Kylie was like kind of crazy, didn't understand it, didn't really know that because they don't prepare you for that. Like the world does not prepare you for having your kid. They tell you what to buy and what might make them sleep better and what, you know, what formula's the best or if breastfeeding's the best, blah blah blah. They push all these opinions on you, but like they never give you the true depiction of like what life is actually like at 3:00 AM four weeks into having your first kid.

Vance Crowe [00:43:05] Yeah, I mean one of the thoughts that's come up with me recently is I really had very little ability to distinguish between happiness and joy before I had a child. And, and now I would say happiness is one of those things that you can feel it's like, good, you've accomplished something. It's this yeah.

Kylie Epperson [00:43:23] Feeling

Vance Crowe [00:43:23] Of, of euphoria, but it also like, basically as quick as it comes on, it goes away. But joy is like this enlarging of yourself. And I heard this analogy the other day of, it's like with tree roots when they grow together and eventually you have, instead of having two trees, you have one great big tree.

Kylie Epperson [00:43:47] That

Vance Crowe [00:43:47] Really is the way that I think once you've had a child, you can experience this thing of joy where your roots are growing together, maybe with your spouse or maybe with your child, and you yourself are able to be a larger container for something that transcends just being happy. It's some some form of fulfillment that is very difficult to put into words before you have a child.

Kylie Epperson [00:44:09] Yeah. And I would tie that word joy also to, to being proud. There's no, you can be proud of yourself or an accomplishment that you've, you've worked hard and completed and maybe that's school or maybe that's a job or maybe that's something that you do for yourself, but until you have a kid and you watch them do something for themselves, maybe it's smile for the first time or walk or set up, or you have your five-year-old who is using words that you must use in your home because where else did they get them? But, but they've just used them correctly in a sentence and, and you are just like, it's astonishing. I mean, it, it's, it makes you, like you said, you feel joy and you are so incredibly proud and we watch too many cartoons at my house. So instead of, you know, feeling like the tree roots growing together, I'm like the Grinch and my heart is growing,

Vance Crowe [00:44:58] You

Kylie Epperson [00:44:58] Know, you know, in sizes because you just genuinely, you're like, I created that. And, and with that, we being parents, we get to create tiny humans that get to go do good things in the world. And so how we look at life, how we interact with them, how we as parents show them what's right and wrong, they're gonna pick those things up. I firmly believe in learning at home. Kindergarten teacher, friend of mine said, I can teach your kid the ABCs, but I cannot teach them to be polite. And so we get to do that as parents. And so whether parenting is your number one goal in life, or maybe it's your career or whatever, but when you become a parent, if that's the path that you choose, like you are shaping these little tiny nothing humans that you like don't smile at you. They are neutral or level 10 and then all of a sudden they are people who are gonna go and make differences in the world and be somewhere people or anywhere, people, whatever that decisions that they make you are the foundation for. And, and I love that about

Vance Crowe [00:46:02] Being. So as you think about that as a somewhere person that said you felt a personal responsibility to come back and, and be a fourth generation farmer. When you think about the things that are out in the world that could pull your children in a direction that you don't want, what are the ones that frighten you? What are the ones that you're like, ah, I I really wanna push that out or away as far as I can

Kylie Epperson [00:46:26] As far as just their paths in life? Is that the question?

Vance Crowe [00:46:29] Yeah, I mean like media or their paths in life or, you know, you have to, you have to start sharing them with other people that, that who are gonna have an influence on them. So what, what is it that you, what influences are you trying to push away as far as you can?

