Dealing with Burn Out

I burned out. Between this house remodel that turned into a house rebuild and Jonah's dirt bike accident, which pretty much debilitated him for a year and took Rebecca off of a lot of her duties for care, we burn out. We all burn out. Oh, and the fact that we moved from our precious home across the street— don't get me wrong, we're very blessed to have it. Oh my gosh, we're blessed. I think subconsciously, subconsciously, it felt like a step back. And it was compared to our precious home. Really, looking back, what happened is we encountered these things, these extra things, major things, but we didn't slow down anything else— the farm, family, business, nothing. Hindsight seems obvious, but adding two major things without subtracting anything— recipe for burnout. So today in this vlog, as we go about our day, I'm going to talk about how we got got through that. And we're also planting garlic, hopefully in enough time before this rain comes. The fast did me good. I've been in my range ever since. You know what hasn't done me any good? The Lumen. Well, it started good. And it gave me— it showed me that I needed to eat more fats and basically half my diet in fats. It was a good carb calculator, but it won't let me in now. I tried the code they sent me. It's bummed. It says it's already in use. Plus, I didn't realize it was a monthly expense. I canceled that as quickly as I could. What? My Lumen. Now, how to return the device? I'm probably screwed.

I have my list for the stuff I need in the barn.

Oh boy.

I need a tack. Which is only like 59.

That's a big list. Only 59 things?

No, I don't know how many things. Okay, I'll do tack. Saddle, bridle, pony pad, 'cause it's a pony. Show saddle pad, home saddle pad, that's for riding at home. Crop. Bit, reins, girth, stirrup, show coat, 'cause I need a show coat. We might as well get it while we're there. Saddle cover, that's to cover the saddle. Uh-uh, and at the barn we have horse feed, 2 big buckets, 1 little bucket. The 1 little bucket is for the tack room. Extra halter, that's gonna go in the tack room 'cause it's my extra halter. Horse blanket, that's gonna go in my tack room. Saddle stand, that's gonna go in my tack room. Saddle scrubbers, saddle conditioner, that's gonna go in my tack room. That's gonna go in my horse's stall.

That's not even feeding minerals.

Fresh shed.

What are we getting ourselves into? We have spotted a possible horse.

If someone doesn't buy her today— him today— we'll get her. I mean him.

Yeah, somebody's in front of us. Are you cozy? An electric blanket. Gonna be hard to get out of, buddy. Let's go to this chilly morning. Come on. How can you have one but not the other? I don't know. Find it?

Nope.

Just wear your yellow boots.

I don't want to wear my yellow boots.

Sorry, Mr. Brown, we literally do not have time for this. We've got 1 hour till we need to transition to leave. Just wear your yellow boots. We got to get the minerals done. I don't want to wear my other boots. Just wear your yellow boots and hopefully we'll see them along the way. We literally only have 1 hour to check on chores, get the mineral— it's Mineral Monday. Let me show you something before we do those minerals this morning. The garlic's definitely going to have to wait for after our Cairo. Can you turn on the lights, Gideon? Wait for it, wait for it. Ta-da! No, we had a community meeting in here with Joel Salatin himself. Q&A. Ask Him Anything. Ben Holler asked him, how do you prevent burnout? And Joe said— not what I thought he said—

make sure you—

this is what I thought, you know, make sure you get enough sleep, uh, don't do too much, um, make sure you take a day of rest, make sure you have fun on the farm. It's not what he said. Look what he said.

I think how you prevent burnout is to have a vision big enough. The problem is most people don't have a big enough vision, and, uh, you know, uh, And so our mission statement is to develop economically, ecologically, and emotionally enhancing agricultural prototypes and facilitate their duplication throughout the world. So that's our mission statement. That's a, that's a, that's a big vision. That's a big mission.

All right.

