Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
Building Resilience and Homes with Speed
Have you ever remodeled a home in just 45 days? Meet Marlin Coblentz, (the mule champion). Together, we share our whirlwind experience of purchasing and transforming a property in record time, just in time to enjoy the holidays in his new surroundings.
Marlin reflects on his journey from the shed hauling industry in Kentucky to his current successes, bringing to life the challenges and triumphs along the way. Our conversation is filled with friendly banter and humorous anecdotes, including our first encounter at the Tennessee bash in 2019 and the early days of Marlin's career with a 30-foot gooseneck trailer.
Severe storms have left a lasting impact on mountain communities, and this episode highlights the transformation of landscapes that were once familiar to many. We delve into the emotional and physical aftermath of these natural disasters, particularly the thousand-year storm that brought flooding and landslides to areas like Saluda and the Green River. Hear firsthand accounts from local residents who share how these events have altered their surroundings and the resilience required to move forward. Together, Marlin and I recount our efforts to support storm recovery, leveraging our expertise in the shed industry to provide relief and aid to affected areas.
Our discussion also shines a light on the ongoing collaborative efforts to aid communities in need through the delivery of sheds. Discover how logistics and community reactions play a crucial role in this mission, and the challenges faced, including legal hurdles and the necessity of volunteer support. We invite you to witness the profound impact of these efforts and extend our gratitude to our listeners. As we look ahead to a prosperous and safe new year, we encourage everyone to stay connected with the Shed Geek podcast and join our mission of support and recovery.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
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Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
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All right guys, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast. Sambassador Style, Friday fun day and we're going to have some fun. Tonight, I'm with one of my buddies, no other than the one and only the legend, the mule champion, Marlin Coblentz. How are you this evening? I'm doing pretty good. Pretty good, you enjoying that new house.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yes, we are.
SAMBASSADOR:That was Glad to be in it. So I've done that a time or two and I think you probably have too, but I kind of know how you feel right now.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:It's kind of like a, how would say, bittersweet yep, you're, you're nice, nice to be in the house, but yet it's like it's everything is new. You're not used to your normal whatever yeah, nothing fits.
SAMBASSADOR:You. Got a bare wall behind you, yep man nothing on it so are you. Are you pretty much settled though? I mean like got all your furniture moved in pretty much?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:settled for you a lot of the stuff we did. They're still probably at least a whole trailer load over there yet oh boy a little bit of the house and the wife would say probably more of the shop than the house.
SAMBASSADOR:Oh, so the shop didn't get done either?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:No, we didn't even start in the lean-to.
SAMBASSADOR:Oh boy, that's where all the stuff collects.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yes, so actually the guy that's standing up here in the shop. He took my little truck over there with a trailer and he's getting another load of stuff in the shop. Some metal stuff. I got inside two by fours and stuff like that.
SAMBASSADOR:I hear you. So how long was the process from when you said, okay, we're going to start again? As far as the house, when did we start?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:No, as far as the house. When did we start? No, as far as building. June 16th. We started June 16th.
SAMBASSADOR:July, August, September, October, November, December. Six months, man, please. My last house I built took me 18 months. I didn't think we was ever going to move in it. It's not this house, this one here. I bought a wreck because it was cheap and it had property I liked. When my wife first walked through the front door with me, she was this is not going to work.
SAMBASSADOR:After we walked through the house we walked out on the back, the porch, showed her the backyard and she was like it's kind of nice. So, I had to take her to Lowe's and I had to show her paint, had to show her hardwood and all this and that to kind of get tied. So, we didn't start from the ground this time, and from the time the time we bought it to the time we moved in was basically 45 days and we completely remodeled the whole thing. Wow. So, I've been on both ends of the spectrum. It took me forever and a year and I did it fast. She told me she says when I go and be in by Christmas, and I said we're going to be in the first of September because I'm not paying rent anymore if I'm moving. Yes, was it 60 days? Yeah, July and August. But we didn't work. The first couple weeks in July we had to wait on closing. I come cut the grass a couple times. Don't pressure to get the air compressed with us.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yeah, I was wanting to be in here by Thanksgiving, but some of them were slaving themselves. You didn't miss by much, no, it wasn't much which I wasn't that hard set.
SAMBASSADOR:We still had a place to live, you know yeah, true so yeah so go all the way back to the Tennessee bash 2019. Is that when we first ran into each other, had we run into each other before that? Oh boy, I don't know, it might have been.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:I don't know, it might have been.
