{How Do They Afford That?} How Marlena Went from Special Ed Teacher to Owning an Off-Grid Retreat Center

In today’s episode, I interviewed Marlena Jarjoura, a self-made entrepreneur and founder of Hill Country Nature Retreat Center. Marlena shares her journey from teaching children to co-creating an off-grid oasis with her husband in the Texas Hill Country. They have built rental properties and a retreat center using reclaimed and recycled materials. You will gain insights into their financials and the work they have done to create their sustainable retreat center. If you have ever dreamt of having your own retreat center, this episode is a must-listen.

Key Highlights

[00:01:01] Shifting from teaching to off-grid living.
[00:04:18] Quitting teaching, starting WOOFing.
[00:08:01] Learning curve in solar power.
[00:11:53] Embracing imperfections in design.
[00:18:19] Rental income and property appeal.
[00:19:20] Building a brand beyond Airbnb.
[00:24:43] Sustainability and off-grid living.
[00:27:51] Changing climate and challenges.
[00:31:13] Setting boundaries and work-life balance.

Notable Quotes

"Just take one step at a time and don't look too far ahead."
"The goal of our lives is to be content and happy, and not stressed."
"It's like the pieces started getting put into place and it just started unfolding and blossoming."
"We try to find things for free if possible, and we end up finding a lot of really good free stuff."
"It's a puzzle. We like the challenge of it most of the time."
"Just start little by little and always remember what your goal is."

Resources

Listen on Apple Podcast
Start your “No Budget” Money Plan
Learn more about our signature Program: Holistic Money Program
Connect with Whitney:
LinkedIn: LinkedIn 
Instagram: @holisticmoney  
Email: Info@holistic-money.com

Apply here to be featured on the "Behind Closed Wallets" Series of the Holistic Money Podcast

Listen on Apple Podcast

Start your “No Budget” Money Plan

Learn more about our signature Program: Holistic Money Program

Connect with Whitney:

LinkedIn: LinkedIn

Instagram: @holisticmoney

Email: Info@holistic-money.com

Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to the Holistic Money Podcast. I'm your host, certified financial planner and money mindset coach, Whitney Morrison. Over the past seven years, I've taken myself from credit card debt and no savings to a seven figure net worth. I did this without a budget or a restrictive money plan, but instead smart, sustainable wealth building strategies combined with changing my relationship with money. In this podcast, you'll learn the ins and outs of my no budget philosophy, practical wealth building strategies, and key mindset shifts to make it happen. There is no shortage of information out there to tell you what to do with money, but teaching you how to think and feel about money, that's my secret sauce. If you've been waiting for a podcast that gives you actionable strategies to not only build wealth, but also feel really good while you're doing it, then you're in the right place. Let's get started Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the holistic money podcast. I'm so excited for today's episode because this is the start of a brand new series. That I will be releasing over the next five weeks called how did they afford that? Really? I wanted to call it how the hell did they afford that? But I decided to keep it clean for the kids. So the premise of this series is all about interviewing people that I know you've seen online, that I see online, that you'll get their lives. And you're like, how in the hell are you a 40 MIS? So it's creative entrepreneurs that have nontraditional lives. Like I built a retreat center or I live in Costa Rica and spend all my days on the beach with my family. Or I am an interim coach and I traveled the world 50 to 60% of the year. It's those people that you look at and you wonder to yourself, how in the world are you making your financial life work? This series is all about going behind the curtain and actually looking at the real financials of their lives. So that you can start to understand how these people are making their lives work. After recording these interviews, I will say I learned that nothing is quite as it seems. And I also learned that some of the more far out lives that we see out there are actually much more simple to accomplish than we actually think. To kick off this series. I am interviewing Marlina Zoura, who is a self-made entrepreneur and the founder of hill country nature retreat center. Marlina has a background in special education, but her path shifted from teaching children to co-creating an off-grid Oasis with her husband in the Texas hill country. In this episode, we're going to go through Martin Lena's path for moving from Austin to her land in the hill country to now owning and operating an off-grid sustainable retreat center. We're diving into the financials of her life. the work that her and her husband Eugene have done. You're going to love this episode. All right. Y'all let's get started. Marlena Jarjara, welcome to the Holistic Money Podcast. Thanks for having me Whitney. I'm so happy to have you here today. I want to start with you just telling me how did the hill country nature retreat center come to be? Okay, it's a very Roundabout story. So I'll I'll it'll maybe I'll make sense in the end. We'll see Um, so I met Eugene my partner who we have built this 2016 And when I met him, I lived in Austin at the time, and he lived like half time in Austin and then half the time out here in Blanco, Texas, like right outside of Austin where we are. He was like, uh, I live in a shack in the woods. And I was like, ooh, okay, this, this could be interesting. I really like you. I... Because at the time, I had an apartment in Austin, uh, a studio that I was renting that I really couldn't afford, so I was illegally listing it on Airbnb on the weekends. And I would go camp, I would stay at friends and I totally did that too, by the way. Yeah, it worked for a time, and then it totally caught me. They were like, put your listing down, and I was like, whatever. But for a while it worked, so I was already kinda like camping out in nature. So he was like, I live in a shack in Dulwich, which wasn't a shack, it was this adorable little cabin that is our home. I think his language wasn't quite right. But, uh, he said he lived out here, and I was very intrigued. Um, so I pretty, we fell in love really quickly and I pretty much moved out here, you know, right after that. That was around the same time that my apartment was like, quit listing your place, so I said, okay, let's transition. Um, and, you know, when I had met him, I was very interested in living on the land. And I had been a teacher in Austin. I was a special ed teacher. I, that's what I went to school for. And I did that for a couple of years. And decided, like, this is not the life for me, like, Going to the same place Monday to Friday, being in this classroom, like, I just felt really, really trapped, and I was like, I can't, I can't do this. I was like, hyperventilating in my classroom, and I would call my parents and be like, Is this what life is? And they were like, You'll get used to it. And I never did. And I was like, I'm sorry, I'm not, I'm not this kind of person. Like, I just want to play outside all day. I can't do this. So I, and this is all right before I met Eugene, or a little bit before I met him, and so I'm kind of going back a little. Um, so I quit my teaching job, and I started Woofing, which is Worldwide Organization of Organic Farmers, or something like that, and you can live on a farm, and you work on this farm for room and board, and it's just a way to get experience. And so I said, you know what, I don't want