It Wouldn't Be Homesteading Without Problems

What's going on down there? I want to go out and document that. My temptation is just to walk out there and stand. I don't want to say I can't. I do want to say it would be better that I would take Willie. Now I can put my foot up. Superb. Yesterday, keeping my foot elevated— well, it could have been the compression socks too. Did keep my foot from swelling more. Still swollen a little bit, but it didn't get any worse. I've got no new pains, but my wrist, my right wrist is getting stiff again. Hope it's not on its third cycle. Those are some happy birds. I didn't get over here in time for the move. They got feed. Hey, how's their grit, Sam? What's this? What's their grit look like?

It's good.

Jonah, is their water filled up? We're good. Look at them getting that clover. They just love this. Hey, do you guys want to do our project before the cows or after? We're just going to putz around in the greenhouse a little bit, hang some vines, pull some weeds. Let's check on the jobs and then let's do it. You guys did good. They got grit, feed, new ground. Water. Good job, boys. Looks like you guys nailed the luchadors too. Make sure you actually clean the pans. We were washing pans up the house and we're like, wait a minute, we could just run a hose down here, wash the pans right here where we need them. I'm going to declare this a failure. The ground was just too much fill dirt, too compact, and the squashes didn't grow. Okay, I like it. They've got their feed. We gotta fatten you guys up. You aren't growing fast enough. We got to start thinking about getting them out of here. She's due in just— could be in just a few weeks. He needs to be separated out. They're starting to develop. Fair warning to everybody, she's gonna give birth. She's gonna give birth on her own. We're not gonna assist. We need her to be able to do it on her own, and if she can't, she's not our long-term sow. First time Farrowing, it's rough. That's what they tell me. Uh, we probably won't get very many. There'll be a lot die. It's just rough. If they keep at least one and they're a good mother to it, then you should give her another try. You should keep her for the second, and then you get better success from the lot. The cool thing is they're only pregnant for like almost 4 months. They give a lot. Why not help? Well, this is our own decision to nurture resiliency. To eventually have breeds on our farm we'll pass on to our grandchildren that are strong, low maintenance, easy, so that the kids can focus on other things. So it doesn't take outside input in the long run, just high efficiency productivity for the amount of input. So it's a gift to my grandchildren. So eventually what we're gonna have is a super strong, uh, meat sheep operation, super strong pig operation, and ones that are specific to this land and this management system. All right, here we go, guys. Jonah's got a pail. Sorry, middle of a burp there. Uh, we got 20 minutes till we gotta milk. It's the last day for Sam and John. Boo-hoo. Uh, you guys, I want you to go through and weed, okay? It's really easy to pull these weeds out of this mulch, especially for young boys like you. I'm gonna see if we don't need more tomato trellising. Good news, my— well, this is my Lyme doctor, my functional medical doctor's coming today, so maybe we get to pick her brain a little bit about this reactive arthritis. She's got some insight on, uh, from my gut test. That was pre-this antibiotic for this illness though. And then hopefully our, um, extensive Lyme test is in. This is kind of orange from sitting on here, isn't it? I want to say, what do you know about reactive arthritis? This seems intense. What's the long-term effect of having to take ibuprofen every night? More information, other professional opinion can't hurt.

Oh, it's so hot. Packed down.

Good. Sam, you want to see how fast you can run? Sure. We'll drive beside you with the wheelie, tell you how fast. Who's up for it? Josiah, you want to see how fast you can run?

Sure.

Oh, you're gonna try it too, John?

I got flip-flops.

Should I take off my shoes? I don't know, it's up to you. We're gonna be running on this road. All right, Irene, you hold the camera as steady as you can as we drive. Okay, you guys ready? Okay, go ahead. 10, 11, 12. 11, 12, 13. You're going— look at Sam, you're going 12 miles an hour. Sam, man, I couldn't run with my flip-flops. 12 miles an hour barefoot on the road. Well, it wouldn't be homesteading without problems. Plus the net is down mega And thankfully nobody got out. Thank— thankfully y'all aren't devil eyes and you're sheep and you stayed in. The mineral shaw has come off at this end and just fell down. We're not going to be able to move it because it's, it's part of the bracing system for this thing. We happen to be in one of the trickiest moves too. You kind of have to pull it forward and then grab from this end and then, and then pull it up. We are in one of the one of the prettiest paddocks, I think. That big rock down there, the forest in the background, trees in the, in the paddock. Don't trip, stud. Oh, I like it, he stopped right there. That's a good sign, that's good stuff. Little mini stud. I don't know what happened here. Somebody probably jumped on it. They pushed Phyllis on it, a calf jumped on it, maybe a sheep jumped up there. Ultimately, it needs to be bolted, or we're going to redesign this thing based on some of the Salitons' recommendations. So that's actually going to end up being on the side. We're also going to put this here, this head gate on the side, and then we're going to put this brace that's at the bottom across here, just enough so the cows can walk under it. It'll be braced like this, and they'll have more lounging area. And we're gonna make sure this is a 12 by 16 roof. It's gonna have something to do with it. You can put some cream there. I don't know if stud— yeah, you could put some— well, yeah, you could put some of that udder cream on that.

I think Stud Muffin might have rammed her over that and she caught herself on the screws.

