God's Timing, Agriculture & Leaving a Legacy with J Storme| Feb 26, 2024 010

Tucker Martin (00:01)
Awesome, okay, we're live. You guys, welcome to the Rant Ramblin podcast. I'm super excited to be here today. I am very, very excited actually to introduce you to our guest. I have Jay Storm today on and you might have heard of her from the Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, but it has been so much fun getting to know her over the last few weeks and I just... I wanted her on the podcast because I feel like she embodies what I'm trying to do here.

J Storme Birdwell (00:06)
Thank you.

Tucker Martin (00:32)
She's a mom. She is a fourth generation rancher. She just started her small business. I'm really excited to let her tell you a little more about that. Anyways, she's just got a lot of things going that I feel truly embodies what I'm trying to do here at the podcast. So with that, Jay Storm, welcome. Thanks so much for being here.

J Storme Birdwell (00:54)
Thank you for having me. I'm excited

Tucker Martin (00:58)
Yeah, this is awesome. So I'm a fourth generation rancher. Right, right. Okay. And so tell us a little bit about what that looks like for you, you know, day to day and tell us a little bit about who you are and what got you to where you're at right now.

J Storme Birdwell (01:04)
Yes, ma'am.

So we have a commercial cow-calf operation in southeast Texas. My great grandparents started our place, so they had three boys. Two of them did the rice, we rice farmed also. And then my grandpa, he's the one that kept the cows going, so he's always been the one that's done all the cow work. And for as long as I can remember, I've been working cows with him, basically since I was born, I think.

Tucker Martin (01:41)
Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (01:42)
and he's 91 years old right now and he still works, he still rides and does everything and my brother and I work out here full time with him now and a lot of people ask me what a typical day is but I guess most people know if you're ranching, there's not really a typical day, there's really no telling what you're gonna be doing any day of the week. I know, I know. Yeah, but it is definitely, now that I have my daughter tagging along, there's really no telling how the day's gonna go. So,

Tucker Martin (02:01)
That's right.

J Storme Birdwell (02:11)
Yeah, it's just, it's an adventure every day, but I'm so grateful for it. I'm grateful I get to work with my family every day and get to, you know, how many people still have their grandparents at 91 and how many people get to spend as much time with them as I do because of this lifestyle. And, you know, I'm just always so grateful for that.

Tucker Martin (02:22)
Yeah.

Oh yeah, for sure. And I, I love that. I think it's been like two or three weeks ago, maybe longer. Um, you just posted a real quick little story, a video clip on Instagram that I just loved and it was your daughter and your grandpa together. And I was like, how cool is this? Like that, you know, bridging that, like that generation thing and, and you're just continuing the legacy on with your baby. And I just, that's so cool.

J Storme Birdwell (02:52)
Yeah, it's really been cool. Like I joke sometimes that they babysit each other at work, you know, they keep him busy and then she always, you know, I always need extra hands on her, especially now that she's moving around. But it's been very nice to have my grandparents here. You know, like I said, my grandpa that helps out and my grandma, she lives on the drive. We live on the same driveway, basically. And she'll come down there, just push her around on the stroll. She doesn't like to work cows, but she'll sit there and watch and push the baby around. So it's neat.

Tucker Martin (02:56)
Ha ha.

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. What something about, you know, that continuing that legacy with you and your daughter, like what are you most passionate about in that sense, I suppose? Is it just the continuing on? Is it, you know, there's so many facets to that. Clearly the family legacy is super important to you as well.

J Storme Birdwell (03:22)
Thank you.

Tucker Martin (03:49)
Is that kind of what's driving your passion right now? Or, you know, where are you at as far as that goes?

J Storme Birdwell (03:54)
Yeah, the family legacy definitely drives me to do everything I do. I mean through the hard work I mean we've faced multiple hurricanes that have almost wiped our place out You know, you have to you have to love it. You want to have to want to keep doing it to struggle through those things I mean we got one storm. They told us it was a once-in-a-lifetime storm we would never see anything like that again in our life and two years later we got the exact same thing again and It was I mean it was devastating. That's the first time I ever saw my grandpa cry

And to see him like that, you know, I think that, I mean, I always knew this is what I wanted to do, but like, I think that built more of a fire underneath me, like coming back from big struggles like that. And I don't know, I'm always, I kind of heard that from my grandpa, but I'm always a little stubborn, you know? I don't give up easily. So I think that's part of it, you know, this way of life's hard, but it also pushes you to push yourself even more and do your best. And so yeah, definitely keeping on the legacy is definitely what pushed me,

Tucker Martin (04:32)
Yeah.

Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (04:51)
Also getting to spend time with my family, like I mentioned earlier, like that's a big deal to me. I mean, there's not many jobs that I can be with my 91 year old grandpa and my one year old little girl at the same time, you know, and be doing what I love, just being outside and this lifestyle, you know, it's kind of, I hate to say like fizzling out, but like if we don't keep raising more generations then there's not gonna be this lifestyle anymore. And you know, so many kids, I went and did a little.

program at the school the other day and like this is a fourth grade class like it's just crazy to see how far off from understanding any of this you know they are whenever they're in a rural community they live right here by me and they still don't know a lot of this stuff so it's just important to me to keep it going just so I can teach more people about it too.

