How We’re Planting PEPPERS (Totally Different)

Another late start. 47 degrees this morning. It's the last day of May. That's why I love calling North Carolina home.

Did you call her this when we came home from Florida?

Yes. I think I just saw a cat sneak in. Did you guys see that? Come on, cat. Come on.

Oh yeah.

All right, come on. Come on, Almanzo. Are you hungry? I'll get you something.

Buckle this.

Hold on. Hey guys, go! Boy, you appeared out of nowhere. There you guys go. My heel is starting to feel a little bit better, so maybe that rest, uh, yesterday helped. Maybe just time and movement helped. Maybe the ice bath helped. Oh my word, looks like a Nerf gun course. Did you find another net? Wait, do we need to get any more?

There's no more.

That's a chicken one, that's a gate, and that's all pigs. Okay. I think it might be a mid-spring slump. Like, you get going, you're getting going hard, and then you just get tired and need a little rest before you go again. Hey, don't, don't, don't! That's not helping. Okay, please don't do that. Jonah called me out and said, go to Wonderland, Papa. And I said, I can only go so far. Water World is not one of them. All right, so we're gonna have to get these peppers in though. I'm thinking we ought to do these watermelons too. Is that the water line up high on that? Yeah. Okay, the water waterline's high on that one. You guys got plenty of food. I don't smell any smells. Good job, guys. Just one sea monster has died. They got grit. These guys still have their grit. We haven't had to feed either set of our pigs in days. Skim milk, food scraps, deep bedding, corn buried in it. You carry that? I didn't think so. Speaking of, Carrie got real serious about working out, about training, about Strength training. You bring that feed pan, okay? Thanks. If I'm honest with myself, I'm not really gonna do this enough. And if I do, you know, like, like make farm chores a workout, and if I do do it enough, like The proper movement, safe. Maybe that's what happened to my heel, I don't know. I threw my feet down over and shouldn't have. One of you guys actually told me about this workout called Simple and Sinister. You coming in? You want to pet one? How you doing, beefcake? Doing good. So it sounded good. I read the description and it's supposed to help you in like everyday athletic, just regular achievements, just like real practical. And I'm like, oh, that might be good. Turns out it's a simple— oh, go ahead, you pet one. Turns out it's a simple Russian kettlebell training. I started reading the book and I liked it, but then I found out they had certified trainers. I'm like, is there one near me? There was. He's coming today, and Rebecca's gonna do it too.

Who's coming today?

My kettlebell trainer. Figured, want somebody to help us get started with that so we don't hurt ourselves. We don't have much weight training experience, period, let alone kettlebell.

You get us here, I don't think they're so nice. They want to eat you.

Well, they're nice for sure when they have something else to eat. It's a little easier than us. We'd be kind of hard for them to eat. It definitely goes for what's easier. Before we go, I should show you this pathetic garden we did plant in compact fill dirt. These guys are struggling, but you know what, look, something came up next to that one that's not struggling so bad. Is anybody doing any good? They're all super yellow, except this one's kind of green. This one's kind of green. Yeah, that's not a good sign if they flower already. They're already trying to make fruit and they're not ready. They're desperately trying to reproduce themselves because they know the situation is not likely. We'd really hope those squashes and watermelons would make it because, one, they sprawl and they keep our winter sacrifice area nice and weed-free and beautiful, and two, it's a lot of food. That's one of those things that's going to take time. Those wood chips are going to break down The soil is going to get better. We're going to have cows and sheep on it again next year. Washed our feed pans. Those will now sit in the great sanitizer of the sun, and we'll use those tomorrow. And we'll pull out the pigs' old feed pans. And then we have this scrap water. I kind of broke the permaculture rules. I thought kind of maybe a bad idea to put strawberry and asparagus in zone 1.5, 2. That's so close to the house it doesn't require a lot of visits, uh, but this, believe it or not, even though it's so close, it does get kind of neglected. So it's more like zone 2. But to tell you the truth, it kind of ended up being one of the best things I've ever did because it, it could use some watering, and we have our water system there, and we have all this scrap water that we were just growing, and now we water our asparagus and strawberries. Next idea would be— you want to drain this for me, Josiah? Sure. It's our cold plunge. It's pollen and mosquito stuff in it. Well, we drain it. Wouldn't that be cool if it went into like a little system and, and ultimately fed a little garden here? Flower bed, something. That— told Gideon to get in. He has fun, increases the weight. Oh, before we do the sea monsters, we should do the luchadors. That was a workout. Just thought, thank you for getting that and filling that up. Things are shifting around for them soon. Escalito will be harvesting, putting Buddy in here, Band Buddy. This week, which will enable— disable him from having offspring. And he'll be Nacho's partner. He's real calm, he's like a pet. Escalito, not so much. And I don't know how well health he's in. He's got— he never sheds real nice. He gets diarrhea more frequent than Nacho. Before we go to the sea monsters, I'm just curious, let's check this real quick. I have to have a strand above these tomatoes. Could we hang on that door? Maybe, but there's not one that same height on the other side. Does it matter that it would slope up? I don't know, but I think, I think we're gonna need to build temporary trellises here. That's tricky.

