Towels, Tunes, and Truckers (Hour 3) (Hour 3)

Coming to Northeast Wisconsin, live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts, John Mino and Jim Schmidt.

Yeah!

Come on in.

Happy Thursday to you.

It is.

It is.

And this is a...

Doesn't look bad.

No, I'm just gonna say but this is like a holiday just Juneteenth.

Yes.

There's no mail Places are closed You believe that I mean post office and everything well, no business is Salvation Army, you know, they're closed because this is a legit

shot.

It commemorates the worst thing that's ever happened in our country.

Well, I don't know to not not really it's What do you mean slavery?

No, no, no, but this is

But isn't that

what it's about?

Yeah, it

is.

But it's really about the notification that slavery was abolished.

Oh, well, yeah, OK.

But you're right.

I agree.

OK, we're on the same page.

But this is kind of a holiday today a little bit.

I don't know what's all going on.

In the community, but I was looking you know how you get those pictures on your phone 10 years ago 12 years ago, but how

many years ago was it when you had those short shorts?

And there's some pictures that when we celebrated Juneteenth rent with Randy skedown scandal scandal anyway Yeah, but yeah, that's today,

but yeah the weather.

No, it's but did you

see super nice today

Illinois

Right and it missed Wisconsin.

I'll tell you what Wisconsin's been so lucky There was that band in Illinois coming up right through Springfield, Illinois and everything I want to say 12 to 14 tornadoes then it went into Michigan like around Grand Rapids wise it was heading that way where it could have headed so easily just straight up

And

it would have

been just right through

Central

Wisconsin.

And then I saw a thing that Brittany had and her thing the other day, Northern Minnesota, that whole hibbing area and everything up there.

They were under big type tornado warnings and got hit with some stuff.

And we are right

in

the middle of all this and not getting hit.

And even last year, we talked about that.

It's just we are.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Although I want to say that I just when I got in here this morning talking to con it did rain last night I don't know if you were all last night, but okay, just I

was you know what you ever those nights you just you don't know why can't sleep I I sat and I worked in my book till 3 30 this morning Wow that I went to bed and I did not have I had one of those damn good dreams Where I was in TV

And I didn't know how to use the the editor to edit my story and I didn't know how to do the whatever whatever So I was hand writing my script And trying to put that in the teleprompter and I jumped up two times I know I

got her in

and then I looked at the clock.

It was like 405

That's me that happened

everybody has those for their jobs.

I'm not saying anything different, but when you have those they can be so

But they I like

I told you when I, way, way long, I went and talked to this guy about dream analysis.

He was a guy in Green Bay, he's not here anymore, if we guide.

But that may mean, and I think that would mean that maybe you're not prepared for an event coming up.

You know what I mean?

It's something like that.

Like, you know, the thing that you're in school, oh my God, there's a test, and there goes the test.

That is the same thing.

Do you have an event coming up that you're not as sure as you think you are about it?

You know, I just remember him saying that.

But anyway, that,

Yeah, if it's something that I know this, but then you get that you don't know, right?

That means

it's such vivid detail.

It's

unbelievable.

It's such vivid detail.

And, you know, they always talk about how, um, first of all, if I ever take Advil PM, craziest dreams, you'll find.

Well, I got some better stuff.

Well, I know you're your ambient.

I know.

But

not anymore.

But I sometimes I think it's what you eat.

And okay.

So I got to take the soup I made yesterday.

I think you're on to something with the eat but I can go ahead.

It was I

think salt does it cuz okay.

Here's what I had

all right sugar, but I

had So I bought some low sodium beef broth Okay, good low sodium 30% less than normal.

Mm-hmm.

All right, but still 500 but whatever 300

okay,

all right, but 380 I think but Four bags of frozen vegetables of all different kinds of vegetables like those like those okay, but shrimp Well, no that was good

Um, thought some chicken.

Wow.

Thought some salmon.

Who's all coming over?

All for myself.

I put in about 14 different types of seasoning.

I had chimes.

I had basil.

I had, um, I love garlic salt.

I had all those different things in there.

Okay.

So I got through there's lots of salt.

The thing is, so I thought, okay, so I couldn't sleep.

So I'm, I'm up all night and it's like, I need to flush myself.

Cause it's, cause you're eating something that's so good for you.

I mean, my gosh, chicken and shrimp and lobster and salmon and all vegetables.

It's really, really good for you.

Yes.

Okay.

But it's up for the salt.

Yeah.

So I'm going to wash the salt out so you don't have that feeling like when you step on the scale, even though mentally, you know, it's from retaining water

and everything.

So I

drank like a gallon of water.

Everybody has to give this one five pounds more than I was yesterday And it's like you know you

didn't

put on five pounds of fat and it's eventually just gonna wash away But there's still that feeling of I just ate the healthiest thing I've ever had but I think when I eat stuff with a lot of salt

Yeah like that but does retain a

wax my

brain.

