Start In Your Own Backyard
Start In Your Own Backyard is a mini-series about how the choices we make, both big and small, can transform the world around us. For host Steve Nygren, this is personal. Two decades ago, while running through the woods on his beloved family farm, he spotted bulldozers toppling trees for what he feared was another soulless suburban development. That sobering moment sparked a question that changed the course of his life: Isn’t there a better way to build community? One that works with nature, not against it?
The answer became Serenbe, a community built on biophilic principles, sustainable living, and the idea that well-being starts in the everyday spaces where we live, work, and connect with others.
Through stories, guest experts, and personal reflections, Start In Your Own Backyard invites listeners to find their own sense of agency. Whether it’s rethinking your diet, running for school board, planting edible landscapes, or advocating for change in your city, the podcast explores what it means to take action right where you are.
With a strong belief in the power of optimism, even when things feel tough, this series shows how each of us can create ripples of positive change.
The question is simple: What gifts do you bring? And are you ready to use them?
Want to dive deeper? Steve’s book, Start In Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where You Live with Radical Common Sense, is out now. An instant USA Today Bestseller, this book is part memoir, part guidebook. It offers a blueprint for building sustainable, connected communities, places where wonder exists in the everyday and people of all ages can truly thrive.
Start In Your Own Backyard
Price Bell Is Bridging Growth and Stewardship
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Price Bell Jr., grew up at Mill Ridge Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, a working thoroughbred farm that his family has cared for for generations.
But Price’s story isn’t just about preserving what his family inherited. He spent years working in real estate and urban development, particularly in Nashville, where he learned about the power of neighborhoods, adaptive reuse, and, perhaps most importantly, what can happen when people work together toward a shared vision. And then he came to Serenbe.
What began as a visit to The Biophilic Leadership Summit – and later a family trip where he watched his children explore the woods and simply experience the joy of being outside – opened up a new way of thinking about what might be possible at Mill Ridge and in the surrounding city of Lexington.
Now, Price is thinking about how to balance growth with stewardship, how to bring people back into relationship with land, and how we can create places that are better for the generations who come after us.
Show Notes
- About Price Bell Jr.
- Mill Ridge Farm
Q&A: Price Bell on Land, Legacy, and Lexington’s Next Chapter
- The Biophilic Leadership Summit
- Nygren Placemaking
Are You Ready For Radical Common Sense? Visionary placemaker Steve Nygren chronicles the rise of Serenbe, a pioneering model of biophilic living outside Atlanta, and charts a path for others wishing to challenge the status quo, embrace optimism, and reinvent their communities…and themselves.
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Welcome to season two of Start in Your Own Backyard, a series about the power we each have to shape the places where we live and in turn the world around us. I'm Steve Nigren, and this season I'm looking outward, sitting down with people who have shaped the way I think about the built environment, and others who are putting their ideas into action in communities of their own. I believe the built environment as it exists today is at the root of many of our biggest challenges, but I also believe it can be a powerful part of the solution. These are stories about taking agency, using the skills and resources we have, and starting wherever we are. Because meaningful change doesn't always begin with a grand plan. Sometimes it starts in your own backyard. My guest today, Price Bell Jr., grew up in Millridge Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, a working thoroughbred farm that his family has cared for for generations. But Price's story isn't just about preserving what his family inherited. He spent years working in real estate and urban redevelopment, particularly in Nashville, where he learned about the power of neighborhoods, adaptive reuse, and perhaps the most importantly, what can happen when people work together towards a shared vision. And then he came to Sarinby. What began as a visit to our biophilic leadership summit, and later a family trip, where he watched his children explore the woods and simply experience the joy of being outside, opened up a new way of thinking about what might be possible at Mill Ridge and in the surrounding city of Lexington. Today, Price is thinking about how to balance growth and stewardship, how to bring people back into relationship with land, and how we can create places that are better for the generations who come after us. We talk about patience, the lessons horses can teach us about long-term thinking and why meaningful change often begins close to home.
SPEAKER_00We shouldn't be the only ones to have this experience.
SPEAKER_02How did you first um become aware of Sarambi? And then was the biophilic conference your first actual visit?
