For our Sanity | Day 8 Surviving off the Land

Ooh, there's our thawed-out hose we're supposed to store inside. We're gonna need it. The cows have knocked over their water. Haha, we'll take it. Happy Sunday seed day! It's the 8th day living off the land. 8 days in, I found I have successfully done it. We have food systems in place that if we don't grow it, we don't eat it. And we could do that in January and live a pretty good life. Something like that isn't accomplished overnight. If I can give you any one piece of advice for being able to make that happen— it doesn't actually feel that cold. I think there's a chance these are— no, they're frozen. You can hear them. Forgot to get the cows' water filled up. Yesterday before, it froze everything. No worries, I have redundancy. Those stored inside and yard hydrant right there, frost-free. No water. That explains it. Did I give you the piece of advice? If I can give you any one piece of advice for being able to make that happen If I could only give you one, is really know and dig into your why. Because if you have a strong enough why, of course you'll get into the, the details of the how. And then once you're in the details of the how, you'll actually last and you won't get burnt out because there won't be any other choice. Eighth why we're going to talk about today is for mental and physical health is why you might grow your own food. Let's take a close by while that fills up so we can turn it off. Look how much less the sheep drink. These 3 cows drank all of 50 gallons. Your why might change. You might have several whys, but it's good to identify the big one. We first got into growing our own food— that's 2 different reasons. Rebecca for health and me to save money. Literally spending gobs of money on organics as we learned about the, the chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, uh, the GMOs, high fructose corn syrup, the hormones in the milk. And so we started buying organic. This was before we farmed. Whoa, that bell's teetering on the edge. Hopefully this isn't ruined. Be careful, my back's a little tweaked and I want to make sure it doesn't turn into anything. I'll tell you no lies, you can imagine about going from conventional to organic, it's expensive. And we stopped buying as much processed food, buy more whole foods, which is also more expensive. Interesting enough, it's the opposite if you go to a place like India. Or from personal experience, Honduras, the whole foods like meat and veg, particularly vegetables and fruit, super cheap. And it's the process, the imports from America that are so expensive. But anyway, America, it's opposite. We was at the grocery store one day, we were checking out our organic produce. Bundle of lettuce, bundle of kale. I can't believe we did that. $3 each. Happened to look over and see some seed packs for sale, and I thought, hmm. And I went and looked at them. They were about the same as a bundle of, you know, let's say lettuce. A bundle of lettuce was $3. Well, seed pack of lettuce was $3. I looked on that seed pack to see there were 100 seeds. So I did the math real quick. 100 times the amount if I just grow it myself for the same amount of dollars. 100 times. In other words, I could save— what percentage is that? I don't know, and you're not supposed to do math in public. Austin, ask Rock what percentage is 100 times. What percentage is 100x? 100x is at least 10,000%. Anyway, that's a lot more savings than like a bank savings account at just 3%. By the way, to keep this ever-flowing source of meat and food for our family. We're gonna finish clipping your hooves today, and I learned from last time I need to capture you guys in a smaller corral and shut this gate behind me so none of y'all get out while I'm trying to do the job. Let's practice this. Handle this right away. Since we're storing it inside, we don't have to empty of it, so of its water. You had to store it outside, just here's what you would do. Run the water out of it by doing this all along it, pushing the water out the end. Or if you have a little incline, like we could lay it along our driveway and it would gravity feed out. Somebody— I forgot who it was— taught me this on the Great America Farm Tour. Close your hoses on each other for storage. Makes so much sense, especially if there's water in them. Prevents crap from crawling up in there or getting up in there and prevents water dripping out, in this case onto our floor, into our house. Hey lady, she's reaching through and grabbing that hay. There's hay right here. It's a lot of wasted hay here, guys. So it started for health with Rebecca, started with frugality for me, just trying to support her and find a better way to afford the foods she desired for us and our family. Now speaking of the back pain, right, back pain that really just kind of comes out of nowhere, this dull foot pain I constantly have, or, you know, constantly have, but the pain of it can vary. Lyme disease. Lack of energy, brain fog. I was forced to look at our food. I mean, even eating, even switching over and eating organic, going from conventional Oreos to Newman's O's, isn't that much better. Sugar's sugar, grain's grain. I soon found that you guys not only energized me for so long— food