SAMBASSADOR:I don't have any recollections before that, even though I know a lot of the areas you lived in. But you went in the mule competition was the first thing. Basically, you come on my map that I remember. And old Martin Hostetler. He wasn't real happy about that because he thought he should have won. And then I don't know if you caught that a couple weeks ago when he came up here to help.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, he uh he made the comment. He says he knows why Marlin won the mule competition. Now, huh, tell me a little bit, like I don't even really know. How'd you get it? What? What got you in the sheds? How'd you get to where you are today?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:well, way back. I mean, it sounds bad. I'm used to hearing dad say you know 20 years, 30 years and stuff like that, but it's bad when you start to say that we live down here now 12 years, 11 years.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:We live down here now 11 years. Before we lived in Kentucky and my buddy he actually hauled sheds. This is probably now 14, 15 years ago. Every chance I got we did construction, remodel work, dead and ice, and any chance I would get, like a day off or whatever, I'd go with him. All sheds, oh nice, in Kentucky, in Kentucky, and this is before mules. Oh yeah, yeah. And this is before mules. Oh yeah, yeah. And I'd go with him. And he had a 30-foot gooseneck roller trailer with a big army winch in the front, probably like a goose creek. I don't remember. It was no tail shift, no sideway wheels, just up and down, yep, and I'd go with him and I would just enjoy it. I just loved it. Why, I don't know. I just yeah anyway. And so anytime that I get a chance I'd go with him, or if he wanted to go on a vacation, whatever, I'd fill in for him and, um, yeah.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:So, then that lasted for several years and then we moved down here and then there was a job opening, so I took it and that lasted about six months and they let me loose anyway, and so after that, dad-in-law's moved down and I helped him build his house. Um, yeah, I put the roof on, the standing seam roof on it, the siding on it, a lot of the trim work inside, just this, that and the other than all. Then finally we were pretty much done and he was like well, what are you going to do for work? I was like, well, I'm not really sure. I'd like to get back into sheds, but I ain't got no money to get into sheds.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:And so he was like well, let's go talk with Pineview. So, we went over to Pineview and talked with the big cheese over there and he was like, yeah, we'd have an opening for you. So, dad-in-law got me all set up. He's like well, let's go buy a truck. So, we went and bought a brand new truck, 3500 ram, and he called Pine Hill and he bought himself a trailer from up there and he called cardinal and he's like um, he's like I need a mule, send me a mule down here. So, they sent him a mule. They sent a mule down here and he just thought it's going to be a four. He didn't ask no questions or nothing, he just said send me a mule.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:They sent him the older five with the remote, and then, of course, he got the bill.
SAMBASSADOR:It wasn't no. Four bill, was it no?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:He liked to have a fit, but it was too late then. Yeah, paid for the whole mess. It was like nah go haul sheds, yep. I'm like, yes, sir. So, I went into. He's like nah go haul sheds, yep, I'm like, yes, sir. So, I went into. He's like whenever you want we can flip it over to your name, whatever the stuff's worth. You know, whenever you're ready and we'll flip it over to you. And I think it was about a year, year and a half, I don't know, somewhere in there. I told him, I said him I was ready to flip it over to me now. So, we went in and flipped it over to me.
SAMBASSADOR:Wow, that didn't take long.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:A year to a year and a half. Wow, I think that was with the first truck. Yet, yeah, I still had the first truck and the same trailer and the same mule. Yeah, you told me the other day you've been working the Asheville area for eight years. I've been with Pineview now nine years now. We've been down here 11 years. Yeah, it's at least nine years now. Because we've been down here 11 years yeah, it's at least nine years, might even be closer to 10, really close to 10, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, the first, the first, probably at least the first year I was basically what I called, did all the dirty stuff but, nobody else wanted to do I went to west
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Virginia. Virginia did a lot of the repos and just did a lot of nasty stuff, in my opinion anyway, and so they kind of pushed it more toward certain areas for certain drivers, whatever, and I'm not even really sure. I had the Wilkesboro a lot for quite a long time and I don't know if you know much about Wilkesboro, but that's like a dot magnet over there. It is no kidding, it is. I mean, 421 is bad, I yep, I think I gotta stopped like three or four times just on that road alone.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, I think they have a training place over there or something.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yeah, I mean it was I don't know. I never liked that place. It was, of course. Then in Wilkes-Barre you go up to West Jefferson and Sparta area for many years and it's just as Asheville's bad, but that's worse, yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:Yep.
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MARLIN COBLENTZ:Anyway, and then finally they were. I'm not sure what was the scoop, why they sent me and started going over to Asheville. I don't know, I can't even remember, but I started going over that way more than Mike. Somehow Mike got in the swing of everything and yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:So how many lots do you have?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:I service three lots.
ADVERTISEMENT:So Swan Swanville.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Swanville and Hendersonville. Yeah, and then Marion. Okay, it used to be, because, see, mike, I call him like the grandpa in Swan, and then his brother-in-law is in Hendersonville oh okay, son-in-law, yeah, he married Mike's daughter and then Andrea used to be in Marion, oh, I reckon, and then she went up to help Mike yeah, because Mike wants to go golfing every Wednesday, uh-huh, and he had some stuff going on, whatever. So she moved up there and then she basically just runs the thing now for him and he can take off.
SAMBASSADOR:Yep. So who runs Marion now?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:There's a guy actually that lives close to Statesville.