Oh, that's just it affects your dreams.

Yeah, hmm

I know sugar does, but I don't know, maybe it does.

Hey, a couple of things you can do with that.

One is, did you ever try that, no salt, salt?

My doctor said, and I've had it, it's not as salty as salt, but it's a flavor.

The other thing is that, you know what I'm gonna say?

Garlic powder instead of garlic salt.

I'm gonna try that the same day, okay, that I drink non-alcoholic beer.

Okay.

Give it a little better try than that that stuff.

Yeah, you're right.

It's a why why do it, right?

This stuff's a little bit better than non-alcoholic beer.

I think I have

my mom or dad They had high blood pressure to

and

they used to use that but let's put it this way There was I will say this I mean they had that one little thing and I bet it lasted from 1971 to 1978 that

big box of blue stuff and

it never went anywhere Yeah anyway

But I didn't buy garlic, like the crushed garlic, cause that adds so much to it.

So I had to use the garlic

salt.

That's pretty strong stuff too.

But I love garlic.

I can eat garlic for every

meal.

Yeah, if you don't.

I love it when I

sweat and it almost smells like

garlic.

Yeah, everybody but you.

Everybody but you.

Have you ever noticed that here some mornings?

Oh

my God,

yeah.

Just saying.

Out of the pores, but yeah, but garlic powder I'm telling you I went to a class and they're like look if you need to make one change Because I said I like garlic salt and they're like look sure to grab and that's it's just as good It's just as strong.

Yeah, I don't know you might want to but I think

I'm gonna I'm experimenting so much with my soups

Yeah, that's okay

that I think I could become a soup maestro

Yeah Summer and soup nothing.

I just don't I don't like to

see Jim.

I would hear one of us study medicine

Okay, that's news to me.

I've been working with you for two years.

I don't like to break.

No, yeah, yeah.

I... Okay, here's the deal.

Here's the deal.

There's that thing going where if you drink something hot when you're sweating really bad, it does more for you than drinking something cold.

Because when you're hot, it says, oh, I got to open up my pores and sweat more and cool this person down.

That's why I eat the soup in the summer.

Don't open my pores

Yeah theory that yeah, I don't okay, what they're gonna be just for you You're gonna become the soup my store because if you're gonna start a business Which I'm that's gonna be that's gonna be tough in the summer.

Well, I'm starting to write stuff down about what I put in stuff Okay,

and

I'm gonna come up with three good ones and that's all I'm gonna have is three good ones Three good soups

and you're gonna post them so that we can all fit from your

right

I'd like to I'd like to do something where we could actually open up with these windows or something sell it right during the show Just sell it right out of the studio here.

Yeah, three soups.

That's gonna be the name But what's the name of what's the name of the minus place three soups?

That you know, that's gonna be interesting people are going to come to see what the three soups are absolutely gonna change them up, right?

Yeah, yeah That's okay,

but that way you're not making one that nobody eats and then you throw it away

right

give it to your cat or whatever,

right?

Huh that yeah, maybe

now you can't

do that here

You're not you're you can't you can't sit here and just automatically say like you do a lot of times Don't even thinking about this let it percolate a little bit.

That's dumb.

That's dumb.

This one has some merit true How

much no you

guys get sourdough bread, but no

boys bring your partner them

bring your own bread.

I'll be you.

Yeah, you'll be

yep

All right, maybe.

Mm-hmm.

So there you go.

Okay.

All right.

Well, on top of it, I had... There's

Michael sitting there.

Oh, Michael.

MedTalk with Mino.

Hey, he... MedTalk with Mino.

That's not bad.

One of our listeners just sent that in.

I like it.

MedTalk, I think there could be... I

think there's some

potential with that.

Yeah.

Then that would lead to, we could do another segment, lawsuits with Mino or something.

That would be,

yeah.

By the way, our girl Sarah posted, good morning boys.

Vicki says, good morning boys.

Isn't that nice?

Very nice.

That's people listening.

Sarah

was outside your house again last night.

I don't think so.

She didn't come over and I'll tell you what.

She

sent pictures from over there.

It looked like it rained pretty hard in the park.

You know what?

Did they still have it?

They did.

No, not okay.

Okay.

John, do you know, so we had the,

Big mouth?

No, no, the night before.

And what was it, 500 people there?

Yeah, I guess.

It was awesome.

And then there's the Allway Village Band, but now they call it the AVB, which is all volunteer band.

You know, they play and Plasky plays.

The City of Green Bay pays our band for that one hour, $3,000.

Okay.

Out of taxpayer money.

Okay.

They have a rain date the next day.

If it rains,

You'll play the next day tonight.

It's gonna be what you see the weather this it's gonna be unbelievable It's happening sunny and it's like gonna be like I don't 75 degrees.

You

see it might get like the heat index into

the hundreds

on Sunday.

Yeah that Graduation party that

kind of are you golfing on Sunday?

You know,

are you I might have to wear a lot of sunscreen?

