Short Stays, Big Dreams: A Travel & Vacation Rental Podcast
"Short Stays, Big Dreams: A Travel & Rental Podcast" dives into the world of short-term rental management, the stay industry, and travel, offering insights, expert interviews, and actionable tips to help you maximize your rental business and explore the latest travel trends.
Short Stays, Big Dreams: A Travel & Vacation Rental Podcast
Navigating Storms and Hospitality at Smithmore's Heart
Step into a world of elegance and resilience as we welcome Benjamin, the in-house chef and estate manager of Smithmore Castle, a five-star castle hotel on the East Coast. Benjamin paints a vivid picture of life within the castle's walls, where guests find themselves wrapped in the charm of the British Victorian era. With activities like etiquette classes, archery lessons, and delightful tea times, Smithmore Castle offers an immersive experience that feels like stepping into history. Benjamin's story also highlights their unique commitment to faith and privacy, setting the castle apart from more commercial establishments.
As the episode unfolds, we recount the dramatic encounters with nature's fury that tested the mettle of both the team and the community. Brave rescue missions, logistical hurdles, and the chaos of a storm that left many without power or communication reveal the strength and resourcefulness required to overcome such challenges. Through personal stories, including the harrowing experience of retrieving a beloved pet and the ingenuity of community members, we spotlight the spirit of survival and support that shines brightest in times of crisis.
Amidst the chaos, the community's resilience shines through, as Smithmore Castle and its team rally to recover and rebuild. Benjamin shares how the castle's vision of becoming a self-sustaining hub is intertwined with efforts to boost local economic activity and enhance community resilience. With plans to reopen in November, the castle aims to offer more than just hospitality—it's a beacon of hope and renewal. We invite listeners to engage with Smithmore's offerings and become part of the vibrant community spirit essential for recovery and growth.
Then we'll go. We're not All right, we're live. Welcome, my beautiful people, welcome back. I got a very, very special episode for you, especially in light of what's been happening in Florida, georgia and North Carolina with the hurricane. Today my guest runs probably one of, if not the most unique property in at least the East Coast. I'm going to let him tell us a little bit about his story, the property itself. I think you're going to get a lot of value out of this episode. You're definitely going to be entertained by him. He is very charismatic and, without further ado, let me introduce you to Benjamin from Smithmore Castle. Benjamin, can you tell us who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 2:Yes. So firstly, thank you for having me here. I'm Benjamin from Smithmore Castle, I am the in-house chef here and I run the entire state. So a bit about the castle. Well, actually, before I do that, the host has been so generous and kind enough that when he frequented the castle not too long ago he did gift me a rather interesting book, and I do want to tell you that I've been reading it every now and again and it's quite good. So it's up to you if you want to plug in the book or not, but it was a rather good gift and so I leave that to your good graces, however.
Speaker 2:So about the property. So Smithmoor Castle is indeed America's only five-star castle hotel. It is not an inn, we are not a bed and breakfast. This is sort of a glimpse in time of this Victorian, british Victorian era, I guess. For most Americans I would say it's a walk down and a peek through the show Downton Abbey. I don't know if your viewers would be familiar. So it's a way that a working estate is run properly, with valets and chefs and nannies and governesses.
Speaker 2:My wife and I and our child do reside on the property. The Lord and Lady do live here as well sometime, and then when they are not here, this is when it's rented and it's a full staffed hotel. But it's also a place where you can do rather unique things, such as take etiquette classes. My wife teaches all three, which would be your familial, your social and your formal dining etiquette. So parents from all over the world, for example, will pay us lots of money and then they bring us their children and we sort of reprogram them here in a couple of ways. So then we also have archery lessons. There's massages on the property as well. There's tea times daily and no, I don't mean golf, I mean actual tea. There's coffee tasting no, I don't mean golf, I mean actual tea, there's coffee tasting. We've added honey tasting, as we've got an apiary and a plethora of other things that that are more for an experience.
Speaker 2:This is all by reservation only. Don't just show up, you will not be let in. The gate is closed, and so it's a rather again, just a unique experience altogether. The staff is trained in the continental or European standard of etiquette and service, and they are. So, again, it is not like your I mean, you could think of your highest rated American restaurant, and it's not that. It's leaps and bounds. Above and beyond that, because of the culture that we provide, we provide mentorship as well as training.
Speaker 2:When you work here, you become a part of our family and you are brought into the fold of how we do things and how to arrange your life in a proper manner, and we don't veer away from it at all. We are all most of us here are Catholic, and we do lead with our faith and we are not shy about it at all, and this is again a bit of a different thing for most Americans, especially nowadays. You come in, remember, you are coming into our home, so this is not a thing where things are going to be mainstream or commercial. They're very much private and you're coming in. Most bookings are here for two or three nights, but you can also come and dine here, which is what the lovely host had done not too long ago. It's called the dining experience, but so, yeah, I want to stop right there and I don't know if I've answered your question or not. I got on.
Speaker 1:No, and I love it. I love it by all means, man, don't feel like you have to stop or limit yourself. I just love hearing you especially expressing your unique, especially expressing your unique, not only location there, but your unique position. I've been in the travel industry for a long time and again, this is the first. I mean, your place is the first place I've been to that offers an experience that really takes you back in time.
Speaker 1:I like that and, yes, I'm going to plug the book, because the people that subscribe and watch this channel have heard me plug this book before, which is Unreasonable Hospitality. It's a phenomenal book. I highly recommend it and I'm glad you are enjoying it, because when I went to Smithport Castle, immediately that book came to mind, because you provide what I refer to as unreasonable hospitality. It is a phenomenal experience, something that I highly, highly recommend. And when the hurricane came and I saw that it affected you guys, this is why I reached out and I say I need to have you guys on Instagram. I know the magnitude of work that it's going to take to get you guys back up and running, and when I saw that you guys are going to be opening your doors again in November. I'm like I got to get Benjamin on because I need to hear the story. I want my viewers to hear the story, so can you describe the? First of all, let's begin with describing the extent of damages that the hurricane caused to you, to your property, sure.
Speaker 2:So I should first start off by saying on that sort of solemn week, my parents decided it would be a jolly good idea to visit Spruce Pine to see not only my son, who they've only seen once before, but also to see the town in its glory during autumn. So imagine now being here and having your parents, who I've only get the opportunity to see once or twice a year. So I do go all out, as they say. So, um, they've, um, you know they. I think they landed in um, the, the airport the name escapes me now but in Knoxville. So we stayed there for a day or two and then made our way here, and on that night in the morning we've got different rooms in different locations, but this room was the kid's room and we strategically placed the kid's room beneath grade, so underground more or less, because well, it's a kid's room and they're loud. So I was there with my son and in the morning I get a call from my mother who says you know there's a storm about and might you take a look? And I heard nothing because I was underground. I was thinking there's nothing there, go to sleep. You know, you're just panicking. You're from California, you know, be made of sterner stuff, woman. But then she called me again and she thought are you sure, because it's different. And then the bedroom door. My wife then said, hey, the bedroom door is shaking. Actually, no, I take it back Before she said that. She said the front door is shaking and I said the front door to the castle. The thing is like a she found, well, a pond, a giant puddle of water in a fairly large room, in a 1,200-square-foot room, and so she comes downstairs and says there's water there. And I go, oh, bloody hell. So I make my way up, you know, out of the underground room, the kids' room, and go to the foyer and I look out and I thought, well, that's not good. I was looking at the trees and it was. I will never forget it. It was such a rather peculiar thing because the trees that were two or three feet in circumference the diameter, I should say were almost 40 degree or 50 degree turned, and I thought that's odd. So I go now this is a four story castle, so I go to the second floor where I could get a better look, and then through the courtyard I saw this was a place where we do weddings and so on. So I saw literally halves of trees large big trees in the courtyard, and furniture being thrown about and I thought, well, this is definitely not good.
