Lance Sensenig Breaks News and Norms

Paul Yeager  
Hey everybody, I'm Paul Yeager welcome inside the MTOM. Podcast studios here at Iowa PBS, which is where this originates each and every Tuesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on Youtube. We do a video form of this and today, we are going to be looking at the fields of Pennsylvania. Lance Sensenig is a return guest kind of a theme we've done here in 2021 revisiting some old friends, Lance is going to drop a couple of bombshells, and he has saved them just for us. Let me see if I can tease without giving it all away. Something about him personally. Something about him professionally. And one other thing that I'm just not even going to tease. We are going to be discussing how his life has changed since November of 2020. When we first chatted, his career has changed in the sense of where he works. That'll be one of the items. I think some of you who follow him on Instagram or Facebook, know some of the changes that have happened, but not everything. So that is what is inside this week's MTOM Show podcast which again, if you have any feedback for me, send me an email Paul.Yeager@IowaPBS.org. Now, let's go to Pennsylvania and talk to Lance. 

Lance, I tell you what you're a hard guy to keep up with. And I guess there's a good reason if I've missed a bunch of stuff. Let's let's just cover the basics. You're still in Pennsylvania? Yep. Yep. still involved in agriculture? Yes,

Lance Sensenig  
I'm still involved with agriculture. But that's about it. Right? Yeah, pretty much. So kind of, you know, my life has been kind of crazy the last couple since May 7 of last year. So I need one. Yes. Okay. 21. So I made a big jump from the green industry, working for my dad managing a big green facility that's just like a couple miles away. I'm like five minutes still from the station. So switching from that, and I came across an opportunity on buying a farm. We'll just pivot just a little bit. I don't know if any people can see down there. There's my farm. Just a quick little flip around. But I'll go back to my back to this position, but bought the place trying to get it figured out. So I learned, you know, I had been crop farming before with my dad and brothers and then you know, started storing grain, you know, working with Perdue agribusiness. So I learned the farming side, the Perdue agribusiness and then one of the reasons why I got into this and was actually eligible for this is I knew the farming side and then I knew the agribusiness side. So they were kind of looking for somebody that had agribusiness knowledge, but zero knowledge of chickens. So I'm we're, I'm farming about roughly about when we put the chickens in roughly about 39,000 chickens. They lay eggs, and we collect them every morning about to lunchtime, and then it's just day after day after day and you never get a break.

Paul Yeager  
Hens don't stop laying eggs.

Lance Sensenig  
Yes, that is absolutely true. Absolutely true.

Paul Yeager  
And it's different from dairy because you only have to collect once except in a dairy you have to milk twice so there's, you're you're almost to the dairy status.

Lance Sensenig  
Yes, exactly. So like with the chickens. One thing about the chickens is they lay an egg in the morning, every single day, you know, starting roughly about 530 in the morning, and they're done about lunchtime every single day dairy you have to do it twice or three times a day. And you can kind of move the milkings around the chickens, they don't move around. So like I used to go to church every day on Sunday. That is no more. I have to do something in the evenings like you're which is weird. Everybody does if you do eggs, you don't go to church on Sunday morning because you literally can't do it unless you have somebody else work for you.

Paul Yeager  
Well now in the era of all these churches that stream you can listen to your church while you're working. How about that?

Lance Sensenig  
Yeah, actually and that's something we've been doing me and actually the here's another bombshell I'm gonna drop this real quick. I just got engaged and actually this is the first place that I've announced it haven't done it on my social media. Oh, my family doesn't even know so I saved it particularly for this. So my followers people on your guys's station you're seeing it for the first time actually my fiancee she announced it on her social media platform and all that stuff. I just got engaged so now going to get be getting married in the future here or whatever. So that's another one of the bombshells we got a lot more bombshells down the road. But yeah, that's one of the new exciting Things will Lance

Paul Yeager  
first, congratulations. That's awesome. And when, you, in for us to pick this is probably the biggest news we've dropped on this podcast and it's in its six years of doing it. So, I mean, you're a big deal on social media so that that's who that's pressure. Now, all of a sudden, I have all this inside of me going, how do I keep this quiet from the time we record to when we drop it next time?