Hmm, I wanted to go like that and use those lines.

Yeah, when you— we're going to do that with our cucumbers too. One of you guys had an idea: once you plant your cucumbers over here and let it run up the cattle panel. Yeah, that, that's actually a really good idea. I wish I would have thought that before I planted the cucumbers. It's brilliant. You know, we could say things in our heads all day long, seems like a great idea, but actually, until you actually try it, you don't know for sure. I just passed these pig panels. I'd be tempted to do that. I'd be tempted to put T-posts in and just put these panels up as a trellis. Feels like it might be easier. Do you have any more panels, Josiah? We have some short ones in this— in the metal stall. Wonder about like these metal gates. That have been discarded. Josiah, we lost somebody in that detour. Gideon! His truck's right there. Jonah found Gideon in the house. He won't listen to him though, doesn't believe him. Just remember, I'm not out here doing chores. I'm out here doing chores with chiddlers. Come on, Gideon! Gideon, let's go! Okay, you hiding under the chair? Come on. Sure, I'm growing sea monsters, but first I'm growing chitlars. It's hard to grow you without tending to you, so come on. All right, we were just heading back out. Now Mama needs to talk to me about Memorial Day. I couldn't wait. All right, well, I'm gonna clean the garden of peace.

I'm gonna clean the house.

It's Memorial Day today.

Yeah. Oh my goodness, happy Memorial Day. Is that what you wanted to tell me?

Oh, in the military. Lily asked.

All right.

Um, no, Jonah wants to do a party, a barbecue.

Okay, well shoot. Okay, what was planned for the meal today? We have to look. I think it might be meat. It was meatloaf.

We can bake cookies with Will today.

Just turn into hamburgers. Jonah, you're not cleaning the house. That was the deal. He could skip milk, clean the house. I think he's conspiring about their dessert tonight that I can't have, but I don't want to be a party pooper. Let them have their dessert. What do you have, a roadblock? 2 and a half weeks to butchering. They're looking good. All right, we're done morning chores. It's milking time. Little man, you be going with us in no time. You be going with us. Is that your buddy Teddy? They have a special relationship. Hey, we're gonna go plant your peppers. All right guys, come on, let's go. Let's get our peppers. One every foot for an entire row, that'd be 50. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 times 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Yeah, that should be plenty. We're going to start squash. It's hot now, so we would vent our greenhouse and put shade cloth on it. Call the Inquirer. We've got a couple of trails where they're supposed to be. Who are you? Are you a sand person? That's actually pretty good. Okay, now we need 2 rebar stakes. Grab 2 rebar posts. Hey, Gideon, can you take your socks off, bro? No. Put your shoes on then.

Ah, you go— can you help me take off my socks?

Yeah, we go barefoot or we take our socks. We go barefoot or we put shoes on.

All right.

You know, last time I couldn't find my tape measure. This is literally— somebody asked me what would be the very first tool I would buy if you were starting over the homestead, had nothing. You would want to get a tape measure. It'd be the very first thing you'd want to run across that finger. What are you looking for?

Your Leatherman. It's right here.

You can measure stuff for planting. You've got to measure boards before you make the cut to build something. Yeah, so I got me a nice one. Okay, uh, let's go 30, 30 inches from this cucumbers and then we'll plant peppers. Say right there.

That thing is really doing good.

Now here in this garden, our plants are doing better. Tomatoes jamming, every one of them. Cucumbers are struggling a little bit, but they were already struggling because they were kind of old, but I think they're reviving. That's good because this is Beauty's garden. She gets really excited about tomatoes and cucumbers. I get more excited about the kind of veggies I can eat. Well, I guess technically they're fruits— the squashes and watermelon. Thank you, Arun. Arun has drawn our line. Okay, Josiah, we can plant a pepper every foot. I think the beautiful one still wants to plant beans in there and sweet potatoes. But look, I wanted to show you guys this. The potatoes are flowering. Beautiful, beautiful purple flowers. We actually know when the potato's ready when they have flowered and actually the plant has died, like browned. Then the potatoes are ready. Meanwhile, little baby is just happy as can be. Are you happy? And he's actually letting you cook. Yeah, like he sits there and you actually do something. You and Jonah— where's Jonah? He's supposed to be helping you, isn't he? Why are you laughing?

Nowhere to be found.

Okay, I actually had to crash. I just took a 45-minute nap, but I feel much better. Feel much better. Hey, hey, he's laying there listening to his audiobook saying, it's still happening. Oh yeah, it's still happening.

It's still happening.

You just gonna show up? He's just in time to lick the batter. Yeah, drive your mom nuts.

This is a pound cake, uh, like a loaf.

Y'all are really making a pound cake?

Um.

And you're gonna make ice cream?

I don't know if I want to make ice cream because I don't want to do it.

I can make it for you guys.

I was just gonna make whipped cream.

