Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 63

Somebody's excited! Have you seen it yet, Gideon? The word on the creek is that his chicks have hatched. Gideon set aside some eggs on a broody hen and we've got chicks. Rebecca, we've got a son that knows how to set chicks. He'll be just fine. Okay, so what's this? Did we give them time? I hope we gave them 24 hours.

Yeah, then just—

that's the first one.

Did that.

All right, well, I hear something.

Oh, look, one black one.

What do we got, 3?

Yep.

Look at the mix of color. 2 yellow ones and a black one.

I think I put a dip. I think I put—

we should probably change the water.

They aren't her eggs, they're other people's eggs. Yeah, yeah, she's buried that water searching for their food. I think they actually will be better off over on the Hot tunnel. Yeah, 100%, because the water won't get scuffed up. Food will be on the ground and not in the—

Papa, can you take them?

Yeah, come, you can help. Can you hold the camera? Come here. Okay, you got them. You got to carry the chicks. Can you carry all three?

So cute. She's freaking out.

Yes, she is. You ready to get it, Henry? Yes.

What happens if they don't have enough sense and they go in the pigs?

They're gonna get eaten. What do you think, Gideon? This is your job.

I don't know. Do you think they'll go in the pigs?

Yes.

Well, I have to set up the water situation different in here.

Yeah, things have got to be different. She's freaking out.

Does a pig water trough get slopped up?

Yeah, she's just like, it's gonna freeze next week. That's why we do spring chains. This is your project. What do you want to do? Do you want to, uh, put them in the hot tub or fix this straight?

I'll fix it straight.

I hope you, I guess, because you help me so much. Here, here, we have something for this.

That's bigger than it was. Well, I'm gonna get bigger things.

This is all too much.

Take and take! Buy someone else!

Now this is our afternoon project and not picking up— No! Wood.

This is not our afternoon project.

Now you're not laughing. You were just laughing. Well then, let's bury this really quick.

Why don't we get a different waterer?

Like a— Yes! I was thinking about that.

Get a bigger one. There's a— here, let me get you a gallon jug.

Also, I don't think we need that heat lamp, do we? Hmm.

Yes. Well, I just don't want to—

I don't want to burn up our house.

Oh, we have burned it up. Last year we did it.

Go rinse that out. Come on, come on. We don't want to make this the whole afternoon project. Let's go.

Oh boy. Okay, Justin, so my baby is awake.

Party hoarder.

Hey baby, did we leave you? You need to wake up.

Did you see the baby chicks?

Hey, I think that's a better situation. Uh, let's put this water a little further over here. We got some feed in there. Hopefully she won't just rake it over scratching for them. That was yesterday. Let's go check. Hey Gideon, have you checked on your chicks this morning?

No.

Okay, it's zero day, they're chilling. What y'all watching?

Star Wars.

Star Wars. Okay, no project today, just chilling. I do have a question for you though, Beck. What? Well, two questions. One, what are you making?

This is marshmallow sauce. How do you make that? Okay, so I put I'm gonna put gelatin and hot water in here and I'm gonna let that bloom and then I'm gonna add a cup of maple syrup to it while it's whipping and make fluff with it and then, so I'm not making marshmallows so I'm not heating the maple syrup or the sweetener like you would normally. Okay, and then I'm gonna make the hot chocolate for the kids and I don't sweeten that and then the fluff is what sweetens.

On that.

So all this hot chocolate is warmed up milk with some cocoa powder and vanilla. I do 4 cups of milk to 1/4 cup of cocoa, but you can do more if you want. I just find that it's chocolatey enough for us.

So who's winning, Luke or Darth Vader? I don't know. My second question: the hide, after I've salted it, is there some puddles of water on it? Do I remove that water? Or do I put salt to absorb it?

I think you could probably dab it.

Okay. Or— Yeah, I like dabbing. My instinct says— should I put it on an incline?

Or maybe just add more salt.

It's a puddle. Really? Yeah.

Well, then maybe try to incline it?

