Heartsong Fit With Vickie Maris | Healthy Ways to Address Stress

Spend time on Dawn of Promise Farm with Vickie Maris and her podcast guest, Brad Bixler, farrier, journeyman pipefitter and adventurer who travels the world.

Life of a Journeyman Pipefitter

During the episode, Brad trims the hooves of Kerrymor Madison, Vickie's Connemara horse. The conversation covers the life of a working man who travels around the United States to the location of the work. He is a journeyman pipefitter.

Travel to See the World When Unemployed

Brad shares of his travel adventures that fill his downtime and keys to his ability to live life relatively stress free. He talks about setting goals and then visualizing yourself as having reached the goal and living in your changed life.

During the conversation, Madison, the impatient horse, continues to interrupt and demand attention.

Lucille Maris Talks About Life on the Homefront During World War II

At the end of the episode, Vickie interviews her mom, Lucille, about her time in 1943 during World War II, as her husband, Jim Maris, was in flight training at George Army Air Field in Lawrenceville, Illinois, and Lucille lived with several other military wives in a small apartment in Vincennes, Indiana. 

Come along with farm owner and animal trainer, Vickie Maris - also the podcast host of Heartsong Fit - as she cares for her llamas and Connemara pony during evening chores in the extreme cold of winter.

You can learn more about her Dawn of Promise Farm and what it is like caring for livestock in the winter when you visit the the farm website or the Facebook page, https://www.fb.com/dawnofpromisefarm

Scott Greeson, singer/songwriter and entertainer is my guest for Heartsong Fit With Vickie Maris. He is also my husband, so that makes him an extra special guest!

Scott has been helping me with the podcast behind the scenes. He's an expert with the recording equipment and use of the software, ProTools, that we use in our music studio.

In this episode, we share insights from behind the scenes of several of our music gigs and recording projects.

Scott shares the reasons for his fondness of the tune, Heart of Gold, by Neil Young, and why he chose to sing it during a Celebration of Life service. He tells a story of his late wife, Janet Greeson, and the role she played in his learning to play harmonica.

We also share news of the release of Lee Anna Atwell's new cd project, Burning Heart, which was recorded here in our studio, Hoosier Surf Records. Her amazing songwriting talent, along with her beautiful vocals and keyboard playing, are all showcased on this disc. (in the links below)

You'll hear us banter about the band, Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday, and our recent Christmas concert.

We tell a special story about how the pieces of my latest project, Stories of a Stateside Bride, came together on a Friday night with a bit of divine intervention.

We wrap this episode with a live recording of one of Scott's tunes, Roadside Lullaby, which we played at the Eye Opener Cafe on Dec. 20 during a Christmas gig.

Reference Links for Episode 12

Soller-Baker celebration of life.

Wabash Gypsies disc of instrumental guitar music by Scott Greeson and Kevin Ludwig - link to album on iTunes

Scott Greeson's music website - www.scottgreesonmusic.com

Heart of Gold by Neil Young - Link to Heart of Gold digital download on Amazon.com

Roadside Lullaby - Youtube video of Scott Greeson's original tune; photos in video are by Terry Lyons. Link to Roadside Lullaby video in Youtube

Scott Greeson Music Channel in Youtube

To book Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday, contact booking agent, David Leonards, International Entertainment Bureau.

Burning Heart cd - original tunes by Lee Anna Atwell, keyboard player and vocalist in the band, Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday.

Website of the artist, Rena Brower - Scott mentions playing music while Rena was creating a water color painting during the Christmas Concert in Delphi, Indiana. 

Whether you're an experienced horseman or still dreaming of owning a pony, you're going to enjoy taking a ride through the llama pasture during Episode 11.

I put my Edirol recorder in my vest pocket so you can hear the footsteps of my Connemara horse, Kerrymor Madison, the creaks of the saddle, the sneezes of the llamas and other ambient sounds of the ride.

This episode is specifically designed to help you relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy the moment. If you're not currently giving yourself time to de-stress each day, I hope this ride on Madison plants a seed for something you could begin doing in your journey of self care.

I also recap a keynote presentation given by John Medina during the International Online Learning Conference (OLC). He is the author of Brain Rules and several other interesting books about how our brains work and how we learn. He tells us that the research suggests at least 30 minutes of exercising to get your heart rate elevated on a daily basis is you want to stave off memory loss and keep your mind sharp.

