Ep. 271 (Coffee Time) What Carroll Taught us
This week, Kent and Riley sit down for a different kind of Coffee Time episode. In the quiet moments following the passing of our founder, mentor, and friend, Carroll Hoksbergen, we wanted to take some time to simply remember the man who started it all. We share our favorite stories and reflect on the most important lessons Carroll taught us about life, business, and his profound love for the prairie. He taught us an unimaginable amount in a few short years, and this is our small tribute to his incredible legacy and the vision for land stewardship that continues to guide us every day.
Check out this episode of the Prairie Farm Podcast to find out more!
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00;00;00;00 - 00;00;19;11
Unknown
Dual set of safety glasses in a shop filled with Milwaukee. Carol's got one DeWalt tool that I know of. I saw that I felt like I was home again. I have a wall guy. Yeah, I'm a tall guy. Carol taught me to be a Milwaukee guy. I was kind of a rigid guy before. Before I came here, I have.
00;00;19;18 - 00;00;47;13
Unknown
I, have a couple of Ridgid tools at home, and, I bought them when when my wife and I had been married for maybe 1 or 2 years. Yeah. And, so we were still very young and very poor. Yeah. And, I went to this, it was an outlet mall, and they sometimes the outlet malls, they have these, like, I think they're called factory direct tools or something like that.
00;00;47;15 - 00;01;05;27
Unknown
Okay. And they sell reconditioned tools. So, you know, had some kind of problem with it. Somebody set it back in and they went through it, fixed it. And a theory of mine, I don't know that there's data to back it up, but sometimes buying reconditioned tools can be the best move, not just because of price, but because the thing got extra attention paid to it.
00;01;05;27 - 00;01;31;25
Unknown
Like to make sure that it's working, you know? I mean, that's true. And and, anyways, I got those. So this would have been back in probably like 2015, 2016 at the latest, 2016, probably more like 2015. And I still use them to this day. Batteries work great. So you're talking use reconditioned ten plus year old lithium ion batteries still work.
00;01;31;25 - 00;01;57;22
Unknown
They'll work in like January. And so I was a big Ridgid fan. But coming here, we use Milwaukee for everything. And, you know, I'm kind of a Milwaukee guy. I feel like, tools are almost something that's, like, passed down and family to. Yeah. Like I said, the only reason I. Chevy versus Ford or something. Yeah, well, when I, when I started buying tools, my dad had DeWalt stuff, so I was just like, oh, this is what I know.
00;01;57;22 - 00;02;17;15
Unknown
So I just got DeWalt stuff, and. And they're slippers. Yep. They're slippers. Stay out of my coffee. I already fed that slippers today, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. Well, I think you're right. I think, you know, the way we the way we, choose what we choose. A lot of it's based off of that.
00;02;17;15 - 00;02;42;23
Unknown
You know, another thing, too, around here, a lot of people already knows we're in Al Chalmers. Yeah. Orange farm. Yeah. And, before that, I had no experience for astronomers. My grandfather was, Oliver and Ford guy. And, so I kind of grew up around that. And, coming here, everything's orange. And I once I remember one of my earliest memories with Carol, we were changing a front tire on the tractor you're going to be on today.
00;02;42;23 - 00;03;05;16
Unknown
It still was still there. I was marveling at that the other day. That time that still, that thing's got probably more hours on it than any tire on this farm. Thanks for thanks for putting, hex on that. Hopefully it stays up. Yeah. And I remember, we're changing out, and, I guess it would have been the, sweet, black eyed Susan Field.
00;03;05;18 - 00;03;23;28
Unknown
And, I asked Carol. So, wait, why are you, all astronomers guy you just said. Because that's what I grew up on. That's why I know how to work on. And now, after being around him, they are great pieces of equipment. Right? It's a great brand. Agco today is, is what it's known as, and that includes.
00;03;24;00 - 00;03;43;19
Unknown
So I believe Agco stands for Alice Gleaner Company. Right. Because that was the first merger. And then Deutz came in there at some point. And Deutz kind of owned Alice. And, and that was before the Agco creation. And then Agco came out that they owned like Fendt. And I believe that because owned by New Holland. Right.
00;03;43;21 - 00;04;04;24
Unknown
I'm not sure, to be honest, as a guy who works on a farm with almost all of us, Chalmers, it's that's a blind spot for me. I grew up driving New Holland and, K stuff and Massey kind of whatever we get our hands on, so. But, yeah, it's it's kind of fun to explore. Why why, why do we use what we use?