Tucker Martin (05:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. It's probably been, I think I was in college, we did like a farm field day for some of the local elementary schools. And it was a similar situation where I kind of just assumed that since it was a rural area, a relatively small town, that they understood where milk came from or where your beef or your bacon or whatever it is.

and we were showing them how to milk a goat and they if the ones that wanted to we were letting you know try it and like it blew my mind how many kids did not realize that that's where milk came from and like it was just super eye-opening to be if rural community kids are not aware like what about the rest of the world like no wonder agriculture is under attack and like you said we're kind of fizzling out a little bit and

So I love that you do that and take the time to serve the community and talk about this way of life because it is disappearing, sadly.

J Storme Birdwell (06:46)
Yeah, I mean I even went we went out of town this weekend to San Antonio, which is like big city, you know and We're visiting some family and stuff and my little girl had her cows out her little play cows She had a bull and a cow and like it was like girl. There was my age and Well, she said something about this cow and my little girl's like it's a bull, you know, and she's oh, I don't even know I don't even know how to tell him apart and I'm like gosh You would think by 30 years old you would know the difference between a cow and a bull

Tucker Martin (06:52)
Thank you.

Yeah.

Great.

J Storme Birdwell (07:14)
But I guess you know like you said a lot. It's crazy to realize how far people are away from this life

Tucker Martin (07:20)
Right. Which I think it's, it's so important, like you said, to continue on the legacy with our kids and even just the families and the lives that we get to interact with. I feel sharing our stories is super impactful, you know, as far as that goes. I mean, a little different track, I guess. My, my dad is a lion hunter and, you know, the hunting world is

The ag world is under attack from all different directions. And I read an article the other day that was, it had a picture of a little girl. She was like three or four years old, you know, loving on the hound dog. And their point was like, hey, share these stories because this is what our life is about. It's not what people think where it's, you know, blood and torture and all these things. That's not.

happens, you know, and there's a bad apple in every basket, but it's up to the good apples to continue to spread the education and the awareness around what's going on. And I think you're like, I'm going to segue right here into your tallow stuff and I'll let you, you know, say what that's all about. But I think that's so cool with what you're doing there because, you know, a natural product from

J Storme Birdwell (08:29)
Yeah.

Tucker Martin (08:45)
the ranch, you know, and it's valuable. Like there's, it's, you know, there's no waste, you want to, you know, it's efficient and all these things. And so tell us a little bit about that. What got you started with that? And I guess first off, tell us about the business and then we can go from there.

J Storme Birdwell (09:04)
So I kind of started a little tallow beef tallow skin care business recently. It wasn't exactly a plan. It just kind of happened. Whenever I was pregnant with my daughter, I just got really in the paying more attention to what I was putting in and on my body and everything. You know, like I realized that some of the things I thought were healthy probably really weren't that healthy. You know, just paid a lot more attention to things. And I've always obviously had a very good bit passion for beef. So I just kind of.

Tucker Martin (09:26)
Thanks for watching!

J Storme Birdwell (09:33)
put those two together and I started making just a moisturizer for myself out of it and I didn't really know if anybody would be interested in it. You tell people they're putting it's beef fat and they're like, oh, am I going to smell like a brisket? I'm like, no, I'm not going to give you something to make you smell like a brisket. So I was doing that. I guess I was making that for like a year and then some of my family and stuff would use it.

Tucker Martin (09:47)
Right.

Ha ha.

J Storme Birdwell (09:59)
And then a friend of mine works at a little winery down the road and they were having a Christmas market this year and she was like, why don't you make some of that and bring it to the little like get a booth at the market? I was like, oh, I will. But I don't know if you know, nobody's probably gonna want any. And thankfully, you know, I am from a small town. A lot of people know where I am, know my family and stuff. So I think like that kind of got it started because they were willing to give me a shot because they were like, well, like they knew me at least. And I did a lot better than I thought. I sold a lot more than I thought.

Tucker Martin (10:22)
Right?

J Storme Birdwell (10:27)
I was afraid I was going to come home with everything right up there, but I didn't. So from there, people just heard about it after that and they were messaging me like, can I get some of that? So-and-so got some last weekend so they liked it. I was like, oh sure. So I just kind of slowly started on Instagram and then I just made my website like two weeks ago because it's been going, I was spending so much time trying to reply to people and orders and stuff. I was like, I can't believe it's already.

Tucker Martin (10:30)
Yeah. Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (10:55)
turned into this. So I went on to a website now and like it's just it's going really good. And yeah, I was just looking, I wasn't really looking at what I was like looking for a way to supplement, I guess, kind of, you know, our income around here and, you know, anybody who lives a ranch life, I think most of us try to do something like that. And it just put two of my passions together and it just kind of happened, you know, it just it just felt right. It seems like the right thing to do. And a lot of people are enjoying it and I'm enjoying it.

Tucker Martin (10:56)
Hahaha.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

J Storme Birdwell (11:24)
It's a good, it's hard to fit everything in. That's why everybody always asks me like, how do you do it all? And I was like, well, I don't know. My biggest thing is like being flexible. Like people ask me when my daughter's nap time is and stuff. I'm like, well, we don't really have a nap time. You know, like you have to be flexible. Like, I'm just probably gonna get tired at 1.30, but we may not nap till three o'clock. Yeah, it depends on what we're doing, you know? So that's been my biggest thing to be, I guess, successful in this or adding another business to,

Tucker Martin (11:37)
Yeah.