You're gonna have a mess in the basin. I kind of like your dabbing. Why don't you like your dabbing? What if I dab and put more salt?

Yeah, okay, good.

What if I'm gone? Yeah, all right, gonna take a big dabber. Let's get some of these scrap towels. I think this will do it. Look what Mom got us! One day closer to complete organization. I don't think that ever happens, but that doesn't stop us from Going on the journey, right, Rebecca? Right. Getting 1% better every day. That starts with the battery daddy.

The battery daddy.

Getting organized. Now we know she can stop buying batteries randomly because now, now we know. Well, we need C batteries and we need those square batteries that if you put your tongue on them, they shock you. Which ones are those?

Uh, 9 volts.

9 volts. Hey, you want something to eat? Come on, set your heart on lung and spleen. No gusta? Si gusta. Yeah, she likes it. Hey Winnie, good morning, good morning. Did you have a good night last night? Every night as we go to bed, I hear her barking after something. You're doing a good job. You're doing a good job. I've had many a dog over my life, and I feel like it goes like this: 1 out of 3 dogs are great. She's a great one. Doesn't beg for petting, doesn't run away, eats just about anything, doesn't bark unnecessarily at nothing. It's zero day. We take a rest, but listen, I'm still gonna vlog. I'm gonna take this moment to do maybe updates. I should probably get this water out and going so we can switch them out. Next week it's gonna be what you call butt cold. I've seen it forecasted being as low as 3 degrees. Oh, I should show you something before we leave here. The COVID crop and the raised bed, the peas, the peas have germinated. And are growing. That corn might have finally germinated and grow too. That's interesting. That tells me in this chicken run I should have totally planted that. I should have totally planted this winter cover crop, not because I needed a cover crop, but because it would look more beautiful. Imagine if this was that. That's pretty. And then in the spring when I bring the chickens back in here, they have a plethora of green to eat. Or I could cut some of it and take it to the chickens during the winter to give them some greens. Let that sit and thaw out with the sun, which looks like we'll see it today. I'll be— it's going to be cold, we'll still see it. Oh shoot, okay, good. This reminded me, I totally forgot our little salt project. She's eating it. It's okay, honey. It's okay. You can eat. You deserve it. Are you waiting for the fluff to be done?

Yes.

What's he saying? He says, "Some." Can you say, "Some"?

You want some?

He keeps wanting me to get some.

