Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 17

Day 17 of 100 days building a homestead. You guys excited? Today's project, we're seeing what we can do in 1 hour. The sheep were in this paddock. It's pretty large. It's probably 4,000 square feet. Can we— we come in with the chainsaw and get the smaller stuff. Can we clear an entire sheep's paddock in 1 hour? Winnie, it's 7:15. I got up about an hour ago, 6:15, to get ready to go out to do the farm chores.

Can I stay with you for 3 days? Can I? Oh, I'll get scared.

Yeah, Lily's gotten rollerblades and it's the hot stuff. Definitely has a better chance at rollerblades than dirt bikes, don't you think? Beth Doherty gets up at 4 in the morning and does a lot of writing. Sean, I'm not sure when he gets up, but he did tell us to arrive to start milking at 5:20. It's an early morning start. He milks at 5:20 every morning. But he wasn't there, so we went inside and asked Beth, is Shawn ready? We didn't want to miss it. He was already down there. Well, the ambitious fella is already milking. I guess he's on Lombardi time, Dan, because we were here right at 5:20. But what he really meant was 5:05. We were here at 5:20 waiting in the car up there at the top. Yeah, everything. I'll catch him to an hour.

Sorry about that.

You must have, uh, You must be Coach Lombardi. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. When he said 5:20, what he really meant was 5:05.

Well, that was— that's kind of theater talk as well. Theater talk is, you're there on time, you're 5 minutes late already.

It's 7:23 and I'm out the door and I'm feeling pretty good about that. I like to start chores when it's light outside, and I don't mind a little prep while it's dark. For one, we're milking outside in a different location every day and benefit from the light. The two, the kids are with me and that's easier for them. And three, I'm making a show for you guys. It's kind of not as fun if it's in the dark. It's hard to see it. You know what, I don't think that's what Beth and Sean Doherty would do. I've been throwing these away, it's easier. I think they would do this. No, I know they would do this. They would flatten this out. I don't know, store it somewhere. Probably not where we'll store ours, but, uh, and then they have a free trash bag. Better for the wallet, better for the planet. That's what I'm gonna do. There we go, free trash bags. There's 30 free trash bags right there. No plastic required.

If I'm obedient for you for a whole day, can I get a go-kart?

You were just on skates, and you gave me a birthday present last night that said you'll be obedient for 2 days.

Yeah. No, I said I'll be obedient for 1 and a half of a day.

1 and a half, huh? 2 days is just too much. Oh, what? Okay. Ah, I thought we were gonna have clear. You know what's happening? They're getting in the nest box at night. Every night you got to turn these nest box sideways. You got to turn them sideways like this so they can't get in there. They're getting in there, they're perching in front of it, I reckon, and pooping. They didn't get in on top of the nest box because we put that barrier in for 2 weeks. You need to do that so you train them not to go been perched up there at night. Gideon's gotta go turn the water on. This looks so nice, doesn't it? With the COVID crops coming in on the raised bed, the light at the house, the fading leaves in the background, and the beautiful birds. Gosh, everywhere just looks so beautiful. Gideon! You keep asking for a go-kart. What about your train you were begging us for and we got from the neighbor? We're gonna get it fixed. Okay, I'm gonna be indisposed for a second. What are you gonna do? Well, here, here's a clip from Sean and Beth Doherty for their vision for the future. What is the plan as you get older? Um, it becomes harder to milk it.

Well, I mean, one of the things is we probably will do less up at the convent. And more here on farm, which is what we're already experimenting with. I mean, we brought some of the cows home and stuff like that, and that's working pretty well. Um, our hope is— I mean, we would like to partner with children.

Yeah, right.

So what do— what happens on a healthy farm or in a healthy farm family is the kids take over. And although they won't take over, and I don't think kids should take over exactly with their parents do, because, you know, people— you have to—

right, you have to turn it over.

You're gonna have to be flexible and let some changes happen.

That's right.

Oh, he's very flexible. Raymond, what are you gonna change? Quality of some of the work. Oh, right, right. The kids always do that. They're like, okay, Mom and Dad, less quality or more?

Oh no, more quality.

They want more quality. Oh my gosh, they're not trying to cut corners. Oh no. We're back, and let's speed it up a bit. Gideon, we only have this morning to do chores and day 17 of the homestead build. I want to see if we can do the chainsaw work behind the sheep in a paddock in just one day. As we've been chainsawing, I forgot the rule. I've been clearing a patch and then clearing everything in it that I plan on taking down, but you don't want to do that. Instead, you want to get the little stuff first. Nobody's laying in there. Are they still laying in the weeds over there? Yes, they are. I see them from here. Do you think if we cleared the weeds they'd start laying in this thing? Yeah. When you gonna get these eggs, honey? I didn't know they were here. You didn't?

