Is it Worth It?

Turkey's been doing good in their turkey shaw. Happy Sunday seed day, y'all. Soon we got to move these turkeys from here and let's put them on a pasture job, improving pastures. I think they've graduated the yard. I think maybe we'll do that tomorrow. Today's project: harvesting green beans before they go bad and planting the pumpkins before they get too big for their britches, so to speak. We got a couple of rows we can plant.

All the sheep are out there because we got the cows.

The animals got out this morning. Boys are pretty much in charge of those animals and they're doing pretty good for the for the most part. You see a lot of them getting out because, I don't know, it's interesting. It's not, it's not very interesting when necessarily when everything's just going, and they don't necessarily need me either, do they? So I need to film more when it's going right with the animals, don't I? Before we get to our project, hopefully before that sun gets too high, I need to check on the boys' work. We are getting further away from the house, which means it can get a little more difficult to get them water and stuff. What happened here? Uh, John, I gotta stop. Goal is to get this mower out of here. What's the plan? Just say get on it and back it up. That went good. Happy day. So what happened right here?

The fences didn't quite meet, so they only met at the top. There's like a Uh, half gap, and the calf tried to go through that.

Okay.

And then it knocked the connector off.

All right.

And then the fence was off, so then they did.

Okay. How are we doing on water over here? Is that how much water pressure we got? Yeah, it's doing great. It's coming off the mountain, so it's sort of hit or miss. But you need to kink it? No, it's good.

There's a lot of water.

You sure? Yeah. Check out the comfrey planted. Into the trees. It's coming up natural living mulch for these trees. You won't have to do wood chips year after year. Rule number 1 when putting their water up: put the auto shutoff valve against the fence so they can't bother it. And rule number 2: balance it. If this end's lower, water will just flow over and it'll never shut off our auto shutoff valve. See that red float? Yeah, when the water comes up, it brings that up and it shuts it. Look, he man's boss already, huh? Where's Honey Boss? Well, the water slowed significantly. Jonah went to clean out our depressurizer regulator. Sometimes that gets clogged. Coming a long way off the mountain, so we have to put a depressurizer in there. Something's wrong with the mower blades, so we're gonna have to string trim where the where this fence is going to go, otherwise it'll ground out. All right, don't take too long for breakfast. Breakfast was relatively pain— pain-free. Look, we're in the shade. Should we get on that while we're in the shade? Certainly harvest the green beans out of the high tunnel before it gets crazy. Big news on the house build: we got the AC turned on. Feels cool. Wanted to dry out the floors. Up to temp.

And they gave us an old styled one.

Yay!

Instead of like—

No smart meters.

I know, we don't want no smart.

Heck yeah, it's set to 74. It's 74 in here, baby. Won't take much with all this insulation.

Wow, tomatoes!

You're in tomato heaven, baby.

I need something to put them in.

Tomatoes in this one. Oh my Lord, look at that.

I'm pretty sure it was 2 tomatoes.

It's amazing, Rebecca. This is like our fourth harvest off these bush beans. Again, milk is stored outside, a little bit in the bucket. Add some grain. All right, fellas, one more day in here and you're done. The beef bushes are finally looking beat up. Probably one more round, I think, to get 5 rounds off these bush beans back.

That would be amazing because I don't think I've ever gotten more than 2 or 3, and it's just a 50-foot run. I don't know what I'm doing right.

It's just on-farm compost. It's the, like, third year charm. Did that section do better than the other section? Because that's where the pigs were. Looks like it might have.

No, it's because we haven't picked it yet.

Oh, look at all the fruit you're gonna get just, just, just from this one plant. You're gonna get 20 pounds just from this one plant.

How much can you have tomatoes for?

Uh, at the market, I think they're going for $4 a pound.

That's $80.

Tomatoes are a cash cow.

