Ronnie Mathis
Family: Ronnie Mathis lives near Muldrow, Okla., with his wife, Eran.
In Town: “I became disabled five years ago when I worked as an excavator and I’m on a fixed income. In order to make more money, I opened 64 Swap Meet in Muldrow, Okla. I have used general merchandise, collectibles, antiques, household goods and camping and fishing gear, almost anything somebody might want. I sell, trade and sometimes buy storage units with an antique dealer splitting the goods according to where they will sell best. My Muldrow business is housed in 25 small storage units and open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday because I go to church. People can come and set up tables to sell their goods, which brings in more traffic for my business. Those people also often supply me with ready inventory because they don’t want to take home what they did not sell.”
In the Country: “The rest of my week is for my country life. My wife, Eran, and I live on 80 acres in Shady Grove Community. We had cattle and hay but had to change when I became disabled. Though I was born and raised in the town, I learned about farming from an uncle who raised heifers, gilts and produce discovering I was a country boy at heart.
After I got hurt, I decided to go with Boer goats because they are meat goats and easier to care for than dairy. Although I learned about goats through trial and error and stupid mistakes, I did learn and love it. I especially enjoy breeding and refining my herd. I feed round bales, sweet feed, pellets and corn chops. The sweet feed gives them a more ready appetite and the corn adds fat. My land used to be scrubby but the goats cleaned it up so now it is mostly Bermuda with a little Johnson. I have no clover because clover is not good for goats. My land is hayed on shares and limed and fertilized every few years. We also have four pigs for family meat and 20 laying hens but give most of the eggs to people who need them.
Both of my businesses provide needed supplementary income and work well together because I sometimes sell my goats at the swap meet though most are sold by word-of-mouth for breeding purposes.”