And so I think if you're, if your vision is, is is precise, measurable, and doable— of course, there's people who say if your vision can be done in your lifetime, it's not big enough. But the point is that if it's noble and sacred and righteous enough, it will propel you forward to accomplish that vision.

Leave it to Joel to answer so profoundly, so deep, and so at the core of burnout and the solution. Oh boy, it's raining. I was hoping to plant before we— it rains, but I'm not going to complain. We're in a major drought.

Let's see if you can lift me up.

Oh, this— I think it works. This would break before that would happen. It's particle board, isn't that tough? Hey, where's their sheep shawl? Oh my gosh, way over there.

Side by side.

I think it'd just be easier to walk. Papa, rain's holding off, which I want it to. It'd be great to get that garlic in the ground because it could use the rain too. Lily, can you take a break from setting up for your horse and, uh, Do— deal with the milk. Can you carry this? Sure. Thank you.

Henry wants you to come home.

Oh boy, can you give me one second? Let me do the sheep minerals and I can come get him. Hey, give me some kelp and hay, okay? Sam, Josiah, bring the sheep jaw. On a side note, somehow our pathway project is a success and is growing grass despite having any rain. Are you going to show me your setup so far? Salt block ready, hay ready, shavings ready for the bedding. Look at this.

And I have my pitchfork ready and a nail to hang my halter on.

Don't mind the no siding, that's coming soon.

And then I have my mulch. I have this pile for the horse can spread out its own bed.

All right.

I have this hay rack, feed bucket, and water.

Nice.

I'm gonna buy 2 extra halters. I mean, lead ropes. I'm gonna carry one here, and then I'm gonna carry the other one to here. And then I can tie my horse up like this. Nice. And then it'll be like the place where we get horses.

The issue with the horse is it has some sort of health thing that needs treated every year. Something about the hocks. So anyway, we have to get a vet out there to do an x-ray. Before we buy this thing. So it's kind of not so sure. Y'all ready? You got town shoes? Come on, Henry, let's get in! Some minerals for a little local co-op we're doing. Dropping that off at the neighbors. We save when we order in bulk. There are 3-ish ways I got out of my recent burnout. 2 of them related to what Joe was talking about with vision, but one just simply being time and this guy growing up, getting a treatment, and getting better. You feel better? Yeah. 100%?

Yeah.

You look and act 100%. Mm-hmm. You all right? Did you check out okay? Yeah. She say you're back to normal? Yeah. Just in time to beat this rain. Hey, HVAC is here! Homestead house remodel continues. All right, they're gonna get to in at least today and We're gonna check them out. That's my job, check them out, make sure they're on the right track. That's it. That's easy. What did you get?

I got a hoof pick and a hair— a horse hair comb, a soft brush, and a curry comb, and a hard brush.

Nice. This looks like it could be a human brush.

Yeah, but it's for horses.

Rebecca has located a vet that's willing to do it today or tomorrow.

No, not tomorrow, today.

Oh, because they probably take tomorrow off.

And if they can't— and if they can't—

I know tomorrow's the day before Thanksgiving.

3 days this week is the problem because of the holiday.

Yep.

So this is— it's just like such a nightmare. I've messaged the lady and said, can they take the horse to the vet? The vet can then do it today. PPE.

Today's the last day. Yeah, or it's Wednesday or Thursday, but the owner has to be willing to do it. Yeah, and the people in front of us have to pass. I know, we'll see. I know, we'll see.

I feel like there's so many moving parts that have to make it work.

Look at that!

Who's eating that?

It's the day!

Is it for me?

Oh, just for you. I've been ready for this. I've been ready, been building up for it. Chicken Parmesan never tastes so good. I don't even need the noodles. My grader, the thing makes it easy to plant in a nice straight grid and at the spacing we need it. How hard was it to break up the garlic? Pretty easy. Do it, Jonah. Let's push— press down while you do it if it's not marking well. Like, the rain is holding off. We want to get this in before it's supposed to rain tonight and and all day tomorrow. Should be good for it. Can you see the marks?