Unknown Speaker  
Yeah. And I think really, you know, it's kind of a really special time and agriculture, you know, even though with all the negative stuff that we have going on the world just, you know, think about this for a second. You know, yesterday, your day was February 7. John Deere's birthday. And another one of the things is, and this is another one of those bombshells. Kathy, I forget what her last name is, she made it on the cover of the Shoup's catalog, her and her family. And I might be might be getting an autographed copy from her particularly, she's gonna send it to them in mail. And she's like, this is so ridiculous. Why am I son signing a catalogue. And I'm like, because we're farmers, and we're on social media. And we're just like, I'm gonna hang it on the wall. And like maybe, you know, 20 years from now I'll sell it for $100,000 to somebody, I don't know, I just told her I was like, You're gonna autograph a copy and send it to me. But huge congrats. Congratulations to Kathy. Sometimes my social media and the farming community is not necessarily all about me. It's about the other people that are involved with it and the milestones that we make. So just seeing Kathy on the front cover and seeing their story gets me excited that it's, it's what I live off, I live off my own excitement and excitement of the other good things that are happening in agriculture right now.

Paul Yeager  
Well, that's how we first connected I think it was social media. And I think the last time we talked, we discussed how cool agriculture can be when it comes to social media makes the world a little bit smaller, do you still find that that's an okay world to be in.

Lance Sensenig  
It's a hard world to be in right now. Actually, um, me and like a few of the other guys out there on social media, I've been kind of like, trying to hibernate as much as possible, but still be present, interact, just because I don't actually post a lot anymore. I post here and then you know it when I can. But I mostly stick to my Instagram story. And most the reason why is, you know, last 15 seconds, and then 24 hours, it gets deleted. So if I mess up in 24 hours, nobody can find it anymore. But just Sunday, and you know, that's actually one thing I was thinking of, it's like, what am I know this questions gonna happen on on the podcast today? So I was like, How do I answer this question, the best way to explain it as it feels like, and I think, toward the last Toy Story movie hit the nail on the head of it feels like forky is the new norm. He's running constantly to the Trash Can you have to go rescue and I mean, everything that's happening in Russia, everything that's happening Canada, South America, and you look at it all, and it's like, it's just crazy. It's like constantly going to go that we have this new character in the story of agriculture. And nobody really knows what to do with it. It's just absolute nuts. He's made out of a, he's half fork, half spoon, and he's got to glue eyes on it. And he's like, constantly running toward stress, and he actually thinks he's trash. And it's like, back in the day, we all had characters. We all had platforms. We all had stuff going on. And it's just a really crazy world we live in these days.

Paul Yeager  
And I think your most recent post before we recorded this was poking back at someone. So 2020 22 for me has started with revisiting some with some people I've discussed and chatted with over the last couple of years and doing this. Amanda Naig was one of them Farm Fit Momma and all sudden I see this post and I'm like, Okay, I kind of recognize that and then I flipped. Wait a minute. No, that's not Amanda. That's John. And then I read the caption. Is that where I mean, I'm not I'm not saying that it was a manner that was throwing shade at you. But I mean, trying to have fun and show personality. Kind of get back to it doesn't always translate to everyone. That's unfortunate. Is it unfortunate for you?

