As Bob Schrader approached retirement, he wasn’t planning to take it easy.

For 37 years, Schrader worked as the assistant director of the center for agriculture at UMass Cooperative Extension, part of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Five years before he retired, he bought a Christmas tree farm.

“I had good experiences working on a farm when I was younger — much, much younger,” Schrader, 72, says.

Now, with the help of his son Jake, he owns and operates Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm, a 133-acre farm located in Hatfield, MA. 

The farm hadn’t been operational for nearly a decade and was “fairly overgrown” when Bob Schrader bought it in 2010 for $215,000.

“It wasn’t perfect at the time, but after looking for a while, I realized this was a pretty good deal,” he recalls.

Jake Schrader began working with his father on the farm after graduating from UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in plant soil science.

“I’d like to think I’ve been with my father every step of the way, through the good times and the bad,” he says.

Now 39 and a co-owner of the farm, Jake Schrader works a day job as a public utility foreman at Berkshire Gas. He primarily works at the farm mornings, nights, weekends and on vacation days, he says.

For the majority of the year, “it’s pretty much just me and my son working part-time after work,” Bob Schrader says.

“I think we both have our roles,” Jake Schrader says. He takes on the majority of maintenance and equipment repairs, he says, while his father handles bookkeeping, accounting and business management.

“I don’t think he could do it without me, and I don’t think I could do it without him,” Jake Schrader says.

The planting cycle for Christmas trees takes about 11 years, according to Bob Schrader.

Each spring, he purchases around 6,000 fir seedlings, which are usually about five years old — “about the biggest that you can get, and still be able to plant them,” he says — for approximately $2 per tree.

He, Jake and a few helpers plant the seedlings in about two days using a tree planting machine.

It takes between seven and nine years of nurturing the trees — fertilizing them, applying herbicides, mowing nearby weeds, shearing the sides and shaping the tops — to get them ready for Christmas.  

After a section of mature trees are harvested, they begin clearing the area to replant, which can take another two to three years.

Few people understand how much ongoing work it takes to grow Christmas trees, Schrader says.

“On more than one occasion, when I’ve been selling trees, the person would say, ‘Boy, you really have a good deal. You plant the tree for like three or four bucks. You come back eight years later, and you sell it for $75. What could be bad about that?’”

“The truth is a long ways away from that,” he continues.

For Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm, Thanksgiving is the busiest time of year, Bob Schrader says.

The farm typically sells around 2,500 trees every year, and one-third of those sales take place over Thanksgiving weekend.

Visitors pay between $75 and $90 to choose and cut their own trees, with saws and wheelbarrows provided. The price for pre-cut trees varies based on height: 6-8 foot trees cost $75, and 8-9 foot trees cost $90.

Every tree needs to be “processed” before it can be sold, “meaning we shake them, we bale them, we trim the bottom, and we make sure it looks the way the person wants to have it look,” Schrader says.

About a dozen people, including friends, family and part-time employees, help the Schraders on the farm during peak weekends in November and December.

In addition to selling trees, Schrader says their goal is to create a “family experience” filled with Christmas wonder: the farm offers an outdoor firepit, horse-drawn wagon rides for $2 and free hot chocolate.

“It looks like you’re walking into like a Hallmark setting when you come to the farm,” Jake Schrader says.

Around the third weekend of November, Bob and Jake Schrader transform one of the farm’s outbuildings into a cozy gift shop that offers wreaths, tree stands, wood crafts, ornaments from local artisans and branded farm merchandise.

Approximately 5,000 people pass through the gift shop each year, according to Jake Schrader.

Those extra features don’t come cheap – it costs around $400 a day to hire the wagon and horses, for example – but “it’s part of what attracts people to the farm,” Bob Schrader says.

The farm’s Christmas festivities are part of a broader trend of agrotourism, according to Schrader.

In New England, “wholesale prices are not going to keep you in business on most things,” so he and other farmers have gotten creative in cultivating destination experiences, he says.

By mid-December, Christmas tree sales have slowed to a trickle, Bob Schrader says: “You do a huge amount of work for a season that lasts three to four weeks.”

Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm’s net income varies based on labor and equipment costs, Schrader says, but they typically end the year with between $50,000 and $100,000 in profit.

The farm is structured as an LLC, according to Bob Schrader, and neither he nor Jake take a salary from the farm’s revenue.

As another revenue stream, the Schraders also grow hay on 20 acres of the land. They sell about 5,000 bales of hay yearly, as well as around 25 gallons of maple syrup and some firewood.

Looking ahead, their main challenge will be “understanding and responding to the impacts of climate change,” Bob Schrader says.

“The impact of small changes in the climate, in terms of temperature and moisture, are huge, absolutely huge,” he continues.

Extreme weather events like drought and heavy rain put stress on the trees, which makes them more susceptible to disease.

