Cottman,Crawford and the Jersey guy.
Two Brooklyn born gen X guys and a Jersey millennial shooting the shit. Talking about everything and anything. Ready to hear topic suggestions for future podcasts and feedback on those we have recorded. Follow and Like us on FaceBook & Instagram. Email: CCandNJGuy@Gmail.com
Cottman,Crawford and the Jersey guy.
Trading City Lights for Rural Delights: Frank's Journey to Sustainable Off-Grid Living and Heartfelt Community Bonds
Curious about what it takes to leave urban chaos for a simpler, self-sustained life? Join us as we sit down with Frank who, along with his wife, traded Brooklyn's busy streets for 50 acres of serene Tennessee countryside. You'll hear all about their labor-intensive yet rewarding journey of clearing land and building infrastructure, and how the kind-hearted local community welcomed them with open arms. Frank shares the importance of family support and the camaraderie among local farmers, painting a vivid picture of rural living that’s both challenging and deeply fulfilling.
Ever wondered what it’s really like to live off-grid? Listen in as we explore the realities of self-sufficiency, from the joys of automating a chicken coop to the harsh lessons taught by nature. Frank walks us through the contrast between those who farm for personal fulfillment and those who rely on it for their livelihood. We delve into generating our own power, dealing with limited internet access, and the unique responsibilities that come with this lifestyle. Patience, adaptability, and celebrating small victories are key themes that emerge from Frank’s heartfelt stories.
Finally, get a peek into the nuts and bolts of sustainable living and the cultural shift from city life to rural tranquility. Learn about the struggles of gardening on clay-rich soil and the innovative solutions Frank and his wife have applied to grow fresh, chemical-free produce. We also touch on the humor and practicality of adjusting to wildlife protection and preparing for visitors in a rustic yet entertaining setting. From energy management to embracing country relaxation, this episode offers a holistic view of off-grid living, wrapped up with a dose of gratitude and positive feedback from our community.
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Cotman, crawford and the Jersey Guy podcast. Hey everybody, kenny Cotman, lewis Crawford and I'm Tom Ramage, the Jersey Guy.
Speaker 2:Yo, what is going on? My peoples, what's going on? Alright, so we're going to jump right into this because our boy Lewis is out on my peoples. What's going on? All right, so we're going to jump right into this because our boy Louis is out on location in Tennessee, tennessee. So, louis, show us yours man, Talk to us. What's going on, how you doing out there.
Speaker 3:That's right. I'm out here in Tennessee with my boy, frank Frankie. My friend Frankie came out here with his wife to pursue their dream and you know work hard to get to the simple life. Just so you know, as experienced for the last two days, it's a lot of work trying to get there.
Speaker 2:It's not so simple.
Speaker 3:That's why we got Frank here to you know, hey guys, how you doing.
Speaker 4:What's going on, frank? Nice to meet you, nice to meet you.
Speaker 4:So you're saying that the simple life isn't so simple. You know it's a simpler life, a simpler way of life, but just because it's a simpler way of life doesn't mean that you're not. There isn't backbreaking work, right, and the backbreaking work, it feels good, though You're doing it for yourself, you're doing it for your family and your friends. You're trying to build something, trying to self-sustain, have a place where people can come and kind of put what millions and millions of people deal with on a daily basis as far as stress and all of that, and just put that aside and just kind of get back to nature, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, so then what? All right. So where is it that you live in? What's the town you live in? It's Tennessee. Who?
Speaker 4:We're in Mossheim, tennessee. Okay, my wife and I purchased a lot of land which was previously a hunting land. Okay, it's just over 50 acres. And yeah, we came up here actually last August, started clearing some land. We do it pretty much all ourselves, with the exception of the nightmare of the road that we had to put in, but other than that, we do it all or try to do it all ourselves. You know, we'd rather give it a shot and fail than not try it at all. You know, and then if it winds up, that we need to reach out to the community. The community is slowly coming around and we're meeting people and it's just amazing, some of the people that live out here in Tennessee. It really is really something.
Speaker 3:I can tell you this Every time we drive, Tanya and I leaving here, to go to the Hotel.
Speaker 2:What's it called Airbnb?
Speaker 3:The general store, no, no, the one I'm sleeping at. Oh, the Airbnb, thank you. Everybody waves at you. Oh, that's nice If you're driving by them, they wave at you. If you pass by them in the car, they wave at you. If they're on their property, they wave at you. It doesn't matter. You get waved at every time you drive on the road.
Speaker 4:And you guys Could probably relate to this. You know, growing up in brooklyn and even in jersey, right, thomas? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know that kind of courteousness, what you didn't really come across, that too often you know. And so people who were from the North, you know somebody waves to you on the road. My initial was to flip them. The perfect.
