My Last Month on Youtube (week 24).

I've been kind of dreading making this video and don't have a full idea of what to say or share, but yeah, wanted to let you guys in on things that this will be the last month here that I'm uploading videos and building the YouTube channel and yeah, publishing on YouTube, which I think might be the first time that I've articulated those words that clearly, or at least articulated them to the camera, that this is kind of the end of this chapter of life on my end and I wanted to shed a little bit of light on that just to kind of bring you guys into the loop on everything and just quickly before we dive into that, we are going to continue along with the thousand pound challenge. Go ahead and complete it for this season. But yeah, I wanted to provide you guys with a little update first. And so I think it's important to understand the background context here. You know, when I first started Mind and Soil and working on this YouTube channel more than five years ago, nearly six years ago at this point, you know, my whole hope and goal and intention was to introduce a million individuals to gardening's mental health benefits and just how good it feels to be in the garden. It was the place that I always went to for some peacefulness, some restoration, etc. And as I set out on that journey five, six years ago, it's, you know, been just an absolutely amazing and challenging roller coaster of a ride and probably like wouldn't trade any of that for the world just because that's been such a rich experience to go through over the course of the last five, six years. And over the course of that time, and I suspect that many of you felt this through the videos, I've really been trying to figure out like how do I make this work, right? I want to be teaching people how to be getting into gardening. I want to be helping people getting their hands dirty. How do I go about actually turning that into something that pays the bills in order to, you know, be able to do that to the best of my ability. And so over the course of the last five, six years, I've tried out so many different things in terms of physical products, digital products, working with brands, so on and so forth, to like varying degrees of success, I would describe it as. And when I kind of reflect back on that five, six-year journey, it's really taken, you know, something that I'm so passionate about, and I'm certainly going to be gardening for all the years to come, and turned it into profession. And, you know, this is something that in hindsight is obvious and clear, but, you know, at that point in time, I was kind of operating under the thinking or the thought process of, you know, kind of like find that thing that you're passionate about and never work a day in your life or whatever the saying is. But in reality, when the mortgage comes due, when the credit card statement comes due, all of those things, like it needs to be paying the bills. And by virtue of that, it really changes the relationship that you have with the thing that you're passionate about. So now for me, it's like I can't walk through the garden without thinking, you know, don't harvest that until Thursday when you're filming. Don't start those seeds until Thursday when you're filming. Don't work on this little thing over here until you're filming. Everything has become, you know, a piece of content and a piece of work. And I guess that that's totally okay. And the question for me really became or has become, do I want to sign up for another five years of that in regards to continuing to build this and, you know, moving in that direction? And as I've, you know, kind of like thought about that and reflected on that over the course of the year, I'm at this place in my life where I'm really looking forward to the next chapter of life and having a little bit more time and energy and emotional bandwidth to be putting towards relationship and progressing towards the family picture of life. And from that perspective, I'm ready to have what it is that I'm doing from a work perspective kind of just be the work thing and not have to be balancing this, you know, combination of passion and profession right in my backyard. So when I look to those, you know, five years ahead, it isn't, you know, continuing to try and figure out how to make this work that I think is the best use of my time, my energy or the thing that I'm feeling pulled and drawn towards, which makes it kind of like the right and natural time to begin concluding this chapter. And frankly, like that's something that I'm very peaceful about, like over the course of this season, I really want to do the thousand pound challenge because it's like, you know, if this is going to be my last season on YouTube, I just want to create the content that like I would love to consume and be watching. And that's been the case. Like there are times on a Saturday or Sunday where I like I'll just flip on one of the videos that I've created for this thousand pound challenge. And I absolutely love watching it. Unfortunately, it hasn't