Episode 39: Lee Wells | Caddo Spring Concert Series Info & Update

This episode focuses on the significant fundraising efforts for the Caddo Mills Volunteer Fire Department in Texas through a spring concert series. These concerts, featuring local artists and food trucks, aim to raise funds for essential EMS equipment, including equipping a secondary paramedic truck with a life pack machine, and a Lucas CPR device, which dramatically improves emergency response effectiveness. Lee emphasizes community involvement and the local contributions that make these events possible, encouraging listeners in the area to attend, support, and donate to the cause. He also provides updates on the food, entertainment, and specific dates for upcoming events, inviting everyone to participate and contribute to the betterment of the community.

Transcript

  Welcome to the ranch and table podcast,  where we discuss all things related to our Texas ranch and  our ranch to table restaurant located in downtown Rockwall.  I'm your host, Lee Wells. 

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the ranch and table. I'm Lee Wells, and I am glad to have you back with me today. Looking forward to a informative podcast. Today's podcast brought to you, of course, by Wells Cattle Company, Burgers and Pies, Downtown Rockwell, Downtown Cattle Mills. And if you're looking for a great burger, we're doing the best we can to create that for you.

Hand cut fries, homemade desserts. Come check us out and see what you think. We'd love to make you happy and better beef makes better burgers. And so we have our own beef from our own ranch, exclusively on our burgers from Will's Ranch. And we do whole ground beef. All the steaks, roast brisket, all the cuts go into Make our whole ground beef and seven day dry age.

It's the best Ground beef in the world and I hope you enjoy it. So come on by and see us And i'm going to just give you this disclaimer at the beginning. I'm always honest with you And i'm always here to tell you the truth. And so if you are not In our region right here if you're not within I don't know say 50 miles Of cattle mills greenville rockwall in this area This episode may not be of interest to you.

Absolutely listen if you want to if you're bored to death If you can't sleep you need some sleep, help but we're going to talk i'm talking today about an event that's going on. We started this past Weekend and we're going to continue for the next three weekends. And so i'm trying to get information out to our community about what we're doing and why and let everybody be aware of what we're doing.

So that's what this episode is going to be about today. Hang in here and listen, if you want to, I think it's interesting, but if you're not in the area and you can't attend I understand if you want to click on to something else and what other podcast is going to be honest with you like that and tell you that I'm going to be that way with you.

If you live in this area,  In cattle mills, downtown cattle mills. We had our first of a spring concert series that we started up last night. We, it was so crazy, had beautiful weather all day long. And then when we started at about five o'clock, the wind picked up a cold wind, picked up clouds, blew in, it even spit some rain on us.

We thought we were gonna have to pull all the sound equipment and musical equipment down and.  It got cold, it got dark for a little while, and then it blew away, but I think it was enough to scare people off, make people realize they didn't want to get out. So our attendance was a little lower last night than I would have wanted it to be.

However, we had a good showing of people coming out and having a good time and we had a great time. And by the end it had cleared off and, warm back up a little bit. It was nice out, but the wind was still high this weekend coming up. And I think for the next couple more, we're going to have some good weather, better weather.

Make plans to come out if you're in this area and you want to be a part of this. It's a lot of fun. Free concert, free live music. And I'll go into some detail about who's coming here in just a minute, but what we're doing is we're raising money for our volunteer fire department there in cattle mills.

I've said this before on another episode,  but we're parked right next to the, we rent the open vacant lot next to the cattle mills volunteer fire department. And I've been able to get to know these guys and talk with them and hang out with them and see what they do and see what they. What they go through and what their needs are and stuff like that.

And just to be real blunt, real honest the city of kettle mills has had a lot of expense. And the more I'm talking to these guys, the more I realize they've had some, they've got some big engine stuff going on and they've been, they've needed some pretty big money. They just got a new unit.

Delivered I guess in January or yeah, in January, I think it was. And so big money items there, and cattle mills is growing so fast, but the tax base and the money doesn't always come in as fast as everyone wants it to. And this is not an indictment against the City of Cattle Mills that they're not supporting the fire department.

