Backyard BarnYard Bliss UNTIL the Cows BROKE OUT

The cows are out. The cows are out. I heard and saw them running down the road. Okay, nothing's breached here. Did they get out the back? Did they get out the back? Okay, well, you got to bring them this way, honey. They're not ever going to go back that way. Oh, maybe they are. Yeah, we got to get him off the mulch. He is on the mulch. Just keep him going that way. Maybe we can get him that way. You kids stay right here. He is gonna sling that wood chips everywhere. All right, G-dog, let's go.

Okay.

Nice. Come on, man. They're gonna be done with the chores by the time we get down there. It's raining and I don't really care because all our animals are under shelter. We've got to do chores rain or shine, but today it doesn't matter because all the animals we own are on deep bedding. Oh snap, they forget to feed the pigs their scraps this morning? Oh, maybe that's Arun's. Okay, which by the way, Arun is headed to get organic straw for our farm. We've run out. We need straw for projects like this where we need to plant seed behind the grading, and of course for the silvopasture work where the pigs prep the forest and then we plant grass behind them. Hey, good morning guys! What's going on? Oh, you did? You already mulched them? Good. We're covering up their manure every day. 50 pounds of manure every day from these guys. Hey, look, they're sharing the hay feeder. Did you put hay in there? Yeah, you did that too? Fresh hay?

Yeah.

How much?

A bale and a half in the cows and a half a bale in the sheep.

Really? Were the sheep able to get it all theirs? There goes Arun going to get our straw. Okay, we decided to put— to leave the animals in on a rainy day, but you know what just so happens? It just so happens that they were in on a rainy day. We're a little worried that maybe they might pick on Phyllis, but they seem to be doing all right. We gotta make sure they don't— haven't pooped in it.

Huh?

Are you sure? Yeah, he's saying they haven't pooped in it. I don't see any poop. All right, everybody's in there. The question is how we're gonna milk. My idea was to kind of put the bromance out and then tie the cows up in here. Do you boys think that would work? No. Why not?

Well, because Flossie doesn't— Flossie doesn't stand still if she's tied up.

You don't think so?

Just like Phyllis, she stood still when she was in a stanchion.

Have you tried Phyllis— Flossie without being stanchioned?

Not really.

Okay, so what's your plan?

Put them in there. Flossie. Okay, tie Phyllis up and you put Flossie in the stanchion right there. Okay, there's poop in that water.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, there is. Okay, well, there— yeah, let's not make them drink that. Let's unplug it right there and we'll pour it this way. Yeah, they got a little turd in it. How'd the sheep do? They look cleaner. Oh yeah, immaculate. We might need to put a cage around this. So the boys want to come in here at our old stomping ground. It is super easy to milk in here. We got a stable stanchion, it's a nice view. Okay, so we would put Flossie there, but we want to milk— this is good for milking one cow at a time, but we got so many good milkers, why not milk two cows at a time? Where do you think we could put Phyllis?

Right here? No, maybe look, do this.

Hold on, hold on, let's see Jonah's idea and then we'll do that.

Shut this gate, uh-huh, then tie her to this. Yeah, and then she goes out like this.

Yeah, I'm afraid if somebody milks over there, they're gonna get squashed. That's the only thing. So it would only be one person able to milk her.

Look, if we turn on this light, we could tie her to here.

Yeah, that's a possibility.

But this is not very square.

It's so dark in there though, even with the light. Was the light not working? All right, they went and turned on the light, but it didn't work. Okay. Oh, that's the— that's out here, which— that's a nice light. Um, you guys, we'll do it up here today. Let's do it up here for a little while. Once they get used to the bedding and the— and the situation out there and we get used to it, we might start milking them out there. Want to try that?

Just do it in here.

Well, you don't want to help milk? We're about to milk.

No, I don't want to help out.

Come on, help milk.

Yeah, you—

how'd you get so messy? Hey, how'd you get so mad? How'd you get so messy?

I played.

How'd you get so messy?

Like this. And put Papa— we could tie it like this and board a board here for a kid to go that way or this way.

Yeah, we could, we could put her here. I like this. We need to move this pile. We could put her here and only— and then I'll build on this side, and then you guys will milk Flossie. Sound good? Let's try. Oh look, Flossie's right there. Let's get her out first. Just Flossie right now. Jonah, Jonah, shut the gate. Let's just do one at a time today. It's interesting, she hasn't been here in months, but look, she knows the drill. She hadn't forgotten it. Hey, you haven't forgotten the drill. You haven't forgotten it, have you? So now guys, to get Phyllis We don't want to put the feed in yet because she'll be hanging out here. Would that be so bad? Wait, if it wasn't raining, that would be okay if she hung out here, and then we could have somebody milking on either side. I just don't want somebody to get pinned against something.