like taken off in the way that would make it all economical and viable, whereby it's like, OK, yeah, this is the thing that I'm happy to have as work for the five year chapter ahead. So given that that's the case, again, there's just like there's been like this kind of sense of like peacefulness and contentment with like, it's OK that this is the end of the road for this chapter of life on my end. And there's going to be another new and exciting chapter on the horizon over the years ahead. So, yeah, I didn't want to just wrap up the season and be like, all right, I'm never posting again, but rather, you know, you guys have been along for the journey for many of you the past several years and for some of you just this past season with the whole thousand pound challenge. And so I wanted to share this while there still is a little bit of time in this gardening season and we still have a couple of hundred pounds, which I'm going to get to in just a second, to try and harvest and give away from the garden just so that we can kind of enjoy it all together, you know, so that it isn't, you know, the end of the season and then being surprised by something like that, but rather, hey, this is the direction that things are going. And let's really enjoy this last month together on YouTube. So that's what's moving and shaking on my end. Thank you all for being along on the journey here for however long it's been, whether it's just been this year or for many years. It's been a ton of fun getting to connect with a bunch of you. And so, excuse me, with that being said, we've still got some work to do. And so what I want to dive into next is a big old harvest on the garden here. And over the last two weeks, while I've been taking a little bit of downtime here, I have continued to harvest, have continued to give things away. It has actually ended up being like a pretty significant amount as well. So we're now up to, I think it's 754 pounds. I'll have to check my phone, get you guys the exact number. Actually, I'll just put on the screen right now. That's what we're at. So we've got a little ways to go, but we're about to pull quite a bit out of the garden right now and make another really good dent in it. So let's get to it. This thing's definitely looking a bit tired. Oh, bear poop right at the base of my stairs. Thanks buddy. All right. Definitely in the final weeks for Zooks, but we got a absolute toad here. Oh my gosh. This might be the biggest one I've ever Look at that. Oh, he's cute little babies. Tomato time. Next up these red onions. Yep. Time for these guys to get harvested for sure. Probably left these in just a little too long. Feel they're a little soft. So remember we planted all of these broccolis and cauliflowers into this bed and we left some of the onions in here so they could put on a little bit more size. So now a couple of weeks later, take a look at that. Boom. This one here, that's a perfect size onion right there. That's just a weed. All these pulled beans need to be harvested. Now, last thing that we need to harvest here are the secret carrots that we planted. This could be some really good extra poundage. Alrighty, here we go. And remember like this is just three space that I've never planted in before. And check this out. There's one there. There's grab a whole handful here. Oh man, this is so good. Literally free freebies. Look at this. Keep coming out. Another handful. It's so fun to be able to harvest by the handful right now. There we go. There's some more. Another handful over here. Look at that. Are you serious? Like look at this. This is all just like a line of carrots right here. All of a sudden, just that you got another handful of carrots. All right. That was a big harvest. Honestly, most of the stuff isn't even on the table right now. It's still in the boxes down below, but the garden is absolutely cranking right now. You know, earlier on, I was like, if you're just starting to get like 50 pounds per week, then maybe we'll get there. I really underestimated the number of pounds that are coming out of the garden on a week over week basis as we go through this absolute peak of the season. So with that in mind, we are at now 248 pounds to go. We hit that point where we can like start doing it more as a countdown than like counting up to a thousand. So see how much we knock off of that remaining 248 right now. All right, here we go. Peppers, 10 pounds, 12 there. All right. Now we're into the heavy duty stuff. Big box remains. These carrots are crazy. Okay. Huge thing of cucumbers. So heavy as well. So much weight there. 