Speaker 2:What's this guy's problem?
Speaker 4:You waving at him, yeah yeah, exactly, you know, and you know, as you start to go, you go oh, they're just being nice, it's really refreshing it really is.
Speaker 1:You know, I have a theory behind that. I think, like the more people that are around you all the time, like, the more you just get sick of seeing people and you just become desensitized to other people and it's just become like things in front of you, you know, because there's so many people. But, like, when, like you're in a small area, we're like, oh, you see someone, you're like hey. But when you're in a small area, we're like, oh, you see someone, you're like hey, I think it's just the whole way of life.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's what it is right, I think it's. When you have hundreds of people, thousands of people around you daily, it just becomes like background.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is that how you think about it, Frank?
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's also that in our area here, the majority of the people are farmers. They get up every day 5 am. They ride their fence, check for holes, find out if there's any coyote in the area. They all know the same thing. They all know the same thing.
Speaker 2:You know, tom, what you're saying is when you're passing. You know thousands of people on the street if you go into the city and whatnot. You know you got people who are computer?
Speaker 4:programmers, or you got maintenance people, or you got, you know, you got a million different things, that people have a million different ideas of what that should be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody comes from different worlds, right? Everybody's kind of similar on the same. You know Exactly, yeah, everybody's in the same lane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's excellent.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. That makes sense too.
Speaker 2:So then what does your day pretty much entail? I'm sorry say that again, gary.
Speaker 1:What does your job? I mean your job. Yeah, explain your day.
Speaker 4:What's your day-to-day, what's your day-to-day, all right, so we're in the process and I got to give a lot of credit to my wife because she keeps me sane, Because there are times it has been a little bit difficult for me where I'm like, what am I doing here? I mean, yeah, it's wonderful and all, but you know this is crazy. But she talks me off the ledge quite a bit and I'm rapidly, you know, falling in love with nature and just doing for ourselves. So our day basically consists of waking up to our barn cat crying that he wants out of the barn. So we get him out and then, uh, you know, we prepare the food for our dogs. We have two great pair of niece pups that are a handful in itself.
Speaker 4:Um, thankfully that the most automated piece that we've been able to put together thus far is the chicken coop that has an automated automatic door that will open up at a certain time there you go, you have to go out there yeah, but it really is, um, what we have dreamed about and something that we have talked about over the last five years, what we, you know the funny thing is, a timeline is something you can make up but doesn't necessarily mean it's going to actually work Right. What we've learned is that doing the work is much harder than what you say. If you followed somebody on YouTube or whatnot, and how they're doing it, you know, you got to realize they film, or, you know, put a 45 minute video out there about how they built the chicken coop, but they're not showing you all the ins and outs and the the failures of what can happen and does happen, you know. And so you start to learn great patience, not to say that there isn't ups and downs, but you've got to learn to not dwell on the down and revel in the high and be grateful for what you were able to get achieved. The funny thing.
Speaker 4:Getting back to the plan thing, you can have a plan in the morning of what project you're going to work on, but really nature dictates whether or not that it's going to happen. That's true. That's true. You know what I mean. It's like okay, yeah, we're going to go clear a half acre land because we want to put up a garden and there's a thunderstorm. Well, you wake up in the morning and there's a you know, torrential downpours and it lasts all day. So you got to figure out something, all right. Well, there's got to be something I can do in the barn. So it's constantly changing and that's the, I think, the interesting thing. You know, because you're constantly learning, you're moving from one thing to another and look, it's not the end of the world. If you don't get it done by the end of the day, you go. Okay, it's the end of the day. Time to go and play with the pups a little bit, have a cocktail maybe, and just enjoy the sunset.
Speaker 1:That's great yeah, you're on your own time, right you're not someone else's time. It's like oh well, the work's done for today pick up tomorrow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, but I will say, because there are a lot of hard-working people this area, we're fortunate in that. You know I think I spoke with you guys last time about this that I was fortunate enough to be able to retire a little bit earlier, so I don't have to worry about a lot of the things that most of the people in the area do, you know, because it's still a job to them. For us, this is just a way of life, okay, and it is a way of life for those folks as well, but they're also dependent to be able to put food on the table for their families, yeah, uh, based on what they're able to produce. So, and yet they're still smiling.
Speaker 4:Wave at you as you're driving down you know driving down the road, so that is awesome.
Speaker 3:Definitely a nice thing when you see that.
Speaker 2:Are you farming?