This year, after a particularly rainy spring, the Schraders are grappling with an outbreak of a plant-damaging waterborne fungus called phytophthora.

“If it gets to the roots of the trees, the tree is going to be dead within about three months,” Schrader says, and the farm has already lost a few hundred young trees this year.

He is working with the University of Massachusetts and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to learn how to combat the fungus, and to prepare for future climate challenges.

For many reasons, farming is an uncertain endeavor, Jake Schrader says. He jokes that “guys who farm are the biggest gamblers in the world.”

Fifteen years in, he still feels new to the profession, but his dream is to one day retire from his day job and work full-time on the farm, he says.

Bob Schrader has a similar dream: that the farm will continue “to operate and prosper,” and that his son will one day take over.

“I’m 72 years old, so I feel fine, but you know, you don’t kid yourself that you’re going to live forever,” he says. “How many good years do you have to keep going the way you’re going?”

Jake Schrader says his father is both “a best friend and a great partner” on the farm.

“I couldn’t do it without my father,” he says. “I’m thankful that he is still in good health, and able to live out his retirement years to do what he’s wanted to do his whole life.”

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Chris Broomfield, 50, had been a carpenter contractor for decades when he decided he wanted to focus on building a future for his family.

“I realized that carpentry is a knowledge and experience-based. I couldn’t really hand that down to my kids,” Broomfield tells CNBC Make It. “So I needed to build something that at least would give them a head start on something to borrow against or something that creates additional income.”

In 2015, Broomfield and his wife bought a five-acre property in Remsen, New York, for $27,000. It was close to where Broomfield grew up and not too far from a property his brother owns nearby.

Shortly after closing on the land, Broomfield says he started commuting from his family’s home in Connecticut every weekend to work on an A-frame cabin he was building mostly by himself.

“I always knew it was going to be an Airbnb property. I knew I was going to put multiple cabins on it,” he says. “I chose this property because it was close to the lake. It was very wooded, and it had rolling hills. I saw its potential with multiple cabins.”

After three years, Broomfield finished building the one-bedroom, one-bathroom A-frame cabin for a total cost of about $90,000, he says.

He hired outside help to drill a well, an electrician to wire the cabin and somebody to hang the sheetrock.

Broomfield says one of the structure’s standout features was inspired by his wife: A motorized king bed that slides out into the woods, allowing guests to sleep under the stars. The A-frame also has a fully equipped kitchen, fireplace, fire pit, and multiple decks.

When the cabin was first listed on Airbnb, the going rate was $60 a night. Now, Broomfield uses dynamic prices, so the rate ranges between $380 and $700 a night.

In 2024, the A-frame cabin had a revenue of $119,337 and its estimated revenue for 2025 is $143,504, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

“The process was amazing for me. I loved being up here. I loved being able to build anything that I wanted to build,” Broomfield says. “Something that came from my mind and not a blueprint. The free rein was really enjoyable.”

Broomfield says building the A-frame was challenging because he was commuting 8 hours round-trip to work 12 hours over the weekends, all while still working as a full-time contractor.

When he opened A-frame cabin for rentals via Airbnb, it went viral. It’s one of Airbnb’s “most-wishlisted” rentals the state of New York. It’s also a guest-favorite listing and earned Broomfield the title of “superhost,” according to an Airbnb representative.

Broomfield then moved on to his next project on the property: a treehouse cabin.

Broomfield hired a team of people to help him build the treehouse. After 13 weeks, it was completed in November 2019 for a total cost of about $175,000.

“I wanted to get the treehouse done as quickly as possible, so I hired some help. I knew the model was there and it worked by doing the A-frame, renting it out. The response from the guests was overwhelming,” he says. “I didn’t want to miss the window of opportunity to continue this wave of guests and potential guests’ interest.”

What makes this cabin particularly special is that it sits 14 feet in the air. To reach it, renters must cross a suspension bridge on the property.

“I wanted to create something that would bring in young families.”

The Treehouse has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a private pond with a small dock, a covered porch, and a fire pit. The living room and primary bedroom also offer views of a waterfall.

In 2024, the treehouse cabin had a revenue of $151,966 and this year, Broomfield estimates that number will be $150,562.

The treehouse is one of the top 10% of homes on Airbnb based on ratings, reviews, and reliability, according to an Airbnb representative.

The treehouse cabin was an instant success, he says, and he was ready to get started on his next build.

In 2021, Broomfield completed the Birch Falls Spa Cabin, a studio with a king-sized bed, kitchenette and spa room for a total cost $160,000.

The spa room has an 18-foot-long indoor waterfall, a massage bed, and a soaker jet tub. The cabin also has a private deck with a fire pit, BBQ and picnic area.

In 2024, the Birch Falls Spa Cabin generated $120,227 in revenue, and Broomfield’s estimated 2025 revenue is $120,890.