00;04;04;24 - 00;04;19;20
Unknown
And I know Carol's been Milwaukee. Yeah. And. Yeah. And, he taught me that, and and, so, now I've started my own. Your own, my own kind of Milwaukee tools at home.
00;04;19;22 - 00;04;31;25
Unknown
Coffee time Wednesdays with, the Prairie Farm podcast. Can't hit us with the jingle. Do you read the Terry?
00;04;31;27 - 00;04;54;27
Unknown
Well, everyone, we are here. This is kind of a, different coffee time. You would have heard the episode Nicholas released on Friday. Did a beautiful job at the beginning of that episode, explaining what's been going on around here this week. Well, really, it's been over a week now. Yeah. So a week ago yesterday. So we're recording this on Tuesday.
00;04;54;27 - 00;05;29;16
Unknown
So it was, it was Monday of of last week. Carol, our founder and, our mentor, Riley got him about half as much of the day as as I did. Because Riley does a lot of our office stuff, too. But. Yeah, but, definitely for me and my direct mentor and our friend. Our close friend, Carol has seen aspects of of my personality that I don't think anyone else ever has.
00;05;29;18 - 00;05;56;01
Unknown
There's there's something about stress around equipment that could rip you in half and wind you up and, you know, crush you all the dangerous things about heavy equipment and, when things aren't going right that bring out a different, guttural, stressful side of a person. And, you know what, though? I'm glad I have those memories with Carol.
00;05;56;04 - 00;06;20;01
Unknown
I remember last year it was, Well, it would have been mid June. We were doing one of our last. Might have been our last, spring, prairie install for, for crp. And, we were about 30 minutes away from, from, home. I was, I was out there playing by myself. It was a pretty big job.
00;06;20;01 - 00;06;42;24
Unknown
I think it was. It was like maybe, 60 acre planting or something like that. And I knew I was going to have to come back the next day and finish and everything. But I was working till dark that night, and I had one pass left to go. Riley. And I've heard this story before. It was a really old, really old crp field and, which are great.
00;06;42;24 - 00;07;07;29
Unknown
We love seeing those because it means that they've been helping the ecosystem for a very long time. However, there can be some interesting field conditions and such a place that's been allowed to to stay wild, right? The geography is a little, little less than, visible something. Yes. That's an US problem. That's not a field problem because you're truly trying to create something natural.
00;07;08;01 - 00;07;28;23
Unknown
And then we get upset when our manmade tools don't work how we want them to in a natural environment. So I try to maintain that attitude instead of saying something's wrong with this field. And, so I was planting in there and, they needed they needed some areas replanted because of invasives, and they had to get it sprayed out and needed to reseeding.
00;07;28;26 - 00;07;46;08
Unknown
And I was making my last pass before I was like, man, I'm getting ready to go home. This is great. It's been a great day. I've gotten all these acres done. It's been fun being out here in this beautiful country and I notice on the previous couple passes when I went by this field terrace, my tires are getting a little wet.
00;07;46;10 - 00;08;04;26
Unknown
Yeah. And even maybe a little, you know, a little like, the tractor does that little shimmy or whatever, you know, or it's like it kind of like, wobbles on the back tires a little bit there as they're biting in and spinning a little bit and like, this, it's a little scary, but, you know, no problem.
00;08;04;26 - 00;08;27;05
Unknown
Right. It's a short little, like, just, you know, a 15ft, you know, little, area here that I'm getting through. No problem. Sure, it's getting a little bigger each time, but it won't. I mean, I won't, I won't pass off. Right. One pass. Well, I come to that last pass and I get into that area, and I instantly just, you know, back tires or bog.
00;08;27;05 - 00;08;49;08
Unknown
And have you ever stuck a tractor before? Yeah. Yeah. So you know the feeling, but, Oh, yeah. And at first, at first you feel like you can do something. Yes. And then it's the it's like the six stages of grief, you know, at first you fight it and then you start bargaining. Yes. And at first you're like, loving the power of the tractor, but then you're cursing the weight of the truck.
00;08;49;08 - 00;09;08;04
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that happened, I got stuck. It is like 8:30 p.m. and I had to call Carol, who is already, you know, home and I'm sure enjoying his evening and. Yeah. And Carol had to come out and we tried yanking it out with, a truck in the course. Just the mass of the tractor was too much, and.
