The Uncommon Path
"The Uncommon Path" is a podcast that intimately explores the transformative journeys of individuals, featuring raw and unfiltered testimonies that celebrate the resilience, growth, and shared human experiences, offering listeners a source of inspiration and connection on their own life paths. Join us as we unveil the extraordinary stories that shape who we are.
The Uncommon Path
Tucker Hayes - From Hospital Bed Vision to 2300-Acre Legacy: One Man's Journey to Surrender
Tucker Hayes shares his transformative journey from outdoor television producer to cattle farmer through a series of divine interventions and persistent faith. We explore how loss, surrender, and trust have shaped his understanding of God as provider and guide, culminating in the stewardship of a 2,300 acre farm he first saw in a hospital bed vision.
• Early foundation in a Christian home with faith becoming personal in college
• Called to leave school for outdoor television despite no prior filmmaking experience
• Choosing to fully process grief after losing his best friend rather than numbing the pain
• Clear divine calling to "go farm" despite having zero agricultural background
• Surviving financial hardships while pursuing an uncertain farming vision
• Praying "burn whatever is keeping me from trusting you" leading to hospitalization with pneumonia
• Receiving a vision of a specific property while in the hospital
• Persistence in visiting a property owner for seven weeks straight
• Moving to the exact farm from his vision through an unlikely partnership
• Finding that all previous life experiences prepared him for his current calling
If God's calling you to something that seems impossible, remember that He often prepares the way through unexpected relationships and opportunities. The path may involve financial struggles and uncertainty, but persistent faith can lead to seeing visions become reality.
Hey everyone, this is Chris. I'm Ryan From the Uncommon Path podcast. The scripture, Revelation 12 11 says and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.
Speaker 2:Our hope is that as you listen, you will be encouraged in the Lord. This podcast was created as an avenue to share people's raw and unfiltered journeys with him. We hope this brings breakthrough and intimacy with Jesus through their testimony of what God is doing through their lives. Tucker hayes, we are here at your place. I am, uh, honestly really honored to meet you. I've heard a lot of awesome things from brian russo and chris and, uh, I've been actually wondering when we would meet. I didn't think it would be on your property yeah, man, I'm happy to have y'all we are at the first official uncommon path field trip, field trip 45 minutes away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good we didn't ride together, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:It's okay. Yeah, talker, won't judge us for all the extra fossil fuel consumption?
Speaker 2:not at all not at all there's plenty of that out here too um tucker, tell us kind of what your journey with the lord um has been like. When you, when you started as a kid, how did you view god? Was he more of just kind of this entity out in the sky who kind of ruled over everything, or was he personal? Was that kind of a instant moment where your faith became your own, or was that kind of a journey?
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, that's a. That's a big question. So how did you just describe it Like big guy in the sky type of a journey? Yeah, man, that's a big question. So how did you just describe it Like big guy in the sky type of a deal?
Speaker 2:Is that?
Speaker 3:basically what you said. That's probably somewhat accurate. I mean, I grew up in a Christian home, have a mother and father who are amazing people with a strong faith. My father actually didn't come to faith until I was probably about 12, 11 or 12. So that was cool for me to see. I say cool for me to see. He would probably be like I wish I was your whole life, but cool for me to see in terms of the transformation, the visible transformation in him as a man. I mean just stark contrast, right.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, so that was and that's's, that's a whole rabbit trail of a conversation in terms of all the things that um, just just cool things that I've seen in his life, you know, seeing him go from one side to the other. But that being said, yeah, I come from a family, a large family, very rooted in faith, uh, but I would say my understanding of God was a Sunday school understanding, right, and you know, my first experience is cheesy as it is was probably a jars of clay concert when I was like 13, where I actually felt some sort of conviction, right, and that was like the do you want to come down, altar call? Type of a deal, did that? But there was never any change, right, there was never any change in my understanding of God. I wouldn't say there was any deepening of my relationship with Him or anything like that. And then, when I got to college I would say that was the first real time I felt a strong calling from God, um, to go pursue.
Speaker 3:The career that I pursued led me to leave college, which was in the outdoor industry, filming outdoor television. Um, and that was just a clear burning in my spirit. This is what you're supposed to go do, um, did you know?
Speaker 1:that was God then, or did you I did? Yeah, I was actually.
Speaker 3:I'd I'd come into the season where I was actually pursuing God.
Speaker 3:I was in in the word and and praying and and seeking right Like I was actually seeking for the first time in my life. It wasn't just this culture that I was saturated in from the time I was a little kid. So, yeah, I would say there was definitely a difference in terms of my position towards him in that season, and you know much in the same way that I found myself where I am now, the way in which, following that, calling doors just seem to open right and um opportunities. That didn't make much sense to me at the time, having zero experience in that world, uh, but ended up having a really cool career in the outdoor industry, left college my freshman year, got on with a television show very quickly, having never touched a video camera how, how, how did how did you know this was a calling that's so fascinating to me in college and you're just like you never touched a video camera, but you just knew you needed to do this yeah that's crazy yeah, mean that's so cool.
Speaker 3:These types of things are hard to you know like accurately articulate so somebody else understands it, but you know the sound of his voice. I mean it was a calling of this is the path that I'm supposed to take, not only that audible calling and you know, conversation and communion with the Holy Spirit, but just a overwhelming sense of this is what I'm supposed to go do. And if I don't, I'm you know betraying is probably a heavy word, but you know I'm definitely ignoring something significant here on my life.
Speaker 2:Holy cow.
Speaker 3:And, you know, when you look back on it 15, 20 years back, like you can see that path that was laid out right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the tools that that I developed in that season of my life from a video production standpoint, marketing over the last 15 years and how those are, you know, have have put me in a unique position to help farmers, have helped quite a few farmers with that, but also the importance of it within a farm business. Right, that's one of the major things lacking, you know, in agriculture, as there's more of a cultural shift to direct to consumer marketing for farms and things like that. That's something that most folks have no clue what to do, you know, in that area, which, for me, that's the skill set that I'm coming. You know, I'm learning the farming part, right, and that part of it, that part of the business, is second nature at this point. So it's cool to be able to see how God was preparing me for where we are now. Like that, that stint of what he called me to go do at 18 was part of preparation for where we are now.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:But yeah, when you go, how do you know he was calling? I mean, I don't have any like crazy deep answer. I just know he was calling me and I can see the fruit bear out in my life.
Speaker 3:That's so cool. How long did you do that? I did that from 2008 and I quit with the show that I was with in about 2012. That's just a crazy schedule and lifestyle. You know you're on the road nine, ten months out of the year, seven days a week. You know, if a hunting season's not in, you're at trade shows. And I always knew I wanted to be a father. I was from the time I was a little boy, wanted to be a dad, wanted to have a family.
Speaker 3:I was from the time I was a little boy wanted to be a dad, wanted to have a family, you know, and at 21, 22, you know, understood if I do this for my career, I'm definitely not having a family, you know, and if I do, I'm never going to see him. Just understanding that I needed to transition out of that format of video production, right Filming, hunting and fishing, fishing television. And that's when I moved back to Raleigh and started my video production business.
Speaker 1:Okay, what? What's some of the craziest things you've done, though, and that that time cause you were like you told me you're in alaska. Oh yeah, all over right yeah, um, yeah.
Speaker 3:We went everywhere, from alaska and british columbia all the way down to south texas and maine. I think the only states I didn't get to go to were, like hawaii, um, oregon, I think, hawaii and oregon those are the only states you didn't go to yeah, because you know you're well, you're dry you're hunting in a hundred different places.
Speaker 3:You're driving everywhere in the off season. You're going to trade shows all over the united states right to meet people that watch the shows and things like that. So yeah, you got. I got to do a ton of traveling, so that was fun. And then on the wildlife side of it, I mean got to do some amazing things. You know fishing and on kodiak island and being, you know, in the rivers with these huge bears and, uh, elk hunting out in wyoming and colorado and montana, and you know getting to do a lot of cool stuff I was living my dream.
