Chickens So Easy Your Grandma Can Do It

I am soaking my nuts per, uh, nourishing traditions to make them more digestible.

All right, how much water are you gonna put in over that?

I'll just put it over.

And how long are you gonna soak them?

Um, 7 to 10 hours.

You've got some list here. This is your day: making beef broth, soaking nuts, doing some things for Bree, your friend. And errands. Yeah, you're a busy woman today. I am. We're getting serious about the broths over here. Turkey, chicken, lamb, and I'm making beef. Grandma's here.

Yep.

What are you doing taking my chicken cages?

You're gonna get some egg-laying chickies back.

Yeah, we're gonna be babysitting what, 6?

7.

Oh, you just need one cage. Well, you got a goose, we could do one and a goose.

I love this bottle brush because it has bristles on all sides of it.

And yeah, you're gonna need to tell me, they're gonna want to know what kind of bottle brush that is. We've tried all kinds of brushes. We like Full Circle, but this brush was too big to get in the, in the little crevices of the wire. See? See how that fits? What's that? Is that a full circle brush too?

That's a bristle brush.

The only problem with this one, you don't have a hole in the top to come up with a hanger, so we're gonna have to drill. We have to make our custom hole there. Ain't no rats getting these guys.

No, they are certainly thirsty.

And they all lived.

Well, they were thirsty. We got— they're old enough, Jenna. We might have to get a 5-gallon water.

I'm gonna have to check them in the afternoon.

Yeah. I forgot to yesterday. And if you do a bigger waterer, you might not have to refill it in the afternoon. You know, when we transition, like to take these to go get these chickens, I like to get, you know, transition shots, driving shots. And I do it with this, and I walk and I set up the tripod. I come back, I drive, go back and pick up the tripod. But if you haven't noticed, I've got reactive arthritis, and it, it's, it's quite the chore to walk. It's quite painful. The drone. I could fly the drone from our vehicle and get driving shots and probably look better.

That one I caught.

They don't want to leave Grandma's.

No.

What you gonna do in this spot, Grandma? You're gonna, you're gonna plant a garden?

It'll be a garden.

You know, Grandma's been watching the show. She's had her chickens in one spot, but she's had them on deep bedding. She's got the wood chips down. Uh-oh.

This one's called Redneck because it has red on its neck.

I like it. And this one's That one's called Bruce because he's gonna catch it. This one got out, Bruce. 2. Good job, Grandma, doing deep bedding. And the cool thing is she can just come in here, rake some of this to the side, and plant plants right where— right where she wants them. And it's already fertilized, it's already tilled, it's already mulched.

Here, let me get out of the way. They'll all go back in.

Will they really?

Yeah.

What about the goose? Is she gonna go anywhere?

Yeah, well, she'll come with me or you.

Oh, here we go. He's got the broom. We can herd them into this net, Jonah, and then we can get them into the corner of a net. Here we go. Let's keep it from— uh-oh, what about Rosie? Do we need to catch her?

No, she's easy.

Okay, here, come on. Come on, Joseph. Oh good, Grandma's putting the net back up. They're smart, they're getting underneath. Here it is, Jonah. Okay, let's just focus on one. Which one you want to catch? Okay, the black one. Boy, I'm afraid I'm not too terribly good at this. Oh, so close. We're gonna get the Chickshaw out of here because they keep hiding underneath it. Take away their hiding space. This is as simple as it can be. This is one Premier Net, probably 100 feet long, 625 square feet, a dozen chickens, a light layering of wood chips, and you got a carbonaceous diaper for these guys. You're making compost, you're prepping a garden, whatever. All right, let's do the black one. Josiah caught one out in the wild. We can't catch one in the fence with two of us. Are you serious? 3 people. Grandma's my poster child right here. This is, this is maybe— how many wheelbarrow loads of wood chips is this?

Uh, 2.

That's 2. Okay. And how many birds you had? 6?

7.

She could probably get away with— if she was going to go the rest of the season, maybe 2 more. But 4 loads, 4 wheelbarrow loads of wood chips? Come on. And anybody can do this.

This is an 80-foot fence with a gate. Yeah, and the gate is really nice because it's easy and you don't even have to unplug it.

Yeah. Okay, if you can't get wood chips, you could get $50 worth of wood shavings at Tractor Supply and you have it. $50, a fence, an energizer, a coop, water. You don't even have to have a feeder, but you can have a feeder. Yeah, who scratched you?

Oh, one of the chickens. Goodness, that's the first time ever. But then again, I never try to catch them.

That's pretty heavy with 7 chickens. 7 times 6, almost 50 pounds. I'm soaked on top. Everybody else soaked?

Yeah.

Okay, I don't think there'll be any drone shots now. All right, see you. Have a fun vacation.

What's nice about Kubotas? They have window wipers. Yep, that is nice.

Nice. You got that?

Yep. Good deal.

Rooster claiming everybody really quick. Arun's smart, he got an umbrella. It's supposed to be whole week like this. Oh, we're gonna get wet. We needed it. I got Arun's umbrella. They're gonna go down and get the milk supplies. I'm gonna get Gideon. Kids are excited about things when they're new, and it, and it, and it does wear off, but once he goes, he ends up having a good time because he discovers something new. Come on, come on, G-dog, we're going. Mom's leaving, you can't be here. Come on, let's go in the rain. You can, you can hold the umbrella. Are you gonna leave that there till we get back? Set it down. Hold the umbrella. Two hands. There you go. Gotta keep the vloggers covered. He's going right over. Yesterday he was all over Phyllis. That was kind of weird. You know me, that's what— yeah, she was in heat. I don't know if that was a short cycle or what. Well, if she doesn't go into heat after just a couple of months, I like pillows. She graduates. You got the 3 O's. Those are the, the basis. That's the foundation for culling. Open, which means they're not coming in heat or they're not getting pregnant, they're not reproducing, whatever. Could be any animal. Onry, so ugly, mean. Uh, and old, which— come on, she's old, so she's got stripes. We want her to last until little Maple comes of age and has a calf, which is like 12 months plus 9, almost 2 years. Can you make it 2 years? I don't know, she's probably pushing 11.

