I BulletProofed My Chickens' Electric Net (Maybe)

There's some basics on the farm that I feel like have been neglected, just overall management of what we do have because of projects. That naturally does happen sometimes. But first, we should open up a goodie bag from Gold Shaw Farm. I like his bear theme. What has Morgan sent me? It's a book. It's a youth book too. Toby Dog of Goldshaw Farms. I got a not-for-resale edition, a paperback. Oh, no way! Is this the first— we have a Homestead action figure. This is cool. There's the Bobcat, Victor, Al, Jessica, Cody, the farmer. Hey Morgan, are you the very first action figure in Homesteading? I think so. Look what I got.

Cool.

He sent two. Let's see what Henry thinks. Look what I got you. You want to add this to your fun? Pull that dog off. Nice. There's still one more thing.

Ah!

Billie's feeling a little blue today, so I think this might, uh, cheer her up. What do you think? Yeah, we'll do like this. See what she says. Come on, guys. Toby Dog of Goldshaw Farm. It's now on Amazon. I'm gonna read this this week. Expect a full review by the end of the week. Here she comes now. Like, cool. It's pretty cool. She might be so grumpy she might not even ask about this thing.

What's that white thing?

It's a little surprise for you. I know you're a little sad this morning.

Thanks.

There you go. You feeling a little blue? Your own Toby dog. Take these chickens for example. 1, 2, and that's doing good. We usually have more than that out. Let's fix it once for all. I'll lift this up. You heard them through.

If we don't keep our chickens in and eventually something else gonna get them.

Everybody wants to eat a chicken. We're just trying to beat them to it. Can you get in there and get the chicken out? Oh, be careful. Okay, okay, here we go, here we go. A little splash of apple cider vinegar. Overall health maintenance. The foundations of the farm, you know, just the regular operation. I've been in the been a little neglected due to projects. Projects are important. Chores are important. How do you strike a balance? And for whatever reason, the boys are milking this morning, so I can start at chore number 1: chickens. I can't see out this window. We had the opportunity to jump on those access road project, so we did that, but it's been distracting. And now we're in this lull waiting on seed, trying to line up some mulch, straw, or hay. It's false. We're not adding any elements, meaning gardens or, or cows or sheep. Those, those, that's elements. We're not adding any of that.

Take the milk.

Okay.

Y'all hear him?

It's much faster. I wonder why. You forget stuff, or I do everything. Is he all right?

He's fat.

You can see his belly.

He is a fat one. Has he always been this slow? Yeah, he's eating. That's good. We can't afford dripping troughs. We're in a drought and this gravity-fed water— we're gonna run our water dry.

The reason the pond's going dry is because we're taking all the water.

I need a rubber mallet, guys. Do you need that?

No.

There's certain things we don't compromise. There's certain things y'all don't compromise, right? That is the daily move for our Milk cows and sheep, they move every day no matter what happens. If the bank burned down with all the money in it, it's what you call FDIC insured. It's what you call insurance. I don't know, we're getting sidetracked. We never neglect feeding, watering, otherwise basic necessities for animals. For those cows, that's moving them every single Dead. Look at the results it gets. Look at this pasture, and we're in like October. Nobody else around here's pastures look like that. It's not really a testament to me, it's a testament to what ruminants can do if managed properly. They regenerate the farm, not take away from the farm, make it a better place. It's possible.

It's very possible.

Oh, after a little bit of a tea/breakfast break, we are back at it. We're gonna get these chickens fortified. Ah, there's already one out! Get in, get in, we got one out. Probably right here in this gap. There you go, get behind it so it doesn't go back around. There we go, good. All right, there's another one. It's gonna end. Get in, come around and chase this chicken in. They won't let me get close enough to— Here, get in, get in, get in. Let's end this. Rubber mallet. Do you have the rubber mallet? You start at one end of the net, stick that in the ground real good, then go all the way around, tighten it up. Got him red-handed. Good job, my man. All right, I'm going to go clean up what you did and get a little further wider. I am having a blast right now. Feeling so relieved just to— this is mundane. This is mundane, boring work. I admit I feel an immense pressure to perform, keep these vlogs exciting, always continually doing new exciting projects. That's not really realistic what homesteading is really about, and that's not really sustainable, not if I want my current system to thrive. Time to get the chicken in. Slow down. There it is, there it is. I know you guys watching this don't put that pressure on me. Thank you so much. And I need to remember that I am looking out for you. I'm, you know, I want it to be interesting. I want you to laugh and learn something in every episode. So I'm reminded, I document my mundane life, because if I didn't, I'd be a disservice to you, because homesteading is mundane. Naughty, naughty chicken. Still got more to fortify. It ain't gonna happen. Now, were you already out? Or did you get out of my fortress?

