Finally, a Chicken Fence No One Can Escape

There's 2 chicks right there, guys. Out. Hey, how are we gonna fix this? We're out at night. We're gonna consolidate our flocks from 3 to 2. Josiah's got one. We've already put the chicken tractor in here and Lily's posse, and interesting enough that all the chicks went to it. Well, except for these rogue, rogue ones. Feel that crop. Yeah, that's good. And all right, so hopefully those other ones will get in there. I'm pretty sure they will. And we're gonna bring some chickens and let's put them in the chick shell there. This is our breakfast posse. I think basically half and half. We're gonna split them up. There you go, buddy. Hi. Well, We managed to get them all in one. Caught it. Lucky me, this guy scared it out from underneath the coop and I was able to get it. I got them in there, no, no problem. Nobody jumped out. That's good. We're out here at the pasture posse. It's a loaded wagon, buddy. All right, let's get the other ones down to Lily's posse. So here we are putting the chickens in this group. That was last night where we had a big, big switch. Big switch. We now only have 2 passes of chicken. How'd you guys do in there last night? Everybody happy? Everybody looks happy. What about in here? Any cage fighting?

We got a little fighting.

We got a little bit of pecking order to go go through. Two hands, not too much to worry about. It's over, she submits. It's over, let's go eat. Oh, there's another fight. That's over as soon as it began. That's pretty normal that they pick on each other the first day. It's one reason we introduce them at night. This is a little less— yeah, see that, that white one there must have been the boss and they're trying— you hear that pecking order? Have you ever heard of that? They're trying to figure out the pecking order, like who's, who's in charge. And it's different now that there's a whole new posse in there. There's no fighting in there, wrestling around. It's interesting. Once you cut them out though They, they figure each other out. That's one reason again to put them up at night. Already? Where are you guys getting out? Well, that's gonna have to be my project. We got to keep these chicks in because we got to keep them safe. I wanted to work on water line, but that's more important. Somebody could die. We have them in fences to keep them safe. That's right, buddy. Lily, you want to help me get milk in? Okay, looks like Jonah and Josiah got this. You're doing it, good job!

I always do this.

Good job.

But this isn't the heaviest load yet.

This is the extra from one cow. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7— 7 and a quarter. We're gonna cream separate today, but we'll also get 2 more gallons Fresh, but we'll want to yogurt some of that. We'll turn yogurt into the 2 gallons we harvest today. Let's keep 5— 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for cream separating. You work by 5, so it's like 5-gallon pots. We'll save this for drinking because we're all in the mood to drink a little more milk right now. A little after 7:30, we got 8:30 to milking. I'm thinking I— the boys are on the chores. Let's see see if we can't fix this chick situation. I'm thinking they're getting out underneath, and I need to do this anyway for long-term predator pressure. Is— I'm thinking let's dig and attach wire, bury wire down through there so chicks and predators can't get in. Anybody else out? I hope they didn't get got. This gate is a problem because it has to swing in to bring in mulch. Sure, we only need to use it once, maybe twice the year, but it really makes a big, big difference when you can dump your wood chips in here. But I'm thinking we could just more secure these temporary boards because right now they're just sitting there. And given that we only use it once or twice a year, it could be more secure, maybe screwing it in. It's hard to bury line in there though. Oh no, maybe we could make it to where No, you can't make it permanent because then the doors can't open. This is pretty solid. I don't think anybody's going to dig out of that anytime soon. And for some reason they're not down here either. This is downhill, so I guess all the wood chips are going this way. There's some scrap. Nice yellow matic. We've been last on the job covering our little fence wire. So the actual skill and process of homesteading is being good at finding all the things. Dad's ran off with them. Or better yet, being good at putting away all the things and somehow getting your kids to do the same. This is not as good of one, but we'll do it. I'm running out of time. I feel like I'm getting bare. What do you guys think? No shovels? Come on, I have 3 shovels. Serious? This is the shovel I can find? Really? This is the one they didn't lose?

2 little chickens are out.

I'm on it, bro. Let's fix that right now. If you can find out where they're getting out, that would help some.

I saw it.

Let's cut this roll in half. All right, we got one, Mr.

Brown, and then we got another.

