Interview: Chris and Peyton Lambton talk with MyFixitUpLife

Chris and Peyton Lambton talk about pickling, composting, working on the HGTV Smart Home and Chris’s fear of heights while working on his treehouse special with MyFixitUpLife’s Mark and Theresa.

Mark: You’re back inside MyFixitUpLife with my wife, Theresa…

Theresa: And my husband, Mark…

Mark: And the first couple of home improvement, DIY, and get-out-there landscaping, Chris and Peyton Lambton.

Theresa: Hi guys!

Peyton Lambton: That was quite an entrance.

Theresa: Yeah!

Chris Lambton: I like that, yeah… sounds good.

Peyton Lambton: First couple…

Mark: First couple. You’re welcome for being elected to that.

Peyton Lambton: Thank you!

Mark: There is a small form to fill out-

Theresa: Yes, there was.

Mark: It’s 14 pages.

Theresa: And we had to get a quorum between us to, like,  vote on it, too. It was very difficult stuff.

Chris Lambton: I heard we won in a landslide, by the way.

Peyton Lambton: Yeah.

Chris Lambton: No big deal. 82 percent of the votes? Right here.

Theresa: Okay. So we’re… we’re in Tennessee.

Peyton Lambton: We are in my home state.

Theresa: Yes, we are.

Peyton Lambton: Yeah…

Chris Lambton: Nash-vegas.

Mark: How far away did you grow up from here?

Peyton Lambton: Nash-vegas.

Um, so I grew up in Kingsport, which is about, mmm, four-and-a-half, five hours east of here, and then I went to school in Knoxville, which is three hours east of here.

Theresa: Okay.

Mark: So, you got it in your blood.

Peyton Lambton: It is.

Mark: This whole thing is part of your being.

Peyton Lambton: Tennessee is in my blood. It runs orange, deep, for the University of Tennessee. I love it here.

Theresa: When you’re here, like are the- whenever I go home to where I’m from, like, the trees look bright here. Do you feel the same way?

Peyton Lambton: I do. You know, in New England, we had a really long winter this year, and so it was nice coming home and seeing flowers in bloom, and the trees have leaves on them, and everything is really colorful, and so it’s nice.

Theresa: Yes. And we’re here at the Healthy Homes Conference, and we stopped by Chris’s talk earlier today, and it was inspiring, talking about all the different ways of, you know, living healthy and incorporating gardening, and all the different ways of, you know, using landscaping, but in not a traditional sort of “bed” way, like where you have to be on your knees, and… actually-

Chris Lambton: (laughs) You’re not, like, on your knees, working the garden, like… you know, that’s 1800s thing. You know, we’re in a different century here, so… I like raised gardens. I like pots, I like that way you can move stuff around. Bring color to different heights. Living walls… so, I like to get a little creative with things, and landscaping is my passion. I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid.

New England, you love being outside, you love… I love getting my hands dirty. I love working in it. I like to inspire people to do the same thing, so it’s fun.

Theresa: And you were talking about pickling.

Chris Lambton: Yeah, well, so…

Theresa: That’s all I have to say… you know where I’m going.

Chris Lambton: So, I…

Mark: Peyton, your smile is awesome on radio, by the way.

Peyton Lambton: Okay… (laughter)

Mark: You should just see the look on her face, it is gold.

Peyton Lambton: So during this day, I said, “You know, we have way too many cucumbers…” And before Chris and I met, I’ll go back to 2010…

Chris Lambton: I… I…. I call it… So this is the Great Pickling of 2013, but the preceding was, I had a great pickle event in 2010. I was single, living at home, and… I don’t know, I got into pickling.

Peyton Lambton: So, of course…

Chris Lambton: What else are you going to do if you’re…

Theresa: That’s what bachelors do all the time!

Chris Lambton: … if you’re in your 30s, you got nothing else to do…

Peyton Lambton: But, since he had the pickling craze of 2010, of course-

Theresa: There was involved in that. I know there was!

Chris Lambton: Look at Mark, Mark can’t even contain himself… yeah. I know, Mark… I…

Mark: Of all the possible options…. You know, and I’m checking them down…

Chris Lambton: Like, did he go to Vegas? No, no no… Wait, South Beach? No… wait- he pickled at home?

Peyton Lambton: Sports games…

Mark: Alone!

Peyton Lambton: Yeah. So, obviously, he’s an expert…

Theresa: Yes.

Peyton Lambton: So, when I entered the scene, and I’m like, I want to learn how to do this. My grandmother did this. We should… we’re farmers. This is what we should do. He’s like, “Well, this is how we’re going to do it.”

Well, I’m looking up recipes, I’m trying to be really, you know, professional about it all, and he’s just throwing stuff in the pot. I’m like, “What are we doing here?” Like, “No, they need- we need dill, we need bread and butter, we need different recipes, and he…

Chris Lambton: My God, you just throw stuff in there. You let the pickling… you just let it pickle itself…

Peyton Lambton: So they’re really good-

Theresa: You’re were an artist.

