Milking Time With Jessica Sowards | Roots and Refuge

Lily, you're gonna feed your chicken? You're gonna do your chickens? Okay, good. Everybody, we about ready to go? Okay. Can you guys see the time over there? It's 8:01. Pretty much half an hour to an hour late. Slept, slept 10 hours. I've been— I haven't been sleeping a lot, I think because of the ozone treatment. So much energy. So that kind of felt good to sleep so long. Arun is trying to, uh, Get Stud Muffin up. He's being a little stubborn today. Hey, are you being a little ornery? Hey, hey, come on, come on, come on. Gotta get the dominant one out first. Come on. He really doesn't want to get out here. You don't want to get out of bed this morning. Come on, just poke him up, poke him a little bit. All right, there we go. It's warmer in there, I swear. Softer on their feet. Definitely warmer on their feet. A little heat off the compost. How'd that end up Josiah's the one pushing and you're the one riding? Oh, okay. Look who we have here. Come on in, Jessica. Jessica, for those that don't know you, from Roots and Refuge. YouTube channel. What are you about over there?

Uh, growing food, raising family, doing it.

Yeah. What, what do you grow? Do you grow pigs?

Yep.

Chickens?

Yep.

Uh, what else is there to grow? Vegetables?

We have lots of vegetables. We have goats, devil eyes.

God bless your soul. Yeah, you do. They do have good personalities.

They do.

I'll give you that.

I love my goats very much.

I'll give you the personality— they win the personality test of all homestead animals.

Yeah, I'm enjoying the cows and the sheep here though. They're definitely different, and I hope to have some of those in my future as well.

Yeah, okay, cool. So let's— she's here to help a little bit on chores this morning. We're going to talk a little bit about community. You're like a community queen, I think, if, uh, Let's get you— if you want, you can pitchfork. Maybe I'll use my hands. And we're putting it over the wet spots in the pigs. Yes. You're asking if these chips came from our farm? Yeah, our fuel to heat our house and our hot water comes from our farm. Clear pasture for the animals. And these wood chips— you'll call this a carbonaceous diaper. We're just going to put on more wood chips. You know, every few days we put this over their poop. They tend to want to poop in one corner. Your pigs tend to want to poop in one corner? It's a universal thing. What kind of pigs do you have?

I have a breed called Mangalitsas.

Okay, you like those? I've heard love, hate.

We're butchering for the first time next weekend.

Is that the answer? I'll let you know.

I'll let you know how I feel about them. I like their personalities. They're really neat. They're good moms and they let you handle their babies. So that's as far as we've gotten. We haven't, we haven't eaten any of them yet.

It kind of sounded like you were butchering because you were done, but you're gonna—

I am done.

So she's done. But it sounds also like maybe you're gonna let us know how they taste.

Yeah, that's it.

Okay, so I guess if you want to find that out, you're gonna have to go follow her at Roosting Refuge on YouTube. If you keep your chickens in one spot for a long time, the newer can build up and they can get nasty. The wood chips help, but if, if you start to get a smell, there's a little trick we're gonna do. Jess, we're gonna do a little maintenance in the chicken coop. We haven't done it all winter, needs a little love. You up for it?

Yeah, I'm good.

Okay, how many chickens do you have?

About 30.

Okay, go ahead.

I had more, but recently we've had a predator issue.

Um, how many did you have? How many do you want?

We had about 55 or so, and I liked that.

How many people are in your family?

7 most of the time, but we have a lot of extras around.

Okay, so I'd say extra, so let's say 8, 9, 10. You want to say 10 for easy math? If you have 10 people around, I say you're a crazy chicken lady if you have more than a dozen chickens per person. So 120, you're not a— you're not a crazy chicken lady there.

I will take that.

We're gonna see the chicken lady test, okay? So you're not, you're not the crazy chicken lady there. We are. So, so far I got one point on you. Did you, um, do you have any names for your chickens?

Definitely.

What's one?

Um, Hermione.

Oh, you definitely— if you have a name for your chicken, you might be the crazy chicken lady.

Yeah.

Do you talk to them?

Absolutely. Unashamedly.

Okay, okay. Hey, Josiah, would you catch me a chicken please? Have you ever had chick— chicks or chickens inside?

Yes, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not intentionally.

Okay, okay, I should say the caveat of intentionally.

Yes, but not like I, I've never been like a diaper on the chicken and let them hang out inside. It's always a hospital situation.

Okay, well, that's where we're going next. Have you ever dressed or put a chicken on a leash?