Yep, I think it's gonna go fast now. So we'll, we'll put it in there, see how much we need, and then dig. I have 2 strips only getting those about there. We need— I don't know, we're 2/3 of the way there to get to the gate at least. I think that should be my goal, get to the gate and then do the gate. I've got 30 minutes, we're gonna have to hustle. Let's, uh, cut this up because we probably need one more big piece. You got you some wild grapes. Those are not ready yet though, buddy. Those are gonna be purple when they're done. Yeah, they look like green grapes, don't they? But they're actually purple. They'll be purple. All right, we got 15 minutes left. Boy, I'm pushing it. We've got us a trench, I don't know, 8-10 inches deep. And my idea is this: we're going to take this wire, attach it to the bottom frame, and then bury, bury the wire. I think that's going to work splendid. This is turning into quite the fortress, but it's like passive income. You work hard now and reap the benefits later. That's what I'm doing here. We'll have this good for years. I like 2 feet there. Probably got less than 10 minutes, 5 minutes. Shoot, Gideon! Gideon's ran off with my— right in front of my eyes, has ran off with the tin snips for cutting this wire. Gideon, just get in here, Mom. I could have just finished on time. Gideon! If I were a 5-year-old, where would I put these things? 6-year-old, if I were 6. He was cutting the grapes. I don't know. All right, finally got the boys. They're way up in the woods. They're coming down. I gotta bring the cows down anyway. All right, let's start burying this. And hopefully getting on over those tin snips are— all right, Jonah found them just in time. They were on the steps. That would have taken me a while, probably. All right, we just gotta get this one area covered and then rig this gate somehow. All right, there it is. That looks good. You guys aren't gonna break through that. And this— I made a mistake. These gates swing out, which is a good thing. That means I can make this bar a little more permanent. Pretty sure they might still be able to— small enough to jump up through there. So we might actually do two-layer, bury this a little more, or maybe bury wire here and just not have to remove that. The truck can just come and dump over that. I think that'll work. So that's our— so hopefully I've shimmed it. Maybe they'll get out today, we'll see. But we'll just have to keep working on this later. It's time to milk. How am I doing, Beck?

Great, thanks.

Okay, I didn't know you were supposed to be doing—

I thought I was supposed to hurry up and be in here by 8:30. It's 8:45.

No, because I'm gonna make, um—

yeah, you're not counting on mine. You're gonna make yogurt on mine. Okay, so we had some clot in our milk yesterday. In our filter. And Rebecca's just expecting maybe— so it's asthma or flossy asthma status. And it could be because we weaned the calf, and that's always a possibility. So let's just test. If you're not testing, you're guessing. Let's try it. If it clocks up like snot, then we got mastitis. If it absorbs pretty fast, then we're good. I doubt it absorbed.

I guess he has it.

It absorbed really fast, so she does not have it. That was nice of you. Might do it a little further away. I don't want to get in the habit of knowing where that's coming from. Will you take the, uh, take it over there to that table, Lily, if you don't mind? Thank you. How's it going in here?

It's going great. I may be done with the cleanup.

Not that. Wow.

Okay, well, I'm, uh, let's see. I washed the— I washed the cream separator. Cream's in the fridge. We got a whole quart over a quart. Um, that's drying, that's drying. Yeah, I'm just waiting for this to empty. I'm gonna make ice cream for Fourth of July for us to enjoy.

This is the milk we harvested today. Just put, I don't know, a couple tablespoons of yogurt in it. We've put it in darkness. That's what the towels are for. Set it to 100 degrees. This is a dehydrator. And there we go. You could do this in your oven, but then your oven's occupied. You could do it with the light. Or the keep warm setting. But it's kind of hard for us to live without our oven for 24 hours. That's got to go for 24 hours. That dehydrator is a lifesaver. You want some scissors? Yes, sir. What are you gonna harvest for us? Kale. Kale, that sounds good. I'm gonna take the skim down and then I'll join her. Hey, this looks like a nice spot. What are you listening to? Star Wars. Nice.

Lily!

Hey Lily, did you get enough? Oh yeah, I think so. Good job. All right, ice cream in our future. Rebecca, it's time. I'm gonna go out in this blazing heat and do the chores. I'm gonna give the boys a break. Is that all right? Yeah, and though they're on swimming, and because we don't have to move the sheep today, it's one of the rare moves where we gave them a paddock big enough for 2 days because it's hard to get them where the cows are. Where the cows currently are in the orchard. And, uh, because we don't have the trees protected and it's all zigzaggy, and it gives us a break every once in a while. So all I gotta do is move the cows, but I do have to move them from way up there down through here and behind the house. But it shouldn't be too bad. This pasture though, this is where the pigs helped us turn a garden— used to be that— into this. They tilled it, prepped it, and we planted this pasture crop. And like Beauty said, we'll have more cream starting tomorrow because this is such rich forage.

What you guys— what you guys—

we got some apple trees doing good, we got some apple trees not doing so good, and we got some apple trees dead. That one's jamming. I wonder if this one wasn't just eaten off of though by the ant. The cows. About half the apple trees are dead. That's totally okay with me. I'm all for the shun— done nothing. Sheer utter— no, sheer utter total neglect. The strong survive. We replant where the ones died. Here you guys are up here in the cool. I don't blame you. Let's go, big guy. Here we go. Look at that scene. Kids ready to see the happiest cows in the world?