She Survived 10 Days Alone in the Boundary Waters Eating Squirrels

Patty “Fern” McRoy of Patty’s Pots and Plants stops by to promote an upcoming store event.

We try to talk about plants.

Instead, we learn you need consent to touch one, hear how Patty survived 10 days alone in the Boundary Waters (yes, squirrels were involved), and watch Glenn come to terms with the fact that he kills everything he touches. Plants. Relationships. Etc.

Anyway, support your local plant shop.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

How would you do it?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Kill the squirrel? Yeah. But grab it by the tail, maybe swing it a lot, you know, really hard until it just like its brain just like gets hit, you know?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Well, how would how how would you do it? How did you do it?

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Oh, I did I snapped the neck.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

It's K Who Radio 87.9. You're in the studio. You're healing the dulcet tones of your boy Glenn Sheen. That's me. And it's time for the K Who Are You interview. And in the studio today, to my left, or if you're looking at us from behind, uh, also to my left, I guess if you're standing behind uh me directly, uh, but that is Patty Fern McCroy from Patty's Pots and Plants. Welcome to the studio today, Patty.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Well, thank you for having me, Glenn. It is my absolute pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Oh, you're so lovely and charming already. No, it's my pleasure to have you here. Uh and uh now, Patty, uh Patty Fern McCroy, owner and proprietor of Patty's Pots and Plants Garden Center.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

That's right, Glenn.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

And I hear you're having a grand opening series.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

We sure are this weekend. Um, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yeah. We'll have lots of activities, um, things to do for your normal garden center patron, but also the entire family. So it is a family event. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Oh, it's a family event. So what if what if you were like a cool, you know, uh, you know, cool hip radio announcer who's been recently divorced, uh, has no kids, but wants to go to a fun family event. What would I do there?

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Are you are you familiar with plants and potting, or would this be a new adventure for you, Glenn?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Oh, thank you for asking. I am familiar with plants. I've seen them around um since I was a baby. Um as far as potting goes, no. I mean, um, I had a couple friends try to get me into potting in high school, if you know what I mean. And I said no. What? Uh like pot, like pot, like um uh Mary Jane. I'd like to Was that your girlfriend? I wish, yeah. I did not have a girlfriend in high school. Um, so so you can communicate with plants, uh help owners, uh, or maybe not owner, maybe that's not the right way to put it. Do you consider yourself a owner of plants or a haver of plants or a shared cohabitator?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, more the latter, Glenn, more the latter, a cohabitator with plants. Um, you know what, most a lot of people have plants in their homes and their apartments, but they just That's crazy to me because I can't keep anything alive.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Like relationships, plants, pets.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Yeah. Did you lose a pet recently, Glenn?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

No, just everyone I ever had, uh uh something happened, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

That probably says more about I'm just going out on a limb here.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Sure. Limb. Like a tree.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but that probably says like more about you than it does about um anything else, right? If you're the common denominator.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Oh, so like it's my fault.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Probably, yeah. But you know what is so great about being able to be a steward of living things is that you can always start again.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Right, because you can always branch out.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Before everyone leaves you.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Glenn, that's really funny.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Thank you. Uh okay, so but how did you get to where you are? How did you how did you become paddy of Paddy's pots and plants? Because it didn't just happen by accident.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

No, it was a long road, Glenn. It was a long road. I would say the turning point for me um to this profession where I I really did realize it was a calling, was um when I was a camper at a summer camp. Wow. Um, and we did a we did a canoeing trip in the Boundary Waters Glen. And unfortunately, I had an I was left behind. They miscounted the campers, and I was left left behind. I was I was 14, so I wasn't, you know, it wasn't just a tiny child, but I was still still still young.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Well, it's even I'm a full-grown adult and I'm still terrified of being left behind. Do you know what I mean? Even though there's no one to leave me behind now.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

So um, but that's a long way of saying I spent about 10 days by myself in the boundary waters. 10 days? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

That's a week plus three days. Three days.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah. Ten whole days.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

That's wild. Did you did you end up going feral at some point? Did you end up attacking um, you know, animal creatures or like what did you eat to survive?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

You know, a lot of it I have sent kind of I have I have blacked out. Sometimes I have this image of me ripping raw into a squirrel, you know, like I I can I'm I break the neck and I just bite and pull and I can see the tendons. And I don't know, you know, Glenn, I don't know if that's real or not. I but it probably is a memory, but it could just be, you know, something that I've imposed on that time.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

That seems like a really specific thing to have just imagined at the time.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Because you would know the difference between ripping open a nature valley bar and ripping open a living squirrel.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yes, less tendons, no tendons, yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah, or meat or blood or fur.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

