- 4 months ago
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Homestead Rescue Season 13 Episode 1
#Cineva USA
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#Cineva USA
https://www.dailymotion.com/Cineva
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FunTranscript
00:00:00We had 13 people die on our creek.
00:00:03All communication was cut off.
00:00:05You didn't know if anybody was alive.
00:00:08It's really difficult to keep going.
00:00:11We're starting over from scratch.
00:00:14Where do you even begin?
00:00:18This isn't a failed homestead.
00:00:20This wasn't in your control.
00:00:23We was pretty much 90% self-sustainable here.
00:00:27It's going to be such a hard week.
00:00:31Their family is literally broken apart.
00:00:36A homestead divided cannot stand.
00:00:41Wow, guys!
00:00:42We need 100% self-sufficient.
00:00:46This is the biggest thing that's ever happened on any homestead we've ever been to.
00:00:50Oh, why?
00:00:57We've been on homesteads that were impacted by earthquakes.
00:01:24We've been on homesteads that were impacted by tornadoes.
00:01:29But we've never seen anything like this.
00:01:33This is destruction of biblical proportions.
00:01:39I think for me, the hardest thing is, like, how do you help?
00:01:42I'll tell you how.
00:01:44One square foot at a time.
00:01:47Western North Carolina is a region rich with rugged wilderness, green mountains, and smoky hills.
00:02:00Home to the eastern band of Cherokee people for centuries,
00:02:04the first significant wave of European settlers was in the 1730s,
00:02:09with generations successfully living off the land until this day.
00:02:13But now, following the deadliest storm to strike the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina,
00:02:22many off-grid families faced the daunting task of rebuilding that legacy.
00:02:27One of them, the Ward family, who had realized their dream of self-sufficiency,
00:02:33only to have it ripped away in an instant.
00:02:35I'm Haley.
00:02:40I'm Josh Ward.
00:02:41And we live in the mountains of North Carolina on 10 acres,
00:02:45and we have four beautiful children.
00:02:49This property here has been in our family for quite a few years.
00:02:53We're the fourth generation being on it.
00:02:56We inherited the land around summer of 2018.
00:03:01We moved on to the property in 2019.
00:03:04The only thing left here was the 1920s farmhouse.
00:03:09We put all of our savings that we had saved up into it
00:03:13because we wanted to nurture this land and see it grow into something big.
00:03:19After inheriting what was no longer a functioning homestead,
00:03:23Josh and Haley brought in a mobile home
00:03:25and built essential off-grid livestock and gardening infrastructure.
00:03:30There was very little stuff that we had to go to the grocery store for.
00:03:34We was pretty much 90% self-sustainable here.
00:03:40That's when everything changed for us.
00:03:45Haley come in and hit the area of western North Carolina.
00:03:49We kind of went into it thinking, you know,
00:03:51it was going to be like most of the other hurricanes.
00:03:53But we quickly realized, you know,
00:03:56hey, this ain't no hurricane, you know, like we've dealt with before.
00:04:00Our community was hit really hard.
00:04:03We're starting completely over it.
00:04:05And just slowly taking those steps to rebuild it could take years.
00:04:11It destroyed the house, the shop, and everything we had.
00:04:14The farmhouse, it was gone.
00:04:17The mobile home had several trees on it.
00:04:20With all the rain and all the flooding,
00:04:22it did damage the strength that we was getting our water out of.
00:04:26Here we go from having four generations of farming this land
00:04:31to it was gone.
00:04:35Everything has been taken away pretty much from us.
00:04:39But I would pretty much die trying to keep everything here.
00:04:42I'm not sure how much longer we can sustain living like this.
00:04:48Rainies, we need your help.
00:04:56How are you?
00:04:57All right, how are you?
00:04:58How are you doing?
00:04:59Good to see you.
00:05:01Wow, guys.
00:05:02Josh.
00:05:02Josh, how's it met you?
00:05:03I'm Haley.
00:05:04Haley, Josh and Haley.
00:05:05What are the ages of everybody?
00:05:06Seven.
00:05:07Seven.
00:05:08Fourteen.
00:05:09Seventeen, about to be eighteen.
00:05:10And nine.
00:05:12The drive here was pretty eye-opening.
00:05:15And it's a whole lot better than it was.
00:05:18We were, I would say, 90% self-sustaining before the hurricane.
00:05:23Wow.
00:05:24And we lost everything.
00:05:26You guys aren't a failed homestead.
00:05:29That isn't what happened here.
00:05:30You guys were successful homesteaders.
00:05:33Yep.
00:05:33So this wasn't in your control.
00:05:36We've been pushing forward, but we're still, like, very much in survival mode.
00:05:42Because we're mountain people, we're resilient.
00:05:44We'll get it done.
00:05:45And it'll take us longer, but we'll get it done.
00:05:52Homesteading has been a way of life for me since I was young.
00:05:56My whole goal here with the homestead is to raise our kids up, teaching them how to be able to provide for yourself.
00:06:02Hopefully, one day, they'll be able to continue on with the journey.
00:06:06About 3 a.m. that morning, I started hearing lots of stuff blowing around outside.
00:06:14Our driveway looked like a river.
00:06:17Josh is a volunteer fireman, and he had to go stage at the station.
00:06:22He ended up coming and getting us, and we went to the fire department.
00:06:27Two days after the storm, we had to walk in because all the bridges leading to this road was washed out.
00:06:34When I first saw everything, I just crashed, landed on the driveway.
00:06:41I was just overwhelmed.
00:06:44Everything was under trees and debris and water.
00:06:49The cleanup began immediately, but within days, a new danger emerged.
00:06:56There was so much mold in the house, they couldn't treat it all.
00:07:00I was at the hospital twice within four weeks with respiratory issues that was directly caused from mold.
00:07:08So since then, we have been staying in RVs.
00:07:13We're juggling a thousand projects at a time.
00:07:17Our homestead is just overwhelming.
00:07:19We don't have a farm or a mill extension or any kind of infrastructure for any of the animals.
00:07:24As far as gardening goes, it's something we can't do because the raised beds that we had, you know, they was all tore down.
00:07:32It's literally at ground zero.
00:07:35The idea of having to rebuild everything we worked for is so overwhelming.
00:07:42There's a lot of days that it's really difficult to keep going and to wonder, you know, why are we doing this?
00:07:48Walk me through the housing situation.
00:07:57We was living in this house.
00:08:01After the storm, there was, I believe there was eight trees on it, which had poked holes in the roof, and there was water damage inside.
00:08:08So the county deemed it unlivable.
00:08:11So where are you guys living?
00:08:12Me, Haley, and three kids are staying in the camper, and Mason stays in my parents.
00:08:19Well, that's got to impact your family.
00:08:21Oh, it does a whole lot.
00:08:21You look like a close family.
00:08:23We are.
00:08:24He can do things that the other kids can't, you know, and, I mean, he's kind of my right-hand man here.
00:08:29So it does affect us pretty big.
00:08:32We're currently trying to get us a house to move up here.
00:08:35And where would you move it to?
00:08:37Up on top of the hill up here.
00:08:39Can I look at that?
00:08:40Yeah.
00:08:41Let's go.
00:08:41Can I look at it?
00:08:42Sure, sure.
00:08:43This is overwhelming.
00:08:45Their family is literally broken apart.
00:08:48The oldest son hasn't lived here since September of the hurricane, and there's no room for the entire family to fit in any structure here.
00:09:00A homestead divided cannot stand.
00:09:04What status is this plan at now?
