No More DRY Thanksgiving Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving! I mean, by the time this airs, it's Thanksgiving. It's still the day before Thanksgiving, so, uh, Happy Thanksgiving. It's still just Wednesday for us, so we're gonna spend the day prepping. But isn't Thanksgiving great for a homesteader, for a farmer? Because you pig out, and a lot of it is from food you've grown. We grew our own turkey this year. It's great. What a great holiday for food-loving people like homesteaders. Hmm, do you have my chainsaw stuff? Yeah, you can feed them. We're not moving, we're just prepping it. Do you know where Jonah is prepping my chainsaw stuff?

Yeah, he's up at the barn.

Okay, future home of our pole barn. We're delayed because there's a metal shortage. We're doing metal trusses for the roof and there's a shortage. I don't— they can do this in a day whenever they get the stuff. It doesn't look like it's going to happen before we go on vacation, so hopefully when we get back, because we want to get our hay in the shelter, we want to get our hay here, we want to get our cows deep bedded soon after we get back from vacation. We've got our wood starting to pile here, but we're gonna get a lot of wood right in there. I kind of feel like, boys, are you sure there's not any more wood in here? I mean, maybe— well, there's a piece right there. There we go. Good job, guys. Sam and John are back. John, you still want to be a farmer? What about you, Sam?

Yes.

All right, well, this is what it's like. We gotta work even if it's raining. It just started raining. We gotta clear for the pigs' fence. We're gonna move the pigs soon, but we need to move them right before we leave so they don't have to be moved again. But let's go ahead and prep it. I'm gonna let Arun practice today. Without me, with me here just in case he runs into any issues. Our pigs are in here, they're gonna go in here. But look, if we leave, they're sure to put this brush into the fence where we make our fence. So we're gonna clear a spot for a fence, we're gonna work this up so it can be hauled out of here. Okay, that was fun while it lasted. Chain came off. Ah, question is, do we get our littler saw or do we fix this one? Which one you want to do?

We'll bring the saw and we'll fix it at the house.

Okay, well, you come help these boys. Just— I help the boys. Come on, it's your farm. Come on. I'm gonna go figure out what saw we're gonna use, maybe fix that one. I'll do the time lapse. These guys have just jumped in with their loppers. They might get it done, who knows.

What?

These guys are crushing it. Good job, man.

Almost all the little stuff.

All right, we managed to get the chainsaw, got the blade back on it, got it sharpened, got it fueled. We brought the little one just in case. Let's see if we can't knock this out. Wow, just like that, maybe an hour-ish. We've got a good amount of pasture coming. We'll take these cherry trees out later, probably keep that walnut. Doing silvopasture in here just like we did everywhere else. We got a lot of potential right in here, and it's really not that far from home. Home's just kind of right around that corner. Pigs are going to be busy all winter stirring up the seed grass, killing it. And this will be a beautiful— we'll have a nice little gradual access road through here called the Graders. We're going to do an access road all the way up, all the way up to Grandma's and Big Daddy's, and run pigs, cows, sheep. It's going to be amazing.

Where are you going?

Nice, that's one motivated kid. Boy, all those boys did a good job this morning, didn't they? I was thinking about that when I was working with them because my dad used to work us when we were a kid, and our friends too. When they come over, we still worked. I remember hating it, but now being the dad, looking at those boys working, I'm not sure they hate it. I'm not sure I hated it. They think they hate it, but you know, looking at it now from this perspective and watching them I think they really like it because every day these boys come, something's different. They're solving problems, they're working with their hands, and it makes playing so much sweeter. I thought about just letting them play this morning. I mean, they get to play a lot during the— after chores. I thought about letting them play, but I thought, well, then it wouldn't be as special. The playing wouldn't be as special. I'm gonna check on Arun. Hopefully this isn't wet enough to shock me. Okay, I guess it's not. Thank you. Looks like Arun's done flossy. We did a better graze this time. We had made it too small, I think. Made it a little bit bigger, the paddock. Hey, how's it going? Good.

Sturis is, uh, moving so much.

Is she?

Yeah.

It's a little different, I guess, since we're not out here. How confident do you feel like you are? Scale of 1 to 10, like super confident is a 10, 1 is like—

I can say 7.

