Ep.235 Bird Nerds Of Dripping Springs (Amanda and Hector Bustillo of WILD BIRDS UNLIMITED)

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Where'll you be going?

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Next listen. Damn, son, where'd you find this? Go on, make it happen. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

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Welcome to Malina Michelle. I'm Michelle, where I have reached the age where watching birds on a backyard camera is a perfectly acceptable hobby. And this is Steve who had a one-eyed chicken. So naturally, today's guest is a bird expensive. Or Penny. You making fun of Penny? Well, she had one eye.

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She did have one eye, but she was a she was a beautiful chicken.

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She had one eye. Yes. Today we have wild birds joining us. We have Amanda and Hector Bostillos. Very good. Look at that. But first we're going to thank our sponsors today.

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Okay, well we're gonna dial back just a moment. And Mallet integrity team.

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I I did this one for you for your day yesterday. Helping clients and selling houses the old-fashioned way. We're not afraid to work hard and get a little dirty to get the deal done.

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Michelle accidentally deleted the graphic, so I need to click on it.

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Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Well, you know.

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Click, click.

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You know what it you know what happens. Just punch the buttons and see what happens. But look, look, yeah, look at my camera now. It's just dead. But yeah, welcome.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

When you say the camera, are you talking about YouTube? Is it dead?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

No, my camera or my my uh what is this called? Computer screen.

SPEAKER_05 2:14

Oh. Yeah. Okay. Well, we can do it.

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What you get is what you get.

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Hey, our guest in studio today. Super exciting.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Amanda and Hector. Boshias from Wild Birds Unlimited. Yeah. And so I heard, Amanda, on your bio that people call you the bird girl of dripping seed.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yes. They're always like, there's that bird seed chick. There's the bird girl. Especially when we do school programs. All the little kids in town are like, it's that bird lady. It's that bird girl.

SPEAKER_05 2:43

The bird girl. There's worse things. You should hear what people call me, Amanda.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Well, true, true. So you guys, y'all have lived here in Dripping Springs. You've lived here in Dripping Springs your whole life. You've born and raised here. Um, you and your brother, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yes, born and raised here. My parents moved out to Heritage Oaks, I think 43 years ago. Oh, geez. They were one of the first houses even in that area. So it's kind of hard to imagine now. Um, but yeah, I grew up here, went to all grades here in Dripping Springs, graduated, went to Texas State University where I met the love of my life, Hector.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

That's me. Where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_02 3:19

That's me.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

I grew up in West Texas, Midland specifically. Okay, okay. And how'd you end up here? Well, I kind of I went to school in Abilene McMurray, right after high school. I got a baseball scholarship. I really wanted to play baseball for a living. I just I told my counselor that's what I wanted to do. She thought I was crazy. Um it turned out that I wasn't so much into school as I was into baseball. Ended up flunking out, unfortunately. Um but I went to live with my brothers in college station. They were very studious. Uh I was so glad to and fortunate to have them. Uh I kind of modeled my study habits after them, brought my grades up, and then eventually transferred to Texas State where I met my.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

And the rest is history.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, the rest is history. And what's funny is he was a 4.0 student when I met him. He basically lived in the library. So it's hard to imagine that he was ever not a great student because he's still the most studious person that I know.

SPEAKER_05 4:24

That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

That was a pretty hard lesson, though, wasn't it? It's a it's a very difficult lesson to go through. Um, but you know, I was stronger because of it. Um and once you get the ball rolling, I know for a lot of folks they pick up on stuff right away. For me, it takes two, three times longer. Which is why I have to live at the library uh just to sort of catch up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Well, that's good. Well, you know, I I was reading that your parents started this um this store, franchise store, as a retirement dream for them. Your father was a police officer, yes, and your mother was a pharmacist. Yes. And um, it just kind of morphed into something different. I said they built something that's worth more than money. Um, and all of the the whole family, I think the first time you guys, when you opened like 10 years ago, either you had just had a baby or you were pregnant. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So we had a one-year-old daughter. I opened this the shop with my mom and dad. We kind of were all, I had, you know, quit my job so I could stay home with our daughter. And I was actually pregnant with her when we started to have the dream the dream, I guess, and think about this as an opportunity. And um, so I was kind of at a stopping point. They were both retired. Hector was a school teacher, actually. Uh huh. And we were like, let's do this. So I had just had her, she was one when our doors officially open. Um, but it really started when I was pregnant with her, and now she's 10 years old. She's so grown up.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

I have when Steve said um 10 years, I couldn't believe it. And I'm gonna be just totally transparent with you. When you guys first opened, when I saw that sign go up, I was like, a bird seed store? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:08

Well, that's how that's what that's my question. What what made you? I'm sure you did a bunch of research. What made you say, yeah, we can open a bird seed store, bird feeder store in Dripping Springs, and we'll do well. What made you think that?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

I truly believe that, you know, from the start, like especially back 45 years ago when my parents moved out here, that's why everybody came to Dripping Springs was to get that outdoor connected to nature experience. And there's still so many people who have been here for 40 plus years who are still very connected to that here in Dripping Springs. And I think when you grow up here and you know your community, you know that you share that common passion with, you know, a good number of people. And so we were really hopeful that it would work out and we wanted to connect with people who had never thought about feeding the birds before, never thought about planting wildflower seeds and connecting to nature. And we got that reaction from a lot of people. Like I remember, and it kind of scared me because when we opened the door, we were like, this is a great idea. And the amount of people who came in and were like, I'm I'm hoping the best for you guys, but I really like I can't see a bird seed shop making it here in town. Um, we were like, oh my gosh, what do we do? That little voice in the back of our head. Yeah did we just do something crazy? But thankfully, everything has worked out really well. We um, you know, we're so fortunate to have the best customers on planet earth, like the community here, and the common, you know, goal is to, you know, make Dripping Springs a bird-friendly community. I mean, we're an official bird city with Texas Parks and Wildlife. It's a huge destination for bird watching. People come from all over the country, all over the world to come watch birds here in Dripping Springs. I didn't know that. Yes, yeah. We have one of the best spots, especially during spring migration. So we are, I mean, a bird-loving hot spot.

SPEAKER_05 8:08

But see, I think that's what when you were a little nervous when you were opening up, that's what you guys brought to the table was the education. Because every time I've gone in there and bought something, I leave going, wow, I didn't know all that. That they you know, that's and you're not gonna get that on Amazon. Yeah, you're not gonna get that from H E B.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

But also aside from that, we share a parking lot with you. So when our windows are open, I see you more than anything. What I see, you talked about your customers. You guys are out there, your I see you all the time loading your customers' cars or your dad out there talking to whomever. You know, I'm like, isn't he supposed to be working? He's out in the parking lot again. That is what is most special, I think, about you guys, the customer service that that you guys kind of put forward.

SPEAKER_05 8:51

You didn't just fill up a store and put a cash register there and go, come on, people, you're out trying to be part of the community.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Absolutely. That's been our goal since day one. Um, having the best customer service is always top of mind for us. And our customers, like I can't even talk about it because I'll start crying, but our customers are family to us. We know almost everybody that walks in the door by name. We know about their families. They know about us. They've watched our kids grow up. So they're family to us, and every single customer experience in our shop is I mean, it's it's everything to us. So we do our best every single time.

SPEAKER_05 9:29

Have birds always been important to you?

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yes. Yeah. Growing up here in dripping, and my parents are still in the very same house, that same window where I grew up watching my dad feed the birds, my mom feed the birds, and that connection to my family through birds. Um, it's and that's what we love is when customers come in, they're like, that reminds me of my grandma. That reminds me of my grandpa when we did the Purple Martin housing together. It's that family connection. And then whenever I was in the fifth grade, I had a teacher named Mr. O, who got to be a speaker at our shop um probably about six or seven years ago. And he took us on the Great Texas Birding Classic. And I still see a lot of my classmates in town who also went on that birding competition. And that was a game changer for what is that?

SPEAKER_05 10:13

Tell us because most of our listeners may not know what that is.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

So Texas Parks and Wildlife, they have a big competition each year. It just happened um a couple weeks ago called the Great Texas Birding Classic, and they have smaller versions of that called like the Big Sit. So um, we had a drip uh Wild Birds Unlimited of Dripping Springs Big Sit um team. And so we went out to Ranch Park. It's a 24 hours of birding, and you know, you count how many species you see and you log them and you send that into Texas Parks and Wildlife. And so people are competing all around the state to see the most species, but the bigger, you know, competitions they go down to the coast and the valley.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

I've I I'm from the Rio Gran Valley originally, and so I knew that a lot of that it's a huge bird, yes, bird area down there. I wanted to kind of jump back a little bit when you were talking about being a family business. Um, family business can get a little spicy sometimes, right? Working together all of the time, especially with your mom and dad and you know, with your kids and with your husband, you never kind of really kind of get a break. How do you kind of pull yourself or ground yourself to give yourself some space?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, that's a really great question. We've been very fortunate that we all get along really well. I really, the years my mom and dad were in the shop, we purchased it from them a few years ago, and they've kind of, but they're still involved a little bit. But I've always found it really easy and like kind of the top of what I want to do is just spend time with my family. We're lucky that we all get along really well and that we just we love spending time with each other. And I think that's especially challenging for like a married couple, especially while you're raising children and juggling it all, you know.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

Because you guys are 24-7 when you get down to it. You're to get you're together every day, seven days a week.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

And yeah, we're partners in business and we're partners in parenting.

SPEAKER_05 12:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Which is kind of a crazy challenge when you think about it in life. But we I can only speak for myself, but we just love spending time together so much. And so thankfully, I think. I know Hector Hector.

SPEAKER_05 12:19

Me too, but you need help. I'm trying to bail you up, man.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

If you ask our staff, they'll probably say, you know what, we've witnessed a couple crazy moments where we they thought maybe we were gonna kill each other. But for the most part, I think even when life, you know, it takes me to the baseball field or it takes him to the baseball fields and one of us is in store, we miss each other all day. Like I feel like, especially during the summertime when we're juggling, having the kids at home and one of us is at home and one of us is in store. You know, by the end of the day, I'm like, where are you at?

SPEAKER_02 12:49

I miss you. Well, you know, family um is so in so ingrained in the Hispanic culture.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

And that you guys met in like a Hispanic, uh what was it, the a Hispanic club um campus in Texas?

SPEAKER_02 13:01

On campus. And so you I heard you were in another interview, you talked about introducing Latino families to more uh nature and birding. Why is that important to you?