00:09:07We have put a purchase order in on a house, and we're just waiting for it to be delivered.
00:09:14I think it's supposed to come while you're here.
00:09:15Really?
00:09:16What are you doing for water for this house?
00:09:19We are spring-fed.
00:09:20It's off over in the holler, wherever yonder, so we've got to bring water from down to up.
00:09:27Hmm.
00:09:27Can we look at that?
00:09:28Yeah.
00:09:29So this right here is our reservoir.
00:09:39Who put this in?
00:09:40My grandpa put this in whenever he owned the property.
00:09:45So right now it's full.
00:09:46It looks like a 500-gallon tank.
00:09:49So there's a lot of water.
00:09:51Oh, yeah.
00:09:51It was kind of cool to hear that generations have been using this as a water source.
00:09:58To me, that's good news.
00:09:59The bad news is the spring was impacted by the hurricane, the storm, the winds, the trees,
00:10:06and now there's this much sludge in the bottom of their only water source.
00:10:11This is our in-ground garden area, or was.
00:10:22We were just getting this prepped for fall planting, like spinach and cabbage and all
00:10:27that kind of stuff, when the hurricane hit.
00:10:30This is what's left.
00:10:32All of our topsoil got washed away.
00:10:34You can see it everywhere.
00:10:36The debris, all the erosion, all the runoff from all the water just dripping down this
00:10:41whole hill.
00:10:41It's very disheartening to me because I took time to make it beautiful.
00:10:46It was my peaceful place.
00:10:49My greenhouse was damaged, and that was the big nail in the coffin, so to speak.
00:10:55It's more important than ever that we can really get started because a lot of health
00:11:01things happened over the last couple of years.
00:11:04I had a stroke, and from that, I found out that I had a brain tumor.
00:11:09I'm like speechless, because I actually can't imagine that being like anyone's reality, especially
00:11:19a mom's reality.
00:11:20As soon as we can get in a house, I'm going to have it removed, because we need to have
00:11:24a safe place for that.
00:11:26That's really important.
00:11:27I'm sorry.
00:11:28That's a lot.
00:11:29It is.
00:11:30It's a lot.
00:11:31Nobody's guaranteed tomorrow, but if something happens to me, I still want them to have that
00:11:39place where they can come, where their mom loved, and do the things that they love.
00:11:44It's pretty overwhelming to think, like, how can we give this family back what they lost
00:11:51in just one week?
00:11:52But we have to do that.
00:11:53This is a generational homestead that's been passed down, and she's trying to set it up
00:11:56for her kids' future.
00:11:57It's now or never when it comes to this homestead.
00:12:04As far as livestock goes, what are we looking at here?
00:12:14We still have our pigs, our cows.
00:12:17We lost our chickens.
00:12:19How many chickens?
00:12:20We had at least 35.
00:12:22So overnight, they were just gone.
00:12:24You never saw them again?
00:12:25Yep.
00:12:26That's a lot of food that got blown away.
00:12:29Are you milking the cows?
00:12:31We used to, but we can't now.
00:12:34Yeah, we had trees fall on top of a station.
00:12:38Walking around with these kids, having them show me what's missing.
00:12:43What they used to have is giving me a really good idea of just how much was lost in that
00:12:49devastating hurricane.
00:12:51What is this?
00:12:53This used to be the old farmhouse where I was staying.
00:12:58My grandparents used to live in it, and my great-great-grandparents used to live in it.
00:13:03Oh, man.
00:13:05That's probably the biggest loss on the homestead.
00:13:07Yep.
00:13:08That was one of the biggest ones because we had a taxidermy shop in the bottom of it.
00:13:12Who taxidermies?
00:13:13My dad runs his taxidermy business, and of course, I help him with that.
00:13:18Is that your family's bread and butter?
00:13:20I mean, that's where the money comes from?
00:13:22Yep.
00:13:23Wow.
00:13:24That seems like a lot of homesteading needs were met by this building.
00:13:27Yep.
00:13:28The old farmhouse that was destroyed in the hurricane, that was really the heart of the homestead.
00:13:34It's where they did all their taxidermy.
00:13:36It was where Mason lived, and when that house got destroyed, the heart of the homestead stopped beating.
00:13:44Where are you doing the taxidermy now?
00:13:46We have a building that we brung in and put in place because without that, we have no income of money whatsoever.
00:14:00I mean, how big was it compared to what you had over there?
00:14:02This is really, really small compared to what we did have.
00:14:06We need a lot more space to be able to do it the way we're supposed to.
00:14:09This taxidermy business is a family business.
00:14:12They've done a good job making do with what they've had, but we need to give them a lot more space where they can work and keep making money on the homestead.
00:14:23It's really hard to believe the amount of destruction, how these lives are impacted from that hurricane.
00:14:40And on this homestead, they have shelter coming in, but they don't have a system for food and water.
00:14:47Right here is the remains of where their farmhouse was.
00:14:52They used the entire bottom space for a taxidermy shop.
00:14:57This is how they paid the bills, and they moved their large taxidermy business into that tiny shed right there.
00:15:06Oh, wow.
00:15:07So I have two main goals.
00:15:09I want to fix the livestock areas, and then we're going to build a much needed addition to the taxidermy shop.
00:15:16Haley has major health concerns.
00:15:20She had a stroke.
00:15:22She has a brain tumor.
00:15:24They are going to operate on it.
00:15:26Her mobility might be affected.
00:15:29So how do I get this garden set up to how it once was?
00:15:35Because whatever the future holds, this needs to be a running farm.
00:15:40They are 90% self-sufficient.
00:15:42Not good enough.
00:15:43We need 100% self-sufficient.
00:15:46And then after that, can we bring hope to an area of the country that is still suffering from devastation?
00:16:05Family is everything.
00:16:07We're going to try to do the best we can to get this family back together and make this homestead even better than where you were before September of 2024.
00:16:22I want to get the water and the soil tested on this homestead because it might be contaminated.
00:16:28We're going to look at that and see how we can help you.
00:16:31We're ready for it.
00:16:32Yeah.
00:16:33It's going to be such a hard week, but it's going to be a good week.
00:16:38We'll see you in the morning.
00:16:39All right.
00:16:45When's this house coming here?
00:16:46Tomorrow.
00:16:47Let's hit it.
00:16:48We're moving in.
00:16:49A house over 70 feet long.
00:16:52Holy smokes.
00:16:53Really thick.
00:17:01In the early hours of September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene hit the western Appalachian region of North Carolina.
00:17:12Hummeled by 140-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rainfall, many off-grid residents were caught off guard by the ferocity of the storm and flooding.
00:17:22For the Ward family, the challenge to rebuild their devastated homestead begins today.
00:17:31When's this house coming here?
00:17:33Tomorrow.
00:17:34We got to get these trees down today then.
00:17:36Yeah, we sure does.
00:17:38The arrival of the family's new home is unexpected news.
00:17:43A house is going right there that's 30 by 70.
00:17:46This means Marty and Josh have less than 24 hours to clear trees and brush from a 200-foot stretch of land for the home site.
00:17:55We'll have Clint in this.
00:17:57I'll start knocking these down.
00:18:01Let's hit it.
00:18:02Clint, don't kill me.
00:18:08This might be the first time that I started on a homestead falling trees where there wasn't anything that the trees could fall on.
00:18:21But there will be something, and that is a brand new home that we're moving in right there.
00:18:36Clint!
00:18:37You've done a lot of cleanup.
00:18:38Yeah, we've done some.