Lance Sensenig  
Yeah. Well, let me share the backstory to that, which is really hilarious. It's kind of something that we started way back in the day and then kind of got shut down because like, as far as a lot of comedians have actually come poured recently and say it's really hard to make content because everybody gets offended and has issues with what it is. I'm kind of one of those, like, I hate saying this, but I'm kind of like the unfiltered Joe Rogan of agriculture, like it's just blasted out there. And I really try not to, that's why I've tried not posting a lot of stuff is because like, I know, I'm gonna get myself in trouble with a lot of this stuff. So way back in the day, we were doing impersonations. And Amanda approaches me and says, Hey, I want you to do like we were copying each other's pictures, so reenacting a picture. So we do two pictures. And your picture would be on the front, and you'd swipe over and you get to see the other picture on the other profile. Amanda pulls me aside and says, Hey, do you want to my pictures? And I was like, I don't know, like, how do I do farm fit mama, all that stuff. And I'm like, going through my head of what I possibly can create or do. So finally, you know, I find the picture that I used, and I'm like, Okay, I think I can actually pull this one off. There's like a, you know, a corn silage silo. On the one corner, there's the barn, and I've got grain silos and everything like that. So I go ahead, and I actually went to the store to buy those particular tight pants that I had. There, particularly for the picture. I never owned one since then. So we and we were doing a lot of challenging poking fun. So I said, Okay, you know, I'm going to do the picture, I took the picture, everything, got it, shoot, and I send it over to her. And she's like, do it, post it, post it, do it. I'm like, okay, and like, without thinking of the consequences I just posted up there. I'm like, Cool. Awesome. Just the post takes off like crazy. We're sharing our stories and everything. All sudden, I get a phone call from my dad, and then also another one from producing basically take down and you're fired today. And I'm like, Oh, darn it, maybe we crossed the line. So I approached him, and I was like, Hey, I'm really sorry, I don't want to lose my job. But we got to take this down. So, you know, she was like, Oh, that's cool. I understand. You know, everybody wanted culture. And this is a common thing in agriculture, a lot of farmers. If you work for a big company, and you put the wrong thing up, or you say the wrong thing, or gets taken the wrong way. You know, you could lose your job, possibly. So like, I pulled the video down everything like that I apologize differently, like, hey, everybody that we offended or anything like that, it was all jokes, like we weren't trying to cause problems or anything like that. So that past cool. Everything I didn't really care was just like, it was fun for a little bit. And then we took it down, like when I have to take content down, it doesn't bother me at all. So couple, two present day rolls on, I'm like, get back to thinking I was like, I don't work for that company anymore. I can't really get in trouble. I can't get fired from that company. I don't even have to talk about that company, you know, and I'm really just completely disconnected. So I'm like, I think it's time to put it back up again. So I go ahead and put it back up. And Amanda, like, Smith sent me a message right away. And she's like, I had a feeling that there was some day that you were going to be able to put that post back up. And just like I can't wait for that day. So we got it back up there. We shared it on our stories. And it's just, you know, it's just and actually this was kind of funny, because this happened to me before. Back when I worked out west, we weren't allowed to share videos of content, you know, tractors getting stuck and stuff like that. And back in the day, once I got off harvest and wasn't associated with them anymore, didn't have any contact with anybody. We put some pictures up of some stuff tractors and some of the stuff we did nothing to shame of it. But I think, you know, we're constantly getting to a more and more sensitive world. And I'm trying hard not to offend everybody. But the same time. You know, we're still trying to have fun and be humans.

Paul Yeager  
People get sensitive. And there's a group of folks that think we've already crossed that too sensitive and they're fine with being a little blustery. And I'm always amazed at how that is an issue for some people and it's too bad that it it happens that way that people get bent out of shape. You've dropped a couple of bombshells. Let's save a couple of those in a moment. I want to first wrap up the chicken story before we get to the bombshells Are you okay with that as absolutely,

Lance Sensenig  
absolutely. All right, let's

Paul Yeager  
go to the chicken thing. Your fiance that's bombshell one that you've dropped. Is she helping the chickens? Is she okay with all of this?