SPEAKER_00It was. She was her father's fourth child, fourth daughter, but the first one born with the right to vote, which is pretty remarkable. And I always find it a fascinating kind of like point in time because it's something that we certainly take for granted. But here within generations that I've known very well, um, you know, she was the first one that was born with what we think of as a very um common space, if that makes sense. Um so anyway, she was born and she was raised a tomboy, and she was certainly always a very motivational person, inspirational person in our life. Um, of her siblings, she was the one who's most keen to keep farming. Um, and so as the family farm was being cut up in a way, her father left her the piece that was furthest away from the city so that she could keep farming. Um and at the time she moved back from Houston, Texas in 1960 to set out the farm. And uh her father passed away two years later, surprisingly. Not uh, I don't know if you're ever ready for it, but it was very surprising at the time. And my grandmother was left with four breed mares, four mothers, uh, 286 acres and a half-built barn. Um and that was it. The rest was raw land. She didn't have cash, it was all held in land. And uh funny story, she's set out and she went and met with her oldest brother-in-law, who was kind of the patriarch of the family. And she says to him, You know, I just am lost. What should I do? And he says, Well, why don't you arrange flowers like your sister? Um, and she says, Well, I'll show you how to arrange flowers, you SOB, and walked out and set out to start Millridge Farm. Um, and she had a great stroke of luck uh a few years later. She raised a horse who was ultimately named Sur Ivor. And Sir Ivor was born in 1965. Um, and in 1968, he was the first American-bred racehorse uh sold at public auction to win the Epsom Darby. Uh, the Epsom Darby was the greatest race uh in the world, certainly at that time. And Her Majesty the Queen, if you've seen any of the crown and these things, um, know that she loved Thurbed Racing. And so Her Majesty was very captivated with this woman who had bred the greatest racehorse of the century. So they developed a friendship, and one thing led to another, and we became uh Miller's Farm was off and running.
SPEAKER_02So and in the years, uh the Lexington has moved closer and closer to this piece of property.
SPEAKER_00It has. It has. So Lexington is a fascinating place. Uh, it was named after the brave Patriots of 1774 when the Battle of Lexington started. And so at that time, in the frontier, there was some camps of people, and they learned that the Revolutionary War was on and started in Lexington, Massachusetts. So they decided to name this little town forming uh Lexington after those brave revolutionaries. And so uh the city grew as a trading kind of frontier outpost. And in the idea of Manifest Destiny, as you continued discovering West, the river cities of Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, you know, formed, and Lexington not being on a navigable body of water was always this kind of agrarian-based trading post. Um, fast forward the 1950s and coming back from World War II, and as the city was growing out in that suburban um expansion, um, the city realized that it would bankrupt itself if it continued to sewer far out because of the limestone is so close to the topsoil uh that it was costing a fortune to sewer. And so they established the first urban service boundary um at that time. I want to say 1955, in the country. Uh Portland, Oregon, I think Boulder, Colorado, also now has this uh similar concept, and it has ebbed and flowed through the years. Um but uh it is uh it's always thus as a child growing up, um neighborhoods, land use, we've always been somewhat on the front line. In fact, New Circle Road, uh, which was new in 1960 when it was finished, um, but still uh endearingly referred to, um, was the first urban service boundary, and it split my great-grandfather's farm. Um, and so that was the kind of the beginning of the city growing close to us. So now uh we're very lucky I can ride my bike out of our back gate um and uh not cross a road and end up at uh at an ice cream shop with our children, which is you know, it's kind of like Sarenby, but also kind of not right, a little little uh not quite as connected.
SPEAKER_02Not quite. And and so, you know, as as you were uh stepping into your adulthood, it wasn't always your dream to come back to the farm, is that right?
