In this episode Victor Justin Rhodes and guest Rebecca walk through a busy day on the farm, juggling livestock challenges, garden weeding, and preparation for an upcoming Abundance Plus podcast. They discuss a calf that escaped through a weak fence spot, debating whether to confine the calf in a night stall or use portable pig panels. Victor notes a limp in a cow named Dixie and a mysterious knot, later consulting sheep mentor Claire about a possible botfly issue and essential‑oil treatment. The conversation shifts to garden progress, highlighting dramatic weed reduction, thriving potatoes, pumpkins, hybrid butternut squash, onions, and acorn squash, and the anticipation of pigs enjoying the new crops. Victor also promotes the Abundance Plus Premium mentorship program, introducing Claire (sheep/goat expert), Casey Ostwich (master gardener), and Cliff Davis (pig specialist), encouraging listeners to upgrade for direct support. Finally, they outline the podcast’s focus on minimalism, family, faith, and health, reflecting on burnout mid‑August and the importance of finishing the garden strong. The dialogue is informal, problem‑solving, and promotional, offering practical farm insights and community resources.
Chapters
I think I just heard a cow bellowing, which means the calves are probably still separated. Are the calves still separated, bro? I don't know. We made sure we got the fence as hot as we could, and we're gonna go ahead and milk first thing, so hopefully that's enough change. What? Ah, just gonna leave this stuff behind. Pretty sure the calves are over. The calf did get through. It looks like it got through that weak spot. Now it might have just happened this morning, and the mamas are laying down, so we may not be too late. I don't think I can move Stud and Joey down there and not stir up those moms. If those moms get up, calf gets the milk. The question remains, how are we gonna stop this calf from doing this? Kind of need to hurry too. We got Darcy, Isabella, here, The Minimalist, and Rebecca's gonna do an Abundance Plus podcast with her. That's in 1 hour. This is gonna be kind of a tricky move. Let's keep the calf off. She got any milk in there? The calf's not coming at the mom, which means she's probably full. He's been nursing, hasn't he? All right, I'm afraid we're gonna have to break out the pig panels. Yeah, let's see if Flossy has any. Yep. Nope, calf's been drinking all night. We might be able to get some. That's all we got from Flossie. Yeah, we got two choices. We lead the moms into the barn every night and put the calf in a stall, or we bring a couple of pig panels out here and see if we can't herd her and him in there.
What happens if we start putting it in the stall at night? Because we're so close to the house right now. And then if we did it for like some, you know, this like week, week and a half that we're close by, maybe it would stop.
It's a good idea and it's foolproof for sure. I think just pig panels would be easier try. Yeah. How's this one doing? It's raw.
I'm gonna take—
I'm gonna— it's not as swollen as it was. I know, it's less. Dixie was limping this morning, so we're checking out the limp, but also checking out these, uh, this weird knot. All right, sound guy's here. I better go set up the podcast. Good morning, Matt. So we only have 2 guests, or 2 people. Okay. All right, Darcy, Isabella, and everyone, the men minimalist. Y'all gonna talk about minimalism, family, faith. Yeah, teach us how to say the word in it. And what else? Oh, health, because you almost died last year. Yes. Okay, should be a good one. This will be on Abundance Plus. Is it the moment we get this garden under control? It is exactly mid-August, and by this time you're certainly done, you're certainly burnt out. But just being aware of that, I think, can help prevent that. We don't want this to happen. We want to finish strong with the garden. Let's get with it. Well, look at this. It's a big difference, especially in the potatoes. Well, goodness, especially in here. We're probably gonna have, I don't know, 3, 4 wheelbarrow loads of weeds. We found some pumpkins that need to finish growing. We found some weird hybrid Butternut squash, thingamajiggers. The pigs will love that. And we found some onions and some acorn squash. I think we're having better luck over here in the chicken garden. Our squash is jamming over here. Thank you, ladies. Let's go see how the ladies are doing. They got to wrap it up soon. We've got PT at 11.
