This is the highest homestead we've ever rescued.
And the homesteader is afraid of heights.
The rest of the work is up there.
I hate heights.
I climb a ladder,
I get real shaky.
That's the most fear I have right now.
He has the choice to either face that fear
or let it destroy his dream.
Want a hand, or you got it?
I look up, and the bear starts walking towards me.
What kind of food is on the homestead?
Right now, there is next to nothing.
Oh, my God.
Special delivery!
In a month from now,
they'll be in the throes of winter.
Done, let's go.
It's perfect! Brace it!
We're trying to keep them from...
Timber!
Everybody get out of the way!
...the death throes of winter.
Colorado.
We're on a road to a homestead
at 10,300-foot elevation.
That is an extreme height.
Working's harder, breathing's harder,
everything you do is kind of taxing on your body,
and winter's right around the corner.
- Who was Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.? - No idea.
He came to Colorado, and inspired by the beauty,
changed his name to John Denver.
Dude, if my last name was Deutschendorf,
I would change my name to Denver, too.
Here we go.
In the southernmost sub-range of the Rocky Mountains,
the Raneys heed an SOS nearly two miles high.
In the 1820s, settlers overcame the steep terrain
and predatory wildlife to turn the region
into a fur trading hub that supported the expansion West.
Today, only the most ambitious off-gridders brave
the extreme altitude and unpredictable weather,
and the unprepared quickly find out
how unforgiving this environment can be.
Attempting to realize their homesteading dream
high above the clouds is a novice off-grid family
on the edge of survival.
- I'm Joshua Webb. - And I'm Elizabeth Webb.
And we live two miles high in the Sangre de Cristo
mountain range in south central Colorado with our two boys.
The moment my feet hit the ground on this 10-acre plot,
I knew I was home. The view is 100% what sold us.
It made us feel like we were part of this landscape.
But it's extremely inclined.
And so every piece that is flat has come from blood,
sweat, or dollars in diesel.
We fight for every square inch to make it livable.
After two years of struggling to establish
critical essentials like food, water,
and reliable access in the thin air at extreme elevation,
Joshua and Elizabeth have reached a breaking point.
We didn't realize how much effect the elevation
was really gonna have.
Right at the beginning of October, we get snow,
and it often doesn't melt. And it piles on and on and on.
And we get snowed in in the winter.
Our first winter was really hard.
We were relying on grocery stores.
And so I started canning because food is at a premium.
I was concerned with our preparedness.
But we always needed more.
And I would tell myself, "It's OK.
"It's just my first time. I didn't know.
I'm just gonna learn stuff."
And then the next winter,
the problems we had were more severe.
We struggle to have enough food.
So we got chickens, but the lack of oxygen,
it makes it difficult for us to be able to hatch chicks
because there's not enough oxygen to penetrate their shell
as they're developing.
The nearest well to us on the registry is over
a thousand feet down.
And with the price of drilling per foot,
that makes it just out of our ability.
So every drop of water that we have on this homestead,
I bring up with our truck and trailer.
Hauling water is expensive, time-consuming,
and not reliable.
When we're up here and our cisterns are full,
everything's fine, but when the snow hits and I can
no longer drag that amount of weight up the mountain,
the water we have is the water we have.
I've had to go out with pots, digging up snow,
bringing it inside, setting it on top of our fireplace
just to get enough water.
With winter less than five weeks away,
the Webb family finds themselves
in a do-or-die predicament.
We are not in a position to go through another winter
with the problems we've been having.
Leaving the property would mean everything we've invested
over the last two years would be lost.
I don't even know what we would do.
Raneys, we desperately need your help.
- Hello. - Hello.
- How you guys doing? - I'm Joshua.
- Joshua. - Elizabeth.
- Josh.
- Josh? - Yeah.
- And? - Ronnie.
Ronnie, nice to meet you all.
- You've picked a tough place to homestead. - Right.
How many acres is this property?
- It's a ten-acre property. - Ten acres, all right.
- So how's it been going? - Rough.
- And why? - You try to prepare,
but it's just been problem after problem.
We moved out here about two years ago.
We lived in Houston, Texas.
I was a community developer coaching people
on how to start businesses.
I was teaching harp students,
playing for weddings and events.
So I was just constantly in the car
in that Houston traffic.
And I didn't like it at all, but I felt trapped.
We decided to leave Houston when I had just recently lost
an entire business that I had formed.
When that happened, I had a change in me
about what life was supposed to be.
And it became less about quantity
and more about quality.
And that brought me to homesteading.
Six months ago, the young family experienced
another big life change with a welcomed,
though unexpected, addition.
We met a young boy named Josh.
He was living with his grandmother here
in the Valley.
And we began to grow closer to him.
And when we found out his life experiences haven't all been
what they should have been.
It became very clear to us that he needed our help
and so we asked if he could come stay with us full-time.
This summer, we got legal guardianship of him
so that we can raise him and have him be part
of our family.
I always wanted to be a mom, but after 13 years of marriage,
trying to get pregnant unsuccessfully,
it wasn't in the cards, and that was always really hard.
And so that fills a hole in my heart
that I've had for a long time.
It wasn't too long after Josh came to us that
his brother Ronnie visited and found himself
really liking being up here.
And so he stayed with us
and now we've become this family of four.
Since Ronnie came out here, it gives us the opportunity
to unite because we're family,
but we haven't been there for each other.
And that's all I could ever ask for.
I want these boys to feel protected, and safe,
and secure, and loved.
And so that makes it even more important for me,
for my wife, to create something that isn't just for us,
but it's generational. Our roots are deep already.
This is our home.
But when all of the tries fail,
it just leaves you feeling desperate.
What do you call this area?
We call it the household.
This is where we plan to build our forever home
here on the mountainside.
We've dug it out 75 feet wide by 50 feet deep.
The whole idea is building a solid wall of tires around
the periphery of this area and then erect a metal
structure on the inside.
We joke that we're on a 15-year build plan.
- I think it's romantic. - Mm-hmm.
But I'm thinking I could come here 20 years from now
and not see that building.
These homesteaders are living in camp trailers,
but their dream is to build a house out of tires.
The bad news is that could take a long time.
I'm not sure these homesteaders fully appreciate the natural
building products that exist on the homestead today.
When we got here, it was all about infrastructure,
propane, septic, water. - Where is the water?
The source of the water is our cisterns,
all the way up the top of this hill.
Show me, please.
And we gravity feed down into the RVs,
to the animals, to pretty much everything we do.
Oh, boy...
- This is always a rough hill. - 10,300 feet.
Yep. Lack of oxygen.
Here they are.
We're hauling the water from town.
And we drive up with the truck and trailer right here.
- On the main road. - On the main road.
We have a two-inch gas water pump.
And we pump into this.
So how many gallons is this tank right here?
They're both 1,700 gallons.
3,400 gallons.
- That's good. - Yeah.
How much water is in here now?
Right now, there is next to nothing.
- Maybe a few hundred gallons. - Why? It's-- it's--
The big why is because our truck transmission is down,
and so we can't haul anything.
So...
let's just say it does snow.
What's the plan to get water?
- from about December till mid-May,
the roads are not possible to take that much weight
on a trailer and a truck up and down the mountain.
