Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 74

Today we hope to test our Everflow waterer so that we can get our pigs out on pasture and start building a water supply line up on top of the mountain to this new 2 acres. I'm trying to go outside, but Henry isn't having any of it. Looks like he needs his love tank full, so I'm gonna sit down and hold him. This is gonna take forever, so I'm thinking I'll hold him while he's on my back and we'll get some stuff done. Henry, we've got to go see if the water Stayed flowing, or did it freeze? There's ice at the top of that thing. Yesterday we experimented with setting up an Everflow water pump. The water was coming down from the pond into our tank and out the overflow, and it was continually running. The theory being, let's keep that water running like nature does and it won't freeze. It's still working. The top froze, but I still hear it running. Oh, it's overflowing. It's still being gravity fed from the top of the mountain. Why isn't it going into its pipe down here? It's supposed to— there's a drain pipe starts about right there, and the water drops in there into this line and goes on down the hill. I'm wondering if there's not enough flow. Does the line here need to be more straight? This wide open, I think it was. I see it's frozen in here. Somewhere in the drainage there was standing water, else it wouldn't freeze. There's nothing frozen there. Something froze down in this line, and maybe it's the fact that this just pushes this wee little bit right here, and maybe that should have been pointed downhill. Let's go see if anything's coming out the line down. What is going on? How'd you get Sally in there? I opened the gate. This is where it comes out. We have some icicles formed out here. That's just completely frozen up. I'm afraid it's the slower movement. Water's running down through that pipe and it's going slow. It's starting to freeze around it on the edges like this. See this water runoff here? See how the water starts freezing around the outside of it? And then what happens is it constricts that movement and then it's easier just for the water to run out on top. Water always goes the easiest route. These two new piglets getting out, I think, are eating the chicken feed. Could we do this that easy? Bet you they push that over, but maybe it buys some time. Hey, Gideon's chicks are still alive! They haven't gone into the pig pen, or if they have, they have their feathers and they're able to escape. Just before the clamps get them. My water system I made is too slow for these guys. You think the one up the mountain is faster? Yeah. Oh boy, we're getting dangerously low on hay. My hay guy keeps putting the date back. I have to find another hay guy. I need to make some calls today. We got a lot of people to feed on this hay. Sheep, cows, cows, more sheep, more cows around the corner at the stanchion. How many flakes are you doing a day? Doing them 4 a day and then about 12. 12 plus 4, 16. How many flakes are in a hay bale? How many more than that? That's what I said yesterday. Oh boy, what do we have left? A week? Two? No, the flakes are very compact. How many days do you think we have left at that rate? Maybe 2 and a half weeks, 3 weeks. So maybe you're feeding a quarter of a bale? Yeah, I'm not feeding a whole bale every day, maybe a quarter of it. Yeah, that'd be 2 weeks left if it's a quarter of a hay bale every day. Oh no, are these screws screwed in and not nailed? I don't want to burn these because we'd end up taking the ashes— these screws will get in our ashes, which we put on our which our cows will then eat and get heartburn disease and die. Wow, they are screwed on, not nailed. I was hoping to pry out the nails and burn these. It's good locust firewood right there. Week and a half, 2 weeks maybe on that hay, and then we have no food for the ruminants. Hey, y'all come up and eat breakfast when you're at a spot. Lily, I imagine this is on purpose, thawing out your rabbit's water. Okay. Yesterday I thought I was on something revolutionary with this big water, and maybe this is why nobody has done this. We gotta get more flow, and hopefully the creek up the hill has more flow. I'm pretty sure it does. Oh, the hay guy. When you've finished recording, you may hang up. Hey, Patty, just calling to see if we're still on for hay this weekend. Please confirm and let me know that we're good and solid. Okay, milking time's drawn to a close. Let's get as much as we can get done in this 2 hours, whether we can get this Everflow going or not. What we're doing today will establish water line to our new 2 acres, so that won't be in vain. That'll at least be usable in the summer. Actually, it'll be usable most afternoons here in western North Carolina. It gets thawed out enough and maybe usable all the time as a flow. Maybe this tank is a little tricky. Kids, what's hard keeping everybody? I think It'll be easier to unravel these down here and drag them up straight. I could really use some help right now. All 4 of my kids are missing. Hey Winnie, good morning! Kids! Oh no, you're all in here playing! I thought you were in here. Oh no, Lily, get in! Messiah, let's go! Eric, can somebody hold the end of this? The problem is we're not able to unwind this thing. There's no way we're going to be able to sit that straight on the mountain. So I think it's because it's so cold. We're gonna have to try this this afternoon. Right now we can clear. You can go ahead and start these, Jonah, if you're— is your saw sharpened? All right kids, let's go. Well, half an hour of prep time and we're ready to go. But you know what they say, if you have 10 minutes to saw, you better spend 8 of it sharpening your saw. This means we're not able to make progress on our pasture line of water this morning, and we have a busy afternoon with appointments and stuff. We do need to clear though. We need to finish clearing because the graders are coming soon for the big trees, and we need to get all the little trees out of the way. So we have two very pressing matters, and we want to get the pigs out as soon as possible because sheep are going to start having babies. Yeah, probably any day. Yay, baby! Shall we go up or keep going over? Over. Yeah, maybe if we go over, there's just some big trees that way. Yeah, there's a big tree. We want to clear all around it. We really don't lack a whole lot more clearing. 2 acres. Just little bit by little bit. Probably averaging an hour a day, maybe less. There's a big tree. Need to get around that. So yeah, we'll keep going over. The goal for this next hour would be to clear from where Jonah is, these little trees in here, all the way to that one. Looks like we got some cleanup to do from yet the other day. We've only got Lily and Kitty and the hog brush. Is that not starting? Pull my trigger. Do I need to get my saw? Okay, I'll give you one more chance. Keep it running, or it's okay. It's not a punishment or anything. It's just if that's not going to run, it needs adjustment. Before we get to the sexy stuff, the clearing, we're going to have to pick up what we left the other day. Work this stuff up so I can get it up. I didn't realize how much we left the other day. I don't know if we'll get it all Run out of gas. All right, we've picked up here. Let's go to clearing over here. I'm thinking that's an oak. Jonah thinks it's a poplar. Doesn't matter, we're gonna leave it for the graders. They'll know too. Dude, look at this gigantic poison ivy though. I think you get the poison ivy oil in the winter. Whoo, barely missed that camera. Oh dear. Oh boy. Whoo, that saved the camera. About 15 more minutes. It's crushing. There is a lot of smoke coming from the house. I need to go make sure that's not just the wood boiler smoke. Make sure we don't have a fire. Honey, you bring Sally. I think I can get there faster by foot. That's too smoke. That's too much smoke for the boiler. Okay, maybe it's just the boiler. Maybe it's just the boiler. It should not be smoking though, by the way. It should be going through the reaction chamber. The house is not burning up. That's a lot of smoke. Well, we're almost out of time up there anyway. I'm pleased with how far we got. 600, that should be over 1,000. That should be 1,200. I guarantee you that's why we're going through so much wood too. Reaction reaction chamber is not working right. Yeah, I don't see a flame down in here. The water temperature is not up to temp. The reaction chamber temperature should not be going down, right? Yeah, it's just a rip-roaring fire in there. Central Boiler reached out to me the other day. I'll see if they have any ideas. We can be done for the morning. How's it going out here? You feeling better? I am. So I want to show you a magic trick. Okay, everybody taste this. Normal water, right? Yeah. Okay, come with me. Got me a SodaStream. Turns normal water into fizzy, as they would call it in Europe, gas. We're gonna have gas water. You want your water plain or gassed? Now seal this shut. Now hold this button down until it says stop. Never gonna stop. Oh, hear that? Party sound. Now try it. Same water. No gusta. Hey, I should make you one with the electrolytes. Now the electrolytes is pretty good. Hold on, hold on. With the Redmond's, you got to mix in a little with plain water in your lemon and salt. You can't be stirring this. Watch, I put lemon, salt, a little bit of warm— a little bit of warm water on the bottom, mix that in, then added the cold gas water, ice. You got a refreshing drink. Feels like a treat, guys. There's no real point in Gas in the water if you're just gonna put honey and stuff in it. It's just like a soda. Okay, it'll give them the soda feel since they never have sodas. Can I have some? It tastes good. Yeah, right. I saw that face. It is pretty good. It's like soda. Is it? I mean, it's not super sweet because I didn't put a ton of honey in. You guys should tweak that and get a soda going. This afternoon, did we thaw out? Well, sure we thawed out, but is this 1-inch plastic more pliable now that it's not 25 degrees, it's 50 degrees. Gideon! We're really working on him staying with me. He's got to stay with me to have privileges. You know, I'm not gonna force him to come. It's like in life as adults, we have choices and all of them have consequences. Sometimes they're negative, sometimes they're positive. Incidentally, this is back to working, and this time let's leave the lid on and and see if that doesn't make coming out of this easier. We want the easiest route to continue to be through our downspout, even if a little ice develops. I like experimenting next to the house instead of up in the field, but in the meantime, we can get our water supply lines out there. This is going much better. I let go and it only swings to right there. This went so much better than this morning. Like, I can let it go from there and it just goes boop. Unlike this morning where it just went— shwivel back together. Name of the game is how many can I do these before we have to go to Grandma's. Christmas at Grandma's tonight. What's wrong? Look who we got. You want to come outside with me? Okay, Lily, can you take the tape off of all that? Hold that in place so it doesn't unroll. You decide to come and help? Yeah, good decision. You hold that steady. One more straightening out, and then we're gonna try to haul them up the hill. Now how to get these long hoses dragged all the way up the mountain. I think it'll actually be easier on the four-wheeler because maybe we can sit on them. I got those over. Let's get the four-wheeler, grab that in, and just pull it into the woods. I say that like that's simple. It could be simple. It could not be simple. We'll see. I didn't think about this. Dropped one where it needs to go, but it's tangled up. Okay, I think I got it. They are calling us for dinner. We got another problem for another day. See you guys tomorrow.