Speaker 1:I grew up hunting and fishing, so it was like what did all that amazing? What all that adventure? How did that affect your relationship with with the Lord?
Speaker 3:I think it was.
Speaker 3:That's a good question.
Speaker 3:I think it was a huge benefit, right Cause at 18 dropped out of college so went a totally different direction than anybody else in my life and then I'm out on the road alone, you know like I have no relationship with the people I'm working with, you know, having just met them.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean that experience of kind of just at that young of an age, being in an environment most of the time where there's no, you know you're outside of all your foundations, you know, socially, so it's you and God in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3:And then also being a lot of times in these settings where it's like you're sitting on top of a mountaintop looking out over, you know, a mountain range, like you feel real small, right, and that always helps in terms of connecting with God. You know being in places where it's just still and quiet. So I think that had a huge role. And really, when I look back at my life, you know my dad got my brother and I in the woods when we were four or five years old and the amount of time I've spent alone in the woods, just me and God, from the time I was a kid all the way through adulthood, like I'll never understand the eternal impact that had on me you know just you know, in today's world I feel like 90% of the problem is we just don't have time to sit still.
Speaker 3:You know, to be still and listen and hunting provides a ton of great opportunity to do that. So to be able to to do that from such a young age, I think, was a huge blessing that I'm just beginning to realize.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really cool so that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Have you heard that quote that I? I don't know who to describe it to, but it's pretty famous. It says all of man's problems can be related to his inability to sit in a room alone.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just with his thoughts. 100%, yeah, I think it's a pretty profound thought 100%.
Speaker 3:There's nothing better than being alone and being still. In a lot of ways you got to have it. I don't think you can. I mean, I hadn't figured out how to have that clarity and hear his voice and just that you know intimacy with him without physically sitting still and being with him, seeking his presence and being with him.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know like we live in a culture of hacks you know like oh, how do you hack this?
Speaker 3:and hack that it's like dude. It's no different in a relationship between you and I. Like if we don't sit down and spend time together one on one in person, like if we don't make that effort, we're not going to have that kind of intimacy in our relationship. And you know, my belief is he's always there, waiting and willing and ready for that. It's oftentimes us that doesn't actually pursue it in a meaningful, tangible way in terms of, you know, sitting still and being with him tangible way in terms of, you know, sitting still and being with him.
Speaker 1:I think would you say hunters and fishermen, develop some skills that really help you with hearing the Lord. Because I fly fish right, I've never been a big hunter, but you do spend a lot of time alone. You have to pick up on like little nuances, details, details, right, and do spend a lot of time alone. You have to pick up on like little nuances, details, details, right, and you have to, and there's a lot of waiting. Absolutely. There's actually a lot of parallels to that and walking with christ yeah yeah I mean I'm I'm sure there is something to that.
Speaker 3:I mean, I know without a shadow of a doubt that all of that hunting, fishing outdoors growing up prepared me for videography. I mean, it made it to where I so naturally picked that up, right, because you're a videographer. What are you doing? You're documenting, you're telling a story through a thousand different details, right? So your ability to have that eye creatively I think you know hunting definitely prepared me for that. But there's something to that, I'm sure, with you know, hearing the Lord's voice or picking up on little things. You know that's something I've honestly never given a ton of thought to, but it's a cool concept or idea but that's a cool concept or idea.
Speaker 2:How did the relationship with the lord translate exiting that season of life where you're working, uh, on the outdoor show?
Speaker 3:so it's funny, man, and it's, I'm sure it's. You know, I feel like it's something you hear a lot of, like how do people phrase it? Seasons or what's another one Like the ebb and flow of your faith, or like you're hot and so one season and cold one. But you know, that was a time, especially when I was pursuing that right. It's like, okay, I feel, and I hear this calling to go in this direction, and it was very much like all right, god, if this is what you want me to do, show me, and if you don't slam it in my face and I'll stay here in school and just get a degree in something you know. And and uh, doors, very, you know, began to open up very quickly.
Speaker 3:Um, and those opportunities came, um, and when I was put in those opportunities, the you know, the footage and things that I was able to produce was like enough to get hired on full time as a head producer and things like that. So all of that was like, oh, I was made for this Right and at least what it produced, like he led me right into something that he had bent me for, you know wow and then going into that season where it's like it's kind of just me and and a bunch of people I'm getting to know on the road um, we're very close, right, like.
Speaker 3:I think that produces that intimacy or dependency is probably a better word and then exiting that season and starting my own business and, you know, making pretty good money as a young guy and that was right when video was really taken off like on the corporate level. So I had a ton of work and you just kind of slide into this comfortable, I don't. You don't? Going back to what I was saying about, there's something about putting yourself in a place where it's quiet, to, to really seek that intimacy with the Lord, like there's something about being in a place where you are.
Speaker 3:You have to be dependent on him too for me at least Um and so, as I kind of moved out of that season, I'm back home. Things are familiar, familiar faces, relationships, business going good. You kind of slide into a season right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right.
Speaker 3:Of of, uh, just lukewarmness is the only way to put it right. Yeah, apathy, um, it's back. You put it on the back burner Um, it's still there and you identify with it. And for me, in my life, those seasons have always produced legalism. They've always produced you know it's more of this. I know about him, right, and the fruit that produces is totally different than fruit, from being with him, you know, or being in his presence, and so yeah, I would say that's that that came.
Speaker 3:That's how, that's kind of where I went for a number of years. And then it was funny, man, I feel like around the age of 25, I just gotten married and I it was the weirdest thing. It was like and I mean it was the Holy spirit, you know but just this conviction, or this overwhelming sense of like how do I love people better? Like I'm just not loving people Right and I couldn't put my hand on any specific thing that I was or wasn't doing. It was just this sense of I'm not loving people Right. And that was how man Lord bless my friends in that season, in terms of just like. I remember going to hikes with buddies and it'd be like three hours later and I'm like I was the only one that talked and I didn't say anything.
Speaker 3:I'm just rambling and uh you know like there's gotta be more you know just that, like desiring and seeking a greater depth that I had previously known or was living in, and um, it was about a year into that. Um, it's wild. I remember I was sitting in the driveway with my cousin and her and I super close at the time and and we were talking about how blessed our family has been. Big family, no tragedies, really like no sickness, no illness, no divorce, nothing like 30, 40 people.
Speaker 3:Wow Special right Like special in today's yeah, it's wild and we were talking about how, growing up in that, like your faith, it was that conversation like has my faith ever really been tested right? Yeah, and I remember telling her I was like my uh, I was like I I've honestly started praying for that. I'm like Lord, I want you to test my faith. Two days later, my best friend died. Best friend that my son's named after Tommy.
Speaker 3:Like brother, I was closer to Tommy than I was my own brother for many seasons of life, from first grade all the way through high school.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And after, and I think that was just like the accelerator button for all of it. I remember laying on the bathroom floor just broken, you know, 24 hours after that happened, just weeping and begging him for peace, you know, just begging him and feeling that come over me. I just kept saying I need your peace. I need that peace that surpasses understanding, because I'm smoked you know yeah.
Speaker 3:And feeling that, having an experience laying on that bathroom floor and feeling his peace come over me like water, like the physical sensation of water, and just immediately knowing I'm going to be okay, like I'm not still not grieving on this level, but I'm going to be okay. Like I'm not still not grieving on this level, but I'm going to be. It was this understanding of I'm not lost, I'm not forsaken nothing, I'm going to be okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I mean that gave me the strength to do his eulogy. You know to, and you know I'm not going to say I handled that season of grief Awesome, but I definitely was intentional of like I want to feel every ounce of this. I'm not trying to get busy, move on. You know, like I need to go through this, you know, and that was probably a good. I mean, if you talk to my wife, it was a couple year process.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Right Of, probably externally, what seemed like wandering, like what's going on with Tuck, you know what I mean and and uh, but it was such a season of it's just me and the Lord is in terms of what it felt like, um, and God bless her man for staying with me through that and just loving me through that, cause you know, I can look back on it and go, I was totally focused on myself Right, which is weird to me too from the sense of like I go. It was such a season where it was just me and the Lord and I know what he was doing in me, but I was also so focused on myself, which is kind of anti, you know those are two conflicting things, right, um, but yeah, the growth that came from that and again, like the dependency, I was like right back in that place of like I need you, I can't do this, you know, go ahead.