So pretty much what we can get by November,
that has to last us till May.
They're doing their best.
But I'm seeing a long list of challenges.
They are in trouble.
What is this?
These are tires that we have been collecting for,
like, retaining walls to build some kind of a home.
OK.
What kind of food is on the homestead?
We've got eggs and a little bit of meat that we're raising,
but we really haven't done anything with plants yet. - OK.
Just because of the weather, because of the soil,
and honestly, I grew up in the Arizona desert.
I've never been around anyone who had a garden.
I don't really know very much about it.
OK, and egg production slows down in the wintertime, right?
- Yeah. - So you're coming into a time
where you're getting really close to having zero food.
Yeah.
How much snow do you get here?
I mean, it-- it piles up several feet.
One time we had snow for like 48 hours straight,
and we had like four or five feet of snow. - Oh, wow.
- Oh, like a blizzard. - Yeah.
- Snowed in, trapped. - Yeah.
- Have you been trapped here? - Multiple times.
- For how long? - One time it was a week.
What do you do about food?
We started canning for winter,
but keeping those from freezing has been hard.
I'd love to be able to get to a place where we tackle
your food situation as a whole, especially when you're getting
stranded for weeks at a time. - Yeah.
Everything at this elevation,
when it comes to weather, is intensified.
Higher winds, colder temperatures,
earlier freezes and frosts.
Trying to put in a garden and have plants survive
in these types of temperature swings,
it's next to impossible.
What do you got here?
We have our chickens and rabbits.
This is the chicken coop where they go in,
do all their nesting and everything, laying the eggs.
That is our meat supply, just in case if we get snowed in,
we'll have a source of food. - This is great.
It looks like the chickens are happy.
Are you breeding the rabbits?
Yes, we got the mama rabbit right there, actually.
These are all her babies.
As far as this structure being predator-proof,
I actually like this because it doesn't seem like anything's
gonna be able to get inside. - No, sir.
These-- these are our two pigs.
Do you have any plans for the winter for these pigs?
They have that for their winter.
That little doghouse?
- Yeah. - Oh, man.
We tried putting hay and stuff in there, bedding.
They just ripped it up.
Pigs are pretty hardy,
but the weather is gonna get pretty cold.
At the very least, these pigs are gonna need something
to keep them out of the wind.
And this is definitely not predator-proof.
It-- it-- this is definitely not.
Right away, when I saw those two little pigs,
I knew they were not predator-proofed
and they were not winter-proofed.
Have you had encounters with predators?
Yes-- anytime we go outside during night,
you always bring a gun with you. - Yeah.
I came outside, and all I hear is grunting.
I look up, and the bear starts walking towards me.
Oh, my God!
I was actually about maybe ten foot from the bear.
He starts creeping towards me, head down, doing the sway.
- You could hear the grunting. - Really?
So he was about to be aggressive.
I grabbed the 12 gauge. He keeps coming.
Fired off the shot. He ran, shot him again.
He rolled down the mountain.
I took the action that I felt needed.
- How big was the bear? - Uh, he was massive.
- He was at least 500 pounds. - What?
He-- he was round.
- Man, that's wild. - Very scary.
Winter is about to hit, and this is when bears are
about to go hibernate.
So I'm worried about these little pigs,
and I'm worried about these homesteaders losing
an important food source.
So we need to protect the animals from predators
and the elements.
Is it just me or can you feel the altitude?
It's not just you.
What are we gonna do about heading
into full-blown wintertime with homesteaders
that have been trapped and stranded for days at a time?
'Cause when it comes to food, water, and shelter,
it's not here.
And when you try to garden at 10,300 feet,
it's never gonna happen.
They have livestock that is actually doing pretty good,
but the pigs, they're just in a little pen
with a fence this high,
and anything can get in there and get these pigs.
And so they need a place to survive through the winter.
- Yeah. - They don't have a house.
They don't have any means of hauling water.
The truck's broke down.
We've got one week to prepare them for six months of winter.
But right now, the deck,
the weather, the elements, all of it...
is stacked against us.
All right, guys.
- What happened? - Yeah.
The weather here changes rapidly.
Let's just cut right to the chase.
The fact that we're looking at two strapping, not boys,
but young men, is really good because a lot of work that's
got to get done here... - Yeah.
...in a week is gonna be a significant workload. - Yeah.
That said, we know only one family that succeeded
at the tire-home house. - Yeah.
I've never seen anything like this before, ever.
It's thermal mass. This is our insulation.
Do you know how many tires they use to build
an earth house? - I don't.
30,000.
You guys are about, uh, 29,000 tires short.
So we might have a further discussion about
what we could do to help you on this earth house.
- See you in the morning. - OK.
- I'm bringing a coat tomorrow. - Yes.
2
Come on over, please.
It's late fall at the Webb family's 10,300-foot-high
Colorado homestead.
Let's talk about permanent structures.
And as the first full day of the rescue begins,
the family's Earthship plans get a major blow.
I take no joy in sharing bad news with anyone,
but we just found out...
that... it's illegal...
to build an Earthship-style home out of tires
on this mountain and in this county.
Ever heard that expression,
where the rubber meets the road?
I just learned you cannot build a home out of tires
in these beautiful mountains.
The dream of Elizabeth and Joshua is deflating.
Pretty insane.
That dream is over as of this second.
So it ain't happening.
So this morning, Marty had to deliver some news to us
that wasn't fantastic, probably added a little bit
to my anxiety today.
And you know, it got me a little freaked out
having to do something else that's kind of a big thing.
Concrete is legal.
- Building out of wood is legal. - OK.
And that's what we're gonna do. OK.
How do you feel about some type of post-and-beam structure
built out of logs so big that you could park vehicles
and tools right in it?
It'd be protected by the elements with a roof system
that could collect water, a carport,
but a carport so skookum that it could be converted
into a home. - Right.
So what do you think?
A homesteader's life is adapting,
so... it's time to adapt.
On the footprint cleared for the family's cabin,
Marty and Joshua will erect a 20-by-50-foot all-purpose
carport complete with a metal roof catchment system
to protect their vehicles and tools from the elements
and provide a supplemental water source.
The structure will be the framework of a cozy cabin
that will stand the test of time
once the Webbs close it in.
I'm excited about it, just the thought of...
the movement forward. I just want stability.
Honestly, that's all I'm looking for.
Good answer.
I got a little sad because we had to switch gears,
but Marty had a solution, so there was an upswing.
Building with the trees that we have on property,
it's not only bringing hope, but it's offering direction.
It will help us get ready for winter.
- We're losing time right now. - Right.
- Not kidding. - Let's go
OK, it's getting cold, man.
It's only supposed to get colder tonight.
- Really? - Yeah.
Well, what's the plan for these pigs?
Is there anywhere that you can put the pigs just temporarily?
We have a back area we can put them in for now.
As we speak, the weather is shutting down.
It's gonna hail. It might snow.
I'm worried about these little pigs.
And I wanna see what Ronnie would do to keep the pigs alive
before we actually build something permanent
they can survive through the winter.
- So this is the tool shed? - Yes, sir.
And you just throw them-- just throw them in there?
Yeah that's one.
Oh, man.
And there they are.
