I Admit I’m NOT Sustainable, but a SAP

Look who's got the baby this morning. You on baby duty this morning?

Yep.

Oh, he's asleep on you. Yeah. Mr. Brown, you ready to go do chores? Teddy, you want to go outside? Want to go outside? What do you got in there, loose tooth? Okay, you ready for me to pull it?

I got two.

You want me to pull one of them?

Pull the upper one, it's bigger.

Let me try. I think it needs a little more time. Good morning. Did you collect eggs this morning or last night?

Last night and this morning, since there were so many eggs.

We found it's best to get eggs at night just in case it freezes overnight, just in case the chickens get bored and peck them. Hey, how's Zariah coming with us this morning?

Yeah, uh, buddy, we're gonna get the work done now.

Is that it? Pretty sure that's it. That was it. Now we got all 6 of our raised beds covered. I'll be honest, I was skeptical of the raised beds at first, but they were so productive, so easy. I'm actually trying to convince Rebecca to— that let's let that be all the gardening we do. Well, beside our— besides our greenhouse, those are good for winter crops. And we keep the animals in one of them and then move the animals out. You want to put something in there like tomatoes or cucumbers. Let's check up on them real quick. Hey, how's it going?

Good.

You got him in the bouncy seat?

Yeah.

What happened?

Just easier if I put him in here because I can hold his pacifier.

This is good. This is, this is why you got you doing this, so Mom can take her bath. You can help with the baby. How are they doing down there? Oh, okay, everyone's covering stuff. All right, I'm gonna get down there and help them milk. Here's my reasoning on that gardening thing. Well, it's very hard to source good clean meat, and we could use more pastures. This is our crop garden area. It doesn't seem like much, but that's, that's a couple more days of grazing in the cycle. So several days, if not a couple of weeks, through the season. And good clean meat and dairy are hard to come by. Vegetables though, not as much. I mean, you can get organic vegetables in the store. There are many market farmers around. Good morning, guys.

Good morning.

So what if we could make a deal with a local farmer? Maybe even a trade, you know, somebody like our buddy, uh, Casey at Honey Tree Farm. Like contract him to grow our crop gardens like onions and potatoes and sweet potatoes and things like that. And theoretically, we'd have more meat available for trading. It's just a thought. Plus, you guys know I really love meat, so I'll work through that social spousal dynamic. I don't think it's going to happen this year, but just— it might never happen. Just thinking out loud with you guys. Just to get us thinking outside of the box. Well, what about 100% sustainability? What about that? Well, well, I've got a— I've got a bull for the cows, I've got a ram for the sheep, got a boar for the pigs. See where I'm going with this? I've got rooster for the chickens. That is a plethora of non-stop nutrient-dense food if the crud hits the fan, you know what I'm saying? And Rune just made a joke, or a good point, And you've got Justin for Rebecca.

Yeah, that's how you grow Farmer Henry.

So we grew Farmer Henry. That's how theoretically we keep on going for a little while anyway. I'd say we're pretty sustainable. You could live on that and keep, keep expanding your family. So I'm happy with that, but my goal is never to be 100% sustainable. That'd be 100% not dependent on the community. I think the community is a good thing. I think we want to build and nurture community. What a world it would be if we didn't have friends and neighbors that counted on us and that— and where we counted on them. So I always, uh, want to keep that network open because I don't think any of us would be where we are without each other. And so each other are important. So never do I want to be 100% sustainable. I was just talking with the kids. They got up early this morning. You guys know what that means, right?

Yeah.

What does it mean? Do you know what they say?

Yeah.

What do they say?

You get healthy, you get wealthy, and you get, um, wise.

That's pretty much it. Early to bed. Say it with me.

Early to bed, early to rise.

Make one healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Make one healthy, wealthy, and wise. Healthy and wise.

What's wise?

That's why your dad started the company called Early Birds Rice.

That's right, it was Early Bird Trading Company. Yeah, that's right, because the early bird gets the worm. Josiah, what does wealthy mean?

Uh, I don't really know, but I think like rich.

Well, I think it could be rich in the sense of your needs are taken care of, you got a nice community. You're well provided for. What's healthy mean?

Um, you eat good food and you have a lot of fresh air and you exercise.

I like it. All right, well, I like those 3 things. What about you guys?

Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Arun, have you heard that saying before?

Which one?

Early to bed, early to rise makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Yeah, I heard your daddy say this to you.

My dad? And Arun were like best friends. It was fun to see the little Indian man with the, uh, the big southern man, the southern old man, 40 years and 87 years hanging out. Because he kind of adopted Arun when we went on a Great American Farm Tour. Remember that? You stayed in our house.

Yeah, he came. He used to bring some fruits.

Yeah.

So he used to say— so one time he just showed up, uh, and with the orange and banana, he said, let's keep family tradition. Like, oh, because he used to bring for you guys, remember, for your kids every time, he— orange and banana.

That's right.

Yeah.

How's my baby's mama and my baby? He's good. We're on a good mood. See, Jenna got you a snack. That's good.

Breakfast. Yeah.

The meals begin.

Yeah, I know, right?

I've been watching the vlogs with me and him. I'm a big old sap.

You are. He is a big old sap. He's really—

You're really— Oh my gosh, I kissed him so much.

You're really enjoying him. I'm really enjoying him too.

Justin the sap.

He is a sap. He's all about this. Why'd you get all dressed up?

I just feel better that way.

You got your tag showing right there.

Oh. I feel like a slob when I— I'm like looking at you and I'm like, where's he going?

Because I'm not going nowhere.

Just call me Mr. Rogers. I come in from the farm, I come in the house and change my clothes. This is— my house clothes.

This is my uniform.

That's okay.

My black poofy pants.

Do you feel pressure?

And a t-shirt.

I don't mean to make you feel pressure, but I just feel better. Is this what she wants me to wear around the house? I did fold them up because I don't want to wash them. I want to wear them again. But yeah, I don't want to— I feel a little better in this. Gideon called me and said he's got another tooth loose. I came to get the camera and look, you pulled it out yourself. Oh, that one was ready.

Now you can spit water out of it.

That's the bottom one. That one was ready. Okay, well, that's nice of you, Lily.

Only one.

We're rounding up town shoes. Everybody's got town shoes in. We're gonna do a family photo shoot tomorrow with Henry. That means haircuts later today too, guys.

Yeah, I can't wait to get my face cut. Everybody's getting their hair cut.

But me and Henry. Look who woke up, and look who I got. Oh, look who's not too thrilled about it.

He wants to be with his mother. Come on now.

I will let you have him.

I guess so. I'll let you hold him for as long as he'll let you.

It generally takes him about 6 months, and then they want to be with me, and then we put them on the Ergo.

Oh, that's what I needed to buy, is you an Ergo.

Yes, you got to see this Ergo. All right, worn out on the handles. I'm afraid he'll fall out, and we've sewed it multiple times. This is done all 4 kids. Mucha, can you get us, uh, one like off of eBay or something? They don't make that one anymore.

Actually on eBay right now.

She's looking for it on eBay. The original organic Ergo. That's what we want. Nothing fancy. You found one already? An OG.

It's actually in the box unused.

What? Heck yeah! Heck yeah! Little boy. Little boy. How much was it?

It was $56 total with shipping.

Wait, that— I know. That's it?

I know, because when we bought it brand new, it was $120. I remember us buying buying it, and I was like, that was extravagant. We really don't have the money for this to buy this Ergo. But I mean, we paid $120 for it and we got— oh well, that's 10 years of use out of it.

My dad, the cheapest man you'll know, he would say he was frugal, would buy nice tools. He always had an— he would buy a new truck, but then that truck would last him for 20 years or more. Okay, okay. He's got a stuffed animal. Oh gosh, he's got something in his— ah, there we go. A plastic lid. I gotta show you this thing. I didn't know how I liked these at first, but now they make these zippers where you can zip from the bottom up and then you don't have to— then you can leave the top on. That's kind of neat. Oh yeah, he's pooped. All done, all done. We're gonna get back warm. Boy, he must think I'm like the bad boy, does he? 'Cause me, I change his diaper. He gets cold, he gets his butt wiped. And you, Becky, he gets all nursed and warm. You want to say hey? You want to say hey to the people? You want to say— Are you showing off? Oh, scat there. Scat there, as my dad used to say. Lunch is served.

Thank you.

