Getting our COW ready for her Next Calf

Oh my word, you guys ever get an egg like that? Double yolk, one on the left. Huge. Poor hen, can't even shut the, uh, can't even shut the egg container. Switch out the ice packs. This is where we cool off the milk. You got to cool off the milk as soon as it comes out of the cow. Get it down to 40 within the hour. It felt pretty warm, so let's put 4 ice packs in there. You tired? Good morning. Good morning. What's the plan?

I did that, I already did the little sea monsters.

Okay.

And then you're gonna go to the pig port while I go do the forested pigs, and then we'll both go out there and do them. The two chores that are out there—

move the sea monsters in the field and feed the ICs. All right, and today is cream separating day, so we're wanting to milk early. We'll see if that happens. Normally milk at 8, 7:40. All right, I've gotten to where I feed the pigs. I've put it in their trough. I've gotten to where— here, I've got to where I go ahead and put it in their trough. Some way it looks like, and that way I don't I don't have to walk in there and they're not busting down the door. I pulled off the mulch and look what we found. Wow, neat little home for you, huh? Neat little home. How long? Let's see how long. He's not too big. This is a black snake, so this is a good one.

Let's go put him over there in that blind. Okay, you're there.

Good. There you go. Black snakes are good. They eat poisonous snakes and mice, so we'll leave that guy. A few more spots right there, just side where they didn't eat those bit of greens. That's all that's left, all them carrot tops. Oh no, that was a snake laying eggs! Snap! Decide we need to clear this. If we start seeds next week, this needs to be ready within 4-ish weeks. So we need to start— we're gonna get our beets out of here.

Beets.

Keep the kale. Yeah, those are beets, aren't they? Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, did I? Okay, beets. And then another row of kale. We can harvest this whole row and we can get this whole row up. Swiss chard and collards. And we should have a whole nother plot. We have the— where the carrots were. This we won't be able to plant in fall or winter. The squash will not come on in time. That either. That either. If somehow Casey's not available, so we're gonna see if we can't rent a BCS or something, and we could, um, rotary plow this, put it in beds, and this could be a prime winter garden. All right, Josiah, holy smokes! Should we show them that squash? Have you seen that squash? I don't think I've ever seen a spaghetti squash this big. Okay, so these spaghetti squashes are coming on. You can tell because the vines are dying. These yellow ones are certainly ready. What is the one I eyed? Yeah, pick, pick one of those more yellow ones. Whoa, here it is! Look, just, uh, look at that spaghetti squash! Hold on, let me show them how big that is. That's my hand.

Goodness, Papa, that one was ready. The vine has to die, you think? Yeah, Mama said so.

Okay, well, I don't want them to rot out here in the— all right, yeah, that's got plenty of— that looks kind of like it's getting soft, but It's not soft at all. Still got a bit more to go. Oh look, the guinea has identified with the guinea keets. Let's move this over too, just like— while I'm over here though, let's check my— okay, good. Free the birds! We set out clumps of the hay just to see what they did. They didn't tear up that one yet, but they did obliterate that one. I'm thinking it might be a better compost system just to throw material in here and just have a deep bedding overall and harvest underneath when we need compost. Hey buddy, hey, did you move the sea monsters?

Not yet.

I need to get ready. There's no— that's the only bucket we got. What happened to all our buckets, guys? We have 87. There's 2 up there. We're gonna need some for the skim milk. There you guys go, fresh water. All right, long-term plan for them is we need to build what I'm going to call a turkey shawl. It also serves as a guinea shawl. Put them in a Premier 1 shocker knot net. Put this, uh, turkey shawl out, hopefully train them to it. It's just more open air, just a shade cloth for a roof. We'll get them out of that and we can put this back in the kitchen garden. What do you say, Josiah? Wow, what amazing—

what was that?

I think I left guts in there. And do you see all those maggots?

Go give them to the chickens.

Heck yes. Prime chicken feed. You guys ready to see some excited chickens? Gosh, it's like that moves. So many maggots. All right, let's check this before we go on. Soup? Oh yeah, that's real hot. Needs a good bit though. What are you doing with that?

Everything that they're done, um, that they didn't eat, I'm gonna siphon.

You're gonna mow behind the sea monsters?

Yes.

Okay. What's the sledgehammer for?

Um, hammering in the grounding rod.

Okay. Will you please bring it back?

Yes.

Probably why you don't have the smaller one, right? Because we don't know where it is.

Yeah, probably.

Okay, so you're gonna move that, the cornish cross Yeah. Mow behind them, pound in the grounding rod. Okay. I'm gonna find mom some skim buckets. Hey, babe. What do you need? Do you need—

Well, are you gonna go?

I'll get you buckets. Soonish. It might be 9. I don't know. What do you think?

Yeah, I just, because I'm not gonna start because I need to remember, I always forget this.

Yes.

