42 Years Old and I'm Using a Walker

Now you put the shoe to my foot. Don't move my foot to the shoe. Jonah's been going— they've been going at chores this morning.

It's the morning time and me and Josiah are going to do the chores and we're gonna film us doing them. Josiah's going to get the pig bucket and I am going to do the ducks. They all survived, guys. Rats, cage. No rats getting in here. Now I'm done with the ducks. Okay, Josiah's got the big grain and he's gonna film me carrying it to the pigs. Last night was a big rainstorm and we're gonna go look at our creek. Our rock went down into the water. Gosh, that isn't good. Took all this dirt out from under that rock and made a big overhang. It's just way crazy. It went over here and went whoa down this. Here at the fat hens, we're just gonna check on them to make sure they're doing good. At least I gotta tighten up this whole fence. Got plenty of water. We got tons of grain. Dad's gonna move the chickshaw. Now we've done fat hens.

I did take a pain med so I could sleep last night, so I'm gonna try to, uh, have some residual of that. I'm gonna try to get in wheelie, go check on our chores from the wheelchair. This might be a bad idea. Well, I gotta— all I gotta do is get to wheelie, then I'm just gonna sit there. I'm doing it. I had mom pull up Willie. I don't have to go very far. Once I get in this, I mean, it'd be like sitting in the living room. My right foot's good so I can do the gas and brake. And this, this knee makes my feet feel like they're normal. Don't mind the pajamas. This is day 2 of the knee— of reactive arthritis going to the knee. If you're new here, It's in my right ankle, my right toes, my left ankle, left toes, left knee. It's getting a lot better, but right wrist, fingers, left wrist, fingers. I think that's it. Day 2 of broth fast. Just trying to lower inflammation as much as possible, strengthen my gut. I still have residual pain in my arms, and it's bearable because I'm not constantly using them. It's a little nerve-wracking because I constantly use my feet and knees to walk, and there's something about a knee pain that is just— it's like scratching a chalkboard with your fingernails. It's just like, ugh, just doesn't feel right. Okay, everybody got their seat belts on?

Yep.

How we doing on tomatoes? Josiah, can you go in there and check? I'll go and see what kind of tomato itch we've got. I bet we're gonna have a lot on this row, this row right here. Here, what I want you to do, Josiah, take this camera. I'm gonna have you take— give a tour. I mean, it'd be before the vlog, but we'll actually replay this clip for your mother inside to see what she thinks if we need to come down and harvest some tomatoes. Thank you, Josiah. We want to prioritize Mom, bless her heart. She's doing so much. She has to keep up her jobs plus take over my jobs because I'm out, plus take care of me. So when I go down, that's 2 more jobs for her. Big jobs. The green beans are mucho ready. I don't know if you can see that, but Cheesecake is peeing in the corner. That's good. I want to see her peeing, I want to see her pooping, I want to see her eating and drinking. She had those 2 babies, they didn't make it. We got to get her— we got to make sure she's still healthy. Our 3-day protocol seemed to work. We've got to get her to butchering day, September 9th, 6th, something like that. Cheesecake, you gonna make it? You're a hearty one. You may not be able to birth well Man, I am excited about that, harvesting her. We are about— we're pretty much out of pork. We have some odd cuts. I've got Gideon going in there. Notice he's not going down in there. Best practice is to not go in with the pigs. They are, uh, they are omnivores, so we don't— we don't let the kids go in there alone. And he's checking the water from the top of the rail. How is it? Is it Is it good? They got— oh good, they got plenty of water. Look, we had a big rain. It rained all day yesterday hard. And look, that— this, this means the creek came up. It's washed these branches up. You can see the grass is combed over. Did it ever flood at the corner, Josiah?

Uh, I think so.