So this is a perfect place for now,
but you can't raise a pig in the winter
in your tool shed. - Yeah, no.
We got to figure out something that's gonna be long-term,
not just for two little pigs,
but if you wanna get bigger livestock more pigs
and you wanna keep them through the wintertime,
you're gonna need a lot bigger space
and this isn't gonna cut it.
Now that we have those two pigs
in a nice, warm, temporary space,
we need to scout around the property,
find a place where the pigs can run around,
be fenced in, but also have a proper barn
that can keep them warm throughout the winter.
OK, what I like about this space is you already kinda
have this walled-in area, and I like to source materials
right from the homestead.
You have plenty of trees that'll be easy
to cut into boards.
I think we have the perfect spot to put the bigger barn
for these pigs.
It'll be a permanent thing that'll keep the pigs
warm year-round. What do you think?
- Yes, sir, I think it'll work. - OK, let's go.
Matt and Ronnie will construct an 8-by-16-foot barn
200 feet from the campers that will protect the pigs
from predators and the elements while keeping the livestock
centrally located for easier care.
OK, let's move some stuff in and start getting to work.
Came up here for a fresh start.
My goal for this homestead is to learn about myself
and have a close relationship with Josh.
I'm getting that, and all I wanna do now is just work.
That's it. Just work, work, work.
40 miles away from the Webb homestead.
OK, here we go.
Misty, Elizabeth, and Josh begin their day
on a field trip to gain some extreme weather gardening
knowledge from a familiar Colorado homestead.
- Whoo-hoo! - Hey!
- How's it going, Drew? - Hey, family!
- How's it going? - Good to see you, Drew.
I wanna introduce you to some new homesteaders
we're trying to rescue. This is Elizabeth.
- Nice to meet you. - And this is Josh.
Nice to meet you.
The Bankeys is one of my all-time favorite builds
because we took something that was such a problem,
the tumbleweeds, and turned it into
an underground ground greenhouse.
Look at this space!
We put the tumbleweeds to use.
We created these tumbleweed bales.
And this garden bed isn't only out of the wind, but it's warm.
You can close the lids and just call it a day.
So it works in both seasons.
We would love to see how your garden's doing
and just any advice you can give to your neighbor, uh,
when it comes to gardening in this climate.
- Yeah, let's go. - OK, let's go.
I think it's important to bring Elizabeth to the Bankeys
and show her what happened there,
because what happened there
is exactly what their own homestead needs.
How's the-- how's the little greenhouse?
This plant right here in the window is one big, tall
tomato plant that's over a year old and it's still producing.
I think it's one of the first plants that you planted.
- Yeah! - Yeah, look at this.
I love this.
So you ended up putting just a better roof system
on these tumbleweed bales. - Yeah.
If you want to garden in the desert,
you have to have some type of greenhouse.
I would definitely, you know, look for a Walipini
to get the best results out here 'cause it's gonna
extend your growing period, you know, a month on each end. - Yeah.
Which you need out here because it doesn't have much.
Elizabeth, look at the difference of the plants
outside versus inside underground.
It's so epic being here because you go to
the underground greenhouse, the Walipini, and plants are
ten times bigger than anything above ground.
So clearly, these things work.
This is totally amazing.
I can't believe how well you're doing.
This is really, really cool.
Today's been a really big day.
I feel like I'm finally starting to get
an understanding of what Misty's planning for us.
Watch out, everybody. I'm coming right here.
Back at the Webb homestead...
We'll just stand back.
...Matt and Marty begin felling
hazardous dead trees that loom over the property.
What I don't want it to do is bust off the bottom
and come back this way.
I got a lot of pressure on that thing.
OK.
Keep the pressure on it.
Does it look like it's leaning back?
No.
My dad's cut through as far as you would possibly wanna cut,
and it should be falling down right now,
but something is holding it up.
My dad is kind of scratching his head, trying to figure out
why it's not going down, and I'm kind of thinking this
tree could come down in any direction at any moment.
- Is it gonna go? - Let me work on it a little bit.
When you're logging,
anything can happen at any second.
My dad's developed such a skill to fell trees,
so it never seems like it's dangerous.
But when you're chopping big trees down,
it can get very unpredictable.
Timber!
Everybody get out of the way!
2
Timber!
Everybody get out of the way!
You OK?
Are you OK?
Good job.
no, good job to you.
Oh, my gosh.
Dad, I mean, look at that thing.
I think this is a good sign,
there's very valuable building materials
right here on the property.
- Yep. - Where's that kid?
Next one you're doing, get over here.
We've got trees to cut down.
I can risk my life and cut them all down,
but there's strapping young men on this property.
Can they cut them down?
We're gonna find out. Fire it up!
These young men are the future of this homestead,
and sourcing materials is essential for success.
Before I leave Colorado, I'm gonna make sure
they have the skills to thrive.
I think you're on the right track.
I'm not sure you need me,
but when-- where are you gonna stand when you cut it down?
Show me where you're gonna stand.
Show me where the saw's gonna be.
The saw's going right here.
OK, and what's the tree gonna do?
The tree's gonna lean that way.
So we would cut that side first, and then we work our way around.
If it starts to go, we'll let it go.
This wood will hold it,
and it'll actually swing it away. - OK.
So let's try that method.
Coming, hey, hey, hey. Back up.
- Money. - Next.
You know the saying, "You can give a man a fish
feed him for a day."
I'm not even gonna say the rest.
We need materials, and this is how you get them.
- That's good. - Whoa, look out!
And I'm confident this young man is smart, hardworking.
I'm completely impressed.
Back from their field trip...
All right, guys, let's talk about some plans.
...Misty uses the spark of inspiration
from the Bankey homestead to ignite a plan of her own.
I brought you to Drew and Ela's house for a reason.
I think when it comes to this elevation, 10,300 feet,
the only way you're gardening this time of year
is if you go underground. - Yeah.
At the Bankey homestead, it is flat as a pancake.
Digging down, putting in the underground greenhouse
square, retaining those walls was very standard,
but the Webb homestead is super steep terrain
on the side of a mountain,
so we need a different technique.
The first thing we're gonna do is stack these tires so that
we have this tire foundation underground,
and that'll be the base of our structure,
and then we'll go from there.
So let's figure out where this is gonna go.
Here we go.
It is illegal in this county to build your home out of tires,
but it's encouraged to use them for any outbuildings.
So now that we know all of these tires are up for grabs,
we're gonna use them to retain all of this dirt,
the whole mountainside, and we're building
a tire greenhouse.
What is this?
So this is one of our frostless water hydrants.
It is plumbed into our cisterns way up on the top of the hill.
- OK, does it work? - Yeah.
- Turn it on. - Gravity fed.
And there it goes.
- This is usable space. - Yes.
Yeah, and the fact that there's water here is
pretty amazing. So let's pull the tape.
So what is that,
'cause already it looks kind of small?
When you're high-altitude gardening,
the average greenhouse isn't gonna cut it,
and winter is almost here.
Are you to the puppy?
The only way this family is gonna have a fighting chance
at being successful gardeners is if you carve out
a greenhouse in the side of this bank,
retaining sun and heat all day and releasing it at night.
It will extend that season in the fall,
give them a jump-start come spring,
and that way they can actually be successful.