Speaker 2:Make my way up to the third floor, where you get sort of the grand view of things. You could view the Eastern Continental Divide from this floor, you could view Mount Mitchell from this floor, you could view the Blue Ridge Parkway. From this view. We've got, in my opinion, one of the most unperverted views in all of the world. It's so, the view is so brilliant that I saw, you could see, the tops of trees, and I looked out, sort of gobsmacked at the rhythm and harmony of which the trees were all swaying back and forth, in different now we found out in different isolated tornadoes, but they were moving in such a way although this might sound a bit odd to say beautifully, but also in the most biblical, yet apocalyptic way. They were moving in such this is my fourth sort of you know autumn and winter here, so I've seen it not like this, of course, and so it gave me pause, to say the least.
Speaker 2:The way that they were moving was I don't care who you are, you would be scared. So I make my way to my parents' room, but I had to save face. I remember going in there and thinking, oh yes, this is quite fine, but in my mind I was thinking, it's jolly well, it's not fine. This is where the windows come out, and then we could hear the trees cracking. Now we are well over 100 acres, so in fact we are nearly getting close to 200 acres. So the amount of trees that were snapping and the noise that they make reminds me it was a war zone and, having lived through a war when I was born in the Middle East and lived there, the sounds were uncanny.
Speaker 2:And then the trees were falling in all sorts of different ways that were quite unique for the area. Some were just being pushed over and the giant roots some six, eight and 10, ten feet in diameter, were laid there to where we could see some being snapped straight in half, some um electric poles being um snapped straight in half, and some trees falling on the lines and bringing them down, and it's sort of a domino effect. But, um, and so then you've had, you've got that, uh, and of course you've had the rain that was you've got that, and of course you've had the rain that was literally sideways. So the castle started leaking in places where you're thinking how are you even leaking from this area? How did the water even get in?
Speaker 2:So then we've, you know, we've got that, we've managed to get the entire family, you know, because I had to walk a fine line of not frightening my parents. So but still taking charge is, you know, here I am welcoming my family into my home, but I need to protect them at all costs. So my son and my wife were downstairs in a room beneath grade, and so I took my mother there and my father, who was thinking well, you're surely not scared, so why should I be scared? And I took my mother there and my father, who was thinking well, you're surely not scared, so why should I be scared? And I'm thinking, should I just tell this man I am scared and let's just get a move on? So anyway, I finally got him to go down there and now that now the power went out after the telephones all went out and we.
Speaker 2:So just a bit about the estate itself. Again, some staff can and does reside on the property as well. There are other rooms outside of just the building of the actual castle where they could reside that night. One particular staff member, mr Bradford, who is a head footman, was down sort of a quarter mile down, was down sort of a quarter mile down, but where he's staying it's where the vineyard is and there's a building there that's got two bedrooms, and the number of trees surrounding that building in comparison to the castle is substantial. You can't even compare. I mean, that thing is quite literally in the forest and so he has no running water at this point and he's got no electricity. And I was thinking I don't even know if he's got food because he works on coming up to the main house for food. It's sort of a place to crash, unless he's staying there for a week or two at a time, anyway.
Speaker 2:So I tried to make my way out of there and I opened the door and the winds were nearly 145 miles an hour. These aren't my words, these were the words of the locals who posted about them online. So just imagine 145 miles an hour. Ok, you know we are nearly 4000 feet up. Spruce Pine, as a town, is 2000 feet up more or less, and we are 4000 feet up. Pine is a town, is 2,000 feet up more or less, and we are 4,000 feet up. So I opened the door and I thought either I'm going to get bashed by a tree and the property at this point was completely wrecked and I was like how are we going to get to this?
Speaker 2:fellow who's down there, surrounded and possibly scared. He's got no internet and no telephone and no electricity, and trees are falling about um so. So I thought you know, we, we have the side by side and I was thinking, do I take my car anyway? I take my side side by side now let me interrupt.
Speaker 2:This is during the storm yes, because I'm yes, because I had to go rescue my fellow man. I know if anything were to happen, this would not be a scratch. I stayed in that building when we first moved here for about a year, so I know exactly the obstacles that he faces and the challenges there. I mean, it's quite literally, there's a giant tree every five feet planted around you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember. I think you showed me that place.
Speaker 2:Yes, and they're old. I mean, you know, this is not small trees. So anyway, I tried to go, and then I looked down in the road and I thought there's no possible way I could get anything there. I have to go by foot. So then I'm thinking I'm not dressed for it because I just I was in my pajamas and I just put on a bathrobe and I went down to try to rescue my friend, and so I couldn't make it in that. So I came, I came up and I wanted to get properly dressed.
Speaker 2:Windbreakers and so on, and, and, and then I was thinking you know, what do I bring to this thing? You know, do it. We've got plenty of guns. Is that what I need? No, you can't fight a storm with guns. What do I need? Flashlights? I'm like what for? I didn't. You know what do you even bring? So then I was like umbrella, it's raining. But I was like the wind is 145. I don't know what to bring. You know, I was like, oh, bugger it, let me just go, let me just go out there. I put a scarf around my face, you know. And I went down and you know the old soul in me I had an AR-15 behind me. I don't know why. I don't know who I was going to attack. I make a turn and I see him and he had walked up up and it took him 45 minutes and let me tell you, normally that's a 12 minute walk it took him 45 minutes to walk and he was all you know it's wet and you know, obviously shaken by it all.
Speaker 2:And I was thinking, oh my God. And I was like the first thing, I go, I go, where's Zoltan? We've got a big German shepherd and he's like, oh, where's Zoltan, I go, we have to go back and get him. So we waited about 30 minutes for the storm to subside a bit and we made our way down there where I got a firsthand look and experience. So imagine, you know this was like. It's like a movie, because you know we have to crawl down beneath some trees and then climb some trees and go down some trees and move some trees, and then a 12-minute walk turned out to be again another 45-minute walk. And now we're actually struggling. We're crawling like army crawl, we're trying to get to my dog. And then we get there and I can't make this up.
Speaker 2:I've got a photo. He's got a doghouse and a run and the largest tree on the property smashes his run. This thing was like four feet in diameter. It completely wrecks his whole run. He survives and he's out there like where the bloody hell is everybody and he's a where the bloody hell is everybody, and you know, and so and he and you know, and he's a a force to be reckoned with 140 plus pound german shepherd and he's like, yes, I, I don't want to be here.
Speaker 2:So we got him and on the way back we we heard another tree fall and it was near the chicken coop which is, um, sort of cleverly called the royal cluckery, and I thought we just built that thing a year ago and I thought, damn, is that thing crushed? And then, you know, we're looking up to see if we're going to get crushed on our way. But we go there and then the run is half crushed and then all the chickens are about and they're like you know, they're all scared and going everywhere. And I thought and the survival in me was thinking because, right straight away I thought, thank goodness, we've got chickens to eat. You know, one egg is roughly six to eight grams of protein. I was thinking to how many we had and we were going to produce. But, um, there was a hole in the. The created a massive crater in the run and they've managed to get out. And I thought, well, it's a dice roll at this point if they're going to go back, but we are literally in a forest so they would be eaten. And, sure enough, we lost 90% of our flock, wow. So I went back later and managed to get some of them in and I locked the door so they wouldn't go in the run, because I, we, I knew we needed food. Now we are, we are preppers here, and so we I typically keep food for one month or two months at a time, and you know getting into what foods we keep. I could share all that information, but I had now more mouths to feed. I typically keep that kind of food for my wife and I are now our newborn, so now I had my mother, my father, mr Bradford, to feed, and so, anyway, it was quite something.
