Dirt to Dollars
Agriculture, farming, and rural issues in central Kentucky.
Dirt to Dollars
Episode 39 - Navigating Adversity with Chuck Weldon
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We hope you enjoy this week's episode with Chuck Weldon on Navigating Adversity.
Thanks to Southern States Hardin Co-op for sponsoring this week's show! Go visit them at their Hodgenville and Elizabethtown locations.
Thanks also to our studio sponsor Biotech Innovations. Learn more about them at www.biotechinnovationsag.com.
Welcome to Dirt to Dollars, where we cover everything from the dirt on your land to the dollars in your hand. We're talking all things agriculture in central Kentucky, from the field to the farm office.
SPEAKER_03Join your hosts, Daniel Carpenter, Matt Adams, and Mark Thomas as we dig into current ag news, practices, and more. And now, coming to you from the Biotech Innovation Studios, here's Dirt to Dollars. Now let's get innovative.
SPEAKER_04All right, welcome to this week's episode of Dirt to Dollars, brought to you by Southern States Harden Co-op. Oh, you getting better at that bell. Getting better at that bell. With locations in Hodginville and Etown, check them out for all your needs. I was told today, Matthew, that uh Katie informed me that they have goat feed, and it is show goat feed if you need it. It is showgoed, and not just any goat feed, it is show goat feed. It is.
SPEAKER_02Okay. We might have to go check that out.
SPEAKER_04There you go.
SPEAKER_03Might have to do it. So yeah, we're uh a little light-handed this week. Uh Daniel feeling a little under the weather, so hopefully surely he'll be back with us next week.
SPEAKER_04But uh if you only listen for Daniel, you can stop listening now. But we know our ratings will be up this week since Daniel's not here.
SPEAKER_03You can keep on going because uh we're gonna show you why why you shouldn't just listen for Daniel. Yeah. So yeah, but we do have a little bit of help coming this week. Uh we do have a special guest. And actually, Mark, let's just roll right into that interview now if you want to bring him in and give him an introduction.
SPEAKER_04All right, today's guest comes to us from Northwest Missouri, where he raises corn, soybeans, and contract hogs. He's no stranger to the radio scene, working under the under the alias of Chuck Wagon. He got his TikTok fame back in 2021 from yelling at kids who were jumping out of moving farm equipment just to take pictures. He's a CrossFitter, avid deer hunter, and if he stands on a tractor house magazine, he's taller than one-third of the dirt the dollars crew. Here's this week's guest, Chuck Weldon.
SPEAKER_00So that was good. That was good. Yeah, I don't even need to stand on a tractor house magazine. We know I'm taller than you are, Mark.
SPEAKER_04Well, we know we we go over this every time we have, but and and really, I think if I shaved my head like yours, you probably really would be taller than me.
SPEAKER_00So or or I could grow my hair and I have my little uh bunny foo-foo up here on my forehead. There you go. So yeah. There you go.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_00Good to be with you guys. Thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, thanks for coming. So uh just tell us a little bit about you and uh your farm and how you got started, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00Well, you pretty much said it all. Um, you know, and I don't know if I'm fourth or fifth generation uh farmer, born and raised in Davies County, Missouri, north central Missouri. Um, just about a county, almost two counties south of the Iowa line. Um, born and raised here. Uh I can see my childhood bedroom from where I'm sitting right now. Uh growing up, we raised corn and soybeans, had outdoor pigs uh back in the 80s. My dad had a registered herd of Cimital cattle, and we all know what the 80s were like, much like what we're dealing with today. And uh dad was forced to sell out of the cattle. So I vaguely remember them. I I do remember after we sold out of the cattle, my dad went and started tearing fence out. And my granddad said, uh, what are you tearing that fence out for? And dad said, So I'm not dumb enough to ever buy cows again. And you know, with today's cattle market, I kind of wish maybe he'd have left a little fence in, but uh, but anyway, but but no, you said it um corn and soybean farmer here in in Missouri, and uh uh we contract through Smithfield um about all 6,800 head of pigs. Right now we're doing wean to finish. We did gilts for a lot of years, but um, we're on wean to finish now. Really, really enjoy that. Uh got in the radio business when I was in high school. I knew God put me on this earth to be a farmer, um, but I was bitten by the radio bug when I was a young kid. Um, just talked about this the other day. I remember I'm not that big a baseball fan, but I remember uh I didn't have a TV in my bedroom uh when I was a kid, but I had a little uh transistor radio, and I'd lay in bed every night and listen to the Royals on radio. And the station signed off at midnight with the national anthem and and everything, and I got bit by the radio bug. And so uh would have been about September, October, my senior year in high school in 1994. Uh I got the opportunity to start doing radio, and I've I've done that ever since. Um, part owner on a hunting television show. I I'll be honest, I don't have a lot to do with it uh anymore. Uh I'm sure we'll talk about it more in depth here in a little bit, but I went through a divorce and in 2023 and and uh still trying to find my way back to some of the things that I really enjoyed. And and on top of that, my dad is is basically retired. So it's it's me, one full-time employee, and then my dad when I really need him. And you know, we're farming 3,300, 3,400 acres of ground. Um, deer hunting and harvest happen at the same time, so it makes it very difficult to get out and hunt like I'd like to. So and yeah, um, I'm an avid uh gym rat, crossfitter, whatever you want to call it. You you know how somebody you can tell if somebody's a crossfitter or not, it's because they'll tell you. And uh so yeah, I I'm I'm a crossfitter. Did the MERF workout on Monday. Um you could beat me with uh you could beat me with a baseball bat right now, and I couldn't be any more sore than what I am right now. But but uh yeah, that's uh that's just that's pretty much my story.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so you mentioned you were a CrossFitter there, but usually a CrossFitter will tell you within the first 30 seconds of a conversation. So you're not gonna be able to get a couple of things.