Kylie Epperson [00:46:44] Interestingly enough, being somebody that's, you know, on social media as much as I am media, mainstream media and kind of that's like a little bit taboo, the cancel culture going on right now, that scares me a lot. As a just person from a rural town, I, I would love for our kids to come back and farm. And so when we kind of frame our life for the kids, we, we try to show them what's really going on. I mean, sure my son doesn't understand farming as much as, you know, he's a five, so that's that. But he does understand that dad does work a lot and that mom is the primary caregiver and he sees that, that aspect of farming. But in the same breath, we try to talk positively to them about how we internally really do feel about farming. And so if they wanna come back, great, we wanna, but we also wanna give them the opportunity to make that choice to be an anywhere or somewhere person. We wanna give them the, the tools early on in life to, to make those hard critical thinking decisions on, on which way they wanna go. And if they don't choose to come back then, then that's something for Jordan and I to cross when that time comes. But I would say that like idea of the, the cancel culture, I'm not super fond of that, but also just the media and how, how gullible we are to believe anything that we read or hear, whether that be true or not, not even the media, but like we can go on Google and find anything we want to know about anything and we can find articles to back up how we think we should believe, whether they're truthfully, you know, real or not.

Kylie Epperson [00:48:26] And so that part scares me. I don't, did I answer your question?

Vance Crowe [00:48:31] Yeah, absolutely. I, I mean like it because it's one of those challenges, I, I mentioned this several times in the last few episodes about how surprised that was when I heard the Garden of Eden's story of the Bible by a German philosopher named Yoshi Bach. And he was saying, look, the story of the Garden of Eden is the story of childhood. It actually the walled garden that you have where the children are learning to name the animals and they're learning, they don't, they haven't eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is actually an example of the longest that you can keep a child in there and eventually you have to let them eat from the tree of knowledge where they suddenly now see there are bad things in the world, there are people that will hurt you, there are things that will go wrong. And this has been something like I really have have, it's actually given me heart because it's made me say like, the role of childhood or the role of the parent in the childhood is to create this garden of Eden as best you can, but not to keep them in there as long as you can. Right?

Kylie Epperson [00:49:31] And

Vance Crowe [00:49:31] So it helps me to try and put into place because you know, my natural inclination be like, all right, time to get rid of all of the televisions. There'll be no Amazon, no iPad, anything in here. Nothing. Yeah, nothing but that. Like probably not a great idea. You probably have to walk those in there and I just don't know what balance I should have. So I'm keenly interested in, in what other people are doing.

Kylie Epperson [00:49:53] Right. We, yeah, we don't shelter our kids in that regard. Like we have seen some serious disappointment from not being able to do certain things and our kids know that there's a sickness going around, but they don't know the like, level of what's going on. But they do understand, they understand that there's something going on and, and that hopefully soon it will be over and we'll be able to do different things and that maybe they've missed out on as a five and 3-year-old. But as a farm,

Vance Crowe [00:50:22] Have they had to wear masks yet?

Kylie Epperson [00:50:24] Yeah, yeah. We've gone shopping or you know if we had to go into Walmart or do something like that. And, and they're actually really easy to adapt, to change much, much better than us as adults. They just say, okay, well mom, you're telling me to do it. I trust you. You are the wealth of knowledge that I always rely on for everything. Like, you know, everything, so you're right, which I love that stage. I'm not ready for that to go away. But as a farmer, especially as a livestock farmer, we see big things like death and we don't shelter them from that. They understand that the reason that we farm is to feed people, right? We're, we're growing crops, we're feeding people. We really try to work on those big picture correlations, and then I'm sure the harder questions will come later, right? Why are we doing this? What's the purpose of this? And then we can dive into that. But we wanna connect them to, okay, yep. Like occasionally a pig will die or they do die down the road to provide meat for people to eat. Or we're raising corn to become feed for those animals. My, my son loves to say like, are those are those pig beans? That's what he calls 'em because we're, it's soybeans that we're growing that will likely go into a soybean meal that will likely be fed to livestock, probably pigs. We make those big life correlations now and, and they've experienced death and things that I don't think a lot of kids get experience with until maybe a family member dies, because that's not something that's common if you're not around it.

Kylie Epperson [00:51:55] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:51:55] I mean, I think growing up as a child, I maybe only saw two people die as I was growing up. And, and so then when I got into high school and, and a high school aged girl that I knew died, it was so shocking to me as to now look back on it, I'm, I'm embarrassed of it because I just, I just didn't know. I just wasn't around it.

