Henry’s 5th Birthday Special

Happy birthday, Henry! We woke up to a little bit of a surprise. Holy moly, where's all the snow coming from? And it's 17 degrees out there, not counting the wind chill. Rebecca, myself, Lily, Jonah were all sick yesterday. Gideon and Henry had it before us. We want to pig out on pizza tonight. At Henry's birthday. Birthdays are very special to us. But the question is, did Josiah get it? If he got it, it's over. Still feel good? Mm-hmm. You didn't throw up last night? No? Okay. She's fine. Although there has been day separations between each other getting it. Hey, happy birthday!

What did you get me for my birthday?

Oh, socks and underwear, of course. Socks and underwear. How old are you? Ah! Oh, how much? Alright. What'd you get him, Lily?

Um, something.

What'd you get him, Gideon?

Socks and underwear.

Oh, 2 packs of socks and underwear.

Papa, you know what Donut got me? He got me a multiple photo show.

Did he?

He did. You don't know that.

What's your goal for today, applesauce boy?

Eat applesauce.

Any other goals since it's also your birthday?

Open up presents.

Oh, and eat. Oh, what you gonna eat?

Broccoli?

Salmon? Broccoli? Salmon? No, pizza.

Pizza.

Beck, you gonna let him open a present early? No, after chores. Sure, she's gonna let you open a present early after we get done with these cold chores. You hold down the fort. It's 17 degrees, not counting the wind chill. Hey, we'll all try a little food, a little light brunch when we get back. Okay, now to dealing with frozen waters. You know what they say in Honduras? Febrero es loco. We were not expecting this. I mean, look at this. This is Operation Survive this morning. What are you doing? Why are you going so slow?

I don't want to die.

Hey. Oh, they're okay. Look at that. We should probably go give them some hay, huh?

Yeah, they get all— they push up all the hay.

Don't keep it on one spot too long. Hey, that's enough. Hold it a little further off of it. Wait, you're gonna burn the grass. Let go now. See if it's unfrozen. Wait. Okay. No! Okay, hold on.

We need to burn it so it melts it. The torch actually does it, but there's plastic and stuff in there.

There is, and you'll melt it. There's plastic components to this nipple. You get it? He's a persistent little guy. I think I have the patience. I think I'm ready to go find a pan and just get him some water out of the creek. Be blinking green, I'm pretty sure, and it's only hitting at 3.3 right here. So something is wrong. Something's wrong with the Energizer. You do know? You know what it is?

Yes.

What? Not plugged in. It is. I got it blinking again, but it's not blinking green. It's only hitting that 3.3. Oh, there it is. Oh, is it grounding? Oh, the grounding rod— grounding wire was broke. Or did you just break that? No, it was not. Listen to that. Ah, why wasn't that it? Why do we have these problems when it's 17 degrees out? Probably has something to do with the cold. Found this in our junk. I wonder if this is— I wonder if this actually works. That didn't work. Duh, that needs to be thrown away.

Would you expect—

go put that in the trash.

The 1986—

oh my gosh, we've got it! We gotta do this. Gosh, Gideon, we gotta hope that the breeder pigs' trough heater works. We're going to be dealing with getting them water too. He's seeing if their fence is working, but there's no way if it's not even hitting at 5 at the source. How? I think it's just cold. Yeah, I think that's something to do with it, but it's still hitting, so it doesn't matter. That shouldn't it hit green though? Should not like hit green, or am I crazy? It should be, but if it's working, then who cares? All right, you test the net? Yes. All right. Hey, that's just water in their feed pan. I think they're done.

Now we just carried out that for no reason.

We can't put it in this anyway. Yeah, that's got a hole in it. The old faithful gravity-fed water, always clean, never frozen. The creek— oh, we should go see if the chicken's water Everflow froze. And guess what? The high today is 27, so these waters aren't going to thaw out today. Oh, I'm feeling it, buddy. It's kind of weird to be out here the day after being sick. Animals don't care. Animals don't care if you feel sick. If you just don't feel like it, if you're injured, they still got to get their water. If it's 17 degrees, they still got to get their water. They especially have to get their water. Cows' trough hot water heater is working, and so is the sheep's. Let's go check the pigs. Hopefully that hasn't been cold long enough and the trough heater is working in it. First, let's check the chickens. Still flowing? We're still flowing! Look at that, look at that! No electricity required, no hot trough, no trough required. Trough heater. It's coming in and out. Terrible. What are we doing? What are we doing out here? This is nuts. I did not expect this. I expected to be cold. I did not expect the snow. As Gideon said, they were just swimming last week. Is this kind of fun for you now?

