Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 95

Day 95 of building a homestead and I get hit by a gigantic tree limb. X-rays coming up.

Can you drive Sally over to the soccer field so we can get my boots?

Or we can just walk over there. Piggyback, how about that? You sent me on a goose chase.

Then they're over there.

Well, we should probably get these while we're at it. Socks, sweaters, shoes. Are your boots really way over here?

Yeah, right there.

Oh my gosh. There you go. We've got 4,000 pounds of feed. The problem is it's right here in the middle of the garage. We can't park anything in here. We need to get it out of the way. What do you think, Jonah? One right there? And where are we gonna put the other one? In front of it. In front of it. If it's here, it's not going to create any problems trying to walk through. What do we park over here? The four-wheeler? Yeah, dirt bike. You've got to get every piece of morsel of grain, dirt out of the way because these These are not all-terrain tires by any means. There may be rocks in this and this may not pull very easy. Definitely not gonna roll over rocks. Why is it lifting up crooked? You're lifting up two. Wow. Oh, I went too far in and it started picking up on the other one. Mr. Brown, am I picking up the other pallet? Can you tell?

Yeah, you're picking up the other pallet.

I am? Let's get as much of the rocks we can. Okay, can you see any rocks under there that you could sweep out? Yeah, I'm gonna have to sweep these rocks out of the way, come back, hopefully expose any rocks that I'm currently on top of. See all those rocks? Let's get all the— sweep up all the rocks. I'm gonna have to use that area to turn around. Am I hitting Jonah?

I have no idea.

Right on the corner, rubbing into it. There you go. Jonah, you think the best other spot is right here. Okay, there's mucho rocks under there. Might be worth it to get these out. I think I have enough rocks pulled out of there that we can get this elevated and moved. Won't know till we try it. Will you hop down, get in? Working. And none of those gonna be that much trouble. You coming? Come on, come on, grab that tumbler, let's go! Bye! We are totally out of wood chips. We need wood chips for our bedding. It's our diaper to absorb the manure and urine. Jonah, do you think you can get us— take Sally while Lily and I are milking— get us a big old load of wood chips? He said yes.

Jonah, are you gonna move Stud? I don't want to go in there with him. So we're just checking to see what minerals need. I guess if you just hold him back then I'll come and look and take pictures. So I'm just going to take pictures or make a note of what we need, and then I'll come and fill them. Also, I was supposed to get a shipment of minerals. I don't know if it came. I'm gonna have to figure that out.

And okay, good.

This is our mineral program. We have like a ridiculous amount of minerals. We use the Advanced Biological Concepts, but we keep them They come in bags like this. We put them in the buckets to take them out, just easier to handle. The way minerals work is when they're eating their hay, which is all they're eating now, if they're not getting a certain mineral, then they are able to then go out into the mineral buffet and choose what they need without— they're not getting through their feed so that they can stay minerally balanced. It's been proven via studies and research that animals can determine what they need from themselves. Like, they just know. I'm just trying to keep them in early balance throughout the winter and just keep them healthy. We find that they are much healthier. We don't have to be intensive on the sick care for them. I'll grab this, then you direct it in.

Hey, back up!

You can have it all you want. The problem is they can't because all the big cows are getting into it. This is B vitamins. It's just, um, B and the B, B, C, and A. Hey, I know you get, you get it in your— when you cough. This is how it goes every time. B vitamins are actually for stress, like they help them just not be as stressed. Maybe we'll let the calves out and let them get some minerals. If there's a lack of sulfur in the hay and minerals, basically they will come and eat it, you know. It's just— I mean, it's— so basically all these minerals are just what our body needs, our body or their bodies need to function properly. Minerals can antagonize each other, so like if you have too much of something and it can make you low in something else, then you have to bring that into balance. It's, it's very fascinating. I've been reading a book about it, and nobody's telling them like, oh, you should go eat that. They just know that it's helpful to their bodies. It's so fascinating. Salt just has a lot of trace minerals in it, so lots of goodness in salt. If you're not, you're not consuming salt, you should. And by salt, I don't mean just any salt. You should be eating a good a good salt that has the minerals still in it. This one's actually Redmond's. It has a lot of trace minerals in it. A lot of times I just even put a little bit of salt in my water. You don't taste it, but it just adds minerals. All these shoes—