Unknown Speaker  
Yes. So it's actually kind of weird. So she is actually originally from Colombia, which we kind of connected just because I had spent some time with Way back farming in South America with my dad. So you know, I don't know how to speak Spanish, but I know terms. I know terminology. I enjoy the food there's, I enjoy the culture. So we kind of met each other and started going out. And she's still learning English. She's actually she got here a month before I bought my farm. So we had met right away. So we met about, I think roughly about six months ago, roughly. So we've been dating and things kind of one thing led to another, she actually comes and helps me she actually is a host mom, for two doctors. So she's like, she lives in the extreme clean world. There's no chickens, it's in a development. But she comes from a third world country. So her coming here being around the farm for her is a huge relief just to get away from all the pressure of the world. And also one thing, we have an egg packer and it takes probably about two weeks to learn how to run this thing. I knew right away that I was like, we might want to keep this one when she learned how to run the egg packer in one day. One day, I have not yet seen one person that can walk walk in learn how to run the egg packer and get a straight pallet in one day. I told the company that I worked for that she learned in one day and she's like, You better keep her because like if you lose her, you might not get another one that learns how to run the egg packer in one day. So she loves it. The only thing she's a little scared of the chickens. He's like, You need to get me over the fear of chickens like because just you know, when people see chickens aren't necessarily the the house pet. They kind of fly around. They call you they scratch you. It you know, the roosters sometimes will pack you. They're not the nicest animals on earth. So she is a little bit scared of the chickens, but she loves packing eggs and she loves being around the farm and she doesn't mind the the smell either, which is another plus.

Paul Yeager  
Okay, John, does this mean now that you're in the chicken business? You've got somebody that can help. You got crew, do you? I'm not gonna say regret. But do you have any hesitation of leaving corporate life for self employment life?

Unknown Speaker  
Um, so that was one of the big tricky things. So when you know, the I switched from like, I didn't work for Perdue agribusiness, but I was working for my dad. So basically, I was in charge of the whole entire place manage the whole entire facility. And, you know, I took one of my actually one of my bosses I do aside and like, hey, you know, kind of let him know is like, so do you see any future in this for me and he's like, not really said, you just, you know, you're gonna work up, you know, a night, an eight to four job, a nine to five job, and you're going to go at the end of the end of the day and just regular employment. He said, there's no really future. He's like, you do this for the rest of your life. And you don't make that much money and you don't have anything to show for it at the end of the day. So I decided, hey, you know, it was kind of a, the writing's on the wall. I it was time for me to move on. So I went and actually a friend of mine at Perdue actually might want I had three bosses at Perdue I conventional boss, organic boss, and I had a soybean boss. So the one conventional boss actually got me an interview and the coolest part he probably thinks I hate his guts. But I still really like the guy. Just because the interview didn't work out for us and no hard feelings. You don't make interviews sometimes. But he got me an interview with managing headquarters at Perdue Agribusiness down in Salisbury, Maryland, which is kind of like winning the lottery, you don't get an interview to do that. So I was extremely privileged to go down there. I ran through the interview. I didn't make it. I wasn't one of the reasons I wasn't 40 years old. And I hadn't worked with big audiences before. There was like 50 employees or whatever, what I love that opportunity, but just didn't quite make it through which I'm really glad I didn't make that interview. Because if I would have made that interview, I would have kind of fell back into the same shoes that I already was in. A month or two later. One of my friends who was actually my youth youth advisor, since I was a little kid knew him ever since I was a little kid, he's a real estate agent called me up and said, Hey, there's this farm for sale. Are you interested? And he just found out about it was calling me on the way from the farm to his office and he said, Hey, if you're interested, I would jump on it. So I jumped on it the day of lock the place in and it was actually from a guy starting like me don't have when you, let's just be honest. If you, when you start, you have no money, there's no way to save up money. When you're working a regular job tax expensive, you know, when you're a male, a single male in the United States, and you're, you know, within the 25 to 30 range, your taxes are extreme, you're not going to be able to save up much money. So I didn't have anything to start with. So I did three banks with financing. So we did have the FSA, Sitacog and First Citizens. So I had three banks. I'm a real estate agent, it was a really, really complicated and I learned very quickly, as soon as you get into the real estate, you know, equity world and banks, everything's cutthroat. If somebody, The gloves come off, I mean, there is no loyalty. I met so many criminals. From May 7 till now. I mean, it people that you won't even expect, I always thought like bankers, and insurance people. And you know, those kinds of people were like, legit. But a lot of really sketchy stuff went on between now and then. So I got a and with the funny thing is, I had insurance, we got insurance lined up, the day before closing, the insurance guy backs out on us, and says, Hey, we have to postpone this for another week, which, if you're an insurance guy, you don't do that. It just you don't back out last minute on insurance. So, um, I stayed up until nine o'clock, I found another insurance guy. And then he stayed up all night till the next morning, getting me insurance for this place. So I've always said, you know, I, you know, you know, I'm religious, I'll just put that up there up front, you know, it might take people off. I don't care. But when things are gonna happen, the you know that there's, in the Lord's Prayer said, prayer, it says Thy will be done. And if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. If it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And I'm okay with that. So it pulled through. So I think I'm here for a reason. And hopefully we have a bright future.

