From FFA to Hidden Valley Cattle : A Young Farmer's Journey

Meet Victor, a 16-year-old agricultural entrepreneur who's defying odds and building a farming legacy from the ground up. In this heartwarming conversation, we explore how a young man with determination and community support is carving his path in an industry often dominated by corporations and aging farmers.

Victor shares his remarkable journey from joining FFA (Future Farmers of America) to securing personal loans for purchasing his first herd of cattle. Despite early setbacks—losing calves and having to sell underperforming stock—his persistence has paid off. Today, he manages a growing operation with seven mother cows, a bull, and several calves, alongside his prized 1988 Case International tractor purchased through a youth FSA loan.

What makes this story truly special is the rural Kentucky community rallying behind him. Without owning land, Victor has creatively negotiated arrangements to farm others' property, secured equipment borrowing privileges, and gained invaluable mentorship from the Showalter family, who run a local butcher shop and 240-head cattle operation. Their guidance has been instrumental in his development as a young farmer.

Beyond cattle, Victor balances his agricultural pursuits with choir singing, volleyball with friends, and his new YouTube channel "Hidden Valley Cattle," which recently hit 100 subscribers. His wisdom resonates throughout our conversation: "Pick your friends wisely," "keep yourself busy," and "have a personal relationship with the Lord"—advice that reflects maturity beyond his years.

Whether you're a seasoned farmer, an agriculture enthusiast, or simply someone who appreciates stories of youthful determination, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on the future of farming. Subscribe, share, and join us for our upcoming barbecue event on October 23-25 at Haste Draft Horses and Mules in Liberty, Kentucky!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Harness Up Podcast
• 1:14 Meet Victor: FFA Member and Farmer
• 5:03 Victor's SAE Project and Cattle Operation
• 10:28 Community Support and Moving to Kentucky
• 16:11 Showalter Family Mentorship
• 22:10 Future Plans and Local Connections
• 27:30 Words of Wisdom and Upcoming Events
• 35:14 Podcast Closing and Thank You

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome to Harness Up with Haste Draft Horses and Mules, where we talk all things related to these magnificent animals, from their history and uses to training and care. We cover it all. Join us as we chat with experts and enthusiasts in the field, share stories and tips and explore the world of draft horses and mules. Whether you're a seasoned owner or just curious about these gentle giants, this podcast is for you.

Speaker 2: 0:47

So harness up and join Haste Drafte draft. Horses and mules. How's everybody doing? It's been a while, ain't it? Yeah, I know I'd love to do a whole lot more podcasts for you folks, but I've just been really busy. I've had a lot going on. I'm selling a lot of horses and running a lot of places. But we're back and I'm going to try to do some podcasts here, local in our community, a few.

Speaker 2: 1:32

I've been wanting to do that for a while and this young man here is a local young man and we appreciate y'all listening. I know y'all been waiting for a podcast. You've been calling me and telling me hey, come on out and do a podcast where you at. No, I'm sorry but I apologize. We're gonna do one today for you. It's saturday and today is july, the. What day is it? Victor? The 14th, july the 14th, and we're here at the office, here at the barn. It's about four o'clock and we's with customers all day, and now we're here to record a podcast for you guys.

Speaker 2: 2:01

So a few things before we get into this. Guys, remember our barbecue event coming up October 23rd, 24th and 25th here at Haystraft Horses and Mules Halen, young Road, liberty, kentucky. The website has all the information you need Check that out. It's going to be a great time. Lots of people come to this barbecue and it's wonderful. We have a blast. If you're interested in coming and joining us, you don't have to RSVP or anything Just show up and be ready to have a good time and drive horses and enjoy a great time with fellow people that love Draft Horses, and we're looking forward to it. We hope you all are too. So get ready for that. And the website is wwwdrafthorsesandmulesforsalecom. Also, we're on Facebook, we're on Twitter, we're on TikTok, we're on Instagram we're all across the board, so you can find us anywhere under Haste Draft Horses and Mules Easy as that.