Right, right.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (11:54)
anything in my life. It's just being flexible. I think that's the biggest thing. And I mean even when you're working cows or anything like something's always gonna go wrong. Like you always have to be flexible. Like there's no reason or how I look at it, I guess, is if you get upset and mad and, you know, it ruins your whole day every one little mistake, like that doesn't get you anywhere. Like stuff's gonna go wrong. I just think, well, that happened. Oh, well, gotta keep going, you know. And I mean, that was a hard thing to learn for sure. But like once I've learned that, I think it's really changed.

Tucker Martin (12:18)
Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (12:23)
my whole life, honestly.

Tucker Martin (12:26)
Yeah, all that is that I think that perspective and when you have that mindset it helps with your reactions on what you're doing which helps with the stress level like being a mom is stressful enough and then and being a rancher is stressful enough you know you try to do both of them together and sometimes you could let it be very overwhelming if you know weren't like what you said I think the flexibility is like

exactly what it is. Like, I don't know, like, how scheduling this call, for example. I'm like, hey, is this time gonna work? You're like, yeah, it should. And I'm like, okay, uh, actually, we gotta wait 30 minutes. Just cause.

J Storme Birdwell (13:05)
I'm sorry.

You know, and I totally get that happens to me all the time. And like, sometimes it gets frustrating. Like I'm like, oh, I feel awful. Like I'm having to put this off again or that off. But like, I just always like, I don't know. There's some quote thing I read the other day is like, stay committed to your decision, but stay flexible in your approach. And I was like, that's like what I try to think about is like, I'm going to get to that goal. I'm going to get it done by the end of the week. I may not have got it done Monday like I planned, but I still have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to figure it out, you know, and I just make sure like I.

Tucker Martin (13:36)
Thank you.

J Storme Birdwell (13:37)
I get stuff done, I just don't get upset if I don't get it done exactly when I plan to get it done.

Tucker Martin (13:44)
Yeah, I love that and I think that's so important to keep in mind just because really, I mean in the grand scheme of things, certain things do have a deadline but in all reality, there's a lot of expectation that we put on the thing or on ourselves that doesn't need to be there and when you can just be like, that's okay, like what you said, I didn't get it done Monday but I've got you know six more days of the week if you want to look at it that way and you know.

J Storme Birdwell (14:02)
F

Yeah. And like, I don't know if you've ever gotten to like the Enneagram stuff, but I'm like an Enneagram one. And so I used to be like terribly hard on myself and learning about the Enneagram and like finding out that I was a one and figuring out that I'm so much harder on myself than anybody else is like, nobody else thinking about me the same way I'm thinking about myself. Like, that was a big deal to me too, like to realize like, oh, you're way harder on yourself than anybody ever thinks about me. No.

I can never ever just said that like my husband stuff would be like, why are you why are you so upset about that? Like, who cares that you messed up? And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, like that was awful. So it's definitely grown a lot in the past few years and like I would, well, you know, the show, you mentioned the show earlier. And I think that had a lot to do with it too. When I did the show the first time, like.

Tucker Martin (14:47)
Right. Yeah. Right.

J Storme Birdwell (15:05)
I did not think it was gonna be real at all. You know, when they called me, I'm like, this is not real, this is some kind of scam. I'm about to drive 10 hours to Alabama and I'm gonna show up and like, it's not gonna be, you know, like anything at all. I was, yeah, I was not sure what to think about that. I almost turned around like four times on the way there. And I got there and...

Tucker Martin (15:12)
Ha ha!

J Storme Birdwell (15:29)
I just was kind of like pushing myself out of my comfort zone. That's what I told myself. Like I knew reality TV wasn't my thing. Like I was extremely shy, extremely quiet, but I had just gotten out of like a long term relationship that wasn't going anywhere. And I just felt like I was like, I just need to push myself. I need to get out. I need to do something different. And I went and like, cause I, you know, like I said, I'm not a reality TV star. I didn't expect to do get that part of it, but I was like, maybe this will lead to something else, you know?

Tucker Martin (15:55)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

J Storme Birdwell (15:59)
And even if I inspired one person, it was worth it to me. And so that's why I, I don't know, doing that really pushed, I've really pushed myself, I guess, in that, and that's really made me grow. And I think it's important for us to always keep pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone.

Tucker Martin (16:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I love that. And I love that you said you almost turned around. Like, what like what if you had like, how different would your life be, you know?

J Storme Birdwell (16:29)
Oh, it would be so different. And honestly, like when I first got there, like thankfully one of the guys that was working the show, like one of the like cowboys that was in charge of the cows and stuff, he said something to me about, cause I was like, I don't know what I'm doing here. Like I really want to turn around and go home. And he like knew me and I'm like, how do you know me? And he said, you and that other girl did that ranch rodeo in Anilac? And I was like, oh yeah. He's like, we were there. He's like, y'all, he's like, y'all whooped us. And I was like.

Tucker Martin (16:54)
Ha ha!

J Storme Birdwell (16:58)
So then like that changed my whole attitude and I was like, oh maybe I can do this, you know? And it's just funny how like little things like that, like you never know how something you say can like impact somebody else or like change their whole attitude, you know, just one silly comment like that and like change my whole confidence level about that. But yeah, if I hadn't done that show, I really can't imagine like it would be so different. Everything would be.