Well, I was thinking if she's right here, Papa, uh-huh, somebody's— yeah, we'll be right here. Yeah, you can run that way and you can run that way.

All right, let's try that. I feel like— could something be done under here? It's a little unlevel. Could milk her there and let her stand this way, and then I think we could get around. But then it's, it's still a little— it's still too crooked for like holding the— having the bucket up.

Look, see this mulch right here? Yeah, we can move it into a level. Yeah, you just keep sharing ideas.

Hey, it's good to have ideas. It's good to have it. I had, I had some ideas of the shed, but I'm not marrying it until I've thought it all the way through. Heck, I'm not even marrying it until I've tried it for a while. So what we'll do, let's just move her slightly and then I'll be on this side and I can move out of the way. I don't want a kid on this side and a kid will be on that side and have plenty of room to move. Let's alfalfa them up, wash them up. Are you still here? I figured you did. Yes. And listen, listen, can you promise me tomorrow Not to go get wet.

Okay.

And then you can stay.

Hope to die.

Okay. Which, by the way, this heat was— that was getting clogged for weeks. It's finally cleared up. Had this stinky snot-like stuff that came out, and, uh, it's, it's finally cleared up. Hey, was that hard to get her?

No, but she was right by the gate and the other calf was eating.

Okay, that's good. So we don't— we're getting Polly to get the second milk down, but we don't really need Polly because Frosty doesn't hold back. She's getting strong. Wow, this is good halter training. You hear the rain? I don't care, we're under shelter. Now how to get everybody back out? Well, let's get the two mamas in the loafing area, and then I got an idea. We'll take it from there. I know it seems like a lot, but we are establishing a new routine. But trust me, we're saving a ton of time and energy. Okay, so now you got cow, cat, mamas, and a calf out. What we're gonna do is open that door, Jonah, right there. Don't worry if anybody gets out. If anybody gets out— oh, never mind, he's gonna spot me. I'll herd these guys in. Looks like the cows need hay already. Dad, can you reach through there? You're just gonna get it off the side. Plus he can reach through. You see him get in there all the time?

Yeah, he's like this.

All right, we just got done milking and the feed delivery called. It's coming, it's coming now. I hope we hooked up the tractor to the charger so it will start. Who's in charge of watching the dog? We forgot and the dog got out. Big Mike's a mess.

I'm gonna give him a bath.

And all he wants is to come give you a hug and a kiss.

I know, I don't want it. I don't want that hug and kiss in your nice outfit. UPS Freight called and then the driver called and said he's leaving the terminal now.

Oh, so they're not gonna be here right this minute.

Well, 30 minutes.

But I will go see the tractor starts.

That's right, you guys are really done quickly.

Great. Yeah, it's like 9:30. I didn't get out there until 8, and that was our first time, so it's a little rough around the edges. We're not having to move a shelter, we're not having to move nets. We could put the cows back and then bring the milk out in the field. We have to bring the milk, then go deal with the cows because it's so far away. We just got to get the milk cooled off. Just a number of little things that It really makes a big difference. We're not soaking wet. Jonah, will you put our milks away please? I'm gonna go make sure the tractor starts. This is a very special feed delivery. It's a pallet of corn and some alfalfa. The corn for mixing in the deep bedding for the pigs. Why the pigs? We're gonna move the cows out in the spring. We'll have that corn mixed in there. We'll do that Joel Salatin method, which encourages the the pigs to then till the manure and the wood chips together. Let's cross our fingers this thing is plugged in. Okay, looks like I did charge it. Charger on it to maintain the battery. Tractor's going. We'll let it warm up. Let's make sure our garage is ready. I couldn't quite get all the way under there, get that all the way out. I didn't adjust it all, and UPS is here. Problem is I couldn't get this all the way in. Jammed. Let's try this. Ready? 1, 2, 3. Oh yeah! We had to get this out front. Look, you guys think that's beautiful tile?

Yeah.

Do you think that's a beautiful tile? That's y'all's bathroom tile. Look at these guys, you made breakfast, man. Hey, you folks want to see how the bathroom's coming? We have the drywallers this weekend. There's no lights, so we're gonna have to stand over here. What you measuring?

I was just measuring that for a basket.

Okay, your little shelf in this tiny space, custom shelf. Worked out nice. It did.

It worked out really nice actually.

Yeah, you're using every single spot.

Can you hide in there?

Yeah, I can use like the—

Gideon's gonna hide in there.