was just energy, you know, I was a runner uh, before Lyme disease, and I looked at the food as fuel, as energy. And I realized you should get some good fuel. But then with Lyme disease and me eventually going more carnivore to help heal it, to low inflammation, to limit my carbs, these animals weren't just energy for me, they were healing. I would hug them if they actually liked that. Watch this gal. Hey, we the only ones working today? Look at this. Sorry, it's a thing we're doing at school. I used to call her my princess cowgirl. She didn't like that. It's Princess Equestrian. Rough and tumble. I guess that would— that's what makes her a good rider. Now, as you go down the health journey, any of you on a health journey? This is great. That's what you want to see, a bowl of a bed of coals in the morning. For anybody on the health journey, you realize a lot of times you start with food, but where do you end up? I mean, one thing you learn— hey, it's good to have light in your eyes in the morning. It's good for your, what they call, circadian rhythm. Well, every morning— I mean, people are supposed to have it 10 minutes. People usually have to force it. Not if you have a homestead. You got to come out, get light in your eyes whether you want to or not, and you get something done at the same time. Finish what we started. Another thing that you find yourself doing on chores, not just exposing yourself to light, but cold exposure. Being exposed to the cold gets the flow going, helps burn fat. Enough cold exposure. Let's put the toboggan back on. And in the summer, uh, the sun exposure. Exercise is good, right? Like, so you— we're gonna get our steps in. You're supposed to get 10,000 steps. I totally get that doing chores. I'm gonna let you guys munch a little bit. We're gonna let the sheep finish up their minerals. We'll put you guys back. But the mental health too, you know. I was visiting my Uncle Cody the other day and he's like— he's a 90-year-old man, he's got some wisdom. He said that's good therapy to just go out and work in a garden. It is. And for me, you know, dealing with— I would hesitate to say depression, uh, but like that, just getting up, having to move, because the cows and the chickens and the pigs, they have to be tended to whether you feel like it or not. And getting outside, moving, breathing that fresh air, there is something very therapeutic about it. And having and caring for something else. Hey, how'd you get out? Come on, come on, let's go. Oh no, don't get tangled in that fence, please. Go, don't get tangled in that fence. Hey, go get pants on, bro, you're gonna be cold. Here we go. You're gonna come with me. Quick breakfast off the land. Thank you, Lily, for scrambling some eggs. And cold chicken works for me. Boys are hunting more rocks, building our retainer wall. Both machines today. My project includes we got to clip those sheep hooves and we got to fix something on the trailer before Lily goes to her horse lesson. Somebody didn't unhook the lights and they went and it just ripped, ripped it out. So we're gonna try to fix that ourselves in our effort to be more, uh, self-reliant. Maybe that's our word for 2025. Rebecca's word is recovery from her mom, from the hurricane, from this remodel that turned into a rebuild. But becoming sort of more self-reliant, like fixing our own stuff, is going to be part of recovery. Before we do the sheet, before we do the trailer, let's check to see that the waterers are still Warm. Uh-oh. Frozen. The light doesn't seem to be on that. Does that mean we popped the fuse? Are you done with this? Yeah. Okay, well, you got to plug it back in when you're done, bud. Heater was working, kept the water thawed. Kids unplugged it to get fuel out of the diesel. Battery's hot. That— I don't know, frozen water. That's working. Let's get this out of here. This is good use of a pitch. And we need to open them up tomorrow. Oh, they need water and they are unfrozen, but we do need to fill it up with water. I tried this water line that's out here. It's frozen. It doesn't feel so cold. It's like 20 degrees, but it doesn't feel like it. I put it out in the sun, but there's no sun and it's only going to be 35 degrees today. I'm kind of betting that might not thaw out today. I got this hose. So after we're done here, we're gonna put both bees on the inside. Part of this is getting ready for the farm sitter. It's going to be the coldest it's going to be this winter when we're gone. We're dodging it. It's not going to be as warm as we had hoped in Florida, but keep going. There you go, keep going. Okay, you got this. Where are you going? I'm gonna go put the lid on the pigs. Bigger mass of water holds its heat a little better. Covering it will also help hold it, hold it heat. It's like the water doesn't want to freeze. Looks like tomorrow we'll set you guys up on the rest of the garden. This, this was sod. This was sod. Pigs have a favorite place to poop. They haven't really touched that, but everything else is pretty good. Good job, big guy. These hoses are really dirty after rolling them up through there. I just had an idea. I don't really like storing them in the house. Theoretically, the root cellar shouldn't freeze. Let's put them in this