How We’re Planting Seeds (in the Winter)

Turn compost now in a compost pile, it becomes— holy chicken squat— start seeds. So this is a compostable.

Yeah, you just rip it apart.

Minerals for all. All right, I'm gonna let you do it. Get in. Or if you're going with— I set those clothes out for you last night. Sweaters, coats, put them on and then come.

Okay, can you help me?

Wait, come here. If I help you And you want to go outside?

Yes.

But you'll stay, right?

Yes.

I'm glad this one doesn't have a hat on. I have my hat on, Papa. And I have my coat on.

March on out. Let's go.

I just don't have water.

Why are we not going? Come on. What'd you say?

I don't even think you put them in.

Yes, Mom and I put them in.

They're out. You did something wrong. Papa, get them back inside.

I see them with the sheep. I think they're just down near the thing. Hopefully they're not out. Yeah, just, just enough. He was telling me Moose and Hamburger were out, which is bad news. There'd be no milk. Shut the door, Jonah. Okay, let's go check. All right, get in. That was kind of crazy. I don't know what's going on. What's going on? Jonah's getting me. You're getting me. What?

Well, put those right up.

Why?

Because I don't want Lily to get them. My God.

Okay, but you need to have me call them back because I don't want to store a hunting vest, a fake water bottle up on top of my kitchen cabinets. I even found your boots last night and put them right there. Where are you going? Where are you going? Okay, to do minerals, we need to take pictures of maybe the minerals that we don't have that we need. Where's my phone? Over here. Sunday seed day is a special day. It's one day of the week— well, we don't edit and nobody's calling, nobody's open. It's the first day of the week. We sort of get a head start. We get to kind of focus all day on a project. We got to do the chores, but we have time to do a project, significant amount of time. Oh my word, bless him. Forgot to unhook this. Hopefully it didn't freeze last night. It froze last night. Ah, we're gonna absolutely destroy that hydrant. The way these hydrants work, if you don't leave them hooked up, the water will come down and it turns off way below the ground, below freezing. And a cold day. Water. Go around the cart. Here, do you want to, uh, do you want to ride? You can sit on this hay bale. You want to ride? All right, just kind of watch the water that it doesn't spill on you. Hey, were the calves separated? Oh good, it just looked like the calves were not separated. Just gonna splash all over you. All right, we're there. You want to stay in here? I gotta take the hay. You guys missed that. Anyway, I got the hay out of there. Asked him if he wants to go with me or stay. You're gonna stay?

There I go.

You're gonna go?

Yeah, I'm gonna pull.

No, like to the sheep. Okay, I thought you wanted to go. Okay, I'm confused. Wait, where are you going? Where are you going?

I want to go home.

Oh my God. All right, just tell yourself, Justin, that was worth it. Trouble getting him ready, spend a little QT with the boy. Like 10 minutes better. Nothing, right? Sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep. Let them know when they hear that call, something good happens. All right, let's chick. Minerals. Oh, we're out of mucho. Come on. Kind of wet. So we're probably gonna have to do flaps in here too, somehow or the other. So what about this side? This side too, pretty much depleted. Those two have gotten wet. We're gonna have to figure out a way to do flaps in here too. These guys are so scared of me. It's gotten worse. Come on, guys. I visit you every day. I throw hay bales every day. How's Penguin doing this morning, Birdo? Let me see her. You're gonna put her out in your Yard, or you putting her back? Okay, set her down, set her down. Good.

He's mad at me for taking her out.

Donald is? He's been a good guard goose. It's Mr. Brown. Hey, Mr. Brown, you didn't go in! You didn't go in! Good. You want to go milk with me? Okay, working with me is optional at this age. So important that they just enjoy the farm and associate the farm as something good. And then, and there's— in there. And then as they get older, the farming is something good and not drudgery, and they gradually work more and more. What you doing, Lily? What makes you want to work on the farm?

It's fun, Jess.

What? I'm about to go down. Come on.

I'm not going.

Don't come in. You want to come with, don't you?

No.

Oh, cloths. Dry enough. Forgot to do these last night. Actually, I think they're dry enough. Good morning, good morning. Just give me my alfalfa, just give me my alfalfa, she says. Just give me my alfalfa, just give me my— all right, I'll give it to you. One second. Let's say hello to Hamburger. Glad you guys didn't get out of your fence and get our morning milk. Glad you guys stayed in. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Moose. You ready to be weaned in about a month? You're almost 6 months old. That's my everyday. I never get sick of this part, like walking up to the house. With a heavy load of milk. It's 9 o'clock, not doing too bad. Some days we're done by this time, but I'd say we're only 30 minutes behind. It was worth it. I'm so tired. The longest time I felt guilty about sleeping. Feeling guilty right now, but I just remembered I heard a guy on a podcast say, don't feel guilty, feel smart. It's a good thing, sleep. Lots of it.