Paul Yeager  
Thy will be done. Yeah, I haven't I haven't used that line in a podcast. I don't think yet. So good. Glad we had that Lance. You've also given me three other possible topics or episode names for this episode, just maybe we could do thy will be done as but but when you were just talking there, it made me think of the old Garth Brooks song sometimes you thank God for unanswered prayers. And if you wanted that one job, and you didn't get it, or would have gotten it, none of this would have been possible. So I think we'll tie the Lord together. And in two of these parts of this discussion.

Unknown Speaker  
Yeah, absolutely. And, like, when I didn't make that interview, you know, I understand you don't make every interview, which I applied for, like 100 more jobs at Perdue and a bunch of other different grain facilities, and just nothing was working out with me. And I was, wasn't depressed. But you know, I wasn't happy because I was like, like, there's, we basically, at that time, when I was trying to get a job, there was unemployment was like, they were trying to hire like, they just there was just everybody was trying to hire you. And I was like, I can't get a job to save my life. You know, I can't even get a job cleaning toilets. And I'm filling out every interview that I possibly can. I'm like, I'm like I and I told a lot of the guys and like, I'll do anything, just you know, as long as I'm getting paid, and you know, you know, as long as I'm making money, and there was just nothing available. So I think you know, a lot of times when we like we have we're so focused on this is what I've got to have sometimes that's not always the plan.

Paul Yeager  
All right, let's let's get back to these bombshells because we could discuss the chicken business all you all you want. I guess one last chicken question why eggs versus something else? Is that just something in your region that who you're working for? I guess, is that how that happened?

Lance Sensenig  
The eggs I'm right now the egg market and I'm debating whether I should share this or not. So the egg first off in our area, if poultry houses come up for sale, it's kind of like it's not like winning the lottery. But if you get the chance to do it, you might as well jump on it because it's kind of like one of the higher agricultural income. You got to set future you got to contract it goes year in year out. Whether you're doing you know, egg laying or whether you're doing broilers pigs, veal calves is just you want to get into that because it's something that you can do. And then you can do crop farming on the side or some other thing like that. So hopefully I don't get too much guff for this, but here's another bombshell that we're going to drop. And I really, really hope by this is one of those things when I mentioned is like, and so the company I work for, I'm not gonna disclose who they are, or any of the other things or whatever, for this. And please don't if you're watching fire me, but we actually produce embryo eggs, which is kind of like you're not supposed to tell people that. And hopefully you don't get a lot of trouble with that. But basically, we produce embryo eggs for the flu vaccine, which everybody right now is probably flipping out. So and really, if you really think about it, you know, if I'm producing eggs, eat the egg or the egg saves your life by putting a needle in your arm by preventing you from get dying from the flu. So that's one of the thing and let's be let's be clear here. It's not the COVID vaccine, it's the flu vaccine. And I have no idea how they do it. All I know is that's where the chicken eggs go. And we do use some a lot for human consumption is just as needed if they need the eggs for the flu vaccine or not. But yeah, it's you know, and this actually, the point that I'm going to bring up as why people should kind of be okay with this is either you're okay with eating eggs, and you're a Republican, or you're Democrat, and you want to be vaccinated, so you have to be okay with one or the other. And another thing is people like, well, we could make the vaccine other ways you can, but it doesn't really work. Using other the egg is pretty much the best way to do it. And yeah, it's, it's yeah, you have to use eggs, it's everything, eggs, eggs are in all the products you use in the store. Even if you if you're vegan, and you aren't against killing any animal, you use eggs, whether you like it or not, they're in the all the products that you already use in the store, even if you are so called vegan,

Paul Yeager  
and trying your best to avoid any of those animal products, it's next to impossible to find something that's pure net without any additives of any kind was specifically processed food. But then you'll say, well, I'll just eat all the kale. Or I'll just eat but you get you got to have a balanced diet of some kind. And you have to have protein of some kind.

