Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 43

Day 43 of 100 days building a homestead where we access water, create an access road, and clear 2 acres. Today, chores in the rain, polar plunge in the pond, and clearing with Uncle Pete. Green Dreams! You ready? Yeah! Sprinkling right now, off and on rain. I got little man. Would you go in the ergo? Yeah. Yeah? Okay. Just started coming down even harder. I think we'll have to do umbrella work for small animals, and then when we get to the big animals, he can just sit in the salad. Hopefully it's still the plan to stop raining by 9. We can chainsaw in the wet, but I would much rather not chainsaw in the rain. Wow, we're getting really close, aren't we? The train's still The show goes. Okay, they parked their train right in front of the stall. We set this hen the other day. At first you put them in with the opening to the wall so they can't get out, so they don't hop off their nests. Sometimes in the movement it breaks the brood. After you trap her for, I don't know, overnight, they usually get settled back in. And you can do like Gideon did and turn the opening back around. She stays in there and only comes out every once in a while for some food and water. What we're trying to do this morning is not lose our spirit having to do chores in this rain, because it's supposed to clear and we're supposed to be able to saw and clear 9 o'clock. Brewster teeth, it totally slipped my mind. But grit— they got to get this gravel, get it down in their gizzard for them to be able to grind up their food. Basically, they ordered this whole grain, which is okay. I mean, it's not going to lose its nutrients value. It's cheaper, but they are not swallowing that corn. Shall we do a crunch test? Straight up corn? No way. No, I cannot crunch that like that. And if I swallowed that, as many of you know, you're gonna— you're gonna say it again— so it's gonna be useless. But even in this furniture, it has sprouted peas. And it's been so long, this is not going to be sustainable because I'd want to do this every day. Now, however, that's biteable. It will actually break up. Really? Let me help you feed your chickens tomorrow, okay? Okay, we're gonna try this, this, uh, sprouted grain. We got everything? Yeah, we ended up putting Henry with Mom. Let's take him at 9 instead of right now because if we took him right now, he's gonna get wet, cold, burnt out, and then not want to come with us later. It's 5 till 8. You think we can do this in an hour, Lily? No, what are we doing? That's behind wisdom. We should be going. Let's go. Yeah, wow. Look who's here just in time, and you brought the sunshine. Rain stopped. Usually I bring the rain this time. I know, unlike last time. Somebody pinched me. Millie just asked me if she can stay in here and clean and make brownies and ice cream. You're awesome. You boys need to come with though. Okay. We're gonna go clear. Not only do we have 2 hours to clear, we have another adult. Hey, Henry, let's not start this. Why? You've got one boot right here. Where are your shoes, Mr. Henry? I don't know. That made Mr. Brownie. What a karma. You gotta help me find Henry's shoe. Those aren't the match to these black ones. They'll work, especially if he wants them. Is it seriously starting to sprinkle? Sunshine, where did you go? Pete, where'd your sunshine go? Uh, 9 o'clock too. Ready, Emily? It's so top-heavy. There's where we were last time. We got us a nice view cleared. We could still skim around these edges. And get even more view. What do you boys want to do today? Over there. Oh yeah, where we were. Shoot up through here. We're going to start on the other side of the road then. Well, yeah. Is that a big cedar? Yeah, it's a rare around here. We're not chopping it down. You're leaving that? Keeping that cedar. Start with those two trees. We'll go from over here to here. We'll clear this rhododendron and start going up through this little— we got like a little pasture valley here. Watch out, Josiah! Come on down, Jonah! There it goes. Go nice and slow. Who knows what it's going to do when it hits the pile. Nice. 40 minutes into this thing and we're going at the thicket. This is going to be extremely satisfying cuz it's so thick and impenetrable, and in just a matter of half an hour it won't be. We're gonna have to end up putting a culvert here. What do you think, Pete? I think it would be a nice huge river. Yeah, it's gonna have a hard time for the animals and fences to get over