And again, I swore after the first time, I was like, I'm never doing this again. Like people ask me like, do you have a chance to do it again? Would you do it? I said, no, never again. Like, it's not my thing. I'm glad I did it. I'm not doing it again. And then they called me for the All-Star season. And I had was, I guess it was like four months after I had my baby. And they're like, we know you probably don't want to come. But we want to know if you want to come. And I was like, well, I was like, I'll tell you one thing. I'm not coming without.

Tucker Martin (17:27)
Hahaha!

Yeah. Right.

J Storme Birdwell (17:53)
baby so let's get that figured out first like y'all talk to her we have to talk to you and see if I can bring her I was like if I can't bring her I'm not coming for sure and so they called me back the next day and like no we can make it work like you can bring her and so I brought her brought my mom to babysit her and but like you know there's so much of me that didn't want to go back the second time but then there was a part of me that was like I can't not go back and people think I didn't go back because I had a baby you know like

Tucker Martin (18:11)
Cool.

Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (18:23)
I was like, I don't want to be that person. I went the first time to be a role model. I went first time to show people that women can do it. I don't want them to think that I'm not doing it this time just because I have a baby. I want to be able to go and show them that, yeah, it's hard, but you can still do it. So, and again, I really almost backed out a couple times. My best friend, Kirby, she was like, the first time you went, she was like, didn't you do this? After you did it, you saw how many people reached out to you and said,

it meant so much to him this and that. She's like, you said that was your favorite part. I said, yeah, she said, so if you go back this time and you change one person's life, if you have one mom out there that's struggling and sees this, isn't it worth it to you? I was like, okay, you're right. So like I said, we packed up. She wasn't even, she turned six months old while we were there, so she wasn't even six months old yet. We loaded up, took two horses and a 24 hour drive to Arizona. Yeah, it was.

Tucker Martin (19:01)
Mm-hmm.

Ha ha!

Wow, that's quite the deal.

J Storme Birdwell (19:20)
Yeah, but again, I'm so glad I did it. I mean, it was definitely difficult, very difficult. I mean, I was still nursing her. So doing that and bouncing reality TV around, you know, it's reality TV is a lot of like hurry up and wait. Like they're like, no, you don't have time. You don't have time. You don't have time. And then you get there and you're sitting for three hours. I'm like, I thought you told me I didn't have time to go through this. But yeah, I just I'm glad I did it again. And you know, I've had a lot of people reach out to me and say like,

Tucker Martin (19:33)
Yes.

J Storme Birdwell (19:49)
they're glad that I was, or like I've inspired them to take their baby to work with them or to get back on the horse with the baby. And I guess that was like another thing too. Like I didn't tell people I was pregnant or I didn't do the big Facebook announcement about being pregnant because I was like, I'm gonna keep riding, like I'm gonna keep working. I know my body, I know my horse, and I don't want people commenting, I don't need to hear other people's outside opinions. Like you don't have to put everything on social media.

Tucker Martin (19:57)
Yeah.

Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (20:17)
You know, and obviously it did get to a point where I couldn't hide it anymore. I was obviously pregnant, but like I didn't tell people for a long time just because I didn't want to hear the negative side of things. And, um, like I think going back, like maybe I would have shared a little bit more just so other moms understand, you know, like, yeah, we could have the confidence to do it too, but, um, that was something that was hard for me for sure.

Tucker Martin (20:17)
Right.

I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

J Storme Birdwell (20:44)
to get past what other people were going to think about that. I think I was putting my baby in jeopardy or something whenever in reality, you know, I scaled back a lot, of course, we have to, but like, and I only rode my one good horse, you know, I rode her day in, day out. She put up with a lot those last few months. And I rode up until the day before I went to the hospital. And I'm thankful everything I know any stuff can go wrong anytime. Like I'm thankful that everything went as good as it did. But

Tucker Martin (20:50)
Right.

Yeah.

Hahaha.

J Storme Birdwell (21:15)
But yeah, sorry, I'm rambling now. You can get back to track.

Tucker Martin (21:17)
No, hey, there's a reason my podcast is called Ran Traveling. This is what it's here for, but I love all of that and my mind is like mulling over all the things you just said, but specifically, you know, the mom thing, like I feel like as society as a whole has kind of put moms

J Storme Birdwell (21:22)
Thank you.

Tucker Martin (21:46)
in this weird box of like

best for your body and you need to listen to somebody else and you don't know what's good for your baby and you need to listen to somebody else and I'm not saying that you don't need education or knowledge or whatever but my sister-in-law and I talked about this all the time but it's like why discredit what the mother is feeling you know and I just posted a story about when we found out Sylvia had some things going on

J Storme Birdwell (22:14)
Yeah.

Tucker Martin (22:21)
And I knew in my guts that there was something wrong and nobody was listening to what I had to say. And I went to several professionals. I got kicked out of the pediatrician's office because I was like, no, you guys, this is bullshit.

getting, my baby's not okay. Like, and they're like, oh no, she's fine. It's probably this, it's probably that. And I was like, no, it's not. And so a long, whole scary traumatizing for her, you know, and us, time later, we finally got some answers. But it's just, I think it's so important to advocate for yourself and your baby, no matter what age they are. But with your writing, like you felt you were

totally good with that. You rode your good horse. Like you weren't putting yourself like in unnecessarily, you know, you probably weren't bulldogging, you know, at eight and a half months pregnant, right? Like, but there's what you knew you could do and you knew what your horse was and you knew, you know, and I think that's so cool and like, like what a cool example for your baby as she then grows up and even

even before she's to this point in her life. Like that's gonna empower her so much for other decisions and other things for herself. Like I just think that's so cool.