Speaker 2:I have, yeah, I have a question what made?
Speaker 1:you not want to numb the pain.
Speaker 3:That's a great question.
Speaker 2:That is a good question, I think it's really. I'm asking that because I think it's really rare and really sweet that you had that time with the Lord and obviously you were ready to have that hard time with the Lord.
Speaker 3:but like it's just I don't know, man, I mean that's a good question. Like the easy answer is like that's just what I knew. I, man, I mean that's a good question. Like the easy answer is like it's just what I knew I had to do. You know, like it doesn't make like we're. Why would I want to not feel it? You know what I mean. I should. You know what I mean. I definitely think we live in a world, in a culture, where it's like numb it, numb it, numb it. You know what I mean. I definitely think we live in a world and a culture where it's like numb it, numb it, numb it. You know what I mean. Somebody you love died. Here's an antidepressant, or we should feel that. You know what I mean. If we're looking for like I'm good all the time, we're going to miss a lot of what the Lord's trying to do in our life because I think he does a lot when we're not good you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:That's also gonna stockpile and smack you later as like a giant bundle. Yeah, you're not right.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I mean, I I don't know that I was making experience. Yeah, I don't know that I was making a conscious decision at the time. I know for me like and this goes back to like when I said I don't think I'm handled it all the best uh, for me I I had difficulty with people that weren't doing that, that just wanted to move on from it quick. I didn't know how to handle that and those relationships and I pushed people away because of that right yeah um, but that's a.
Speaker 3:You know, I was young, I was going through that the first time you live, you learn, you know um anybody I feel like I went there with. There's definitely been conversation, sense of like try to reconcile Um, but yeah, I mean it, it for me that was the only option.
Speaker 2:Um that is so cool.
Speaker 3:And you know, I think that's where the healing comes from. Right, I don't I totally be wrong but I don't know how he heals or redeems something if we're not willing to actually go through it and experience it I love that.
Speaker 2:I think that's so true there. I think I think in today's day and age there's a lot of unhealed people because you don't have to get healing. You can just get a bandaid on a wound or sweep something under the rug and never have to deal with it on the surface.
Speaker 3:Right. I mean there's that, there's also. You know and do that. You know I learned in that not to push people right and to to love people where they're at, and for I mean the reality is some, some people are only capable of doing that where they're at. You know what I mean. The Holy spirit was doing that to me. That wasn't me. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like I'll start there and like it's not like I have some profound understanding and I'm just like the man you know, like that was, that was a season of heavy pruning, right.
Speaker 2:He was doing.
Speaker 3:that he was, you know, he was leading, that I was willing to go, you know, and that you know. Maybe there is our part in that, for sure.
Speaker 1:But have you thought about what that's done to your faith?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, man, I mean that that has given me a testimony right A it's, it is. It's a reality now. Like it, he can heal any wound. He can restore anything like what I love to have tommy here right now, a hundred percent like he's my brother. Is there any pain or grief when I think about that? Absolutely not. I see the beauty that's come out of it, like that's the. Those are the eyes he's given me for that right. So from a faith standpoint, it's like he can do anything right.
Speaker 1:Like he can do anything, yeah I feel you like, my wife lost her best friend in college, uh-huh tragically, uh-huh car accident thing, and just like terrible, yeah, and what has come out of it is like what on her, I see, is just this like invincible faith. Yeah, right, she's like, in the midst of all that pain, just decided I I'm believing god is good, right, and grieve through it and get through it. And it's almost like I, I, it would take something gargantuan to shake that girl's faith. Yeah, I don't even know if it's possible right at this point, you know, because I think that's something that comes out of those seasons absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:And it I mean even we won't jump there yet, but like to fast forward a little bit into where we are now. Right, it it started back in may when I got sick and I'm in the hospital, you know, and I've shared with my wife like I'm so grateful for where he's brought me to, where in the midst of those things, it's like he's so good man, like in the middle of it. It's not like I get out of it and I'm like six months down the road I can see what he did in it. It's in the middle of it, you understand, like, oh, he's doing something huge here in my life.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. And on the warfare front of it, it's clear that it's like all I need to do is sit here and praise him right in the middle of it. You know what I mean. And it's wild looking back in that that timeframe in life, those couple of years. I remember being at the gym, like three, four weeks after the funeral, with another buddy of mine and he was like how you been man and I'm like, honestly, man, I think I'm doing better than I've ever done. Now I'm right in the middle of mourning, you know, like it's still crazy fresh, right, and I've still got years ahead of me that I'm going to be working through all these different, like really, stages of grief that I can look back and see I went through. But at that time that was a genuine answer. I think I'm actually better than I've ever been because I'm understanding who God is more, you know, know what I mean. I'm closer to him than I've ever been. I you know. So in that sense, like I'm great, you know, compared to where I've been.
Speaker 3:And then it was. It's funny, though, like six months later I would have this, like you know, revelation to where it was, almost like, oh, I have not been OK. I'm good now. I'm way better than I was. You know, it was like this, this stage, like I remember being on a video shoot for a show I used to do on PBS and I got home that afternoon and it hit me laying in bed that night. I really enjoyed today this is like a year plus after he died, but I was like I actually enjoyed myself. Today. I haven't enjoyed like, I haven't felt that.
Speaker 3:I mean it was like I woke my wife up and was like I got to tell you this, like I had a good day today Like. I had a good day. I didn't realize I wasn't having good days this whole time.
Speaker 1:She's like I'm so happy for you, I'm going back to bed. Yeah, I'm going to smack you.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly so, man, grief is such a wild thing, but you know death is such a wild thing, but I think it is 100% one of the most beautiful parts of life. There is nothing that will till the soil of your heart more and prepare it for what God wants to do in your life than death. Right, I mean, that's all the way to the cross, Right? You see the life that has come from that.
Speaker 2:So good Was this. During this time, you and your wife, y'all, were in Cary.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Okay, are you guys originally from there?
Speaker 3:I'm originally from there. She grew up in Raleigh out off of Eastville Okay. My family moved to Cary in like 1960, so we're Seen a lot of changes. Yeah, yeah, a lot of them. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. My grandparents were right there on the corner of walnut and kildare, like in downtown where the park is now.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, so we've talked about this right because my granddaddy lived in downtown.
Speaker 3:Carry right at cornwall and yeah, yeah, killer farmhouse right, that little farmhouse that's right there every year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the new ambulance station oh, is that what it is? That's what they're turning it into?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's pretty wild. Yeah, it's nuts, it's wild, but I feel like I got off on a tangent.
Speaker 2:No, you're good.
Speaker 3:That's good. You were talking about, yeah.
Speaker 1:Tangents are allowed.
Speaker 3:Tucker.
Speaker 2:The best rabbit trail leads to the juiciest carrot. That's what my grandfather always said. Oh, that's too funny. So we're, we're, uh, fast forward after this grieving process. Where, where were you guys Like? What were you doing a couple of years after that? Um, you're no longer in carry. Um, there's been a lot of changes from when you got married to now, but where did the lord lead you after, after that grieving process?
Speaker 3:oh, in pbs, let's see I mean, if he passed in 2017, I'd say like right up into, right up into 2020. I mean there, I remember there were things in like you know, 2019, 2020 that I was realizing of like I think I'm out of that grieving process, right, and I said I feel like I went through stages, stages of like whether it was learning things about myself, learning things about God, um, and then I I feel like that last stage was the realization of I have been just turned inward for the last two and a half years. You know, like that to me, was that recognition of like I think I'm coming out of this was I began to go, okay, what have I done to my marriage? Or what have I done to you know what I mean Like the other relationships in my life.
