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Dairy Queen: When a Gay City Mouse Goes Country

BY Rachel Belle  on November 14, 2012 @ 5:26 pm (Updated: 8:37 am - 11/15/12 )

Dave Stanley, 46, was an apartment manager in Seattle for 10 years.

"I was right on Capitol Hill and, you know, three o'clock in the morning, there would be someone dumpster diving or a skateboarder would go by. It could wake the dead."

Work was stressing him out.

"There was constantly something going on. Someone was emailing me with a broken something. The cell phone was going, the fax was going."

So five years ago he quit his job, picked up, and bought a farm just outside of Olympia in unincorporated Thurston County. Dave had never lived or worked on a farm before. He knew nothing about how to raise animals or build a barn, but he knew that he wanted to give farming a try.

"Look at all the how-to books right behind you on the shelf there," he said gesturing. "That's how I learned to do pretty much everything. I've got cows and pigs, sheep, turkey, geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigeons."

Dave has even learned to do some of the slaughtering himself.

"I feel better about myself knowing that the animals that I'm eating are raised here and there's no factory farming involved. That's why I don't have a problem with the slaughter, so much. I don't find it fun but it doesn't disgust me because I know they had a really good life, and just one bad day at the end."

Dave can make you the freshest ham and cheese sandwich you'll ever eat.

"I make my own cheese. I make Wisconsin brick. I made gouda, cheddar, fromage blanc. I make my own bread. I have a grinder. I grind my own wheat seeds so I can make some wheat. I just started up with sour dough."

That sandwich will go down easy.

"We have a lot of stuff brewing. A hefeweizen, a porter, some ginger ale. Just started doing merlot."

Dave says farm life is a lot of work, but it's very fulfilling. But he does miss some things about the city.

"I'm a gay guy and I'm living out in unincorporated Thurston County. Things are a little different than living on Capitol Hill, so that sometimes gets to me. But I have friends coming in pretty much every weekend from Seattle because it's kind of new and fun for them. It keeps me sane."

Dave and his best friend Steve have nicknamed themselves The Dairy Queens.

"Steve is really into knitting. Eventually he would like to shear the sheep and cart the wool and spin it into yarn and make hats and socks."

Steve and Dave make quite the team when it comes to castrating the animals.

"Who knew that five years ago, living on Capitol Hill, that I'd be here castrating cows and pigs? But here I am! I have arrived!"

I avoided the castration and stuck to the cute. During our tour, a little barn cat named Hunter charged through the barn, climbed up my body, and spent 10 minutes wrapped around my shoulders purring. It was the first time I've done an interview wearing a cat scarf. And it only got cuter. Dave and I walked back to his house, ready for a slice of his homemade apple pie, and discovered a package on the back doorstep full of perfectly fuzzy baby chicks.

Dave is officially a country mouse. He says his nights are much quieter.

"Now when I fall asleep, I hear the pigs snoring or grunting in the middle of the night. That's what's normal for me!"

The calls and faxes have slowed down.

"I don't have a cell phone now."

Dave says he can't see himself moving back to the city.

"I don't have tons of money but I'm happy, I'm comfortable. What else do I need? You can keep saving and saving and saving for retirement and have a lot of money in the bank and you'll be dead. I got a lot of beef in the bank! I don't have a lot of money, but I have a lot of beef, pork and chicken."

Rachel Belle, Ron and Don Show Reporter
Rachel Belle is a feature contributor and personality on The Ron & Don Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 3-7pm), and host of Ring My Belle Weekends (Saturdays at 5pm and Sundays at 3pm).
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Comments (17)