Speaker 2: 2:54

So we appreciate all y'all and thank you so much for everything. Without y'all watching and doing what you do for us, we couldn't do what we do, and it means the world to us. So now we're going to dig in a little bit to this young man right here. And one thing I wanted to do one with Victor. His name is Victor and he's got that FFA jacket on. I was in FFA in high school and it kind of means something to me a little bit. So Victor's in FFA at Casey County High School. So tell them about yourself a little bit, victor, how are?

Speaker 3: 3:27

you doing today and what's going on. Good afternoon, I'm Victor and I'm a Casey County FFA member. I'm not a committee chair nor an officer yet. I was a little bit late getting into it so I didn't really have the full experience. I'm in my second year, going into my third year of high school. I just joined my sophomore year and I enjoyed every minute of it. We went to rodeo events, we went to the farm machinery show up there in Louisville. That was a blast. Got to see a bunch of different farm equipment and that was.

Speaker 2: 4:07

that was a lot of fun, um we went when I was in high school too you did, yeah, yeah it's crazy. It's just crazy. Looking back, you know I'm 37 year old. I was in FFA from 02 to 05. Now you're in it from now to whenever. You got two more years I graduate uh the 27 oh cool yeah you got an sae program I do. Yeah, you didn't know, I knew about that. I pulled that one on you you did a little bit um tell me what an sae is with it like.

Speaker 2: 4:40

First of all, tell them what ffa stands for.

Speaker 3: 4:43

Even so ffa is uh future farmers of america and uh it's trying to get young, young youth into agriculture because our agriculture is dying, we're losing farms and people don't think farmers enough it is.

Speaker 2: 5:02

I mean, that's a good point you just said yeah agriculture is kind of dying out. Well, it's not. It's not really dying because we got to have agriculture to eat yeah, if we wouldn't have farmers, we wouldn't have people but what's dying out is, I think, is those small country farms like your farm yeah there's not a lot of that anymore.

Speaker 2: 5:23

No, you just can't make no money it's all corporation, big, massive, but you're doing it I'm trying every day but you're not doing it to make I mean you're not going to make a living with just did the rest of your life probably not no but you're making a, you're making a point to try yeah, and it's your sae program it is tell them about that what that means. Like what? What does what does fa, ffa and that go?

Speaker 3: 5:46

together. So an sae project is kind of a um. It stands for supervised agriculture experience, and when you're in ffa you will have this um. You will have the um opportunity to create a SAE project, and it could be anything from growing some tomatoes in a pot to getting a loan and getting a bunch of cows and raising cattle on your own, so it can vary. What did you do?

Speaker 3: 6:31

Well, even before I started FFA, I was interested in getting into farming and so I just knew somebody that would be able to give me a personal loan. See, I'm just 16, so it's not like I can just run down to the bank and fill out a bunch of paperwork and get me a loan. It's not that easy. So I got me a good friend that we went out and we bought some cows. I first bought about 16 mama cows and I. I was not impressed at all with what I got. I was kind of I was kind of messed up, messed over a little bit. It was kind of rough, um, the first year of having them cows it was. It was not good at all. I was, I lost some, I lost a calf and I lost a calf and I lost a few mamas, and so I had to sell a lot and get rid of some bad stock. I didn't have much to look forward to, but it went well. After a little bit it's starting to go back up, so you got your loan.

Speaker 2: 7:39

Yeah, you bought your cows. Now how many are you?

Speaker 3: 7:42

running your cows. Now, how many are you running? I've got about seven moms and a bull, and then I've got about three heifer calves that I'm going to keep back from last year, and I've got me one steer, and then I've got me about four calves that were born this year year?

Speaker 2: 8:06

is that steer, the one that just became a steer yesterday you was telling me about, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was quite an experience.

Speaker 3: 8:13

That was the first one I had castrated and I didn't have much help there, and so I youtube university helped me out pretty good.

Speaker 3: 8:22

It helped me out pretty good but you didn't put it on your youtube channel well, the thing is, as I was with a little amish boy, that amish boy was helping me and they don't like to be on the camera that much, and so, or at all, and um, so I can. I didn't have no videographer there to video me. Steven here, he didn't go and video me, so he should have called me.

Speaker 2: 8:51

I never knew it was going on, so yeah, well. That's funny, Victor.

Speaker 3: 8:56

Yeah, but we got it figured out and it was quite an experience.

Speaker 2: 9:01

So you got that going.