Speaker 3:Where have I? How have I neglected them? Um, maybe neglect is not the right word, um, but definitely you know. Uh, I'm not not gonna say it was an easy season for my wife, right, because she's got a husband that she can tell is kind of in his head. Um, but 2020, you know, and the crazy thing is like my business and everything kept growing, like 2019 was my best year in business having started it in 2012 and was looking at hiring a couple people man and then boom, covid.
Speaker 3:You know it was going from like I'm going to hire three guys full time to didn't make a dollar the first nine months of COVID, you know, like wrecked financially on that front. And again, though, huge godsend, I mean we wouldn't be sitting right here right now if it had just kept going in that other trajectory, right. So, you know, it kind of went from one season of dependency right into another season of dependency, just in a different way. I'm like all right, you know you. You know, yeah, I know you've got us. You know, um, and I would say, man, it was probably what was that? I think it was spring of 2020 or maybe spring of 2021. Um, where, again, clear calling from the Lord go farm.
Speaker 1:Really Laying in the bathtub.
Speaker 3:one night I had seen a video of Joel Salatin and the way that he was communicating and talking about farming as it pertained to his faith and just you know the natural order of things.
Speaker 2:Who is Joel Salatin for people who?
Speaker 3:don't know him in um up in the shenandoah valley of virginia and he's, you know, been pretty integral and, and, uh, pioneering what is now termed as, like, regenerative farming techniques, animal-based farming techniques so rotational grazing, um, and things like that.
Speaker 3:But great speaker, great personality. But the way he was communicating, he communicated things in a way to I was like that's what I've always growing up hunting and fishing and being in nature right, that's how I've always seen and understood things. But I've never heard anybody communicate it in that way or articulate it that well and um, probably a week later, yeah, yeah, I'm laying in bed. No farming experience. No, you know, my grandfather farmed when he was a little boy in East Tennessee, before they moved to Cary, you know, in the 50s, right?
Speaker 1:So, no, you know I grew up in downtown Cary.
Speaker 2:You know there's no connection to agriculture whatsoever other than I've hunted over a cornfield.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. And um, but yeah, that clear voice and calling go farm with that was go build an arc, which you know we'll. We'll see where that goes, but um did you want to do it?
Speaker 1:Was it like sometimes you get a calling and you're like really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But did you want?
Speaker 3:to farm. I was very intrigued by that video I had seen. Yeah, but knowing nothing about it. Right, knowing nothing about it. Knowing as much as I could want to go knowing nothing about it, I'll say that you know what I mean Like that's awesome, you know.
Speaker 3:they're raising things, exactly how God intended these things to be managed and right. You know, like there, there was so much there that resonated with me that it was like that's awesome, you know. But I mean I'm yeah, I was sitting in the bathtub and I remember telling my wife I was like I feel like God just called me. You know, god just told me to go farm, and she's like what you know, like what. Okay. You know it was probably more like okay, you know, sounds good.
Speaker 2:Tucker, we live in Cary, that's great. Tucker, Good job honey.
Speaker 3:Cause I like, like dude, I'm self-admittedly like I'm an idea puppy mill, like you know, I, I can turn out an idea, right. I mean I'm not, you know it is, it is. It is what it is, you know, and when you turn out enough, most of them don't happen right. So she was probably like sounds great, another good idea you know, um, but but with that was that same burning in my spirit that I experienced at 18. And so the the minute that hit, it was like you just knew now like yep this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 3:Um, this is what I'm going to do. And with that, having gone through that at 18, there was a confidence of and he's going to do it. Because when I was 18, no business filming a TV show. I mean, those guys called me and said I got a call about a week after praying All right, lord, if this is what you want me to do, show me, if not, I'll stay here. I get a call from somebody I met when I was 16 at the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh that said hey, I'm on this show now that I used to film, my cameraman just bailed on me. Can you come film me for two weeks in Illinois for a show?
Speaker 2:I'll be there.
Speaker 3:Wow, I'd never touched a video camera in my life, didn't own one. I got there and I was like I hadn't used this camera before. Show me how to run it. You know, like, give me the rundown and learned it. You know, while I was in the tree all week was learning it Did great Again. You know like what are the odds. And within six months was their head field producer Right. So, having gone through all of that, just knew like okay, if he's calling me to this, he's going to do it. You know, um, and you know, shortly after that I actually went up to polyface. It was like the next week, um, I get on their website and I see they're having an event and told elizabeth like I need to go up there. She's like, all right, do whatever you know, go for it. So I go up there.
Speaker 3:She's like all right, do whatever you know, go for it. So I went up there just to see.
Speaker 1:Props to Elizabeth, by the way.
Speaker 3:Oh dude, none of this. All of this made possible by Elizabeth 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah 100%.
Speaker 3:I mean beyond. Like you know, I'd rather have I'm not going to say supportive at every turn, but like go, do what you feel like you have to do. You know what I mean. And in the way that you know in the last year or two years really, that the Lord has brought her up to this place of I'll go anywhere and do anything with you. You know what I mean. Like, I know this. That he is what he is doing in his me is a firm, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the way he has yeah, young men, go get you a girl that thinks like that. That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, I went up to Polyface. I remember I got out of my truck. This first guy I met was a guy named David and one of the nicest human beings on planet earth Um, super welcoming, like, just super warm. Uh, still know him to this day Not awesome. But, you know, talk to him here and there and then you know, I think I and there, and then you know, I think I spent the weekend up there, man, and met some guys that I'm still friends with today. They're actually in the room with us shout out, um, but that trip was just super affirming of like, this is exactly what I'm supposed to go do.
Speaker 3:Um, and yeah, I mean that's what started us down the road to where we are now. Like, there, there's definitely I'm sorry I'm going all over the place there's definitely a detour to that story in terms of like, probably, whatever. What even put Joel Salatin on our radar was Elizabeth was told in 2018, she wouldn't be able to have kids, so we tried for a while. She was diagnosed with PCOS polycystic ovarian syndrome which every other girl's diagnosed with nowadays and yeah, she was told you've got this chronic hormonal imbalance. You're not going to be able to conceive naturally. Probably you'll either have to do in vitro or clomid, some some pretty harsh hormonal treatments, and, uh, you know she was devastated naturally and, um, you know I'm more of the like that does you know I'm going to question it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I just didn't resonate with me. I'm like I don't think you were made broke and did a bunch of research. While I was doing that, she was getting to this place with the Lord of just surrender and going. If this is what you got, I'm okay with it, but we ended up throwing away everything in the house every cleaning product, all her makeup, cream, food like nuked the house of anything with any chem, like endocrine disrupting chemicals in it.
Speaker 3:Month and a half later after doing that, switching to organic produce, pastries, meats and all that she's pregnant a month and a half later. And now we're on going on. Kid number four you know so that definitely opened our eyes to like this food thing's important right.
Speaker 3:So that's probably how joel even came across my radar um was our kind of um introduction into that whole world of clean food. Um, but, yeah, did that trip to polyface. That was very affirming and um, you know, it was kind of off to the races from there in terms of like a solid three years of me trying to do it in my own strength, um, you know, again coming up with ideas or business plans or you know.
Speaker 1:So did you just stop doing video at that point and just go?
Speaker 3:no, no, because that's what you know, paid the bills, uh, but I would say I didn't, you know, put any significant focus into rebuilding that business post-covid. You know, it was kind of like this is what I know I'm gonna go do um, which led to three years of like straight up hard financial times. Right, I mean, had the water turned off multiple times, right, always managed to get it turned back on the same day, but it was tight, you know, like very, and you know different people will look at that in different ways. You know, some people would, you know, would be mortified by that idea, and I'm not saying we enjoyed it, but it was also this thing of like this is the direction God's leading us, like we're going to go there. I was still pursuing work, it just, you know, really like that season of super hard financial times was that year and a half after COVID. Like the video production business. What did come back had the stipulation you had to be vaccinated if you were going to get a job.