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Because I feel like that's it's something, Hector, you can really speak to that more, but he didn't grow up being connected to nature. Um, and that's it's something that I feel like, you know, down in the Rio Grande Valley, it's kind of a different experience. I'm really amazed that you have roots there. That's where my grandparents are from. So we've gone burning. Yeah, I love it. You know, it's just not something that everybody's exposed to or like has the time and you know, sometimes the privilege to have like a bird feeder, you know? And we want to reach as many people as we possibly can. And Hector does Spanish um speaking presentations at different schools here in our community. Oh, really? So it's like, you know, even just having someone who can speak your language to teach you about nature is something really cool. So Hector brings that to the table.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

What are you finding, Hector, when you're when you're going to those schools, um, what those kids, I guess, are getting most amazed about?

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Just nature. You know, just being exposed to the things that we're taught. Just getting away from a screen or look at, yeah, yeah. For me, I think growing up in an immigrant family, you know, all our time and efforts were devoted to, you know, watching our parents like work their tails off and just kind of ensuring that you're, you know, you know, just kind of doing your part, you know, going to school, being kind, being respectful, not making too much of a fuss, uh, ensuring that your parents don't have to deal with issues within the family with kids. So um, I grew up in Midland and our families are from, you know, little ranch towns in northern Mexico. Uh, so we got to see our grandparents um out in the fields, you know, attending to the farm and and to the animals. So being connected with nature was part of our growing up. We just didn't get to experience it as much as we would have wanted.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Modern culture just kind of prevented that. I I was telling Steve, there was a time when I was growing growing up in the valley. My grandfather bought citrus out of the valley. And so I was in the dirt, you know, I would go to the onion fields or the cantaloupe fields or whatever. And so it I guess I kind of took it for granted in that sense.

SPEAKER_05 15:33

Um You know what's cool about this for me is that some of these kids that you're speaking to might think when they think of nature, they might think, oh, you got to go to a national park or you gotta go drive out into the country. And with birds, you can go sit out in your backyard, you can go drive a mile and a half to Ranch Park. So in that competition you did, how many birds did you see? And and what were your favorites?

SPEAKER_01 15:57

You know, we I think it was 56 total species at the end of the day. I can't remember. Did we get fourth or fifth place?

SPEAKER_03 16:03

I think it was fifth place.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

We had an amazing gentleman named Jacob kind of running the whole show the whole day because we were in the shop for Mother's Day, and we got to make it out at the very end of the day, and it was magical. A little fox greeted us as soon as we got out of the work day. It was under the feeders at Ranch Park, and the sun was starting to go down, and we were like, we finally made it. There was a painted bunting on the feeder, and our kids were just like, Yeah, we're trying to have them be quiet so that it was quiet. Those are pretty rare. You don't see those really.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

I saw one in my backyard last week. I did. I was very excited. And on my carrot.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

That was my favorite that we saw that evening. I think for me, the painted bunting, just seeing a rainbow-colored bird on your feeder, just never that magic's never lost for me. I've seen them year after year, but it's just miraculous. It makes you emotional when you see them because you're like, wow, how is there this little flying rainbow that I'm able to see here in Dripping Springs, Texas on my feeder? That's magic. And I think whenever kids learn about that, they're just they're amazed too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Or able to spot them in the wild.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

They're very elusive. Like they, you know, if they sense any movement, they're gone. And they don't just fly to a branch three feet away. They they're gone.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Well, I was telling you that I saw that one, and then Todd said it's a scissor tail. Oh, scissors like that. Remember, I was showing you that you said it looked like a dove in the front, and we took the back? That's what it was. That's so we we looked it up.

SPEAKER_05 17:34

There's a lot we see a lot of cardinals here. What what are the most common ones that people see? Sparrows, cardinals, what else?

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yes, chickadees, black crested tip mouse.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Oh, yeah. Little Carolina wren, yes, the little wren. Buick wrens, house finches. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Finches in general, lesser goldfinch are so I mean, they're having their best year ever this past year.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Down in the valley, we said um we would see wild parrots. I know that's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 18:02

There's some in Austin. Have you seen the ones in Austin? Oh, yeah, the little green carrots. Have you seen their nests?

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:09

They're giant. Like like six feet by four feet mud nests. They they do them up in the power poles. They're giant.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Oh, I didn't know that's what they were. I didn't so you said and and something, I think it was in the bio, that three billion birds have disappeared since 1970. And honestly, that's a crisis that nobody is talking about. And if birds disappeared tomorrow, what would happen that people just don't really understand about that?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

I think that's a major just the number of birds that are have uh have gone missing. That's a major red flag to us, just as people living in an a healthy environment. Like, is it healthy if we're losing that many birds? I think any part of our ecosystem, when it's struggling like that, is a major red flag to us. Is we do a lot of education. We do a lot of education within our store, just all the moments we have with customers, how can we be a more bird-friendly and just eco-friendly community? All the little things and habits and you know, just like how we take care of our yards, little make things throughout the day. How can we be better to nature here in Dripping Springs? And we do that within our schools. When we go to schools, that's what we're teaching kids. How can we keep the can we how can we help save the songbirds is what we say. And we call them songbird heroes when we go through our programs at school. And they're really excited about it.

SPEAKER_05 19:37

So one of the questions I had about that, so the three billion birds that are dis that have disappeared, the world's a lot cleaner now than it was in 1970, you know, acid rain and we couldn't swim in the public waterways back then, and uh, you know, lead-based paint. There was a whole bunch of toxic things out in the environment. And so if the birds have disappeared, what with a cleaner, potentially cleaner world, why are they still disappearing?

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yeah, I think about that from the time I start my my day, you know, we live in Kalatera, and I was leaving Calatera this morning. I saw so many companies that are spraying for insects. And I thought to myself, like, the birds need those insects right now. It's incredible how many flies and spiders and caterpillars, just one bird family needs when they're nesting. And then I, you know, I drove down the road to two, you know, down 290 and I saw where they cleared the trees for the new target. And devastating, absolutely devastating to think about how many birds were nesting in those big trees, all the trees and just nature in general in that area and how that was plowed down in one fail swoop, you know. We woke up one day and everything was gone.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

It was almost like it was done in the middle of the night, too. But then on one hand, I feel like for myself, I I care about nature. I love birds when mentioned, you know, I've got a bird feeder now with a camera on it, but I feel a little hypocritical in the sense that because I live in a master plan community, right? And we granted we have 30-something live oaks on our property, but I know that they took out a lot more when they put my house down 20 years ago. And so, how then do I rectify that? How do I make that wrong a right? It how does Target make that wrong a right?

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Target should have thought they should have thought a lot harder about what they were doing there. The thing is, I don't think they have to. I'm I'm sure they're sitting in an office somewhere far away and they're probably not even in Texas, honestly.

SPEAKER_05 21:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

I'm sure they sent in an order. And but for the people who have lived here forever, it's devastating to see that that could have been done more responsibly. But what's really powerful about what we do in our shop is we teach people like even when you have a tiny yard in a master plan community, how can I make my tiny yard into a place where nature can thrive?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

It's like a sanctuary. Yeah. And how how do you do that? How do you? Um guide the average homeowner, Hector, to kind of do that?

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Well, anytime a customer comes into our shop and there are you know first timers and they're like, How do I get started? Usually the first things we say are you need to provide food, water, and shelter for the birds. And so um thinking about what birds eat, whether it's insects, in this case, you'd be coming in to buy birdseed, good quality birdseed. Uh helps a lot, and having water is important in Texas. It doesn't usually rain the way it's been raining here this summer. And so having you know clean, fresh water for birds is super important. And then we talk about, you know, cover, and that can be live oaks or that can be native plants. Native plants are gonna be what is gonna sustain the population of insects that then it's gonna sustain all the other things that that eat those insects as well.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

How do you guys compete with somebody walks in your store and goes, uh, well, you know, I can buy bird feed on Amazon. Oh, you know, I saw a bird feeder on Amazon, it's $12. How do you guys compete with it?

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Or bird food at H E B. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Our food is free of fillers. So a lot of what you'll buy at other stores as far as bird seed is red Milo, the little red little ball. That's not even consumable to the birds. Really? Yeah. So there's a ton of filler seed. Our food is free of all of that. It's all good bird seed. Why do they put that in there? Just to fill it in, little pieces of corn and and stuff like that. Lots of things.

SPEAKER_05 23:40

So that you buy whatever 10 pounds of bird feed, you go, I'm getting 10 pounds of bird feed. What what you don't see though is that only three pounds of it is actually edible to the birds, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

So it's actually an edible, good, healthy food for the birds. And as far as our feeders go, the majority of them are made to last a lifetime. We have fixed feeders time and time again. If a raccoon comes and breaks your feeder, or a squirrel comes and cheers a part off, like we have squirrels. I know those squirrels.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

They will sit there for like two hours and empty your bird feeder. I've seen it on my camera. We actually got one of those, what is it, like a cone or something? A little baffle. I sat there and I watched him in the backyard. He was run, he was like stepping back and his tail's wagging, and he's like making a run and jump, trying to get away.

SPEAKER_05 24:27

They're like engineers. They sit there and they look at that and they go, How can I get up there? How can I solve this problem?

SPEAKER_01 24:33

We're really like problem solvers at our shop because I feel like people come in and they're like, I've tried this bird feeding thing, but I have these obstacles, whether it's raccoons overnight or squirrels during the day. And we're like, we can fix this. We got this. We can we know how to make it an enjoyable experience. And you know that whatever you're purchasing at our shop is made to last. It's a good quality product, whether it's seed or feeders. And um, we, I mean, we have the whole picture, like even Native American seed we sell at our shop. So Hector is he, when we moved into our house, we had a green, little, little green lawn. He ripped that out and put some native seeds in there. And we have just so many flowers or like everyone who comes over to our house is so amazed at like what Hector has done. We learned a lot from Doug Talamy, um homegrown national park, okay, about how to make your little yard into a thriving ecosystem. And so our backyard is small, but it's amazing like what we attract in our backyard. And so um we tell our customers not just like the bird feeding part, but like really the whole picture, like even just starting with planting native seeds.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

So yesterday, a craziest thing happened to me. I was um loading the car of my staging stuff because I I stage also, and I had it all in there, and I'm about to close the door, and this bird, I was at the Holly House, and this bird is in my car sitting on the staging stuff. Just look at the prettiest little tiny.