outer layer here. Should be good. 65 degrees, as long as these doors stay shut. Uh-oh, look! What? I don't even know if that brake works at all. Can we fix brakes? I gotta chase the cable. Oh boy, this has got to be fixed quick because it's the only one left. Here's something I think we can do. E-brake works. I cannot let the kids drive this. They won't know, they'll get going, and they will not be able to stop. Luckily we found this. What about— don't worry, I'm okay. It pulled out, and this can't be that hard to fix, right? Take this part right here. I just heard back from Mark about those brakes. He can be here tomorrow. I was able to pull this apart. Now what— shoot, what color goes to what band? Does it matter? Can't kind of see it. I'm gonna have to go clean it off, I think. LT, what's this one? Let's go wash my hand, clean this off, and get the color code. Taking the keys so nobody accidentally Drive Sally. AX, RT, EB. He knows the color codes for this trailer. What would you call this trailer electrical connection? I'm typing all these in and saying, or what color codes for a trailer? There you go. EB is blue, AX is black or red, RT is Green. TM is brown. You just gotta know how to talk to Grok sometimes. He is much smarter than Mr. Google Pad. You can ask more nuanced and specific things. My buddy Graham Wright did say you should ask Grok what he thinks of you. He'll tell you and you'll get a rating, apparently. Let's see. What do you think of me? You're quite knowledgeable and passionate about farming, especially when it comes to raising livestock like cows for milk and meat. You seem to enjoy sharing the knowledge with others, helping them understand the nuances of animal husbandry. You also appear to have a good sense of humor and value the personal, sometimes humorous aspects— me— of farm life. It's clear you engage in your community, offering both practical and advice for a bit of entertainment. Okay, that's nice. Rate me from 1 to 100 in offering value in my content? 85 out of 100. Based on insights from your recent expos, I'd rate you at around 85 out of 100 for offering value in your content online. You provide practical advice on farming, particularly livestock, then cows. It's valuable for anyone interested, already involved in similar activity. Your content seems educational, engaging. Oh, however, there's also room for growth, perhaps expanding into more detailed content or exploring additional topics with farming could elevate your value further. We've been heavy cows lately. We're getting chicken. Hey, next month's show, monthly show on Abundance Plus, is on chickens, ever-flowing eggs. Took a timeout, got a chidler. I was having a little confusion on that first layout, so I asked another way because it's like they said what to do with blue, but I don't have a blue. So then I put in all the colors and said what to do with that. And I think I'll go with that. Okay, I made black auxiliary and red to electric brakes. Gideon brought up a good point before bringing— putting the guard back on. Let's go check and see if it works. They came on! Oh, oh, one is okay. That means it's probably something to do with that and not the hookup. Boom! There's a cable loose there. Bring it out. Bring it out. We got that wired together. That was not— it's still not blinking. This one's working, but this one— we got it. Get in. Let's go get the stuff to, uh, tape it up. Okay, so it stays together. We gotta go tape our little man job. I don't know what we did, just started working. Kid you not. Yeah, I think I figured out why this got ripped out. This is going around this and you turn, there's not enough slack. You have to be kidding me. I did it right the first time. You gotta put it through this first. Oh gosh, I have to take it apart. That trailer light's to Mark's list. I just made it worse. I really need to get moving and get on these sheep. Mark can't go hood my sheep. Did I do something when I pulled this up a little too hard? I learned some things, you know. I learned the color codes. I learned what was causing this problem. My priority has got to be growing the food, and we need to go hoof some sheep. Let's see what the boys are doing. They doing something special in the barn. You guys are going to like it. We asked you guys who you would like to see a documentary about. Austin commented the other day on how different these boys' lives are than normal people, even normal homeschoolers. So weird. He's got a new perspective. Yeah, we'll say it, we're weird. And so he came up with a great title, Raised in a Barn. Yeah, John is being interviewed for it right now, and they actually were— are raised in a barn. Our house is a horse barn. There's stalls underneath our house. Interviews today, then we go vacation, and then, uh, next when we come back, document their lives for a couple of days and put out this movie. We aren't going to waste any time. It'll be on Abundance Plus winter, early, early winter, like end of January-ish. We're finally getting to it. Get this gate in there, let me in, and then I'll get one, and then You'll help me let them out, okay? I did this one. Oh no, jeez, these are pretty good, man. These are pretty good. Look who's planting the garden. How's it going?