Speaker 2:We were trapped. Our drive is roughly one mile long, and so we were trapped, trapped. One of our handymen, who lives down the street, sort of managed to come up, um, a few hours later, uh, during the evening, and, um, we devised a plan to chainsaw some of the drives so we can get our vehicles out. Now we've, we are, we are on well water, but it's a bit complicated how we, how we do our well water. We're also on city water. We store city water, we use that first and then, if needed, we go to our well. We just so happened one hour before to load up on city water 1,200 gallons or so. So we've had 1,200 gallons drinkable and showerable and so on. But getting to our generators and getting it all wired up took some time because we had to make certain adjustments, but then we finally managed to get out two days later.
Speaker 2:But you know, we are so utterly fortunate. You know what can I say? We were trapped in a castle, america's only five-star castle hotel. This is like being stranded on the side of the road in a brand new Rolls-Royce. Others had it way worse and still do. I completely sympathize and we are helping the local community in any way shape or form possible, either through donations which we've made, any way shape or form possible, either through donations which we've made um, offering showers, water, food, internet, and we've got starlink. That's what I'm using now. You know, um at&t. I don't know why they're dragging their feet. It's, it's been um, you know, it's been a minute. So they, they need to get to get a hop on no, it's a start of all.
Speaker 1:I got a lot of questions to ask, but just to touch on really quick on Starling. I've been a fan of Starling for a while. It's what I use in this particular property as well, and so I'm from Miami. We're used to hurricanes. I've been through tons, tons of I don't want to say tons, but I've been through, just off the top of my head, at least five major hurricanes, so we're kind of used to it. You guys definitely are not used to it. So walk me back through the process, through your process. You know again, when your mother called you and told you, hey, I think there's a storm I know because you guys are not used to it you weren't thinking anything of it. But when you actually saw, oh my God, this is crazy, walk me through that process again in terms of some of the steps that you were thinking in your head hey, we need to do x, y and z well, I think in we we me in particular I treated this as as though it was a war zone.
Speaker 2:What would we do in a war? Um, you know, the first thing in my mind, right away I thought where the flashlights, um, anything that we have that's solar powered and water. So that was the very first thing. I wasn't really too concerned that the castle would collapse. You know, this is a block building, it's not wood, so I was fairly certain it would survive and stay intact. I guess the process for me was first and foremost protecting my family who was here on holiday, who was trying to. They were trying to have a jolly good time seeing the town and then they were presented with this out of left field. And, of course, as you said, that not only I I'm not used to it either, but none of the locals here were used to it. I mean flooding and category four and high winds, and you know certain creeks. You know we've just to touch on this. You know we've got close to five streams on the property. Some of the streams are fairly small, 10 inches, some of them. One of the larger ones is like a foot or two foot. It's now a river. What does that make our property now A riverfront.
Speaker 2:Everything that you knew conceptually about your territory sort of went out the window and you had to learn rather quickly and make the adjustments. So, um, straight away I thought about getting, um, you know the out the it's basically the power converter getting a power converter, um, to try to pump out water for drinking. I knew right away that we had at least one flush in all of the, in all of the lavatories. So, um, those are the things. And then I promptly went to the shed where we have food Now, obviously in the refrigerators. I knew we've had about six to eight hours to eat the perishables. But, you know, in all of this time I'm thinking I want to get the generators up, but I don't want to leave my family, so there had to be like a day or two of. I know we've got generators, but I need to go and gas them up and hook them up and do all sorts of things, or do I get to the perishables first, feed the family, make things comfortable and arrange the lighting in such a way where it works? If anybody wanted to shower right away, you know I've got a, so he's having his diapers changed every hour. Where are the wipes? Where's his food? Where's his parents? I make all his food. It's not like he's eating, you know, store-bought food. This is a child who's never eaten a store-bought egg. So now I needed to make all that good thing. Obviously, the kitchen is commercial, and so we've got propane. It's not electric, so, and I thought about what I needed to do, and so all of the fireplaces in the castle have been retrofitted to be propane. But I needed to now reserve the propane for other, more emergency uses, and so I brought logs in and placed them on top of all, inside the fireplaces that are propane naturally, and we decided to use those.
Speaker 2:I didn't know how long this was going to last. How do you know if it's one day or one year? I don't know. I don't know. The devastation is beyond my territory, beyond our fiefdom here, so, but I could tell you it was odious. So that was the plan.
Speaker 2:I thought about treating this as a war. I didn't know what was going on, you know. You also don't know about if now this sounds completely paranoid, but that's the person that I am. And, um, there's another book for you. I think it's. I can't remember the name precisely. I did read it once. I think it's called only the paranoid survive, only the paranoid succeed.
Speaker 2:I can't remember it's's one of those things, but the so the paranoid person in me thought you know where is this happening?
Speaker 2:Is this happening just in this area down to Florida, because I knew the storm was coming in from the Gulf?
Speaker 2:Does it start from Africa?
Speaker 2:Is it?
Speaker 2:Is this like half of the United States that has been affected?
Speaker 2:And then I thought what a way to take advantage of this place, I don't know, both from a military standpoint, from a foreign country standpoint, to internal standpoint. Then this was an election season, all right, is it a storm? And then also an EMP bomb? Is it a storm? And also somebody messed with the water supply, like all of these things? Because you know we live in trying times and you can't trust anything that you see or hear. And so I was thinking about all of those things, so that further paranoia, in addition to the natural disaster, added a sense of I don't know. Everything seems so ghoulish and you couldn't trust anyone or anything. And then I know enough to know that if you don't have power for three, four, five days, um, it will literally create such an enormous amount of chaos and destruction, which will then, in turn, bring out violence, um and all and all the sort. If people can't heat their homes, or have shelter, or have food, I would say that in less than a week, people will turn to the animalistic side. Unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's backtrack a little bit. Do you guys currently have or did you guys have which I thought you did, because it's so uncommon a policy related to a natural disaster like this that you can implement for not only yourself but your staff?
Speaker 2:more importantly, we do, but it's more for snowstorms. For example, we do weddings here. Most of the wedding bookings are friday check-in, saturday wedding, sunday checkout. Well, if there's a storm that happens, or just if you get, you know, three, four, five inches of snow, um, then the then the sort of the protocol is the staff can stay here, they're housed here, they can shower here, eat here and do whatever, call their family through our starling phones in case they don't have any, and so on, um, so we do have a bit of a policy on that.
Speaker 2:Clearly, the policy has been now vastly expanded to where I could tell you one thing, and I don't want to, I'm going too far here, but I want to just plant the seed. This is never happening to me again. It's never happening to me again and we are so, we are so prepared. And now you know, of course, if there's a typhoon, now you're throwing me a curveball. I can't, I don't know what to deal with that. But if there's any kind of storm, I'm sort of this um, you know, champion on the hill, um, yelling, bring it on. But you know, obviously I'm saying it all tongue-in-cheek, but uh, yes, we do have a policy and that and, but obviously nowhere near this, but now everything's just been so expanded upon. You know, we now keep food up to six months at a time, because I don't know how many people I need to feed.
