Little Girl is the 4th Generation to Hand Milk Cows

Mr. Brown, you cannot go out there in socks.

I find his shoes.

His shoes are still— we still— it don't matter. It don't matter that Papaw has died. He has still lost his shoes. Maybe even more so. Okay, can we wear— can we wear these?

Those are those that will make me get water in my shoes.

Okay, so you want your snow boots? Or your water boots.

I want my snow boots.

Here, lucky us. How does that look? I don't know.

You're not telling me that.

Yes, Papa is fine.

Wait, where are you going?

I'm going to get something.

What is that?

Oh my God, apples. Great.

And he's left the— Now what's that for?

They don't eat apples.

Kind of do. I shouldn't say that. All right. Okay, good. That's for the cows. I don't need to be a dream crusher. Reality crushes enough dreams. He doesn't need a dad to crush them for him. Speaking of dad, if you haven't been around, he died on, uh, what is today? Today's Tuesday. He died Sunday, 2 days ago. Finally got my ugly cry in this morning. Came out of nowhere. My ugly cry. My hold Rebecca tight cry. Same one I did with my granny when she died. Wait, I thought we gotta go get the cows, honey.

But I'm putting this in here for her. We'll ride in this mansion.

Okay.

All right, that's good. That's good enough. Let's cover it. Let's go get them. Can you move the luchadors?

Okay, I thought you called them the luchadores.

You call them the luchadores if you want. I like to call them the luchadors. It's Spanglish for— I believe you'd say it luchador. Yeah. Oh, thank you for holding my hand. Okay, where are we going? We gotta go over. Of course. Okay, ready, kids? Jonah, one on either side, please. Ready? 1, 2, 3. That's not that hard. How's that? Is that good? That's a great patch of ground, and that's This system is working out amazing. Keeps the ram from breeding our ewes. We want to strategically breed them at a certain time. Now's not it. Dweebs blasting.

Yeah, what is that? We put— yeah, and we put sawdust in.

All right, all right, that's what you guys do for fun. Beats Fortnite.

Yeah.

Can you put the lane up, Birdell? Okay. Hey, you guys didn't put the lane up down there. Can you please go do that? I asked, I asked. We're all having to have more mercy than usual, and it's hard when you're at the weakest moment. Let's go get Moose. It may not be worth it to try to keep the other cows from not coming. It's so much better if they don't. Hey kids, will you guys stand up there above and on the perimeter? No cow will get you over there, okay?

Stop them. I'm gonna herd Phyllis down, then you just herd Moose down, and he'll go under the fence and he'll go to his mama.

Okay.

And then there's no problem.

All right, that's not a bad idea. This is true, Jonah. Hey, are you sure he'll leave the herd? Hey, don't rush it, Josiah. Wait, let the calf be able to see her there. This is not a terrible idea. Moose will go under these, these cow fence. Okay, so we're not gonna, we're not gonna rope halter him. Okay, good morning, Aunt Flossie. Good morning, Moose. I try to let the kids give input. They sit fence, sense a feel, feel a sense of ownership. And sometimes Jonah's right. It's why it's Jonah. It's why Moose is in there at night with the sheep, which is wonderful. It's been working out amazing. And Jonah, he hasn't read any of the permaculture textbooks. He hasn't read about sheep or cows. He hasn't gone to any lectures or classrooms. See, I guess it's good to be open to people's ideas, no matter how much experience they have or head knowledge, because sometimes he's still got— sometimes young people still have common sense. Common sense. Okay, hang on, John. Wait. Okay, I should just go back in and have some tea. I'm messing everything up. Okay, now what I need to do is say, what do you need me to do, John?

All right, you know that clubhouse I'm making, Papa? Yeah, I'm gonna map out our whole farm on it. Okay, look, Moose knows.

No, he's trying to— is he trying to nurse? Nurse? No, those aren't teats, uh, Moose. You better keep moving, buddy. You're gonna get nursed. Hey, let's go down to Mom. It might not work, Jonah. Maybe it's gonna— he doesn't know where she is. I wish she wouldn't have got rushed down. I wanted her to see him, to see her. Keep him, keep him down, Jonah. Get in. You stay there. That's good. Jonah, Jonah, catch him. I guess if you catch him, that's good. If you can't catch him, just do it. Your mom's down here, buddy. One day we're gonna have this— all these lanes, 4 strands, and then all we have to do is herd him into the lane. That's what we need to do. He still hasn't seen his— caught wind of his mom. Here, look, look at him react. He heard that. Oh no, we got all the way down here. Hey, okay, now the trick is to not get upset when you do your child's idea and it doesn't work. It is annoying, but until we have— he's saying it's annoying to have to herd them all down. It is. We have such a small herd, it's hard to separate anybody. Next time it might have worked better if we kept Phyllis up here, but maybe not.

It would have.

