Our Resilient Backyard Grocery Store

We're trying to figure— they've slowed down on eggs. Hey, let's grab some nesting material before we go out. Look, that's part of it. Mr. Brown, where are your socks?

Uh, I'm not wearing any socks either.

Well, you tend to be able to do it on yourself. Okay, I'm going, Mr. Brown. Is that okay?

No, wait.

Oh, I got you socks. You and your buddy.

Me and my teddy. Me and Mr. Teddy.

He just stays right by our side, doesn't he? He never spent a moment alone.

He does. He loves us. I'm afraid he's gonna have to start sleeping with us.

No. Why? Because I think we'll put him in that crate before he sleeps with me.

Are you gonna go in the crate tonight?

No.

Well, you guys got to keep him in the bed.

I know, it's been getting out. Here you go.

Well, I was going out there early since we have to move the Icelandics today. That garden bed is more than ready. Mom's strawberries and asparagus are in, or strawberries in, but the asparagus is coming this week. That's going in. And here's your socks. Come when you're ready, okay? Well, maybe I can at least find his shoes so we're not waiting on that. All right, here's his play shoes. Gideon, will you wear your play shoes?

Huh?

You're coming with me though, okay? I didn't get you dressed so you could go play with friends. It's milking time, but we got to get these chickens out. I'm a little rusty. It's been a while since we moved the chicken net. It's that season though. And just like that, we got the nets up. I got the water ready.

How do you fix this?

I would, uh, throw— look, look, look, stop— dirt from right here. It's best if this, this needs to be— or should we let it kind of build up here?

No, I'm gonna make—

let's build it up here.

These rocks here, I'm gonna make a rock wall.

Okay, that's good. Before you make a rock wall though, see the line right here? Let's have that be our line. So you, you throw all the dirt that's over here back up, okay? And throw it up there in your crevices. Good job, Josiah. The female guard goose does give us eggs, but she also rips all the hay out to make nests. Oh, oh, oh, Jonah grabbed that chicken! Oh shoot.

Oh yeah, Chicken Ninja Master!

Okay, back home, the chicken— the chickens were on a till job or fertilization job. Keeping weeds at bay. Here, look, this is the weaker part of the pasture. See how it's not really very productive, whereas just right down here, more productive. Look how that's just jamming. Okay, so we're gonna restore this. We want to put an Energizer in the middle, and then you can move the nets 4 times around it. Okay. They're gonna love it. Talk about keeping the eggs clean. Oh, this is a P Jonah made me for Father's Day one day. P for Papa. It's, uh, keeps the water off the ground so if they scratch, the water doesn't get dirty. Next, we gotta clip y'all's wings. 30 minutes late to milking. This is when I hope to milk, but I'm almost there, guys. I think I can clip these wings and then go.

Uh, is that from here?

They're gonna be happy. Step 1 to getting more eggs: clipping their wings so they stay in and nest and eggs are where they're supposed to be. Step 2: fresh bedding. Step 3: clean water. 4: Fresh ground. Planes are still going. A lot is closing now because of the COVID-19 coronavirus. People be going crazy at the grocery store preparing for self-quarantines. Man, welcome to the self-quarantine family. We barely go anywhere. Eggs have been laid in here. Okay, somebody got them. That's good. That's been a favorite spot. It's the eggs we haven't found I'm worried about. What you gonna do?

There are eggs in that stall. There are eggs in there. Yeah, chickens that get out are our main layers.

Hey, you got any eggs in there? Did you lay me any eggs, Aunt Phyllis? Better not go in there. I've never been more excited about growing our own food. Milk and supplies. This is not a hobby. This is a very serious way for us to get healthy food for us and our family. And now it's even become sort of a resilience thing. Like, we're not panicked. We've got dozens of eggs coming in. I'm about to go harvest 30 pounds of milk. Oh my gosh!

What are you doing?

What are you doing? Oh, and let me show you what's coming on in here. All these veggies jamming. How much food is that, guys? How much food is that coming on? Spinach ready in like 45 days. Our backyard is our grocery store, y'all. Oh, remind me to show you the freezers. Remind me to show you the freezers after we put this milk up. How's your wall coming?

Good.

Good morning, dairy aisle. It's the dairy aisle here at the Holler Farm. This looks really good. He's gonna make a little retaining wall there for our garden. So this is where the chickens were. Look how rich this is. This is the chicken garden miracle, y'all. The chicken garden miracle. A deep bedding. They've shredded into rich compost, guys. This is super soft. All right, we're almost an hour late, but hey, we'll get more milk. I can't believe this.

Right there.

What the heck? Are you serious? She's looking for her normal spot. I think we're normally out of here by now. Did she come? How? Is that the one from the field, Jonah?

No, can't be.

Maybe from your, uh, breakfast posse?