SPEAKER_00He mentioned it in the intro, so I didn't think that's true. But yeah, I mean uh uh technically our gym is not a quote unquote CrossFit gym because uh you have to pay affiliation dues, but essentially that is what we do. But yeah, that's uh uh since he mentioned it in the first 30 seconds, I didn't figure I needed to bring it up again. I didn't want to give me a pass then. Yeah, I didn't want to brag.
SPEAKER_04You you mentioned outdoor hogs and and that's something that lot a lot not a lot of people would understand, but uh actually the farm I grew up on that we live on now that my parents bought in '94, uh my grandfather raised he kept his house outside. And actually ran in the creek. You know, that's this is back, you know, they bought this farm in in the 60s. Uh, you know, that was that's just normal. You know, they just they ran down in the creek and nobody thought anything of it. You know, when when dad took over the farm, he built some uh concrete floors to they were still outside, but all of our guilt lived outside. We brought them outside of the Fairwind house and and they lived, you know, inside, I guess, the rest of their life in in natural how do they call them? Natural aerated barns. You know, that weren't uh you know a lot of which I guess what you've got now are full confined full confinement. Um so you know, naturally ventilated is what what we had. So and that's what most of them were around here.
SPEAKER_00There's there's a few contracts around, but we ran, I don't know, I'm gonna guess 60, 70 head of sows. So our soils and our bores were all in a dirt lot, uh, you know, had a shed that they could go in. And then we had a, I believe, I believe it was a 16 crate farrowing house. Um, and then we had some open front sheds with concrete floors. I think back in the day they used to call them like cargo sheds. Now we didn't we didn't have anything to do with cargill, but I I think they that's what they called them back in the day. And that's where we would take them after we brought them out of the farrowing house, you know, and then eventually would wean them, and then we would take them to what we called our fat lot, where we had a big concrete pad, um, probably, if I'm guessing, a 20 by 40 type building uh that they could sleep in. And then they had 20 acres of of basically grass and timber. Well, it wasn't so much grass because they were pigs, but dirt and timber that they could run in. Um, and every rain that we had, uh slop around 20 acres trying to you know fix water gaps and figure out why the electric fence wasn't working. But uh honestly, it was the good old days. Now I I will tell you that you know, on that that day that it's it's pouring down rain or it's 20 below zero, it's really nice to go in those climate-controlled barns, not have to worry about falling out water and and running water gaps after it rains six inches or something, something, you know, something like that. But uh, I really do, really do miss those days. That's that was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_03A lot of work. So were you uh did was that something have the hogs always been around? Did you all just transition from the outdoor deal straight into confinement or were that were they gone for a little while or what?
SPEAKER_00No, we we've had pigs as long as I can remove. But you know, I graduated high school in in in 1995, so um, and you know, at the time we we farmed, I don't know, maybe 2,000 acres, 23, 2,400. Uh, and I've got a younger sister, and my my dad knew that the only way that he could keep me on the farm uh and knew that I wanted to stay on the farm was to find something else. And I was actually working for Continental Grain, who I I started with. They came to Davies County, and that's who I started growing pigs for. I was actually working for them right after I graduated, and my dad sold out the last of his fat hogs for like eight cents at that time. You know, there was just no money in it. Um, but prior to that, we knew that um we we had been with Continental. Continental flew my dad and several people to North Carolina um because they were interested in in the contract business uh since they were bringing sow farms into North Missouri. And we knew then that that was my that was my ticket to stay on the farm um was was to do that. And there, like I said, there was at that time there was no future and raising pigs the way that we did and uh and me staying on the farm back then.
SPEAKER_04Even though it's been 30 years ago when all that happened, it still seems to be a a pretty common thing in agriculture of how young farmers get back to the farm by adding some type of you know contract entity, whether it be hogs or chickens or or something of that sort.