Lance Sensenig  
Yes, exactly. And I saw a video clip the other day, it was one of the famous Western shows or whatever. Where is like these vegans, and I'm hate I'm not picking on vegans, you know, it beat my sister in law and husband are vegan, which I have no problem with. If you think vegan is good for you. Go ahead, do it. You're eating plants, that's part of agriculture, I'm pro vegan, but at the same time, I feel it's unfair when vegans attack the rest of us that have you know, other opinions and stuff like that. But, um, the clip was basically said, you know, he's like, you know, you're killing innocent animals, this and this. And he's like, he said, Have you ever ran a plow through the field? He's like, Do you know how many animals you kill when you you plow field to make vegetables? And they're like, Well, no till everything. Trust me. Farming, yes, is good for the environment. But there's no way to farm without killing animals. And everybody says, well, I could have my little garden in the backyard. Yes, you could. But it's just, you know, there's no way to take the population of people that we have smashed in cities, and feed them all. Without having a farmer. It's just impossible.

Paul Yeager  
You want to go down that rabbit hole and discuss large urban areas, and maybe we need to pry some of them out back into the rural areas.

Lance Sensenig  
Um, that's the hard part. Um, and I hear a lot of people say, you know, if something would happen, you know, where would you go? To be honest with you, I hate saying this, but South America is a great big jungle. Um, and there is a lot of vegetation and a lot of like, at least, and I haven't been there for a while it's been since I was 13. I'm 28. Now, the people can do the do the math in between. So back then, it was just, you know, millions and billions of acres that were unsettled. There's a huge frontier. There's places down there that nobody has set foot for who knows how many years? So I mean, there's there's a lot more room on Earth than people think. Is it a Good Idea to disperse Everybody out of the city, ah, you're gonna have a lot of problems with that too, because I mean, you're taking up, you push everybody out into the country certain to take up a lot more places to grow food. For instance, actually, right over here, we're just gonna pop over here for a second, right? There's two subdivided lots that have bought with the farm. And the reason why I bought those is because I don't want anybody buying those lots and building houses, because they're gonna complain about the smell of the chickens, the flies, farm in general. And then on top of it, those are two less acres that can be farmed and crops can be grown on to feed people. So where do you draw the line that it's hard to say there's a lot more to the earth that needs to be developed, but at the same time, it's a double edged sword, it's really a double edged sword, do you just kick everybody out of the city, or you just keep on smashing him in the city? Because if they come out and destroy our agriculture, then we can't even feed them. So and it you know, population control? I don't think that's the answer either. Also the same time, you know, our population keeps on growing. And to be honest with you, I, I tend to, you know, I, I hate saying this, but I'm starting to get a little bit more green minded, not necessarily because I want to go green, it's because if you can save money, A penny saved is a penny earned. For instance, I'm putting in solar panels this year, which you mentioned, solar panels, doesn't matter who it is, or Democrat or Republican, or whoever they are, you're going to they're going to get offended. But if you say, hey, you know, I got an electric bill, it's $1,000 a month, and PPA. Now the company here says it's going to double within the next year, what should I do? Everyone's gonna say, Well, maybe have you looked into solar panels. But if you say I'm installing solar panels, oh, solar panels don't work. That's the dumbest idea in the whole entire world. But if you should tell them what kind of problem you have. And also, we're going to drop one more bombshell I ordered, and I don't know if it's gonna work. Let's hope it works. I ordered a brand new F 150. Lightning Pro. The thing is, it's cheaper. For me, I've crunched the numbers. And I've had 1000s of people say no, it doesn't work, doesn't work, doesn't work doesn't work. It's cheaper mean for me to buy a brand new pickup that's electric and use solar panels to power it than it is to drive my present day pick up by a pickup and burn gas. I'm not saying it's the right decision. But I feel like if somebody out there like me doesn't start and try it. We're never going to figure out how to be more efficient. And, you know, I buy the stupid thing. And it doesn't work. It's an idea that didn't work. And I'm going to sell the things, scrap it, whatever. It's an idea didn't work. We learned something. We learned that electric pickups are not the way to go.