00;09;08;04 - 00;09;29;11
Unknown
Yeah. And, so we had to come back the next day with another. We had a trailer tractor there because it was far enough away. Yeah. And get her pulled out and, had to, jerk it free with another tractor. But it was in those times where I remember we were both so, like, annoyed by my stupidity.
00;09;29;13 - 00;09;50;26
Unknown
And, just the hour that that's we had in the distance from home where that that happened and, and, Carol was he was he was very kind to me in that time. And I remember I said, Carol, I know this this is, terrible. This sucks. But I'm glad I'm learning to solve this problem with you. Yeah.
00;09;50;28 - 00;10;20;00
Unknown
And, it really kind of, you know, when I said that, we knew that Carol was sick, right? We knew he he had been battling cancer, at that point for, let's see, I guess it would have been, two years at that. At that. Maybe even three years. Yeah. Three years. And, at this point, two years of liver cancer.
00;10;20;00 - 00;10;43;14
Unknown
So it started in as a rare form of cancer, called UVA all melanoma, I believe. And, there's very few people that, get this type of cancer. And I think I heard once that there's maybe, like at one time, you know, like, right now there might be like ten people in all the state of Iowa that have UVA, all melanoma.
00;10;43;16 - 00;11;11;20
Unknown
And, the crazy thing about it is, like my grandfather, who's no longer living, he had eye cancer, different kind of eye cancer. But they it stayed local to his eye. They were able to take care of it with laser treatment, and, it never went outside of his eye. Yeah, but with this type, it it just very often will metastasized to the liver directly from the eye.
00;11;11;22 - 00;11;29;27
Unknown
Yeah. To the liver. And, you know, any kind of cancer is a terrible deal. But usually when you hear something like eye cancer, it's like, okay, well, you know, that's that's that's bad, you know, but usually it can be taken care of. But in this case, you know, and then liver cancer, obviously that's that's one of the worst cancers to have.
00;11;30;00 - 00;11;54;04
Unknown
Yeah. And not just from the severity of it, but, how aggressive it is and how sick it can make and miserable it can make people feel, you know, and so this is two years into that battle for Carol with, with it having, having gone to, the liver and, the guy was still working every day.
00;11;54;12 - 00;12;23;11
Unknown
Every day. I mean, he would he would usually take Sundays off, but he was working, Monday through Saturday every week. Many of those days, 12 hour days, and I remember Nicholas talked about when he first came on here and, and I should, I should say we're sorry that Nicholas isn't here. Obviously, Nick is dealing with a ton right now.
00;12;23;13 - 00;12;47;20
Unknown
He's he he's, you know, a doing a great job being there for his family. But also, he needs time to process and grieve and, so that's why Nick isn't here today. And you also have just the way it worked out. His brother is actually, getting married this week. And so Nicholas is a big part of what's happening out here on the Prairie farm.
00;12;47;20 - 00;13;13;26
Unknown
Yep. And we're many, many of the the Hawkesbury and family weddings have been held through the years. And, so Nicholas is helping getting things, up and ready to go for that. But, Nicholas kind of talked about how when he came on, one of his goals was to help Carol retire. But what I think Nicholas started to realize, what I very quickly realized is Carol didn't want to retire.
00;13;13;26 - 00;13;31;16
Unknown
Now, there's there's people that can't retire, right? Because, because they don't don't have the means. Yeah. They don't they don't save for retirement or. And I wasn't case for Carol. He just didn't. Why? Because in his mind, all I want to do is be on the prairie and and be doing farm work because farming is truly a lifestyle form.
00;13;31;20 - 00;14;05;10
Unknown
Yeah. And, so Carol was happiest when he was, when he was out here working on the farm. And, obviously he was extremely gifted and skilled at operating and and doing what he did. Yeah. And so, you know, just getting to to see that toughness in Carol even while battling, you know, stage four liver cancer for three years still show up every day, still get the work done that was needed to be done.
00;14;05;12 - 00;14;25;00
Unknown
It was just, you know, so humbling to see that. And so when I think back to when I stuck that tractor and I said that thing to Carol, I think in my mind it just felt like that was always going to be years away, not a year away. Yeah. And, we'll get into a little bit more here in a minute.
00;14;25;03 - 00;14;52;19
Unknown
Obviously we could make this a five hour long podcast, but, we're not going to do that. We'll try and keep within a, you know, general time frame of a coffee time episode, but, we we, want to maybe highlight some of the things that Carol taught us individually. Yeah. And, you know, kind of just, in memory of Carol, talk about him a little bit, and, we'll try to not be too somber here.