Well, you know what that might be a good day to golf because people may not go.

Yeah, you might be too hot time you want you're right.

You're right.

But anyways, no John the last night

we had some friends over and it's like a lady came over it wasn't Sarah a lady came over um are we gonna have is she in the band with her music stand i do you think we're gonna have the concert tonight they came to you to ask okay but i will say john i just want to say back in the day it was my decision and the park director oh that's true okay because now the band wants to baton once they play the first note they get paid so there was maybe

maybe 40 people there last night, 50 people.

So that's like $3,000 for 50 people.

Last year, they did that twice.

They started to play six minutes later.

Okay, we're done.

They got their three grand.

So I think if the band director who is maybe driven a little bit more by money than the audience, he shouldn't make that call.

That call should be made by the mayor and the park directors.

I wrote to the park director last night, sent them pictures.

I'm like, look, this is ridiculous.

This is $3,000 is a lot of money.

It just is.

There's a lot you could do with

that.

So as the park director, the guy you sent out to shut us down that time with me and Nick, we're doing that show in the park with the wild animals and the broth cookout without license or permits.

No, because that's

I

know.

I know it was Jaden that tried to shut down our unscheduled parade.

We did with the flatbed trucks with the Green Bay Blizzard won the championship.

I remember that.

Yeah, I remember that.

A lot of people.

Someone's got to be in charge and someone's got to make a decision that said, look, you guys, we're not going to spend three grand to entertain 50 people, half of which are spouses of the band.

So we're going to play tomorrow night, which would be tonight, which would be great tonight.

There'd be 400 people there tonight.

But so that's got to change.

And I told Khan when I came in this morning, I said, look, I did write a letter to the parks director sent pictures.

Maybe he can come on and explain the process.

That'd be great, but also, I saw a thing with Kevin Van Ness last night, they were putting Ash Waban on, and they brought everybody like on stage, because

it was

raining hard, so they brought all, there's like 40 people or whatever, and they brought him up on stage, like under the shell or something.

Kevin, if you're listening, what did you guys

do?

That's awesome.

And that

sounded really cool.

That's fun.

Yeah.

That's cool, but.

Yeah.

All

right,

let's have a quick break.

None of them are hearing our favorite day of the week, second favorite day of the week.

Back after this.

96.5 FM.

WISS, of course, the Civic Media app worldwide.

64 degrees in Green Bay, 63 in Appleton, 63 in Oshkosh.

Straight shower are possible.

Thunderstorm is possible.

High in the low 80s.

Boy, we sure went from fire warnings and drought to... I will say this, it's this is mosquito breeding weather.

This is when they thrive.

I'm telling...

Me I haven't been out at all, but yeah, I guarantee you up in the UP in the backwoods.

Yeah, they're eating good.

They are eating good You know, I've got one I got a couple of sensitive spots on my body.

We've talked about this too much Well, not her but my ankles must

see

those go insane I remember there was a time I was interviewing a guy for one of my books down in like Oshkosh ish and it's coming back to Green Bay

And I had to stop at like a Walgreens and go in and buy like almost like Calamine.

It was so bad during the interview.

I want to scratch my ankles till they just rip the skin off of them.

I don't know what

it is or something.

So that's why you know what I started doing that was that was a cure-all really was I put a plastic bag when I was at the camp I put a plastic bag Okay under my sock and then I'd spray raid on the sock

and that would completely, that works perfectly.

That's like, that's got that DT stuff in.

You don't want that in your skin.

No, again, Jim, at this point, if that's what's gonna kill me,

okay.

But John, just use off.

That doesn't work.

These mosquitoes up there that pay, they pay, I think it attracts them.

They laugh at it?

They laugh at it.

One thing that I've been told really works

well, if you don't mind the

smell, is Vicks, that mosquitoes will not go anywhere near Vicks.

Oh, I don't think that.

And Vixx has its own, I don't think it's the worst smell.

I mean, it does, I don't.

Well, it

just doesn't bring back images.

Right.

I know.

And that kid whose mom made him wear the Vixx on his chest.

I know.

And the kids smell.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Your second cousin Eugene had pneumonia.

Right.

Right.

Right.

You know, the mosquito thing, I don't, I just haven't seen them when I was a kid.

Maybe I just, we haven't had them mosquitoes around our place.

I know.

But you say this is the time?

Well, this

is the weather.

This is breeding weather.

Now with this rain, and you get the little,

not even ponds, but little standing water.

Oh

my God, they go at it like rabbits.

Well, they don't, they breed.

Mosquitoes get around,

man.

They

got something.

It's like unbelievable.

If they could tap that for guys, it would make a lot of money.

But I'm just saying.

So

anyway, yeah.

Sarah though, she got back to us.

Sarah, thanks for saying that.

I wish you were gonna come over last things.

They did have- So basically she stalked you.

Well, no, she was welcome to stop us.

I had some food last night.

