Meet Kerri Helwig. Part 2

[00:00:00] I think about poop a lot. There's a lot of poop jokes that happen at work.

[00:00:08] I can brown you for you and there you have it.

[00:00:14] Manu, where happens?

[00:00:15] Yes, it does. All over the place.

[00:00:18] Yes, yes it does.

[00:00:28] Welcome to Christ In All Things, a conversation about meaning and purpose.

[00:00:33] It's based on a verse from the Bible, Colossians chapter 1 verse 17 which says,

[00:00:38] Christ is before all things and in him all things hold together.

[00:00:43] Christ In All Things is a listening ear into conversations about receiving and giving

[00:00:48] the love and hope of Christ. These conversations are an invitation because as much as you'll hear

[00:00:54] and as much as we enjoy having them, digital media operates from a distance

[00:00:59] and that's not what's best for us with God or with one another.

[00:01:05] So thanks for listening. And if you're in the neighborhood, we invite you to participate in person

[00:01:10] in the life that finds a tapah center at St. Paul's Lutheran Church,

[00:01:14] 210 East Pleasant Street in O'Connor, Wisconsin.

[00:01:26] Welcome to Christ In All Things, I am Pastor Lance Odon, I am Pastor Jason Schockman.

[00:01:31] We're back with our special guest, Kerri Helwig. Welcome back, Kerri.

[00:01:34] Hi. And so we're going to pick up where we left off. So in part one,

[00:01:41] we talked about your name where it came from. We had an interesting conversation there and then I

[00:01:45] thought we had a particular, particularly interesting kind of sidebar when we were talking

[00:01:50] about the the top things that formed you and you talked about in your faith and

[00:01:55] your family being raised in the Christian faith. And then a church switch that

[00:02:02] helped you realize something about friendship and we ended up going down that road. So now we're

[00:02:07] picking back up here in part two. So what would you say is the next thing,

[00:02:12] the big thing that's, you know, or bigger small that formed you as the person you are?

[00:02:18] I think, you know, like where I grew up on a farm as well as just like in a very rural community.

[00:02:28] It's growing up on a farm is different because, you know, if you live in town,

[00:02:33] everything that you want to go do is accessible all the time. That's kind of not how it is for us.

[00:02:40] No. Getting to town where all your friends live, that's like a solid like one hour bike ride.

[00:02:46] Like it's a big deal. Wow. Like you're out there in the middle of nowhere.

[00:02:52] So it kind of forces you to come up with your own things to do in the summer when it's just

[00:03:01] you and your siblings all day long. So we would build a lot of

[00:03:07] forts and go outside and just ride around with, you know, in the lot, you know, at the farm on our bikes.

[00:03:17] What kind, so this is you said row, row crops, so corn, soybeans,

[00:03:24] roughly how many acres were you guys farming? The home farm, like our house where we live was 500 acres.

[00:03:31] That's a big farm, fairly big farm all by itself. Yes, but in total of the fields that we

[00:03:38] managed is 2000. Yeah. That's not small, that's not small at all.

[00:03:44] It's not huge though. It's not a northern Illinois. This is just, it's not so big that you're hiring

[00:03:52] like the harvesters to come by the, with their speed harvest, their speed combines and,

[00:03:59] you know, drive across the field for wide. It's still nice sized. You mentioned siblings.

[00:04:08] We've already said you had one sister and one brother, both younger. How much younger than you?

[00:04:13] My sister is two years younger and then my brother is four years younger. So we're both,

[00:04:19] we're all three of us are on like a two-year split or gap between each of us.

[00:04:26] Gotcha. So when each new year comes around, we have our odd years, like when we're all,

[00:04:33] you know, our age is an odd number and then the next year is our even years. Like that's how

[00:04:38] my parents would keep track of stuff. It's like, oh, it's not year. Right. That's like,

[00:04:43] like my kids, like my oldest is going to be 17. My middle list just turned 15 and my

[00:04:51] middle list is 13. Yep. Same. And it works really well until September. And then my

[00:04:56] middle list changes and it throws the whole thing out of work. So growing up on the farm in a real

[00:05:05] community, talk a little bit more about why that's such a big deal. I mean, you can't,

[00:05:11] you got an hour bike ride to go and town to see your friends. Mm-hmm.

[00:05:14] Was town, how big was town, by the way? Um, okay. I think Ashton Illinois is when I was in high school,

[00:05:23] probably 1200 people. It's a population. So town was 1200 people. Yeah. And what did you have in town?