I'm not laying one here.

Start ripping, start ripping stuff off the wall.

Okay. Oh no, it's not. It's just there. We can't go to a good place to help an egg.

Here, take that egg up and put it in there. Looks like they have little nests all over the place. They're gonna need water too.

Are we going to chiropractor and dentist?

No, just the dentist. Yeah, we're indisposed this afternoon. But now there's your little hack. Don't go to town. And so when you do have to go to the dentist, everybody has an appointment. All 6 of us. But do you have an appointment too, Henry? Yeah, probably. Maybe. It's a miserable afternoon, but we knock it all out at once, and it's only one travel to town and one back, as opposed to 6 of those in a— every other— twice a year. When I chainsawed the other day and we remembered that and figured that out, it was so much more fun just to chop, just to get the smaller stuff with the chainsaw. We're gonna leave the other stuff for— Mini excavator? Gideon said he was gonna go inside and get some water, but it's taking forever. What took you so long?

Uh, uh.

Apple detour?

Yeah.

Lily went to get you and now she's gone. Did she go on her lesson or Josiah come down?

Josiah came down and all of them but me are in there.

There's gonna be a dispute on who goes on a lesson. Hands first because I've— I want it changed. I want Josiah to go first so he can help us with clearing. Hey Rebecca, is Josiah in here? Okay, good. That's what I wanted. My man, what you reading?

Farmer Boy still.

Nice. To be honest, I figured Shawn had been doing this bazillion times in a row. I expected to be a little more leisure. Uh, certainly not early. Out of curiosity, I had to ask him, well, do you ever get sick of it?

I love the, the, um, the schedule that it provides for the whole family because you are, uh, you know, it starts today, it ends today. Gives me an excuse to get out of parties. Yeah, because I say I got to get up early in the morning. Beth and I were just talking about the fact how many years we've been doing this.

Yeah.

And With very few breaks. We had a break at one point when we thought, okay, well, we need a break, we'll need a vacation. So we dried off the cow. We only had one cow at the time, and it was right then that we said, no, we have to have two cows because we can't take that break. We just love having this come in and it makes the whole farm work.

