A Tiny Homestead

Hope Hill Homestead

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Today I'm talking with Marcus at Hope Hill Homestead. 

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00:00

You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Marcus at Hope Hill Homestead in New Hampshire. Good morning, Marcus. How are you? Good morning, Mary. How are you?  I'm good.  I'm very excited to find out what you do, but tell me how the weather is in New Hampshire this morning. Well, when I was dropping my kids off at their little

00:28

uh school, little farm school, little private  Catholic farm school. It was two degrees.  Okay. Is it sunny? it cloudy? What?  It's partly sunny, cloudy. Okay. so, but there's some snow on the ground and everything is frozen here. um It is, I think it's 22 degrees outside here.

00:56

In Minnesota, it's very overcast. Our yard light, we live on three acres, so we have a light that lights up the door yard at night. It was still on at 7.30 this morning and the sun was supposed to be up. I was like, oh, it is very overcast. And they are predicting rain this afternoon. Oh no. So you're going have some hard driving conditions pretty soon. Yes. And my husband actually has an appointment at two. So I was like, please be careful when you go.

01:26

True. Yeah, I don't love it when the weather does this flip floppy thing because it's been really, really cold here and we've had snow at least a trace every day for over a week and now it's going to rain. Yeah, it just makes a big mess. yeah, we did the driveway and like, for example, I had an oil truck try to come deliver oil to me and we burn wood and we have like oil as a backup and sometimes if the fireplace goes out, the stove goes out in the night, then you...

01:55

the heat kicks back on and I wanted to make sure I had the oil tank full because we live up on  a dirt road, a driveway is a dirt road  that goes up pretty  steep and uh at some points the oil company will say we  won't even attempt to go up your driveway because it's dangerous. uh yeah, yesterday he tried to, a few days ago they tried to get up, they couldn't make it up and I'm like, oh please God, please let them help him get up and then they came today and he delivered it. So now we're, hopefully we're set for the winter.

02:25

because it's really important when you live on a homestead, as we all know who do. Okay, so tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at your place. Yeah, so we live on, me and my wife and my four kids, live on 10 acres and we have some sheep and we have some chicken and I also from home, I'm a work at home parent here and I

02:54

I make furniture, but I also make  like little A-frame cabins and greenhouses. That's primarily what I do now. I make these kind of these smaller concept cabin structures that people use for like Airbnb or just for,  you know, their backyard sleeping cabins or whatever. Yeah.  And as far as like the homesteading part, we just started milking some sheep this last spring, the first time we milked. um

03:24

That's been interesting and we made cheese. We were in the process of trying to become more self-sufficient, but as you know, you got to take little steps and sometimes with every two steps you take, you take one step back. Yes, you do. Sometimes you don't even go forward again. We did that with rabbits.

03:48

We're not doing rabbits again, I don't think. We keep talking about it, but I don't think we're gonna do it again. just not, it is not worth the return for us. So with the sheep, I already knew that you could milk sheep, but are they good with that or do you have to like train them to be okay Well, you know, there's a couple breeds that are very good milkers. So we have some East Phrasians and

04:14

The East Fraser's sheeps, can produce up to a couple gallons each one a day.  And a lot of people don't know that about um sheep that you can  milk them.  we love our sheep and we've had sheep for the last,  well, we had to get rid of our herd a few years ago because we just didn't have enough pasture and it was getting too expensive  and we had young kids and it all together was hard. so we... um

04:43

We got rid of our sheep and our goats for a little bit. And then we just had the chance to get back the same sheep that we got rid of, returned to us um because they had young children. They couldn't take care of them.  And luckily they were, one of them was in milk.  And uh so we just kept on milking and it was fantastic. And sheep's milk, if anybody has tried goat milk, there's a little bit of a taste with goat milk. It doesn't taste like cow's milk, but sheep's milk.

05:11

actually taste just like cow's milk, I would say even better than cow's milk. And it's actually better for you. It has a higher protein content. It's got a higher fat content. It's a higher vitamin and mineral content. And yeah, they're easy. Awesome. I know nothing about it, so I thought I would take the opportunity to ask. So what brought you to this lifestyle? Oh, man. mean, the simple lifestyle in the country, even though it's

05:41

It's simple, there's a lot of hard work, but there's a reward. right, so I think a lot of homesteaders do it because of what they get out of it. Not just because they think they're gonna be able to completely live off the land.  It's like you realize you're sacrificing some time, but the returns you get by the process of homesteading. So having like two young boys, I wanted them to uh kind of grow up.