J Storme Birdwell (23:51)
Yeah, no, and that's what I hope. Like I hope one day she looks back and like thinks like mom didn't quit anything because of me, you know, like she kept doing it like, and I hope it inspires her because I was always like, I knew I wanted a family, but like I was never the girl that was like, oh my God, I can't wait to have a baby, you know? And like, I was like, everything's going to change. Like it's not just adding a baby. Like my work is going to change. Like everything's going to change so much by adding a baby. And, um,

Tucker Martin (24:07)
Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (24:18)
Thankfully, she was not planned. She came, you know, we had just got married. I was like, we're gonna wait a few years and then surprise. We made it to our first anniversary and we had a baby. So, yeah, so it was definitely, and I'm so glad like, I'm 100% believer, obviously in God's timing. Like it was such a God thing to bring her now. And she's been like a light, like we've had a lot of family struggles with our ranch, you know, like as it,

Tucker Martin (24:27)
Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (24:48)
people pass away, everybody knows how that goes. Some people wanna sell off, it turns into, it's difficult, really difficult. And there's so many days that I think she's been the only thing that's made my grandpa smile. Yeah, so it's been such, I mean, it's been hard times, but it's like, if she hadn't been here, it's hard on him, it's hard on all of us, but it would have been much harder without her, I think. I think that gives him more hope, it gives all of us more hope, it gives me more hope. I don't know, I mean.

Tucker Martin (24:51)
Oh yeah.

Aww.

Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (25:17)
It just like turned into, you know, once you have a baby, it turned into like, I can't give up. Like now I have to do this for her. Like it's so important to me that she gets to grow up the way I grew up. So, you know, it just pushes me even harder to keep the legacy going, I guess.

Tucker Martin (25:21)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I was going to say too. And it's just a different way of saying what you just said, but it seems like.

Obviously there's a choice in everything, but when you have the kids, like, you know, some people will...

will never be. It's not the same, but they say it in a negative.

Um, and you can choose to look at it and let it light your fire for you to try harder and put in more work and, you know, create the life that you want for your family and your baby, um, rather than let it stifle you and just be like, Oh, I have kids can't do that. Like you gotta live, you gotta live, you know, you can't just. And that's one thing I really love and respect about your story is.

priority for you and it's very obvious before like we even had a real conversation you know you can tell that

and the way you raise her is a priority to you. And I just think that's so cool because a lot of people will just.

That's it. And they just kind of quit moving forward. And, and it's like, man, this life is meant like for some cool things, but cool things don't come if you just sit back and let it pass you by. Right.

J Storme Birdwell (26:57)
Yeah, no, I agree. Like, I mean, don't get me wrong. There's definitely hard days like taking her with me like plenty of hard days like there's plenty of days screaming and crying and I'm not getting everything done that I want to get done. But like, you know, last I guess two weeks ago, we had a little calf be born. That was premature. And I just lucky, luckily happened to be driving on the road and saw him right after he came out.

Tucker Martin (27:01)
Oh yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (27:20)
And I knew from the moment I saw his little front legs were kind of bent wrong, you know, like I knew he was going to need help. So of course that always happens when you're my husband's out of town, my brother's out of town, out of town, me. And so I had to go get my in-laws and they helped me get him pinned and everything. Well, I had to help him nurse. Like he just, he just wasn't, you know, he just had no energy, no life to him really. I was honestly surprised that he is still alive. But I spent.

Tucker Martin (27:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (27:48)
I guess like a week straight, just like making him nervous every morning, every evening. Because you know, I knew he could live after the first couple of days. After he made the first couple of days, I'm like, okay, like I can't quit on him now. And there was days like, because it was just me and her and it would get frustrating, you know, like she'd be crying, like tired of me messing with this calf. And then we came home one evening and like I'm cooking separate. I look over there, she's playing with her cows and she has her little calf and she's

Tucker Martin (27:53)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Hahaha

J Storme Birdwell (28:18)
holding her mama cow upside down and she's putting the calf on the bag of the mama cow. And the mama cow, and I was cracking up and I was like, this is why I do it. Like I wasn't even trying to teach her. Like she's just been watching me do this all week. And she's only a year and a half and she's already figured it out. She's over there making her calf nurse. And then to like another time, I had to feed him one time in the very beginning. And I just did it that one time, like two or three days later, she found like a straw and we were down there messing with that calf.

Tucker Martin (28:20)
Hahaha

I love it.

Right.

J Storme Birdwell (28:47)
and she was pulling his mouth open and was trying to shove that straw in his throat. I was like, Oh gosh, let me have that back. But good try. But it's just cool to see like what they learn. And you know, like sometimes it was difficult for me, like I would worry like we're not doing any like kid stuff. Like, I'm taking her and we're going to work and I think we're she's having fun. Like we're playing in the hay or playing with cows. Like I don't ever we don't go to the zoo. We don't go to the park. We don't

Tucker Martin (28:53)
Oh, I love it. That's so cool.