No, I have maintained—

I got one on you there, so we're about tied here. Okay. You've got some on me here. We're about tied. You caught one yet? Okay, here's the tiebreaker. Have you ever lived with your chickens in their run for 24—

oh, I'm the crazy chicken lady!

I'm still the reigning crazy chicken lady. Okay, spilled some of their feed.

They can get that.

I have not done this in years. Can't the crazy buildup. Jessica, the only problem with having a female guard goose is she pulls hay out of the nesting box to nest, and it piles up on top of the 1-inch mesh, and manure can't get through. So we're gonna get that out of there. I can't ask you to do that, and I guess since I'm the craziest chicken lady, that's up to me. But normally poop falls right through there. Uh, if you want, another thing we're gonna do— this is a little less gross. You can kind of smell a little bit in here, right? It's not crazy, but you don't necessarily want to read a book in here. So we're just kind of gonna—

we're just—

let's just turn this.

Okay.

And this manure, we're going to be covered with, um, Lily, will you grab that pitchfork and help her? It's kind of a dirty job.

Yeah, those happen sometimes, don't they?

I'm glad you're here. You're getting a little bit of calluses on your hands right now.

Yeah.

When you would— when we would sit down to eat these eggs, I think it makes it that much more special.

Absolutely.

Because it was hard work and it was unpleasant. Oh yeah, there was a real obstacle to overcome to get those fresh eggs.

Yeah, you learn an appreciation for what things actually are worth and what they cost.

Great. Okay, Josiah, take that chicken next to her, please. Okay, so pretend this is your chicken. What would you say to it?

Well, usually I come out and say, good morning, good morning, how are you, sweet little chickies? How do you do? I like it.

This is a lot of singing. Okay, I need to add that to my crazy list, my crazy chicken lady list. Do you sing to your chickens daily? You might have one on me on that. Happy birthday to you.

It's not my birthday, Justin.

Hey, but I've done it now. I've sung to one of my chickens. I'm still the craziest chicken lady. Okay, I've cleaned out this coop. I got some work to do on this. That holds a, uh, a dust box, which I never use in here because they've had— they have a dust box in here. That just needs to be pulled up so their manure can get gone. This does make me think of another question for Jessica. Jessica, have you ever picked up pick up a chicken turd with your hands? Bare hands?

I'm trying to think. I'm thinking if I really made it 7 years without picking up a chicken turd.

But how long you been homesteading?

7 years.

So how— what other surprises were in store for you based on what you were dreaming and thinking it would be?

Um, I think I thought it was something that I would just do and like there would still be a semblance of like regular life, I guess. I didn't— I don't think I realized how much my life would become like home-based and how just so much of my life would become entwined in the homestead. Does that make sense? I think you probably know exactly what I'm talking about.

That makes perfect sense.

Yeah.

Lily, thank you for the wood chips. We're almost done. Jessica, have you— have you feel like you covered the whole area?

Uh, yeah. I was wondering, like, when you pull all this stuff out, do you just kind of bury that in wood chips in here? Do you take that out?

That's, that's kind of mixed with, with hay and manure. So that might be a good ratio right there. So I'm just gonna let them spread it. Anytime I can get an animal to do the work at a farm, I'm for it. Might take them a little longer, but yeah, they got nothing but time. I live with them, that's all they do. I'm serious, from dawn till dusk, that's all they do. They seem so happy, move around and scratch. So they're happy something different in here. You know, it's evil chicken poo when it's like this. Once we get that poo out here, it becomes fully chicken squat because we're putting it to work. We're gonna make compost with it. Guys, just take, take that and just put a— just put a little bit over the whole place. Just add a little bit of fresh bedding. I think it smells a little bit better in here. Maybe I'm just getting used to it.

Yeah, I guess we could have just got Rebecca. Yeah, I know, I bring the pregnant nose in.

I think we're getting used to it. Let's see if she breaks one. She could be being curious, but she could also be an egg eater. See, that's why it's good— they say it's good to put fake ones in there because they have no luck. The curious ones— see, she could be just being curious. If she finds a weak egg, it's going to break, and then she's got to have it. Searching for weak eggs. How can we mark that one? She's got a right— she's got a green band on the right.

Where are my posse?

That's a good idea. Oh, so close! Let's corner her. You see her? Oh, oh, oh, nice! Okay, you know any chicken tricks?

Hold them upside down, they'll stop beating their wings like that.