To start separating the milk. After you bring up Flossie's milk.

Okay.

So I guess I just need all the milk brought in here.

Okay. And then— What you working on over there?

Trying to find a light fixture.

How many hours have you been looking for a light fixture?

It's been on my to-do list for like 2 weeks, and I just don't want to do it because I hate it because I don't know what I want and I don't like— we have certain parameters that we're working with within here, like this isn't centered over the island, which I wish it was.

And it's a peninsula.

Yeah, peninsula.

Sorry, sorry, I gotta be that guy.

So yeah, it's just been one of those things where I'm like, I don't know what I want. Anyways, um, because we—

all right, how many more hours?

We are renovating this kitchen next week. Like, we've been planning this for 4 months and I'm still like not sure if it's gonna work out really well.

New countertops.

New countertops.

Painted cabinets.

Painted all the cabinets. Getting new hardware for the cabinets.

Going through all the junk.

Going through all the junk. KonMari-ing all the junk.

KonMari-ing, I like that as a verb.

This is moving over there. That's all coming down. We're gonna have floating shelves here. New light fixtures. Painting those pantries. We're probably moving the desk somewhere.

Yeah. Take a deep breath. How many, uh, how many more hours you're gonna spend finding a light fixture?

Not many more.

It's literally done.

I have to, I'm actually going to go buy stuff today that I haven't bought, like the countertops, because it's gonna be butcher block. So I need to buy the butcher block countertops and I need to buy Well, maybe I'll buy light fixture if I can find it in town, and I have to go buy paint.

And do you already know which paint, which countertop? Yes, it's just picking it up, stress-free.

Okay, I have to do— I am gonna get a screen room so that we can use an outdoor kitchen if we would like. And then tomorrow is like cleaning out this whole kitchen. And prepping it for Monday.

Okay. Good morning, Lily. Will you come help me bring in the milk? Thank you.

Is there any milk in the beer fridge?

There is. There's milk in both fridges. Are you taking that? Thank you. It just wasn't the box. It's breaking. Bless Rebecca's heart. We're reliving the bus build, it feels like, right now. It does.

What do you think about this thing?

I love it. I've said that 3 or 4 times to 3 or 4 different lots.

Well, the thing is, I can pick this up in town.

That's great.

So the other one, it's fine.

Okay, we're saving out a gallon for drinking, so then we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 gallons. The smoke party is almost over.

I know, because it's gonna be like 3 gallons sitting there next—

the week after next. But then she's gonna have another baby and there's gonna be like— she's gonna milk 3 gallons again in the morning.

Yeah, it's gonna be crazy. So it's probably good Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're getting this. It's like so intense.

Are you talking about the kitchen right now? It's consuming. It's gonna be— I'm glad it was your idea, just like the bus was. Yeah, yeah, so I think it turned out great. Let's go, Josiah. Let's see if we can't help, uh, Jonah for a little while. Do you want me to milk early, like go milk, or can I— should I go help Jonah with the sea monsters? He's got to move them.

Um, you can go help Jonah with this.

Okay, I'm gonna come help. You got feed out there? You got feed out there, Jonah? Jonah, do you need feed? He does. And yeah, we need to get the new feed out there anyway. We, we put the Cornish Cross off a week in butchering, uh, butchered a few a few days ago just to see, and they were okay, but I feel like they could go another week. And our butchering team— we actually ended up getting an even better butchering team because they're more available. So I think it worked out. We were able to put our chicks, our next chicks off. Good morning, everybody. Calf separation at night. Weaning you, Miss Thing. You'll get your mama in just a little bit. It's going pretty good. I mean, they haven't broke out of their fences. They are bellowing though. This is the craziness for a little bit, Jonah. No need to panic. We get our feeds over here and it's— I think we can pretty— we can herd them pretty easy. All right, bring the water, we'll get it filling up. They were there, they're gonna go right here. Donald, you been finding Waddle? I sort of hope you would, and you two fall in love. Maybe we can breed you guys in the spring. Come on, guys, let's go walk back and forth here in the back. Okay, there we go. All right, we got them to the edge. Now we got to get them around and in. We've got them around here. They see the feed. Good morning, Mr. Brown. Will you wear your snow boots? Because that's all I can find. Well, those don't match, but they are one left and one right. You want to wear those? Here come the cows. Oh, got about a gallon maybe and a quarter from flossing. Not yet done. Just remembered I need to turn off the swill. I can smell it walking through here. Let's double-check it. Are these carrots soft? Oh yeah, carrots are soft. Much more edible. Let that cool while we're milking. At the end of milking, we'll feed it to them in about an hour. What you doing, Mr. Brown?

Getting my chick some water.

You got a lame chick who wants the nurse. Yep, get some water in that. You got some feed too to give them?

Yeah.