Speaker 3: 9:03

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:04

And you recently got a big red tractor.

Speaker 3: 9:06

I did. I went out and I got me another loan. Um yeah, through the FSA, farm Servancy Agency, they provide youth loans, and so I got me a youth loan and I bought me a 1988 Case International 1494. Two-wheel drive cab. It's a pretty nice tractor.

Speaker 2: 9:27

It is nice, I like it.

Speaker 3: 9:29

The color really pops and the green field, it's really nice.

Speaker 2: 9:34

So the land you're using, you know, know. You can't buy your own land, right now so how's that going about? Like what land are you farming?

Speaker 3: 9:41

so the same guy that I bought my, or helped me buy my cows um, we kind of made up this agreement and I was actually in a partnership with an amish guy, but we won't go into too much detail about that I figured we better get out of the partnership. It wasn't working out and so I bought them out. And the same guy that we kind of got the cows through, he had some property that nothing was happening with and so we kind of bought the cows, mainly just to help clean the farm up. That's mainly what that whole deal was.

Speaker 2: 10:23

So you're kind of like leasing his land on a deal that you clean it, kind of you take care of the land.

Speaker 3: 10:28

Yeah, yeah, it's great because I don't have to pay any rent.

Speaker 2: 10:32

Where was you cutting hay at? You was cutting hay on other land too, though.

Speaker 3: 10:36

Yeah, I rent about 10 acres Okay to pay any rent. Where was you cutting hay at? You was cutting hay on other land too, though. Yeah, I um I rent about 10 acres okay, um, just right up the road from the farm it's amazing how you're 16 yeah but you can do this, and there's ways for all you other young children to do it too. Really yeah, you just got to know the right people at the right time and get in with it.

Speaker 2: 10:59

But you live in a good community.

Speaker 3: 11:00

Oh yeah, I love my community.

Speaker 2: 11:04

I've bragged on our community here a lot and I'm going to brag on it again. But if he needs a bush hog, he knows where to go get one. If he needs a hay cutter, he knows where to go get one. The community will stand behind him and help him. He's a good boy and we want to see him succeed. You know we'll do anything we can for him. It just really means a lot. Just to see him out in the field with that tractor cutting hay kind of puts a warm spot in your heart. You know it means something. And to show this community standing behind this young man and helping him get started and the thing is you're not from here either. No, he didn't live here his whole life.

Speaker 3: 11:44

Where'd you come from? Picayune, Poplarville, Mississippi, that area.

Speaker 2: 11:49

Shout out to my buddies at Louisiana Carriage, New Orleans Carriage. I was in Poplarville and took a team of mules to them at. Poplarville at their farm there.

Speaker 3: 11:59

Really Yep.

Speaker 2: 12:00

They got a place there to keep their mules for the New Orleans.

Speaker 3: 12:02

Really, that's about where we lived and I should have called you.

Speaker 2: 12:05

three months ago I went to Picayune.

Speaker 3: 12:08

Really.

Speaker 2: 12:08

And sold a team of black perchings to a guy at RV Park.

Speaker 3: 12:11

Wow.

Speaker 2: 12:12

Yep. Shout out to you too. You know who you you are. Hope your horses are doing good for you. You need to call me sometime. Give me an update. I'd like to know. He bought a good team from us named tom and jerry that's a fun team a lot of people remember that team. They was good, good, good team, but so you moved here when you was how old?

Speaker 3: 12:30

I was about five, six, about five or six, so you don't remember a lot of it there. No, I mean a little bit. There's some fond memories there, um, but no, I don't remember a lot from being down there. You remember crawfish bowls oh yeah, I love crawfish bowls that we ain't got many of them up here what about king cakes from the mardi gras?

Speaker 2: 12:54

well have you ever had one.

Speaker 3: 12:56

I, I have one, but I I wasn't too, I wasn't too big on them, yeah, you may like one now, though I might, I might, can't never tell, so you move.

Speaker 2: 13:07

See, he moved here from mississippi and this community's kind of took him in and it means a lot yeah, it has.

Speaker 3: 13:15

yeah, they took me in and I got to know a lot of people you have. My network's pretty big.

