Finally, A Fence NO Chicken Can Escape

How are your chicks doing, buddy?

They're doing good.

Any casualties? Nope, they're going strong. I guess our chicken tractor has turned into a little bit of a jail for bad chickens who break out and scratching our onions. A little icy, a little icy. She was out on the pasture, but we brought her into the breakfast posse because we put the fat hens out on pasture. To follow the cows and sheep in a sheep net. I just look up there and the fat hen's chicken coop is blown back and it's doing a wheelie. But the naughty chicken has laid an egg, so that's not too bad. Where's the breach? See, I don't see a breach. I honestly think that chicken is probably jumping up through the net. This— sure, this could be tighter, but I don't see I don't see any spot where she would go through. Hey, that's the pasture. Gotten some greens off our pasture. Let's get our greens off the bank because we're going to bring our cows through here now. This used to be a garden. We had the pigs till it and we planted pasture seed. It's coming up so rich. The cows will be in here very soon. I can't wait. Put some food on the compost to encourage them to till it. Hey, when'd you feed those eggs last night? Those eggshells?

Did you see that?

What?

Under it?

Oh yeah, they're tilling underneath. It's mushroomed. You sent me one of those pallets in here. Soaking is our normal practice. It does make the feed go further. But right now, being spring, being so busy, we're gonna try to make things a little easier.

Do you want to save some time?

Sure.

For money?

I'd love to save some time and money.

Get a mini excavator so we don't have to use pitchforks to get this stuff up.

Hey, what about the $70,000 that costs? What happened to the money savings?

Well, you can make a vlog in that time. It'll take you 5 minutes to get it all up, and then you can do it. Then you'll have the extra 15 minutes.

Is it already laying in? Anybody eating? Free the birds! They're going for those eggshells, really needing the calcium. They're going for it on the compost pile. They're going for it on the king feeder. I put it on that pallet to keep it up off the ground, keep it clean. Why, you saving your vegetables for last? Rebecca's calling. Didn't catch what she said though. Hey, what you need, darling? Okay, sweater switch, I guess. Uh, Jonah grabbed Josiah's sweater. But anyway, Beauty's gonna go with me. We're gonna work on the lucha doors. They need some love. But just look at this with me. Look at this view. Nice morning. While we wait on the beautiful one, let me show you— we can't— we're done with our chicken tractor demonstration, so we don't need to keep chickens in it. What are we going to do with them? This is the long-term penitentiary. This is a rogue chicken-proof run. They're on deep bedding, they're on mulch, making compost right next to our gardens. Cattle panels but with poultry wire and 1x6s down there. But, uh-oh, come down the line. But oh, there's a gap! Look how big that gap is. It's bigger than my hand. Another gap. Okay, kind of a big gap all along through there. Not only is that not going to keep scrappy chickens in, that's gonna not keep predators out. What are you doing?

Covering the holes.

Okay. Hey, hey, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. You know why? Randolph's coming today. I've already talked to him.

What's he gonna do?

We're gonna extend— see, see the 1x6 at the bottom to hold in the material? We're going to extend that down. How's he going to do that? Well, he's a master carpenter. You'll see. You want to help him? You could help him. You would learn a lot of things. Do you need help getting out or anything, Mr. Brown?

He's wanting to come.

Okay, let's get you ready, bro. Get in, my man. Neither of the two sweaters you wore yesterday are put back. Josiah says he knows where it is. Is it seriously in the dirty clothes? His jacket?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh. We gotta do the— hey kids, you gotta do your laundry today. Alright, there, he dug it out. Can you say thank you, big brother?

Thank you.

Mr. Brown's shoes are right there. Oh my word. Can you guys see this? Look at that. This is Rebecca's Instagram. One person noticed. Do you guys notice? Mr. Brown, where are your shoes? Somebody said, where's Mr. Brown's shoes? Uh, let's just say this: the struggle is real, and it's been real for a very long time. Why is it not— why is your foot not going— oh, undo this, bro. Now, does your foot go in easy? Yeah. Is it in? Yeah. Hey, you showing your plants some love? Yep. How's everything doing? Good. What's your plan for the day in here?

I need, I need to plant some more seeds. I'm gonna do that. At some point.

Okay, I'm gonna go find this little piece we need to fix this mobile wrestling ring.

Okay, what piece is that?

I don't know how to describe it, honey.

Okay, what about, um, the minerals and stuff?

Yeah. Do you, are you gonna get the things to fix the minerals?

Feeder.

Yes. I don't know what this little piece is called for pinching the wire together to hold it on.

What can I use as a kickstand?

Yeah, your coupe's doing a wheelie out there. What about that? Is that too short?

Probably too tall.

No, you could lift it up a little bit if it's too tall. Try it.

I couldn't find anything.