06:11

having farm chores, being around animals,  and choosing just  that lifestyle, which seems so nostalgic  to the modern busy life that we're kind of living now. It just allows you to be home more, um enjoy the company of animals,  and enjoy  that work that goes into it. um So I think this altogether is for, yes, to have kind of

06:40

safety net if shit ever hits the fan, know, to be able to produce milk and have eggs. But also just for the experience of it and just for  the love  of the lifestyle.  Absolutely could not agree more. And sometimes you get to hang out with the neighbor's animals too. Just before we signed in to talk to each other,  our neighbor's dog showed up on our property. We have not actually met her before. Her name is Shy.

07:09

She is some kind of  Labrador retriever and she's very, very red. She's almost the red of a deer. Yeah. And we have a mini Australian shepherd  and apparently Shy showed up and our shepherd decided to say hello  and uh my son brought our dog in and my dog was losing her mind. So it's a good thing that we couldn't get together till  the time we signed in because I wouldn't have been able to talk until she stopped barking. Right. Yeah. I love that. uh

07:38

about getting the random visitors from the neighbors or other wild animals that  come around and the reactions of the animals are always fun. Yeah, she's a very friendly dog. I was like, hello, beautiful girl. And she came right over to the window because I was on my porch and put her paws up to say hi. That's funny because sometimes you hear them. You know you have the neighbor, the dog's neighbor. And then  every once in while, they come over to visit. you're like, OK, that's where the barking's coming from.

08:03

Yes, and if it wasn't icy, it's all hell out there. I would have gone out and said hello, but I don't want to break a hip. I would really rather not.  But she said hello through the window. And when she shows up this spring, because she inevitably will, I will have to just love on her then when it's not so scary outside. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, I love dogs. I was not a dog person until we got our dog as a puppy.

08:26

And now I'm like, oh, look at the good boy. Oh, look at the good girl. And my husband's like, oh my God, you are the most converted woman ever to dogs. It's so funny. Me and my wife, we've gone back and forth with having dogs. We've tried having a couple of dogs. And she says, oh, you're just not a dog person. I do love dogs. I love dogs. But they're also a lot of work. And it's like having another child.  It absolutely is. And it will break your heart when they're not feeling well.

08:53

or if they die early, our dog has a very sensitive stomach and when she doesn't feel good, I just want to fix it and I can't. And it makes my heart hurt like it did when my kids were little. So yes, it's just like having another kid. And it's funny because like we just got this new cat and I was reluctantly holding off, but you know, we had, we want to get rid of, know, there's some mice around here and there. So I'm like, all right, so I can.

09:19

I can go, my little boys really wanted to have a cat. I'm like, all right, we'll get the cat. And now I'm totally all in and now I understand. I see my friends who have their dogs, they love their dogs so much. And me and my wife would be sitting in our bed talking about our kids. I would always say her, I bet you our friends are just laying in bed talking about their pets before they go to bed. And now we do the same with the cat. And the cat sleeps between us and kind of.

09:47

her's us to sleep, you know, and, and, no, it is, it is a wonderful symbiotic relationship, isn't it?  It really is.  I  don't know that I want another dog once ours is no longer with us. I don't know that I have the energy  for another one. I'm 56. We've probably got another six years with her. Yeah. And I'm like, you know, maybe a house cat next time.  It's a lot of work and responsibility and cost.

10:15

And so you have to weigh it, right? Cost benefit.  so we tried this dog and it was just, was going to the road all the time and we're so far up the driveway.  have no neighbors around us, but um it would find a way to get to the road and it kept on, the police would have to come get it.  it just became,  everyone says in the beginning, like they're gonna do all the...

10:40

taking care of the dog and the boys like, yeah, we'll do everything. And it always ends up just falling on me. And then it ends up being this stressful, it becomes this stressful use of your time sometimes. there's a lot of benefits to dogs. Also, if you wanna go places, sometimes you have to find a place for them to stay. So yeah, it's like having a young child and you have to weigh the cost benefit. And sometimes that...