Broomfield named his business Evergreen Cabins.

As of September 2025, the Evergreen Cabins have brought in $2.1 million since the very first property was listed for rent in 2018, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Broomfield says that monthly costs for operating Evergreen Cabins come in at $700 a month in utilities, $8,000 for operations costs, including payroll, and about $18,000 a year in property taxes.

He says that today he brings in about $400,000 a year with revenue from the rental properties. He retired from contracting in 2021.

Now, Broomfield’s day-to-day consists of overseeing his staff, designing new cabins, and developing future plans for the Evergreen Cabins.

Since retiring, Broomfield says it’s important for him to keep busy and keep building for his family.

“There’s always going to be something that is going to be pushing me to do the next thing. I can’t sit back and do nothing. My family is a huge part of my inspiration and my drive; eventually, they are going to be the ones owning this,” he says.

“The legacy of Evergreen is, I don’t really have a plan for it [but] I do know that it is going to inspire and help people. My kids are going to be a part of that.”

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Organizational psychologist Sunita Sah wants parents everywhere to understand that a defiant child isn’t always a bad kid.

Parents who want their children to grow up to be confident and assertive adults shouldn’t necessarily encourage total obedience, Sah told the “Good Inside” podcast, in an episode that aired on Nov. 11. “Sometimes, it is bad to be so good, [and] there are situations you want people to be speaking up,” said Sah, a professor of management and organizations at Cornell University. She authored the book, “Defy: The Power of No in a World that Demands Yes,” which published on Jan. 14.

Parents typically over-train their kids to be compliant and respectful, which makes the job of parenting a bit easier, Sah said. However, if parents aren’t also training their children how to “practice” defiance in warranted situations, those kids will likely find it “awkward [and] uncomfortable” to stand their ground and assert themselves when they’re older, Sah said.

Children who don’t learn and practice self-advocacy are less likely to develop the self-esteem they need to grow into confident, assertive adults who aren’t afraid to speak up to get what they need, author and certified conscious parenting coach Reem Raouda told CNBC Make It in November.

“A child’s dignity — their thoughts, their beliefs, how they feel — is just monumental compared to their obedience,” Raouda said. “We want them to be confident. We want them to speak up.”

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Appropriately defiant children may push back on adults who are in the wrong, or speak out against other kids bullying a fellow classmate, said Sah. They might respectfully speak up for themselves if they believe they’re right about something, after someone else — even a parent — has told them they’re wrong.

“If we haven’t learned how to [be defiant], we end up saying ‘yes’ a lot,” Sah said. “We end up either being silent [or] being compliant and getting ourselves in situations that we would rather not be in.”

Sah recommended that kids “practice” assertiveness through an occasional and purposeful “small act of defiance,” and said that most parents need a “mindset shift” to rethink how they define defiance. Practicing defiance doesn’t have to mean your child is “loud, bold, and aggressive” while breaking rules and being disruptive or harmful to others, she said.

“That is really thinking of defiance as a personality trait,” said Sah. “It’s actually just a skill, and it’s one that we can learn [with] this mindset shift … There’s ways to be quietly defiant, where we can live in alignment with our values without having to be aggressive about it.”

In her book, Sah recommends exercises that kids and adults can employ to practice defiance. These include asking questions — “What’s the line that you wouldn’t cross? What’s the time that you acted in a way that you wish you hadn’t?” — that will help them identify situations where they wish they had spoken up and articulate the positions they feel strongly about, she said on the podcast.

“If we are always telling them to obey us, how can they actually then determine what it is that they truly want?” said Sah.

People who always avoid the tension of confrontation are more likely to stay silent in moments that call for assertiveness, while regretting their inaction later, Sah said. Asking your kids those questions could help them take a principled stand the next time they see a group of friends bullying another student, she said.

Finally, parents need to model the sort of positively assertive behavior they want to see in their own children, Sah noted. That could mean anything from politely returning an incorrect order in a restaurant and asking to be served what you originally ordered, to working up the courage to tell your boss you can’t work over the weekend because you refuse to miss your child’s school play.

“Those lessons stay with us and we remember them, and we remember how our parents act, too,” Sah said.

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We’re often inundated with relationship advice that rarely captures the complexity of what actually makes love work.

As a couples counselor with a decade of experience working with couples and individuals trying to find and stay in love, I’ve found that one of the most underrated signs of a healthy and resilient relationship is a concept called “mutual influence.”

Coined by married psychologists Drs. John and Julie Gottman, mutual influence means that you are willing to let your partner’s needs, vulnerabilities, and perspectives shape you, and even change something about your own behavior.

This quality generally only comes into focus during moments of tension or disagreement, not during easy harmony. At the beginning of a relationship, everyone is usually on their best behavior, which can make this valuable green flag hard to spot early on. 