SPEAKER_05 25:58

It wanted that French fry that was underneath your street. It's not healthy though, it's not good for the bird.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

I thought he flew out, and I was like, please, I hope he blew out because you're I'm gonna go down 290.

SPEAKER_05 26:11

You know what I noticed? Uh I I got my wife a bird feeder. I'm sorry, I got it on Amazon. I feel bad now, but I'll come over and get another one because she's gonna have another birthday. Yeah, I know. But I got bird seed from you, and I I don't know, it was a 10-pound bag or something. And I talked to one of your employees and she told me about it, and it didn't have the fillers, and it didn't have the stuff that was gonna get on the ground and then ruin my lawn because I do have a lawn. And uh I can tell you it's lasted way longer because, like you said, with the filler, I could fill up the bird feeder, but then it's gone because the birds are throwing all that junk out, they don't eat it and they're looking for the right food. Yes, that it makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

I bet you got the no-mess blend. That's another thing. That was what it was. Yeah, yeah. It's twice the food, too, is because you don't have the shells in there, so you have a ton of seed. So that was a good choice. Yeah, it was a good choice.

SPEAKER_05 26:59

It's worked out real well.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

When you're when you're talking to a customer and you're saying, okay, what birds do you mostly see? Like I see tons of cardinals, and they yell at me if my bird feeder is out. They will tell me, and they love the black sunflower seeds. So is it something that you say, okay, what kind of birds are you normally seeing, or what kind of birds are you normally trying to attract? And then the food will draw.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yes, and then we make the recommendation. And also just by you know being seasonally savvy, like what's happening right now? They're they're molting. So cardinals are gonna look really funny right now. They're losing their feathers and they're looking mangy, and and everyone's calling our shop, like, are they sick? Why do they look so horrible? But they're just molting right now, they're getting new feathers. So we uh, you know, we'll suggest a food that's gonna help them get their beautiful feathers back, something with protein and good fat.

SPEAKER_05 27:49

So, do you change that like when you go into winter? Do you change the routines? What do you how do you change that?

SPEAKER_01 27:55

So we'll offer, we'll suggest foods that are great for being, you know, seasonally savvy in the wintertime. What's gonna help them get through the long cold nights? And that's gonna be high fat, high protein, usually suet, you know, food like seed that doesn't have a shell on it because you're helping them save the energy of you know, having to take the shell off of the seed. So just little things like that. And it's always changing throughout the season. So it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05 28:22

See, I never thought of that. I figured you buy bird seed, you just put it in there all year long. I never thought about the different needs of the birds throughout the season. That makes a big that that that makes a lot of sense to me.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

I was wondering about when we had that big snowmageddon, that big ice storm. What could we have done to help the birds? Hopefully they were batting down the hatches somewhere. I mean, if you look at the birds in my neighborhood, they all go in my neighbor's dryer vent and we keep trying to tell them that they're like they're always going in and out of the dryer vent. But where are these birds going when something like that kind of catastrophic help happens to us where we're all snuggled inside, you know, in our PJs? Where are these birds going?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

As soon as you said that, like the PTSD that like hit me like 5,000 tons of bricks. I mean, we remember that time. It was a very interesting period of time leading up to that because we had a pine ciskin like ex eruption. I was gonna say explosion, pine cyscan eruption right before that. And they're very much like they eat in trays and they roost on top of each other. So there was kind of a little PTSD going on before that because they were giving each other an illness that you know was was encouraging people to stop bird feeding for a little while. And so some folks were already kind of taking a pause on feeding the birds, and then that happened. And a lot of people were out of food and they were realizing like the the way that like a bird feeder can save birds during a time like that. I mean, we had birds lining up at the windows to stay warm along the windows. And I mean, Hector was out there throughout the whole storm, like feeding them, keeping the water, like because you don't even think about the water, the water freezes, you know, they need water during that time. Wow. So Hector was out there the entire time refreshing and giving them suet and seed and all the things, trying to keep the feeders from freezing solid. And that was a time, and people were panicking. They were like, What do I have in my house now that I can feed them? Because we have videos from that time, and the amount of birds we had at our feeders during that time was seriously mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

I wouldn't even think about that. You mentioned disease and stuff. Let's talk about bird flu and how people are stole my question.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

I I could let me ask that one because I have a real life, I have a real life scenario for that. So we have we had a couple chickens, we have one now, but uh in our backyard, and I was gonna set this bird feeder up for my wife that I got for for her birthday, and she said, I don't want you to set it up in the backyard because it attracts the birds. And then her understanding was the birds poop on the ground, and then that could carry bird flu. So she didn't want me to put it in the backyard. We ended up finding another place, but is that true?

SPEAKER_01 31:05

You know, there's certain times throughout years where it becomes a concern. So Texas Parks and Wildlife will put out alerts. Thankfully, we haven't had any moments like that recently, but it's typically waterfowl and like poultry that, you know, okay, like that you have to be concerned with that. Um so really it could be the opposite.

SPEAKER_05 31:25

We could be attracting birds and the chickens could infect.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

So really, like, especially those times when you have chickens, like having shoes that you take into their, you know, when you're working with chickens and then leaving them outside, like those types of things. But um, as far as like your backyard birds, they're not as commonly affected by bird flu.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

No, we always tell people if you're around a body of water and you feed the birds, but you also have poultry, for example. You're gonna have some ducks around there or some geese that come through. Definitely, you know, be cautious, you know, ensure that your feeders are clean. We kind of just go through the normal gambit of how do we keep our birds healthy, happy and healthy. And that's cleaning your feeders, cleaning your bird bath. And that's kind of on a regular basis, whether there's bird flu going around or not.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

That's just a a good common practice. It's just exactly.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

Um, but it usually doesn't affect the songbirds that that we enjoy seeing in our birds.

SPEAKER_05 32:26

Uh Amanda, if if birds could leave Yelp reviews for people about stupid things they do, uh what what kind of thing things do you think that the birds would complain about?

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Oh my gosh, that might be the greatest question anyone has ever asked me.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

I think the hummingbirds would say, Hey, you gotta change this nectar every day. Every day, everything.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

And I was like, I didn't know that because you can actually get the bird sick by not doing that.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

I didn't know that. Yes, like and I see that just a lot when I'm driving down the street and I'm like, that nectar looks like it's been in there for weeks. Like you can't just put nectar out and leave it there forever. It'll ferment and it'll get the bird sick and potentially kill them. Oh. So I think the hummingbirds would be like one star that feeders been there for a month. Yes. And I'm drunk. Yes. I think other birds would say, hey, this was really good food, but you should have cleaned your feeders. Like you can't never clean feeders. That's like eating off of a dirty plate that you've you've eaten off of.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

How are we supposed to clean them? With what?

unknown 33:35

Good.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Yeah. So my my routine is getting the feeders um and putting them in a tub.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Fill it with water and dish soap and just let them soak for some time. Get your scrubber brush after 15, 20 minutes, scrub it, and then rinse it off.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

So just with water.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Water. Water. And then let it dry and fill it back up.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

I have an electric bird feeder, right? So how am I supposed to do that with the camera? I have like one of those kiwi bits or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Okay, that's a good question. We are probably like the only bird feeding folks that don't have camera feeders. I know that there's probably parts that you can take out where you actually put your camera out.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

I get it, I get alerts on my watch. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

And I'm like, ooh, you know what? It's funny. We have one and I was thrilled with it for a couple weeks, but I had to put it in a place, kind of a way where we we I can't see it sitting on my back porch um because we wanted it, you know, to be the to be able to see more birds on the camera. And I actually have found myself going, damn, I wish I could just sit on the porch with a cup of coffee and watch the birds in person.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

That's what I do.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

That's why we've been so resistant. We have so many notifications on our phone as it is. We love the the camera feeders because it's it's really gotten so many more people interested in watching the birds. It's attracted a whole new demographic of folks who are now feeding the birds when they weren't before. But for us in our lives, we're like, we're so we're on our phones all the time. We're like having to be content creators as button.

SPEAKER_05 35:09

That's the big thing for me.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

But wait a minute. If I'm here at work, right? On the weekends, it's one thing. So I put my bird feed, and I have several bird feeders. So I don't I only have one. It was a birthday gift from my son, and I was like, this is the best gift you ever gave me. Because when I'm at work, literally I can just turn my phone on sometimes and turn just the live feed on and just watch the little birds come in and out. So here I'm stuck in these boring four walls, but then I can still see the bird.

SPEAKER_05 35:35

So for me, that's and it reminds me-I could I could see doing that more than what I've been doing, which is I get a notice and it says there's a bird, and I'm like, Oh, I wonder what it is. Oh, it's that cardinal again. And then I get another, oh, it's that cardinal again.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Well, it reminds me, like, oh, well, that's you know, my son gave me that gift. So it's like a little to love that's like every time, like, oh, that was nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:55

I love that a lot. So maybe the key is to have both.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

You know what I would do? I would open the curtains and I'd put a bird feeder right outside your window here. That way you could watch them.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

We did have that, and then we had a little mice problem in the building. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Hot pepper foods are the way to go. Is that right? So birds don't have taste receptors for spice. That's why they'll go into your garden and eat your little chili peppers. But mammals like us don't like the hot, spicy, the super spicy food. Well, I have learned so much. You and me both, Hector. Not the painfully spicy kind. Well, sometimes you do. Is there food that that comes with the spice on it? Yes, there's even a hot pepper nomes food. There you go. Well, see?

SPEAKER_02 36:41

Yeah, Gary. Gary next door. Gary was when you guys opened, Gary had all these bird feeders. And then I was sitting at my desk one time and I had a little piece of chocolate. And I don't eat that much candy, I don't eat much chocolate. And I was like, well, that's weird. Why is the package like that? And it had little nibbles. I was like, oh no. And we started discovering that we had little mice, and then we discovered ground zero was Gary's office where his bird food was.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Man, I was wondering why he wasn't feeding the bird at all.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Because I yelled at him. Because I yelled at him.

SPEAKER_05 37:14

We actually took the feeder down.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

We had to. We had to take the bird down. So is there a right way and a wrong way to feed birds besides just bad food?

SPEAKER_03 37:23

I think I think putting feeders in a certain location is important. Like feeder location makes all the difference. Like for me, when you asked the question about if birds could leave a Yelp review about you, a lot of times it's like, could you move that feeder a little bit further away from that bush? Or can you move it a little higher so I don't have to worry about the neighborhood cats? Oh okay.

