Coming up on Kentucky Life... We'll meet some young farmers in western Kentucky, hoping to introduce a new generation to making their living on the land.

We'll check out the setting for this week's show, Lake Malone State Park, and meet the Big Twigs.

We'll check in with Kentucky's poet laureate, Silas House, and we'll visit a group making old-time radio shows, as was done when broadcasting first came to Kentucky.

All that's next on Kentucky Life.

[music playing] Hey, everybody, and welcome to Kentucky Life.

I'm your host, Chip Polston.

Now, each state park we visited this season on our show has its own reasons to be proud.

But wait till you see what we found here at Lake Malone State Park in Dunmore, Kentucky.

Lake Malone is home to the larger-than-life attraction, Big Twigs, a family of roughly 14-foot attraction, Big Twigs, a family of roughly 14-foot tall giants that now inhabit the park.

During our show, we're going to be visiting with Watson During our show, we're going to be visiting with Watson Malone in the big field with their bugs, Happy Malone at his campsite, and Bobber Malone, who is lakeside.

They really are a sight to behold, and we can't wait to share them with you.

But first, since the 1970s, the average age of the American farmer has continued to rise.

The Department of Agriculture's 2022 farm census puts that age just north of 58 years old.

But what about the folks who decided to stay on the farm?

What about the young farmers who are bucking this trend?

We caught up with two of them in Western Kentucky, and their stories offer fresh insights into the future of farming.

[music playing] [music playing] The Western Kentucky counties of Muhlenberg and Webster have a long history of farming and coal mining.

This unique environment creates its own set of challenges for young people who want to get involved with agriculture.

So, the challenges facing farmers here in Muhlenberg County, and specifically young farmers, is land availability.

Muhlenberg County is actually, historically, it's a mining county.

And so, there's been a lot of mining that's been done here.

And so, that's taken a lot of resources out of production.

There are so many things There are so many things that are out of your control when you're farming.

Almost everything, really, is out of your control.

We cannot control the weather.

We can't control the cost of the inputs.

We can't control the price of the equipment.

And the list goes on and on and on.

A lot of people could be dissuaded from getting in the industry.

You think, “Why are these people doing this?” They're doing it because they love it.

Whenever it's in the teens in January, and you're Whenever it's in the teens in January, and you're feeding cattle or, you know, if it's May and you've got 100 acres of hay down, and it's fixing to rain, whenever it's the most pressure and the most tough, that's when I feel like I thrive, and I love it the best.

I really enjoy watching plants sprout from seed.

So, the seeding process is tedious and sometimes monotonous, but it's one of my favorite parts to see those little seedlings pop out of the soil.

[music playing] A lot of our younger farmers, they're able to farm because they have a way in.

Their father or their uncle or their grandfather has farmed, and they're able to buy into that farm.

My father was a coal miner.

My grandfather was a coal miner.

I'm kind of the first one to not be, but my father always had cattle.

We had a large deal of hogs at one time.

So, I mean, you know, this is how I grew up.

This is home to me.

For me, farming runs in my blood.

So, I come from a long history of farmers.

I'm actually the sixth generation to call this place home.

It's meant a lot to me.

I think it's shaped me into the person who I am today.

[music playing] When I was seven or eight years old, I bought with my own money, two little feeder pigs.

I think I paid $40 for both of them.

So, from a very young age, I learned how to, you know, not only care for the animals but also watch them, you know, and kind of see what things they need, you know, and what it took to make them grow and turn into money.

I first started with the greenhousing in middle school.

I took a particular interest in home gardening and raising vegetable slips.

And it was about that time I built my first greenhouse.

It was a small 6x8 foot PVC frame.

I found success with that.

And so, from then, I kind of looked at this as more of a business venture.

And I figured, I thought I might, could make some money at this kind of thing.

You know, in the past, tobacco was the way, that was the entrance for young farmers to get in into farming or into agriculture, the industry as a whole.

And we just don't have a lot of that anymore.

I've been able to see these farms diversify and grow because you've got to do something to be able to expand, to bring another generation into that.

So, we were just looking another avenue to produce a little income.

You know, not everybody can afford or has the freezer space or what have you to buy a whole beef.

You know, somebody may just want to come buy five pounds of ground beef from you and know where their food is coming from.

In addition to selling freezer beef, Russell has teamed up with his Cooperative Extension Agent to make his operation as efficient and profitable as possible.