SPEAKER_00So I had a conversation with a guy last night, text message conversation, and and uh not to get off in the weeds, but you know, I I honestly don't know how some of these young farmers today are making it without some sort of supplemental income, whether that be a job at town or cattle or hogs or you know, uh shoot, you know, even a greenhouse selling flowers or or whatever it may be. I mean, uh there's a few of them around here that are doing it, um, but I I just don't know how. Uh and and I don't even want to talk about young guys. I mean, even the older generation, um, you know, how how people are making it without a supplemental income. And and quite frankly, if it wasn't for my hog farm, um, we wouldn't be having this conversation today.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I think Mark and I'd probably be the same way. We're kind of on diversified operations too. I know if it wasn't for the cows around here, uh the grain side is row crop side is bleeding so much money that uh there's no way I don't I'm like you, I don't see how anybody does it without some kind of diversification there. And it seems like we have a lot of people around here. If they are pure grain, they're either buying and selling corn or doing some trucking on the side or doing something to supplement it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00But there's some guys around here, um, and and younger guys that that you know and and I and I'm not speaking ill of them by any means, but they have bought and paid for land that their you know, grandparents and parents and all that, you know, and they might be farming just you know a couple thousand acres. But when that land's bought and paid for, you know, that makes that makes a big difference. But uh uh that's definitely not the case with me, and uh, and I know that's definitely not the case with a lot of people. And to not diversify somehow, I just I don't understand, you know, God bless them, you know, for for being able to make it, but uh gosh dang, it's tough.
SPEAKER_03So you've got a whole lot going on here. I just want to touch on this real quick and uh kind of get the story. How do you find time to do a radio show?
SPEAKER_00I assume is that every day, uh weekday or so I'm on the air uh and and and I'm just a quote unquote DJ. You know, it's not talk radio, it's not a podcast podcast. Uh I'm a quote unquote DJ, but with the with the uh technology that we have today, it's called voice tracking. So you could look at it as kind of live to tape. So I'm on the air from from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Central Time, just as a disc jockey. Intro on songs, talking about the weather, local sports, uh, whatever we got going on. Um, and I try to make my show sound as live as as humanly possible. Uh, but it it takes me 30 to 45 minutes a day to put together a four-hour show. Um sometimes, you know, I find clips on the internet that I, you know, I edit down and use them within my show. I guess what I'm trying to say is the more work I put into it, the longer it takes. But if I wake up and I look and there's a rain cloud coming and I got 40 acres to plant, I'm not putting a lot of time into my radio show, you know, I can do it in 25, 30 minutes. But uh, but I take it serious. Um, it's it's a passion of mine. So I want to, you know, and and uh oddly enough, you know, I listen to myself all day. It's you know, station I work for, it's my station. Uh so I listen to myself. So the last thing I want to do is be sitting in the tractor and go, boy, that guy really sounds like an idiot, you know. So we know the feeling.
SPEAKER_04Yes, absolutely. Does anybody ever text you while you're on the radio like that? And like, man, what you said was just dumb.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I I I've had I've had people and still to this day, and I started doing I started doing that show, I believe, in 2020, I think. And I still have people to this day I'll meet on the road and they'll text me or Snapchat me and say, I just heard you on the radio. How'd you do that?
SPEAKER_04So actually, I'm like, I'm a multifaster. So yeah, it's funny you say that. When we first started doing this, uh, or started it back up, you know, we're on Abe 93.7 at 8.05 on Saturday mornings, and and I'll see people out at you know nine o'clock here in town and and stations in Hodginville, uh, you know, just what 15 miles away or something about man, you got back from Hodginville awful quick. Like, what are you talking about? Like, oh well, I just heard you on the radio. Like, yeah, yeah. So I can sympathize with you a little bit on that.
SPEAKER_00So what really gets people here, and it's it's funny because you know, technology is is so good. So the owner of the radio station obviously he wants to make it sound as live and as current as possible. So without getting too far off in the weeds, back in the day, commercials were on what they called a cart. Cart looks similar to a to an eight-track type tape. And on that cart, you could put malt multiple cuts on that cart. So to this day, radio still calls them carts, but it's essentially just a file on a computer. But inside that file, there's multiple cuts. So what I what I did or what they hadn't had me do, and the other guys that worked there too. So from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., for every minute of every hour, I would go in and put a time cut in a time cart. So, you know, good morning, it's 10.01 at the farm, KMZU. Good morning, welcome to the farm, it's 1003, you know, so on and so forth. So when I get through recording my show, I can go through the log and I can put in where I want to put a time cart. And the computer is smart enough to know what time it is and pulls the right time cut out of that cart to play. And that just baffles people's minds. Like, I know you do that from home, but how do you know what time it is? I'm just that dang good, man. You know.
SPEAKER_04I wouldn't have thought about it like that, but that's true, you know, with the way the songs hit and commercials, you know, it's you don't know exactly what time that's gonna be.
SPEAKER_00No, no, and I mean so you know, we've got you know, I can see on my log what estimated time it is in the hour, but you know, you don't know how long, you know, if news ran more than three minutes, or you know, you've got markets or sports or whatever it might be, our noon hour is full to you know, just news, markets, sports, obituaries, um, and that stuff's not in there at the time that I record. So I'm just looking at an estimated time. But I can put in a time cart for 12:30 news, and if it hits at 1231, you're gonna hear me say, Good afternoon, your KMZ news time is 1231. And it just blows people's mind that you know, but it's technology, it's wonderful. So yeah, so and that's something you probably only had to do one time. Oh, yeah. Which for me, it seems very redundant because I like I said, if I'm in the tractor, I'm listening to myself. Not not to sound egotistical, but I'm like, dang, I played that same time cart at the same time yesterday, you know. And it's it's the same, it's the same, you know. So I try to mix it up, you know, throughout the hour where I put them and stuff like that. So, you know, people can't tell time by the time that they hear me saying the time, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_03So I guess how that uh technology has all evolved, it's made that work a little easier with the farm over the years uh from your early days of uh being involved in radio.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's no way I could do what I do today um full time on the radio and farm. I used to work uh uh as a Kansas City's number one country station for eight or ten years, and I did every Saturday afternoon two to seven, and it was 82-mile drive from my my house to the parking garage. And, you know, I was there every Saturday. And the farm be danged. I mean, um, I think there might have been a few times that, you know, I said, hey, you know, we're we're behind, but you know, I jump off a tractor or combine to go be on the air. Um, it's Kansas City's number one country station, you know. Uh you wanted to be on the air there, but uh um there's no way I could do today. The radio station I work for now is about a 50-mile drive from home. Um, you know, I can get up and do it in my underwear, I can do it tonight when we get off of this podcast uh whenever I want to do it, um, and and still do what God put me on this earth to do every day. And that's that's farm. So it's kind of the what was it, Miley Cyrus or whatever you used to say, the best of both worlds. So I get I get to have the best of both.