SPEAKER_00Yes and no, but maybe in a more circuitous route. As life happens, I'd fallen in love with a girl at the end of college and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. Um, and a friend there was uh worked for a uh an office REIT called Parkway Properties, which was based at the time in Jackson, Mississippi. Um and this friend who I'd kind of networked to meet, he says, I'll make you the CEO of a $40 million asset and I'll uh and I'll evaluate you on your ability to increase its value. And I thought that sounded like a tremendous suitcase skill and certainly more responsibility than this 22 and a half year old deserved. And so I jumped at it and I ended up being the property manager and leasing agent for a 300,000 square foot uh suburban office park in Charlotte. Um, as luck has it, the the girl and I were very good long distance. We weren't necessarily great under the same roof, and so we uh we we broke up, but I stayed in Charlotte and really enjoyed Charlotte and then stabilized the the asset. And the company had a struggling asset in downtown Nashville. And so I'd gone to college in Nashville, loved Nashville. Nashville is now three hours to Lexington where I could come home on the weekends and kind of be closer to the farm. And I love downtown, I love neighborhoods, and here was an opportunity to kind of really jump into the beginning of the change of Nashville. So this would have been 06, 07, but in the walkway up to 08, which was, you know, changed everything.
SPEAKER_02Right. But and so then you you you've done a lot with infills and and more the the urban fabric, right?
SPEAKER_00Uh yes, and and really, I guess was catalyzed in Lexington. My time in Lexington always felt like our city would grow into the farm at some point, but until that time happened, we needed to really dedicate ourselves to improving what was existing in our urban fabric. In Nashville, this downtown office building, again, it was there, we it was 70% occupied. And so there was a now Nashville Downtown Partnership was a great nonprofit, uh, a spinoff of the chamber just focused on downtown. And it was amazing how much success Nashville had when everyone was rowing in the boat together. And I was in my mid-20s, and so I had more time than most. And so I really dedicated myself into the space, um, into working uh with the nonprofit, and just I loved it. And it was, I think what was really telling was we all like I had a lot of office space to lease. Um, but the Chamber of Commerce of Nashville would bring uh big corporate relocations into town. Um, and there was a very much like a uh a team attitude around all the property owners, property managers in the business. It wasn't, it wasn't, I mean, it wasn't really cutthroat. It was like, oh, you're gonna get this one or we're gonna get this one. And I'll never forget there was this group called Service Source that was from San Francisco. They had a density of like five people per thousand square feet. And they were looking for somewhat commoditized office space, but they were looking for 50 or 60,000 feet. And they ended up taking down a ton of space in an adjacent building. And on the one hand, you could say, well, gosh, we lost that deal. But in that deal going next door, we now had thousands and thousands of recent college grads who are hitting the pavement at lunchtime, at dinner time, at happy hour. And it really actually invigorated the downtown restaurant scene and the arts and the amenities that I was then able to sell on as well. Um, and it was a great lesson to me in that, like, we're all in this together. If this is the problem we're trying to solve, which is to get people back into downtown Nashville. The big threat at that time was Williamson County, which is Brentwood, Cool Springs, and they've got great school systems, and the Nissan Corporation had moved their headquarters there. And so the fear, the fear was that more corporations were going to go to Williamson County, and thus Nashville is gonna become a donut uh hole, if you will. And so we're all in it together to really try and uh increase the vibrancy and make downtown Nashville really relevant. And it certainly has worked. I think so. I mean, absolutely. It's it's a it's amazing. But it has led to, I think, other problems. My friends who are there now are, you know, it's like one, and not other problems, but other challenges that you have to overcome, right?
SPEAKER_02I mean how we change it. Is that one of the more trans transformational projects you've had, or have been others of that scale and significance?
