I did something stupid on my 46th Birthday?

I just got up and it's light outside. 8 o'clock. Annie gave me one of the most special birthday presents I can think of. She came in early and is doing my morning chores so I could sleep in. It's my birthday. Happy day. Special birthday meal tonight. Fried chicken biscuits and gravy. Can I get you to do something for me? What? See if he remembers it's my birthday.

Birthday.

Can you go empty the container out in the field? Anything that's obvious trash, throw them, take to the dumpster. Anything else, take to the other container. They're coming to get it today. He didn't remember. Hey, thank you, Lily! Wait, you're not gonna say it? I did.

Happy birthday, Papa!

Oh my gosh, our first trick-or-treater!

Trick-or-treat!

Trick-or-treat!

I like your feet.

Chicken feet!

Here's your treat.

Here's your treat!

Aww, thank you! I was gonna give him a healthy treat.

You would be giving him an apple, wouldn't you?

Yeah, you're the healthy one going through the apple house. How's it feel? How old are you?

46. Wow, still young! And I didn't mean that was our first trick-or-treater for the day. That was our first trick-or-treater ever. Henry, you want me to open up a present? Lily wants me to open up a present after breakfast. He's having a hard time. He thinks it's his birthday. Cheddar cheese. Oh, it's a hat. Horse Dad. That's fitting, isn't it? Earn the reward. No, no, it does. I just underestimate my big head. I gotta go to the last strands. I'm gonna go to the very last strand. Good thing I shaved my head. There we go. Hey, smiley one, you like my birthday hat?

Fits, doesn't it? Yeah.

You remember where that was? Yeah, it was up there behind the barn. Yeah, we ended up wrapping it around a tree to save it from going down the creek.

We had, uh, we had 13 of them go down the creek.

We're done with our storage container. Thankfully it's still here. He said he's— they lost 11 because of Hurricane Helene.

What do you have there? This.

Where are you going with it? To Mama. You think Mama wants to see that? Okay, that's gonna work better with the camera. Hey, they have a surprise for you. They want you to see that.

No, what is that?

This.

We're pressure canning these old fat old lady hens in their broth.

That's the fat.

Now that people know why I'm calling that.

Yeah.

Hey, can I give you a hug and a kiss before I go? Yeah, come on, man. How many popsicles you gonna eat? We already got one for you.

Come on.

All right, we're gonna play hooky from the farm and from rebuilding today and hopefully go get in the woods, do something borderline stupid. Uh, let's go. 2 miles from the trailhead down to here. One of my goals for my birthday from last year was to be well enough to run this mountain. I ran it in my prime in like 28 minutes, came in 6th in a race. Surprised me, actually. I've not been running. It's not good for most people, including myself, but I just want to see if I'm in that kind of shape. Okay, you guys think you got this? Yeah. They actually think they're gonna beat me. It's a mile of pavement. A mile of dirt road and a mile of single trail. It's a 5K, it's 3.2 miles. First out, here we go. I feel like this has turned into an awareness jog for Hurricane Helene. Look at this. The thighs burning? Yeah, all the thighs are burning. I already know. Only my calves. So much more painful than mountain biking. He's walking as fast as I'm running.

We did it!

We did it!

We did it!

Another mile of trail riding. As much as I would like to run this, Family man first, athlete second. But I'm probably getting just as good of a workout with a 25-pound rucksack.

Let's go!

Oh, you want to walk up this one? You want to walk up this one? I want to walk up the rocks. You want to walk up the rocks?

All right.

If you haven't had your own toddler grip your hands with their little tiny fingers yet, you haven't lived. It's the best feeling. How long you, James, been waiting? You've been up here 17 minutes? Yeah. Good job, bud. Good job.

Good job.

That's the trick. You take a break off your athletics for about 15 years when you have your first kid, and then you start back up again when not only they can keep up with you, they can beat you. Yeah, it's so fun. Feels really good. My feet felt really good. I held up. I beat these youngins in a sprint. Yeah, I beat you by like 17 minutes. They did beat me in long distance. Good job, guys. We can still beat you in soccer though. We'll see. I'm so happy about that. My goal last year was to be healthy enough to do that. And there I was. My feet felt good enough to do it, and I think I held up considerably. Becky, that was either the coolest thing I did or the dumbest.

Why?

Why would it be dumb? Well, it's just running 3 miles out of nowhere. Do you hurt? A little. How's the cannon going?

I feel like a mad scientist.

Have you figured it out yet? Yes.

Even though the gauge might be reading zero, Yeah, we don't touch it after it's, you know, while it's cooling down. We don't touch it. Um, even though it's reading zero, you still want to wait for that to depress before we open it up.

Okay, we are closing in on it being done. I've got all the fried chicken in here. We've got grits going, so we have quite the meal here.

What kind of meals will you make with those fat old lady hands?

Well, chicken noodle soup or pot pie, stuff like that.

Can we label them fat old ladies?

I already did down there.

Wait a minute, we canned broth too?

Yeah.

Fat old lady. See this fried chicken? Gluten-free biscuits, bacon, sausage. Creamy dreamy grits. What's your secret to delicious gluten-free fried chicken?