to be a teacher. I really want to live on the land. Let me try this. Let me see if I even like to be in nature that much. Like, am I even gonna like this kind of lifestyle that I think I want for myself? And so I did that and a few farms like around Austin. I didn't have to travel far for it. And I loved it. So then, back to what I was just saying, I had this apartment in Austin because I was just at this point in life where I didn't really know what was next. So farming, Austin, met Eugene. Cabin in the Woods. So came out here, and then that's when I feel like my life as it is now, like, the pieces started getting put into place, and it just started unfolding and blossoming. And so, I got out here, and we had this little unfinished one room cabin, and there was no electricity, and no running water, and it was very romantic at the time. We had, like, light candles at night, and There was no shower, so we would, like, pour water on each other outside and scrub each other. It was like a very romantic time for, like, a new love, right? But then, like, time started passing, and I was like, Um, I kinda need to be able to charge my phone, and, like, I like the candles, but, like, it'd be nice to be able to read in the evening. A shower would be nice. So, he had a little bit of money from his job, and I had some savings from when I was teaching, and, We just slowly, you know, got a few solar panels and, you know, now we had lights to read with and use at night and we had enough power to charge our phones and very little but It was enough at the time. How long did it take for you to go from a cabin out in the woods, no electricity, no plumbing, to solar panels and plumbing and running water and a shower and now it sounds like you all had a fully functioning cabin. Yeah, it didn't take too long. Like, I moved out here in the summer of 2016 and I remember it was October that we got our little solar panels. And then it was January that we built our bedroom. So it was maybe like six months or so. And that was like. Our house at a level, it's, we've still done a lot over the past seven years, that was seven years ago. But it took maybe six months or so for us to have our bedroom and our kitchen and our bathroom and still like, okay. Did Eugene have any experience doing this stuff beforehand or were y'all both just like, Alright, let's figure out how to make all this happen, or had he done this before? He had a little bit of building experience. He had worked as an apprentice for a builder in town. So he had, you know, learned how to use, um, power tools and use a measuring tape and, um, that sort of thing. So he wasn't coming in, into it, you know, with 0 percent experience. But as far as like doing electric, electrical work and plumbing and all that, Uh, learning solar power, that was a huge, and still is a learning curve. He had an old friend that, um, knew how to run solar. Knew how to build the systems and all that, that lived in California. So they had a few phone calls, and he helped us kind of understand what we need. Um, and it's come a long way since then, you know, now, um, it feels like we have the ability to just look it up online and there's so many people that have so many great resources that you really can start with zero knowledge and get your questions answered. There's people that want to help you, you know, you can say, I'd have no idea how to build a solar system and then we'll like walk you through every step of it. But it's been a huge learning process. With, like, lots and lots of mistakes and do overs. So we've learned a lot along the way. Um, so we had our cabin, and then we built our, um, Airbnb cabin, which was originally just gonna be a little guest house, because, um, I had my family that liked to come out and stay, or that wanted to come out and stay, but they were, like, sleeping on our sofa bed in our living room, and I was like, okay, we need somewhere else for, you know, people to come stay when they come out here. So let's build like a little, tiny little guest house, you know, just a little sleeping quarters. And then we started building it, and we were like, a little kitchen, because I don't want them in my kitchen all the time. They need to be able to make their breakfast and stuff. And then we were like, well, look, I think we have room, we can fit a little bathroom in here, right? Like, they, they need to take their own shower over there. And then it started getting, like, really cute, and I already had that little bit of experience with Airbnb, and I was like, okay. Let's try this. Like, family can come stay, but let's just try to list it and see what happens. And it was like right before COVID that we listed the cabin and it kind of took off from there. I love this story. I love how simple it feels. You know, when I listen to you talk about this, it's like, oh, that sounds more doable because I think when people think of starting a retreat center, for example, they think to themselves, Oh, I need to have hundreds of thousands of dollars or I need to have a bunch of different skills and really you and Eugene just had this mindset and We can, we can create this space because most people don't think that way. Can you tell me a little bit about how you and Eugene think about these kinds of projects that allowed you to just get out there and be like, let's build a bathroom. I still feel that way. Sometimes I, you know, playing this comparison game of looking at like other retreat centers and being like, wow, it's clear, you know, these people started out with, you know, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, you know, you can tell this place is. Was built all at once. And that's beautiful. If someone has the ability to do