What the Road and a Little Piece of Land Keep Teaching Us About Patience, Resilience & Building a Life
The road and the soil may seem worlds apart.
One is tow trucks, highways, auction lots, schedules, and getting the next load delivered.
The other is grass that needs cutting, gardens that need tending, animals, projects, muddy boots, and figuring out what needs fixing next.
But after living somewhere in the middle of both...
I've realized they have a lot more in common than I ever expected.
Both have taught us patience.
Both have taught us respect.
Both have taught us resilience.
And both have helped shape the life we're still trying to build.
🌅 The Morning That Changed How I Looked at It
There are mornings when the sun comes up over our little piece of land and, for a few minutes, everything feels quiet.
I might have coffee before the phone starts ringing.
There are loads to prepare.
Dispatch calls to make.
Paperwork waiting.
A tow truck getting ready to leave the driveway.
And somewhere outside, there is almost always something around the acres that needs attention too.
It isn't a perfectly peaceful country life.
And it certainly isn't a perfectly organized business life.
It's a mixture of both.
For a long time, I thought those two parts of our life competed with each other.
Now I think they've actually been teaching us many of the same things.
🚚 Lessons From the Road
Towing and auto transport have a way of teaching you things you can't learn in a classroom.
Long days.
Unexpected problems.
Equipment failures.
Weather.
Traffic.
Customers.
Vehicles that don't cooperate.
And plans that can change before you've even finished your morning coffee.
The road teaches you pretty quickly that you can't control everything.
You prepare the best you can.
You take care of your equipment.
You respect the vehicle you're moving and the people trusting you with it.
And when something goes wrong...
You stay calm, figure out what you can do, and keep moving.
We've learned a lot about resilience that way.
Not the dramatic kind.
The everyday kind.
The kind that gets a flat tire changed on the side of the highway and gets the truck moving again.
The kind that solves the next problem without letting one bad moment ruin the entire day.
After enough years doing this, you learn:
Prepare for what you can. Respect what you're responsible for. Adapt when you need to.
And keep going.
Every load requires a little patience, preparation, and resilience.
🌱 Lessons From the Soil
Life around the acres looks very different.
But strangely enough, it keeps teaching us the same things.
You can't rush a garden.
You can't control the weather.
You can't make grass, trees, animals, or anything else in nature follow your schedule.
You work with what you have.
You learn the land.
You pay attention.
You take care of things.
And sometimes...
You wait.
That hasn't always been easy for me.
I'm used to thinking that if I work harder, stay later, make another phone call, or solve one more problem, I can somehow move things along faster.
Nature doesn't really care about my schedule.
And maybe that's good for me.
It reminds me that growth takes time.
Growth takes time, care, and consistency.
🌾 What Living on a Little Piece of Land Has Taught Me
When we started building this part of our life, I think I pictured the peaceful parts.
Growing things.
Being outside.
Having room.
Enjoying the quiet.
I didn't completely appreciate how much work comes with it—or how much that work would teach me.
1. Patience matters.
Plants grow when they're ready.
Businesses do too.
So do people.
Not everything can—or should—be rushed.
2. Resourcefulness matters.
Living out here has made us think differently about what we already have.
Can we fix it?
Can we reuse it?
Can we trade something we're no longer using for something we need?
Do we really need the biggest or newest version?
Sometimes the answer is yes.
A lot of times it isn't.
3. Work and rest both have a place.
There will always be something else to do around here.
That's exactly why I'm learning that I have to decide when enough is enough for the day.
The work will still be there tomorrow.
4. The right people matter.
Neighbors.
Family.
Friends.
People who know how to do something you don't.
People willing to lend a hand or share what they've learned.
Independence doesn't mean doing everything alone.
5. Purpose is cultivated.
This may be the biggest lesson.
I used to think purpose was something you eventually found.
Now I think a lot of it is grown through ordinary days.
A chore.
A tow call.
A conversation.
A garden.
A sunrise.
A decision to keep trying.
Purpose isn't always waiting at the end of some big road.
Sometimes we're cultivating it right where we already are.
🚚 Running a Tow Transport Business From Home
Then there's the other half of this life.
When I'm not working around the property—or riding in the truck myself—there is still the behind-the-scenes work of running Durrett Recovery.
Paperwork.
Dispatch.
Loads.
Insurance.
Bills.
Equipment.
Drivers.
Numbers.
Scheduling.
And about a hundred little details nobody sees.
It isn't glamorous.
But I've learned to appreciate this part of the work much more than I used to.
One of the biggest things I've learned is that simple systems matter.
For example, I use a spreadsheet every day to keep track of our drivers and transports.
Nothing fancy.
It's Excel.
It takes a little maintenance each day, but it lets me quickly see the information I need without digging through multiple places.
If you're trying to track loads, income, drivers, payments, or other transport information, I've made the same basic system available as our Daily Driver & Transport Log Spreadsheet.