00;14;52;22 - 00;15;16;21
Unknown
Or maybe tell some funny stories with, with Carol and and things like that, but, that's, that's kind of the goal this episode, right? Really? Yeah. Yeah. So, you want to kick us off, what's the what's one thing that you're going to put me put me in a hard spot and I'm trying to think of a good, funny one, but, something that speaks to what a mentor he was.
00;15;16;23 - 00;15;49;00
Unknown
That I realized early on was, you know, even through the good days and the bad, level of patience, you know, took along with us. Oh, well, this is this is, a field of work, you know, a passion that not a lot of people share. Right? And so something I realized early on was, having done some of that stuff on the farm before that, he learned a lot of this stuff through through making mistakes.
00;15;49;00 - 00;16;09;27
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. So you can't. And I come up and we say, well, what if we just did this and you could see Carol was just he, he listen, he could hear you out. And I, I strongly believe that he would just play in his mind how he'd done something like that hadn't gone right. He'd just go, boys, this is how we're going to do.
00;16;09;27 - 00;16;29;26
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. No. Yeah. He, he he'd explain, you know, hey, we can't do this like that, but, that's something that both I'm going to miss and that I appreciate, you know, that that kind of mentorship and the years of, experience that he brought, you know, every day. Yeah, to work with him. That's a great one.
00;16;29;26 - 00;16;48;13
Unknown
And, you know, Carol always had a way of saying things, and I can just as you're describing that I was picturing in my head and hearing you remember how you'd be like, well, and you kind of like, kind of like, cock his head. And then he'd. And then he would explain that exact story of where he tried what you suggested.
00;16;48;13 - 00;17;06;26
Unknown
And, you know, how was that? I was planning on this farm, and I tried that. And, this was the result. And, yeah, you know, shut me down for half a day. Just if I would have just done what I knew I should do. Yeah. You know, and. Yeah, that's true, but you're right. He wouldn't just cut us off.
00;17;06;26 - 00;17;22;29
Unknown
You would allow us to explain it. Yeah, he he'd let us get all the way through our our harebrained idea of how we were going to solve, you know, we were going to say 15 minutes here, save an hour there. And. Yeah, depending on how much patience he had that day, he'd either let us get completely done or cut us off.
00;17;23;02 - 00;17;48;17
Unknown
But yeah. Well, and some of my favorite, just to just to, like, take it to brag here a little bit. Every once in a while, we would have a good idea. Yeah. That. Yeah, that, you know, Carol hadn't, hadn't come up with yet or something and just to speak to the guy, the guy was, you would let us do it and he would if, if it if he saw that, it was like, yeah, this is good.
00;17;48;19 - 00;18;10;19
Unknown
That was the new way of doing it. Yeah. So that always that always felt good. It wasn't like, yeah, I, I always think he was going through his memory banks if he couldn't find. And, reason to not to do it, and it seemed like it might work. Yep. They give it a shot. Right. And so then I'll go with, that'll lead me to my Carol.
00;18;10;19 - 00;18;47;22
Unknown
Believe in giving people chances. Right. Key. I think that is one of the most underrated characteristics of a highly effective person. Is where you, advocate for others. And what I talk about is there's some people that you're around, and you might bring up a quote unquote fringe person in your community or whatever, you know, who's the kid that you're always, you know, teachers seem to be leery of at school or maybe doesn't have all the people sitting around them at, in, in the lunchroom or whatever.
00;18;47;24 - 00;19;25;20
Unknown
But if you go out there and get a chance to meet those people, I have found throughout my life, from being a kid all the way up through till today, that those people oftentimes there's yes, there's something about them that is socially deviant. Yeah. But socially deviant people almost always. Not always, but almost always. They are thinking about the world around them, and they are gathering some really interesting insight that is usually beneficial to listen to.
00;19;25;23 - 00;19;49;09
Unknown
And, and a lot of times those people get written off by 95% of, of, the people around them. And when you and, and, you know, when you hang out with that 95% of people a large part of the time. Yeah. When you suggest, hey, how about you meet my friend X over here? Yeah. My friend. Well, let's give him a name.
00;19;49;09 - 00;20;09;19
Unknown
My friend. We'll say Tim, my friend Tim. Over here. Look back at him. Yeah, yeah, look at that guy. I mean, he's got, you know, whatever going on, and. Yeah, and he thinks this and or he votes this way or whatever, and there's some. You have to justify why you're hanging out with Tim. The people that are justifying why they're hanging out with him.