My hands are frozen. My glove got water on it, now it's frozen.

Well, it's kind of fun, right? Because it's bad weather, snow. I know when I used to run, I used to love it when it was the worst weather— the hot, the very hot, extreme hot day, or extreme cold.

Half the water's just because it's different.

Does that translate onto homesteading? No, no, no.

Dairy Dangers. I took care of those.

Oh my gosh, okay, that did it. I was hungry, now I'm not hungry. Exerting, exerting the exertion. Felt my tummy. What'd you just wrap?

Uh, I don't know.

Go ahead.

Magnet tiles!

Magnet tiles.

Are we ready?

Having pizza tonight, I hope. Hopefully we can get our bellies up to it. Gonna make some mozzarella off of Ruth Ann Zimmerman's recipe. I'm not gonna act like I know how to make mozzarella. This will actually be my first time. Beautiful one, but she was hit the hardest with this illness. Dissolved citric acid. Add the dissolved rennet. Cover. This supposed to have curdled into cheese within 10 minutes. 10 minutes. Do we have a separation?

What?

This is magic. All right, this is the first time I've made my curds. Look at that, look at that, it has separated. Seen Beautiful One do this. All right, those are supposed to rest for a few minutes and sink to the bottom. Okay, we're trusting you, Ruth Ann, we're trusting you. Set a timer for a few minutes. 3 minutes. Okay, I guess that's what a few minutes is. Maybe it sank. I mean, that's probably as low as it'll go. 2 or 3 cups of whey out. All right, half a cup of salt to the whey. Temperatures are out the window on the recipe. That's probably where I'm gonna need a beautiful one now. Stir to break up any curds larger than 2 inches, which is everything. It said to stir to anything that's over 2 inches, but they're starting to clump. Okay, well, how do I break them up and let them clump?

At the same time.

I don't understand that.

This is how you're supposed to stir with your hand.

Oh, okay.

And what you're doing is you want them to come in the balls.

Okay, you want them to clump together until they clump in the balls to where they can be stretched. So did we turn the heat off? Nope, keep it on. Keep it on medium heat. Heat.

That's what you want.

And how did you learn this? You follow this? She has a video instruction. You watch the video? Oh, you got to get to the point where they'll stretch without tearing or breaking.

Correct.

And the heating them up does that.

Whoa, how do I keep doing that?

Give hugs before you go. Oh, Mom got to have it first though. All right, goodbye. Bye. All right, be dangerous.

Be dangerous.

Yeah, be dangerous. Going to the dump. Justin, he wants to go with you, right? Cuz you get him a snack after. Is that what it is? I don't know.

I think that it wouldn't be.

A good 30 minutes later, I think I'm done. Better have the, uh, beautiful one check though. This is supposed to stretch without tearing.

See how it's still kind of tearing there? So then you just put it back in and let it like heat up some more.

She says medium heat, but I feel like our oven is—

I feel like our oven is high.

Yeah, it's done.

Okay, so this one I think is almost done.

So now you're shaping them and giving them a little more time. You can let it cool a little bit. Makes me feel Italian or something. All right, we're putting in our whey salt. And how long does it have to be in that? 4 hours, because I'm gonna start putting this on a cycle and we're gonna start putting this in the freezer. Yes, we'll use this because look, we didn't lose anything either besides the, the mozzarella. We didn't— it's not like we wasted skim milk. We now have whey, which I think the animals will like even more. Don't you think the animals will like that even more?

Oh yeah, pigs definitely like so much.

Look at this: chocolate, strawberry, vanilla. Josiah and Gideon on a dump run.

Josiah and Henry.

That's right, Josiah and Henry. Hey, you're back! How was it?

I'm back. We got snacks. We were sitting in Pokéball for a long time until Dad was here.