Okay, let me just say

this.

Sarah says, I didn't stop since it was raining.

Right.

I stayed under the concession shelter and just took a picture of Jim's house instead.

Haha.

Hey, Kevin Van As, Kevin Van As, you're out there.

Give us a quick call.

Conor, you don't know, you don't want to use the phone?

Yes, I do.

Well, I don't know what the studio, what's the studio line?

All right.

Well, it's nine two zero two six four zero six.

That's

so fast.

That's so fast.

Two six four zero six zero six.

So

it's not that hard to

Chuck Cecil Brett Favre Her battery.

Her battery.

That's a way to remember it.

I like that.

So I do

all my numbers that way.

I do everything that way.

Put them in their phone.

But yeah, that's you do.

And you are actually spot on.

I

told you.

I remember things.

I know that I

thinking of other things that

that

Yeah, that can work.

That's a Carnegie thing a little bit, but they wanted you to like associate it with like, you know, like weird things, but then you remember it.

Anyway, that's what I

do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yours is more numbers though.

That's, that would be hard for me.

If I look at that, if I, if I, if I, if somebody said, what's my phone number, why would I look at that person and say, hmm, Brett Farr, her battle.

I would, I wouldn't, but there's

gotta be a

connection.

What's the connection?

How do you do that?

Give me a, give me a quarterback.

Okay, Jim Zarn.

Well, I know that one though Pomona my good friend that I worked with in Twin Falls, Idaho went to was from Pomona Well, we will I told you about Jim Zarn big-time Christian I was well the Lord, you know wasn't with us today or wasn't And he was gonna come on my show later that night and say Jim could I give you your number so I can give you a call just somebody goes here's this Just so you know you give this to me.

I will kick your ass

Praise Jesus.

Can

I say

the eight word?

It was just funny.

It was all so you know, and they said he was like serious.

Oh There are so many of those Christian phony I was in sports.

You

can't

believe

it.

I'm there in politics to

oh my lord my lord my lord Loaded with them And the people that knew the real them, you know

But yeah,

I, you know, as much as you hate to see these guys fall, like these guys on TV, you know, um, it's like, are you really shocked?

You know, this guy's doing this, doing her and doing, you know, doing what?

I wasn't going that far.

Oh my gosh, that guy.

I guess politics gets around.

No, I'm talking about the guy and, oh my God, there's so many stories about that.

It's like, give me a

break.

Well, I will admit this.

I think the funniest thing in the world is when these billion dollar preachers get busted for something.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

That's funny.

And when they, and it's, it's not a one time this guy.

They've been going and seeing this and doing that.

I'm a firm believer you can, you could kill a guy by his hair.

I have firm belief around that and when they got that it's even like with politicians They there's these certain like whatever thing you are you got this?

He must have these barbers you go to they give this one certain here.

Excuse me.

What?

What are you?

I'm a public

okay.

It's gonna be really short on the side really

whatever Yeah, we're conservative so you guys show the ears.

We got to show the ears.

Yeah, I look I would

Yeah, they

You got Kevin there, Conroy?

Yeah, he's on the phone.

Kevin!

Good morning, gentlemen.

How

are you, Kevin?

How are you doing?

I saw your Facebook.

I was telling Jim about it because hardly anybody showed up in his park last night.

And I saw your post.

Tell everybody what you did.

Oh, we played two gigs yesterday.

I put Stein with Daddy D's and they thought it was going to rain, so they put everything inside and it ended up not raining a drop in an after I had talked with Allen in Seymour for their summer concert series and we get out there.

John, it is raining cats and dogs and we're all set up and even some of these people that come out with their buses from seniors and that said, no, we're not coming tonight.

So he said I was Kevin Kevin or more people show up

Kevin.

I'm

sorry.

I'm sorry

hard break where we get right back to you.

I'm so sorry Just hang that thought please buddy back right after this

Hey,

welcome back.

Mine on the mare here.

We're gonna get back to Kevin Van Ness in just a few minutes.

Talk a little bit about what they did last night and all these boy.

The number one thing I think about when I see these forecasts are

outdoor

weddings and high school graduations.

We have our guest on convoy.

Yes, we do.

All right.

Hey.

Let's introduce Pam Yankee, the Fabulous Farm Babe, the Midwest Farm Report, coming your way on WGBW and WISS.

June, of course, is Dairy Month and Mental Health Awareness Month.

And welcome, Pam.

How are you?

Good morning, guys.

Yeah, I'm doing well, doing well.

Just like you guys watching out to see what this weekend weather is going to look like.

Oh,

boy.

Do you have any breakfasts on the farms this weekend coming up?

Oh, of course, of course.

I mean, let's face it every weekend.

There's about 16.

We're averaging about 16 dairy events on a Saturday or Sunday around the state.

And we've got a brunch that's coming up on Saturday and we've got a couple more that are on Sunday, kind of using the last gasp of June to try to get the people together.