Speaker 3:So I mean there was tons of work that I was like, you know, day of the shoot, day before, oh, send us this. I'm like, well, I don't have that and I'm not getting it, so I'm not working Right.
Speaker 2:So there's plenty of that going on too.
Speaker 3:So that led to some super tight, tight, tight financial times. Then again coming out the backside of them, you go, man, man, look at all he's done through that right, you know a season that would tear most marriages apart in terms of, like, finances being where they were, kind of this uncertainty of like, okay, god's calling us to go do this, but we have no clue what that's going to look like. We don't even have the means to go do it. Um, I just lost my business.
Speaker 3:I had, you know, built for 10 years um did you ever doubt that you'd heard right in this time I think a lot of people, a lot of people would no, uh, definitely like. Am I pursuing this correctly?
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, okay.
Speaker 3:I'm in or I'm out. That's my personality. You know what I mean. So when I'm in on something, I'm 100% in, and when I'm not, it's difficult for me to you know. And at that point I wasn't in 100 with what I used to do anymore.
Speaker 1:It was like this is what I'm going to do, right but you're in so deep with this vision to farm that the water turning off and the bills pack stacking up. And you're a father of how many kids at this point? Two, two kids. Yeah, I mean that's. That's a stressful time yeah, a hundred percent. But despite all that, you're like no, I'm. I'm a hundred percent in on this vision and I mean there was.
Speaker 3:You know, it was still like I got to generate work. I mean, because the reality is you have to generate work. I mean I, you know, you gotta pay rent, you gotta eat, you gotta pay those bills, um, but yeah, it was. I'm still going to focus the majority of my attention and effort to this thing that I know he's calling me to go do. Um, yeah, and then there was, you know, there were seasons within that three and a half years where it's like work picked up and it was great and we're good. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:But there were definitely those points where it was like you're being squeezed, like are you going to keep pursuing this? Are you going to keep pursuing this? You know, and I really wouldn't say it was until this past spring that I kind of I gave into that some and click back into like you know what? I'm just going to go back. God's called me to do this. I know, after, after this, you know, uh, we were going to move to a farm and end of last year what year is it? 2025.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, and it didn't work out. It was kind of like you know what? I'm just going to go back to making money, build this business back up. God's called me to do this. It's going to happen. You know, all the while knowing like this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing, right, and that was, that was like turmoil, you know, because I know I'm not trusting him. Right, for me that's what it meant of like I know you've called me to this, I know you can make it happen, but, you know, putting that butt behind it, that doesn't sit well with me. So, yeah, I mean there were definitely those moments of like, all right, what am I doing here? Or what are we doing here? Or do I need to just like, do I need to be doing this or pursuing this a different way? You know a hundred percent. You know those, those thoughts of doubt that that want to creep in.
Speaker 3:Um, those are good times, though, like in a way, our marriage got so much stronger.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you wrestle with you. Wrestle with God. You're like God. I know you've called me to this, but like I, also have to eat.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:It's also we need the water to be on Right and kind of like where, where are you in this? Yeah, where are you in this? Where? Where's the open door? When is it coming?
Speaker 2:Right, a hundred percent to go through those seasons. I think it was an interesting thing. You said you'd never doubted that you weren't making the right decision, but you were wondering and navigating Am I doing it the right way?
Speaker 1:Correct, yeah, that was really interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the right way. And, like you know, people quote like well, man, that doesn't work. You know he's not even, but you know, like you, you get all into that. Uh, that type of thought process and, um, I think that more or less just lacks an understanding of like okay, that's not what's happening here right Right right, right. We're still going to work Like work is sparse, you know. But it's also. I'm not going to abandon what I know God has called and put on my life to pursue predictability and stability and comfort right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm also not going to endanger my family, you know what I mean, um, but I think, but yeah, I mean there, there, it wasn't a doubt of the calling. It was definitely a doubt of like, am I doing this right? You know what I mean, cause, look, everybody's built different, Everybody's wired different. Everybody, you know, everybody approaches things different. I, you know, for me, I feel like a lot of what we call wisdom in the church is more fear-based. Um, you know, I think it's good for people to maybe, every once in a while, put themselves in positions where they have to be dependent.
Speaker 3:You know, I go back to that or I agree I think, I think it's good, I think if you follow the lord authentically, you'll find yourself there and yeah, I'm totally on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah I mean I I've said it to my wife a couple months back and we've been just kind of kicking this idea around where I was just like man. It would be so good for everybody at some point in their life to start a business because of that dependency.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right Like go start a commission only business Right and see how your prayer life changes. Right, it draws you in and you battle anxiety and all the things that are.
Speaker 3:Conquer, some things that you have to conquer 100% and going back to, like you can look back and see all these different things and how they prepared you for what you're doing now. I mean, like I've only ever aside from filming the hunting show and cutting trees you know some in between that, you know, between high school and that, like I've only ever owned my own business, you know, since I was 20 years old, 21 years old or, yeah, 21. Um, so yeah, like that's just, uh, I'm more comfortable there. You know what I mean. Like that was definitely a learning process for Elizabeth, a hundred percent understandably.
Speaker 3:So, right, she grew up in a home where, you know, dad's got a corporate job, there's the same paycheck basically every month, plus whatever else you're bonusing. You know, like that classic stability, which is great. You know what I mean. There's good to that. So that definitely she was probably squeezed more than me in that season, Right, not only because of her upbringing, but also just being a female and desiring and wanting different things, right, like security and like those things that are probably more important to women. Um, and so, yeah, those kind of those kind of things are what I think led to me going like, am I doing this the right way in this season. I think those thoughts that wanted to bury themselves in were like am I being a good husband?
Speaker 3:I'm pursuing what I know God's called on me or called me to, and I know it will work out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean like I know he's asking me to just do this and I know it will work out, and but also for me, second guessing, like the timing to timing, you know, but also for me too, like it's just, you know, I don't know if it's my personality or what, but going like I'm being a good husband by bringing my wife through this too, and being that rock of like I'm not wavering, we're not wavering on what God's calling us to do, and I know he's going to end up doing the same thing in you that he's done in me or he is doing in me, and, lo and behold, that's exactly what's happened.
Speaker 2:You, me, and lo and behold, that's exactly what's happened.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. Like they're really cool, you know, I think uh, yeah, and I think that's a equally if from an eternal standpoint, not in more important role as a husband is to not compromise on how God is leading us as husbands, as individuals. I think that's a very important thing If he's giving you some clear mandate like that to go do 100%.
Speaker 1:It's Abraham Right, the seed of Abraham, that that seeds in us, right, right, to uproot your family. Go to this new thing I'm doing a new, to a new place I'm doing a new thing, right?
Speaker 3:not everybody's gonna see that. There may be a season where your wife doesn't see that.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean I think for me and I this could just be me, you know feeling the cultural pressure. So then it forms my opinion. But I think there is this, this thought process that, like you and your wife have to be in a hundred percent agreement about something, for you guys to go do it. And sometimes I think it's up to us to go. This is what we're going to go do, right, like maybe getting into, like some, some people might not like the sound of that and it's not, you know, I'm not getting into like a yeah, it it's, it's done in a loving and a respectful way that reflects Christ.
Speaker 3:but it's also like there's an importance to that. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, absolutely, we're to lead right. That. That sometimes means we say we're going to this place that only I can see for the moment, and trusting that God will do in her whatever he needs to to fulfill his plan and purpose for our family, and he will.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He will, but that also requires faith from us as husbands that he will do that work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was when my wife and I first got married. I felt the same thing, Like I knew that. I knew that the Lord was calling me to Raleigh and had had that feeling before I got married, got married and I just could not stop wanting to move. And my wife was like there's no way, I'm okay with this, we're not doing this, and yeah, that that was a whole like when you say, when you say like having to be equally yoked in decisions, I agree it doesn't always have to be like that. It sometimes is like this is where we're going. I don't know if how the Lord's going to get you there or us there, but I know he will get us there. It's. It's part of pressing into the unknown and letting him hash out the details versus okay, well, I'm just not going to do anything, Right.