Enjoy!

This episode features an interview with singer/songwriter Nicky (Rood) Kerr. She tells her story of her journey through a songwriting degree, on to Nashville and how she incorporates the challenges of Type 1 diabetes into her busy life as an entertainer.

You can find more about Nicky when you visit her website:  http://www.nickyroodmusic.com

While the primary content of this episode is recorded on location at Fox Lake Resort in Minnesota, the show starts with a story from our llama farm. You'll learn about one of my protective mama llamas, Velvet, who is still looking out for her daughter, Petals, who has long since grown into an adult llama. As I tell the story, my Connemara pony, Madison, interrupts and tries to get the attention on himself.

Then, at Fox Lake Resort, I visit with Edwin and Sheryl Olson, in Marcell, Minnesota - USA. They share the history of the resort - original structures built completely by hand without electricity by two Frenchmen in the 1930s - and the many ways people enjoy the property for fishing and nature vacations. You'll hear the sounds of a fishing line being cast from the boat during an outing to fish for large mouth bass and northern pike, as well as an eagle chirping from the bank of the lake.

Scott and I have co-written a song, "Minnesota," that is inspired by our trips to Fox Lake Resort.

This episode is a conversation between me and Linda Brammer about the 21-day gentle cleanse Ultimate Reset. We walk listeners through their experiences doing a 21-day cleanse. We step through the Program Guide and share several tips learned along the way. You'll hear about the benefits gained from the change in eating habits and addition of the supplements during the 21 days. We both experienced weight loss and were feeling much better at the end of the experience.

We also talk about several of the recipes used during the cleanse. By Week 2 of the program, we were eating vegetarian and vegan meals.

This episode covers a variety of topics including:

• Sounds of the early morning and late evening of Dawn of Dawn of Promise Farm
• My experiences with the Ultimate Reset, a 21-day gentle cleanse from Beachbody (up to Day 16 for this recording)
• An interview in Rhyno's Gym with trainer and coach, Mo Amin, who specializes in training fighters in mixed martial arts and people from all walks of life who want to improve fitness. He's had great fighters train with him including Jon Fitch! (Jon is now retired from fighting.)
• A story from my mom, Lucille Maris, about WWII and bringing a Cocker Spaniel, Blondie, home from England. She had been the mascot for Dad's bomber crew. She boarded in England in a kennel with General Eisenhower's dog, as they waited for a ship and the care of a ship's butcher during the boat ride back to America.

Episode 6 of Heartsong Fit With Vickie Maris is a special tribute on the 70th anniversary of D-Day (WWII) to Lt. Col. James R. Maris and the men and women who fought for freedom in WWII. Lt. Col. Maris flew 30 missions in a B-24 bomber. His second mission was D-Day. You will hear his recounting of that day as read by his daughter Vickie. 

In this episode, she also reads the story of Mission 23 which she wrote in conjunction with her dad for a posting on the website for the 392nd bomb group. Vickie is now working on the completion of her dad's memoirs. She is interviewing her mom, Lucille Maris, in order to add the perspective of a stateside bride during WWII. You can hear some of Lucille's stories at the end of several of the episodes of Heartsong Fit.

Vickie has the recorder on as she climbs into the cab of a John Deere to interview Roger Miller as he works ground to prepare it for planting in north central Indiana.

You’ll feel like you’re in the tractor cab too as you hear the engine running and the variety of beeps and signals emitted from the auto steer in the John Deere.

This interview was a way for Vickie to de-stress after a difficult week at work. Some of her favorite days of her career were from the time she spent in agriculture interviewing farmers about techniques for saving soil and protecting water quality. 

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Lucille Maris Shares a WWII Story About the Clausings

Vickie has been interviewing her Mom, Lucille Maris, who is 99 years, for the book she is working on about her parents’ life during WWII, which stems from the memoirs her dad, Lt. Col., James R. Maris drafted about his 30 missions as a bomber pilot. There will be more about the book in later episodes. For now, please enjoy this story that Lucille tells about news they received while living in Murfreesboro, Tennessee after Jim had returned from the war.