SAMBASSADOR:Okay.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:He runs up there every day. But Swannanoa still would be the main seller every day.
SAMBASSADOR:But but Swannanoa still would be the main seller, okay.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Swannanoa is the main one, main seller, I would say, and then Hendersonville is within the, probably the top five.
SAMBASSADOR:I got it.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That was before the hurricane, yeah. Now it's all screwed up.
SAMBASSADOR:Hendersonville didn't get affected at all as far as the lot.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:No correct.
SAMBASSADOR:Areas of Hendersonville did. It's kind of amazing all this that we're doing right now with all the storm relief effort that we're doing, you and I are trying to get all these guys' sheds. It's how little focus is from Fairview South but there's just as much damage down there, like Saluda, North Carolina, down to Green River area, even back over into a little bit back over into like Rutherford Tun and that area there's not much focus. I don't feel like that area gets near the focus and even over towards Silva and Clyde and south of there a little bit there's just not near as much focus going on as there is in, like your top six main areas what
SAMBASSADOR:is what, um, let's, let's, uh, let's talk about storm stuff. So, yeah, you're cruising along, been there a long time and all of a sudden you get an epic, what I call a thousand- year storm hits and you know, it took me couple of weeks to wrap my head around what actually happened up there. And I'm curious if you, if you feel like it's the same thing I see in what, what actually happened that created this disaster, like what created all the landslides, what you know? Ok, so it got wet, it rained a lot and it got windy, and all of a sudden there's landslides, there's flooding everywhere.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, where's it come from? And I'm not saying you got to get into conspiracy theories, I'm just saying you know, when you get 30 inches of rain in a mountainous territory, it's got to go down, yep, um, and then everything is soaking wet and it gets windy up high elevation. Like, have you been over the? Did you have you know from, if you go Bernardsville, the back way to Pensacola, to Burnsville, have you ever run that road all the way across the top?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:oh yeah, up there by um. Was that foot creek or no, that foot creek, toe creek? Is that toe creek?
SAMBASSADOR:yeah, maybe no. I think toe creek's even farther yet, but what I'm getting at is the high elevations where you see all the clipped off trees.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Oh yeah, it's crazy. I remember when I asked that guy, he told me he was like there had to have been a little twister with it. There had to have been because he's like a lot of those top of the tree was just twisted right off.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, yeah, and there's a place not that far up from Swannanoa. Um, we took that lady uh cabin out and then the Amish guys actually came out and finished it for us Elam and Ruben's bunch from green tree. Um, there's a section of mountains just outside of Ashville, up above, uh, what do you call that area? So, it's a little bit east of Asheville and a little bit north up there where the whole side of the mountain is chewed up. It's not blown over trees, they're twisted off trees, yeah. And then I got up there where I was talking about with you.
SAMBASSADOR:If you go up 197 instead of turning on Dillingham and you just keep going straight and it turns into gravel, and you go up 197 instead of turning on Dillingham, you just keep going straight and it turns into gravel and you go to the top. The top of that mountain's all chewed up. And then you go up above Bakersville up towards Tennessee and there's mountains up there that are just shredded. I don't get that. There was an old mountain guy that told me um, he's, he's up, uh, oh, you go out Dillingham and then you turn off to the right up there at the split. I forget what the name of the road is, I could look it up on maps and then he's way up in there. He didn't want to talk to anybody and I don't blame him. I mean he's probably had 100 people drive in and out of his driveway to look at all that. You know, looking at stuff.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Oh yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:Oh yeah, and I get it. All the tourists and stuff come by gawking and stuff, he told me. He said these mountains are held together by the trees. And he said, when it gets wet and the trees blow over, there's nothing to hold the dirt there and it just slides off. What in the world? Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool because then you start looking at where the slides are. It's where trees fell over or where roads were cut through and there were no more trees. Ah, like the triple switch back on nine. Yep, that's where they had took the trees out to put the road in.
SAMBASSADOR:I don't know, I thought that was kind of interesting that he thought of that yeah, which I mean a lot of these landslides and stuff.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Like pretty much where the bottom of the landslides were, it was all rock, yes, so you have like maybe a foot of dirt or two feet of dirt, then you have, you know, huge trees coming out. Well, it ain't going to take much with 30 inches of water for that stuff to let loose.
SAMBASSADOR:Yep, yeah, how much I have to go. Look at Google Earth, like my Google Maps. When I get an address, I pull it up on Google Maps and then when I get out there, it's just like you can't recognize it based off the map. How?