Speaker 2: 13:22

You've been running around here, though, on a full-blown lawnmower forever. You know, victor's always been around running around doing something, so that means a lot.

Speaker 3: 13:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:32

And tonight he's going to play volleyball.

Speaker 3: 13:40

Yeah, I got another group of friends that we get together about every Saturday and play at the local private school here the. Galilean home.

Speaker 2: 13:47

My daughter went to school there.

Speaker 3: 13:48

Really At Galilean, yeah, sure did.

Speaker 2: 13:51

Good place.

Speaker 3: 13:52

Mm-hmm, I actually got this um organized like I not the beginning, but like tonight I actually went and got that planned up I was. I was the one that planned that that's good and that old 85 truck oh yeah, I got me a a white uh 85, 150.

Speaker 2: 14:15

That is a sweet truck.

Speaker 3: 14:17

Yeah, it's a super nice four-wheel drive, four-speed, super nice truck.

Speaker 2: 14:21

I like it, and you've got a nice hat on too, yeah.

Speaker 3: 14:32

Do you remember?

Speaker 2: 14:33

the story behind the FFA jacket. No, I don't. Everybody just wears one. It's a thing when you're in FFA you have a jacket. Stand up and show the camera your jacket, Show them.

Speaker 3: 14:44

Put his name on it and the FFA emblem. I got two pins here. The pin right here. I went and did a competition for record keeping and we placed. There was a, it was a group ordeal and we placed. I want to say that we placed fourth place in our region. Our group did so that was. That was pretty exciting.

Speaker 2: 15:12

I well, we had regionals and then we had the state. I did tobacco grading, tobacco stripping contest they still do that or not?

Speaker 2: 15:24

no, I don't think when I was an ffa, tobacco was still pretty big and, um, you strip a hand of tobacco and you tie the hand and you grade it in different grades and, uh, I did the grading, the stripping contest, and then also I did dairy judging. I grew up on a dairy farm so I judged cattle. We judged the udder of the cow and the whole conformation of the cow and Holstein to Irishire, to Brownswiss, to Guernsey. That's what we did and in 2003 we was the state FFA tobacco stripping team champions really it was wow casey county no, I went to pulaski county.

Speaker 2: 16:03

See, I live in bethel ridge and we was right by the line oh, yeah, and my mama owned a beauty shop in science hill, so it was easier for me to go to school there than it was to go to school in casey. So that's where I went big school.

Speaker 3: 16:18

Yeah, pulass county is pretty big but I'll never forget it.

Speaker 2: 16:21

Green county kentucky had the best tobacco strippers. I mean they was tough to beat.

Speaker 2: 16:27

We lost to them the other three years wow I remember it like it was yesterday me and sam minton and Darren Riley and I think it was Josh Beshears. He was the four members of the team. I don't know if Sam and Darren and them has listened to this or not, but I graduated with them. Boys, sam's up in South Dakota now or somewhere. I ain't seen or heard of the other two since we graduated, but who knows? They may listen to this podcast and call me. I'd like to talk to them.

Speaker 3: 16:55

You'll feel that someday. Yeah, som this podcast and call me.

Speaker 2: 16:57

I'd like to talk to them, but you'll feel that someday yeah someday you'll be sitting here like me and say it's been 20 years since I graduated high school. I don't remember nobody. Also, victor's got a hidden talent of singing in the choir yeah, I um.

Speaker 3: 17:11

This year I auditioned for a? Um, it wasn't a contest or whatever, it was just auditioning to go to some big gathering for choir and I got a score. I think the top score was. Anyhow, I was two points away from being at the top score, so you sang bass yeah, I do can you give him like a little or something like that?

Speaker 2: 17:47

uh, he can sing bass now. We had music going in here the other day and this he was harmonizing with that bass and singing with like gospel hymns and things yeah, that's that's.

Speaker 3: 17:57

My favorite is gospel. Oh, I love the hymns, yeah we love them.

Speaker 2: 18:01

They're good. That's good, victor, that's good. Anything else we're going to talk about. Victor, I'm losing train of thought.

Speaker 3: 18:10

We've covered a lot we have oh, we got to tell them about what you got going on your youtube channel oh yeah, yeah, I started up my youtube channel about oh, probably about two, three weeks ago, about a month ago and the name of your farm is hidden valley cattle go check it out on youtube just hidden valley cattle.