This is a nice idea because if these eggs get pecked and gone, we know that's a naughty— I already ate my eggs. I know, but like tomorrow and the next day, maybe this week, if you start not getting any eggs or you see broken eggs, we know that that's a Culprit. Now, Arun, look, he figures it out. He gets a long-handled tool instead of a hand spade or gloves. Leave it to Arun, he's a smart guy. That is right, Jessica. Before we go milk, one more question. We, we have an egg eater still. Any ideas around chickens eating our eggs?

I mean, I have one tip to to find them that works if you're very attentive, which is to hollow out an egg and fill it with mustard, which is very time-consuming. I think this idea is better, but, uh, man, I don't know how to break them.

Yeah, I didn't think of— you know, it's kind of cool. I, I didn't think of this idea. Did you?

Oh, Lily thought of that idea, and I was like, oh wow, that was really good.

She's owning the place, man. I like it. So Flossie usually gets done with her alfalfa really quick. Try putting some fresh hay down in her pan and then the alfalfa on top, and maybe she'll spend a little more time searching out every morsel.

That's Phyllis.

Oh yeah, you're right. Probably just like a goat. Maybe the teeth are a little smaller than a goat. What do you think?

Can you handle this?

How does that compare to a goat?

It's harder.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Phyllis is no gem when it comes to ease of milk.

She might not be the greatest representation.

I've also bred my goats to have like really large and easy teats to milk, and like it's surprising how much smaller these teats are. Yeah, the udder is massive, but the teats are actually significantly smaller.

What are— what would you say, 2, 3, 5, 7 things that affected your lifestyle when you went into homesteading? How did it affect you?

Um, it was isolating. It was definitely isolating, uh, because we were the only ones at the time in like our friend group that were really into what we were trying to do. And so it was hard because we had to say no to a lot of the social stuff that was a big part of our life. Um, on a positive note, I would say I really fell in love with food and like good food, taking care of your body well, and with a great appreciation for that.

Yeah.

And, um, it's brought our family a lot closer together. I mean, we're home with our kids and just having such a home-based life has definitely been a benefit to our family. I would not trade that for anything in the world. It's brought— it's done a really cool thing in my marriage. Like, my husband and I just feel like we could take on anything because of everything that we do on a daily basis together, you know. And, um, I don't know, I think it's, it's helped me a lot because I had really bad anxiety before, and there's just something about the process that it's all— it just, it works. Spring always comes back. Seeds always grow, you know. I mean, bad stuff happens, but there's always next time. That's helped me a lot over the years.

You guys were together when you started homesteading?

Yeah, we were.

Okay, you guys got into homesteading, your set of— your current set of friends weren't necessarily into this, right? They think you were corny?

Um, I think they thought it was a phase. I just— and also, I don't think people realize the time commitment. You know, I mean, it just, you have to be there. You have to be, you know, you can't be flippant. You can't be like, sure, we can go to that thing at this certain time. You have to be there. And that's hard for people to understand.

So, so far you have this perhaps negative social dynamic that happened with old friends, kind of losing that social aspect, but then you gained some family relationships, some strengthening there, and then the food aspect. Anything else?

Well, this community.

How so? So you were, you were kind of hurting this community that you had by going into homesteading and isolating yourself. What do you mean community?

The homesteading community. Oh, um, you know, it's It's crazy because like, like I used to watch you guys, you know, when we first got started, and I never dreamed in starting to create content the amount of friendships that I would find on the other side of it. Like real ones with people who understand the lifestyle.

Ah, I get it. That was not in the plan. That was not like, hey, let's start creating content and we'll, we'll have all— I'll be able to be friends with Justin and Beck and all these other people. Oh yeah, let's pour this. You thought you would enjoy the hard work?

I don't know what I thought, actually. I think that I thought that it would be hard, but I don't know if I realized how hard it would be sometimes. It's just— it's always been worth it. But just the emotionally difficult side, the hard decisions that you have to make. The balance of stewarding animals well and then having to make decisions over them. And when you want to save them and you can't, and just all the different things that can happen. I just don't think I— I don't think I appreciated the level of hard. Look at—

I'll have to get the— What was the hardest thing then that you can think of that was so hard? I might have even thought about quitting.

Loss. Like when you, when you lose an animal that you cared about and you really tried really hard to save it. That was the hardest thing for me. And like the feeling of failure. I mean, you just have to face failures. And before homesteading, I think I lived with like a lot of shame in that, like failing wasn't allowed. But now I've learned like You can fail. It's really about like trying again afterwards that defines you, you know. And, and that's been a massive lesson for me. But like having to accept the fact that I was going to fail repeatedly, you know, and learn, that has— that was a very difficult thing for me.