J Storme Birdwell (29:16)
do like anything like that. And sometimes I'm like, am I making her work too much? And um, and I just, I started reading this book and I'm almost done with it. I'm a lot slower reader these days now that I have so much going on, but her parent, I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's really good if you're like a working type mom, like us, I think like, I just kind of talked about like different cultures and how they work and how they have such like helpful children and children that want to help work and everything.

Tucker Martin (29:29)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

J Storme Birdwell (29:46)
And it's just, I don't know, it's an interesting book. So if any of y'all are looking for something to read, it's a good one to read for moms like this, like make you feel like you're still doing the right thing and kind of help you along the way too, I think.

Tucker Martin (29:58)
Right, right. I love that. And thanks for sharing that too, because...

kind of like what you said with your type 1 enneagram stuff. I think his moms were a little bit...

than really other people. And I had a deal the other day where I'm like, oh my gosh, like she should be reading by now and doing this and that and the other thing. And I haven't worked on the alphabet in so long.

like yeah but it's look at what she does do she can tell you all the parts on a saddle like she knows like what you're saying the cow bull you know the geldings mares she's you know the horse colors and there's you know obviously reading is very important i'm not saying that but it made me feel better because i'm like all right well she is learning like

We're learning a lot of real life things like how to speak to grown-ups and how to handle business and how to do this when this cold acts up or do whatever. She copies me with her pony and she flags out her pony all the time because she watched me start my last cold and she's flagging out her little dead broke pony. Whoa, Peaches, whoa! And I'm like, yeah, because Peaches is so concerned that you're flagging her out.

J Storme Birdwell (31:23)
Thank you.

Tucker Martin (31:25)
You know, it's so true. You take them with you and they absorb so much. They're like little sponges. They just... They learn and it all happens.

J Storme Birdwell (31:31)
If you're interested in learning more about the

Tucker Martin (31:35)
And it's all fine.

J Storme Birdwell (31:37)
That's what I'm joking about now, like Jennings knows all the stuff about cows, like she knows every animal, like she knows the whole cow and all that, but she does not know her colors. I'm like, you can see where my priorities have been, like, she knows like two colors, but we know so much stuff.

Tucker Martin (31:43)
Uh-huh.

Ha ha.

Great.

Yeah, and that's like, that's totally fine. Cause it's not like, it's not like they don't learn it. It's just, like you said, the priority, this is what we do for our life. Like you kind of need to know that this is how a baby calf nurses, you know? I think that's so cool. But so I'm kind of jumping tracks a little bit, but what's your, what's your process with your tallow? Like, do you?

J Storme Birdwell (32:04)
Yeah.

Tucker Martin (32:23)
It comes from your cattle.

J Storme Birdwell (32:26)
Yeah, so we sell just a few cat like butcher steers every year. We don't do the like sell them as cuts because we don't have a processor nearby that's certified. So we just have to sell them as whole or halves. And so every time we do that, we, not the butcher that I use, he saves the fat for me. I use the kidney fat actually, cause it's not as, it doesn't smell as strong. Like the very first time I ever did this, like I was cooking a brisket and I was cutting, trimming all the fat off the brisket. And I was like,

I should try to make the tallow moisturizer and see what happens. And I did, and it did kind of smell like a brisket. And I was like, yes, it's probably not the right thing. So I looked into it a little more and I found out that you could use the kidney fat and it wasn't as strong as the smell or anything. So I started doing that. And thankfully, if I keep growing, I don't know what I may have to start sourcing some out. But right now I can manage with what I get from our cattle.

Tucker Martin (33:01)
Hahaha.

J Storme Birdwell (33:23)
And it's just, I get the fat back from the butcher and I have to trim it all. It'll still have some meat on it or like some tendon kind of stuff. And I'll trim that all up and I cut it up really fine. And then I'll just put it in a pot on the stove, like real slow, real long and slow is how I do it. So that way it doesn't, because if you like get it kind of burned or whatever, that's when it will have more of like a beefy smell. So that's the thing is like making sure you don't burn it or get it crispy. And

Tucker Martin (33:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah.

J Storme Birdwell (33:53)
Take it's like it's really not a hard process it's just a long process like you just have to let it cook for a long time and then after I cook it I drain it and I let it get solid and then I add all the other I add some other oil and stuff to it that actually infused myself with some dried herbs and flowers and stuff that I have and Yeah, and I turn it in the lotion. I mix it up. I was using my good stand mixer and then I realized

that was easier but then I realized that my hand mixer does a better job but it's a lot more time-consuming but yeah but and then my the rest of it you know just packaging it and all that like I said none of it's hard it's a process like it just a little bit I do look like we're talking about being flexible like I'll do a little bit in the morning before she wakes up and then I'll do a little bit on nap time you know and she's always wanting to help but it's not always a job that it's very good for her to help and then

Tucker Martin (34:25)
I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Hahaha

J Storme Birdwell (34:51)
Thankfully my father-in-law actually got really interested in this and he's been helping me cook it a lot because he works from home Well, he's an appraiser. So he's at home a lot doing work So you'll be on the computer working so it's easy for him to have it cooking on the yeah He'll just go stir it every once in a while on the stove while he's around the house So I've been very lucky with that to get a little extra help Yeah talking about like we were talking about God's timing and everything earlier it's kind of a funny story my in-laws

Tucker Martin (35:09)
Right.