Paul Yeager  
Just a couple of weeks ago, on the lead into one of our stories for Market to Market was that exact news of you know, the lightning sold out or they're going you know, there were two electric vehicles that we discussed from major truck manufacturers, GM and Ford. Both had news. And then I just read a story. And I shared it among my boss and another guy who covers energy for us on the show. And I said, What do you think of this story? And it talked about someone who said, I used to be all for green energy, I was all for wind and solar. And now I'm nuclear, which means this guy's probably getting paid by nuclear. Whereas he goes, I admit, I was getting money from solar and from wind. You know, the wind argument is all about, well, you're killing birds. And then the counter is Oh, but the birds you're killing are the same as a cat. Well, but what type of birds are dying? Is it the is it the eagle and the condor? Well, I guess not the Condor, but or just simple doves that the cat is getting. Those are two different types of birds. Okay, so So wind is out. Now we get to solar. Well, what do you do with the big panels when they're done? Well, I have a neighbor in my suburb here that has it on his house. There's not a ton of neighbors that are doing it yet, but I think there's going to be more if he can do it, where he's at. Does a giant solar farm in California makes sense to to sell the power to you in Pennsylvania across 15 states? But does a solar farm in Pennsylvania makes sense for you? So it gets back to the original discussion of say, ethanol or any other renewable fuel was it might not make sense for everybody in the country, but it makes sense for you in your neighborhood. Do you agree?

Lance Sensenig  
Yes, I would definitely agree. I think everyone's situation is completely different. I mean, I use a lot of electricity. So if I would just have a house else and be using electricity all by myself, it wouldn't make no sense, it wouldn't pay for itself, there would be no sense in doing it, I'd be throwing my money away. But the amount of kilowatts that I use on a rig is so much I have I need something to dampen that huge usage. And that's when you can really make solar panels work. And also, you need a computer, you need a computer to monitor the system, they're sure. And they don't have a computer and you lose money,

Paul Yeager  
I suppose. Okay, are you going to use the solar panels on top is it only for the truck in some of your house are you going to put up enough to, to help in the barn.

Lance Sensenig  
Um, so basically, the end goal is, and we're not sure how yet we're going to get there. But the mount of panels, I would like to put them on the all the roofs of the chicken houses, which is, would be great. But the problem is mounting them on the roofs of the chicken houses, they're not at the correct angle, which I think is crazy. But at the same time, that's what they tell me, they're like, it doesn't work on the roof that you have. So they're actually on base mount out my yard. And that's supposed to cover about 50% of the 50 to 75% of my electricity, depending how much sunlight we get. So the end game is we want to be able to cover 100% of the electricity that we use here. So, but not produce any extra. The problem is people put these systems up, and they try to sell electricity, and PPE. Now the big companies, they don't want to pay for it. So as soon as you're sending electric out, you're losing money. So the idea is to basically be self sustained. And then we want to install enough batteries, that we can be able to go about two weeks off the grid and not use any electricity and just use all our own solar and storage and our batteries and be able to fluctuate back and forth. Whether it's possible to do I kind of doubt it, but we're going to give it a shot and we're going to try hot set high expectations and getting acceptable results.

Paul Yeager  
Okay. Well, looks like we'll have to chat again a third time to find out what happens with the solar panels, the lightning truck, the marriage, the chickens. Did I get fired from this company? Did I do that? And who did I upset this time? Right? Did I Yeah. Do we have any other bombshells? Did I cover at all?

