Farm Work With My Daughter

Right outside the window, Almanzo toying with a mouse. We haven't had any problem with mice ever since the cats came.

Mom, Pop, listen!

It's like it's toying with him.

I know, it's like the mouse is almost playing with him.

The mouse is probably about to be fresh for a bite.

Hey, good morning, Lily.

What's wrong?

What's up? What you doing?

Trying to get the water out of the—

oh, okay. Actually, hand me that.

It's so frozen, we're gonna have to thaw it out. Did you open up your chicken?

Yeah.

I put that water by the furnace room so it'll thaw out, and it'll be the one we use tomorrow when the one we use today is frozen.

You can pop off the rooster's head.

Okay, it's bleeding.

They're enjoying their water.

That's good.

Yeah, look. What happened to you? Well, there's another rooster. Did they? Yeah, we didn't cull all our roosters, y'all. Look, how's your penguin doing, Lily?

Really good.

Is she? And she's still moving.

That's good.

We got them in, calf separated. Let's, uh, move the luchadors real quick. Doing a little better today. Hair over a gallon first round.

Hey, yeehaw! All right, the cow!

Oh, we just had breakfast. I'm working on the edit, I hope.

And the cat, uh, uh, packed him out and playing.

Keep clothes on him, whatever he said. Oh, he talked about the cat getting the mouse. And look at this cloudy day, this is awesome for filming. I hope to hurry up with my edit and get some more permaculture pigs filmed Almost got 2, 3 more chapters. All right, Josiah, Mom's gonna take you to meet with my mom for your birthday, which just happens to be Saturday. So you're gonna celebrate it with her now. What are y'all gonna do?

Uh, go to the toy store.

Okay, you gonna get anything?

I don't know.

Okay, we gotta have a vision, bro.

Okay, I don't know, I don't know what's there.

Let's turn on the heat for Mom.

Me either.

All right, load Mom with the returns, please.

You help me.

No, I got— I gotta edit. You can do that. Try to delegate things they can do. They can't really edit, but they can load packages. You can't wear duds to town.

Okay, but will there be a car?

You can't be a hillbilly farm boy. People wear— people wear shoes and jackets in town. Gideon, do you have a town sweater? That will not work. That's a thin rain jacket, windbreaker at best. Doesn't this have like a fleece?

I don't know where it's at. It might be in this.

You see your mom? Big coat. None of y'all gonna wear a big coat? No, I don't have it.

I don't have a nice thick coat.

Oh yes you do. Everybody has a nice one.

Okay, I don't need one.

Okay, where's the little camera, Gideon? You ran off with it. You got it?

It's right here.

Okay, Mom, there's your camera. Will you put it in your purse?

People love you.

I'm saying it on mine, so you'll be sure to vlog. Her shirt beat out, guys. If it was— if it was Pigs for Everyone versus Homestead Mom, you beat me out. She sold more shirts.

I know what my people want.

And that only—

and that only applies to, uh, you know, the honest truth is the reason I made that shirt is because I wanted it.

Well, people want what you want, I guess.

Well, it resonated with other people.

It did. You homestead mamas, bless you guys. Bless you, homestead mamas, letting your kids watch the show, watching the show. We just got a picture in the member area, 2-year-old, a 2-year-old watching the shows. Thank you, homestead mama, for, for, uh, putting the kids on the program. You staying with— yeah, I'm gonna be editing some, but I bet what Rebecca's doing in town is more interesting.

Josiah, what'd you get?

Yes.

Police set from your granny. How nice. And then we went and bought a ton of socks for Justin. A ton? A ton.

Like, a million.

So I also got a pair of leather work gloves there. And I got a pair for Justin too because this winter ain't no joke if it's already this cold in November. So, gotta protect those hands while we work.

Which, by the way, I went on Amazon. I'm looking at this edit and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, uh, keeping Boots's gas cans, my dad's gas cans. They're terrible. Ordered some stuff. I hope it fits. All right, so I got done editing. It's just you and I. Mom's still gone with the boys. We're gonna do chores together.

Yeah.

Lily came and got me, and Stud Muffin was out in the yard. And now look, he's down there, Lily. That's actually perfect because they're going into Violet's pasture today. So they actually did all the work for me. You might as well just walk right in to the gate. There's Flossie over there with our chicken garden posse. Okay. Shall we get him up, Lily? Yeah, should be pretty easy. Watch. Is he gonna go? No. I need some chalk for my permaculture pigs lesson, um, so Rebecca's getting some. We're gonna do chores early, and if she gets here in enough time before supper, we'll do that lesson. I would have came out here and you guys would be in the stanchion. Lily is going to a play tonight, so Niece Faith, I guess it's your cousin, in a play and you're telling me all about it.

So the first king was good and the queen was good and that— and, uh, and the prince and the princess.

Tell me.

So that's it.

I've got a gate up here to keep the cows from going back there. We have this gate to keep them coming out and now they can, they can get right into there Let's get him. Oh, I hope she doesn't go right. Okay, good.

Come on, come on.

