POV; Farmsteaders

I'd like to show you around their farm. We're located in Southeastern Ohio and Gaggy County. We live here for 42 years and we have always had a berry. Whenever somewhere has a hold of you, it's kind of a powerful thing.

It's like when you're in love with somebody and this place right here has a hold on me like that. Whenever I was a little kid it was several hundred dairy farms within 30-40 miles a year. My grandfather emailed cows twice a day in a seven days a week. The big people got bigger and the smaller got pushed out of the way.

It looks like we're missing one. I couldn't see a 16. How many do you have? I got 16. If I can do what my grandfather did, build this farm up. If I can do what my grandfather did, build this farm up and stay on it and raise a family like he did, then I'd be a success. People think they're gambling when they go to a river boat casino.

That's what farming is really. We risk everything. You ever see the way a farm fails? It's not pretty, it's an auction. All the stuff you worked your life to accomplish is hold off to the highest bidder. I'm never gonna let that happen. I see one. I see one. I see one.

I see one. I see one. I see one.

I see one. I see one. I see one. I never thought I would be a farmer.

When we moved here, but I'd never been to a dairy farm, I like to jump into something and then I find out everything I can. When we started, we milked for four years at a loss. You cannot make a living milking the number of cows that we milk and selling your milk wholesale. We borrowed money, maxed out all of our credit cards, got a second mortgage, and then maxed out all the credit cards again. We checked that we get to the bank as soon as we get it. The way that we made farming work for us is through cheese.

We're five years into our cheese making business and we still struggle, but I don't feel like I'm drowning. Go on the show. Yep. You say daddy? Say daddy. I'm going to get you in your tender underbelly. Hello, how are you?

That looks fabulous. This is the first pepper jack. Do you crop jalapenos? No, these came from across the creek. No, I'm super excited. We make a wheel in a week. I'll get it back on there as fast as I can. And clover 10-2. I hope you're vested in it just as much as we are. Right, I know, and symbiosis. Brush your teeth while you're in there, Edgar. I'm going to take Lyle and Harlan upstairs. Take a shower, you guys. You put yellow on. Yep, exactly. And then they turn a double plank behind. See you guys got bookbacks ready? Yeah.

Get away. Close pick up that you're wearing tomorrow? Yeah, socks. I'm excited, but you ought to try to get right to sleep. Yeah. We'll have you, Edgar. I'll see you in the morning, OK? Goodbye. Say, hey. Don't wake up your brother and sister late. Where'd you going, Ignalin? Do you want me to fly a flight? I don't know.

It's a bright light. Uh-huh. Have a good day. All right, you guys. Going between the buses here.

I love you. You have a good day. See you guys, see you, Edgar. The definition of farmstead for us, just trying to live within the resources that you have. The farmstead is where everything happens, where your life happens. All of the joys, all of the sorrows. For me, it all happens right here on this 110 acres. There is no escaping. Come on, girls. Yes, yes. There's so many people that have raised their family here for hundreds and thousands of years. I imagine that they worried about the same things that I do. Don't get in your bed, they're a pretty girl.

Put your head on your pillow. Put your head on your pillow. No, no story tonight. I'll sing a song if you want. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy once I'm free. You'll never know dear how much I love you. You don't think my sunshine away. Don't get it on me. I ain't gonna get it on you. There you go. Just a little twice the size. Maybe that's how big they are until you put them around the side of each other. I think it's almost as big a tube.

It's almost as big a tube. What's this cow's name? Maybe her name is Mayville. Bob Evans, the real Bob Evans, he farmed and built a local business. But then they were a corporation. And now this is like their dog and pony show. Look at your down on the farm. Look at all these crafty people. And these farmer people. I was being the farmer people. I guess it's still a big deal for the community. It draws a lot of tourism. There's probably what? 30,000 people that go in. It's gonna be a lot of city folk. A little valley creamery. I guess that's where it will be. I'm gonna turn this over to Celeste. She's gonna tell you a little bit about what we're doing right now.

Thank you. Good morning everybody. My name is Celeste Nolan. This is my husband Nick. This is our farm, Mayville. She was born on our farm. We have a small grass-based dairy farm about 10 miles from here. Nick is the farmer and I am the cheese maker. Every day 365 days a year. We do it on our birthdays. We do it on Christmas. We milk house all the time. We've got time for some volunteers. Does anybody want to milk house this morning? I'm gonna turn it over. We just want to milk it. Oh my god. Oh my god. You guys have to come back to the house. We'll do it again. Is that a cow? Yeah, it's a cow. It's a German cow. Yeah, this is my girl, Mayville. What's that one's name? That one over there. Don't have a name here. What do you think I should do? French. French.

I'll stay in here. Stay in here. No way, Ed is on deck. Guess Mill's ready. Guess. Go ahead. Get him out of here. Get him out of here. Get him out of here. My grandfather, I was closer to him than I was ever was any of my family. To a lot of people I was a dumbass little kid, but I always had all the potential in the world down. He was from the lime out of the side of the hill. The lime buggy slid sideways and pulled his tractor over and he died all of a sudden. And we have a chance to tell

how I felt about him. I lived in this place where they lived at the same milk and parlor that grew up milking with him. Maybe if I was off doing something else somewhere else I wouldn't think about it as much, but not all pain is that terrible. Sometimes it's worse not to remember. There's a time it's happy to think about what he would have done or something he would have said, trying to live up to what his expectation of him was.

