Putting in 1,000 Feet Access Road on STEEP Pasture

Happy day, little ones! It's bike to pizza. Are you guys ready? Spend all morning going to your next meal? They had this harebrained idea to bike downtown, which isn't close. We're in the country. Let's see how close it is. 26 miles? No, 26 minutes. Okay, that's by car. And today's just gonna be one of those crazy days because Andrew, our grader, caught wind of our little access road project into the pasture. He's bringing the bulldozer. Sorry for the low light situation. Had to get an early start and the porch light is suddenly not working. I'm feeding the cats. Can you hear? We should be able to catch Andrew though this afternoon. And I want to tell you about my friends Mark and Lauren. We're going to talk about the third type of homesteader, and that is a contributor. Are you a contributor? Yesterday we talked about the side hustler. Before that, the dreamer. But maybe you're a contributor. Contributor, and maybe you're a little bit off. I asked Rebecca, I said, what do I do about this vlog? We're grading a road, we're biking to pizza, we're talking about contributor homesteaders. I'm introducing folks to Fruitland Farms, my friends Mark and Lauren. She said you could call it Our Crazy Life. You know, you guys like the video to be about what the video title says. It's hard on a day like today when we're doing so many different things, but welcome to our crazy life. Hey, what you need? Hey, let's go get fuel in this. Uh, or not. It feels this way. Hang tight, boys are biking. Like, I never finished looking that up, did I? It's probably like 15 miles. They've never biked 15. They practiced yesterday and they rode 1, 2 miles to the church building and 2 miles back. Uh-oh, this is no good. No fuel, and both side-by-sides are blinking empty. Anyway, we got bike to pizza. We got grading access roads with a bulldozer coming up. But first, we got to figure out if you're a contributor like my friends Mark and Lauren. We chose Mark and Lauren for an episode of Elevated, a TV show that we just produced that's all about going in and helping local homesteaders, giving them a boost. We help them because they do so much for the community. I mean, their farm is centered around bringing in little kids for a farm day camp. Now come on, how much more contributing can you get than that? You stole Tell Sally they're not very happy about it. They were mean. Okay, you show them. Here's the trailer for Mark and Lauren's episode of Ruded— I said Ruded— Elevated.

We like walked out of our house to this like big group of people, not even just Justin and his family, but like many families. It was just such an overwhelming feeling of community and thankfulness and surprise.

Really quickly, through a lot of hard work, a heck of a lot got done. Things that would have taken us, you know, weeks with just the two of us. A really dramatic improvement when you had a lot of folks and some heavy machinery to get going.

We have elevated our farm. We have elevated our lives with the people that we've met now and the relationships that we've made. And my farm is now in a whole new place for new projects to be done. I feel elevated in my soul for having all of this, like, blessing come upon us.

