Rebel Talk: TIIIIM-BERRRR

In the past I touched on this, but finally a dream is coming to life. If you know me, or our story, you know I've been through some real shit. The house I live in now, was temporary. A quick fix when I got divorced. I'm now going on 7 years here. So much longer than I anticipated. But, I never gave up on my dream. Last fall I found the land, and now it's time for my home on some land in the country. 

But, there is a shit ton of work to be done to get it ready. Right now, it's still a dream in my head, a vision. I can picture it. Piece by piece, year by year, I've taken steps to get me here. This isn't an overnight "there it is" all in place ready to go home. This is dirt, covered i woods.

This weekend, my work began.

There’s a different kind of respect you gain when you’re standing in the middle of land that hasn’t been touched in decades. From the road, it looks calm… almost easy. But once you step into it, you realize quickly—this isn’t clearing brush or knocking down a few small trees. This is big timber. These are 100+ year old trees. Thick trunks, deep roots, the kind that have been standing long before you ever showed up, and they’re not going anywhere unless you make a real decision to take them down.

Right now, it’s just land. Raw, wooded, untouched, and full of potential—but also full of work. The kind of work most people never see. Everyone loves the finished product. The house. The view. The end result. But nobody talks about what it takes just to get the land ready to even begin building. Standing there looking at it, it's overwhelming. I know what it’s going to require from me. Time, effort, patience, and a willingness to do things most people would avoid.

What I didn’t expect was how quickly something else would shift.

I had just started getting after it, and the new neighbors showed up. Brand new neighbors. No history, no built relationship other than a beer in their garage last fall, no long conversations leading up to it. They just showed up with their equipment, ready to work. No questions, no hesitation. I had mine, they brought theirs, and just like that we were working side by side, clearing land, dropping trees, making progress.

It caught me off guard in a good way. Because I’ve known people for years who wouldn’t show up like that. People you’ve spent a lifetime around, and when it comes time to actually do something, they’re nowhere to be found. And here I am, meeting guys I barely know, and they’re already all in, helping move something forward that doesn’t benefit them at all.

Life can change lanes faster than you think.

We get used to our environments. Our circles. The same people, the same routines, the same expectations. And without realizing it, we start to believe that’s just how it is. But the moment you step into something new, something uncomfortable, something that requires more out of you… everything around you has the ability to shift. New people show up. Different energy enters. Support comes from places you didn’t expect.

Out there, working through those trees, it became really clear that the lesson wasn’t just about the land.

Some of those trees have been standing for over a hundred years. Strong, rooted, weathered through everything. And still, they have to come down. Not because they’re bad trees, not because they didn’t serve a purpose—but because they’re in the way of what’s next. If you want to build something new, something intentional, you have to be willing to clear space for it.

That’s not always easy to accept. There are things in life that have been around for a long time—people, habits, environments—that feel permanent simply because they’ve always been there. But time alone doesn’t make something right for your future. Sometimes it just means it’s been there.

Watching those trees fall isn’t subtle. You hear the crack, you feel the shift, and when it goes, it goes with force. It changes the space immediately. And in a lot of ways, that’s how real change works too. It’s not always gradual and quiet. Sometimes it’s decisive. Sometimes it requires you to make a cut, stay committed, and follow through even when it would be easier to leave things as they are.

Standing out there, covered in sawdust, working alongside people who didn’t owe me anything, I felt a sense of clarity. Not just about the land, but about how important it is to be in the right environment, around the right people, doing the kind of work that actually moves your life forward.

This is just the beginning. But I can already see how this part matters just as much as anything that comes after it. Because this is where the foundation is built—not just physically, but mentally.

So if things feel stuck right now, or if you’re looking around wondering why nothing is changing, it might be worth asking a different question. Not “what should I add?” but “what needs to be cleared?”

Because nothing new gets built on land that hasn’t been prepared for it.

And when you finally decide to make that move—when you commit to clearing what’s in the way—you might be surprised how quickly things around you start to change too.

Sometimes all it takes is making the first cut… and being willing to follow it all the way through. And you never know who you are going to meet along the way.

Stay Relentless,

Ryan