All right, well, we're going to end it there. Oh, are we? Yeah. Thank you, Darcy.
Did it fly by? Did it fly by, Darcy?
Perfect timing.
No, she's got a little clock right here, but she can't even see it. You could talk another 2 hours, huh?
I felt like I could. See, it wasn't—
did you feel like you could?
Yeah, it was— no, there was so much that we— I was like, oh, I could say this, I could say that. I don't know if I should say that, but I— there was just so much more we could talk about. It was so good we cried.
Oh, good.
Yeah. Oh, Wait a second though, that was not planned. I even said we're not going to go that deep, Rebecca.
We're not going to do it. And then you go there.
We went deep.
Good job pulling out.
It's your fault.
We weeded your entire garden. Oh, it can breathe now. I got the proof on yours. I know. Yeah, I love it.
Did you put my children to work?
Don't believe it? Yeah, they're coming. Excellent. She's texting Claire, our sheep mentor. What's she saying about it?
She asked if we had botflies, but I don't know anything about botflies.
I'm gonna look them up right now. Oh, I don't think we want botflies. That doesn't sound good. Between Rebecca and Claire, we'll figure out what this is. By the way, this is a perfect opportunity for to share this with you guys. Claire, our sheep mentor, we've made her available to you guys. We've also made Casey Oswitch available. He's a master gardener. Claire is really good with natural sheep and cow and goat care even. And we have Cliff Davis which is a really— is, which is my pig man. We've worked out a deal with all three of those guys where if you are in Abundance Plus Premium, you can text any of those guys. So you just text me when you're inside, uh, when you're inside Abundance Plus Premium, you just text me. And if it's a pig-related question and I can't answer it, I pass it on to Cliff. If it's sheep or goat or Cal, I pass it on to Claire. And same thing with gardening, pass it on to Casey Ostwich. So just needed to let you guys know, we've had that for several weeks now but just haven't got a chance to tell you guys. So you guys in Abundance Plus, if you're not premium, go ahead and upgrade. And, and if you guys are premium, get in there and take advantage of it. Darcy squatting a dress. Nothing.
I feel like I could pick up this. It's nothing. Let me have your one. Hold on.
Give me it. Oh, this is how they all do it. Is that good? Is this good? I complain. This is how everybody is on their first day, huh?
Yeah. I complain so much about the baby food.
The day 100, they're like— get out of my face. A lot of long exhales.
I can feel it.
It's good.
Look at her. This afternoon.
I do think we have an idea. Sheep are in this paddock, the cows are in that paddock. We're gonna herd the cat— look how it's too— it's too away just because of the situation we're in in the pasture right now. The cows won't be right there, they won't be right next door. Is one paddock in between them gonna work? If it does, that means we just change the timing and the moving of our chickens and we just moved the chickens last of our chores. It'll all make sense. Sometimes it's really hard to explain things. This is where it happened today. The cows were here, the cat— the calves and the sheep were here. The calf jumped, or, or actually knocked down the fence to get to the cow. Okay, but the chickens are there now, but they weren't. They were one over. We moved them over. We could have not just move the calf into this paddock, we could have moved them on back to another one. And then this morning, once we got everybody back together, then we would move the chickens in. That makes sense. We will try that experiment now just because the way it's set up now, the, the mover isn't right next door to each other. Look how both the calves are following Flossie. He has to herd a mama cow over, and then it's easier— it's easy to cut her out. The cows are following her. Well, let's go see what Rebecca has found out from Claire, our sheep mentor, who can also be your mentor. Let's go see if Rebecca's found out anything. Rebecca, what'd Claire end up saying to do?
She said to spray that abcess-looking thing with some essential oils, which I got a spray bottle today.
Okay.
And then I need to trim her hoof and scrape some stuff off of it and spray it with some essential oils. And then I need to check her for some other things, and then we'll go from there.