SAMBASSADOR:much of how much of that. As somebody that's been in that area, work that area, I mean you spend more time there than you do at home. Yep, because that's what you're doing. You're working that area how much? How much does it change you when you're driving up and down, like Dillingham or through Sao Anano on 70, all those kinds of Garen Creek over there? How much does that affect?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:you. I mean I'm still. It's been what? 10 weeks already now and I'm still not. I mean, I still don't even really I would just say not really believe it, but it's like, how can it possibly be? Yeah, you know, I've been through there so often already and it's like you start getting to know people, people start to get to know you and it's like, yeah, you go through there. Now it's like you don't know if the people are still around, if they're gone. You know, you don't, I don't know their houses aren't there.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Where are they? I know, but no, I don't know, I'm it. Just it's kind of hard, sad, same time going through there and you see all the destruction, the help that's needed. No, I could just spend weeks and months and months up there helping those people.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, it's like you know what, though I felt like in the last two weeks I've seen huge progress in debris cleanup. It's like for a month you've seen those guys working every day and they weren't even making a dent. Yeah, when you go to Guerin Creek there and you turn left to go past Chad's, and you go on up. Chester Hill. Yeah, you start going up there towards the other fire department up there. Yep, huge progress.
SAMBASSADOR:Oh, I've seen that too, the other day we hauled a shed up there and there's five full-size semi-trucks not the FEMA trucks, I'm talking about big old 18-wheeler dump trucks up there getting loaded on the side of the road by a big excavator with a huge grapple and they're making a dent man. It's like it's actually getting cleaned up, but it's still the whole thing of. There's nothing left. I know I got a big day tomorrow. I know Nothing.
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ADVERTISEMENT:Ah, that's right. You're talking about the one they had up at Michigan at the Shed Show, that monster mule. Man, that thing was awesome, that's right.
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MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yep. There's a lot of especially through Garen Creek.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:There they used to be like a what is it? A grape orchard, or like a produce place and different stuff. Along Garen Creek it's just, it's totally flat and dirt. There, ain't nothing more there.
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MARLIN COBLENTZ:You know a new guy going in, looking like he just thinks there was nothing never here.
SAMBASSADOR:No, that's yeah, it looks just like. Well, it wasn't that bad.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:No, but those, yeah, everything's gone well, even like Swannanoa, I mean yeah, I mean you go, I go through that stretch there almost every day. And yeah, when Mike called me on a Saturday, he called me and told me, Marlin, our lot is gone. I was like no, I just figured the building was just pushed down toward the end. That was in my head. When he told me it was gone, we don't even have a lot anymore. I was like well, it's just pushed down to the end. There's no way you got 70 barns that are going to be gone. It can't get that high. He's like no, you don't understand. It's gone, gone, gone.
SAMBASSADOR:I'm like no, that's when we took off, like was the same weekend, the truck show was Mayberry truck show, yeah, mayberry.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:And so, we took off and he said he's getting low in the water so we can't buy nothing. We're just, you know what we're gonna do. He was almost in tears. I'm like no, what's he trying to say? Just go to the store and buy you something. I mean, something around there is open.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:So, I got my brother-in-law with me. I said we're going to go. We got us some chainsaws and stuff and the way we go was took a whole pallet of water up to him. I told him I'm coming with a pallet of water. He's like well, okay, hopefully we'll make it by then. You know, next week, one day. I'm like I could tell he thinks I'm coming up next week. I'm like, no, we're going like now.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:So, we took off. He's like well, you can't go up 40. I'm like well off. He's like, well, you can't go up 40. I'm like, well, you just, you're like what? I was like you just wait. I said we're gonna get there one way or the other. We're gonna get there. Well for him, he's like you can't get to me, roads are shut down.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:So we took off, went to Morganton, cut down 64, went down toward Rutherford, then went down through there, got on 74 and come out below Hendersonville on 26, jumped on 26 and come up, and then we cut over to 25, alternate on the Asheville side of Hendersonville and cut over through there, got on 40 and got off at 59, like we normally would, and we got to the sales lot. I'm like dude, it was just to make you bald. Yeah, it was like nothing was there. Yeah, we had, we had houses sitting on our lot, literally houses, yeah, anyway, and we went over to Mike's that night. It was after dark and we back up to his house, of course there was no phone service. You couldn't call, you couldn't text, you couldn't do nothing, anyway.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:So, we just went. He didn't know we were coming. We backed up to his house and went up to the door and I knocked and he come out. I wish I had been videoing him. He come out. He was like he just stood there with his mouth open.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, he's like how did you? Get here. I know more roads than anybody does.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:He's like you, can't get here, the roads are shut down. I'm like, uh, you can't get here, the roads are shut down. I'm like, uh-uh, there's still one open.
SAMBASSADOR:Oh my word, that's crazy. Like I kind of know the route you took now, I wouldn't have known then, but like I don't know how you got through on 26, because there was trees down everywhere on 26.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Well, see, the only thing I never heard. I was a little concerned was the gorge on 26. Yep Below Hendersonville, but I was like it's high enough. I don't think it got affected, but you never heard anything.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, yeah, true.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That's the only thing I was concerned about, but then we whistled right through there and everything was fine.