11:06

that benefit outweighs the cost and then sometimes it doesn't. So you have to figure that out.  Yes, absolutely. If we didn't live on three point, whatever it is, acres and we didn't need a watchdog, we probably would not have a dog. Right.  Because I really like the fact that if somebody pulls in the driveway, she lets me know. That is nice. So that's very important to me because I don't want surprises at my door.  I want to know somebody's going to be walking out the door.

11:34

I know, very true. then sometimes you'll see those like, you know, now all the reels they have on like the YouTube shorts or whatever, and you see  all these dogs, you know, uh helping out the little kids or like chasing away a coyote or  preventing some attack.  And you're like, Oh, yeah. So I know you're looking like, Oh, that's a good reason to have a dog. Yep, absolutely. And with the cat thing, we have a huge pole barn and we moved here.

12:00

There were many, many, many mice in the pole barn, to the point that they were having babies in the workbench drawers. Oh my goodness.  And so we acquired three barn cats. uh we've had many, barn cats over the last five or so years. And the cats do an excellent job of keeping the pole barn  free of vermin.  And they're not so good about keeping it free of possums, because possums like cat food. Ooh. But the great thing about possum is, you know, you know what?

12:30

Oh wait, it possums? No, or is it, yeah, possums. They  eat a lot of They do. Yeah, so that's kind of good. I think they eat the most ticks out of anything, I think. And that's great, as long as they're actually in the tree line where the ticks are. If they're in the pole barn, they get dispatched.  That's true. Or are good eating? I don't know. I've never tried. Ah, no. I wouldn't. I don't know. I'm sure that other people probably do eat them. We've never tried it.

12:57

But  wild games too, they call it, you know, just get a whole bunch of them and he's put it in a stew and.  I'll have to ask my husband the next time he has to dispatch a big one if he wants to try pasta.  But uh no, I agree with you on your  take on what brought you to this, because  I grew up  on a one acre lot with my parents  in Maine.

13:26

And half that lot, the back half was swamp, woods and swamp. And I loved  where I grew up. We spent a lot of time, me and my sister, my brother, hanging out in the woods and making forts underneath the spruce tree boughs and  walking the creek and fishing and the whole bit.  Yeah. And now in Minnesota, I live on flat land  and I don't live near a creek, but we have a tree line.

13:51

That tree line makes me so happy because there's a little path to get to the other side of the tree line. And I walk through there and it's not the same because Maine, Lanchester, Vermont, Massachusetts, lots and lots and lots of  conifer trees,  evergreen. Not so much here. Here it's hardwood. Really? Yeah. Oh, I thought there would be more ah softwood there too. I'm in south Minnesota. Up north there's a ton of pine trees.  Right.

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but not so much down here. Down here it's more astens and oak trees and maple trees. Oh, no kidding. But it's really interesting because trees are trees. And if you grew up amongst trees, any tree will do. It will. Yeah. Yeah. I love trees. Me too. I love trees.  I harvest trees out of my  woods too. I'll cut some down. It's always kind of bittersweet when I cut down like an oak and I mean,

14:48

for firewood  and it's like, oh man, I'm getting rid of a tree, but I'm also heating my  house with it and it's, you know, it's good work, it's hard work, but it's good work too. It keeps you strong, keeps my boys strong. um But it's, that's what it's there for too. It's there to heat, you know, it's there for, that's what's special about trees. It  provides the food and it provides  the shade or provides the heat, all the things that you need.  So um yeah.

15:16

I mean, being surrounded by trees is a gift. If you've never been surrounded by trees, you don't really know kind what you're missing, huh? Absolutely.  One of the prerequisites, all right, I said it right, finally.  The prerequisites for where we were gonna land five years ago was that there must be trees.  Must be trees.  Must be trees and must be a flat space to grow a big garden. And we found a place, oh Perfect.  Love it.

15:45

We thought about moving back to New England and we looked at house prices and house prices were really reasonable five years ago. Yeah.  The cost of living has gone up so much for New England. was like, no, we're staying in Minnesota. I know we, we, um, we bought right before it was during the pandemic. We brought, we bought right before all the prices went up when the interest rates were still really low too.  we got lucky. We, we were renting.