J Storme Birdwell (35:20)
lived like 30 minutes from here and they had a big house and they were wanting to move, you know, their kids were out of the house, they were wanting to scale down and they had a little camp house like two hours away from here in a little small town. They're like, we're just going to move up there to Corgan and you know, we're just going to stay in that little house. Well, they moved like all their stuff out of their house, their big house one weekend into the little camp house and they were just going to remodel a few little things like paint and stuff this house and then they were going to sell it.

So all they had was like their clothes for the week and like a plate and a fork for each of them. Like that was it. Yeah. And I'm a mattress on the floor and they moved everything there. It was right after my daughter was born. They moved everything there. And that was like on a Saturday. And that Tuesday they got a call and their neighbor lit a fire and a burn van. And they're like, y'all's house is about to burn down. And they're two hours away. And they're like, well, obviously there's nothing we can do. And so their house burned to the ground with.

Tucker Martin (35:55)
Right?

Whoa.

J Storme Birdwell (36:17)
like everything they owned in it. Yeah, so and then so now they ended up living in a trailer house and my brother has for rent that's like two miles down the road from us. And they've been there ever it's been over a year now they're now they're not leaving now they bought property here. They're staying turned out to be so nice. And it's just another one of those things we're like, obviously you want to be like, well, God, you didn't have to do that big of a sign. But like, it definitely was like

Tucker Martin (36:18)
Oh my gosh.

Yes!

J Storme Birdwell (36:46)
thing for them to get you know to end up here and to be staying here it's just it's just crazy how this happened like they've been so much help for me with her like there's plenty of times I'll be we have a set of my brother and I actually kind of purchased the property are part of our ranch that's around where their house is recently with our family split I was talking about so like that's really exciting it's really scary obviously but it's really exciting to like actually have a piece that's ours right now

Tucker Martin (36:51)
Great.

Mm-hmm.

J Storme Birdwell (37:15)
And my in-law, like I said, are living right there and we work our cow right behind there. So there's like many a time, so I'll be working cows and like something wouldn't be going just right. I'd call my father-in-law and be like, can I just come drive her off for 10 minutes? Like, if I can leave her here for 10 minutes, like she can sit there and play while you're on the computer doing your stuff. And then like, I'll come back and get her real quick, I promise. Yeah, so like it's been really nice and really, you know, like I said, I've been very grateful for my.

Tucker Martin (37:15)
Yeah.

Right.

J Storme Birdwell (37:40)
total support system I have, like my mom, I mean, not to leave anyone out, my mom, my in-laws, my husband, everybody is like, so like you say, when you need a village, like you need a village to raise a child, that's such a true thing, I think. But I think it makes everything, I don't know, like it makes you wanna work harder too. I don't guess, you know, like I was talking about earlier, like it's just another thing to like pursue, like knowing that you've got people that believe in you and support you and are willing to do whatever to help you, like it's...

Tucker Martin (38:08)
Mm-hmm.

J Storme Birdwell (38:10)
It's a big deal.

Tucker Martin (38:12)
Yeah, yeah, I agree. That's, that's so cool. For the last, well, almost 10 years.

J Storme Birdwell (38:18)
Kind of got off the topic again, sorry.

Tucker Martin (38:21)
No, that's perfect. That's, I love it when it goes like this, cause I feel like conversations go where they're supposed to go. It's been almost 10 years, my husband and I have lived on the ranch in New Mexico. And we just recently made a deal for some property up here by my parents in Southern Utah. So we just made the big move. And so all, I mean, up until recently, it's been...

J Storme Birdwell (38:27)
Yeah.

Tucker Martin (38:49)
with the girls and which is awesome. And I've been really thankful for all the experiences and memories we have down there. But then at the same time, it's so nice to be like, hey, I need 20 minutes. Like, can you, you know, can you take them for 20 minutes so I can go do this? Or like, I quit riding a bunch of young horses because I didn't have anybody to help me with the girls. And I'm like, if I get hurt on this horse,

J Storme Birdwell (39:05)
Yeah.

Tucker Martin (39:20)
You know, Tim's gone out of service all day long and

you know, 18 months apart, two years apart. Like, so that's talking about scaling back when you got pregnant. That was kind of what my scaling back looked like was certain things that I didn't do because it was just us. And his grandparents were in the closest town, but it still, it took about an hour to get to their house. And, you know, his boss then was across the ranch, which was about, like an hour and a half, two hours away.

And so it's like things have to look different sometimes and it's okay but you know talk about God's timing and everything that's one of the things that we just kind of felt a pull and things fell into place and you know boss's sons took over and it's it was just perfect so you know before we even moved my husband got an offer for a job offer for up here and it's like all right so

Let's make it, let's make it happen. And, and so here we are, but.

timing like that. I think that's so fun when you can have that perspective that the pieces are falling into place for a reason, you know, and it's cool when you can look back and see it happening because sometimes in the moment it's like what on earth is going on? And then when it's over with you're like, okay, I see why, like, I get it.

J Storme Birdwell (40:46)
Yeah.