I don't know if I can fit right through here. This is our diaper for the, uh, the cows and the sheep, and I think that'll last about a week, sprinkling that on top of their bedding each day, keeping it smelling nice and fresh. Pete, does it smell in here? Not at all. Can you start sweeping in here while we load? Oh, it's overflowing. So let's just adjust it here. Okay, finding the sweet spot. We're gonna go behind the pigs where they were. They have underbrushed for us, and now we can more easily get in there and clear. How would— what's this about, Jonah? Uh, 2,400 square feet. Let's do it. We're gonna try to get this cleared so that we can come cast seed today and, uh, put down some, uh, hay mulch. Thing you want to do is go with the small stuff first. I realize I should have brought the brush saw for this stuff, but I think there's few enough of it that it may not— it may not be worth going back and get it. Ah, you're supposed to have the right tool for the job though. Get the brush saw, please. I'm an old man, I'm not bending over for these briars. Okay, you go get the stuff I told you to get. I'll get the brush saw. You want him to have fun, right? He wants to drive his motorcycle. He can't get the brush saw with the motorcycle. The video tech's coming at 10. That's in 1 hour. I'd like to think I could clear this in 1 hour, get the video tech going, then go back and seed this pasture. I would really like for you guys to see that whole process in a day. I am so glad we got this tool. That would have broke my back on a chainsaw, and there was a lot— Am I talking loud? Got the earmuffs on. Now we got the small tiny itsy-bitsy ones out of the way. Let's go through and get these small ones. Got a problem here. We got this screw, nailed it, and it came off its stump and and just hit right there and got caught up in the weeds. Jonah says I should notch it at the bottom until it eventually comes down, so let's try that. We're gonna have to cut down this tree to get that tree to fall. Okay, everybody back.

Whoa!

You all right? I don't know. Am I?

The limb that was holding the tree back when the tree fell and made a big reflex and went flying back, and the limb came flying down at you.

I'm glad I had that helmet on. Dang, I'd be laying on the ground right now. That limb fell out of the tree. That tree?

It fell out of this one.

And what was crazy is The trees were already fall— fell, and then their branch came. We're gonna make sure it is— it is sore.

Wow, that's a big branch!

Yeah, it got you. It got you pretty good. It bruised you. You know, it—

there's—

you're not bleeding. You got a big— I'm not gashed. No, I'm gonna keep moving here, or else I'm gonna get really sore. I can tell you that right now. Got you a little on your arm too, it looks like, down here on your— above your elbow. Just making sure I'm not numb with adrenaline. The lesson learned there: if, if, if it gets caught up in a branch, I'm leaving it. I'm leaving it for the machines because the big machines are here and they're far away and they're in a cab. Yeah, that's why, that's why, that's one reason this can be so dangerous. I feel like we need to work that up. Well, if we want to spread grass, we got to work this up. No, we can't spread grass.

Our machines are going to come up here, but not on this part. Oh, down here.

Yes, you're right. In here, Jonah, when we get our machines— you have a good point. We don't need to plant grass in here because we're going to come with the machines and pull up these stumps. But there we can plant grass, and especially need to plant the grass because the bank's steep and it's going to wash away. That helmet bounced off my head.

Wow, doesn't that hurt?

Yeah, it hurts. Okay, we'll call it mid-morning. Let me go see the sound tech. We'll come back and we'll throw down brush in here. This is the branch that hit me. It came out of a completely different tree. I ran away from the tree at 45 degrees. I did that right. The tree was down, almost down, or down. It was down. And then the GoPro got the shot. I'm coming into frame being knocked over, and it was so shocking and just that it was just like I didn't have time to register it. I just knew something hit me. I was alarmed and checking my body because I knew adrenaline would be going. That's why my hands were shaking, and I was afraid I was hurt and didn't know it because the adrenaline was going because it felt so jarring. Truly, I'm hurt. I'm feeling this shoulder is probably going to be— you all realize I've gotten really hurt, pretty busted after I cool off. We've got to pick up the people barn.