No, because I'm in the ice— oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh, that puppy's getting filthy. You know you have to wash that puppy off in the creek. Are you helping, Jonah? Are you helping, Jonah? Are you helping, Jonah? Are you more hurting than helping? Well, welcome to raising beans. Oh my gosh, you're filthy, Jonah. Will you switch out my cows? I'm done with Flossie. Got a good 2 gallons. This is really good.

I still have to use some of the dirt to go back in.

Yeah, I would pick off— I would fill in some where your wall is, but then I would throw the rest up there because it just gets pulled downhill. And this is going to be a permanent strawberry and asparagus garden. Boom! 2 strong gallons. So what happens when he works with Jonah?

He's like— he's—

I don't think he's loving it.

You're a skinny little dog. You know, we have fun on this homestead show. We have lots and lots of fun, but we're very serious. This is 8 boxes of strawberries. A fridge for our milks. Look at all this breakfast sauces, soups, meat. There's some lamb in here. Another fridge for excess stuff. Oh look, there's carrots from our farm. Mojo chickens and stock. This is the beef aisle here. Pork aisle, 2 freezers, 2 freezers full of pork. If you don't think we're real serious, we got a walk-in cooler for hanging meat. We got squash in here. We're gonna start putting our milk and our coolers in here. We got seeds. Never has that felt so good. It's just food security there, guys. Resiliency. Looks good, my man. You proud of yourself?

I never— yeah, most block walls I built, they just go—

that one's gonna hold. All right, round 2 milking. I'm gonna put the time lapse on you, my man. Found her spot. She came right out of here. I want you guys to see this. Found the eggs. Go home. Maybe she doesn't even stay in the coop. That's all I could think of. You want to catch her? You and I, can we catch her, Jonah? All right, forget it. Nice, nice, uh, enjoying the fruit of our harvest. We just came down from eating sheep hay. Look who came running across the field. Look at that. How does he get out? We fresh clipped his wings. The nets are tall, right? It needs to be pig food tomorrow. A chicken at some point should not be that hard to keep in. All right, come on, Jonah, get in. You coming with Mr. Brown?

Yeah, let's go.

Nothing's faster with kids. Come on. Are you gonna shut the door?

So whoever gets in— I don't think he's coming.

Let's go, we gotta herd them back into the field. Let's go. All right, you guys give me a second while I load up the pigs. Every day we've been adding We couldn't get the water to work up there, so we've just been filling it up with 5-gallon buckets every time. I bring that up about our food, us raising our food, to say it's a— it's going to be a rising trend, maybe even a rapidly rising trim, because there's— trim— trend, because there's so much benefits. I mean, you save money You know your food story. It's healthy, but now it's a resilience system. Okay, I'm gonna go get the squash. The trend— I mean, it's been— gardening has been America's hobby, number one hobby for the last 100 years for a reason. Good times, bad times, gardening. With that comes homesteading. You're in the right place to be inspired, to be taught We're in this together. To have community, you're in the right place, and I'm glad to have you guys. Thank you for watching. Thank you for all you loyal fans. Get ready, get ready for a surplus of interest in this area. Congratulations for being early. Let's take it, let's take it to the pigs. Nature's greatest miracle— rotten squash into bacon and sausage. Hey, are you guys hungry or what? Are you hungry or what? I better stop fooling around. It's better start feeding over before they take a bite out of my calf. Let's get you on the squat.

Nice.

That used to trick them. They, they'd piddle around with the squash a little bit. They're smart beings though. They know I got something else coming. It didn't trick you today, did it, guys? That's probably going to be enough water right there.

A chocolate log? Maybe. Or should we have the worst bad guy comes back?

Well, that means the eggs are about ready, Rebecca. Straight up off the farm right there.

I already ate my kale, it was delicious.

I need kale too.

Finding Chica by Mitch Albom.

Can I look at that picture?

Here we go, ready? Guys, oh! Okay, don't cry over spilt milk. This quote is from Dr. John Treanor: Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work. So that's why I encourage y'all to go with me and be with me, because the farming, it's important, but it's not— you guys aren't a distraction from that. You guys are the most important work. Okay, we've cleaned up, guys. You all ready to go? Didn't we just eat, Lily? Got her a little pancake. Teddy, you going with? Get in, come on. Family workout. Do you not have clothes?

What?

Lily, where'd you put his clothes? I'll help you because you are, you are the most important thing. Keep telling myself that.

It's okay if I don't work.

Why? What are you gonna do?

Look at that, I'm gonna play with Teddy.

Yes, you can be in charge of Teddy. All right, Mom, come on, we're running out of time. We're gonna get this done. We've got like 1 hour before we have to move animals.

Crazy.

Whatever, whatever you're saying about Apple Pool. Mouth. These are little Josiah's old shoes, and now you're about to grow out of them. Oh, they're tight on you, huh? What do you prefer, Mom? Manure fork, shovel, pitchfork?

I like a manure fork, I think. I like the fork that has the tines close together.

