6+ Gardens We’re Planting This Spring

You ready to go, Mr. Brown? Uh-huh, let's go! We planted Mama's flower garden, one of them, over the weekend. We weeded her herb garden. All that's left is sunflowers and herbs. Today I'm thinking we're gonna get these little chicks, these fat chicks. We're still having to train them to the coop. I'm kind of thinking let's put them out in the pasture. So Lily, don't let them out, okay? And then let's clip the, the wings of these adult chickens. Why are there two adult chickens out?

Because if the boys didn't cut them up, they're jumping up.

Hopefully they're not jumping. Hopefully they're flying a little bit and destroying mom's flowers in her container gardens.

Can you help me find my shoes?

I thought you said you were ready.

I wasn't ready. I didn't have my shoes.

Okay. Hey, did you notice that I always kind of start looking right here? Because that would be great if we put it back. There's one bat. There's not another one. Did you look inside?

No.

Oh, there's one. There's two right there. Go get some socks on though. We've got to clean up the people barn. We're having like a real, like, community, like local community event here tonight. So the dream is coming true. We need to plant seed, put down straw. We've installed a wood rack. Let's put wood in it. We've got a strap coming today. We're gonna hang this gigantic kid's swing. That's gonna be interesting because I'm not sure how I'm gonna get up there. Could that be my workout today? Moving those— that lumber, stacking it onto the tractor, moving it out. He just hit me with that stick.

I'll show you where the chicks get out.

Where?

Right here, that big crack.

Oh, is there a big crack right there? Okay, wait, why are all the big birds out? Did you clip their wings? We were gonna clip all their wings. All right, all right, well, let's do it tomorrow. And the other thing, all these plants, hundreds of plants need to go out. It's that time of year, there's more to do than we have time, but we're gonna do our best. Plus chores, of course. Guys, have we started on chores yet? Uh, all right, we'll pick up the nets when you go out there to do those chickens. Gideon's got the watering. You know what, before we put them in these bins, let's go get the area ready for them. Oh, is that a dead mouse? Yeah. Oh nice, cats are doing their job. I think the cat— the chickens will be happier in the coop. Let's get them some feed and water and then let's go set up their setup and then go. Hey, did you already give them food and water? Well, maybe You say that before we come up here, but I'm glad you did that. See what I'm talking about? He's got one wing clipped. Usually that does it, but maybe I need to clip the other.

You need to kill that chicken.

Yeah, that poor thing. It's been kind of sickly for days. It's not gonna make it, is it?

It's probably like 8.

Yeah, because we got it old and we got it in 2017.

So yeah, it was like 4 when we got it and now it's probably 8.

Poor old lady. I doubt you're eating. She's not going up in the coop. People will ask me, well, what's wrong with my chicken? What's happening? Well, I say if it's 2 and a half years old, uh, its egg production has dropped in half anyway. Go ahead and cull that chicken. I don't like to keep chickens over 2 and a half years. I honestly don't know what happened here. I guess maybe a little sentiment because it was our first chickens after the Great American Farm Tour. They still do work. She still is manuring the compost and spreading the mulch. Now she's out of her misery. She'll serve the farm in a different way. The family should become pig food. Lily and the rest of the kids, I— they've just grown up around this, and so I guess they know where food comes from. Yeah, something has to die.

So something else from the grocery store.

Yeah, it doesn't come from the grocery store, does it? Comes from sacrifice. I mean, the food at the grocery stores come from sacrifice too. It's just disconnect. That's what I'm talking about. There's like 4 chickens on the thing right now. They're on the railing. Let's see if I can walk by acting like I'm not interested and catch one. I'm gonna cut to the chase and just cut both. Wings.

No, it doesn't hurt.

It's like clipping fingernails. Now you have to set her down because she can't fly now, hopefully. But let's leave our scissors here for the next one. It's a bad idea because I'll probably forget and leave the scissors out. So we got like 60+ fat chicks in that coop. They're gonna replace all these ladies. All these ladies are old, uh, they need to get replaced. They're not laying a great amount of eggs.