Misty and Elizabeth will dig into the side of the mountain
and build a 27-by-12-foot underground greenhouse,
complete with an irrigation system to protect crops
from the volatile high-altitude weather swings
and provide the family with a year-round food source.
So we're not gonna dig by hand.
We're gonna dig with this bad boy.
We're keeping the earth close, right?
All the ground and all the fill.
'Cause guess what's going inside the tires?
That.
- Are you excited? - Oh, yeah, so much.
We don't have tumbleweed bales.
We don't have any large boulders.
The material just isn't here,
but we have this massive stack of tires.
We've got more tires-- whoo!
And if you set them in place and you stack them correctly
and fill them all up with dirt and compact them,
they're perfect for retaining walls.
Sweet!
This is what 10,300 feet looks like.
I can barely talk.
Let's go! Here it comes.
With the surrounding area cleared of dangerous trees...
Get in here, we're working.
...Marty begins foundational work on an all-purpose carport
to provide the Webb family with dry storage,
water catchment, and a head start on a future cabin.
We want to fill all six of these up.
So we're pouring six concrete footers
that each hold up 3,000 pounds per square inch.
These are over four feet down into the ground
on virgin ground, you can see this bank.
This is what they're sitting on.
But it's not as strong as you think
until you put in rebar.
I need rebar at all of them, Clint.
Steel reinforcement that holds it together.
I want a four inches from the top,
so rust can't get to it.
This is our first step in building a carport
that can catch water and that they can convert to a home.
Quick, quick, quick! And another bucket, Clint.
We've got work to do.
At the future site of the new pig barn...
OK, clap that up here.
...Matt shares a homestead hack with Ronnie to utilize
the property's trees as building materials.
I saw you working with my dad with the chainsaw.
Do you have a lot of chainsaw experience?
- Yes. - Tree felling?
Yes, sir. At a lumber mill back in Texas.
It was a neighbor family-friend, so...
How long did you work at that sawmill for?
- Six months. - How old were you?
About 14.
You were working on a sawmill when you were 14.
That's crazy.
Have you ever used a chainsaw to mill lumber?
- I have not. - OK.
What I wanna do is I wanna make a very
simple chainsaw mill. - OK.
Chainsaw mills are extremely versatile.
You can cut logs, but then you can also just
use it as a saw. - Yeah.
All right? So let's get to work.
The thing I love about Ronnie is, is he's got a lot of drive.
He loves to work,
but I'm showing him stuff that he's never seen before.
First thing we got to do,
we got to drill holes through this bar.
These are like skills that I took for granted as a kid,
but now that I'm showing them to Ronnie,
I think that he's learning skills
that aren't just gonna benefit the homestead,
but benefit him for the rest of his life.
A person like you, a young man out in these woods,
learning how to make your own chainsaw mill,
it's kind of a necessity. Okie-dokie.
- You familiar with all-thread? - Yes, sir.
Put it through on this side first.
Working with Matt's been an honor.
He's a really cool guy.
For him to be able to give me insight on his experience,
it's really cool.
I know this might look a little bit crazy,
but it's all gonna make sense very soon.
Not a lot of people attach things to their chainsaws,
but we're building a jig that allows us to cut lumber.
So you don't have to keep measuring the width of a board,
you don't have to keep measuring the length.
If you set up a jig with your saw,
you can cut the same thing over and over again.
You'll save yourself a ton of time,
and you're gonna make that tool scream fast.
Cutting pretty good! That's cutting really good!
I'm-- I'm actually blown away.
We're going the full length of this board.
I'm impressed with the lumber mill.
It's awesome!
I didn't think you could make a portable chainsaw mill,
and Matt proved me wrong. - Take off this top board.
See how the cut looks.
Okie-dokie. It's a little bit rough sawing,
but that's part of the charm, man.
- What do you think? - It's awesome, did the job.
We're gonna be making lumber for days,
and then we're gonna help those pigs.
But we've got a lot of milling ahead of us.
- Let's keep going. - Yes, sir.
2
The next morning,
while the concrete sets at the carport...
All right, so correct me if I'm wrong,
but you're pretty much out of water? - Yeah.
...Marty shifts his focus
to the family's problematic water situation.
So when it runs out, what do you do?
We would hook up to our trailer
with three totes in it and move about 1,100 gallons
at a time from Fort Garland all the way up to the cisterns,
and if we have enough time, make a round trip second time.
Oh, wow! What's it cost?
- 10 cents a gallon. - So 100 bucks.
- Yeah. - Sounds high.
- It is high. - Where's the trailer?
It's down below at the lower pad.
Let's take my truck and we'll get water that way.
- Is that OK? - That's fine.
Winter's right around the corner.
Done, let's go.
We got about one month to get the water to this homestead.
And then after that, the road's impassable
when it comes to hauling water on a trailer.
Is it like this every time you get water
at the last minute? - Pretty much.
Do you normally just do it by yourself?
Uh, no, I normally have one of the boys
or Elizabeth will help me get everything set.
This is really taking a lot of time.
Yeah.
- Where am I going? - You're still going straight.
Miles and miles of nothing.
- How you doing? - How you doing?
All right. Show me how you do it.
So here's what I've learned in the first couple of hours
of this process-- we hook up the trailer.
We head to town. We fill up with water.
It does cost money.
Then you gotta haul
thousands of pounds of water to the very top of this mountain
and then make multiple trips till everything is full.
So how I would run it is I'd go two trips today
and then one or two trips on Thursday, depending.
I saw firsthand how long it takes on one trip to town.
That said, we're still not done.
- We made it! - Yep.
That was steep!
...All right, what's the next step?
Well, once we get this pump out,
I'm gonna roll this red hose down the hill,
and you're gonna have to slide down there
and hold it on the cistern.
Fair enough, I can do the red hose right now.
- That reaches. - All right.
OK, here we go!
Come on, baby!
Now the water pump's not gonna start.
Come on!
I hear him up there cranking on it.
All right, I've seen enough.
So after experiencing the hours that it's taken just to keep
looking at a dry hose, this isn't gonna work.
It does kind of compel me to take a look at the property
'cause there might be a chance of finding water.
I'm not sure we'll find it,
but we're gonna have to look for it before we leave.
Come on!
This whole thing's coming off.
At the future pig barn site, Matt and Ronnie mill the last
of the lumber sourced directly from the property.
It's taken us a little extra time to mill this lumber
with a chainsaw 'cause every thousand feet that you go up
in elevation, you lose about 1.5% of a chainsaw's power
since the air is a lot thinner.
So up at 10,000 feet, our chainsaws are literally
cut 15% in power.
Over here.
OK.
And at the new underground greenhouse...
Do you think you really know what you got into when
you started gathering this many tires?
No, we just knew that they were free
and that they would be useful at some point.
OK.
Misty sets to use another abundant resource
to build a retaining wall.
It is the most labor-intensive material you can build with.
Absolutely, hands down, one by one, you're filling them full
of dirt and you're compacting them, right?
And you're gonna be shoveling and compacting
with a sledgehammer. Are you ready?
I love the idea of repurposing tires.
They're gonna last forever.
The problem is, is it's really labor-intensive,
especially at this high elevation.