16:14

and we had a bad landlord and we're like, okay, we gotta figure, we gotta buy, we gotta buy now. And luckily we just went far enough into Western, Southern New Hampshire where we just gotta, we can't believe what we found. And we were so, I say not lucky, but blessed, because it does feel more like a blessing when you find a place like what we have. But now I couldn't imagine trying to find something.

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being like a younger couple, uh trying to find like  a homestead. Now you have to really, you know, look hard.  And you've got to have the money. Yeah, I know.  And the credit and the income and  that was always something I was never really good at the credit. And I was determined, actually, I was a traveler through my twenties and thirties. I backpacked all the time. And I, I'm a singer songwriter as well. And I figured out you can make money and travel while you're

17:12

while you're backpacking if you have a guitar with you.  Then I bought some land, 10 acres of land up on Prince Edward Island in Canada.  I bought 10 acres, sight unseen, it was right on the water, it was beautiful. I didn't go through a bank, I didn't have to go through a bank, it was like a land company that if you just put some money down, they would hold the note, they would finance you at an interest for like a five or seven year term. uh

17:39

And I was going up there, I spending like nine months out of the year, like up on Prince Edward Island. I was trying to live that simple, very simple life. And I did, and I had like a little cabin, just a wood stove, no electricity. And you know, that's when I really kind of like fell in love with the simple life. And it was almost giddy every day, just having everything be so simple. And it's funny, it's, we really...

18:07

There's a part of us that really enjoys the nature and just having simpleness. And I feel like today we overcomplicate things. You know, we have so much going on, so much modern, you know, all the modern conveniences and the comforts. It hasn't seemed like it's made us more happy, you know? I think when we simplify our lives, I think, you know, we are nature more and homesteading.

18:37

I think there's like an amount of satisfaction you just really can't get from the modern world. Well, I agree. And I have been thinking about this a lot because I hear this a lot from people on the podcast. And I feel like homesteading is genuine. And if you're just living in a box and going to work 40 to 80 hours a week,

19:02

Home is where you might sit down to eat if not stand at the sink and eat and it's where you sleep. Right. And I don't want to say it's performative, but it's not, I don't feel like it's living. feel like it's a... think you're all the guests in your own home, know, I guess almost where? Yeah. Yeah. I get it. And honestly, I love where we live. I mean, I have talked about this ad nauseum with anyone who will listen.

19:33

And when we first moved here,  I  really every day I would go outside in the morning with my coffee and sit on the steps and just  look out toward the trees and just breathe.  For the first, I don't know, a couple of months we lived here because I was just so dumbfounded that we did it, that we finally did it. uh I know it feels good.  And just being able to sit and have tea or coffee and just soak in that moment, huh?

20:02

Makes it all worth it, doesn't it? Yes, absolutely. And my husband still has a job, a jobby job as we call it. But his favorite place to be is here at home. Yeah. And when we decided to make this leave, I said to him, I said, we need to find a place that we love so much that it's like being on vacation, even though we're home. Oh, yes. Me and my wife, we talked about the same thing. That's the exact same thing. When we first moved here.

20:31

We did, we felt like we were on vacation. We were like, this is cool. It was very surreal for the first month. I was like, my house is clean because it was remodeled a year before we moved in and no one had lived here. And it was so clean and so perfect. And I kept going, this is way too fancy a home for us. And my husband laughed and he said, I'll just give it a year. It'll be not fancy. Oh, that's funny. I know.

20:57

all my walls now they need a paint job because when you have younger kids, their hands with chocolate gets smear on the walls. Do we repaint all the walls now or wait until they get a few years older to make sure they're not doing that? then they'll be teenage boys and they'll probably still make a mess out of them. Well, I'll tell you secret. My youngest still lives here. He's 23. He'll be 24 this month. And I see his hand prints.

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not prints, not his hand prints, his fingerprints on the wall that goes toward the stairs  because he puts his hand on that side of the wall when he hits the stairs.  And uh we also have dings in our paint because the people that painted it painted it with a  latex paint on the inside. OK, if you ding latex, it peels.  Oh, boy.  So my husband went through and take and mudded those spots so they'll be paintable. Yeah.