[00:05:31] Gas station, grocery store. A small grocery store, a couple restaurants like locally owned.

[00:05:42] And there was the school and that's about it. Yeah. Bowling alley. Nope. No bowling alley. Stop

[00:05:51] light. Nope. No stop light. No love it. Nope. I mean, yeah, that was it's very small. Yeah.

[00:06:01] So like what kind of walk is like a metropolis, you know? For sure. For sure. At what? 18,000 we are now.

[00:06:10] That is a metropolis. Mm-hmm. If you grow up in its town or outside the town of 1200 people. Yeah.

[00:06:19] So let's explore this a little bit more. So faith and family is this number one thing, but then you grow,

[00:06:28] how does that shape you now that growing up on a farm in the community like that? Well I a big part of

[00:06:37] like how it is for me now is like I chose a career in agriculture. Yeah. So I don't think that's where

[00:06:44] would be if I didn't grow up on a farm. That's just the long and short of it like that's

[00:06:50] I would not have this career if I didn't you know grow up on the farm like that. So

[00:06:55] because our listeners don't know we do but they don't know. You say this career, what is it that you do?

[00:07:05] I work at an agricultural analysis laboratory in water town so we analyze samples

[00:07:12] soil and animal feed for soil for generating fertilizer recommendations.

[00:07:21] I specifically work with nutrient management which is managing the manure applications for large

[00:07:30] dairy farms. Rope crop farms can participate as well. It's a government funded program.

[00:07:38] So basically the state offers grant money if you participate in this plan to know how to

[00:07:47] apply your nutrients that is in such a way that will protect water quality. Yeah because

[00:07:54] liquid manure running off into streams and so groundwater and surface water is a big issue in the state.

[00:08:03] So big issue in every state. In every state but yeah there's a lot of dairy here. So a lot of manure.

[00:08:10] Care you you have some educational background that you bring to this position as well.

[00:08:18] Yes. What is that? I went to UW Plattville for crop and soil science.

[00:08:26] So the university was constant Plattville. So in far southwestern Wisconsin. Yes.

[00:08:32] For what in what was the degree again? So oil and crop science and then I got a minor in chemistry.

[00:08:38] Oh well okay so was that your thing in high school? Did you know you were going to do ag?

[00:08:44] Yes and no. So like my my sophomore year. So you know like 15 or whatever I had been taking art classes

[00:08:56] and my art teacher was very enthusiastic about everything I had produced. I was like wow

[00:09:02] like maybe this is like what I could do. I could go to art school. I could be an artist and

[00:09:09] I brought that idea home with me and it was not very well received. Sorry mom and dad but you

[00:09:17] crushed my dreams. Okay so I was basically said I was basically told like hey that's not a valid career path.

[00:09:25] So I was like well now what do I do because when you're like in my generation people my age it's like

[00:09:33] you need to fear what you're going to do and you've got to go to college. So I was like I'm 15.

[00:09:39] I'm going to be going to college in a couple years. What am I going to do? I got to pick something.

[00:09:44] So I was like I guess agriculture. I never really think about it too hard. I just kind of like

[00:09:50] natural or like normal. Something that made sense for me and the stuff that I knew and

[00:09:57] the experience of like growing up on a farm I know things. So it was just kind of the next natural thing

[00:10:04] that came to mind and my FFA slash FFA advisor slash ag teacher. And we should tell our listeners

[00:10:13] who are urban people what the FFA is. So it technically is the in the older one it was first

[00:10:22] created stood for the future farmers of America but at some point they shortened it to just

[00:10:29] the FFA so people who weren't going to school for ag or going to be a farmer when they grew up

[00:10:37] felt like they could join as well. So they made it more like open you know to any kids that wanted

[00:10:44] to join and basically it's every like high school has their chapters so it's kind of like 4-H

[00:10:50] but it goes through your school rather than your community. Yeah yeah. Right. So.

[00:10:59] So I want to point out you talked about jumping into farming or jumping in the ag because it was

[00:11:08] from your experience growing up on the farm it's just kind of the way it was and that that was a

[00:11:15] really comfortable fit for you. Did it remain that way as you went to college for it?

