I Tried a Scythe Instead of Mowing + Cut Myself

In today's episode of The Rooted Life, we're eating the most underrated farm animal on the planet. We're playing catch-up in the garden and questioning our life choices. It's gonna be a hot one, but the cabbages are done and the beautiful one is gonna try to make sauerkraut. Our cows have been on steep terrain, our brush trimmer is out of commission, we've got a mow behind it. I'm gonna make do with what we have and try the scythe. Maybe a hint of how that went. On average, Americans only consume half a pound of lamb a year. Oh boy, look who's out. We consume 5 pounds of lamb a month. Must have flew out. I'm probably gonna have to do a poultry net on you. Poultry net is higher usually. I don't know, the last several years they've been staying in this net. Turkeys are underrated. Easily herded, usually easily kept in, and they don't tear up the place like a chicken. They don't scratch. If turkeys are underrated, lamb is the most underrated. Well, it's red meat, it's delicious. Lambs are small, they're not gonna accidentally run over you and kill you, like maybe a cow. I can't find the, the mister for the hose to spray these plants. Supposed to be right here. I was lucky. We also eat 2 meals a day together. Many times, 3. Austin, how— what's the average families eat meals together per week? Okay, yeah, we're at, uh, 14 to 21. We're different. We have some problems or goals for today. Happy day, by the way. Then we have time. Okay, one is we've got to get these plants— am I not always saying that? These are about to outgrow their britches. These plants need to be transplanted. Oh my gosh, they're gonna die. They're running out of soil in their pots. We're still on top of most of them, but many of them need to get out. Welcome to late June on the homestead. More to do than you have time. I would like to scythe behind the grazing animals where we can't mow because it's so steep. The sea monsters have to get moved today. The pigs really should get moved. But we got to go across that creek, so it's going to involve that trailer. I don't think we've ever put those 3 little pigs in a trailer. And did I mention that we're in a heat wave here in Fletcher, North Carolina? Super humid, and it's getting into the 90s. And then I sound like crazy to a lot of people. We're not used to that, and the humidity makes it next level. This seems like a lot of feed. But I'll be honest, I'm a little worried. It's going fast, and I ordered my New Country Organics tote order 9 days ago. They say give us 5 business days, so max that'd be 7 days it should ship. It's 2 days behind. It's Sunday. It's not shipping today. It's going to be 10, 10 days since I ordered that. It hasn't even shipped yet. And sometimes there's hang-ups in shipment. I'm really stressed out about it. That's our poultry feed, but we've got 100 sea monsters almost 7 weeks old. They're eating a lot. We have another 100 that are 3 weeks old. They're starting to eat a lot. That's all the swine feed we have left. Everybody can eat each other's feed in a pinch, but I'm afraid we're gonna run out, and the local dealers don't have gobs amount of feed in stock. I'm just being real with you. We have a broody hen. We really don't need a broody hen right now. There. We really need to break her of that. I don't know if I'm gonna have time for that. Hear that? No matter how tight I put this, air is still getting through there. That means this water is going to start overflowing and they're not going to have water. Lord knows I need to clean my shop. Hopefully just a new ring on that head will work. Definitely get ahead of ourselves. We want so badly to keep growing most of our own food. Things like tidiness— I certainly need to clean up this pole barn. Kind of fall through the crack. Still hissing. I will be so happy if this works. This doesn't work, we have to replace this whole thing. See this? Zoom in on this, Austin. There's this rubber gasket. Okay, it is pretty— it is pretty worn out and dry rotted, I guess you'd call it. Yes! Yes! We're coming across a lot of problems, but I seem to be getting lucky and fixing them today. Okay, I'm not gonna be able to do this alone. It's past 7:30. I don't see the big boys. In this heat, I'm of the mindset of get up early, work in the cool. They're teenagers. They're sleeping in. We're supposed to start at about 7:30. I know. Not just wake up. I hung up 15 minutes waiting for yourself. Come on. Let's go start getting stuff ready. I've been up an hour and a half waiting on you guys. Come on. Morning time is chore time.

I am getting stuff done today. It's always on our rest day that I get super motivated to like organize and do all this stuff. So yesterday I ended up writing it all down. So I have it written down and I know what I want to do now. Okay, so we got to get in here. I got to get stuff out. So our plan is to get these melons out. And I need to get these flowers out. These are more cucumbers. We have had a time with acorn squash. Look at this. This is my peppers. Very little peppers. I normally grow 50 feet of peppers, and I don't know what is happening, like why we cannot get them to germinate. We have tried different seeds. I've bought Lots of pepper seeds, different companies. I just don't know what's going on. We're waiting so long for things to germinate, like, it's just that we're losing the stuff that did germinate because I, I want to plant it all out together, not one thing at a time, you know. It's just not my year for peppers, I guess, which is very disheartening. We've just tried a lot of things, as you can see. Like, we wrapped this in, like, to kind of create a humidity dome, we wrapped it in plastic wrap. I don't know, it's, it's something fails every year. I'm just not prepared to have my peppers fail. So like my carrots, it didn't work out. We planted them and then we just— I don't know, it just didn't happen. Um, so I'm just gonna buy carrots at Azure. I'm gonna buy a 50-pound bag and then I can dice them and, um, freeze dry them and ferment them and then you know, I have what I want type thing. Okay, goodness, they do sell peppers at a quantity, 25 pounds at a time. Um, so I'm going to probably just order a couple cases of those. So I bought paprika peppers, so I don't have that many peppers. I only have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and then I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Okay, so I have 9 paprika peppers. So my plant— my plan for that is to plant the paprika peppers, um, and then make paprika from them. So I only have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Rainbow peppers, but that's fine. I'm going to take this one out. There's literally one in this whole tray. This is a— it's a beauty. Put that in this one, and then we'll take those out. And then I guess I'll plant my one shishito. It's struggling. Like, what? If it makes it, hallelujah. And if not, I guess we're going to take a break from shishitos this year. Okay, and then our acorn squash. I should see if Azure sells acorn. So this is it. I mean, this is really frustrating. It's been a frustrating year just taking the wins where we can. And, um, I know I want the acorn peppers. Oh my goodness, no wonder it's like, what? So maybe they'll have those another time, but they don't have them right now, so we are struggling. We're struggling with certain crops, but that's very normal. I've never struggled this much with peppers or acorn squashes though. On the other hand, I've got some zucchinis and crooknecks coming, um, so I can plant those also in the high tunnel. Um, and then I was gonna plant some flowers, and I've got more herbs to plant. I'm excited, but first we're gonna get this stuff out. So we have melons to go, and they're struggling. They should have been put out a long time ago, but this is what happens sometimes, you know.

Sunday seed day is generally a day we can dedicate the entire day to the farm. It's gonna be so hot though. Pretty unbearable by 10, but maybe we stay hydrated. We'll see if we can push into it. Clearing off these— what was peas, it's turned into a weed bed. We need to feed the pigs some broccoli. We're done with the broccoli, although I see, I see we missed some. We'll catch that. We'll eat that. Probably a lot of time lapses today so we can get stuff done. Don't be shy. See if you can't fill the cart up. You gotta get down low. Look, follow it all the way to the bottom. What are you shy of? All right, I can mountain bike 42 miles in a day after doing a 26-mile and a 31-mile day. You can probably get through this heat. That is satisfying. It was all those weeds along there. It was not as bad as it looks. It wasn't like coated with weeds like sod, okay? There were weeds throughout and they were just, they were just really bushy. Like this, for example, looks like a lot, but really it's just a few plants. Was that 3 or 4? Plants covering this area. Now what makes it all worth it for me— why we have pigs right here. This will help with our grain consumption. I just weeded the whole piece. Oh, you really did?

Yeah, you took them out?

Yeah. Okay, there were no peas left. No, they were all dead. Yeah, the weeds, which was crazy. Zoo haul wheelbarrow. I'm gonna go move the sea monsters. Gideon, Lily said breakfast is ready in 10 minutes. Yeah, you're gonna train like the rest of us. Another day, another sea monster move. Let's go eat. How'd milking go? We get milk? Yeah. Heck yeah.

What's crazy is this year it feels like everything is going so slow, but yet we're at the almost the end of June. Like, what? Like, it's just like this weird— I can't, I can't explain it. Some years— I don't know. I don't know. I'm like, I'm almost confused. I cannot find this cart. Um, I'm kind of confused as to like why it doesn't feel like late June when it is. I don't know. Do you know where Henry cart is?

Where his what is?

Henry cart.

Uh, where'd you put Henry cart? Henry, Henry had it this morning.

Okay, so Justin says that Henry had the Henry cart, which we named Henry cart before we named Henry our son. Anyways, I'm trying to figure out how we can get stuff planted. I feel like I need to be like working in the evenings now. Taking off the middle of the day as my like time to have a little bit of downtime in the heat of the day type thing. I don't know. So anyways, this is all It's always the struggle trying to, um, figure out when you can work, how, because see, we're about to come into like 100-degree day— not 100, 90-degree days, like mid-90s, which is hot for us. And that just sounds miserable to be out in like for a long time. I just gotta figure it out. But look, it's jamming! I'm going to get these weeds. I got Henry cart. I've got the trash out. So we have a chick out. You see the mom, the broody hen? She is like very fiercely wanting to protect it. Come on, it's okay, it's okay.

Here, there we go.

These chicks get out all the time, it's crazy. It's 9:00, it's not that bad. Um, if it was closer to 10, it would probably be a no-go, but since we're so far from 10 o'clock, it's an hour away, I feel like we'll be all right. And Justin's gonna come and help too, I think. It's a great angle. And then we went down this hill and it all fell over, so I don't even know what we're gonna have to plant at this point. I'm not well. Justin, where are you?

High tunnel time. Henry and I planting peppers. He's jumping ahead of me though. Hang on, Henry. 18 inches between plants. Jonah and Josiah extending our drip irrigation. I've got a bit of water, fish fertilizer in it, soaking this. All right, more weed control. It is weed season after all. Maybe a pain, but it sure is satisfying when you're done. Look at that. Let's prevent more of this. There's no reason why can't we— can't run plastic right up to the edge. We got it protected right up to the plant. The beautiful one put a bunch of grass clippings on the cucumbers. See, we have a little leak right here. Hi, Dom. A big time leak right here. Wouldn't be homesteading without problems, would it? Okay, we've got a pierce right here, so we just need to make that shorter. Can you turn off my line? Sit. All right, go get me a male-to-male adapter for right there. You know what I'm talking about? It's in those— okay, go bring those bags you took home earlier. Take those bags that you took to the garden stall. Oh my gosh, guys, it's so, so hot. This greenhouse is literally a sauna. We got the leak right here. Okay, Lily, turn me off. Turn me off. Yes, we do. It's leaking all over the green— the high tunnel, and all the water's going right there. This has to be fixed. She wants to go swimming. You'll get to go swimming. Here.

I know.

Did you turn that water off?

You need to.

Did you turn this one off? No, we turned the other one off. Turn the other one on and turn this one off. Oh, okay. So this is a problem. We have a leak, a big one. We have a blowout. I'm never shy of content with this much homestead, am I? Because I'm never shy of problems. This is totally blown out and it's a little long. Let's just cut it short and reattach it. All right, got that fixed. You planted a watermelon and cantaloupe down where our peas were. Now wait, we gotta soak that. Hey, get all the weeds that aren't strawberries up. The weeds even take over and you got plastic down. Imagine if we didn't have it. Get it one at a time. Let's go.

I can't get this big weed.

Yeah. Just do it one at a time. Looks better, right? 8,400 square feet garden is no joke, even with weed fabric down. Booty says we got some cabbages, and if we leave them, they're gonna burst in this heat. Wow, look at these beautiful cabbages!

Yeah, we've a lot actually. This one— well, this This one's kind of small still. This one I think is good size.

Are you feeling it to know?

No, I'm looking. Well, that smallest one. Yeah, this one.

Are you looking at size or are you looking at firmness?

So I look at size, like this one right here, and then I touch it and it's very firm. Okay, but I looked, there was one down here that I touched and it was still kind of like It might have been that one.

Kiss the cabbage with me. Kiss the cabbage. We might try to make some sauerkraut. It's just dripping in juice, the fresh cabbage. We're calling it. We're getting out of the sun. Well, because it's time to make lunch. One last thing we do before we're gonna faint. I would say we've milked this broccoli for all it's worth. I think we only missed one to bolting. Fresh cabbage. The lamb turned out nice, practically 100% from the lamb. Sour cream, the only thing we could have made. This afternoon, boys did a good job cleaning and doing this garden, didn't it? Didn't they? There is nothing like a clean-kept garden. Oh, that looks so nice. I'm gonna see if this works because I know Beth Doherty does it because our blade— our brush— our brush saw, which is like a string trimmer with a saw blade. I don't know if that's the side I'm supposed to do. Is, uh, out of commission. All right, it works, it works. I cut my finger off. Wow, I'm gonna have to get a Band-Aid, guys. Ouch.

If we get infected, then we can't have the party.

Oh, I know. We've had to cancel our Fourth of July party the last two times in a row. Last time because of my infection, my cut that turned— got infected. Eat or no, we got stuff to do. Finger is wrapped good, hopefully good. See all this leftover bramble? See this bramble everywhere?

Why don't you just mow this?

Yeah, well, because it's too steep to mow. What I'd like to find out here is, is this going to be worth it? I mean, it'd be pretty cool to scythe because you don't have to deal with gasoline. Oh man, shoot.

Why don't you do it on a string trimmer instead?

Okay. Oh, all right, all right. Hey. it's not bad. If we get this down, the grass will grow back faster than this. This is how we get more out of the same amount of pasture. Each time I come through here, I'll have to come through here less and less because the cows make it better than mowing it, knocking this down, letting the grass thrive. So we got about an hour That's about all you want to do this. Right there though, we could probably get with the mower. Let's get these little sections that I don't feel comfortable with getting on with the mower. I'm reckoning that's about straight. Every time I pinch your nipples, so it's steep. That was fun while it lasted. The head slung off, but I think the contraption that holds it on is just loose. I think we can go fix it. Although we have a little bit of damage here. Hopefully that's not why. I like this European scythe. It's super lightweight, ergonomic. This is the brush saw blade on it. It has a grass mowing blade too. So we actually have two scythes so that we don't have to switch out the blades. It's made so you can switch out the blades. Let's go. Scoot over, we gotta go fix this.

The karate massage.

Just need an Allen key. Paw Paw, really? Oh wow, that's not even an Allen key. I don't think we have that, but we'll have something. I just realized before we went down the mountain, I'm checking the plumbing supplies tools. What do you call that bit? You got to be a jack of all trades. Look at that, that works. It probably came with the tool, but we lose things. Jack of all trades. Master of permaculture. I have about 20 minutes now. I don't think I'll need a sauna session tonight. I'd really like to get this section. There's a little electric fence coming down through there. That's kind of my marker. It'd be really neat to get this section. Honest review after 20 minutes. I'm a little sore. It's going to take some getting used to. I don't know if I need the extra workout. I get weight training in the morning. I mean, maybe this could be my weight training this week. It's not quite the same though as lifting heavy. Um, nothing can quite replace that. This head came off a couple of times. What do I need to do, guys? JB Weld or something to hold these shut? I don't need to ever switch this out. Or peen. In fact, when I peen it, I'll need to probably pull it off. So I'll just— I guess I'll carry this with me, keep tightening it up. You're supposed to keep sharpening it as you go. This handle came loose. I think we can wood glue that. I think you find where that is and that must have came loose. We're not spending any money, so I'm not buying a brush saw. I'm going to commission the boys to try to find it, and if they can't find it, maybe we can get one that attaches to our RedMax stream trimmer. I think they totaled our other string trimmer that converted to a brush saw, because boy, that sure would make it easier. I did get right all the way up through there. There is something romantic about it. It's exercise. I'm intimate with my land.

Let's go, let's go, let's go!

I'm seeing every bit of it. Problem is, we're gonna get into some gnarly stuff. Particularly around that brush pile, which we need to burn. It's been like 3 years, y'all. Come on, next rain we're burning it. Okay, y'all ready?

Yeah.

Get in. Take, uh, take Sally and go, go forward. All right. Hey, Gideon, go get me my screwdriver out of my apron. Not an endorsement, just what I'm using. Something's been on here before. Let's try some Gorilla Glue on this. Up here too. I don't want to— maybe I don't want something as strong as JB Weld. You're gonna have to tune in tomorrow to see if this works. I'd say that's a good ending right there. Happy day.