JONAH DRIVES (15 years old)

Morning, John. Morning. Ah, Jonah just cut the little overhanging hoof. I had to go too low with Belle, but that's because we had to really get in there because it was infected. Infested, dude.

Are you coming with us?

No, don't wrap it. Claire said if you got clean pasture, clean ground, it's better for it to air out.

It'll be good to, um, pick huffs.

Okay, can you come with us?

Yeah.

Can I go with them to help do the sheep?

Sure. Why do you want to do that?

Because it's good horse experience.

All right. Yeah, because you're gonna have to take care of those horse hoofs. Okay, we're not gonna hang too long before Henry wants to go. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, Jonah's getting his permit. That means he could be driving mom this afternoon. You think Jonah will get his permit? Rebecca and I were talking about it this morning. We're so glad we had so many kids because Jonah and Josiah, like, if that was all we had, they're just like, it's over. But we still got cuddle bugs, even though you don't sleep great. Where's the milk crate?

You don't like the milk?

Why?

The cat's got over it. No.

Hey, wait, what about the iodine spray? We don't have any. Where's— yes, Grandma got some. Where's that spray bottle? I'll go get it.

It's in the The garage.

Let's go get them to spray. Claire says copper sulfate would be better. Rebecca actually agrees with that. We don't have any. Get my cuddles. Jonah ain't doing this. Bottle. There it is. Grandma said it was by the feed. Am I getting warmer? Am I getting colder? If I were a bottle of iodine, where would I be? Just about to call. I see it. Makes sense to put it there. And this can be had at Tractor Supply. T-R-A-C-T-O-R Supply.

You want to go?

You probably don't want to put her completely on her back. Let her be on her side. We don't want her to get bloated. How do I hold you, the camera, and the— I had that in here. Is it bad?

Well, there's this thing. I don't know if I need to cut it off.

Oh, okay. Do we have any maggots?

No, I've already cleaned it up a lot. Yeah, you can cut that off.

Let me see here.

I need to wrestle this guy.

Notch our ram is half our breeding program. Why is he breathing so hard too? No, John, you'll never catch it. We gotta go get— God bless you. I'm the only one that'll say God bless you. Two pig panels and we'll lure them in. Take Sally, everybody can fit in her. We gotta get this nipped in the bud before they get hoof rot, flies start laying their maggots. Rich Mullins. Come on, you boys, put the cow fence on top of it. You guys get it? Let's go. We need a way to tie it to the back of Sally or arch it over her. We'll hook it to the ball and drag it. Good idea, bro. Looks like we've already done that with them. Caught a snipe. Hey, no, I think you're gonna pass. I hope so, Mr. 94. Yep, been taking his practice test, been doing good. Hopefully it won't take forever and we're gonna take the kids indoor rock climbing. We watched the movie Free Solo last week. Does it feel different range to be up there without a rope. It's obviously like much higher consequence. Gideon looked at me and said, I want to go rock climbing. I said, you're going to use a rope, right? Grab some zip ties real quick. Farmer's best friend, animal panels and zip ties. Definitely in the top 3 farmer's tools. Y'all get the panels in please. Here, put them up here in the corner. All right, now let's set it up on each other. Jona's idea is to put this fence on the other side of the sheep shaw. Maybe that makes sense because they're familiar with the sheep shaw. They'll go in there, they'll be sort of trapped. We're actually going to drive them in there. We don't even need alfalfa in that case. Jonah, my idea would be just to give them alfalfa and then trap them. He's already started. Don't run them into the net. Whatever we do, that's fine. That's enough. So let's go stand on the other side of that net. I'm not getting in front. I'm not getting in front. Let's get the shaw out of there. Well, it didn't work because we couldn't really shut Shut it in on them. We can't count on the net holding them either, guys. So look, this has to— whoa, okay, it's broke. But this is too wide. They're definitely gonna get by us. Can we try to get them some alfalfa in there? We have enough people too that we can form a funnel, or we can go get another net. We can get a net. John, you can be on the other side of the net. Do you want to move this out of the way so we can start a funnel? We'll try this human funnel once, and then we're just gonna go get a net. And don't worry about getting them all. Let's just get a cluster. And we'll figure out who else is left and we'll get them. John, you're gonna kind of keep them off the net down there. Sam, you're right there. I'm right here. Josiah's there. We have a human funnel. As long as Jonah— back it up and get Dixie in here. We'll never cut her out, I don't think, unless we get her with everybody. This is good. Everybody clip in. Good, good, good, good. You guys did it. Everybody's helpful having a bunch of people. So Dixie and Nacho, that's it. We got a nice calm ram. Anybody want to come? Come on. Look how submitted this macho ram is. Take away their feet, you take away everything.

It's their flight animal.

Are you getting ready for the wrestling match? Taking your shirt off?

Look at him standing.

All right, let's let him out. It's already better.

Yeah, but I think they're just gonna limp for the rest of their lives even though it's better. No, and grind in their minds like I did.

No, we've done this before. They just limp for a day or two.

Can I—

oh my gosh.

Wow, that broke off. Any maggots?

I don't think so.

Yeah, just cut that extra stuff off there. It stinks.

Can you smell it?

Yeah, stuff collects on those herbs. The hoof grows up and over, and we found if there becomes sore can harbor maggots. Okay, I see Belle's bandage has fallen off, but I also see that she does not have any more bugs on it. I'm encouraged, little Belle. You don't have any flies on it this morning. I don't know, we're gonna have to get into that. The end of the toenail is definitely coming off, falling off. That one's gonna be very tricky. Look at that, look at her little hernia. It's gotten a lot better. That's been a lot bigger.

I don't think there's anything you can do. I think if we put a bandage around it that held the intestines in there—

Stud has a really long else we've been wanting to get at. He's laying down.