SPEAKER_00So then so I did we did that, and then 08 happens. I moved to another uh adaptive reuse smaller developer in Nashville in the kind of in the Gulch area. The Gulch was just starting. Um, they just had the crane up on the icon, and things were just kind of moving in that neighborhood or submarket of Nashville. And then 08 happens, and then the come out, the coming out of 08 was just it was just a long slog. Um, I went back to business school on the weekends, and the opportunity came to, you know, maybe pivot, maybe pivot out of Nashville. Maybe this smaller shop wasn't, you know, the long-term place for me. So anyway, long story short, the opportunity came to move back to uh Lexington. And it was kind of a window where my dad approached me and was like, you know, this, if you're ever thinking about moving to Lexington, this would be a good time. First question is, can I be successful in now taking out of real estate and getting more directly into the horse business every day? Um, can I be successful? And after we talked through that, and then coming back here, a really good friend was um had met, we had a really great mayor, Mayor Gray was very visionary, and he had set out to a good friend, he said, Hey, there's all this money out um in the nonprofit space um funding creative placemaking in cities, but no one's going after it in Lexington. And so my friend Griffin Van Mier was like, Well, I'll go after it. And so my time in Nashville, my passion for downtown, being friends of Griff, and there's a great energy in his little office space in uh in downtown Lexington. I was like, well, let's do this together. So we set out uh with a few others to start a nonprofit to really go after uh creative placemaking grants. And that led us to, we ended up making a pitch on a on a program or on a creative placemaking grant that we didn't control any of the real estate on, but we were gonna take these shotgun houses and do a live to or uh uh an ownership structure. Um and the piece being that, you know, creative uh people are oftentimes gentrified out of a neighborhood because they're in a rental space as opposed to an ownership space. And so we're gonna go after an ownership structure. And so we didn't own or control any of the real estate. And we made it to the second round, and there were about initially, I think in the application, there were 80 shotgun houses that we were going to buy. Um, 60 of them were owned by one person who was supposedly struggling. Um, and so we thought for sure we could buy those. Um, well, then in the grant application time, some of the other ones come for sale at the Master Commissioner sale. And so we go buy them and buy them for $5,000 a piece, you know, $7,500 a piece. This guy is bidding against us. And it was a Saturday morning on site, and the guy who was bidding was frustrated because we bought them for $500 more, what have you. And he's like, I don't really even want to be here. And Griff says, Well, where do you want to be? And the guy's like, I really want to go to the UK game. And Griff happened to have some UK basketball tickets in his pocket. And so he gave the guy the UK basketball tickets, and the guy left, and then we bought the next few shotgun houses for like $2,500 apiece. It was anyway, you're you're just kind of putting yourself into the flow. And now we have these shotgun houses, and it's like, oh, now we got to do something with them. Again, I think we put 10% down at the time. Shortly thereafter, uh, we were awarded this creative placemaking grant. And it was like, wow, well, now what now we've got to deliver on this, which was uh amazing at the time. This other gentleman named Richard Young comes into the picture and he was uh roasting coffee and delivering it by bicycle, but he was really smart, great guy, and he was interested and inspired. And we Griff and I were like, well, let's go after more grants. And within grants, you can hire, you can charge administrative fees. And if we can get enough grants to get enough administrative fees to pay your salary, let's see what can become of this. And so anyway, it led to this kind of uh establishment of the North Limestone Community Development Corporation, and we ended up doing this, we did 30 shotgun to own to own units, never got the portfolio of the 60. Uh, but we also did a big uh, we got an NEA grant on uh on studying the neighborhood and trying to understand, like really get digging into the neighborhood about what they wanted and what they hoped envisioned for their neighborhood. And it was a it was a really beautiful moment. Um it has had success and it has had failures, and it's been an incredible education along the way, I guess is what I'd say. So it certainly wouldn't have the same impact of, let's say, downtown Nashville, but I think it has had a relative impact in downtown Lexington.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's really fit a space of affordable housing, which everyone's looking for. And this is one of the few models that uh the the the both both brings affordable housing but restoration together, which would sound great.
SPEAKER_00And it was uh through this, I'm proud of Richard. He ended up spinning out and ended up, he was really inspired by civic engagement. So, of all the grants we ended up earning, we got several million dollars of grants. He was really taken with the NEA grant around engagement and engaging people. And so Civics was something that he was really taken by. And so he started this organization called Civic Lex, which is around educating uh the community in civics, and it's been incredibly successful. He's now a fellow, he just got a fellowship at Johns Hopkins um relative to this work, which is amazing. So, again, this moment here, Richard was a coffee delivery guy and just following and engaging, and now he's you know a thought leader in this space of civic education is really special.
SPEAKER_02And then this whole time, then you were gradually moving to take over the farm and the horses and uh sort of parallel to some degree?
