Can Chickens Carve a Pumpkin?

Happy day! In this episode, we're trying that viral chickens carving pumpkins. Will it work? I've got a lot to learn from a 1/10 of an acre city farm, and I get to eat what the family eats after 40, 50 days. Let's go! Fans on high this morning, burn it up cooking show. A leftover gap soup for me because I don't know what I was thinking. I started some short ribs, thought I just had to boil them for 30 minutes. No better. More like 4 hours. Maybe that'll be lunch. Some gelatinous chicken broth ready to be set up. Roast for tonight. And they've left that many eggs. They're not quite under easy, but I think I'm on that stage. Stage 4 can be regular eggs, right? I'm just gonna do it, or else I'm making more eggs. You guys don't ever procrastinate, do you? No? Okay. I got an interview with this Annie Torkelson this afternoon. She wrote Empowering the City Farm. This will be my office today. I've got a podcast with her this afternoon. I know many of you guys are actually on small acreage or even in the city. She has like a tenth of an acre. Jonah said the He-Man freezer went out. This is a brand new freezer. Moved everything over. That's why we have one extra freezer. Empty. I got you, I got you, we got it. Why does that say 68? Oh, this is on the wrong side. Unplug this thing. We're gonna let it thaw. I don't know if anything was wrong with it. I think the door got left open, and I noticed yesterday my alarm was off. Don't ever let the alarms be off, but something could have happened to it when we left the door open. It's all weird water. You get freeze back in the vent. So let's let it thaw out, start it up again. Who you going with, hen? Let's go get the chores done.

What, can I do it?

What? Oh yeah, he's out there. Let's get in. Let's go, go get the kitchen— the chicken scraps, please. Thank you. I gotta chill out. I'm just always I'm gonna try to be present in the moment. I've realized lately, you know, when you fast for 30 days, you do a lot of introspection and you learn how to do that. I learn I never— I don't live in the moment. I always feel like there's something more important to do. I'm thinking about the book work I need to do. I'm thinking about the— I gotta read that book before this afternoon's webinar. I'm thinking I'm thinking I need to take these waterers to the boys, feed the chickens, figure out why they're not laying great, and it's all more important than this. It all feels more important than what I'm called to do in that moment. Any tips on, on being present? Drop them in the comments. You're my moment right now, okay? You're my moment. Too blessed to be stressed. Too blessed to be stressed. Gideon, will you run get him an apple real quick?

Did he eat his breakfast?