Kylie Epperson [00:52:13] And I don't think, I don't wanna compare animals to people, but there is some element of comparison in the regards that, you know, you do care for the animals. You do the best that you can to raise them, and, and you're doing all of those things. You're putting a lot of really hard work. You do have an emotional, a physical attachment to this, this, these animals. And it does, I think, pair over then with real life. If you have death in a family or you know, friends or things like that, death is always never a pleasant topic to talk about. But, but I think it is important that our kids are seeing that firsthand growing up and being familiar with it, but still having that emotional attachment to it.

Vance Crowe [00:52:52] So right now you are a young, vibrant family and woman. What do you imagine your life will be like when you're much, much older? What, what will you be like as an older woman?

Kylie Epperson [00:53:06] Well, I hope I still have long hair. No, I don't wanna be superficial about it. I really do want, things are so ever changing and I wanna still have the core values that Jordan and I like are raising our kids on now. And I wanna still be that rock for my kids to come ask questions to and, and, and for them to trust. Trust is a huge thing for me. And so I want to be that person for them. I wanna be, I wanna be,

Vance Crowe [00:53:42] What do you mean trust is a huge thing for you?

Kylie Epperson [00:53:45] I think it's when you can trust someone, you all of a sudden, oh, how do I explain it? There's just, there's a value to trust and I think people want to trust other people. We're not a society that wants to be alone all the time and only trust ourselves and only rely on ourselves to do things. We want to have companionship. We want to be able to rely on other people to help us, whatever, babysit our kids, help us at work, be friends. You're, you're trusting people when you are friends with other people because you're trusting them with your emotions because now you're connected to them. That trust is so important. And my kids trust me blindly right now. They trust that I'm doing what's right for them. And so I still wanna be that person. I, I'm, I know, like you said, they'll be introduced to knowledge soon. Re my oldest son will go to kindergarten and I'm sure that I will learn stuff when he comes home and tells me new things. But I still, when he's 30 years old, I want him to be like, oh, I have this question, or I, I'm gonna call automatically, call my mom. And I, I want him to be that person that they can talk to. And, and, you know, mom is such a relevant term in my life, and so I still wanna be that person as far as me as a, as an individual. And where do I see myself and what does that look like as Kylie, as an old woman, I just want to be happy and I wanna experience, have experienced all that joy, and I wanna look back on my life and say that and never say like, I wish I would've done something different.

Kylie Epperson [00:55:24] So I just wanna be, I wanna be content. I wanna be happy.

Vance Crowe [00:55:27] Yeah, I think that that is one of the things that somewhere people appear to be, have maybe a step ahead, right? Like there's something where they say, within this container, I'm going to try and be active. I'm gonna try and do these things. And the anywhere people, at least in my experience, you know, I went away and, and said, I don't know what I'm going to find when I go out into the world. I'm just going exploring for this, you know, hidden thing.

Kylie Epperson [00:55:54] And

Vance Crowe [00:55:54] I think that either one can arrive at a, at a conclusion that's good for them. But I know that for, for me, the contentment was not anywhere on my radar screen. I, I actually didn't feel that it was possible to be content because I, I kind of felt like to become content was to yeah, was to fail, was to, was to stop moving forward. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Kylie Epperson [00:56:16] I

Vance Crowe [00:56:16] Never really thought about it that way before.

Kylie Epperson [00:56:18] Yeah. Why would you wanna be content? Like what good would that do? But I always want our kids to be exploring and, and one wanting more, but in the same breath, like, what is life? If we're not ever content with where we are, we can always look back and say like, oh, I wish I would've stayed a little bit longer in that moment. But when we're in the moment, we're always looking forward and trying to move past whatever we're doing. Even, you know, relating back to motherhood and this phase of no sleeping. And I'm like, oh, can you just be a hip baby and can you just sleep through the night? But like, I need to be very real with myself and say like, this is your, probably your last child and be content with what you have right now. Because at some point you're gonna want back whatever you have today.

