NEW (Expensive) Tool Pays For Itself

It's the day after. I've been gone for 2 days. Oh, good morning! How are you? I'm fine. Oh good. How's the chicken?

Did your cow have her baby yet?

I don't know, I'm gonna have to go check. How's the chick shell coming?

Oh, we got the bottom done, so today we hope to get the top on.

Okay, good. I've been gone 2 days. I'm back. This is always tricky coming back in because inevitably you always find— fall behind, and it's hard to prioritize and figure out. And it's hard because there's so much to do and not enough time, actually. So hopefully we're gonna focus and nail the most important things. One is what the beautiful one wants to do, which needs to be done desperately. Is cultivate in this garden, hoe in this garden, weed this row, plant carrots. It's not doing too bad. I mean, some buggage, but it's making it. We're gonna get an insect cover for this broccoli or the cabbage that's coming up. It's about to get got. All right, one last thing standing in my way now. I know two things I need to do. One, weigh the sea monsters. We're butchering them Thursday. We're thinking they're actually way too much, so we gotta maybe ration their feed more. And I want to get out to the forest because I know the pigs are going to need to be moved, and we got to set up the bromance— that's our, uh, steer and our bull— to start clearing the big stuff before we put the pigs in. Jonah's down there taking care of the pig pork and the breakfast pasta. Jonah, did you take feed out to the sea monsters? Okay. Ah yes, the ICs. I forgot these guys are gonna need to be moved. I didn't have anybody move them while I was gone, so let's do that now. Let's go from where they are now, let's say right here. I believe the cows were here about 3-ish, 4-ish days ago. Free the birds! Scale notepad. Good morning! Are you guys tubby or what? Something died, actually got its head ripped off. They're eating it. Nothing goes to waste when you got ferocious dinosaur chickens. Probably got got by an owl or something. The head is missing. Any more casualties? Nope. To occasionally lose one, I'm not too worried about it. It happens, it's normal. If that were to happen, say, every night, say, then we're gonna have to change something. I'm gonna go ahead and feed them, but they don't have access to the feeders. I took the feeders out last night because what if they are eating too much? Then we need to restrict food at night. We're not testing, we're guessing. It's a lot of bucket weight. One by random. One thing we can say is they lose 25% after harvest. So this one's 5 pounds 10 ounces. Not 10%, they lose 25%. I'm gonna have to help him down. That's a big jump for a big bird like you. So lose a quarter of that, that's a, that's a 4-pound-ish bird, a little over. What we don't want is to go over a 5-pound bird. We're gonna start not being able to fit in our bags. Is that the guy I grabbed? Pounds, 12 ounces. Holy moly. There you go.

Are these guys in weight?

They actually are. They're actually— it's gonna be a really nice carcass.

Oh, did you see that one dead?

Yeah, I did. Let's go deal with it. Okay, we got us a clue here, Jonah. Guts. Guts on the fence. You know what that means?

It's a land predator.

It was a land predator, a raccoon or something. That means— was this fence on when you came out here? It was. Okay, well, let's put it on and let's test it. Has to be something that could fit through it. Raccoon, it's typical of raccoon, take the head off, grab the intestines out. And it has to be small enough to fit through this fence.

A possum will do that. I've actually seen a possum jump through a fence like that.

Yeah, okay. Actually, let's get our casualty. Chickens will eat this thing. Chickens will eat chicken, yes. They're vicious, that's all. I'll admit it. But the pigs will do a better job. The chickens will just pick at this and a lot will go to waste, but the pigs will eat every single bit. So put it on. Let's see what it was hitting at this morning. It's hitting pretty good. It's hitting at 4. At a 4, something shouldn't be able to get through there and then back out. Either wasn't on right or it just defied that rule. The predators don't read the textbooks, y'all. We got another problem here. This Energizer is blinking green and red. Yeah, green and red. Yeah, remember what did, uh, Jordan tell us? We learned this at J&L Green Farm filming over the weekend. What'd he say? The battery's at 50% with red. He has spare batteries charging all the time, and he would just come out and bring his batteries. So sometimes these things just need a deep charge. We need to get us some spare batteries. Oh, that's just something you can pick up. That's just like a Simple Interstate battery. Sure, the fence will be off, the chickens will stay in, and we have a lot less predators during the day, so it's gonna be okay. Look, Jonah, testing the battery. It's about half. All right, now we plugged them both in. We have two chargers. Did you feed the guinea clowns and the tractor chickens?