21:57

Now we're stuck with what color do we want to paint it? So it'll be a bit before we don't have white spots on our coffee painted walls. ah So I don't want to go too far into all the home stuff, but I do want to know about the structures that you build because I saw them on Facebook and I was like, those are super cool. So tell me about that. Yeah, thanks. So, you know, I'm a third generation furniture maker and so we were wholesalers and so I'd make everything from

22:25

kitchen islands, to wall shelves, coffee tables, kitchen tables, small accessories, little garden signs, whatever was made of wood, we do.  We sell them to stores. And oh I did that  for  more than 20 years.  then having the homestead here,  I started building my own chicken coops, my own greenhouses. I'm like, oh, this is kind of fun to do. I'm like, kind of getting a little...

22:54

with a board of the furniture,  with competing with the imports and ah it's hard to make money, make furniture nowadays because there's just so much competition from overseas. You have Ikea and things like that.  I'm like, you know what? I'm going  to start making these trucks. I'm going to try that. I'm going to try building a chicken coop or a greenhouse and then put it on marketplace and sell it. And they started selling and I'm like, oh, this is cool. And then  I have this signature

23:24

I fire burn, instead of like staining, I'll fire burn all the wood first and I build it. And so now it has that protective fire burned stain on it, which protects from raw and from bugs and from, you know, this is from other, from wear and tear, lasts a long time with that fire burn technique that I use. so yeah, so now I'm, you know, I'll make a mini A-frames, you know, I'll make like outhouses.

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you know, any type of structure, know, like a fire shed, you know, for your firewood. And yeah, so now, but now it's, you know, it's almost Christmas and no one's really buying anything like, you know, right now, but now I'm coming up with different ideas of different structures that I'm going to do different designs. And I want to keep them kind of like unique because there's a lot of people who sell different like sheds and things. So you have to always try to make it a little different, you know.

24:20

I do know my husband and son built a greenhouse two summers ago. Two summers ago. Yeah. And I got a grant for the supplies to make it. No way. Got a $5,000 grant and we spent I think a couple hundred dollars more than the $5,000 grant. Good for you guys.

24:44

I forget how big the greenhouse is. thought it was 40 by 20, but my husband informed me that it's not as big as I think it is,  but it's not eight by eight. Let's say that. They built it from scratch and I love this thing. It's gained us two months in the spring to get the baby plants going. It has gained us two to three months in the fall to keep anything that's a cold weather crop going. That's fantastic.

25:13

So I get it, I'm not a builder, my husband is the builder, he's really, really good at it. But I do absolutely appreciate the talent and the art that goes into it. There's a satisfaction at the end when you build something like that, know, really I think for man or woman, it's just that when you complete something like that and you step back and look at it, and you know can be used for such a practical purpose, and you're thinking, oh my God.

25:40

person's going to have this greenhouse now that they're going to be able to grow their food in and  or like a chicken coop that they can raise their eggs in and it's like, oh, that's cool. And I want to be able to teach my sons that someday too. And to be able to work with the hands because it is, you know, it is very rewarding  to build something with the hands  and that's going to last. And  I am not a builder, but I am a cook.  And when I make dinner and I go all out for dinner about once

26:10

once every six months, usually in the winter time. I do like a big from scratch meal and it's usually a turkey and it's not necessarily at Christmas or Thanksgiving. We like turkey other times too.  And  once I get that all on the table and we're sitting down to eat, I'm just like, I just spent six hours total putting all this together. We're gonna have it wiped out in half an hour, dinner will be over. And I just look at it and go, I don't care that it's gonna be gone because it was actually really satisfying to make it.

26:40

You  know, that's one of the keys to life, to  happiness in life is enjoying the process as you're doing something and not to do it like begrudgingly  or feel like you have to, but to actually enjoy  your craft or your skill, like cooking, to enjoy it as you're doing it.  I love all that too. I'm primarily the dinner cooker here.  And the only thing I hate is the mess after. That's the part that I'm the dishes.

27:10

Me too, right there with you.  I  don't mind the mess like when there's stuff on the counter, it's got to be wiped up. That's fine. It's the stacks of dishes that make me crazy. And I've learned, I've learned when I'm going to cook big to clean as I go, if there's time to wait for something, I try to get some of the dishes in those times and that way it's not so overwhelming. Yeah.

