We are FINALLY Starting to Build the Homestead!

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]It's time for celebration, guys, cuz we have officially broken ground.

[00:00:05][music] [music] All right, guys. Thanks for being here and welcome to another episode of Coffee Talk. And that's right, you heard it correctly. We have finally, finally, actually broken ground on the hopeful homestead build. What a day it is to finally be able to say that with truth behind it. [laughter] It has been an elusive day. It has been an elusive time. Uh an elusive just phase of everything in our lives that has just continually, as you guys know, has continually the finish line kept moving further and further away from us.

[00:00:44]And we finally have crossed that I want to say finish line. It's really, you know, just starting. But for for me, it's the finish line of all the struggle that led to finally being able to start building. And that very much is a finish line. that is worthy of celebrating being able to finally cross it. And we have, as we speak, there are numerous dump trucks and bulldozers and cranes and skid loaders and tractors and brush hogs and all kinds of stuff. I had no idea the scale of the amount of equipment, heavy equipment that would be out there for this project. I did not realize that there'd be this many guys out there. I mean, I swear there's like 15, 20 guys out there any given day.

[00:01:25]It's incredible. It's It's truly a sight to see. And and what's funny is that in the beginning when they started doing all the work, I was actually struggling for a minute because I felt I I unexpectedly had this random bout of anxiety about there being all these people that I don't even know on my property messing with it and doing things to it. And I had this overwhelming sense because up until this point, literally everything from the fence to brush clearing to everything that's going on out there has been me solo by myself out there doing the work.

[00:01:56]And it was really really difficult uh being actually like giving up that control to someone else. And I did not at all anticipate that especially with how hard we were working to be able to get to the point where finally someone would be able to do this and start building. It it was surprising how how hard it was for me to let go of control.

[00:02:14]But I've I've worked on it. I have officially made sure that now I'm I'm happy with it. I've talked to more of the people out there. I've met the guy who's in charge of all the excavation and uh he's doing a great job and he's very tenacious. They're working seven days a week right now. He told me he wants to take advantage of the good weather while we still have it. Being that we're digging that big pond and everything, it's he's really want to make sure we knock all this out while we're while it's not raining. And we've got a little bit of time left here before rain season really kicks in in Florida. So, I appreciate his tenacity with wanting to get this job done. And he's telling us that by the end of next week, we could potentially be done with excavation, which would be a total time frame of like two two and a half weeks from breaking ground, which is incredible to think the entire 1acre lake will be dug. All the sight pads will be built up. The driveway, they've already got a driveway partially in, partially installed. It's it's really incredible. He's saying the gravel is going to be out there by the end of next week potentially. I mean, it's it's really incredible. Um, and turns out this the pond is actually uh really way bigger than we ended up needing. We didn't know how much quality good quality soil uh dirt fill we'd be getting out of the pond to be able to use to build up the sight pad locations and driveway and everything. You know, you do soil tests, but that's only testing one specific spot of the ground going deep. And we knew there was some good soil down there. We just didn't know how much volume of good soil there would be. And turns out we got lucky that this the 1 acre area of space that we were put in this pond was pretty much entirely great soil. So we have way excess over what we actually need for all the dirt fill. What we're going to be doing is actually since we have so much excess, we're going to be building up a whole area right near the shooting range that I showed you guys in that that full tour video last week. In front of that, we're going to be building up like a 20 foot high by like 50 plus foot wide miniature mountain. It's going to be part of the I've mentioned a walking trail, a hiking trail that I want to have on the property. Uh they're going to build this this mound in such a way to where there's going to be a little bit of like a zigzagging switchback hiking trail that will go up the side of it up to a point up top where there'll be some sort of I don't know yet. Maybe I'll put like a fire pit up there, fire ring, and a couple of log chairs, benches or something. I'll do something cool up there to make like a cool, you know, high point, you know, that you can see the whole property from. It'll be a beautiful view there. You'll probably be able to see out into the wildlife preserve that's off the back of the property because it'll be close to that and it will be an awesome feature to have and be a fun fun aspect of the hiking trail that'll be around the property and a fun little caveat to, you know, being able to have all this extra dirt. And then he's saying we should have plenty of dirt beyond even building that up. So, we're just going to start selling it and help actually make some money off of our off of our land and and help recoup some of the cost of excavation by selling a lot of this dirt.