Any retaining wall has to set back, right?
So whether it's like block or rock,
you want it to have a lean into the bank.
- So it doesn't tip or push out. - Yeah.
So each course, so it's gonna be set back like an inch,
inch and a half.
Let's block the bottom, with a little cardboard.
It's helping kind of hold the dirt in
so it doesn't spill out,
'cause there are a little bit of cracks.
- All right. - Whoo!
Who's out of breath?
Only me?
First of all, this for compaction,
like it's damp, it's sandy, it's rocky.
This is like the perfect...
- Awesome - ...ground.
Each layer that you fill with dirt has to be compacted,
and you have to get inside the tire as well.
And then the test is when you're walking on it,
see the squish? - Yep.
- Squish is bad. - Yeah.
You've created kind of like a brick,
if you will, like a mold for compacted earth.
So getting them set and in place compacted
can be a little bit challenging, but hopefully in the next
couple days we have the retaining wall in
and we can start on the greenhouse.
- That's the outer edge, right? - OK.
And then this is kind of where the tire sits.
So inch,
inch and a half step-back each time, just a little bit.
Now it's time to fill, ready?
- All right. - And it's a whole thing, folks.
You know, we didn't choose homesteading 'cause we wanted
an easy life, so... not afraid of hard work.
We're either gonna be best friends after this week
or sworn enemies. - All right.
This is the day I've been looking forward to,
when we actually get to start doing work
and get our hands literally into the dirt.
I've had my hands in the dirt all day,
and that's been really rewarding.
I feel like every layer of tires, I'm learning more.
I'm understanding.
She's showing me how to pack it in.
Just so many little tricks that I never would have known
if we were trying to do it on our own.
How you feeling? You liking this build?
- I love it. - You happy?
I love it. I'm so happy.
Are you happy to finally have-- start a greenhouse?
Yes.
I think homesteading is all about innovation,
trying something, and then tweaking it
until you figure out what's gonna work.
'Cause you can't just run to the store and buy it.
You have to figure it out.
2
It's late afternoon on day three in the Southern Rockies.
Clint, get over here and scratch my back, quick.
I got a bug.
- Racing the sun, Marty... - Thank you.
...Joshua, and neighborly help begin construction
of the homestead's new 20-by-50-foot carport.
We're about to build a post-and-beam structure
out of the best building material in North America,
the Douglas fir tree.
Stronger than pine, stronger than spruce,
and this property's covered with them.
Douglas fir trees, an abundant resource
in Colorado, grow in elevation
and can live for up to 500 years.
The strong and durable lumber it produces
is ideal for construction, while its lighter weight
and malleability make it a popular choice
for woodworking projects like furniture making.
So you see that?
That's a three-quarter-inch rebar.
It's coming out of the concrete.
We're gonna drill the undersized hole
in the bottom of all of these Douglas fir trees.
Get that drill in his hand.
Get a pencil mark on the center.
If you're not paying attention,
the drill will take you out, guaranteed. - Yeah.
All right, you know what to do? Here we go
Good job.
Clint, you know what to do.
The plan is to take those big trees,
set them down on the hole, and the gravity,
the weight of those heavy trees will drive that spruce tree down
until it's solid on the concrete.
But we still will brace it because these are big logs,
and if something goes wrong, they'll kill somebody.
Ready? Don't be shy.
It's perfect. Brace it.
When we lived in Houston,
I was working in a business partnership until one day
they decided that they didn't need me anymore.
It was difficult for me.
We're gonna unhook the chain and head for the other one.
It took a few years before we understood
why it was kind of a good thing, because maybe I would still be
there living a life that I-- I hated.
But now I'm living the life that I want here,
building our legacy on the side of this mountain.
Come down, Clint! Come on!
Come on, bud!
All right, that's the last one.
So that would be six logs. Who had the logs?
- We did. - Yeah.
Tighter than a frog's rear in a bucket of water.
As day four begins...
Yoo-hoo! I see people, I see people!
...more friendly hands arrive to help with the heavy lifting.
Good morning, Joshua. How are you?
I'm doing well. How are you doing, Misty?
Are you doing good? Who's all this?
Well, we've got a ton of help.
Are you guys here to work?
- Yeah, let's do it! - OK, so follow me.
Just hop up and grab a tire.
Yeah, guys-- whoo-hoo!
I'm so blessed that so many of our friends and our neighbors
here in the community have chosen to show up and help us.
It's not easy work packing this tires.
Ooh, pretty good, pretty good.
A little bit more.
The fact that they're giving up their free time to come
and do this very hard manual labor is just amazing,
and I'm so, so grateful for their help.
It's gonna really speed things up.
What do you think, Joshua?
Are you like, "We're all crazy?"
- No, I mean... - You-- you into it?
I can't say that you're all crazy.
This was like-- the idea behind the tires,
so I have to stand ground with you.
Keep traveling, keep packing.
When it comes to this tire-earth greenhouse,
the idea is to fill up these tires full of dirt.
Slowly but surely, you're compacting that earth.
The tire is anywhere from 300 to 500 pounds.
Each tire, you stagger your seams, stack them in place,
and you have a solid retaining wall that will last forever.
All right, final course is the tires that my dad gifted us
with the concrete in them.
Gosh, it's heavier than...
It's-- I've never felt a tire this heavy.
Three, two, one!
OK, next one. We'll get them level as we go.
I wanted something that we could fasten a roof system
into, so last row, we're almost there.
Whoo! Up, straight up!
Nobody fall off the wall! Yeah.
Done! Done!
Done! Whoo-hoo!
Perfection!
Across the homestead...
We'll go eight feet out.
Eight feet's right here.
...Matt and Ronnie begin the framework
of the new pig barn.
We'll get it just about six feet high from the dirt floor.
Our pig barn is gonna be an eight-by-16 small barn,
perfect for two pigs.
And we're gonna start out
with a post-and-beam construction
that we milled with our chainsaw mill.
Store lumber that you get from the big box store--
all those measurements of a two by four, four by four,
two by six, all that stuff, it's not actually two inches thick.
It's not four inches wide. You plane it down.
So these four by fours are better
than the four by fours you get from the store
'cause they're bigger, more structurally stout,
and I can't wait to put 'em up.
That's , screw it in.
You ever done anything like this before?
I have not.
Ronnie's really gonna see the true value
of building a building from scratch,
from materials right from your home.
Now let's slap in this last beam
and we'll start rolling the rafters.
I think the pigs are gonna be happy.
I think they're gonna like it.
Ready? Let's lay them out.
With the structure's posts and beams in place,
Marty and Joshua begin construction
on a 1,000 square-foot roof,
capable of catching more than 10,000 gallons
of water per year,
while also protecting the family's vehicles and tools
until they can build their cabin.
Good job. Keep them coming.
We started out with round trees,
and now we're connecting them to precise dimensional lumber
in the way of rafters and then sheeting
in the way of plywood.
This is the first layer of protection
on our roof system.
Done!
It's a span of about 20 feet, and we also have it on a rake.
So we've done everything we can to build this
roof system strong enough to take snow,
but steep enough so once it gets a lot of snow,
the weight of that snow will shed off the back
like an avalanche.