No, it's just lumpy soil.

We have a problem. That grader's not gridding it. It doesn't matter so much because you've got to point that head at that, that end up— you got to do 4 across at every like grid, so you got to try to see the grid. That's a big one. Holy smokes, that's huge! That's a huge clove. Sure, time passed He got better, things got a little bit easier. But, uh, you know what really got— began to get us out of this just feeling blue, just down, just unmotivated, just feeling tired, just feeling, uh, and just bored, uh, was a new vision just very recently. Where'd we leave off here? I'm working on it right here. Put it in about, I don't know, a few inches. We had found out that much of the produce that is in the grocery store has lost 85% of its nutrients. Where can I go? Right there. Is that— is that marking the spot?

That one needs to be done.

Okay, good. That was smart. The reason we're growing food is primarily for our health, number one. When we learned that about the grocery store Rebecca kind of had this whim. She kind of starts a lot of these crazy ideas that we've done. Let's quit the grocery store. Open the overalls, y'all. You just, uh, went to the co-op, which is a step above the grocery store. Keep going. Oh, I don't know where I'm walking. Let's work and talk. So besides Whole Foods, which we totally just basically quit, what motivated you to quit the grocery store?

Well, Apeel took—

Oh, I forgot about the Apeel. You took the what?

Appeal to take me over the edge, I guess.

A-P-E-E-L.

Correct.

And Whole Foods isn't being forthright about it. The co-op does not put appeal on the produce.

They don't buy any produce with appeal on it. There's also though just the fact that growing what we can eat, seeing more connected to it— like getting at the grocery store, right? Like buying like bunching onions, right? I bought bunching onions. We didn't grow bunching onions this this year. Normally I buy them and they would still be in the garden fine because they just are great. So next year we'll have that, and I might try my hand at celery. I didn't really like when I grew celery last time, it was very strong, but maybe it's just the wrong variety that I grew. But then I'll, you know, preserve that and freeze it. So like, I'm just thinking of the things that I'm making for Thanksgiving. Like, I could make— I could do corn to make cornmeal. To make our own cornmeal.

I think we need to focus on the 80/20. Yeah, which is the 80% of our results from 20% of the effort.

Our dairy. Oh God, um, I mean, but I did— like, I bought cheese. Like, I was thinking about that. I'm not gonna— I, I'm not gonna be able to make Parmesan cheese. I'm not gonna make Parmesan cheese, so I'm gonna have to continue to buy that at the store. And I feel good about buying it at the co-op because the co-op is like local, or like Sure, the Parmesan cheese was not made in our county, but it's, it's supporting our local business. Like, I have a friend that works at the, at the co-op, and like, I got to talk to her today.

Somehow stumbled into this new philosophy of grow, eat, but then eat what we grow. The second part is key. Make sure we make use of it, process it, store it, uh, put it on the menu. Eat the leftovers. We're gonna give garlic powder a go on this.

Yeah, I want to try to do onion and garlic powder this year.

She's gonna need to get a freeze dryer for that. We're gonna have to get Zone Zero under control. We're gonna have to get back in the house. Hey, that was actually a first. We didn't buy garlic seed. Look at all that garlic. Yeah, we better learn how to make powder in order to be able to use all that. So I'm gonna start putting garlic in my eggs. I love garlic in the eggs, cutting it up and chopping it and putting so many things. It's so medicinal and good for the gut. We grew it, now let's eat it. Unsprayed hay. Yeah, yeah, you have to do it thick. It just gives us a renewed focus and a renewed energy, a tangible goal. Like, next season, how much from the farm can we live? How do we preserve this thing?

Well, I was supposed to have done this a really long time ago.

While the stems were still nimble?

No, not necessarily, just maybe like a little less dusty.

How many are we getting?

I'm just gonna get a bunch and then go sit over on the concrete and see what happens.

