December 5, 2023 • 11 mins
Joy Bartling of Scattered Joy Acres talks about the up-coming Drive thru Nativity on December 16, and also all about Scattered Joy Acres!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, It's Lucy Chapman and here'smore. I've got Joy bartling in from
Scattered joy Acres. Thank you somuch for being here today. Thank you
for having me Lucy. Now you'vegot a big event coming up at Scattered
joy Acres. We do have abig event. It's say actually, this
is actually our tenth year of doingthis event. It is going to be
on December sixteenth, from five thirtyto eight, and it is our drive
(00:23):
through Nativity and Santa's Wonderland where youget to experience the true meaning of Christmas,
driving through the Nativities, seeing theshepherds hanging out with the sheep and
the flock, the angels, andthen the wise men hanging out with the
camels, and then you get toend it by driving through Santa's Wonderland where
the reindeer, the elves and ofcourse Santa will be where you can get
(00:47):
out of your car at that pointtake pictures with Santa. Make sure you
give them your list. Oh yeah, I've already got it already started.
I cannot even imagine a better placefor a drive through live Nativity scene than
Scattered Joyacres. It's all right there, right, it is all right there
and so it's last year we actuallydid a walkthrough because we weren't quite situated
(01:10):
at our new facility. But thisyear it will be a drive through,
which will be a free will donation. All of the proceeds go to help
our Animal Assistant Therapy program serving seniors, veterans at risk, youth and disadvantaged
individuals. So we would love everybodyto come out and support this and just
get a little taste of Christmas outin the country. Joy. In case
(01:30):
anybody has to leave, I don'twant them to miss the details. Tell
me again a website where and when. It is scatter Joyacres dot org and
that's SCA t t er joi acr e s dot org and it's coming
up on the sixteenth, sixteenth ofDecember from five thirty to eight. Now,
(01:53):
now that we've got that out ofthe way, and we'll we'll mention
that again. But I want totalk a little bit about Scattered Joyacres.
And you mentioned this is the secondone at your new facility, second yet
drive through, and well our firstone was a walk through because we weren't
quite set up. This will goback to our original drive through, which
is year ten of that because wedid it at our previous location in Omaha.
(02:14):
A lot of people have seen thename Scattered joy Acres. They've seen
it on the news, they've seenit in different places, but they may
not really know what it's all about. Can you tell us what goes on
it's Scattered joy Acres? Or they'veseen those pictures on somebody's social media like,
oh, where's my kids petting akangaroo? Yes, exactly, that
is Scattered Joy Acres. So weare a fifteen acre urban rescue ranch.
(02:38):
We use our animals to do therapywith seniors, veterans, at risk,
youth, and disadvantaged individuals. Wealso have the same license as any national
zoo, so we're equivalent to HenryDorley San Diego, where you can come
in and you can interact with theseanimals. So yes, you can pet
a kangaroo, you can pet aporcupine, you can hang out with the
cows. You know, just enjoytime with these animals, because animals are
(03:01):
very therapeutic. Even though you maynot be coming there for a session,
these animals help these people get throughjust maybe having a crappy day and just
want to come hang out. Alot of people that listen to me in
the afternoon know how much I loveanimals. I certainly not on the scale.
I mean I love them on thescale that you do. But certainly
I'm not involved as much as youare. But I've got my dogs,
(03:23):
and we all have our pets,and sometimes people make fun of us because
we call them our fur babies orour kids. And I used to think
that animals were just you know,animals, what they hanging out whatever.
They don't really think, they don'treally reason. In fact, that was
one of my biggest arguments, animalsdon't reason. Went to a friend of
mine, went with her to haveher horse looked at. This is years
(03:45):
ago, and that horse I waswatching them down in the Marina are the
arena, not that they were inthe marina. That would not have been
good. I don't know what happenedto the horse, but I was watching
this horse, knew her and wantedto be there with her, and was
scared but was comforted when she wasthere. Changed everything. Did you have
(04:06):
a moment like that in your life? Yes. I was born and raised
on a dairy farm, and animalshelped me. The dairy cows I would
lay in the necks of them andthey would wrap their heads around me.