How will we keep him laying down?

I wonder if I can get to it. I need somebody to be here scratching his back. See that crazy nail? That thing's massive.

You need to solve all this.

I don't think it was hurting him, but we got it taken care of before it gets crazy. Can't get much closer to the house than that. Put it low.

Yeah, we hit this too late.

Look how much clover was wasted. Although I shouldn't say wasted, it went to seed and it spent, but that means it went to seed. We'll have more clover next year. Good boy, checking your shoes off.

Our answer is incorrect, yearly. Correct answer is yearly. What the heck?

What'd you get on that test?

A 98.

Whoa, are you reading your signs? Look at the sign.

I know this time I need lunch. You don't want to miss out. Leftover lamb burger Put a little freshness on it. Baked up some new bacon, added some farm fresh tomatoes. How you feeling? You nervous?

I'm worried that I'm not gonna pass.

If you don't pass, you only have 30 days from the first test, and you can only take it once a week. That's a little dessert hack, isn't it? Little chocolate chips with some walnuts. Goodness, don't go down there, okay? You're not going. Trust me, you don't want to go to the DMV.

We're here waiting at the office. The first office we went to, over 2 hours. This one, less than 10 minutes. So I passed. He passed! You're driving away. Here you go, buddy. Exciting stuff.

So easy. Well, I only did skip one, which you can skip one or a few.

I feel very confident that you know how to drive. You learned how to be an adult today. This is what adults This is the first time I've ever driven with him where he's, he's being very responsible, adjusting mirrors. Honestly, I think I'm more nervous for like other people than I am for him. You're doing really good, Jonas, driving the speed limit. So, Jonah, how did it go? It was good, I guess. What did you not like and what did you like?

People passing me. Going over the edit and Mama just texted. I think I read this right. He passed! Jonah passed! Jonah's got his driver's permit!

Yay!

I am super excited to see Jonah. We gotta hug his little neck. My boy is growing up. And we're gonna take all the kids rock climbing. You got some diapers and wipes in that?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Have I got Towne shoes?

Yeah.

Mr. Brown, you got your shoes?

Yeah.

What about you with your yogurt mustache? You got shoes?

Yeah.

Oh yeah, I forgot you. 5 minutes down the road. We got all the kids.

Yes.

Henry's shoes.

We got all the shoes. We're a little ahead of Mom, so I— we're gonna hit the library real quick. He's still like be red too. That one does. Get in, we got a dozen books. Really? Pick out something if you want something. Unfortunately, you can't check out the fire truck. A horse diaries book with your name on it. Is that all you want?

Okay, I got this one for Henry to look at.

I like it. And the car. A YouTube star. Mom got you something. Yep, we gotta go get it, but you gotta leave that tractor behind. We gotta go. See my strategy there? Oh yeah, look at the BMX dirt track. Holy smoke! We're here at the rock climbing. Whoa, this is serious. I thought this was going to be like a Podunk rock climbing place. That's not Podunk. Oh, Mom got him a little hat. Here, you want a hat?

Yeah.

Look at here, Henry. That is going to be a gigantic wall. Congratulations, man. Did you drive over here? You did. How'd he do? Great. Except he locked the key in the car. Other than that, he did really good. He left. He walked off. Mama locked the door and she said, where are the keys? This dirt is protected by an overhang. You think you would do that, Gideon? You do it, Gideon? I could. What would you do, Lily? What would you do in this park?

I'd probably go around and then—

The first thing I'd like to tell you guys— well, let me ask, has anyone ever been in a climbing gym before or done any climbing before? You have? Very cool. Okay, training over. Josiah, you guys gotta make sure you clip in. John, are you going to the top? Look at this boy. He was on crutches just, what, a month ago?

Whoa!

Hey, why'd you stop?

I'm— it's scary to fall from that high. I'm practicing.

Josiah, he's not scared. Are you scared? I don't even think he practiced to fall. Did you practice the fall yet? Okay. It's not straight up, it's like this way. He's climbing to the top on his first try. Wow, how was it?

Fun.

You went all the way at the top. Oh look, they rated it. Okay, so which one did you do, the blue, green, or orange? The alpha. Oh, okay, so that is if Like, say you stay on the green ones, it's a 5.9, whatever that means. Lily on the movable climb. Gotta be hard, right? That looks hard. It is fearless. You enjoy yourself?

Yeah.

Proud of you. You're growing up, man. Looking good up there. What are you sweating too? You get all the shots you wanted?

I did.

You made a rock climbing movie?

Yeah.

Let me help you out.

It's crazy.

Just go slow. Reaction time is a lot better when you're going slow. You understand? People can just suck it if they, if they get upset at you for driving slow. Slow down. This guy's gonna be in that lane. Run off the curb there a little bit, buddy. Okay, slow down. This is a yield. Bye-bye.

This guy's doing really good.

Been really Serious. It's going slow. Go ahead and put your blinker on. Now wait, wait until you can see. You just passed it. All right, keep going. You missed that turn. It's all right. There we go. How's he doing, Josiah?

Good.

You scared? A little bit. Back to the Burrell Hauler. He drove so good. Did you get, did you get all sappy on the M50? Tell them how you really felt.

No, I actually didn't. I did.

Well, tell them how you really feel.

I almost cried when he went in there because he was— he like— because, you know, they take him back alone. I wanted to cry because he's my little baby. And like, you know, especially this last year, I've spent a lot of time being with him and advocating for him. And so then it was kind of like it was on him. It was on him to shine. It wasn't on me. It wasn't on me.

That's us letting— that's time to start to let go. I know.

It was on him to make it what it was, not me.

And he had to study on his own, all that. But he made 100.

He did. He did good.

Fried green tomatoes tonight.