First project in the garden kitchen.

I normally tie this, but I don't have any string down here. Other thing that I saw was I know where some string is. A piece of wire, and you clip this off, and you just have the wire, and you put these on it.

Oh, I like that. Like a metal wire? Yeah, that's a sturdy wire, and that's not going through.

How did they do it? It was not this sturdy of a wire.

I mean, we could drill a pilot hole. Maybe they did it through the side.

Like, I wonder maybe if it wasn't hard enough garlic.

So that one was fine. Yeah, do you hear the news?

No, kind of.

Yeah, the, the owner is going to take it to the vet right now.

Right now?

Yeah, we got to get x-rays of the hocks and an overall health test before we go 4 hours looking at a horse today. Maybe she's wanting to sound— she's pretty confident in her horse. That sounds, that sounds promising. It's working out great. I'm able to do it.

3:30 is when the vet can see him.

Oh, I got an idea. What? It's hard to poke it through this hard neck. I got a drill. This drill bit might be too big, but it's too big. I got a smaller drill bit. There, that works nice. It's as big as an apple. Did you hear the news, Ellie? Yeah, the person who was looking at this horse before horse passed, so we're next in line for a Wednesday vet check. No, today's Monday. That's right, she's given us priority. It'll be a Wednesday vet check and Thanksgiving, and then we'll go Friday if— and get this horse if it doesn't have destroyed hocks.

Then on Sunday, we will—

me and Mom will go shopping for We'll see about that because that's another 4 hours away.

No, Mama says she's gonna buy it from a local horse store.

Oh, okay.

And she's gonna buy a used saddle and bridle.

Okay, all right.

And girth and saddle pads and knee pads and stirrups and bits and reins.

It's a big list. How much money you got saved?

Um, about $1,000.

Oh, that's a lot. Probably not nearly enough.

It might be enough for the tack.

First project done in the garden kitchen. That was fun. Chill out here, makes the farm beautiful. 4 of these things. Can y'all see that? Okay, one of them's really tall. That's a lot of garlic. Speaking of growing our own food, 2 pigs, 3 lamb. Let's find a spot for it.

Dawn, you want some ham?

I do. Oat tree freezer. Turkey, chicken. We do only poultry in these chest freezers because then you know, hunting and trying to find things, it's all the same. Good looking turkey right there. We already laid ours out. Oh, look at that fatty bacon! That looks like real bacon. It is real bacon. I got you some bacon and sausages to Doctor said you need more meat in your breakfast. Becca made spaghetti. I mean, we made it once, it's lasted multiple times. I'm not eating that, I'm eating this pork rinds, and it's delicious in it. You want a full review? One more point to the whole thing I've been talking about, and that's, uh, one thing that helped me through it. Oh, hold on. Joel Salatin's new book Home— can you see that, or are we dark? We're probably dark. Oh, we're so dark. Joel Salatin's new book, Homestead Tsunami. Y'all, we're gonna face this in just one second. We are, um— hey boys, keep it down. We're selling this book. We have it available, link down in the description. Chock full of underlines, corners, a fun, easy read, and it goes to the why of homesteading. So if you're on the fence, do I get into homesteading? It's going to help for that. If you've been homesteading a while and just going through the fall burnout stage, this helps. It helped me. Are you going to be able to pick this up? Putting this back on the shelf. You want to get it through us, we got all kinds of bonuses. I want you to check that out. But one in particular, we're going to give you enough time to read this, order it by the end of the month and you're in. And then we're gonna have a book club meeting with Joel Salatin himself. 2 hours. We're going to talk about this book. You can bring your questions. Nobody else is offering that, just us. I've got that for you guys, link down in the description. This is surprising to you? It was surprising to me at first how versatile pork rinds can be. They're loud. I don't even need the noodles.

I should say, can you stop chewing so loudly?

Oh, I know, she's a bit of a chewer with her gum.

You're funny.