Okay. All right, back to my office. I'm gonna take the full pail. Almost 2 gallons. There you go, honey. Okay, we're gonna see. You're probably full. We have to wean, or we have to dry you off, which involves cutting your ration in half and not letting the calf have you during the day and milking you just once. A day, so she's probably gonna be full today. There's your half a ration. Let's check out her udder. She's not exploding. Like, it's like she wants— it's like she does want to dry off, so that's good. That may not look like a slowdown, about a gallon and a half-ish, but it is because she hasn't— she didn't get nursed all day. That was 24 hours since she'd been milked. So she is slowing down. They're probably getting less and less this week, and then we'll completely cut her off so she can— she's got a baby in there, she's got a calf in there, and she needs to start putting all her energy into finishing off that calf. Look who's home from her great adventure! 5:15, you were gone, I would call it 6 hours, 7 hours.

I left at 12:30.

Okay. What do you have to show for this?

So, got this thing that goes— a hood vent. These are our count— some of our countertops and some of the floating shelves.

No, we got to see these countertops for a second. Butcher block countertops. We're going with the most eco-friendly—

we're trying, of course, nothing less. And then we got mortar and grout. I don't know if that's eco-friendly at all.

What's that for?

That's for the backsplash.

Okay.

Grandma is picking up the tiles because they didn't have enough tiles at the store that I was at, so we called another store.

Okay.

I got safety glasses.

Okay, this all begins Monday. Construction guys coming Monday.

I got some plugs, new plugs that we needed to have.

But tomorrow we're turning our dining room into a kitchen.

Yes, and then we're gonna use this shelf that I bought to put store stuff on. Okay, that's coming from the kitchen, and then I'm sure we'll store some stuff in the loft.

All right, I like it.

Also got paint.

I like it.

Milk paint. And I see it. I think there's something else.

I'm sure we'll have to go.

Kyle, have a look what I got.

What did this guy get?

A Dremel.

What does a Dremel do?

Okay, well, I call it a Dremel.

Well, what does it do?

It goes like this and it—

do you know what that does? I don't know what that means.

I'll show you, I'll show you.

Oh, it'll cut through metal?

It'll probably cut through metal too.

Oh, I know what you're talking about. Okay, well, you're ahead of me now on your tool knowledge.

And it came with a free battery and charger, and then the sander I bought came.

Okay, good. I'm happy for you. It's like a kid in a toy store at Lowe's. Oh snap, these are done! These are done! And I just realized I didn't put the marinade on it. I don't know what this is, butter concoction. Whoa, let's cook it in. Okay, hold on, let it melt in the top. These are guinea hog pork chops. Tell with the amount of fat on this. Here's your pork chops, beautiful one. Should I put a cloth over them to keep flies off?

We'll put them in the microwave. Obligatory last time.

Yes, ever do that because that's the only thing we use our microwave for.

We don't use our microwave for anything but to just store meat. We're cooking.

And now you're gonna have a hood vent. Oh no, get that out of the way. She's doing the happy kitchen renovation dance, y'all.

It's rough. Like, it's rough. Tomorrow, like, we're moving stuff out of the kitchen. I'm thankful that these things I can paint them in my own time, and I don't really have to wait for somebody to do that. I can kind of do it in pieces and it won't stress everything out. We're getting this out of here.

One small desk here.

We're gonna bring this together, and I have more of these shelves. Yeah, and we're gonna have shelving.

Yeah, and then the computer will just sit on— that was mainly because of the webinars. We do member webinars every 2 weeks, and the kitchen is a nice backdrop.

Well, and it's gonna be a really nice backdrop.

That would be a really nice backdrop instead of the hallway as a backdrop.

So, well, and I'm, I'm— I went to this, I went to this antique store today. They, they are the ones who carried the paint that I got. Oh boy, Justin, you're in trouble. Oh boy, he's in trouble, folks, because there is a million and a half things that I was like, hey, you deserve it.

You've been dealing with this grout coming through on the countertops for 17 years.

Wow.

They just had so much cute antiquey farmhouse stuff that I was like, yes, good, mama needs it. Mama's gonna get it.

Well, you delayed gratification long enough.

I really have.

It's time to spoil you.

Well, it really wasn't delayed gratification, it was more like I don't want to do a kitchen.

It's a pain in the butt. It's gonna be the worst 10 weeks, 10 days of our life.

No, no, I don't think it'll be that bad. I feel like I'm pretty set up with like having a nice table in there and a big shelf. I got a screen room coming from Amazon. It'll go out there with a sink in it and maybe a table out there where I bought plastic. We're gonna, we're gonna kind of do a bubble, not as intense as when we did the, the bubble in there, but to just kind of keep it from flowing freely.

How is it, guys?

10 thumbs up, 10 fingers up.

We grilled it. We grew it, and now we ate it.

Okay, everything we're eating here besides the butternut squash is from our farm. The onions, the zucchini, the pork.

Nice.

And the bacon grease that seasoned the pork.