It's not that. It's just that I see some things that are not in the budget that we could go out and grab order and they could bring in and improve some things right now that might be another year before they can get into the budget. And that's just budget lines. That's not. The city of cattle mills doing a bad job or anything like that It's just the way life goes and we all have budgets or we should Have budgets in our and things that we would like to get that we can't afford to get in and hey It's the way it goes.

So I'm stepping in to say let's raise some funds and let's equip a Secondary truck as a paramedic truck. So right now they have one truck set up as paramedic. And so they've got a life pack machine and they've got the paramedic bags. They've got all the equipment on that. Cattle mills is growing.

We've got road construction out on our interstate, which they respond to more wrecks out there than we've ever had. So it's very possible now and more probable now that they get called and then they get a split into a second call.  And the secondary truck doesn't have the same equipment and they're getting some more paramedics on staff and in their volunteer lineup.

And so it's just, I believe it's time and probably more. Rapidly  coming together than some, maybe the city council and city manager and the various ones that make these decisions saw it coming. But I think we need a second paramedic truck and the fire department agrees and the city agrees.

It's just we're going to, we're going to get together and do it. So the goal, the vision is to raise money, to be able to put another life pack machine on another truck.  which they're able to get for  about 15, 000. And then we want to buy another paramedic bag, which is basically the contents of a ambulance in a bag, all of the scopes and the various do all the things.

I'm not a paramedic , all the tourniquets and the stitches. I don't know all the stuff, all the little vials of medicines that they need. And what we're able to do if we raise this money and we are to be able to set up another truck with these devices. So regardless of if your first call or the second call and get split out onto that second call, you have all the equipment needed.

They have all the equipment needed to work on you. And then the other thing that we're doing now if we can raise just a little bit more money, Is we're going to buy for the first time cattle mills, never anticipated being able to get one of these anytime soon. And they may be the first in this area, volunteer fire department to have one of these.

It's called a Lucas device and it's really cool. The Lucas device actually does the physical movement of CPR.  the victim when they're needing it. So not only is it more accurate the rhythm and the depth and all the stuff that goes into correct CPR it's accurate, but it also frees up the hands of one of the.

The medics, one of the guys that are out there to be able to do other things. And so it's like having a third person when you need them the most. And so we're, again, that's another 15,000 to be able to do that. And so being able to give them these tools to free up the hands of a an EMT that's out there trying to save a life.

So now they can start using, finding an a, a vein setting, an iv. Maybe they need to do airways, I'm, again, I'm not a paramedic, but I can understand the value of that pretty easily. This is something that's, that they would not have thought that they could have put in a budget or gotten the money for just because it's one of those things that most don't even ask for.

But the more I've talked to them, the more I ask them pointed questions like, what is one thing that you. Would never even ask the city for but would love to have because it's just not maybe it's not the most  priority thing. And this device has come up several times. And so I'm excited to be able to tell you that we're looking like we're going to be able to get them another life pack machine, which life pack is you put the leads on the victim and it tells you what that body needs.

As far as if they need a charge on the paddles or if they need compressions or  Airway, I, I don't, again, I'm not a paramedic, but from what I understand, it is very accurate to tell, instead of them guessing and trying to figure out what's going on with manual methods, it, the computer tells them what the body needs right then.

So what I've learned, and don't quote me on these statistics, because again, this is hearsay and I'm not an expert, but from what I understand.  And again, my, this is just me talking with the guys around the firetrucks. So don't come down hard on me if I'm off a few percentage points here on this. But from my understanding, regular CPR  is about maybe 15% 15, 18 percent effective.

And again, I could have Googled this. I didn't know I was going to talk about it to be honest, but the effective rate of CPR is not real high. It's just not real high. Survival rate. And then, but when you add this life pack and you add this Lucas device, I believe it jumps somewhere in the 30 to 35 percent accuracy and life percentage.

I don't know if those are exact numbers, but I can tell you for a fact that it more than doubles the output, the results of What someone doing manual CPR can produce. And so these are all things that, I live there. I'm, my, my family lives there. My mom lives here in this area. I just, maybe I have a vested interest.