Speaker 2:You know, the only thing I was thinking was imagine we had a full house. No, so look how lucky we've got, whenever my family. So this is a sort of a bizarre business. I'm in Unlike most people. Whenever they want to go on holiday or go somewhere, they request days off or they manage it in such a way where the manager and then staff will handle their affairs. Here my wife and I play such a pivotal role that we simply, as well-trained and well-equipped and as brilliant as our staff is, they cannot manage the estate without us. So we block days, and so when my family comes to visit, we will block a week. There's nothing going on. Maybe staff is here to clean up. That's what Mr Bradford was doing. He was in fact, you know, playing the footman here while my parents were, you know, bringing their luggage up, making sure that they are comfortable, putting a fire on and so on. He just so happened to be here.
Speaker 2:So we did not have any other staff here because we were only planning to stay, so get this. We were only planning to stay for two days here and then going off to the montage in Palmetto Bluff, south Carolina, for two days, but they were closed as well. I don't know if they actually closed, I think it sort of passed them, but they had emailed us and said here you go, there's a refund. So we've got a storm coming in with? Okay, well, whatever, thanks, we've got our own problems. Okay, okay, well, whatever, thanks, we've got our own problems. Okay, not going there. So that's why we didn't have full staff here. But imagine, imagine if my parents weren't here and we were entertaining. There was a wedding and typically, you know, 15, 20, 25 people here, plus staff, 80 people. Like you just never know. What was I to do? How do I get 80 people out of here? How do I feed 80 people? How do I, you know, provide showers for 80 people? How can I provide lavatories for 80 people? How do I?
Speaker 1:Yeah, once again, you know I'm very religious, I believe God always, always has a path for us and it was a blessing that your parents were coming, because you were able to block that off and nothing. You know, you didn't have to deal with that, although you still have to deal a lot, you know, protecting your family, uh, dealing with the storm, but compounding that with having guests and more staff, it would have been insane. And here's an interesting note During the storm, again, the storm came through Florida first, so and I have close friends in your area, so I was communicating back and forth with them, and then, as it was passing through Florida, you know, I wrote to them saying, hey, we're fine. And they were like we're getting a lot of wind, a lot of rain. And here's my ignorance, because, again, usually doesn't happen in your area. I'm like you guys are in the mountains, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1:The flooding is going to happen further, closer to Asheville. Boy, was I wrong? Boy, was I wrong? I get a call from Corey Prince. He owns a short-term property management company out of Asheville and he has properties that he manages around Spruce Pine, in that area. I get a call from him about I think it was at 1130 at night and he tells me, matt, this is getting really, really ugly.
Speaker 1:Again, unbeknownst to me and unbeknownst to the world, it got more than ugly. So, like I said, you know my heart goes out to you guys, because I know it had to be something wild, because this really really was unexpected. And the amount of water that you guys got because, again, for those that are not familiar with hurricanes, the winds usually are a factor, but the most dangerous part is the water, and you know all you have to do is look at the news and see how roads were washed away it's just crazy how much water you guys got. Now, you guys being so high up, the flooding wasn't as bad for you guys up there because you are up but, like you said, you now have waterfront property and and it's crazy, yeah, I, I would say this to you.
Speaker 2:You know, um, although, yes, we did not have the flooding, as you mentioned. So, a bit touching back as to if there were guests here and in the time that the storm was happening. If you recall, during the initial introduction I had mentioned all of the activities and, in addition to the amenities that we provide in some of the more rather popular activities are the cave tours and the archery. Are the cave tours and the archery? Now, it is an absolute miracle that, yes, of course, no one was here, but had they been here, the times that the storm was going on is literally the time window of when people go hiking. I must tell you they would not have survived, wow, because you can't get to our caves now. They would not have survived because you can't get to our caves now.
Speaker 2:Um, the, the amount of tree fall, the and devastation, and the landslides too. I mean, although we didn't get the, the amount of water, that the, the lower lands dots, such as ashville and mars hill and marion, and those places, the being high up whenever you you've got a bit of a landslide because of the inertia and the mass and and the sheer volume of the tree fall and the weight of it it takes things down even further. So we've got four landslides um on the property that we are working on as we speak the main drive, the valet road um, and sort of behind the self-parking. But there's a lot of landslides that are in the trails of the caves. So it's all by the grace of God that we were spared this rather odious experience.
Speaker 2:Experience, I have to say again, this is all another miracle and I don't mind giving him a plug. He's a rather good neighbor. There was a Mexican fellow by the name of Israel who lives a bit walking distance past our property, sort of about two miles down, and he owns a construction company and I knew that he had heavy machinery. And at that moment, well, the capitalist in me thought I need to get a hold of that guy. But I'm sure others are trying to reach him but alas, there is no cell service.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask you that.
Speaker 2:I get on the Polaris and I drive as far as I could, and then I have to book it on foot and I show up to his home and he's outside, sort of assessing his situation, and I thought, oh my dear chap, whatever it costs, do come up, bring all your heavy equipment. And I was like I don't know if you can get your crewmen out. And so, and he had the heart of gold on this fellow, he was already starting to clean just the main road getting up to the castle gujus. Uh, he, you know, this is a person who's got I don't know 10 chainsaws, an excavator, backhoe, tractors and dump truck, and he's got it all you can. And I, and, and then I was thinking, does, does he have enough petrol? Um, and so I asked him and he goes, I'll come up, uh, first thing tomorrow, because by this time it was afternoon. Um and uh, most of his things were diesel. So I, I have this military grade generator and it takes diesel. So now the million dollar question do I pillage the generator so that he could siphon all the diesel out and essentially rescue us At the risk of us going off of the smaller generators that we've had, because this other one is a giant military-grade generator. It could power up the whole castle. So I went ahead and made the decision yes, siphon it all out and get us going.
Speaker 2:Because at this moment I thought it's not fair that my parents need to be subjected to this. I need to get them out of here and manage to get a flight arranged, which took getting a flight arranged for them took like three or four days, which was you know, just think about it for the listeners you can go online right now and get a flight in 20 minutes or less. So this took three or four days. We had to go and because, oh so now the Starlink wasn't working because I couldn't power it up, because I needed the small generators to power up the refrigerators. So you know, every time I wanted to make a call, I had to go unplug. I mean, it was a feat in itself. Anyway, I managed to do that. And now, how do I get them? Asheville Airport is done for. Do I go to Charlotte? We didn't know the road. It's two hours away. Asheville is one hour from here. Go to Charlotte. We didn't know the road from. It's two hours away. Asheville is one hour from here, charlotte is two. I didn't know the way there.
Speaker 2:There was a scene I want to bring your audience to imagine. So there was a place that this whole county went to go make phone calls and it was um past the Walmart, um, a bit more. As you started to make your way towards Little Switzerland. The scene looked like it was something out of the Walking Dead. Imagine a thousand people or more, you know, beat up by the storm, scared and cold, and checking in on their loved ones storm, scared and cold, and checking in on their loved ones, only to be met with the most spotty of signals trying so desperately to reach their family, to tell them how they are doing, to check in on them, to arrange for fuel or food. So you know I'm there and I don't know how I learned that there was service there. Somebody had told me you know, word gets around Made our way there and ran into all sorts of members of our community whom we know and love, everyone from the local baker to butcher, to the general store manager, to the restauranteurs, to neighbors, to even members who were guests at our castle.
Speaker 2:At one point I have to say I was as solemn as a church. It wasn't a sight I want to see again. The conversations were on the spectrum of people were certainly weeping on the phone and people laughing on the phone when they found out that all was well, and then others who received the most unfortunate news. But anyway, we used to go there to make calls and I think people did that for the better part of a week to 10 days and it wasn't like the, the service was good. And then somebody would say, oh, the community center in Burnsville's got service and you need to get on the Wi-Fi, and I know the person who runs it. So here's the Wi-Fi password for Wi-Fi calling.
