I Survived 30 Days Off The Land - Day 2

Happy day, day 2 of Grow 30. I'll be honest, I'm trying to think of all the ways that I can quit, or at least go down a level. I'm saying there's 3 levels of Grow 30. Level 1 is just eat what you could have grown. In season. So you can even keep going to the grocery store, just cut out the Oreos and the junk. But there's no way you could have an eating of the oranges in August because they're not happening anywhere, you know. Austin, no chains, Chaney. Is that what you went with? Austin, never in Chaney. Good deal, that's your brand. Yeah, that's your brand. You got some buckets? Yeah. Okay, you, you feeling nervous for the fight today? I am.

It started hitting yesterday.

First fight, first fight. Austin heads up chores on Saturday in exchange for food. It gives us a break on our rest day, and then of course we're doing Sunday through Friday. I'm helping in this morning. For two reasons. One, because his wife's about to pop. Great with child, how about that? And two, I want to see how Vanilla's progressing, day two milking her after she's had the brand new calf. Then there's level 2 Grow 30, and that's where you quit— you stack level 1 plus you quit the grocery store. That's Rebecca. And that's really enough. It really is. I'm kind of wondering, should I go down to level 2? Sometimes I feel like I do too much and push too much. Just did a screening for my 100-mile bikepacking trip and Pisgah documentary. 2 weeks ago I was in Iowa shooting a documentary, producing one, and then 3, 4 weeks ago I was dislocating my shoulder. And the day after the screening, we start The 30 Days.

And I'm finally—

did I say— and I'm finalizing the Chicken Tender Handbook right now too. There is water here. Why? It's not leaking. That's not good to have standing water in there. That'll harbor parasites.

That's going to give them some relief.

Rebecca's at level 2, quitting the grocery store. Austin just asked me, why are you quitting the grocery store? It's really a reset. I mean, there are, there are health reasons for quitting the grocery store. The produce has lost most of its nutrients by the time it gets to you. They put a peel on it, even organic, which is a preservation wax. There's the environmental impacts. Really just to reset. For example, we got some, uh, kombuchas coming through Azure. That's not the grocery store. So today say we got those at the grocery store, and those— well, they're expensive. And not being allowed those these 30 days— are those bad? Are we probably going to do them in the future? Yes, we— no, and then yes. Yes, we're gonna probably use those in the future for convenience sake, health's sake. But during this 30 days, hopefully we're saying, oh wait, we have a kombucha mother and we have yet to make kombucha. So maybe we should do that. We drain that. That should drain fast now. I told Austin I wanted to quit already. Day 2, and what'd you say? I don't remember why. You guys already— you guys already did grow 3365.

Yeah, even homesteaders look at you and probably think you're crazy. Just already?

Yeah.

You had to guess percentage of homesteaders do homesteading for health.

Hey, you guys tell us. Tell in the comments what you do homestead for. There's health, there's safety, money, there's food security, kicks— there's kicks and giggles, hobby, hobby farming, for health— that's why we're doing this, we're doing this for health. 25%?

I would almost say like 10% or less.

Okay, we'll make an expo and we'll see. Instead of coffee this morning, I have coffee once a week, I'm really gonna miss it. I meet with a buddy, it's just social, fun I'm gonna have to try mint tea. Aren't you glad you're not the one I'm meeting with this morning?

Yeah, it's probably better for you. Oh yeah, there's something about a cup of coffee.

There is.

The smell, it's warm.

Yes, but might be the drugs in it.

Tea has caffeine.

Black tea, but it's— but you're right, I guess black tea doesn't even have to give you that Try to tell a coffee person they can do tea instead. I am gonna go get some. I think there's some black tea within 100 miles, just over 50 miles. Then there's level 3 Grow 30, and I feel like that's the one I committed to, and that's the living off the land, only what you've grown and only what you can find within 100 miles. We made some exceptions for salt and mineral and, um, what do you call them? We could call them enhancers, sauces, dressings, marinades, things like that. Although we'll try to do as much of that we can off the land. It's such a little addition and such a big bang for your buck. We're not getting crazy, we're not getting too crazy. But for me, that means Uh, that means no coffee, no rice. I do coffee once a week. I'm not addicted, I don't think. No tea until I can go source some local. No peanuts, butters. I could, I could if I got— I would have to— if I'm doing level 3, I'd have to source peanuts locally. You can grow peanuts in North Carolina, but I'm having a hard time finding any organic. We're doing this for our health, so we're not going to compromise the organic just because something's local. Now, if they grow it with organic practices. I don't care if they're certified. I don't care about that. I just care about the practices. Austin just asked me how many homesteaders care about organic. We'll have to do another poll maybe later in the day for that one. I'm afraid that's even fewer. When we first got into it, we didn't really know anything about growing organic, so we just kind of did what—

we went to Lowe's, did what everybody else did, and grabbed the 10-10-10.

