In this informal farm‑vlog/podcast episode, the family walks through a series of daily homestead tasks and projects while chatting with guest market‑gardener JM Fortier. The segment opens with a discussion about labeling mailboxes with durable numbers and the creation of a new mineral sled for moving feed, followed by a quick health check on a cow (named Honey) showing signs of mastitis that appear to be improving. The family then builds horse corrals and a portable jump ring using inexpensive panels, adjusting dimensions on the fly while children practice riding lessons. After the hands‑on work, they host an in‑person interview with JM Fortier, who explains a three‑year‑old training‑garden initiative funded by a philanthropist, designed to teach permaculture techniques at scale. The conversation touches on the garden’s design philosophy, seasonal planting (strawberries, scallions), production goals (150 lb of produce for a year), and the collaborative spirit of the homestead. Throughout, the tone remains conversational, light‑hearted, and enthusiastic, highlighting family involvement, problem‑solving, and community learning.
Chapters
Come on, you two. And he put on our labels yesterday. We found these are what works the best. Markers just get rubbed off. These mailbox numbers, letters, is what works the best. They're screwed in. Branding would have been nice, but it's so expensive to get the branding tool for all those different letters, it's not worth it for me or most homesteaders. You dweeb! Did you put him up to it? This mineral sled is more manageable. First one we bet not homestead stock. He's kidding me. Well, let's see how heavy it is once we put— when you put minerals in it. No, you probably need to start milking. Henry, what is this? Babies. Baby's going there. Can you fit in that? No. Jonah said he thinks this is for babies, and we might make an option that's not on skids, that's on it, and make it a mineral shaw, which would make it even easier to move. Honey's diseased! Oh no, that's what I thought when I first saw that. She's just shedding.
Ah, got him!
That's honey, isn't it? They seem to think this one mastitis teat has healed, which would be a miracle because she's been a little goopy in that teat for a couple years now. Can't get nothing out, you're too weak. The suspect one into this quarter panel. Let's see if it snots up. I don't know, Jonah. Let me try comparing it to everybody else. Let's see. It doesn't dissolve quickly. See that? And it's snotty. See that? You know, not too bad. Definitely not affecting her. No temperature. Eats, drinks. They start dragging me out minerals. Let's try moving it with mineral. It's a workout. Thanks for getting the wood chips done, Paige. I appreciate it. Thanks for helping us with the minerals. Can y'all come help set up these horse corrals? Come on, it's the project. We'll probably be done by 9. What's this? Oh, she does. What is it? For the viewers. I mean, a horse jump. All right, now we're putting up Lily's horse ring. I found these panels to be a really affordable ring that can be sold after if she gets out of horses. I don't know if she ever will though. It can be used for a— for sorting. They've got the right idea, come around this trail here.
We're going that way. Yeah. Okay, I want to be like Miss Lisa's room.
Let's make this bigger. I think we can. You went 12 long. Hold on, if you went 12 long, that would be 3 wide. I feel like it should be wider than that. So how about we go— how about we go 10 long and 5 wide? Wow, look how close! I like it right here. Let's bring y'all's ends closer. About to ride them? Nope, they're gonna just mow the grass. We did it! Come on, hit Lily's lesson. You want to stay here with Gideon? Can he stay here with Gideon? We're at Lily's horse lessons. Come on, you want to play in the grass? Felt very excited this morning. Just this— in this afternoon, JM Fortier, master market gardener, is coming to the farm. And we're doing an in-person podcast. We went and saw JM on the Great American Farm Tour. I guess we should have called it the Great North American Farm Tour because we saw JM in Canada. Here's some of that.
We started this project 3 years ago. It's financed by this super wealthy business person that wanted to give a legacy of hope for farmers.
What a cool legacy. Yeah.
And so me and a bunch of other designers, permaculture designers, designed the market garden to be quite big. It's using pretty much the same techniques that I've come up with in my book and in my work. But we've kind of like made it more massive so that we can train more people. That's the purpose here. And experiment using new tools and techniques and—
How was the lesson? Good. You got you a new outfit? Looks sharp. Thanks. A little warmer today, huh?
Yeah, it's real hot.
Is he sweating?
Yeah, look at him. Smell him. He smells like sweaty horse.
Just smells extra musky.
Every type of horse thing smells good except wet horse, sweaty horse, and poop.
What is it that you like so much about horses? Two things.
Uh, they're pretty, and I like taking care of them.
What about Mr., uh, Mr. Dennis at Full Circle Farm? He says, you know what all the ladies like about the horse? The musk and the muscles.
The musk is pretty big.
Really? What'd you learn at lessons?
Um, well, we didn't— I didn't do anything different. I just, um, practiced what I do know. We did, um, jumping and we did cantering. We tried to get the right lead, but He doesn't really like doing the right lead as much as he does the left lead. So we're done that, and then we did jumping and we did lots of circles because he needs to loosen up a bit.
Annie!
I'm so sorry, I did not realize that the podcast was in here.
I would have started here earlier. That's okay, you're good. It's not starting till 1:30.
Dad's getting ready.
Which by the way, this one will be available to you guys on— I'm posting it on the YouTube channel. What is it? You want to play with that box? The Henry cart, such a useful tool. Have fun. What a cool setup, Matt. Good job. And JM just pulled up. Hey, welcome to my territory.
This is sweet weather.
You came on the best day of the year so far. Yeah, no, that's everything. Yeah, everything's good. Hey, you remember JM?
Yeah, the lunch was 7 years ago, so you were quite small, guys.
So, so, so this guy, this guy was this size. Meet Henry, the newest addition. Yeah, the midlife crisis. We're getting old. We're not gonna be able to have any more babies. We better hurry up and have another one.
You want a coffee? There we go.
From your 2:30 AM rising.
That's North Carolina hospitality. We were picking scallions And she was like, you need to bunch them like this. And I was like, are you kidding me? I teach an online masterclass throughout the world. Like, this is not how you do this. This is how you do it. And she's like, no, no, this, this is how we do it. No, it's more efficient this way. You just go like this. And then, and she's like, you know, this is not going to work.
How'd the podcast go? Can you see?
Good.
Did you enjoy it? Yeah, super cool. Okay, good. Definitely cool to meet JM too. I know, right? He's wearing your hat. I know, man. He's gonna go to the Vienna grocery store representing. Dona, you made Lily a jump? That's really nice.
She's gonna buy it though.
How much? I don't know, I have to ask Mama. No, it's nice. Look at you.
Tell me what I mean.
Which means what?
This means see you later, alligator.
You kiss the ladies. The Frenchman. That's the Frenchman in you, right?
Hey, keep up the good work, man. Yes sir, it was fun.
Thank you, thank you. Fun, it was fun with you.
And same for you, keep up the good work. Be good, keep it up, and thank you for the hat.
Appreciate it. Yeah, I'll send you that picture I took with you guys. Well, I'm gonna see you— when are strawberries coming in?
I'm like, are you planning?
They're flowering right now. It depends on— well, you text me.
Okay, so we're doing the seasonal, we're currently grocery store, we're literally just trying to grow what is eat and grow what's in season.
Oh really?
Yeah, so that's why I need 150 pounds because it's gotta last me a year, man.
I would have brought you more veggies if I knew you were doing that.