SPEAKER_04There you go. Pretty cool. We we won't hold it against you that you quoted Miley Cyrus, but I'm just proud that I knew that. Me too. Me too. Proud of you.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So well, one of the one of the big reasons we kind of wanted to have you on uh this month, and nothing like waiting until the the last Saturday of the month to do it, but uh May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and um it's a pretty uh big issue with farmers um all around the world and all around the country. Um CDC in 2021 uh recorded uh agriculture and food scientists as having a 1.73 per 100,000 uh uh people. That's uh highest one of the highest suicide rates of among any occupation. So um you and I have been been friends for a long time, and you've kind of been down that road and came back from the dark side, I guess would be the way the best way to put it.
SPEAKER_00So um tell us a little bit about that, and you know it's it's something that uh I've become quite quite passionate about, honestly, uh because um I didn't become a statistic. Um so I guess the best way so I went through a divorce in 2023, and and I don't want to say that I was blindsided by a divorce. I I I kind of sensed that it was coming. Um and but I never thought it was happening. And and and one of the problems I think with with with men, and not not that women don't struggle with with mental health issues, but with men is we're fix it guys. And when something breaks, it's in our mentality, our DNA, whatever, to fix it. And like I said, I I wasn't blindsided by a divorce, but I thought, ah, you know, I could fix it. Well, I couldn't fix it. But to backtrack from that, after after falling into an extremely deep, dark depression, I I figured out that you know I've probably been depressed my entire life. And with that being said, it's not because I had a bad childhood. I had a great childhood, um, wonderful childhood. And and and I thought about this a little bit today because I knew we were going to be talking about it. And and I and I think back to when I was a kid and things I got to do, you know, you know, we didn't grow up with you know a bunch of fancy stuff, but man, we had fun and you know, had a great life. And my parents did the best, you know, that they could do for me and my sister, you know, and had nothing to do with um a bad childhood. I just think that, you know, upstairs, um, you know, maybe things haven't clicked all my life. But but when I went through that divorce, I I figured out what true depression really was. And and and I will say this for for people that that go through that and actually take that step and and make that ultimate decision. I know how dark things were for me, and I can't imagine how dark it has to be for somebody to actually go through with that. Um I here's here's where I was. Um I I've got a I've got a gun and and and I grabbed a bullet and I took a sharpie and I wrote the one on that bullet. And I ran that bullet through my hand so many times thinking about it that I wore it off. And when, and I and I'll tell you how I ended up where I ended up, but but when I finally ended up on the good side of things, I took a sharpie and rewrote the one on it and threw it in a drawer, my junk drawer basically, because that's where I stood every night in my kitchen, and I said, I will never fire fire that round. That that round will, you know, never never be fired off. But but what happened for me, and and and I don't want to get you know too spiritual or anything like that because everybody deals with it different. But um, you know, I turned to the Lord when when when that all went down, and uh and I I tell people all the time, I love Jesus, but I like to drink a little. And uh and I, you know, and and none of us have ever made our best decisions when we've been drinking. Um, so I knew at that point in time, you know, I need I needed to back away from from drinking because you know I might have made that decision. But um, you know, I turned to the Lord, I got baptized, and I went to I went to these men encounters and uh man up events and and different things, and and uh, you know, I kept hearing all these stories about um marriages being you know saved and addiction being cured and and whatnot. And and I didn't realize the term here till just a few months ago at church, but I started lamenting to God one night. So basically lashing out and screaming at God. And uh I'll never forget the day. I can't tell you what day the what day of the month it was, but I was out on my patio and it was in late July, early August, and it was hot. I mean, hotter in Hades, and the wind was just as calm as could be, and and I just started bathing. Screaming, you know, why don't you hear me? Why aren't you helping me? You know, I'm I'm ready to I'm ready to end it, do something, and kind of went on and on, had a few choice words that we won't say here. And about that time, the wind picked up for about 15 seconds. Just a real quick 15-second breeze. And it hit me like a freight train. And I'm like, holy crap, okay, I got you. You know, you hear me. And you know, that's when that's when things started to turn around for me. Um, where I I I decided, you know, instead of asking God to to fix all the problems in my life, I just asked God to walk me down the path that He wanted me to walk down instead of me trying to fight Him against the path that I wanted to walk down. But um, you know, again, I I I can't I can't imagine how dark it has to be uh for somebody to go down that road. And I still fight it today. I mean, I'm I'm I'm a happy-go-lucky person, you know, and everything we're dealing with in agriculture and just life and general, politics, the world, all the BS that that we see on the news and social media and all that. Um I mean, I still fight it today. And that's one thing about depression that that I figured out is one day, you know, one day you wake up and you think, oh, I got this, you know, I got this. And then the next day, bam, it punches you right in the mouth and says, No, no, you ain't you ain't got this. Um, I I guess, you know, what I I think Mark, you and I, I think had this conversation. I