00;20;09;19 - 00;20;30;08
Unknown
I like those people. I think those are highly effective people. They they, see value in every person. Until that person proves that. Yeah. They're just they just suck to be around Bruce. They got, Yeah. Some of those people do exist as well. Some than good viewpoints. Yeah, but but Carol is one of those people who is looking to give people a chance.
00;20;30;15 - 00;21;12;01
Unknown
Yeah. And even at cost to himself and, you know, when you go back to, like where he would have the patience to listen, hear us out and, to maybe even implement some of the ideas that we came up with. I think that goes in line with that character trait, you know? And so for me, one of the biggest things Carol has, has taught me is give people a chance because, they will, oftentimes surprise you for, for, the best, you know, even though it's technically your turn now, I'm going to it made me instantly think of the other thing that I wanted to mention today, that
00;21;12;01 - 00;21;46;24
Unknown
relates to that is, I grew up being like, I guess is like a personality defense mechanism as being sarcastic. Yeah. And like, very pessimistic and. Yeah. Oh, look, that didn't work. Which of us are surprised? You know, that kind of. Yeah. Like those kind of jokes are Murphy's Law jokes, you know, stuff like that. And I started doing that one day when I first started here, and it wasn't anything serious, you know, it was like a small thing, you know, like we were fixing something on a piece of equipment, and I said, oh, well, we'll probably be back here again tomorrow doing the fixing this again or something.
00;21;46;24 - 00;22;21;05
Unknown
And Carol stopped me and said, okay, you got to be an optimist to be in this business, you know, and Carol is by far the biggest optimist I've ever been around. He he always was a a glass half full kind of guy. And, he, I think a lot of people say that. But here's the evidence to it that played out in Carol's battle with cancer, too.
00;22;21;07 - 00;22;58;19
Unknown
Carol. Went through some really hard days physically, but he always had in his mind that. Yeah, they tell me this cancer is is, you know, it's it's, terminal. Fatal terminal. Yeah. But I'm going to push that and date back as far as I can. And, so just seeing him play that out and seeing the sacrifices he had to make to make this farm work, and it's in its early, probably decades.
00;22;58;19 - 00;23;35;24
Unknown
Really? Yeah. Is just a testament to somebody who saw the glass as half full all the time and built something incredible, which is Hoxie native Seeds. And the impact Carol has had on, on, Prairie Acres being on this earth, is huge. And a lot of it traces back to that. Yeah. I think, I look all the way back to, I listened, back to the episode that was, posted on Friday, you know, and it kind of goes into some of the, the early days of Hoxie native seeds and how Carol discovered Prairie.
00;23;35;24 - 00;24;01;14
Unknown
And, it became such a big part of his life. And you can you can tell that, you know, there wasn't there wasn't the business around it. There is now, you know, back then, Prairie was around, but it wasn't, this big industry that it's become ever since. You know, it takes optimism and it takes, you know, belief in what you're doing and belief in yourself to, to get that far.
00;24;01;14 - 00;24;36;01
Unknown
Absolutely. I it truly speaks to the, the sense of optimism. You have to have to, year after year, put in these crops and, and believe, both in what it can become and what it does become. Right. Yeah. That's fair. Well, so, you got another one. Yeah. And I just lost it. Well, something something I always remember, that I saw in Carol and that he told to me was to always be observing.
00;24;36;04 - 00;25;01;19
Unknown
Yes. That played out for us last week. Yes. Yeah. Save the day. Yeah. Now tell the story. The observation story. Yeah. Remember last week we were doing the June grass and the combine, so. Oh, yeah. Now I remember, it's it's been a long week. Sorry, guys. But, somebody else is sundowning now. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
00;25;01;24 - 00;25;23;12
Unknown
Well, see see who's the what? I'm. I'm getting, I'm getting close to 30 here, so I guess I can empathize with Kent's, sundown moments here. I know, I know I'm still young. I got to get stuck with random trips to the, Smurf Dome to. Yeah, I know that people get to get to 30. Everything goes all at once.
00;25;23;15 - 00;25;48;13
Unknown
No pun intended, no pun intended. So we were, we're harvesting June grass last week, and, I was running out, stuff for cat every once in a while, you know, we were grazing stuff kind of mid run or harvesting. Well, here we have to collect bags out of the. But we have a bagging station on the combine, so, I'd come out with some bags and, I was just watching.