00:18:39On the lower end of the homestead.
00:18:40But there's still some stuff left.
00:18:41Clint!
00:18:42Clint!
00:18:43Clint!
00:18:44Clint!
00:18:45Clint!
00:18:46We've done a lot of cleanup.
00:18:47Yeah, we've done some.
00:18:48On the lower end of the homestead.
00:18:49But there's still some stuff left.
00:18:50Yeah, there's still plenty of stuff left to move out of here.
00:19:05I bet you there's something in here that we could use.
00:19:10we could use. Matt closes a chapter of Ward family history amongst the rubble of the old farmhouse.
00:19:18The Ward siblings and I are going to confront that nasty depressing pile which used to be
00:19:25the old farmhouse that their grandparents great grandparents lived in and now it's just been
00:19:33reduced to rubble. Everything we can salvage from all this destruction it's going to help mentally
00:19:39and it's actually going to help us build so let's just find the good stuff and we'll get rid of all
00:19:46the rest. Got your work gloves on? Okay let's not waste any more time let's start sifting through
00:19:52and see what we can find that's useful.
00:19:58It'd be pretty easy to just go with a big excavator and just pick up everything and throw it in the
00:20:11dumpster but that is not the homesteading way. These bricks are really cool let's put it in the pile
00:20:18over here. Anything we find in this pile and upcycle is a huge win for the homestead.
00:20:25Ready? Yeah.
00:20:30Now I think we need to come in here with some heavy equipment everybody get out of the way
00:20:35and I'm going to start breaking everything and making this thing look like it never existed before.
00:20:41Okay? Yeah. Are you prepared for that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
00:20:59It was exciting to be able to go through that pile of the old house. It was sad too because going
00:21:07there where I used to do school and all that. I got real good memories in the old farmhouse here
00:21:19back when I was younger coming up playing a week with my grandpa and farming with him. It was kind
00:21:24of like losing part of the family. I know what it's like to lose an important building when my parents'
00:21:33house burned down. I had to go in there and clean it up. It was very sad but I think it's a good thing
00:21:39because it helped us move on.
00:21:51Haley come on in! Back at the future home site Misty and Haley make preparations for a revitalized
00:21:59gardening operation. So my dad's taking down trees that potentially could hit that future home. Right.
00:22:07And because this base is flat and it's really close to that future home site and all these trees just
00:22:13came down until there's a lot of sun. Yeah. I feel like the future garden could be like here. Yeah.
00:22:19Do you like this? I do. After seeing this much devastation from the hurricane and hearing about the
00:22:25garden that washed away I have to be able to figure out something that will last until the end of time.
00:22:32I have this crazy idea which is to make these garden bed bunkers and for me I want to create
00:22:41something that's not going to wash away. It's not going to blow away. Right. So there's a lot going
00:22:46on here but I feel like we do it with concrete. Okay. Misty and Haley will build a series of four by
00:22:54eight raised beds with fresh soil so the wards can once again grow all their own produce. Placed 50
00:23:01feet from the house these concrete bunker beds will be hurricane resistant and easily accessible for Haley.
00:23:08So me and Misty chose a place to put the new garden. We put a bed of sand in so it's going to help
00:23:23stabilize them and help some drainage in our clay soil that does not drain very easily. So that's
00:23:29overall going to be healthier plants and we're not going to get as many disease plants as we have in the past.
00:23:35Okay. What do you think about the height? Does that work? Three courses high? Oh yeah. It's perfect.
00:23:42There was so much devastation with this hurricane. Clearly one of the losses was the garden. It was her
00:23:48happy place. They were growing enough food to feed their family and for me I think it's really hard to
00:23:56create a hurricane proof garden but I can build something that's designed and meant to last and if
00:24:03you do it out of concrete it's not going anywhere anytime soon. These will be here in a hundred
00:24:08years. These in the pyramids will be here at the end of time.
00:24:16This hurricane has compromised this water system. What'd you find out? As far as your water you have
00:24:23some high coliforms on that but you also have E. coli. Which could kill you. What are we going to do about it?
00:24:33Okay. The projects that need to be done on this homestead are kind of endless but we're going to
00:24:44squeeze something in for this shop. You're doing everything in this tiny shop. Yeah everything inside
00:24:52of it. You want to separate your storefront finished products from the taxidermy process. Yeah if we can do
00:24:59that that will be awesome. That will help a lot. Taxidermy is an animal preservation technique that
00:25:06involves skinning and stuffing an animal to recreate its living form. Professional taxidermists are
00:25:13frequently contracted by museums, hunters, and pet owners and earn an average salary of $40,000 per year.
00:25:20Okay so we're going to build a shed. But it's not just going to be any old shack. It's going to be the
00:25:30skinning shack. The old farmhouse is gone. We got an amazing space.
00:25:38Matt, Mason, and Clayton will construct a 12 by 12 foot skinning shack to protect the tools and inventory
00:25:45of the family's taxidermy business. Doubling their square footage and providing them with enough space
00:25:51for their homestead operation to thrive once again. You ever use the chainsaw before? Yes sir. Okay,
00:25:59that's good. So let's have a little bit of fun and just see how good you are at felling trees exactly
00:26:06where you want to put them. Clayton, go grab those two cones. I want to try to double the square footage
00:26:12of their taxidermy shop, but we can't do anything until we remove two dangerous trees. They're definitely
00:26:19going to threaten these buildings if another hurricane blows through. Let it rip!
00:26:36I like it. He's calculating every move. Whoa, whoa, whoa! That didn't look good. I mean it could snap,
00:26:50I don't want it to snap. So I'm going to get in there with the skid steer and I'm going to push it
00:26:55this way. That'll work. All right. I'm real excited, real happy about the skinning shack because without that
00:27:05taxidermy shop I can't bring in more money to fix some of the things on the homestead that we need
00:27:13to where we can start replacing some of the things like that that we lost during the hurricane. So
00:27:19this means a lot. It might snap, so watch out. All right, cut it. We're going to still try to make it
00:27:27in the gold. Goal! We have to go! That was good.
00:27:39Okay, this is a big day on this homestead. See that thing? It's headed to the bottom of the mountain
00:27:55to hook onto a house that's over 70 feet long, 16 feet wide. That's quite a wide berth that it's going
00:28:05to need to make this corner. We've cleared out a lot of trees. We've done everything we can do.
00:28:18Today we are finally getting our home that we purchased a couple months ago. We're just really
00:28:26excited to see it erupt. I want to believe that it's going to make that turn there that we just widened
00:28:35and there's only one more turn at the top.
00:28:37That is like really thick. Holy smokes. This thing is huge.
00:28:57Come on over. Stone. This is fancy. This is amazing.
00:29:05This is a big deal. Yeah, this is crazy. You were homeless. So tell us about that day.
00:29:13We didn't know how this whole area was going to come out of it. And we lost a lot of hope that day.
00:29:21Seeing this here today, we're out of that survival mode.
00:29:24We can live again. My life's not on pause. We can actually get out of the campers. I mean,
00:29:34I'll be back together. I'm up under one roof. Does that make you happy or sad?
00:29:38It makes me happy because I'm back on the homestead, get to do stuff I like doing.
00:29:44For us, homesteading is about family. This is going to bring Mason back and get us all under one roof
00:29:52again. It's like the final missing piece. We're under the impression this was about $285,000.
00:30:00Yeah. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:02Okay. So even though this is a great day for you guys, you have a pretty significant mortgage.