Really? Yep. Did you look in this stuff? It's not in that stuff. Let's check the tool room. There it is. This is my little kit. What do you call that thing? Now let's get something better than a Leatherman to tighten that on there. Okay, I found a socket set for getting this on real good. You got the drill, my man? Oh, I see Josiah up in the field way up there fixing the chickshaw and letting out the fat hens.

Let me in, I'll fix the minerals.

All right, the sun is coming up, feels so good.

It's a cold morning, isn't it?

Really? I got the wrong bit.

All right, I'm gonna be farming without problems, right, Beck? Okay, so yesterday, Rebecca, I went to pull this, and boy, I got a surprise when the cable let loose. So we're gonna mend it. I've got a proper tool this time. Searching my pockets and I'm not seeing the— what do you want to call it? Clamp? Wire clamp? Jonah got the wrong bit. I don't know where I put that clamp. Where is Mr. Brown's bike? Well, why, it's out in the middle of the pasture. I mean, maybe there's a chance I left it in here, never even brought it. I don't see it, so let's get another one. There's only one left. Maybe I'll find the one I got in my pocket or something later. I'm gonna take some pictures of the minerals that we need, guys. Let's get the minerals we need. Rebecca had to go up though. She, she went to grab a sandbag. I guess she was uncovering our garden. Something and got bit or stung on her fingers, so she's having to take care of herself. We're gonna hope it's okay. All right, what do we got down there, Jonah? Yeah, mop's one of them. See you in Z. No, we don't need buffer. There she is. Hey, you think they need minerals or what? Hey, how you feeling?

All right, it's— I, um, took the mud off of it and I put charcoal poultice on it.

Okay.

And it was like that big, the white spot with the red dot in the middle.

No, whatever it is, I think it's a spider. I guess it feels better with the charcoal on it, so it could have been a hornworm. Well, that was relatively uneventful. No, it's pretty uneventful. All right, now let's see if moving them is going to be uneventful. I'm pretty sure because I got it on there so, so tight. Rebecca's wondering if they like the grass. Well, here's how you know, Rebecca. Look, look at where they were. They love it. They're eating the seed heads off. It's amazing. You don't want to cut the grass until it's matured. See this? See how that's still cut right there? You want to wait until that blades again before you want to cut it. The boys have gone and got the cows. I'm gonna get my cow stuff ready. Hey, big bird, you ready to go milk a cow? Okay.

I'm making hats for Mama's and Grandma's birthday.

Nice birthday hat. Mama's birthday is coming up. May 6th. We're gonna celebrate Grandma's while we're at it. I like these party hats, Lily. Yeah. How are you gonna get them to stay on people's heads?

I don't know.

I like that this one's got a star. Is that the birthday person?

Yeah, that's Grandma's.

I like it.

Mama's.

Mom, your yarrow.

Yeah. Holy smokes, I have so much jamming. Lemon balm, rosemary. Look at all my dill. All self-seeded. It's everywhere. Look, go over there. There's a dill forest.

I'll bring it over.

I like it. A dill forest all over.

We've got sunflowers coming up, calendula.

So, Jonah, I noticed something. Hamburger's not down here. He stayed in the net. Yep. Yes! Okay, that's what we're gonna have to do. The quick fences are quick. They're not gonna work for that. Hey, will you guys milk for a second while I go show Gideon had to water his garden. Gideon asked for a garden, so I said he could have the instant chicken garden. So did you put some water in that? Yeah. You got it out of there? Yeah, right here.

Got it from there.

Okay, okay, start getting it from there. See, it's, it's wastewater, and we're gonna— we don't have to get fresh water. All right, come on, just water. Follow me. Do you want me to hold it since you're kind of spilling everywhere? Okay, just water the plants. Okay, now wait, you got to make that whole thing last this whole way. Well, you're really watering that spinach. That's enough, that's enough. Just give it a little bit. Let me show you. Come do just, just a little bit of— oh, just a little bit on each plant. Oh, it just kind of shoots out, doesn't it? Wow. Yeah, that's kind of hard. Just a little bit at each plant like that. Okay, okay, there you go. Now do the rest, the ones you haven't done yet. Good deal. All right, let's keep these jamming. Look at these lettuces. Oh my gosh, they look so good. Look at the broccoli, Jonah, and the cabbage. Yeah, we're gonna have it. We're gonna have mucho cabbages to kiss. All right, it's not gonna rain today. Well, look, do you see a cloud in the sky? All right, let's water this. I gotta show you this. I don't think we've ever grown spinach so green and so huge and successful. This is just amazing, the spinach. Oh, I'm excited, I'm excited. All right, crank it up, Jonah. Ready to get in? Okay. Whoa, whoa. All right, pick it up, pick it up without squirting me. Oh, that's good. Turn it off. Yeah, look, it's missing a pin. We started to go get a pin or something. There. All right, try it now. We've leaned it a little bit. Okay, watch out, get in. It could flip. Hold it a little bit when it first starts.