Daddy and mommy and daddy and mommy. Before I found the last I was really lost. It seems like I met her, fell in love with her all that just melted away. We're following breaking news out of Athens. Several fire departments are fighting a large fire. Several buildings in the popular stretch of uptown Athens are reduced to ruins after

an early morning fire Sunday that affected several businesses. Jack Neal Floral, the campus sundry, the smoke zone, the union and Jack Eos public house. I'm going to start it today. Well the people that are getting blue jacket stuff from a distributor, if I can meet that price then they'll buy it from us, which is eight bucks a pound.

The past ten years it's been climb and reach and struggle and work as hard as you can so that you can pay your bills. Over the past year I was able to start to make a dent in some of the past debt. It felt like I can breathe. But that was before Jack Eos burnt down. It's kind of devastating. I don't know I want things to be easy. I could go for easy. Yeah, I didn't win her yet that it's coming. Everything's going to go back, lay fallow

for a little while. Frost's going to kill a lot of things will help you for the next year. He's going to react to you know you got to bend out around it. You're not going to change the elements and change the earth. Maybe it kind of falls back into what, you know, Nitchie said, man tries to organize the chaos that he lives around. Is that what you're really trying to do? You're sucking your shirt again. Why don't you? I want I down. I think it is please.

All right. All right. Good night. There you go. Wow, on wheels. Motorcycles then and now. All right. Let's go look time. Yeah. Motorcycle. It has a submotor down here pushing out wheels pushing out. I'll be up all night staying up late, making cheese. It's kind of my M.O. standard operating

procedure around here. Making cheese. It's magic. I just kind of guide it and let it do its thing. I like the quiet and the repetitiveness. But you do it every day. You touch it. You're not need deep in it. And magic. Where's off? All right.

Well, we have bought, uh-uh. I know. It looked like a little farmer. Oh, here's my back. I do. Do you feel it when I pinch your butt? I'm dead. Don't hit me. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. Don't hit me. You need a toboggan? Oh, that hurt. And gloves? How about this? Is this heck cool? Oh, no. It's a good app. Oh.

Yeah. I forget how we get dressed. The cops are moving to shakin'. Shoo. Oh, wow. That's a good assay. I'm already late. Let's get doing it. Oh. Shoo.

Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. Shoo. One, two, and four, six. We have to decide how we're going to grow our business. We can't take on any new customers until we got more cows. There's no question buying cows turns into cash. But when you buy cows then you have to work harder. So I have mixed feelings. You know, milk turns into money.

But it's going to be more work for everybody. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I like that type of tea. Why? Yeah, looks like a tiger. I like that one too. Let's go looking after her. She looks like she's going to push out some milk. Go. Yeah. Yeah. Go again. Keep going.

Can you be okay? Just like it hurts. Am I the artist? Yeah, she fell down. I know. I ain't put milkers out yet. I just came down here and you know, she fell down. I want to get a paper towel. That's horrible. Don't high-five me for a while. I don't know. I love you. I love you. Oh, shit. What? How old am I? I'm 44.

No, 44. I'm going to be 45 on her birthday. Yeah. It's yours, but it's not yours. Oh. Your mom got some pizza. Yeah. Are you going to read me? I have a baby house. I have a baby house. Well, I guess I know how to start. Yeah. Oh, it's just not the store. Yeah. We're just going to sign. What? Forget about all of us. And the hair gets to be amazing. Flip up and then some glasses. So wipe off the sweat and move on. We got a big giant check from Jackie O's. What did you say?

We got a big giant check for two weeks now. I had a whole plan. I guess it worked. We made cheese all winter. We borrowed money to buy cows. We're able to cultivate a few new customers. And Jackie O's opened a kitchen back up and jumped right back into order and cheese. Now we have more orders than we have cheese every week. They keep on making new restaurants? Yeah. Who? I don't know. You don't know? Yeah, people keep on eating. Yeah. Yeah. Hi.

How are you? Hi. How much are you? Hi. This is the way. Hi. How are you? Hi. Hi. How are you? Hi. How are you? That person in middle school. There he goes to middle school now. And then he'll go to high school. And then he goes to college? Yeah. And then he'll go to college. That's what he wants. And then he'll go to college? I don't know. It's like I taught him this morning.