SPEAKER_00Very much. And it ended up the real estate uh passion was a great transition into a family business, I would say. Um family businesses can be very hard, and so you're constantly feeling like you might be stepping on others' toes. And is this the right way? And you don't, I don't know another way other than to question not maliciously, but out of education in informing myself, and anyway. Um so I was able to with my dad work on a we started another nonprofit identifying, trying to get people on farms, you know, the thoroughbred industry, in order for it to be successful, um, we really need to connect people with horses and connect people with the land. Um, and so we worked on with a couple other people on starting this nonprofit to make it easier for people to get on farms and do farm tours. And these kind of moments allowed from the CDC and then real estate nonprofit, and then starting this other nonprofit relative to the horses, allowed me to work on some things where my energy was more creative and not feeling like it was questioning family business, family business decisions, etc. Um, and so it was I was very lucky to be able to have these kind of parallel tracks and pursue my personal interests alongside as a feel as opposed to feeling like I had to make my way immediately within the family business. You know, horses are an incredible privilege and an incredible, they're incredible athletes, and they're also something that people don't have any relationship with anymore. As I joke, my grandmother was sleeping in a stall at three years old. She was born in 1926. My dad was born in 1954, and he loves horses. He worked on the farm. But then he uh he can tell you every car every one of his friends drove. Um and then I was born in 82, and I can tell you, I worked on the farm, I can tell you all of our AOL instant messenger handles of all of my friends at that stage of life. And our son, and he can navigate the Minecraft world of the nether world or ether world or something like that. I get the word mixed up, but within a generation of people I've loved very much, the horse has become very irrelevant, irrelevant uh in their lives. And so within our farmland and our farm, the the need of sharing it with people is so important so that people can have their own appreciation. And that's something that's been very important to us as a family.
SPEAKER_02And have you thought about what your grandchildren will think about and be able to name and tell you?
SPEAKER_00Um, that's a great I I hope it has something to do with trees because I love planting trees and I love like trimming trees and I love walking and trimming them and dreaming about that they're still standing in 80 years and what kind of shade and what kind of dream that they might inspire within our grandchildren. Anything outside of the real, I can't quite get there.
SPEAKER_02And so at what point did you start thinking about actually developing part of the uh horse farm?
SPEAKER_00So every five years, the city does an analysis of if we need to expand the boundary or not expand the boundary. They do a comprehensive plan. Um, and we have been on the side of not needing to expand the boundary focus. Let's keep trying to fill the pockets of opportunity underutilized space that's currently within the boundary. Um, and then in 2023, the boundary expansion discussion came up, and the city council, which is somewhat separate from the planning commission, which had been dictating what should or whether we should or shouldn't expand, the city council was like, we have to expand, and we have to expand by 2,000 to 5,000 acres. We aren't going to tell you planning where to expand, but we have to do this expansion. At that time, then the planning staff scored all of the property around the city, and our land scored the most viable for expansion. And it was at that moment that was like, well, okay, if it's now the most viable for expansion, then it's we should take this into consideration. And the city leaders say that they we need it. And so that was the catalytic moment, which is, you know, it's funny because I was well, I'd say funny, we were not trying and looking for expansion, but then it happened and now, and then it ultimately our land wasn't chosen for political reasons and other reasons, but it's like we still we're the most affordable, and there's a better way. I guess that like what Serenby has really showed me is that there is a better way to do this. That you know, we have commoditized the house, commoditized the community. And if we only look at examples like that within our city, then we're gonna get more of the same. And so I guess I feel like so privileged to have seen another way and been inspired by that other way, that it's like, well, we're gonna fight to bring that to our community that we love so dearly.
SPEAKER_02And so that was the introduction from Billy's suggestion you come see us. And that was the introduction from Billy. I mean, yeah, that was and I was gonna say, when the rest is history, but not really, because the history is just evolving, because then you proceeded to uh bring your family back, come to Nigrine Placemaking, and uh gosh, uh how many visits have you now made?
SPEAKER_00I I think this will be this weekend, I think will be the seventh or eighth, and each time trying to evangelize and trying to bring more people. Um, I mean, it's just it's so inspiring. And I think in a way, the simplicity is so inspiring. You know, it's not it's so achievable, I guess, and attainable, if that makes sense. You know, it's not some That's right. I don't I don't know. And and I and I think that that's the beauty of it, is in a way, the simplicity.
SPEAKER_02I guess you know, you you uh has anything that you've learned with the horses uh brought you to the patience uh of uh what are the parallels there be between uh uh having an equestrian uh farm and business and then uh stepping uh into the development world?