Why?

Because we're gonna have a live show there this weekend. Matt is here, he's queuing us up for this weekend's event Sunday. Yep, we were talking rain, so it's possible. It's the— the problem is we'll get wet in here, right? And it's gonna be loud because we can't— right. You've got to tell me. It's okay if the rain's noticeable. We're all farmers, we're all homesteaders, right? But is it going to be, uh, unbearable?

Proximity effect. Yeah, you could— the closer you are to the mic, the more it rejects everything else. Um, so I think it might be noticeable, but as long as we can stay kind of dry, find us a driest— the driest spot, probably in the middle.

Okay, I like the middle because then you have depth on either side. Yeah, set up in here or the old house. So if you think the rain's going to be so detrimental, we're going to need to set up in the farmhouse.

If you want 100%, you know, assuredness that rain won't be a problem, the house is the answer. But if we want to roll the dice, I'm happy to roll the dice.

For the ambiance, right? The ambiance worth moving right now. I'm willing to try it. And you have to move everything over here too.

We have to take everything apart to kind of in some ways anyway, to kind of update some things and test out the new switcher and all that kind of stuff. So it doesn't—

is my laptop powerful enough?

I, I think mine is too. I'm pretty sure yours is too. So I was going to use mine for the feed, but I was considering yours so that you would have a, you know, use it as a source for my PowerPoint, right?

Looking stuff up, right? I could watch chat.

Right, we could put it on a tripod mount so it could be up here or something like that.

We're gonna test the live today?

Yeah, yeah, I want to do a test upload.

Let's give it a go.

Yep.

What do you need from me? Mmm, I think a guy. You're gonna set it up, come get me I guess when you think you're ready to go live.

The only thing I couldn't find at the shop was a good long Cat5 cable. So if you have like an Ethernet, you know, cable around. I don't know if— I thought I might have saw one in there in the closet.

Yeah, it might be longer. You might have some excess out there. Is it rolled up around the corner?

Let's see.

Let's see if it's rolled up. Yeah. Okay, well, I'll have to see if I can't find you a cable. I'm adventurous.

I say we go for it. Yeah, if it thunders and lightnings, then it'll be interesting for the—

yeah, and it just looks so much better.

Yeah.

—We can spread out a little bit. And they've been threatening rain all week. Yeah. Hey, what do you guys think? Isn't it a blessing to have this? Oh, I'm hurting. I'm hurting. I'm glad you're here, Pete. Now I can hand the camera off to you. Isn't it a blessing to have this wide open space with a lot of possibility? It cleaned up very nice. We've got carpet down so the sound doesn't reflect. We've got sound reflectors in the underneath the flags. Hopefully it doesn't rain like crazy. I hope you guys join us. Join Abundance Plus this Sunday from 2 to 4, homestead design course. Come with a vague idea of what you want, maybe some confusion, maybe some overwhelm, and go away with a clear plan on where to start or where to go next on your homestead. Make sure you join Abundance Plus by Sunday. 15% off through Sunday. That's January 22nd from 2 to 6 PM. You want to join by 1 PM to get with a discount. All right, see you guys there. I haven't forgotten about our seed project. I want to at least get that bank covered because if we don't, rain comes and it's supposed to come, it's gonna wash away that bank. We need to get seed down and hay over it to keep it from eroding.

I think you should take a rest, Papa.

No, that's, uh, I'll take a rest. You know what my dad used to say? I used to say we'll rest when we're done. We will rest when we're done. And then what I found out when I was an adult, ain't never done. No, we'll be done. We'll be done. We're gonna have a nice lunch. Steak and eggs lunch.

If you worked all the time when you were a kid, why did you get in so many accidents when you were playing?

Well, I was like you. I had free time also. Work hard, play hard. You said you worked every day, all day.

After school you came home and worked. Yeah, I worked hard for the rest of school. How did you break your wrist twice while playing with Yeah, I had a four-wheeler and a trampoline.