[00:11:24] College yeah I was I college was easy for me like I don't mean to sound like

[00:11:31] pretentious but my course is other than a few of the chemistry ones those were hard

[00:11:35] but most for the most part they were easy like I feel like I didn't put that much effort into my

[00:11:45] coursework and I still had mostly straight days or if there was a beer too here or there but

[00:11:51] kind of like you went to college to take classes to teach you how to do the things you've been

[00:11:55] doing since you were 10. Kind of yeah so I wasn't super involved with the day-to-day

[00:12:03] stuff on the farm just because of my grandfather the way he was very traditional man and

[00:12:11] let's just say my grandmother never had a job in her entire adult life. So yeah I was not allowed

[00:12:20] really to help with stuff. Did she have a driver's license? Yes she did well she's won a head of mine

[00:12:28] right my dad growing out was growing up my dad's stepmom she didn't even have a driver's license.

[00:12:32] Yeah. Well yeah. She would drag me around in her Woody wagon nice good all days yeah it was embarrassing

[00:12:41] at the time but I look back now and think oh I had a Woody wagon that thing was cool.

[00:12:48] First first car my sister and I shared driving was a 1978

[00:12:52] buic estate wagon yellow with wood paneling on the side. Yeah baby everything was held together by

[00:12:59] roof and tar and decked in. It was great. So going to college for crop and soil science with a

[00:13:09] minor in chemistry set you up to work at an agricultural analysis firm that we know and I'll

[00:13:17] try again a little bit is a multinational corporation that assists farmers and big farms all over the world

[00:13:28] and I just learned this today about a system with knowing how to spray their poop.

[00:13:36] I think about poop a lot it's kind of part of my job. There's a lot of poop jokes that happen at work.

[00:13:44] What can brown do for you and there you have it. Many were happens. Yes it does all over the place.

[00:13:53] Yes it does. Yeah. Feelings can get kind of interesting sometimes. Oh feel testing.

[00:14:00] Well like field days is basically like a demonstration you go out into the field and

[00:14:05] you know see what the new stuff is or whatever new crop varieties new basically what's new like

[00:14:13] the new research and stuff. And if there's manure included in this field day,

[00:14:20] you know accidents happen. I haven't been to one where it was real brutal. Thank goodness but

[00:14:27] my advisor in Plattville had been to one where he did get sprayed with some poop.

[00:14:35] Oh yeah. It happens it does it's something that happens. Think about that next time you're eating cheese.

[00:14:45] So many things I'm not saying you're welcome listeners you're welcome.

[00:14:52] I love it okay so that growing up in the farm well prepared you for this career that you have this path

[00:15:00] you've taken in life and I imagine that puts you in close proximity with some people who have also

[00:15:11] had a pretty big impact on your life. Does that take us to number three? Yeah so what's number three?

[00:15:19] All right number three. Yeah I mean going basically following up with your

[00:15:25] question. Prompt there. Like my leading question. Working at Iraq of Relab is you know a big

[00:15:32] part of what has shaped me professionally as well as you know personally with people that you meet

[00:15:41] everything so it's a very it's like a so yes it's technically a large company worldwide

[00:15:51] but in the water town location it's especially my department very small so like you get to know

[00:16:00] people pretty well and it's a unique place to work I would say to in just that where we're

[00:16:10] positioned in the industry in agriculture but what do you mean by that? It's a unique place to work

[00:16:19] because of where your position in the industry what does that mean? So well a lot of

[00:16:24] agriculture jobs you're working at like a co-op the place that sells the fertilizer and

[00:16:31] gives you recommendations but we're kind of the people that create the data that those

[00:16:37] recommendations are based off of. Sure. So it's like I don't know all the things that co-op people

[00:16:44] know and co-op people don't know all the things that I know so it's like a weird there's like

[00:16:50] overlap but like we both like lab stuff co-op people don't necessarily know a lot of lab stuff

[00:16:57] but like maybe like I know for a fact that I don't know a lot of information about specific

[00:17:01] fertilizer stuff so there's overlap but like it's a very different place so it's like

[00:17:09] I don't know that I could work at a co-op now because like I'm in it like seven years almost at the lab

[00:17:19] so I think it's kind of you know it would be hard for me to try to work somewhere else

[00:17:26] you know like it's very like might be a life or I don't know it's kind of like

[00:17:32] sure it's one of those things where it's like your expertise is so

[00:17:37] fine-tuned that it would be hard to try and figure out how to do something else within the industry

[00:17:44] yeah so it's preachers we don't know anything about. Yeah I resonate with that on the on the other hand

[00:17:53] you are an artist right you are your crafty. Yeah I am. So I mean there's a

[00:18:01] fascinating you know combination of skills and attributes here. And the one hand she's got the