- OK, let's talk about a couple things. - OK
We're at a stage where you go from planet Earth
into outer space. - Outer space.
- You afraid of heights? - A little bit, yes.
A lot-- a lot a bit, yes.
The roof is going on tomorrow, and I am not a heights person.
I climb a ladder, I get real shaky.
That's the most fear I have right now.
Listen,
many a person has told me they, you know,
have a little fear of heights.
But pretty much from now on,
as far as this building goes,
it's gonna be, if you can get past your fear of heights,
'cause the rest of the work is up there.
You decide.
2
The roof is going on, and I hate heights.
I hate being high for really any reason.
I climb a ladder, I get real shaky.
That's the most fear I have right now.
But I have to try.
All right, so you told me you were afraid of heights.
Yep.
The rest of the work on this project
is all high work.
- You ever been this high before? - No.
All right, so I'm not gonna force anyone to do something
they don't wanna do.
- Wanna try it? - Yeah.
- You do? - Yep.
OK, JC, fire it up, please.
- You're all right? - Yeah.
OK.
Here's some irony.
Joshua chose to live 10,300 feet above sea level,
a long ways up there, and he's afraid of heights,
but if he's able to overcome his fear,
he might realize that he can do anything.
That works. Hold that, please, OK.
So you've stapled this product down.
- Yep. - It's very stable.
It's very stable.
You want a hand or you got it?
Uh, I got it.
- You sure? - Yeah.
All right, come on up here.
All right, how close to that edge do you wanna get?
All right, this it's about as close as I wanna get.
I wanna see the toe of your cowboy boot
over the edge. - Mm-hmm.
You can do it, try it.
Done.
Good job. I like that.
- You're gonna be fine. - A little scary.
That's fine.
For you to have a fear of heights,
come up here and do that,
I'm really impressed. I truly am.
Good job, now--
whether you have a fear of heights or not,
the mission is we're gonna start putting the metal roofing on.
- Understood. - We'll take a sheet, please.
Come on! We're going for it.
Marty has taught me that even though I still think
and know I'm afraid of heights, uh,
that when the need sets in,
I can surpass that. It's the big step forward.
OK. Let's get another one, please.
Good.
Good job.
Tell me what we just did, please.
We squared the roofing material with the building.
Yes, right now, we have a really good start to have a really
straight overhang on each side.
Grab a screw gun, and let's put a screw in this top all
the way, please, in one in each panel.
OK.
- This is your roof, right? - Yep.
- You want it to leak? - Nope.
Good answer.
Excellent! I like the way that sounded.
Now we'll just pull them up, pin them.
- Pull them up and pin them, go. - OK.
Tell these guys what you need. You're in charge.
Tell them. What do we need?
- More metal! - Go get them!
Go get them! Quick, quick, quick!
Thank you, thank you.
Tell them, tell them.
Can I get a sheet?
Joshua actually had his hands on every step of the process.
What that means to me is this--
I'm this close to leaving this homestead and leaving Joshua
to take it from where we leave off
to whatever future he can envision, not just for himself,
but for the family.
You're doing excellent.
Perfection!
OK, ready everybody?
On the other side of the homestead...
- Oh, I'm so glad you're back. - I'm back.
Come on in.
- Here you go. - Oh, good.
...Drew Bankey arrives to help Misty and Elizabeth frame
the underground greenhouse.
I know we're up against it.
Like, all of us are behind,
and so having someone like Drew here,
having someone with that kind of experience
and that kinda out-of-the-box thinking
is exactly what we need in this moment.
Looking pretty good.
All right, we're setting the concrete tires in place.
We're getting them nice and level
because we're ready to start our structure.
And it starts with a massive log
spanning the tire retaining wall.
That looks really good.
Whoo! That's in.
We're gonna put these massive beams overhead,
making that span from retaining wall to retaining wall.
Well, it's long enough. That's good.
Once it's in place, we can roll some rafters,
frame a wall, figure out the design and layout,
move some dirt in, build a door, done!
Hopefully we can do that in the next couple of days
because we need a little time at the end to figure out water.
Whoo!
It's long enough. Now is it level enough?
It looks good.
It's perfect!
When you work with unconventional materials
like dirt-filled tires and logs,
it is so hard to get level or plumb.
Miraculously, the level is level, and we're ready to roll
some rafters and to start framing our front wall.
I'm really excited with the progress we have.
I love the fact that I'm getting to be part of this.
I'm not just watching it happen.
All right, let's call that good, Elizabeth.
All right, awesome.
I'm the mom,
so my highest priority to keep these boys safe,
loved, well-fed, with all their needs met,
because they haven't always had that in their life,
and they deserve that.
There's not a lot of room for dirt work, folks.
It's a whole other level of responsibility,
and I'm finally starting to feel the security of knowing
that my family is gonna be in a safe place,
and we're gonna make it.
Special delivery!
Each one of these logs is gonna be the garden bed
inside the greenhouse.
We're actually starting from the inside out.
We're gonna construct all these garden beds,
fill them up with soil.
That way, we're not shoveling a bunch of topsoil
into a small space.
OK, it's time to roll rafters and build a wall.
- OK. - This will go fast,
because once you have your template,
it's easy to get the rest of them.
- Ready? - All right.
OK, let's do it.
This is gonna be amazing.
2
As day five winds down on the Webb homestead...
Let's put it up there.
...the shell of the pig barn is nearly finished.
- I saw we put some hay in here, - Yeah.
and then, we'll move those pigs in.
- Sounds like a plan. - Let's do it.
And Matt has a plan to re-purpose
the homestead's smelliest byproduct.
I've always been amazed by the insulation
that is produced by compost.
I propose that we try to start
a compost pile inside the pig barn
and make an area for those pigs with your straw that would
actually be warmer on those really, really cold nights.
All right, piggy.
OK.
Our next move is I want to bring in the big guns
to see if we can scratch out this stuff.
We have the world's largest excavator trying to go
into a very small space.
Ha, is this extreme for you?
- Am I going in? - Yeah.
I got to be able to get it out.
Am I smashing?
It's a rotten board. I'm not worried about it.
The good thing about using the compost is during
the winter, it'll generate some heat for the pigs,
therefore, keeping them warm.
So that's gonna play a big factor during the winter days.
That waste from the barn is the magic ingredient,
but you have to get it out in the open air.
You gotta cover it for a long time, make sure it stays damp,
and that's when it'll actually start turning into compost.
We did it, man. Good job.
Sometimes the dirty jobs are the ones that pay off the most.
Grab a shovel.
The next morning...
Come on in, Clint.
...Misty and Elizabeth's all-weather
underground greenhouse begins to take shape.
- Can you see this tire? - Yeah, a little bit.
When you stand back and look at this greenhouse,
it's so beautiful, it's so awesome,
it's so functional.
OK, up.
OK, try to get dirt under there.
But we have a ton of work to do in two days,
so hopefully we can pull it together and things get done.
That looks pretty good. OK, let's see.
Are we in the bubble?
Oh, that's perfect!
OK, so the reason why we have the concrete-filled
tires is 'cause we needed to anchor into something
that wasn't dirt. - Yeah.
So we're gonna take the two-by-six
and redhead right into the concrete tires.
That will be the bottom plate that will roll the rafters on.
