Free Ranging these Chickens was a BIG Mistake

The ICYs have been eating— well, they haven't been eating, they've been stirring the poop behind the cows. That's one reason we had them in a fence, because they weren't doing that and they were spreading all over the farm. And what's the purpose? We want them to spread the poop. So now that they're doing that, we're gonna try without the nets. So we had the boys spread the feed on the manure of that entire paddock. They're Right there. The old paddock is right there. So far, no good. Okay, go ahead. Do you ever just want to just get the job done? Do you ever just want to do that? Then you just gotta remember that this is the job. That this is a chidler farm before it's anything else farm. Okay, just keep telling myself that. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 3 of these guys going to the forest. We're gonna work on their water line today. I'm not bringing the wheelbarrow in there. It's just easier to throw it over the edge. And that's what this 2 years of raising pigs experience is all about for me, just learning as I go. Do I know everything about pigs? Absolutely not. Going into this permaculture pigs project, I'm going to teach everything I've learned, document our 2-year process. But that's why I'm listing folks like John, Marbuckle, Joe Salton, Cliff Davis together. 100 years of experience.

What are you gonna do with all this plumbing hosing?

We're gonna take the plumbing hosing and run water from the well all the way out to that forest. Why do you need to take all the water from the well to go into the woods? It's because that's where we're gonna run some of our forested pigs. Oh, okay. So we need to fill up their 50-gallon water every once in a while. Probably at least once a week.

Lily and I are going to work on this garden. We're going to go get the hose and the broad fork and the rake. We're going to plant some pumpkins and watermelon and cantaloupe in here, and we're also going to do a special teepee with, um, beans this evening.

We really need to continue on the big garden out there.

Well, it's not going to take hard— it's not—

I, I thought the kids would want to plant. It would literally take 10 minutes because we need to transplant These need to be transplanted like a week ago, so we need to get this out and into that.

We'll see, like, well, not this. This, this is going in that garden.

Oh, okay. Um, all this needs to go out.

This is going out in the— this is going in that garden, and this is going in that garden, and then I'm gonna plant some seeds.

Okay, so all this goes out between that garden and the big garden. And see, I still got to put down the the landscape cloth, and we still got a weed. Yeah, there's big gardens. Okay. All right, could you tell I was pretty nervous talking to Rebecca there? Because I feel, I feel like I'm behind on what we're already doing— the animal garden, miracle, the crop gardens. She's pressing on with a new project. One, it's not polite to contradict tell myself that. And two, most the time she's right. I tend to get overwhelmed, be pessimistic in these gardening, farming projects, and she tends to be optimistic. Can you come help me take this plastic off this? No, don't cut any small trees. Let's stay focused on the job today. I got the easy ones, the ones without the crimping tool. Come here, boys. Everybody needs to come learn from my mistakes. They said you just push it in there. Let's hope they're right. Okay, and it doesn't come off. Wow, that's true. Wow, if it's gonna be that easy, that's, that's gonna be easy. Mama worked hard to find this. It was the last one they had over. It's a female, so I'm not even sure how to unravel this. The guy at Lowe's said, "You a plumber?" I said, "No, I'm a farmer." But as a farmer, you kind of have to learn to be a jack of all trades. So I'm just gonna— this may or may not be the best way. I have no idea. I didn't realize it was compact. Trouble at the side gardens. If you want, I can come help you make the mounds. You're probably not doing too many mounds. It's a little more compact than Beauty had hoped. I want to help her, but I want to do this. I don't, you know, I don't— it's— the ladies have seen a snake. Yeah. Wow, yellow stripes.

I was just growing.

This is crazy compact. Okay, so if you—

and he was there. Oh wow, look, there was a hole, so it's probably his snake hole.

King snake. Okay, so you're actually making progress. Yeah, I think it's just the top layer has caked. You're doing a great job, but you're there. Like, this is— this is— you just— you can easily rake this now into a mound and leave the rest. So now, how to get this straight? I want it to go straight along this fence. My best guess for unwinding this thing It's just to pull and let it kind of twist it like that. Straighten it out. Look, it's laying flat. Wow. Uh, attached a connector here. We're gonna— that was a 300-foot line. Now we're gonna go by hundreds. So I think we've got 100 more feet and then we're gonna make a connection. It's gonna be a lot easier. That's 100 feet. You know what, let's— we could unwind it in the road. Come on. Go that way, Jonah. Let's get it straightened out here. You gotta start doing this. All right, I think that's good, right? Shut off hose connector, a hose adapter, connect our tee. This is pleasurable plumbing. Connect this here and then this here. That's it. Wow, super easy. And then see, I can make a drinking hose connection here. We'll put that line on, guys, and then we'll test it. How about that? Go up the fence line. Okay, Jonah, hang on, we gotta line it up better. Oh, there it is. Good job. Who's gonna go turn that water on and see if it works?

I'll go turn it on.

Thank you, John. John, have you turned it on? Might take a minute, Brown. Hope we have enough pressure in that little spigot. It says it's turned on. I think it would start suppressing the grass, weighing down. Nope, there's no water in that. There's our problem. Pretty sure that's not on. No, it wasn't on. They try. Okay, tell me the good news. The water beat me back out here. Yay! We have water 400 feet from our house right now, guys. I'm very excited about this. I want to get these 3 pigs out here very Hey, looking good, looking good.

Should we use the hard rake on this?

Yeah. You did it, honey. All right, the post office just called. Chicks are here. That's good. Rebecca's gonna go get them. I'm gonna set this up. Well, that was easy. 2 hover brooders from Premier One, fermented feed. All we lack is our magic water. I'll go make that now. That means we're gonna have like a bazillion chickens. 120 there, 100 there, 100 out there, plus all our layer chickens. Oh my gosh, is that like 400 chickens? I'm that crazy chicken lady now. All right, Mama is here. I've got the magic water. The geese came today too. Do you think one will go in there? Oh wait, look, and then put it—

don't imprint it on you though. Put it, put it in there.

All right, get it, Jonah. We got one goose in with the sea monsters. He's doing fine, look. And then this one We put what, 3 of these rambunctious ones in with her, and they— did they even peck her?

No. I think with like 120 of these things, I think there was just too many of them and they were all like, what is this new thing? We're all gonna go peck it.

And we should probably raise the brooders so the goose can get under it. Well, it's evening. It's the time that we've been moving the ICYs at night just to gain some more project time in the morning. This little project, letting these ICYs roam free— big mistake. They got out of there, spread our mulch and the blueberries. I wanted it to work because it would save 20 minutes every day, but— and I was hoping maybe they would get even more patties. Did they even destroy the patties? No, they didn't even do their job. We're going back to the nets, you guys.