He jested, but I could sense— I sense in him just a sense of contentment. A sense of joy and just knowing what every day holds and designing his life around something else, something bigger. For me, I'm in a new spot on the farm every single day. It's something I can do with the kids. I mean, this kid is on my back right now, and, and Gideon's playing with them. And I'm enjoying the view. I've learned to enjoy suffering, so I can appreciate— no, it's hard to do something every single day, but I can also know— hey guys, guys— I can also know that it's really good for the soul because it's hard and because it's a struggle. That's actually the good thing. So I've learned to appreciate it. Guinea, let's go get the sheep. This comes at no surprise to me. They are daily massers, meaning they go to mass every single day. They have found great joy in that commitment, that discipline, that suffering, if you will. And after Mass, breakfast with the family. All right, Bird, this is a bit of an angle. We got to go right there. It's a little wet this morning. I'm 50/50 on whether this is going to work or not. After breakfast, the Dohertys end up doing some sort of project. It ends up being food preservation or making cheese or, or a project around the farm. You guys know what we do. We— well, today we're going to clear forest for pasture. That is, if I can get Stud off this alfalfa. Come on, Joey. Come on, come on, son. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. Or not. I'll just let him have the alfalfa. Lunch, by the way, was prepared by their children and I— their teenage children. I said, how in the world did you make this happen? They laughed and said, well, our children thought that they could do it better and on time, and it turns out they could. After lunch, Shawn takes a nap, Beth tidies up, then we head down to the local creek, the local swimming hole, and just relax. When you don't spend money, you don't have to earn as much money. Come on, stud. Come on, stud. No, let's go. Oh, he's not ready. Okay. Sean and Beth Doherty, this is their shtick— growing 90% of their own food without exterior inputs. So like growing 90% of their food on an extreme budget. Really? He's never been this stubborn about it either. Okay, I'll give you a scoop tomorrow. I'll give you a scoop. She's saying you want it, right? You need it. Okay. All right. He doesn't have the internet. He doesn't have a dentist appointment. I literally have a dentist appointment. He doesn't have to clear pasture. This is his excitement for today. Then another supper together as a family and That's what we do too. And then for Shawn and Beth, an evening milking, and that closed out the day. They began the day with milking, they closed it with milking. Doesn't that beat beginning the day with a commute, a drive, and ending it with a drive? They may be poor monetarily. They are rich in discipline, in relationships, in love, in spirituality, and so many other things that, if we really get to the bottom of it, are what's really important. All right, I'm about to leave, stud. You know what, you can stay over here with the sheep. I'm gonna go with it. You don't have to be with the ladies. All right, I wish I would have thought about that 10 minutes ago. I could have been gone. Everybody over here is bred. We don't need him over here. You guys know my routine. Now you know the Doherty's routine. To some, that would seem like a nightmare, but to you all who have tasted a little bit of glory, even if it's just watching these videos, that sounds like a dream. He is just going to town. Well, he wouldn't go over. He and the ram have to figure out who's boss. That won't take long. And you know what I say? You can homestead, we can help. You can do it. This dream is yours. You can— if you're already living it, you can improve upon it. Listen, we all wanted— be honest, I did— we all wished we had a food-growing aunt or uncle. We wanted somebody that we could ask the individual the specific questions to. I'm getting that for you guys. We're putting in, I don't know, at least 5 video classes from the Dohertys into a course on how to live, how to live 90% off the land. The first class has already dropped. Go and enjoy it. It's on Abundance Plus. But we, we are very different. You'll get in there, you'll, you'll see the courses, but then we're going to give you access to us. Remember the aunt and uncle passion? A webinar, uh, November 8th at 6 PM, 2 hours Q&A with Beth and Sean. I'm giving you their book for free if you sign up by the 7th. We have book clubs over the next meeting in November and December from their book Independent Farmstead. Now through the 14th, you will have email access to the Dohertys at the— if you have become a premium member of Abundance Plus. But now he's ready. Hey, hey, let's go! Hey, let's go! And as a premium member, you'll get ongoing text access to me. Call me Uncle Justin. Well, as long as you're a premium member. Premium membership only available through the 7th, and I don't know when we'll bring it back. I can only aunt and uncle so many people, so to speak. Come on, Gideon, let's go. So get in there. AbundancePlus.com. November 7th. By November 7th. I didn't want to bring you guys in here. Actually, we have an hour and a half. I wanted to go clear, but look at this. I'm not kidding you. Yeah, it happened yesterday. It also happened today. Look at this. This is our milk cooler. It's in the cold room. Look at this. A child must have thrown a jar in there and it busted. Guys, this doesn't happen that often, and I'm asking myself, my shtick is enjoy the process, enjoy the process. How do I enjoy this? Oh, it's probably an hour and a half. It's gonna be so good. It's a perfect amount of time to like to a chainsaw project. You have to fill up the saw, you have to sharpen it, you have to put on your safety gear, and you have to do that whether you're going to work 20 minutes or an hour and a half. There's the busted jar. Today's milk, I think what the trick needs to be— these might be getting flanged when we move them, so, well, I might not need this much. Trick number one, get in. In. Don't let these touch each other in the move because they rattle and clang into each other and they might crack. All right, come open the door for me. Okay, and give me some ice packs. All right, now let's be careful setting these in not to drop them on each other. I'm going to try to clear an entire sheep's paddock with the chainsaw-sized stuff. I got an hour and 10 minutes. My biggest obstacle is time. I mean, but without time we can't do anything, so it's also my biggest ally. 13 minutes later, we are geared up, fueled up, and sharpened up. Let's get it on. Clearing all the little stuff up here to say anything maybe that big or smaller, maybe 3 inches in diameter. We're gonna leave the bigger stuff hopefully for excavator. I'm thinking this is probably our mark. What do you guys think? Yeah, anything this big or smaller inside down here, that'll be a good marker. We got a bunch of easy trees right there, a bunch of little easy trees there. What's going to be tricky maybe is the mountain laurels. It'll be extremely satisfying because you clear that right now, you can't even see through it, and we're gonna see through it. One tree down, 247 to go. We've got to be be able to do this in this hour. If we're gonna get this 10 acres established and cultivated, so to speak, we've got to be able to get a significant amount of work done in a short amount of time. Time's up! Let's look at what we've done. That's nice. We still have some trees we need to get down, either with chainsaw— bigger trees that need to be worked up— or a machine. Look at this brush pile! So if this was 4,000 square feet It may be more, give or take. I know, I think, uh, an acre is 45,000 square feet. Is that right? Look at this we've cleared, guys. I wouldn't have been able to walk through this. Here, let's walk through it. Let's walk and talk. And so let's just say 40,000, uh, just for easy math. 10%, and let's say we have 3 acres of the 10 that could be pasture. That leaves us— that means Uh, we'll do an acre in 20— in, in 20 days. That would be 3 acres in 60. Boy, that's gonna be cutting it close because we got to do other things like put in some road, uh, find the water. We're gonna have to now make sure we put animals through here, no problem, to keep this stuff from sprouting back and mowing behind them. It's no problem. One option is going to be finding another hour somewhere every day. Tomorrow we go to the chiropractor, so it's probably not tomorrow. And if we could find— if we can make it 2 hours, we've cut our problem in half. Look who's back! What would we do without you? Y'all been up cutting wood this morning? Yeah, we'd have to turn this tractor into a playground without you. I hear you. I think it was November 3rd that my dad died. So that's— you got, you got 2 days. We'll start it in memory of old Boots. Yep, hopefully today. He's gonna get the train going too. You gonna be the engineer?