Yeah.

Look, look, he's hiding in there. Get out of there, get out!

They'll be excited. They can take a bath or a shower now for the first time. Yes. We got a little bathroom area so you can go and laundry without having to mess with anybody's business.

Toilet here, vanity there. I need to order a mirror still.

What about the sunroofs over here before I finish these?

He's gonna, um, he's gonna put a solar tube right there.

Okay.

And then we have— this will be— we'll have shelves. Yeah, shelves up high.

Okay.

Laundry sink. Maybe here I'll do like a hanging. This might be where Laundry, I'm gonna hang my, very excited, I'm gonna hang my ironing board up.

But where's the bathroom?

The bathroom's in there.

So we're taking away the open concept from the bathroom, I imagine.

Correct.

It's cool, that's the style, isn't it?

It's not open concept. The bathroom is not a good open concept.

No, closed concept as much as possible. Give them their moment while you get laundry done.

We're gonna have a new window.

It's bigger, it's gonna be bigger.

It's a little bit bigger.

Okay.

And then in here will be laundry. This thing for my washer dryer, and then I'm gonna have open shelving up here. Okay, open shelving up over here. Might be a rack that comes down, I don't know.

We'll see. Nice.

We're just gonna see what we have once everything—

okay. Oh yeah, I like that door because it's, it's not see-through but it lets light through. Yeah, so the more light the better in that room, Becky. Yeah, I know. You guys playing checkers?

No, you want— we want you to play too.

I've been editing a very special video yesterday, a little short film about getting the animals in the pole barn. If you haven't checked that out, encourage you to check out yesterday's video. Teddy's hard at work and Jonah's hard at work making you grilled cheese.

Yes.

And what are you making back there?

This is some tomato soup from a while ago.

Okay.

I am gonna— I do have plans. I have big plans.

Did you make this out of bottom of your heart for her? Did you make it because you What? A little bit.

Both.

That's nice. And look at this, he also cut up tonight's veggies, onions and potatoes.

Because it tastes good.

And he helped cook breakfast.

Yeah, him and Josiah. Josiah and him cooked. You did? They cooked it together.

Wow.

I will say though, he put the butter on the inside of the grilled cheese.

He was like, how do I make sure it burns?

He was like, how come I don't— I can't get it to not burn? I'm like— I'm like, just put butter on it, turn it down lower if that's the problem. And then I came over and I was like, well, you need butter on this. And he's like, I put butter on it. And I'm like, no, you didn't. And he's like, oh, I put it on the inside.

I like Lily's sign she made for me. She made it the Burn It Up Cooking Show. Jonah putting the butter on the inside of the grilled cheese is a real quick path to the Burn It Up Cooking Show.

What does it look like? You can see my chicken broth's going here.

Yeah, we'll never be without chicken broth again.

It's slow. Still so high.

All right, Jonah's got the potatoes ready. I'm going to get the chicken ready. We've brined it. We're going to try something different. Somebody told us about this on Instagram, trying to keep my turkey moist with bacon, which worked out amazing. They said you could rub it down with bacon grease and that also crisps it up. I'm looking for a crisp. Moist chicken. Let's see if this will work. This is bacon grease. All right, so now we're gonna, uh, learn this trick last week. Let's do half and half, broth, water, and let's put that in the bottom to keep it moist as it bakes. Jonah, what let's do here is let's get every afternoon We're going to get the manure up out of the yard, bury it in the deep bedding. We're going to bury anything that's in the deep bedding. Uh, let's do it. Look at this. You know you're a vlogging family if your kids make wooden cameras.

Yeah, that's mine. Jonah, do you want to paint this?

Are you making, uh, birdhouses now?

Yeah.

Aroon just got back. We're about to eat supper. Drywall guys are here. The cows are out. The cows are out. I saw them running down the road. Okay, nothing's breached here. Did they— did they get out the back? Did they get out the back? Okay, well, you got to bring them this way, honey. They're not ever going to go back that way. Oh, maybe they are. Yeah, we got to get him off the mulch. He is on the mulch pile. Just keep him going that way. Maybe we can get him that way. You kids stay right here. He is gonna sling that wood chips everywhere. Oh my— all right, well, what do we do? Leave that door open?

No, it was— people didn't throw this up.

Well, how'd they get out?

It was left— it wasn't latched.

Okay, yeah, that means we left it open.

They ran Stud tore this up.

Jonah's potatoes turned out nice. The chicken turned out nice. I think given 2 chickens in there and potatoes, I would have liked to give it more time. It was starting to crisp up, but we just gotta eat.