Today I'm talking with Maryann at Morning Sun Homestead.

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00:00
Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together. Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality, and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose.

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At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful. If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Green Bush Twins. That Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Green Bush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Mary Ann at Morning Sun Homestead in West Virginia. Good morning, Mary Ann. How are you? We're doing well. Thank you for having us on your podcast.

00:55
Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it. I was just going to close Facebook, your Facebook page because it was still open. Do you have an Australian Shepherd? We actually have two of them puppies. We got them the first weekend in January. Two males. One is Remington, one's Winchester and we love them. They are wonderful dogs.

01:21
Yeah, I happen to see the always on guard even if it's watching a pesky cat post and I was like that looks just like my Maggie because we have one too.

01:32
We are in the process of trying to train them to herd cows and chickens. uh One is more relaxed. He likes just to stay on the porch and watch, but the other one has the instinct and the drive to really herd. So we have to watch him a lot. He's very good about keeping the chickens across the fence where they belong, but he likes to nip a little bit. And that is okay for a cow, but a chicken is much more tender. So we're working on that right now.

02:04
I wish you all the luck in the world with that. Our Maggie doesn't really have a farm job. Her job is watchdogging for the home. And uh the thing we've learned in the five years we've had her is that she is not a dog that knows how to fetch. She loves to chase things, but if we say bring it back, she will not bring it back.

02:28
That sounds very familiar. Yup. And are yours full size Australian Shepherds or are they the smaller ones?

02:39
They are full size. Once they're grown, they'll be full size. Okay, Maggie's a small standard. weighs like 36 pounds.

02:53
Okay, so how is the weather in West Virginia this morning? It is sunny and cold in Minnesota.

03:01
We are supposed to have 78 degrees today. We had rain last night, a thunderstorm moved through. It rained really, really hard. Then this morning it was 52 degrees and we had a little bit more rain. It stopped, a few more showers. Right now it's 66. We're supposed to have 78. But this is a roller coaster. We've had some nice weather and now tonight it is supposed to be 37 and tomorrow we're supposed to have snow.

03:30
And then it's supposed to shoot back up to the 50s, 60s. And then next week on Tuesday, we are supposed to have 17 at night. So we are just up and down with the weather. But this is a small taste of spring and we want to get out and do all kinds of things, but we have a lot of mud, which is okay because we needed the moisture. We are very dry. So that worked out to get more rain. um We're really anxious for spring to come when you have warm days like this and you get out and you're able to work a little bit. And then

03:58
you have snow again. So that's a let down, but we are on a roller coaster ride. Yeah, we're supposed to get a little bit of snow every day through Sunday this week here. And I'm like, okay, um, I guess I can handle it because hopefully it'll be the last of it for the winter. Hopefully. Um, so tell me a little bit about yourself and morning sun homestead.

04:28
So my husband and I, um well when we got married of course we ate like everyone else. You know, was fast food and quick dinners and things like that. And then over time once we had our children we realized that that wasn't the life we wanted to continue. So we started to dig in and um grow in our own food. And we have branched off from that and now we do our own meats. You know, of course we have our own eggs. The girls are a tremendous help.

04:58
They all are on the bandwagon with us, so to speak. So it really helps to have their help. They know how to do everything, which is a huge help now that as we're getting older, you just don't have as much energy. And uh when I look back, I wonder how I did it all when they were small. I guess it was just all willpower and grit. But that's how we got started. We just got tired of eating all the processed stuff, feeling bad, waking up with inflammation, you know,

05:28
bags under our eyes and that sort of thing and decided to pick a healthier path and it's worked out well and we are so glad that we decided to do that. It has made a major difference in our lives.

05:43
Awesome, and I'm glad you just said all that because I'm gonna do my my public service announcement early in the podcast episode today if you live in America right now, and you don't know how to cook learn and If you don't grow anything to eat start a plant this year try growing something even if it's herbs on your windowsill and

06:08
get to know your local producers, your local farmers, because if the supply chain should happen to go down again, it's good to be able to know who to buy from locally. That's my public service announcement. And there is so much truth in that. know, local is best. If you can't grow it yourself, the next level would be local. That way, the way I look at it, have, we milk cows, so we have raw milk and it's became legal now to sell raw milk in West Virginia.

06:37
And I would never sell a gallon of milk that I felt my family wouldn't drink. And I think that a lot of people that are local feel the same way about their produce or their meat, their eggs, whatever they may be selling. I feel that if they wouldn't feed it to their family, they're probably not going to try to sell it to you. I know I wouldn't. Hopefully that's how most producers are. But the big corporations really don't care. They will send us whatever.

07:04
And because it doesn't matter to them, it's all one big connection with pharmaceuticals and big farms and our health.

07:14
Absolutely yes. Yes, yes, yes, you are absolutely right. uh I, how do I say this? We grow a garden and we have chickens, partly because it's fun, but we're not doing it for funsies. We're doing it to feed ourselves and feed our community, if that makes sense at all.

07:39
Yes, it most certainly does. um I'm assuming from the comment that you made, must also sell any additional eggs that you have and uh garden produce you give away. Right, and we do that if we have extra produce to older people. um There's a lot of older people that used to eat healthy. This was not...

08:02
like a trend, this was the normal way of life, this is how they always did it, and now they're just not able to get out there and do it, and we will give them produce from our garden em just because that's what we want to do. If we can help someone out, that's what we do, but it sounds like your family does the same thing, and that's wonderful. uh We need more of that in America.

08:23
Yes, we do. need everybody who has a talent. And by the way, everyone has a talent. It doesn't matter what it is. If you sing, then sing to your kids or sing to your friends. It makes them feel good. um If you're good at writing, write a story. It makes people feel good. If you're good at growing things, feed people. Everyone has a talent. You just have to figure out what it is.