Speaker 3:I'm sorry Lou go ahead I was going to say when I'm here and I see everything that he has to do and take care of you, come here. It's a challenge because it's new responsibilities. You have to watch over certain things. You have to make sure this is good, your wife is safe, the animals on top of everything else. You know and you just, but at the same time, you're doing it because you want to do it and, even though it's a huge responsibility, it feels good because you don't have anybody to tell you how to do it. Exactly, Exactly.
Speaker 4:And you know it's a whole learning process, right? It's very different from what I'm sure all of us have grown up in. You know flushing toilets and flip a light and the electricity goes on, and you know air conditioning and all that. Well, we're we're a hundred percent off grid. That's crazy. Reproduce our own power by the sun. We're actually going to be working toward a wind turbine that will generate power for us as well. We have battery packs that keep our little compound going. Right now. It's great, um, and it's great and it works, but you have to be conscious, uh, and conservative with the usage of that. You know that power that you're trying to, uh, you know, sustain.
Speaker 2:That is crazy. So like no Wi-Fi, or do you have Wi-Fi and cable kind of stuff?
Speaker 4:Well, we don't have Wi-Fi yet, but we actually are getting internet very shortly, but it's going to be either a cell-based or a satellite based because, again, in order to have like what you're dealing with now, you know when you go home and you stream all your videos and whatnot, that's something you have plugged into a wall that consumes a certain amount of energy and you have to pay for a service. Even though there are services in the rural areas that work the same way, the reception and the speed is just not there. They don't have the technology in place for that kind of speed, so you got to go. Okay, I'll pay a couple of extra bucks a month to have something that's, you know, shooting down for me out of the sky, as opposed to cables that are laid on the ground and whatnot soon, though soon you'll be able to get it.
Speaker 1:Uh, because I think they're working on that starlink or whatever which is supposed to be like high-speed internet access from satellite there you go from space yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 4:But honestly, I mean we, you know where we're at. You know the cell service is really good, thankfully I mean we're talking over sell now and we have no problem with it. Of course, if we go to the bottom of our mountain, you lose it. We lose it, you know, and that's where the people are living in homes. You know our driveway is what would you say it's. It's basically almost a half a mile from the road up to the top of where we're at. You know, and that was something that we wanted. We like that, that seclusion feeling, we like that ability to just walk out and go oh, look look at what we've been able to achieve.
Speaker 4:But anyway, you know, running electricity, having water lines put in, all that that's a great, huge expense. It's not something that and it's unreliable. You know. I hate to say it, but in Tennessee it's like one of the top five states that has the worst water, utility water, oh, really, okay.
Speaker 4:So more and more people, who even pay to have water pumped into their house on a daily basis, for those pipes still go out and either they'll build a cistern on their land or they'll have um water brought in. You know, like right now I, like I told lo, we bring in our potable water, right, we have a rain catchment system that we use for showering and feeding the animals uh, watering the animals in the gardens and whatnot and that water is treated very similar to what they do now, except it's better. I'm not quite sure how that's possible, but it is Because we've done the tests on it. We've sent the water samples in to make sure that we're not poisoning ourselves, and somehow it comes back better than what the water is, that people pay a monthly bill every month to have a bill of income.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what it is too probably. It's probably because it doesn't have to travel like miles of pipe and picking up all the extra metal off the pipes?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. The land itself is actually filtrating. It's, you know, it's using its natural resources. Yeah, yeah, that's another thing.
Speaker 4:You know, throughout the land here and we have yet to find a reasonably easy one to get to, but between the rain catchment and, we know, in the streams we find areas where it's coming out of the rock and it's a little bit harder to get to. But at least we know we have that resource. No wells, there is an actual hand dug. Well, that's on this property, down at the bottom of the property, at the front of the property. That is gotta be a good 50, 55, maybe 60 years old, okay, okay, I. I mean you could see the hand laid stones all the way up this.
Speaker 4:Well it's. It's actually amazing. It's definitely a resource if we want to go to it and get water right. But you know, we're at a point now, okay, we have this base compound, we have our pole barn up, we have a comfortable camper that we're living in. Right now we're going to be harvesting trees that will build the cabin that we're living in. Right now we're going to be, uh, harvesting trees that will build the cabin that we'll live in so that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, wow. But you know you need something that's close enough for utilities, right, we know, okay, we're going to be dealing with solar, we're going to be dealing with wind turbine, so that'll be a utility building that'll be off the side of the cabin, right, that's the easy part.