Speaker 2:I mean, this was the level of desperation that we had to go through, so it wasn't a glorious time by any means. Well, anyway, I couldn't bear the thought of keeping my mom and dad here a minute longer than they needed to be. They didn't sign up for this. So I'm leaving out so many personal little hiccups, like how I had this rental car, because we were in Knoxville and I took in. I took in my S class to get serviced and I got a rental car and, as you know, you can't take a rental car over state lines.
Speaker 2:So I have them thinking, thinking like I stolen the car and I'm like, oh, you know, not now. You know I don't want to go there and wring your neck now, I didn't steal your bloody car, you know I can't get to you, so, anyway, so I, oh, no, no, no, here's the best part. Are you ready? I get a rental car, they, they tell me, um, and if you go to a dealer, they want to, you know, pry you off on, you know, sort of this, the introductory cars. Well, if I'm going to turn in, you know, I, I had more people. Basically, I'm trying to get a larger vehicle because I have more people. I don't know the model of this mercedes, you know people can look it up, but it's completely electric. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, this has been a complete. So I'm now the stupidest person on earth. Because I wanted to get an electric vehicle the day before the storm, because I wanted to go and, you know, zip around in it. And why not? It's an electric vehicle and it's a 400 mile, um, whatever charge, and I have a stroller, food, my parents luggage, my luggage, my wife is in car seats, so I'm like I need a big suv anyway. I got that and boy was that the stupidest decision. Because, um, obviously, if there's one thing everybody wanted here was electricity.
Speaker 2:I think they wanted it more than drinking water anyway, so now I'm thinking are they going to arrest me because I've stolen a car? Essentially, and like you know, it's because it was in tennessee. I crossed state lines, uh and but I don't have now enough charge to get back. How am I going to charge this car? So the viewer might think a generator. All right, I'm not stupid. I plugged it in. Ask me how long it told me for it to charge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not going to work.
Speaker 2:Six bloody days. It said six days, and so I go, because you know I've got 110. And the generator couldn't do the 220.
Speaker 1:that you'd need to charge a vehicle.
Speaker 2:It was so. Anyway, another person that we know here goes by the name of Ron and he's a handyman slash builder, but, moreover, he's a bit of a genius. He's the one who built the royal clockery on the property and is continuously building things here. But anyway, he ends up, we get a hold of him and he macgyvers. Does anybody under everyone understands this reference, right? He?
Speaker 2:He macgyvers the way to make it work and chart and and, and he, the wires are sticking up. And he's like I've got a charge. I'm like, okay, and he's got the wi-fi to work. And the wires are sticking up. And he's like I've got to charge. I'm like, okay, and he's got the wifi to work. And you know, it's like a piece of wire being held together by a pen, and then there's chewing gum, and then there's a Christmas tree holding up a telephone and a light bulb and I'm like, okay, fine, you know he rigged this contraption together. You know he rigged this contraption together, managed to get them out. I do want to share another. I don't know, do you have any questions or can I share this?
Speaker 1:No, no no, keep going. Share the stories. I've got questions, but share the stories.
Speaker 2:All right. So my family, we've got a large, loving family who we converse on a daily basis, a hundred times a day in a group chat. I'm sure I'm sure you've got the same. I've got two of them, one on on my wife's side and one on my my side. So on my wife's side they had no idea this was going on because they weren't here visiting and you know they're all the way in wine country, california, so they were not.
Speaker 2:You know, you hear about these things but it's like, oh right, I care about you 30th on my list at the moment and they weren't putting two and two together because every winter when they ask how was the storm, we thought we're outside, it's beautiful, we're here and it sort of doesn't go through Western North Carolina anyway. But my family knew that my parents were there and we're all very close, so they're trying to text, call, email. And we're all very close, so they're trying to text, call email. You know, send letter by raven and all sorts of things and they couldn't get to us. So, um, you know, but they've had internet. So, but you know, they've got, um, all of these facebook groups like I don't know what they're called, let's talk spruce pine, uncensored, and burnsville hub, and let's Talk Burnsville, I don't know all these things. So now my family. Again, they had the means too. So they are calling in private helicopter companies to try to charter us out of here by airlift. They're chartering in, you know, like bulletproof ex-military companies, like Blackwater, like trying to do an emergency rescue. I mean, they've contacted everyone and anyone and one of them went as far as and I find this to be quite amusing now, but you know, in those let's Talk whatever Spruce Pine pages or something One of my sisters what a darling she wrote, could somebody check?
Speaker 2:Could somebody please check on my family who is stranded in Smithmore Castle? I've got an elderly father and a newborn stranded in Smithmore Castle. I've got an elderly father and a newborn, and so now just remember for a minute. So you might think, well, what's wrong with that? But I could just think about a reader reading that comment and thinking, oh, shut up, they're stranded in a castle.
Speaker 2:Meanwhile, people's homes are being, you know, flooded and completely destroyed. So now I screenshotted that. You know, now we can make light of things and you know, because that's how you have to track on. Otherwise, you know, there's no sense in being gloomy about it, but I took a screenshot of it. Her comment had no likes and no comments, but everybody else, when they were asking to check for their grandparents or their family, everyone was like, yeah, of course, sure thing, yes, of course I will check. No one was checking and it just sort of you know, took me back to I don't know. It's just, it's all good, it's all good and fun. Now, when we made our way out of here, the sheer destruction in the site that we saw going from Spruce Pine, bakersville area, bulardine area, then making our way to Johnson City, knoxville. That was a war zone, there's no other way to put it the sheer destruction.
Speaker 1:Because obviously everything was blown away. How were the roads? Because I know there were many roads that got washed away.
Speaker 2:The roads were unrecognizable. I mean, we were taking back roads, we were taking the back roads of the back roads. You know I was off-roading at one point. I mean, you know, and also normally there is no cell service over there. So now you've got where there's normally no cell service obviously no cell service. You've got the detours and everything else in your way.
Speaker 2:It was a complete war zone. The amount of of debris, uh, that we saw. We saw homes and sheds in the road, vehicles, um, on top of the guardrail, flips upside down on top of guardrails, some that you know were floated. You can't describe these things. It was like, you know, it was like CGI, and then you saw state troopers and sheriffs and law enforcement detouring you every which way.
Speaker 2:So sometimes you drive, you drive 10 miles, miles where typically a quarter mile would have done to get to your destination. So you know, getting from here to Johnson City is an hour and 20 minutes more or less. Normally this was like a three hour journey getting there and then you drive somewhere just to be sent back, and then it's not like, and then you have to. You know you're constantly doing the math. Do I have enough petrol In my case? Is there enough charge in this stupid thing? Uh, and so now I am completely against electric cars. I'm sorry, elon musk, I'm just, I'm terribly sorry. I've lived it. Um no, not practical at all. They're practical if all things considered are going well. But anyway, um yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. I mean, that's a good point. I have said that for a long time now. When everything is hunky-dory, you know what? We don't have any hurricanes. Electric cars are good, but when we don't, there's nothing more reliable than that gas guzzler that a lot of people are complaining about, but we truly need it. And another prime example and I tell this people this all the time as well we're so dependent on our devices, particularly our phone. And how long were you guys out of?
Speaker 2:cell service Enough to where we got used to it. Oddly, you know what we started doing. You're going to think this would be a bit strange. I think we started as a family sitting there and we whipped out calligraphy pens and some parchment and we started thinking about because you know you're sitting in the dark most of the time and you have all this, you know it's so quiet, you, you can hear your heartbeat and we're thinking we should re-up on our cursive. We're like what we're like yes, let's all sit as a family under candlelight and write cursive.