SPEAKER_00You know, it's uh that's funny. I was reminded of this actually just a couple weeks ago. So in the thoroughbred business, you know, the feedback loop, right? Like we make a decision to breed a mare, a mother with a stallion. Um, well, the the horse is pregnant for 11 months. And so you've got a year where the mother is, you know, having her raising her baby, and then she has her foal. And so then the baby is a foal for a year and a weanling, and then it's a yearling for a year before it's even ridden, and then it's ridden as a two-year-old. So you have no idea from the decision point for four years if it's gonna be actually a successful decision. Now, all along the way, you have these moments and this, oh, it's it's gonna be this, or I really like that, or I, you know, you have these moments, but it's really four years that you don't know anything. And so when you're making investment decisions, one of the biggest investment opportunities are in stallions and in and uh five, you know, male horses. If you invest in a male horse, it's the same feedback. You don't know if that's gonna be a successful producer for four or five years, really. And so in real estate and in like decision-making process, you're like, oh, entitlements are gonna take us two years, and oh, it's gonna be 2030, 2031 before we do this. And the other day I was looking at a stallion to invest in, and it hit me. I was like, wait, 2031. Well, that's the same time I'm thinking about the real estate, and yet the real estate seems so far away, and the horses seem so every day. It was very, it was very funny to me, but they absolutely teach you patience, right? I mean, they absolutely teach you that you know that this will take time. And if you just do each day, you know, now every day in those four years to the racetrack, every need of that horse is met. You know, you go over it with a fine-toothed comb, you address every step, but you're working towards this goal, and the goal for the rate for horses is the finish line. I think the goal for the real estate, I don't see, I don't see it as a necessarily a finish line, but just an evolution, you know, a continuation forward.
SPEAKER_02And so through the various visits uh and bringing the family down, at what point did did you decide it was uh time to engage with Nigrine placemaking and and bring us into your community and start thinking about uh what a development might actually look like on part of the farm?
SPEAKER_00Um so I'm the oldest of my siblings, and we have we have two nieces, a net a niece and a nephew at the time, and then we have our own uh children. So we have four children at the time. We first visited Saren B as uh a collective family. And then I have a brother, a sister, brother-in-law, wife, and parents. So there's a big group of us. Well, the first we got there in the evening, and then the next morning. In a family vacation, there's a lot of chaos, especially with kids that age. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna take the kids. You know, there's like some who's this, what do we do, etc.? I was like, all right, kids, we're gonna go on a walk, we're gonna go on an adventure looking for these trampolines. And I didn't know where all the trampolines were at the time. I'd only been to the biophilic leadership, but I knew there was one at the inn. And I kind of had a vague idea about the inn, but I was really gonna put uh Ur and Phil's um wayfinding uh to the test. And so away we went from uh motto uh on an adventure to try and find this trampoline. Um and if you've ever tried to corral seven, six, five, four-year-olds, um, it's not very easy. And nor if you were to say to them, we're gonna go on a mile and a half or a two-mile walk. They would, you know, it's not worth it. It's just not worth it. And by God, if we didn't have a great walk, it was just me and the kids, all along the way, we found uh we found a playground in the middle of the woods. And then we found, you know, I knew enough about where the petting, you know, the animal farm was. And I was like, oh, you know, when we had a are we there yet? It's like, oh, wait, but we're gonna go see a pig just on the other side of the hill, maybe. And it was just so beautiful and inspiring, you know. I mean, I think that like to see and experience this place through their eyes, to see their joy and curiosity, and then the you know, unabashed celebration when we found the trampoline uh at the end, it just I don't know. I guess it really just hit me about like this is so possible and so simple. We don't have to have this big, shiny object, but rather just this like almost like accidental falling forward into these amazing experiences and memories that we certainly all hold. I mean, our children still talk about the various trampolines. So I don't know if that answered your question or not, but that was a maybe aha moment.
SPEAKER_02I I I think that that that's great. And you know, it reminds me if we could if we could all flow down to Simply B and see the world more through our our our child that's still within all of us, would have different places across the world that that that related uh to one another. I mean, that's what brought us here. It was it was seeing life through the eyes of our children when they were three, five, and seven.