There y'all are!

Where you been? Collecting acorns. We're gonna finish our hogs on acorns. Good job! Oh look, some of them are sprouting. Nothing straightens out a semi-permanent Premier One electric net like these Premier One FiberTuff posts. First, I run the spike through the bottom web. Like so, and then I catch the bottom strand— not the second strand, that's electrified. The bottom strand is not, so it can actually hit this metal pole, and I let it snag there. Then I connect the top in between each post. These corners, I did a diagonal T-post and then tied a string. Guys, this is very tight. You can climb over that and it's not going to hurt, it's not going to bother, it's not going to move. There's still one other thing to do because tightening that up gave us a gap here at the bottom. That's— you've seen one of their favorite places to escape. No worries, I got these garden staples. Don't think they're getting through that. Made me mundane, but it's worth it. It's what it takes to get those consistent egg In our mouth. This is what it's about. Taking a moment to enjoy. We got 40 more minutes. How should we smoothify this more? Hey, what should we do with the 40 minutes left? Oh, we might have our distraction. Is it time to move the sheep? Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah, we're impressed with how we're moving them.

Is it Jerry?

No.

Does it work?

Yeah.

Now you got me curious. So how, when you move them over, are they not going to come and get out? This back end.

There's a big, um, ditch-like thing there.

Okay, I'm giving it a chance. I'm not judging. So you know what's going on? The sheep are over there in a, in a net. They've set up a new net, but it has no back end. Has no back end.

How green that pasture is.

What? Ain't nobody's pasture like this. That's the magic of the animals on it.

You right there, that needs to be replanted.

What do you need me to do?

Okay, well, we didn't need you to do anything. You just came to film it. Okay, we're just gonna move them over, pick up the nets, and finish setting it up.

In other words, don't slow you down. I'm gonna be a fly on the wall. I won't say nothing, we won't help, we'll just document. I love this stage.

You don't think it's gonna work?

Hey, either way we win. Doesn't work, it's great content, more problems to solve. If it works, it's good stuff because you guys win. These are our feeder lambs. We're raising them up. Whoa, we're— it's soon. So I see what you're doing. You don't have the nets or don't want to go get them, right? You're picking up the old net and that's gonna be your end.

I'm worried that they're gonna die.

All of them?

Yeah.

I wonder if we should harvest them now. Pretty sure it's parasites, and so it would be— it's not like it's diseased or something. We got to go pick up Flossie this week from the butcher, so we could harvest them and send them in. I say we do it. One less chore for the farm sitter when we leave next week. They're so little though, but they're not gonna get that much bigger in 2 months. You think they'll have a come around?

Let's see, let's give it a week.

Good job, guys! Perfect! And you thought I'd be mad. How about I'm proud? What do you vote, Josiah? Do we harvest them now or see if we can't get them another 2 months? What do you think, Jonah? I don't care. Here's the drawback of now: they're not, they're not that heavy. They're little. But if we don't do it, they could die and there would be nothing. I'll be back. Mom just radioed me. I need to go get Henry. She's trying to do something. Somehow he ended up back at the house.

Throw those in the dumpster.

Is that planned or is that we killed some more plants?

I mean, it's October.

We have 4 female feeder sheep, 2 withers in the field. We forgot about the 2 withers.

Okay, so we have 6.