00:30:10We've worked hard for, you know, the last 20 years being married, trying to get to this point. But
00:30:15I'm not going to lie. He's stressed about it a little bit. Yeah. What man wouldn't?
00:30:21That said, I asked for a favor, a big favor. And this is the biggest thing that's
00:30:28ever happened on any homestead we've ever been to. Hey, Jason, Tracy. Oh, why?
00:30:35The people where this thing is manufactured wanted to come see it in place. So what we'd like to do
00:30:51is introduce. Hey, Jason, Tracy.
00:30:54Come on over, guys. Jason, nice to meet you. Tracy. Nice to meet you. Come on, right here,
00:31:02front and center. I'm up here front and center, Tracy. Tell us why you're really here today.
00:31:09We heard your story. Well, with Champion Homes and Regional Homes, we decided to get together to help
00:31:15you guys out a little further. So for us, a gift to the Ward family, we'd like to give you guys $100,000
00:31:22to pay down your mortgage. No way.
00:31:29Couldn't go to a more deserving family. Their generosity is, uh, you know, moving
00:31:36and life changing. So thank you. Thank you very much. It's unbelievable. Ain't no words for it.
00:31:45We do good. We try to help people. I think it's just all coming back to us.
00:31:51We were informed by one of our local retail stores about a family who was in the market for a new
00:31:57home because they lost everything during Helene. And so it all came together and we were able to
00:32:02bless the family with something pretty special. We know that this family is well deserving of this
00:32:09gift. And we're just so happy and excited to be able to do this for them. Everything's going to be
00:32:14better and better than it was before. Wait, I did want to say one last thing. They told me you might
00:32:20want to wait till Monday to cash it. At least it's Monday and not the 32nd.
00:32:26We're off to a good start here in North Carolina, but this house is just the first step. There's a lot
00:32:35of work to do to get this family back to homesteading with the ward's house in place. That looks good.
00:32:57Matt and the boys utilize the homestead's felled trees to double the square footage of the family's
00:33:03taxidermy operation. The fact that we have so much cedar on the property, it's a no-brainer that we use
00:33:08them as a post for a foundation for the skinning shack. The natural oils and resins found in cedar
00:33:17act as a preservative, guarding against decay and bug infestation, making it one of the world's
00:33:23most durable woods, and ideal for outdoor building.
00:33:33Okay, drop that post in there. I do have a goal of taking this homestead on and leading it on to
00:33:42future generations. And if we can get that taxidermy shop back to work correctly, I can come back
00:33:49and be able to keep it alive. Grab one in. Grab it. Okay, you got it? All right, watch out. Go all the
00:33:57way over there. A lot of the work that we're doing in the beginning is like heavy-duty lifting, kind of
00:34:02big kid stuff, but I want to include Clayton because he's a big part of this homestead's future. Stand right
00:34:08on top of that thing. Here you go. Jump!
00:34:11Yeah, yeah. I'm just letting him go at his own pace so he can get some more skills and more experience
00:34:19on how to build and do construction. Good job. Matt, he's funny, he's cool. We have a lot of fun
00:34:28working with each other. Give it a try. This is the old school way. And I feel really excited to be doing
00:34:36that. Nice. Nice. Okay, let's keep going.
00:34:47Okay, sir. On the lower end of the property, Marty looks to accommodate the cattle. You're thinking
00:34:54about getting more cows? Yeah, that's the plan. But right now there's no place? Nope. After Helene hit,
00:35:01the cows is actually over at my neighbor's house seeking grass out of their yard. We got them rounded back
00:35:05up. Right now they're having to use an old goat shed until we can get something put back up for them.
00:35:10What do you think about some shelter for these cows? I don't really see an adequate barn or
00:35:15that protection from the elements, whether it's a storm, water, snow, sleet, rain, or sun. The milk cows
00:35:24are out here exposed to the elements. I think it's time to make some flat ground, build a barn. So where
00:35:31would you put a flat spot and maybe have a little small barn? Maybe coming right in here and maybe
00:35:38making a flat place and put us some type of shelter right in here. Okay. This is still inside the
00:35:45fenced pasture land? Yep. Cool. I like it. In a perfect world, where would this side of the barn be?
00:35:53Somewhere probably right about in here, I'd guess. Okay. And then we'll try to find a water line and water
00:35:58some cows. Yep. All right. I'm going to get an excavator. Let's do it. Copy that. Marty will
00:36:05level and grade a 25 by 25 foot pasture and construct a post and beam cow barn out of felled trees and
00:36:13boulders collected from the property. Inside will contain the family's repaired milking stanchion,
00:36:20allowing the wards to utilize the cows for their off-grid dairy needs.
00:36:34We primarily throw on food and raise our own food. So hopefully everything works out because
00:36:39the goal is to go back to being able to milk the cow like we did back before the hurricane.
00:36:43We got about three gallons a day. We drunk it, made butter, made cheese, whatever we needed.
00:36:50I'm hoping we can get a flat space, build a barn for these cows, make a safe place,
00:36:57a cool place where they can hang out, feed and water, be protected from the elements,
00:37:03and it will be a sanctuary for them until the cows come home.
00:37:07Hey folks. At the modular home site. Uh, yeah, uh, just on the side would be great.
00:37:22Reinforcements arrive to help Marty get the ward homestead back up and running. We actually are a
00:37:29nonprofit that was founded as a result of hurricane Helene. People have lost their entire livelihood,
00:37:35but something that has been amazing to see in Western North Carolina is just the community.
00:37:41We've had volunteers come all over to just help people. Well, I brought some help.
00:37:47Awesome. You can talk about community, you can talk about generosity, you can talk about being a good
00:37:52neighbor, but you see it out here every day in North Carolina. A family that still hasn't recovered since
00:38:00hurricane Helene, the sharp family dropped what they were doing to come help Josh and Haley.
00:38:07Well, this is Leo. Yep. And this is Tessa. Hi. We brought you some things. Oh, this is awesome.
00:38:13I've put some herbs in there and then just some things that we've made. That's awesome. It's really
00:38:18nice of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Can I give you a hug? Of course.
00:38:22Now, what town are you in? We're in Green Mountain. How far away? About an hour.
00:38:29Was Green Mountain impacted by the hurricane or is that a dumb question? It's just like here.
00:38:34Our experience with the hurricane was we were at home and around 9 30, the river was coming up.
00:38:43By noon, it was already underneath of our house. It came up so fast.
00:38:48At first, we didn't realize how bad the damage was.
00:38:57Lost our bedroom to our house. As well as the barn and all of our garden beds and animal enclosures.
00:39:05We lost all of our chickens. We're rebuilding with the help of volunteers all around the country
00:39:12coming in. They've helped us get to where we are now, just like we're here to help these people
00:39:19in our community. So you're not even finished over there and you came over here. Yeah. Why would you do
00:39:23that? It's all about community. Community is family. That's the way mountain people are around here. Yeah.
00:39:30They give up what they got around home to go help others. Yeah. We have to look after each other.
00:39:35It's one big family.
00:39:40Woo! Bring me a mud. Bring me mud.
00:39:44Later that day. Bring me a lot of mud. Let's go.
00:39:48It's all hands on deck at the future garden site to help Misty fortify the raised bunker beds.
00:39:55We have all these garden bed bunkers. We're going to build them with concrete. That way,
00:40:01the next hurricane that hits, God forbid, the garden at least will be protected.
00:40:08Break it down. Break it down. Break it down. Everybody was working together to get it done.
00:40:14And that was the community. That was a cool thing to be a part of. It means a lot. Yeah.