And you know, on the sixthDay, God created land animals and then
he created humans and always tell peoplebecause he knew that we needed them.
Animals are non judgmental, They loveyou unconditionally. And your story about the
(04:31):
horse, you know, we havean Egala program that is centered around our
horses, and those horses help unfoldthe story in these individuals that have PTSD
or trauma in their life, andthey were just amazing at the way they
just scoop people up and just helpthem figure out their life. You mentioned
(04:55):
that you were raised on a dairyfarm. What was the path? What
is the path that got you froma teenager to where you are today?
So, like most of us growingup, we make some bad choices in
life. I know I mistakes money, and my bad choices were financial,
which led me into prison a coupletimes for writing some bad checks or borrowing
(05:18):
money from an employer that I shouldn'thave. And so that was my journey
to learn more about myself. It'snot that my family didn't love me,
but I was the oldest of fourchildren and they would get to go on
family vacations and being the oldest,you had to stay home and take care
of the cows because they don't goon vacation, they don't stop milking.
(05:41):
And so my connection was always animals, and animals always helped me through trials
and tribulations. And so eighteen yearsago we started Scattered Joy Acres by rescuing
animals to rescue people. I honestlydid not have any idea about your story,
but now that I do know,it is amazing. There are so
(06:01):
many people out there that have foundthemselves in a family that where am I?
Where do I fit in? Andthat's where it starts. And then
you just go from one thing tothe next, And yes you did,
but the things that you have accomplishedsince then are just amazing. And you
are such an inspiration to me,and I'm sure I'm not the only one,
and an inspiration to a lot.You moved recently from your original location
(06:28):
to where you are. Now,how's that working out? We love our
new location. We were sad toleave the Omaha area, but we also
over the last years couple years,we started having some issues with vandalism and
kids becoming a playground at Scattered JoyAcres and it just become unsafe, and
we were able to have a partnershipwith Habitat for Humanity and they're able to
(06:53):
use that property to make sustainable housingfor people that we need in our community.
And we were able to moved toa much secure destination station for people
to come. And actually we havemore visitors that come now than we ever
did in the Omaha location. Soit's really been a great journey and God
has really opened up a lot ofdoors for other individuals to come and partake
(07:15):
at Scattered Joy Acres. God isgood. He is amazing, Yes he
is. I've said He orchestrated thatwhole move in like seventy two hours,
Like the sale came in. Theproperty we found, we went on the
market the next day and it waspretty much all done in seventy two hours,
and we were moving a ranch.And you never doubted for a minute,
right, I never doubted for aminute. Nope, because he kept
(07:40):
giving me those signs. You know, he has to give me those big
marquee signs that say yes, you'rehead in the right direction. So well,
I like to say, no,I didn't doubt for a full minute.
It is absolutely wonderful that you arein a great place now with Scattered
joy Acres and you're able to actuallyserve more people and more people have access
(08:01):
to it. They do, andmore people have learned about us as well.
You know, brought in people fromKansas City, we brought more people
in from the Lincoln area. We'vebeen able to serve more demographics of people
to make Scattered joy Acres more successful. What's the one thing you want people
to know? The stories. There'sdays that any person in the nonprofit world
(08:22):
gets frustrated when funding gets low orI'm done, I'm tired, i don't
want to do this anymore, andsomeone will either email me or they'll call
me and they'll say, I justwant you to know. When I visited
Scattered joy Acres, I was goingthrough a divorce or something was going on,
and when I went into the Cowpin, Moonshine just gave me a big
(08:43):
old lick with his rough tongue,and I realized that life was going to
be okay. And so even thoughI do therapy with people, That's why
I said, when people come justto visit the petting Zoo, they're getting
their own therapy. Because we don'talways know what's going on in people's lives
and those animal do they just theylove us unconditionally. And so it's those
(09:03):
stories that I love to tell otherpeople and know that it's going to be
okay. I love that. Whatis the information to get in touch with
Scattered Joy? So our website isScatterjoyacres dot org. There is flyers.
