WEBVTT

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It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. What
a great idea, fun I heard radio

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Welcome to Maria's MutS and Stuff and
with me today. I'm so very excited

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to learn and to talk with Danielle
Mania about Utter Chaos Farm Sanctuary. So,

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Danielle, thanks for taking some time
out. Yeah, thank you so

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much for having me. Absolutely,
so let's talk about it. It is

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a farm sanctuary that is in right
down New Jersey and how long has it

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been in existence? So we actually
just turned to at the end of June.

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We took over an old beef cattle
farm. Actually it was my grandfather's

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friend's farm. He ended up passing
away from his injuries from a fire there

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and we just knew that we couldn't, you know, let anything happen to

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these animals, So we took over
from there. We started with ten cats.

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All of them are pregnant because it
was a beast catle operation. Sure,

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and so now we have sixteen.
We've grown quite a little heard in

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the last two years. Um,
you know, everybody's been neutered since um

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and we've been able to rescue a
couple more goats in the last two years

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as well. Oh my goodness,
that's amazing that. I mean, I'm

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sorry about your grandfather's friend. Um, but I feel like as a result

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of that tragedy, it's it's this
blossomed out of it, like kudos to

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you, thank you. Yeah,
it's definitely been a very interesting journey over

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the last two years. But uh
yeah, we know, make the best

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of it and tried to keep all
the cows happy and safe and give them

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there forever home. Wow. Yeah, I'm sure. So did you have

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any farming in your background or was
this like baptism by fire that you learned

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as you went along? For sure, baptism by fire. I have a

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background in animal affair and just working
in different animal shelters over the last probably

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thirteen years or so. Okay,
so dogs, cats, gerasing, stuff

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like that. I've done farm animals. It's a totally different world. Yeah,

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it's crazy. Well tell me saying
it's crazy, what's one of the

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craziest or um, Like, yeah, what's something that the most unexpected thing

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that would happen that knowing stuff about
dogs, you'd be like, oh,

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I know this is I know how
to do this. But it was something

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crazy that happened. Honestly, just
trying to even get a vet to come

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out, and just learning the different
types of cows and different breeds and everything

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like that was really difficult. There's
such a shortage of veterinarians already across the

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US, even just for dogs,
cats, private practice everything like that,

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so trying to find a farm vet
that actually has cow experience really difficult too.

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So we're lucky that, you know, after some difficult trials and yeah

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issues that we've had going on,
everybody's now healthy, happy, we have

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a great vet that comes out.
I luckily, with my background animal affair,

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I can the least like administer my
own vaccines if I need to.

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But we have a vet that comes
out for all emergency stuff and whatever else

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that we could possibly need. That's
definitely been the hardest. Um even just

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trying to figure out how to use
a tractor. Oh, I'm sure that

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you know that was not my five
year plan things to learn And yeah,

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well that makes sense. I mean
that's something crazy like Okay, I saw

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a tractor on green acres, but
I don't know how to use it,

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you know, Yeah, And like
I can't drive stick a stick car,

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manual car, and then trying to
hop on like a massive tractor and that's

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all manual. I'm like, well, I guess I'll figure out how to

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use a clutch today, right right, I can imagine. Yeah. And

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do you have like a big staff, do you have a many people to

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help you or I have a feeling
you're small. It's small. Yeah,

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we're very small. All so we
all of the donations that go towards the

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farms stay at the farm. We
don't really we don't pay anybody for their

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salaries. Um. I have a
full time job outside of it. My

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boyfriend is a full time job outside
of it as well. But we do

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have a team of about ten or
so really cool volunteers that come pretty much

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once a week, sometimes twice a
week, and they help us out tremendously

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throughout the day. That's amazing.
So you could definitely use volunteers in like

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the New Jersey area, correct,
New York, New Jersey area, Yeah,

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definitely. And we set up a
couple of volunteer days for the people

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that can't volunteer as regular as we
need them to. So we'll do like

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group volunteer days about once a month
every other month, especially in the warmer

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weather, right right. And then
do you get do you get like you

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know, every once in a while
and it goes and it's all over the

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news all the time. If if
a cow runs away from a slaughterhouse and

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then it goes to a sanctuary,
would a cow like that come to you

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you to utter chaos? We would
love too. That is the main goal

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we've been able to, like I
said before, like rescue some more goats.