Can you get me some of the noodles?

No, get something else. Get a fruit, get it. Get some nuts, get some cheese. Look at you, you ready to go? I got one more cow to milk and then Okay, are we gonna put, uh, the, the paper needs to be laid down to cover up those cover crops, which I don't know, I'm gonna have to help you find the paper.

I know where the paper is.

Oh, you do? Yeah. Well then you're good. Rebecca's gonna give some love to our raised beds. This is a cover crop to keep the soil covered through the winter, mostly peas. She's gonna put down paper and then start putting soil on. You want to help her or me?

What you doing?

Milking a snack.

Which one you gonna work on? I might put the time lapse on you, huh? It doesn't matter to me, they've seen me milk a million times, so Wow, Rebecca, you've already gotten 2 beds filled! Good job!

It's because of my mighty men, right?

It's gonna take no time. So are we gonna do this today?

Um, no, we don't have to.

You're just doing these two?

Okay, I was just working on it. I was figuring if we do a little bit every day—

I'm gonna go throw the hay. Okay, and check the cow mineral. Now we're silage tarping it to keep it weed-free until it's ready to plant, right, Beck? Yep. You still starting seeds today?

That is the plan.

You open our gate, I'm gonna go check check our cows' minerals. Pretty interesting how they've eaten K. They've never eaten K, but what it's saying is there ain't no K in the ground over there. Looks good, Rebecca. That took no time at all.

Yeah, with the little helpers that I had.

Good job. Woo! Only 4 more to go. So today we plunge in honor of Anders Hoffmann, the first Antarctica Ironman. Like 3-mile swim, 111-mile bike trip, bike, something like that, and then a marathon. He's about to do the marathon and he's been moving for what, 30 hours?

For a day, yeah.

30 hours.

He's been going for a day.

That's a good accomplishment.

Yeah, and he's what? He's, he's not that old. He's a young man.

Yeah, he's a young Dane. If he can do it, we can do our 3 minutes in the creek.

That's right, because he's been doing like 30 hours. So in Antarctica.

For Anders.

For Anders.

Yay!

Woo!

All right.

Oh, it's extra cold today.

Holy cow. We just finished breakfast. The kids have scattered. Need them. Well, we want them. You got any idea where the kids are? Tools to turn compost. Here's a shovel. You goobs. So let's clean up around the stanchion. Let's clean up in the stalls where the cows are held. There's plenty of manure in there. Both stalls, mucho manure. Nice, full wheelbarrow load. It's been a couple of weeks. We get a good wheelbarrow load every week.

Oh yeah.

That's just from putting them up for what, an hour and a half?

Not even that long.

We have found our children. They're not exactly thrilled about it, are they, Becky? Yes, just turned it off. Let's put this at the heart of it, guys. That is a massive pile. Are you gonna do that? I was gonna offer to do that. It's a nasty job. There's so much poop. It's been, what, 2 weeks?

It's been too long.

Let's get some nitrogen for that pile. Oh my gosh! Oh, what? Rebecca, get a shot of this. Can you say nasty? Holy chicken squat.

Holy evil chicken.

Evil chicken poo. Evil chicken poo. Until—

even chicken pie is okay.

Now in a compost pile It becomes holy chicken squat.

Holy chicken squat? What?

Hey, wait, what are y'all, the crazy chicken lady? You turning the compost pile like a chicken? King of the compost.

Go crazy over it. This is candy.

Are you really?

Not candy.

Oh, the goose especially, she's going nuts for it. This is super convenient. Hallway tool hanging. It's looking good in here, guys. Look, it's so warm today. What, 60? 60 in here. Solar is heating up these I don't know, solar collectors, and it automatically opens the windows for ventilation. It feels nice in here. Look who else has figured this out. Have you found the warm spot? Oh, oh, look, somebody else is gonna take a nap, huh? You goobs. All right, let's go find the big—

it must be in the feeder.

It could be in the brooder.

Uh, it's not in here.

We have a big feeding pan that's perfect for mixing soil. It's just been a while since we've done it. I don't know where it is. It's right there, I think.

Where?