It's good to do something even if you're wrong, Austin. You don't want to have it all right before you start, or you'll never start. So just start. Don't get us confused here. But do know that homesteaders, their practices can often be worse than even conventional practices because there's no regulations. The chickens can be in a worse situation, not on deep bedding, in their own manure, and, and in things that wouldn't even be allowed in conventional farming because they at least have inspections. There's regulation on how much spray you can put on produce, but there's not in homesteading, so you can go crazy. I think I might go try to milk her. She won't have much milk. Second cow did give birth just in time. She gave birth day before Grow 30, and we only had one stick of butter left. We need our cows for the milk, which gives us the cream, which gives us the butter. We're starting to run low on stud nothing, which is our beef. We started to price it locally, even buying it in bulk, it's the whole cow, it's, it's $12 to $14 a pound, which is upwards of $4,000, $5,000, $6,000. We've been in this so long, I don't think we've realized the money savings we're in right now. That little calf, that's a valuable thing. Trying to convince Rebecca though to let us eat her as veal instead of selling her at 6 months old. Harvest her before we wean her and eat her. It's hard to manage them and keep them away from the bull on such a small property. She let me milk right here. I mean, she would normally. She might get nervous that her calf is wandering away. She's looking for her calf. Ran out of her treats. That is our best cow right there. She was hard to train to milking, but she doesn't panic as bad as Honey does when she gets a new calf. She sit there and let me milk. Day 2, she gives more milk even though she's not as big. I feel like it's more creamy too. I think Rebecca and I are on our path to a pleasurable, sustainable approach where we are gradually lessening our dependence on bought-in foods. Let me just say this— Ruth Ann Zimmerman, we just went to Iowa, one of the hardest-core I know. They really are living off the land, feeding 7+ people sometimes. They really make do with what they've got, and I think we should aspire to that. I think we're there. I think Rebecca and I there. Could we do better? Sure. Even when they came and visited us, we were still buying Bubby's sauerkraut and pickles, but now we make our own sauerkraut and pickles. They drink a lot of chocolate milk, but it's milk from their cows, and the kids enjoy it, and they drink a lot of it because it's chocolate milk, whereas they might not otherwise. So yeah, a little bit of maple syrup off farm, and certainly cocoa off farm. Same thing with their, uh, lasagna or the hamburgers with homemade buns. The wheat's not from her farm, but the majority of that meal was. And those buns and the lasagna noodles just made it really special. She's a little sensitive on that one, so I think I need to milk it out because calf might not be drinking on it and it's getting a little sore. Got a lot more today than she did yesterday. For Rebecca and I, long term, certainly rice for the kids, but can we do more potatoes? When the potatoes in, can we store them better? Can we can some? Hopefully. But still have some rice in our life. Get some bananas for the kids, you know. But I think this is the time to shout out the hardest core homesteaders I know. Well, there's two, I think, that probably outdo us all. That's Tara from Slow Down Farmstead. She's coming later this month. I think they're an hour and a half from the grocery store, so they got to do it, and they eat very nice. And then, uh, the Dohertys. I went there and it is literally, if you didn't grow it, you didn't eat. I've been there and had chicken 3 times in a row, and just chicken with potatoes, and the potatoes were coming out of the root cellar. Almost a year later, eyes developing. They were soft, but they were edible, and they love it, and they're happy with that, and they're spending zero money. So shout out to the Dohertys. Rebecca went to a horse show with Lily. I got up early and took Lily to the trainer. 3, Luna Lightfoot, ridden by Lily Rose.

Hey, you got a first place! Look, I got a lizard. I got a coupon. You got a coupon for what?

For—

for—

from Horse Cup.

From Horse Cup! First in our first ever show!

Had it in the Suburban. My day is drastically going to change. Hopefully it's just the lens and I can take it to the repair shop. My little protector did nothing for it. I mean, maybe it helped a little bit. I can feel it vibrate when I plug it in, so I'm thinking that— hoping the phone is still okay. Jonah went mountain biking. Did he eat something? Lily's at a horse show. Mom just went to watch this horse show, so it's just you and I eating breakfast, bro. I was gonna try to roll these up. How would I make links, guys? You have to get casings, right, to make links? There's 3 patties. Better than nothing. We get a lot a lot of eggs on farm and the key to doing a diet like this, stay full. 4 eggs you cooked for me, Josiah? Little bit of potatoes. Still trying to control my blood sugar so I don't need too many carbs but. Lily, what veggies do you want to make tonight?

Mmm, we can make corn noodles.

Maybe we need to get Mom involved. I am going to try a meatball soup. I've never done that. But I think we should be in more into soups because we're gonna have some— we have so much broth. We have so many bones from our butcherings. We need to incorporate broth more into our diet. That's what this is all about, just discovering what's right in front of us. Spices for the meatballs, a bit of Parmesan. Spices for the soup, vegetables, carrots incoming, onion, garlic. Soups are also very farm friendly. Our tomato sauce from the farm, uh, beef broth. We're gonna be eating good tonight. Leftover beans. And you can just kind of throw whatever at the soup too. Got the meatballs done. Lily's got the potatoes ready, carrots ready, onions ready. This isn't necessarily the easiest thing. It would have been easier just to come home and grill some burgers again, but we got to figure out some variety for our ground beef because that's all we have left of beef besides some corned beef. Look at this farm fresh soup, babe. Tell me that's not the best soup you're gonna have. It's the best soup. You better. I've been working on it an hour and a half. Is it the best soup you ever had? The best soup. Lots of vegetables from the land. Basically just throw whatever's in, in it.

I love it.

And we have a— did you notice we have so much in? Look at this. Look at this farmer's table. Happy day.