That's what you're talking about here. Like it just seemed like, I don't know, like it would have been very easy to give up, like talking about the storms and stuff. Like it was one thing after another for a little while. And like, you don't understand any of it. You're like, I used to, I mean, genuinely make myself sick over like what was going to happen with our ranch, you know, knowing that I have so many cousins and. You know, me and my brother are the only ones involved with the cattle. Like just thinking about that and like, just knowing that.

people that aren't here, that aren't involved with it every day don't understand the value. Like it's not just a job to us, you know, like everything we've worked for, everything. It's not just, I guess I should say, it's not just a paycheck. Like our whole life is invested into this. Like if this place is gone, like our whole life completely changes. It's not like I just have to go find another job, you know, like my house is here, my everything is here. So it's like, I used to make myself so sick over that. Like...

Tucker Martin (41:28)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

J Storme Birdwell (41:47)
what's gonna happen if this doesn't work out, exactly like I think it should work out. And I guess really when I got pregnant, I just changed my whole mindset. And I was like, I can only worry about what I can fix. I can't keep worrying about all this stuff I can't control. It's gonna happen. Or I can't do anything about it, so I might as well quit worrying about it and just hope and pray that it's gonna fall into place just like everything else has. And yeah, I just feel like...

Tucker Martin (42:09)
Right.

J Storme Birdwell (42:15)
Like looking back now, like so many things have happened and we still have a long way to go like there's still days I'm like, oh man, you know, but for the most part I'm like I'm just trusting God that it's all gonna end up where it's supposed to end up, you know I just feel I feel like at peace like that it is gonna work out It may not be the way I planned exactly but like one way or another it is gonna work out like it's supposed to

Tucker Martin (42:34)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, and you know, that's what's cool is when you kind of shift that mindset that like it is god knows what he's doing and in a sense like that does bring that peace because like he's doing he's doing it like I don't have to worry about it. I just got to keep putting in the time like putting in the work.

J Storme Birdwell (42:56)
Yeah, just sit back and kind of try to relax, I guess. Like, but yeah.

Tucker Martin (43:03)
as much as you can.

Well, this has been such an awesome conversation, Jay Storm. Thank you so much for taking the time. I know that you got a lot going on and whatnot, but I really appreciate it.

J Storme Birdwell (43:18)
Oh yeah, thank you. I appreciate it for, I'm glad you considered me. You wanted to have me on.

Tucker Martin (43:22)
Yeah, oh heck yeah, let me tell you, I do this thing where I, you're talking about God's timing or whatever, I'll have a thought and I'm like, you need to talk to this person, whether it's about the podcast or anything else.

with you. I was like, I was like, is she gonna think that I'm just like wanting to talk to her because she was on the show? Because I genuinely think that she's like, I'm like, I genuinely feel like I think she's awesome. Like I want to connect with this person and it's just happened to have been on the show that we enjoyed watching. But I'm like, so don't message her, don't message her. And then so I went back and forth and I finally did.

J Storme Birdwell (43:41)
I'm sorry.

Oh no.

I was on the turf half the time like I'll be somewhere and I like I like I said I was at a rodeo the other day a few hours from here and this family I could tell they were just like looking at me and I'm like and I finally came up there and they're like you were on that show and I was like oh yes I was. I forget like when I did the show like I never thought it's like on the old people western tale you know like nobody's gonna watch this like.

Tucker Martin (44:16)
Why they were looking.

J Storme Birdwell (44:27)
I'm safe, like I don't have to tell me when I'm doing this. And then I was very, very wrong. So many people saw it. And like I went to Vegas for the NFR, like it came out in October and then I went to Vegas and like I was in the Houston airport and people were coming up to me and I was like, oh my goodness, like I just thought my small town knew, like I didn't know this was this big of a thing. Yeah, it was a little bit of a shock, but I still like, I still forget that I did it sometimes. Like,

Tucker Martin (44:36)
Uh-huh.

This is big.

J Storme Birdwell (44:54)
Like I said, I wonder sometimes, like, why are these people looking at me weird? And I'm like, oh yeah. I'm not like that. I'm not.

Tucker Martin (45:00)
I love that. Well, um, tell us where we can find your like what's your new website and then where we can find you on social media or for all the things you have going on.

J Storme Birdwell (45:14)
Okay, so my title business is the Crunchy Cal Gal. It's Cal Gal, G-A-L. But you can find me on Instagram or Facebook and my website's kind of difficult. It's on the square thing, but if you go to my Instagram, you can find my website's linked on my Instagram and my Facebook. So you can find me on there, or if you just wanna see my regular page, it's just J Storm, S-T-O-R-M-E. J's my first name, just a letter. I didn't know, you know, a lot of people ask me all the time, like how in the world did you get that weird name?

But Storm is my grandma's middle name, my mom's middle name, my middle name, and then now my little girl's middle name. So that's where my name came from, so on Instagram, just jperiodstorme.

Tucker Martin (45:47)
Oh, that's awesome. I love that. That's so cool.

Awesome. And I'll put that in the show notes too, for everybody listening. And thank you again, Jay Storm. This has been so cool. I love connecting with women like you because, you know, agriculture is so important. And obviously our passions happen to be with the beef cattle, but, you know, it's just, it's so cool to connect and create this community and, you know, hopefully inspire others by sharing our story. So.

Do you have anything else you'd like to add before we call it a day?

J Storme Birdwell (46:33)
Oh, no, I think that's good. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Tucker Martin (46:36)
Awesome. Well, thanks Jay Storm. I'm sure we'll talk to you soon.

J Storme Birdwell (46:40)
Alright.