This time last year, Jonah was recovering from his last and final surgery, his hip replacement. So that's partly why this garden's doing good, Becky. We've been able to give it attention this year. We got fried green tomatoes on the menu. Getting our pumpkins done from a couple of days ago. Good. They're hanging in there. Now, before the rest of our pumpkins outgrow their britches, let's, uh, Jonah, let's get this tarp up and plant some pumpkins in these rows. I pulled it up, but it's super heavy. I think there's a bunch of water in it. I hope I can pull it out and straighten it out. Wow. All right, I got Jonah. Jonah, you want to pull from here and I'll get down there?

Let's straighten it out and fold it.

This wet dirt and leaves became really wet. We just flipped it upside down and it came right off. Okay, Gideon, let's fold this thing. Sawdust tarp's totally worth it. Look, not a weed in that bed. Rebecca, we're only going to need about 12 of those pumpkins. What you doing?

Composting.

Nice. If you have any left, you might do those squash over yonder. Look at that, folks, Jonah's gardening. Love it. I think we're of the mind it's so hot, we're gonna take the afternoon and create a fantastic supper. Jonah's got biscuits on his mind. Mom's got— what do you have on your mind? Oh, fried green tomatoes. I have fried chicken on my mind. And I— what do you call it when you put it overnight? Brine it. Brined it in our buttermilk. We're gonna see if that makes it really juicy like it's supposed to. Tomorrow we're hoping to get the pigs out of here, build these 3 beds, and plant you some more pumpkins, Rebecca. So you'll have 1— you'll have 4 beds to do something with. Are we catching these plants before they outgrow their britches? Yep. This one's getting a little yellow. Hopefully we'll get some more planted for you tomorrow. What you want to do with these 4 beds? One of them's gonna be pumpkins. So what you want with 3 beds?

No, no, I'm gonna do them all in pumpkins.

You have to leave 5 for your fall garden crops. The rest can be in pumpkins then? Yes. Okay. We've been cooling off in the house this afternoon. The boys went fishing. They've been draining the pond or the lake.

Wow.

Holy— it's probably like what?

Hold that up. Wow, you saved that bass because they're all gonna die. They're draining the lake, they're all gonna die. Might have to figure out and get some feed for them too. All right, let's get him in the pond. You guys saved him, good job. Is that the biggest bass you've ever caught?

The biggest bass I've ever caught.

Congratulations.

Can't breathe.

Please hold it, I want to hold it. I gotta get it in. Is my 18 and a half fish still in there? Yeah, I saw it the other day.

How many do you have in here now?

I think like, like 9 or 10.

Well, you got rid of the tadpoles, didn't you?

They're gone. The tadpoles are gone.

I just get some catfish for all this.

Well, we have to get the rake fungus, or what do you call it?

We gotta get a rake. They make like these pond rakes that have like sharp things on them. You just run them along and it clears it up.

Look at all those tomatoes, beautiful ones in the kitchen. Let's turn the light on. Dry green Add some lard to our ongoing cooking fat here. Beck, look how much taller he is than you. Stand over here, Jonah. Really?

No.

Really? Is he gonna be taller than me? I think he is. He's already in my same shoe size.

I think they're all gonna be taller than you.

Oh no.

I think Gideon's gonna be the tallest.

Oh no. We harvested, or we— what do you call it, Rebecca, when you make lard? Rendered.

We rendered.

What do we render, a dozen of these? We're down to 2. It was a thousand— thousands of dollars worth of lard. I forget what the number was. It's like $3,000, and we made it. We did something right because it lasted.

It did.

It didn't— it didn't go rancid.

It didn't get weird.

We got all the juices out of it, I guess. Buttermilk soaked. We're gonna see if that's juicy. We got a couple of pieces done. Those look delicious, don't they? Others were so thick with keep them in the oven. Tomato time. How's it going? I think it's going well. It's, it's work, isn't it? You're standing here over this. Mom, the question is, scoot over, is that juicy? Do you have a breast? Is it the buttermilk? Is the buttermilk brine worth it? Is it? Yeah. That face. We're good Southerners here.

So good.

Fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, biscuits, and green beans. Happy day.