Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 65

Day 65 of a 100-day challenge to build 2 acres, take it from raw land, build it into homesteadable land, pasture, water, access. But today we are sideswiped by an ornery cow. What's wrong? Let's find out. What do I gotta do to get you guys going?

A piece of chocolate would help.

To burn at moonlight. Hey, what's your ideas to what we're gonna do with these pigs? Because we have only a few more days and the cows and the sheep need that area.

Uh, the pigs can stay there. Uh, the stun muffin, guacamole, I mean vanilla, and the 4 steers and all the sheep could go in that one pen.

Ah.

With the concrete together.

You vote to put all the steers, everybody but the milking cows. The cows and milk. Where are you gonna put the milking cows?

In those stalls with the stanchion.

That's actually not the worst idea in the world.

Winnie!

Winnie! Cat's gonna get your heart. Dan, our main editor, I had mentioned something to him in video notes, how shy Winnie was around food, how like scared of me she was. I was like, what has happened in her past? And he said, it's actually not that. It's actually she's still got lots of her primal instincts, her herding instincts. The rule is you don't eat from the alpha. In case they want more. How was the apple? She's not gonna eat from it. That was a good reminder to me as we manage these animals not to think like we humans think. That's our first thoughts is our own thoughts, what we would think. But that's not how animals think. We gotta be reminded to think how they think. What's this? Now we're talking. Now we can power our heat submersibles. I gotta go from here to there.

Section of today's video where we get ready for the butt cold next week.

I'm putting a submersible in the pigs' water, see how it works. If it works. Yeah, well, go all the way to the bear. The submersible tank de-icer from Farm Innovators looks simple enough. Very simple. It's got this cage on the bottom to keep the coils off the bottom. That should do it.

Papa, will it burn right through the ice?

I think it probably would. I'm pretty sure you don't want to do that because I don't think you want to turn these coils on unless they're submerged. And how thick is that ice?

Not very thick.

Okay, it's not thick, maybe a quarter of an inch. And that's not the problem, it just freezes at the top. Who cares? The water runs off the bottom. What I'm more worried about is the nipple getting frozen. It's frozen. Water sits in this nipple and that won't work because it got frozen. Hey, knock y'all's legs over! They're enjoying playing with that hive. First, what temperature do you reckon this is? I'm gonna say 35. Oh wow, 32. That one, stick your hand in that. See, try it now. Don't, don't—

there you go.

That's going to take a minute. Get in. We'll come back and test it after chores. Mr. Brown, you want to start Sally for me? Uh-oh, Flossie, you're filthy. They sometimes lay in their poop to stay warm. How many cloths did I bring? Wow, hand me a brush, kitty. Did you already brush her?

Me?

No, somebody.

I've been gone.

Okay, hand me the brush, kitten. You had it, didn't you? Thank you. Thanks, Lily. I want you to position the camera in different spots every once in a while, okay?

Oh shoot, what?

Tighten her up. Did she get me with her horns or her nose?

I don't really know.

See, just kind of have to face this. Make sure— back up though. Yeah, see, she won't even let me near her. Oh well, we might do Jonah's idea early, which is put them in the stall. And milk them in the stanchion. We're going to put her in a secure stanchion. This is her mastitis. Tie her feet down if we have to. Come on, come on, let's just herd her to the house. It's definitely not her routine. Hey guys, here she comes! Come on, come on, here we go, we're herding her gently. Come on! Hopefully she'll keep on the road, then we can turn her down the gravel road. She's really wanting to turn right. Uh-uh. Problem is we're herding her away from the herd and there's no lanes, or— and it may be an impossible task. We may have to— you win right now, Flossie. Here you go. Hey, if I'm gonna think like a cow, she don't want to leave her herd. Watch this, she'll come right in. There we go. Come on. I'm gonna have to herd everybody over or go get the trailer or put up a lane. You win for right now, Flossie, but I got some ideas. The cows need to go to the pole barn in 2 days anyway. I think this is maybe a sign of how that's gonna go, Josiah, without lanes. So we need to set up lanes to see if she has mastitis. This is the struggle because it's 9 o'clock, we should be clearing, but we have this. This is important. Wasn't necessarily the plan. What I'm gonna do— cows are going to a pole barn anyway in just 2 days, so let's set up a lane to there. I have neither Lily or Gideon. Josiah's watching the baby because Mama's gone. I should take a timeout and get them. Gideon, let's go! Lily, let's go!