won't mention any names, but there was a a popular person on TikTok that that took his life. And and I think you and I, I'm pretty sure it was you and I had this conversation. And and one thing, and I think you said it, one thing we we have to stop doing is hiding the fact that people are doing this. You know, yes, it's it's shameful, you know, and and no disrespect to you know any family that's gone through it or anybody that has succumbed to suicide. Um, but it it it's shameful, it's embarrassing. You know, nobody that was one of the things that I, you know, there were several things that kept me from from going down that road. You know, number one was my family. Um, but I've been in my small little area to more suicide funerals in my 49 years than I care to admit. And inevitably, at every funeral, somebody jabs somebody in the side and says, they took the chicken crap way out. And I thought, well, I you know, I don't want them to be having a funeral for me. And somebody jabs somebody in the side and said, he took the easy way out. Like, no, I'm not gonna do that. But we we have to stop hiding the fact that people do this, you know. Um I I take a pill every day. I mean, I went and spent about four hours with my doctor uh on his day off and just talked. And I take a pill every day. And I've talked to people, like, well, I don't want to take a pill every day. Like, well, if you have a headache, you take an aspirin, don't you? Yeah. Well, if you got high cholesterol, you, you know, you might take a pill for that. Or if you need to be on blood thinners, you know, you take a pill for, yeah, yeah. Well, why not take a pill, you know, that will help your mindset? Well, I don't want I don't want a you know, a pill to make me feel fake. It doesn't make you feel fake. It just adjusts the stuff going on in your brain to make you live the way that you should be living, you know. Um, you're not you're not out there being somebody that that you're not, um, but just I don't know. Um we have to stop pretending like it doesn't happen, you know. Um now, granted, a family doesn't want to go on and an obituary and say, well, you know, they decided to end their own life or whatever, but you just can't you just can't hide the fact that people are going through it. And and I've been very open on on social media about what I've been through. And the most rewarding thing, and I think this is a God thing too, um, is the number of people that I've had reach out to me. And I'm a nobody, but the fact that I was willing to be number one, a man, and and number two, openly talk about, hey, I went through some crap. And you know, I went down a deep dark hole. Um, if you need help, you know, you can reach out to me. And I can't tell you the number of people that have sent me messages. Um, I've had people call me through Facebook Messenger that I didn't know, um, TikTok, um, have had people that that found me on Snapchat just simply to say, hey, I know you went through this, how did you overcome it? And you know, that maybe that's you know God's reward to me for for you know sticking through it. But um I'll be honest with you though, Mark, and and and and man, looking back on it now, um, it was embarrassing as crap, you know, to see the way that I acted and and what I did and and the fact that I even thought about it. But you know, in the time, you know, you don't know, you don't realize, you know, the thing that I hated to hear from everybody when I was going through that was it'll get better. It'll get better. Well, of course they were right, but that was the last thing I wanted to hear um was it'll get better, and it did. And and looking back, I I'm embarrassed about it. But you know, if there's anybody that's listening to this, number one, you can find me on social media anywhere Instagram, uh, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat. Um, you're more than welcome to reach out to me. But number one, you know, don't be afraid to talk to somebody, anybody. Now, for me, and and I think this is the same with a lot of guys, is uh when you're going through something like that, you don't want to talk to anybody. You know, maybe it's not because you're embarrassed, you just don't want to talk to anybody. And that's the way I was. Now I found a lot of solace in writing. Um, I would write my feelings. Um, I like to tell people that they were songs because it sounds more manly than poetry. A lot of it, a lot of it was poetry. Some of it, thanks to the the use of AI, I've been able to turn into songs that I can, you know, kind of enjoy for myself and whatnot. Um, but uh, you know, that that was my outlet. I wrote a lot of stuff that to this day I've never gone back and looked at, you know, and and that was that was me just you know talking to the notepad on my phone. Um, but man, oh man, if I mean it doesn't matter. I mean, I I've had people say, well, you know, this is petty compared to other things. I talked to, you know, the owner of our gym, who is uh uh former special forces marine. Uh I hate to think that what what he's been through in his life and what he's seen. And I know that he deals with PTSD and and and whatnot. And I talked to him and and I literally started crying. I said, I don't I don't know why I'm telling you all this. I mean, you've been through way worse than what I've been through. He didn't care. He was he was there to listen. Um, and it doesn't matter how petty you think it may be. Um if you're going through it and and it's got you in a mindset like that, it's serious enough for somebody else to take serious. And I just I just can't emphasize enough that men, women, and by all means children, because we're seeing way more of that these days um than what we have in the past. Don't be afraid to speak up. Um, no matter what it is, no matter how embarrassing it may be, um, you know, how prideful or how much it might hurt your pride. Speak up to somebody, and a stranger, a preacher, um, somebody, I mean, like I said, I've had people that I've never met. Uh had a guy send me a Snapchat. And I think I posted this on my TikTok the other day. Guy sent me a Snapchat, had no idea who he was. Um, and it was him, uh a selfie of