It Worked! Until It Didn’t

Did they get over? Nope. 15% chance, especially with that crazy rain. Like, the porch is soaked. The covered porch is soaked. I think that was the biggest storm we've had since the hurricane. It was kind of freaky. That's a good sound. The sheep are still separated. We did it, my man. We did it. All we had to do is get those fence really stinking hot. The mamas are there. We were able to hook up to our Energizer off the grid— our grid— our grid Energizer. I didn't even get out in the storm. I think yesterday when I gave them sheep, the sheep shawl during the hailstorm, I think that actually gave them a sense of security that they had found in their mother. They're now finding the sheep shawl. It's a small theory I have. Went crazy last night. Did you see some of it? Uh, I heard some of it. It was the end of the porch. It blew in. Yeah, the whole porch is soaked. Did you check out the creek? Question is, is it overflowing? Last night was a normal extreme rain event. This is what we're gonna expect. That's the thinnest spot right there, and it's doing just fine. How'd the bridge do? Oh good, our compost got wet. It needed that. Comes up right here. How you gonna fix that? Yeah, the only way is you'd have to— you can't, because this, this has to have runoff. And our creek stayed in, in it. Yeah, there you go. Jonah was afraid it was going to wash this away. That'd have to be some event. Look at this big event. The creek is swole. But to have such an event to just come all the way up to here is literally 8, 10 feet at least, and then 50 feet across. 10, 12, 20 times what this is. The seat is soaked. Hopefully it doesn't mess up our ride today. So it wasn't windy, was it? We've got to go milk Honey out. We let the calf have her, so there won't be much in there. Probably just the infected teat. We do gotta move Everybody over 1, we move everybody every day, so it'll be interesting to see how the moving of the little lambs goes. Austin, come on. Yeah, yes, we've only got 2 more, 3 more training days before we go. We've been riding every Friday that we can, mountain biking. Last year we attempted a 100-mile bikepacking trip. Our new finish line is 50 miles. We vastly underestimated the difficulty of these trails, and we failed. But not a group to give up. We're gonna try it again this year, having the experience the first time, having actually trained for a year, and part of what we're doing today, having rid the trail trail ahead of time. Where do we go to get to her? Oh my gosh, why does it wash out like this every time? I'll take you up here to turn the fence off. Okay, we got to see where that's coming from. I know where it is. Fix it. So happy about this Energizer. We used to have two. We used to have one on the other side of the road, but they went kaput. Look at this thing, 63 joules. They don't even make it anymore, the That's insane power. That's to plug into a 240. It's, I think, the tough— the, the strongest solar energizer I've ever seen. It's like 2 joules. We've gotten up early to do our chores a little bit early so we can get out of here because I have an afternoon appointment this afternoon, so we've got to get back. Today we're actually riding the last 12 miles of it. There's still a section before that we need to do when we have more time, hopefully next week, but today 1,000-foot climb the last 12— yeah, 12 miles. The moms are feeling pressures in their udders from drying off and calling for the baby. Okay, milkers stay behind. Thank you. So that one didn't run with him, I guess. She didn't want to leave her baby and it hurts her. The mom's going to be over there. And the baby sheep are going to be here. No, no, let's just cut the corner right there, Jonah. Look, look, and we can make it longer. That's never gonna hold them. It'll have the second most amount of pressure on it. The wall that divides mom and babies, and then the wall— you got to have it just so— and then the walls on the sides that are housing the babies. Jenna's assuring me the calf would have gotten it all out except for the infected teat, so I'm gonna trust him. That's why I don't have any milk pails. Now you've changed in a week, haven't you? She's not even rushing away after we've taken the alfalfa. She's finding the morsels. She says, you're good now. Thought is they want to be with their mom so bad, they're just going to come right over. Hopefully they hit this funnel we've created. We've opened up the fence to block them from going behind the cabin, open it up here to keep them from going over there because they might try another way to get to them. The thing about getting these fences really hot like we did yesterday is they respect them for even longer when they're off. The consequence consequences are greater if they touch them. Because it's wet, it's going to be grounding out in more spots, making it weaker. But because it's wet, they're going to ground out better and they're going to get shocked harder. It's not working. There it is. That's because it wasn't on. Dang it. Somebody got over. My gosh, the lettuce just got pummeled. Be interesting to see if that comes back. Everything turns out good over here. Bug net would have protected the brassicas. Tomatoes are under the high tunnel. That turned out nice. Does everybody feel good? We're at the top. I think it was mostly uphill to this point. We dropped— we dropped Austin's car down below. 12 miles, 1,100-foot climb. Beautiful day. And we're off. Hopefully it's chill double track, what I can tell from the map. We're exploring the last part of the 100 miles. We would have come out right here. That little parking area could be an area to meet Rebecca and Marie supply. Now this is cruising. Now this is what I would think of when it comes to biking. You've gotten ahead of me. I'm closing in though. You waiting for the old man to push you? Just climbed a good 5 miles. It's like we're mellowing out and we're gonna be downhill. How y'all doing? Doing fine. Quarter of the way, quarter of the way left. I haven't broken a sweat. This is good for your MMA cardio endurance. He's like, yeah, okay. He's like, talk to me at the top. How you holding up? And we are done. We made it in one piece. 