SPEAKER_00Wow. And it's so funny that on the outset, it feels so hard, right? It's like, oh my gosh, are we gonna have enough diapers? Are we gonna do this? You know, are they gonna fall? Are they gonna skin their knees? But when you set out, uh, it's really so beautiful. I mean, it's just one step at a time, one, you know, the conversations that I don't know. It is so much simpler than we anticipate it being, I guess.
SPEAKER_02And so then did the children become the advocates for for for bringing a Cerebee type thing back to the farm?
SPEAKER_00I I I think so. I mean, I think in many respects, because, you know, it's like we shouldn't be the only ones to have this experience. You know, I mean, this should be available to more. I mean, we are so lucky to have the land that we have. We're so lucky to have the the trees and the natural environment and the and the stories, the family stories. But if we don't have more children, if we don't have other families experience this, then it'll be taken for granted. If it's taken for granted, then it won't be continued forward, I guess if that makes sense. So I think very much the perspective, the joy of the children were the inspiration to keep moving forward. Like it really affirmed that this is possible.
SPEAKER_02And you are you're on your journey now with with your city council and your and your city leaders to to bring them along to your vision and using Serum B as a as a model. That's part of what your visits, I think, I think is wonderful. You've uh uh you've realized that you can't explain it. And you've actually uh created these familiarization trips, uh both your your council and some of the people you want to work with you.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I I think it's funny. The other thing that we have done is, I mean, the mapping in Lexington is so the mapping you have these days are so great. So now we find moments within our community that reminds us of Sarinbi, you know, whether it's daylight stormwater systems, you know, that we have in Lexington on a road near the university, but when we're at Serinby, it's it's like we have like this is so great, but we also have it in Lexington, the, you know, your your illegal corner, I guess is what I would call it, when you where you have the commercial, the single family, and the attached. And so we have some of that in the grandfathered-in neighborhoods, but nothing in the current planning and zoning. And so being able to catalog the best practices Sarinby has against what we also have in our community, I think also helps bridge those. And again, I think it just takes time, but you can't you can't explain it.
SPEAKER_02No. So how's that journey been? How has it been with some of the doubters that you have brought with, some of the doubters you've been meeting with? And uh where are you on that journey?
SPEAKER_00Well, you've you've reminded me of perspective of time. And I think in the perspective of time, I guess I I would be um very pleased because it does take time and it's just you know one person, one conversation, one, you know, one movement towards. So I think it is going well. Um, we are looking to have uh another group of people come in October. Uh, we're coming this week. We're also going to come again in October. And just your your and your team's generosity of sharing certainly helps empower it, helps us feel like we're on the right path. And then the response that we get from people who visit for the first time or those who come back a second and third time with us in our team and they discover new things and they feel more comfortable and then they're telling others various things and and the story. Um, but I think in in reality, it on the one hand, it it takes time, you know. Um, and I and I guess I'm reminded that if you give it time, the reward is that much better as well. You know, if we move too quick, then then it doesn't probably become as meaningful, right? I don't know what is it, there's an expression around like iron sharpens the sharper sword or something like that. Like you need, you know, or it's coarser sandpaper polishes a better diamond or something like that. You know, and I think, you know, while I want everyone to buy in immediately, um, the flip side is that, you know, you do need some tension and some doubters to hopefully then get a better product in general, because I think those doubters will speak outwardly what maybe people are afraid of. And so if you can address that and help bring people along, as painful it might be, I think the product is probably, I believe the product will be better in the end.
SPEAKER_02And you know, we're we're at a period that a lot of people are are thinking about uh times that things seem to be working better. Many people have left their hometowns and are elsewhere very similar to you, and others have uh uh found and adopted uh smaller towns. And what advice would you give to them as they start thinking about what they could do to make a difference?