Okay, that's good. For our cable, we've rigged the Luchador wrestling ring cable. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a loop in it, so it won't like pull it on center, if you know what I mean. So I'm kind of wondering if I need to make a loop for him before I go. We'd have to get this off, tie a loop in it, and secure it. A 7 out of 10 is actually pretty good because you don't want your farm sitter, or you for that matter, to be too confident. You never want to be too confident because you don't pay attention, you're not careful, you think that you got this, and you're not aware of possible mishaps. So I'm happy about the room's readiness level. Good morning, guys. Hey, you got your raincoat on? You gonna get some wood? Yeah, it's their job to get firewood for the stove. It looks like you got some already though.

Yeah, but my dad said we have to get more.

Who?

Okay, okay, good. All right, they got Henry up here. Hey guys, come on, come on, help him get in. Good job getting some wood up here. Good job, Gideon. And looky here, what are you working on right now?

Thanksgiving.

Well, I know that.

I'm working on, um, cream of mushroom soup for the homemade green bean casserole.

Okay, what dish are you most looking forward to?

The green bean casserole. But the problem is it probably won't taste like I think it will.

Why? You guys do different ingredients than you used to?

No, I just think that I have these thoughts of what I want to eat, and then when I eat them, I don't really like them.

Ah, because you're pregnant?

Yeah.

Are you gonna help her? So far she's working on a pecan pie. Pecan pie. This is— there's for your mushrooms, for your green bean casserole. You made the crust already. You've made a cornbread for cornbread stuffing. This is all gluten-free. Is it grain-free? No, but it is gluten-free. And she's already made— she's already made— cooked the sweet potatoes. She's gonna make a sweet potato casserole. She needs some chicken broth. Okay, here it is. How many you want? How many you want? You want the green beans?

Not yet, because I'm gonna put it together tomorrow. Okay, I need to get— will you get me the arrowroot out of here? Yeah, sure.

Anything else? It's a kitchen explosion, but we've got sweet potatoes coming on.

Well, no, the sweet potatoes, those were the ones I was gonna cook, but I had plenty.

Oh, you— oh, so you don't need those? Those weren't quite cooked all the way, she was gonna cook them again. You've got an amazing looking pie crust, another amazing looking— we got us and Grandma and Big Daddy and your sister. Pretty much the same amount of people that were always eating at our house. This is a lot of food. What are we gonna do with all this food? 3 pies.

I hope— well, I had extra pie crust, which is why I made 3 pies. So hopefully I'll have extra pie filling, which I think I will.

Well, wait, isn't that the best thing about Thanksgiving? Leftovers. Leftovers. Mucho. Don't have to cook for days.

Well—

I don't know.

I feel like everyone's gonna eat it all. And then we won't have leftovers.

I don't know how we're gonna eat 3 pies, honey.

Oh, it'll happen. People go crazy.

All right, we'll see. Tomorrow, we'll see. So what's next?

I'm making the pecan pie.

Do you call it pecan pie or pecan pie?

Pecan.

Okay, pecan pie.

Pumpkin pie's next.

And wait, do you have anything more to do tomorrow?

Um, I have to make the green bean casserole tomorrow and cook the turkey.

How about I'll brine— when should I brine the turkey?

I might fry the French fried onions for the top of the casserole.

Okay, when should I brine the turkey? Later tonight, or maybe when I get back from afternoon chores?

I think it's 12 to 24 hours.

Yeah, it is. So I could do it. Hey guys, let's go move the— let's go get the calves up, and then we'll come back and brine the turkey. Here we go. So Arun, we're going to teach Arun how to do this by himself. It'd be— it's best to do it at a corner, so we want to do it down there as opposed to like right there in the middle.

Okay, so what do we do first?

Let's open— that's what I'm saying, open it up at a corner. So we want to open up right here and let's get Phyllis in. All right, well, the camera battery died just in time, but we heard them through. That's the easy part. Now Phyllis is ready, so go ahead and just demo that. Just get— or let him do it, let him do it. Get Phyllis back through. That's easy. And see, that's what Flossie will do eventually.

That's why I like her.

Yeah, she, she doesn't care. She doesn't mind leaving her calf. It's no big deal. That's what will happen. But Flossy is really protective of her calf at first, and it's hard to do. Keep this open small, just one small. And what's going to happen is she's going to run through and you're going to have to run beside her and grab that calf by the neck with your crook. But actually, see if you can hurt her without her calf right now.

Nope. No.

