Mom’s Back, Hay Bombs, Castrating Pigs

We are grazing the front yard.

And they mowed it pretty good.

They poop bombed it pretty good too though. Mowing the yard with the animals is a romantic notion until— Yeah, you get poop bombed. Really, we should have hay bombed before coming into here. We just— I just I just didn't think of it. So then they could have hay and grass because we mowed it, they got all this choice grass, and they were like, oh wait, that's hay vomit, let's bring them back. And now all they're pretty much gonna have is hay. It'd be good if it wouldn't be such a jump in their diet. Happy day, boys! Happy day! Yet another day of this family growing our own food for our health and longevity. Hey, Today, hay bombing, castrating piglets, and getting the house ready for Mama's return. Anything in between, free time.

Did they come back?

Hey, how'd you get in here? They ran right to it. All right, they're hay bombing. This hay just seems thin and stemmy. See that? I'd like to see more leaves like that but less stemmy. This grass was probably poor pasture. Purpose of the hay bomb: we'll get a concentration of manure. This is kind of a poorly pasture. We'll also get the organic contribution of the hay, the hay that they don't eat, and then they'll get the contribution of these Seeds. I hate to force them on this.

Yeah, not that bad. It's just this green grass.

Yeah, bacon eggs grass, and this is like oat bran grass. Some of them are lame. We'll have to address that. Honey's looking good. We calf separated last night to set up a little net in the corner, and then she can't get to her mama. Milk builds up overnight and we get the milk. And then she can have the milk all day. So, cow Vanilla, she's giving 2.5 gallons of milk right now, not counting what she saves for the baby. She's holding her condition. She's just a little cow. Let's see if you'll eat that. Nope, you don't like your O brand. I think horses are going to be the most picky, then cows, then sheep. Those little lambs are on it. Honey will eat her oat bran if made to. Will you, or you just gonna protest? It's okay, we'll get you steak and eggs tomorrow. We set up another hay bomb. We just cleared for the bass shed, and then we have this bank here that was struggling, so we hay bombed it. And while they're over here, this is perfect because they'll have some steak and eggs, but then they'll have some oat bran. Mixing like that is a little better because you know, jumping in their diet, just— it can be a minor stress to them. One person down there, two people down here. They're there. We gotta cross the right-of-way, come up through here behind the bass shed, back to that paddock. This is perhaps where we could lose them. So far so good. Just back up a little bit. If we can get them behind the shed, we're doing good. Oh, good, good. Hey, thanks, thanks for helping us look like professional cowboys. They passed right over the opener, but they'll eat it all. They don't want to keep eating because that's what they do, and they'll come for this.

Wow.

All right, how do you fix that? How'd you fix it?

Two cords were off of the battery.

Yeah, do we still have the battery charger for that?

Yeah, it's in the cabin. Okay, let's go get it.

We'll wear it out. No, wear it out. Drive it till it's got no more battery, and then we'll charge it. I forgot there's one other project we need to do before tomorrow on our homestead dream house. Ram board, which is really thick paper to protect the hardwoods, to protect the floor from people walking in with their muddy shoes. Also, when the painters come, it'll help keep the floors protected from paint. I wish the beautiful one were here to see to see this before we cover it up. This would cheer her heart. She's been working really hard on this behind the scenes. What a piece of work she's put together here. Won't this be a blessing to live in this house, huh? Yeah, open, can accommodate a lot of guests, which we will have. There's some leftover floor, but not crazy amounts. Don't come in here with those. You want me to carry you through? Yeah, and we have to—

we have to tape.

I would maybe— All right, what do you guys think? It's okay. What a cool bathroom.

Such a big tub.

What you doing?

Covering up this whole thing.

Oh, okay, nice. The question is, do we even have two boys, or do we have any boys? That'd be something.

We have one boy there.

We've kind of waited too long. Look how big and spunky Oh boy, we should have done this when they were 2 weeks old. How old are they? They were born during that party, April 5th. They're only 3 weeks old. We'll just go in there and wrap the big panel around.

We'd wrap it out here and then put the big— the boys in here. I thought we'd wrap it on right here, put the boys in here, castrate them, and then we are castrating for a number of reasons.