Are you going to keep Kai?

Oh yeah, Kai's our mascot. We'll keep Kai. Half of them will go out to the pasture posse and half of them will go into the breakfast posse. So might as well put these little chicks out on grass because it's going to be too much. Like, it's that weird stage you got to grow chicks up until they start laying and can replace the other ones, but you got to keep the other ones until that happens. So you have a lot of chickens there for a period of time, a lot of big chickens. So those Chicks are going to outgrow that poop anyway in the yards. Let's go, uh, mow the grass down. This first time lapse is us mowing behind the luchadors to get what they didn't get. The second mowing is mowing the other half of the pasture. It's going to grow up, mature and die before the luchadors get there. So we went ahead and cut it, and now it'll spring forth and make this really nice succulent green grass by the time the luchadors get there. I had put this up for sale but didn't really follow through with it. Kind of glad I did, didn't it? Because this would be— I mean, I don't have time to build another coop right now, one of a chickshaw. So, uh, let's just use this. Shoot, I don't see the chain. We have to gird up our loins and, uh, we're gonna have to do this by hand. Oh yeah, you said the wheel's coming off. Did you put it back on? Yeah, but it still didn't stay on. Is it even got it? No, it does have bearings. I don't know how much we need a chain anyway since we're going downhill. It's probably gonna be mostly holding it back. We can get it going. That wheel already fell off. We've gone 10 feet. Yeah, why is this bowing out? This 2x4 is kind of ripping out. Okay, let's go get a bolt. I think we'll have that. That one needs it too. Okay, it looks like we got the right size. It's not half inch, 5/8, which is what we did. Hopefully it's the same thread because that's kind of coarse and this seems more shiny. You insist on help? We have a wrench that just kind of barely getting it on there. I mean, it'll keep the wheel on, I reckon. Do this one. That's— that wrench is too small. It will screw some, so we're putting some of it on there. It won't be tight, but it'll hold on. I know you do, honey, but we kind of just got to keep going this time. We've got to milk 20 minutes. I actually think that's working. I don't think we're stripping it. It's actually working. That's it. Hey, my little watermelon! You my little watermelon? Mama got you this morning. Mama got you all the time, doesn't she? She working hard. She working hard on you.

Say, I am happy.

He is very happy.

He's so happy. He wakes up so happy. Okay, this is his happiest time of the day.

They all want to hold him. Are you wanting to get out of chores or you want to hold Henry?

Hold Henry.

Are you going to try to plant some?

Yeah, I can plant in their 8 beds, and I need to get some herbs in the herb garden. Okay, but they're gonna die if I don't. They're probably really root-bound.

Okay, just say it's your turn to help. Will you help? Yeah, I'm calling it. It's 10 minutes till milking time. Sometimes I get— overdo things. We can put the fat chicks out tomorrow. We have a party tonight at the community barn, so We're gonna have to prioritize that. And we got— we've got to milk. Let's free the fat chicks. So I'm glad I came up here. It's like 9:10. It took a lot to get all the milking stuff and stuff. That was a good decision. Make a lot of decisions in the day, some of them good, some of them not as good, but that was a good one. It would have been like crazy late if I hadn't have. We're done up here. Everybody in their new paddock. I just sprinted barefoot from Sally up to get you guys, trying to get my heart rate up every day. It works. Literally, I'm just trying to be more like you guys. They never stop moving. They have periodic, often burst of energy. I ain't sure they'd be out of breath from doing that. Ellie, I gotta go turn the power back on. I'm tempted to go down and get Sally, drive up there, but it'd be better to walk. Actually, it'd be better to run. Hey, Beck. Hey, I'm ready for the plant. I'm ready for Earth Sauna and tanning salon.

Oh, and tanning.