He's out in the deep water right now. Come on, Dan. Come on, Dan, get it. My grandparents taught me all the skills. And I watched them dairy farm. And really, it wasn't what my grandfather wanted me to do. They wanted me to go out and get a job and a career and follow that path. And I think back, do you think I wasn't capable of doing it? I wasn't going to work hard enough? He knew the sacrifices he had to make. And the hardship, and probably wanted something else for him, it makes me think, what do I want for my kids? Don't want them to have the same struggle? I think that anything that you tell a kid

they're going to want to do the opposite of it. At some point in their life. I don't want him to hate this place because they've never been anywhere else or because they feel strangled or held back by it. And if they have to leave the farm, I want them to be happy, whatever that means. You can see it. Now it's super cold. See that? And then you take it and thaw it. Right now I've got the sheath that slides over top of it. Oh, get in there. Now, get the business in. You got to reach in and through her ass and reach down

to where you can feel through that wall or surface. And then once you get hold of it, take this and you've got to watch out and now slip it into her bladder or they'll jump and kick and carry it all. And right here it is. Then you can lean into the money shot. There we go. Watch out. I think I got her. Do you want to reach out better too? No. There you go. Best time for... That's it. I think I'm going to try the pepper jack. Pepper jack, for sure. And the four ounces is good to do a lot of them. What do you think? The five and five, the ten bucks even.

It's a good math lila. It has some fresh mozzarella we just made last night. And then we have half her cheesy act. The wildly popular half her cheesy act. That's called five bucks right here. There you go. Are you going Saturday? All right. We'll see you. All those old people are going to be rushing to root on Saturday. That's going to be so fun. That's what I mean is the last one on our first day to see the rest of the root play in Orlando. Well, thank you. Thank you. Wow. You know, high five, man. Are you wearing eye makeup?

What? What's that in your eyes? I got it. Look at her. Did you put it there? I don't get it in your eyes. I don't. Yeah, look at me. Check your eyes out. You need to kind of smooth out here a little bit. They don't grab your shirt. You ever seen rugby? Got it. My pizza. What? By calling him a girl, is that, is that, are you trying to insult him? Yeah, no. Well, I'm not really sure what- And all girls are weaker than you. Is that what you're- Why do you have to be like that? That's just, a girl is not an insult. And every time you say it is, I'm going to tell you you're wrong. A girl is not an insult. You can call him an asshole. You can call him a whimp. Wait, he can call me an hale. But,

a girl is not synonymous with anything negative. So if you want to insult him, work harder. Gee. Princess Tom! Stop! I'm a bit better than you. Hey, Nick, this is Jeff, I'm Jeff Yoos. Honestly, I told her, 15 pounds of my fur, 15 pounds of fur, 15 pounds of my fur, 15 pounds of my fur, 15 pounds of my fur, 15 pounds of my fur, 15 pounds of fur, 15 pounds of fur, 15 pounds of fur, 15 pounds of fur, 16 pounds of fur, 15 pounds of fur, 18 pounds of fur, 15 pounds of fur,

14 pounds of fur. I started out really early this morning like I could do something and be prepared for the next what three days and it's going to be nine o'clock like 12 hours to do something that I had four hours budgeted for and those eight hours come out and sleep and I'm crying about it because I need a cell like and there's nowhere to make them up and most of the time I can just not worry about I mean not worry about time but just accept

it for what it is but I can't for four or five days in a row and that's where like now is I do it Yeah! Here. No. No, no. Come on. Honey. Come on. Come on.

Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. You know what, how many do we have to teach out? I don't want to eat it before that we're bored. My paw are you to me here and by pat I could, pat I could you to me here. He died. Pat I know I'll pat I could time. He got woe roe by pat I

was laying like right here I got behind her I ain't to one she'll look as far along she don't calf definitely but not like tonight seven, seven, seven, four she's a couple days out of her I bet she's going to calf tonight.

Hey, have your gosh. What you guys doing? You going with me? Back your cow. Easy easy easy easy easy easy easy easy easy. Yeah I get off her now you don't have to chase the cow back we're going to know for a little later oh he's damn it is a big calf imagine carrying this inside of you walking around see cricket keeps saying all these calves are hers I don't know I went to look in ball I'm trying to create a cricket.

Get out of here! What is the gap behind me? Ah, flower. Yes, it's flower. Please don't do anything rash. What's a rash? It's stupid. Unthought out. I think that's what I mean. Unthought out. So like, I can't. I mean, what can you see happening by playing with that flower? Spelling it? Right. What else can you picture happening? Um, making a mess? Okay, anything else? Oh. Making a mess? So what are you doing it for? If those are the only possible outcomes. Just stay out of it. Don't, don't. She's just talking to me about not doing it. That's butter.

Do you have to make your happiness with what you're doing every day? Like that? You have to build in that, that joy. Edgar! Honey! I'll accept that. What do you think I should wear it tonight? Let me see. Come on! Come on! Mother! Look at that one. It'd be cool. Which one? I got the color in my face. That's right. Nowhere. What? I'm going to sing it.

We love you. We'll see you again soon. Thank you so much. You look at your childhood and always memories can't piece together into this myth that you created about yourself. Do you think about the things made you happy?

The things made you sad, the things made you feel loved. And you want to take that forward into your life and try and recreate it. One, two, three, four, five, six, eight, nine, ten. Let it tell what he, what he did to him. One, two, three, four, five, six, eight, nine, ten. It's now hard you're going to work, but you're willing to sacrifice what risk you're going to take. The hardest struggle is still within yourself. The hardest struggle is still within yourself.

It's time to create a new world. It's time to create a new world. It's time to create a new world. I'm going to try to see you for the camera. I'm going to try to see you for the camera.