And I'll tell you what, I brought this up before.

If you are thinking about going to any June dairy event, go where the cows are because

There will be an incredible amount of energy, and I'm not just talking people.

I'm talking technology that will be working this weekend to make sure those beautiful bovines are kept cool and comfortable.

And you might be in a better spot if you go hustle and hang with the cows, then worry about standing in line for the food.

I told Jim about my son's high school graduation.

about 10 years ago now, and it was, it was like the hottest day of the summer.

It was like literally 94 degrees.

We had a big tent and one of the guests or whatever, excuse me relatives said, hey, I'll bring in a farm fan.

I'm thinking, what are you gonna do

with a

farm fan?

That thing cooled off everybody.

Everybody was completely comfortable by that one farm fan.

I don't know.

And it wasn't like it's one of these things that, you know, blows everything all over the place.

It just really distributed air.

What's the secret of those things, Pam?

Well, they have to, they run at quite a few RPMs and they really do have to work through a lot of air.

If you walk into a barn, I know that most people probably have, but pay attention to the ground, the floor.

A veterinarian that I used to work with always said, if you can kind of see the barn lime, which is kind of the white substance we put down to absorb moisture, if you can see the barn lime kind of moving or the feeds kind of moving, that's the way you want your air circulate.

You want it, you want enough CFM so that there's actually movement of those particles because then you know the cows are comfortable.

Oh, interesting.

You know, you talk about those breakfasts on the farm and a giant boat and a ton of them, but that's, the breakfast is really the small part of that.

To go and tour those farms, you talked about the technology, but there's so much to see out there.

That is just a great, it's a great event for anybody, but for families, it's especially,

great and there's just so much out there.

And I think sometimes people think these poor cows, but, you know, they're treated pretty well.

And they've got

their own

routine.

They've

got their own routine.

Yeah.

And the way they milk them now, some of it's so automated too.

And it's just, yeah, that's just, it's a great thing.

So you spend that.

That's like I said, they come first.

Right.

Which it should be.

So this weather, what, nineties, maybe even a hundred this weekend?

I mean, does that.

Right.

Tell me, what are the farmers?

Do they rely on these farmers almanac?

Do they think our weather's good here?

No.

No.

Farmer's Almanac is a nice little conversation piece, but as far as reliability, I don't think that I know any farmers that plant by it or worry about it.

But we do have a lot of technology that telling us what's going on.

And it's not just about the animals.

We have to think about our crops.

I farm in O'Connell County.

And let me tell you, we could use a few more degree growing units, we call it.

It is a wonderful thing in moderation, just like everything else.

And what we've ended up being is a little on the cool side for the month of June.

So our soybeans, our corn is a little bit behind where we'd like it to be.

Now people say, oh, well, great, the farmers will love it this weekend.

No.

No, nobody likes 90 plus in Wisconsin with the humidity it brings.

A plant, a corn plant, for example, will basically start to shut down when you get into the mid and upper 80s.

It's doing that to conserve moisture.

It doesn't know when the next rain is coming.

So it'll take advantage of the heat up into a certain point and then you'll see it close down.

And I'm sure there's a lot of folks listening that say, oh yeah, you know, some of the ground is cracked where they haven't picked up the showers.

That's a survival mechanism for that plant.

So 90s are not what we're looking for.

A nice couple 80 degree days would help us catch up a lot.

But 90s, the plant just cannot really maximize on all that excessive heat.

So it basically goes into survival.

I did not know that.

No, me then.

Cons are our expert, our expert golfer and he's with you guys.

He's like the 80s versus 90s.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Well, if you, when you drive past a field, if you drive past the field and you're just glancing out your car window, truck window, if you ever see corn plants, they start to wrap.

The leaves will start to kind of wrap into a swirl.

That's a survival mechanism, doing what it can to keep the moisture in the plant.

So when we see

The plants start to wrap.

That's a sign that too hot.

Too

hot.

I would have thought just the opposite.

I would have thought, oh,

this is great.

We got some water now.

Hotter, the better.

So I just learned

something.

Is that true that corn, right?

Remember, as you say, if it's not knee-high by the

4th of

July, it's going to die.

Is that true or is that just one of those things we grew up with?

No.

That's another one of those.

It's a nice reference point.

I think most farmers hope

to heck that their corn's knee high by 4th of July.

It's kind of a visual benchmark that you can use.

And it's not so much about that point in time.

But come on, guys, you're in Green Bay.

You know, we start thinking right after 4th of July, then it's all of a sudden, uh-oh, you know, how much do we have left?

When is that first frost?

When is that first killing freeze?

And that's really what a lot of farms have to start thinking about.

OK, which field is knee-high by 4th of July?

When are we going to start chopping silage?

Which fields are farther along?

Which are going to need a little bit more time?

Which are we worried about that are really delayed and may not make it to first frost in the condition we want?

So like I said, we worry about the weather when it comes to spring planting.