Speaker 2: 18:33

I'll put his links in the description on the podcast description and on the youtube video we'll share that and the folks can go subscribe to you if they'd like yeah and follow you along this journey I just hit 100 subscribers today in about uh, it was around two o'clock I hit I hit 100 subscribers. Congratulations.

Speaker 3: 18:55

Thank you, that's good.

Speaker 2: 18:57

That's good. We want to help you get there.

Speaker 3: 18:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:59

We're going to have some fun.

Speaker 3: 19:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:00

All my YouTube people, if you're watching this, go subscribe to this boy's channel. Support him. He's a good young kid. It's hard to find young kids like Victor now. Don't let your hand get too deep. No, you calm down a little bit. No, he's a good boy and he's doing a good job with trying to do the right thing in life. I thought he was going to be a mule man there for a while and a horseman.

Speaker 3: 19:23

Well, I was thinking about it, you liked him. Oh, I love riding. I love riding.

Speaker 2: 19:30

He did a video for me a time or two.

Speaker 3: 19:32

I did yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:33

A couple times.

Speaker 3: 19:38

I remember a story too too, that we can tell kind of horse related. Oh, my podcast, I think I know which one it is.

Speaker 2: 19:44

We had an old walking horse mare over at my house, black and white remember I think no, she was, she was red, she was bay. Yeah, she was bay and I was in the house eating lunch. They come in. Victor got bucked off. Oh Lord, that was a funny story.

Speaker 3: 20:00

Well, what happened was it was the second girth, it wasn't tied to the first girth and it went back and it was acting like a bucking strap Did you jump or did she throw you? She threw me right on my head. But she's all right anyway, I got up, stumbled up to the house. I was like ah, horse went running off down the road, or no, did it run off?

Speaker 2: 20:22

she ran way out through the field.

Speaker 3: 20:23

Yeah, I remember that that was a wild time. I said never again. You helped me a day with those customers.

Speaker 2: 20:32

That was fun. Yeah, shout out to you all. They just bought a Miss Bonnie, the Belgian Mary, from us, from down in Tennessee, and they'll probably be watching this, so shout out to them.

Speaker 3: 20:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:41

Thank you all. We enjoyed meeting you today, had a good time. So I'm going to look at my list, victor, because there may be some more things we're missing that we wanted to talk about.

Speaker 3: 20:50

So that's all we wrote down, but is there anything else you want to talk about, victor, oh, I don't know. It's harder to do a podcast with a 16 year old yeah, it is because I'm not one of them, old pappies that's got a bunch of stories behind me well, I know, yeah, some of them can talk a lot, but you got stories. You're gonna have stories, yeah I've got a lot of stories.

Speaker 2: 21:16

You want to give a shout out to anybody thanking them or anything like, for helping you. Who's been the biggest inspiration to you? Your whole life.

Speaker 3: 21:27

Well, about so two years ago, I'd met some people in our community and they had helped me out a bunch. The Showalter family Okay, they have the Showalter butcher shop down here on Sloan Fork. Good butcher oh yeah, they got some good meat in there, they do. And their boys see, they've got a farm. They run about 240 head of cattle and so, um, I'm a farmhand there and I'm full-time there. Uh, while I'm not in school I work there and get paid to do something I love to do. And, um, the farmer of the family is joshalter and he has helped me out a lot. Good, earlier, we had mentioned, if I need a bush hog, that's where I go.

Speaker 2: 22:21

We know Josh.

Speaker 3: 22:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:23

Josh is a good one. He helps with the wheat care auction, yeah he's on the board.

Speaker 3: 22:28

He's on the board he is, but I think he's trying to get off the board. Okay, yeah, I don't think he's trying to get off the board. Okay, yeah, I don't think he's going to be on the board anymore. That's a lot of work that we Care auction stuff is.

Speaker 2: 22:39

That's an auction guy. Well, we're sitting here rambling. We better tell them what we're even talking about. It'd be bad. It's an auction for a benefit, auction for plain people in plain communities with like genetic disorders. They get and test these genetic disorders before the kids are born and really help them out and we had a benefit auction here last saturday.