There's also postings on social media.It's a drive through Nativity on December sixteenth
from five thirty to eight and weare located at four to one zero seven
(09:28):
Waverley Road in Murray, Nebraska.If you're familiar with Highway seventy five takes
you to Nebraska City, there's alittle place called beaver Lake. A lot
of people know where beaver Lake is. If you turn west on Waverley Road
and go three miles, you willbe right there at the drive through Nativity.
When people come out to the Nativityscene, they could bring a toy.
(09:48):
That would be amazing because we area Toys for tot drop off location.
We are taking toys up until Decembersixteenth, So while you're coming through
the Drive Through Nativity, bring atoy. We're the only ones in cast
County that is a operation toy driveand so I think we're having actually a
party for those needy families in thatarea on the twenty first. So bring
(10:09):
a toy, boys, girls,stuffed animals. We would love to have
you support our toy drive. Well, Joy, thank you so much for
being here today and for sharing yourstory. I know this is going to
bless people. Oh I forgot youbrought a friend. Yes, we have
a friend. Matteo is one ofour newest editions. He's a kikachew.
(10:30):
He's nine weeks old now, kindof looks like a monkey, but they're
more related to the quadam mondays andthe raccoons which we have at our zoo
as well, And so he's goingto be a new therapy animal that people
will be able to hang out andspend some time with. Yeah, and
he's a lover too. He lovesto cuddle. So yes, we're excited
(10:50):
for people to come and meet himand any of the other new We also
have a camel that was born withsome genetic issues and she has some leg
issues and that's why she's with usbecause she's safe and secure at the ranch.
All right, Joy, thanks againfor being here. On here's more
we'll see on December sixteenth,
Hi, It's Lucy Chapman and here'smore. I've got Joy bartling in from
Scattered joy Acres. Thank you somuch for being here today. Thank you
for having me Lucy. Now you'vegot a big event coming up at Scattered
joy Acres. We do have abig event. It's say actually, this
is actually our tenth year of doingthis event. It is going to be
on December sixteenth, from five thirtyto eight, and it is our drive
(00:23):
through Nativity and Santa's Wonderland where youget to experience the true meaning of Christmas,
driving through the Nativities, seeing theshepherds hanging out with the sheep and
the flock, the angels, andthen the wise men hanging out with the
camels, and then you get toend it by driving through Santa's Wonderland where
the reindeer, the elves and ofcourse Santa will be where you can get
(00:47):
out of your car at that pointtake pictures with Santa. Make sure you
give them your list. Oh yeah, I've already got it already started.
I cannot even imagine a better placefor a drive through live Nativity scene than
Scattered Joyacres. It's all right there, right, it is all right there
and so it's last year we actuallydid a walkthrough because we weren't quite situated
(01:10):
at our new facility. But thisyear it will be a drive through,
which will be a free will donation. All of the proceeds go to help
our Animal Assistant Therapy program serving seniors, veterans at risk, youth and disadvantaged
individuals. So we would love everybodyto come out and support this and just
get a little taste of Christmas outin the country. Joy. In case
(01:30):
anybody has to leave, I don'twant them to miss the details. Tell
me again a website where and when. It is scatter Joyacres dot org and
that's SCA t t er joi acr e s dot org and it's coming
up on the sixteenth, sixteenth ofDecember from five thirty to eight. Now,
(01:53):
now that we've got that out ofthe way, and we'll we'll mention
that again. But I want totalk a little bit about Scattered Joyacres.