[00:18:09] science of poop in the other hand she's got the beauty involved the thing she creates which we've

[00:18:14] seen and they are wonderful yeah so I mean this may I don't know if this is one of your things

[00:18:19] and we're gonna come up on time here but I'm I'm curious what are you on your creative side

[00:18:25] what do you like to do? Well I do mostly well not mostly so much anymore but a lot of like

[00:18:33] fibercrafts which includes like knitting and crocheting do some embroidery I'm

[00:18:42] do a little bit of sewing to both of my grandmothers were very much into sewing like my

[00:18:52] dad's mom she would alter all of our prominent homecoming dresses so like she was a legitimate

[00:18:58] like seamstress like she knew what she was doing nice and my other grandmother was into so many

[00:19:04] different things um fibercraft wise and like sewing and everything along those lines so she

[00:19:13] was very diverse in her crafts that she participated. So for you so if if I were to ask you

[00:19:20] what what creation of yours that you're most proud of what would that be tell me about it.

[00:19:28] Oh man um I don't know if I could pick just one thing too because it's

[00:19:38] pick a favorite I have some really nice swatters I knit my first cable knit sweater last year

[00:19:45] okay it's pretty nice it's I wear it all the time you probably see me wear it it's a pink

[00:19:53] cable knit sweater. I have you yeah I actually said I made this I want really I like it that's awesome

[00:20:00] but I also do floral work as well so I also work at in town here at a floral shop or you really

[00:20:11] this I do in a floral shop. Yeah remind remind me when we're off mic to tell you the story

[00:20:20] of my college roommate who found you know you remember FTD uh the floral company you mean that

[00:20:26] you mean yeah well my my college roommate founded FTD dot com and there's a very interesting story

[00:20:33] related to Martha Stewart we should talk about it has to be some stories some stories we can share

[00:20:41] so we've got growing up in the church growing up in the farm in the rural community

[00:20:48] the job that you have because you grew up on the farm which fits so naturally into who you are

[00:20:54] the creative side of you that continues to bloom in blossom and you're actually working in that

[00:21:00] field part time and it is a side hustle right yeah what's the last we got about we got about

[00:21:09] eight minutes. I would say a big part of like what I am now that it kind of didn't always

[00:21:21] know about but like looking back at my family history makes a lot of sense it's like

[00:21:27] like hiking like adventure camping a lot like a lot like we're leaving tomorrow night to go to Arizona

[00:21:34] for a four day hiking trip so we're gonna be hiking through some national parks and

[00:21:42] we being me and Brett and also my sister yeah so it's yeah little group of us gonna go

[00:21:51] for a hiking trip. How did you in Brett meet again? Platville. At just in class somewhere.

[00:21:58] Well we live in the same building when we went iFers got there and when it was like his

[00:22:04] because it weren't you on the dance team or something like that. Cheer team. Cheer team. Okay.

[00:22:09] So I was there early for cheerleading like we needed we were there two weeks before school started

[00:22:14] okay and then he came a week before for marching band um so there's a whole

[00:22:23] oh good for him. Yeah the band geeked Mary's the cheerleader. Got it just gotta get that look good

[00:22:29] for you Brett Hullick. Yeah buddy the band gift Mary's the cheerleader. I love it absolutely.

[00:22:37] See Carrie I wouldn't put you in the cheerleader category. Absolutely. From knowing you I wouldn't have.

[00:22:44] So like in my experience you got cheerleaders and you got Rob Ross. Yeah.

[00:22:48] Cheerleaders are cheerleaders when they're cheerleading. Rob Ross are cheerleaders all the time.

[00:22:54] The majority of my experience with cheerleaders growing up was Rob Ross. You didn't strike me

[00:23:00] as that so I wouldn't have put you on the cheer team. No I actually hear that a lot like people

[00:23:04] like what you heard cheerleader. Yeah I used to you used to do that smile big and no loud.

[00:23:14] Yep throw some girls around. Yeah like up in the air. Yeah so the outdoor thing hiking you

[00:23:21] necessarily we've known that but now it's a thing. Yeah so I it wasn't until like I think it was

[00:23:30] like 21 21 or so I think that my oh also funny ties back to the lab my best friend.