Are you grabbing that seed? Okay, okay guys, this bank, look. Especially this bank. I'm gonna put down seeds, you guys start putting—

no, I want to put down— I want to put down—

okay, grab a handful. You don't have to throw down pasture seed, but it sure does help, especially since I'm a control freak. There are seeds here and the pigs have brought them to surface, so this just speeds it up a bit.

Wait, how do they get these there without you putting them in?

I don't know, there's just— there's just seeds here. It's what you call a seed bank. And once they get air and sunlight, they grow. They've just been dormant for hundreds of years even. Okay, we're done, right? Did you do up top here?

Um, no, but we need a little bit right here.

We had enough, kids. Let's do this. I'll pull up and then you guys pull out the chalk. We have gotten the stakes ready. This one looks like North Carolina. You know, when you harvest your own beef, you can have steaks just for lunch. It's just part of the package. It's just crazy. Yeah, it's choice meat. We're living like kings. You see, I can't put my arm out. Where's Pete? Pete, go. I'm gonna go to the urgent care. I think you should just double-check, make sure everything's okay with my neck, everything.

I feel like in the past we wouldn't have had you get checked up, and it's kind of like when we saw that bullseye rash and we were like, oh, I think it's a spider bite. We watched, and we probably should have had that.

That was for my initial Lyme disease. So it looks like in the time lapse that it may have hit my helmet, may not. My helmet was falling over when I was going off and I was bent over, but it could have hit my head and made me fall.

Yeah, and this is really swollen over here.

Apparently I fell down and then got up and ran. I was just an insta— I did not register that. I did not say run in my head. Well, that just happened. The shot that you see me running in the clip, I had If you look at the timeline, I've gotten hit and fallen. I have fallen and gotten up right there. Acorn squash was good to me yesterday. Good to have a little variety back in the diet. What do you think? You think I broke anything?

No, I just— I don't know, after what happened with Jonah, fracture maybe. You just feel anxious about it all.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ride after lunch. Holy moly, this is so good. This ribeye, this This Jersey slash American Milk and Devon steak is to die for. Where we lack in the hamburger department, the ground beef, we make up for it in the steak. We decided next time I'm just gonna ground our own beef. This feels wasteful. I said, Rebecca, are we wasting our time? Only if something's not wrong, and so that will be good news. But if something is— like, it is really puffed up back there— if something is wrong, we're gonna be super glad I went. Went and did this. I'm no stranger to pain though, am I? It's kind of hard to get the whole graph. 1 o'clock. Let's see how long this takes. Back now in the waiting room. That's not too bad. They are going to get me in for an x-ray. 1:30. Just made me like, it's not as bad as it was, so that's good. Maybe. It actually doesn't hurt when I'm sitting here. Only when I move. Just went and had the x-ray. Nothing to tell you there. Got 3 different angles. Doctor will be here soon, so this is going off actually really fast. Might not ruin my whole day, man. Only 1:56. That only took like an hour. I got x-rays. Can you guys see that? Can't tell nothing by it. I mean, that looks jacked up, doesn't it? I was like, oh my God, it's broke! Oh my word! Oh, it's disconnected! Oh, it's not right! Actually, it's all good. It's all good. He said it's gonna be really sore. For the next few days and over the next week and then it should start gradually getting back to normal. So guess what? We go on vacation in a week. So that's perfect timing and I'm driving with it, so. Maybe we freaked out, but it did feel like I'd— ugh. Just felt like I'd been smashed. We did waste our time. That's good news. I'll waste my time for a bit of good news, I reckon. What do you think? Looks terrible. Are we sure that's not broken? Glad he knows what he's doing. God, I would have flipped out.

Whose hip is that? Yours?

That's my shoulder. That's my shoulder joint.

Oh, Tim holding it out. Oh, okay. And that's him holding it aside.

Mr.

X-ray here, he knows all about it apparently. Glad you're okay.

Yeah, thanks. I want you guys to look at this lard. Perfectly white. Doesn't even Smell porky. Doesn't even taste porky. I think the grinding really helps.

I think it's really key.

Yeah, and then we didn't let the meat get cooking in it, and we filtered the crud out of it. We sautéed the vegetables and the meat. Now, now they can get all cooked together.

George comes to visit. Then he kind of screamed around the door.