TOWN OF MARTELL — A local father/daughter duo who enjoys working outside and taking on new projects is sharing their knowledge with YouTube viewers on their new Garden Hands channel.

Retired farmer Tim Wiff and daughter Lindsay Lindner, both of rural Spring Valley, found themselves watching YouTube videos for tips and ideas on how to do projects. As a fifth-generation farmer, Wiff has worked with tools and machines all his life. He’s used to finding creative solutions. So, why not share those ideas with others on YouTube too?

Lindner, who built a home outside of Martell in 2016 with her family, takes the lead behind the camera. She’s in charge of procuring the correct angles and shots, editing, and posting the fun, educational how-to videos. The topics covered so far, among many, include tapping maple trees, pruning hydrangeas, splitting wood, starting pepper seedlings, even reconstructing a windmill.

So, whose idea was it? Lindner says her dad, and he says it was hers.

“It really just came up during a conversation earlier this year,” Lindner said. “We both love to learn and try new skills and our project lists are endless. We talked about the various projects we were planning to do in 2021 and decided to give YouTube a try.”

Garden Hands, perhaps a salute to Lindner’s passion for getting her hands dirty in the garden, was born in January 2021. The first video taught viewers how to identify maple trees for tapping.

See VIDEOS, Page 3

Photo courtesy of the Garden Hands Team

Photo courtesy of the Garden Hands Team “It took several days of taping and editing to work out some of the kinks, but we’ve been learning with each video since,” Lindner said.

The new venture is a family affair. Family members assist in filming, reviewing content and dreaming up new ideas for future videos. The whole family, grandparents to grandkids, enjoys brainstorming and visualizing new ideas. The plan is to post two to three videos per week, focusing on projects that need doing, that they like doing, or that involve a lot of helping hands.

“With Lindsay working full-time (as a senior market researcher at Thomson Reuters) and Tim getting in the fields shortly, it can be a bit tricky finding time to film,” said Wiff’s wife, Judi.

“Our families have been very supportive as we figure this out,” Lindner said. “The primary key for us is that it needs to be fun, not a chore. We check in weekly to make sure that everyone is still having a good time and as soon as it’s becoming too much, then we’re all okay pausing or taking a break.”

How do you do how-to?

Wiff and Lindner had never done some of the projects featured in their videos, until now. For example, tapping maple trees was a new experience for most of the family.

“We researched on YouTube how to tap and boil sap and also learned from other syrup producers,” Lindner said. “We tend to follow the saying ‘It’s better to try and fail than to not try at all.’” However, some of their featured projects showcase skills passed down from parents and grandparents, such as crop farming, growing flowers or gardening. Their skillset is a mix of lifelong skills, research and learning from their failures.

“We’ve said it several times in our videos, we won’t claim to be experts at what we’re showing, this is just how we’re doing it and sometimes it works out great and other times we may need to make some changes,” Wiff said.

Traditions

Wiff, a lifelong Pierce County resident, helped his uncle, Guy Wiff, with his sugar shack, which is located in the same woods in which Wiff and Lindner built theirs. Uncle Guy tapped between 800 and 1,000 trees in the 1950s through 1970s.

“Fast forward to Christmas 2015,” Lindner said. “Tim received a metal syrup pail and 10 taps, along with some kids books on making maple syrup from Jodi with a note that said ‘you need a family hobby.’” That winter, the family used the 10 taps and cooked sap on a turkey fryer in the shop. They made 1.5 gallons of syrup, the start of a fun family tradition.

“Each year the whole family adjusts their schedules so that they can tap trees, collect sap and help boil,” Wiff said. “Making syrup has been a great way to bring friends and family together. We celebrate birthdays in the sugar shack, catch up with friends who stop by, tell stories and laugh a lot.”

Lindner’s love of flowers and gardening can be attributed to her grandma, who was always out in the garden. She revels in researching and growing a variety of flowers and planning new flower beds and gardens each year.

“Several years ago, after discovering wild plums, she began canning and enjoys the process of preserving some of the fruits and vegetables that she grows,” Wiff said.

As for reconstructing a windmill, Lindner’s childhood window overlooked the farm’s windmill. It was her favorite thing about her childhood home. When Lindner and her husband built their home, Wiff took down another windmill on his land. He spent the summer researching how to rebuild the 1936 Chicago Aermotor. Last year, the family installed it by Lindner’s horse barn.

Going forward, the pair wants to continue to have fun with their video series. It’s a bonus if their knowledge helps someone else.

“We’ve received such positive feedback and encouragement,” Lindner said. “It’s hard to put yourself in front of a camera and share what you are doing, so the positive feedback has been nice.”

They will continue to learn as they go, with the hope that each video is better than the last.

If you have an idea for a project, you can contact the Garden Hands Team (Lindner, Wiff and Jodi) at [email protected] gmail.com or comment on the videos. Like, share and subscribe to Garden Hands on YouTube. You can also follow them on Instagram at Garden-HandsWI.

Photo courtesy of the Garden Hands Team

Photo courtesy of the Garden Hands Team

Retired farmer Tim Wiff, along with daughter Lindsay Lindner, makes how-to instructional videos for YouTube, including how to harvest sap from the sugarbush.

Rural Spring Valley resident Tim Wiff took down and reconstructed a 1936 Chicago Aermotor windmill at his daughter Lindsay’s property. She always loved the family farm windmill growing up; now she has one of her own.

The Wiff / Lindner family sugar shack is a family gathering place for birthdays, making syrup and of course, teaching others the tricks of the trade on their Garden Hands YouTube channel.