Okay, so he, he, he went to try to hurt her without her calf. It ain't gonna happen yet. She's not ready. Okay, so herd them both. What we're gonna do, we're gonna herd them both and we're just gonna grab the— you gotta hold it like this so you can grab the calf when they go to go through. But you gotta wait until it's right here. Okay, further up this way. Here we go, here we go. Perfect, perfect. It's okay, it's okay. Try one, we'll do it again. Here's our mistake, one of them. This has to be on the inside so that we can grab it and shut it really quick. Okay, there we go. Let's get Flossie and your calf back in here. I caught the calf, but it was a little too late and she was a little too far on the other side of the fence. And really, I think I could have picked up the calf and put it in here, and plus he's not gonna hurt me, but I just want to keep it as calm as possible. Okay, so let's get— let's get these guys out of your way. So if you're by yourself, you're gonna have to herd others out of the way. Come on, come on, get everybody out of the way. Get Hamburger out of your way. We're gonna get Hamburger down here too, and then you can walk her along the fence. You can't pee in peace.

I know.

There you go, get in behind her. Perfect. You probably think we're crazy, don't you? Hopefully she won't be so attached before we leave, but that's why we have her in here this afternoon, just to learn the, learn the ropes. Okay, there we go. Good, good. All right, hope you guys saw that. In case you didn't see it, I was able to hook the calf right here, and I did this by myself yesterday. So I think you can do it. I think it's just going to take time. Hopefully she'll calm down more.

I might do the— maybe the fence. I've got 50-foot fence. You could cover them, keep them, them away, and leave her this side.

That's fine. You could put like the 50-foot fence in here. Yeah, and get them in that, and this would be a lot easier just to get her out without the calf. So that's not a bad idea. All right, did you fix you a rope for this shed?

Yeah, I did.

Okay, good. A wire rope. Handy guy, looped it through like Randolph. Okay, well, let's try it tomorrow. Let's go, uh, brine this turkey. It's a kitchen explosion.

It's bad in here.

Hey there. Okay, I'm about to make it batter. Why?

What are you doing?

Turkey brine. So you know turkey is more lean, right? So that's why today's episode of Burn It Up Cooking Show, I'm going to teach you kind folks how to make a simple salt water brine. So this is a half a gallon. It's probably gonna— probably gonna need a gallon, but let's do a half a gallon at a time. Half a cup, half a cup of salt. What's that, about half a cup right there? I like what you call, uh, Real Salt by Redmond's. It's an ancient mineralized salt. Well, it's salt from Utah, so I don't know, some seawater salt can have plastic in it. Anyway, let's get this hot, warm enough to dissolve this. All right, that's pretty warm. We're gonna fill that up and let the salt water absorb into the water. Stirring this with a, uh— Rebecca, do you got any ideas how to get the rest of this salt absorbed? I don't know if I've ever been able to get all the salt absorbed. Rebecca's got this Ooh, that sweet potato casserole. I've opted to use Rebecca's chair because we've absolutely run out of counter space. We've got 14-pound bird in there, one of our primo birds. So here's my half a gallon, probably gonna need a little bit more. I'm gonna say 2 gallons, it's definitely gonna probably be 2 gallons. So I just keep— you just keep going to that ratio, half a cup per half gallon. All right, that's what it looks like. I don't know, I might have done 6, so maybe 3 gallons, 2.5, 3. And what this does is the turkey will absorb that water and salt, so it both moistens and, uh, seasons it, and it won't dry out nearly as much in the oven. And it'll be really nice and juicy. That turkey and all this is our future tomorrow. Our life's looking good. We got some Jedis. You about to pour it?

Yeah.

Which pie is this?

This is the pumpkin pie.

How do you think everything's turning out?

Sweet potato casserole and the cornbread stuffing and the green bean casserole and the turkey and the cranberry sauce. And the biscuits will be amazing. I hope that—

did you make the biscuits today too?

No, I'm gonna make those tomorrow.

That's the only thing you're leaving for tomorrow?

Um, and putting together the green bean casserole.

All right, you already got a pecan pie in there?

Yes.

And you already baking it? Yeah. And just reheat it tomorrow and it's just good? All right.

I don't, I don't think we'll reheat it. I think it'll just—

oh, you can eat it cold. You can eat that cold.

Yeah. All right, let's pour.

That's supposed to go like that.

Oh, okay, nice. Just don't hit all that, okay? All right.

The pumpkin was stringy, but I don't know how to get it unstringy. I tried to blend it, but it didn't work.

We will see you guys tomorrow. In a way, because you might be seeing this on Thanksgiving, you get to live two Thanksgivings— yours, I hope it was well, and ours. See you guys tomorrow.