00;25;48;13 - 00;26;07;03
Unknown
Can't run for a minute checking on some of the, some of the seed coming in and the chaff going out, things like that. And then all of a sudden, the noise, the the sound the rain was making, there was a rattle that appeared almost out of nowhere. Yeah. And, Kent looked at me and I looked at Kent.
00;26;07;06 - 00;26;26;05
Unknown
We both kind of shook our heads. Wound down the the pull type, and, Yeah, you're talking like a seven year old machine. Probably. Yeah, yeah. So it's got rattles to it already, right? But the key is, is here in the rattle. That is not, you know, the one that's not like the other. Yeah.
00;26;26;07 - 00;27;01;17
Unknown
Bearing it's about to explode or, so we we pulled it down and, took a look around and thankfully, something had just come loose and dropped. The reel, I believe, was the reel. No, it was lower. It was a cylinder. Cylinder was so. Okay, well, we well, I was worried was a critical failure. You know, the machine where we'd have to, like, tear the guts out of the thing, put a pull the whole cylinder out of the combine, which is, if you understand about combines, the cylinders really where the the the biggest, like 95% of the threshing is taking place.
00;27;01;17 - 00;27;27;07
Unknown
Threshing happens in a way, all the way through the machine. You know, stuff's getting shook loose. But but where it's really getting kind of beat up and milled almost as is where the cylinders up and, if you don't have a working cylinder, you don't have a comb. Yeah, yeah. And these old, bearings, you got a greeson, you know, regularly.
00;27;27;09 - 00;27;46;22
Unknown
And that knocking I was worried was one of those cylinder bearings going out. And then Riley just looked up and he's like, look the cylinder. Because there's a there's a meter on there. Yeah. It's like look that thing dropped all the way down. And I that instantly clicked with me back to a few years prior when that had happened, when Carol and I were using it.
00;27;46;24 - 00;28;21;01
Unknown
And then we got it fixed, thankfully. And, no issues since. Yeah. But as soon as we got it fixed where I was like, Carol Thomas, always be observant. Yeah, yeah, I love that. That was that to me was like, probably the most powerful moment, since, Carol, since we lost Carol was when you said that I really felt like, like, you know, Carol was with was with us, and, well, that's the first time living on in our memory and First harvest alone, you know?
00;28;21;01 - 00;28;46;02
Unknown
Yep. Andrew, grass is not a crop you want. No, I say it's high stakes. Yeah, yeah it is. Yeah. It's not a half acre where, you know, it's a test plot, and we can kind of shrug it off if things go sideways, but. Right. Yeah. And so it was just it was just, you know, a poignant, very hands on, very in-your-face reminder of.
00;28;46;05 - 00;29;09;11
Unknown
Carol. You taught us how to do this stuff. And, we're going to do our best to carry it on. Carol, one of my favorite things Carol would say was neat. Operator Kent. Not a driver. Yeah. And, you know, I'd screw something off or something on the field and and, in Carol's mind, there's probably more.
00;29;09;14 - 00;29;33;26
Unknown
More, drivers. He he refers to it as the nut behind the wheel. Yeah. There's probably more drivers in this world than operators, and I think he's right. And I, you know, after he, you know, really coach that into me. I strive every day to not just, you can take a tractor and get a job done, or you can take a skid loader and get a job done, or you take a combine and get the job done, or you can get it done.
00;29;33;26 - 00;30;05;09
Unknown
Well. Yeah. And efficiently. And the difference there is the drivers just getting it done, the operators doing it well, doing it efficiently. Yeah. And and Carol was the, the best operator I've ever been around. I mean, you want to see a guy work at 185 in a, surrounded by flames, and, I mean, I'm not. We've talked about on this podcast before.
00;30;05;11 - 00;30;29;10
Unknown
Carol would burn 40 acre fields by himself in in less than an hour. Just using the 185 with a water tank mounted on the three point and a torch that he rigged up to be bolted to the, frame of the tractor. You know, and, and, you know, he's just out there cruising around, fighting the fire and making sure it stays under control.
00;30;29;10 - 00;30;56;18
Unknown
And and, knowing where he can let the fire go and have his back burn all set up perfectly. And you just you just, a great operator and, so that that's something he really instilled in me as well. I've never seen somebody drive through so much fire so confidently. Yeah. That was unbothered. Oh, yeah, I remember we were we were working by, by the side of, I think it was either back burn or something like that.