What are you doing, Papa?

I'm making a lane to the pole barn.

Papa, whatever we gotta get the pigs out. I hide the chicken under my room. Hey, you guys can't have free cow hides in here.

Anyway, thank you, Lily. This is definitely taking a long time.

I wanted to roll it up.

Can you come tie these together? Get in. Why'd you stop?

Hi!

Okay, I got this last net laid out. I'm gonna need the hammer though, going through gravel. What you doing, Lily? I thought we were working on these fences. And then we'll have to get one more fence and bring it all through here and loop them back and into there. Where's Sally? Yes, I lose the side-by-side every now and again. She's up here on the road. I remember now. Make sure the hammer's still in here.

No.

No. Yes, yes! Let's see if Beauty was able to make some eggs before she left. She did. She left some eggs. Leftovers from last night.

I can hold it.

Gideon, come here with your hammer. Gideon, come.

Come with your hammer.

I'm lucky if this thing still works. Gideon, come help me. We've got our lane in. Look at this. Hard as it was putting the gravel, we eventually got it. She'll curve around and up into there and hopefully remember. Gosh, it's been 2 years since we milked her in that stanchion. This could be a whole nother game. Okay, bring the staff. Come on, get in. Let's go. Good morning. Didn't you stay out the fence? Lily, you make sure I only get Flossie. Flossie, did you think I was gonna give up that easy? Good girl, good girl. Watch how much easier this is going to be with some management. All right, let's just let her— oh, just let her roam. Let's just put the fence back and then we'll go with her. All right, Floss, let's show them how it's done. A little bit of management. Makes this part look easy now. Proper setup. The nets are helping us herd her. She can't come backwards because we're here. It's narrow enough that she can't get around us. Keeps her from wandering to the left and wandering to the right. You can tell she wants to. This is definitely out of her routine. Up here we have 2-strand electric. It's not on, so hopefully she won't try it. I'm gonna keep her off of it. Come on. She's no stress because she's eating. Come on, that's good. Come on, we'll get you something when we get there. Was it okay? It's a sharp turn, let her make it. Oh, I think she's in familiar territory now. Lily, you want to go get a self-alpha? Look, she's remembering this. Come on, Lily, just go behind us and go get the— Oh, you got to get off out of the garage, don't you?

Well, whenever you need more. Can I get my horse?

Lily, Lily, stay put. Come on.

I— we can keep it in here for a couple of days. We can keep it in this barnyard for a couple of days. Oh, when I get my donkey, we can keep it in— we can keep it in the barnyard.

You're keeping it?

You're getting a donkey?

Oh, okay.

Yeah, for training. I'm gonna get a donkey for a couple of years, and then when you're responsible enough, you'll have it and I'll get a horse.

Come on.

But when you're responsible enough—

Old hat, old hat. That's good. So you get the squeeze bar up, but I'm not reaching down in there. Good thing we made this side openable. We need to get that in there, squeeze her just extra careful. You don't want a donkey?

I do want a donkey.

Well, you got to start doing right, Gideon.

Oh, it's way too hot.

Jenny, can you go get me the milk pail?

I'll be right there.

Okay, come help me. I got her some alfalfa. Let's see what she does now. She's limited in her range.

Hey, she's gonna—

she's gonna let me milk. She can't swing her head back. She's limited in her kicking range. All right, let's test her for mastitis. Let's just cover the bottom with it. We're supposed to do 50/50. Again, I don't think you can see in the frame. 50/50 milk to solution. Okay, now let's see if it gums up. Okay, and let's see how it pours. Yeah, that one's obviously slightly infected. Okay, it could be kind of a problem. I'm gonna milk this suspicious quarter out for the pigs. Gideon, is that your chicks?

Yeah.

How are they doing?

Good.