Speaker 2:Now again, I know for some of the people listening, they thought, well, at least you had a place to sit and shelter in and a roof above. You had to sit and do that. But I can't control these things. I had to make do what we had. And so we started doing that. We were without cell service for the better part of a week, the better part of a week, but we could end up, you know, going to those places and getting shoddy service and setting up Starlink, which if I needed to make a call, it would take me like an hour because I have to go and move things to just plug in Starlink, did you guys?
Speaker 1:have Starlink before this or you got it after.
Speaker 2:We had it before. Again, being preppers, we've had it before. It works tremendously well. It works better than anything out here. So although I just spoke ill of Tesla, I want to speak highly of the Starlink.
Speaker 2:So I guess it's the same pocket in the end. But I know we sort of had to make do with it all. And what was more interesting was my father had a different company, my mother had a different company, I have a company with my wife and Mr Bradford had a different company. And the the rather unforgiving part about this whole thing and my my main quarrel that I have is with the cell phone companies. There is no answer, a good answer that I've heard, as to why they were all down.
Speaker 2:I've heard things like well, they share one tower. Well, I'm sorry, but how stupid is that? If you are Verizon and I'm AT&T, it would have sold jolly well that we could share a. But wouldn't I, being in business, have a tower that blankets over the tower in case that when the power goes out here all the time in this area you know, because they've got electric poles they don't have lines buried, so power goes out Wouldn't you, being, if you're my competitor, have a backup plan for your backup plan? And the fact that none of them did that was rather peculiar. I don't know if I'm fully convinced that that portion was natural.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, I'm never convinced of that either, especially in today's day and age. And you're right as to if I have a cell phone company. Now back to their defense. A lot of these smaller cell phone companies, like, for example, my neighbor he's a retired CEO for T-Mobile and they actually rent PowerSpace because it becomes finding locations to put antennas becomes very difficult because of regulation. Let's not go down that road, because we could really spend a lot of time talking about that yeah, it's a separate podcast because I firmly believe that we, with all the advances that we have and all the resources that we have in the US, we have become very reliant and dependent on other entities. That we shouldn't be. But going back to you guys, the storm passes now You've assessed the situation. Walk us through your process with your team in terms of what were your priorities in rebuilding and starting to get everything back in order.
Speaker 2:Yes, so this takes us to the sort of final epilogue. Yes, so this takes us to the sort of final epilogue and it mainly at that. And on this property in particular, there's quite a few things that could be done by man as opposed to heavy machinery. And that was the challenge that we had, because, you know, when I rang the Lord of the castle and told him of the destruction and submitted all the photos, anyway, the photos weren't getting to him, so he was thinking are you sure I'm like, yeah, I got to send you photos.
Speaker 2:Anyway, when they finally started trickling to him and for him, getting from Florida to here, he had to charter a private plane and landing in a private airport. That's a separate conversation, but formulating a plan also revolved around getting his brilliance and his pragmatic mind over here to help assist in the recovery and rebuilding the. The most of our staff um had to go tend to their own issues and their own problems at home, which we were glad um that they can go and do, because, but again, most of the things that we needed to be done on the property required heavy machinery. It wasn't so much, um you know, go blow some leaves. Um, you know, we we had some windows that were that blew out and things. But the lord of the castle is one of the most handiest of men and he came on three or four, five days later and we devised a plan to tackle it on and with excavators and tractors and things, using our neighbor, using the handymen that we had working on the property, chainsawing we were all chainsawing. I learned how to chainsaw. I'm learning all of these new trades and crafts that I never needed to know before. But no matter how many, if you brought me 20 men right now with chainsaws, I would tell you to bring me 20 more. There's just. There's just so much, so much.
Speaker 2:And so the plan was devised. First and foremost was to clear the driveways. Clear the driveways, make it drivable, because we also needed to make it drivable for the, for the energy company to make their way up, for the sheriffs to make their way up to, for the sheriffs to make their way up, for FEMA and whoever else that needed to come and check on the property. By this time, the military was here, everyone was here the Army, corps of Engineers, the military, maybe perhaps the Red Cross, and so on. So the plan was to do the road first and foremost. But you have to be careful because you didn't know what wires were live. So when you were moving things about, there is low voltage and high voltage wires everywhere, and we were not the wisest to which one we were to move. We wanted to stay away. Transformers were all over the place, propane tanks in this area that are installed above ground. You know. Ours were just missed by some trees, thankfully, but our main one is buried, so we were quite fortunate there. So the plan was to get the roads.
Speaker 2:Secondly, the plan was to get the generators properly arranged in such a way where it wasn't a nuisance for us to be comfortable enough to want to work. Because you know, it's like if you're taken back to the caveman days and you spent all of your time hunting and gathering, which is essentially what it was getting to. You know, it was like if we are to run out of food, there's so many deer on the property and chickens and we're thinking about what it is that we ought to do, and getting water bucketed and showering with buckets and doing all of that, you expend so much energy that you literally, you literally have no more energy to for general cleanup. So, um, we needed to make ourselves a bit more comfortable, and so that's sort of the plan.
Speaker 2:First, getting internet going. Could we order parts, which we then learned we could not because usps, fedex and ups they were not delivering. So then it was like do we rob parts from other generators that are, you know, broken and other things from water heat? We were robbing parts from other things to try to get things going. Finally we did that and, fast forward the tape a bit, we were able to rent an excavator and tractors from an equipment yard down the street and we're getting our way with the road Now. The road is becoming seemingly a larger task than we had hoped for because the landslide was so much and other people who had landslide issues, and apparently there's now a shortage of fill dirt.
Speaker 2:Um, so there's that rocks and rocks and actually people to do it. Yes, you know, I mean, it's one thing, how many people could drive a big bucket um tractor and then having a dump trucks to dump it? So you're running into that issue. We are running into that issue now. So we've got that. But we are still in full stride and are ready to go for November 1st.
Speaker 2:We do need this bit of a soft open. We want to, you know, hit the ground running. We want to get in again. We rather enjoy our work. We love it here. We hit the ground running. We want to get in again. We rather enjoy our work. We love it here. We love serving the people here. We love the people who we work with.
Speaker 2:Although it might not, the road might not be 100%, I will get it as near 100% as possible. We want to open up a Smithmore 2.0. We don't want to be in a situation where we are constantly having to make excuses for our lacking. I can't control whether the community is around me that is open or not, because the most unfortunate part about it, too, is when people do come to visit us. They like to patronize the businesses around us, and if they are open or not, I don't know. I know that we certainly will be and ready to take you on with open arms and are delighted to do so. We've got quite a bit of weddings in November and in December and so on and quite a bit of bookings. So we are all eagerly waiting to get back on track and opening up our private home to everyone to enjoy. I don't know how many people are going to be in that mindset, in that gear, but I think it does something psychologically. If a sense of normality is placed back on everyone, it will get you in the right direction. I know there's something that the owner said that resonates with me now and this was sort of during the midst of it all. It's just one day at around 5 pm when it seems like the war has just been over and I see him outside blowing leaves and moving some bit of branches and he says this will play psychologically on me If I know that around the castle it's cleaned up, but you know everything else is a war zone. It will get everything mentally in the state of mind to be ready and I could appreciate that. And I do appreciate all of his hard work and devotion to opening up his private house once again.