Vance Crowe [00:57:06] I, I find myself constantly trying to say, wake up. You know, that, that, that thing of, you know, oh, you're feeling, you know, sad or, or sorry for yourself or angry that you know, your wife didn't do this thing that you thought was gonna happen. Right? And like, anytime I find myself in there, if I'm smart enough, or if I'm like alert enough, I say, wake up, you know, you have literally everything that you worked so hard for. It's right here, and there's nothing that's going to be better. Had the forks all been put away in the right slot, so wake up. But it's a hard thing to keep yourself awake. And you've mentioned now twice being present. Where, where are you getting these ideas? Where did you, where did you come to this understanding about being present? Because it, it's not, it's not common in the Midwest, at least where I grew up, for people to be alert about this concept of presence.

Kylie Epperson [00:58:00] Oh, maybe after motherhood probably is one of those, like, I've literally seen my oldest and my second child grow up as with in the blink of an eye. And I very vividly remember so often saying, I need to get, we need to get past this stage because I know that things are gonna be better once they're bigger or they put on weight or they, and so you automatically want that next stage and then you're there and you automatically want the next stage and the next stage. And now my son's gonna go to kindergarten, and I'm like, no, I don't want the next stage yet. So that's where it start, it started for me, I think is just watching your kids grow up and having such an emotional attachment to them and their success and their, their little brains growing and, and wanting them to be the best little people that they can be. But then you look at it as, okay, how critical was I of myself when I was in college of my body and how I looked? And then I look back now and I'm like, I looked pretty good. Like I was, I was healthy, I was active, I was social, I was doing all these things that I wanted at the time, but I wanted the next thing, you know, I wanted to be more fit or I wanted to be healthier. I wanted to do all these things. And then you go to the next stage and you're like, well, that wasn't like, what I was doing then wasn't so bad. And so it started out probably, you know, five years ago when I was just became a mom and, and really going through those trenches of motherhood and, and that really tough time.

Kylie Epperson [00:59:31] And I had to find new relationships with my husband. And so being a busy business owner that we are, we have to be, we just have to be present in what we do now, otherwise it goes by too fast. And all of a sudden I'm gonna be 50 and I'm, my kids are gonna be grown and outta the house, and I'm gonna say, where did all that time go?

Vance Crowe [00:59:52] Amen. I think that's a wonderful place to leave it as the idea of being present because I think that no matter what's going on in your life, if you're awake, you're, you're way, way ahead. So Kylie Epperson, if people wanted to find you on Instagram to see what we've been talking about with your posts, how would they find you?

Kylie Epperson [01:00:11] I think you can type in Kylie Epperson and my platform will come up, but you can also find me at the Grateful Farm wife.

Vance Crowe [01:00:18] And do you put anything else out that's Instagram's where you're at?

Kylie Epperson [01:00:21] Instagram's mainly where I'm at. I do have a blog that's fairly inactive and I am on Facebook, again, fairly inactive. There is also a YouTube channel with some fun pioneer videos and some hogs hog videos that you're always welcome to go see. And that's also, it's all at the Grateful Farm wife.

Vance Crowe [01:00:36] So for, for people that don't know what your videos are, when you make videos for Pioneer and about pigs, what are, what are you making them about?

Kylie Epperson [01:00:43] Educational. This is how we run our operation. Maybe we talk about a feed system in the hog building or for Pioneer, I was, we, our farm was experimenting or planting a new bean soybean variety. And so that talked about the stages, not just of that particular product, but also it showed a lot about how we run our farm from planting to spraying, to growing season, to just checking crops to harvest. You see a lot of that in those videos. And so you can kind of, kind of take a walk down the lane of a Midwestern farmer, even from the female farm side, more so than the male farmer side in those videos.

Vance Crowe [01:01:23] Well, Kylie Epperson of the Grateful Farm Wife, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank

Kylie Epperson [01:01:27] You. I appreciate it.