We have research-based information that we can share with them, give to them, and help them be able to make better-informed decisions.

The program that we have been doing with UK Ag is back to basics.

We're just coming back to the basic, you know, fundamentals of how to make a cattle operation be successful.

Sometimes you get into the habit of doing things just because grand/dad did them or what have you.

But, you know, so you've got to be open to new ideas.

But then, you know, you've got to come back to just a basic formula of what's going to make this keep going.

And one of the most essential keys to this formula is simpler than you might think.

It's a family operation.

And he has the support of his wife.

His kids are out there.

His wife is right there alongside him, and they are both in this together.

Without her, I wouldn't be able to do this.

She comes home, and then she helps on the farm.

I've got times and times that I will call her and say, "Hey, you know, I know you're dressed up, but cows are out, I need help.” You know, and she comes running.

Building a successful business means that you have to connect with your customers.

And sometimes that means getting creative.

It's sometimes a challenge getting customers to find us because we're not on, you know, the beaten path.

And so, we participate in a local hay bale creation contest.

This year we've done a cow.

It's a Daisy the cow.

We have a lot of fun with it.

It's always good when you can win too, so.

And Jacob keeps his customers coming back with innovative products and engaging activities.

One of our specialties here at Abbott Acres is succulents and cacti varieties.

And so, we'll have folks come in, and they'll create a succulent dish garden that they can take home with them.

The popularity of these value-added experiences speaks to a broader issue in our society.

You know, when you think about the percentage of people in the country that are farmers, it's a pretty minute number.

And so, a lot of people have been removed from that agrarian society, and they really don't know much about it.

It feels to me like Jacob really wants to teach people about the industry.

We're always looking for opportunities to bring new customers into the business.

So, we offer classes but also offer our customers new experiences.

I think that could actually turn the tide for agriculture where that lots of people could want to come in and say, "I want to learn more about this."

You know, whether it's horticulture, whether it's livestock, grain, what have you.

Agritourism has become a billion-dollar-a-year industry because people want to reconnect with the land.

And that connection is what keeps our young farmers at home.

It's kind of hard to explain, but yet at the same time, if you grew up in a farm family, it's a way of life for you.

We just made the decision that this lifestyle of being able to be stewards of the ground and the animals that God has given us and take care of them and not only do that but raise our children doing it.

You know, you realize this lifestyle is why I'm doing this.

This is, I mean, this is more than worth it.

[music playing] Family is a big deal for me.

I couldn't do what I do without my family.

They're always very supportive of what I do and my crazy ideas.

But yeah, they're always willing to pitch in and help me whenever I need them.

[music playing] So, Angeline and I have two sons.

We have Rollins, he's nine, and then we have River, he's six.

And they are my right-hand men.

I mean, if they're not at school, chances are they're out here with me.

It's my dream to raise my own family here on the farm and pass the baton onto my kids.

And I'm excited about what the future holds for me.

My only goal with all of this is honestly, whenever I'm an old man, I want to look back and say, you know, I was able to build something for my children.

[music playing] National Poetry Month is a celebration of poetry that occurs every April.

Now, I really believe some of the best poetry originates right here in our beautiful commonwealth.

And that's why this month, we'll be bringing you a series of stories about Kentucky-based poets, starting with this one about our most recent poet laureate, Silas House.

Born in Corbin, House still calls Kentucky home to this day.

He was honored with the Poet Laureate Award position in 2023 and has been a powerful figure in promoting what makes Kentucky such a special place.

Let's learn a little bit more about House in the first installment of Poets of Kentucky.

[music playing] In high school, the biggest dare was to slink over the slick rocks flanking Cumberland Falls, where the wide but shallow river dives 70 feet into a deep pool of froth.

There, people say, catfish big as men There, people say, catfish big as men twist and slither, awaiting supper sped their way.

You can see a rainbow at night shimmering on the mist during a full moon and a clear sky.

This is true.

I snuck behind the green curtain once with my best friend, whose name I won't say because he never came out.

Just as we reached the bale of water, where we would disappear into another world, I slipped.

My right leg slid down the cold boulder.

And before I could plunge into the churning chaos where torrent met river, he grabbed hold of my hand.

I was so electrified by his touch.

I didn't think of how close I was to being swept away.

Instead, I thought how a small moment of ecstasy was akin to drowning.

He held on for a beat longer than necessary.