Peyton Lambton: …but they all taste the same. We don’t have a variation of recipes.

Chris Lambton: No, there’s some slight hints of variation in them, like…

Mark: Right, when this was a fistful versus a pinch…

Chris Lambton: … a little nutmeg in one…

Peyton Lambton: He got antsy a bit and said “Let’s get this over with!”

Chris Lambton: After nine hours it was like…

Mark: (laughing)

Chris Lambton: … screw the cap on, and you know what, I’m going to put it in a water bath, and let’s just wrap this thing up.

Mark: And then that’s poison in six months… so what?

Peyton Lambton: But they are good. We’ll just do more variation this year.

Chris Lambton: Yeah.

Mark: Un-believable…

Theresa: You’ll have to hide some from him, like, you know, have your own batch going, so that…

Chris Lambton: Well, she’s the planner, so I’m sure when we do it this fall, it will be like, “All right, so these 12…

Peyton Lambton: (laughing)

Chris Lambton: are using this recipe. These 12…”

Peyton Lambton: I’m going to have a map on the wall, with where it’s all going.

Mark: Are you Spreadsheet Girl?

Peyton Lambton: Yes.

Chris Lambton: Oh, man, Mark…

Mark: Like are you… just the whole organization…

Peyton Lambton: Yes. And if it doesn’t-

Theresa: Organization…

Peyton Lambton: …if it doesn’t go my way, then it’s just all downhill.

Mark: Then the pickle has hit the fan, as it were.

Peyton Lambton: (laughs)

Chris Lambton: Yes. Yes.

Mark: Unbelievable.

Chris Lambton: We’ve got relish if that happens.

Mark: Now, one thing, Chris, you were talking about in your talk…

Chris Lambton: Yeah.

Mark: …was, “I’m passionate about composting.” And you talked about having a compost bin, and I think – I swear to you- that should be the law… that you should have to compost a little bit in your back yard.

Chris Lambton: Well, it’s such an easy thing to do. Anyone can do it. It requires no start-up cost. You can put it right on the ground in your back yard. Like I did, I nailed four pallets together. You can’t drive a mile and a half, in most towns or cities without seeing “Free Pallets.” “Take These Pa

llets.” You know it’s not like it going to cost you any money. Nail four of them together. They’re perfect for composting, because compost needs air. So like I said, I have two of those in my back yard. Always filling one, taking it from the other.

And, our trash goes down quite a bit, because we’re not throwing stuff away. You just feel good about yourself. You’re recycling materials, and that goes into your garden and provides the nutrients you need, so you don’t have to spend money on fertilizers. Um, I don’t know… I just… I love composting.

Peyton Lambton: I’ve been really amazed at the amount of trash, between our recycling bin, and our compost, we hardly have any trash that we’re throwing away, so it’s really nice.

Chris Lambton: Yeah.

Theresa: So I…

Mark: It’s not going into the waste stream, it’s not going in a diesel truck … the whole thing…

Theresa: But, when we travel, because we compost at home too, when we travel, I always get anxious. Like if I have an apple, or you know, whatever it is, and I’m like. “Oh…” I feel bad about throwing this away…

Chris Lambton: Or if you see restaurants, especially…

Theresa: Oh no…

Chris Lambton: Like, not only do restaurants, you know, throw away all their food scraps, but then like, you see all those bottles of wine just get dropped in the trash, you’re like, “Oh man…”

Theresa: It breaks my heart.

Chris Lambton: A) You can make something cool out of it, or B) just recycle the glass, so like, I think it’s something that in the next few years especially will start growing, and becoming almost mandatory in places, where which…

Mark: It actually is in Vermont…

Chris Lambton: Yeah.

Mark: … somewhere, I just saw that…

Chris Lambton: Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are usually very progressive about things, Vermont especially. So yeah, I think that they have taken that step.

Peyton Lambton: And there’s even services now. Vermont has a great service. A friend of ours lives there. Well, they will provide you with a compost bin, and they will come and pick up your food scraps and take them and compost them for you. So you can just look, there’s tons of different areas that have services like this, so even if you don’t want to do it yourself, there’s somebody else that will do it for you.

Theresa: That is amazing. I wish that was everywhere.

Mark: So what did you talk with Chris and Peyton Lambton, the First Couple of DYI about?

Chris Lambton: Pickling and composting.

Mark: We talked with them about their garbage. (laughter) And you know what…

Theresa: (laughing) We went through your guy’s garbage, and we discovered there’s not a lot of it.

Mark: We do have our agent out there, picking through your credit card receipts as well… (laughter)… it seems you didn’t recycle those, so we’ll just move them over to the other bin.

Chris Lambton: Perfect.

Theresa: You know, we’re also very excited that we’re going to go and tour the HGTV Smart Home…

Chris Lambton: It’s wicked smart…

Theresa: Yes… that you co-hosted … and, you know…

Chris Lambton: I like to say I co-built.

Theresa: Co-built?