How old is your sack? About 10 and 11.

She's done a good job. She's lived a long, productive life. Although we love our animals, we love and we give them the best life and they have a wonderful existence, this isn't a petting zoo. This is a homestead, an inefficient one at that. So we have to think about these things. Do you want me to swat flies while you guys milk? They've probably milked 2 gallons from her. She's starting to really drop it down. We want to hang on to you, girl. You're a high producer. That's just two teats. We got the calf on to bring it, bring it down more. She's known for holding it back. Yeah, can you get him off? Has he gotten it down yet? Yes. Cool, that's smart. Your calf's right there, honey. She dropped it down the room. Yeah, but yeah, a little bit, not too much. That's the cream too, man. This is Phyllis from this morning, 2 gallons. Plus, show them that one over there, Johnna. I'm filming on my phone. Gotta go to the dentist. Not gonna take Bazooka Jerry. That's too big of a rig for the dentist, don't you think?

Yeah.

And now, kisses all around. You're not going with me, buddy.

You have to stay here.

Becky's seen me walk around like an 80s 6-year-old man again. She said, boy, pain medicine was really working. It was. But the pain medicine doesn't fix the problem, it just masks it. So if pain is our friend and it's there to slow us down, why do I keep going? Well, my right wrist is atrophied from lack of use because the wrist was so bad. I mean, it's getting better, but Because the rest of my body may be real bad in my feet right now, but the rest of my body needs to stay well, which means I need to stay moving. We're at a stoplight. Gideon came with me. Every day is bring your kid to work day. I don't care if I'm on the farm or going to the dentist. But I see you have an apple. Is that like your third apple, bro?

It's my three—

that's your third apple today. You know, you are what you eat. You're gonna become an apple. Really? Yep. Slowly and surely we're getting in there. Just a routine teeth cleaning, thankfully. Thankfully no big dramas. Hopefully no new problems. Hey, Kaden, why did you come? Did you come for a toy?

I think I just wanted to come with you.

Oh, that's sweet. Thank you. The good news is, is there's no Well, there's no bad news, no new drama in my life. It's a good cleaning, nothing else going downhill. I'm back and our trainer is here. He's got me doing some— our kettlebell trainer is also, uh, has some joint stuff, so low impact, high repetition joint movements. I think it helps me before I stand up. To do that in my ankles, it helps. How's she doing, Jacob? Incredible. Look at that view though. Wait, you can't see it.

There it is.

Champ. Mom has roasted the beef bones. It's a little tastier broth. Henry just woke up, so she's going to get him, but We'll see what that's about. These broths are cooking. Oh, oh boy, she's got some leaking out the back. That's probably not supposed to happen. This is my lamb broth. Put a little chicken feet in it just for some gelatin. I wonder if it's done. That's why she took it off. Hey, did you sleep good? You took a monster nap. Feeling better?

Oh, I feel so good.

Mom, there is some juice coming out the back. Oh boy. So are you making broth in this?

I am.

Beauty says my lamb broth is done. I can't think of a happier ending. While she gets that ready, we're gonna sift it. If you guys want to see that, the launch of Jessica and Jeremiah Roots and Refuge show Wilder Steel has been absolutely crazy, hasn't it? Yeah, we're network now, babe.

I hope that I look okay.

Yeah, you look, you look great. We have our TV show. We have now another— there's two legitimate full-on, uh, Netflix-approved cameras, all that stuff. Look at this, we got chicken, a little bit of chicken, mostly lambs, lamb loins from Esquelito. Jess and Jeremiah have some mega fans. I want to welcome all those people who might have found out about us through them. You kind and wonderful people. We just had a great sale, great launch. Abundance Plus has doubled in just 2 months. It's crazy. From launch, from our member area to go into Abundance Plus, doubled. Some people though, here's the problem. Some people have said, oh, I missed the free viewing. I missed the free viewing weekend of, of while they're still, or I can't afford this. Or I'd kind of like to sample it, you know, uh, before I buy it. So I got a solution for you. We've got a free trial going on right now, 7 days. Get in there. Thank you. Did you already— yeah, you strained it. You can get in there, and if you can't afford it, just consume it all. It's on me, guys. Consume it all. We make it easy to cancel. We even email you and remind you that your 7 days is coming up. Cancel. If you really can't, just get in there and consume it all. I mean, you can't consume it all in 7 days, but you can try. If you missed Wilder Steel, watch it. Watch our show Rooted. We've got 6 episodes up there already. Yeah, um, and there's so much more there, guys. This is my call for you to go check it out. There's inspirational content, educational content. I'll just encourage you to get on there. Now I gotta taste this broth. So free trial at Abundance Plus. Thegrovesteps.com right now.

Oh, is that hot?

So good. Wow, I'm a fan of lamb broth.

Lamb slash chicken broth.

And I was tempted just to throw it out, give it to the pigs.

Not that—

I know, the big homestead stand.

The bones, the bones, not the—

and I said, well, why don't we just make a small broth? Yeah, and that's much more manageable to me. That intimidates me, Rebecca. And it seems like we never drink it all before it goes bad. Well, and it's kind of a pain to freeze it.

I've got plans for it.

And so we always have plans for all these little batches of those. And can— so can I make a half a gallon at a time with— we basically pretty much have a little broth pot going all the time. What are you up to, Mr. Henry? It's okay, it really is. It's okay. You got that watermelon. Shove it in. Shove it in, buddy.