SPEAKER_05 37:44

So they don't want it to be they they're not comfortable if there's a place close to it where there could be a potential predator. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

I never thought of that either. Yeah, they're always looking over their shoulders to ensure that they're not going to be prey to hawk cats. Um, and so yeah, that would that would definitely be something.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Yeah, my cat has brought me a couple of presents. Yeah. Oh no at the back door. Look, here's a liver and some kidneys. And I ate the rest of it. It was delicious.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

So if somebody comes in the store, they've never done anything with with bird feeders, they're they're thinking, you know, they just bought a house here in Drip, and they're like, you know, we we want our kids to see some birds. What should we do? What do you tell them? We usually say the first thing would be water.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Even birds that are migrating through that aren't going to go to your feeder will go to water, especially this time of year. It is so hot out there and they desperately need water. So just having a clean, preferably moving water source is a really great way to start attracting birds.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

I have my pool. They float, they fly in and out of my fountain or the waterfall. They fly in and out of it.

SPEAKER_05 38:50

So what does that look like? Is that a uh like a bird bath with a with a pump on it or something? A little water wiggler, a fountain, just some sort of So the water wiggler lets them know that there's water there, otherwise it's still, they can't see it. And then you'll probably get mosquitoes and stuff like that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

That's another reason to have them with the water moving and not sitting stagnant. But also just they like the moving water and just keeping it fresh every day. That's a really like simple but effective and great thing that you can do for the birds. That'll start attracting birds. And then just like a simple foundational feeder, like a hopper feeder, the ones that look like little houses or a seed tube feeder, just starting with a feeder, but we will warn you you get hooked. Oh, I'm hooked. Suddenly you have 50 feeders.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

And a lot of times.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

And my my birds are they're noisy, they know when they are out of food for sure. I want to talk a little bit about your three-acre property that you are kind of developing and and you guys, you and your dad, you're you're kind of clearing this. What is your vision for this three-acre property that you have?

SPEAKER_01 39:51

So, this is kind of a secret in town. This is kind of the first time we've actually like spoken about this out loud. Our customers have like, we've we've heard rumors. Uh what's going on over here? We heard it here. We heard it here. So we're really excited about it. We've been cleaning it up. If y'all have ever seen the property that's next door to the post office, it was, I mean, there was all kinds of stuff dumped on that property, tires, refrigerators, trailers, cars. I mean, it was a massive um, you know, undertaking over the past year to clean that up. And um our hope for it is that it will be our new home for Wild Birds Unlimited of dripping springs one day. Um, we are realizing that, you know, it is definitely a bigger undertaking. You're like, I'm gonna get a piece of property, I'm gonna pop up a little building, and it's not that easy.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

So your hope is to move the store from here to over there and then have almost like a sanctuary where you can walk the property. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_05 40:50

So are you are you finding that just building a building is not as easy as you thought? Is that is that what you started to say?

SPEAKER_01 40:57

Yeah. It's my dad who's really like taken this on as has um, and my mom who have taken this on as their project. And, you know, it's in like just re-platting and just working with the city and knowing all the proper ways, you know, you need an engineer to do this. Like things aren't really just let me get a piece of property, let me clean it up and put a building on there. There's so much more to know. How far are you from a fire hydrant? You know. So, but we're really, we're really just inspired by the piece of property. It's thriving with nature. There's a grotto on the property.

SPEAKER_05 41:30

I've heard about that property. It's that grotto is really pretty, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 41:33

It's really cool. And when we got a ton of rain a week ago, Hector got to run out there and take a video. It was the first time we saw water go through the creek and into the grotto. But we're really hopeful that it can be just knowing that it's like a three-acre property that won't be plowed down the way that we've seen other spots plowed down, like the target, the spot for the target, knowing that it'll be a place where nature can thrive and hopefully folks can come out and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

And that's your vision to offer like education and to kind of incorporate that grotto into this master design plan as well.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Yeah, we're really hopeful that it'll be a learning center for folks of all ages to come and learn, for us to have speakers, for us to have our shop there, and hopefully some native plants and some bats. We want to put a bat box up there. And that's something that we're all so very passionate about, um, aside from the birds. And so we're hopeful, we're really hopeful we're we're all kind of like in dreaming mode again, but this seems like the next phase. And um, we really love all the outreach we do with schools, and we have the hope that they'll be able to come out there and actually see it. Yeah. And building new customers.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

You guys are a franchise owner, right? So would you guys consider going outside of that franchise and starting your own, or just all depends on the other.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Yeah, no, we'll we have um we'll say Wild Birds Unlimited. Wildbirds Unlimited is a really like I feel like I hate the word franchise because I feel like when people hear that, they're like, oh, they're not a family business.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Well, when I started looking, but you are a family business, yeah. I always thought you were, but when I started looking at the map of where they are, I guess it's like up here on the website. Yes. Um, I was really shocked that there was there's McAllen and up near Dallas. McAllen's a new store. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

They're a wonderful. Shout out to McAllen. But we're all family-owned stores across the US and Canada, and I believe there's about 350 stores, but the majority are all locally owned and operated by families, and they all have things that are local to their area.

SPEAKER_05 43:36

And then um, is that more like they're instead of the traditional franchise, they're more like your supplier that you buy all the supplies from them?

SPEAKER_01 43:43

We all share common suppliers, but we're all under the the franchise, but we are like a locally owned.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

But you can run, you kind of run your business based on your locals, like what you're saying. And so as a franchise owner, though, are you able to collaborate with some of the others you guys have like some big conference or meeting that you go and you learn from each other. Yes. We were just in Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_05 44:06

Is it called the Bird Nerd Conference?

unknown 44:08

It should be.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

It should be. We have we love that. We love to go and collaborate and learn together and just try to find ways together to make our, you know, our communities more friendly for the birds. How can we make our customer experience that much better for our customers? And so we got to go to Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago to our conference there. And it was really nice.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

I would feel like certain areas would have a little bit or more challenges, especially in this than this area, because we are a dark sky community, because we seem to have a lot of nature-minded people in this in this state. And you mentioned Pittsburgh that's not the first thing that pops in my mind that birds always in a different spot.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

So it'll move around each year.

SPEAKER_05 44:53

So you mentioned early on about people coming here to to bird to see birds. So if somebody walks in your store and says hey I'm here from Pittsburgh and I want to see some birds where do you send them?

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Oh my gosh I'm like we have the best local parks here. You can go over to Ranch Park and sit at the birdblind and see some bird blind. There's a bird blind at Ranch Park. And they're where's that where what part of Ranch Park is it at so when you enter ranch park if you kind of veer off to the right and you keep going past you'll see all the horses and everything on your left there'll be a sign that says birdblind this way. So you'll kind of off-road a little bit but I think it was about seven or eight years ago that everyone came together to fundraise for that birdblind and the master naturalist and every the dripping springs birding club and everybody came together and that was built and it is incredible. So if you haven't been out there already definitely go check it out. I'm kind of imagining like a camouflaged little shelter is that what it is sort of like that yeah blind like a wooden shelter that you can see two different aerial setups with feeders and bird food and it overlooks a body of water actually which makes the birding even better. And you can go out to Charo Ranch Park and go to the bird blind out there. I also always tell pe people to go out to West Cave Preserve or West Cave out Discovery Center, I believe is what it's called online. But that is super magical I don't know if y'all have done that hike down to West Cave Preserve but you have got to go on that tour um Megan Whitehouse or whoever takes you on a tour out there they're just phenomenal. They'll tell you about all the birds all the way and I swear when you get down into the grotto you're like where am I am I in like Costa Rica? Like I have to do that what like you know it's just it's it's just pure magic down there. And so you can go down to Perdinalis. Once you're here you could there's just so many different spots where you can go and enjoy the birds.

SPEAKER_05 46:48

Would you see different potentially see different birds at each of those?

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Yeah I mean there will and that's what's really cool if you jump on any birding groups on Facebook like the Dripping Springs Birding Club or Central Texas birds like everyone's just like talking about what they saw where and that's what's cool about Merlin bird ID is you can kind of see what folks are hearing and seeing in different spots too. So what is that? Oh my you don't have the Merlin bird ID on your phone.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

I have I have like a some star app that I just got that I like pointed up at the sky but now I need to go one where it hears the bird singing and tells you what it is.

SPEAKER_05 47:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Merlin bird ID okay I'm writing it down.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

It is amazing that can help you to start you know identifying birds by sound and it's just really helpful when you're especially when you're first getting into bird watching who's yelling at me for food.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

I know you're like what is that beautiful song you're like oh my gosh that's our it's usually the cardinals and as soon as I put it out there they they like tag team they fly and then I like to on the camera it's kind of really fun to watch them right up close and how I remember there was two cardinals sitting there and then this other bird I couldn't identify this other bird kind of came around and they it was funny these birds just kind of like cock eyed look at them like excuse me this is my feeder. What are you doing here? Do they get territorial?

SPEAKER_01 48:10

I think they definitely do especially like mocking birds certain times of year they'll they will I've seen some crazy stuff especially in the wintertime they're like this is my pole system. Not only like this is my feeder this is my whole system. Like go find your own.

SPEAKER_05 48:25

I will survive have you ever had somebody come in in the store and tell you guys a story about a bird and you thought no that's just not plausible. That didn't happen and then you found out it was true.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

Totally give us an example give us an example I mean I think what's funny is we get just descriptions of birds and sometimes we're like hmm like most of the time easily we can kind of solve the mystery and tell them what bird and there's just been a few sightings where we're like are you sure? Because that's not super common and then they'll send us a we'll be like if you can prove by sending a photo and they'll send it to our email and we'll be like well by golly that is and sometimes we have to you know send it to our biologist friends and be like can you tell us what we're seeing here?

SPEAKER_05 49:08

Do you remember one at least one example of that a bird that you thought wow and that would never be seen here and it true in anything it comes from folks that like have the Merlin app.

SPEAKER_03 49:17

Now the Merlin app is like pretty effective in and letting you know what kind of birds are around but sometimes it gets it wrong.

SPEAKER_04 49:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

And and so we'll get you know someone saying that they s you know saw a bird that's usually in South America year round. Oh okay you know in their backyard. At which point you know we have to question it a little bit. Yeah. It's always a good idea if you're using your Merlin app and it brings a a questionable bird up to to kind of ask somebody. Yeah. You know and so coming to us.