Yeah, maybe.

Yeah, you gotta find that hat. Pickup's taking it easy on today. Why'd you give it to us easy today? I could just tell you needed it. We're just, we're just doing a reset. Yeah, I could tell. Jonah, you can use it. Oh, those are your trainings. He's got to write the alphabet. Yeah, he has to write the alphabet with his knee. You gotta lay on your side, right? Yeah, try to keep the knee locked if you can. How are you doing? Good. He is. He's gonna be back before we know it. She's been getting lunch ready in rollerblades. How's that working out?

Good. It's never been so exciting to stand.

Yeah, buddy, you have a new appreciation for working and walking. Millie, you're right, pretty much. There you go. Yeah, any cavities?

No cavities.

No one cavity in this entire car. You, on the other hand, are a mess. Well, my implants, the gums may be receding. You know. House of Solar Designers coming tomorrow. Yeah, that's right. We got lots of house sites to explore. I feel like then, Rebecca, hopefully it's definitive. And hopefully we can find out where this house site is and then we can mark clearly what these 10 acres are we're trying to develop during these 100 days. You guys hear that? You hear it? Oh man, that's a beautiful sound. It's a beautiful sound. I'm getting tears in my eyes. It's good to hear it again. Yeah, yeah, it started right up once I got it. Good. I've just got it to where we'll put your push button on it. Yeah, you know, you're gonna have the on/off switch. Okay, and you got this working? Uh, I'm getting ready to try it. Let's look at this though, man. I missed this loud diesel tractor going. Now this is a tool that has meaning. The whole family is attached to this. This is like the extended family. They borrow it from time to time. Man, who knew a machine could bring so much nostalgia? How do you think we can use Lucky in this 100 days of building a homestead? Pull some stumps out. We could maybe pull stumps out. We could haul— we could, we could haul some stuff in the bucket. Uh, we could do firewood with it. She's somebody we have right now until we get other equipment. We got it running. Well, he's got to do some carburetor work on the train. So I don't think it'll be rolling today. But the tractor, we're going to get it rolling. I'm not sure how much lucky will play part in 100 days of building a homestead, but certainly, uh, going to play a big part, I think, in haymaking if we make that happen. Can't use a track loader for that. Hey, he wants to drive so bad. I'm just waiting till he's a little bit older. Beck, I got to drive Lucky. I saw. She was so much fun. I saw you. Crushing Taco Tuesday. Tomato sauce, guacamole, cheese— salsa, you mean cheese quesadillas. Salsa. Sorry, Mexican. Do I have time to make, uh, pork rinds? Yeah, that should be fine. Winnie! Get your egg basket. Come on, little man. Come on. We are remembering not only to get the eggs but to turn the nest boxes sideways. Make sure there's no poop. There's no— no, there's none. If we're on a race against time with this 100 days of building a homestead, tomorrow afternoon's shot because we have chiropractor. Let's make sure we get 2 hours in tomorrow instead of 1. There's your one. And look, they're all perched on this. That's good, that's a good sign. We can do chicken chores tonight. Oh look, they're starting to lay. Yep. Now clean— we got to clean that out of the manure. Okay, let's clean their water out and then we don't even have to come in here tomorrow morning.

Look at all those eggs!

What? We are packed and ready to go for tomorrow. Double the work that we did today, Lord willing, and the creek don't rise. Plus, plus, the passive solar designer is coming, and hopefully tomorrow we get our definitive house site. We've got 6 spots. Which one is the best? That's tomorrow. Also, don't forget, we're launching Abundance Plus right now, fall registration. Lots of specials going on. I talked about them earlier in the show. Do get in there. There's some deadline. November 7th. See you guys there. See you tomorrow. Love you. Thank you so much for watching this show. See you then.