Thank you. Probably not. I did, but an apple's fine for breakfast. Hey, you got your apple. Thank you, Gideon. Gideon, you've been doing great lately. He's been doing fantastic lately. What got into you? You've been coming along. You've been doing exactly what I say. How do we keep that up? All right, well, don't lose that. Don't lose that, bud. I know. Okay, you got a little sore throat. Do you want to stay here and get Otto feeders to the chickens. I was rationing food for the chickens. I was doing good, but I was here to monitor it and adjust it as needed. And then we go away and we have a farm sitter in the morning, and then Austin does chores in the afternoon. So there's nobody there to see, did the chickens have enough to eat? Because you feed them in the morning and then you check it in the afternoon to see where they're at. They've dropped in egg production. It could be the cold weather, the low The look— not, not the drop in the amount of light, but to be sure. Do you want to stay here and get the auto feeders going? Okay, we'll go get the water to the boys and get Harriet trained. Day 3 training Harriet. First time. She's a heifer, has never had a calf yet. If I get the chickens feed what I'm doing, we'll hopefully curb that because they'll appreciate that feed more because it's been soaked in milk, it's got protein in it, animal proteins, and they won't eat the auto feeding stuff if they don't have to. I have to have eggs. I have to. I'm on gaps. Eggs is a superfood. I have to have eggs. It's a staple. Milk and eggs is my milk and honey, so to speak. Look what I got you guys. It's the tank float valve auto shut off. Day 3 training Harriet. We were not able to get the leash on like I had hoped. If we can get the leash on today, I I think we'd be able to tie her up to the machine, which is how we'll milk her, which will be a significant, significant step in training her. Let's give her a lot. Let's spend some time over here. So I'll give her some RC Gold while we're at it, probiotic, and apple cider vinegar. Probiotic. She's getting trained eating. Instead of going— maybe I can go from this angle and go over her neck. She gets really weird when I put this on top of her. I'll be scratching her and then be scratching near the belt. All of a sudden I'm grabbing the belt. Just did that. That's too loose. We need to tighten it up. There's— we need to make a new hole, so we have to do that tomorrow. Hopefully it's not so loose it falls off on her. She makes big progress every day. She wasn't about to let me have to do that yesterday. No problem today. Hey, wait, stop, stop. Two heifers for sale. We're gonna sell them by the time they're 6 months old, I think. When would that be? February-ish on the older one, spring on the little one. They are A2, A2. Are they He-Mans? Yep, they're He-Mans, and one of them's Honeys and one of them's Vanillas. Honey and Vanilla have been outstanding cows. These heifers are A2, A2. Their milk's going to be easier to digest. They're mixed between a Jersey and an American Milk Endeavor, so they'll have the milk production of a Jersey, hardiness, beefiness of a— well, they'll be Harriet. They'll be Harriet. You could have your own Harriet, except you'll have a Strawberry, or what's the other one's name? Annie. So you might want to buy Annie, uh, and I'll give you lifetime tech support. $2,000. Uh, we need to deposit now. They're gonna make somebody some fine milk. Family cows. I'm so excited. I cannot wait to milk. I cannot wait. Look how easy it's been to train Harriet. Um, we're gonna have another mix between a Jersey and American Milking Devon, and that is— where's she at? Minty. Minty. And so their calves Well, they're going to be great milking calves if they're heifers, but if they're males, they're going to have great meat constitution. Let me show you that. Can you kind of watch her and just let her back in when she's ready? Probably just walk back in. What do we want? Uh, 2 steers. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, if somebody's got some 100% grass-fed steers, we might be interested in a trade. That's a good point. Look at that constitution. That is a meat cow right there, but it's not. It's, it's from a dairy line. That's what's so good about the American Milking Devon. It makes me hungry just looking at him. We might be hauling him off. We're trying to get creative in not having enough land. We're going to take him to another farmer an hour away who's got more pasture, and he's going to graze our two steers all winter. So they'll get on stockpiled grass. That means we can make our paddocks even smaller, Jonah. Maybe we'll make it till Christmas. Well, we have to. I don't know if we have enough hay to feed them longer than— we're gonna start from Christmas to spring. We're gonna stockpile this bottom pasture and hopefully run this top pasture twice. Maybe I'll go see our prospect a couple miles away today on some 10 acres. I'll go see a man about some acreage. He had an agreement with somebody else for hay last year, so I'll go see if that's gonna happen again next year. And if not, we, we, we could land it. Did you get them auto feed? Yeah. Hey dude, what happened here? Dude, the chickens have the auto feeder out there, but they see me over here getting this food. Okay, so hopefully my theory is true that they won't— they'll eat this first, which is cheaper, more nutrient-dense. Wow, they've already worn this out big time. Okay, get it, Henry. Watch the movie probably tomorrow. Mom's calling. I know she has to go to town today, a lot to do. Stop what we're doing, get the rest of the chickens in a minute. This could be revolutionary or neglected. I got all the tasks out of my head. I put them on sticky notes on our glass board. You have a list, you got to get it all done today, then you can have free time. Just kidding. Then we've got list for Papa, a list for Lily, a list for Jonah. Mom will have a list if she wants one. And then we need to kind of have a general one. The cool things about sticky notes is we can prioritize, like fix flat and side by side. That could probably stay up top. What? You do? You want a job folding towels? I'll put it on the board. Okay, Mr. Lynch's You guys got a grading job right next door. Clear Mr. Lynch's trails in that one area that keeps flooding. It's a, it's a corner, it just doesn't drain well. Look, Gideon, did you do auto feeders at the top? Gideon, did you do auto feeders at the top? Look at this, buddy. You want to come rip it off or you want me to do it? That's satisfying. You got to get done. When you fold the towels, you get to pull it off and wad it up and shoot the hoop. You want to do the sheep instead of the broth? Do you want to help in the kitchen when you're done, or help Gideon put up sheep net? And some— where do you think? Anywhere? Okay, well, he wants to do it, so you, you'll be in the house. Would it be smarter since Josiah's gonna mow Big Daddy's just for him to mow you another paddock up there? Uh, I guess where the fence is going to go. Or do you want to put the sheep out near where they are? If that's the case, you have to move all the nets down here.

Well, let's just do it up there and see. Gideon!

That probably would be easier because all the nets are up there. Josiah, where's Josiah? Why do you want to do the sheep job and not help me in here with Poultry.

Apple pickup.

I don't have time to do that. I need to start beef bones, need to start chicken bones.

Okay, what?

Go poop then.

I want you to stay here.

Okay, that's it. And then are we gonna do this pumpkin later?

Uh-huh, after I poop.