SAMBASSADOR:Wow, because, yeah, when I came through Friday morning about 4.15, I came down 26 coming home from the shed show.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Oh yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:And 26 westbound was completely shut down from just trees, down across it, all over the place, just, and you know still the most. I got to sit up the most crazy thing Friday morning. That still blows my mind. I was hell bent on getting home because my wife and kids weren't home and I was going to get home. They were all hell bent on going to work. It made no sense to me. All the way into Asheville, all the way down 25, all the way up 85. Well, I had to drop Dan off. He was with me and I had to run him by the Donaldson center and drop him off. And the amount of traffic of people leaving their houses and going to work, yeah, yes, it's still the most mind blowing thing about all of it to me. They're so programmed that they're just. They got, I mean you know, work, didn't call and say it's shut down. We got to go to work and then they all had to try to figure out how to get back home because everything shut down. I mean nobody worked. A lot of them didn't even work Monday and Tuesday. It was Wednesday, Thursday, Friday before anybody started going back to work at all and it just they got stranded all over the place. We cut more people out of strength on stranded roads.
SAMBASSADOR:Um, you know I make I make the comment. You know that when I got home I actually slept through the whole thing. I laid on the couch I'm home, I don't give, I don't care, I'm, I'm home, I'm asleep. I drove all night to get on laid right here on the couch and I slept all the way through it until the power went off and then I was like, well, I can't do nothing now, I might as well sleep some more. So, I just kept on. I slept probably three hours and then it quit raining. I got out and I started cutting my way out. Two weeks later I set my chainsaw down. You just, it never ended. You, you couldn't stop, there was nowhere to stop.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Even on our way up to when we went down on 64 out of Morganton. We got maybe halfway down there and we got all of a sudden there was a pileup. I veered way out in front of the traffic that was stopped and here, all the way up there, there's a tree across where they were up there hacking away. So, we just buzzed up there beside traffic and stopped on the road, got our saws off and we started helping them. Yeah, we started cutting the tree up, pushed it out of the way and here we go.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, till the next one. Yeah, you know, I'm still a little paranoid, paranoid. We're still carrying a chainsaw around on the back of the truck.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:Every time it gets a little windy. I'm watching trees Because I'm like every tree out there is compromised right now. I don't know if you saw or not, but there was a substantial landslide today up above Burnsville.
SAMBASSADOR:No, I didn't see that, yep, and it was where one had. There was a small one that had happened there, and now it's a big gaping hole and I just I really, you know, we had a fair amount of rain the other day and then we get a little wind. Oh, I just, yeah, I'm paranoid now about what's going to blow down next or what's going to flood out next. It's going to be a long process, it is.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:It's not going to take just overnight. It's going to be a long dry affair, yeah, but it's amazing, though, how many people are actually still coming in and volunteering for work. Helping this, oh yeah, yeah, but it's amazing, though, how many people are actually still coming in and volunteering for work, you know, helping this yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:And we're still getting sheds.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:What in the?
SAMBASSADOR:world. Yeah, that's great. So when we first started this, I didn't. I didn't even know until you made a post that one day that you were looking for sheds. I didn't even know until you made a post that one day that you were looking for sheds and I had made that post about this is a way I want to fight suicide and depression. For me, you know, for Lane and some of them, other guys, and I don't think we ever had a phone call and said, hey, let's work together. It just kind of.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Well, I'm not even sure I even seen that first post you can put on there?
SAMBASSADOR:I don't think either you did. I think I had to tell you later about it, but all of a sudden it was just like well, this is crazy, we need to, just kind of. I mean, I don't know, we didn't make a decision to work together, it just kind of happens. We know the right people to help get involved. Yep, who would have ever thought that it would like 20, 30, 40 shed? Sure. And then you know, well, let's have a crazy goal doing a hundred. Now it's like, well, we're going to blow by 200 if we're not careful and it's, it doesn't even matter anymore because it's, it's. It's bigger than us, it's, it's a way we can help. It's what we do. It's bigger than us, it's a way we can help, it's what we do.
SAMBASSADOR:I tell people all the time that Marlin and I are. I've done a lot of storm work. I have, and I feel like I'm pretty good at it. I know what I'm doing a little bit. You came and helped in Kentucky. I mean, we grew up doing that kind of stuff, but at heart and professionally, we're shed guys. So what better way to help than to do sheds? Yeah, exactly right. And you have connections. I've gotten to get me some more connections, but to get to work with your guys and some of these community guys and whatever, and to be able to do it. It's incredible. It's like I actually took I finally took yesterday off and then today I stayed home here and I scheduled. I scheduled 21 more deliveries today, just for the record 21.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That's for your area your hometown, or is that?
SAMBASSADOR:No, there's. I think there's seven in Old Fort, there's a couple in Marion, there's a couple in Swannanoa, two down in Garen Creek and then a mess of them in Barnardsville and then some up in Spruce Pine area, a couple over. Yeah, they're scattered all over, but I got a little more organized today. I moved some of my apps around to where they're all in the same spot so I don't have to go digging for them. And then I reprogrammed how I put them in, how I can list them with their phone numbers, addresses and all that. And then I just went to town, man, I started connecting a bunch of them back, a bunch of those that you had texted me that I had hooked a couple of them up. We actually did three old forts on Saturday and out of those three old forts we ended up with nine more.