him in tears. And he'd had uh, and I'm guessing, you know, close to my age, you know, middle-aged man, um, he'd had a series of catastrophic breakdowns. And he said, Man, he said, I just don't know if I can do it anymore. He said, This is gonna get the best of me. And when he said get the best of me, he did not mean financially. And uh about 30 minutes later, I get another one and he's chugging a beer with tears coming down his face. And I'm like, dude, you know, it ain't that bad. Um, I had no idea who this guy was. And um I sent him a few Bible verses, told him I was gonna pray for him, and uh we still snap to this day. And uh he's done farming, he's helped a couple neighbors get their crop in and he's got a smile on his face. And I'd like to think that that's because you know he reached out to somebody that was willing enough to listen. And and that that's what's important. I mean, uh not not only not only do I want to say if you're if you're somebody that's going through something, reach out to somebody, but if you're somebody that gets reached out to, be willing to take the time to listen to what they have to say. You may not have any advice for them, and and maybe sometimes it's best that you don't offer any advice, but take the time to listen to what that person has to say. Give them a hug, give them a pat on the back. If it's on the phone, you know, just tell them, you know, tell them you love them, you pray for them, um, whatever. But uh, you know, it's not just for the person that's going through the hard times, it's the person that might change that person that is going through the hard times.
SPEAKER_03That's right. That was going to be a be a question I had for you too, Chuck. If there's somebody out there listening that uh that maybe has never been through anything like this, but they have a friend that they suspect is, or somebody reaches out to them, what would be some kind of some advice uh you would give them on how to handle that situation?
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, um I think the most easiest thing to do is, you know, if you've got a friend, and we'll use Mark for an example, you know, uh you know Mark and and you suspect Mark's going through something, you know, go say, hey Mark, you know, how's things going? You doing all right? And when he says no, and I know this is on the radio, so my response will be you say, Oh, baloney, um, talk to me, you know. And I mean, even if you tick off your best friend by trying to pry it out of them, uh, it to me it's better to pry it out of them and and tick them off than it is to just say, Okay, Mark, you say so, you know. Um, but if you know somebody that's going through something, and and you don't, to me, you don't even have to go that far. I mean, just let them know that you're thinking of them, you know, reach out to them on a regular basis. And, you know, hey, how's things going today? Hey, you know, you know, markets were up a little bit today. That's good news, ain't it? You know, or hey, we got that rain we've been looking for, you know, just make casual conversation. You don't have to go in there with a pry bar and try to pry it out of them, you know, right off the bat. But you know, if you're a close friend, I mean, um, I I I had I woke up on more than one occasion with friends standing in my bedroom because I'd shut my phone off and and didn't answer my phone, you know, and they just they suspected to walk in and find me deceased. Um, and you know, they'd sit on the edge of my bed and just you know, just talk to me. Not read me the right act or anything like that, just talk to me. And and you know, that's a lot of times I think as men, if you start that conversation, just a casual conversation, and that other person starts to feel a little bit comfortable, and you know, uh, you know, it's kind of kind of like an animal, you know, letting their guard down, you know, type, you know, they start to feel comfortable, then they you know start to, you know, maybe uh unleash or confess or whatever a little bit. But uh, I wouldn't say that you know that you should go in just guns blaring and hey, I know something's going on with you, you tell me what's going on. Um, I I think it would depend on your relationship with that person, but but by all means, just you know, talking to them. Daily phone call, daily Snapchat, daily text message. You know, I'm embarrassed that you know Mark's Mark and I are quite a bit different in age, but you know, I got about a 18 or 20 person people I got snap streaks with at the age of 49, you know. Um but uh um you know, but but but I I mean I do that. I you know, I I've had people that that I know are just going through a rough time, tractor broke down or you know, flood water or whatever it may be, and and just reach out and say, you know, y'all doing all right, you know, everything going good? And uh more times than not, you know, I I think more times than not that you know once people feel comfortable enough, they'll open up to you. But but if you to me, if you sense that you know it's getting worse and they're not, then then I think it's time to start prying a little bit, especially if it's somebody that you call a you know a good close friend.
SPEAKER_03Well, and we've all kind of been there before that you've been going through something or something on your mind or bothering you and you call a friend, mainly just wanting them to ask you what's going on so you can get it off your chest and talk with somebody too. And that's something I think important to uh to keep in mind to make sure you don't bottle all that up, especially those of us in agriculture. We're pretty isolated and we're we're by ourselves a whole lot of the time. Uh I know my wife gets on me for being on the phone all the time, but I have to explain to her that you know I don't I may go three or four days without seeing another person sometimes. So uh you've got to have some form of communication there. And and I can remember when I worked public work, it was all I wanted to do was was get home and get away from the general public, but it's it kind of it kind of turns around the other way when you're when you're full-time in AG.