00:40:19It's been really beautiful in a really convoluted, backwards way. Dang, y'all making me cry.
00:40:27Coming as strangers, leaving as family. Yes.
00:40:29Wow, thanks, everybody!
00:40:35You ready? Everybody on three. One, two, three! It's day four on the ward homestead.
00:40:52Why does it look like I got the heavy end?
00:40:56Matt starts the morning by erecting the shell of a new taxidermy skinning shack.
00:41:01I do want to talk to you about something. All right.
00:41:04And while the concrete cures in the garden bunker beds, Misty looks to breathe new life into a piece
00:41:10of the homestead's existing infrastructure. The existing greenhouse survived the hurricane,
00:41:17but it's really far away. Yeah. Should we try and move it up here? I think we should. Okay. Yeah.
00:41:24Let's move it up here, closer to the house, closer to the garden. And it's full of stuff. Yeah. So we need
00:41:30to clean it out. And then we're going to try to move the greenhouse without destroying it. Sounds good.
00:41:34Here we go.
00:41:38Hayley at this happy place greenhouse, but this place is so miserable. Let me see how wacky this is when
00:41:44I try to dig it up. This greenhouse has this crazy invasive poisonous weed inside of it that has
00:41:51completely overtaken it called Carolina horse nettle weed. Carolina horse nettle is a prickly,
00:42:00fast growing weed that can be eradicated with herbicides or frequent mowing. Its stem and berries
00:42:07contain the toxin solanide, which when ingested by humans or livestock can cause fever, respiratory
00:42:14depression, vomiting, and in extreme cases, death. I think I'm going to follow your lead since we do
00:42:23not have this in Alaska. And then each of these berries like has seeds and then it just spreads
00:42:28like wildfire. It spreads, yep. And that's like what the animals want to eat. Have you lost any livestock?
00:42:34I had a cow, a calf that got sick from it. And I think I've lost some goats to it. That is crazy, Hayley.
00:42:42Yep. Ow. Okay, I just got poked. She got good. So let's just have the medic on standby in case
00:42:55something gets really weird. I met my worst enemy today. It is Carolina horse nettle weed. After
00:43:02trying to remove them from the greenhouse, I thought Hayley was over exaggerating. She is not. I'm going
00:43:08double gloves guys. This is a first. These are some big thorns on these right here. Big, big thorns.
00:43:14The whole homestead and the whole future is at the top and clearly we don't want to bring this with
00:43:21us when we go to move the greenhouse. All right, Hayley, I think we got it. So let's wipe the whole
00:43:27thing down with vinegar. Once it's a wipe down, we'll figure out how we're moving it. And I think we try
00:43:33with a skid steer, but this is heavy, which makes sense because it's still standing after hurricane
00:43:40Helene. So it's sturdy. It's intact. It's a good greenhouse. It's just in the wrong location and it's
00:43:47completely toxic.
00:43:53I love that we were able to get all that Carolina horse nettle out of the greenhouse because that was
00:43:58my biggest predator in the garden. I could deal with the chickens and the rabbits and everything
00:44:04getting in there, but that weed has been horrible to deal with. I've lost so many plants and then just
00:44:11the use of my greenhouse. So getting it out of there was so great.
00:44:15So here we are at the old chicken coop. Is this space behind us right here? Is this all up for
00:44:31grabs? Yes, this is all, all up for grabs right here. Okay. Matt shifts focus to rebuilding the
00:44:38homestead's livestock infrastructure. These homesteaders were over 90 percent self-sufficient.
00:44:45before the hurricane and the livestock was the big part of it. They brought three pigs back on the
00:44:51homestead, but they need to bring chickens back to property if we're going to get them back to where
00:44:55they were pre-hurricane Helene. Everybody's going to be living over here, right? Yes, sir. And that,
00:45:03to me, seems like moving the livestock closer but not too close would be a good idea. Makes sense to me.
00:45:09Yeah. Okay. We're talking about pasture space, pen space, and this is really the only flat area,
00:45:16close to the top. And I think the higher we get on this mountain, the better, especially if the
00:45:21weather gets bad. I think that we should build something that you can fit the pigs in. Maybe
00:45:26get a little extra space if you wanted to get more pigs. The chickens can live in the chicken coop
00:45:31because it is intact. We're going to use it as is, but we're going to beef it up to actually get you
00:45:37back up to step when it comes to having your livestock and being self-sufficient. You like it?
00:45:43Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I love it. Loving it? Mm-hmm. You happy? Yeah.
00:45:49To revitalize the homestead's livestock setup, Matt will construct a 50 by 50 foot enclosed area
00:45:57with separate weatherproof quarters for chickens and pigs at the top of the property,
00:46:02keeping the animals safe and allowing for future expansion.
00:46:06All right, watch out. Skip back to sober.
00:46:18Me and my little siblings and Matt, we made a game plan to start working on the hog pen,
00:46:24fix the chicken coop. We've had meat chickens and hogs our whole life, but during the hurricane,
00:46:31we lost our chickens, our place to put the chickens. And it's been hard since all that happened. So I'm
00:46:37looking forward to getting all that done and just working on that with Matt.
00:46:42Nice. Looking good.
00:46:45The last thing I want to do is put chickens, pigs, livestock on the side of a hill. So I'm making
00:46:53my own flat space where we can put the livestock that's high, it's dry, so no water can touch it,
00:47:00even if there's a flash flood. Beautiful logs. And we're going to use these logs. And we're going
00:47:07to use these rocks. Building a flat space on top for the livestock, that's all fun and games,
00:47:14but that dirt is going to get washed away if you don't build a retaining wall. So all the rocks that
00:47:20we've sourced from the property are really coming in handy because we can stack them up, form a barrier
00:47:25to hold in all that dirt and keep that little mountain that we've built from eroding away.
00:47:37Josh. Yeah. This is Jennifer. And that's Yossi. Howdy. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
00:47:44Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. They're about an hour away. What's the name of that creek you're on?
00:47:48Uh, Flat Creek in Fairview. You got something in common? We moved here into this area in 2015. We
00:47:56bought a four-acre property and we spent nine years building it into our homestead. We had 80 fruit trees,
00:48:05a greenhouse, and 38 raised beds, the chicken coop with 30 chickens, and all of that is completely gone.
00:48:13She woke me up and she said, I hear the water. We jumped out of the bed and we saw that already
00:48:22water came inside. You don't have a lot of time to make decisions in that moment. And if you spend
00:48:29too long trying to decide what to do, you might stay too long. We said we have to flee. We decided to go up
00:48:36the mountain. And while we were doing that, it was a torrent. Debris and water coming down. And luckily,
00:48:43we had a neighbor over there. And they opened the door for us. I think we went off in shock.
00:48:51Thirteen people died just on their creek. So they saw some bad times.
00:48:58When we got back to it, it was absolutely unrecognizable. It was just heartbreaking to see.
00:49:04And even today, we're still working full-time on it.
00:49:08In what ways did people help you guys on your homestead?
00:49:11We had people from all over the country. I mean, we had someone, we had a pastor from Minnesota.
00:49:16He drove for two days one way with his tractor just to help us. Luckily, people were just willing to
00:49:23plug in and do whatever needed to be done to help us. And so we got the call that said this family needs
00:49:29help. And we just said, what day and what time, and we'll be there. And we're happy to just pitch
00:49:35in and do whatever we can to help someone else. You're paying it forward. Absolutely.
00:49:40So we're going to put you to work, if you don't mind. Follow me, please.