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MARLIN COBLENTZ:They seen you there with the shed.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, they saw Gary's big red Peterbilt there and one of them stopped and got the contact info and then another one got the contact info from him and they're all right there on Lytle mountain road or in that that small area there, yeah. So, it's gonna be. It's gonna be fun, because we're just gonna go right down the street yeah, and then there's a couple, yeah, a couple in Marion there that would be nice to knock out too, while we're over there anyway.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That's crazy how it works. You think you might have four or five to take out, but then you start with one and go with two. Then all of a sudden, this guy comes over and says hey, well, I've got damage too. I'm leaving my car, Could you help me? It just goes one after the next and pretty soon it does you're past 100? You know it's like you look at the big pictures like man, there ain't no way. But you take a little bit of time and oh yeah, pass it up.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, yeah, we do 10 this day. We do three over here and four over there and six over there, and they all start adding up. It's like I mean, when you stop and think I've forgotten more of them than I remember. There's no way to remember them all no, you can't so. And the way the shed industry stepped up. You know I always kind of had a chip on my shoulder the manufacturers because the haulers always stepped up and helped.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:It's been incredible the amount of manufacturers that have called and messaged and emailed.
SAMBASSADOR:However communication they have, I mean a couple of them, it almost came in on pigeon. They don't have email, phone or anything, so they about sent me a letter in the mail and it's like once they send one or two and they hear the stories behind that, then they send four or five more and then all of a sudden, you know we got a guy that wants to send 20 of them. It's from Maine, Michigan, Texas, everywhere in between, there, everywhere.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yep, that reminds me that guy just from Kentucky just called me today. He just called me today and he was like, hey, just so you know, we should have those six done by Thursday of this week.
SAMBASSADOR:Nice.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:And then he's like we're working on 20 more 20? Yeah, he said their goal is to do 30. Yeah, he said he wanted me to write a true story of what happened. I'm like, dude, I'm not no writer. I'll text it to you, I'll WhatsApp it to you, but, no, I'm not doing no writing it out. We need it on a written paper because that way we can send it on to our Amish people. Yeah, because it's a huge community. You know, I'm like Lord, have mercy. No, so all of a sudden it just kind of took off on its own. You know, they're starting to build them now.
SAMBASSADOR:Yep, that's awesome.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yeah.
SAMBASSADOR:What would your storyline be? What's that? What would your story be? What would you tell somebody?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:probably. Uh, there's a couple of them. The one would be probably the old couple that was in the in their double white house and the linoleum or the floor in the kitchen buckled up like a foot high or a foot and a half high buckled up, and that is what saved him and his wife. He said we stood on top of that hump but he said it was slippery because it was linoleum and he said the water come up. He said it was up to our chin.
SAMBASSADOR:With the bubble.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That was on the bubble. He said. I was hanging on to my wife, I was bracing myself to the wall and trying to stay on top of this hump. He said we have no idea what caused this hump to come up. But there we were, standing there. He said stuff was falling off the walls, cabinets, countertop stuff. It was just hooshing out. You know, just going past him, there we were. The wife was like several times like I can't hang on, no more, it's so slippery I can't. So you've got to. You're going to drown if you don't.
SAMBASSADOR:Oh, my word.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Hanging on that little knoll there for four to four and a half hours, the water finally resided.
SAMBASSADOR:Aye, aye, aye.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:And this couple was probably in their upper 70s.
SAMBASSADOR:It's amazing how many people in their 70s came through this thing the Mattress Sisters, you know, old, hanging on to each other for hours. That's another good story there. You had another one, though, about a couple that was in a house, don't you?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:There was two of them. That one and the other one was the house that landed on Mike's lot.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That was the same one. But they said there, it was up to their neck, still high enough, and they had to stand there. Yep, they had to stand there. When I seen them there, like a week after this happened, they come over and parked on the road. Of course the roads weren't all cleaned off by them, but they parked on the road and she was walking around like hunchback, like crazy, and she was over by a window looking in and he went inside and I'm like in my head, I'm like that can't be their house. And so I went over and talked with them and he's like yes, it is. He said me and grandma, we stood right here, rode the sucker out. He said me and grandma, we stood right here, rode the sucker out. He said came down the four lane I'm not even sure it would have been an eighth of a mile, not quite an eighth of a mile, maybe Came down the four lane and caught on the curb and that's where they were.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That's where he got hung up. Yep, but if that thing would have went any distance at all, like down toward the center of the lot, they'd have been drowned.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, and it got deeper, yeah, it gets deeper. Going that way, mm-hmm.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yep so. Unbelievable yeah it's just you hear stuff just day in and day out.
