Life on the Land

STORY BY ALLEN TREADWELL

COURTESY OF HAYDEN OUTDOORS

Growing up on a small family farm in rural southwest Missouri, living off the land was the way of life. My family raised poultry and cattle. My “Granny” raised a large vegetable garden and preserved food for the winter. I spent countless days fishing the nearby lakes with my “Pa.” Then in the fall, my Dad and I would spend time in the woods hunting. From a young age I loved hunting and shooting, and it wasn’t long before it became evident, I had a talent for shooting a shotgun. My shooting career took me to competitions in nearly every state in the U.S. and then around the world competing on six continents. Eventually, that talent combined with my upbringing provided the opportunity to work in the outdoor industry for the past 20 years.

During those travels, about 15 years ago, I was asked to attend a charity pheasant hunt in Eastern, Colorado. It was there that I met Dax Hayden; he worked in real estate with his dad, Leo, and a small team of agents at Hayden Outdoors. They specialized in knowledge of farm, ranch and recreational properties mostly in Kansas and Colorado. It didn’t take long for us to find commonalities. We both came from small rural communities, liked hunting, fishing, and spending time in the outdoors and grew up with strong family values. Shortly after that initial meeting, I met many of his family and many of the team members at Hayden Outdoors. It didn’t take long to understand that the Hayden’s are a tight-knit group, and shortly after meeting them they make you feel like family and treat you like lifelong friends.

For many years, my relationship with the Haydens was solely based on friendship, and respect as mentors. Then late last year, I was presented with an offer I couldn’t refuse, the chance to check another box in our relationship as a Team Member. You see, in recent years, largely due to their clients’ requests, Hayden Outdoors has experienced rapid growth into new markets and states they had not been in previously and has carefully chosen agents to join the team in those areas.

For 20 years I have had a background in outdoor industry, television and entertainment, and when I was asked to be the host of their new television show, Life On The Land, it was a perfect opportunity to merge my upbringing and career with Hayden Outdoors. Not only would I be working on the television show airing on RFD-TV, I would also become an agent and help grow the company in my home state of Missouri, as they expand further into the Midwest and Southeast.

This is why the Hayden Outdoors’ Life On The Land TV show is one of the most important projects I have ever worked on. This program gives Hayden Outdoors and me the opportunity to showcase amazing properties across the country allowing the viewer to dream, and even act on the dream, to own a piece of heaven on earth; a chance to show those that tune in a variety of experiences, landscapes and activities with family and friends outside the city limits.

Life On The Land invites the viewer to join us as we tour some amazing farms, incredible ranches, exclusive retreats and world class hunting properties as we do our best to come up with exciting and informational lifestyle segments. We want to portray the camaraderie and memories that can and will be made when friends and family take the leap of owning their dream property.

Additionally, one of my goals of the Life On The Land show is to also showcase the hard work, loyalty, humility and honesty of our team. Even though in the last 10 years Hayden Outdoors has grown from a small family company to now over 135 brokers in soon to be over 20 states, the same core values that established the company still exist and are even more prevalent today.

In January 2021, Season 2 of Life On The Land will still feature fantastic properties, but with the addition of lifestyle features, we hope to provide a more in-depth look into living on the land. You’ll find the Hayden Outdoors team venturing from Alaska to Florida and many places in between. We travel to the famous Kodiak Island, where we chase a variety of fish, from silver salmon in three feet of water in a spawning stream, to giant halibut 200 feet deep in the Pacific Ocean. In Wyoming, we showcase a generational legacy ranch and we harvest free range buffalo, taking that meat from field to table. We explore land stewardship, management, cattle ranching and farming in multiple states, and we even chase white-tailed deer in Central Oklahoma. And those are just a few of the episodes and adventures you get to explore. Life On The Land has so many great features planned, we hope to give you, the viewers, a glimpse of our adventures as rural land brokers and the experiences of living life on the land! °

CATCH SEASON 2 OF LIFE ON THE LAND ON RFD-TV STARTING JANUARY 2021.