Get a shot of the chicks, Josiah. A bit of mastitis, normal milk, but look, she gave just as much as Honey out of two teats. Take this up to be processed, please. And you behaved yourself very well on that stanchion. See if she'll take this XL 7000. Grinch. Yeah, right.

Yeah, right.

Probably from you laying in that poop all the time, honey.

What is?

Well, she gets hemostatis because she gets infection.

Water goes over by the spigot, so you can just take a whole—

you think the camera can see this?

She loves doing that.

How did it go down in that little creek right there? One last thing, we're socking it to her. Doing this for 3 days. Superior Cow Cream.

Maybe she hasn't been drinking enough water.

Here you go, Floss. There we go. Looks like the PT cleared you for motorcycle.

Yeah.

Are you nervous?

Yeah, PT guy cleared him to ride on the motorbike today, but he did ultimately put the decision with us.

Oh.

You know, they cleared him, but we can say—

What do you say?

Yes or no? I said slowly on the road. They said no jumping, no sharp turns. No going fast.

Basically, I don't want to have a wreck again while that hip is still— yeah, I mean, in recovery.

So healed. Okay, so he said a year till Jonah's completely back to normal.

How long ago was this? He had a dirt bike accident? 14 weeks. But like, you get kicked off a horse, you got to get back on. Whoa, wait, the kickstand! He's a little rusty. He's a little rusty. Oh, he's already changing to second gear. That was a little early.

It's much smoother.

He's a little rusty. Smoother than what?

First gear.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Just got back from acupuncture, and Grandma and Big Daddy just got back. We filled up 6 coolers plus boxes.

Look at all this pork fat, baby.

We got a box of pork fat.

This is leaf lard. I'm gonna take all the leaf lard because we have— because I want to get the grinder out and grind it and make it like nice.

Okay, so we're gonna put that down in the walk-in though. Yeah, lift that ham up. How many pounds that ham weigh?

22.

It's crazy.

Well, we should— we should have this at the party.

Okay, Christmas. Yeah, ground beef. Okay, ground— ground lamb. Okay, little loin chops. Look at that, how sweet. They just caught mutton because it was over a year old.

Yeah, but I don't know the difference.

Tastes just as— tastes just as great.

Papa says it doesn't. It's a big leg of lamb.

Ah, there's Buddy. Looks like pork.

You can open it and tell it's pork because it's more pink. Because it's pinker.

What about that one that's real red? Is that lamb or is that— no, that's wool. I like this pork chop. I'd say half of this freezer is dedicated to the lamb. It's only right there. That's 5 lambs. And this. That's 5 lambs. That's all there is to it. It's not much, uh, 30 pounds apiece maybe. Pork chops, ground pork, that's all that's in this cooler. Cooler number 6, more ground pork. I think we got everything in here from 2 porks except the pork belly and the 2 hams, or the big hams, and they're downstairs. Man, you guys are making some good Fries.

Oh no, I'm sorry.

It's good for me, baby. Lean into the suffering. Find joy in the suffering. I ain't eating the fries. We're learning food is comfort food for me. So I have to find comfort in other ways.

Of course.

Extra hugs.

I feel so bad. Like, food is—

Longer baths. Yeah. Guys, I did, I did forget earlier to check the water to see if that submersible is working, if it heated it up. We'll go there in a second. Let's treat Flossie. I'm just gonna milk this suspicious one out. Good girl. Hey Josiah, did you put material? Oh, it needs material. Mega. Okay, it was 32 this morning. What's it gonna be? I'm gonna say 50. 46. I don't know. To my chagrin, Lily wants to try this thing. Lily, you know it takes off really fast.

It really does.

Okay, you have to be easy on it, and it's crazy. Give her a helmet. She's got to wear the helmet. See how fast it takes off?

It doesn't take off as fast as on that one.

Lily, why do you want to ride this?

Because the brakes right here, you have to kind of pump it. Don't do it really fast.

Very little.

Look, this is how little. That's how little. She'll be tricky.

That's fast enough. All right, she's doing all right.

When we first rode it, because we thought we'd pop a wheelie.

Nice way to keep it in the control. Oh nope, never mind. You okay?

Yeah, I've done the same thing.

Get off and take off.