Here we come. Sometimes you also got to listen to the animals. What do they want? They don't want to be separated. Well, don't separate them and things will go smoother for you. Be no problem getting him down here now. The problem is managing all them when we only need one. Well, I need milk one cow. What to do with everybody else? Catch this calf, Lily. You're the whisperer. Go ahead and bring him out. Bring him out. Need a little help? Yeah, you go grab his tail.

There you go.

Who are you giving that to? Stubborn. Which, by the way, he's meat for us. We've eaten Bear now at this point.

He was delicious.

We were a little nervous because Violet tasted so terrible. Violet, I guess, didn't have an ounce of fat, and Bear was in much better shape. And he was delicious, wasn't he? Yeah, we had a steak. Oh, I think it was the best steak I ever had. Good. Did you get Moose some?

Yeah, I got them some too.

Hey, somebody bring me a, uh, bring me the, the pails and the water, please. Go for it, Lily. Papa would be proud, and my grandpa would be proud too.

I didn't—

I never even knew him. Died at 56. At least my dad didn't die at 56. 30 extra years with him. I wonder how many times, how long it's— I'm gonna come and milk every single day and think of him. I think milking will remind— I'll be reminded of him every time. And his last handshake, his last handshake was strong as an ox 2 days before he died. His mom's and dad's was strong before him, and now you see what's happening. Hey, you see what's happening? Fourth generation of, uh, mighty handshakers. Look at that, Lily! It was Grandpa, It was Grandpa and Granny. I hope she's gonna kick me in the head. It was Grandpa and Granny, and then my dad, and then me, and then Lily. Fourth generations of Mighty Handshakes. Strongest handshake in the county. We certainly got less competition these days, don't we?

How much light gray do I have on her? Uh-oh, I'm stuck in here, I think. Dog, be over, please. At least he's got his shoes on. Oh yeah, he does. Now get out.

You know, really, everybody's kind of just fooling around. Normally I'd be giving them something to do. But it's nice to have them all around. It's nice to have them all around. All right, bring, bring, bring Moose in. Come on, Lily, let's, let's move away. So we've milked her, but I know there's more, even though she gave us quite a bit. Gallon and three-quarters, maybe.

It would be good if I had an office and help figure out where the cows were going next.

That's fine, that'd be great. Make your little office over there. Okay, look how much more we got, guys. Here, Lily, hold this up for me. Hold that up, babe. All right, let's see what we got.

We got a full bucket! Woo!

2 gallons! Everybody say woo! You know what, sun's coming up. Pop used to say Today is the first day of the rest of my life, so let's be happy in it. Hey, did you guys find Papaw's old pictures? Yeah, look, look, look at that hunk of a man. That was him sitting on the swing. I believe that's my two younger sisters.

That's our dog.

Do you guys know who that is?

That's, um, Big Daddy, and that's, um, Papaw.

Yeah, let's see if they can tell me who this is. Can you guys see who that is? That's that long-haired kid in there.

You.

Hey, do you want to go with— we're gonna drive Sally. Say hey, Bells. Birdell, you coming with? I nicknamed her Birdell because that's actually my granny's name. Coming. So that's in honor of her. Hey, Grandma!

Hi! Good morning!

We have the kitty cats.

Yes, I'm glad we have Sally right now. We just all need to be together even more now, don't we? Yeah. Oh, Mr. Brown, what? Where are your shoes? Oh, hey, you can't come out in your socks! You gotta either go barefoot or find your shoes. Do you guys have any idea where Mr. Brown put his shoes? Hey, Mr. Brown, did you take them off up to the house? Yep. Okay. Hey, Sally was worth every penny this morning just to have all y'all together, working together. 4-wheeler wouldn't have been this cool.

Whoa, don't touch the pile! He bellyed out!

How you doing this morning?

Doing all right, good. I'm really overwhelmed all the time.

Well, thank you, Grandma, for stepping up and helping us get breakfast ready. You look cute in your apron. Thanks. This is a nice floral setup. Finished with the edit. It is 2:30 in the afternoon. Got more family stuff tonight, so we're actually doing pretty good. And, uh, we're gonna go ahead and get this— these chores out of the way. Let's see what you've been doing, buddy.

Okay, well, I got a new tool. Yeah, so it's up here. I'll show you it. And then a new door here.

You including Lily?

Yeah.

Good. Oh my gosh, I built a wall! You built a wall? You know, Grandpa's idea for an office in here was pretty cool, right?

Yeah.

This is kind of cool.

But this is where the bank's gonna be. The what? The bank.

Oh my gosh.

It's my vacuum.

A battery-powered Shop-Vac.

Cool.

Started Sally. I swear this might be the biggest tool I've discovered for keeping the family together. Doing the work on the farm. Because you guys can't keep up with my walking pace, can you?

No. I got something.

