My love for land and the outdoors didn’t begin in a classroom or with a job—I think it started when my parents planted a tree in our backyard. Their focus on the outdoors laid the groundwork for my entire professional life. They both worked full-time in service fields, but their off-time was centered around the outdoors, whether at the house or on vacations. I only have a few photos from the early days—not just because we didn’t have phones snapping pics all the time back then, but mostly because Mom’s got most of our memories in the photo albums she’s spent years putting together at their house.
In 1965, when they built the house, they still live in, one of the first things Mom and Dad did was plant fruit trees and put in a big garden. Dad handled the plowing and tilling, and he and Mom worked on the layout together. We kids were required to work the garden—planting, weeding, harvesting and shelling peas. To us, eating fresh food straight from the garden just seemed normal. Mom, who later became a Master Gardener, would either can or freeze the vegetables and we would eat well into the winter. They still have food stored from the garden. The first time I ate canned vegetables was when I went to college…big difference. At the time, working in the garden wasn’t that much fun, but I learned a lot. Later on, my wife and I built a raised bed garden, and we’ve been harvesting plenty of good, clean food from it ever since. I wrote about it in a previous blog.
To fully enjoy their handiwork, Mom and Dad built a sunroom where family gatherings centered on the yard and eating food from the garden. Dad has watched some of those trees grow for 60 years, and still finds it hard to cut a single branch. This year, they celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. Until recently, their mornings began in a swing under those trees, planning the garden over coffee. They are a reminder to us of what hard work and consistency can accomplish.
On vacations, Mom and Dad did not take us to crowded theme parks. Our vacations were spent exploring different lakes across the Southeast, primarily Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas. We started with a tent, then moved up to a pop-up camper: no air conditioner, no problem. Most of the time, we’d camp, but on the longer trips, we would rent a cabin.
The year 1976 was a good year—Dad bought a boat and taught us, along with dozens of church youth, how to ski. My sister was often helping Dad with the maps, no GPS, as we navigated new lakes, looking for sandbars for lunch or the perfect cove for skiing. I spent a lot of my time trying to keep up with my older brother. Our two favorites were J.P. Coleman State Park on the Tennessee River and Corinth Recreational Area on Smith Lake. At the time, both places were relatively undeveloped, and we loved it. Incidentally, my first listing as a Land Realtor was selling large tracts on Smith Lake.
This one always makes me laugh. When I wasn’t with my family, I was hunting and fishing with my buddies. One friend of mine had permission for us to camp on private land where there was a decent-sized pond. We would take our camping and fishing gear, but no food. So, to eat that night, we had to catch and cook our meal. Needless to say, we were pretty serious about fishing, when we first got there.
As you can imagine, growing up in the outdoors had a significant influence on my life choices. For a career, I became a Registered Forester and then a Land Realtor. For my personal life, I take every opportunity to be outside. I’ve continued to ski until this day and taught my kids to ski in Dad’s old boat. They’re grown adults now, but will still talk about those trips to Lake Martin. In my fifties, I started open-water swimming which adds another dimension when we go to the lake. My wife and I enjoy growing the fresh food we grew up on. Some of our vacations are spent retracing the old family trips.
Today, when I’m out on a property with a landowner or buyer, I’m not just looking at boundaries, access points, or potential return on investment. I’m also thinking about what it would feel like to actually live on that land—walking it, hunting, farming, and maybe one day passing it down. Over the years, I’ve planted a lot of trees and sold everything from farms and pastures to timberlands, homesteads, and even caves. Every property I work with—whether as a Land Realtor or Registered Forester—feels like a new adventure, just like those early days with my family.