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There was one goat on the property
when we took it over. So

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we've been able to add actually five
more on a couple more coming in a

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couple of weeks. A wow.
The situation that we've been working on,

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So the smaller animals have been easier
to manage right now, but we're still

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recovering a lot of the property to
make sure we have proper quarantine areas if

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we do bring in more cattle and
stuff like that. I mean, starting

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with sixteen cows was very costly.
Oh, I'm sure. I mean,

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I'm just kind of amazed by this
whole thing because I mean, you know

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how people you know, anyone who
works in animal rescue, what is your

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dream? Oh, to have a
shelter? You know, you come across

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a beef arm, Well what is
your dream, oh, to change us

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into a sanctuary, and you guys
did it, which is pretty incredible.

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Yeah, you know it, I
know, but I know you're kind of

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modest about it, but it's pretty
incredible because it's kind of like every animal

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rescue, animal welfare person's dream to
be able to do what you've done.

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So, I mean, I'm just
I kind of flabbergasted at how the whole

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like the whole process. Did it
take years to do? Was it?

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Was? It a lot of red
tape? So the whole I guess,

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like the very beginning of the farm. The farm, the fire that happened

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was on March ninth, twenty twenty
one, and he was unfortunately airlifted from

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the property with severe of severe burns
and he was out in Philadelphia in Jefferson's

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burn unit for a while. And
then once things started to decline even more,

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I kind of knew that, like's
if he's going to come back to

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the property, it's not going to
be in the full capacity that he is

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going to be able to even manage
feeding them, let alone all the other

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care that goes into taking care of
livestock. So my partner and I had

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a conversation with my parents and just
said, basically, you know, I

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know, you guys don't want a
thing to happen to the cows. We

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don't want to see anything happen.
You know, none of us can even

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save them, sending them to auction
or trying to rehome them. You know,

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it's very it's so difficult. Nobody
has cows as pets essentially. So

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as soon as you know, my
parents kind of they agreed that, like,

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you know, this is the best
solution, Like, let's try it

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out. We said, you know, if we can at least break even

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within the first year, we'll continue
to go and we'll just continue to grow

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and you know, recover more of
the property to try to make some more

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room for some more animals in the
long term. So within the first month

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or so of just really realizing that
like he probably wasn't going to come back

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in the good capacity, if he
was going to come back at all,

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we did apply for a five one
C three and we got that in June

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I think it's actually June twenty seven, twenty eight of twenty twenty one,

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so we just made two years.
There's like an act. Wow, that's

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so cool. Yeah, congrats.
Yeah, thank ye. Yeah, it's

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so crazy, I'm sure, just
doesn't even feel real, right, So

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we're you know, I'm lucky in
the aspect that I do a little bit

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of a fun raising background. So
we made a monthly sponsorship program where people

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can sponsor any of the animals in
our care and read about them on our

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website, will send out like quarterly
gifts, and we'll do quarterly visitor days,

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little luncheons and stuff at the farm. Also try to have that more

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like personal touch for the people that
do donate to us. Sure, and

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we were able to just about break
even and you know, rescue a couple

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more animals here and there. So
we're doing it. You are like said,

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it doesn't feel real, fat,
I'm sure making it work, and

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it's yeah, I mean it's it's
two years, which is INCREDI I mean,

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it's really incredible and you're probably too
close to it to realize how incredible

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it is, but it really is, because it's true. It's like everybody's

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dream to do what you're doing.
And the fact that you save these animals

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and you're running this farm and it's
a sanctuary and and you you get donations.

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I know that's how you survive.
And I'm going to give out your

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your site a million times so my
listeners can help. But I just think

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it's really incredible, you know,
I really, you know, you really

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deserve a huge, ginormous pat on
the back for doing it because it's so

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great. I just think it's so
cool. Like I have to come visit

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you now. Yeah, You're for
sure welcome whenever you know, let me

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know you're You're always welcome to come
by. Well, thank you. Looking

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forward obviously to keep it going.
Um, do you have not a goal

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but a dream of what the like
I know you have goats with the cows.