Here’s how to identify and develop it in your own relationship.  

In a 2020 study, psychologists followed nearly 320 couples and found that when both partners felt their voice truly mattered and could genuinely impact the other, relationship quality stayed high and emotional security deepened over the years. 

Couples who ignored this dynamic stagnated and became more insecure as their satisfaction with their relationship eroded.​

When both partners experience mutual influence, the psychologists found that relationships not only feel fairer, but they actually are more stable and loving. Individuals report less anxiety about their partner’s commitment, and small conflicts are less likely to snowball into chronic gridlock.

This is what mutual influence looks like in practice:

• Setting your phone aside when your partner says, “I need you to really hear me right now.”
• Going a different route on a road trip because your partner feels anxious about traffic, even if you think your way is faster. 
• Deciding to spend the holidays with their family this year after hearing how much it means to them, even though your tradition was always different. 
• Choosing to pause a personal project for the evening because your partner asks for some help finishing theirs. 
• Switching off the lights when they mention they have a headache.
• Accepting their feedback about how you speak during disagreements and choosing to change your tone or words, not because you have to, but because you want them to feel safer and closer to you. 

Mutual influence isn’t about giving up your identity in your relationship or shelving what you need for the sake of keeping the peace. True openness means maintaining your values, while still making room for your partner’s experience, especially when the two of you don’t see eye-to-eye. You are creating a shared life where both of your voices matter.

Each week, consciously make one accommodation that you know is important to them. This could be a habit of yours, or making room for a preference of theirs. This signals to your partner that you hear them.

So try their restaurant pick, take their suggested route, adjust the thermostat to their ideal temperature. Being flexible in low-stakes moments makes it far easier to access that quality during high-stakes ones.

During conflict, I’m also a big fan of asking the question: “What am I missing that would help this make more sense?” It’s a disarming query because it shows that you’re not fighting to be right, but to better understand what’s going on in your partner’s head.

These are small gestures that might look insignificant from the outside, but over time, they create the sense of being considered, included, and influential, which are the conditions where real intimacy takes root. That is what separates the couples who merely coexist from those who continually grow closer.​

Baya Voce is a relationship expert who helps couples come back together after conflict. She holds an MSW from Columbia University. She regularly speaks at SXSW, and her TEDx talk on loneliness has over 5 million views. 

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What’s it like to wake up in the most unique apartment in New York City? For the price of $19.25 million, you might have a chance to find out.

This penthouse sits atop 108 Leonard Street, a landmark Tribeca condominium developed by Elad Group, marketed by Douglas Elliman Development Marketing and redesigned by Jeffrey Beers International.

This triplex apartment features 8,770 square feet of indoor space with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two powder rooms. It also boasts an impressive 3,082 square feet of outdoor terraces, including a wraparound deck at the very base of the clock.

There’s also a private internal elevator and circular staircase that serves both duplex floors and the clock tower base.

“As you ascend level by level, new experiences sort of unfold as you go up,” Tim Rooney, partner at Jeffrey Beers International, tells CNBC Make It. “We drew a lot of inspiration from that Clocktower penthouse for the whole building itself.”

The clock remains fully functional after being electrified in 2023.

The penthouse was originally the New York Life Insurance headquarters. Before it hit the market in April for $19.25 million, it had never been listed. It recently entered into a contract, although representatives for the Elad Group stated to CNBC Make It via email that they had no comment on the identity of the buyers or final sale price.

The clocktower penthouse was first designed in the late 1800s by McKim, Mead & White. It is part of the iconic Gilded Age architecture in New York City and was designated a landmark in 1987.

The top terrace features hand-carved eagles and gargoyles and offers panoramic views from the Empire State Building to the East River.

“We thought of the concept of a modern insertion inside a classic shell. We wanted to preserve some of the details, like those soaring ceiling heights and things you can’t get in a new build today,” Rooney says. “We wanted it to be so in a way it had a slightly more modern profile so it felt a bit updated but still embraced that sort of classic language.”

108 Leonard Street offers an array of amenities, including a drive-in motor reception with private valet parking, multiple lobbies, a fitness center, a 75-foot lap pool, and a children’s playroom.

The sale of the clocktower penthouse comes 12 years after developers Elad Group and the Pebbles Corporation bought the building in 2013 from the Bloomberg mayoral administration for $160 million. They transformed the 19th-century palace into 152 condominiums.

When Rooney first saw the finished clock tower penthouse, he says he was still taken aback, even after creating the renderings and envisioning what the space would look like.

“The scale of the clock tower, the soaring ceiling heights and the staircase going up to the upper level was really a surprise to me,” he says.

“Even though you do render it and design it, it was just so impressive with the amount of light pouring into the space with those giant windows. You really feel the scale and it was so special.”

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