And you'll find more of the systems, software, and things we use to keep everything moving in Behind the Scenes.
What the Business Has Taught Me
Running a transport business from our rural property has taught me plenty too.
1. Independence comes with responsibility.
Working for yourself gives you freedom.
It also means the decisions eventually come back to you.
That's both empowering and exhausting.
2. Adaptability matters.
A storm, equipment problem, sick animal, last-minute load, or unexpected phone call can change the entire day.
You learn to adjust.
3. How you treat people matters.
Kindness.
Honesty.
Reliability.
Doing what you said you would do.
Those things still matter.
4. Simple systems save a lot of stress.
I don't need the fanciest software for everything.
I need systems I understand and will actually use.
A good spreadsheet, organized records, and a few dependable tools can save hours of frustration.
5. Persistence matters more than perfection.
We have made mistakes.
We've had setbacks.
We've rebuilt.
We've changed direction.
We've learned as we've gone.
This business wasn't built because we did everything perfectly.
It was built because we kept going.
🔗 Where the Road Meets the Soil
At first glance, towing and country life seem like opposite worlds.
One is horsepower and highways.
The other is soil and seasons.
But both keep bringing us back to the same basic values.
Patience — knowing some things take time.
Respect — for people, equipment, land, animals, and the responsibilities we've been given.
Resilience — understanding that things will break, plans will change, and some seasons will be harder than others.
Success doesn't always look like skyscrapers and boardrooms.
Sometimes it looks like muddy boots beside a tow truck parked in the driveway.
And I think that's part of what Axles & Acres has become for us.
Not choosing between the road and the land.
Learning from both.
The work supports the life we're trying to build.
And the life reminds us why we're doing all that work in the first place.
❤️ Our Family Philosophy
Durrett Recovery is more than the business that pays the bills.
And our little piece of land is more than the place where we live.
Together, they've helped shape the way we look at work, family, responsibility, freedom, and what enough actually means.
Whether we're hauling vehicles across Virginia, fixing something around the property, mowing grass, growing tomatoes, or sitting outside at the end of a long day...
The same lessons seem to keep showing up.
Work hard.
Take care of what you've been given.
Treat people well.
Adapt when life changes.
Notice what you already have.
And keep going.
The road and the soil may be different paths.
But somehow...
They keep leading us back to the same life.
🌾 What This Taught Me
For a long time, I thought the work and the life were two separate things.
Work was what we had to do.
Home was where we were supposed to enjoy everything we'd worked for.
But real life doesn't separate itself that neatly.
The truck pulls into the driveway.
Business conversations happen at the kitchen table.
A garden needs attention on a workday.
A beautiful sunrise happens while you're worried about a bill.
I'm learning that maybe balance isn't about perfectly separating everything.
Maybe it's about making sure the work continues to support the life instead of slowly becoming the life.
The road has taught us how to keep moving.
The acres are teaching us when to slow down.
I think we need both.
🌾 Something to Notice
Take a look at the two parts of your own life that seem like they have nothing to do with each other.
Your work and your home.
Your responsibilities and your hobbies.
The things that exhaust you and the things that restore you.
Are they teaching you some of the same lessons?
And maybe an even better question:
Is the work you're doing helping support the life you want to live—or has the work quietly started becoming the whole life?
I don't think we always need a dramatic change.
Sometimes we just need to notice when things have gotten a little out of order...
And begin moving them back where they belong.
One ordinary day at a time. 🌾
How do you stay grounded when life throws you an unexpected breakdown—on the road, at home, or somewhere in between?
You're always welcome to share in the comments.
Around the Acres
Some of what we're learning around here is practical too.
From tractors and mowers to garden tools, home projects, equipment, and everyday things that have earned their keep, Around the Acres is where we share what we're actually using and what we think about it after living with it.
Some things need the heavier-duty version.
Some don't.
And sometimes the less expensive option is honestly all you need.
We'll keep sharing both as we learn.
Along the Way
If you'd like to keep exploring what we're building and sharing:
☀️ Brenda's Beacons — Personal reflections, recommendations, and the little lights I'm finding along the way.
🚚 Life on the Axles — Real work, real roads, and lessons from towing, auto transport, and small business.
🌾 Life on the Acres — Real stories from home, the land, projects, country living, marriage, and ordinary life on our little piece of land.
📚 Helpful Resources — Things we've used, learned from, created, and found helpful along the way.
🛒 Amazon Storefront — Browse the books, tools, everyday favorites, and things we actually use and recommend from the road, around the acres, and along the way.
🎬 Along the Way — Watch the everyday pieces of life behind Axles & Acres, from the road to the acres and everywhere in between.
If something here helped you today, you're always welcome to subscribe to Axles & Acres or share it with someone who might need the same little light along the way.
Disclosure: Some links on this website may be affiliate links, which help support Axles & Acres at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products, tools, and resources that have genuinely earned a place in our lives. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