this. Maybe one or two culverts. That section is going to be easy as soon as we do this. It's got a mow. Papa, all we have to do is this little strip and we're done. But the problem is get— getting them all in there from here to here, all the way out. Culvert to get the mower in. We got a brush train going. We got the brush train so we don't have to move our legs. How are you? Let me hold you. Come here, come here. You're doing good. Been out here an hour. Hey, you guys were fooling around too much. Peter got the saw. Where I'm standing, bonus. I didn't even realize this was right here. Nooks and crannies wherever we can get them. That's the old trail coming through. I didn't even imagine anything to the left of that trail. And here I stand. Gigantic brush pile. We cleared all through here. This is all bonus right there. We're gonna keep clearing too, up the bank a little bit. Right here behind us where I just showed, we have a bank. Just start getting 45 degrees-ish, we're gonna keep it in place. Grazing animals go to the pastures for their food and the forest for their medicine. These leaves gathering the sunlight deep roots are created. The roots are mining minerals and bringing them up and putting them there in their leaves, and the, the animals get that and they're getting mineralized. You can see the old trail going right there, and you can see how we're going to start clearing right here. And you see how sun's getting in there now, and this is winter, so imagine what's going to happen in the summer. This is where we started, up here on this knoll. This is exciting right here. Views we've not seen before on our farm. Just a way to keep it fresh and exciting. And imagine, I will come here— we'll come here soon, all of us, and we'll look out and this will be cleared come spring, summer. Grazing animals on this. Can you— I'm just so excited about that. You guys excited? Beautiful little stream coming through. Another 3x day thanks to Pete and the ambition of Jonah and Josiah. I couldn't keep up with them. Got some firewood early out of the adventures. Somebody's glove. You like that pine? Talking about that huge pine. Yeah, I know, it's an interesting tree. It's huge. You're guessing it's 100 years old? I mean, compared to the ones I see in Florida, yeah. We've been on this farm for 90 years, so maybe it's at least that. They clear-cut this whole place at one point. Yeah, pretty sure it's all been cut. Yeah, that might be one tree that is, for whatever reason, they didn't get. We got the one lucky cedar which needs a little bit of pruning. That's why I got to get up there and get a couple of them side limbs off. That'll make it healthier. Yeah, anytime you have a heel cut, you know, that's going to actually close out on the tree, those just snap. Took a moment for the ball game during lunch. World Cup. Took a nap. Kids, it's all y'all. Mom and I got to do a podcast with Pete and Mel. You guys ready for this? Pete, if you get nervous, you can just hug on the pillow. Okay, Matt needs me to sit in. How's that? Are you nervous, Mal? Not yet. Have you ever been on a podcast with Pete? No. Never been on a podcast or even with Pete. No. Neither one. You've done podcasts, haven't you? I did a news piece. Nice. But that didn't go well. Uh-oh. Oh, well this will go much better. Well, after the editing and everything it looked fine, but I had a little panic attack there. Wow. I'm like, hey, I need a minute. Yeah, I think that wasn't live. Yeah. This is not live. That was when I was really nervous and didn't want to do it. Yeah, that was the day. And I was like, I can do it. I'm like, I'm great. Yeah. Oh, okay. So I'd never been in front of like— What do you want to not talk about? Before, so— Or what do you want to— what would make this home run? We'll start with political stuff and move into Corona. And then faith. It was a good interview. They did good. I can't wait for you guys to listen to this on Abundance Plus. So good, so motivational what they've done in creating an ecological landscape business. They do edible landscape installs in Florida, uh, Tampa area. Hey, Papa. Yes? Do you think there's such thing of ice cream cookies? Oh yeah, there's ice cream. That's a thing. Could you make them? They're very— it's entailed. I feel like we've been eating a lot of sweets with the holiday and everything. We probably need to chill out. Doesn't matter that it's the end of November. They're going swimming. Hey, my leg feels a lot better after swimming. Hey, did you figure out what's wrong with our pipe? Why isn't it filling up? Yep, there's a crack in it. Big crack? Big old crack. Woo! Already enjoying the pond, Beck? Yep. Can you touch? Dang, it's not even anywhere near full. How was it? Gotta help my leg. Nice. Walking's a lot easier. Nice. I want you to look at this persimmon. We had to transplant it. I think we killed it. That's a cimmon? That's a persimmon. With the vines in it? Yeah. What do you want him to say, confirm or deny? Yeah, can you confirm if it's dead? Tell us how to move it next time. Timber. Still alive. Oh, is it? Yeah. How do you know? Because it's, uh, it's not snapped. You can also scratch the bark, can't you? I will tell you that it might die. It looks like it's a little bit deep. Like you buried a little bit of the cambium layer. Um, typically these trees are grafted. Does it start with a single stem and then go to a split? Uh, just a little low, so it could die. It's still alive. So how could we prevent— can we pull the dirt away? Yeah, just pull the dirt away and try to get down to— typically they call it like a cleft foot. So when there's a grafted tree, it starts big and then goes smaller, and that's the rootstock. You want that to have air? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hey, we still doing a tour? This time I'm gonna be on your show. We're ready, we're ready. All right, my man. Well, it's a bad time of year to do a tour, but that's okay. We got to keep it real. They're going to see me in all seasons. I think last time you were in the fall, and the time before that was summer. Pretty good with that. Yes, you're going to get all seasons at the Rhodes Farm. Just wrapped up the tour with Pete. Rebecca went on the tour this time. Can I come in? I think Mel and them had some extra food tonight. I think they prepared it. It looks like we're gonna have a roast. It looks good, Mel. Good job. Thank you, thank you. My pleasure. How do you like your brownies, Pete? Legit, legit, right? Brownie in a minute. And ice cream. I'm stepping out of my box. Get the cages, please, and something to carry them over with. Any chickens out? We finally got the energy to get chickens from here Is the rooster in here? He's the— he's the worst. He's not. Lily, are you grabbing him from over there? I'm standing here by the door so nobody gets out. I don't know how good I'm doing. Catch a chicken. Good, don't let it go. Everybody come catch a chicken. Wait, we're taking them all? Yeah, all of them. We're consolidating chores. Maybe I should get everybody in the high tunnel. Really guys? Get in like that. Yum chicken gum. Midnight, I think I saved you. Remember me? Gavin's on it. He got it. There you go. Nice. He got that one. Don't mess with me right now. The rooster is still not accounted for, and he's probably with some hens somewhere. If the rooster's not in there, we're gonna have to go on a hunt. Wait, wait, wait. No, no, good. Let's go put them on the perch. Set them on there. Good job, Miss Brown. Well, they can go on the lower one too. Good, then they'll know that's home. Did you find the gate? We put it somewhere clever. There's a gate that goes on the inside of this because, I mean, what's stopping them? Oh boy, why didn't we put this away? Where is it? Oh, there it is. Unbury it, guys. Here, bring that in. We'll screw it on tomorrow, but at least let's get in the way today and block them from getting out in the morning. There you go. Tomorrow we'll screw that on, but tonight let's block it. Oh look, Josiah's got the screws. I got the screw gun. Nice. 2x4. I like it, guys. Going ahead and getting those screws in tonight. You guys got your gate up? Okay, no more chickens getting out then. I would still throw a couple staples in this and just pull them out when you're done. Staples? Screws? Something to hold that plastic against there. Oh, I see, I see. You know, even like the, uh, fencing panels with the round things on them, you know, something to get out easy. He's saying staple it to this, but this is kind of a— yeah, I don't know why that— it's coming— that needs to be fixed up there. Yeah, I would just put a sliding door in there. Yeah, long term. Oh man, that feels so good. Consolidate the chickens, put the gate up so they can't get out. Chores are going to be easier tomorrow. We clean up that— take a little detour, much needed detour from the clearing of pasture. We're caught up. We need to take care of some things on the farm. See you guys tomorrow.