00;30;56;18 - 00;31;12;12
Unknown
And we were sitting on, one of the side by sides waiting for it to kind of burn. And I'm watching, keeping an eye on things. And then all of a sudden, you out of the corner of your eye, you see Carol running down the fire line. Yeah, man, it made me nervous the first time I saw it.
00;31;12;12 - 00;31;34;06
Unknown
But then I realized, you know, this guy's been doing this for so long. This. You know, this is like putting your pants on in the morning. Yeah, it's just second nature, so. Yeah. Yeah. And and you get anything running too, which is just was, was always, you know, part of that as well. Understand? One of the things I've come to understand more is when you're an operator, not a driver.
00;31;34;08 - 00;31;52;17
Unknown
A driver turns the key and pushes the button. Yeah, whereas an operator knows why you're turning the key knows why you're pushing the button. Understands what happens when those things don't work or understands. You know what happens if this part of the machine isn't working properly? What's that going to do to yield? What's, you know, all that?
00;31;52;17 - 00;32;15;20
Unknown
He he understood all that. And so just being a great operator and I think one, we could we could do this literally forever, guys. Yeah. You know, Carol wouldn't want us to do that. We need to get back to work. We got plenty on our to do list today, but, one thing I kind of wanted to finish up on, Nick, you know.
00;32;15;23 - 00;32;36;02
Unknown
Well, maybe maybe we'll we'll, we'll just say that for what Nick said about just opening every day with prayer in the office and, Carol's heart for all of us and all of his loved ones, that that he'd remember them in prayer and, and, he put it really well on the. I just encourage you to listen to the I can't one of what Nick said.
00;32;36;02 - 00;32;58;03
Unknown
So go back and listen to the full length episode. But, besides that, I wanted to say Carol had his own way of doing things, whether it was raising prairie plants instead of corn and soybeans in a world of corn and soybeans, it's using old equipment instead of new equipment. Using a pull type combines set of self-propelled or.
00;32;58;03 - 00;33;33;23
Unknown
Yeah, something like that. Carol had his his own way of doing it. And it wasn't just some haphazard thing. He he always thought it out. So well and, and, you know, just it worked, right? Yeah. And it has shaped me into, a different human than I was when I came here June of 22. And and, it has made me so much more efficient and so much better and so many of the the things that we do here that translate over to my, my outside of work life.
00;33;33;23 - 00;34;07;03
Unknown
Right? Yeah. And, and, he so he, he keeps teaching us lessons, you know, like, I'd even say the lesson on retirement has changed how I view retirement. Yeah. Human life isn't meant to be spent chillin, right? We're not. We're not meant to, just relax. Right. Like, Even if you, if you believe in the Bible and you go back to like Genesis, God already had jobs to do for, for Adam and Eve, right.
00;34;07;03 - 00;34;31;00
Unknown
There was no there was no couch and Netflix in the Garden of Eden right there. Take care of the garden. Right. And and so work it. We are meant to work. We are designed to work. I firmly believe that. And, if you're brave enough to pursue. What it is that you feel you are meant to do.
00;34;31;00 - 00;34;53;16
Unknown
I want to someone that Carol thought very highly of was Tabitha Pants, who gave us one of the best, quotes around on this podcast is she said, don't don't seek out to do what you love. Seek out to do something that you're passionate about. Improving. Yeah. And or a problem that you're passionate about solving. That's exactly what Carol did.
00;34;53;19 - 00;35;19;14
Unknown
And if you're that can take a lot of personal sacrifice. Carol is is a great example of that. There's a lot of times where Carol could have could have made more money. Just corn and beans. Yeah. But because she was willing to make those sacrifices that you alluded to Riley, when he was setting this place up, he made it so that not only he could live off this farm full time, but you could, I could, Nicholas could.
00;35;19;17 - 00;35;46;23
Unknown
And we've even had many part time workers come in here as well that that have worked with us through the years and off of a much smaller number of acres than the corn. And being game requires. Yeah. And, and, so if you have the courage to pursue those things, you'll, you'll be amazed, at how much you stop hating working.
00;35;46;25 - 00;36;18;00
Unknown
Yeah. And so the retirement lesson was huge for me. But there's a there's another milestone that comes after retirement, of course. And that is death, right? Yeah. And Carol had a better way of dying. I'm convinced of that. I try my best here to, I, you know, get worked up, but, so Carol called me at 830, in the morning on the day he passed away.
