Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 44

44 days into the 100 Days Building a Homestead Challenge. 2 acres cleared, access road accomplished, water established. Today, Lily's learning how to chainsaw by running a Sawzall in the woods. We're clearing out this high tunnel, much-needed foundational work, and we say goodbye to the Canaris family. Oh, we get a hug! This has been standing on counter for days. I thought it was okay, then I opened it. Is it bad? Tell me. The cat will tell me. I have seen dogs lick cow manure, by the way, so a little different taste bud. She's ate every bit of that. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Brown. Why are you in here with such muddy boots? Well, look at the floor and you were just on the counter. Look. Yesterday I began to burn out or have a Lyme crash. One, these used to happen more frequently where every once in a while I would just get like super unmotivated, tired, depressed. Oh, did she stop? Yeah, we might need to give her something else. The first one I just thought, what's wrong with me? I just can't get motivated, blah blah blah. And then I figured out it passes in 2 or 3 days, and I equated it to my chronic Lyme disease. So just being honest and real with y'all, we're getting started a little late today. I feel like we've neglected the farm in some ways, advancing our projects. Yeah, I'll admit, when I take time to keep up with the farm projects, I feel like we're not advancing. I mean, I know it needs to be done and I know it's important, and then it's the foundation, it's so important. But it's just how I am, and I imagine it's how many of you are. You know, you just want to go on to the next thing. You want to feel like you're advancing, not backtracking or staying stagnant. And I just saw a chicken out. Last night we put them all in the high tunnel. We either missed one or somebody's got out already. The jump up and out right there. We need to get this bean net out of here, the food trays out of here, the tomato— the old tomato plant. We got to get this water line out of here. Stool. And we should probably get that more secured. And a water situation for the other side. Beefcake, everybody, he should probably be separate. Dominates the feed sometimes, although if we give them 3 pans, they seem to share it nicely. You chickens are awful daring. They snooze, they do lose. Pigs do get one every once in a while. I got past these tools, I don't know, 3 times. Tell myself I don't have the time to pick them up. Well, I don't have the time to pick them up right now. Especially since we're starting late. It's a great balance, right? You say yes to one thing, you're saying no to another. So I'm saying yes to tidying up a little bit this morning and no to advancing the farm. It's actually like editing these videos. You can— they say you can keep on editing, keep on making it better, and really never end. It works the same for the farm. We could clean and organize this place And then keep going, getting the nooks. I mean, this is a stupid example, but you could clean in between these cracks. You could fill these little holes that some bug has gotten at some point. You get the cobwebs off the, off the rafters there. You could hide the electric wires. You see what I'm saying? You just go nuts. Like, where do you call it quits? Where do you settle? We're trying to sprout this corn in the furnace room. Mr. Google Pants says corn corn's got to be at 55 degrees to sprout, germinate. Wow, I'm not kidding, it says it's 55 degrees in here. I need to communicate with Lily to not feed them one morning, and then we'll try this as is, see if we can't get our chickens to eat that whole corn. What are you doing? Yeah, hey, let's go milk. Although the word on the creek was the calves got to the Mamas last night. I doubt there'll be much milk. We still got to go through the motions because that's one way you can get mastitis if somebody doesn't get milked all the way out. As you know, I'm also trying to film a show and I can— I only want to show so much. You're going to only be interested in so much of me sweeping this garage. How do you know where the balance is? Why is it today I'm choosing to work on that high tunnel. Honey, I should have worked on that high tunnel several months ago. Well, I think you hit a boiling point. You know, we had that tour with Pete yesterday. It would have been good if it was looking a little bit better. Rebecca gets discouraged after seeing it. You know, that's her beloved high tunnel. Understand that everybody's boiling point is different. So when one of you boils over It's time to take a step back and work on the foundations, which is the farm projects that you already have established and that are already going, and slow down on the expansion. So that's what today is. This is something we should have done so long ago as well, and that's getting minerals to the cows. Once we took their shed away, they don't have any minerals. That's good. Hey, you gonna be riding that soon? Yeah. Oh no. I've never heard him say yes so clearly. Sure enough, there's a little calf in here. There you go. I just realized part of the sluggishness is that project, because I'm sitting here thinking, oh, well, if we have 2 hours, maybe I can get that project done in an hour and then we can have an hour of clearing. Why is Flossie getting picky right there? Wait, why is she being like this? Ah, she's— because she's been milked. She's been milked all the way out. Yeah, she'll sit still for us to get some relief, but now she doesn't need any relief. There's no reason to milk her anyway. She's got the calf to keep her milked out all day. It's this one. Let's see if we can do it without tying her up. Did she get nursed? Yeah, the other calves must have got in too, gotten a hold of her. But let's practice getting close to this cow. Pete, Green Dreams TV in the house, making a video. Stay tuned for that tour. What's your turnaround time these days? A month? Uh, you know, maybe 2 weeks. Oh nice, getting some slow-mo shots. Oh yeah, let's go, let's go! Come on everybody, for a little Shaklee soap. It's a natural dewormer. You just do that theoretically once a month. It's been a few. A little bit for sheep. I think I'll start right there at that gap in the greenhouse. You know, I think putting a time limit on a project like this is good because really it could never end. Where's it going to end? I could get that weed there. I certainly need to get those pallets. I could patch holes. How do we do this? There we go. That side's good. Looks like this side's out too though. That looks loose and janky. It's got these clips on it. I think they've fallen off, come back on. We need to tighten this up. Then put the clips on them. Are y'all cleaning up in there? Yeah, let's check on their progress. Come look what I did. I put it against the thing and then I put these things on. Good, those so they can't get removed. Yeah, that's smart. And yeah, we'll put new drip line in every time. We can keep this intact, we're doing good. Jonah's getting up the drip line. That can even be reused if it's not all trashed. Let's get all the tomato plants off the wall. You know, we didn't have this problem last year because our garden didn't do nearly as good. It was— it's a testimony to the animals in here on this deep bedding. In a year's time, the soil it's built has been incredible. We didn't have that the first year. Well, it's dusty. Are those good? Yeah, I think so. That one has chewed— has been chewed though. Well, we can't have that one then. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye.