that, wonderful. I wish that we did, but we don't, and we still had these desires, so we just worked with what we had. You know, I think both of us, um, came from backgrounds where our parents were, you know, frugal and had to be. And I think also it kind of, Makes the process less overwhelming to think of it as just building blocks or like completing a puzzle, right? It's like, unless you have all the money in the world, it's not gonna happen all at once. And so just take like one step at a time. So, I mean, just today, I said that a few times and like, to us about something we're working on. I was like, it's one step at a time. Like, Don't look so far ahead because then the overwhelm is just like how are we gonna pay for this? How are we gonna do it? But you know, we try to find things for free if possible Which we end up finding a lot of really good free stuff just on Facebook Marketplace Or you know people at this point know what we're up to so they'll call us or text us like hey Do you want this thing? And not being super picky. It's like Yeah, if I could take all of our spaces, and have all the money in the world, and completely redo them, they might look a little different. But, it's like, you know what? That chair will work. It's not like, if I could pick all the chairs in the world, I might not pick that chair, but that chair is cute enough for that corner, you know? And, so I think that's a lot of it, is like, just being like, easy going with it, and not being a perfectionist, you know? It's like, Everything changes and evolves, and especially being in, like, the hospitality business or whatever, it's like our guests inform us of a lot of things that we eventually do change. But, it's like, the cabin and the Airstream, they weren't perfect when we hit list on Airbnb, but, whatever. They're listed, and now, you know, we added some hammocks, because one guest was like, this place needs some hammocks. And, you know, we added this because someone else said that, and... Replacing things as we do have more money to get nicer things. Um, and also like, a lot of it is like, looking, okay, what, because, you know, honestly, just financially speaking, this place, we're not in any debt, but we're not very profitable. We pretty much break even. Pretty much everything we make each month goes right back into it. So sometimes it's like, ooh, we bought too many things for this month, so let's... Let's wait until the next purchase can go on this next credit card statement. And so it's, it's a, it's a puzzle, but we, we like the challenge of it. Most of the time it's exhausting to sometimes. Absolutely. And I think that, I mean, there are some key values that you and Eugene have really brought into the retreat center through, you know, it's, it is the frugality, but it's also. The, the fact that your property is completely sustainable, it's off grid and I think that brings a certain level of charm. People really want to experience that kind of lifestyle and people, you know, and I, I, those of you that are watching this episode on YouTube, you're seeing some pictures I'm showing you as Marlena is talking through, but those of you that are listening on the podcast, you may not be able to actually see. Marlena space, but I think this idea of, oh, that chair just is, is fine there. And, oh, this looks, this'll work here. It actually has enhanced the charm of your place. Because when I, I haven't been out yet, I definitely am going to come out, but the pictures that I've seen, everything just, it, I love the look and feel that you have put together. It's not scale Austin hotel perfection is off grid sustainability in nature. And it's beautiful. Yeah, I think yeah, you're totally right. It's making sure like I said earlier night like not comparing yourself to other people and being like this is what I can offer and the people that come out here are attracted to that and that's the truth of it is like people that are attracted to sustainability and being in a rural setting and being in nature and in a more rustic place. That's really the people that we get out here 99 percent of the time. So I think it's It's cool that our place sort of pulls in the people that have maybe similar values. Absolutely. So let's talk financials. It sounds like a lot of what you have done so far has just been, has come from the money that you've made. So you make money and the invested back into the property. At any point have you had to outside investors or outside debt to help you build this space? Or did you all self-fund everything? No, we haven't had any investors. We don't have any debt. This is Eugene's family's land, so we didn't buy the land. We don't own it. So that's a big piece of it that's very important. Uh, if we had tried to start out with my, like, little savings and Eugene's little monies, we wouldn't have been able to, you know, purchase land to do this project. So we're super, super grateful for that privilege and that. That opportunity. His family does have the means to, to help, and this is sort of like becoming, in a way, like, not the legacy of the family. I'm not gonna go that far, but... It's special to his family, you know, it's a place where they can come out and and see the progress so for them They are happy and willing to invest in it I have a question about how much money did it take for you to build a cabin the cabin was around? 