27:34

That's true. I have learned to do that too, is to like try to put some stuff away as I'm cooking so you're not also dealing with all the cooked stuff, you know, all the things that you brought out to try to minimize that.  But yeah, you you're always trying to learn new ways of making that part a little more efficient, you know?  One of the most fabulous things I learned in my 20s was the theory of no wasted motion. I'm not.

28:01

I'm not as good at it now as I used to be because I just don't care as much. don't have four little kids running under my feet.  But the theory is that if you're in the living room and you see something that needs to go to the kitchen and you're headed to the kitchen,  take the thing from the living room to the kitchen. No waste of motion. Oh, you're right. You're so right. eh You're right.  That is so true.  how  would you get your steps in in the day? If you're too efficient, you're not getting all your steps in. I'm just kidding.

28:31

I don't know, eat less terrible food. Right, it's true. Okay, so how many of your little buildings have you sold, do know? I would say, because I've done this now a little bit more than two years, about two years, I would say probably at least a couple dozen. Yeah, like right around there, and it's kind of like supplemental.

28:59

income because my wife works full time for a school district  and but yeah and so like you know the jobs are getting a little bit a little bit bigger the structures are getting a little bit bigger so now i don't have to do as many you know because i'm doing bigger so like the bigger they are you know the more money and i'm just trying to find that sweet price point where it's affordable for people but i'm also you know my labor i'm getting enough for my labor and um but uh yeah yeah so you know new

29:29

new ideas, new projects, you know, in my mind all the time. and  so, but now this during winter time is when I'm going to kind of ah put together like an official catalog too, that I can like send out, you know, to people.  Yeah. So do you build the structures on your property and then like,  truck them to where they're going, or do you build them on site or how does it work? Well,

29:55

It depends on the structure.  it's a small enough structure, I can build it completely here in my workshop and I can transport it assembles.  once they get to a certain size, I come up  with a way of  prefabbing.  can do like the whole, say like for an A-frame, I can build the front part of the A-frame by itself. I can build the back part of the A-frame and then that will fit on and I can build the floor and I can bring those three separate pieces. um

30:24

to the site and then I can basically I'm assembling on site.  So I'm not building it from scratch on site. you know, like, so right, it might take me like four to six hours to assemble on sites. Well, I'll prefab a lot of it in my workshop here,  which is just  a double door garage attached to my home. So that way the, you know, the it's easier to heat  and  the overhead isn't as much, you know,  so.

30:53

It's really the only way to make money when you're a builder is to have your overhead low pretty much.  know, yeah. So, um, always trying to keep, you know,  your overhead expenses cheap.  And, uh, that's part of the key of, you know, being able to do it.  Any small business try to keep your overhead low. It's true. I know. And there's always a, uh, a tendency to wanna cause I've seen it happen many times,  um, where you, want to get big.

31:22

um And then you look for a bigger place and you increase your overhead, but then that means you need increased sales. And if you increase your overhead, then you have to increase your sales. And if your sales aren't there, but your overhead always is there. yeah. Yeah.  There's a lot of talented people who have created amazing products  and drowned in their success because they couldn't keep up.  Right. Yup.

31:52

Yeah. And so I've seen this happen in the furniture business over the years. saw different times, m the rises and the falls of many different types of businesses like that.  And it's always been, you get to a point where you're successful and you grow. And then if there's a dip in sales, then you're kind of, you're, in trouble. And so, you know, just being happy, that's where like living a simple life comes into it. it's.

32:20

People, we always tend to upgrade all our expenses too. We start making a little bit more money. You're like, oh, I can buy that upgraded car. I'll get a bigger TV package. I'll spend money on this, spend money on that. But if you try to keep the simple living in the beginning, then it's not as hard. You don't need to be huge to be successful. Yep, exactly.

32:46

So do you market your buildings on Facebook or do you have other ways to let people know about them? know, do have like, uh it's primarily Facebook  and it's been good enough, you know, so far, but I'll probably have to, you know, venture out more. I mean, I do have like a small brochure that I made, you know, from Staples that I've given out. you know, marketplace is  just an efficient way  of, you can post to up to like 20 different groups.