Speaker 2:Now, obviously, we are going to be relying heavily on those who have been here before for this continued business to prosper once more. Obviously, we want people to book. So just so people know, october is the busiest time, not just for us but for all the businesses around and in this entire area. People do come here to observe the leaves, the foliage, the colors. This is wedding season, peak wedding season for us and for everyone. Everyone here makes money in October, so having that taken away from the business sector is rather disheartening. I hope that they pull out of it, although I've been hearing through the grapevine that some will simply not reopen. So for those listening, do make it a point. For us it would be a November 1st to reopen, to book, to at least have dinner here or book or whatever. Celebrate something. But also do not forget about the downtrodden in the members of the community who are struggling ever so to try to get their businesses back up and running.
Speaker 2:The downtown area and the surrounding area If you like this part of the world and you do visit here and go on holiday here with your family, don't forget about us. I would say, though, it does gladden me and fill me with abundance of joy to watch the community come together. It sort of reminded me of this post-9-11, where the community came together. It sort of reminded me of this post 9-11, where the community came together, people genuinely looking out for their neighbour. That's something that I could tell you. This does not really exist in most places, but it does so in Appalachia and it does so in these small mountain towns. There was virtually and I could be wrong and somebody might call me up, but I did not see crime. I did not see people breaking into people's homes, people stealing other people's belongings. I did not see any of that. I'm sure you know you're going to have your occasional, but in Spruce Pine in particular, that was not a thing.
Speaker 1:Everyone was so eager to help everyone. Let me interrupt you there because you, you guys, you and your team. I've heard from members of the community what a godsend you guys have been for them. So I want to personally thank you and applaud you because you're 100% right, the community there is strong and they're going to continue to play a vital role in the recovery. But you know, tip your hat because you yourself have been an inspiration to them, because I hear it, I talk to them. As I mentioned, I do have close ties in that area, all in the short-term rental industry and when I mentioned you and your team specifically, they're like, yeah, when you talk to them, tell them that we say thank you. They're like, yeah, when you talk to them, tell them that we say thank you. And again, I want to applaud you because you guys have done a phenomenal job in that community.
Speaker 2:You know, it is one thing for us that we live our life in a certain way where there are lords and ladies and those sort of outdated titles, by all intents and purposes, for most Americans. But it is the way we choose to live our life in the most principled way, and we live it in such a way where we do see ourselves, at least in the way that things were done properly, that if you do need a shower, food, shelter or any other assistance that you can count on the castle, you can count on Lord Robert, myself, my wife, lady Marie, for any other assistance. There were people whom we've. There's something else, too that to be said that we didn't touch on. That was very important.
Speaker 2:Most people don't leave cash on hand and in these trying times you cannot swipe your credit card, you cannot write a check, the banks were not open and credit card acceptance was non-existent. So having cash on hand was, as the old saying, cash is king. Well, that proves it correct. I can't tell you how many times that folks who needed you know they found a route to get to, say, johnson City to fill up their vehicles with petrol or needed extra petrol for their generators. They did not have cash. So you know, we gave people cash that needed it, actual paper money, and we're not looking to get it back by any means.
Speaker 2:But again, this is who we are. This is the way that we raise our family. This is not only being Catholic, but also being extremely traditional and conservative. We want to help you, be above and beyond what the normal person would do. And again, it's sort of we see ourselves here as a sort of a parallel to the government. It's a sort of a parallel universe and a parallel economy.
Speaker 2:If you must count on us, if you cannot buy toys for your children, or if you need candy for trick-or-treating, or if you need a hot bath or if you need cell phone chargers, you must count on Smithmore Castle for these things and we very well do our part in that way, like a church, but even more so like government, but even more so because you don't have to go through the hoops with us. You come and we can look at you in the eye and man to man, and we will help you and help your family. If you need a place to live, we've got cots. If you need, again, internet and so on, we pride ourselves in that, smithmore Castle as a self-sufficient and self-reliant fiefdom, and so hopefully people listening to that could, unfortunately, if this happens again in the unfortunate circumstance, count on the castle. I don't know how you can get up here, but if you can find your way up here, we will welcome you with open arms.
Speaker 1:I mean that's a great lesson and it's funny, and I'm probably going to go down a rabbit hole here, because I've been talking about this for a long time. Especially here in the US, we have become so heavily dependent on the federal government that it is shameful. Back in the days and you just touched on it originally people never looked at government for help. They went to the church for help. If you need food, if you had, for example, orphans, any social problem was dealt by the community and, more importantly, the church.
Speaker 1:Today that has been flipped, and not everyone Today that has been flipped and not everyone. When there's an issue, we want the federal government to solve our problems. Well, like Ronald Reagan says, if the federal government calls you and they say they're here to help, run away because they're not. But let me get off that high horse there, because for me that's another touchy subject, because we really need to understand that it is the community in the church that in the end, will always prevail and not the federal government, because they're not going, they're not equipped, they were never designed for that, for that cause and that purpose, and I'm glad and again I'm going to reiterate the fact that I've heard a lot from that community and they all have talked highly about you guys and I'm glad you're founded with that principle of we need to take care of us, and when I say us, I mean the community, and I again thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Pleasure.
Speaker 1:So what one? Let me ask you a couple of more questions, because this is I don't again. I know you guys are super busy, have a lot of work to do, but give us your top three most important lessons that you learn through this disaster through this disaster.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess, no particular order, the number one thing that I learned and I guess I sort of knew it, but again this is a bit of a confirmation that most grocery stores will have food for one, two or three days for the community, and so the importance of having your strategic survival plan in place, in an order of importance to you. Now, this might change for some people, because for me the most important thing was taking care of my mother and father and then my newborn. You know, I was thinking well, if I have to, I'll do whatever. I don't have to eat for three days or something intermittent, fasting, whatever. But you must not rely on no, it's not even the federal government or local government. There's only one person that you can count on, and that would be yourself. But also you must know what you're not good at. So if you are not rather handy, you need to set up your, your um plan in such a way where it's sort of dummy proof, and for me, um I I had to learn based upon our weaknesses, and one of the weaknesses that we have here at the castle we can't change it, but there's the. We've got 13 or so electrical panels throughout the estate, and so it's so difficult, and I don't have the wherewithal to get to set up a generator that, with a flip of a switch, could turn on everything, and so that's what we are working on now for you, for your own home or standard home, where there's one electrical panel you can go to to flip off all the breakers. Well, you know, whatever a simple honda generator or something could, could get you going, but not so here. The other thing is um, then how do you turn on your well water? So, so you have to have these, the, these mechanisms in place, and that that you, that you have to have be able to do on your own accord, under your own faculty, without having asking anyone for help, because you can't get to them. The the other thing is um, as you know now sorry, there's a fly flying about anyway the thing that you must know now, having gone through it, is cell phone companies are rubbish and you need to just have a satellite connection. So Starlink is an absolute must, and making your phone calls via Wi-Fi Starlink through the satellite is the only way. Via Wi-Fi Starlink through the satellite is the only way. All the cell phone companies are rubbish Sharing towers, the cost of putting them there, the cost of getting land. I don't want to hear any of that. They make plenty of money.
Speaker 2:You need to have Starlink and you need to be able to for the moms out there and for the young people out there. You need to be able to wire in your generator and you need to have your different solar flashlights and things of that nature. Those are the things that you know. It's water, electricity and the communication. Obviously, food. I think most people in this area know how to hunt, fortunately, so I don't know that food was that of an issue. But again, if you've got babies and you need diapers and you need wipes and you need, and if you've got elderly that need oxygen machines, you have to have your own top three. Those are not my top three. I don't have people with oxygen tanks here and everything else, but I had my top three with my you know this my baby and how do I wire all of this in this giant estate?
