Today I'm talking with Ashley at Wildflour Crumb Company.

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00:00
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 Ashley at Wildflower Crumb Company in Jordan, Minnesota where I used to live. Good morning, Ashley. How are you? Good morning. I'm fantastic. How are you? I'm good. How's Jordan doing this morning? It is slow and sunny and beautiful.

00:26
Just how I like it. Mm-hmm. I am half an hour southwest of you in Le Sueur, Minnesota, and it is sunny and it is not freaking hotter than the Hades this morning, which is really nice. Right. It is beautiful. The windows are open. have my oven on while it's been on the past two days. But having the cooler weather has really helped my house not get so hot.

00:52
Yeah, it's been miserable up until yesterday. It's been pretty gross for the second week of June. Yeah, just a little bit. We should not have weather like this this soon in the season. I'm very, very disappointed in Mother Nature this week. Okay, so I, this is going to seem really weird. You are hyper local to me. I used to live in Jordan. I lived there for 20 years.

01:17
And part of the reason that we moved is because we knew that a whole bunch of things were going to be happening. Like 169 was no longer to have the scary stoplight where people get in car accidents all the time. We knew that they were going to put in a bunch of roundabouts and we just knew all this stuff was coming down the pike. How is it any better than it was?

01:42
I mean, the construction sucks. That's, you know, nine months out of the year, sometimes 11 if we don't have snow. ah But I think that once the 169 area is done, I think it's going to be fantastic just because of it's going to reduce all of the accidents that occur at that stoplight. ah But as far as all of

02:12
the extra roundabouts going on. I'm not a fan of roundabouts, ah only because, and it might just be because it was Jordan. It's a small town, but for quite a while with the roundabout that was by Radamachers, a lot of ah the older generation were, they were going the wrong way. Oh no. ah But that, that has stopped for the most part. Now you just have, you know, your typical teenage driving.

02:41
of being crazy, not being safe. But for me personally, I'm not a fan of the ones by the schools, only during school time, just because those two separate times from like 7.45 to 8.15 and then you're all about, again, 2.45 to 3.15 ish, it backs up bad.

03:09
just because of how they have things set up with pickups, drop-offs. ah The high school, it used to be before the roundabout was there, that if you were coming out of the high school, you were only supposed to take a right, which that helped dramatically. Just so you didn't have to worry about kids crossing, ah waiting to turn left, all that stuff, it made it easier. But now with the buses,

03:37
The buses get stuck in all of that traffic because of the pickup lines that are long for the elementary school and things like that. So, I mean, I'm not a fan of those during school time, but summertime they're just fine as far as there's no backups, things like that. It does get people to slow down a little bit more than they used to, not a whole lot. So in terms of speed wise, there wasn't much change. ah

04:07
And one thing that I was furious with by the elementary school, there used to be a crosswalk that would go from the school side to a street called Timber Ridge Court. And they took that away. I had tried talking to the city, know, hey, why did you take this away? First, they wouldn't respond. And finally, somebody had said because it's a mid cross.

04:35
side cross and I was like well I don't understand because you have lots of other crosswalks throughout the city that go from a mid-block meaning that it's in the middle of a city block versus having it be end to end so lots of them from mid-block to another street and they couldn't respond to that they just said nope just go all the way down to the roundabout and then come back and I'm like well I'm not gonna do that

05:04
There's, know, I'm not, that's ridiculous. The crosswalk never should have been taken away. Um, but it all had to do with a little girl got hit, uh, because somebody wasn't paying attention. And I had asked for, you know, those blinking yellow lights by sidewalks. Yep. I asked for one of those. said, Nope, city turned it down. It was too expensive. Um, but then, uh

05:32
But then they spent all the money for the roundabouts. Yes. So that's the only part that's made me mad. Otherwise, the rest of it will be fine. think 169 is actually going to be a lot better. um But it's just, you know, waiting the three years for all of it to get done. That's the sucky part. Sure is. And I have I have one thing to say about roundabouts. I grew up in New England.

05:58
Roundabouts are an important part of traffic in New England because there are lots of places where five or six roads will intersect. That's what roundabouts are actually for. And I feel like Minnesota has seen it as a trend, a fashion trend for traffic. uh Yes, I can see that. And just a PSA for anybody who doesn't understand about roundabouts. Roundabouts

06:27
you come into them slowly, you make sure you're paying attention to the other cars coming into them, and you follow the directions. And I think I remember in the driver's manual for Minnesota for the test, there's a section on roundabouts. If you have kids going for their driver's licenses and you live in Minnesota, make sure they read that and they learn how to do it. That's my PSA about roundabouts. now after all that,

06:54
I would love to hear about you and what you do. Perfect. So I, let's see, I've been in Minnesota since, oh, let's see, when did I leave Wisconsin? Go Pat, go. I thought I heard some Skonsy in there. Oh yeah, you did. Let's see, since 2006, I came here for school.

07:20
And a funny story with my husband is that I had told one of my really good friends I had told her is like if this date doesn't work out. I'm moving to Texas I'm gonna be a police officer and that's gonna be it. We're gonna be good Well, apparently the date worked out because I'm still here 20 years later ah But no, it's been it's been great. um I started

07:45
with school. I have always wanted to be a police officer. did the crossing guard in third grade. ah just everything about it screamed. Yes, that's what I want to do. I wanted to help people. wanted to protect people. And I went to school to try and do that. And then as things went on, I became more interested in forensic science.

08:09
And I was one of, you know, the few before CSI came out to do their wonderful effect on people. knew you couldn't swipe screens in midair. ah But how cool would it be if you could? Oh, my God, that fantastic things would go so much faster. Things would be so much smoother. But I think we're quite a few years away from, you know, having screens in midair like Iron Man and all of that. It'd be great. Oh.

08:39
man, would it be great, even just for life in general. ah But, you I went to do all of that, started with, you know, security positions that I would do either in the city for an apartment complex. And then I went to work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. And I absolutely loved my job. I loved that.

09:06
People felt comfortable enough to come to me with questions. They wanted advice. I loved being able to do all of that. And I had one incident when I was pregnant and I wasn't protected by the people I worked for. And I said, nope, I'm done. I'm not going to put my...

09:31
baby's life in danger anymore and I looked for a new job. I tried to stay with the federal government and I went to do federal background investigations. So anytime somebody who's going to enter the federal workforce, you have to get a background check done of 10 years or your 18th birthday, whichever one is there first. And so I did t...