Now we worry about the weather.

as far as plant advancement or making hay.

And we're going to start worrying about the weather after 4th of July, waiting on, OK, are we going to get the heat?

And what do we think the early frost is going to be?

When do we think?

Interesting.

You know, it's funny, though, not funny, but just kind of almost scary is that there's such a fine line between like where I'm from in the U.P.

I don't even think there.

I don't know if there is a corn farm type thing.

I mean,

you know, it

just because the weather.

But.

You think about that you put in all this time all this effort all this money and one frost because I remember my dad used to love growing tomatoes It was his pride and joy was beautiful tomatoes and I remember him He'd be working at the mine afternoon shift and I'd get a call it like

eight o'clock at night and you'd say run out cover the tomato plants and you take

plastic and

newspapers and it's like oh yeah okay so that's just for his little garden in the patch location which less some

farmer

whose mortgage is dependent on not getting a frost i mean

mentally that

is tough isn't it

Well, yeah.

Yeah, like I said, that's why I like I said, I grew up on a farm in O'Connell County.

And I remember there was one year Father's Day.

We had a Father's Day frost.

And, you know, I remember that farms were being advised.

And now this just get get your mind around this.

So you've planted a crop, the crop is coming up, the crop is not.

real high, just a couple inches out of the ground, frost comes, all of a sudden there's black on the leaves where they've been nipped by this surprise weather incident.

So farmers were being advised to go out there with what we call a flail chopper, which is basically just kind of like rotating belts that strip off.

the vegetation of a plant.

You normally wouldn't take it into a cornfield, but what they were telling us is go out and take off that dead tissue.

Because a corn plant, until it gets a little bit taller, like say above four or five inches tall, what we call the apical growing point is still below the ground.

So we could go out there and knock off every leaf on those plants.

Just have nothing but just the stalk there.

Looks like

a disaster.

But because the growing point was still in the ground, the plant continued to thrive and came back.

That one was a that was where you just have to go on blind faith on the extension agent or your crop consultants telling you that because it flies in the face of what you think you should do.

But it was exactly the right thing in that strange weather incident.

Come on, if you're farming in Northeast Wisconsin, you get strange weather incidents drived all over you.

That's cool that someone's

working on that research, right?

And they share the research, right?

Well, I didn't

know

that.

Hey, I got a question.

So I just, defense, I grew up in the hood.

When we drive by these, when we drive by these cornfields, is that corn for us or is it for the cows?

You know,

it is for the cows.

So here's a, here's a cheat.

Here's a cheat.

Anytime you see cornfield, not, not so much right now, not so much right now, but as that, as that crop develops,

and tassels out.

You'll see the top of the plant gets, you know, kind of, I don't know what even to call them, they're not leaves, but you'll see that it kind of sprouts some growth on the top of the corn plant.

If it's kind of a darker color, you know, a little bit more like the color of soil, that's all for the cows, all of it's for the cows.

Now, if you see something in the distance and it's real, real light, blonde on the top, top, top of the plant,

the very top of the plant that's probably sweet corn because and it'll have a it'll have a thinner finer uh stock real fine like uh easy to tip over if we get a wind event but yeah 90 99 percent of the corn that you drive past is purely for the cows not know that see john never knew that

you're never knew that that's awesome i

I mean, it's awesome to know.

Right, because you drive by that and it's

like,

I heard that, but I had

no idea that it was that percent.

No.

Y'all would have guessed 50-50.

Pam,

we've got an

important

question here.

This is

kind of serious.

How important are mental health services for farmers?

Is there a mental health crisis among farmers and ag producers these days?

I don't think that we talk about it very much by the nature of agriculture, but I think we really saw it amplified during the pandemic.

And it wasn't just farmers, it was everybody.

But stop and think about it.

Stop and think about it today.

You know, when I was a kid, there was, you know, farms all around ours.

My uncle farmed across the road.

My neighbors were farmers.

I mean, we had our own little community.

So if you needed something, you needed help, you needed an extra tractor, you just called them up or you went over and grabbed one, brought it back later.

Now, today's farmers are working by themselves to a large extent.

They are by themselves all day.

Why?

Because the kids aren't really interested in farming and they probably have their own life.

Anybody that's got a teenager, a tween or whatever you know, they're about

sports or extracurricular or seeing their buddies or being doing other things.

And most parents want to give them those opportunities.

So they're not pressured into coming back to do chores or stuff like that.

The wife works off the farm because maybe they need health insurance and that's a great way to do it.

Maybe they'd need the extra income.

That's a great way to do it.

So it's basically the farmer and his dog and whoever else pulls in the yard.

So when the milkman pulls in, I talk to him.

If the FedEx or UPS guy drives in, I talk to them.

That's about the extent of it.

There aren't the farm neighbors near you that there used to be.

So when we got to the pandemic and you took away farmers' opportunities to go to the feed mill and talk with one another or going to church, which is a social mechanism for a lot of farmers, going to school events, the basketball, football games, et cetera, you really took away an incredibly important part of their social network.