SPEAKER_00But this this is this is kind of off the subject, but I actually thought about this yesterday. I remember um before I had my driver's license, we used to sell hogs to a place about 30 miles south of here. And it was summertime, and we'd been fighting to get a crop in and all that. Well, we sold pigs one morning and I asked my dad, I said, Can I ride down to the market with you? He goes, Why do you want to go? I said, I just want to see people. You know, because we'd been, you know, we've been we'd been working so hard on the farm, you know, and I'm 13 miles from town, you know, um, you didn't see anybody, you know. And uh so, you know, and and and that's I think that's one thing that's tough in AG too, is is just the you know, even though our equipment's bigger, and and yes, there's guys that work very long days, you know, we don't work near the hours that we used to because our equipment's bigger and we don't have to work those hours. Obviously, we do when we have to. Um, I will tell you that was one of the hardest things when I was going through my divorce is I had a couple million gallon hog manure to pump, and we do it at the time with 5,000 gallon honeywagons, and you're looking at you know 10, 12, 15 days of 12, 14 hour days of just complete and total boredom. So you take somebody that's already mentally going insane, um, don't know whether to, you know, crap or go blind and stick them in a tractor in a honey wagon. I mean, just that isolation, and and I'm not just talking about a honey wagon, you know, sitting on a tractor, sitting on a planter, sitting on a combine, driving a truck. Um, you know, I think about truck drivers, you know, that 12, 13, 14 hour day, just isolation. Um, you know, that's when the mind starts messing with you. And and you just, you know, it's just like you got, I don't know, bugs or crabs or something in your mind. Just they're constantly moving, and you just can't you can't calm down, you know. Um, it was easier for me when I was going through the divorce once we got farming done, because I wasn't stuck in that tractor, you know. Uh I still didn't do crap. Um, you know, I'd get on my ranger and ride around with my dog or whatever, but I wasn't, you know, if I I was stuck on that tractor. I had to sit on that tractor and had to get that crop in. You know, it didn't matter whether I was going through hell or not, I had to get that crop in. But once that was done and then I could, you know, stay a little a little bit busier, um, it it made things uh a little bit easier. But yeah, that's you know, truck drivers and and farmers and construction workers, guys that are you know trapped in a cube all day that already have a mind that's racing, uh, it's not a healthy place to be, uh, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_03So along along those lines, uh, before we have to wrap up, uh, you know, you went through all this right before we started in a severe downturn in agriculture. Uh and then I know from what I've seen, you all have had a very rough spring uh as far as weather and stuff is concerned, getting crop in. Uh, we've had our challenges here in Kentucky as well. Uh seemed like easy going, and everything was getting done early, and then a bunch of it got froze off and had a bunch of replant. Uh, how do you overcome, or you've overcome kind of that depression and then start getting hit with this and stresses on the farm side? How do you manage that now and how is that different than before you went through that?
SPEAKER_00There's one thing, there's one thing that I always tried to do and I wasn't good about it. And I go back to the days of high school when I played football, and the coach said, leave it on the field. And and when I was married and and I and I practice it more today than what it was when I was married, when I come home and I hit the door, whatever crap I went through that day, whatever crap's going on in the market, the interest rates, the input costs, the fuel costs, the this, that, the other, I leave it at the front door. And and I think you have to. You know, I'm a I'm a 49-year-old single man with a 15-pound dog. You know, you got guys like yourself and Mark that got kids and all that. You can't bring that stuff home with you. Um, and and I've always been one, you know, I I I lost myself for a while, but I've always been one that thrived on advert adversity. You know, the more adverse the situation, the better I was gonna do. Now, obviously, I went through a patch in life where, you know, it didn't even have to be adverse and it still kicked my butt. Um, but what I have through faith and what I just want to believe is a strong mindset. I I don't allow the things I can't control to worry me. Um I went and looked at a farm today that, you know, I've probably got, and it's minuscule, uh, 40 or 50 acres of replant. Um I ain't looking forward to it, but it is what it is. You got to go do it. Um I was hauling grain the other day, and you know, I'm one of these guys that go, go, go. Well, right next to our rail facility is our fuel facility. I'm like, I'll get fuel next time. Pulled in, and as I pulled into the the to dump grain, my fuel light came on. Well, I forgot that it was 516 for diesel fuel and I had to go put 200 gallons in, you know. But it is what it is. You gotta have it, you know. Um, and I I got a $5,000 bill from John Deere today, you know. Yes, it inside it's it's stacking up, you know, and it still does. I mean, just like it does with me, like it does with everybody else. But I just I gotta believe that the good Lord is gonna take care of me, and I can't control it. Um there's guys that got it worse than me, and and uh I just look at it as as you know, it'll be what it'll be. Um, you know, I I had had a friend tell me one time, and and it was about something with the law, I won't go into it, but they would say they can't they can't eat you, but they can take a dang big bite out of you. And I look at it like that now. I mean, um, you know, I I don't I don't believe I'm I'm close to bankruptcy, um, but they're taking big bites out of me. But at the end of the day, you know, ain't gonna eat me. And uh uh I'll be here to fight another day. We'll all be here to fight another day.