Speaker 3:You know, and that that we had that moment in our marriage where it was. You know it was six, seven months into you know this calling. And I remember I came home and Elizabeth was sitting in the backyard one day at the table. The boys were taking a nap and I walked back there and she just breaks down in tears and I'm like, oh no, what's wrong?
Speaker 3:You know and she's like Tucker, like you know, this is 100 percent the Holy Spirit, because this is 100 percent the opposite of what I, you know, would be feeling right now. But she's like I a hundred percent peace about this, and I will follow you anywhere he leads you in this, like we're going to farm, like those were her words, which is like jet fuel for a guy you know what I mean, right, but you're in, you're in, you're a carry house at this point, sitting in the backyard in downtown, carry six, seven months into this whole deal.
Speaker 3:I will go wherever you. Yeah, I will follow you anywhere and this is a hundred percent the lord that's got me here.
Speaker 2:You know she, she prefaced it all with that like this is a hundred percent him, because it's a hundred percent, not me um, that's cool, you know yeah, so um what was, so that was 2021 yeah, that was later yeah so give us, give us, like the last three to four years, like the god thread that was interweaved in this whole thing, like coming from there, how'd you come out?
Speaker 3:you're like speed it up, dude.
Speaker 3:No, no, I love it oh, so you know that that set us out um. Originally I was like got no money, don't know how to farm, I know how to tell a story and market stuff and do this, so I'll start a food brand, um, and I'll just start sourcing, you know, meat from local producers that's regeneratively raised and and we'll sell that under a brand name. At that time it was fair, better foods and um, you know, when I start selling everything I can, boom, I got a great reason to jump into production myself and by that time I've proved a concept right, like going back to my starting to do things in my own strength of like. I got it planned out, you know what I mean and um, so started doing that I. I started calling farms and the first five farms I called we're all like.
Speaker 3:We love that idea. We'll give you all of our meat on consignment, which is a big deal for a small farmer to be like. Here's my life, you know, here's my livelihood they're like. And every single one of them was like we'll bring you a cooler to sell at these markets. Because we had started planning um farmers markets in high-end communities, so, like mcgregor downs or uh, our first one was going to be at a development out of seven 51 in Durham, but trying to put them right on somebody's doorstep Right, so you don't even have to leave your neighborhood in the morning.
Speaker 3:Um and so we were. You know, elizabeth, I were deep into the process of planning those and a week before launch for our first market, the neighborhood that we were doing it in pulled the plug. I don't know if it was an insurance reason or what, but they kind of just no, we're not going to do it anymore. It was literally like a week after that, a guy that I had been introduced to, um, to a mutual friend, uh, we had, you know, he was kind of interested in farming and he knew who joel south and was, and you know I thought it was cool that now he knew somebody that was interested in all this stuff and, um, he, he started getting really interested with me in all of this and he kept going like we should get a farm, we should get a farm. And I remember one day I was like, okay, what do you mean by that? Because you know land ain't cheap. And he was like I got this much I can put towards it. It was a huge amount of money.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:This dude's been very successful and he was like I'm willing to do this with you with a huge amount of money.
Speaker 2:Wow. And he was like I'm willing to do this with you with a huge amount of money, Wow.
Speaker 3:And this was a random connection to this guy, like a mutual friend, that reintroduced us after, like I think I had, I had apparently worked out with this dude at a CrossFit gym that I've been to in 2014. You?
Speaker 2:know like I didn't never remember meeting him.
Speaker 3:We're good buddies now, but so that was like more gas on the fire, right like that okay, this is gonna actually be possible, like we can go farm now you know like this is gonna be possible, and so we started looking for land and that was you know I mean, everybody knows how stupid land and home prices got during that time period um, so that you know, we look for land, look for land ended up building a relationship with a farm, um, one of the farms that we were gonna be selling their meat, and ended up deciding to go out there to their spot and, um and kind of start our little farm under their bigger farming operation, developed that relationship for about two years really, and we're supposed to move out there spring-ish of 2024 is what we were working on and planning on, and I think that fall, like Elizabeth and I just started to get extremely like the level of equally yokeness that we had never experienced in our marriage.
Speaker 3:We didn't, you know, we weren't in some study together. We weren't, you know, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on in terms of, uh, our marriage and our pursuit of Christ together, but the way in which we began to get the same leadings at the same time or the same conviction, at the same time about the same thing was just like, all right, he's the lord's doing something here, like we need to start pumping the brakes and just be still and see what he's doing here.
Speaker 3:Um, and lo and behold, he was doing a lot. I, I mean flash, uh, fast forward to end of January. Um, I had just been doing a lot of fasting and praying of like I had some, some pretty big opportunities on the table with some and some individuals, um, that were going to kind of pull me, keep me near farming but really pull my focus away from it. But it seemed like a good thing and it was going to provide all this stability and write something we hadn't had for a while and just had been praying about that and like, lord, what do you want me to do? Like, what am I supposed to do? You know, should I go do this? You know? And all he kept telling me was whatever you do this year, keep your eyes on me. This is going into 2024. So that's like a pretty broad path, right, yeah, just keep your eyes on me, which, again, like hindsight, it makes total sense. But I'm like, all right, I'll go do this, you know.
Speaker 3:And um, and did that for about a month and began to have dreams at the end of that month. Never had any, nothing like this in my life. And I was driving back to Raleigh one day from a trip man and it was like the Holy Spirit laid my whole life out in front of me because this role I had stepped into. I had no clue what I was doing. I was asked to come because this role I had stepped into. I had no clue what I was doing. I was asked to come to this role, I think some peripheral deals and stuff I'd put together and carry from a land standpoint had. You know, it was kind of like this kid could go do this or help um and um, but I was a fish out of water, is putting it, you know, know lightly, you know in terms of like.
Speaker 3:I'm sitting in these meetings going like man, lord, what do you have me? Why am I here? You know what I mean, and the guy I was working with is a great guy. I remember having a conversation with him about that one night where I was like dude, I'm sitting in these meetings going like God, why am I here right now?
Speaker 2:What are?
Speaker 3:we doing, you know, and uh, but yeah, being in that place of I have no clue what I'm doing again right back into dependency. It was like I mean, I was at a spot. I had really never been where I was. Every day I was like Lord, what do you want me to do today? What every day it was. Just what do you want me to do today? What do you want me to do today? What every day it was. Just what do you want me to do today?
Speaker 3:what do you want me to do today and at the end of that month? I'm driving home from that trip and he laid my whole life out in front of me like it was weird. Man.
Speaker 3:I'm driving, so I was looking at the highway but it was like I could see it, and it was like everything I've ever dreamed of or desired he's given me. Like every calling he's ever put on me he's given me right, like the hunting stuff, the my family, like I always dreamed of being a dad, and like my little boys are like what I envision is a little boy and my wife. You like now, now going into this farm and all the stories that the life I'd lived, like the adventure you know it was like he's given me everything and now all this opportunity he's given me in this farming thing. And then at the end of it, it was like and all I want is you Like, all I want is what I've had this month, where every day I'm like what do I do? Or like I just need you. You like I don't know what I'm doing, I need you.
Speaker 3:Like all of that was nothing compared to that closeness that that's, you know, that month had produced. And it was just like the most joyful revelation. I mean just weeping, you know weeping, and it was, you know, lo and behold, it was preparation. Like that night I had a dream, um, that made it really clear. It was like this relationship is over, the one you've been pursuing. It's time to move on the next morning, have a meeting with that and that's a hundred percent confirmed in that meeting I need to move on, um. And then what transpired over the next 72 hours was just like boom, boom, boom, boom, um. And that's actually and this is in the midst of this I met chris was that trip you were talking about?
Speaker 1:that was when we met up in the mountains that was the beginning of the week okay, yeah, the end of the week was another trip.
Speaker 3:That's when I met you and brian. Um, just such a beautiful week, man, like such a good week. Um, you know, I remember in the midst of it you guys were like you sure it's a good week, you sure this is good. You know what I mean like.