If you guys honey sweeten it, I will eat it. Since y'all have turned this into a special occasion, and I ordered a watermelon, can we honey sweeten it, or do you have to have maple syrup? Ice cream also happens to be one of the most easiest— well, and it's very much animal-based. These are the ingredients: eggs, cream, milk, a little bit of vanilla, some honey. It wouldn't be the Burnout Cooking Show If the cream wouldn't come out, we'd have a problem. There's one. Look at that cream though. Now I smell it.

I'm gonna make mayo now.

Is it bad?

You make me some mayo. No, it's good. 1½ cups of milk. This is all raw too. Whoa! 2 tablespoons vanilla. This is like a super dessert. Super good for you. We're gonna do 4 egg yolks, so we're gonna capture the whites just right running it. Can you see that going through my fingers, Jonah? I just let the whites go through my fingers and then you slip the yolk in there. 1/2 cup of honey. I talked the beautiful one in to let me do honey instead of maple syrup. Mom's got the mayonnaise going. Now we put it in our Italian ice cream maker. We ain't making memories, we already made the memories. Now all we do is push a button. Well, actually, we turn a knob.

And then you push them, compress them, and they come back in 30 minutes.

That's kind of anticlimactic.

Both of them. Did you plug it in?

I thought I did. Oh, first you got to plug it in. I got excited.

So there's two moves.

You got to plug it in, put your sensors on, and turn it all the way on. Well, I just sat with Mama. She had lunch. I'm old Madden. And we watched Jason's video from Sow the Land, eating carnivore for 2 months. Healed his skin rash. Jason, I'm so happy for you. So happy for you. Now look, all the while this just happened. I mean, seriously, look at this. Really so good. I want you guys to see this. This is a week's worth of meat. Basically all I eat, but the kids and them eat a lot. We've got beef ribs. I don't know if I've ever had beef ribs. Have you, babe? We've got fishy Friday, so we get a salmon, wild salmon and a Pacific cod from Wild Alaska Company. We've got a duck from our farm, a ham from our farm. It's our last ham, Becky, for a couple— for several months we won't have another harvest. We have lamb. We do not— guys, we're having a lamb harvest, but none of that'll be for us. That's all old lambs, isn't it? Next week. So that'll be food for the pigs and for Teddy. But, um, we have, uh, lamb from Wellness— U.S. Wellness Meats— ground lamb, uh, chicken for chicken tacos. And I think that's, that's 7— that's a week's worth of meat right there, most of it from the farm.

Tomorrow, Claire, our sheep mentor, we're meeting her for the first time in person. Which is exciting. Um, she's coming to band.

Yeah, Buddy, because Buddy is going to take Escalito's place next week. We approved the vlog, uploading that. Becca, I think the trainer's here. You ready? You ready for this? I don't even think you have any idea what you're getting into.

I know a little bit.

All right, I know this, we're going to be an anomaly. Like, he's probably normally going to suburbs, people in stretchy pants. I'm in a collared shirt, duds. You got a nursing mom. I skimmed the book until I saw that they had a training program. Yeah. So then I looked it up and I found you. Yeah. So that's the extent of our knowledge here. Good, good.

Yeah, we don't know. I don't know anything.

You've got a kettle— small one? Yeah, small kettlebell.

So this is a 26. Yeah, so this is a 12K. Kettlebell people always speak in kilos.

Okay, okay.

So, and then we have a 6K or 12-pounder, 13-pounder, and then that's gonna be mine for demo sake. So we got the mat here. See the accidents that have happened over the years dropping the kettlebell? Yeah, busting a hole in there.

Yeah.

But anyway, so they always advocate for people to read the book like 20 times.

Wow.

Reading it over and over today, like this weekend.

Nice.

Uh, when I knew I was working with you, I went through again and just kind of skimmed over it again. Um, uh, but you got me, so you gotta get—

okay, yeah, you've read the book for us, buddy. Yeah, yeah. Well, that was the coolest workout I've ever been at. We basically did a warm-up and a cool-down.

Well, we're just—

because we're learning. But I'm so glad he's here to learn because I, I don't know if I'd ever be confident from just the book?

No, I don't think I would.

Was I doing it right? I don't know. Knowing me, I'd freak out too much. What are you looking for?

Why did I have this here? I'm not sure.

Uh, hot dogs? She's made baked beans. We've got mashed potatoes. We've got broccoli. Carnivore section over here. We got bacon and meatloaf burgers. And hot dogs on the grill. Grass-fed beef hot dogs. I like your rooster and hen bed. Are you born into something else? He fits right in. Animal-based? Normal? How's it— how is it?

Good. I don't like broccoli, so I'm eating it.

You eat it first and then eat the rest?

I eat what I don't like and then I eat what I do like.

All right. Henry's on the, uh, carnivore diet. 200 and something fats. In that breast milk. Is that right, Victor? 105 fats. How many? 205. 205. He's probably the healthiest of us all. Only breast milk, not even water. Are you a beans and, and meat kind of guy? Yeah, I like the decor with the mint. Who did that?

Lily.

Nice Memorial Day meal. Beautiful weather. Nice meal out on the porch.

And thank you.

On the porch.

Thank you to all the people who are celebrating for their sacrifice.

Yep.