SPEAKER_05That's right.
SPEAKER_03I had the had the thought the other day back when I worked in Extension, uh had a fellow extension agent told me this has probably been 15 years ago, that uh when we get to complaining about stuff that we had to do on the job, we'd say, Well, that's what we get paid to do today. And I just happen to remember that a couple weeks ago, and that's kind of what I'm trying to take through the rest of the year here. Is we may not be getting paid much to do it, but that's if it's something we don't like to do, that's what we're getting paid to do today, and it'll it'll be better tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00I guarantee you, every every farmer that's listening to this and the guys that are on this podcast, at some point in time, you've talked to somebody in your life that has asked you about farming. What do you do for a living? I farm for a living. And I guarantee you, at some point in time, somebody has replied with, dang, I'm jealous. I'd like to do that. I've always dreamed of doing that. We're lucky enough, by gosh, we get to do it. And and it's a tough life. And don't get me wrong, you know, when it's good, it's great. And when it's hard, it's it's tough. Um, but but we're fortunate enough that we get to do something that a lot of people, um, you know, even out here in the country, you know, we we have a lot of Mennonite neighbors here that, you know, have uh greenhouses and stuff. So we get a lot of people from out of the area that, you know, I'll drive by on that big John Deere Sprayer and they'll be looking up at me, and you can just tell they're in awe. You know, um, we get to do that. You know, God gave us the the ability to do that, and we get to do it. And uh, you know, and and that's something to be proud of that other people would like to be doing what we're doing. Um, and we'll keep doing it until the bank or the good lord or somebody tells us probably gonna be the bank first, but uh uh but we'll keep doing it until we can't can't do it anymore. And and you're talking, and and I gotta and I gotta say this, there's not a lot I remember from my childhood. I'm not I don't have the best memory, but I remember cutting a quote out of an FFA magazine uh back when I was probably a freshman or sophomore in in high school. No idea where this quote came from. I've googled it, still can't find the source, but I hung it on my refrigerator and I try to live by this um as often as possible. You are the only one that can tell yourself that you can't and don't have to listen. And and I think that you know when it comes to to mental health or or dreams or whatever it may be, um, I truly believe that and and I try to live that way. If somebody that's one thing that that uh my ex-wife always always spoke highly about me is if I set my mind to something, I went out and did it. Because if somebody told me I can't, um I was the only one that, you know, could say I can't, don't have to listen. I didn't have to listen to anybody else either. Um so I hope anybody that's going through a hard time that says, you know, I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it, you ain't got to listen to yourself. Go do it, you know.
SPEAKER_04That's right. And the final thing I'll say here to wrap up, you know, you made the comment of everybody saying that that it'll get better, and and it will, and that's not always the right thing to say, but uh something that I've found comfort in over the years is you know, when you when you make it home at night, you make it to bedtime, you don't ever have to do that to today again. It's over with, you never have to do it again. So no matter how bad the day is, you don't have to do it again.
SPEAKER_00So unless you're pumping hog maneuver, and sometimes you have to do that over. That's true. That's true. That's true. No, no, that that that that is that is great, and then that's that's a great way to look at things. And and uh I appreciate you guys having me on. And like I said, it's it's something you know that I I've been I don't want to say passionate to talk about because it is embarrassing, um, but it's something that needs to be talked about. And you know, I'm a nobody, but if I can talk about it, maybe they'll encourage somebody else to talk about it, and we can stop hearing about um this senseless um I don't want to call it a pandemic. But uh senseless crap or what's the word I'm looking for, Mark? Um statistics. There you go. We don't need to keep adding to them, I guess. Um I don't know what the word is I'm looking for, but it needs to stop. I mean, um God put us here for a reason, and and there ain't nothing that bad. So right.
SPEAKER_04So well, thanks again, Chuck. And uh appreciate it, guys. We appreciate it, and we'll catch you next time.
SPEAKER_00All right, buddy. Y'all have a good one.
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, thanks again to Mr. Chuck Weldon there. Uh be sure and look him up. He's not, I don't think he's somewhat famous, Mark. That might be somebody you can strive to be. I think he's full-on famous.
SPEAKER_04He is full-on famous. He's got way more followers than me.
SPEAKER_03So you can you can look him up, I think, on TikTok or on Facebook. I know. Uh just Chuck Weldon, isn't it? Just Chuck Weldon. He's the most important thing.
SPEAKER_04One, the only, the OG.
SPEAKER_03So again, thanks for for coming on and talking with us or talking with us about kind of a difficult subject there. Uh something that's not always the most comfortable thing to talk about, but uh you can tell he's passionate about it and passionate about just helping people in general, just the it's the comfortableness that he had talking with us about that. So uh again, if you're uh going through something like that, don't be afraid to just reach out to somebody. Uh reach out to a friend, or if you're not comfortable reaching out to a friend, reach out to a stranger. Just somebody that'll talk.
SPEAKER_04So you know who's not a stranger? Who's this week's sponsor, Southern States Harden Co-op.
SPEAKER_02That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_04Check them out for all your agricultural input needs. And show goat feed, if you and show goat feed. So all right.
SPEAKER_02Well, we will see you next week.
SPEAKER_04See you next week.