One thing Salatin told us to do while he was here was chop down this weed tree with machetes. I think the boys will have fun doing that. It's one of the few things sheep or cow will not eat. Most, most people hate multiflora rose in their pasture, but guess what? Sheep will eat this. I mean, you might not believe me based on this multiflora rose patch, but you will by that one over there. I don't want to walk over there, but they destroyed it. They'll eat the leaves off of it, and of course it kills it. Oh, you guys got to also realize the lambs are going to come through here too, so it's their turn next. See how they stripped this multiflora rose? A cow won't eat that, and they're a centerpiece, but a sheep will and kill it, and therefore making more room for more edibles for our cows. Sit down for a minute, keep my foot up. Seemed to work yesterday. I think the hardest thing, more than the pain, is I feel super restricted. Like, I know the strength is in me to like grab this mineral shawl, fix this, start screwing the screws. Milk cow. It's in me, but it's just not there. And it just feels so restrained, and I think that's just— oh, it's psychological. Psycho nuts. You're done, honey. We're gonna fix your stanchion here. See how the frame's crooked? Yeah, you could go ahead and straighten it up now, or when somebody holds that up. We have these screws sticking through, but apparently you don't have a star bit. We're gonna have to go home and get a star bit. And a 2x4 so that we can push these out because you won't be able to unscrew them probably without some force. Everyone's getting the bits out. It doesn't look like we have to shove them, they are coming out. That's good. Push on that 2x4 while you unscrew. There you go, that's doing it, right? No, so crooked. Might have to hammer it straight. Getting it? Yep. Oh, you got it. Okay, good. Yeah, grab that corner and push it towards Willie. See how it's not at a 90-degree angle there? Can everybody push? 1, 2, 3. That's a little better. Keep going. Okay, maybe you get at that corner and you pull. The roof's lifting it. Did that straighten it out again? There you go, there you go. That was it. Get one child on each side of this mineral. And so Arun and Jonah will do the screwing. Yeah, there you go. John's got one side. Just grab the other side. Arun, you, you spot Jonah. Okay, put one, put one on Arun's end and then they can rest easy. We did it, guys. Okay, this went a lot better. Let's pull this forward and then hook up to the back and then pull it up this hill. Harun just reminded me there's nothing on the back to get up to. So when you pull this way, we can just try to push it all together. Is there a stump right there? Yeah, I think we can lift it up.

There's a stump right there also.

We can lift it up. Any stump come, we can lift it up on other side.

And Ben, he's a camera hog. He's staying at the camera.

And look at his little socks. Who's socks? Emily give him these socks? No, little elf socks. With bells.

Oh no, so he can play with them. He's been playing.

That's why this one's wet. Okay, good. You wrestling with those socks, buddy? How you holding up this morning, Mom?

Good.

Glad you're good. It's tough when we both go down. That's a true friend, man. She's putting away the dishes. Emily, thank you. Taking a break from office work there, getting a little sunshine. I want you to notice something. That crazy rainstorm last night just destroyed half of Mom's sunflowers. It's crazy. Actually, I don't think she's too upset. One, because we're having to let some things fall through the cracks, but the sunflowers were also kind of almost done anyway. We're sitting down to supper. Indian Wednesday. Thank you, Cooking with Arun Kumar. Just had a visit with our doctor who was treating us for Lyme. This was the first time she was able to see us while we had this reactive arthritis.

Yes.

She confirmed it as reactive arthritis. Yeah. Which was good and bad. I mean—

Yeah.

Good in the sense that we know what it is. We have an official diagnosis. There's an end in sight. Bad is that, yeah, it's reactive arthritis. We did—

And it takes a while.

And probably longer than we thought. She imagines 3 to 5 months, so we were thinking 12 weeks. So now it could be up to 12 to 20 weeks, but still there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah.

There's a slight chance that it could carry on.

Chronic.

Chronic, but I don't think it would be.

Oh, it's going.

It wouldn't be at this extent. Stay with us, guys.

No, she felt like it would not be chronic.

I know it's the end of the day.

Obviously.

We're all getting tired.

She can't predict the future, but—

Yeah.

She didn't think that it would be chronic. We also got our Lyme results back.

Whoa!

Well, for the reactive arthritis, we came up with a treatment plan with her.

Come on. I need to get you guys new legs. Yeah, I know.

Their legs are giving out. I mean, good. Do you want me to hold it?

If I could with my wrist, do this.

We came up with a treatment plan for that. And so we're like, we know what we're doing. Your stool test came back from before the Campylobacter infection. And we got a treatment plan for that.

There were some concerns there and that might have been why.

There was some dysbiosis.

I was subject to this in the first place and others weren't. Correct.

The other thing was Lyme. We got those results back as well. And came up with another treatment plan for that. So we're not, we're not doing all the treatment plans at once. We're staging them. And going with the most acute, which is your reactive arthritis.

By far. If you get me back to my Lyme state that I was in before this, I'm gonna feel like He-Man. Speaking of doctor, she listens very well. She's a functional medicine doctor, so it can go conventional and natural. But we have a doctor that's very sensitive and watching over us. And as much as we appreciate y'all's love, care, and concern, and even suggestions We'll be honest, they actually can become overwhelming sometimes because there are all these different things and they— and it can be like, oh, is it that? And it creates this uncertainty and unrest. And for us, just unsettles the peace. Thank you so much for caring so much.

Yeah.

We are under the care of a doctor, so we actually don't need any more diagnosis or suggestions. And we've taken some that we have been given. Yeah, we have tried. And we've presented them to her. I really don't feel like we should just keep presenting these things.

Yeah, no, I think that—

We really have to settle on a plan.

We've come up with a plan and we feel okay with it.

Hi! Can you say bye? That'll work. Woo! If that isn't a happy ending, I don't know what is.