20, 000 but another thing to keep in mind is that we don't hire any labor So when you're building something, the labor is usually like three times the amount of materials or something. It's, it's pretty up there. So when you're doing everything yourself, you can, you can kind of keep that low. But I think it was around, around 20, 000 and we, you know, invested a little bit more into it. It didn't even have like, When we first started out, the bathroom didn't even have a sink in it, so we built a sink. And then, so that cabin cost 20, 000, and you mentioned Eugene had also constructed that house, so he ended up getting a lot more free lumber, really, for some of the other builds. How much total do you think that you all have paid to build? You have your three Airbnbs, right? And then you have the workshop space, which, by the way, y'all... So beautiful. I'm so excited to see this in person. How much would you say that all cost you to build? Let's see that. I don't know the cabin. Yeah. It was like 20, 000. Um, our Airstream was maybe in the end 15, 000. I think the workshop, what and studio. We're also maybe 20, 000. Uh, I don't, I don't know the total. I probably should know the total, but... I mean, the treehouse, even with all of the reused lumber... Even with all of the reused lumber was like, probably at least 20, 000. Just because of everything else that goes into it. Nails, screws, just everything. Yeah, so, we'll say 100, 000 that you all have invested over the past seven years. And also, put so much of your own love and... sweat and labor into this land. I'm sure it's been such a labor of love for y'all. Um, how about the income? About how much per month are you making off of your rentals? You know, it varies month by month, but I'd say on average like 3, 500 maybe. So not, you know, that much. The airstream hasn't done as well as we thought it would. We... We got real gung ho because the cabin kind of exploded right after COVID. But I think the cabin has this, um, better, uh, photo appeal, if that makes sense? It's like, cabin, and it's this big, you know, bright, airy room, and it's like... I think the Airstream, I don't know, I'm always wondering like, why doesn't the Airstream do as well? Because people that have stayed at both, a lot of them like the Airstream better just because it's more private, it's got an outdoor shower. But I just think that when people are searching on Airbnb, it's like, it's an RV. You know, so I just wonder, is it the filters that people are using that are sending them there as much or what? And that's where I feel like building your personal brand, like what you're doing on Instagram. Those of you that are on Instagram, make sure to follow Marlena in the Retreat Center because not only, uh, does she have these Uh, airbnbs out there, but you're also starting to do like classes and events. And there's so many neat things happening out there, but, um, you're starting to really build a brand. And I think that's just one of the things that as more people come out, as people start to experience your space, you don't necessarily have to rely as much on Airbnb. Because we're the same way. We have to rely so much on Airbnb. Airbnb can change their algorithm tomorrow and decide, Hey, they don't want to show the yurt anymore. So we're trying to think about that for ourselves. You know, how can we create more of a brand that people recognize outside of just Airbnb and have our own website so people can go there to book as well? Yeah, and that's something that I've thought about a lot. I mean, what if... Yeah, what if Airbnb just imploded on itself? It's like I would be, you know, in a pickle for sure. So I have really started in the past six months to a year. Maybe a little bit less, maybe more like six months. Trying to push, like, Hill Country Nature Retreat as a place where people can come and have their weddings and retreats and stuff. And finally this fall, we have some retreats booked, and then we're already booking a couple of weddings for spring. And I told Eugene on our walk last night, I said, I think that it's going to become just this really slow little snowball. And I think for us and for me, it's like, Patience is really key. Because it's like, the, the goal of our lives is not to have a successful retreat center. The goal of our lives is to be content and happy and not stressed. Right? So it's this like, always this balance of like, pushing, pushing, pushing, and then like, whoa. What is it that I actually desire in my everyday life? And it's really just chilling out and, and, and being relaxed in. And doing what I love to do. So I'm just always playing that game of like, pushing it, but also like, pushing it for a little bit whenever I feel like being out on social media and online. And then just letting those things be out there and just laying back for a while and then seeing like, what might come from it. But I think once we start to get some events, like the retreats we have coming up, maybe there will be one person in those retreats that they're like, Ooh, I want to have a retreat out here, or Ooh, I would love to get married out here, or whatever. I love what you just said, saying that my goal is not to have a successful nature retreat center, my goal is to have a life that I love that doesn't stress me out, and the abundance of all, and get to enjoy the abundance of my life. I love that because it's so true. And the process to get there can require a lot of, like you said, frugality, and it can require a lot of decision making of, hey, instead of taking this money that we're making and going on that amazing vacation that we've been wanting to go on, we're going to use this and we're going to reinvest it back into the land, into our future, and um, I think that that takes, A lot of discipline that I see that a lot of people really struggle with. How have you and Eugene managed that? I, I like that you're saying that and acknowledging that. It's like, oh, we are disciplined because we, uh, I guess the word is sacrifice, but it sounds kind of weird for some reason, but