I do to see these things happen. I'm honest about that. I want them to have the very best equipment. If they're coming to my house, if I've got to hit 9 1 1. I want the best to come, try to save my house, try to put the fire out, try to resuscitate me if I'm needing it, or my mom, or my family. And and the same is true for anybody, my neighbors, anybody out here that would need these things, I want them to have the very best, and so I'm just stepping up to do it.

And I do that out of love, I do that out of concern, I do that out of care, and not out of any other reason. I have no other. No other reason our business is doing fine. Our truck is busy. I don't need the business bump that will come from this I really don't we're doing we're hitting all of our numbers  For a truck.

It's phenomenal. We're hitting numbers like restaurants hit in a truck. So we're very blessed I'm telling you the truth. I don't need this for I'm not running for any position I don't need a I'm not gonna run for mayor. I'm not running for City council. I have no interest. If you listen to my podcast, I have zero interest in holding elected positions like that. 

I'm just not, I'm just not that guy. I can get more done. I believe outside of those positions. I'm just being honest and straight with you, I think this is good for our community, and I'm really pushing hard to see us be able to get all of these items put together, put on a truck, and then they would have full capacity to save lives in two locations and change those percentages for the better.

We're having a concert series that started this weekend.  We're going to do it for three more weekends and so if you're in this area, you've got to come out. Last night's music, Saturday night's music was so fantastic. I'm telling you,  I am telling you, I listen to music a lot. I'm a music guy. 

The sound quality, the musicianship from the acoustic set, the first hour. I'm going to put a post out on Facebook this afternoon with some clips. I'm getting clips brought in or sent in. I'm going to put a post, you got to listen to some of these clips. These guys were fantastic. Next week, same thing.

Our opener is going to be a local. Cattle mills girl who grew up there. I graduated with her father Jennifer O'Grady is going to open up for us at five o'clock. And then and she's going to, she's going to do an amazing set, a one hour set acoustic and then Philip Farmer. The Phillip Farmer Band, if you're familiar with Caddo Mills, Phillip has done the the Opry, the Caddo Opry for years.

And the other night, he doesn't know this, but the other night I slipped in the back door there, so really the front door, but and I was listening to him sing and play. And for those, for Caddo folks that know Phillip and his band, his wife. Y'all got to come out. It's going to be a great time next weekend march 22nd starts at five just come downtown next it's going to be behind the opry building and then spills over into the parking lot where we are to the fire station.

It's that whole block We just take that whole block next from the bank  To the fire station, all of that. And all that behind there is part of part of what we're doing. It's just, it's really fun. Last night we had let me tell you the trucks. Let me tell you the food trucks that came in and helped us with this.

It's really cool. All of it's delicious. All of it is top notch. I'm telling you, there's times where you eat on a food truck. And you're like, that was garbage. That just wasn't worth stopping. Can we be honest? There's times where you pull up to a truck or something and you're like, man, how did they stay open?

That's just true. Honesty.  Every, I went around to every one of the trucks. I got something off of every truck last night and every one of them was top. top tier, top notch. And honeybee lemonade. They've got more creative honey more creative lemonades than I've ever seen in my life. I didn't know you could do all that to lemonade.

And I got one, I just got the standard lemonade because I was really in the mood for just a fresh squeeze lemonade. And so it was really good, but my got, my daughter got some. Strawberry something lemonade and my wife got something else. I tried those really good stuff. Hippie fluff cotton candy. 

I just thought cotton candy was pink and blue and that's what the fairs always have. And so that's, but  I don't even know how many flavors they have, but it was, pina colada. It's just, I don't even, I don't even know what all. There was a whole board  of different flavors, and I had, I tried two or three, we sampled them, and It was, I'm going to tell you, it was the best cotton candy that I've ever had. 

It had the best taste, the best, that sugary taste, but the cotton, that, that blown, heated, the cotton candy taste. But the flavoring in there, it was next level. It was really good. Rolls Gone Wild, if you are in this area, they were out at the firework stand, food park for the truck yard out there for a while.