There's one of the females has diarrhea and we've lost 2 of them. So my question to you is, we got to pick up Flossie this week. Do we just harvest or take the chance and let them grow out? 2 more months. What could we treat her? Oh yeah, I mean, we're making sure we got her minerals, which we just started doing, and then, uh, I'll put soap in their water again because we don't really have time this week. He wants to bring this tractor. That's a Goodwill score. Got 2 wheels left after you boys got it. Everybody else is getting out. Henry, all the water's working. It's been so dry. I just cleaned it out, not too much.

This thing is heavy.

Sure, somebody want to hold the camera? Sure.

No, I'll do it.

I got it, I got it. Oh, I've never seen him so quick to volunteer to film. What do you think, it's going to hit?

Uh, my personal guess is not very good. It's not hitting at all.

Is it even on? I doubt it's even on.

Maybe it's destiny that we just leave it.

Let's test the battery. It's only at like 5.0, so it's half full. That's funny. That's what the batteries are for the shed are hitting Oh really, they need more too. So we have other batteries always charging to replace those. What? She's hitting at the same— are these bad batteries?

Oh, I told you the ones out there were working. That was, that was the one you just brought in.

Hold on. Oh, it is.

No, those are those.

I didn't touch them.

Those are bad batteries.

They're all bad.

Those— that's a good one.

They're supposed to hit higher than 6, aren't they?

No.

Did they? These are ones like 6 or not, probably. Those are good ones. Yeah, 5.2, so that's normal. Yeah, there it is, 12.6. That's what we're supposed to get. That one battery, 12.5. These are duds. We got some replacement batteries.

You might zap yourself, Papa.

You think?

I'd be careful.

Turn it on, Jonah. Let's see if that did it. Blinking green. Oh, 4.4. Not bad for that much fence. We got 2 chickens. Well, one of those was already out, but I think that other one escaped. Hey, help me catch catch them now, guys.

Probably from another plot.

I don't know, it looks like an awful lot like the one that was perusing. You think it got through under there?

Yeah, because look, they know they can just go under it.

I don't want to just use rocks. No, I feel like that's Jerry. All right, you guys pin them, catch them. We're gonna check them for their wings with fingernails.

They're so long, can fly with—

oh, it's on! Whoa, it's working good! I don't know if you heard me screaming in the background. Oh, that fence was on and it's Looking good. Okay, even more staples on this thing. Some birthday vlogs.

That was the first bike I rode.

It's not like you really need— it's not like he really needs that helmet, but it trains him to wear a helmet.

Bunch behind us.

Jonah's putting in mulch. Hard to believe Gideon just turned 9. That was 2. 7 years. We've been vlogging 7 years. Uh-oh, you have to get forks and get the bags out of here.

Pull it out.

I'll move the tractor so you can get the tractor off and you can put that there. Let's get this birdie breaker out of here. I put the pigs over here and the one that sheep go in, so they need some fresh bedding. We're gonna spread this directly on our new access roads to help cover that bare ground and to fertilize it. Maybe 3 more. 2, 2, 3 more. And we got a score of eggs. Okay, I gotta wrap it up. Lily's got a special horse lesson. This time it's a little different, a different lady. She's still got the English lessons. This one's Western. Here we go. I got plenty of office work to do, but Lily, you know what, I figure Her closet will be empty soon enough. Austin, roll that reel Rebecca shared with me yesterday.

That's why you have them, folks. 'Cause all of a sudden, you might just be walking through your daughter's empty closet, feeling a lot of emotions, and thinking, where did the time go?

Man, I about lost it when he said that about the closet. I don't know what it is about it. I don't even know what your closet looks like. But I know that'll be here soon enough. Thank God for smartphones. I can work as the beautiful one chauffeurs. Drive. We have a surprise for Lily. We're picking up a friend.

Why are we going here?

Because we're gonna pick up Joyful.

For what?

For the lesson.

Ooh!

I didn't know that.

Surprise! Hey, Joyful!

Hi!

You ready to ride some horses? It's okay, you're doing bronc— riding the wild broncos today, right? It's okay? It's a bronco ride?

This is Amo.