00:49:45The new barn is going to be amazing. During the hurricane, a tree actually crushed our
00:50:05little barn milking stanchion area. And so we've not been able to milk the dairy cows here and
00:50:11properly checked over or anything since the hurricane. A milk cow has to be milked to continue
00:50:18to be healthy and productive and have her reproductive health.
00:50:24Come down and push it in. Wait.
00:50:28These guys have cattle. Somewhere on this property, they were milking a cow. I hope we have enough time
00:50:34to build a safe little barn for the cows. I think that it's going to help with their milk production,
00:50:40because they'll milk a cow on flat ground and protect it from the elements.
00:50:50Later that day, the findings of the homestead soil and water test are in.
00:50:56As you can see, we have brought someone with us. Her name is Amy. We have questions about your soil
00:51:02and water. So we had her test it. What'd you find out? Your soil, it's got some problems.
00:51:21In two of the places we tested, you have Listeria monocytogenes, which is the bad kind of Listeria.
00:51:27That's the kind that'll make you sick. And then you also had some pretty high fecal coliforms.
00:51:33You know, it could be human waste. It could be animal waste, because in a flooding like we had,
00:51:36you just don't know. So things are a lot more toxic because of the hurricane.
00:51:41Typically, when you would think about contamination from a regular flood, so to speak,
00:51:47it would only be maybe five or six inches deep. Well, where you've been stripped of so much,
00:51:54and there was so much land movement, I went almost 20 inches deep.
00:51:57Oh, wow.
00:51:59And we still found it.
00:52:00Oh, wow.
00:52:01So your ground has had a lot happen to it.
00:52:06Given the nature of this hurricane and how catastrophic and widespread it was,
00:52:09you had things that wouldn't normally be breached, like, say, septic tanks and things like that.
00:52:14You know, it runs downhill, unfortunately. And when you're down here towards the bottom,
00:52:18that's what ends up happening.
00:52:20We actually lost a goat to Listeria, and we couldn't figure out why.
00:52:24You have some contamination issues there.
00:52:26Yeah.
00:52:26Yeah.
00:52:28It's just like a kick in the gut, man. It's not the news we wanted,
00:52:32but it's good to know these things. And moving forward, it's going to be
00:52:37something that we can fix and work on and hopefully make better.
00:52:41As far as your water, so I actually opened up your cistern and tested straight out of it.
00:52:46And you have some high coliforms on that, but you also have E. coli,
00:52:52which the design of the cistern, that's to be expected because flood water went over top of it.
00:52:58So you do have some E. coli. Those are things that could potentially make your family sick.
00:53:02Yeah.
00:53:03So we're up against it when it comes to soil and water. They're both contaminated.
00:53:07Yeah. So, clearly, I'd continue to pack water until we collectively figure out a plan
00:53:15that can make this water safe.
00:53:16Yeah. And in order to grow food here that's not going to make you sick,
00:53:22we're going to have to figure out how we're treating the soil.
00:53:25Hearing the results aren't great, but it's very good information because at least you know
00:53:31your starting point. Thank you so much, Amy.
00:53:34You're very welcome.
00:53:36The challenge now is what are we going to do about it?
00:53:40This hurricane has compromised this water system. We've discovered not just coliform bacteria,
00:53:48which won't kill you, but we've discovered E. coli in there, which will or could kill you.
00:53:56They've been getting water here from a spring a quarter mile away up the mountain,
00:54:00so we're going to have to get smart. We might rip this whole thing out, start over. I don't know.
00:54:06We're running out of time, but I have to figure it out.
00:54:09Are you guys excited to put in a new garden?
00:54:18Yeah.
00:54:18Yes.
00:54:18That's fun, right?
00:54:20With only three days remaining on the ward's North Carolina rescue.
00:54:24This has got happy place written all over it.
00:54:27Yep.
00:54:28Misty and the kids add a fresh coat of paint to the new hurricane-proof garden bunker beds.
00:54:34Man, girls, this looks good.
00:54:38When it comes to the new garden beds, not only are we trying to make it hurricane-proof,
00:54:44but we are dealing with contaminated soil, contaminated water. So we're going to add
00:54:48sand logs and branches for good drainage before we introduce organic topsoil. So when water comes,
00:54:56the garden's safe and you can grow clean, safe food.
00:55:04All right, men.
00:55:07At the future livestock site,
00:55:09We're going to do some crazy stuff here, guys.
00:55:11Matt, Mason, and Clayton utilize an abundant homestead resource for the property's new animal panels.
00:55:19The way I built this high ground for the livestock is the chickens have to live close to the pigs,
00:55:25but the pigs are dangerous to chickens. And the last thing I want to happen here is have the bacon
00:55:32eat the eggs for breakfast. And so building two separate pens so that the pigs don't eat the
00:55:40chickens is the next step. We're only using wood and decking screws. But trust me, this jig is going
00:55:51to be cheaper. It's going to be faster than going to get a sawmill and you're going to learn everything
00:55:54you could ever know about how to cut a log. We're taking a high-powered chainsaw, drilling some holes
00:56:01through that chainsaw bar, and we're fashioning a jig that allows you to cut along the length of a log
00:56:09and turn that log into lumber.
00:56:27Mason!
00:56:27Mason!
00:56:30There you go, the POV.
00:56:32Mason!