Speaker 3: 22:59

Actually I didn't really get to make it. Well, we went for you, went for lunch, but we didn't stay very long we's here all day last saturday, yeah, working on youtube.

Speaker 2: 23:09

Yeah, we was working on victor's youtube channel but no, it's good, it's a good thing. So the Show Walters. Yeah, shout out to them If anybody wants to order any custom meat butcher, anything like that. They do deer, they sell whole hogs, sell beef. They do a good job, good, honest people and good, good food. And they got a full line of processed food. Their brats are unbelievable they are pretty good at our last clinic we went through about 30 packs and things wow we was eating them like crazy.

Speaker 3: 23:44

Really, it was wonderful well, they just come out. So a lot of people like bacon cheeseburgers, right bacon cheeseburger brat. No, they made patties, bacon cheeseburger patties, with cheese in the patty. I bet it's good, it is really good. They have it in their sample table. They have an incredible sample table.

Speaker 2: 24:05

If you're ever hungry and you're in this community all you got to do is go to Shellwater's and you can get lunch, because they'll feed you enough samples to fill you up.

Speaker 3: 24:13

When I'm working down there, I go down there. You go get the samples, I go down there. They normally have bacon on the grill and I'll go and chow it down.

Speaker 2: 24:22

I was down there the other day, they got that new chicken sausage and that's good.

Speaker 3: 24:25

Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2: 24:26

It's real good. They made it for people that don't need to eat pork or they can still have, like a breakfast, sausage and chicken. Yeah, that's pretty neat. I need to get josh showalter on the podcast. You do?

Speaker 3: 24:38

I think that would be really interesting and philip and philip. Yeah, because philip he's kind of the main boss there at the butcher shop and abner abner he's kind of like a we could do like a three-person podcast.

Speaker 2: 24:50

Get them all on, just have a big conversation yeah, that'd, that'd be fun, that would be fun. You're going to head that up for me. I might see it, I'm going to ask you to do that. Ask them if they'll do it. That'd be good.

Speaker 3: 25:01

I'll see what I can do.

Speaker 2: 25:02

Y'all might enjoy that too. A family butcher shop and cattle farm. That'd be kind of cool. Be maybe the next one. So yeah, I'm trying to do a bunch of local podcasts. We've got a wonderful community here and I never even thought about doing it until somebody asked me if I wanted him to do a podcast. And it's this man and I said, heck, yeah, let's do a podcast, victor, that sounds good. And he gave. That inspired me to come out and say, hey, I need to. I can do podcasts with people in my community too, not just travel around the world and do them. So that's going to be good.

Speaker 3: 25:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:37

So we're going to start a little series here on some local people, and I don't know who all I'll get. I may get some pretty wild ones in there.

Speaker 3: 25:45

Oh yeah, you think you're going to get some wild ones.

Speaker 2: 26:00

There's some wild people community though. You know bill hale. Oh yeah, he called me one with bill hale, you think he would do it, he's an 80 year old mule skinner. He's the real deal, he's something else I could ask him, he would be a good one. He would be a really good one, you talk about some stories now.

Speaker 3: 26:07

Oh my, I need to do that. He's something else, he, he's. The amount of stories I have with him, between me and him, is unreal. I was down there at the local feed mill and he I was teasing him a little bit and he told me I better get on somewhere.

Speaker 2: 26:24

He's gonna hurt me yeah I could do one with albert nurdle, that'd be good too, yeah, the feed store down there that'd'd be cool Goldenrod All right. Shout out to your mama for letting you be on this.

Speaker 3: 26:36

Yeah, you've got to do that. Tell mama you love her. All right, mama, I love you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 26:41

Kelly for letting Victor be on the podcast. And then Grandma and Grandpa.

Speaker 3: 26:46

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:46

Tell Grandma and Grandpa hello, shout out to them. Shout out to them.

Speaker 3: 26:50

Grandma Grandpa. Thank you all for helping me Appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 26:54

They love you, they love their boy now.

Speaker 3: 26:56

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:57

Your grandma and grandpa's boy ain't you yeah, I am yeah. Ain't nothing wrong with it.

Speaker 3: 27:02

Mm-mm.

Speaker 2: 27:03

And shout out to the fellow that loaned you the money.

