My Pigs are Destroying the Pasture + this is what I did

It's been raining for over a week. My pigs have finished— I should say over-finished their till job, because when it rains so much like this, the ground is so much softer and the tilling process just So I was wondering out loud, is there anywhere that we need tilled? And then Rebecca said, why don't you put them down in the bottom pasture? That's a great idea, let's do that.

I mean, look at this shallow soil. Do you hear that? Yeah, hit rocks at about that much, about 2.5 inches down. This is where I laid mulch years ago to try to build up this soil. We never did spread it out. Look, you can see how the— it was wood chips.

It's already turned into—

it's already turned into black soil. Here, give me that post, Jonah. Here, show them. Drive the post into that. 6 inches. At least. But it's too high here and too shallow over there, so we can use the pigs to help spread this from here— pigs and chickens— from here all the way down past where Jonah is. Let's, let's disturb this. This needs disturbed. Easier said than done. Now all I gotta do is get the pigs and chickens from way over there to way over here.

It's gonna be interesting.

Jonah, we have 1 hour till we have to milk. You think we can get them moved by then? Because we're going to be coming through here so much. Look how eager they are to get out and get milked. So we're going to put them in their holding area, milking area, just so— can you imagine trying to get through here with pigs? A Chickshaw and them cows standing right there. Here she comes. Let her get in the stanchion. Open that. She'll be okay. We'll give her some hay. We got Flossie in. She's wanting her calf, but we don't want to get her calf right there until we get Phyllis through. There we go. You're funny. Would he go in that stall?

We heard him in it.

Thanks for the gift, boss. I just realized I could have put them in that upper pasture right there. Just right there. Sometimes you don't think of things until it's too late. Hey, Jonah, watch out! Yeah, we'll get Bear in a minute.

Come on. Come on, come on, come on.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, come on.

There we go.

He's huge.

All right, come on.

All right, that was surprisingly easy. You're an awesome guy, buddy. All right, we got your calf out here. We got you some hay. Let's move these pigs.

We gotta lock them up.

This is off.

We gotta put this fence— yeah, you gotta lure them over there somehow, and we'll shut this fence on them, and the guinea hogs will be here. We can move the chicken operation. Grab a pan. Grab some pans. They're following me, I guess, because I'm the one using the feed pump. Here, take this one too. There you go. Trying to lure them in. It's not going to work.

Just hurting them despite what they say about not being able to hurt things.

It is so wet.

They're just totally destroying this. Even after one day, I gave them this whole area and one day they're gonna tear this up. Yeah, we're making the right decision. What? Um, yeah, let's start breaking down the— all this, all this net. Put some— put it on the trailer. Okay, we got the fences up and down. We got the stuff loaded on the mower. Jonah's taking it over. You know, I get stressed out at this stuff. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's the time crunch. Maybe it's something is guaranteed to go wrong. But as I was picking that up, I'm trying to have a good attitude. Jonah says it's going to be a beautiful day. What'd you say? He'll let me talk. How thoughtful, that guy. That's why, that's why I can do what I do so much. I could not do it without that little guy saying— not only just helping like this, but saying, "It's gonna be a beautiful day." What an awesome child's perspective. All right, game on!

Yay!

All right, I'm gonna take that Jonah attitude in moving this chickshaw loaded with, I don't know, 30, 40 chickens way over there. Nope, get the attitude.

It's gonna be a beautiful day because actually the only thing I can control are my thoughts. So if I keep thinking positive thoughts, it's gonna be a beautiful day no matter what happens.

But I won't worry today, even if time flies away. Even if time flies away.

We got to put our lane down to get through. Oh gosh, you got to see this, guys. Phil's flossing Bessie.

How adorable!

She's got her head going through the stanchion with her mom. You guys are something else. Are you gonna do it?

Okay, go ahead.

Wow, I like this spur group because you can put the boards—

you might be able to make that. With some speed, but it's so wet beyond that down in here. Look, like, this is where you're gonna get stuck.

Right here, right here. Great.

Look, if you don't get stuck there, you're gonna get stuck there. Mega. All right, I don't think we have time to take the risk. No, it's still muddy over here.

Maybe, you know, I'm light. Is that right?

Maybe if you keep over here.

Yeah, okay.

If we get stuck, we're just gonna have to leave it. Yeah, and then get everything off. Now you might get stuck right here though. Look. Oh, you're gonna stay on that? This is too wet. Hey, as much as I'd like you to try it, we're just asking for it. And then we're gonna tear up the pasture getting it out with the tractor.

I was looking forward to trying that.

I know. All right, just back us up a little bit.

How are we gonna get the nets in?

I'm gonna carry them. We're gonna gird up our loins. Okay, whoa, we got that. I'm sure we're out of time. Oh, we got 7 more minutes. Here, bring me that corner, Jonah. We still got to do what I was thinking might be the hardest part— get the pigs. Well, we still got to get the Chickshaw through that muddy pasture, that wet pasture.

I'll get the chicken grain, we'll feed them, and then the chickens have more time to eat.

Yeah, and then we'll go get the pigs.

Yeah, and then we'll go get the pigs.

That's a brilliant idea, buddy. Yep.

All right, here we go.

So far so good.

Well, hold that steady, Jonah. Oh, big tall wheels help.

You feeling the workout?

I'm feeling the burn. The Chickshaw— the Boggy Pasture Chickshaw burn. Free the birds! Animals on new pastures, got to be the best part of grass-based farming. You can't even drive these little posts in the ground, it's so rocky. You know what, I shouldn't secure that so hard to drive that corner back in real good.