Okay, all right. Will you go? Okay, get in. Go get me some beef bones from Mr. Chain. Austin has stored some of our beef bones for us. Just— he knows, I texted him. We'll see if Josiah can mow you a strip for your fence line. Roast some lamb bones. You got lamb instead of beef, it's fine. Start tonight's dinner. Good chicken broth going. Get chicken broth in the Ziploc bags. Let's get some of this going and then I can read a book. Get in, you do the cream. Wait, wait, that's enough maple syrup. Lily, do you want to get the pork roast going? Start with sautéing a bunch of onions. Sauté a bunch of onions and a lot of pork fat, and then sear all sides of the roast. Hey, do you just want to do normal with salt and pepper, maybe some thyme? Yeah, hold on, a bay leaf. Hold on, we'll try it in a second. Let's hear a little longer on each side. I've been going back and forth on, on pork. Personal journey, spiritual journey. Do I eat it? Do I not? When I'm back on it and I'm gonna try it. I do realize it could be sus and could be what was inflaming me. Probably time to try it. I just talked with Rebecca. We can just do soups without tomato sauce in it because we're sus of tomatoes. It's gonna be a long time before I intro them. Everybody seems to be just happy with broth and meat and vegetable soup, so that's a meal we could eat together, which I'll be excited about. I haven't really eaten a meal with my family in 45, 46 days, something like that. You guys got this. Okay, I cannot believe this is my job. I'm not a city farmer. This is good for me and for you all. Already she's talking about making community. She's talking about being content where you are. A lot of us struggle. We think, we think, oh, it'll be better over here for this reason and that, but really what we're having is a contentment issue, and we need to search inside of us, and we may be running from a different problem, and it'll just take us longer to address it if we move. So some good stuff in here. Oh, butter's done! You know how to do butter? Yeah, I know how to do butter. Talking to Lily. You want to do butter or super cubes? I'll do butter. Okay, get in. I'll do butter. Get in and pour that into a bowl. Yeah, yeah, you kind of got to hold your fingers over while you pour it out. Try not to pour milk into that. When Henry gets back— have you seen those viral reels where chickens carve the pumpkins?

Well, I'll be! Look at the artwork my chickens have created for us.

I went in to help Mom with something personal and then Totally forgot the chickens. Should have set a timer. Gentlemen, you can't remember everything. That's been coming in clutch, been setting timers, because I've been trying— when the beautiful one tells me we need to do something, I think I'll remember it, but I never do, and that doesn't make her feel very special. So what I've been doing is I'll put on a timer, and I do timers for other things too now. And that helps things go smooth, which helps things overall in the Garden of Peace. But I'll put it on the timer. I'll put it in the calendar. How much you getting? You got quite a bit, huh? Yeah. Hey, how about this? Just make do with what we have from the farm. We need— we're gonna do the redo the sidewalk up there at the cabin. You guys got this? I basically got an hour and a half. To read the rest of this. I'm gonna have to wrap it up. Oh, you made me tea? Yeah, I have leftover. Heck yeah! Best job in the world right now. All right, I really should get another chicken. Aren't these lamb bones about done? Let's switch them. Do it now while we're in the mode. Just over the bones. We got a half a cup of apple cider vinegar in there. We're gonna let this rest for 30 minutes before we turn it on. Okay, you don't have to worry about me sitting too long because boy needs to go again. All right, come on. And I have to be in the other room. All right, open that up. I'm gonna sit right here. Let's get you guys started on this. You think they'll do it? Probably. That's theoretically softer. Probably only got maybe a third left, but it's lunchtime. Call's in 40 minutes. I'm not gonna get it done, but I have plenty of good questions. We got a lot to learn from her. So we got a bit of a problem here. Yes?

We don't have any parsley.

Okay. Parsley. All right, well, we'll try dry. We want something fresh. We're gonna get Mom some pico de gallo. Some lettuce and some cheese. Now I have some fresh. That's from the farm. Okay, try them, and then we might need to do more parsley. I didn't know you could use parsley instead of cilantro. I don't know if it'd be good because we're having to use dry too. Are those chips stale? Yeah. What? Oh yeah, it's pretty good.

No, these aren't stale.

Oh, and the salsa is pretty good. Heck yeah. The test is Well, Beauty liked that salsa. I don't know, let's not even tell her what we did. Parsley instead of cilantro, dried instead of fresh. Jeez, look at this guy. Apples are in. Local organic twisted apple apples. What do I do? You want me to start heating your food up or just wait? You don't know how long you'll be. I'm just dropping it off. Hey, don't get too attached to that minivan. We swapped with my assistant Heather. She's going to Virginia to visit her sister. Well, that's where all our books and stuff are, so she took the Suburban, our trailer, bringing back a load. We traded vehicles and Rebecca's getting spoiled. It's gonna be wanting a minivan. Hey, where are you going?

I'm gonna teach a lesson this afternoon.