Speaker 3: 27:07

Yeah, jack Kane. He lives up in Indiana and he's a really good businessman and super nice guy. I really appreciate him do you have?

Speaker 2: 27:20

you know some of the younger generation might be listening to this yeah and you never know, you have any words of wisdom to them pick your friends wisely.

Speaker 3: 27:31

I know everybody says that, but it is true. Pick who your friends are and try to get involved with stuff so you don't get in trouble. I don't get in a lot of trouble but I keep myself really busy. I have many of late nights. I was mowing hay until 11 o'clock one night and I mean it's rough sometimes but it's something that needs to get done.

Speaker 2: 28:04

And also have a personal relationship with the Lord. Yeah, that's another one.

Speaker 3: 28:09

Read your Bible, yep, I'm not real good at reading it every day, but I try. Well, nobody's perfect, but the one and only yeah, the Lord Jesus is the only perfect one, but all we can do is try.

Speaker 2: 28:25

We've got to try and we're proud of you, victor. I know, I think you're going to gain a lot of people watching you on this journey. Yeah, we're going to hope. Oh, I'm hoping. We're going to push on all of our subscribers on YouTube. We've got 60-something thousand, so if we can even get 10% of them, that'll get you a good start. Yeah, that will Get them on there. Subscribe and watch Victor, because right now, he's starting from little to nothing, but he's starting from a lot really yeah, it's got a good start yeah and I'm excited to see where this thing goes in a few years I am too.

Speaker 3: 28:56

I am too. Um, the farm I'm on was an old dairy farm. Um, some mennonites had uh farmed it and then they left. They went down to spencer, tennessee, and they, they just left, um, they sold it and then an amish guy got it and he didn't really take good care of the place and kind of let it grow up. And so now I'm trying to trying to fix it up, but it's rough, you know.

Speaker 2: 29:28

You gotta do a little bit at a time when you got the money to do it it's all you can do yeah just a little at a time you got to crawl before you can walk yeah, exactly, I remember when we was doing this business, victor, I had an old iphone, no computer, no diesel truck. I had an iphone and nothing. And now look where we are.

Speaker 3: 29:55

Yeah, you got yourselves a nice truck.

Speaker 2: 29:58

But we're still not where we want to be. We want to grow more. We want to keep pushing. We're still in that mindset of we ain't got nothing. We're still just trying to climb up to the top.

Speaker 3: 30:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:10

And we're going to keep pushing until we get there, and if we don't get there, it won't be from lack of trying, so we're having a good time doing it. The main thing is we're making so many connections across the country with so many good people and I can't thank you all enough. It means the world to us. It means the world to us. I can't believe how blessed we really are to have what we got. We're waiting on Henry to get home right now where's he at?

Speaker 2: 30:36

well, he's on the way back of my truck, but he's not driving okay, no, don't, I've seen your eyes we hired a driver to take him, him and his wife, his wife. They went up to ohio and I hired a driver and I wanted to get a new flatbed put on my truck because I that deer hit the side of my bed and knocked it all in. So I said, well, I'm done with this bed, I want to put a flatbed on it. So I did.

Speaker 3: 31:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:01

And I couldn't get a way to go so much going on. So Henry and them took it up there for me and got it put on.

Speaker 3: 31:10

Nice.

Speaker 2: 31:11

And I'm pretty excited for them to get home.

Speaker 3: 31:13

What kind of bed? You get an aluminum bed on Aluminum EB. Them are nice beds.

Speaker 2: 31:18

I'm excited about it. If you're around here you'll see it, but you may not be playing volleyball.

Speaker 3: 31:23

I might be. It starts at 6.30.

Speaker 2: 31:26

Yeah yeah, better eat supper first.

Speaker 3: 31:31

I'll probably just go straight from here over there.

Speaker 2: 31:34

I'll probably just go straight from here over there, I won't eat supper.

Speaker 3: 31:37

You'll have to eat when you get home tonight.

Speaker 2: 31:39

Yeah, probably I'll eat like a horse I like potted meat and a lot of people don't like potted meat. They say it's nasty. A lot of people don't. A lot of people say I'm stupid for eating it. Well, I got a bunch out there in the shop and crackers. I keep it around because I like it so much. And Victor said that stuff's good. Can I have some of it? And he ate him a can.