You know, you can do this to figure out how much—

is it going good then? Yeah. Okay, good, go. He's put his head on. Good. What, guys? Y'all don't play. I've just been gone like 5 minutes, maybe 10. Good strong 2 gallons. Uh-oh, she's got the seed book out. She's got the epic 8-inch thick seed book out. What are you planting?

I'm just gonna plant flowers.

Okay. How's your finger?

It hurts, but it's doing better.

Okay, good.

I'm gonna do some direct seeding as well as—

yeah, and I see that you just ordered some sweet potato slips.

I did.

Yum!

We're gonna plant them for your dad.

Oh, that's right, because it was his hope to plant them this spring. We were sitting silent for a while, and suddenly he starts up a whole brand new conversation with something along the lines of, I'm hoping I get better. I want to plant some sweet potatoes down in this sandy patch. This is coming from a man who cannot walk. This is coming from a man who's 87 years old. This is coming from a man whose doctor told him his bones aren't working because you're getting old. This is coming from a man who's old enough to be a 65-year-old man's dad. This is coming from a man who hasn't even gardened in 30 years. Sweet potatoes. We got Randolph here this morning. How you doing, Randolph? Doing good. It's good. So yeah, I was, I was thinking, you see these gaps there? Yeah, like there's one there and there. If we can just get closer to the ground there. All right. And I mean, your brain's as good as mine on this door, how we're gonna block it but still be able to get in. I'm thinking we'll put some flat rocks there, maybe. Um, yeah, that's not a bad thought. And then we could remove the rocks if we need to, like, wheelbarrow in. Yeah, my idea was maybe just a board that we would roll over that we would put a ramp on, but I might like that rock idea. I think a predator might squeeze through rocks unless you can get them flush. You know what, I have flat rocks that might work. They're these rocks. All right, yeah, if we had a stack of them, I could stack them in there real good and tight. Okay, Rebecca, what do you think about that idea, just putting these rocks in there? Like, and then when we need to get in there with our wheelbarrow, we could just move the rocks. Yeah, we could do that.

I don't care.

That's not a bad idea, is it? I can't really put nothing on that gate because it, you know, it's pretty close once you open it. Yeah, because it swings this way.

What happens if you put— here, open it. I only got one hand. Um, if you put like a board sunk in the ground on there, and then it would be a— we'd have to step over.

If you put a— if you put a frame right here and mounted your board to that frame or something like that. Yeah. Um, I even thought if you could have a slat where you could actually lift the board up and out. You're a pretty good carpenter. You think you could do that? Yeah, I can make a removable board to go in there. Yeah, yeah, it just slides down in there. I mean, you did that with the gate, a removable post. I bet you could do a removable board. Yeah, yeah, you just have to step over it, you know, every time. Yeah, yeah, we'll do that, and then we can remove the board when we want a wheelbarrow. Yeah, let's do that. All right, let's do that. I set the bucket down and, uh, Teddy licked it. Jonah, Mom's recruited you to do soil blocks? Yep. You like it? Eh, it's okay. All right, well, what would you rather, milk? No. Come on, you could come milk. Randolph, you're already done in the milking time. I like it. So that sits flush. Oh yeah, and we'll step over it. And hey, we might only have to lift it up. We might just put a ramp over it when we need to do the wheelbarrow. Yep, I like it. Or do some dirt like you've done there. I like it. Good job, Mr. Brown. You want to go with me to the pigs, the chicks? Yeah. Okay, you going with too, Mom? Yeah, all right, let's go feed the pigs. Rebecca has gotten us some kelp. We'll see if they need it. That's a good source of minerals. Free choice. Hopefully they'll eat it, not knock it over. How are you guys? How are you? How are you, Hammer? You guys let me pet you? I put it on the ground to encourage tilling. They are tilling, but let's see if we can get them to actually till even more, even faster, if we just put the food directly on the ground. We're careful not put it in manure. Look, they've cleared this area real good, Rebecca. There's something they like about it. Are you looking for a place for your kelp?

Yeah, I'm gonna put it down here.

Yeah, put it up above a tree. That's good. So inside the brooder, the chicks weren't eating as much as I thought they should be, and I wondered if it was because it's cold. We rigged up a heat lamp because that's warm under the brooder, but it's working, guys. They're swarmed around the feed now. Is that a little more— does that make it a little more comfortable for you guys on this cold morning? We want to encourage them to eat, especially at this young age, and that heat lamp's going to help. Good job hanging the heat lamp, bro. Look at them. You love these brambles? You love the brambles?