All right, wheeling and dealing, giving lessons on your own farm. 5 minutes till showtime. What do I do? Beautiful one's got to do some things at the cabin. She wants to join the show. I want her food to be Fresh and warm leftover taco chili. It's gonna be hard to make exciting. I'm having beef short rib soup for my gas lunch. Do I eat this? Do I eat this part? I'll eat it. Well, I cooked the crap out of it, I guess. Probably the best part for you. You know what, it doesn't really come apart nicely. I think I got it. Covered warm. It means it's 1 o'clock. Shoot, I forgot about Henry. Hey Rebecca, how do you like this salsa?

Try it.

Whoa. Okay then, this is gonna be good in a pinch. Dry parsley.

Parsley?

Because we didn't have cilantro.

Did I have any dry cilantro?

Didn't I, uh, did you have some dry somewhere? I mean, hey, now you already said you liked it.

I know, but, but it doesn't taste like salsa.

That would be true. Okay, well, let's see if you're gonna put more on.

I probably won't. Oh, I'll just buy some cilantro.

Is it because I said what it was?

No, but I'm tasting it.

Let me see.

Now you can taste the parsley.

I tried. Totally forgot about him. What are we gonna give him? I don't even know. He's already eaten. Just got off the podcast. The book's fantastic. I didn't get to finish it. I'm gonna finish it because it's— it's about so much more than just city urban farming. It's fantastic. I didn't need to have because I think I got through chapter 1. With the prompts and questions I had. We had a wonderful discussion. That podcast will be out in a little while. She wants to coordinate it with the launch of her book, so just stay tuned. We'll drop it on YouTube when it happens. Hey, have you guys checked in on the pumpkin lately?

Yeah.

Is it working? It is? No. Have they gotten a hole in it yet? You back from grading? He's got a job on Wednesday grading. My big teenager. I can't think of a more important thing to do than expand our farm with the neighborhood. I'm gonna go see a man about 10 acres— one— and I'm gonna go see an old-timer about where in the world he got his square hay baler. Persimmons are in. There aren't many this year. You can't buy these. I think I'm far enough along in gaps I could— you could do cooked fruit. It would be a sin, right, if I let the persimmons come in and out and I didn't even eat them? One chicken's on it. Well, should we let— should we let it go until they get to the eyes, or should we call it? Huh? Let's go see some men about some farming. The stop was for a 10-acre lease. They was not there though, and his numbers changed, disconnected. So we'll try the old-timer next. He doesn't have any land, I don't think. He just has, uh, maybe hay equipment. Had a great visit with the old-timer. They always, when you come see them, they don't even say what you're doing, they just say come sit down. He talked about how they cured hams. They talked about how this place is just blown up in traffic. She came near tears. She came near tears. They bought that land for $1,000, it's now worth $600. They were making $1,000 a year at the time. Dollar and a quarter an hour he was making. Gaps pancakes for me. Squash, peanut butter, eggs, salt, cinnamon. Start having this as my special meal on Friday when the family has a special meal, and we'll make some of that peanut butter fluff for toppings. I think it'll feel like I'm cheating, and it's special because we did not Our acorn squash and butternut squash were not— it wasn't successful this year, so I don't need to be eating a lot of it. I'll buy it local, I'll be okay. We have plenty of meat and broth, so I'll just make soups. How'd it turn out?

It turned out good.

Oh, it looks super tender. What'd you put in there?

Just put in, uh, salt Salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves.

Just plain old pork roast. Supper about killed me, man. I'm full. How do you guys eat 3 meals a day? Okay, so they have a lot of food left. It's hard to figure out their grounds. You give them 5 pounds and they're parched. You give them 7, it's all left over. Let's check the tomato— the pumpkin. Well, Oh, crazy. It's— there it is. Okay, you guys want to go see Rebecca's sixth child, what she's been doing? We are so close, Rebecca. How does it feel to be so close?

I need to oil these tomorrow.

The trades are coming. HVAC came this week, electrician comes next week, and then it's the floor sanded and it's over. Do you have all the Furnishings almost off. Look at this beautiful colors back. Rebecca, you, you oiled all these, didn't you?

I did what?

You oiled them all? Yeah, I did. Good job. So it smells nice in here. It doesn't have that weird smell. Is that going to come back?

I don't think it is.

Or is it going to still smell good? It had a weird cabin smell. Yeah, and it wasn't a good cabin smell. It wasn't terrible terrible.

No, they've got the log cabin guys, so that's what a cabin 40 years ago smells like.

Wow, we got to get on the landscaping. Rebecca, you've done a good job on the cabin. Hey, happy day! You guys want to see the sun go down on chickens? Oh wait, don't leave, we've got to see how the chicken's pumpkin turned out. Looky there! I mean, it's a little messed up, but it's chicken art. Yeah. All right, happy day!