IT’S OVER | Putting the Garden to Rest for Winter

We're gonna turn this into this, so it's gonna be a good before-after video. Look at this hot chocolate. We got up the butt crack of dawn to get the chores done. Emma is here. We're planting garlic. Gonna learn how to do that today. Neighbor TB is getting in the habit of coming every Friday. We're getting content for Abundance Plus University. We'll make an instructional video today on how to plant garlic. Are we going? I guess you're doing the work, but Doing it in the warmth. Where's Josiah? I think he just went in the back. Josiah, let's go, bro. Get up. I already got up. Come on, supervisor gardening. G-dog, I totally forgot about you. Let's go. You coming, Leia? Oh, look, he's coming. Well, if you're coming, we got to get you shoes and socks. We going? Jonah's in his underwear. Oh, hopefully I didn't get a shot of that. Come here, I got a sweater for him. Is this okay? Yes. Where do you want that? No, no, it's fine. You ready? What I'm going to do is I'm going to end up moving that Chick Shaw over here and let all the chickens out in that greenhouse. Just want to stand there. How about this? Ready? Woo! I have quite the jungle garden here, but chickens will clear it in no time. There's even some tomatoes left for you gals. You're not so sure. Not what we'd hoped. Go back in. They're coming out. Oh boy, they're coming out. You coming help? You come help Henry? Whoa, it's okay, it's okay. You fell in the frost. It's okay, you're okay. This ain't working. CB's got one coming back. Teamwork. There you go. Two people coming out, Henry. Two people coming out. Wrong way, wrong way. How'd you get there ago, huh? You're not— you're not wanting to putz around yet. Is it because it's so frosty? Here you go. I think I can fit through that door. Can't get through here. Can't, never could, and could did it all. There you go, ladies. How about it? That's big. They're in there for the winter. We are one step closer to 100 days of building a brand spanking raw land new homestead right there on our 18-acre parcel over there. Gonna be able to gain about 10-ish acres, hence why we're calling it the 10-acre homestead. What I should probably do is set up this row. The chickens were on it, they helped clear it. Now we need to shape these beds. I need to mark the rows, which is a technical work that a whole lot of people can't help with. I should do that while I'm alone. Lily, we're over here. Breakfast break. You can go get a few eggs if you want. Yeah, bring a couple eggs when you come back out. People are not happy in here right now. They do like their lawns a little bit more manicured. How do I know they're not happy? Well, they're crazy to get out right now, but they will be happy when it rains and they're not getting wet. Ever heard that saying, madder than a wet hen? Well, they're not going to experience that for months, like February. Anyway, the last egg is for the fire at the house. Oh, thank you. A fork too. I don't have to get my hands dirty. I'll let you take it back. Have you eaten yet? Yeah. Jesiah, can you get us a rubber mallet from Sally? Thanks. Good morning, ladies. Good morning. We finally made it out here. Looks like we got some frost on the beds. I know, just a little bit. Did you do this yesterday? I did. Oh wow, it's done. Good job. Chicken's messed it up a bit. Which tree you're gonna plant? That garden? I was gonna do this one. Are you guys ready to do that? Yeah, we, we may. Here's the garlic. And okay, do we have a grid that has 4 across, 6 inches? I think we do. I think this one's our tightest one. Take the bigger grater off, got the smaller one on. You can take them to Gritter. I can get my rabbit out of this coop. Okay, the grass is about to— in the hatches. Yeah, as streamlined as we can make this homestead, the more time we can put on building the new one. You guys did this? Is that more than one row? I don't know. I don't know. Should I press down, Justin? I would. Let me do it. Maybe it's hard. No, you're doing it. It's always faint. What is that chicken? How did he get out? I'm gonna think here. I'm not so sure he got out right here. Did he really go through that jungle? I thought I had a day till they found this area. We have to get the big stuff the chickens didn't get. It's gonna be hard to shape these beds. See this right in the way? Big matic style hoe. Alarm goes off at a quarter to 5. Roll out of bed, rub the sleep from my eyes. Throw on a shirt and some jeans and my boots, and then it's time to make that morning drive. Work all day till I'm totally beat. Get back home and fall right to sleep. Line drawn across. Josiah's gonna start on that. I'm gonna start on this. And we're digging up our walkway. Rebecca and Emma put a gigantic layer of hay down for mulch. You guys did it! 2 rows of garlic. How— where are these chickens getting out? This is butterfly-proof. Where are they getting out? I don't think they're fitting through that. Problem is they're gonna tear up our Rebecca's newly planted garlic. Look, they're getting— they've already laid eggs in here. Found it? Maybe. Oh, maybe. I don't know. Besides, those are chickens were already out, but I think it's the rooster. The rooster was definitely already out. Oh, he was? I saw him this morning. Okay, open that up and we'll try to herd these guys in there then. So that rooster definitely wasn't in here. That was priority chickens that were already rogue. Breaking out the broad fork, feeling saucy. Forgot the broad fork over there. That's okay. It's getting easier and easier every year in here. Our soil is getting better and better with these compost additions. I've only got 2 and a half rows left. Look at this beautiful day. Oh my gosh, not a cloud in the sky. Don't pick up the corner one. No, leave the corner one. That's marking the corner. This one? Yeah, if it's loose, you can get