Speaker 4:The harder part is getting the water from where it exists, where it's coming through the earth naturally, which is all over the place, right, but it's getting it from that spot to where you're gonna have your cabin, from a to b, from a to b without having this immense power drawer or need for this immense power drawer right, and it's all doable. I mean, there are thousands and thousands of people who do it on a daily basis and it only makes me respect them more and more with each day that we go through to uh, sustain this life you must be learning something new every day just by doing this, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I've only been with you a few days and we're doing this work that we did with the fence and the posts and everything, and learning what the ground was like, because it was so kind of early when I spoke to him Using the auger, the gas auger, we're going into the ground and it's not like the soil we have by us. This is clay. So you, you got to put a little bit more muscle in it to kind of get it going. Once you do, and if you lean in, it's the right way, it starts doing it. But some places you couldn't even go all the way down because the roots were so big, right. So then we had to figure out which logs, how to go where, and then do it the right way.
Speaker 4:So and then you know, but it was, it's interesting for sure absolutely and I tell you one of the, the first things I learned is you know, I we're out here and we've met a couple of people and they're great and they help when they can. But it's definitely true, two is better than one, right? Yeah?
Speaker 4:yeah you know, louis, god bless him. You know, you guys know, when we talked months ago, he's like yeah, I got my work boots, I got my work clothes, I'm there, you need something? We'll work on it. He came up and we put up a 40 by 40 fence around my wife's garden Okay, we sunk the poles into the ground. My wife's garden Okay, we sunk the poles into the ground, we hammered, uh, staples into the fence, which Louie did, probably 75% of it, um, and we got it done in basically a day and a half. Yeah, now, if he wasn't here, if I wasn't able to get help, that's literally a week's worth of work for me. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep, so that's literally a week's worth of work for me, you know, yep, so that's crazy. So that's good. At least you're putting him to work, because he doesn't do nothing, so you mentioned, you mentioned, um, you mentioned, uh, the soil right being all clay right so yeah, right, so so are are you doing like farming, like crops, like do they, do you have?
Speaker 1:is the top soil like uh good, or is it really like clay and you gotta to not overwater it? Is it like or is it a?
Speaker 4:It's hard to do it with the soil. The problem here, you know, you can't actually go right into the clay and put crops.
Speaker 3:So what we did was we built raised beds, oh, raised beds.
Speaker 4:Using the resource that was laying on our ground. Already, we cut up. I cut up some logs and we built these raised beds and my wife, who is, I mean, a true fanatic about this growing, because she really developed this passion to try and grow stuff that's fresh, that isn't sprayed with chemicals, the stuff that billions of people buy from grocery stores and whatnot yeah, if you got the land, so when we got up here, we knew that there was a rich layer of topsoil, just about all on the top of this mountain and that's uh, you know, something that came about over 50 years of leaves falling and not being churned up and just decomposing into the earth because, like I said, you know this was a hunting
Speaker 4:land yeah, you're right, there's only hunting seasons a few times a year, um and, and the touching of the ground was minimal, you know, big hunters would come in. They'd go down to a blind that was built who knows how long ago and they'd sit there and try to find an animal. So she started digging that up, scraping it up, putting it into a pile. She'd grab some leaves, she started her own little compost pile. She literally created, with the you know, the help of nature, of course, created all this soil to be able to put inside of the beds that we built. So we built. I think there are three 10 foot by four foot raised beds that we started with.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I got to tell you you know, four weeks, not even four weeks ago, she put seeds into this dirt. Four weeks later and Louis can attest it's all green, everything is growing up. So we're we're expecting that we'll be able to grab a tomato off the vine by mid to late summer, or a cucumber or a squash.
Speaker 1:she's got watermelon you'll get it sooner than that. You guys are warmer than us, because I don't, I don't, I don't get tomatoes till like july, so you guys will probably get sooner than me that's a good possibility.
Speaker 4:I mean she, she likes the air on the side of my fortune. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:I'm still stuck on how do you go from Brooklyn to you know? Florida, I'm just saying just getting out there. I mean out in the open, nobody there. I couldn't leave the hustle and bustle. I lived in Florida for a hot minute and then I was like, alright, I gotta go back to New there. I couldn't leave the hustle and bustle. I lived in Florida for a hot minute and then I was like, all right, I gotta go back to New York. I can't do this anymore. It's too quiet. That's insane.
Speaker 4:I mean, I definitely understand what you're saying, kenny, and that's what I was saying earlier. Sometimes I think to myself what the frig was I thinking? But as you get older and you'll probably, you know, can relate to it as you get older, things you know, you don't require the same type of things you thought you did when you were young.
Speaker 2:Well, you see, well wait. So right now, before I left the house to come over here, right, the neighbors had the music pumping a little bit. So I have these 15 and a half inch subwoofers and I drowned them out and I'm in the shower getting ready to come over here. I'm like, yeah, and I'm just like having a good old time. I don't see that I'd be able to have to try to conserve the battery life at the house and I can't turn my music up. You know what I mean? Like I'm gonna need a really big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, kenny, would be like we need to invest in more solar panels and batteries because I need, I need.
