This is a long interview. I think it's the longest I have ever done outside of my old life in TV news. We covered war, NATO, Putin, the USA, the media, and the road to peace. I know I have said this before, but I am still very much a beginner in this topic and I know many of you will have contrary opinions to Stan. That said, if you set aside your bias, and listen to him discuss his personal views of his country, his President and Russian identity, I guarantee you will learn something in this. I did. I approached this as I do the others: I am trying to understand how someone thinks, not necessarily just what they think. We got to almost all of your questions - thank you for submitting, they were very helpful in balancing some of this discussion. As always, please give me your feedback in the comments. It helps me learn as well.
Operation “Arctic Florida” went well until the second day when the chickens started eating their own coop insulation. Since we are trying to keep our animal feed as natural as possible, polystyrene is not on the menu. So we had to rip down in the insulation. Thankfully, it’s getting back into the 70s right now, though it will be cold later in the week again. Chickens are just gonna have to freeze this time. You picked your poison, birds.
The morning after our coldest night in Florida was filled with bashing ice out of water buckets. When we lived in Washington state, we had bucket warmers, but we have never needed them here in Florida. Moving the chicken coop with all the insulation was a challenge. Milking the goats with frozen fingers was no fun but at least I wasn’t the goat having my teats grabbed by frozen fingers. Otherwise, it was just another crazy day on the farm!
We survived our coldest night ever in Florida since moving here in May 2023. It got down to 24 but the “feels like” was 16. Florida infrastructure is not built with such cold in mind, and we don’t have appliances like water bucket heaters on our farm because we never need them. It was a great reminder why farming sounds so idyllic until it gets really cold. I am glad we don’t deal with this every day for 6 months like our friends who live near our old home in Washington state. Kudos to the farmers who brave far tougher conditions than this all winter to keep food on our tables.
