Today we are happy to welcome the pigeon man Phillip Fry to Dad Stories, a special segment of the Dadhouse Podcast. This is where we seek out interesting dads with interesting stories. Phillip is the father of four that sold his business in Tucson, bought some land in Northern Arizona, and began to build his own home with his wife. The man is doing it all. 

The question we all want to know is (1:57) what is it like to build your own home as a stay-at-home dad. There have to be challenges, and Phillip lets us know what they are. Then, of course, because we are Dadhouse, we need to know what kind of water heater (3:31) Phillip has. The answer is different from any we’ve had before. But where does Phillip get his water (4:48)

Being off grid as Phillip is, one of the biggest questions we have is how do you potty train a toddler in an outhouse? (9:33). And does Phillip consider himself a homesteader? (11:53). The whole experience presents challenges that most of us will never know. Phillip takes the time (13:53) to let us know what those are and which ones he struggles with. 

What about support? For a dad that is beyond rural, how does Phillip make connections (17:07) Phillip tells of his journey and it ends up in the Dad Lounge (18:50) hosted by Athomedad.org. For other rural dads needing support, this is a great place to go. 

Now it’s time to get to the pigeons! (23:00). Mick has experience with chickens and comes up with chicken math and pigeon math (25:00) which apparently is its own thing. The real question though (28:01) is can we send a carrier pigeon to the next HomeDadCon? 

A huge thank you to Phillip for joining us on today’s show. 

In this episode, Dadhouse Teams Up with Sam Mellinger the Kansas City Royals VP of Communications. Not only that, but we also get a chance to talk about our last Man Weekend, a time of the year were we leave it all behind and reconnect with our friends. This year we stopped by a brewery on the way. Grab your favorite craft beer and enjoy this week’s episode. 

Right off the bat (0.54) Mick has technical problems. This has become a tradition at this point. But Mick is a trooper and comes back on. This brings us to our first question of the day (2.35): Do you parent genders differently, especially if you only have one gender? It’s an interesting discussion as the dads do a deep dive. Next up (5.47) is the Mike’s Intro Challenge. Which household chore do you hate to do the most? The dads are all over the place, but laundry will always make the list. 

And today we are proud to make a special announcement! (11:39) Dadhouse Podcast is proud to have our YouTube channel up. We’ll do a live record of many of our episodes and put them up if you want to follow along. Unedited and raw, which makes this sound way sexier than it’s meant. 

Now onto Man Weekend (14:35) and why we go. Jake gives a totally great reason that doesn’t sound rehearsed at all. We also stopped by the Levi Garrison and Sons Brewery which was a blast. Next up is Housekeeping (33:01)

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One of the great things we’ve done over the last year is to introduce advice from other fathers. We continue that here (36:15) with DadCon Dad Advice.

Sam Mellinger is the current VP of communications with the Kansas City Royals. His 21-year career has ranged from high school sports to the World Series, and the Super Bowl. He began as a newspaper reporter and columnist for the Kansas City Star before making the change to the Royals. The father of two boys, we are proud to have him on our show. 

Sam begins (47:00) by talking about making the change in his career while realizing how it would affect his wife and kids. But he also looks forward (51:14) to creating those lifelong memories that every father needs. Mick asks a great question (53:55) about how we balance the heroes and role models of our children when the person might not be kind in person. It’s the question of whether can we separate the art from the artist. Finally (1:11:20) we get into the Dadhouse Five—Let’s check your dadness!

Thanks for stopping by Sam and sharing your experience with us! 

Welcome to a new segment on Dadhouse: Dad Stories. These are the dads that show up every day and do the job. Their voices, their stories, their lives. On the first episode of Dad Stories, Mick and Shannon welcome Daniel Wilkinson, a rural at-home dad showing us how it’s done. 

But before we get to it, please take a minute to follow, like, and subscribe. It helps get stories like Daniel’s out into the world, and it gives fathers the much-needed advice and community that they deserve. 

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Daniel Wilkinson is the father of two boys under the age of five, and he’s been an at-home dad since the beginning. Living in the geographical center of Texas, his life is more about being outdoors than in downtowns. Previously, he was a geologist that held different positions with both state government and in the oil fields. His wife is the only female OB/GYN within 90 miles. Daniel and his family chose to have him stay home simply because it made sense. 

Dad stories start (5:07) with the tradition of black-eyed peas on New Year’s Eve. If you’re from the South, you probably know the story behind that tradition. (6:00) Daniel gives a little bit of his family history so that we can all walk a mile in his shoes. This is one of the reasons we started doing Dad Stories; to get those other experiences that we can all learn from. 

One of the biggest obstacles Daniel faces is a lack of support (8:32) For many of our rural dads, it can often feel that you are an island. Daniel says that it can be pretty cutthroat in the rural areas and how others view masculinity. From men and women, some always have an opinion. 

Next, Daniel gets into how he builds the memories that are his paychecks (11:01). He doesn’t have to worry about traffic, strangers, and many of the other things that parents living in cities do. Instead, his concerns focus on wildlife and farm equipment. He spends time teaching his boys how to respect both (16:53) and how to always have an exit strategy when dealing with animals. 

During Covid, his life didn’t change much (18:51). The biggest difference is that they just didn’t go to town. One of his best pieces of advice is how you frame things for your kids. They are not hikes or walks, they are adventures. It’s not so much a hike as it is dinosaur bone hunting. There’s a lot to do out in the rural areas. And if you’re interested (22:26), we determine if you can eat an ostrich egg. 

There is a lot of driving for Daniel and his family, and he’s got the experience to help other dads (24:38). He limits drive time to six hours and doesn’t use screens very much. Instead, he takes the time to talk to his boys. In his words “Hopefully we are establishing those lines of communication” that will benefit him and his family in the future. This all goes into practice when he took his kids to Colorado for a week and a half by himself. 

One huge challenge that he faces is connections (27:04). Being rural, there aren’t that many at-home dads around him. He finds his people at churches, feed stores, and in his hobbies such as rodeos and aviation. 

Whenever we have a guest like this, we always ask them for their best piece of advice (31:22). Daniel delivers and helps those that live in an area where the closest neighbor may be 40 miles away. 

Finally, we end this episode with a discussion on cutting horses and how that works (38:31). We are all more than dads. We have lives and joys outside of parenting, and it’s always fun to dive into them.