Raised in Brooklyn, Darcie Burroughs never thought she’d find herself living in the upstate wilderness near Great Sacandaga Lake.

“I live on an adult playground,” Burroughs said as she drove her ATV around her 17-acre property in Saratoga County on Friday. “My idea that I was going to raise a family in a brownstone in the city and carry my stroller up the subway stairs really changed.”

That’s because she met and married a man named Mark Burroughs, who convinced the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit editor to leave the city.

“I didn’t know what the hell a sawmill was,” she said.

But she quickly familiarized herself with the equipment and custom construction industry, as she and her husband created their own company in 2017.

Steel Pines was initially a side gig for the Burroughs, but after the arrival of their son and the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for their local product was grew.

“We’re able to provide them with Adirondack wood, milled in an Adirondack location and brought to their Adirondack home,” she said.

Most of Burroughs' contributions to Steel Pines are made from her office. And those contributions cannot be underestimated.

“All this data is in here that not only we can send to a customer as a bid, but we can also use for future projects,” she said as she clicked through a constriction program on her computer. “Did we overbid or underbid somewhere? We can use that information to adjust and improve our business.”

Burroughs is hoping her story inspires other women interested in the industry to dive in.

“There are so many angles to approach the construction industry,” she said. “You don’t have to be drilling rebar and pouring foundations.”

She’s reminded every day how rewarding an industry like construction can be when she looks out at her newly built horse barn she helped construct.

“It keeps me grounded. It gives me perspective,” she said. “Looking at all we have and appreciating it and being grateful. I just love where I am.”