You can't even drive it in without a hammer.

This— the soil is so shallow and so rocky.

I shouldn't do it too much though because we're gonna get the pigs right in through there.

You guys will get to eat in peace. No pig, no pigs competing for your grain here.

Hey, I hear it's gonna be warm today.

It's gonna be warm. I already have to shed.

Awesome.

It's gonna be a beautiful day no matter what happens. Okay, you got the stuff for the pigs?

Yep.

Mom, we are behind.

Do I look okay?

Yeah. Mom, we are behind. Okay, we should be milking right now, but we still have to get the pigs over.

Yeah, so I think you'll have a hard time time.

They're pretty easy.

Oh yeah, I think at best it's gonna be a 10:30 breakfast.

Okay, I'll be ready. Okay, I'm finally editing. Okay, Sunday's video that I shot.

Oh boy.

Okay, and I'm gonna try to finish that video that I started in the middle of the week last week.

Okay, here, Papa.

I'm gonna try to catch back up.

Here's the thing, Jonah, we gotta get the pigs over We gotta get them water fed, gotta get the fence hot. It's 10 after 9. We can go back and pick up these old fences. This is going to be the true test. They'll follow me that far. So far so good. Give them a little taste, give them a little taste. All right, Jonah, I'm gonna have to leave you to it, buddy. You're gonna, uh, just straighten up the fence, get it hot, get this water going, get the pig shelter over. We gotta milk or we're never gonna be able to eat breakfast.

I don't know.

That's flossy.

It's two cabins.

All right.

That's pretty cool, Papa.

Come on.

Come on, you two.

We're gonna try to use Bear to haul this pig shelter. There you go.

Okay. This isn't really long enough. Here, if we add this, it might be long enough.

Oh, hook that. Hook the blue piece on, Papa. Leave that one, Papa, and put the hook, the blue one, onto that.

Okay, here.

Then when we get him going, he'll— all the straps will loosen.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Ready?

Come on.

Yeah.

Come on.

He might be a little too less strong enough.

Come on, come on, come on.

Do you think he's strong enough? He's strong enough. Oh yeah, he's plenty strong enough, Papa.

He's getting scared.

Shoot, we better unhook him here.

All right, let's unhook him here.

That was good.

Good job, Bear.

That'll be a funny vlog, won't that? Yeah, we thought this was gonna be a little better, didn't you?

Wait, hold on.

Be free. Well, that was a good stretch. That was fun. Wouldn't you say that was fun?

Yeah, no problem for him. Got the shelter in there, got water coming on. It's been a great and beautiful morning.

So this is what remains of the Little House Cookbook, a Laura Ingalls Wilder-inspired book of recipes. Would you say, Lily, that the Laura Ingalls Wilder books are one of y'all's favorite books to listen to at night? You going with it?

It's good, huh?

Which one of those books out of all 5 or 6 of them is your favorite? Which one did you play the other night on audiobooks at night when you lay in bed?

You don't remember?

It was Farmer Boy. You like Farmer Boy? You guys like to learn about Laura, Almanzo, and Mama. Uh, so we got this book one time thinking we might cook some of these recipes, and then we sort of got in here and I guess it didn't come It's fun to read like the little information about it and get the context, and the book is worth it for that. But there is a bear, there's a bear right there. But we didn't end up doing it. I mean, not to our surprise, these actually— these recipes actually ended up being really entailed and full of sugar, like granulated sugar, 1 cup. We don't do sugar, so that's why I was so excited when our friend Jill Winger— we went and saw her on the Great American Farm Tour out at— she's like in the modern The Prairie Homestead out in Wyoming. The Prairie Homestead in Wyoming, and oh my gosh, are we on a prairie! She's more of a modern ma, a modern, a modern Laura Ingalls ma, like, and she's a wonderful cook. These are called maple Sage patties.

Yep.

And this is just ground pork. This is home-raised pork, and we're gonna add just a few simple herbs and a little bit of maple syrup and an onion and put it in the pan, fry it up.

She cooked all 3 meals homemade for us while we were there. Do you remember that?

Oh yeah.

Do you remember it being very difficult for her? No, she seemed to make it look easy. Yes, y'all. So that's why I was so excited when I found out she was gonna write a book. And now is the time. She's wrote it, she's ready to promote it, I'm ready to promote it for her. To do that, she's giving away a 10-part training course, and in it she's going to talk about making sourdough, making mozzarella cheese in 30 minutes, curing grass-fed beef, canning, fermentation, all that good stuff. So she brings this like, we're busy now, we're not— oh, like always on the homestead like in Laura Ingalls' day. We have lives outside of that. We're online. There's this big online modern network, and Jill caters to that, to this modern day, but she still cherishes and brings out the heritage-ness of this.

And she's—

you can't lose. She's giving—

she's doing a 10-part, uh, training course for free. You can sign up for that in the description. She shows you how to cook in a heritage way. Um, that's not very hard. And I've been there on her farm, I've eaten her food, it's legit. I think you should check it out. And you get a free bonus just for signing up, and then the classes start something like March 5th, 5th through 11th, something like that. Just find out more, link in the description.

You sought her out for milk advice when we were getting a family cow?

Yes, I did.

What else have you gotten from Jill's blog?

Recipes. I have, I've done recipes off Awesome.

Do you do raw milk yogurt?