Speaker 4:I may, have you know, over-exaggerated, but I definitely have the ability to pump my tunes. Okay, okay, you know we were watching the Ranger game the other night. We had the Bluetooth going over there and we're standing over there and they're like where's that coming from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see.
Speaker 4:No, don't get me wrong. It's not like I shut all the lights off, yeah okay, because you know it's just it's so. What I'm saying is, as a result of wanting to do that, you have to be cautious, that you may have to recharge batteries a little bit sooner, or because you have to. You're right now where rely on the sun, right, right, and if it's cloudy for five days which we all know what that's like where you're going, uh, I believe there used to be this big orange ball in the sky yeah what happened to it well it happens here yeah, you know.
Speaker 4:The alternative to that is, you know, we pull out the gas generator and we turn it on and charges the batteries and the music is pumping again, there you go, yeah, yeah, cause I'm thinking about trying to hook it up to my.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking about hooking. I'm saying, you know, hooking up the batteries to a bicycle and then just having my wife pedals. That's true.
Speaker 4:You know, let her recharge the batteries.
Speaker 2:That's where I'm at.
Speaker 4:I guess that's one way to get a divorce.
Speaker 2:I hope she's on board with that not if she's chained to the bicycle you know, get your ass a pedaling. I love you, honey. I'm only kidding.
Speaker 4:No, believe me, when we were packing up the last time from Florida to come up here, all the DJ equipment came with me. So you know that when there's a will, there's a way. Yeah, so the tunes music will never die on this compound Nice.
Speaker 2:That is awesome, man. That is awesome. So now, when you get the windmills like you're saying you're going to get windmills do you have to get, uh, bigger batteries, or can you just get a bunch more smaller ones, like you already have?
Speaker 4:well, you know, the thing is is you could, I would be able to use the same batteries, but the problem with well, I'm going to say problem, but because it's really advancement and progression in this technology is that you, you know, you can buy the biggest and best kind of similar to like your phone. You know, oh, I waited online for 24 hours for the new iPhone 26, whatever it is now.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:Right and you got it and then two months later, that same phone that you paid $2,000 for is now $6. If you open a line and bring a friend and then they have even more technology coming out two months after that, it's the same thing in this scenario. So you have to be cautious about that. But yes, you can continue to add as many batteries as you want. You know you go with.
Speaker 4:You know a lot of people have a problem with the lithium batteries, and I understand it because you know you have to dig up the earth to get it and they cause problems when they start to go bad. But that's pretty much everything in life. If you think about it, you know, and we try to go bad, but that's pretty much everything in life. If you think about it, you know, and we try to be as and that again adds to the conservativeness that we do because we don't want to be. We don't want to add to that we're trying to just live a simple life, even though it's very hard to live that simple life and not cause any more damage to the earth and just be happy in what we're doing.
Speaker 2:We still feel like we're so far ahead of the game.
Speaker 4:You know if you can go back to when settlers came and what they had and what they went through, you know, and people go, oh yeah, but their average lifespan was 36 years old. Yeah well, there was also a greater population of of you, uh, of animals, and you know disease and that kind of thing. So there's a happy medium there somewhere, you know, all right, sure well, are you eating somewhere?
Speaker 2:you know, all right, sure. Well, are you eating healthier? Like you know you're saying because are you eating as much meat as you were before? Are you more vegan? You know, like, are you just eating the eggs? You're not having like that kind of chicken and just any kind of meat, really right.
Speaker 4:No, well, we're just starting there, right? So our chickens are only about eight weeks, so we have another eight to nine weeks before they'll either start laying or if they become, you know, part of the freezer camp Gotcha. So, um, and a lot of people have a hard time and, trust me, I've, I struggle with it myself. Okay, but you can go online and watch any documentary about how you know these mass productions of chickens and how they're treated and whatnot, and you really I mean it may be a rationalization because you kind of talk yourself into it because there's no other way, yourself into it because there's no other way but we're giving these chickens the best life that they could possibly have and when they are harvested they will be humanely done, not have thousands of them slaughtered in through some unhumane process.
Speaker 4:Okay, we honor them, we respect it, we take care of it, we love it on a daily basis. But we also have to, you know, learn that the ultimate thing is that they're going to sustain us. Okay, and some people get it right away and some people go. Oh, listen to this nut job, but it's true. But I respect everybody's opinion on it. It's not for everybody. I would never try to force it on anybody, but this is something that is not I create. I didn't create it. Okay, this has been going on for thousands of years, where people have had to harvest other animals to be able to sustain life Right.