Oh, this is what you do, huh? You get him a cup? You'll get some. She totally went for the spleen. By the way, let's take this moment, uh, health update. 8 days carnivore, feeling better this time. I've been reading the book The One Thing, and he talked about how it takes 66 days to form a new habit, as many as 66 or all the way up to 200. I want to say 256. I don't, I don't know if that was the exact number. Generally I've done carnivore, back and forth in various strictness. I feel the best when I do it, but it's so extreme. It's so restrictive. It's very difficult and miserable. Like, on a morning like today, it's frosty out, it's 28 degrees, it's a rest day. I want a hot— I want a tea, I want a Bulletproof coffee, I want a Hot chocolate with the family. None of that's carnivore. But my recent exploration— well, is that habit? I feel like that might be habit. Maybe there's some craving in there. Where should I put this? I'll put this— I don't care if it's zero day. If I see something important that's out of place, like a clamp, one day I'm gonna say, I need a clamp. Where are the clamps? Well, hopefully I go to where it would make sense to have clamps on the boys' tool shelves. That's actually theirs. And find it. Okay, let's do this salt thing. Well, actually, we're right here. Let's check the wood boiler. So I feel the best on low carbs, and this time it's not a 60-day challenge. Slow Down Farmstead had challenged me to that. I went to the 60 days. I actually started feeling better after 30, and I think what happened was I did the 30 days, I started feeling better, I was feeling really good for that last 30, and what I was trying to do at 60 is introduce stuff. And when I introduced just blueberries and onions, I crashed. And I think looking back on that, well, that was so disappointing and that's going to prove so difficult that I just kind of went like that. Afterwards, because like, really? I'm not going to be able to eat blueberries or onions? And if I can't eat those things, I'm not gonna be able to intro anything. And so for a point there, it was just like, pain's worth it. And it may end up being, you know, this is, this is part of a journey for me. So it may get so restrictive and I may be so miserable, I can't— it's, it's, what's the point? Just, just take some pain and eat some freaking food. People are wondering if this is working now. It is. We have somebody reached out to us and be like, I haven't had any luck with System Boiler being supportive either. Um, we've had all kinds of problems. Let me know if you haven't worked it out, we'll help you. Thank you. Rebecca says she heard them loading this, so let's see. It's loaded. Good boys. Boy, I got some good kids. I got some good kids. They snuck out this morning and did the chores. That's what they love to do on the rest day— set their alarm early, sneak out, and do the chores by themselves. I mean, it gives them a break from me making them do every single thing right. So that's why I'm out here double-checking everything. These sheep have gotten alfalfa. It's a great opportunity to train these half-wild sheep. Whole barn situation. I don't like that water level. But it'll probably warm up enough today that that can get going. There's some water in it. I should probably maybe go turn that on so it kicks in by itself when it falls. How are you guys doing? How are you guys? Their water level's good. The first time in my homesteading career I've actually ordered— so I have them here, we're gonna put them in next week. Oh, let's see if that works on a morning like today. It's dripping. Yeah, it works. Freeze— the top might freeze, but the bottom works. I would suggest on a cold day really getting this full. It's harder for it to freeze if this is full. It's got that mask going for it. And I guess if they keep it going like that, the water sitting out, hanging out in the nipple doesn't freeze. To this point, I'm doing carnivore for two reasons. One, to see if I can't get to a point where I break the pattern and I wake up and I don't crave. I haven't eaten McDonald's or Chick-fil-A or anything like that, any of the fast foods, and I haven't eaten gluten in, I don't know, 12 years. I don't crave sourdough bread as good as it is. I don't crave gluten biscuits. Now, I still crave gluten-free biscuits, but it hadn't been too long ago since I had those. So I'm seeing if I can't get 66 days or beyond. And I'm trying not to look at like, oh, I'll get to 66 days and then I get to start introducing things. You see the mindset there? Like other foods, the reward— I need to get to where meat, the most nutrient-dense food in the world, is the reward. You need to get to where I appreciate that and understand that and crave a good ribeye or a good 25% fat burger or some bacon on that burger or a salmon. You know? There we go. Can I break a habit? We'll see. More of my health journey on Twitter. I realize I don't talk about my health journey a whole lot on here. But I've been going in on Twitter with regular updates about my thoughts on health and the health journey. It's been fun. Secondly, I would like to explore why food restriction creates so much suffering for me. And then when I do jump off the wagon, I can't just eat a handful of blueberries. I gotta eat a bowl full of blueberries. I eat blueberries until I'm full. And like painfully full. There's something there. There's something there that I need to explore that may or may not have anything to do with food. The culture, and probably any culture for that matter, as people. We shy away from suffering and we see it as this horrible thing, but maybe it's like death. Maybe it's part of life and maybe it's necessary for growth. I sort of found that when I had reactive arthritis so bad last year and this Lyme. I'm a— I feel like I have a richer life because I've suffered. Give me somebody who has suffered in their life and persevered, or is experiencing suffering, and somebody who's had a posh life. I'll hang out with them any day over the other one because there's just a depth. So I came to a realization last night and I wrote it on my Twitter. Here's the reality, guys, with health. You're either gonna suffer now for your health, meaning you're gonna exercise, you're gonna have discipline, you're gonna eat right, you're gonna make sure you go to sleep, blah blah blah, and there's suffering in that, right? You're gonna have to say no to some other things, some temptations. So you're either gonna suffer now for your health or later from ill health. I'll repeat it again. Suffer now for health. Suffer later from ill health. Write it down. Live by it. That's the kind of suffering you want to seek out. I don't think you want to purposely get injured or get reactive arthritis. The suffering I'm talking about is the suffering, proactive self-discipline thing. And I feel like suffering for health or for something, for something that's better, leaves you in much more control, doesn't it? Where the latter, if I just wait for the ill health to come along, who knows how it's gonna come, what it's gonna be like, and it's gonna be out of my control. Hey, the trick is, I'm by myself, how do I keep chickens in with the door open? To get this chicken back in. Forget about it. Chase the chicken. I couldn't get around to push her back this way. Somebody else is going to get out, and then we're gonna have 2 chickens out. Forget it. I'll probably check the pig's water. How are you, Mama Pig? Is that a pile of poop? Holy smokes, look at that! That's a pile of poop. I'm all snuggled in there warm. Okay, this is pretty good. Probably needs to be washed out before the cold comes. So for pigs in this cold weather, they're gonna be pretty warm in this greenhouse. We'll lower the sides, we'll give them some hay to cuddle up in like that. Cows will be just fine. Actually, I think it's time— timing— so they'll actually be in the pole barn by the time that cold front comes through, but they would be just fine out in this. I see pictures from Jill from the Prairie Homestead all the time with cows out in blizzards in Wyoming. Cows look good. This cold weather actually feels invigorating. There's no wind. This feels really crisp. I don't know why I'm like eating the chip there. Check this out. Okay, oh look, did my puddle freeze? Shouldn't have froze. It's too warm in here. See this moisture? The salt has drawn out the moisture. And yeah, that's totally not frozen. There's a lot of moisture right there. Salt's doing its job. I didn't know it mattered that it had to be in the not frozen, so I'm glad I figured that out. Put it in here. I like the dapping. The dapping set right with me, so I'm going to dap this liquid off. Do not look to me as a model for creating your own hides, actually we have a full-on course inside Abundance Plus. I would be looking at it if I were doing this myself, but I'm actually just drying this so that we can ship it off and have somebody else do it. But if you want to do it yourself, definitely check that out. Don't go off of me here, I'm no expert at this.