[00:04:56]But before we actually officially broke ground with the actual construction work going on, my family and I actually went out there the the previous week and we wanted to have a little breaking ground ceremony ourselves. And so, you know, my wife and I and our two little girls, we went out to the center of where the pond was staked out to be. And we brought some shovels and a bucket and we dug up.

[00:05:18]We all took turns digging some dirt out of the ground where the pond was going to be being, you know, officially breaking ground on the pond as a family.

[00:05:24]And we put that dirt in the bucket and drove it around to where the guest house is going to be where we're going to live at first. And we put that dirt on the ground out there and really enjoyed the actual sentiment sentimental value of being together and being the first ones to actually move the dirt from the pond to where we where we'll be living at the guest house to start things off.

[00:05:45]>> And it was a very sweet occasion that my wife and I really enjoyed taking in with our girls. It was at sunset. It was beautiful out there. crazy color just erupting through the clouds as the sun was setting out over the land. And it was just a gorgeous, gorgeous evening.

[00:05:59]Really got us excited about life out there because we don't get to be out there too often at those times of day.

[00:06:05]You know, I'm out there during the day and we're around high noon a lot. Um we're rarely ever I mean barely have ever been out there in the morning, real early in the morning. Sunrises are going to be incredible out there from our our front porch and sunsets out there. Late late late evening walks after dinner around the property when the sky is erupting with all kinds of crazy color is just going to be incredible. And we're we're so excited to be able to finally get this thing going here. And just yesterday, I I talked to the supplier for the metal buildings for the for the garage and for the barn. Those are officially ordered. Our contractor's already applied for permits for the house and everything else we're doing.

[00:06:40]So, it's official. We're we're we're underway here and finally doing it. So, here in just a matter of 10 days or so, we'll be done with excavation and we'll be waiting on the approval for permits to be able to get to work on the rest of everything going on out there. So, it's really exciting and I'll keep you guys updated along the way, obviously, cuz what a m momentous occasion it is to finally be able to bring you guys updates about something actually happening out there. And if you didn't catch my other video last week, but we're wondering where the heck I am right now. I'm actually at our rental house uh nearby near the homestead that we've been living in for the past three years. And I'm very excited to get out of this place because this this place I you can't really tell, but this is our house. That's our neighbor. And being, you know, that we're called to this life out on acreage and out in the woods and, you know, we're excited about all that.

[00:07:26]Living with this proximity to neighbors and I'm not kidding. Literally, I can from where I'm sitting, I can count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 houses. I can see 12 houses from my backyard. So, uh, I'm excited to not be able to see anything except for maybe one neighbor from our, you know, backyard at the next house.

[00:07:48]So, but that's where I am right now out at our our rental house. And after the excavation work finishes, I'll be able to get back onto the property and start making videos out by the campsite and the cabin again. and I just don't want to be in their way while they're doing so much work right now. Oh yeah, and you know, you might have noticed I've got a new hat here. This hat is a brand new hat. If you can see in here, this is Wild Hats. If you see online, sometimes you'll see ads for for custom cowboy hats. I know I started getting ads for them and that was from this company right here, Wild Hats. You can see their signature is they put a gold nail in the back of the hat and that's how you know it was made by Wild Hats. And it's pretty neat. These these guys make some pretty pretty cool hats. And this is an interesting combination of a cowboy hat and a fedora with the way that it's shaped. And they do this asymmetric mule kick in the front to this fedora shape on top of a cowboy hat with flared up sides that are uh this is just one of many different options they have. And you know, they rough it up and beat it up and stuff to give it a lot of character. And I really really like it.

[00:08:48]I love the the rope that they've wrapped this hat with. It just is really nice.

[00:08:52]And I'm really enjoying the color. I haven't had a hat this color before. So, there we go. This is going to be my new cowboy hat that I wear most of the time.

[00:09:02]I've got my TOAS straw hat, palm frond hat that I I will use to do work in. And this will be the hat that I just walk around the property with and enjoy and sit by the campfire in. And to let you guys know, this hat was entirely paid for by you guys. This is one of those items that I bought with money that I earned from the ad revenue from you guys watching these videos. So, thank you very much for my new hat. [laughter] But all right, guys. Thanks for watching. That's going to do it for today's video.

[00:09:29]Appreciate you sitting out here at my rental house with me, drinking some coffee, and having another little coffee talk, talking about a wonderful, momentous day of finally breaking ground for my family on our property. The hopeful homestead is finally becoming a real thing. But thanks for watching all the way through if you did, and I'll see you in the next video, guys. Later.

[00:09:46][music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat.