I think I figured it Out

Oh my word, it's late. I did figure it out. Gideon, I'm taking him with me. We're going to Joe Salatin's Polybase Farm. We're filming an interview show with him for Abundance Plus. Gotta get the Amazon, gotta get the Amazon Prime, Prime Video. And I forgot, this isn't much to speak of. Okay, happy day and welcome to the vlog. I had big goals yesterday. I think I was gonna put my Let's call it the chicken hoop. It's going to be a— in the winter, a cattle panel and then a greenhouse or plastic over it. It's not going to be quite a greenhouse because I'm not going to have ends. I don't think I need them here. In the summer, a shade for them by growing pumpkins or something viney to trellis over it. Yesterday, towards that mission, wasn't completely, completely futile. I got clarified on some of the things I need to visit to Lowe's. Austin, throw back to that. I could go and look at some maybe ways of how we're going to hold these rebars to the, to the fence. And I'm thinking we're going to use these half-inch metal conduit straps. Hey boys, boys, have you done spread the milk yet? Good. Do you know how to make yogurt? No. Go ahead and make yogurt. Look at this. What, is that your max bench? No, do it, man. This is just— oh, that's easy stuff. Yeah. Okay, at 9 o'clock you guys want to go— you got to go to the cabin. Anybody want to have mercy on me and do the pigs and chickens so I can get ready to go to Lowe's? We'll do it really quick. I ordered this stuff yesterday. Take grain to fill up Miss Piggy's, uh, feeder. Okay, especially have all those boys. I had to make sure we had Prime on today, so this one time. We kind of let him veg out on Saturday on a rest day, but the other time we do that, he's on a 6-hour trip. But it'll be a special time that Henry and I— they're getting— I'll just be together. He's looking forward to a restaurant there called Cranberries. They serve polyface food. Oh my gosh, is that all we're getting? I hope that's because they're great with child and about to give birth. We didn't see the act, so we actually don't know whether they're gonna get birthed, and we're gonna milk them all the way up to it. This is the first time I've done that. I usually take a 2-month break before they have their next calf, but then I went to the Dortys up in Ohio, Epic Homesteaders. They don't ever take a break. Their cows are fine. And I think because our cows are 100% grass-fed and their condition looks great, I think we can do that too. And obviously they're not overworking. A gallon and a gallon and a half between two cows. Yeah, they're not— we're not overdoing it. They're, they're holding back. They're putting the energy into the calf, building of the calf work along. Hey, thanks for doing the chickens and pigs. I do worry when it takes so short of a time. No, we fed Beefcake. You did that in like 6 and a half minutes. Did you check Beefcake's water? That's one thing I forgot. I'm gonna go check it. Check the chickens. The chickens need water too while you're out there. Hood's here. We'll be able to put our stove together at some point. Be excited for this garden kitchen coming together. I mean, look at this thing, okay? Freeze dryer, dedicated fridge, washing machine, farm sink, shelves galore, dehydrator, stove. Hey, where you going, bro? Let's get ready to go. My Jerry cartons because I didn't want to go upstairs and get a, um, a towel. We've been doing 100 degrees 24 hours lately. That's been getting it sick— or thick. Sour, but not too sour. Let's eat so then we can go. Okay, you go with me to pick up some things at Lowe's. Hoping this is gonna be a quick fix. It's like 8:45. I want to be out of here by night. I have to document it now because it's becoming a big obstacle. Door came off on our ice maker. It's got this little screw that has this thread way up here, and it might be boogered. Okay, there, it's on. Yeah, it actually does. Okay, we just have to jam it up in there high enough. Hold on, hold on. You're gonna have to hold up on the door like this. Yeah, I think we got it. What do you think? Yeah, I think we fixed it. Good job, we fixed things. The one that got written on, you already fixed it? Yes, just— I hit it and he won't let me have it. Josiah, I'll help you get the marker off. Next unforeseen problem. You get it cleaned up pretty good? Yeah. Why did you You want to get more of it off? We can. You should have seen it. Henry went to town on his airsoft gun, which is empty, um, with a Sharpie marker. Found it! This is getting it, this is getting it. But we also can find my dry erase markers, which I would like to find. All right, here you go. How's that? I'm pretty happy with it. You happy with it? Yeah. You got a crew today, Randall. Your regular forming now. Bad day to show up late, ain't it? Yeah. No, you weren't late. What do you got them doing today, Randolph? I got them putting the rest of them strips on, but okay, my old air gun, it has to be warm for it to work. Okay. What is this? It's just shimming it up? Yeah, we have to nail them and glue them. Okay. It's all hands on deck. I'm giving them project time this morning to work on this cabin. Usually Jonah works on it in his spare time in the afternoon. Randolph wants to start framing on Monday, so we got to get this floor down between today and tomorrow. Randolph, do they got to put shims on this too? No. Yeah, remember that big quarter inch lower? Yeah, it's a high fence, half inch. Remember how that big ramp was? And yeah, oh yeah, we're getting away with it, getting rid of that. Beautiful one's looking forward to having this floor down and marking up. Jonah's, uh, claimed that house on the farm. I'm proud of him putting in the work at 17 years old. And doing the work for his future self. His future self will thank him, and my future self will be thanking me when I have the chickens in the front yard, even in the winter. Boy, shall we go? I just realized we're getting 20-foot pieces of rebar. We've got straps We need those. We're gonna need the flatbed trailer. Shoot, the flatbed trailer is up there for trash from the— for the cabin. Was it really worth it? Save $90 to not have it delivered? Yeah, that's what the guy on YouTube did. We're gonna have to. Let's get us a blanket. I think this tarp will do. Fold it up, made the size. 9:30. We need to wrap things up by 12. In true homesteader fashion, we're not just gonna go to Lowe's, we're gonna go on 2 other errands. What? Yeah, knock a bunch— 3 birds out with one stone. How about that? If you're gonna leave the farm, you gotta leave the farm, man. It'd be really fantastic if somehow we could get home in enough time to try to bend one of these poles to see if it's just gonna bend or if we're gonna have to get special about it, build something special to bend it. Finally seeing relief on this road from the hurricane. Ag extension office. I'm gonna get some soil tests. They did see the, um, playground. They're begging me, and I said okay, but only if we don't have to buy toys at Lowe's, right? I'll take you to playground, but we're not gonna buy toys at Lowe's. Is that a good deal? Which one, Henry? Okay, I got it on tape. Should have went to the playground after. Going in barefoot. How are you? Soil test boxes. Got the soil kits. We're late to the game. It's like February. You should really do this in September and then amend in October, but here we are. A reminder, I'm gonna let you play on the playground 15 minutes and then we don't have to get a toy at Lowe's, right? No toy. No toy. Okay, playground's in the sun, it's free. We'll see how this goes. All right, let's go. Yeah! I haven't done a soil sample in years. Normally don't do it. I feel like applying compost is a foolproof, bulletproof kind of approach, especially for homesteaders with having so much going on. Ready? Get on there and get in. Whoa, hang on, hang on. But this year I have my buddy Kay Sosnowicz, Master Gardener, walk us through an Abundance Plus. The serious, like the you really want to quit the grocery store garden, the market-style gardening. We're talking about really efficient, we're talking about crop gardens. And what do you want me to see? Oh, this is cool. A slide down a bank. He'll walk us through what the critical stages— prepping garden beds, you'll learn how to do that on a big scale, uh, what is it, planting, maintaining, and harvesting. That'll be a nice series to add to Abundance Plus. So Casey said you got soil samples I said, okay, no, uh, but I can make it happen. And I said, though, isn't it too late? It's like February. He said, nah. So I guess better late than never. Ended up staying there too long. Let them play. I was able to do a little bit of office hours in the sun. Mom's adding another errand to our list, so we still got to go. Now we got to go to the co-op, then the auto store, and then still got to go to Lowe's and figure out how to put these Piles on. Co-op for some supplies for Mom's supper tonight. She's filming a show for her channel. Grilled cheese. We're getting turkey, turkey and cheese and ham. Oh yes, because the carnivore in us have to have meat on her grilled cheese. Get the, um, organic turkey, organic ham. And we got snacks. Okay, meat and cheese, so what's for dinner in the Rhodes family? You guys good? Buckle in, got your snacks. Hopefully a quick stop at the auto store. Come on, should we get the Jerry cheap one or the name brand, a little more expensive one? Probably that's a cheap one. If we're gonna fix our own things, we're gonna fix the pool and see if we can't get it started with the starter fluid. Remember, I'll let you go to the playground and then I'll have to get you a toy at Lowe's. No, remember the deal? Homestead store. Sorry, no drone footage going into here because we're right next to the airport. All right, remember the deal? They're kind of waning on the deal. I'm not going to the playground anyway. I know, we already went to the playground. I know, I'm not doing the playground again. Feels like spring out here. February, February is February. Is loco, what they say in Honduras. The burrito bars, we're on the outside wall. Note to self next time. Let's get home and see if this stuff's gonna bend. We just came on 12 o'clock, so we tried. You're probably getting hungry, guys, huh? And we still have to figure out how to put this on the truck. So long. Shoot, somebody's probably not gonna see that. Put that, put that bag out there. Set it down or hang it on it. There you go. Yeah, it's not gonna just lay in the truck. Nothing to hold it down to there. Truck's too long. Well, I ended up being able to pull it tight anyway with the tautness. It's securing it in there. Don't fall off the truck. Can you stop walking all over the truck? 20-foot rebar on there. Let's hope this holds. It's one thing to get it on the parking lot. Was this worth $90? Probably not. Time money-wise. Why is the tarp flapping so loud? Right there, it stopped. No. Is that a rope on the tarp? What is it? It shakes a lot. Is it just my tarp? Ah, tarp. I'll tuck it in. Let's see if that helps. We're not too far from home. Okay, sounds a lot better. Home sweet home. How's it going? It's going in here. It's going good. My, uh, I think my bread's ready to take out. Focaccia bread. Real quick, let's go put our starter fluid away. I thought, well, let's just, let's just see if we can't get this thing started. Bring it over the air filter. I forgot, guys, remember I'm not mechanically inclined. This is new to me, but we nailed down our systems of growing food. We have a little bit of safe space for, um, self-reliance. All right, I guess it probably needs spark plugs from that time we put diesel in this thing instead of gas. My guess though, I don't want to tear anything up at this point. Might need to get Mark out here, and because I want to work on this chicken hoop. Mark can't work on the chicken hoop. Mark can't write the chicken book I'm working on, right? But he sure can fix a machine. I'll be honest, I'm excited to try this. It's really going to make my day if this bow— if this is a big enough arch that this bows by itself. Cross our fingers. And I've thrown out the office hours this afternoon. It's too beautiful. I kind of don't have that much time. And then I am going to be driving 6 hours one way to Virginia. Austin will drive. We'll write a chapter on the way there and a chapter on the way back. How about that? How about that? I'll make up for it. This worked beautifully. We're wrapping up our week of vlogs here too. So you know what I'm gonna do? Let's get that soil. Let's get the soil samples. Get it off the same way we got it on. Yeah. Okay, one at a time, bro. Hold on. Sorry for the wind. I'm glad we got the fire burned out. Hopefully I'll remember to go show you that. We've got the brush pile barn. Of course we're going to put it on top, but we're just going to test it on the bottom here. That's it. Whoa! So it's going to be like that, but up top. It bent weird. It found a weak spot and it bent right there. It didn't bend right in the middle. Well, that's going to take a special setup. It's not too bad. That's gonna have to wait till another day. Or is it? Let's come back to this if there's time. Let's check on the boys in the cabin. Let's get soil samples, and then if we have time, we'll do it. Man, you are smoking now, Randolph. What the heck? This was supposed to take 2 days. If you guys get this done today or in the morning, we can go buy Which means homemade totally, that's for sure. We're not even going past this part because we don't have the stuff. What's wrong? We can't go past here. We don't have the little shims. Well, you got to go make some. I don't have any. They got to get it done. Oh, they'll make it. We gotta stop probably right here anyway. Oh, oh, dude, that under there is going to need a bunch of work. Oh, okay, okay. We thought this was gonna take 2 days. We weren't gonna get to go biking this week, but maybe so, maybe so. Uh-oh, what happened? Even that cedar rots eventually. Look at this, real farm boy. Yeah, apple and dirty hands. Getting his dirt exposure, isn't he? Okay, I feel like we have our 1, 2, 3, 4 different gardening stages out here. I mean, we have our new high tunnel. Absolute clay, nothing there. Although we're going to be adding that, so is that fair? Let's test that too. I got 5 boxes and it's free right now. Clay high tunnel, established beds, and they've been established for a year save this— these two that the pigs helped us build last year. Then we have this ground where the pigs were, and that was brand new ground. That was sod. But look, look at this ground and look at the ground that Beefcake's on. It's just very rich. I think the only difference is it's sitting next to where we pile our leaves, and I think they come down and rot and we built soil here. About 8 probes. This is a Soil testing probe from— I believe I got this at, uh, Johnny C's back in the day. Let's get the harder one out of the way. You're supposed to go down like 4 to 6 inches. Oh, crazy! That's incredible. That's soil just sitting there, leaves on top. The little piggies out and about. I don't know what it is about it, but I hate that job. It's probably why I don't do it. But we got it over with. It's a good job. Now there's nothing better feeling than getting done with a good job that you hate. I think I have a box, so I could probably make this into a box. All right, figured there'd be more Jerry. I guess I should just say this is my recipe. Got it ready to go, boxed up, ready to go. I told the beautiful one, she gets done with that show, label it, put in the mailbox, get it out of my life. I'm sorry, I'm pooped. I'm not gonna work on the chicken coop. That's for Monday. It's probably gonna be a little more complicated than I would hope. Uh, let's get some office hours It's done and we got it labeled. What? Lily, will you take this to the mailbox for me? Yeah, thank you. Oh, it's UPS. Shoot, what do we do? All right, it's not— you can't do it. It was more expensive. It won't be that much more expensive, and after today I'm good. I don't want to go to town again. Okay, proper label, US Postal Service, put in our mailbox, we're done. Did you boys finish? Jonah, Josiah? Finish the floors. All right, happy day, happy week. See you Sunday.