Speaker 3: 32:01

I did, I was hungry, son, I was hungry.

Speaker 2: 32:05

He likes potted meat too, so that's good. Yeah, victor, thank you for coming and doing this no problem Main thing, this, no problem, main thing. Thank you for helping me clean this office today.

Speaker 3: 32:17

It was a disaster, it was bad.

Speaker 2: 32:18

I was ashamed of it. It was a disaster. Well, you got me and henry running in and out like two wild animals and mud, yeah, so there you go victor helped me put this up too, guys.

Speaker 2: 32:25

What do you think of this? This nice banner with the podcast logo and I'm um, I feel like I'm actually sitting somewhere down instead of a run-down shack. So thank you, victor, for helping me do that, and keep your eyes on the Lord and keep working, and I know you'll do that. You're a good worker, good young man, and we're proud of you and we appreciate it. Guys, thank you for joining this podcast. That's the main thing. Without our listeners, we wouldn't have no reason to even do a podcast. It means the world to us. We appreciate you. Follow us on Facebook at Haste Draft, horses and Mules. Twitter, or now X, I guess it's called.

Speaker 3: 33:02

Not.

Speaker 2: 33:02

Twitter, but X, tiktok, instagram and YouTube our YouTube channel. All of our videos are on there. Everything's under Haste Draft Horses and Mules, and our website is wwwdrafthorsesandmulesforsalecom. We're actually going to be scheduling another clinic, a teamster clinic, in the month of august. Stay tuned for details for that. And then our barbecue customer appreciation. I want all you podcast listeners to come. Everybody's welcome to come, and it's going to be a blast. You don't want to miss it. Henry's two hogs in the Ground is some of the best eating you'll ever eat. Well, not on the ground, on his big smoker. He roasts them on, or whatever it is. They're good.

Speaker 3: 33:43

Do y'all have Show Walters, butcher them pigs for you? No, y'all do it yourselves. No, no.

Speaker 2: 33:50

We buy them from Show Walters.

Speaker 3: 33:51

Oh no, we buy them from Show.

Speaker 2: 33:52

Walters? Oh, I think, yeah, he bought them from Show Walters last year and then he takes them to.

Speaker 3: 33:56

Pete up on the hill, Pete Gingrich and Pete scalds them Really, and then we just cook them whole skin and all oh.

Speaker 2: 34:05

Apple in the mouth and then he just pulls them off and they just fall apart. Pulled pork sandwiches. It's good. We're going to take wagon rides each day. We're going to do demonstrate. We're going to sell teams at it, sell harnesses, sell equipment. It's a good way to connect with other people. In the draft horse and mule industry, we have some of the best people coming this year. Don't miss it, and you better come too yeah, I haven't been able to make one.

Speaker 3: 34:29

You need to come see, I got school. Well, you can come on school.

Speaker 2: 34:32

Well, you can come on Saturday. Yeah, and you can come at night when school's over, if you ain't busy farming or volleyballing or singing or anything else you do, yeah, and help this young man out and subscribe to his channel. Help a young man out. He's doing a good job, so go to Hidden Valley Cattle on YouTube and hit that subscribe button If you like what he's doing. He'd love to have you watch his journey and reach out to him. Send him a comment on his YouTube.

Speaker 3: 35:02

I reply to every comment that there is Good.

Speaker 2: 35:06

Reach out to him, leave him a comment, let him know you sent him on the Harness Up podcast. Thank you all. God bless you and we'll see you on the next one. Until then, keep harnassing up your horses and enjoy yourself, and we'll see you real soon.

Speaker 1: 35:20

As another captivating episode of Harness Up with Haste, draft Horses and Mules draws to a close, we extend our sincere gratitude to our listeners for joining us on this enlightening journey. We hope today's discussions have deepened your appreciation and understanding of these magnificent creatures. Remember, the adventure continues beyond this podcast. Stay connected with us on social media and share your stories. For more information and to explore further, visit Draftorsesandmulesforsalecom. Thank you for being part of our community. Until next time, keep harnessing your curiosity and passion for these God-given creatures. Farewell for now.