Thanks for cleaning up the high tunnel.

You're welcome. Look, you like the door already?

Yeah, that's better.

Myrna points feet. You ask and you shall receive.

The green beans thing, we're getting there.

It's going, it's going. We got this. Just warming up, don't worry. Bye. Thank you guys. Look at this kid vlog. The problem here is these tomatoes have grown behind this wood and in front of the plastic. Shoot, hopefully not gonna take all the boards down. Oh, look at you guys! It's gonna look so much better. Oh yeah, this is actually gonna be pleasant. I got my method. I clean an entire section before I move on. We got 30 more minutes on this, guys, and then we'll do some chainsawing. Exciting stuff. Gotta mix it up, gotta mix it up, stay excited. It is already looking a million times better. It's already a pleasant place to be instead of like a drudgery place to be. Lily pointed out that they're eating the vines, and they are. She's like, let's feed the vines too. Okay, let's do it. Hey Pete, too bad we didn't do this before your tour. We didn't look like such rednecks. Keeping it real around here, you know. Ah, okay, that actually works. I want to get this by its roots. I did it, I did it! Wiggling did it. We had tomatoes and cucumbers in here in the summer. They love the heat, so they love the high tunnel. Once it started getting cooler and those were all done, we brought in the chickens and the pigs. And notice they're all on the bedding. They're all on wood chips, which serves as a mulch in the garden and a carbonaceous diaper for the animals. In the winter. So the animals are a bit warmer in the winter, certainly more comfortable without the rain or snow getting on them. The chickens lay more eggs, and this is a multi-purpose function place, you know. It's how the chickens and the pigs and the gardens all work together. Chickens are scratching this wood chips, they're pooping on it, and it's becoming more fertile. It was at least twice as fertile this year than last year. Let's get all this stuff out. I'll do the jigsaw. Okay, well, can you find it? Before she saws, she's got to learn the jigsaw. Probably doesn't help that I jumped off the carnivore wagon, collapsed off of it since Josiah's birthday. It's so nice to eat with the family. Normal person every once in a while, but I think it's catching up to me. And that's the cycle I'm in— be strict and clean and good on my carnivore diet and get some soul food, crash, and go back to it. I'm a yo-yo. Mad skill right here. Wants to go as wide as he possibly can without running into that ditch. That's good driving right there, like a glove. Oh, we got a hug over here. It's really where we really want to be clearing. This is the excitement. You got to mix it up. I'm learning, I'm learning. You got to mix it up. We cleared the little trees out of this pocket yesterday. Now we can go after these medium-sized trees, which Jonah's really excited about. And Lily, you gonna get some training? Yeah, you want to run the chainsaw, you got to learn to run the Sawzall. You could cut that, perhaps. Try it. Now here, let me show you how to do it.

Like this?

You have to hold this against that, okay? Don't do like this, do like this, and get it sawn, and then do it. This is pretty dull blade, so let's do smaller stuff. Cut little branches off the main branches if you want, because the saw is so dull. There you go. Can you do that? We got to get a new blade for that if you're going to be doing it. Okay, you tell me if you like it, then we'll get you a new blade on it. There you go. Nice. You guys see why this is more exciting? It's just more exciting to me. Is this more exciting to you than cleaning up high tunnels? Look at this girl, massive pile. Good job, Lily. How you like it? Just wait till we get you a sharp blade. Doing great. No gusta comida? I don't blame you, Winnie. But you know who will like this? No doubt they'll fight for that rotten beef. Pigs have guts like nobody's business. They can eat anything. This actually turned out to be a satisfying day, day 44. Got some foundational work done on the homestead and got some clearing done, and nobody got hurt. As for mood, it's improved a little bit. I think I do need to listen to my body though, and it's saying take it easy, rest. The World Cup is on. That only happens 1 in 4 years. Just relax, guilt-free. Gotta release that guilt, or don't partake in the activity. Guilt's no good for you. Look at this busy house. Everybody's folding clothes. Pinch me. What is going on? He pinched me. Ow. You training with me, Henry? There's one. There's one for you. You can lift it. Lift it. Lift it. He says, no, I'm gonna step on it. Thanks. There it is. There you go. I totally crashed. Took a nap, took a nap, took a nap. We just ate final leftover Thanksgiving. The World Cup is on. Brazil and Switzerland tied 0-0 at the half, and whoever wins moves on. You gotta see this. Rebecca is working on the remodel with Austin, our designer.

I was thinking where we were gonna have that milk room, I was maybe gonna make that other stall a milk room. I mean, not a milk room, a big cooler, a big walk-in cooler.

My thought process was if, if you were to keep the, that existing walk-in cooler, to have it adjacent to like, um, the harvest kitchen, garden kitchen, whatever you want to call it.

Right.

I'm wrapping up. Day 44. Gonna listen to my body, get a rest. I'll see you guys tomorrow where— I kind of like this combo. I don't want to neglect my foundation. We need to get some silo— we need to get some weight on these silage tarps, protect this garden for the spring. Let's do that and some clearing. I feel like I have some wiggle room. Let's do it in the next one. See you guys then.