[00:23:41] I met working at the lab we both started there around the same time. So my current to date best friend

[00:23:48] I met at the lab so it's also kind of a funny thing. She invited me she just graduated from

[00:23:54] Madison and she's going on this graduation like hiking trip with a couple people from school and

[00:24:01] she's like hey we need one more like do you want to come along? I was like yeah I do. I can't do

[00:24:06] sounds like the triple lifetime so because I'd never really done any like well someone I was younger

[00:24:12] but in my adult life I've never had done any like big traveling. So we went out to like you

[00:24:18] taught in Grand Canyon and did a lot of hiking it was like a it was like a big hiking trip.

[00:24:27] So like that's pretty much all we did the whole time besides sleeping because after you hike a lot

[00:24:32] you got us. You're exhausted yeah so we that kind of like so is it bugged bit me? Is it the

[00:24:40] you grew up in nature and now you're right and you spend your time kind of isolate a lot of it

[00:24:46] and you're working with lab stuff and then you get out into the big world. I think that's

[00:24:52] the thing yeah like that's probably part of it but like I my dad and like we did a lot of like

[00:25:00] hiking in camping when we were like younger okay like we did actually like a two week trip

[00:25:05] out till like the Rocky Mountains in Yellowstone in a pop-up camper pulled by a late body

[00:25:11] Durango. Yeah many vans were passing us going up the mountain like that was a whole thing

[00:25:17] so we did do stuff I don't I think I just kind of lost it somewhere along the way of being really busy

[00:25:24] in high school and like college and stuff but like I don't know going on that trip a couple years ago

[00:25:30] was kind of just like a wow like this is this is amazing but I actually come to find out we went to

[00:25:38] Rocky Mountain last May I had found out that my grandfather, my dad's dad,

[00:25:49] actually summited one of the most challenging 14ers in Colorado. No kidding and I had never

[00:25:57] known that and like he he passed away a couple years ago so it was like I never knew like they would

[00:26:05] out hiking to Colorado all the time. Your grandparents yeah all he would go out there all the time

[00:26:11] and just like be tearing it up on these mountains and stuff like I never knew because like that's not

[00:26:16] who he was when I knew him as grandpa like he was very much like a homebody sort of guy I don't know

[00:26:22] what changed for him but like he was an adventurous dude so like just for our listeners who don't

[00:26:29] understand the significance of what it means to sum it a 14er. What does that mean?

[00:26:36] That so a 14er is a 14,000 foot elevation mountain and they only other than Alaska they

[00:26:46] only really exist in the Rocky Mountain Mountain Range so there's like hundreds of them in Colorado

[00:26:53] and the most difficult one to summit where get to the top of is Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain

[00:27:02] National Park it's just the hike and the way the trail is it's just like it's the most

[00:27:07] difficult to summit it has the highest fail rate of any hike in Colorado so he he did it and now I

[00:27:20] 'm gonna do it eventually I want to prepare a little bit more of them just getting out there and be like oh

[00:27:27] I should do this you know like this is a dangerous hike so it's you gotta have

[00:27:32] no they're stuck together or climb or both. Both once you get to the alpine zone or like where

[00:27:40] the trees stop growing you gotta do some scrambling to get up there because it's just rock yeah no more

[00:27:46] dirt just rocks yeah okay so you and Brett are going to Arizona to go do some hiking. Yes

[00:27:53] I love it mm-hmm good good for you desert hikes well this is the only time of year I can get

[00:27:58] Brett down to Arizona because it's not 100 degrees it's like winter only for Brett Arizona

[00:28:05] he's a very like warm person so like he he does not belong in the desert why it's in the summer

[00:28:11] yeah it was constant but he does really well in the north and the winter because you just you know

[00:28:17] has the beard and the flannel shirt and away we go yep so as he has he bent you said grand canyon

[00:28:24] yep has he bent there before? No oh wow yeah so I've been there and hiked through and stuff but

[00:28:31] he hasn't been there yet so it's kind of all never forget in 2018 we went and I'd been there as a boy

[00:28:41] we took our our kids out there when my son ate and graduated from high school and

[00:28:51] we get to the I think it was the bright angel trailhead and you know you've seen the picture as he

[00:28:57] seen him for years and there's this kind of framed by these by these large timbers and you see

[00:29:05] the vista and it turns to me and his eyes are enormous you know dad you gotta see this you know

[00:29:15] and it's the it does it's a it's an astounding way to see God's creation I pray that's a real

[00:29:22] blessing for you too it's that's a gift carry it's been such a wonderful conversation we're so

[00:29:27] glad that you joined us here on christian all things listeners stay tuned because Brett Helwig

[00:29:33] will be coming in future episodes the other part of carry in Helwig thanks for joining us

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