You ready? Hold on, little Mr. Henry keeps distracting, but maybe all of us have a team, we can get it. I'm gonna be the shirtless farmer. There's so much I can do all at once at Earth Gym. Plant food, get exercise, get my vitamin D. You want to dig? Okay, dig the hole right here. Okay, Lily, you can plant it. One here, one on the edge, and one in the middle. Okay, we're gonna plant Mom's cucumbers in here and they will grow up this trellis. And this will be a nice, uh, it'll be a nice shady area and it doesn't take up any more horizontal space. Jonah, can you go get us grass clippings please? Start at the people barn, making it look good, and then do our yard. You want to do areas where we don't have seed yet. The grass is still young. Let's start with our lettuce right here, guys. 4 per square foot. And then we'll come into this bed. What you working on?

Uh, flowers and herbs. I guess we could plant 2 of these.

What are they?

Yellow squashes.

Okay, well, in case one didn't make it. Yeah, yellow squash up a tomato cage.

Yeah, so I saw it online and I thought, oh, that looks interesting.

In this bed we added lettuce to our spring crops. In this bed, looks like we have squash and a variety of flowers plus lettuce. In this bed, what do we plant here? I think this is just straight up flowers. Well, there's some cucumbers going up the trellis. Next we've got— well, we already had cilantro. And then what do we have? I don't know if we planted in here, but they had already planted squash and some flowers. Next up is a— already look how nice this looks once the grass clippings die out a little bit. The contrast between brown and, uh, brown and green. We've got peppers, tomatoes. I think that's some kind of— oh, that's Tommy Tio. And the last bed, all it does is give you a before and after. It's covered in silage tarp. That's how those beds were just so nice and supple and ready to plant. No weeds, We have nothing but some weeds around the silage tarp. This is what would happen if we didn't have a tarp over the whole thing. Before, after. Wow, it looks so good planted. The beautiful one has gotten— has gotten called away. She loves this, this is her happy spot. I don't think she was done, bless her heart. Henry called, she did get some good time. But really, guys, it kind of breaks her heart because she's having to spend so much time with the baby. It's hard. I'm sure you ladies can relate. She wants to so bad be out here and keep up with the garden, but she wants more, really deep down, to grow that chidler. So props to Rebecca and all you ladies out there making the sacrifice. Rebecca, so how's it feel?

So what?

This morning you were feeling discouraged because he called you away right away. He gave you— he did give you what, 30, 45 minutes? So you're feeling a little bit better even though again you had to quit and you left your space shovel in the ground. You just heard the cry and just went for it. Of course Josiah was in here watching, so— well, we just ate lunch. Well, they just ate lunch. I'm all madden, all madden. Becky?

Yeah?

I want to go work on that barn. She wants me to plant sunflowers. I just have to finish this.

Yeah, and then if you could— you don't have to. I know, on the other side.

What you're getting at—

you don't have to.

All right, what do we say, guys? We say yes, dear. The garden of peas. All right, beautiful one of peas. We got Henry a pea. Let's get this barn ready. Here now. Mom got some throws for the sofas. We got some pillows. You know, it's the end of May and it's not too hot in here, Rebecca, even, even when coming in with the doors shut. We need light bulbs. Those are coming with the swing. Let's start with getting the A-frame out of here. We'll spin around, we'll get this, we'll get these chunks of rocks out of here. We'll get this seeded and strawed. We'll get this seeded and strawed. Firewood in our rack. If we have time, we'll get this lumber out of here. That's my list. Our strap came. Now the tricky part— I gotta climb up in that bucket and sling it over the limb. One more touch and then we're done. Stack the rest of that wood to the roof. You gotta go extra. There it is. Whoa, that looks good! There was something about that wood pile. Holy smokes, it looks so good in here. Oh, and we got the swing up.

It's a little low.

Well, the swing ended up being low. But not too low for chiddlers. And everybody seemed to have a good time. Party's over, but we got people hanging on, lingering, having a good time. That's what I wanted. Life is happening there. Community is happening there. That's a good thing.