And then you factor in what happened during the pandemic.

You and I didn't know.

How many gallons of milk are you going to be able to walk out with?

Is there going to be any meat in the showcase?

Are we going to get fresh produce?

I mean, all of a sudden people did not take for granted their food or where they were getting it from.

Farmers got caught on the backside of that.

Dairy processors couldn't get employees to come to work, so I can't come and pick up your milk.

Well, what the heck am I supposed to do with it?

I got another milking coming up in four hours, and I need that.

bulk tank space.

So then they were forced to dump it.

Pam, unfortunately, we are out of time.

Can we get trying again very soon?

We got to talk more

about this.

This is good

stuff.

Next week, can we get you out again to talk about this?

You bet.

All right.

You bet.

It's not a problem.

Thank you.

You're on for Pam.

Obviously convoy did not get the message to play trucker music that

that on the Thursday.

Maybe they listen to that.

Yeah, just we're not aware that he does play the worst song by the worst band in American music.

What?

No, no, no, no, no.

I hate Queen.

Oh, you know who has Queen?

Kevin Van S.

Kevin loves all

music.

Kevin, you never play Queen, do you?

How

do you guys

handle the rain because we were talking last night I know you've played the city band concerts, but you know if it rains we I

I don't know when I was there we would we would postpone until the next day like tonight It's gonna be about 78 degrees at six o'clock last night It was raining it was raining and they'd go ahead and play anyway And I think they do that's just then they get paid, but how do you what do you guys do when it rains?

Oh It's a nice weatherman can't get it right by the hour right We were in Seymour last night and

They were going to cancel it first and they called me up and said, no, we think it'll be good.

Now what dropped down to 15% was supposed to be 90%.

So we go set all up and the band's coming in to soundcheck and they're like, Benaz, why did you book this?

It's raining all the way here from Appleton and Green Bay and all over the place.

So we soundchecked, it's raining cats and dogs.

There's nobody there.

So we said, ah, we'll start to tear down with that.

We get a boatload of people coming.

But they get, but where we're playing, we're undercover where they have to watch.

It's just out in the rain.

So they say, Hey, can we come up by the band?

So we turned it into a VIP concert.

Anybody comes up on a stage so you can sit all around the band and actually see what we're doing or how we do it.

And so we did, we just ran the whole concert, like a VIP with everybody on stage.

It was great.

That's,

that's creative.

Don, that's taking care of your customers too.

Could have been a lot easier to say, sorry folks, we're going to pack up and go home.

Wow.

But, that's awesome

Kevin.

I

think that's really cool.

How does that work, Kevin, as far as if you guys got a gig, you know, one day this weekend or something, it's 99 degrees or whatever.

Do you guys ever say, ah, yeah, a little too hot for some of our fellas?

God, we don't.

I love the backer bed.

And you notice we got a miss again.

It could be zero degrees were playing.

It could be rain.

So unless it's the only stop for his lightning, because back in the day when I was playing with this rock show band, we're playing one of those big firemen picking some manners to watch.

And we were going to shut it down because it was getting pretty bad.

And the guy said, Oh my gosh, you got like 5,000 people, the beer's flowing.

So you guys got to keep playing.

The keyboard player touches his piano, knocks him back on his stand.

He goes, wow.

We're done.

But otherwise, we pretty much, we'll play it through it all and we try and help out all the venues too.

I mean, it was really bad like lightning last night instead of, you know, just collecting the money and say, no, it's in the contract.

We say, we'll give us another day to work with you.

That's awesome.

I mean, yeah, I would expect that out of you because you, I mean, you're more interested in the audience than you are in your paycheck.

And I've known you for years and I know I'm not just...

saying that i i know that about you and um but you played 22 gigs yesterday

yeah i played two gigs three and uh monday actually uh they're gonna cancel we're up in e from the 50 percent and it turned out to be a beautiful night we're right by the bandstand by that wilson vice came up in e from yeah

that's great yep and we are yeah

let's go in near the place they must stand at least over a hundred and some people doing our second line with the umbrella just going wild down there

that's fantastic

will you bring it and you bring it big time for the energy so wow that's i'll give you a lot of credit

we're down in nina somebody wanted us called on a clear blue sky the person passed away and they must end their will i want a new orleans funeral so we're going down and playing a rare traditional norleans funeral down in nina tonight

That's awesome.

You guys, you know what?

You guys are so unique and you know what makes you guys unique?

You do it the way it's always been done.

You did try to reinvent the wheel of music.

Wouldn't you agree, Kevin?

Without a doubt,

these people come out into the rain.

If anyone's going to come and watch me and stand in the rain, we're going to entertain them.

I mean, they gave us their time and all that.

One quick plug, guys.

Next Thursday, downtown Green Bay, 11 to 1 Jackson Square.

Free concerts, food trucks, ice cream trucks.