Speaker 4:Keep doing this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, your process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, listen, I tell you what more power to you, brother, Cause, like I said, I don't think I'd be able to. I know I can't like, I don't even like going camping.
Speaker 3:I went camping once. I was like yeah.
Speaker 1:I used to be, more scouts. We used to go camping all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no man, I'm like, yeah, no, I'm good, the closest to the woods and stuff.
Speaker 1:My camping days are over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, I'm just saying I need a shower. Yeah, no, I can't.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, the closest to the woods and stuff. No, I can't do it.
Speaker 1:We're talking two apples and shower every day. I'm talking camping, though. Yeah, I kind of got sidetracked, yeah, but uh, as I as I tend to do with adhd, yeah no, no, yeah, yeah, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 2:I just, I just know for me, like I'm not trying to uh build that fence you're saying you couldn't do what I wouldn't be for long, like I'd probably, you know, do a vacation time to go and hang out, but for me to actually live the way you're living, I, I just it's not for me, yeah I need to be able to get in the car yeah, no, I, I respect that, I mean it's not for everybody, but also understand, it's not like we're never gonna vacation, it's.
Speaker 4:You know this, we're right now, we're involved in it and we're I don don't want to say, stuck, but we are building something, right, okay, and that involves being present, right? I'm not saying that my wife and I are never going to go to Vegas again or we're not going to go to Italy at some point and eat olives on the side of a mountain, because that's going to happen. That's going to happen. Just because you choose this life doesn't mean that I think people equate the simple life with a poor life, and that's not the case. I can see that. I can see how people would do that. No, no.
Speaker 3:You're using different resources to get the things that you need. So they automatically think, oh, I can imagine what it's going to look like at this age. Meanwhile, it's not like that.
Speaker 1:No, not at all. I mean, the funny thing is is like you see everybody drive pickup trucks, but all pickup trucks are like 70 grand.
Speaker 4:Exactly, it can't be poor, you know, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no, I don't think that at all. That's not where my head was. I'm just saying like I just know I wouldn't be able to be the farmer.
Speaker 3:Well, it's us man, I'm with you. I don't I would do it like you said, like a vacation type thing or for a few months, right?
Speaker 1:I think I would.
Speaker 3:I would probably rather more go like camping or just go on a hike for a few days, like a three-day hike or something like that.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Yeah, like like me, I like gardening, but I can't picture my whole entire life being fields and fields of crops you know what?
Speaker 4:I mean yeah, no, I'm with you on that one.
Speaker 1:Oh that, yeah, the farming part, yeah like actually having a full, like you know, yeah, those giant, because they got those giant sprinkler systems, you know, with the wheel on them.
Speaker 4:But again, those are back to the people who work very hard to put food on their table and take care of their family. Our life here is a much smaller scale.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's for yourself.
Speaker 4:We're just producing to be able to provide for us. Yeah, there you go, and knowing what it is, where you know like I'm really looking forward to that first tomato I'm gonna be able to pick off the vine, because I'm gonna make a heck of a sundae sauce with that and are you I'm assuming you'll be uh, all abundance, you'll be pickling and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:You'd be jarring, and you know I pickle sometimes Does she already do that.
Speaker 4:My wife is a big canner. In fact, the T-shirt she was wearing today says canning is my jam, that's hilarious, it's literally what it says on her T-shirt.
Speaker 1:Pickling is good too, for, uh, you know, gut health. I'm always big into that stuff. But the gut health, you know, it's because probiotics right absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4:And and you know you spoke earlier about, oh you know, are you eating healthier? And well, you know, my wife is a heck of a cook, I think. Think I've said that a billion times.
Speaker 3:By the way, yeah, it's true.
Speaker 4:She loves to entertain, she loves to provide to our friends and whatnot and myself, thankfully. So they're amazing meals, but yes, they are healthier. Amazing meals, but yes, they are healthier. But she also throws in a little bit of the nasty stuff that a lot of people you know I actually happen to love Honestly. You know my boy, louie, here. You know I told you the you know the Baba story. He's been eating it up this week. He's been enjoying himself.
Speaker 4:And he got to a point where he's like, okay, I got to stop eating. He thinks I don't notice, but he actually slowed down. He's like oh no, I'll just have one egg and a little piece of toast. And I'm like we're having sausage and biscuits this morning my wife got up and made this for us. That is great man.