Chris Lambton: Yeah, I put some… I helped wire it. I put down the sub-floors. Um, I’m pretty sure I put a brick in place. So I mean, basically-

Mark: Oh sure. You did the whole thing.

Chris Lambton: … if it wasn’t for me, it would be-

Theresa: There would be a brick missing…

Chris Lambton: There would be some gaps in the house…

Theresa: Yes, there would be some noticeable gaps.

Chris Lambton: and maybe one room without cable.

Theresa: One room without cable.

Chris Lambton: (laughs)

Peyton Lambton: That’s ridiculous.

Mark: Unbelievable.

Theresa: Absolutely unbelievable.

Mark: So, you’ve got that, and then you had your treehouse special.

Chris Lambton: The treehouse special was so much fun…

Mark: Which was… I saw a picture of you on your Facebook page, just hanging from a tree, wearing some kind of helmet.

Peyton Lambton: Oh, that was hysterical.

Chris Lambton: Oh my God…

Mark: What is going on with that?

Peyton Lambton: Chris does not like heights.

Chris Lambton: I literally got roped into this one.

Mark: See what he did there?

Theresa: Yes.

Chris Lambton: Yeah. You see that?

Theresa: Yes. I did. Yes, uh huh.

Mark: Nicely played, sir.

Theresa: That’s why you’re a landscaper, because you don’t like heights.

Peyton Lambton: Got his feet on the ground.

Chris Lambton: God, I hate heights… hate heights.

Theresa: Yes, very grounded.

Chris Lambton: So, they’re like, “Oh, uh, we’re going to have you do a Tarzan swing.” So I’m thinking back on my… I used to go and Tarzan swing off a swing into the lakes when I was a little kid. I’m like, all day, I’ll do this for days… let’s go. So there’s this big rope, and I’m like… “Huh! Little bigger than I thought, but, you know, I’ll give it a shot.” So then they rope me in to this thing, with like, harnesses. I’m like… liability issue, you know how lawyers are.. you gotta have checks and balances, and I’m like, that’s fine.

And then they’re like, “All right, hold on to this water ski handle. So I’m holding on to this handle and they’re like-

Peyton Lambton: This is a completely homemade contraption…

Chris Lambton: Yeah.

Theresa: Were you there?

Peyton Lambton: No.

Theresa: Okay, because I would be having a heart attack if I was you.

Chris Lambton: So at this point, I’m like, “So what do I do?” They’re like, “Just hold on, and don’t let go.” And I was like, “Don’t let go?” And then, the owner of this establishment is in a golf cart next to me… he’s in a golf cart laughing, and I’m like” What are you laughing at?” He’s like, “Hold on… you holding?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” And he drives away, and as he drives away, I get pulled up 75 feet.

Theresa: (gasp)

Chris Lambton: So at this point, I’m full stretched out at the top of a tree… in Oregon. And they’ve got big trees in Oregon. And I’m looking down, and they’re all laughing at me, and at this point, I’m just sweating because I’m like, I

hate heights. And they’re like, “So you’re going to let go when we say let go. And you’re just going to drop.”

Theresa: Oh my…

Chris Lambton: And I was like, “What?!”

Mark: No one told you?

Chris Lambton: No.

Peyton Lambton: That’s why they didn’t tell him.

Chris Lambton: Because I wouldn’t have done it. So then they said, “So the important thing is, when you let go, to release both hands at once, because if you hold on one, you’ll start spinning, and you could, like-

Mark: Sure, because you wouldn’t want to die.

Chris Lambton: Right.

Mark: No. I mean…

Chris Lambton: So they’re like, “One, two, three, let go”… and I’m like, “I don’t want to let go”

Theresa: (laughs)

Chris Lambton: So I’m looking at my hands and I’m like, let go, and my hands are like, they’re getting tighter, like-

Mark: It’s not happening…

Chris Lambton: No, it’s not happening. So finally I let go, and the first 25 or so feet, you just drop straight down, which it doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you’re falling…

Mark: Are you kidding me? My palms are sweating…

Theresa: Oh my God…

Chris Lambton: And then, I start going up and down, and oh man… it was freaky.

Mark: Well, in the 30 seconds or so we have left, that’s going to be harder than the Spartan Race that Chris and I have signed up for to benefit Race to Rebuild and Rebuilding Together.

Chris Lambton: The great thing about the Spartan Race, you’re no more than 10 feet off the ground at one time…

Theresa: (laughs)

Chris Lambton: …so I can do that for days.

Mark: You can do that all day…

Chris Lambton: Oh yeah, I’m not worried about that.

Mark: Chris will be doing two laps… at the Spartan Race Course for Race to Rebuild…

Theresa: Yes.

Mark: More on that coming up. In the meantime, it’s break time.

Theresa: Yes.

Mark: So follow Chris and Peyton on Twitter and Facebook, watch their shows. We’ll be back with more on MyFixitUpLife.

Chris Lambton: Thank you, Mark and Theresa.

Theresa: Oohh..