The video showcases three local Abilene businesses through short interview segments. The Shed, a lunch‑only barbecue spot in the Wiley area, explains its origins in Wingate, TX, its limited lunch hours (Tue‑Sat 11 am‑2‑3 pm), its family‑recipe menu, and its catering capacity for groups up to 200+ guests. The segment emphasizes the owner’s pride in preserving generational recipes and hopes for further development in the south‑end of Abilene. The Fulkerson Group, a real‑estate team led by a former educator and Air‑Force spouse, describes its relational‑real‑estate approach, services ranging from residential to commercial transactions, a strong investor client base, and plans to launch a property‑management division and expand beyond Texas in 2025. Howdy Media, a video‑production and social‑media consulting firm, outlines its partnership‑focused model, high‑quality video work, and strategy services that help clients grow online presence. The company explains its role in the “Best Businesses of Abilene” series, aiming to build a cross‑promotional community network that supports local businesses and expands their reach. Overall, the video promotes each business’s history, services, community ties, and future growth aspirations.
Chapters
The Shed's a barbecue place on the south side of Abilene. We are lunch only. We serve lunch from Tuesday through Saturday from 11 until we sell out, which is typically around 2 to 3 o'clock. Uh, The Shed originated in Wingate, Texas. My grandparents opened that place in the late 1980s.
Anywhere from 20 to 200 people we can deliver. So we do a lot of doctor's offices and weddings and, you know, large parties and stuff. And then anything 200 people and above, we can do a full-service catering. And so it just— that part of the business really keeps us busy, and we're, we're thankful for that. It's all real food, and we think that makes a big difference. And, you know, the recipes that his granddad used and his dad used, I mean, these are all This is what he draws from with a few things that he's come up with on his own. And so we're proud of that. We want them to feel appreciated and loved. I mean, food is our love language and that's how we, that's how we love on people. And so we hope that people feel that when they come into our place.
As far as the future and where we see The Shed, we built out in the south part of Abilene in the Wiley area. We're one of the very few restaurants out here this far. We are the only restaurant out here this far. And what we hope to see with us both being from Wiley is that, that this area continues to expand and development comes down here and, and it gives more people more options and more choices down here on this far south end of Abilene.
I guess starting off, I'm a daughter first, born and raised in Pensacola, Florida, and the military, the United States Air Force, decided my husband was going to fly the B-1 bombers and that's how I got to Abilene, Texas. So we moved here in 2004, been here 20 years, and a mom to two gorgeous boys. Brett, who is 33— wait, he's gonna kill me— 32, 32, and Hunter, who's 24. Back in 2015, I decided that after 22 years in education— I was a teacher for 16 years and a school administrator for 6 years— I wanted a change in my life. And so kind of following in my husband's footsteps, getting out of the military and doing a complete career career change. I had a good friend here in town that was moving up the ladder in real estate and told me that it would be an excellent opportunity for me, just with the network of people that we knew with the Air Force, with my school contacts, and our family and friends. We are not just a transactional team. We're going to handle your transaction, we're going to negotiate for you, we're going to get you the best deal, and one, and get you into a home that you want. Or property that you want, land you want, commercial building that you want, we're going to do it. We call it relational real estate. We have a lot of clients that are investors that I end up helping them purchase properties and then turn over those properties to other friends of mine in property management. So one of the things that the Fulkerson Group is looking to do in '25 also is to start a property management division as well as possibly do some expansion outside of the state of Texas.
Howdy Media is a video production and kind of like an education company. We do consulting, we do video production, and we help companies grow their accounts, their channels, grow their reach online through social media strategy and content. We're not a traditional media company. So whenever you work with us, it's more of like a partnership as opposed to just getting a video out of it, right? So we partner with you. Of course we do high-quality videos. Of course we do great work. But at the end of the day, we take that and then we apply it to your channel, podcasts, your YouTube channel. I get to take everything that I've learned and teach people how to use it because I often forget not everybody grew up on Instagram. Not everybody grew up on YouTube. And so being able to utilize these tools in order to reach a greater audience, to reach that goal that is beyond yourself as a company, as a person, um, it's really rewarding. So the whole reason we decided to follow through with this project, this Best Businesses of Abilene idea, is to create a community and help support these other local businesses and it really creates a cool network. It creates a safe space and environment to cross-promote to each other's audience. And I think the, the value in that is tremendous because that's how a lot of people get off the ground, is cross-promoting. In order to move Avaline to the next step, to the next 4 or 5 years of pushing video and pushing social media, this has to happen. And I'm trying to lead the charge. Don't be afraid to reach out and claim your spot for the next video because we're probably going to do this quarterly, and I think it's a great opportunity to get just a little bit of good video production. And we'd also love to meet you guys and get in front of you and start building that relationship.