I mean, it's going.

With your extra 4,800 square feet.

Well, no, we don't because we lost, remember? It's where the high tunnel is now.

Yeah, I get it.

We lost.

We lost 1,200 square feet, but we're gaining back 4,800.

I'm sad because I wanted to redo some things.

If almost $10,000—

and they go cut flower garden this summer.

I see.

But that's not happening because we're having to redo all these things.

I see. What's your word for 2025?

Recover.

All right, by the time you're seeing this, this is over one week, uh, but you could catch the replay. We're doing a class inside Abundance Plus, How to Raise a Cow for, uh, everlasting, ever-flowing milk and meat. You catch the replay at Abundance Plus. Catch the live one next on chickens, first week, first Sunday of February. All right, that was a great class. Forgot to catch any film of it. Basically taught everything you need to know for cows in just 2 hours. You can catch the replay on Abundance Plus. Right now, Lily just informed me there's no water up at the youth group. The water here has thawed out and started to flow despite having no sun. Ah, let's see if it's working here. Hey, we have water here! Let's bring this up higher than the trough though. This hose feels rigid. The garden hose may be— it's just logging the homie. Don't start thinking about how high we are. Okay, the garden hose is one, it's not two hoses. You could check the connection. What am I doing? This is crazy. It's kinked. There it comes, weighed down because it's— oh, I know. You don't want to put weight on the hose because water needs to build up in this hose, come through. There's probably some ice in it, so we can't, we can't count on that. We got to take the key out. Lily brought this up here. We rushed and brought the four-wheeler. She said the brakes are working. It doesn't feel like it. Test it. I wonder if it's from crossing the creek. Maybe crossing the creek too fast or something. Do we have another clean-ish bucket like this one? I know we have more buckets than this. I lack some help right now. Everybody's busy, so we're not gonna haul water in a big barrel. Oh good, this is where I store my feet. Oh good, we're gonna haul water in buckets from the creek. Oh boy, this might not be doable. Oh my, this ain't gonna work. Winter water, it's a real deal. You might be able to get it in this, it's deeper here, so you might be able to get it here. Okay, yeah, all right, don't get more than you can carry. Oh my gosh. All right, you're seeing it, guys. We just finished office hours, a webinar. I went to relax, go into the evening. Hey, you know what? Let's move the water up here. It'll be easier for the farm sitter. Got enough for tonight. It's a problem for tomorrow. Get the Everflow going. Hey, we're almost past the pole barn. Like a wall right there. I gotta show you this, this, this meal they're having. Chicken, corn, and collards. Y'all are all from the land. We just live off the land, babe. That's what this is showing me. I think I'm okay with, uh, the rice. I do want some chocolate and peanut butter back in my life, but I am learning I should eat more yogurt and blueberry desserts as a dessert and have less chocolate, or maybe every other day. Learning a lot on this, uh, living off the land journey. Just 2 more days, then we're taking a break. We'll have some specials for you, more about that in a little bit. Happy day.