Oh no, that's a smaller one. Here it is. But we can use one of these, uh, these bigger plastic ones. Here you go, darling. We're gonna use our Coco Loco first.

I got a shovel to stir it.

Oh good, can you say coco loco?

Coco loco.

Oh, we got more help. Yeah, okay, good. Don't do the whole bag, right? I don't want it to be too deep. You want to turn that on, Gideon? Everybody wants to help. Turn it up.

Yeah, and then point it at it.

Other way. There you go. We, we gotta find our soil blocker. Oh boy, we have it. It's a bottleneck. Everybody's ready to go. Jonah said he likes soil blocks.

I did too.

So I guess we don't have enough. Rebecca didn't know. I was looking forward to this till I found out we're having to do soil. Anything gets hot, right? We could do all of these, but I guess we don't have trays for those. Or did you order trays? Well, how are you gonna set them?

Just gonna set them on this.

Really?

Yeah, right?

I think they probably are made for trays, aren't they?

I have no idea.

Surely. So this is a compostable—

yeah, you just rip it apart.

Wow, I think we can make it work. You could remove two. I think it's gonna be worth it to have them on trays. What do you think?

Okay.

Oh, they're easily torn.

Look.

Yeah, and then we'll just have these and we'll set these in a tray. So I'll have kids fill this up. Yeah, I got a job.

No, they're all trying to get this job. No, I'll put dirt in that.

There you go. Let Jonah do the soil blocks and you guys fill those up by hand. Don't compact it too much. Well, do you compact it? I guess it doesn't matter. What's the problem in here?

Look in there. Yeah, like, should we redo those?

Uh, probably. That's another good reason for these pots. You don't have to get it just perfect. It looks like you got a little better there. Did you just stuff it more? Yeah, I think we also need to make it more wet. Okay, Mom's putting more in there. Lily's stacking some. Did you guys see them? Window there at the end. There they are! She's done locking her greenhouse. I don't blame you. We didn't show the part where it was so messy in here that we had to take 25 minutes to clean it all up. Yeah, and it wasn't you.

Things were destroyed.

You didn't put rocks on top of them.

No, or in my clothes or whatever.

Well folks, she let me come in for some tea. We had just had a break. She let us all take a break.

You're funny.

We appreciate it. You sure that's all of them? Here you go. Yeah, cow and luchadors. You might want to bring some, uh, cloths too. I'll stack 2 hay bales on top of each other because you're going to need a lot of room for minerals. All these buckets?

Yeah.

Okay, I think we can put another row of buckets right here. We might be able to put some on top of each other up top. Look who's with— we decided to jump in. We're going to see the cows anyway. Awesome. All right, we're gonna grab that mineral shawl and bring it over here to be serviced. Get more than that. Oh, it goes in this one right here.

Sorry.

He said sorry.

He said okay. Well, this one right here. You got it?

Yeah.

All right, I'm gonna let you do it. Good job. Yeah, we're spreading the hay out around here, Arthur. Just where you don't see hay. Look at that. I never tire of that view, do you, Rebecca?

No, I know, it's the best.

It's a great—

such a beautiful view today.

Grab some. Don't worry, I'm staying right here with you. Grab some hay. I don't like turned over. Spread it out here. Cow's fine. Is he scared of the cow? A little bit. That's good. You want to be scared of the cows just so you're careful. Yeah, he's a little scared, but he loves him. He loves coming out. Well, they're like 6 times as tall as him. Yeah, we're taking advantage of the last of winter moving, um, only every 3 days but in huge paddocks. So before we start having to move them every day big distances, let's move this at least. Okay, king of the hay pile. She barely, barely let me touch him. I won't hurt you guys. You can live long, happy life. It's giving us lots of babies.

Yeah, they don't need it.

They slowing down on their minerals finally? Yeah, you guys catching up? You catching up, Belle? Should put salt on my hand or something because she's really wanting to lick my hand. Let's get the calves in. Wilder, you up for herding some calves? I bet you would be. Walking straight down, and they know by now where we want them to go. Keep going, guys, you're doing great. Come on, there you go. Moose has spotted it. Follow them, Becky. This is getting so easy. You're saying bye to the cows? What about the bull? Yeah, one more group of animals to service, and they are a nervous wreck, so here goes nothing. It had been a while since we serviced their mineral, so they're out. Why we're out? Hey, we're going to move it to the second Is that how you did? Did you jump off when we went?

No.

How'd it go?

Right up.

Yeah! I can see it. 1, 2, 3, go! You can run!

Woo!

Ow!