One, well, males come into sexual maturity about 6 months old. They could get what you call Bortein. It could affect the taste of the meat. There's a chance of that. The other reason is At 6 months old, they could start breeding, and we don't harvest them until they're 8, 10 months old. We don't want them breeding, uh, their sisters and then harvest all these people. So not people, harvest all these pigs. All right, that's what I don't want to call these animals, people. What we need, let's go over it. Refilled on some iodine, and we like this one. It's a 5%. I don't know what that means. It's an antiseptic. I wonder if we're diluting this. Rebecca would know. She's not here. We already had some. I didn't think we had any, but you put it in a glass spray bottle. Yeah, no, you don't dilute it, you spray it straight on. It's the brand we like. And then lastly, a castration kit, which can be had at Tractor Supply. Oh, not lastly. Here, the other thing we need is one pig panel, and we're hurting all the— I like to hurt all the pigs in there and then I can check. Okay, that's a female, that's a female. So get the one female. So, so we've heard it all the piglets in here. Oh. We have another thing that's very useful— pig port. I wish you'd let us seen this. What did you use the pig port for? Pig port? I'm sorry, the pig board.

I just push them in there and mom didn't bother you?

No. The Gloucestershire Old Spots are very calm pigs. You might need to have somebody with a pig board on mom and then somebody on the pig board rounding up the piglets. So then we're zip tying it. I guess we need the eye line. The castration kit, zip ties, one pig panel, and one to two pig boards. Get the males away and give her— let her have all the rest of the females and she won't panic as much. She has some babies. She has no babies, it's stressful. Okay, leave mama with some pigs, get the other piglets away, get— keep mama in the physical restraint because these pigs are gonna squeal. We're about to do this. Austin, video editor, put some I don't know, castration tone music. I don't know, hard metal. I can't show it on YouTube, but I can show it on Abundance Plus. So if you want to see this, it will be the same title as the YouTube title, but uncensored in front of it. And that's how you find it inside Abundance Plus. You can sign up for Abundance Plus at abundanceplus.com. We'll film that with this GoPro, and you can see that footage on Abundance Plus. Guys, he pulled that away and busted his valve. Well, now we have another project today. Take these balls. Where's Winnie? Winnie!

Make him chicken nuggets for tonight, Papa.

And then give him all of the chicken nuggets and act like you're doing a very nice thing. And there's a piece of ball. Hope Mom doesn't see this. Here are your ideas for her.

Can I have them?

No.

We'll strap that over too so he doesn't destroy that again. Chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick. Chick, chick, chick, chick! Surprise! Nothing goes to waste on the permaculture homestead. One element serves the other. Pigs feed the chickens, chickens feed the pigs. You dropped it, you dropped it, honey. She got it. Well, we have a surprise project, and that's to plug up this water I don't think it'll be that hard. He has busted our drain valve. This is overflow valve, so that can stay like that.

There we go.

I just picked up the castration. Kids had breakfast. Did y'all enjoy your breakfast?

Yeah.

Okay, but who's going to clean it up?

I cleaned it up last night.

I cleaned up the Okay, whose kitchen today? Giddyup! We're gonna go lay some Ram Board. Okay, uh, Josiah knows. I went over it with him. We're at that stage where we can divide and conquer. Yes, I'll fix that water line. I believe that's all the supplies we need to fix this thing.

That's the idea, Henry.

He's scraping up the concrete, make it look good. Good boy. Why are you always video bombing? Okay, you can turn it off. This is gonna work. All right, we got our drain.

Is it bad for animals to be on concrete even though they're mucked without any bedding?

Yeah, because there's nothing to absorb their poop from. Now, Henry, throw it in there. Good boy. This is too long. Honestly, I should have cut that pipe a little shorter. I don't feel like correcting that right now. Let's hope it works. Zero delayed gratification for Beefcake. He destroyed his water chute. It's a little long, so I can't push it against the corner as much as I would like. But if we keep this heavy, he shouldn't be able to move it. So it's got to constantly be filled up. Watch this, Lily. Boy, you're getting with it. We left this side for the cabinet guys to do their thing. We don't— there's an island going right there, cabinets going there, cabinets going there. By the way, they're staging tomorrow and should be getting started. Maybe tomorrow, but definitely the next day. Custom cabinetry from our farm. Poplar for in here, walnut for the bathroom. How's it going in here? Keep a little off the edge for the trim. You boys must stay on the Ram board and look, do not touch the walls. Yes, yes. All right boys, put me to work.

What do you want me to do?

Boys, 12 o'clock and all we got left is picking up the house, turning it right side up from being without Mama. Everything looks good. Hey, Rebecca couldn't see this. This. Tower guy's coming tomorrow. Cabinet guy's coming tomorrow. It'll just be a grand surprise when I pull it up. What you got cooking?

Um, banana bread.

Look at some off of your finger. Yeah. All right, good deal.

I don't even have to use a recipe.

You memorized it, honey? You're sharp as a tack, like your mom. Okay, Mom's going to come home. Bathroom's going to be picked up. The aroma of banana bread in the kitchen. Kitchen's going to be clean. Clothes are going to be folded and put away. Porch is going to be picked up. 80 minutes later, we cleaned up. We cleaned up. Boy, I wish It was like never-ending. I kind of wish we would have cleaned up earlier and maybe enjoyed a clean house. Did she take your muffins away? Yeah, one more, one more, and that's it, dude. We even picked up the porch. You got it shoved in, huh, in case she changes her mind? Clean house upon us. Now it is time to make the dinner. None other are we going to make than just simple baked chicken. On today's episode of Burn It Up Cooking Show, crispy roasted chicken. Simple salt, pepper, and thyme. And I guess we're gonna experiment a little bacon, a few of them for Mr. Henry. Key number 1 to crispy baked chicken: dry them off. Try a little something, a little something that should help it crisp up. A little bit of lard. We're gonna continue to get the liquid off these chickens. Let's try this over everything but the— we'll do that one in bacon and another breast in bacon. I don't want to overdo it because I don't want it to sit in a puddle of fat. Great time for our seasoning as it will stick on that fat. Pepper and thyme. Little experiment. This will help. You know, the skin won't crisp up, so it'd honestly probably be better let the skin crisp, cook the bacon some, and then put it on top. But ain't got time for that. I got my oven on 400. It's kind of a Jerry oven, it only got a burner from the bottom, so I wish it would burn it on top and make it more crispy. So let's try a, uh, definitely gonna have to broil it at some point. I'm about 20 minutes in, it's getting somewhat crispy, surprisingly. Bacon's not really crisping up. Does this have a I know it has a high broil setting. Does it have a low? Yeah, it does. Let's try that. We could maybe crisp the skin and then let it continue to cook. Oh, and we could get some of the ones that are done out, like the thinner thighs. Okay, some of these look spectacular, and I bet some of them are done, like this, uh, thigh. Oh yeah. Oh dang, too much, too much. I hate that they start drying out when you cook them too much. You want one 60. We're on 180 with that. That's actually perfect. All right, put the big breast in a little bit longer. Let's cover this somehow. I don't want to cover it too much because I don't want the moisture to catch or capture above it. A little less than an hour later. Matter if we have a Jerry oven, we got it done like this. Special bacon-covered breast supper's ready. House is cleaned up. Mama's home. Henry, did you go hug your mom?

I got a little shot back there.

He did.

He just gave me a very mean glare.

He's been hugging me. Hey, Josie, you grew, I think. Gideon, you gonna get a hug?

He had a bike crash.

I'm so glad to be home. Oh yeah? Did you have a good time? Yeah, I do feel rested. Yeah, I do. Don't mind the messy house. Too bad we didn't clean up earlier and enjoy it.

I know, right?

You made chocolate?

Wow, welcome home.

She made you banana bread muffins.

Oh yum!

This was Henry's idea, the bacon. Am I hungry?

Yes!

Gift time! Look, Henry, Mom's got you something. You guys are gonna love this Rice Krispie treat. They're gonna be about it. That's a good choice.

Oh wow, yeah.

I saw those and I was like, oh.

They don't eat those.

Are they at Urban Market?

They're at Urban Market.

All right, everybody's happy mom's home? Yes.

Yeah.

All right, happy day. Mom's home.