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Do you have a dream of having
more animals or or is it still

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too new to think that far ahead? Absolutely? I mean I I'm very

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realistic and very I to make a
quick decision when I need to, um,

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you know, and I try to
be realistic about our our means and

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what we can do there. Um. But absolutely I would love to rescue

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more. Um. You know,
I have a lot of hopes and dreams

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of building a better Barnum. We
actually just had a massive tree fall and

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take out our hay shed on Monday. While again, like things we would

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never expect. Sure, So,
you know, to build a better area

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for hay storage, we want to
build another area as well. UM,

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just like a little pavilion where we
can have our monthly yoga classes under a

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shaded area. Right now, we
do it in like a smaller little pasture.

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Um, and then after yoga,
people can go out and visit the

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cows and the goats and everything like
that. Um. I love chickens.

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I've had chickens for the playoff past
like six years at my house where we

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still reside, So I'd love to
bring them over there. And there's just

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so many other animals that need rescuing. Um. Pigs are another one that

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are huge, and there's just so
hard to find homes for so I would

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absolutely love to in the next Like
you know, my five year plan is

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to definitely exp and further than just
the cows and goats, right right,

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No, that's awesome. Well,
I just think that you're awesome. I

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think this whole farm sanctuary thing is
amazing. And of course the name is

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great Utter Chaos. It just was
that the name was that was That wasn't

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the name when it was a beef
cattle farm? Right? No, No,

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um, he didn't really have a
name for it. Um. He

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sold both beef here and there,
and then with the pandemic and everything that

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hit, really he stopped. Um. And then with everything else like regular

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illness and then the um yeah.
Yeah. So we when we were thinking

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about, you know, applying for
a five on three and like getting a

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name for the farm, we threw
around so many things. Um, we

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really like the monsters, so we
wanted to do maybe a spin on the

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monsters. And then we're like,
oh, you know, I love the

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Golden Girls and like, yeah about
like shady pines, like a nice retirement

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community theme. Um. And then
a friend of ours was like, no,

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you should do like a for chaos
because this place is insane, because

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it's just everything that the snowballs and
happens over the last the first year,

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let alone the last two. It's
so clever. Utter Chaos. It's a

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perfect name. It's so perfect now
it really is so okay. So for

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my listeners, I want them to
go and help you utter chaos dot org.

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They can learn all about the sanctuary. They can also make donations,

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they can volunteer, they can see
events because you have fundraising events as well.

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Listed yep. Yeah, absolutely.
We have our Blueberry Festival coming up

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on July fifteenth at our friends Clement
Farm at their blueberry Farm in Pemberton,

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New Jersey. Last year with our
first year doing it, and it's all

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take your own blueberries across their televiaker
blueberry field. We had about thirty vendors

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last year and some other raffles,
prizes and stuff like that, and this

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year we have sixty five vendors and
a bunch of food trucks and it's just

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so much a larger event. Last
year we had about five hundred people come,

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so we're in fitcipeding. I look
sort of like seven or eight hundred

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this year, so which would be
We're excited. That's our big fundraiser of

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the year. Yeah. Yeah,
it's big, and it's something I think.

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It's it's cheap. It's like fifteen
bucks to get in. I mean,

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it's it's cheap. And I saw
that you could. I mean that's

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where I first learned about you from
that press release. And you can get

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up to like four pounds of blueberries
and see all these vendors and help you

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out. So it's all like win
win, good good, and that's July

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fifteenth, correct, yes, yes, yeah, July fifteens from ten to

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three yep. Excellent. Well Danielle, thank you so much, Utter chaos

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dot org. For those who are
listening, and I know people who listen

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to this podcast, I know that
they are totally into animal rescue, animal

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welfare because why why they listen?
So let's help out Danielle so she can

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continue doing this amazing job of saving
these cows and goats and chickens and pigs

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down the road and everything else.
Utter chaos dot Org. Danielle, thank

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you, and more power to you. And I hope this last forever for

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you because I think it's so cool. I really thank you, thank you.

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Yeah, you'll have to come visit
one day. I will. I

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promise I'll come visit. Never been
a bad operator and just want to see

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you later. Moericator