Chicken noodle soup. That'll warm your heart and soul. I get to hold the baby while Mama eats. I remember this now. All this is coming back to me. We can't eat at the same time, and it's gonna be a long time before you and I can ever eat at the same time.

I don't know, cuz he'll, um, maybe once he starts waking up. Yeah, once he starts waking up and he can sit in his little bouncy chair like on the ground next to us and stuff.

That's true.

Eventually he'll be able to like sit in a high chair that he won't, I mean, maybe he'll be eating at that point. I don't know if he will. Yeah, our children have been hit and miss on that one. And then he can sit there with us.

We're gonna get mama and baby outside in this beautiful sunshine. Here we go, little man. Get you in the sun a little bit. Visiting with Amy a little bit. You gonna get in the sun, mama? Yeah, bathe your feet. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Get those legs some sun. All right, let's do a reveal. Let's show mama her pretty show. She's outside. Let's get this up to her. What do you think? It looks so good. I love it. Good design, Beck. I mean, good concept.

What can I say? What can I say?

Good color scheme. What are you looking in there for?

I'm just looking.

There's no surprises in there. I didn't paint in there.

Oh, I know. I was just looking. Let's see what it looked like.

How do you like the, the black? I like it. I think it looks good, this new Chickshaw design with the legs out front. What do you think? Yeah, keeps it balanced and it's still easy to move because the weight's all on the wheels.

Yeah, yeah, I like it.

Haircut time. You want to hold him?

Yeah.

Okay, he's kind of cranky, so you gotta kind of keep walking with him and maybe he'll cheer up a little bit.

Just like cut some leaves off, was it? And like, basically I just want him to Like, he can— it can still be like long and rugged or whatever. Okay. But just like less.

He's got that Link look from Zelda right now.

He looks like— I've called him Zelda. There's people on the internet were like, Zelda was the girl. I was like, okay, so Link is the boy. So he's Link from Zelda.

So you want a shorter version of Link?

Yeah, well, just like, I don't know. I have no idea. Okay.

I just—

Maybe just a little bit.

Yes.

I want it to work less intense. And it's gonna be really cool to see.

Let's make it look like it's in control. Can we do that?

Yes, we can do that. She just cut it like—

Are you happy?

Yeah, I just wanted one length. I just needed some—

Okay.

I just needed it trimmed.

Okay.

Made it look better.

You're sitting so nice. We had to bribe them with a special snack after. It didn't take much to bribe them, but we did it. I am working on— spring, we've moved. You guys might recognize that. That's, uh, we bring pigs in. This is actually the raw interviews from Rooted. We're talking like 2 hours worth that didn't make the film. We're giving it to our members. Corn, poop on top of that, wood chips on top of that. That mix, that's going to create a compost. But burying that corn, the pigs are going to look for that naturally. Hey, Mr. Brown, let's put you on the time lapse to see the difference in just a few seconds. Last haircut.

You want to go check it out? You like it?

It's just a shorter version.

I know, it's just a cleaned up version.

There's a lot different there.

Oh yeah, it looks better in the back. Wow.

Okay.

You don't like it?

It looks good, I guess.

Oh, you're handsome. Okay, I'm gonna teach Jonah how to dress a baby. So you put him on there. Yep, you just dress his head in there. Gentle. Yeah, it's your first baby change. This one's not a big fan of the domestics, but he has really enjoyed taking care of Henry. He's doing a good job. He's being gentle. Yep. And so now you— yep, just gently put his hand through there. Yeah, you're doing perfect. Good job. You just keep finagling. These usually have an option where you can let his hand come out or be covered, but he obviously likes his hand out. Let me see y'all's haircuts. Let me see you, Lily, here in the shade. Okay, there you come. Nice, so pretty. And you, hair is under control, like it. And, and Josiah, whoo, we like it. You like it? Starting to grow on you. Good job, my man. You've got him happy. Hey, Mom, Jonah changed him first time.

Oh, I love it.

You did a good job.

He's got nice hair. We're gonna wash everybody's hair too.

Indian Wednesday. Haroon couldn't stay though, took some food with him. Or is it Thai?

Thai.

Thai. Okay, you can have Thai cucumbers and peppers, rice. Gideon got a hold of some Styrofoam again. Oh my word. Oh boy. Okay, don't, don't vacuum up the big pieces. Yeah. Okay, just the little pieces.