00;36;18;02 - 00;36;48;22
Unknown
Gave me one last, task to do and, one last chore here on the farm. And he passed away, and he told me in that conversation, you know, hey, I'll be there, you know, late morning. I'm going to come see you guys on the farm. And, towards the end, it wasn't uncommon for Carol to need to spend quite a bit of time resting because he was he was feeling sick and he was very low on energy, but he was still working.
00;36;48;22 - 00;37;21;29
Unknown
I mean, he we harvested our last field together one week before he died of stage four liver cancer. And. When Carol died, he died peacefully. You know, he was taking a nap before he came into work. Yep. He died in his work clothes. He had his jeans and Carhartt t shirt on, and there was no signs of of any, pain or struggle or anything like that.
00;37;22;02 - 00;37;47;07
Unknown
Died very peacefully. And I just got to thinking of that, you know? We were supposed to see Carol at work that day. The day that he died of cancer. Didn't, you know, wasn't like, you know, well, the cancer was going to take him down, but then he had a massive stroke or, you know, or something like that. You know, he died of cancer.
00;37;47;10 - 00;38;24;05
Unknown
So often, you know, that that involves just wasting away and being stuck in a hospital bed, you know, and hospital gown and just totally miserable. Yeah. And I'm not saying anything. I've had loved one many loved ones who have died that way. So I'm not speaking ill of of that. But Carol wanted to keep going, go back to that optimism and extreme toughness as well.
00;38;24;05 - 00;39;11;08
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And Carol preferred to die in his own bed in his jeans instead of a hospital bed in a hospital gown. Yeah. And what that took was to keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing until literally his body, had nothing left to give. And that, to me, was the final lesson that Carol left for, all of us who knew him is is you can you can handle more than you think you can if you have the drive and you have the grit and you have the toughness and the courage, you can you can do things on your own terms.
00;39;11;09 - 00;39;38;12
Unknown
Yeah. And, can't beat the Reaper. You know, it's coming for all of us, right? But you can you can have some control sometimes. Not always. But sometimes you can. You can kind of, kind of have some control and how you're going to meet the Reaper. Right? Yeah. And and, you know, I think a huge part of that is, was his faith as well.
00;39;38;12 - 00;40;07;26
Unknown
Just knowing how he stood with with God, he knew Jesus and he knew that, eternity would, would, be infinitely better than even the best day here. And, and, so, so the peace that he had and and the courage and the the the, I guess strength all the way up to the end, to just.
00;40;07;29 - 00;40;28;07
Unknown
Push, push for how you want. How you want things to go and and trust God when they don't go how you want them to go, which he always did. Even through his cancer battle, I think, was that was the final lesson that Carol had for us. Yeah, maybe we all be so fortunate as to do what we love and and fight for it.
00;40;28;08 - 00;40;56;05
Unknown
And no matter the cost or. Yeah, that was that was how Carol I was how Carol lived. And so we want to dedicate this, conversation just, to his memory and, and, if you haven't yet, listen to the hockey story. We really rereleased it on, Friday. And, we're excited about, you know, the good days ahead for auctioning off seeds and the Prairie Farm podcast.
00;40;56;05 - 00;41;20;26
Unknown
We're we're we're sticking around. We're going to keep carrying on Carol's legacy here. I think that's, one of the best ways we can honor him is to, one of my favorite things Carol would say at the end of the day, if you're lucky enough to catch him at the end of the day, because he's usually off in some far field working, I should say thank you for your efforts today or thank you for your efforts this week.
00;41;20;26 - 00;41;39;12
Unknown
You'd always say it that same way. I never heard anybody ever, ever said something caught me off guard. It caught me off guard the first time he said it to me and I love it was a unique way of saying it, and it's one I I've adopted myself. Thank you for your efforts today. Yeah. And so, as you all go out there, try and take a little piece of that with you.
00;41;39;18 - 00;42;08;24
Unknown
Think of your efforts each and every day. Think of how you can use them to, bless the people in your life around you. And, of course, the conservation mindedness, way of looking at it. Think of how you can make the ecosystems in which we live and our part of whether that be prairie, alpine, forest, or, you know, the sweatiest, most mosquito ridden swamp of the South.
00;42;08;26 - 00;42;25;19
Unknown
Think of how you can each and every day make your ecosystem where you belong to a better place, just as Carol did.