SPEAKER_05 49:48

Hey my Merlin app said there's a ostrich in my backyard. No, I don't think that's going to be true.

SPEAKER_01 49:53

I feel like typically it's like a leucistic bird, you know so it'll be a bird that we're like like albino but not albino but leucistic and so it'll be a bird like a hummingbird that is all white. Oh. And so then we'll be like that okay now it makes sense when we see a photo we're like that's a leucistic you know it's a common bird but it's colorway is a way you don't often see it. Exactly. It's just like kind of a one-off sort of rare occurrence where we're like okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

What do you think is the dumbest thing or the dumbest thing you've heard that people believe about birds?

SPEAKER_01 50:25

That's a good birds aren't real.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Oh birds are the government I did a story about that remembered that birds are just really robots and they're spying on you. Look I have a tinfoil hat down here when I when I talk about stories like that.

SPEAKER_03 50:40

Have you heard just one person say that or has there been more than one person should we throw them under the mug or it's been multiple people I've been walking around we wear our bird shirts throughout town and occasionally you'll have someone you know ask, you know, just just come up and tell you you know did you know that birds are not real oh God what do you mean?

SPEAKER_05 51:03

It's the government spying that little hummingbird right there is from the CIA right now.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

Did you did you hear that story disagrees with you.

SPEAKER_05 51:11

Oh yeah there's a story it was in the Wall Street Journal last week about a guy I don't remember what state it was in he's been he lives in a town in a dense town he's been feeding the vultures and the vultures come and they stink and they poop on everything. And so the people are trying to get him to stop but there's no ordinances that prevents this guy from feeding the vultures.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

Man what is he feeding them dead animals?

SPEAKER_05 51:34

He's feeding them like steak and meat and hamburger and stuff to attract them. And they're poop I guess their poop is really like if you get it on your car if you don't wash it off right away it'll eat the paint off it.

SPEAKER_02 51:45

Oh who right now is who right now who which bird is the biggest jerk that we have living in dripping springs?

SPEAKER_01 51:52

It's usually the little cute ones that no one suspects. It's usually the hummingbirds. Really? Why is I mean oh jerk like how they act to other birds or I mean they just chase each other away from feeders will be like dive bombing each other and everyone's like they're the little cute bird. I'm like they're the feistiest of the birds. They will claim like a whole hummingbird feeder feeder for themselves. They will dive bomb each other and not share but they're so cute they can do what they want.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

I know they are cute. I like I've seen those videos where the guys are wearing like the hat or the feeder on them and they'll come right up to them and and feed right at their face.

SPEAKER_01 52:26

I know why Hector's looking at me like that.

SPEAKER_03 52:28

There's also like For me it's house sparrows. Oh yeah the parasitic birds the birds that that go in and destroy you know native birds' nests. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

You know for me that they're trying to be I was thinking like I wasn't thinking like parasitic but if we're talking parasitic they're okay go ahead. Talk about parasitic birds.

SPEAKER_05 52:45

I mean European starlings brown headed cowbirds house sparrows those bullies taking the eggs out of another nest laying their eggs and having other birds raise their babies like that's about I mean I was thinking like cute feisty not like is that sometimes when you see a couple of broken eggs on the ground maybe another bird scooped them out and dropped them on the ground and then laid it's possible yes there could be a number of different predators but that that's definitely possible. What about the birds that we see this a lot in in real estate the one that you are stealing all my damn questions Michelle I love go right ahead go right ahead.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

What about the birds that build their nest right at the front door and they sting the barn swallows and tell us about how to get rid of those and to not have those come back.

SPEAKER_05 53:33

Oh we don't want to get rid of them who pooped on your porch who pooped on my porch I don't know if y'all saw my little viral pose there's a question there's the title of the show who pooped on my porch on my porch one day I'm gonna write that children's book.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

But never tear them down. That's actually illegal to tear them down. They are protected by the state and we need them they fly those are the barn swallows they will fly fly around your front porch area and catch bugs on the fly. So if you want natural you know bug repelling yeah that's that's gonna be it for you. They are so cute. I know that they're messy but you can always um don't do like I did in my little viral post that I did of my little uh cute barn swallows. You can you can let them poop all over your porch but you can also put a box there to catch everything.

SPEAKER_03 54:20

They nest really quickly and then you can remove the nest once they're done you can they're artificial nests that you can buy say from our store and then go put up in a location where it would be less annoying for you. Okay. So if they tend to nest like somewhere right above your front door, come in and get this artificial nest and then put it in a location that's not going to be in your way.

SPEAKER_05 54:43

I've seen um Steve and I've also seen like a um what are the little steps what I've done in a couple of my properties now of course they're not going to allow the birds to nest there but you get like survey tape the you know that you buy at Home Depot and you just tape it in the corner and it blows in the wind and they just won't they won't build a nest there.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

Yeah we encourage it though we feel like it's so lucky when they choose your front porch and I know it's messy for the summer months but if you can if you can just be friends to the birds and if you're selling a $1.2 million dollar property I know the porch does smell like poo. You know the poop doesn't smell there's a lot of poop on my porch right now and it doesn't smell but I do get that it doesn't look super cute. Aesthetic yeah even when somebody moves into that $1.2 million dollar home there's going to be birds nesting on that porch.

SPEAKER_05 55:32

What about uh the purple martin houses? Do you guys sell those?

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Oh my gosh yes that's like our family favorite um we my dad's having the best purple martin summer that I think he's ever had he has two different setups gourds and a purple martin condo. We sell the best quality purple martin house there is out there and setups they're Amish made and um we get them from Mel in Ohio and shout out to Mel. Shout out to Mel and um he they're just the best and they are so wonderful to have around we have the eat all the mosquitoes right don't they eat a lot of flying bugs?

SPEAKER_03 56:06

They actually forage high up in the air so they're catching bugs on the fly 200 feet up. Oh really okay. So bats are usually the ones that people would want to have around to take care of mosquitoes also planting native plants to attract uh dragonflies they eat a ton of mosquitoes I didn't know that oh yeah interesting I have learned so much here today yeah so if birds disappeared tomorrow what would happen to the ecosystem here in the world I would probably think that we weren't far behind.

SPEAKER_02 56:36

Really?

SPEAKER_05 56:36

Mm-hmm Well there would be a reason for it huh? It would be something probably very catastrophic.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

Yeah we had that oh gosh it was probably 20 years ago in downtown Austin for some reason all the birds I don't know you probably remember this when the birds were just dropping out of the sky and they were trying to figure out what was going on and they were just mass mass deaths mass deaths all the way around uh downtown Austin. Yeah it was crazy. It was like what is going on did they ever figure it out?

SPEAKER_03 57:04

I you know I can't remember I'll have to I'll have to look it up while did it have anything to do with window strikes?

SPEAKER_05 57:10

Oh yeah you know what it may have there have been some buildings that were built and the whatever coating they had the birds couldn't see it and they were running that could probably it could be that's a big thing that we educate on here. When you've heard that thud of a bird hitting your window our windows our windows they fly in here all the time and it's and that's because they have a like a mirror coating on the and the birds they see the reflection of the sky and they they think they can get there.

SPEAKER_01 57:39

Yes. How do you prevent that we have reflective window stickers that we can put on the outside of windows and we're actually um when we went to our yearly conference we learned about a a supplier that actually can do bigger projects they've done stadiums and and so we're looking into how we can do that for huge windows and huge homes.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

I'm gonna go get us a reflective window sticker for right here. Window gems are amazing.

SPEAKER_05 58:02

Yeah you you mentioned Amanda you mentioned uh social media how big a part of your business is social media I think that that was probably what helped us find all our customers from the very beginning was social media.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

You're really good at it though I I really enjoy watching and you're very educational so I like to just kind of spy and see what what you're doing especially when you have school visits or much whatever is your focus on the social media it's not the image it's not all that it's educating people that are interested in birds.

SPEAKER_01 58:35

It's a mixture I think it's educating about the birds it's connecting the human side of being a business owner to your customers.

SPEAKER_04 58:45

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

We, you know that's a huge part for us is just we do a lot of posts that are vulnerable like how are we feeling as business owners that day that gratitude that you can't always express to people when you're seeing them but like in the moment that you're sitting in your car crying because you're so grateful for everyone those are real moments that we try to share. And so we do a mixture of things like it'll be telling people about promotions but also just that human side the educational side and not just about the birds but about plants and and everything else just small ways that you can inspire someone to make an impact. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 59:22

Hector you come from a teaching background and you come from a broadcasting background and you are continuing to teach now all of the Tripping Springs residents but what has Amanda taught you about how she is running or helping run the business Amanda's taught me so much.

SPEAKER_03 59:40

She's fearless um it's just the education part's really important to us. I think it helps that we're very mission aligned. I think it's important for us to continue to grow and learn and be present in our community and want to build connection and she's a master at that and I get to see it every day.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:04

She's a social butterfly and I'm kind of in the shadows a little bit, you know so uh I do a lot of the you know work that you don't see you know in the shop or doing installations but what she's taught me is just the you know just the power of connection I think is what's most uh elucidated just being next to you guys have taught me so much about I mean I kind of thought oh yeah it's cool we'll learn some stuff about birds but I've learned so much from you guys I can imagine being like at a class where you guys come to talk and all the things we'd learn. It's really amazing. My last question for you is you're sitting out on the back porch with a cup of coffee just enjoying the morning what bird when you see it brings a smile to your face well when I'm done swatting the mosquitoes that are attacking me.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

I know that's really killed my vibe the last couple weeks I'm like you're this is my favorite time of the day well you know the the wet spring brings out the mosquitoes.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:59

Typically we don't have mosquitoes but it's already been dry for three months.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:02

So a golden fronted woodpecker for the past year this past year's been kind of like a crazy emotional year for me. I lost my grandfather and um he was one of my favorite people and when I went down to Mission the Valley down in the valley where he was from we were there for his funeral his rosary and his funeral and this golden fronted woodpecker was following me around and singing at the top of its lungs every morning that we were there. Even at the very end when we were at the burial that golden fronted woodpecker and in all the special moments in the past year, all the big moments like the days that are like big days where I like wish I could talk to him a golden fronted woodpecker is always there. Wow and it's you know I never had that that connection of my grandpa and a golden fronted woodpecker before he passed but I swear and like my my family feels the same way my mom's like that grandpa's out in the front yard you know but like it really like I feel that connection to him through the golden fronted woodpecker. And I know a lot of folks feel that way when they see cardinals. They feel like it's you know a loved one coming to visit them. And when I hear a golden fronted woodpecker and I see one it just it I get really emotional about it because I miss my grandpa so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:22