Speaker 1:But my recollection of it was we were going to meet up in the mountains at a at a buddy of mine and place and who ryan and warren know and um and another guy and it ended up being just you came, yep, and the whole plan of what we thought we were going to do got sidelined and we ended up doing like a whole visioning and blessing of this place that we were at in the mountains and you just jumped right in Like you're here, like you were supposed to have like a one to two hour pit, you know part in this weekend, and it ended up being like 48 hours of.
Speaker 1:We're now just sowing into this ministry and digging into the prophetic and blessing and praying over this ministry and this land and you were like just rolled with the punches. Yeah, it was so cool yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean I remember, you know, in the midst of everything going on, like the Lord was speaking to me clearly, that of like I've put you here with these people, like enjoy them, right. That's what led me to come up and be like, hey, what are we doing? You know what I mean. It was like I need to just focus on what's happening here. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So we go from there. You're back.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so you know what I mean. So we go from there, you're back, but yeah, so that that transpires. And then you know that kind of it was kind of like man, what a week, just what a week. The closeness and it's the few weeks that followed that, just the closeness and the things that the Lord was revealing to me like such an awesome time. I mean, like there there was an evening sitting on my couch where it was like he just gave me a visual of just a fraction of the amount of love that's gone into my parents prayers for me over my life. You know, like I'm sitting there watching something and it just hits me like totally unrelated, you know, and it was just. You know I'm we there watching something, and it just hits me like not totally unrelated, you know, and it was just. You know I'm weeping on the couch like just that kind of just overwhelming. His overwhelming presence.
Speaker 1:Um, despite my awareness of his presence you know what I mean is what it is, because he's he's always present but you're in the midst of these. All these doors had shut, correct?
Speaker 3:all of everything that it was like. All that I have constructed or or have been working towards for two years now is gone, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:you're back to just like what do we do, lord?
Speaker 3:all these doors shut um and then you get well, and so those doors shut. And then it led to me just kind of slipping back into you know what this is going to happen, what's supposed to happen. I'm going to focus on rebuilding my video business, create some stability. You know, just do an excellent job at that. God will provide an opportunity when it's his timing.
Speaker 3:I mean, that felt very much like a spiritual prison, all you know, early part of the year in spring, because I'm like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm just gonna go do that and be faithful to that, you know.
Speaker 3:And I remember getting to may and praying like lord, whatever's in me, like I just, you know, all spring it was like I want to trust you, like I want you are my protector, my provider, my healer, like again going back to, I guess, what would be classified as that extreme personality or all in all out. I'm like if you're my provider, you're my provider. It's not you're my provider, but I'm going to go strive you know what I mean and like that's a, that's a good whole podcast on its own. But what does that actually look like, that you're providing for me? I just got to a point where I was like whatever. I wrestled with that and couldn't surrender. I just couldn't surrender that. I couldn't figure it out and got to a point where I was like Lord, whatever's in me, that's not letting me trust you fully, burn it out of me.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And a week later I'm in the ER going into septic shock with a pneumonia infection that I had no clue I had and had no fever, no cough, had been in the gym 24 hours prior, like going from that totally fine feeling strong to coughing up blood and feeling like there's a bachetti in my chest. You know.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:And having, you know, liver and kidney going downhill and was in an ICU step-down unit for like five days. And so I go from Lord, burn it out of me to like, and I want you, you know, I want to just surrender to like you're going to provide for me to now, cool, can't make any money, I can't do anything.
Speaker 3:And the doctors are telling me I'm probably not going to do anything for a couple months. You know, and um, and while I was in there, you know I was praying and um a lot, and in the midst of it, going, like you know, just praising him like thank you for whatever you're doing here, like just that understanding of like you are so good at whatever you're doing, you know, like it, just thanking him, um, and being so grateful that he brought me to a place that I could be sitting there in that position and just be thankful because there's plenty of he's brought me to that point. That's not something you learn, it's something he does in you. But in a beat up moment, kind of like a throw me a bone, god, you know, I was like lord, just show, could you just show me the farm, like, could you just show me where we're gonna be one day? And I had a vision laying in that hospital bed, standing on top of a hill, and I could see what seemed like 100 miles and I'm right at the horizon. There's this body of water like a hundred miles, and I'm right at the horizon. There's this body of water like a lake and all these black cows coming up the hill to me, which is interesting because I've I never intended on raising black Angus cattle. I've always wanted to raise South pole or Piney woods, which look nothing like black Angus cattle and um. So I'm standing there in that vision and I come out of that and I'm like I have no clue where that could be, cause it's it's pretty daggone, dramatic landscape and but thank you, you know, like I saw something right.
Speaker 3:And the next day I'm laying in the bed and the Holy spirit goes go look at an email that this guy had sent me in 2023. I'd run into him after probably 15 years. He lived in my parents' neighborhood for a brief stint when I was growing up and we ran into each other in Cary and you know it was a what are you up to? Conversation. And I told him you know I'm still doing some video, but I feel like God's called me to go farm.
Speaker 3:So we're moving out to a farm west of raleigh, like we're pulling septic permits, like this is 2023, so we're well on our way out to the place that it didn't work out with. And uh, he's like, oh, that's cool, man, I'm trying to sell a farm. I'm like nice, where's it at and he goes uh, goldston, I was like nice, how big is it? And he goes 2300 acres. I'm like what, that's got to be a timber track. And uh, he's like no, it's a, it's a cattle farm, it's all pasture that's a big farm for here, for people that don't know for any.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for anywhere, but yeah it.
Speaker 3:I didn't know something like that existed anywhere near here, and um wow, I was like dang man, um, and yeah, so we have that conversation and part ways, well, like a month later, uh, I had met a guy who was big into conservation, uh, owned a bunch of land and was like maybe this guy could buy it, you know. So I like connecting people. So I asked you know the guy had run into. I said, hey, send me what you got on that and I'll along. And, um, he did, and I'm pretty sure I forwarded it on and that was that, like didn't think anything of it. Right, we knew where we were going. It's 2300 acres an hour from raleigh. You can just imagine what it was going for you know, tens, tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 3:You know far outside the realm of possibility or even consideration. Um and so, but laying in that bed, Holy Spirit goes. Go look at that email. So I find it in my inbox.
Speaker 3:You know, that's the benefit of not ever cleaning out your inbox is there's, you can find anything and dug it up a pdf that was part of that, went down through it and the last two pictures in it I'm like that's what I saw. There's no cows in the pictures. No, like you, you couldn't see a big lake or anything, but it was just, it was the, the view, the horizon. I was like you know my head. I'm like there's no way, that's what I saw. Wow, and my spirit. I'm like that's what I saw, and so I'm my spirit. I'm like that's what I saw. And so I'm wrestling with that for like a week.
Speaker 3:After being home, I tell Elizabeth like I think I know where we're going to go, and she's like where at? I'm like I had a vision. It's still in Goldston, it's this much money. She's like what? But she, I mean her, I mean that was her response. But then it was like, if you feel like that's what god showed you, I told you I'd go anywhere with you, I mean, and it was just that, like it wasn't a conversation, it was just like all right, I believe you, you know wow and um, and I think there's a, I think there's an important component of that too, like that agreement between husband and wife like there's significance to that um in all of this, but that's another podcast, but um. So I wrestled with that for like a week, man, and was just like what am I supposed to do with this? You know I can't do that.
Speaker 3:And clear his day with that for like a week, man, and was just like what am I supposed to do with this? You know I can't do that. And clear as day the holy spirit goes. I'm not asking you to figure this out. I'm telling you to go plant a seed and have faith that I'll do it well and so I figured out who owned it. Drove out to their house, pull up lady standing in the front yard. I said you know how are you? Is your husband home?