That was handy. We went and got it all, got the fencing stuff all the way from the top of the mountain. This is for our temporary day paddocks.

Hey, Papa.

Yes, honey?

You know I can run the farm in a pinch.

Oh, for sure. We got our paddock up. Jonas, should we get the cows down or the water down first?

Water down.

Grab our reel.

We shouldn't stay there in case we need it.

No, let's keep it because I would have never remembered it was there, honey. Who knows how long it's been there.

No, I just put it there. Oh yeah, I remember when the grass—

Let's take it. Hey kids, I'm about to go on Sally! Oh, they're there. Okay, man, just back and forth with Sally. Went up to the barn to get the waterer. Why was it up there? I don't, I don't remember. I don't remember why. We have a waterer for every pasture. Jonah, what are you getting? Oh, there it is. Oh no, those boards are not big enough, sweetie.

Together they are.

I don't think so, but we can try. Come on. Do you have a quick connect? I could be wrong.

I think so.

Maybe. Here, wash it out. All right, we got our water filling up. Let's go get the cows. Scabbers, come on! Where's your baby? Where's your baby? Oh, there he is, right behind her. Since we're going right by the stall It's going to be easier to put Moose up in the stall tonight than with the sheep. This should be super easy move since we're moving all of them. All right, we got Moose in there. He still, he still remembered it. Hey, they're, they're happy to go down this lane. Fresh grass. Let's start tomorrow. Oh yeah, well, there you go. All right.

Let's go move the sheep.

Wow, 4:15. Okay, Jonah, we have— we're headed. We're doing good. Let's see where Mom's at and have supper ready for when she gets here. Donald loves his little throne, his little compost pile throne. He's always on that thing. Oh my, oh my, what's going on here? Oh my, pick up the trash! Pick up the trash, Mr. Brown! First time at Pop's without Pop. Hey, well, you've cleaned it up so nice. Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Looks really good.

Hey Ginger, can we go over here? How are you?

I'm good.

Oxygen noise, that's gone?

Yeah, no oxygen noise. Why are you a strong woman? No, I'm just in big denial. It'll hit. Aw. It'll hit, Miss Rachel, it'll hit. It will. Hey baby girl. I know, I love 'em. She's— And more. How about you?

Can I give little girls kisses too like that and go, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah? Chair.

They love it. Is this the chair?

This is the chair.

Oh, Rebecca scanning in photos tonight for the—

it's been late nights, guys.

Meeting with family, it's been great.

Um, but then working on stuff like slideshows for the funeral. I need to work on my speech at some point. Um, what's going to say here? Oh yes, gosh, this is going to be like— ah, this is crazy. This whole week we're going to promote our physical merchandise, guys. If it's one thing we learned at Homesteaders of America is you guys want more of that, and boy, we giving it to you. We're bringing back our Great American Farm Tour t-shirts our mugs. We're bringing out stainless steel cups.

My goodness.

J+L. Guys.

J+R.

Why did I say J+L?

Because your brain isn't working.

Really?

Okay, anyway, this is like the worst announcement ever. I guess you guys can understand where I'm coming from.

Anyway.

Maybe I should just say this. Go check it out, guys. We have a whole new website. It's all our physical merchandise. So, you know, what if you, what if you don't want like the learning material? Well, you can get mugs. We got the— oh, the Pigs for Everyone t-shirt is out, and Rebecca does that. Got a new t-shirt, it's called Homestead Mama. So this is like our first, guys. We're branching out into t-shirts for you guys. I should just be quiet. Just go check out the website.

Hopefully it speaks for yourself.

My assistant Heather did a wonderful job on that. Thank you, Heather. So you— that was like the worst pitch ever. I'm sorry. I hope you'll forgive me. Maybe this will make up for it. For every sale from now on in my business, doing it for boots. $1 for every sale, one tree for every sale. Mark it down. Worst pitch ever. But you guys are— we love you.

We—

you understand what we're going through. You Have Mercy for Us.

Check that out.

The reason we're pushing this now is if you want to get this stuff by Christmas, you need to order by November 10th.

And if you want it, because like the t-shirts—

Maybe you can pitch this a little bit better, Becky.

So the reason is, is like right now we have to— So we're ordering the t-shirts.

Yeah.

And then we're gonna— And the DVD. And the DVDs themselves. But we're gonna have some extra t-shirts on hand, but if you want to make sure that we have— you get a specific size, like, we can't— we don't know what the size is.

Yeah.

Oh, Dad, sorry, sorry. That was— that really was the worst pitch ever. But you know as well as I do, these people really love us and they don't care. And many of them, bless y'all's heart, many of you guys just want to support us in any way, you don't care what the product is, we thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for that. We feel it from the bottom of our heart, and we could not do this, we could not create this YouTube content and run this business without you guys. You guys make it all possible. So I thank you. A huge Papa Bear virtual hug for all you guys, all you customers who make this possible.