The roar behind the falls was a deafening symphony heard only by those brave enough to penetrate this dark-sued cavern carved by centuries, fern-laden, alive with the smell of moss, a secret cathedral made of wildness and wet.

We were mesmerized and stood watching the cascade as if frozen, yet as if we might see through to the other side.

I'm from southeastern Kentucky, and I write a lot about working-class issues, people of faith, LGBTQ people, the rural experience, and I'm hoping to always expand people's notions of what that means.

I'm trying to tell the story of a rural place in Kentucky and Appalachia as I know it to be true.

I never want to vilify the place, but I also never want to romanticize the place.

Both of those are stereotyped in the place.

So, I'm just always trying to tell the most authentic story I can.

Well, I grew up in a little bitty town called Lilly right outside of Corbin, Kentucky, kind of near Cumberland Falls.

That's sort of my point of reference for people.

So, it was a place of great natural beauty, but also a place where I witnessed a lot of devastation.

I grew up across from a strip mine, and so it was always like the beauty of the natural world juxtaposed against the devastation of the natural world.

So, I think that set up a sense of injustice for me from a young age.

It's one of the reasons I'm a writer.

Growing up as a little gay boy gave me an extra layer of the outsider, and writers need to be outsiders.

So, I felt very much an insider as far as being rural, being Appalachian, being of that culture, but also very much an outsider in other ways.

And I think that served me well as a writer.

It often caused me to be stepping back and just taking note of things and observing, getting the lay of the land.

I think the main thing for me being Poet Laureate was to just try to represent as many Kentuckians as I could and to talk about the arts as much as I could.

There was a lot made of me being the first openly gay Poet Laureate, and I feel like that is important representation.

But I feel like it's equally important representation that I'm a Poet Laureate who was raised in the trailers of Appalachia, because most people think that you can't be in the literary world or in the academic world if you've come from the trailers and hollers of Appalachia.

And, of course, that's not true.

It's also important to me to talk about being a person of faith, especially being an LGBTQ person of faith from working-class backgrounds.

So, I just think that talking about all those multitudes and how they come together, that represents a lot of people, because most of us have those multitudes.

We're not just one thing, you know?

I think poetry is the highest literary art form.

To me, it's the most difficult.

It's the biggest challenge.

Mostly because you're having to do in, I don't know, a four-stanza poem the same thing that you have have to do in a 400-page novel, and that is articulate some abstract notion that will make the reader feel something, see something, experience something.

Every form of art, whether it's film, a novel, or a poem, they have to do the same thing.

But a poem has a lot less space to do that.

It's the smallest canvas you have.

For me, good poetry always conjures an image that I can see in my mind, but it also makes me feel something.

It makes me hear music.

So, to me, it's like about image, music, action, emotion.

Those are the key things that I'm trying to deliver in a poem.

[bell chiming] Sundays, the bells and birds compete to testify a new morning while grief pins me again to the bed.

This Sunday shares the sacred lonesome when all the world seems at peace and quiet.

Witness this day a wide darkness as all Sundays are full of harm for small beings, whether sparrows or those who make music and pick out their own clothes.

Couples stroll in their best and eat in the windows just the way it should be, but there's no Sabbath for dogs and the winged things, nor those who can find sacredness in cedar trees, grief, and light.

Oh, love, please protect us.

[music playing] Before television shows, like ours, families used to gather around the radio and listen not just to music but to stories acted out live in a studio, like listening to a play right in your living room.

That history is being brought to life again right here in Kentucky.

So, don't touch that dial because we are tuning in to old-time radio.

[static] Kentucky Educational Television is proud Kentucky Educational Television is proud to bring you this look back at the golden age of radio.

Starting in the 1920s and ranging until the early ‘60s, old-time radio, as it's also called, hit its peak in the ‘40s and '50s.

Television shows like Dragnet, Gunsmoke, and Our Miss Brooks all made their debut first as radio dramas during this time.

KCAL Old-Time Radio is a theater troupe that has been performing these classic programs and more for over 10 years.

Instead of broadcasting over the airwaves, they recreate the shows live in their theater in downtown Nicholasville.

In 2014, they began as a part of the Jessamine County Creative Art League, hence the CAL in their call letters.

And though that art league closed down in 2018, KCAL kept the name and kept performing.

KCAL is on air.

KCAL is a step back in time.

KCAL is a step back in time.