That is dropping this month only on Abundance Plus. Where can I put you guys? All kinds of goodies and fall registration right now, but you got to sign up by October 6th. Abundanceplus.com, link in description. You know you a contributor homesteader if You're always finding ways to give away your produce, to sell the produce, to— so maybe you're a market farmer, you know, opening it up and having people over all the time and maybe having tours and things like that. You are a contributing homesteader. We are contributors in, well, this content right here, but Lauren and Mark are contributors in the sense of they want to get their product to the people. They want to open up their farm to the people. For example, when we went there to the final tour of their place to show what we'd done on that, on their, on their farm, they gave us fresh watermelon from the garden and fresh bacon. They were actually super bummed about that very pork that they served us because they thought they were going to be able to sell it. And these are, these were just little puny, puny pigs. Long story short, they're just not legally able to sell it like they thought they would. And they're so disappointed and heartbroken. Rebecca and I are like, uh, we would eat that in like 2 weeks. Hey, we're about to utilize the pasture access that Jonah and Josiah have been working on. Before, I would have had to just drive up through the grass. Not no more. And look, I'm driving level on a 35-degree slope. Andrew's gonna bevel that out more, finish our road. And bevel it out on this side. Just touch it up. 20 years of skill that we don't have. Game changer getting out here, right boys? You ever biked more than 2 miles on the road? Yeah, yesterday we went down to the road and back, and then we came back and we went to the church and back, so that makes 6. What about you, Leighton? What was the craziest activity you've ever done? Um, hike probably. Jonah, where'd you guys get this idea to bike to pizza? We wanted a pizza. I think it started as like Oh, we just want to go get some pizza. And I'm like, hey, that'd be a good video for your channel, and I'll spot you for safety. I'll be following them in the truck and the camera, and we'd be putting up on Rhodes Bros a nice video about this. Now, how can I help a contributor inside Abundance Possible? Well, that's easy. New comment section under every video that ever posts. That's where they're going to want to hang out. Oh yeah, you are going over there. They left a lot of this, didn't they? But we're leaving it. We're not mowing this this time of year. We'll leave it to be a stockpile, so if we need to graze it again in the winter, we will. We skip this portion to let it fully express— express— express itself. Jill Salison said one of the best things you can do for the pasture sometimes is let it go to full fruition. The other thing I would say a contributor would like is our new community area. Now no two apps, just one app, just one website. Go to it. You can stream all our videos, our inspirational educational videos. Plus now there's a community tab at abundanceplus.com or on Abundance Plus app. They will definitely enjoy the fall registration bonuses of the elevated cheat sheet, which will help you organize your own workday. Sure, you're bringing in people— well, that part is very contributing. You're bringing in people to your farm. You're asking them to help you, but a contributor will do a really bang-up job on lunch. They'll do a nice tour, and people will really get more, uh, more out of it than they, than they put in. That's just the heart of the contributors. Yeah, that cheat sheet will be emailed to all members October 6th. You want to make sure you get in by October 6th, fall registration. In a similar vein, though, like the, the mastermind groups, you got to get in by October 6th because we're gonna then after that send out a survey to everyone, and we're gonna connect people according to their areas and put them in online mastermind groups. And we'll also try to facilitate— hey, maybe if y'all are close enough, you could trade. You guys could do a rotation and go help each farm in the mastermind, you know. And then it's a group of volunteers coming and they're contributing to your farm, but then you get to contribute to the other farm. So it's a complete balance and trade. Both those and premium, where you could actually text me and other experts— can I please receive the secret code that if in it telephonically it will pass me through to you— only available now through October 6th for fall registration. AbundancePlus.com, link in the description. Let's go biking. Is it 15 miles? We Bike ride, how long is it going to take? It says that it's, um, it's going to take an hour and 21 minutes. A normal bicyclist would do it in an hour and 20 minutes. That's not so bad, but we're gonna have a lot of media timeout stopping at the church, then we're stopping at that gazebo, and then we're stopping, yeah, at the next church after that. That's right. Yeah, and then we're stopping at that field next to Patty's Chapel. We're just running straight through the whole thing. Truth ruins a good story. You got your headset? Yeah, warm up. Hey, looks like all yous need to put your seats up. Y'all want to adjust your seats? No, we put them so high. You want them high to where there's barely any bend to your leg. On your mark, get set, go! Weirdo. You boys are off to a good start. You better pace yourselves. We're with you now. You're doing good. Okay, that hill was brutal. Yeah, you're slowing down. 4 miles an hour. 1/3 of the way there though. Here we go, Asheville Highway, here we come. You did it! Woo! I'm tired. Not really. Not really, actually. I think I'm glad I did it. It wasn't nearly as bad as you thought, huh? I think it was going to be harder. Yeah, it was fun. 15 miles to pizza. You earned that one. Pizza's here. Nothing like food after a big long workout. You want to go see the tractors? Okay. Let's take some of them. Makes me so nervous. We talked with Andrew last night about it. Got a swampy area down in here. Well, it's just too low, and we're gonna have a more gradual grade, but we gotta rip up some of this I've been working on for like 10 years. But I guess it's just getting spread around. It's not leaving. I was afraid to come down here. I'm always afraid I'm always afraid. Big, big equipment on pastures. See that? You got to step back one to make three steps forward. You're surrounded by tractors. Hey, how's it going? Oh, y'all nailed that out. Yeah, there's rock under there. Was there? Yeah, I pulled— I worked for an hour just pulling rocks up. Going to the trails. Hard to believe that maybe today, today, I would have never dreamed that we're going to be making these— we're going to be driving these roads by the end of the day. Making it a more gradual slope. First pass, it's a real steep cliff and a nice smooth beveled edge. Look at that, no erosion there. Now that he's done the upper edge, look how smooth that is. He goes back and does the middle. Hey honey, you want me to place that tub so we can have it tonight? Yes! The roads are in good hands. Let's see if we can't get this tub going for tonight. We're not too good for this tractor supply metal trough for our hot tub. It started rusting mega. Look at that. We're like taking a bath in iron every night. That's our redneck hot tub. Got quite the upgrade. What do you guys think? Henry, you can now play in the box. Look at that gradual grade off this. This is what it took forever with our machines. Ain't this a rare opportunity? I get to drive the, uh, Mini X. Well, that was fun, but honestly, I'm glad I have two boys who really like to drive those things. Wrapping up the day with a little bit of apple and caramel. That's your first time having that? You like that? Andrew's got to come back on Saturday for one more row at the bottom. So you got a lot more done. You want to go driving? Y'all ready? You ready? You ready to see? Let's go see this road. Look at this smooth gradual slope on this side, flat across the road, and smooth on this side. I like it. Chop that limb. Oh, we did.

That was kind of an important thing.

Whoops. Y'all have to find a new limb somewhere. This was so neat, I had to bring Rebecca back out here. This is a different perspective and feel I've never experienced on our farm before. Look at this! Like, can you see us just driving? When people come to visit, we'll just take them on a tour and scoot around and see this beautiful view. Couldn't we go on a little walk up this hill? Yeah. Mountain bike ride? Horse? Really? Yeah. One day horse trail ride? Isn't that nice? It is, it is nice. Like, we just went on a little drive up on the north pasture. I like it. I wish I wasn't so tired. I could have enjoyed it more. But let's go pass out.