Aw well you know I have to say Hector's got what's what's your bird what's your bird that you see that brings a smile for me it's the Eastern bluebird. We don't get it too often in our backyard um but it has a beautiful song and call and so and it's blue. It's got like a copper chest as well. And so just seeing the Eastern blue bird do you see those here in around drip sometimes? No yes you do I don't know if I've ever seen one beautiful they're gorgeous and you know just that flash of blue that comes through and you know they're they're not small they're sort of the same size as cardinals.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:04

And so you know it's just beautiful to see them come in feeding their young during that nesting season. So you want to make sure you have you know the the millworms out there for them. They really do love it. And you know these are one of the birds that were you know endangered back in the 60s and 70s when they were spraying neighborhoods with you know the chemicals out there. And so uh there's been an effort net national effort to bring these guys back over the last few decades and sure enough their populations are increasing. So that's just kind of a sign for me that that tells me you know this there's something that we can do not just for the eastern bluebird but for all birds. All the birds yeah uh-huh just to increase our numbers help help them rebound.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:46

Yeah there's a way to now I'm excited I want to go set up a bird feeder in my backyard and see if I can see an Eastern bluebird. Don't let your chicken don't let your chicken now I know that it's not a problem so we can have a bird feeder if it is a problem we will keep you posted.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:00

Because you stay on top of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:02

Absolutely well I I didn't get a chance to say this at the very beginning but I want to say um right now I am so glad that I was proven wrong about like what is a bird food place doing here but I want to say Amanda and Hector you aren't just selling bird seed you're trying to save a disappearing piece of Texas you care about legacy conservation your family business Hispanic entrepreneurship and preserving what we love about dripping springs and we are so grateful that you guys joined us today and just told us a little piece of your story and also educated us. So we really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:38

That means a lot to me I've really enjoyed the time with you you guys are a really special part of dripping and I'm glad that you were able to spend this hour with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:46

Thank you guys so much that means the world to us we really appreciate y'all thank you.

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SPEAKER_00 1:06:29

This show is brought to you in part by the Mallet Integrity Team. Serving Dripping Springs, Austin, and the surrounding areas of Central Texas since 2004. When you need the best real estate advice and service, give them a call at 512-829-2062. Or email them at malletintegrity team.com. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:51

And we're back. And we are back. We had Amanda and Hector Bustillos from Wild Birds Unlimited.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:58

Wild Birds Unlimited. They were really cool. I I enjoyed sitting and visiting with them. And I thought I knew a lot about birds, but damn, I didn't know anything really when you get down to it. What was the some of the stuff they said that surprised you the most?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:11

Oh gosh. Um, you know, when we started talking about the birds that we've lost since 1970, I was born in 1970. Is it a coincidence?

SPEAKER_06 1:07:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:22

Did I have something to do with it?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:25

Shell's killing all the birds. I don't know what I'm saying. You heard it here. Well, I actually, and her response was right on, you know, that I never thought about that. But I know that uh up until, I don't know, probably 50 years ago, people didn't really have their homes treated with pesticides like they do now. And it's true. Everywhere you drive around town, there's 50, uh not 50, but 10, you know, pest control trucks driving around. There are like as as many of those as people that clean pools, and they're spraying all the bugs inside and outside the house, and those bugs go outside, you know, dying, and a bird comes and picks them up, and that's you know, that's how they go.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:01

Can we just kill all the spiders? Because I have spider bites all over.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:05

You got to spray with those pesticides. And the other thing that they said that surprised me, because I went I asked them uh, you might ask them, you know, what you can do to help the birds, and I thought they were gonna say, you know, come over and buy a bird feeder, you know, that's $100 and buy $50 worth of bird seed and hang it in, you know, and and hummingbird feeders, but they said, no, put out water. And uh, you know, it's hot, it's 95 degrees, the birds need some water. I thought that was a really that was an eye-opener for me that you could do something so simple.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:33

Yeah, that he that Hector was talking about during the freeze and how he was going out there. And do you remember? Did you watch Mary Poppins? It's like one of my all-time favorite shows when they're like, feed the birds. Is that the is that what they say? Mary Poppins?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:47

Mary Poppins. Oh, I was thinking the sound of music.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:50

No.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:51

I don't know. Mary Poppins.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:53

Oh, you gotta watch Mary Poppins.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:55

I have to watch it on Amazon Prime.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:57

Yeah, there's the new Mary Poppins and then there's the old Mary Poppins.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:01

The woke Mary Poppins?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

No, it's not the woke Mary Poppins. But hey, did you know that there is a whole ongoing grassroots campaign and legislation, legislative debate to replace our state bird?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:16

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:17

Do you know what our state bird is?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:20

Uh I'm gonna just say uh is it a blue jay?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:28

It is the northern mocking bird.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:30

Northern Mockingbird.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:32

And so they they want to replace it. So no bill has been successful yet, but people say we need a more native and unique bird because the northern mockingbird is also the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:48

You know what else about the northern mocking bird?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:50

What's that?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:50

They're assholes.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:55

They didn't say assholes, but they they are not very nice birds. That's pretty funny. That's pretty funny. Well, they people are people are oops, people are voting. What is almost knocked over everything? People are voting of what they want as to replace a state word. And she mentioned it also the golden checked warbler. It's the most popular. Sorry, did I I I'm just like golden cheeked warbler, the most it's the most popular replacement. It's a songbird whose breeding range is entirely in the Texas Hill Country. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:32

We've seen them here. They're beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:34

Well, number two on the list is a painted bunting.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:37

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:37

And they're highly colorful.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:38

They Amanda talked about those.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:40

Yes, and they nest extensively in Texas, and it often signifies the return of spring. And then the next bird, number three on the list, is the great-tailed grackle.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:53

Oh, I hate those birds.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:55

Funny story, they're also known as the street bird, or in some popular cultures, you know what they're known as?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:02

Rats with wings.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:04

The Whataburger bird.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:05

Oh, they're hanging out, they're eating french fries in a parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:12

And so they have this Texas street level attitude. But they were talking about the Northern Mockingbird because they're kind of scrappy.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:20

They are scrappy, like Texans, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:22

But they want them to be a little bit more native here. And I don't know who chose the state bird, how what is it? Was like a drawing. I don't even know what year it got chosen.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:30

I think I if I had to pick between those three, I would pick the painted bunting because that's such an extraordinary bird, and Texans are extraordinary. I mean, we, you know, we're we're special, we're just different than everybody else. And so that's a painted bunting.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:44

I like the way you're including we. But even though you're not native.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:48

I made an official Texan. Yes, because you made a Lubies. I I've crossed that line where now I can consider myself a Texan. I think it's 25 years, right? Lubies. Lubies, that's right. Lubies is it. Lubies is it. Yes, I have been to Lubies. I am now an official Texan.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:03

And you have I've I've I've got you turned on to Texas country music a little bit. So you're talking about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:08

I have my Pandora set on Red Dirt Radio sometimes, and Uncle Lucius and Chris Stapleton, and that's that's what I listened to. Yeah, from Classic Rock.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:17

Working, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:18

Couple things I wanted to talk about. One, I did a, I think I had a little rant. I need to go back and listen to it. Keith Mallet had a ranting. Surprise. Uh about the roads over in the Hayes Historic District. This is a couple weeks ago. And I emailed Bill Folds and I said, because uh, you know, I really like him, and I and and the people over at the city are great. And I said, Bill, just want to give you a heads up that I said some things about the road district over there, and you might want to listen.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:45

And I threatened to call him live on air.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:48

Yes, you did. Yes, you did. And he said, he texted me a little while later and he said, Well, you're the squeaky wheel. And I texted back and said, Well, Bill, I've been called worse. But he's gonna come on the show. He is. And uh so this his episode will release the middle of July, right? He's coming on uh, I think July 8th. Um, and but I was complaining about all the potholes over in the Hayes Historic District, and guess what? Those holes got filled yesterday. So sometimes I wonder how that happened. I wonder how sometimes being a squeaky wheel actually makes a difference. That's what I've been doing for 12 years, Steve Alex. I thought yours was more like uh arrested. Yeah, like yours is more like guerrilla warfare. You're like, I don't know what's going on here, but there's definitely some attack being happened. It's like the air brakes on the you know, it it uh speaks to sort of the reach we have with the podcast where uh you know people at the city listen and uh you know people that uh it gives us a voice out in the community. And I want to say uh I really like all the people at the city and I know they have good intentions. And so if my rant kind of seemed a little off, you know, I'm glad that they listened and did something about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

Hey, but you know what though, you you bring up a good point, Steve. So if you have anything that you really want to talk about that's going on in the city of Drifting Springs or the ETJ or even the Texas Hill Country, why don't you email us at mallet and Michelle at gmail.com and let us know and we'll talk about it on air.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:22

Or DM us on our Instagram or have our Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:26

Call Steam Mallet at 5126.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:29

Yeah, don't do that. I get enough of those as it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:32

Selling health insurance. We love that.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:34

So the other story I wanted to talk about was uh something that's kind of flying under the radar here and dripping. And I'm surprised nobody has talked about this. Part of that reason is because most of the the uh site for this subdivision is in Hayes County, so they haven't had to go, but part of it is in this dripping spring city limits. South of 290, just south of the Hayes Historic District, which the Hayes Historic District is where Pig Pen Barbecue, Time and Doe.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:04

Um what's the little design lady?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:07

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I I know who you're talking about.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:09

Yeah, there's a design studio there at the corner. Bluff Street and uh Hay Street. Uh so right behind there, there I they're they put up a sign saying, you know, notice of application to subdivide. So I did a public records request through Hayes County, and there's a preliminary plat for a new subdivision in uh in that area called Hayden Place. It's at the end of Hayden Street, which most people in town, even if you've lived here for a long time, probably don't know where that is. But it's a tiny little road that goes back. Uh it's on the far east side of the or west side of the Hayes Historic District. So this is going to be 35 uh individual lots that are around. It looks like they're about two acres apiece. Really? One one to two, I should say. Not not two. They're most of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:01

So big bigger lots.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:03

Bigger lots. They're on the nicer homes. Yes, these will be nicer homes. Um, and you know, it's it's close to where I live, um, so it's going to affect me a little bit. The one thing that kind of jumped out at me, I looked at their ex expected traffic, and I'll bet you on Hayden Street right now, they get six cars a day, maybe maybe ten on a very busy day. They're expecting 321 cars a day.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:28

On that little residential street. Is there no other way that they can do an inch?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:34

No, no, it doesn't, it doesn't touch any other roads. I originally when I saw it, I thought, oh, well, they'll connect off a ranch road, 12 or more main road, but they're not.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:42

Well, wait a minute. So you're telling me that 300 cars are gonna come out 290 right by time and do and pig pen or corner where the road is falling. Behind Walgreens.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:52

Yes. How so that's that's gonna be the main entrance. And so I, you know, I I I know people are listening and they're saying, oh, Mallet was complaining about this new subdivision. I'm a real estate broker, I'm all for private property rights. If this fits within what's allowed, they should be able to do this. But I want to point out, and hopefully the developer uh will listen, I don't think that that is going to go as well as they think it's going to go if the city doesn't negotiate with them and make those roads improved all through that neighborhood to allow that much traffic.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:29

You almost would have to have, I would, I would feel this is awful. I'm not a proponent for this, but you would almost have to have another light or something coming out of there.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:40

Yeah, it's a lot of traffic. I bet you on a busy day, because you know, a lot of people illegally cut through by time and doe and then go down by Walgreens and then turn south on Rancho 12. They probably don't get 300 cars a day doing that there.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:55

But can you imagine if you're going um west, if you're going west on 290, I because I actually had to go to Seth Hate.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:04

That's a good point. If you're going out by time and dough um from Bluff Street and you're trying to turn left, you are literally taking your life.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:11

That's where I was like, Steve, what's the best way to get out of you? And you said, okay, what I would do is I'd go all the way down.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:17

Yep, turn at the light, go around by H B, turn at the light. I mean, it adds an extra five to ten minutes, but that's the only safe way to do it. And Gracie's car was totaled right there. And that was what, 10 years ago? Yes. It was a long time ago. Traffic now is ten times worse than it was then.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:33

Because what eventually are the plans for 12 and 290? They I know they did that that other little road, the workaround, but quite honestly, that that intersection right though.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:44

It's well, the expansion project from the water tower all the way over to about Roger Hanks, that's gosh, I don't even think that starts until 2030. And that whole stretch of road is ridiculous. You know, when you pull into where our office is behind McDonald's, the Keller Williams office, uh-huh. If you're coming uh east, so you're heading towards Austin on uh on uh 290 and you're trying to turn into where McDonald's is by our office, that whole stretch with Sonic and uh where Mercer comes in.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:13

I know you almost got hit the other day head on when we were sitting. They need to put I I'm I will not be a fan of this, but I think they need to put a barrier in the middle.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:29

They well, that's the plan. They do need to put a barrier to stop people from doing the you because right now you can turn wherever you want. And some people, like at when they're turning south on Ranch Road 12 when they're heading towards Johnson City, they get in the middle turn lane like bisonic and drive that whole stretch in the middle lane and there's cars coming and going. You know, you're supposed to wait until you get almost to the light before you turn into that left lane.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:54

Well, when I'm turning on Sawyer Ranch, sometimes if I'm coming from Austin and like rush hour, yeah, I will turn at polo club in where where CVS is, and I will make a U-turn and come out that light. And sometimes it's a lot easier than sitting there waiting. But today, when I was going to work, you know, people run those red lights. I was first and I just wasn't paying attention. The light turned green and I started to go and this big truck, like a rock truck, came and ran the red light and it scared the daylights out of me.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:28

I'll tell you what, there's I'm glad you said that, because there's a public service announcement right now. If you are trying to turn onto 290 from any of the roads where there's a light, when the light turns green, gives you an arrow, pause and look both ways because that happens a lot, and there have been a lot of fatalities from that exact situation where a car coming up either runs a yellow or sometimes it's been red for a second or two, and they're going through there at 60 miles an hour. And if you pull out, that's gonna be really usually do.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:57

And this morning I was just a little distracted. But you know, speaking of Textot, just to kind of jump off of your story, did you know that I-35 is going to be closed at Slaughter for three weekends in a row? They're gonna leave it open for the July 4th weekend, but starting this weekend, they're gonna leave it open for July 4th and then the cutting across I-35?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:20

I know they did that at William Canon.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:22

They're gonna do it at Slaughter. And, you know, we talk about Text Dot a lot here. How I find out is I don't even know how I follow their social media. I guess when we were all of the Text Dot stuff was going on, they did it by social media.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:36

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:37

It was like, you know, that that social media graphic where they hold up a piece of paper and they have like just some news from Text Dot and then they switch to the next page. It was somebody doing that. But the best part were the were the comments and like just people were just grilling them.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:52

Roasting them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just I my my to wrap it up for me, I you know it's uh it's gonna be interesting to see how that all plays out. I know Bill, when he comes in on uh July 15th or whatever it'll be, uh when that one's released, we'll have we'll have some good information about that. But what were you gonna what were you gonna talk about?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:15

Well, there is breaking news here in Dripping Springs. The new school for Driftwood High School colors have been announced. So, what were your predictions on what the colors were going to be?

SPEAKER_05 1:22:30

I thought they I the ones I had seen proposed was uh like a dark navy blue and a silver. Okay. Or dark navy blue and a gold.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

Well, you are correct. It is blue and gold.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:42

Uh is it a darker blue?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:45

I think I you know, I didn't see the they said that they were gonna pick the pantone colors here pretty soon, the exact colors, but they said blue and gold are the colors. I assume they're gonna have the same gold as dripping springs.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:58

Yeah, that would make sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:59

High school um to kind of stick. But I I really like it. I think blue and gold. I was okay with green and gold also because you know, Texas Hill Country, but that reminds me of King High School boo and Corpus Christie. Ask Holly about King High School. Okay. Um, but they don't have a mascot yet, so they're going to be meeting again for for the mascot.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:19

But we also have breaking root news coming out of Dripping Springs ISD. Our assistant athletic director, she's been the athletic director for years and years and years. Uh, Marissa Tusi. She has left Dripping Springs. No way. She has, and you will never guess where she went.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:38

Uh, I would think she went to some school we compete with, Lake Travis. Lake Travis. She did.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:43

They are very lucky to have her. Very, very lucky.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:45

She's been great.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:46

She has multiple state championships underneath her belt as the assistant athletic director. She was a wonderful coach. Um, so yeah, so she has left Triple C.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:56

I I worked with her a little bit when uh Run by the Creek was in full swing, which is another story. We'll talk about it another day. It's coming back. Um, and she was really fantastic, really a good advocate for the kids and and uh did a lot of cool things to get those kids to be at their you know at their best.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:12

Yeah, she's she's great. Um maybe we'll I'll reach out to her and get her on the podcast and ask about the change and the new exciting changes coming with Lake Travis. But you know, uh change is scary for everybody. We've always kind of like, oh, people don't people don't like change, but sometimes sometimes it's necessary, and I'm sure she was doing what is best for herself and her family. And we wish her all the love.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:36

All the best, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:37

Just not when you're up against us.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:39

I I don't think we're in the same league anymore. Yeah, don't take all your secrets there to Lake Travis, leave some behind and drop it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:46

We'll do that, you're sure. But congratulations and we wish you the best.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:49

We're excited for you. I wanted to share a couple things. Uh a few weeks ago, uh, property tax protests, and I please don't tune out right now. I actually am gonna try and make this interesting. I know your eyes rolled up in your head. But my experience with protesting my taxes on a couple of my properties, it was kind of interesting. And everybody protests the people that protest their taxes, some people, I would say 75% don't even protest. The people that protest, they get a little token. Um uh the county says, we'll give you this this little token reduction. And you know, you you most people say, Oh, they gave me $8,000 off my value. Okay, I'll accept that. Well, if you say no, I don't take that, um I can't remember what they call that.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:37

But you in jail.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:38

Yeah, right, right. They uh but anyway, they uh if you say no, I don't accept that little token uh reduction, you go and you actually have a protest and you can do it in person or you can do it on Zoom. I did both of mine on Zoom.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:51

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:52

And the process is you send an affidavit to the county, you email them this affidavit with your your evidence for why the value is too high.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:02

And it was interesting to me because I have done this on properties in the past, but there's a little there was so there's a panel of three people that are uh citizens from the county, and then there's the county appraiser, and that those are the people that are in the Zoom call. And you get two minutes to bring you present your evidence, and then the county gets two minutes to present their evidence, and then you have you can counter, and then they can counter. And uh it was I gave my evidence, and I'll I'll give you an example on one of my properties. Um, they said it was worth six hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars, and I presented my evidence and said it was worth 430. So it's something 25%. And the county came in and said, Well, we have two properties, and they were not even within five miles of my property, and one of them was almost eight miles away, and completely different. Like this is a single family house kind of in a little neighborhood, and they were trying to compare to uh uh one of those condo houses over in Belterra. And I said, Why didn't you use any of the 30s?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:04

It's even the different zip codes.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:06

Yes. I said, Why didn't you use any of the 30 comps that I provided in my evidence? And he said, Well, we didn't have that data because that it's not, they don't I got that from the MLS, which is private data. Okay. So most people don't understand that. The the county doesn't have access to that. There was a lawsuit about that a few years ago. So I presented all my evidence, and the people on the panel said, Okay, uh, you know, we we find that this evidence is valid and that uh we we think the value should be this. And the county appraiser said, No, we stand by our value, that it should be $668,000.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:39

So you burn the building down.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:40

Yeah, yeah, I know. But but my point was even in the face of all that evidence, the county appraiser said, No, we still stand by stand by our value. And those three people said, No, we don't see that. And they gave me the value that I asked for. Okay. Because I had the evidence.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:58

Let me get this straight. So you have A county appraiser, it's one guy.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:02

And then you have three people almost like the jury. Like a jury.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:06

They're citizens. I'm sure they go through some training, but yeah, they're citizens.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:10

And so the three people can they can veto whatever the county appraiser says.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:15

They're the ones that come up with the value. You know, the way that they try and scare you off is well, you know, that that uh little group of three people can say, oh no, your value should be higher than what 668, which I don't think that is.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:29

And then you burn the place down.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:30

