Trading Spouses Frazier and Zandi
One should always work with their own style.
Turkey dinner
Clyde was hit by a vehicle and killed while we were engaging in the Trading Spouses Experience. The first bird we lost to the road over 7 years. It had to be cosmic.
Clyde was purchased in 2001 for Thanksgiving dinner. He endeared himself to us in many ways including his penchant for self gratification- must have been the pine nuts. Rather than a planned Thanksgiving dinner, Clyde became our farm mascot. Clyde became an food for thought for millions. WAY TO GO CLYDE!
The Turkey is the symbol of sacrifice. It gives life so others may live. Many saints and mystics have Turkey as a totem. With a Turkey totem, you have transcended self. You act and react on behalf of others. This act is not a sense of moralism or guilt, but a deep knowledge that all life is sacred. What you do for others, you also do for yourself.
We did NOT do Clyde in for the show, but when the opportunity arose in the course of filming, there were 100 reasons to want to share Clyde.
People really forget where their food comes from, or they just don't want to know. Clyde was free range and treated ALWAYS with respect by our family. He was purchased as food, but stayed with us because he was a very special bird.
Clyde was extraordinary breeder and survived by his bi-species, bi-sexual daughter, Marge. She and her partner, Piggy-piggy lived happily on the Goods From The Woods, Ozark farm - until piggy-piggy broke into the nut locker and ate our inventory.
POVERTY AND POINT OF VIEW
I have gotten feedback about our income levels and our family being represented as poor. Reality is a point of view. We grow much of what we eat. I would rather spend money on land than new cars, I would rather buy books over $75.00 skate shoes. The lessons of living in and with the wild are priceless. We chose to live in an area where the demographic represented "low income" people. We continue to strive to create resources rather than income. We live in an area where there is much to be said for "doing more with less.
George Frazier's work with cold formed steel and geodesic design
International
This show has been on television in several countries We have gotten emails from Singapore, South Africa, Ireland, New Zeland, Austrialia, and several Middle Eastern Nations. We always wonder how other cultures experience this trade: Favorite International Review Quote: "Theirs is a World without reserve other with the World itself. " Republic of Slovenija!! That is a powerful walk, but to tell the truth... I am not quite there. That is so cool, since reading that review I have dreamed of going to Slovenija. They sure have a way with words and ideas.
Bear with us!!! George and I are sort of self directed type personalities. You would have to kind of look around at our lives to understand.
We did television and radio in Alaska from our log cabin near Homer. Before that, George had been a Securities Runner, I was a litigation paralegal in Las Vegas 80's . We began working with wild products as a mechanism for conservation in the 90's, taking on land use policy on 68 million acres of public lands with pinon pine nuts. For the new century we settled down to sale wild nuts on the internet from Licking Mo. We purchased our farm, sight unseen over the internet in 1999. Our whimsical hearts loved the earthy delight of selling nuts from Licking.
In 2002, we certified our land wild crop organic and spent time learning about all the species that lived on our 12 acres in Licking. We found we enjoyed being in the woods harvesting wild plants and distilling them. So we went about developing a business model for helping people keeping biodiversity through earning a living with it.
We are both pretty good at doing our own thing. When Trading Spouses came along and invited us to do the show, we flew with it.
By now, most folks have figured out we are kind of a jokers. The production people pretty much let us have a free rein. Bless their hearts, on the Licking side of production, people had a very good time.
I have to say this was an extraordinarily wonderful opportunity and we could not be happier. Well, we would have loved the camera crew and the raw footage to add another hour. There were lots of wonderfully fun things that went that week, which could not be included. But, life is too rich to spend time with what you don't have. There is something to be said for making the most out of what you do.
International Questions Cultural Questions in translation ???
"Upon landing-ground within Arizono, whitherward her to await Ray Zandi, to win one's way within violet slipper." And this: "within tribe Fraizerjevih withal vernacular ovipara family." (As we figured this - our tribe is common bird people.)
Finally: most mu salve at work in the field. Videlicet zanjo unfairly Å3/4eli yourself homeword. (We think this says, that Tracy had to work like a slave in the field and wanted to go home.) If you can help with a better translation (especially for part II what is the meaning of "coal-fish")
So,our family wanted to know about the people of Slovenia. In translating the text describing the show we found some great descriptions!
Double Entendres in Trading Spouses
EXTREME P.I.T.A. vrs. Nuts from Licking, Mo!
My Notes on the episode.When this first aired, lots of people in our rural farm community mistook P.I.T.A. for P.E.T.A. But, P.I.T.A. is, of course, a common on-line acronym. So, once people got that joke (and casting was brilliant in "pitting" us together) people started to understand layers of humor of this episode.
Favorite parts.
The production company let us loose, without rules and we were free to create whatever WE wished. This was the dream venue for creativity and we worked hard to create an experience that was interesting and full of phun.
A bare foot ritual was a fun way to judge a person's comfort level with something new and unexpected to measure creativity, flexibility and self confidence.
It was also a tool that worked with my bear slippers (a gift from my hubby - the symbol of my greatest fears) hence the fear of bears..to bare ones "soul".
Speaking of flexibility... the gym thing: One does not have be drop dead beautiful to have sensuality as part of her being.
There is a great deal of playing around with the whole idea of pine nuts as aphrodisiacs. The brighter people seemed to understand the puns, whereas folks that weren't so hip, couldn't connect the dots.
Traci Zandi and her beautiful boys are simply top notch! I hope in retrospect she understood what I was trying to do with the $50,000.000 Ray Zandi had both his blessings and his burdens as we all do. Traci is without a doubt his greatest blessing!
The Earth has the power to heal any ailment of the human condition. $50,000.00 is a lot of money and a tool which can have a huge impact upon people's lives. I took some heat on how the $$$ was used, but I wanted to offer the family motivation to connect in a different venue. It was my hope to offer a choice and an opportunity for lasting change. There was no punitive intent, just a financial motivation for choices in change. For me, the $50,000.00 was a tool given to me, by the production company, not a wage or a prize.
Myth vrs. Reality
Lots of reality spouses have screamed bloody murder, this or that wasn't real.
Reality is nothing more than a point of view.
We have enjoyed many episodes of the show and seeing how traded wives met that responsibility. I have seen some completely awesome women on the show.
With whom we would most like to trade lives with for a week?
Rob and Big!!! We just love them!!! Time to do work!
Reality has the most incredible versitility.
Everybody does their own trip, RSL, the Zandi's, Fox. That is how reality goes. Imagine you had the chance to do this, how would you plan it, what would you do?
I learned 17,000,000 people suffer from tonail fungus and 169,999,999 are jocks who get it in locker rooms.
Bare feet breath, may the foot be with you!!