- Perfect! - Yew!
As it starts to come together,
and I can really start to see what this greenhouse
and this Walipini is gonna look like, I'm so excited.
Winter could be here any day, but I feel so much more hopeful
that we're gonna have a good winter
and feel stable and successful and safe.
Pry up on this thing. It's not going anywhere.
It's nice and fastened. We're gonna call that good.
Ah-yoo!
So here we are.
With their all-purpose carport nearly complete and time
running out, Marty shifts his focus toward an urgent,
permanent solution to the Webb family's water woes.
We're going into winter, and we've built them some
protection from the elements, but this homestead is still
without sufficient water.
If we're gonna look for water, we've got to look for it
in the confines of your property line.
- Correct. - Do you have a map of it?
I do.
You can see right there
that line that goes all the way across,
and then that bottom whole section is us.
Oh, goodness. That's a lot of land.
But the fact that this swale is on your property...
- Right. - ...is a ray of hope.
OK.
Natural swales are shallow, marshy channels
filled with vegetation that collects and moves water.
While a swale's presence does not guarantee
an underground water table, it can be a sign
that groundwater might be nearby.
I'm gonna walk from here to the top
and I'll come out on your property?
- Yes, you will. - Up there?
- Yes. - OK-- if you don't mind, I'll meet you there,
and you can drive the truck. - OK.
- And I'll do the walking. - Sounds good.
Joshua is hauling water from town, but it takes time,
and it's not enough to get him prepared for winter.
So I'm gonna look around, and if we see anything that
looks promising, we're gonna start digging.
I'm not an expert...
on the flora and fauna of Colorado.
Normally I'd be looking for some ferns.
Usually, I would be in the lowest spot of the gully,
which is right here.
Oh, look at this.
This area right here is obviously very, very green.
This plant probably needs more water to survive out here,
and it's finding that water in this low spot.
But is it just runoff from the snow that melted
and went to the low spot? Most likely.
Let's keep looking.
We've got some old tracks here, probably elk.
They have to drink every single day, right?
Where's the water?
We've walked from the bottom to the top
of an ever so slight gully.
There's some vegetation that's certainly green.
Is it green enough to make me bring an excavator down here
and look for water? No.
Winter's coming.
And these guys need water. They're desperate.
2
All right. We're almost there.
With a day and a half remaining in the rescue...
Keeping water off of the structure.
It's the most important thing as far as I'm concerned.
...Misty devises a creative system to collect water
and protect the greenhouse from erosion.
- Let's make a French drain. So go ahead that way. - OK.
It doesn't rain much in this part of Colorado,
but when it does, it pours.
And there's signs of erosion all over this homestead
across the mountainside.
For me, it's concerning when it comes to protecting
this greenhouse and these earth-filled tires.
Not one drop of water can touch this structure.
All right, so we're gonna create this French drain, right?
So the worst thing we wanna do is have water falling off
the roof and collecting on the backside of the structure.
You also live on the mountainside where all
the runoff from the whole mountainside is running right
to this structure. - Yeah.
So we're gonna collect both.
Every drop that comes off the roof and every drop that
comes off the mountainside is gonna collect
in our French drain.
And every time it rains, I want it to rain
inside the greenhouse. - All right.
OK.
I love Misty's idea for the French drain.
It actually was pretty simple and straightforward.
I love it.
All right, so we're running off of the French drain
to the bucket drain to the PVC pipe,
and then our elbow,
and literally just putting a hose fitting so that you can
attach a hose, a drip line, whatever, inside the garden.
We just gotta keep working.
Really feeling the pressure now
because we are almost out of time,
and I feel like there's still quite a few things left
to do on this walipini.
We've still gotta put the sheeting on the top,
and we haven't quite figured out what we're doing
on the front yet.
So there's still just a lot of things that have
to happen in a really short amount of time.
So I'm just hoping that we can pull it off.
Push and turn, yep.
Phew, straighten it out.
You can, yeah...!
So good.
This is always the fun part.
We built a predator-proof barn
for the pigs,
which will keep them secure from predators.
And when they insulate this building,
they'll be warm during the winter,
and they can get as big as they want
because this barn has more than enough space for the two of 'em.
Hey, piggies!
These pigs look really happy, and more importantly,
they're gonna be safe. - Oh, yeah.
And they have a predator-proof barn.
- Yep. - And they're gonna be warm.
You could fill this whole thing up a foot deep with straw
and just change that out or turn it around. - Yeah.
And this could be turned into compost as well.
That compost pile is gonna get bigger and bigger,
especially after this winter because the more straw
you put in here, uh,
the more you keep these shutters closed at night,
the warmer the pigs will be.
I feel good about leaving these pigs now because I know they're
in the best hands and they're in the best place they can be.
They already look happy. - They really do.
One week ago, the homestead's pigs were
housed in a shoddy shelter that exposed them to the elements
and made them an easy meal for predators.
Now, they have a secure barn that will keep them warm
and safe throughout the high altitude winter.
Building this barn is really important for the pigs,
but I think it's more important for you because now you can see
what you can do with a chainsaw mill.
Oh, I am gonna go forth and create some more stuff.
Old McRonnie built a barn with a chainsaw.
The fact that I was able to pass on my knowledge of milling
with a chainsaw to Ronnie, I think is really the most
amazing thing that might have happened on this homestead.
Because if you can mill your own trees,
there is nothing you can't build for the homestead.
OK, so I'm leaving you a big pile of logs and this chainsaw.
Oh, nice.
A guy like you, you're crafty, you're smart.
Just start dreaming up a crazy idea.
Use this chainsaw to mill this lumber a lot quicker.
- I know you can do it. - Yes, sir.
- So this is my gift to you. - It's really cool.
Really glad the Raneys came.
They've given me a lot of experience
and a lot of stuff that they've learned over the years,
they've passed on to me.
And I will take that and go forth with it.
Hopefully this comes in handy in the future, man.
And honestly, it's been a pleasure.
Yes, sir-- thank you.
You probably wondering why
I drug you to the top of the hill one more time.
Yeah.
After coming up dry
in the search for a local water source...
She'll be coming around the mountain when
she comes, buddy.
...Marty calls in an 11th-hour Hail Mary.
Holy crap!
It looks like water!
Thank you, guys. Trinidad, that's a bit of a haul
to bring this water up here.
I really appreciate that. It makes a difference for us.
This will get us through the winter.
The 800 gallons that's in there was almost a day's worth
of work for Marty and I. So this means a lot.
- I'm glad to be here. - Yeah.
- I'm glad to help out. - I'm glad to be part of it.
We traveled all the way from Alaska to help this family.
And I hadn't had an answer for the lack of water yet.
It was a generous gift
from a complete stranger that not only helped Joshua,
Elizabeth, and the boys, but that person helped me.
They didn't even know it.
- You ready? - Yes, sir.
I was concerned.
We don't have enough water here,
and hauling it is becoming difficult or impossible,
not only for the winter, but going forward.
They came all the way here to bring us water
to fill up our cisterns, that...
is huge for us.
That is a weight off of our shoulders
when we know that there's water in there,
and we're good to go for months.
We can use it for our animals and for ourselves,
so they really came through for us.