Yeah. Keep in mind now, I provided data on 30 sales that supported my price. Now the county does have that data. So it'd be interesting to see. No, but but my point is, how many other homeowners have I helped now that didn't protest that don't protest their taxes? They get their tax assessed value and they go, well, but they go, Oh, my county says it's worth $500. I know my neighbor down the street, exact same floor plan sold for $430. And then they just go about their day. They make dinner and they don't think about it, but you're gonna pay taxes on an extra $70,000 worth of value. It's worth it to do it. And if you think about it over time, so say I saved $2,500 on my on my property taxes. Well, next year I'm gonna have an additional savings on top of that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:16

I'm so how much did you save ultimately? About $2,500. Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:20

It's a huge, I mean, that's $200 a month. That's a huge amount.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:24

So Oh, I get a $200 a month rate.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:26

Yeah, Michelle, it goes all on Michelle's property. But you know, the the point of all that is don't think that protesting your taxes is this huge pain in the butt. It's actually not that hard. You do have to get some evidence, which uh if you're if you're not a real estate broker like me, you'll have to get with your real estate agent and uh and get that evidence. There's a lot of properties. Do you know any real estate agents that yeah, Mallege Integrity team will help you out? Yeah. Just reach out to any one of us. Um if you can, if you have the evidence, now sometimes your value is right on, occasionally it is, but if you have the evidence, get it, send it to them, send that affidavit, do it on a Zoom call. It took me 20 minutes, you know, front to back.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:06

I was really jealous that that because one of them you got a lot off, and I was really jealous about that because we hired somebody to do it, and I did not understand, neither did Todd understand, that they don't negotiate, they give them an offer and they're like, accepted.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:22

So that's I'm glad you said that. The settlement is what I was thinking. So you protest your taxes, say just making numbers up. I'm not saying your, but your house is your the county says your house is worth a million dollars. And then you say one of these third party companies sends in a protest and says, no, we think it's worth $875. Yeah. And the county says, no, we don't think $875, but we'll reduce it to $980. And that third party company goes, yep, we saved them money, signs off on it. They don't go to the, they don't go to to the you know the protest, they don't do that. And then you send them half the savings. So you saved $800. Say you saved $800, it wouldn't be that much in that case, but you're gonna send $400 or $300 of that to this third party company that really did nothing. If you'd have done it yourself, you might have gotten the reduction to $875.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:16

Next year.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:17

Next year, Michelle. I I've been doing this a long time. This the reason I bring this story up is because this year was very eye-opening for me. I think there are people getting on those panels now that believe our values are too high, and they're looking at the evidence and agreeing with people when they say, you can't say my house is worth $668 when everything around me is selling for $440. In the past, they might have not overridden the appraiser. I don't think they're scared to override the appraiser.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:49

I think the last time I did that, it was like a little over five years ago, and I had you helped me pull all these comps and everything, and I had to go to the panel, and I barely got two words out of there, and they were like, nope. And I left so defeated, and the guy that had gone out in front of me, he was mad. And when you go before this board, there's like a constable or somebody sitting there, and it was like, I could see how people like they could care less. I felt it was such a ginormous waste of time, and so that is that feels good to me that maybe the county is listening to it.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:24

It's different. I I do think that the people that are going there now to sit on those panels are listening to the people that show up and looking at the evidence. And if the evidence shows that it should be lower, they're granting it.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:38

Yeah, I think that feels good. You know, I was telling you the other day, uh I was I had lunch with a friend, and he said that he lives in San Marcos now. And he said he got invited from the city of San Marcos to to like learn about the city. And he said, I wish that dripping springs, because he came from dripping springs, I said, this was great. So he said it was free and that it was a 12-week course, and you once a week you go to every single area in San Marcos that the city is run by the city or the county. So you went to the tax appraiser's office, you went to the mayor's, you went to city council, um, you went to where did he go? He went to the waterworks. He goes, the waterworks was very fascinating.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:19

Parks and rec. You go to all these different departments and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:22

You go to all and you you really figure out and you're able to answer, they're able to answer questions that you have. It's almost like a citizens, I can't remember what they call it, but you know, I'm gonna ask uh Mayor Bill when he gets here.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:33

I think it would be it one of the things I think that happens is communicating to the public, and including you and me, ha what they do behind the scenes and all of the problems they overcome and the obstacles that come up every day would be really helpful for the average citizen to see how these organizations work. Yeah. Well hopefully they'll do that. I have one thing I want to talk to you about, and I didn't I didn't uh tell you I was gonna tell. Have you heard of this new concept uh around aging called narrowing? I I really found this to be fascinating because I'm going through a little bit of this myself. Narrowing is you know, you your body ages, and there are certain things you can't do now that you couldn't do when you were younger. Narrowing is the mental side of that. So say you you reach a certain age and I go, you know what, I'm 63. I can't carry in eight bags of groceries anymore for my car. I can only I'll have to make two trips. So I carry in four bags of groceries. Uh-huh. Or in your case, you know what, I'm gonna be 55. Maybe I shouldn't pick navy up by using my back. I should and you you've trained yourself to think that you are limited, but your body's not limited. You are you're capable of doing these things, but because of your age, we we have these self-imposed limitations. Have you noticed anything about that? I've noticed it in myself, and I'm trying to fight back on it. Have you noticed anything like that where you go, I'm probably too old to do this.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:03

I'm just stupid enough to think I can still do everything. And then I pay. I was sitting here talking to you a little while ago and all of a sudden, like I jump. Yeah, and you're oh my back. It's my sciatica, because I cleaned out the garage last night after work. But uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:17

But see, that could give you this mental thing where you go, you know, ah, maybe I shouldn't garden for four hours on Saturday because you know my back's acting up. And you could be capable of that. Uh it's more uh this would be for somebody, you know, that maybe goes to the gym or swims or runs. I can see that hikes a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:36

Todd and I are very, very active people, just like you and Holly. But I have this thing, I have two switches on off, and you know this, right? I have I have on and off switch. And if I'm working in the yard and I'm exhausted and it's hot and I'm tired, but I have like just like another hour left, or if I was painting or whatever, I Todd's like, babe, take a break. Do it tomorrow. I'm like, no, I'm already tired. I know, I'm already hurt. I'm probably doing not doing myself a favor. So I just keep going until I can, and obviously my pace is like a little bit slower.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:09

And I just keep going, keep going, keep going.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:11

You know what it just reminds me of? When we were younger, we did that with alcohol. We would drink to the point where the next day was miserable. Now we push ourselves doing gardening and yard work and cleaning that.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:23

Let me tell you, I have a story because Thursday night I had an event that I had in my my other little job. And uh um I I drank, had a couple little cocktails, and Saturday I had another event and I had iced tea. Oh, and everybody else was drinking, but not Michelle. I had iced tea. Who orders iced tea at a bar? Michelle does. Michelle does.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:46

Did they look at you funny?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:47

Like, yeah, it wasn't, it was probably iced tea from 1978, but it was Yeah, it's been up there on the county. What were those events for? That was for Coke FM, Coke Radio.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:58

You've been doing, you've been doing some co-hosting there, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:02

I'm moonlighting on on Friday mornings, and so if you listen live on Friday mornings like from 5 to 8, I'm on the air. We pre-record. And so if you miss from 5 to 8 on Friday mornings, they have a podcast format just like this that'll that'll come out. But uh we poke fun. Uh Scotty and Rita are my co-host and uh Rita Balloo and Scotty Bennett. Uh Scotty Bennett actually is the voice of Mallet.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:28

Yeah, when you listen to our commercials here, that's Scotty Bennett. Yeah, he was nice enough to do that. Well, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:33

And we give shout-outs to Mallet Integrity Team and Steve, and and Scotty likes to poke fun at Steve, and he's like, What's if I mention the podcast, he's like, and what podcast is that?

SPEAKER_04 1:37:42

And what podcast is that? Mallet and Michelle.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:44

Mallet and Michelle or Dripping Springs. Just let you people know out there in Dripping Springs Land that we are represented in Texas country music.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:50

And uh yeah, it's well there's no no narrowing going on with you. As you age, you just do more and more stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:56

You say I can't say no, and you are correct in that uh in that assumption.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:02

No, you've never been able to say no. I think you're learning. I think as well. And I'm I'm uh, you know, talk about a pendulum. You're on one way where you always say yes. I think I'm on the other end where I always say no. Like, no, that doesn't. Somebody asked me to to uh sit on a board for them recently. I can't even remember who that was. And I was like, not only no, but hell no, I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:24

Okay, you know what? I was asked, okay, you're gonna laugh at this. I was asked on in a group that I'm in to be on the board, and I said, Look, I've got a lot going on right now. I'm just I haven't I'm kind of stepping back. They asked me to be treasurer. Like, I'm pretty. I don't do math.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:44

Yeah. Treasurer of all things.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:47

I would I'll be I'd rather be the president of a of a board before I'd be the treasurer. That's a thing. You never want to miss Jones charge of your money. Yeah, that's true. It's true. How much money we got in the bank account? Well, we either got 30,000 or we got three. I'm not sure which one. But there's something, there's some money in the bank account.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:04

Carry the one for sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:06

Well, I I think uh one of the things that this podcast has taught us is that uh we can we can do a lot more than we think we can even as we age. I'm 63. I'm still sitting here behind the mic every week with you and loving it and having a great time.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:20

Well, and when you tell me no, I I shame you into saying yes. And you know what? You have a good, you have a good time. Like yesterday.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:27

I always do. I always do.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:29

Yesterday, I got to sit on a longhorn.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:31

You did, yeah. We got to go to Calatera's launching the new ranch area out there, uh, ranch part of their circuit.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:37

Apparently, I won something, and Steve and Cedric are haters about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:41

We don't know what it is, but apparently they got a 1099 or so that it's I guess worth more than $600. I wonder what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:48

What is it? Maybe it's a Mercedes. Ooh. You know what, Todd said, make sure you it's worth whatever they're saying that it's worth.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:56

If they're good, if they're they're gonna 1099 you want it, it means you're gonna pay taxes on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:00

What do you think it is?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:01

I think it's a TV. Maybe or maybe an iPad. Could be an iPad.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:06

Ooh, an iPad.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:07

That'd be nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:07

Ooh, maybe we can get a new an iPad?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:10

Maybe it's a could it be a fancy Yeti cooler? I don't know. For $600?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:15

A cooler? I better get something more cooler. You know what?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:18

Next week, whatever it is, you have to tell us what it is. If it's not a 75-inch TV, you can bring it in here and show the listeners what it is on Instagram. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:26

But thank you guys for joining us. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:28

Thank you all for joining us. It's been fun, fun uh time this week, and we will catch up with you next week.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:33

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