Speaker 3:she goes, no, what you know yeah, he's he's inside, he's sick, you can go see him. And I said I'm good, I just got out of the hospital like I'm not trying to get sick again. She goes what do you want me to tell him? And I said my name is tucker hayes. You guys don't know me from adam. I've been trying to farm for four years now and it just hadn't worked out. Um, I was just in the hospital with pneumonia and I had a vision of a piece of land that we were going to farm one day and I'm I'm pretty sure it's yours. I don't have the money to buy it, but I'm supposed to come talk to you, that's all I got you know and and she just kind of smiled and was like all right, I'll let him know.
Speaker 3:You know, like I still I need to ask her like what did you think that day?
Speaker 2:you know um some crazy kid rolling up yeah, she's like oh, sweet boy, that's so sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's like I think he's still on some pneumonia meds. Yeah, that's it, yeah.
Speaker 3:These kids are on drugs nowadays, but so I said, well, I'll come back next week same time. So Monday morning 9 am I show up. He had pneumonia at that point so I couldn't talk to him. Came back the next week Nobody's home, left a note in the door. Next week nobody's home Left a note in the door, went back. So I went total six weeks, leaving notes.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Six weeks total. Left notes in the door for three weeks Like detailed notes. Right, this is Tucker Hayes. I'm coming about the farm. This is by number, you know, like way over explaining myself, like you guys see, I have a tendency to do. So the seventh week rolls around and I don't go on Monday and it just ate me alive. All week I was like I should have gone, you know, should have gone, should have gone. So I finally, saturday, through the boys in the truck and went out there and he comes to the door and he knows who I am at this point because I've been spamming his door for three weeks now and he rolls me back to his room and I said the same thing, I said I don't know if your wife told you why I'm here, but this is why I'm here.
Speaker 3:I had a vision of a piece of land we were supposed to farm. I think it's yours. Don't have the money to buy it right now, but I'm supposed to come talk to you. And he tells me all about it. And at the end he tells me what he wants for it. And I said well, thank you for entertaining me. I told you I don't have that, you know. Um, but yeah, I appreciate your time. And on the way out he goes well, call me if you want to go see it. So I called him Monday no answer. I called him for like two weeks straight, never picked up. So I was like I'm good, I planted a seed, I'm free, and we actually started pursuing another opportunity elsewhere. And he called me about a week after I quit calling, a week or two, and, uh, he's like you want to go look at the farm. So we came out here first place. He took me. We drive through this little pasture, come up over the hill, and this is exactly what I saw laying in that hospital bed late black cows, everything.
Speaker 3:And, um, I'm freaking out in my head and you know I'm sitting there staring out over all this. I asked him if I can get out of the truck. And I get out, and we're standing out there and you know I'm going. Okay, what am I supposed to do now? And uh, you know, all I hear is, when are you gonna ask him for it? And I'm like, okay, you know like what, what does that mean? And I get back in the truck and he's like, what do you think? And I said I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know I'm gonna farm this place because this is what I saw. You know, he just grinned, changed the, told me a different story and speeded up. We were together a week later and go to drop him off at his house. He asked me you know what I think about the farm? And I just told him. I said I want to carry your legacy on out there. I told you I don't have the money to do that, so I'm going to need your help with that out there.
Speaker 2:I told you.
Speaker 3:I don't have the money to do that. So I'm going to need your help with that. And you know there were some conversations that I had context to that. But um ended up he said you know, get me a business plan, like I want to see what you're, what you're wanting to do. Got him a business plan, he liked it. Um, he's been helping us ever since we moved out here two days before Christmas we're raising 43 steers to finish out for a grass-fed, grass-finished beef operation. And this morning I was sitting on top of that hill that I saw laying in a hospital bed looking over it with my two buddies, eli and Jonathan. Wow, that's where we're at now. That's where the story is. Now we're living out here on this piece of land that I saw Our desire. I mean how much heart and work and resources this man has put into this place. I mean it is a special piece of ground and our desire is to just steward it well and honor him and what he's done and started.
Speaker 3:And you know our hope and prayer is to continue that. But whatever comes from it, you know God's will being done is the big thing, right? You know it's easy to be somewhere like this and start dreaming huge and going back into having a vision and idea, you know. But want to do that in a thoughtful way where we're not forcing something into being that isn't what he has planned out here and doing it in a way that honors him, his family, like their legacy out here, you know. So that's where it's at that. But going back to this entire conversation, like all those little stops along the way, you know, were pushing me and preparing me to get to a point where I could actually let go of what, my idea of what, my idea of what made sense or what God could actually do. You know what I mean Like right, whether it's it's the way that I experienced that healing through the loss of a friend. Right, it's like he can heal and redeem everything. Right.
Speaker 1:He can heal yeah.
Speaker 3:He can. He can protect me through anything. You know what I mean, what I, what I went through at the beginning of the year, the, and prepared and protected me through that. And then you know the, the way that he's provided in an opportunity. That's so beautiful, man, because it's like this gentleman is. He's awesome, you know it's, it's he's like a grandfather figure. You know, like I lost both my grandfather's young, so I really didn't have a relationship with him.
Speaker 3:But you know, to have an older guy who believes in you and is willing to go, I'll give you an opportunity, like, I give you a shot, we'll see what you got. You know what I mean. I mean that means the world to a young guy, and especially in the world of agriculture, where access to land and things like that is so I mean it's a literal mountain. You know what I mean From a financial standpoint, to even get started in that business. So to have a guy who's willing to come alongside you and give you an opportunity and give you a chance to um, you know, hopefully, honor what he's done and build upon it is awesome and much needed in agriculture today.
Speaker 3:You know, my hope is that it, it, uh, there's a lot of people, a lot of landowners out there that you know have ground that they're, that has a legacy to it, and they don't know, like, what's the future, the way forward for it. You know, like there's a lot of young people out there that are are feeling led to, or have a desire to, farm and things like that. And yeah, there's there's a ton of potential for partnerships like that. But it's just been cool to see how God has developed that relationship, how he brought us here. Been cool to see how God has developed that relationship, how he brought us here. It's been a challenge to not, after getting here, kind of get into a mindset I got to make this work. You know what I mean. Like, how do I make this work?
Speaker 3:It's like by just continuing to surrender, continuing to trust, continuing to listen and the way this man, like, encourages me to just love my family and love my boys and focus on that like it's just nothing but the goodness of god through these people. So I'm forever grateful for them and that their whole family, um wow so yeah that's my rap.
Speaker 1:The story is such a beautiful mix of trusting god and him doing the heavy lifting, yeah, but you being faithful to just stick to what he told you, like how many, how many times you go to this guy's door, and it didn't work out like six, and then you finally went and seventh time and it kind of got a conversation started right and then you continue to go and continue to go.
Speaker 3:I mean that's amazing to me yeah, I mean that and that that comes from like all right, god told me to go do this. You know what I? I mean Like go plant a seed Right. So there is that component to it.
Speaker 1:I mean like but you could have convinced yourself that the note on the door was the seed, like oh yeah, there were thoughts that wanted to convince me of that, that effort. Because I mean, I'm in sales and marketing and my business too, and that's persistence. Seven times to a doorstep is persistence.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So just to encourage you, you have that in you.
Speaker 3:A little bit of mule stubbornness.
Speaker 1:Too dumb to not quit. Too dumb to not quit. I like that one the best. That's it, baby, I love it. But it's super encouraging to me, this story, just like what cod could do. Yeah, also the craziness of, like I was talking to your buddies earlier about this, like I spent a lot of time in central north carolina and how many places are there that you can see a mile, yeah, from the top of the hill. Yeah, I mean, that's not. There's not that many open vistas in central north carolina. There's just not.
Speaker 3:This is no coincidence like what you saw, that that view is like there's only probably one spot there's only one spot, that that could even and the cool thing about that is, again, in that vision, there's cows, there's black cows, of which I've never had any, and that's what was there. You know, when we pulled up over that hill, it's nothing but black cows all over that hill. You know, that was what was like. Oh gang, okay, this is real, you know. Um yeah. It's incredible. God has been faithful through it all. That is for sure. That is for sure.
Speaker 2:Tucker Hayes. Thank you so much for sharing thanks for being on here, that's a wrap that's a wrap hey, thank you, bye, thank you.