It's your size. You gonna ride that big horse, Georgia? You ridden this one before?

No, I haven't.

Who is it?

Uh, I do not remember his name.

Really? Who's this?

Um, I think it's Bio. I can't remember his name that well.

Henry, won't you sit on little Onyx?

Come on, please. You want to walk with him? Onyx is like, okay, we can go. And he's calm as I sat down next to him and he was just like nuzzling me. I was like, I kind of like you.

Would you get along with sheep?

Probably.

There's all kinds of sizes for ponies.

She's also said that minis can be crazy, but he's not.

Right at your ankle bone, you see your ankle bone's here. This is kind of dressage length.

This is an old racehorse.

Yeah, and this is how we can track the racehorse for forever.

So this is how you know he had some second, third.

That's right, you look up his tattoo even if you lost his registration papers and it'll have his, his whole record.

This was once a $120,000 horse. How old is he?

8.

All right, Joyful, see what you got. Are you gonna ride? Joyful, what's it like sitting on a podium racehorse?

Uh, I don't know.

Billy, what have you started? Is this a horse family now? I guess it's better than motorcycles. Henry, are you a cowboy? This is a very easy pony. He's going exactly where I'm going. I'm not even having to pull on this leash. Hey, you want to go over the pole? All right, you're going over poles now. You got a little ornery one. Yeah, this one you don't even have to tug the leash. Who's this? Ammo. Oh, he's living up to his name.

She. Are we gonna be horse people?

I feel like it today out there, but I sure hope not.

I'm on one, Lily's on one. Gideon was saying that he would ride.

What has Lily gotten us into?

By the way, your camera fell. Is it gonna work?

Still working.

Okay, good.

Seemingly.

Can I get a pony?

Oh my gosh.

I know, he just, he's been saying like, maybe I'll ride with you guys, maybe I'll go on a ride.

Let's work on Lily's first. She's been in line for a long time, but she probably wouldn't mind as long as she had a horse.

That's right, because then she's like, well, I'm thinking that maybe what we could do is get Lily a pony, like Wyatt. He's a good-sized pony. Okay, and then yeah, when she needs to have a horse, then we'll— then we can have a pony for the other people.

Are ponies nice like horses, or are they like goats?

No, they're not I think many—

the equine world. Donkeys are the goats of the equine world.

So I was also thinking, like, when Lily starts riding at our house, like, do I need to get a horse to go riding?

Oh my God, I don't think so. Are ponies easy to come by?

Pony? So Wyatt's a pony.

Is Smokey—

Smokey's a pony. Yeah, they come by.

Okay, how was the ride today, ladies? Give me a rating, 1 to 10.

Uh, 10.

All right, Josiah, good job heating up the soup for tonight. Well, that soup didn't cut it, there just wasn't enough. Mom is heating up some things. Lily's on some ice cream. Left over pizza crust. You got our ice cream mixture ready?

I do indeed.

That is a good quick on-farm dessert, isn't it, Rebecca? That everybody likes. Yep, I'll plug it in. That was our cream, our milk, our eggs. We only had to add somebody else's vanilla and somebody else's maple syrup. I made the vanilla. Oh, homemade vanilla. You guys want to consolidate the chicken pasties tonight? We can eliminate 2 chores by putting everybody together. Sound good to you? We're going out of town for HOA. It's the end of the season.

Consolidate these chickens.

If we're going to consolidate chickens, we need to let everybody get up, and then we can put them in after dark.

Let's catch that goose.

Got a little bit of perch— one perch space left. No, why are you doing that? Get that out of there. Look, get it out. We had the Chickshaw 5.0 on display for an event and haven't flipped it back yet. We got to get the yard chickens down here somehow. Let's get them in the 5.0 and put them in there. Is that foam gonna get nasty in there though? No, we got them all. Tomorrow we'll sort through people. Tag them, clip wings. So let's keep them cooped up tonight. Consolidating will go a long way to keeping the chickens smoothified because there's only one operation now instead of three. All right, three chicks, y'all. Happy day, y'all. See you in the morning for the sorting of these birds. You don't want to miss it. See you then.