Speaker 4:Now, how far are you from whatever major city? We're only about 20 minutes from Greenville, which is a pretty sizable place, but if we wanted to go to Knoxville, that's probably about an hour. Johnson City, which is a huge city probably about an hour. Johnson City, which is a huge city. Funny enough, when we first came to Tennessee, I'm thinking honestly, guys, we're driving to Tennessee, we're rolling into Johnson City. I'm thinking I'm going to see this little quaint little town with little mom-pop shops. No, it wasn't anything like that. Johnson City is a college town. They have a huge campus. There's Starbucks, there's McDonald's, there's Burger King. I'm like, oh, this is not what I thought it was going to be yeah, no lie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I'm not going to lie. When Lewis was telling us that you were out there, I was picturing more of cowboy hats and cowboy boots. Yeah, yeah, yeah you know, just cowboys and cowgirls.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, that's right, that was the picture I had on you, bro.
Speaker 2:Texas guys Listen, I'm just saying, bro, come on.
Speaker 1:We all have our bias and stereotypes. Yeah, yeah, we're like thinking of cities.
Speaker 4:The city slickers, biasing stereotypes, yeah, yeah, we're like thinking of cities and say the Snickers coming in today.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. What did you say, kenny?
Speaker 3:Sorry, no, no, that was you. We were talking over each other. What did you say, Kenny?
Speaker 2:No, no, we were saying just that, Tom was saying that, it was he just.
Speaker 4:You know when we pictured everybody with shotguns and you know, having the holsters and stuff like that, right, right, yeah, no, no, it's not like that, it's not like that, although I mean you know, tennessee is a carry state, so everybody I'm sure has a gun right or multiple weapons, but the difference is the people are respectful to each other it's a different, it's a different way of life.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a different way of life and they don't rely on that. It's not something that you know. Like louis go actually we were having breakfast two mornings ago and we're eating outside and I go to sit down and I put my weapon out and I put it on the table. Louis like okay, and I'm like this is not. It's it that we lost. I'm not robbing you. What we do here, you know we have coyote we have animals that, can you know, attack our livestock or our dogs.
Speaker 1:It's my responsibility to protect them. You know, I just pictured the whole thing and just seeing Lou go okay.
Speaker 4:That's exactly what he did. And it was hysterical, and that was about the first morning when he had breakfast he didn't eat that much, and then I put him to work. The next morning he ate as if it was his last day.
Speaker 2:That is the funniest shit ever man. Oh my God, that is great shit ever man. Oh my God that is great. Yeah, no, I mean listen, you know I applaud you, commend you, that you know you actually went and did something that you wanted to try and you're loving it. You know you wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle and just you know, do it for everything that you wanted to do it for, not for anybody else.
Speaker 3:You know, I agree with you 100%. That's exactly what I was doing, Same thing you know.
Speaker 4:The only one thing I will say is I miss my children terribly. I miss my family terribly. Not that they're not backing us in this endeavor, but you know, our are young, so they got, they got to experience their life. And our parents are older, although my wife's side of the family they're like, hey, we're coming for thanksgiving and we're like, uh okay, we don't even have a barn up yet, right?
Speaker 4:we don't care, we'll sleep in tents and blah, blah and ps. This past Thanksgiving, 22 people showed up on our land and we had an absolutely wonderful time. One thing I will say is look, the hard work is not for everybody, but country life is for everybody. You may not want to do all the ins and outs that are required to be able to keep it going, which is fine. This was a choice of ours, okay, and we're loving that. But I will say you come to a place like this and I'm hoping Louie feels this when you leave, you're going to be chill, you're going to go oh, you're going to have the stress, you're going to go back to your life and you're gonna do what you do and you go to the hustle and bustle. At some point you're gonna think and I could use a weekend up on the mountain, you know, and I, I truly believe that.
Speaker 1:no, I get what you're saying because you know the thing is is like it's stressful living in an urban, you suburban area because there's a lot of people, there's conflict, there's traffic. In the life you're living, I'm sure there's really not a lot of stress. There's nothing really to stress you out, there's no pressure, right?
Speaker 4:Or less, should I say Definitely not that type of stress, you're right. The other stress is not knowing what. Not that type of stress, you're right. Yeah, the other stress is not knowing what the heck you're doing and living among nature, but after you know a while, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, after a while, though, you start to click and you learn it. Yeah, you know. Yeah, you know I I just look. We just want people to be, come visit, have a relaxation period. We're at a point in our lives where this is our life on a daily basis, but that doesn't mean people who still have a lot of life in them, who want to go and conquer the world Great, do it. Help people, make your money, do whatever you want to do, but every now and then, you need to go to a place and just offload and chill, and this is one of those places. Yeah, I concur.
Speaker 2:Yeah, listen, I get it, I understand that does, it makes sense. That is awesome, that is awesome.
Speaker 4:And, kenny, if you actually come, bro, don't worry, I'll have the tunes pumping for you, don't worry, I'll have the tunes pumping for you. I'll make sure that you get the cabin that has the, you know, the lights and the disco ball.