This is a manure fork, tines close together. What do you need? Okay, why didn't you leave it in the house? I don't want to carry around a dog brush. Look at y'all's production! Look at how fine you guys are knocking it out. Thank you very much. Boy, you're filthy. That goose is filthy. It's right here.

Yeah, what do you think?

Boom! Boom! Jonah got him some greens. You guys liking that? Let's watch this goose. You gotta help me though, Beck. You like that? All right, all right, we'll leave you alone. Come get your greens. Come get your greens. She likes the greens more than anybody, I think. What are you doing, Lily?

Eating.

You eating like a cow? Uh-huh. Josiah, will you grab the camera? You don't want to get in front of the— oh, there you go.

You gonna carry this whole thing together?

Yes, sure. Will you grab the camera?

Yeah, I'll grab the camera.

I've unboxed the strawberries. I watered all of the greenhouse plants, which they are looking amazing. That will be transplanting soon. Justin has— he went to get the black tarp, and then he remembered that there was needed sandbags made. So he and some of the kids— so he and some of the kids did that while I did this, and now we're here. And you got poop on your— wow, because it was next to the—

we're gonna go ahead and wet this to encourage— it's not gonna be covered long, we're just waiting on our asparagus, right, this week. But maybe it'll encourage some worm activity, help break down some of the manure.

Well, and this isn't—

no, it's strawberries and asparagus. We won't harvest the asparagus for 2 years.

Oh no, it'll be a while. And then we might harvest strawberries— might being a strong word— yeah, in this year. I think we will.

Yeah. Tell you what, Rebecca, that feels good when we get chickens out of a place and put down a tarp. That feels real good. Look at this, Speck. No, I'm gonna clip your other wings. I've only clipped one side. I guess you're doing little spiral flights out. 3 hens and a rooster. Tea time. Taking a little break before we go do the big move. Big move, Rebecca. Trailer's involved. Eventually we'll have all our lane systems sheepified and we'll need the trailer. We can move our sheep from way down there all the way up to over there if we wanted to. But it's gonna take some time, so until then we're gonna use the trailer. Mom, where's the Dutch oven?

It's up in there where it always goes.

Act like she don't change things around.

I don't!

Without telling me. How'd everybody enjoy their tea?

Good.

Is it gonna be a cold crank now? Mm-hmm. We sat relaxed, it's kind of hard to get back going again.

I ain't got no problem.

You ready to go?

Yeah, we are ready to go.

Hey, where's the earmuffins? They were right in here to go down. Hey, will you put the chicken in?

Is it not in?

No, it needs to start now. 3:30, 1 hour to 5, hour and a half. So you got to come back in though to make your part. I only need 30 minutes. So then you need to open up the chicken when you come in. All right, we got the trailer in place. Let's go get our old nets so they can just be out on grass for as long as possible, and then we'll get them in. We got the nets in. Let's, uh, pull the tractor forward, back it up to about right here. The door open right there. We'll open the nets this way, they'll go right in. They're raring to go. Sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep! Look at that, crazy. All right, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep! Look at that, are they easy or what? Okay, let's get the rest of the nets up. They're, they're cooling there for a little bit, and let's go. So we were picking up the nets and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, it's like 4:15. We have enough nets to set the sheep up. Let's just— we're gonna put that off, guys. I want to eat at 5. I want to eat at 5. I've been doing 20-hour fast to address my— some inflammation. I'm getting hungry. While I take— let's take the mineral shawl down to your mom first, and then we'll come back for the sheep. She can fill up the minerals by the garage. Will you guys pick up the nets while I'm gone? Thanks. Can you come get this camera? All right, I got this sheep shawl down. Let's get the sheep down. How's it going down here?

It's going good. I'm just trying to hurry.

Yeah. All right, it's 4:31. Rebecca is done with the minerals. I— the chicken will be done in like 29 minutes. QT, little QT quality time. What you giving them?

I'm just gonna give them a probiotic paste. Just to help in case there's any need for it. She'll be fine.

Who do you need to pet?

I need to pet them all, but Bandy needs to be pet.

You guys, those two are the most timid. Look at their fur, uh, hair coming off. Is that one of the timid ones?

She does like me. She will come up to me. Dixie will absolutely not come up to me.

That's Dixie right there. She's tolerating it right now. I know, eating while you fed her. All right, you gonna go make supper?

Yes.

Okay, we'll go set the sheep up. I don't know where Teddy is. Oh, Joyful and, uh, Lily Doo making paper dolls. I backed up right here, guys. That means Let's put our corner, our two starts right there and encompass this whole area where the cows were. You guys start getting the fences up. I'm gonna go get the mineral, the sheep shaw. 3 minutes to 5. Look at us, Rebecca. You're gonna open that. I'll keep them from going down this way, hopefully. Uh-oh, uh-oh, we should have moved that fence, that cow fence. All right, it worked anyway. If only we didn't have to put stuff away, we would have nailed it.

Energizer.

Energizer. Oh well, we got 2 minutes still.