we don't take trips. I mean, we go to South Padre once a year, just for maybe two days, two full days. But we don't travel. Um, we don't spend much on ourselves. Like we, we are very here. It's almost like th we don't have any children, and this is like a, a new, a needy newborn or something. It almost feels like, it feels like we're kind of our stuck here in a way. But we can tell that that they're starting to like grow up a little bit, you know, and we're starting to, you know, get systems in place that allow us to leave and travel like maybe a little bit further. But yeah, it is a big sacrifice in that way. Yeah, and I want to hear more. You tell me more about the sustainability component of your land because the way that we have talked about it. A lot of it has been through the financial lens, but I also just want to hear you talk about this as a value of your own and how you have incorporated sustainability into the retreat center. Sustainability, um, has always been a value of mine since I was little, like me and my sister started the first recycling club at our school where we grew up in Mississippi and we were litter quitters and like my mom just, Anyways, that was just a big part of our lives growing up was, um, sustainability, turning the lights off, not running water when we were brushing our teeth, that sort of thing. But honestly, you know, when we got out here, and that's important to Eugene as well, for sure, but the truth of it, in full transparency, is We had to be off grid. We had to have solar power because we couldn't afford to bring electricity up here. Because the electric pole, our driveway is a mile long. So the closest electric pole was, you know, over a mile down the road. And it would have cost, you know, 100, 000 or something to bring power up here. So, and that's why we got, you know, the solar panels. And then, as far as rainwater goes... Um, it just makes a lot of sense because out here digging a well is super expensive and the water quality is really poor. Um, it's very sulfur y and very hard water out here. So, everything just sort of fell into place sustain sustainability wise. So it is, it was like a financial thing but also a values thing. You know, it's like... Using, um, lumber that just would go into the dump. Uh, it's like painful for us, right? We've been building a lot, uh, lately out of fence wood. So in the cities, like in Austin, people are always replacing their, you know, the fences in their backyard. And it's cedar wood, which is, will last forever, but, you know, it kind of looks ugly and old after a while, and people just want to upgrade. And the companies that replace these fences have to pay to take them to the dump. They have to pay to take this, like, good wood and throw it away. So, it just feels really fulfilling to us to, to take things that still have so much life and, and use them out here. But, I will say, we are about to connect to the grid through this neighborhood that came up, um, a couple years ago. There was a neighborhood that borders our property now. And so, uh, A month or so ago, we were, um, in the discussions of, um, investing in another solar system because ours isn't big enough to power everything anymore. And our neighbor was like, have y'all thought about just connecting, you know, getting connected to my pole? So we kind of looked into it and it's actually going to be a little bit cheaper and we'll have air conditioning at night now, which is, again, bringing up climate change. Uh, we didn't have A. C. out here at all for a while, and it was not that bad. But in the past couple of summers, not having air conditioning at night, um, So we have it during the day with the solar panels, but solar panels don't work at night. So, uh, so we don't have it at night, and it's becoming, like, it's becoming quite unbearable. So, we kind of struggled with that for a good week. We were like, We're off grid, you know? Like, we can't, we can't get connected to the grid. That's not our thing. But financially, just like health wise, it just feels like a really good decision. And we'll still be off grid for most of the year, but we'll have this supplemental grid power to help us with our air conditioning, which I think will allow more guests to stay here in summer and It's such a wonderful investment for this property, honestly. What you're describing, you and Eugene moving out to a remote piece of land, bringing on solar panels, digging the plumbing, the rainwater, this is a lot of work. Can you tell me... Were there any times when, that you just thought, okay, I want to give up. Like this is too hard, this thing broke, this isn't working, we can't figure this out. I just want to give up and move back to Austin and rent an apartment at The Domain. Um, tell me, like, how did, were there any big challenges and how did you handle them? Yes, it does get very, very hard. And I'll go more into that, but no, neither one of us have ever said we would want to move back to the city. This summer has been the first summer. Before we knew we were going to get connected to the grid, this summer we were thinking like, are we going to be able to, to be here in, in this changing weather? Because it's not only the summers that are getting hotter, the winters are actually getting colder for us. Which is another challenge because you've got a lot of pipes freezing and damage everywhere and and that sort of thing. So this summer we were like, you know what, I'm not sure how long we will be able to stay here. And I think we still have that feeling of like, you know what, maybe we'll do this for 10 or 20 years. But If the climate actually gets unbearable and dangerous, because we also, our neighbors had a wildfire out here about a