This is similar to what Josh and I wanted to do
on a homestead level.
We didn't have this big, beautiful 2,000-gallon tank.
We had a few 250-gallon tanks, and we had a pump.
This is the same principle. This is the system.
Bring it up in whatever container,
pump it out into your cistern,
and that is the way this homestead survives.
2
Unh, unh, unh.
Somebody got me the word up above.
- You needed a sledge. - Yeah.
Wait till you see this.
Wow!
This guy's brother's a blacksmith.
I just met a builder.
He's this tall, he's that wide, he's big,
and he's got a hammer.
- These things are going for $150 a piece. - Amazing.
All right, if you can beat my daughter in an arm wrestle,
we'll give you the $150. Come here, man.
- What the heck? - That goes over here.
- Hey, that's incentive. - No, we're definitely...
You can't lose.
That was terrifying.
Set, go.
I saw my whole life flash before my eyes.
He's taking me down, taking me down!
I don't wanna go the other way, though.
OK, here you go. I'll cough up the 150.
- It's worth it, thank you. - Yeah, thanks.
That was my all.
2
With less than a day remaining
on the Webb's two-mile-high Colorado homestead...
All right, super pumped!
...Misty puts the finishing touches
on the underground greenhouse...
We were able to fasten
our whole roof system into place.
We got to get cracking. Let's go!
...while Marty reinforces the family's carport
to withstand heavy winter snow loads.
The structure we built might look pretty rough,
but here's the cool thing, they could convert this
into a home in the future.
- Oh man, guys, you tired? - Yes.
- It's been a long week. - That's how I feel.
But come on! This thing is 27 feet long.
- That's pretty awesome. - Like, it's massive.
I think we've come a long ways from filling tires full of dirt.
So let's go inside.
- Feel how warm it is in here? - Oh, yeah.
- Right? - That's awesome!
Come on! Come on, Diego.
Do you think plants will be able to survive in here?
I feel like if we have a shot, this is how.
It's amazing just walking in that greenhouse,
feeling the warmth, the temperature difference,
and just seeing that come to life
is just a dream come true.
So there's one thing that is really exciting
that we haven't seen in action yet.
And it's this soaker hose.
You can literally just weave it in and out of the plants.
And every time it rains, water is being diverted
away from the structure and watering the greenhouse.
Oh, that's amazing!
Seven days ago, the Webb family
had no gardening knowledge and lacked a place
to grow crucial year-round crops.
Now, they have a greenhouse carved into a mountainside,
and Elizabeth has the ability to grow crops for any season.
Can we start planting now, being that it is September?
I would do things that can reach maturity
in short little windows.
All types of lettuces, garlic, kale, root veggies,
and things that like cold temperatures.
- Get some plants and go for it! - Yeah.
I promise, with this structure and the water,
you're-- you're gonna be set.
To watch that greenhouse grow from just a normal
side of a mountain to a greenhouse in a week,
I mean, that's like two years for us.
I mean, it's incredible!
...it's been a lot of work,
but I feel like I've learned so much.
Thank you so, so much!
And I'm gonna think about you every time we come down here
to this greenhouse and all the vegetables
we pull out, and...
Before the Raneys came, I was feeling really uncertain.
I wasn't sure how we were gonna get things ready for winter,
and I didn't wanna go into another winter
like the last one.
But I feel for the first time in our two years here that
we are ready for winter.
OK.
- What do you think? - I love it.
It's out of trees from our land.
Awesome, it exists.
It's not an idea, it's not a concept,
it's not a someday when we have money and time.
It's right there.
Does it look like it's strong enough?
Oh, yeah.
And whether it's in the cisterns
or catching all the water you want off that roof,
you're in a much better place when it comes to water.
You're not gonna carry me over the doorstep?
No.
- How's it feel? - It's beautiful.
- Is it big enough? - Yeah.
I mean, we've been living in an RV.
So anything is bigger than that...
We've built this homestead, one of the biggest,
baddest carports that could be turned into a home.
And I've seen Joshua overcome his fear of heights.
So if they wanna catch water off that thing,
Joshua can put his own gutters on.
There's work to be done. Now it's up to them.
The next step is close it in, finish it and make it a home.
Yeah, this definitely is headed towards
being a home for us.
One week ago, Joshua and Elizabeth's homestead
was out of water, and they were set to spend
the winter with minimal defense against Mother Nature.
Now, their water storage system is filled to the brim,
and their all-purpose carport will offer increased protection
from the elements as they work to transform it
into their permanent home.
The Raneys have set us up not only for this winter,
but also for all of our steps going forward.
What kind of a layout would you have in here?
We think Elizabeth's harp studio will be over
on that side. - Do you have a harp out here?
- I do. - Would you mind getting it?
Sure.
I no longer feel on the brink of disaster
as I felt before the Raneys arrived.
This is the only chairs I have.
- Does this work? - Yeah.
We're energetic,
and even though winter's right around the corner,
to say we're excited for it sounds weird, but we are.
Have you composed, written music?
I have, yeah.
That's what I would like to hear, if you don't mind.
Sure-- I will play something that I wrote that was inspired
by the view that we have here.
I'm so impressed with Joshua and Elizabeth
because homesteading is not for everyone,
but I can see that it inspires them.
Now they have all the resources to enjoy
and reap the benefits of living their dream.
Oh, man.
That was...
- That is a beautiful piece of music. - Thank you.
You're a very talented young lady.
- Thank you. - Inspired by these mountains.
That's beautiful.
Well, that was some pretty crazy days.
The amount of things that were accomplished,
we wouldn't have even probably tried
and succeeded to finish one, let alone three.
OK, so before we leave here,
there's a statistic I heard a couple days ago,
that concern me.
The people that come to this elevation and not just,
you know, barely make it, but actually thrive...
is 1%. - Oh.
You've been here two winters.
Are you guys the one-percenters?
- Yes. - Yeah.
A year from now, you guys just will still be here?
- Yes, sir. - Yes, we will.
Ten years from now, we'll still be here.
That's all I had to hear.
- Thanks for having us. - Thank you.
- Thank you - Thank you, young lady.
We came up this mountain,
nearly two miles above sea level, only to find homesteaders
that could not check one homesteading box.
A week or so later, these homesteaders can check
at least three boxes-- food, shelter, and water,
the important ones.
Will the Webbs be one-percenters?
I venture to say right now that anyone that can live in those
mountains at that elevation are indeed the true one-percenters
and perhaps the richest people in the world.
Since the Raneys left, things have been night
and day different.
We haven't turned the carport into a house yet,
but we've been using it to park our vehicles.
We definitely are looking forward
to those thawing temperatures coming soon,
so that we can start collecting water.
We purchased some seed starter kits and kind of planned out
what we're gonna put in our greenhouse.
When I come in here, I can feel the heat,
and so I know it's gonna do exactly what we need.
The pigs love their new home.
It's made a huge difference on keeping them warm and happy.
Having all the things that the Raneys built for us
has really helped Josh and Ronnie.
They're able to go do things together,
like taking care of the animals, using the sawmill.
And it's given them a place and a way to bond as brothers,
which I'm really happy to see.
I know that we're better off and we're more prepared
to withstand both this winter and future winters.
Thank you, Raneys!