Come on out and see Talk of the Town

next Thursday.

And we're going to be there, Kevin.

That's on my calendar.

You talked about that.

And we're going to promote that next week.

That's that we used to have concerts at Jackson.

And I don't know that went away, but now they're back.

And it's the best with you.

I mean, it's because you I just want to say this night.

Look, I know we're friends, but you do bring it every show.

You just do.

No.

My dad was living in, you know, working with me.

And then when you go down in New Orleans and you talk like Pete Fountain told me, I think I told the great vinyl that he said, Kevin, you don't want to be a musician.

Musicians work, unemployed, entertainers always working.

You know what?

It goes back to a Ted Williams thing where you'd be late in the season and 98 degrees.

That's like you're taking a day off, Ted.

No.

It's like, why not?

I mean, you're, you know, doing whatever you don't even want to take his day.

I was just, you know what?

There might be some kid, him and his dad have been waiting all their lives to come and see Ted Williams play.

I owe it to them to show up to work.

That's an entertainer.

And you guys are the same.

They are.

And that's old school.

Yeah.

And a newer reason I play down there, John, it would be, you know, 90, some degrees and all the street musicians are playing all around that cathedral and all over the place there.

Whether it's not a fact or so.

Whether it's one person or 500 people, we play the same show.

Well, Kevin,

we can't wait to see you next

Thursday.

We'll be there.

We'll be there at 11 o'clock, Jackson Square, and have a great weekend.

It's so nice to go play that guy's funeral today, too.

I know how busy you are, but you just... Would you play mine?

Kevin it may be sooner

than you think Kevin a little tension in

this room He

is great years ago We had the cathedral supposed to be playing one of those in the person the lady and director music said no way you guys can't have a whole band in the cathedral So we had to go doctors three priests doing that funeral I don't think my I don't think my cathedral I go back and thank the priest say thanks for letting us play

Thank you.

You put me in a buck.

I want you guys to play mine.

Kevin Vaness, you're awesome, my friend.

You have a great weekend and we will see you downtown Green Bay next Thursday.

Take care, Kevin.

He

is back

after this.

Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts, John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back.

I'm the man here on Trucker Thursday, 97.9 FM, WNGBW, 98.3, 96.5 FM.

WISS, of course, the Civic Media app.

Stray shower, thunderstorm possible today.

High and the low 80s.

Great having Kevin Van Esson.

That was really fun talking about the great things they do and how they handle the weird weather.

And you talk about loving your job, right?

Yeah.

I mean, there's a guy that

Because it'll be zero or a hundred, you know, we're gonna play if there's one person there if there's you know, I just yeah He he is and that's the difference like Pete Fulton told him There's a difference between you know a musician and an entertainer and he is that dude.

He is an entertainer No question.

Just he's got so many the show is all summer.

We're gonna see him next week But you know, there's a guy that he brings it every time

we talk about

some people like right It's like they really into it.

Sometimes you get these you know, yeah, I just remembered wider and you know these

just canned shows where they're not into it.

This guy just, yeah.

Anyway, great happiness in mind.

But even greater, very special guests.

We got the, I think one of the, how do I put this?

I don't want

to say the scariest jobs.

One of the most I have admiration for is the moms of our deployed soldiers.

And we've got my great friend, Liz Hastings here and her daughter is deployed.

And

she's a medic and I've known this little girl since she was eight years old and she is now a sergeant of the United States Army as a medic and Liz tell us about the feelings of a mom in a situation like this.

I would say more than anything, I'm proud.

She's she's excited.

This is something she's looked forward to.

This is what she's worked for.

So of course, you've got your worries, which you kind of stuff down every mom

would have for every kid in the world.

Well, you know, and honestly, I was I was listening to the show the other day and they had one grant.

One of the recruiters was on and he was saying that it's scary to have your kids in today's society here in the United States.

Right.

So really, it's a horse.

And his

son is also right.

So he's got.

He's got both the father aspect and the recruiter aspect.

Right.

Right.

The field of being a medic, she's going to see some unbelievably, I don't know, sad, bad, whatever, just tragic things.

Well, hopefully

she doesn't.

Well, there's a good chance, though.

I want

to hear my

question.

Well, let me just say this, though, too.

Might not come from warfare type things, but military people getting as many.

Accidents doing

stuff is anybody else.

What I'm saying is it's like the ER Yeah, you know and that's as good as doctors are but maybe not be for everybody something like pediatrician maybe like pulmonary or something like that when she was a kid

Are you surprised?

She's like, oh my God, I can't believe she's doing this?

Or did you

expect?

No, not at all.

I'm not surprised at that at all.

She's always wanted to work in emergency medicine.

She does her job.

She's been finishing up her nursing degree, and she's been working at the ER at St.

Vincent's for the last year and a half.

God bless her.

They

see it all there.

She sees it, and she loves, I mean, she runs toward trauma.

What

a gift or what a talent.

I