Speaker 2:There you go. That's what I'm talking about. Yes, yes, we need the music.
Speaker 4:LEDs. They only take very little power.
Speaker 2:Get some glow sticks turn into a radius. Yeah, that is too funny man. Yeah, no, like I said, I think it just takes a lot and it says a lot for me. I mean, lou talks about you all the time and stuff, and just to know that your character, yeah, that's you man you know to be able to get up and go do that and be happy, that's just sweet, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:I appreciate that. But I will say, you know, everybody, all my friends, my family, they think I'm freaking nuts. They do think that, kenny, I mean you know again. You know, it's something that my wife and I we stumbled upon years ago. We've been talking about it for five years. I honestly don't think that my family and her family well, maybe her family thought that we would do this. You know, and, like I said, I would rather try it and fail than not try it at all.
Speaker 2:No, fair enough, Right? Well, and like you said, though, once you get everything like really built up and you know there's more, a little bit Well, just different accommodations for everybody to come in, that they're not going to just be camping out, I think they'll see it different, you know. And once the family comes through and they're like whoa, this is great.
Speaker 4:Yeah, then definitely yeah. That is definitely the hope I mean. You know, my wife always reminds me remember what you said. You know, build it and they will come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, build the dreams, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:It's exactly right really truly see or understand the. You know the the trials and tribulations that we go through on a daily basis to be able to get it to where it's at now, but that's okay. It's just about eventually getting good people together, family together and just enjoying life yeah, no, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I mean, like, for me, my kids are three quarters grown and, you know, I like the idea of going out to them, or that we all get together in any one place, you know, and just to travel, and so that then, if you're, you know, you being out there in tennessee having a nice, you know, big old spread, hell yeah, man, that's the way to go. That's the way to go, they'll, they will come, they will come, they will come.
Speaker 4:They will, and you know, funny enough. You know we talk about electronics and we talk about power and all of that, but when you start getting involved with other things that exist out there, I honestly my I don't look at my phone all day unless I want to see if there's a rainstorm coming in or, you know, one of our kids called us Right. Other than that, the only time the phone is on is when I'm playing some you know taxi, or watching the Odd Couple, or you know Cheers, just having it play in the background for some noise, because, honestly, too much quiet gets to me, but some people, that's right up their alley, right. So you know, the whole electronics thing starts to go wayside a little bit when you're out doing this kind of stuff, whether or not it's go to bed, I think it is, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 3:It works for me. They seem to be doing really well out here. They enjoy it. That's the main thing. Of course it's going to be hard. You're going to have trials and tribulations. They're doing fine man. This is be hard. You're going to have trials and tribulations, right? So of course you know. But they're doing fine man. This is their thing, they're doing it and it's looking good.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, it's looking good. Yeah, just keep Lewis helping you out right now. While you have him there, you know, let him build another fence up and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:No, I can't tell you how. You know, you guys, you guys know how much I love this man, but he was an animal, he really was an animal and he just he didn't stop. You know, he came, he does his stretches. Okay, let's get to work. And he is like you know, and we got it, we got it done, but we managed to have a few laughs. Yeah, we did, you know, and I'm quite sure we're going to have a few more tonight when we get done with this, which is going to be very soon.
Speaker 4:I still have a couple of jokes for you guys. When he gets back, hopefully you'll laugh and cry as much as we did.
Speaker 2:That is hilarious yeah. Well, I can't wait till you come back, bro, so we can hear it all. And you know, you can tell us all the funnies and whatnot.
Speaker 4:So that's gonna be awesome. That is freaking awesome, yeah, but I listen. I appreciate you guys for letting me rant about this. You know I love, I love this podcast. I know you guys are. You know you do this for you know, with a passion, and I wish you again. I still always wish you guys the best success and I'm just so happy and honored to be part of it every now and then.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for being on and you know, thank you for the positive feedback, brother. I appreciate that. You know, we appreciate that and it's cool Love having you on too, because you know you said you give us the funnies and stuff. So you know.
Speaker 4:I appreciate it. My, my dream has become that we get this to a point where all you guys will come and bring your families and you'll see yeah, this is what we've been ranting and joking about over the last few years. He was right. Yes, pretty good.
Speaker 2:No, I few years. He was right. Pretty good, I can dig it. So, with that and the positive note, appreciate you, frank, thank you for being on, thank you, sir Lewis for being out there and you guys on location, on location.
Speaker 3:On location.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, got the.
Speaker 3:Tennessee tan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so thank you much, guys. And with that, love, peace and hair grease.
Speaker 3:Live long and prosper and go vegan.
Speaker 1:Hello.