Hey, I see the snack on your face. How many did you eat?

I ate this one, this one, and then the other one.

You ate more than one?

There's 6 in a package.

And I ate one. And you'll have one extra for Lily?

Oh yeah.

Did you swallow a watermelon?

I didn't.

Feels like it. Lily! Where you at? Making some crust for Henry?

Yeah, can you put those in the lower oven? Let me go back again.

You still playing Magna-Tiles? 3:15. Holding in well? Well, we're gonna— you wanna go? It's kinda cold.

Well.

Afternoon chores. After that, we're gonna cook mean pizza. And apparently plain noodles.

I wanna open up presents before we eat cake.

You wanna open up presents first, huh? Before cake. Okay. Gideon, will you get our fire going again please? Please Gideon, I'm about to go freeze. Gideon, you're on birthday boy duty, okay?

Okay.

Get some shots. I gave him my GoPro, we'll see. Josiah, you wanna divide and conquer these ice chores? Sure. I'll do the cows and the big pigs. You do the skiers and the little pigs? Yeah. Yes.

We have a spaceship, we have a— we have the sail sail, we have the spaceship, and then we have our handle.

Cool.

Well, I think I have a pretty good idea. We have to get those ship parts though. Go get those parts. I'll build the ship.

This makes it easier. It has thawed out at least around the nipple and all the way up to here. I think they're able to get water out of it. I'd like to see one of y'all drink it, although I think one of them was drinking it on the way up here. Come on, get a drink, get a drink for the show. Do it for Henry's birthday. No, I'm already out here with some water, so I might as well just do it.

Look at this. Whoa! Never mind.

We are back. Getting ready for this party. I do have good use for this whey though. Soak the chickens' feed. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You're gonna play nice. Look at all those presents.

That's a big one.

You're gonna like the big one?

Yeah, I think it's a semi-massive semi-carrot.

I think it's a big load of underwear.

That'd be a lot of underwear. But this would be a tiny bit of underwear. I'd go with that much underwear.

Yeah. This one's for me.

And that's a shirt. That's a sweater.

We're getting ready for the party. Cue up some Morgan Wallen. Improve the mood. What are you adding to these cakes?

It's like a hot fudge layer. I'm gonna put it in here and then put this in the—

is it a binder?

No, it's like a middle of the frosting.

Look, Henry, you got visitors! Wait, he just gave you a card. Come back, you can open it. There it is. What is it, a gerbil?

Oh my gosh, do not give us—

Whoa! Banana? Banana?

Yeah. All right.

Oh, look! And a banana! And it's a banana, Henry. Say thank you.

Toot toot!

Woo!

Oh, happy Henry was born.

You like that?

What'd you go for first?

The pizza!

You're talking about the big present. You're gonna go for the big present first? He thinks the big present is a semi. You're gonna be disappointed. All right, why are you so smart?

Whoa, whoa, okay, so that's sat under there. Whoa, butts!

Yay!

Thank you, Papa. Thank you, Papa.

Oh, oh, it's a wooden airplane.

Say thank you, Dada. Thank you, Dada.

You saw this in Whole Foods one day and said you wanted it.

Whoa, it's a ladder! Yeah, it actually—

it's a fire truck. Fire truck. This is a good one. Who gave this one?

Do you need help getting it out?

Too close. Now pull it up. Pull it out. No disappointment there, Beck. Good job. And that one's from your mom. You guys want to see us calves separate? I should have opened this up. Now shut this door, and if the sheep get out, they're easy to put back in. Then that wasn't too bad. And in a few days that calf will just walk in there, won't she? Just get— just that. Yeah, look at this. The pizza was great, although we didn't eat as much as we did because I'm sick. We'll actually have leftovers tomorrow because I'm sick, Papa. Yeah, look, sundrops.

Happy birthday, dear 3. Happy birthday to you. Don't blow it out yet.

Now you gotta blow it out in one try or you don't get the wish. Oh, forgot his 5 shirt. I'm 5 and I'm digging it. Uh oh.

Henry. Uh oh.

Henry, Henry. I'd say he likes it. Do you want to end it? Happy day?

Happy day.