month ago that got really close to our property. Things are changing and shifting, and, and if the time came where it got too hard, we would leave. But, in the day to day challenges, it's just the same, I think, as, as challenges that other people have in their lives. Like, my sister is a city girl. She lives in Austin. She, uh, works for this company, and She tells me about the stresses of her life, and to me, it sounds unbearable, and would make me want to do what I did, which is be like, oh, I gotta get out into the country. I can't, I can't handle that. So, no, we both still very much want to be here, and, uh, it's a challenging way of life, but I think that, like I'm saying, like other people's ways of lives, life is also challenging, but just in a different way, and then wake up the next day, and Either start over or say, you know what, today, let's just stay inside and like, watch something on our phone, or on, we don't have a TV, but on our computer. Let's just... Stop for today. Yeah, I think you're the perfect person to be running this grid sustainable retreat center Can you just tell me what a day in the life for you looks like? Man, I have actually tried to like because my mom asked me she's like you say you're busy all the time But what are you actually doing? so i've tried before to like write it down, but I got too busy with everything I was doing but Yeah, I mean, if we have people in the cabin, then, you know, we have to, uh, flip that. If we have people in the cabin and Airstream, then half my day is flipping and doing laundry. We hang our laundry up to dry when the weather's nice, and it's a lot, it dries a lot faster. So it's that whole rhythm roll of cleaning, and then, oh, you forgot one towel, so you have to walk five minutes to get the towel, and then... You know, so a lot of back and forth. And then it really depends on what project we're working on. Like, right now, we're trying to get this treehouse finished. So today, it was, Oh, I'm excited to go grout the tile in the bathroom. And then I get all my supplies, and I start to grout. And then I realize, the grout is staining the tile. So I have to quit, and then, Okay, I have to seal the tile first. Okay, let me move on to something else. Uh, okay, these cabinet doors need to be painted, you know, let me, let me paint these, or... You know, it's just whatever needs to be done. I have chickens, so I always have to, I give them fresh water every morning in the summer, cause they need it. We have five cats that really like to go on hikes, so if we don't, if we don't feel super pressed to, like, get started for the day, we'll usually take them on a little walk in the mornings. But six o'clock is usually our, like, quitting time. By six, we're like... Take showers and start figuring out dinner and just relaxing for the rest of the night. And we didn't used to do that. We used to work till sunset for years. And then slowly, somehow, this 6 o'clock thing happened and it's really nice. So it's like, oh, 6 o'clock, okay, done. Feels good to have that, like, boundary for sure. Do you have any plans to build any other units after the treehouse or is that the that we have to stop for a little bit because I just want to do other things that are really important to me. Building is, has been important so that we can, you know, get this income thing going. But, you know, we are, I feel like, first and foremost, I want to be good stewards of this land where we live. So there's a lot of land projects that need to happen. We need to be doing things to try to make sure that the water stays on our land when it rains and... Just all these things. I want to work on my garden more and figure that out a little bit better because gardening out here is really tough. So I want to stop building for the foreseeable future and just do these other creative and important projects. You need to check out Marlena's space, Marlena and Eugene's space because it is so beautiful. Um, Marlena, tell people where they can find you. You can find me at hillcountrynatureretreateverything. com Uh, on Instagram, Facebook, I guess those, that's it really. But yeah, Hill Country Nature Retreat. And make sure to check this out if you've been wanting to get out of the city. If you want to see what it's like to experience off grid living. Marlena's place is so, so beautiful, and I know Craig and I cannot wait to get out there. I told Craig I was, we were gonna be on the podcast today, and he was like, Oh, I cannot wait to listen to this episode. He's so curious about what y'all have been doing. And we're so inspired by how much you've done yourself. How much you've just really learned and taught yourself just through... Sounds like YouTube and friends. So we're both really inspired and so, um, so thankful for your time. Marlena, anything else? Any last minute advice considering doing something similar to this? I think kind of what we talked about a few times is like looking at the bigger picture but not getting overwhelmed by it and just starting little bit by little bit and always remembering like what your goal is. Because the more that you build and the more that you do, the busier that you'll be. So really just coming back to... Can I slowly do what I want to do so that I can live a non stressful life? All right, Marlena. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you liked this episode, please make sure to send it to a friend. You can also comment below and tell me what you liked. I love hearing from you. I hope you'll have a great week and I will see you in our next episode where we're going to continue our creative wealth building series. All right, y'all. We'll see you later.

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