00:56:32Working with Matt, it's teaching me a lot of stuff
00:56:36for the homestead and I'm looking forward to getting the chicken coop and
00:56:41hogpins done. That way we can get them somewhere safe and a lot better place than where they're at
00:56:47currently yeah all right shut her down here's the moment of truth look at that so does it work
00:56:58it works it's kind of a step forward in my eyes knowing that i can come out here with just a
00:57:04regular chainsaw and do it the old-fashioned way you know what i really appreciate about you
00:57:10she's not afraid of hard work and i don't think there's any harder work than milling your own
00:57:15lumber yep with a chainsaw but we did one cut yep it's not easy now let's do some more cuts we're
00:57:25trying to get siding you know stuff for trim just trying to get as much one by as we can what do
00:57:30you think that'll work sounds like a plan anybody nail anybody yet nope i'm impressed over at the
00:57:42new modular home marty seeks to rebuild the homestead's water system i don't want anybody
00:57:48getting nailed you look like a pro holy moly thank you been doing this just a little bit
00:57:55i appreciate that generations of people have been using the springs on the side of that mountain
00:58:01but this generation josh and haley have contaminated water at least as far as the holding tank goes
00:58:08so i think we're going to bypass the whole thing just for the record guys we were thinking about
00:58:13putting a pump house right there so you have to make a decision if that's going to work for you
00:58:19right there it's perfect marty will construct an eight by ten foot pump house to hold a one thousand
00:58:26gallon water tank infiltration system with a direct line to the natural spring a half mile away
00:58:33pumping clean water into the family's new modular home make sure there's like
00:58:39straight yeah flat we may need to move out there our water system is contaminated so if we don't get
00:58:47this fixed there's no way we can have a sustainable homestead so knowing that it's something that we
00:58:53can work on is such a huge relief anytime i see anybody that proficient doing that kind of work
00:59:00leo we take him back to alaska oh no no no i need her i need her thank you for your help carry on
00:59:09grab that board sunny boy with less than 48 hours left in the rescue
00:59:25just like that matt fortifies the chicken coop before moving it to the new livestock area
00:59:34i'm going to run something by you
00:59:36while in the new garden misty plans to add another line of defense against future storms
00:59:44i feel like we're moving right along when it comes to hurricane proofing this garden but i want
00:59:51to take this to the next level every day the wind blows up the mountain and how hard does it blow here
00:59:5960 per hour gust yeah frequent 60 mile an hour gust is really hard on plants yeah so here's what i'm thinking
01:00:06right we create a wind barricade for the plants we have all of these massive wooden lids sitting on top
01:00:14of the concrete garden bed making it hurricane proof that you'll remove during the growing season
01:00:21but instead of storing them why not use them every day to protect the garden i do like that idea okay
01:00:26now where does this wind barricade go you have your new house right positioned kind of blocking this area
01:00:33we have a pretty good wind barricade with the trees those are trees during the hurricane were blown that
01:00:40way so i think having them on both ends is gonna actually stop some wind okay so four and four bookend
01:00:48wind barricade walls for the garden yep that works
01:00:57i'm such a big fan of building anything that's dual purpose and i think these hurricane lids
01:01:02does a wind barricade for blocking the garden from any of these high afternoon gusts of wind
01:01:07we'll solve multiple problems with one solution the idea really is one hurricane lid is here
01:01:13the next is here allowing for that breeze in the air to pass through another one is here
01:01:20and another one is here we're meticulously and carefully getting them into place because
01:01:26if you create a solid wind catch it's going to blow down so we got to create this stagger effect
01:01:33where wind can pass through but it's not blasting the plant that's all i'm trying to do i think it might
01:01:39need to go over just a little bit and then when it comes to this greenhouse it survived the hurricane
01:01:45so we're getting it up to the garden moving it in place getting it nice and level and we want it to be
01:01:52close to the new garden space and give haley back her happy place from what i can tell it looks great so
01:01:59at the moment whenever i look around the homestead and i see the things that are getting done
01:02:05everything is moving in the right direction wow guys we get hurricane winds here not as strong as
01:02:13a lean but that's a common thing here especially in the summertime so the wind bear caves are going to
01:02:18be a great asset so i don't have to worry about losing something that is so vital to growing food
01:02:25there's room to expand too right there's room for berry bushes fruit trees more garden beds kind of
01:02:33whatever you want to do there's a lot of space up here and then also i've got the greenhouse right there
01:02:40where i can easily get to it i can get in there and work and bring my plants back out
01:02:45and um just everything is right there and it's not only just a functional space but it's a beautiful
01:02:50space
01:02:57over at the modular home you pin that wherever you think it's flush marty and josh raise the pump house
01:03:05walls put a screw in this corner please while a crucial piece of the homestead's new water system
01:03:12remains in flux once we discovered that this water was indeed contaminated we reached out to rain harvest
01:03:20trying to design a system that would work here good to see you again nice to see you again curtis nice
01:03:25to see you curtis nice to meet you we needed a skookum system that would give these guys clean and safe
01:03:32drinking water we've got a rain flow 1 000 gallon water tank up there for you that's twice the capacity you
01:03:38had before we've got a pumping system it's got a five stage treatment system so three of those stages
01:03:45take care of bacteria which we understand there was a bit of a bacteria problem so we're going to treat
01:03:50that to make sure that it's safe all right awesome pretty wild sounds amazing
01:03:57come in water was obviously something that's been in the back of our minds and then to turn around and
01:04:04and see that pull up and then realize that it wasn't just the tank it was this whole purification system
01:04:12knowing that we can water animals with clean water and our garden eventually knowing that it's not going
01:04:20to be something that's going to make them sick and in return make us sick it's a huge relief it's very
01:04:26awesome you know to see people you know that don't even know us worked so hard to come up with something
01:04:32to be able to purify our water we are very grateful for them coming out and not only donating it but
01:04:38donating their time to drive down here and set it up uh that is uh that's very generous of them randy
01:04:46how's it going in here it's going pretty good how close are they to having drinkable water probably
01:04:52with an hour yeah i believe we can hold out all right one more hour thank you thank you so much yeah
01:04:58i'm very excited about this very very excited about this now let's move the chicken coop stop okay here we go
01:05:28okay here we go with time winding down on the ward's hurricane ravaged homestead
01:05:44i love it that's perfect perfect now let's move to the chicken coop
01:05:49the rainies make their final push to get the family's off-grid dream back up and running now that
01:05:58we have sturdy high ground for our livestock structures we need to move them to their new
01:06:03locations and we got to do it now it looks like it's dragging good it's working so far usually you
01:06:10don't want to leave the homestead high and dry unless you're trying to get the livestock into a safe place
01:06:16from the floods this livestock has a fighting chance at no matter what mother nature wants to throw at
01:06:22this homestead whoa there's a rock there
01:06:35this is blowing my mind yeah there's food there is food starting now for me on this homestead i think
01:06:44trying to create a hurricane proof garden i didn't know if that was possible but when you step back
01:06:50and you look at these solid concrete walls i think we fully created a hurricane proof garden
01:06:57so i don't have to like run a hose from the house so there's water and there's soaker hoses and i think
01:07:12um connecting all the lines and then having water this close to the greenhouse for all the seeds
01:07:17like it's all here yeah so a thousand gallons of clean water not just for you guys but for the garden as
01:07:23well is like really exciting yeah this means a lot the entire garden not only just is it hurricane proof
01:07:32but it's built for me and for my circumstances no matter my surgery with my brain tumor or other things
01:07:40that happen it's going to be accessible for me no matter what which is huge just to have that peace that
01:07:46i'm still gonna have my happy place there what do you think awesome so beautiful smell how good it
01:07:56is right so good in here so good the fact that you had a greenhouse that stood the ultimate test
01:08:03and is hurricane proof as well right you take this and you combine it with that and you're pretty
01:08:08much set up for success yeah do you think it's official is this the happy place this is the happy
01:08:14place this is the most plants also that i've seen in this thing in in over a year yeah this is so amazing
01:08:25no more weeds no now it's official there's food there's flowers we don't have contaminated soil we
01:08:31don't have contaminated water you're growing safe foods starting now and it doesn't matter what the
01:08:36weather throws at you because this is here to stay yeah and it's it's not only sturdy but it's
01:08:42beautiful and i'm so i'm so excited just to get started like this afternoon i'll be i'll be in here
01:08:48doing stuff one week ago the ward family was unable to grow food on their homestead after floods from
01:08:57hurricane helene decimated their garden contaminated their soil and left their greenhouse in poisonous
01:09:05weed covered ruins today they have raised cement garden bunkers with clean soil a wind barricade