And you mentioned this is the secondone at your new facility, second yet
drive through, and well our firstone was a walk through because we weren't
quite set up. This will goback to our original drive through, which
is year ten of that because wedid it at our previous location in Omaha.
(02:14):
A lot of people have seen thename Scattered joy Acres. They've seen
it on the news, they've seenit in different places, but they may
not really know what it's all about. Can you tell us what goes on
it's Scattered joy Acres? Or they'veseen those pictures on somebody's social media like,
oh, where's my kids petting akangaroo? Yes, exactly, that
is Scattered Joy Acres. So weare a fifteen acre urban rescue ranch.
(02:38):
We use our animals to do therapywith seniors, veterans, at risk,
youth, and disadvantaged individuals. Wealso have the same license as any national
zoo, so we're equivalent to HenryDorley San Diego, where you can come
in and you can interact with theseanimals. So yes, you can pet
a kangaroo, you can pet aporcupine, you can hang out with the
cows. You know, just enjoytime with these animals, because animals are
(03:01):
very therapeutic. Even though you maynot be coming there for a session,
these animals help these people get throughjust maybe having a crappy day and just
want to come hang out. Alot of people that listen to me in
the afternoon know how much I loveanimals. I certainly not on the scale.
I mean I love them on thescale that you do. But certainly
I'm not involved as much as youare. But I've got my dogs,
(03:23):
and we all have our pets,and sometimes people make fun of us because
we call them our fur babies orour kids. And I used to think
that animals were just you know,animals, what they hanging out whatever.
They don't really think, they don'treally reason. In fact, that was
one of my biggest arguments, animalsdon't reason. Went to a friend of
mine, went with her to haveher horse looked at. This is years
(03:45):
ago, and that horse I waswatching them down in the Marina are the
arena, not that they were inthe marina. That would not have been
good. I don't know what happenedto the horse, but I was watching
this horse, knew her and wantedto be there with her, and was
scared but was comforted when she wasthere. Changed everything. Did you have
(04:06):
a moment like that in your life? Yes. I was born and raised
on a dairy farm, and animalshelped me. The dairy cows I would
lay in the necks of them andthey would wrap their heads around me.
And you know, on the sixthDay, God created land animals and then
he created humans and always tell peoplebecause he knew that we needed them.
Animals are non judgmental, They loveyou unconditionally. And your story about the
(04:31):
horse, you know, we havean Egala program that is centered around our
horses, and those horses help unfoldthe story in these individuals that have PTSD
or trauma in their life, andthey were just amazing at the way they
just scoop people up and just helpthem figure out their life. You mentioned
(04:55):
that you were raised on a dairyfarm. What was the path? What
is the path that got you froma teenager to where you are today?
So, like most of us growingup, we make some bad choices in
life. I know I mistakes money, and my bad choices were financial,
which led me into prison a coupletimes for writing some bad checks or borrowing
(05:18):
money from an employer that I shouldn'thave. And so that was my journey
to learn more about myself. It'snot that my family didn't love me,
but I was the oldest of fourchildren and they would get to go on
family vacations and being the oldest,you had to stay home and take care
of the cows because they don't goon vacation, they don't stop milking.
(05:41):
And so my connection was always animals, and animals always helped me through trials
and tribulations. And so eighteen yearsago we started Scattered Joy Acres by rescuing
animals to rescue people. I honestlydid not have any idea about your story,
but now that I do know,it is amazing. There are so
(06:01):
many people out there that have foundthemselves in a family that where am I?
Where do I fit in? Andthat's where it starts. And then
you just go from one thing tothe next, And yes you did,
but the things that you have accomplishedsince then are just amazing. And you
are such an inspiration to me,and I'm sure I'm not the only one,
and an inspiration to a lot.You moved recently from your original location
(06:28):
to where you are. Now,how's that working out? We love our
new location. We were sad toleave the Omaha area, but we also
over the last years couple years,we started having some issues with vandalism and
kids becoming a playground at Scattered JoyAcres and it just become unsafe, and
we were able to have a partnershipwith Habitat for Humanity and they're able to
(06:53):
use that property to make sustainable housingfor people that we need in our community.