28. Let's go. 25 pounds of zucchinis. All right. Let's add this up. This is a serious dent that we're making it in it here. Okay. And then 10% inclusion, 147 pounds harvested right here. To add on to our tally of 752, which brings us up to literally 899 pounds and four ounces according to the calculator here. We're officially 101 pounds away from completing the challenge. Oh baby. We're getting there. We are getting there. All right. I'm going to get these posted for the community real quick so they can come and pick them up this evening. Okay. So I do think that we're in a pretty good spot to get to the thousand pounds. Can we need a hundred point seven pounds to break over the thousand mark issue or the concern that I have is that like everything is starting to die off right now. So take a look at this. Tomatoes starting to die. Browning on the basil is a classic sign. The plant's starting to get stressed by the colder and wetter weather. Bush beans. Oh geez. And the zucchinis here. I mean, honestly, we'll be lucky if we get one more harvest of zucchinis before they die from the powdery mildew and I don't want to leave anything to chance. So going to go ahead and start some more seeds for the season. Okay. So those babies are all set and we have a couple hours until people start arriving the garden goodies giveaway later this evening. And so I'm actually going to spend the next little bit just like starting to clean up the garden, which is like crazy to even be saying, because I swear just a minute ago, we were only starting this challenge. So to already be at that point in the early fall, it feels crazy coming out of my mouth, but sure enough, it's that time. We're going to leave this one for now because it's still looking good. And then we'll leave the pumpkin for right now, even though it's definitely pretty beat up, but this guy is almost ripe. So let's see if we can get it fully orange. Quick pro tip here for the dahlias label them while they still have their last blooms on them. That way, you know, what you're planting next year into different areas in terms of color. And now let's give the Romaine area a little tidy up. So now time to start getting everything set up for the pickup. And I think we'll have to start doing these a little bit early. Cause like it's just after six right now. And it feels like it's already starting to get a little bit dark with the days getting shorter. I'm going to need the big table this evening. Hey there. How are you guys doing? Good. This tables might collapse. Cool. Have a good one guys. That's insane. Hey, I got to harvest some flowers real quick, but help yourself, man. All right. You guys are back. Dig in. Hey buddy. Yeah, it's inevitable. Honestly, like I'm happy with how long these zucchinis have like held on for. Almost done. Yeah. A couple more weeks. Oh, you guys got, you got to fit more in there than that. I'm going to make you guys take more than that. Grab some more onions and whatnot. Grab some more tomatoes too. Do you? Good. Hello. Good. How you doing? Of course. Please take as many of these flowers as all of you can. Hey guys. How you guys doing? I don't know, but it's like, it's probably close to like 10 pounds. What were the big changes that you made over the year? I've planted so hard this year, you know, as much work as it is the, like, I've got a ton of systems in place now. So a lot of it takes care of itself, right? Like I haven't watered the garden once this whole summer. It's all just running. It's all just on your gauge. I've got like eight different zones. They're all timed, all programmed. I grabbed like a little bit for myself. Like I didn't even grab any cucumbers today, but I grabbed, I think maybe two tomatoes and some of these. Please do. It was good. Perfect. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Jordan. Yeah. Good to see you. Take care. Yeah. Dig in guys. Dig in. Grab as much as you can. Do you want me to hold your bag for you so you can load up? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So many on the vines that are going to be ripening over the next bit. So awesome, buddy. Thanks so much. Absolutely. Clint? I just live like four houses up the road. Okay. Super nice to meet you. I only come by like once or twice every month or something like that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, really, really good to meet you. Glad that we're able to get some to you. Thank you so much. I'm so happy what you do, man. It's pretty cool here, man. Oh man. I appreciate that. My pleasure. Yeah. It's been, it's been really fun this season. All right. There we go. Last things have been picked up. We're now into like that final hundred pounds. And honestly, like I'm feeling pretty good about where we're at. You know, the broccolis, the cabbages, the cauliflowers, they're growing so well in a really good place. The carrots in the front there, they're looking good. There's more carrots in the back. I got some potatoes in the front, potatoes in the grow bags over there, tomatoes still, maybe get a couple more zucchinis. So, you know, we've got lots of options in terms of where the hundred, the kind of like remaining hundred pounds can come from. So I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to be able to get it done, which is crazy. I like, I was like, man, if we get like 700, 800 pounds, that would be like such an amazing season. So the fact that like we could get actually over this thousand pound mark, unreal. Let's keep it going. I'll catch you all next week. See you then.