All right, they're in there. Let's see if our new tree cage holds up against stud muffin, protects Papaw's tree. You think it will? Yeah, okay, I think so. So the vision here is to put— this is a really, you know, in the fall, just really beautiful maple, bright red leafage. That's in honor of my dad. But we have one paddock here that they can backtrack to for shade. We'll do one there, 1, 2, 3, so 4, 4 on each side. These grow up to be about 50 feet. That's about 40, I would say. That might be 45, 40-ish. So imagine, and about that, that's about how wide it'll be. That'll be beautiful. So can you guys see it? We'll come out here to these lanes, there'll be beautiful trees on either side. It's going to be amazing. Lily, you're going to inherit a beautiful place. I might not even get to enjoy that. But yeah, now wait, are you, are you excited about that?

No.

Okay, you're just at grips with that. You're so connected, aren't you? How are you so connected to life and death?

I don't know.

Huh?

I don't know.

How do you know all about that?

Uh, from Grandma. Grandma and me.

I think it's from growing up on a farm and seeing life and death. That's what I think. Do you think it could be from growing up on a farm and seeing life and death?

Yeah, very— when Cooper died.

Yeah, Cooper died. That was our goose. Look at these guys mowing, pooping. Let's move them.

3.

Lily, your, your ice skating rink didn't freeze completely. Freeze up. You got some ice. You testing it? No. If it stays cold, it'll do it. Don't poke holes in the tarp. You know what, Lily, we should, uh, since Phyllis is— and that's a crazy lady— since Phyllis is right there with Moose. Let's put him up. Let's put him up in the stall. What are you doing?

Yeah, didn't grab.

Cool, nice. Let's put these lines up. Okay, you put those up, I'll connect them up here.

Why are we putting them right here?

Moose is gonna get under that, so we sit out like this. She's eating plenty. Look at her belly. This makes me happy. Hopefully she's pregnant, guys. There, you're blocking them. Thank you. Where's he going? Let's get her up there. So he went with the other cows. Well, we're gonna have to herd him, honey. We thought he was gonna go under this. He went under that. Why is he not going?

Huh, huh, huh, huh.

Near impossible to herd this calf in this huge pasture. We're probably gonna have to get every cow in. See, now they're going, he's gonna go. Problem is now Fossil wanted to get in that stanchion, and she might kill Phyllis to do that. Let's cut her off. Hey, hey! Oh, it's the wrong way. Lily, can you chase him back? Bring him. You're doing good. Keep him coming. Perfect, Lily. Good job. You're gonna get him some alfalfa. You give him a flake of hay. Yeah, he goes normally with the sheep, but since they were all right here, as difficult as that ended up being, it would have been harder to get him into the sheep since they're way over there. Okay, I'm gonna get her out. Okay.

Okay, give this to them.

It's nice to be able to work with Lily alone. This is disgusting. We need a hose from right there to there. That one goes way out into the field. Have this white hose. Every day in every way we're getting better. We have these systems so streamlined before it's over. Rebecca's back on time and I'm not done nearly on time. We lack 3 feet here, guys. Shame to use this 25 feet to gain 3 feet. I wonder if the boys will go move the sheep. It's an easy sheep move.

Hey, Mr. Brown! No.

Hey, beautiful one!

I bought, um, a new pair of gloves.

Yay! I'm gonna do the bits while you guys do— go do the sheep.

Okay, nice.

Will you guys vlog it?

Just want to get it done. You can put time-lapse on it.

Oh good, you got her a sleep mask. It says do not disturb. Yeah, because she likes it dark, buddy.

She gets upset when everyone turns the light off.

Take her on vacation. Sleeps in, likes it dark. Got my notes, got my chalkboard, got my camera set up, cutting my classic background. Let's probably shut these. Might look a little better. And then let's leave that one open. Let's shut this one. That one's got bear in it. Why do I call him bear? Moose. Set you guys there for just Maybe the opening shot here. Pigs are amazing gardeners, even better than chickens. Guys, I just wrapped it up. I actually did 3 lessons. One on health, the 3 things I do to keep pigs healthy. What else we talk about? Oh, we talked about electric fencing systems, mainly in a forest but could be applied to a pasture. And then in the beginning there, you saw me talking about how to set up pigs to use them in the garden. So some golden information, not really long videos, but straight to the point and get a lot out of it in short amount of time. It's in Permaculture Pigs. I mean, it will— yeah, there'll probably be some there. I don't know if I'll get them all 3 done tonight, but it's in Permaculture Pigs, guys. You can get that. It's, it's available now, guys. That's in digital format. And, uh, it's there, it's there. Link in the description. Pigs for everyone.

We're done moving the sheep now. We've picked up all the nets, so tomorrow Papa just has to come get them and we'll go set them up down at the other paddock, which is a big move.

They're dressing up for the play.

Should I wear the black or the brown? I like the black. Should I wear black?

I like the black.

No, looks good.

And you guys look sharp. Yeah.

Oh, I like Lily's socks.

Lily just did a spin for us.

Can you fix the bottom of her dress that we just bought?

Lily is very excited about this event. Are y'all going?

We are.

We're gonna have fun. Good.

Let's go.

Okay, bye-bye, pretty ladies. Lily, you're not even gonna give me a hug and a kiss? Look at this. I'm sad I'm not going now. How was the play, Lily?

Great people die!

How was the play, Becky?

Like 6 people died.

It was good.

Even my mom.

Okay, you're not a play person?

I like short plays.

That was really funny.

Lily loved it. Are you a cultured little lady?

Yeah, I just need the chocolate she swiped all over her dress.

Oh boy.