And we were able to moved toa much secure destination station for people
to come. And actually we havemore visitors that come now than we ever
did in the Omaha location. Soit's really been a great journey and God
has really opened up a lot ofdoors for other individuals to come and partake
(07:15):
at Scattered Joy Acres. God isgood. He is amazing, Yes he
is. I've said He orchestrated thatwhole move in like seventy two hours,
Like the sale came in. Theproperty we found, we went on the
market the next day and it waspretty much all done in seventy two hours,
and we were moving a ranch.And you never doubted for a minute,
right, I never doubted for aminute. Nope, because he kept
(07:40):
giving me those signs. You know, he has to give me those big
marquee signs that say yes, you'rehead in the right direction. So well,
I like to say, no,I didn't doubt for a full minute.
It is absolutely wonderful that you arein a great place now with Scattered
joy Acres and you're able to actuallyserve more people and more people have access
(08:01):
to it. They do, andmore people have learned about us as well.
You know, brought in people fromKansas City, we brought more people
in from the Lincoln area. We'vebeen able to serve more demographics of people
to make Scattered joy Acres more successful. What's the one thing you want people
to know? The stories. There'sdays that any person in the nonprofit world
(08:22):
gets frustrated when funding gets low orI'm done, I'm tired, i don't
want to do this anymore, andsomeone will either email me or they'll call
me and they'll say, I justwant you to know. When I visited
Scattered joy Acres, I was goingthrough a divorce or something was going on,
and when I went into the Cowpin, Moonshine just gave me a big
(08:43):
old lick with his rough tongue,and I realized that life was going to
be okay. And so even thoughI do therapy with people, That's why
I said, when people come justto visit the petting Zoo, they're getting
their own therapy. Because we don'talways know what's going on in people's lives
and those animal do they just theylove us unconditionally. And so it's those
(09:03):
stories that I love to tell otherpeople and know that it's going to be
okay. I love that. Whatis the information to get in touch with
Scattered Joy? So our website isScatterjoyacres dot org. There is flyers.
There's also postings on social media.It's a drive through Nativity on December sixteenth
from five thirty to eight and weare located at four to one zero seven
(09:28):
Waverley Road in Murray, Nebraska.If you're familiar with Highway seventy five takes
you to Nebraska City, there's alittle place called beaver Lake. A lot
of people know where beaver Lake is. If you turn west on Waverley Road
and go three miles, you willbe right there at the drive through Nativity.
When people come out to the Nativityscene, they could bring a toy.
(09:48):
That would be amazing because we area Toys for tot drop off location.
We are taking toys up until Decembersixteenth, So while you're coming through
the Drive Through Nativity, bring atoy. We're the only ones in cast
County that is a operation toy driveand so I think we're having actually a
party for those needy families in thatarea on the twenty first. So bring
(10:09):
a toy, boys, girls,stuffed animals. We would love to have
you support our toy drive. Well, Joy, thank you so much for
being here today and for sharing yourstory. I know this is going to
bless people. Oh I forgot youbrought a friend. Yes, we have
a friend. Matteo is one ofour newest editions. He's a kikachew.
(10:30):
He's nine weeks old now, kindof looks like a monkey, but they're
more related to the quadam mondays andthe raccoons which we have at our zoo
as well, And so he's goingto be a new therapy animal that people
will be able to hang out andspend some time with. Yeah, and
he's a lover too. He lovesto cuddle. So yes, we're excited
(10:50):
for people to come and meet himand any of the other new We also
have a camel that was born withsome genetic issues and she has some leg
issues and that's why she's with usbecause she's safe and secure at the ranch.
All right, Joy, thanks againfor being here. On here's more
we'll see on December sixteenth,
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