  • Add A Comment

  • Snout wrote...
    He made a career change
    November 14, 2012 6:35 pm
    and is good at what he chose to do. Why point out that he's a bender? It's his personal business and not ours. Good for him.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Mavila wrote...
    Obsessed, I Guess
    November 14, 2012 7:41 pm
    Doesn't bring anything to the story. Totally gratuitous. Rachel must be the "gay" correspondent.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • daveismenotyou wrote...
    Rachel
    November 14, 2012 8:07 pm
    is trying to take over Linda's daily Gay Column
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Dan1 wrote...
    What a stupid story
    November 14, 2012 8:16 pm
    Mynorthwest is going to hell in a hand bag, WITH A BULLET!!!!!!!!!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Burn_Notice wrote...
    It's Good to know
    November 14, 2012 8:21 pm
    The Gay and Lesbian agenda never rests at MYNW.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • justanotheridiot wrote...
    Seriously...
    November 15, 2012 8:15 am
    Why won't she just go away along with d bags that have her on their radio show? She's just another idiot
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • WAmovesRight wrote...
    Frustrated but not agressive...
    November 15, 2012 8:57 am
    ... I don't know Rachel but just from reading and hearing her stories she seem like a smart and interesting person.

    I do so tire of the endless stories pushing - quite agressivley - the LGBT agenda. His sexual preference had no bearing on this story at all

    That said, conservatives ought to continually push against the invasiveness of the LGBT agenda yet there is no need to demonize thos who are deceived into believing they're fighting a cause. All you do is encourage it.

    MyNW, I ask again... when is enough enough? What more does teh LGBT demand from the citizens of WA? You've got everything the rest of us have now legally...

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Stevebo wrote...
    You guys do realize you have a choice to night listen/read right?
    November 15, 2012 9:41 am
    I'm just saying... some of you would rather whine about things than anything else.

    I found the article to be interesting - and I'm guessing Rachel did too (hence the article).

    Truly if you don't like it, you can click to something else, no?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • WAmovesRight wrote...
    @Stevebo
    November 15, 2012 12:33 pm
    You're right. We do have a choice. However, lately it seems like they put a gay story up almost every day with a ginormous picture of them kissing. So then the choice reallys is do I continue to visit MyNW or not. If MyNW continues to be yet another LGBT platform then I WILL cease from visiting. I'm simply asking the MyNW folks if this is what they're doing...

    Outside of the LGBT agenda they seem smitten with I like this stie and enjoy the local stories.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • flipper wrote...
    And...
    November 15, 2012 2:05 pm
    Some of us trod thru MYNW to get to ESPN and/or KTTH to listen to online radio. Interesting that in the new myNW, there's no link on the top line banner to a website for KTTH.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • FormerMarineSgt wrote...
    @stevebo
    November 17, 2012 8:04 am
    you're right - they do have a choice, but they'd rather read columns where they dislike or potentially even hate the writer so that they can find old, tired, reused ways to complain again and again. They seem to have no other lives that making that kind of comment on here.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • WAmovesRight wrote...
    @former Marine Sgt...
    November 17, 2012 8:53 am
    ... uh... did you even read my post... I don't hate or even dislike Rachel Bell or her column... she seems to be a very gifted person...

    I grow tired of "The Agenda" that WA seems to have fallen in love with.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Sarg
    November 17, 2012 5:54 pm
    Always calling people haters just because they have a different point of view. Again, Tolerance is a on e way street for you lefties.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rocketman wrote...
    This is a stupid article
    November 17, 2012 9:24 am
    And this life change is different from a heterosexual one how?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Saltchucker wrote...
    The fact he's gay makes alot of sense.
    November 17, 2012 2:48 pm
    After all wouldn't you expect someone castrating animals to be an expert ball handler?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ronzilla wrote...
    So Dave is a queer? Or is he light-hearted?
    November 17, 2012 7:35 pm
    I'm sorry, but the perverts around here have so perverted the word 'gay' that your headline is incomprehensible. That's really sad...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • dexterjibs wrote...
    I am not anti Rachel Belle
    November 17, 2012 8:41 pm
    but what the hel1 is her gay obsession with her stories? I am growing very weary of it. Hey Rachel, why don't you do a story about the gay people from Seattle that moved to Enumclaw to have sex with horses that resulted with one GAY guy dying? What, that doesn't fit your playbook about sodomites? Yea, the Enumclaw horse sex case was a case about gay guys having sex with male horses and putting the video on the internet. Rachel, get over your fay-ag obsession and realize it is an abnormal life style choice. Ron and Don would have a great show if it wSn't for their gay obsession. Who gives a she-ot about gay people or heterosexual people or bi-sexual people or people engaging in beastiality or polygamists?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }