Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 31

Day 31 of 100 days building a homestead. Getting access, finding water, and clearing acreage. Today we are rained out, but that doesn't stop us. We are figuring out an electric grinding chainsaw sharpener and getting my boy Josiah a brand new chainsaw. You want these ribs, right? See our basement wall? And we left our minerals right there. On the ground? That would have been mega, mega trouble. But now that we waterproofed the basement, we're good. Checking out Josiah's progress on this feed in the barn. It's a good sign he has a broom and a dustpan. I was afraid it was going to get terribly messy over here, but it seems to be working.

Can you tangle my hose from up there?

Go ahead. You want to go in? Okay, you take him. Yes, I will. And watch him. Okay. Do you want to set up the chainsaw sharpener?

Where?

It needs to be near that plug because that's a good thing we can do today is install that, sharpen our saws because it's wet. All right, let's get the calf. Graham didn't follow.

What? You did it?

How come you didn't go through right there?

Because you can't get the bit in there.

Uh, so you made do and you made it attached down here. That's neat.

There's two up here and you were able to get these. You can look on the other side.

I wonder how you're supposed to be able to do that. I was gonna stay there.

Oh, it went through the wall and there was this much.

Boy, you really make do, don't you? Yeah. Do you feel like you need to mount this side like you did this side? Not really. That's supposed to be turned to 55. See the markers there?

Right there.

There is 55 right there. This one. You got mine off?

Yeah.

Man, I'm so nervous. And you guys, like this, I'm just like been putting this off because learning new things. It's a struggle. It's frustrating, and I get so nerve-wracked. Does that happen to you when you learn new things? Yeah. Or you just jump right in? No, see? Oh, it's upside down. No, no, no. I mean, you can, you can flip it. It needs to be about right there. Get to where it snaps in that place. Shall we try it? First time?

Yeah, sure. Wow. You good?

Yeah, am I doing it?

Yeah, you're really doing it.

This is exactly what I was anxious about. We keep on cutting too much of the, the head. Maybe I don't do it so tight. That's it, that's it. Then it's all weird. I gotta do it a little tighter than that. Okay, I think I'm doing it too tight. Does yours need it? It's a good day to do it because it's raining. Wow, I think we did it. In review, I'm about 70% confident that we did it right enough. We won't know until it dries up and we can chainsaw again. Now speaking of chainsaws, it's his birthday coming up tomorrow. Since it's a rainy day, I'm willing to go get you your early birthday present because maybe tomorrow if it's dry you can actually use it. So he's got this little saw and it's good, it's a good little zippy saw and has its applications, but if you want to do bigger trees you get a little bigger one. Describe what you want.

Uh, one a little bigger and with the handle like right here.

Hmm, okay. Randolph got our wood boiler hooked up. It is running. That might be draft. Let me go down there. We had a new heating and cooling system put in over the summer, therefore we have to rewire things to get the wood boiler going. Hey there. Yeah, the fan's not on. If you hear anything, you're probably hearing the, uh, the freezer fan. It says something's running now, baby. It is running now. Jonah, Josiah, I could use some help. Okay, let's get the wood boiler going. A little concerning there's no water in this. We got to get water in this. Turn the water line on.

This?

Yep, yep, that's it. Okay, you get the water hose, I'll go get the lighter. Pop, why do we have to put water in the tank? Oh, that's what it goes off of. It heats up the water.

Is there water in it? Yeah, I'm pretty sure we filled it last time. Really?

It won't need much. I think this must just be clogged or something. You gonna get the torch? Yeah. I think it's not really working that great. Starting to take though. By the time you get here, it takes. That'll still speed it up. That'll do it. We've set off the smoke alarm. Let's see what the temperature is. 49. We got to get that to 140. Well, yeah, it goes up to we need to get to like way higher than that. We can turn on the water pump when it gets to 140, 120. The ultimate goal is 185.

It's already to 50.

Let's see if our stove is up to temp. I'm sure it is, it's been over an hour. 116. Okay, close enough. Let's see if this pump still works. Here we go, cross fingers. Still working. The fire went out. It's not calling on it or something. I hear water going now that we have the pump on. Are these warm? No, these should be warm. I can't deal with this. I've got an Epic Times interview at 3 minutes ago. I thought it was a phone call. Last minute, found out it was a Zoom call. I can't take a Zoom call in the house. I'm gonna have to take it to the farmhouse.

Well, it's good to see you. Thank you for taking the time.

Yeah, you're welcome.

This is awesome.

Good to see you too. Where are you at?

I'm in central Illinois, Springfield.

Okay, that interview was fun. They ended up talking about the Lyme journey and how homesteading can help with that. And I hear the fan going. So what's the deal? Oh, okay. That's good that the fan's going. Let's see if this goes now that we have turned the water on. It's still not going. Even if that problem fixed, I mean, that, that's got to get to 185, okay? That's one thing. But even if it does, I don't know if we've got our thermostats wired right. The guy we got this from, well, he's being hard to get a hold of, and Randolph doesn't really have any experience with this either. More than me, but he's definitely not a wood boiler installer. You ready to go to Lowe's?

Yeah.

Did you ever look on Lowe's to see if they actually have these in stock? No. That's the whole reason I'm going. That's the whole reason you're going.

We have the internet and these things called iPhones.

Oh yeah, they invented these things. I got one. You can look up the internet while you're driving.

They at least have have the 450 Rancher.

I don't know if you need one that big, but they at least have that one.

So we'll go see what they have.

Are those tractors? Tractors everywhere. Who knew Husqvarna's got a tractor? Okay, Jonah, get out of the Christmas section. Let's go to the chainsaws. There you go, guys. You don't need a license for that. Stay focused, Mom. Stay focused.

This is what Joey wants for his room.

In the remodel?

He likes the globe.

Oh yeah, here they are. Just past the string trimmers. Oh boy. The Pro Rewards and Partnership Program. I like the boy whose birthday present is a chainsaw. That's cool. You don't think those are in stock? You might have to get the 120, Josiah.

There's 16 and 18.

Right there in the box. There you got more up there, Josiah.

Those might be all the same one.

Oh, it's all 120s. Did you find the lady? Is it the 440 you want? That's the one he wants. It's up there. Oh yeah, there it is. We found the lady. She's gonna get a ladder. I wonder what's wrong with that ladder. Find you an 18-inch chain. Yep, grab a couple of those. It comes with one, so then get two more.

This comes with two.

That's pretty good, right?

Yeah.

That box is empty. They have a 435. It's a 2-inch shorter blade. Is it— is that okay, Josiah?

Do you think that you have any of the 440s in stock? So I at least have Well, if you want the 440, you should, uh, maybe, maybe it's too heavy.

I don't know. How do you feel? Is that too heavy? Maybe you want the 435. Yeah, maybe.

Yeah, yes.

Yeah, he likes a 435. Yeah. Okay, you think so?

Yeah.

You sure? I think so. If you want to get a hold of a big saw, you can just borrow my saw. Yeah, right. Might as well get a middle one between our little one and little one, and then we'll have mine. We got your 16-inch chains. What is the little saw you have, like a 12-inch? Okay, this is a good upgrade. Don't get him started. We're not a motorcycle family.

Not yet.

Why couldn't we be into guitars or anything? Something. We're going out to Lowe's with a chainsaw and you're eyeing motorcycles. Josiah, I hope that this rain clears for your birthday tomorrow so you can actually use the saw.

Yeah.

Is it supposed to, Mom?

I think so.

I saw the smoke as we were coming in. I saw Randolph. Maybe we figured something out. How's it going? I'm just about to give up. Are you really? You got it heating up though. It's 141 now, so you solved that problem. Ain't supposed to be hotter than that. And this has to be shut. Yeah, it shuts when that's shut. Yeah, it's supposed to go on to 185, but it was, it was only 100 earlier. Have you loaded it? I put a few more sticks. Okay, 20 minutes later, 147. I'm very thankful that we have Randolph, an extremely good man, an extremely good handyman. I encourage folks, tap into the community as much as you possibly can. Trade, hire, whatever you got to do. We weren't always in a spot to have a Randolph, and so I'm so deeply thankful. I'm deeply thankful for you all supporting, watching, becoming members Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's not lost on me. Thanks all around. What's wrong, Josiah?

Victor Justin Rhodes is out of battery.

Okay, did you test this one in the garage? What is it at?

Medium.

I mean, that's better than nothing. Are the pigs getting out, or did you just notice?

Uh, Beefcake got over.

Beefcake?

Yeah.

Oh no.

I got him back over, but needs to be charged.

You have the tester?

Yeah.

Well, that'll be lucky. See if that one's working, huh? You can take them both. Hot dog, that's dead. All right, let's go get it charging. I've had a thought that maybe we could move them down to the pole barn because we want to sell those piglets. We could put them in a high tunnel and we'll put the piglets in the, uh, pole barn. Is this your old battery? Yeah. Did the new one work?

Yeah.

Okay, you want to go charge that for you?

Sure.

It is piping hot in there. Now I don't know if that's the wood boiler because the stove is running so hot and it's keeping the temperature above where the thermostat is set to. Anyway, we're gonna go load the wood boiler, make sure it's still rising. Tomorrow, Josiah's birthday. I don't think you want to miss that. He's going to run his new chainsaw. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, literally. We're getting a new heifer, plus our draftsman It's gonna help us come up with the plans for this design and the— for the remodel. Guys, we're remodeling our house. That's the plan as of now.

Haha!

169. Hot pipes. We thought about another site, but the more we thought about it, you know, our roots are deep here. Even just in this house. I mean, we got a wood boiler right here. Do we really want to start that over? Be sure to come and check out the next video. Until then, happy day.