Cornstarch and buttermilk and egg mixed together. He really likes that car.

He does. He likes the car that I'm hanging. It's your birthday? It is? Okay. How many birthdays have you had this year? 7. Are you gonna be able to eat all that? I think so. I didn't eat lunch after the run, so we ran. Did y'all eat lunch? Whoa, I would have never guessed. A lure box. Oh, socks. I got socks and cleats. Thank you. She got me close to my cue. Oh yes, I did it.

Me a plate.

No, just a pair of normal plates. Dad, you're great and really sweet. A dad like you can't be beat. You're helpful, kind, and loving too. A single card just wouldn't do. And then there's multiple cards.

Open them, open them, open them.

Thank you. $20 bills behind every one. I love your love. Your love makes me better. Your love makes me strong. Your love keeps me going on days that feel long. Your love gets me smiling, gets all my quirks. Your love is the reason this life of ours works. Your love is unselfish, unstoppable too. It shows up in every last thing that you do. We are a team, you taught me that. Your love keeps life joyful and keeps us on track. Schedule. You keep us on schedule. And now till forever, I love you right back. I'm so thankful my 16-year-old self fell in love with you. Love, Rebecca.

Yep.

Yeah, I love Papa.

I love Papa.

You love Papa? Is he the best Papa? Does he carry you up the hills? He's a good dad and he likes to do chores with me. I like that Papa supports me in my horse journey and I'm thankful for that.

He's a good dad. He helps me with my chores. He's a good dad. The great papa, he takes us mountain biking and running sometimes and helps us with the chores, and he always keeps us on track.

So in that card I said, I'm so thankful my 16-year-old self fell in love with you. Who would have known what we would have done together, how well we fit together like peanut butter and jelly. And you You're a very good father to our children, and you're a great husband. We're very appreciative of all that you provide. You're a good friend, you're a good son. I'm very thankful for you, very thankful you were born 46 years ago.

I love you.

You've been a good son-in-law to my wife and I. Thankful that you're able to provide for your family and the And we think that you love, you love doing what you're doing, and that's extremely important. We know these are very stressing times. You seem to be holding up well. So God bless you.

Justin has been a really great mentor to me. From day one, he has had patience, he's had understanding. He's given me the platform to perform a task at whatever way that it suits me, and I've learned so much from that model. Um, of— it's helped grow my own confidence in my own ability to be able to do things. A lot of times we're given a task and we're told to do something and do it a specific way, and there are times that I do get those specifics, but Justin allows that freedom, that space to be creative and find solutions for yourself. It's reinforced the confidence that I am building within myself, my abilities to be able to do things, and it's from Justin's leadership model. He is a great father. I watch how he parents and loves his children and his wife. He's a great husband to his wife. I love hearing how he's cultivating his marriage garden, and not just the garden here on the farm, but his relationships are important. Community and others are important. He's very thoughtful of others. It's not just his experience, but it's everybody's experience, and he wants everyone to be involved and to shine in their own ways. And Justin, thank you for being a fantastic mentor and friend.

Happy day.

When I think about Justin, the thing that stands out to me the most is that he's an encourager. He always is making sure people feel thanked and appreciated, and he lets people know what he thinks they're doing well, and he just is a good supporter. And then another thing about Justin is he always is a good listener and, you know, makes you feel like you're wanted to be around, and he's really good about just being a good friend. I enjoy watching Justin be a husband and a father and how patient he is, and he makes sure his family feels cared cared for and loved. Another thing I noticed about Justin is that he's always learning, and he's always reading a book and furthering, you know, all that he knows. And he's a good teacher as well when it comes to the farm work. I see him teaching people and being patient with them, and we just really enjoy being his friend.

Justin, you are a friend, you are a mentor, and I'm beyond thankful and blessed to be on the receiving end of that mentorship and your wisdom. You are a library full of wisdom and you're an open book full of wisdom. Since day one, you have graciously shared that wisdom with me, whether it's business or YouTube or just life. And it's amazing to see that you continue to grow that wisdom and better yourself, better your family, better your lifestyle. Style, better your health. I hope to one day, when I'm old like you, be able to care for my family like you do, be able to love my family, love my community, and to have the health that you do. You continue to surprise me with your health, uh, at the age that you are. I'm thankful for your friendship. I hesitate to even call it a friendship because honestly, and we joke about it, but I feel like your adopted son. I'm excited to continue to see and watch no matter which way life takes you, you've still got amazing things ahead of you. You've really affected and changed the trajectory of my life, and I'm thankful for that. Justin, we love you.

All right, now we're gonna clean this mess up and make blizzards and eat cake, and then we gotta go on a long walk.

Look at this cake from Ashley. It's gonna go good with our blizzards Mama made.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

You gonna help him?

Yeah.

Yay! You did it.

I seen you running away from my head.

I know, he's very afraid of Justin.

Scared of my pillow?

He keeps running away.

Blizzards and brownies with a chocolate icing on top. No, a peanut butter icing. Everybody loves it. Happy day.