And probably it wasn't squirming or anything. But anyway, I I remember I had this moment, you know, where I was just I was lying on a rock and um letting the sun kind of come into me, and a leaf fell on my neck. And that leaf as it fell onto my bosom said, you know, you will live. And I said, Thank you back.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Oh that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

But obviously I was eventually rescued by some um fishermen and apparently I was wearing some fur pelts.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

I don't know where they're fur fur pelts.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

I don't know where they came from.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

You had enough to make a pelt? Like you had taken it.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I guess I guess so. As I said, you know, it's but really a blur. I might have cornered off sections of my mind about those ten days, but they found me with with um with some fur pelts, yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

It wasn't an amazing story. Uh a story of survival, a story of of possible squirrel murder, uh, which is just also survival. I I I'm not gonna you know paint you into a corner here. Uh, but we do have to cut to an ad break real quick because there's other businesses out there in the local area and beyond the greater state of Minnesota. So hey, K Who fans, stay tuned here at 87.9. Uh, don't turn off your radio. And if you just pulled up to somewhere in your car and you're listening to this, just please sit to the ads before you turn off your car and then go inside. It's not that big of a ask. I don't know why it's so hard to get you to listen to these ads, but I really need you to do it. Okay, we'll be right back in the studio in just a little bit with Patty Fern McCoy. I had not expect this. You're amazing.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Well, sorry, was that a little too much?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Oh god, no, no. I wanted to be honest about my background, but your honesty is making me more honest.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Okay. I didn't want people to just think I had, you know, opened up a plant store without having to have some trials and tribulations to get there.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

I just didn't I I didn't know that was a part of the process. That you'd have to, in order to open your own plant store, you had to go through some type of like Gary Paulson hatchet situation in the woods by yourself.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

I don't think you have to, but I certainly did.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Sounds like you did. Yeah, absolutely. I would actually I think I would have like day one killed a squirrel, you know, like uh like even with I still have like I have granola bars in my pocket and I'm like, well, I'm gonna eat those later. How would you do it? What's that? How would you do it? Kill the squirrel? Yeah. Oh, kind of like you said, just you know, I guess snap it, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah, like a crab leg, I guess. Sure. But grab it by the tail, maybe swing it a lot, you know, really hard until it just like its brain just like gets hit, you know? Yeah. Well, how would how how would you do it? How did you do it?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Oh, I did I snapped the neck.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Oh, we're coming back. All right. Hey now. That was an ad for Fist Murderer 4 on PlayStation 5. Fist Murderer 4. Get your hands dirty. We're in the studio today with Patty Fern McCroy, owner and proprietor of Patty's Pots and Plants Garden Center, which is having their grand opening this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I brought a few here today. Do you want to meet some plants? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Oh my gosh, yes. Okay, I thought I saw something when you were coming in, but I didn't want to get too excited.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Um, only if you, you know, it needs to be a kind of a mutual do you wanna experience.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I super do. We used to have animal trainers on the show all the time. And uh we had so many issues with that. But plants, wonderful, wonderful choice. I'm excited to see them. Um yeah, well, but bust them on out. Let's show us who you got here, and I'll do my best to describe them to the audience, okay? Okay, uh, listeners, right now I'm seeing oh two beautiful plants. Um, they're both green, they both have leaves, and they both are in pots. And uh I guess I just described all plants ever.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Um, but um No, Glenn, it was such a good description because first of all, not all plants are in pots. I really like this pot. You can get this pot at Patty's Pots and Plants. I was just gonna ask. It's wooden.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

It's wooden. It's a wooden pot. Wooden pot. You're kidding me. Isn't that a little scary for the plant if the plant itself is um, you know, a tree is a plant in a way, and then you make the pot from the tree. So it's kind of like this plant is living in the skin of another plant, you know? Is that is that scary for the plant?

SPEAKER_01 9:01

You know, let me can I ask it? Why don't I do why don't I do that now?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

I don't think it is, but Okay, but you're gonna commune with the plant right now on air?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, I'm just gonna take a moment and we'll just see if um anything comes of it.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

I would love to hear you commune and and I'd love to hear the It's inside my head. Oh, okay. Well that's gonna be hard for the listeners. If you wouldn't mind just kind of filling us in as what so first, uh you know consent's important.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

So, you know, I would ask the plant, may I touch you? Okay, I'm getting yes. So then I'm gonna just I'm just gonna take a leaf. Okay. And I'm um narrating for the audience here who can't see my. I'm putting leaf between my pointer finger and my thumb.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

That's right, I can confirm that. And just a little bit like it was nodding yes when you asked for consent, too. I will say that as well. It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Thank you. The aura is telling me that um it's that's not it's not a weird thing for it to be in a wooden pot.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Oh, thank God. What if on air right now you found out it was? Oh, I would be horrified. You have to run back to the garden center and throw away all the wooden pot or try to build a new tree out of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Glenn, do you want to try to trim this plant? Um we like to trim back to make sure other things can grow. If it gets too overburdened, new things can't grow.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Would you say that's kind of similar to like our lives as well? Like if um, let's say you're just growing in a certain direction and maybe it's not the healthiest direction, and maybe like the direction you were going with the sun that you were like leaning towards is now coming from a different place, or maybe just left the sky entirely, you might need to trim yourself back in order to grow.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Absolutely, Glenn. And I'm just pulling this example out of my head, but like maybe you were in a relationship or you've been married, and you realized that it wasn't serving you anymore, and you weren't growing or developing as a person. So you have to take your shears, also known as a divorce attorney, and cut away your spouse. But in so doing, new life can grow from that and magical things can come of it. That's just one analogy that comes to mind.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

That's really nonspecific. Um, okay, how do I cut this motherfucker? Uh this how do I cut how do I where do I where do I trim here?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

So look for a weak leaf. Is this a weak leaf or is this a new leaf? No, that's a weak leaf. It's yellow. It's yellow, you can see that.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

I know, but is it yellow because it's gonna get green? No, no, I think maybe it just needs a lot more water. Maybe it needs to be constantly like that.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

So also part of shearing and trimming plants is being decisive.

unknown 11:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

And knowing what you feel deep down.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

I'm actually a pretty decisive person. Well, I wouldn't say all the time, but mostly decisive. I would say I'd say m half half the time I'm decisive. The other half I'm mostly already instinctually decisive.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

So I'm pretty decisive. Maybe I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Try to be in this moment.

unknown 11:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

And this is helping, not hurting, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah. Oh, did you ask for consent first?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Oh my god, I didn't. Oh my god. Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

You know, sometimes we just forget that in the moment things are just moving so fast. Yeah, but it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

But it's important so important to just Do I hold the first and then ask for the first time?

SPEAKER_01 12:16

No, you don't necessarily need to hold. You can just just put that out there in the world and the plant will answer back. It really will. It might not be in English, but just be like, Can I do this for you?

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Um I'll I I'll ask it. Okay. Do I have consent to cut a piece of you off? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

And what do you think it's telling you?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Some of the leaves are shaking, and I can't tell if that's out of fear or trepidation or excitement, but I think it's saying yes to you.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

I think it's saying yes to.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Just go for it. Okay, in that sense, I think you think your your listeners are excited for you to have this moment.

unknown 12:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Perfect. How does it feel, Glenn? This little guy was holding this big guy back. Right. You can see how um the piece that you're holding is dry, it's shrivel shriveled.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

I relate to that.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

You know, being dry and shriveled. How much it's taking away from the health of the overall plant. And don't you feel good about well, I don't want to put words in your mouth, Glenn, but um Well, you can put anything in my mouth. Don't you feel like you have connected on a certain level with another living thing by doing that? In a powerful way, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

You know, I do. You might if I keep this.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Oh, I'm so happy if you do. That that would make me that would I I'm thrilled.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Just could have put it out there as a little reminder to me to uh let go of what doesn't uh what doesn't serve you. But before we wrap up, we do have the K Who questionnaire. These are questions that are sent in from the audience. Here we go. Patty, if you were to reincarnate as any animal, what animal would you be?

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Oh, uh, you know, I I don't know why, but a squirrel is coming to my mind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah, again, I really do think you ended up eating and killing a couple squirrels to stay alive. I think there's a reason why you're you're tied to it.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Uh we're not I'm not sure about that, but Okay, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

That's more than fair. I don't need to I don't need to push you on that. That's more than fine. Be sure to join me this weekend at Patty's Pots and Plants Garden Center for the Grand Opening. Uh and hey, if you're not can't make for the Grand Opening, don't bother ever going there. Oh, I'm just kidding. No, please just go there, support local businesses, and support my new friend Patty. It's an absolute treat to have you here. Uh hey, stick around. Don't turn that dial, because up next we got a solid rock block of Savage Garden. And thanks for tuning in. You have a wonderful rest of your day, K Who 87.9. Don't you go anywhere?

unknown 14:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

That's great. You this is amazing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Will this grow into a plant if I plant it?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

No, no, it's dead.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah.

unknown 14:33

Yeah.