Speaker 2:I don't know it. I'm not an electrician. So now I've made it dummy proof where it's simply, you know, extension cord plug in, go away, turn it on, pull the string you know that kind of that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:So, in terms of the future, in terms of the future, in terms of going forward, what are some of the things that you're going to implement? I know you just talked about trying to figure out the electrical part of it, but, going forward, what are some of the things that you want to implement that will help you if this were to happen again?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I thought about that and I think I have a sort of a different approach. I think the way that I, if this were to ever happen again, I want to be so more readily available for the community. So I know, for example, if this were to happen again, we have an issue with our driveway. The driveway will be covered with trees. How do I get the community listening that, if they want to make a call or if they need drinking water to come up here, if they can't come up here? So we are devising a plan currently for drinking water, um and for starling. So one of the things that we are devising is one of the streams that is roughly a football field length, away from from the main road getting up here, because there's no sense in having people if they just want water to come all the way up and you've been to the property like you, you don't want them coming all the way up the drive just to get water. I need them, I need to get to them down there. So we were devising a plan of where we could solar pump a, a sump pump that can get drinking water up to sort of the main road if people want to come in and we can fill up jugs for them. So that's one um, because again, a lot, of, a lot of our thinking is we do quite all right here and you know sort of the implementation of the certain plans that could help us. I don't know how much more we could do. I'm sure there's somebody is going to come up with something. But I'm much more interested in if we can help the I know this sounds a bit cliche, but if we can help the community get on their feet quicker.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't understand this. It does us no good that Smithmore Castle is the only place where you can get food around here if everyone is closed. You must give people options. It does us no good that Smithmore Castle is the only hotel around here. The people need to go out and so the faster we get the community in order, the more that people can get comfortable in this new setting and start rebuilding faster and start going about their daily life faster. So water is one. Getting Starlink there is one. So there is a telephone pole excuse me, there's an electric pole down where I'm referring to that. We've put in a call with the local energy company to get us wire down there, power down there like an outlet. Why? Because we could then pick up our Starlink and just go, take it down the drive and then if people need to make a call or need to do whatever they need to do, they can make their way up Gugis and they don't need to go a mile up our driveway. We can give them their essentials down there.
Speaker 2:Furthermore, we didn't touch on this, but I do encourage people to stock up on the following Cans of tuna, spam flour and if you have the means for a chicken coop, one or two chickens, do it. Spam and tuna. Will you a a much longer shelf life than what is stamped on the can? Uh, it's. You know it's preserved in there. I know it's not. You know this isn't for your vegan audience, so you know whatever lump it, but you could go and you can survive on these things. So we've got um, and every time I encourage people do this. Every time you go grocery shopping, we all do it Buy one can, store it. You never know in a year or two how many cans you have left. But anyway, that's what we would provide for people is those types of basic essentials straight away.
Speaker 2:I can't tell you the difference it would have made had I had those things in place down the road, down our drive, where they didn't have to make up. You know, where Gugis Creek met Castle Way, which is where we are. That was the roundabout. People were making the roundabout turn there because there was a ginormous fallen tree and they were making the turn there. So I thought, god, what an opportunity missed. And it breaks my heart as well as it breaks the heart of the Smithmore family that we couldn't have those essentials down there. So we're working on that and I could assure you that should something like this arise again, we will be more prepared to help the community.
Speaker 1:Awesome, awesome. The last question I've got for you what most excites you about the future of Smith Castle, smith Road Castle?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that we've all become built of even sterner stuff now and the resiliency that not only those who live here permanently have found, but those that you know our staff reside in the neighboring areas, so I'm sure that they have their own struggle and have been made more stronger by it. We want to, we are most excited about. You know now that we've sort of learned more about ourselves. The envelope and the heights that could be reached and the envelope that can be pushed is much more further. If you thought before that Smithmore Castle was a five star castle hotel and only the one in the world which is a fact that we are going to let off on the gas pedal, you're gravely mistaken. We are going to provide the utmost service and care, service and care, um, we are going to strive to bring you hospitality that is unmatched anywhere in the world. Currently, we are in plans of building a farm shop, bringing in alpaca, expanding upon our spa services, and I'm talking about in the near future, i'm'm talking about within. This is our plan within six months to a year, because we, you know and, by the way, all of the devastation and wreck and mess that we've had to deal with, all of it has come out of pocket. Insurance is not covering any of this and it's not just for us. I do hear that insurance is not covering most of the people because, again, the rarity of where this happens. I do think that it's unfair. I do think the federal government, with all the money that they, that they, that they have and they splurge on the most ridiculous of things, could pump millions of dollars into this area, and tens of millions. You know we're sending money to foreign countries and nobody could point to it on a map. Don't get me started on that. But now that the insurance companies are turning their back, I find it to be most disheartening of the total. We are paying for it out of pocket. So it is rather important that people do visit the castle. They do spend money here and spend money in the community, because we are building all of these things, because we want to be Smithmore 2.0. We want to bring about the farm shop, which will give you fresh eggs, honey from our apiary, wool from our packer for clothing. But we are also going to reach out to the farms that were devastated that produce goat milk and so on. Bring us your stuff, let us sell it for you. We won't make a penny on it. Put it on the shelves and it's sort of a community farm shop, if you would. I've got a clever name for it, I don't know if I should reveal it now, but it is quite clever.
Speaker 2:And in the spa and doing spa services remember, the Smithmore Castle employs a vast number of people, but we also how do you say we? 1099 others. So there's independent contracting happening. Us, you know, archery instructors and massage therapists. These people depend on us for employment. We treat this as a fiefdom where we employ the town and the town then in turn has our back, because they know we always have theirs. And that is something that churches do, but we want to expand upon it, as we said, and that is something that local government I'm sorry, I don't know if they do it anymore everyone is looking for you know what? Uh, everyone is campaigning all the time. They're busy.
Speaker 1:They're busy, don't bother them yeah, no, I mean, I am rooting for you guys. Um, all those, all those out there listening, I highly highly highly recommend all those out there listening, I highly highly highly recommend you visit them, take one of their experiences, at the very least, do their dining experience, which is what I did. First of all, learning the history of the castle that we didn't have time to get into, just learning how it became a castle. It's fascinating, fascinating. But, benjamin, I greatly appreciate you. I mean, you have no idea how much I appreciate this time, this conversation. I really want to get the word out. I want, I'm really rooting for you guys. I want you guys to be come back stronger, better than you were before. I'm really rooting for you guys. I want you guys to come back stronger, better than you were before. I'm fully confident that you guys are going to do that. Can you give us some closing thoughts as we land this plane here?
Speaker 2:I do want to thank you for the opportunity to come on your podcast and you've made a follower and a sort of an admirer of your podcast and all the work that you've done of me more so than I was when I first met you. In closing, I would say that hearts and prayers are with the community. We are there for you. If there's anything whatsoever that the castle can do for you and as well as staff, do not hesitate to call. We are constantly praying. I have my family in California praying and we pray as a family all the time for those who are affected and continuously to be affected. Besides, without the prayer, we would not have a chance. All of this other stuff is man-made. It could alleviate it, but without the power of prayer. All of this other stuff is man-made. It could alleviate it, but without the power of prayer, and unfortunately you need all of that plus. Prayer is the thing that's going to get you out of this mess Period.
Speaker 1:End of story. Amen, amen. All right, my beautiful people, subscribe. If you haven't subscribed, again, I'm going to have all of Benjamin's information listed down below. Again, reach out to them, try to book some time, visit the place. Love you, guys, and I'll see you in the next one.
Speaker 2:Cheerio.
Speaker 1:Hang on for one second. Let me go over this process real quick. Let me end it.