And they decided to move, and so they moved to Van Alstyne, and they've been set up out there serving since they've left Cattle Mills. And I was able to talk them into coming back last night. And they're actually going to be with us throughout for the remainder. And I had the chicken bacon ranch egg roll.

It's an egg roll wrapper that's deep fried, but inside the stuffing, inside of it was white meat chicken, bacon I think cheese of some sort. And then the ranch. And so I had a couple of those. They have buffalo chicken philly cheesesteak, and then they have dessert. Dessert egg rolls, which are, that blows your mind, but really good, like a cheesecake.

You can imagine like a deep fried egg roll wrapper, but the cheesecake and strawberry over top or different flavors just really good food. And then we have twilight coffee, our local, one of our local coffee shops brought their trailer out. They're going to be there with us all four weeks as well.

And so is Honey Bee and Hippie Fluff. All these are going to be with us all four weeks. And then, um, Twilight Coffee. I mean, their coffee is better than Starbucks on any day. Twice as good as Starbucks on any day. Really good quality stuff. And they're out there with us. Then we have Ice Cream Emergency, which is really cool.

It's an ice cream truck that's in a,  in an old ambulance and so he turns the lights on and the kids have a good time and he's got all the different flavors of ice cream from ice cream truck. It's really cool. And then there's the low taste the corn dish they're going to be with us.

Some of the best in town. We had Abby there last night. And then we'll have the truck that's out in front of Valero. They're going to be with us for the next three weeks and those either one, you can't go wrong with either one of them. Really good stuff. And then new this week is I think it's called Pal omes er, tacos.

There are big deal out here right now in greenville, they're going there busy. They're going everywhere and a highly sought after. They're going to be with this. Saturday night as well, doing their versions of their their different street tacos, and I think they have some loaded frys also Rolls Gong Wild has all of those toppings.

They'll do those on a, like a loaded fry as well. I forgot to mention that.  And then, of course, we're there, Wells, we're doing burgers, hot dogs, fries brownies. And then this week, I'm going to try to have our bounce houses there. Just give you a little insight. The city was a little nervous about being too big and being a safety issue.

And when I sat down and talked to them, we agreed to back the first one up a little bit. I uninvited a couple folks That had planned to be there and and last night went well without a hitch. We had a paid police officer there. We had the firemen out there with trucks with lights on, slowing traffic on main.

We've, we, everybody had a great time. There was no issue at all. We could handle a lot more traffic than we had last night.  foot traffic, parking, all of that. So it's not going to be a problem. We just wanted to test it. And so for the first one, I told them we would test that out and try to keep it as small as possible.

And then we're going to build each week. I had a bounce house vendor that was going to be there for the kids and asked them to not come the first one. And so hopefully they'll be able to come in their schedule, come and be part. So the kids will have, the little kids will have something to do as well.

And it's just going to be, it's going to grow each week. It's going to be more and more fun. We do have a silent auction each night that's going on. You can bid on the different baskets and the different things that the community vendors are putting together. Our companies around the spas and the  Fox nutrition and Oh, just the different ones.

I don't even know all their names because I'm not a lady and there's a lot of lady stuff. Lip filler and Botox and spa dates, stuff that I'm not really all that into, but they're females are, and they're a great value. One of the values on one of the baskets last night was like 425 or 450 worth of stuff in that basket.

And so you come and bid on it, and all the money of course goes to the fire department. And even the vendors that are there, the trucks that are there, they are all given a percentage of their earnings each night. To the fire department. It's all about getting this equipment It's all about our community coming together and having a good time The fire department has a table set up and they've got a boot of course, to put some cash in They've also got square now and venmo and you can give to them if you're listening to this and you just want to Send a thousand dollars or send a hundred dollars or send ten dollars to this cause message me.

It's Very easy to send money these days and it's very appreciated. We really do appreciate everybody that's jumping in and helping this. Let me go through what the next weeks are going to be. So this week coming up, we've got Phillip farmers band, a family band, and then we've got Jennifer O'Grady opening for them.