33:16

And that's like, you know, might be like this town, you know, certain towns area, you know, or, you know, so, you you post one thing on some of these Facebook marketplace groups and, you know, tens of thousands of people are able to see, you know, and then, then you can like hashtag, you can get a link to your own page, to your, to your page. then, so as you do more, you're adding products to your page. And now,

33:43

It's like you have a catalog basically on your page so people can scroll down and they can see all the different things that I do. And then the algorithms, a lot of it has to do with algorithms.  sometimes it's a mystery how the algorithms work.  sometimes you'll see  a product that I have has  tens of thousands of views.  And then a similar product that I thought was just as good gets just like  a couple hundred views. I'm like, huh, wonder why? This is a mystery.

34:11

Yeah, I have no idea how all that works. I wish I knew because I would be the richest person on earth if I knew that answer. You know, I know. now I see like there are some, you know, I see some things on  on, you know,  I get advertisements on Facebook about, about like, you know, like AI advertisers, like, you know, we'll advertise for you just upload it to our AI program and in the AI will find your exact niche.

34:38

It probably would work because you figure, you know, like now it's funny because me and my wife joke about like, we were just talking about this and then we'll see an ad on the Facebook about the thing we were talking about. was like, is that listening to us? You know, is it?  But it does seem to know with pretty good consistency what you're interested in because you always see, you know, advertisements for the things that you've been talking about or you've been searching up on Google. It's so funny.  It's a little creepy.  It is. It is.  It really is.

35:08

And I don't want there to be  too much surveillance.  It's crazy. I'm a little worried about, we're gonna become too dependent on technology and all that stuff. And we are now, but hopefully we can strike a balance. And I don't know if it's gonna be for, we gotta find that sweet spot, I think.  Yeah, I think that we homesteaders have the sweet spot. We're doing all the things with our hands and enjoying nature. m

35:37

and we're using technology to get the word out. True. I think you're right. I think you're right. think  it is a great tool. It can be a great, fantastic tool. um Without it, you and I would not be talking this morning. That's right. And I wouldn't be selling my cabins. So you know, you can use it as a tool for good or you can use it to waste your time.  Exactly. I have one more question about your homestead and then I want to know where people can find you. um

36:05

You said you have chickens. Do you have chickens for eggs or do you sell the meat too? Yeah, chickens for eggs. So we just have, we had more, but you know, we had a bobcat come in, in one afternoon, take out a whole bunch of them. Um, and the hawks to the hawks here, we're like on this migration of hawks. So, so now I just have to kind of keep them in my large coop that I made, that I made. Um, so, um, they're not even right now, actually they're not even producing eggs because

36:34

some trauma they have. I don't know, trying to figure it out. So hopefully we'll get some eggs again soon.  Well, if they don't have any light in their coop, they're probably not going to give you eggs until there's at least 12 to 14 hours of light again. Really? Yeah. They are based on sunlight.  Oh, wow. See, I  didn't know that. Well, thanks for letting me know. Yeah. We have a light in our coop during the winter because our chickens are the ISA Browns.

37:01

And they were bred to lay an egg a day as long as they have light in the coop in the wintertime. Really? Yep.  it's not that it's not trauma, Marcus. It's that there's not enough daylight.  I'll see if it can be something as simple as that. And when you talk to another homesteader, that they can tell you these things. Yeah. So if you want eggs in the winter, put a light in the coop. And if you want to give your chickens a break, don't put a light in the coop.  Well, it's good to know. Thank you very much.

37:28

You're welcome. I know just enough to be dangerous.  That's great. All right, Marcus, this was fabulous. Where can people find you? Just on Facebook for now? Yeah, for now. Just go to Hope Hill Homestead and you can also listen to my music too because I have a band called Root 2 Revolution and we  sing songs about living simply and things like that. Is it R-O-O-T or  R-O-U-T-E? Yeah, like the road, like  R-O-U-T-E and then number two, Revolution.

37:57

So like route, they say route.  like they would say written route, route to revolution. huh. Yeah. We're on Spotify and on YouTube and we have a song called live simply. You want to look that up?  Nice. I will have to, I'll have to go find your channels and put it in the show notes. Awesome. Thank you very much. All right. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com and if you'd like to support the podcast, you can go to a tinyhomestead.com slash support.  Marcus.

38:27

Thank you again, I really appreciate your time. Great talking to you. You too. Take care, peace.

 

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A Tiny HomesteadBy Mary E Lewis