SPEAKER_00You know, I was very lucky to return to my hometown where I knew a group of people had gone to school with. In the weeks leading up to moving back to Lexington, my girlfriend at the time, now wife, I think she was a little bit hesitant because it was like, oh, we're just gonna spend all this time with your friends that you grew up with and may I'll be an outsider. And so I thought coming in, I would hang out with you know these 10 or 15 people every day. I now see that those 10 or 15 people once every six, seven, eight months. And we found a great community within the community that didn't know existed, frankly. And so then I think about, well, where did we find them? We found them through, you know, work, we found them through um adult sports, we found them through interesting curiosities, we found some of them through our council people and reaching out to our council people about something that we were interested in, and then they suggesting that we should get involved with this thing, and then that thing led to another thing, and we've made friends through that way. So I guess I guess count advice, I guess that I I've always found that there are lots more people who want to be involved. Um, and if you keep, you know, asking, inquiring, working, making yourself available and making yourself vulnerable to two new friends and relationships, then one thing will lead to another and it it it will happen. And you won't really know how it happened while you're in it, but I think that it will happen if you keep putting yourself out there. And I mean you're it's leading with your heart, right? I mean, that's and that would we feel in the streets of Serinpia is people leading with their heart and being willing, and then you know, the conversation and the the happy accidents of, you know, let's go get a beer, let's go make a meal, or hey, I just have these bounty of sourdough, or that your bagel guy, right? A happy accident that he was too too good at making bagels.
SPEAKER_02The the spontaneous moments that we've all sort of organized our lives uh away from.
SPEAKER_01And uh that's the beauty.
SPEAKER_02It's uh placemaking is simple if we don't overthink it and follow with our heart. And yeah, exactly right.
SPEAKER_00And we're so lucky that we have examples of things that don't work at times, and then we have examples of things that do work, like Carinby. Um, and that's certain that's on a very concentrated scale, but there's so many moments, as I mentioned, that Serinby has that we have in our towns, especially the towns um that the part of the town that was built pre-1950.
SPEAKER_02Right? That's right. That's it. You know, we when when we were in our exploratory uh search 25 years ago, you know, we we we either went back to old places uh that were a century old, uh, or we went to Europe uh for the inspiration. And so uh we're very pleased that Sarinbi is is that place, that people don't have to travel so far. But it also saddens me that we don't have more places. I'm anxious for you and and others we've worked with, and they're in various stages uh of developing, but we we certainly need more places that are putting their own stamp, their own personality on it to show that that this can happen anywhere. And uh that's the exciting thing.
SPEAKER_00And I mean it's interesting. I find the Genesis story of Sarumbi interesting because you in many respects set out to be the fur the tip of your spear environmental, right? And trying to like, you know, hiring environmental specialists and now 20 years on, it's more around, you know, human and that human engagement. I'd say is more the your environmental certainly is the foundation, but it's that human interaction that has made Saren B, at least what I feel when I'm there, so special.
SPEAKER_02Well, absolutely. I think um, you know, it's so obvious looking back, but uh environmental health also leads to human health. Uh it's just as natural as it can be. Uh and uh that that's uh that's what uh we have sort of stumbled on, uh, but it is so obvious now. And you just you feel it. Uh you see the difference when you're in CRMB. Uh absolutely. Was there anything that you think we should share with our uh listeners that uh that we haven't talked about?
SPEAKER_00And um I've loved the title of your book. Uh and I think about it often because uh like just the other day we started about six months ago we started composting in our own backyard. And I cannot get over how much how many things we put in our compost and how small they become. Like I can't get over the volume of stuff that goes in our compost and now what it has broken down into. I can't fathom putting it into our trash bin anymore. Like the guilt that I carry. And I like as I'm and it's not pretty, at times it smells, and we're learning about the balance and da-da-da. But um I do it, it makes me laugh. I'm like, this is starting in my backyard, quite literally. And it just is, but I love it each day that I fill the compost. I'm like, this is Steve. He's saying start my own backyard, you know. It's this simple.
SPEAKER_02Well, Bryce, you are the poster child uh of that, from um the the small things from composting to transforming your generational farm uh into a place for people to live and and to share the the history and the culture of the equestrian world with people that otherwise would never even touch a horse or see a horse. So uh you you're absolutely our poster child. So it's wonderful to launch this series with you uh to talk about all you're doing there.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. I uh am so flattered and humbled, and feel that uh, you know, I still have so much left to do, you know, and so many stories and things to learn. So I just feel it's very uh early in my career, uh, so just very much appreciative of the opportunity, and just all the time that we've spent together is a great blessing in my life. So thank you.