01:09:14built to withstand storms and a revitalized greenhouse allowing them to once again live
01:09:21self-sustainably on the homestead like truly a few weeks ago when my doctor told me you know that we
01:09:29needed to start eating clean again first thing on our mind was growing our own food here
01:09:37and i didn't think we'd be able to do it this year and i was worried about that and it's already here
01:09:43it's already here because of you it's already here because of you i think we got action happening here
01:10:01oh wow usually when you see a fire truck that's bad news not today
01:10:08wow hey marty what's this all about i want some help five of you are you kidding me so keith here is
01:10:22the fire chief of the department i'm on cool we got daniel here he's a former woodlawn fireman
01:10:29we got josh here we got garrett cook he's also on the woodland fire department and got my dad dad that's cool
01:10:38my son and my grandson are firefighters and maybe it's just a family tradition i don't know but i'm
01:10:44proud of him his son uh mason was actually with me in this engine three o'clock that morning we was out
01:10:51on a college and you're looking for people yes ma'am we was having to evacuate them yeah did you ever
01:10:58think that a hurricane from 500 miles from the coast would come inland and devastate this mountain
01:11:07property in north carolina no no idea that's a little scary no it's a whole lot scary whole lot
01:11:15scary it's pretty incredible what you guys do thank you for everything that you do it sounds like
01:11:23everybody has been through it you all look pretty strapping we got a lot going on you got an unfinished
01:11:30building behind me i guess grab a hammer a saw a tape measure and uh who's got the best reflexes
01:11:39you're coming with me all right let's go to work let's go thanks guys
01:11:45my experience in and out of the storm we went to bed that night me and my family woke up the next morning
01:11:53to winds howling rains like i've never seen before the morning of the storm we uh kind of on standby on
01:12:02work because it started getting kind of rough you didn't know if anybody was alive all communication
01:12:07was cut off josh being on the local fire department i knew he was out on calls that's josh and i knew his
01:12:15son mason my grandson was out on calls too josh has been there for me through some really dark times
01:12:22it's really good to see what's happening for his family they shared food they shared what they had
01:12:31that makes me very proud of them they definitely deserve it as much as he does for the community
01:12:37what'd you say 12 inches on east side it's come this way an inch i think it's awesome
01:12:52they still don't have water we're gonna splice into that we're gonna head right to the pump house
01:12:59that would be awesome we need 100 self-sufficient
01:13:08holy cow-olina that's our milk cow friendly yeah
01:13:14what's your cow's name we'll just call her mama cow mama cow they say that buffalo like music we'll
01:13:22see if cows like music you like something old-timey now that i got it all slickered up thank you
01:13:40i don't remember i call 374
01:13:58i like this cow
01:13:59look what we got with only two hours remaining on the ward homestead no you did not you did not we got
01:14:14chickens matt restores livestock that had been wiped out by hurricane helene providing the promise of a
01:14:22self-sufficient future for the family combined all together you got about 20 chickens okay three
01:14:29laying hens and a rooster and you now have the ability to brood your own chicks there's only
01:14:38really one thing left to do let's put all these chickens where they need to go the big ones will
01:14:42go in the big coop little ones will go in a nice warm spot the homesteaders used to have 30 chickens now
01:14:49they got 20. cora and clayton are going to have a lot of fun raising these chicks but one day these
01:14:55chicks are going to grow up and they're going to have 15 laying hens they're going to be providing
01:15:00the homesteaders with their food needs for a long time they look like happy chickens to you yep
01:15:07and across the homestead the water line should be right here let's find it in the rescue's final moments
01:15:15oh whoa whoa whoa right there marty josh and mason race to complete the vital new water system
01:15:24we're going to splice into that we're going to head right to the pump house that would be awesome
01:15:29we're going to cut right into that line introduce it into a brand new
01:15:341 000 gallon tank clean that water up with five different aspects of filtration and start the entire
01:15:43water system on this homestead all over all right and that should be once we push it on
01:15:49they're good to go okay you ready yep done yep okay turn on the water it should be going all the way to
01:15:57the pump house yep we weren't able to build a farmhouse but we were able to build this small skinning shack
01:16:10i hope it's enough to separate somewhat stinky kind of stuff that happens with taxidermy from your
01:16:19guys's business yeah it's a big it's a big step seven days ago josh and mason's taxidermy business
01:16:28was confined to a single cramped space after their old farmhouse was destroyed in hurricane helene
01:16:35now they have two separate workspaces to process and create taxidermied animals allowing their
01:16:44off-grid business to thrive all right we're ready to move these pigs over and i can't think of any
01:16:49other way to move them over there unless you we got to use that kennel it's slippery and these pigs are
01:16:56gonna be a little bit heavy all four of these kids that i worked with are amazing and their
01:17:04older brother mason i mean what can i say he's a man grown he's almost 18 years old the fact that
01:17:11mason's been so capable this entire time was the only reason why i was able to do as much as i was
01:17:18able to do to help his family finally i paid some here instead of all the way down at the hill yeah
01:17:25kind of hard when on the side of the hill easier to get them water yeah i think it's a better spot
01:17:31yeah i'm really glad with how this turned out and i'm so thrilled i was able to do it with you young
01:17:36folks because it was just so much fun i mean i think our work here is done it's been a real pleasure
01:17:41one week ago the ward family lacked adequate shelter for their three pigs and their damaged
01:17:51chicken coop left them unable to raise chickens for meat or eggs now they have reconstructed
01:17:59livestock dwellings at the top of the hill to keep the animals safe and happy while they once again
01:18:05provide the family with a crucial source of protein the new homestead that's the future we can make
01:18:18it work you can make it work all right you got contaminated water that is a state-of-the-art
01:18:26filtration system you've got clean water and there's a thousand gallon tank is it full all over the top yeah
01:18:33knowing that we got good clean water you know to to provide to the wife and the kids and everything
01:18:38you know it ain't gonna do nothing but make us better and healthier when we showed up here water
01:18:43may have been one of your biggest problems and right now it's the least of any problems on this homestead
01:18:51that box has been checked it sure has i would say seven days ago the wards were living in a cramped
01:18:59trailer with a contaminated water supply and their cows lacked both shelter and a milking area leaving
01:19:06the family without a crucial off-grid supply of dairy today the family has a new home with one hundred
01:19:16thousand dollars donated toward their mortgage payment a new water system with state-of-the-art
01:19:22filtration and a brand new barn with a milking stanchion to keep the cows protected and dairy
01:19:29producing oh it helps a whole lot we can start milking again copy that well guess what you're ready
01:19:37whenever hurricane helene hit i was worried about you know how is going to make things work out and how
01:19:43long it was going to take to get back to normal or a new normal because things won't never be be the
01:19:49way they were working with marty this week we can actually function back like we was before the
01:19:55hurricane and it really feels good you know to be back able to where we can continue helping out
01:20:00in the community and provide for ourselves
01:20:03i think your homestead looks a lot different now than it did a week ago it was an awesome week
01:20:20yeah it was amazing your children were an amazing help this week was fun um i had fun working with matt
01:20:29amnesty plus there is no possible way we would have been able to do all this without all the generosity
01:20:39of all the people that came to help us if it wasn't for y'all then we wouldn't be as far
01:20:46as we come this past week you know i mean it's got us back to where we can function one day we came back
01:20:52to our house and everything was gone and in one week we have even better than what we had before
01:21:01so it's not just our homestead but it's a refuge now somewhere we can be safe know that we can have
01:21:09food here again you've given that back to us the the you know we can get back to doing what we know and
01:21:17love you guys are set up and just take a deep breath and enjoy your family yes yeah thank you
01:21:26will there be a sixth generation of homesteaders on this property i'm confident there will be come
01:21:35helene for high water
01:21:53since the rainies left we have um gotten into our new house everybody's got their own room you know
01:21:59we do have space for mason and we have plenty of water we're actually all back to drinking the water
01:22:05that comes straight from here we have a cow back in milk we're getting chicken eggs a couple more weeks
01:22:11and we'll be ready to butcher some pigs these raised beds have been amazing in the garden it's so easy
01:22:17for me to just come out here and do what i need to do the wind walls have protected all the crops we've
01:22:23added a trellis we had a good harvest and we have a lot of food to eat having the new scanning shack
01:22:31has been a real big help being able to get done things quicker and turn them around a whole lot
01:22:35faster our customers have a good experience coming in it's been great by the fall we will be a hundred
01:22:42percent back we want to say thank you to marty missy matt and of course everybody else that came out
01:22:48and help we are so thankful for each and every one of you
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