it. It's 12 o'clock and Rebecca's gonna be calling for lunch any minute. But really, I would like to get this done today so that we can start the 100 days of building the next video. All we lack is compost on 2 and a half rows. Plus— oh, there's only 2 and a half rows over here. We gotta pull up the sweet potatoes. How hard is that? Honestly, I don't think it's gonna be that hard. They're all connected. See, these sweet potatoes got too much— these vines have too much energy in it. This side of this tarp will never kill them. Yeah, that reshape, broad fork, and compost. This is looking super good though. All right, Josiah, all hands on deck keeping the compost down. How are you out here in your sweater? So hot. Beck's called us for lunch. Form's coming along nice. They had this meal last night plus some keto breadsticks. They're sitting right here. I fell off the wagon, and when I go off the wagon, I'll go all in. Ice cream, ate fruit, ate all kinds of crazy stuff. Feeling it today. But I wonder if that's all right, because that's a— once I do one little cheat, I just go all out. That's very meat-based, although gluten-free. These are not. I'm kind of wondering if once again pork rinds to the rescue. I'll have my short ribs as a base. I have a new motivation for eating clean, and that's I've got to stay able for this 100-day challenge. Can't be hurting, got to be strong. It's gonna be very physical. Good. Pork rinds, serve as bread. Bro, do we have Italian seasoning? It's a little too late probably because these are dry, but Italian seasoning. I think it'll be something. You need help? I can put it on. All right, you got it. We have an hour till Jacob comes. I just wanna— first day of 100 days of building a homestead, I would really like for it to be all over there. 2 and a half rows compost, here we go. Everybody take a deep breath. We got that done. Now let's cover them. I was going to let that grow into cover crop, but Beauty's saying she's seeing some weed residual and she thinks the dominate. So, gentlemen, that's what you call the garden of peace. Yes, dear. Yes, dear. This will be— okay, what? Here, this forward. Yep, that goes all the way to that end. Does this cover this whole place, or That feels good. 2 1,200 square foot garden beds done, 1 to go. Honestly, I thought we would do it. I may still this afternoon, but I may actually be having to edit this vlog because this is a bonus vlog. This is kind of a practice, it's kind of a warm-up, like, could we get you guys a vlog every day during the 100 days? So could we get— this is Friday for us filming. Could we get content in the morning and then edit it in the afternoon to be able to still have a weekend? I'm kind of excited to think that we're starting a series, a legit series that you guys can follow along. So many of you said, you know, I loved the 100 Days of Growing Food, I loved and followed the Great American Farm Tour. Well, Maybe we're getting back into kind of a seasonal groove here. All right, forget anything. I'm gonna put it off. It'll work itself out. We got 1 hour till supper. I just feel like if we get this done, that's the end of the big projects this fall on this homestead. We can start that new one afresh. Chickens are staying in. There's only 2 and a half rows standing between us and 100 days of building a homestead. Do I pull this up by hand? Oh wow, 2 giant— 2 and a half sweet potatoes. Or do I get a bow rake Actually, the bow rake might do it. Look at that! I think the bow rake's gonna do it. Look at that! Oh yeah! I've been working 11 hours now. Definitely starting to get tired. 45 minutes, can we do it? 2 and a half rows. Let's clear this, mark it, and put down compost and cover it. 30 minutes left to supper. I don't think it's possible, and I'm trying to summon the strength knowing it's not possible and being very tired, hot. I'm not thinking smart, or I would have brought this post while I was going down. What's getting me through? I'm asking that. Right here, fell off down there. You know what I'm thinking about? I'm thinking I wanted to give up because I don't have enough time to do it all. There's just no way I'm gonna get this dug out. Really I should broadfork it— been composted and covered in 23 minutes. And you want to give up, but had I give up, I wouldn't have gotten as far as I've actually gotten. So in homesteading, it's good to press on. Not that it's hopeless, But it's good to just press on and just get as much done as possible and be okay with that. Because really, if we're being honest, the work never ends. And I do need to just take a breath and look at the blue sky, the leaves changing, and hear the utter silence that is this homestead. We got it cleared. We got one road, one path done. Path and a half left to go. Composting. We're just gonna have to live our life another day, meaning there are going to be plenty of distractions in the 100 days of building a homestead. That's real life. That's real life for any of us, and mine will be keeping up with the old homestead. In reality, we're expanding. The teacher in me says most people are start— a lot of people are starting over or, I mean, or expanding. Uh, so it's applicable to anybody in any state. If I look at it as an individual parcel, as a starting over in that sense of finding water and access, as if I was acquiring 18 acres, I think it's going to be more. Beneficial. And we're calling it building the 10-acre homestead because we're hoping that there'll be about 10 usable acres. Oh my word, folks, we got so much done today. Hopefully you definitely got something out of it, a little idea on— you get an idea of how we put our gardens to rest. Instructional video going to Abundance Plus University, inside Abundance Plus, very soon. You'll want to check that out. 100 days of building a homestead, day 1, next video. It's going to be exciting. See you then. Happy day.