SAMBASSADOR:it's just mind blowing, mind blowing the stories you hear yeah, and the always every time the response when people come in they're like your pictures and videos didn't do any justice. Drone footage doesn't even do it justice, nothing. No, um, you just you can't imagine. And then the fact that you can, you can go over a mountain and it happens all over again. And you go over another mountain and it's happening all over again. You go to Marshall, you go to hot springs, you go to Marshall, you go to Hot Springs, you go to Burnsville, you go to Minneapolis.
SAMBASSADOR:I never knew there was a Minneapolis, North Carolina. And yeah, way up above Spruce Pines I found a place called Minneapolis. And it's the same, it's the same thing. Pensacola. Never knew there was a Pensacola, North Carolina. It's like what? And then, you know, I had two people today from Tennessee contact me again. One of them's up there close to Butler, Tennessee, which is way on up past Irvin. You actually have to go up through Minneapolis and up 221 up through there to get to it, because the other way in shut down, and the other ones all the way over. Basically, where Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina all come together way up there and it's like and you know, we don't even get over to Boone much.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:No, it's, it's up there too, I forget who I talked to here a couple weeks ago and he said he was bringing in sheds but he went. Who went to Boone?
SAMBASSADOR:yeah, I remember that. Somebody told me that too. I'm like what?
MARLIN COBLENTZ:yeah, yeah I don't know. Yeah, but yeah, the other day, Brian, the guy across from mike's lot, the mechanic, yeah, I was there one night. It was after dark and he came over with his truck. He was like, hey, he's like. I went up on the hill behind him up there's a bunch of hillbillies and he went up and talked with one of them asking if they have any footage of the water down here. And they actually did. They sent him three pictures. Wow, have you seen those or not?
SAMBASSADOR:Uh-uh, I have not seen those. That's a lot there.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yeah, well, you couldn't see a whole lot. It was more on his side, yeah, but yeah, the water being up so high, yeah.
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MARLIN COBLENTZ:I don't know. I guess we just keep on keeping on.
SAMBASSADOR:Like my saying, we'll work till Jesus comes or we run out of people to give houses to Shoulders. Can't call them houses.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yes, hunting blinds.
SAMBASSADOR:Hunting blinds, deer blinds. I got in trouble for that. There's a couple guys that kind of got offended with me for calling them deer blinds. They said I wasn't being honest. I'm like it's a play on words. Come on people, everybody knows it's not a deer blind. I'm just being goofy, but no, I was. I was fixing to a couple of supporters because they're not deer blinds where we shouldn't be calling them deer blinds, gotcha Gotcha. So anyway, um, we did get some relief. Fire Marshall has relaxed a little bit and going over top of the codes, people's heads, um, some of the guys are still nervous, but yeah, it helps a lot.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That's a big relief. They actually okayed them now for people to live in them. But, that's the other thing. Are we going to be making people sign that stuff before we deliver more?
SAMBASSADOR:I told Mike that's up to him. If he feels like he needs to do that, I'm, I'm, I'm not there, I'm, uh, I'll put them out wherever they need to go, and I'm still convinced that they're not gonna. Well, it's so. I've got friends in high places down here and they have told me time and time again that you cannot just show up on somebody's property and kick them out of their primary residence. You'd have to go to a judge, you'd have to get a warrant, there's all kinds of stuff you have to do Court orders, you got it, and well, now you got to find a judge that's actually willing to do that. There is so much stuff that they'd have to go through and you could literally fight it till springtime anyway and then be like okay, whatever, I'm not cold anymore, so do whatever you want to do. It's just not. It doesn't work that way. You can't just show up and boot somebody off their property.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:So I mean you know how it is.
SAMBASSADOR:We can't even get our sheds back.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:I mean, it's like a repo and they're actual residents. You can't take it unless it's a court order.
SAMBASSADOR:Yes.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:So I mean there will be a whole bunch of those things too.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah. So yeah, I'm not overly. I'm not either sure about how long or how far we need to go with this.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:I don not overly. I'm not either sure about how long or how far we need to go with this.
SAMBASSADOR:I don't know yeah.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Well, we'll keep going, we'll keep going. The phone call stopped and we'll stop, I guess.
SAMBASSADOR:Yep, I guess so Sounds good to me. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you. I made that Facebook post and for the guys that are listening to the podcast that don't have Facebook or aren't on the hauler page or wherever I put it, I don't know if you know it or not, but you're a special dude. The connection you have with your people over there is crazy. You're not the same guy when you're around a bunch of us haulers as you are when you're around your customers. You try to play the tough guy, the guy that can run fast and move sheds fast and all this, but you are a stud when it comes to dealing with your customers. I don't know anybody that I've seen in action work as good as you do. It's commendable. I love seeing it. Am I getting some amens back there? I need to go out in the garage. She needs to hear that. I need to go out in the garage. Oh no, she needs to hear that.