We try to do, recreate old-time radio shows that would look like if you were in a studio.

[group singing] What a dude face.

[group singing] What a dude face.

It's a rather a hybrid of old-time radio in that we add a little theatrics, we add some lighting and things like that to make our audience have a better experience than just, you know, sitting here watching us read and, you know, hum, you know.

Holy cow!

This is wholesome entertainment.

This is wholesome entertainment.

You could bring your four-year-old grandchild to our show and not be embarrassed by it.

You could enjoy it, have a good time.

We have people here, our oldest person, as far as I know, is around 90.

And of course, some of the people that are up in their 70s, 80s, and 90s used to listen to some of these old-time radio shows as a child.

So, it brings back a lot of good memories.

But on the other hand, some of these younger people are seeing things the way it used to be.

We have a lot of people come in and they'll say, “I used to sit at the radio with my grandmother and listen to this show.” Or, “When I was a kid, I listened to that and I waited every Saturday night.

We'd all sit around the radio.” And I think it does bring back a time of simpler times and families together because, you know, everybody's so busy now and they're here, there, and yonder, and it was a simpler time and people, they just enjoyed doing simpler things.

You know, sitting around the radio was an exciting thing to do on a Saturday night.

So, we just try to bring back that old-fashioned feel of nostalgia and family.

No exterior accessory could conceivably veil such loveliness.

Walter, would you go steady with the girl in the blue glasses?

Frankly, I wouldn't be caught down with one.

I like to think of this as theater of the mind.

And I didn't coin that phrase by any means.

But to me, radio, when you can close your eyes and you imagine things that you're hearing, it's different than watching.

Listening, you have to be a little more creative in and of yourself.

You're not just watching what's going on and being told by your eyes and your ears what's happening.

You have to listen and then use your mind a little bit to think about it.

Now, we do, like I say, we do some acting and some theatrics here.

But we also, we always like to ask our audience just for a moment throughout the night, a couple times, just close your eyes and listen.

Don't watch, just listen.

Let your mind take over because the sound effects are gonna be there.

You'll hear the footfalls when someone's going down the hallway in their role or what have you.

We reproduce things as much as we can.

We read the scripts like they would have.

We do sound effects like they would have and try to make it as much as we can like they used to do.

New Signal gasoline.

And now, back to the whistling.

[whistling] Yes, jealousy is a strange thing, Pamela.

It's been there deep inside for as long as you can remember.

We have no compensation for any of our members.

We just do it because we enjoy it.

But we wanna give back, and we feel like if people are that good to us, we oughta try to do our best to help others.

And what would a radio program be without its sponsors?

The group is a nonprofit supported by ticket sales and donations from their community.

So, to give back, every year they put on an event to raise money for local children affected by homelessness.

You would be so surprised how many homeless children there are in our county.

People that, I mean, that are on their own, children that are on their own.

And the numbers, when we heard them, we were just astounded at the number of children that needed help.

So, we got a hold of the school and have almost taken them on as like our project almost.

So, I gathered a bunch of people in our community who sing gospel music.

We go to a local church.

We have free admission.

And one night, we put on about a three-hour show.

We passed the plate.

And all that money, all that money goes straight to the kids.

They've raised over $37,000 for the Jessamine County Schools Homeless Education Program and have no plans of stopping.

All of us really love our community.

We really enjoy Jessamine County.

We love the people here.

We love the county.

And we just enjoy meeting and talking to people, meeting new people or talking to old friends.

And so, anything that we can do to help our community, we're very interested and very willing to participate.

[sneezes] [inaudible] If someone were to ask me, how long will we continue?

Until the tickets stop selling.

You know, I won't miss a show.

This is KET, The Kentucky Network.

applause We've had a great time here today at Lake Malone State Park in Dunmore, Kentucky.

And the Big Twigs, they've been a lot of fun to hang out with.

It's so cool to see how people respond to these gentle giants.

And if you've never seen them before, be sure to put this place on your list.

Now, if you've enjoyed our show, on your list.

Now, if you've enjoyed our show, be sure to like the Kentucky Life Facebook page or subscribe to the KET YouTube channel or subscribe to the KET YouTube channel for more of what we like to call Kentucky Life Extras, where you'll have access to lots of other great videos.

Until next time, I'll leave you with this moment.

I'm Chip Polston, cherishing this Kentucky life.

[music playing] [music playing]