No. Shoot, I'll go get some food.

Whoa, we need a lot more than that, just so you know.

Okay, well, you go get the ground.

Here, here's how you know. All right, let's put this in there, fill it up really, because you want it to be completely immersed, or otherwise it just gets weird. This is stressing me out. This needed to be covered like 3 days ago, but first we got to put compost down, then cover it. It's already starting to grow back. The chickens had did a wonderful job, but I got to get the bromance in the woods so that we can move the pigs, because the pigs are going to be there too long. If we don't hurry up. Pigs will eat this carcass raw, but I have found that they do a little bit better job, eat more of it, hence like it more, if you cook it. You guys are a bunch. That's no good. Again, he got out. And a chicken. Woo! You're gonna be hard to catch. You're gonna be real hard to catch. Chickens! Jonah! I have no idea where he went. Jonah! Chickens get out, they went right back in. That guinea's not doing that. Jonah, let's get the chicken first. I think that chicken caught sight of our flock. That's okay, put her in there. Is that it? I think that might be it. Maybe she'll stay in there this time. All right, well, not very hopeful for this guinea, but we'll try. If somehow we could chase it into the house. Come on, come on, good catch! Midair! Good catch! I cannot believe we got that. I gotta be quicker about opening that top. They're on to us, bro. The chickens are definitely the boss, aren't they?

My Jenga seeder came yesterday and I'm super excited. I'm gonna put it together and hopefully get it, um, working today. So we'll see. This is the seeder that Casey uses, that I guess probably market gardeners use in general. I got it together, but this thing is complicated. Mr. Brown just woke up. Well, we woke him up and got him dressed, and then he fell back asleep in our bed. But he comes out, and what did— what do you think about this? What do you think about the Jang seeder? Casey had been telling me that there's like a lot of rollers and they're very expensive to get started with having to buy all the rollers. And there are a lot of rollers. I'm gonna get that— the one roller that it's said to use, which was X24, could also be used for carrots. I'm gonna get that in the seeder, get educated on it, and then get out there. So glad to have Jonah and Justin back because they are outside doing the chores and I can get back to gardening. I will say, if, if I just had me and the 3 younger kids, our farm would not be, um, as big as it is right now because I couldn't do it all. I couldn't do it all. So I texted Casey Ostwich, Honey Tree Farm YouTube channel, and I said this Jang seeder is hard because he's the one who said get the Jang, it's the best. So I was like, what do I do? And he said that he had a video on it and it is called Flipping Beds and Direct Seeding. So I just watched that and now I'm going to do what he said. Hold this back. It seems like it's doing good.

I don't know.

So we're gonna go with that because I have no idea. It seems like it's coming out well.

Okay, now the roller is ready. Get your hopper set up.

We gotta go and we gotta take off— hold on one second. No, he took off this piece. He took off that piece?

Yeah.

Yeah, he did, didn't he? Flip this down. Do that. Get that off. Good job.

3 rows at 5 inches, so, um, oh dear.

Oh gosh, I think it's just on there really big because it's like—

goodness, there we go. Got it.

Yeah, I just had to get a hold of it with a little padding. Thank you, man. Yeah, Casey says that it's hard to trust this thing, but I should trust it, so I'm trusting. Trusting Casey and the chain. I'm gonna put more carrots in. Because I don't know, I'm just going with it.

Everybody meet Henry. This is Hank's brother from Holler Homesteads, I guess. This is a handy cart that can be pulled by hand or by mower. Some of you are saying, where'd you get that? I'm gonna put that in my— what you call kit— at kitkit.com. It's like a lot of the stuff I use. I wish I updated a little bit better, but I'll go ahead and add that to my kit and leave the link down in the description. You can see that and some— many of the other stuff we use on the farm.

What? It's the most amazing thing in the world.

Why do you say that?