2 hours, we did 12 miles. Dang, boys, we keep that up, we might get to finish the 100 miles this year. That was next level. Yep. I can't imagine that being the end of our 100 miles. We're gonna be so tired. We're gonna be so tired. Of course, we're not gonna charge it like we did today. 12 miles in 2 hours. It's pretty fast. Pretty fast. So that means you could do 25 miles in 4 hours at that pace. We could do 25 miles a day at least. Yeah, what do you think? All right, let's get home. I'm starving. We're home. I don't hear any sheep bleating. Every single one of those sheep have gotten over. This is an epic battle. This evening, strawberries. 2 gallons down. 13 to go. How many have you done? 6. Oh good, you're almost halfway done. We would have had 50 gallons of strawberries. Are we strawberry crazy? Yes. Josiah says yes. Crazy, we are. She admits it. Oh yeah. Oh good. What are you making? Garlic green beans. What makes a garlic green bean? Um, garlic and fried. I just put garlic and butter and like Let it start cooking, and then I'll just pour green beans, frozen green beans. That's it. Our confession: we don't have green beans right now. We're gonna plant green beans this year. Yes, they're already in there. Oh, that's Azure brand, 5-pound bag, baby. Affiliate link in the description if y'all want to get in on this. It's like bulk, uh, bulk organic co-op order. So you organize the co-op? Yes. Here? Yes. You think we can get organized enough this summer? I hope so. Our garden's gonna be jamming, our farm's gonna be jamming. Azure and— oh, did you tell the kids? What? Did you tell the kids what about Minty? Minty the calf is A2. A2. That means we'll have 4 cows to milk. That means you're gonna have to come back and milk. Hey, that means we're gonna have 4 cows to milk. Okay, you crush those green beans. I did like green beans, but those were okay. Hey, you gotta move your broody hen. How's she doing? Good. She's still on it? Yeah. If she hatches those chicks, they'll get lost in this tall grass. You can leave her in, it'll just scoot over. Come on, aren't you moving? All right, that's good. Come on, chick. She's what, a week and a half away from chicks? I'm not one to give up easy. Let's see if we can get them over and we can have a restful Sabbath. We're gonna put a corner up so that we can take down a lot of this fence so we don't have to power it off. Like they just pushed it over. Remember, it wasn't hitting that hard because it was cold or rainy. Well, it's not raining anymore. He's got straw, but where's your physical barrier? Right there, outside of the net. Yes, that's a good place to have it so that if not inside— he's got a good point. He believes the heifer is just gonna barge through the net. Yeah, hey, yeah, come, Lily, quick! Just set that down gentle and come over here. Open this cage. Okay, we got the calf separated right next door. Only have to— hopefully only have to put her in a physical cage at night for a couple of what, 2 or 3 days, Jonah? Not in a row, just, just in the late evening overnight. We'll come milk her in the morning. We have set up a corner by just adding a 50-foot here, and then that way we can disconnect— we've took up the old fence, we don't have to power that anymore. I've taken down 2 fences, so we have to power 2 less fences. We're gonna herd all the sheep into this corner. That was smooth, very easy to move when it's All of them. Are you sure this is a big enough hole? Yes. Nice. There you go. There's two. Those, they don't have mama. Is that, is that two? Go, let him go. It's a little one. We're getting good at this. Wow. Shoot! No, dang it! They all got to go back in. One busted out right there. If one gets out, you've got to let them all out and herd them all back in. Come here, you guys, get across. Stand right there still, guys, so you guys will stop them from coming out once they get in. They don't like going in there without everybody. Here you go. Now, children, you guys line this. We'll do this like pros now. Oh man, poor Jonah. He's getting a workout. There you go. Yeah, you guys are spotting them great. They're staying off the fence. This is perfect. The further we go, the harder it gets because the more the little ones want to get with everybody. When this gets unbalanced and more over here, it gets difficult. Wow, wow, there you go. There it is, there it is. Good job. When Jonah's done, he's gonna run turn on the fence. Okay, you might have to get that gimpy one. There you go. There it is. Lily, you pay attention. That one about got through the fence. Pay attention to all of them. There it is. Okay, everybody stay. Hey, hey, stay, stay. Now last night I think what worked is because they were further away. This closeness might be biting us in the butt. Let's see what it's hitting at. Lily, don't touch the fence. That sheep jumped right through the fence, breaking it. We're letting them out. We're gonna have to take them across the way. Bad news and good news. Bad news is they're jumping right through the fence. If one does it, then they're all going to go crazy. So I think that temptation is just too much, them being so close. Good news is we found them doing that and we know that's what— that's what our problem is. We'll just address that on Sunday. They're just having each other. We did get the little calf separated and I think that will work. She'll have to break out of the physical barrier and through the electric fence, but that's what we do with the sheep. That's going to be my vote. We'd have to sort them like that every night, wouldn't we? Maybe that's not my vote. I'll guys update you guys on how that goes over the weekend. Let's do it. See you then. Happy day.