Life can take unexpected turns. For one county resident, that journey has taken him from the big city to the countryside, from evangelism to information technology (IT), and from astrophotography to tractor videos.

As Wade Prunty explained, “Life just doesn’t happen; God has a plan. Sometimes we think we know the plan, but we don’t. Up in heaven, God must just chuckle at us.”

That plan, in Prunty’s case, is flourishing at his family’s homestead east of Mineola. The Prunty family, however, didn’t end up in Wood County without a lot of twists and turns in the road. 

Today, Prunty is making a name for himself through his YouTube site, Sabine River Valley. On the site, Prunty posts videos about tractors and tractor implements, with some other topical videos mixed in such as “How to battle sand burs.” 

The use of YouTube for instructional videos has certainly exploded in popularity. Given just about any task dealing with a home or a ranch, one can find someone in the YouTube world who has done a video on the same job. It has become a rich resource for many folks conducting repairs, large and small. 

One cannot appreciate the offerings of Sabine River Valley, however, without understanding how Prunty came to produce his tractor videos. 

Coming from a multi-generational military family (Navy and Marine Corps), as a young man, Prunty always figured he would serve, but a serious injury kept him out of uniform.  He instead left his hometown of Shreveport and embarked in studies at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. 

His intent was to study worship and begin a career as a Baptist preacher. However, while at college, his IT skills eventually placed him in the position as the IT director at the college.  

He also met his wife, Kelly, around this time, and started a family. Along with his faith, his family and his career, Prunty had a keen interest in a number of unrelated skills. As he described it, “I am not ADHD,” he stated, “it’s just that when something grabs my interest, my brain becomes completely focused on it. I need to know the details.” 

Among those things which have consumed his attention included woodworking, astrophotography, video production and music. As an example, he built a torsion box, and reinforced his patio cover so that he could mount the torsion box housing his astrophotography cameras atop the patio cover. 

His woodworking habit morphed into an interest in sawmilling. With each new hobby, Prunty would consult various social media sites to learn and interact with others who shared similar interests.

About the time that sawmilling entered his life, so did COVID-19.

“After we ate all the food in the house, I made a trip to the grocery store. That day, I witnessed some behaviors which shocked me, as people were panicked by the uncertainty and threat of the virus,” he said.

A year later, during the deep freeze in mid-February, the Pruntys were without power for an extended period of time.

“We ran out of firewood, so we loaded up and went to my parents in Shreveport,” he explained. 

Travelling back home through East Texas, the impact of both COVID and the big freeze played on his mind.

“As we were passing north of Tyler, I turned to Kelly and said, ‘What would you think about moving here to East Texas?’”

She responded that she had been thinking the same thing.

Upon returning home, they found a letter in their mailbox. The letter was from a family who asked if they ever thought about selling their home (the Pruntys did not have their house up for sale at the time).

It was, in Prunty’s opinion, a part of God’s plan – receiving that unsolicited letter out of the blue. About one year later, they were in East Texas. 

The woodworking led to an interest in sawmilling which led to an interest in tractors. It was through a YouTube host who ran Tractor Time with Tim that Prunty ended up purchasing a used TYM tractor. 

Like many first-time tractor owners, Prunty acknowledged, “I started making every mistake in the book.”

To his credit, when he made a mistake with the tractor, he was honest about it with his viewers, explaining what had happened and how to prevent it from happening.

His first YouTube video was posted in Sept. 2023. Prunty documented his installation of a rear-facing implement camera and a forward screen in his tractor cab. It was his first post.  

“I was told I talk too much, and that it was far too detail-oriented,” he explained.

He worked at it, and that year had posted a half-dozen videos to the Sabine River Valley site.

He attended the National Farm Machinery Show, hosted annually in Louisville, Ky., and met a small number of tractor owners who also ran YouTube sites. In addition to sharing their faith, the group became friends and proponents of one another’s efforts. 

Prunty committed to producing one video per week in the next year. Slowly his viewership grew. Then, with the recommended changes from his fellow tractor enthusiasts regarding how he produced his videos, the subscriber numbers and watch hours ballooned.

Among those who appreciated Prunty’s truthful and detailed approach was the firm Victory Tractor Implements. They struck up a relationship with Prunty wherein he would review Victory products and post the reviews on his site. 

While it is easy for anyone to create a YouTube posting – all that is needed is a smartphone and an internet connection – to do so in a manner which has monetary value and communicates a worthwhile message is quite an undertaking.

As Prunty explained, before a site can be monetized (can host advertising), it must attain a minimum threshold of 1,000 subscribers and amass 4,000 watch hours.  Professional equipment needed for quality videos, and the time and energy required in production, make a YouTube initiative very demanding. 

There are also marketing, research, and travel to consider. Prunty estimates that he may spend 40-50 hours a week on production. He has retained his full-time IT job throughout this experience.

Prunty offered three recommendations for anyone considering a service-oriented site on YouTube.  Firstly, be consistent.

“You are building a following,” he said.

“Secondly, you must find your interest,” he continued.

Prunty stressed that the community one builds on YouTube wants that connection with the host. In order to get that connection, one must be authentic, and that is only possible when one is speaking of a personal interest.

Lastly, he recommended watching successful YouTubers and finding mentors that one can learn from.

With respect to that plan which God may have for each person, Prunty recommended, “Do everything you can to 100%, but if it doesn’t work, acknowledge that only God has the real plan, so move on. His plan will work.”