Lance Sensenig  
Um, I think I think that the bombshells are pretty much out. I'm trying to think if there's any other ones, I just the future of agriculture and the positive that the world has. Everybody, I think right now is too focused on the negative and they're not seeing all the positive stuff that can come down the the stream hits it, I get mad every single day, because I see what everybody else is doing and what everything else is happening. And I'm like, There's got to be a better way than every what people are doing. It's, you know, there's some, there's, I'm hoping that this podcast, this video, can really encourage people to look to the positive side. When somebody gets negative, or, you know, we're constantly as people attacking everyone and everything. And I think that's really a problem. We got to go the other direction and, you know, how can we create positive things? And how can we stop attacking each other? We have, you know, Russia, Canada, protests, you know, shortages, blockages, and it's like, my thing is like, why can't we just go back to the way things used to be nothing really changed other than people got crazy?

Paul Yeager  
Did they really just get crazy? Well, yeah, I, I was gonna point that out and say, Are you subconsciously trying to tell me something with your, your choice there?

Lance Sensenig  
This is not supporting car or not. Or like that you see both people, they take two stances, either bring the car cutting the tags off, or saying, Hey, I paid good money. I'm not I'm gonna keep my car hurt. And it's like, who cares? You know, I feel if I'm a company, and I'm going to require all my employees to wear masks, get the shot, whatever, I think you should have the freedom in America to do that. But also, at the same time, as an employee, I think should have the freedom to say hey, I don't want to get the job. Personally, I'm not vaccinated. My girlfriend hates it, she's vaccinated and she's like, You got to get vaccinated. And to be honest with you, I'm okay with getting the vaccine, the vaccine, all it is is a dead virus that you're putting in your body and your body to keep you from getting COVID-19. There's nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, it gives your immunity a little bit of a disadvantage because it hasn't actually physically been able to get immune to that disease. So there's two sides to it. I don't think either side is wrong or right. But at the same time, you know, I guess the thing that I have such a problem with is, you know, we have to make everything about politics. I mean, yes, Paul, we need to have politics politics are important. But we don't have to turn every single subject into politics. It's sad. It's like I talk about the the wind or the grass, or the corn or the

Paul Yeager  
sun, or the solar, or the A and what it's used for. Yeah, exactly. Alright, Lance, I knew we were going to cover a lot of ground we did. I'm so glad we were able to connect and get an update. And that's what's been fun about how we've started here in 2022, is revisiting with old friends just to kind of check in on them. And I'm glad we did this.

Lance Sensenig  
Yeah, absolutely. And before we get too far shut down. One of my next goals that I'm really trying to hit on hard is I'm trying to get on as many podcasts shows, stuff like that. I want to use my social media platform, but also I want to get on other people's platforms, just because it's not really for myself. Um, I like the the discussion of things. Actually, one of my goals is, this sounds hilarious. And I'm not supporting Joe Rogan in any way, shape, or form. But I think it'd be cool to get on his show. So if Joe Rogan, if you're watching this, I'd love to get on your show. If I don't, it's no big deal. I'd like to set high goals and probably get on the show. And we'd be like, so what do you want to talk about? I'm like, I'm just glad to be here. Yeah, that and also, I'm, I had to put it on hold. But I'm trying to write a memoir right now, about my story about what I've done up to this point. I had to put on hold because it's really expensive writing a book. So that is coming in the future. So hopefully, you guys can get to read a book about me. And also, that's another thing. There's actually a few other guys, I kind of started with the idea and shared it with a few of my friends. And there's actually a few of the other guys here on Instagram and social media that actually have wrote memoirs already. And I tell you guys, they are good. Go get them. The one guy is he works for Tila muck, dairy farmer, TBF, hard farmer, something like that. You guys can go look them up. But he's got an amazing memoir. Go ahead. Give it a thumbs up great content.

Paul Yeager  
All right. Sounds great land sensing. Thank you so much. Good to check up with you again.

Lance Sensenig  
already. Thank you all for watching.

Paul Yeager  
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