You can run with it. Oh, like a wheelbarrow, you can't run with it. Okay, if you're in a hurry, you can run with it. Okay, you can carry a lot with it too.

It's 9:08. We got 20 minutes till we need to milk. Let's go assess the situation at the— at the cows and the pigs. We're gonna have to build a connection We have a line for going around. This is where they're gonna go, guys. We're turning this into this. We gotta go around this, so down and then back up. How are you? How are you guys?

You ready to be moved?

Have you guys been— I missed you. You didn't miss me too bad. I see we need our water trough, we need to fix our water line, we need a few more posts. I think we have electric lines, so not too bad. We're gonna run our cattle lane right through here— cattle, sheep lane. So that needs to get established today. I'm gonna try to do it on contour here, so I'm going to need to show you how to do that. It is a romantic idea to have your animals do the work of the farm, but it's not easy. It's not easy. Extremely satisfying and exciting. It's not easy. See the vision though, right? After animals, after humans. Look how beautiful grass coming in, trees. See where it's going to take us. Okay, this is not going to be bad, Jonah. Measure from right here, just straight, 10 feet.

12.

12 feet, sorry. And then I'm gonna walk this until I get there, okay? Can you go get a rebar that's close so we can mark where you're supposed to hit that? Yeah, that's about right here. So every 3 wires, restart it, go straight through there, kind of where we're hitting. A-frame level is working here because It's such a steep grade and there's not a bunch of difference. Lanes on contour are going to be the least amount of damage on a slope as possible. You want this project, man? Yeah. And I'll go milk. Okay, this is what we're eventually going for, except we're going to eventually have 4 strands. On these. But look, look, looks nice on contour. Are you pregnant, Mama? All right, Flossy, let's go. Come on, come on, come on, come on. All right, go on down. You got milk in there? Come on. She's— I've not seen her not so anxious before. Usually she's going right down. Now normally we don't have to put the lanes up because she's so anxious to get down there, but who knows where she's gonna go today. See, come on, stay focused. Beauty got out. I see working on her garden. She's about to take a left turn. Into the old pasture. Come on then, come back. Good girl, good girl. There you go. We'll get you some alfalfa. How you been? I missed you too. Missed you 2 days. Well, hello there, Mr. Brown. You gonna help me milk this morning? Yeah.

I am about 1/3 of the way done with hoeing it. I'm gonna rake it and then I'm gonna seed it and then we're gonna put the Agribon on it and wet it. No, we're hoeing this whole row.

Okay. A hair— yeah, that's a hair less than usual, but I do think they need that new pasture. They were looking a little hungry this morning, so it's just in time. You watering your garden, Mr. Brown? You got anything left in there? Yeah, still those tomatoes. Oh, you got some tomatoes? Okay. What are y'all doing, Lily?

We're gonna water.

Okay, you're gonna get out nice, Miss— Miss Thing. Good. I see Flossy gave another deposit while I was gone. A deposit of different sorts. How's the chicken cooked, Josiah?

Good.

Looking good. We've turned it off. Now we let it cool off. A little surprise for you guys. Somewhat of a snack, but definitely a wallow. Oh, oh yeah. You're loving it. Good little wallow for you. Whoa, don't shake that on me. You're getting you some too now, huh? Oh yeah, poop bath! Everybody say poop bath!

I hoed the bed, I raked out the bed, and now I'm going to set up to do straight lines with the Jang Seeder because everybody tells me that this is the best thing to do. I don't want to do it. I just want to start putting seeds in the ground, but I know that there is a process to it all, so trying to not rush ahead and actually do things right, it's really hard. It's really hard for me.

Beauty's got it queued up for the seeder, got it weeded real good. We went ahead and bit the bullet and bought the Jang because we believe it was our cheap seeder that was It was why we didn't get even seeded on those carrots last time. That was worth the investment then. Boom! Cabbage, eggs, bacon from the land. And even better, first time sitting down together since we got back, sharing a meal together that we all helped grow. Chicken broth. Cheers!