And it's, it's just dried out now, so this is ready to be softened. So the first step in that process is to put this into some water, and we want to get all of this alum that's still on the surface here, the salt and alum, just rinsed off. But we don't want to rinse it so thoroughly that, you know, I'm not going to use soap on this side and like wash it out because we could wash away some of those salts, and that makes the hide not come out as soft.

Sheep look good. All right, now replace some of that salt that I might have pulled off. Yeah, Rebecca, that works super nice. What, the dabbing?

Oh good.

Yeah, I replaced it. Salt, in case I removed some salt. This is coming along nice. Sausage, you like it? He went straight for the hot chocolate. I don't blame you, kid. More pork rinds coming down the line. First we boil the skin for 2 hours. It's really not a bad job, it's just the processes take a long time, but it's not like you have to stand by. Reheated some roast beef, much better today. Didn't cook it long enough yesterday, it was chewy. Cooked it a couple more hours yesterday evening and it is so tender and nice. What? What do you want me to do with this? Can we give you a back massage? Is that what you like?

Yeah, he likes the back massage.

You like this? He does like it, doesn't he?

He started getting into that. He likes the back massage.

2 hours later, let me show you what I've done. I have knifed the fat off of the skins. Here, I've put it in here. Occasionally I come and stir them, doing it on super low, and this renders out the lard over a couple of hours. Did I accidentally turn it off? No, it's going very slow. That's good. See the lard gathering at the bottom? Now we take the skins. I've gotten 3 trays already. Put the 4th tray in there. 165. It's a dehydrator. It's 165 for 12 hours. Supper! What have you made us, Beck? Bratwurst, rice. You can put the lard back on.

I will.

I think you're supposed to keep the lid off of that, aren't you?

Yeah, I just did it for when I was doing this.

You can see how the fat is accumulating in the bottom. It's working, working nice. Fried onions and peppers. And this crap completes it, doesn't it?