SAMBASSADOR:Who was with me that day when we were sitting in the truck? Was it Aaron? Aaron was with me. Yeah, I think it was Aaron, and I told him. I said look that guy over there. That is the true definition of a genuine shed? Hulk. He's busy, he's in a hurry and he's over there for 30 minutes talking to a customer. That's what it's all about. Those people love you to death. I don't care what. I'm Mike's good, I get that. Mike does an excellent job. I love what he's doing, no problem. But you can't tell me that that community doesn't know what they have in their guy that shows up at their place and sets their shed form when he listens the way you do and does it the way you do it. Um, I hope that little lady got her shed and I hope you got her all squared away because she was so freaking happy to see you that day. It was crazy. Yeah, she was.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:You know that old barn.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:That old. Well, she wanted me to move that thing now, yeah, I know she does.
SAMBASSADOR:So I have a picture of it. I gave her a Because I knew that was going to happen, so I gave her a quote.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:I said I hate to charge you but I have to. You know it's yeah. And she was like no, it's okay, Just tell me what you have to have. And so she asked her mom and dad and she was like tell him to move it in January.
SAMBASSADOR:Nice, I want to help with that one. You need to. You need to come out. You need some help. I'm going gonna help you. That's awesome because I have a picture of that barn. I told aaron. I said he's gonna end up moving that barn back.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:you watch that's great anything you want to add to all the haulers out there, the shed industry. My main thing is that it'd be really nice if people would come in and donate at least a day of their time and help deliver some of these buildings that are coming in. I mean me and you can sit here all night long and say all this stuff and stories about whatever, but unless you come in and actually see it and hear the people, it just does something to you. You know you're out in no man's land.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:You know, you just hear it from other people. You know well, it might not be quite as bad as they really say you know or whatever, but I haven't. I haven't heard anybody yet regret coming in and spending a day doing these deliveries for free for people.
SAMBASSADOR:No, I have not. I have not heard anybody say that it's not as bad as they thought it was going to be. No, not at all. Those are two very important things. Three, number one you have you. Yeah, I agree, um, plead and beg um, for your own good, come in and work a day or two, get to know some of these people, um, and yeah, hey, dude, dude, it's beautiful country. I mean, you can't ask to be in a better place as far as country and the people have been great to work with and come get some experience from it yourself. I agree 100%. Yeah, I mean, we'll get it done, but I think they're missing out by not coming and helping.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Yep, yep, absolute. It's definitely something to do, are you good? And as far as buildings, we need more buildings too.
SAMBASSADOR:Oh yeah, yep, we need buildings. We need guys to come in and keep finishing them out. Big shout-out to your dad and your dad-in-law, um, for tackling that one over there. I stopped in and talked to them the other day when I brought those two Kentucky boys in. That was hilarious.
ADVERTISEMENT:We had a great conversation there I can only imagine it was.
SAMBASSADOR:It was funny. I sat there just laughed the whole time. It was great. So yeah, to see them come in and be involved with one of them.
SAMBASSADOR:I think that's awesome to see that and those guys, uh, that family man, I know they appreciate that like crazy. I got a crew coming in. They're driving in tonight. They'll get in about midnight. They're coming in to finish up the mattress sister's house, nice, um, so we I actually have to reset that thing. Um, I'm not happy with the height it's at. I want that porch to line up with the bottom of that gable, so I got to raise that thing up another 11, 12 inches um.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Luckily another opportunity for somebody to come in.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, that would be great, but I'm probably going to tackle it tomorrow. So, short notice by the time they hear this, it'll be done and fixed.
MARLIN COBLENTZ:Are you got seven? That's sitting there.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, I guess I'll drag the seven down there and see if I can figure out how to. I think I can get it done myself Pick up one end and then go raise up the other end and then finish it out. But I think I can handle it.
SAMBASSADOR:Yeah, I wish I could come down and help. No, you got to do your thing, that's what you do. So, anyway, it's all good. We keep plugging away one shed at a time, one building at a time. So anyway, thank you, man. I told you it's a blast to do, it doesn't take long at all, it's fun. Keep doing what you're doing, man. What you're doing is what more people need to be doing, so I hope your future's in this for a good little while yet, Because we need you.
SAMBASSADOR:Tell me to stop. You want me to stop? I heard that. That's good. I'll wrap us up. Thank you guys for coming on. Thank you, Marlin, for joining me and for all of you guys out there for listening. Just remember, you can find us on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, sprout I forget all the stuff Brussels sprouts and all and the newsletter you can always get on the email. For the newsletter. We have the call-in line. If you don't do online, you can call in and listen to the episodes on the call line. So, thank you guys all. Have a great night. By the time you guys listen to this, we'll already be past Christmas and New Year's, but hopefully everyone had a good Christmas and New Year's and we'll get this thing kicked off into 2025. And, by all means, if you want to come help, get in touch with either me through the Shed Geek podcast or my Facebook page, or Marlin Coblentz. He's more than happy to talk to you and to help.