Tell me this, this is something that's not necessarily talked about a lot. The animal has passed, it's sad. What do you do Practically. Now, what do you do with the animal?

Well, I mean, we've always— we, we've really just had goats, and they were dairy goats. And, and the way we've lost them, we've always buried them in the situations we were in. We've not been in a situation yet to need to choose whether we were going to harvest that and give use to the meat, but I think that we would if that was an option. Yeah, with the loss.

Are you digging it by hand with a shovel?

Oh, we have a tractor. Yeah, like we have a small tractor.

Okay.

But that's a big hard task, and it's, and it's usually just thrust upon you. Like, it's not like you got to plan that into your day and, or your week.

Couldn't borrow— you didn't like the tractor to borrow? Yeah, I didn't rent one because it just happened sometimes.

Yeah, and, and that is a hard thing. And those are the things that I think people don't think about, but you get through them, but it gives you just this overall greater appreciation for the entire process.

Do you have anything you want to add? Words of wisdom for folks out there? Most of our audiences, both of our audiences, are really just getting started. They're excited, they're, they're in that dream, dreamland, um, not a whole lot of experience under their belt. So what would you say to them?

I would say that it's incredibly worthy. I mean, just, I would now, having been through some hard stuff and been through some wonderful stuff and been through, you know, being, you know, growing into community and growing in skill where I'm not, I don't feel like I'm bumbling through everything anymore. Like, I feel like I've got a grip on things. I would go back and walk through every single step of this process and every single loss and every single thing again if I had to, to be here. I mean, fully knowing the cost of all of it, I would have paid, paid it again. Obviously, if I took the knowledge I have now back to that time, I would change it, you know, if given the chance. But I don't regret any of it. It's so worth it, and I would do it again. And I always am a cheerleader for people to start this because it's such a worthy thing.

What would you tell yourself 7 years ago before you started? Go back to yourself, young Jesse.

Um, oh, that's a good question. I think I would tell that girl to be gentle with herself and not feel— she's like, this is what I say. Yeah, that's real farm life right there. I think I would go back and tell that girl that it's okay to have grace for yourself for the season of life that you're in. Because when we started farming, I was like at this phase back here, you know, big and pregnant and having little babies and stuff. And I think that I got such a feeling of rush, like I gotta get it all done right now. I wish that I would've known that it's okay to let this be a 5-year plan and a 10-year plan a 10-year plan and have a 20-year plan, like that kind of mindset. I've really gained that now, and I think in terms of where do I want my farm to be in 5 years and 10 years, rather than what's the next thing we can dive into. Just work hard every single day and eventually it will get where you want it to go.

Work hard every single day. Quote her on that one. Rich wisdom right there. So, okay, knowing that, now how are you going to move forward different? What's next?

Well, we are gonna buy a new property and we are going to build a new farm from scratch.

So you could put all that wisdom you've learned—

yeah, we'll see how— we'll see how well I hang on to that.

Slow down and pace yourself. Meanwhile, inside, Randolph continues to work on the bathroom. That's taking his coffee. Let's show you guys the tile. The tile is complete, or you're doing a little bit of touch-up, Randall? No, I gotta grout it. Okay, I'm putting sealer on it now, and then I have to let that dry, and then I grout it. Nice. Then I put sealer on it again and let that dry. Okay, well, I'll tell you what, got you some coffee. All right, let me ask you something. Are you the kind of guy that if we forget the coffee, you get kind of grumpy?

No.

Or do you do all right? No, I'll do all right. You don't think you have an addiction? No, not really. It's just a nice treat. Yeah, it's just optional. All right, well, we like to keep you happy. All right, that'll do it. Thank you. Looking great, my man. Good job. Appreciate it. Inside the oven, guys, we got pork chops from the land baking. We do have bacon that is store-bought bacon. We have some bacon that we still need to turn into bacon. We have some pork belly, haven't got around to it. Being animal-based, I eat a lot of bacon, so we have to supplement a little bit. What are you making? He's heating up himself a tortilla, some leftover beans. It's kind of a hodgepodge breakfast. Hope you enjoyed today's vlog. Enjoy Jessica. I encourage you, if you don't watch her channel and want to check her out, that's at Roots and Refuge. I'll leave a link, or I'll tag her or something down in the description for you guys to check out. And thank you, Jessica, if you're watching this, for helping us and becoming such a great friend. You're an inspiration to us and to many others. Proud to call you friends.