Breakfast is done. And now I'm going to seed the garden bed. Pretty excited with the new Jang Seeder. You know, I know there's going to be a learning curve. There's a learning curve with everything, but I think it's going to be good. It's going to be real good for the farm for us to have this. Wow, wow, wow. Okay, that was amazing compared to the Earthway. It's like so much more heavy duty and it feels like a tool. The Earthway seeder definitely feels a little janky. And don't feel bad, like if that's what you guys have because that's what you can afford, then that's all you can afford. That's great, use the Earthway seeder. But as Casey says, you put in one bed of carrots and the jank pays for itself, so I'm gonna go with that. Now I'm gonna go and put the Agribond down. The Agribond is on. I'm gonna check the weather, see if it's gonna rain. If it is gonna rain, just gonna let that water it. If not, then I will go ahead and get it wet. But hoping for a much better carrot crop than before. Still lots to do in the garden. But now that Justin is back and Jonah are back and they've taken over the animal chores again, now I can get back to gardening.

He's got it closed up. Does that mean you're done, Jason? Yeah, the only thing I had to install a light. I'm not sure where you guys wanted this. Whoa, you put in the plastic guard!

Did you paint it already?

Is there a light in there? No. Oh, I could put in my light. Oh, because you have this light, you need to know where it goes. Okay, it's got some hangings for hanging meat. We're going to set it to 55 in here. Okay, it's already cooler than that. Yeah, it's already 50. So how do I set it to 55? Just move it up one? You should be able to just move it up. It's just an arrow. Oh, okay, that's down and up. Okay. Oh yeah, people want to know that we could get stuck in here, but it actually just pushes right open. Because it doesn't latch. There's no latch. See, it opens like a fridge. Yeah, see, they're in there.

See, right open.

Yep. So we actually decided to run this at 55 and put our squash in here. No, no, we didn't. I guess I might want to. Editing time. Hopefully we can get this done with maybe some time to spare to get The bromance over into the woods. All right, by the time I pull the software up and answer a few emails, I get the message the cows are out.

Yes!

Done with the edit. Got 1 hour before supper. Whoa, what's going on here? This is how Hawaii-esque. I like it. I got the stuff. At least for the water line. I think we're gonna start there. Should be cooled off by now. Wow, still slightly warm but not too hot. They love the chicken soup. Oh, Premier One order, Speedrite 2000 and 3000. That'll help us get things energized for these sheep coming. Here's the water supply line. Here's the flexible hose. I think I was just hoping to do that. So then this needs— and then I want to continue on up to the next outlet. So this needs a female, one of these. Boom! That's 3/4. I need 1/2 inch to a water line. I hope I have that. Since I don't think we have the proper plumbing, let's go ahead and mow our strip. That got through there easy, no problem. I forgot about this. We definitely have to mow this. That looks nice. We got our poles up. Now let's roll up the line that's here and rerun it. We have to rerun it because Uh, we have to start it over at the end. It's looking good on contour, looking real good. We rolled it up, hooked up the end. Now, uh, we're going around. We got the fence, we got the food, we lack the water, and we lack some work getting this lane ready to get them all out here. Might be able to do that after supper. Oh, we slammed supper. Zucchini noodles from the land, beef sauce from the land, from the beautiful kitchen. Doesn't that look nice? Oh, doesn't beautiful one do a great job at that? Casey Ostwich is here, premium webinar tonight. He's our special guest giving some coaching tips on, uh, the Jang. Yeah, you always want to set this, the gears up so it's out of the dirt too. Okay, is that hard to change out then? No, you just pull it out and it's not hard.

You put the seed in it. In Casey's video, he shows all this. Okay, I was watching this.

What's the name of that video? I think it's Flipping Beds and Direct Seeding. Okay, we'll link that for you, buddy. In the summer, I'll overseed everything because our site's kind of dry and it's hard to keep everything moist. That's why I've been using the tarps, but I'll just overseed it. We had a blast hanging out with Casey. I did not put the batteries back in that charger for the ICs, but I think they'll be okay because they are closed up. I do want to make sure these Seamasters' fence is on because they don't have a coop with walls. Aren't you glad I came out here? Because it ain't on. I'm beginning to think that's what happened last night, that this wasn't on. They're all hanging out by the feeder. Oh, I need to put the feeders up. You all are fat enough.