Let's go look. All right, down here at the end of the creek It's almost a 90-degree turn here at their swimming hole. There's the creek. You can't see it because of all the brush. You can hear it. And then, yeah, it washed. You can see this grass is combed over. We're up here milking. This is one of my favorite spots. Can you see why? It's just beautiful. It's just kind of up here in the corner of our farm. We're about to start making our way down, so it's getting a little easier. We're a little closer to the house. It's really nice up here. Jonah, bless his heart, he does have a lot on his plate with me going down. A lot of distractions, big rain yesterday. I forgot to remind him and he forgot to put up the calf, so the calf's been on her all night. We might not get a lot of milk. One really good thing about this mobile milking system is we're in a different part of my farm every day, different part of the pasture. I dare say it forces us to, you know, just look around, observe. Well, you know, the animals like to hang out over there. It's concentration of manure there. Could we clear one of those trees and it might bring in a little more sunlight and help? When is the sun gonna hit this grass? The sun is rising right there and we're kind of seeing, you know, look It's 9 o'clock and the sun isn't near, uh, coming here, and it's just real practical, hands-on, in touch with the earth and its cycles, and in touch with this farm and how every pasture has a character. Character. And now we know it, and that's special. What? This is after second milking. She's holding back on us.

Is that all?

Yeah, that's, that's almost 2 gallons, and that's with the calf being with her all night. That's some cow. If she doesn't come into heat and get bred, well, we could just keep milking her for the 2 years until, uh, Maple gives birth. There was a family that emailed me, they milked a cow for 19 years from one pregnancy. They didn't know, I didn't know you're supposed to You know, get her pregnant again, keep her going that way. 19 years.

19 years? The cow doesn't live that long.

I know, I know. Most the time they don't. They don't even live that long, let alone being milked that long. It would have been over 20 years old. Look at that beauty. That's Maple. Look at that pot belly.

Well, Papa, why don't you keep her?

I love it. We are keeping her. She's A2, A2. She's got a great body, a great build. Little thing, little legs, big body. Huge body, just like Phyllis. And not related to Stud Muffin, so it'd be a different genetic coming in. Lily, how old are you?

9.

You'll be like 19. It still will be alive when Maple's getting up there in age. 19, 20.

Yeah, that would be in 10 years.

You'll be like 16.

16, like, don't know, you'll be running the cows by then.

Inside, looky here. When Phyllis is in milk, that means ice cream. Look at all this milk we're gonna separate. How many gallons?

7, 8, 9, 10.

Mucho. Almost 12. Basically mucho. You got to do those because those are warm from today, I think. Yeah, well, and then maybe the other ones for drinking today. Grandma has brought me some tools. I kind of resisted this for a while because I shouldn't be having to use this until I'm like at least 84. But it helps. I didn't think I'd be able to use this because of my wrist.

42, Papa, not 40.

So Just temporary. I need to get an Abundance Plus sticker on there. This would make me feel better.

I know, why did you resist? I tried to do this yesterday and you're like, no.

Pride, I guess. Pride and ego.

Justin, you were walking like this.

Well, I'll tell you what. If it wasn't pride, it was really because I thought my wrist would not handle it. Because you don't— don't you remember my right wrist? It's bum too, but it's less bum than your knee. I know, it's pretty much what's the least bum. Oh, there, look, look, look! That is a lot cooler. Maybe I would have put it over here though.

That is a lot cooler. I get another one.

Yeah, get— well, let's see if that'll still work there, and it'll be straight. All right, that's cool.

Got to move it there.

Well, he's getting me another cool sticker, The Great American Farm Tour.

Where should we put it?

Here, which is now on Abundance Plus.

Yes, here. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Here we go.

Oh, there we go.

Okay, how's that?

Hope you don't mind the stickers on your walker.

No, they're—

hopefully you won't ever need it again. I realized The Great American Farm Tour is really close to us and a big part of our life, but many of you guys are new here That was so 2017, wasn't it, Rebecca?

So 2017.

All states, all 50 states in 10 months in a converted school bus, 4 little kids. That was crazy. Probably over 100 farms. YouTubed every bit of it, but we— and, and that's a playlist on YouTube. But if you want the 2-hour version, it's on Abundance Plus.

I'm going and watching all those vlogs.

Why do you recommend it? I know, I feel like there are a bunch of hidden gems in there.

There are. Like national parks.

Yeah, and just great farms. These were farms that— yeah, some, some people you knew, like Jill Winger, Shay Elliott, Joel Salatin, but other people you didn't know, like Full Circle Farm. But there's plenty of cool farms and homesteads and backyards, y'all.