And then the third week, which is the 29th of May March is we got Lynn Snow, Jr. He is a fantastic  singer, guitar player. Fantastic. You may recognize his name, Lynn Snow. Lenny's dad had some hits back early I guess seventies, eighties. And I listened to some of that and I recognize some of those.

Some of those songs had some numbers out. Lin does he does the acoustic deal now. He's also a promoter. And Billy Joe Jones is one of his clients, one of his girls. And they're just going crazy right now. She's just winning awards and getting number one spots. They're doing a great job.

He's just, he's agreed to come play for us. Just a super guy. You will love his voice and his guitar picking. And then that night, the 29th, we have Sons of Bocephus, which is a national band. That's a big deal for us to be able to have them. I appreciate my friend that was able to connect us, to be able to get his friends to come do this.

It's one of those deals for the cause. And they are a cover band for Hank Williams Jr. Music and they are fantastic. I was listening to some of their stuff on YouTube, Sons of Bocephus. That's going to be a fantastic night, fantastic show. And then the final week is April 5th. That's going to be the fourth night, the fourth Saturday, the last Saturday.

And my friend Johnny Lyons is going to open us up with his acoustic. Johnny has got a great voice, that man. Can play and sing and so johnny lions from rockwall will be with us and then gracie york band They'll be with us on that final night And she's blowing up. I don't know last year. I think she hit like a million streams on spotify or something with some of her music just she's just really she's got an old like a loretta lynn just an older  The female country sound and her whole band's going to be with us going to be performing that, that final show.

And then that night we're going to present the check, however much money we've been able to raise over this period of time, we're going to present that to the entire fire department that night. It's going to be a great night. April 5th. It's going to be a lot of fun. I know this is one of those things that's regional and it's not going to be to the masses tonight.

Today's broadcast is not,  but if you're in this area, I wanted you to be aware of what we're doing and what's going on and what you can be involved in. And you can make a difference if you can't make it out, get with me. I'm happy to come pick up a check or tell you how to get ahold of them on.

On their their social platforms to be able to give. And and we're going to make it happen. We are going, this community has stepped up. The sponsorship on this is through the roof. The people that I have been talking to and asking have said yes. And and just opened up their arms and their wallets and.

Just to make all this happen. It's going to be an amazing accomplishment for the community. I'm just glad to be a part of it. I'm just glad to be the guy, I guess that had the idea, but really an idea without support and without people stepping up and writing checks, it's just an idea.

So everyone's made this happen. And so if you're in an area, come on out, set the downtown cattle mills next Saturday. And you know what?  If you can just come out and just have a good time with us and get some lemonade and get some you know some tacos or something that'll help get that  Percentage over there to them as well.

So just come have a good time with us even if you can't  But I think everyone can give a ten dollar twenty dollar bill Most a five dollar bill. I mean Go through the couch cushions and get a few quarters and just throw them in the boot. Everybody doing their part. It really does make a big difference.

It really does work. And That's what I have for you today. Come on, see us, be a part of it. Be in, be on the winning team. It's going to be fun. And I'm going to wrap up by telling you that Lee Wells official is It's where you can find all the information about the book. You can also find all the information about the philanthropy work that we do.

There's a green button up in the right. Or if you go to the little menu on your phone, in the green box, it talks about our philanthropy. It talks about our efforts that we work in the community. And the things that I enjoy doing is making a big difference with people. And seeing some things happen that,  without everyone working together, we would never see.

So leewellsofficial. com my book is there. If you wouldn't, if you haven't gotten that yet, and you'd like to get that Amazon has it barnesandnoble. com target walmart. com. Amazon also has the the digital version. Burger Brilliance is the name of that. And if you want to grab that book, you can, and read it and Let me know what you think about it.

This episode of the Ranchin Table has been brought to you by Wells Cattle. It's our burgers and better beef makes better burgers. And come see us in downtown Cattle Mills or see us out in downtown Rockwall in our original location. We'd love to serve you in either of those places. And thank you for being with me today.

Thank you for hearing this and being a part of it if you can. And I'm Lee Wells on the ranch and table podcast. So next time we say adios, farewell, goodbye.