Pig Powered Recovery | Rebuilding My Land After The Hurricane

Nearly 6 months ago, Hurricane Helene absolutely destroyed our lower pasture. Austin, roll some of that drone footage! Austin, do we have anything else showing the disaster? Like, particularly over there? Because we've cleaned it up. Quite a bit. The hurricane got our high tunnel, our bees, our turkeys, our bridge, our driveway, our pole barn, but it also got our land. Probably 2 acres.

Look!

2 acres, and I'm just on the lower side here. This is easily a football field over here, 3 or 4 footballs over there, and that's not to mention what's upstream. We've had hurricanes here before, at least rains, not hurricanes, the rains from hurricanes. The pond's overflowing. Gosh, this is some rain. Whoa. Oh boy. Shoot. Nothing's blocking the overflow. It compares nothing to what we had. We're talking water 100x, 1000x. We're talking 30-plus inches, 32 inches of rain within 48 hours. The things I've mentioned before— oh, and I forgot what it did to the raised beds and the chicken run, which I just recently fixed— can be repaired. And many would say soil can't be prepared, and I'll agree with them on that for when we've actually lost it, like it's gone and it's removed from the property and down to strain, which has happened to much of it. But in this case, we've lost topsoil. Guys, look at this. I am standing on this. This is crazy. This is just rock. This is just sand. What was this? Some of our most luscious grass on farm. So where it didn't completely remove earth But removed topsoil, which is also difficult to replace. I have an answer. It lies in my 3 little pigs. 3, 2, 1. Happy day! Thank you for joining us here near Asheville, North Carolina to our rooted life! We're gonna get pigs out on pasture to help us rebuild soil. Hey, wait, we got more to put in there, and we gotta fix that. So thank you, but hold on. Look, let me show you. Wait, get off. Don't get in there yet. I noticed we're gonna have to fix that overflow valve, but the first thing we need to do to get those pigs out there— and there are other reasons to get those pigs out, I'll show you that in a second, two more reasons. We're gonna kill 3 birds with 1 stone today. Let's get all the supplies.

Hey, hey, my Victor Justin Rhodes Jeep, it broke off in the lava.

You bring that Jeep down here and I'll fix it. I'm a fixer of things. Food, water, shelter, security. Food, we're gonna just be putting it right on the ground. To encourage tilling and incorporation. We've got those supplies. Let's fix them now. What are we doing?

We're moving it out to make a platform for the Jeep.

I think that's great. You gotta clean up the bakery first.

What?

Time out. Band-Aid. A few moments later. Got your Band-Aid. The magic healer.

If I get the Band-Aid on, can I help?

Yeah. Will you help me?

If you put the video on, then I not help.

No, you need to help. You need to help go clean up with Gideon.

Why?

Because you made that mess. Or help me.

Didn't you help me make that mess?

I know, he's out there cleaning it. I want to see you in that time lapse. Everybody wants to see you in that time lapse later. Make the right decision. I think I can make what I'm looking for out of these two parts. Distraction number two, our feed's here. It shipped a little later than it normally does. We're getting pretty low, so I'm happy about this. Get her out of the way for the feed. Get in! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, let's go see. Did you help? Yeah, yeah. Is it true, Austin? Did he help? No, no, no, no, you got to get this stuff out of the weather.

I'm done.

Otherwise you didn't do too terrible. Wad up that tarp too. And put all this stuff under the shed and put this in our wood stall. Oh nice, and a bonus. Okay, did you finish this time?

Yeah, he took a little break.

Okay, now what mess are y'all making?

Nothing.

What do you need?

I don't know, Daddy. My shoes, they spilled through these shoes out down here.

Okay, why don't you just go get them by yourself? He wants a certain pair of shoes. Okay, there they are. There's one. Shoot, there's the other. Okay, come on, you tell me which way you think it goes.

Probably sister. Why?

Nope, the other way. That's right. Okay, I can live with this clean job. What?

Put your hand in here. No, something's sure in my butt.

You're very distracting right now. Remind myself that you are the way. You are the project today. Yep, you. Is that how you like to do it? Some people like to rip it off. All right, well, second thing we've got to do is fix this. If we do not fix this broken off piece, this won't hold water. That's the overflow. We don't have the overflow pipe that's extends way up, so the water will just overflow right there. That's the overflow. And right now, usually there's— see that white plastic? Yeah, that's an elbow. Usually there's an extension of a PVC. I think we lost it in the hurricane with everything else, uh, that comes up. It's an overflow. When the water gets up here, it starts flowing down through it. But right now the overflow is like this tall, so it's not going to hold water. How you gonna get that up there? Try number 2.

Okay, what do you want to show me? This book came out.

Okay. Well, you have to get a fixed one.

Do you know where a fixed one is?

No. Just fixed the waterer. So happy it was that simple and I had the stuff. That could have been a lot worse. The boys' brick keeps breaking. They're on a mission to get a new one. I'm gonna be on a mission to set this water and security up. Got some bricks. Did you drive that down with your truck? Yeah, good job. Gideon didn't, did he? Gideon didn't drive it, did he?

Yeah, he did it.

Don't drive it, Gideon.

Yes.

Now what?

He fixed it. What's wrong with it? Nothing.

Give me a tool, Henry. What tool? It looks like it needs a new— needs a welding job. Give me the welder. The welder. That looks bitter, really.

All right, I am gonna go fix this, and there is something to fix in this situation, isn't it? Let's go put up our security and water. Let's get this old, uh, let's start in the corner. Let's start close to the house. Let's put a joint. Let's put the joint here. I'm thinking 2 fences for 3 pigs. I want them to have a bigger area first. We'll plan on moving them every week. They have been in an electric fence before. But it's been a minute, so I want them to have plenty of room to get used to it. I'm excited. We're building back topsoil with piggies. Shoot. You can DIY your own pig waterer with a half-inch female threaded union and just a regular half-inch pig nipple waterer from HogsLab. Union fitting from a hardware store. I put 3 on this because this was for 10 pigs, and the way we needed that big one so that the pigs couldn't knock it over. So it also works good with less pigs, and it'll last, it'll last a long time filled up. Actually, we should probably do that now. That's going to take a minute. That's like 225 gallons. There's some old net buried here. I hope I can get this out. Probably a reason it's still here. Whoa, that is a long fiber-tuff post I just pulled out. I'm seeing the top of one right here. Oh wow, I'm just gonna have to leave that.

All right, we'll see.

Pigs fool around with it. Well, we could dig that up with the Mini X, couldn't we? Okay, we could dig that up with the Matic. Didn't find a Matic, but I did found the shovel.

That's awkward.

Couldn't find it. I guess it's— I guess it's low enough. It's gonna be all right buried. Feet on the ground, water, security. We lack one thing: shelter. I think we can get it by the time that fills up. Thank you. This is our original pig sled. This is a mobile pig shelter on skids. Should be enough for 2 or 3 pigs at this age. Remember what I was showing you yesterday? If you don't put a bottom plastic runner on— we learned that later. Yeah, see how rotten that is? Yeah, that could, that could stand to have a plastic runner on the bottom. We're unscrewed here, so Let's get it back to the shop. Hopefully that's just a quick couple of quick screws and we can get this out here. We can take some minor defects, but if anything major in any of these things— food, water, shelter, security— so let's keep hoping for some continual good luck. Should be a quick fix. We need it to be. And bit it. We gotta do some supper prep. Mom's still tending to the chicken children who are down under the weather. Gotta get some out. Oh good, they came out. All right, cross your fingers.

Boom!

Slanted on this so that you can put the sunny side— put the tin to the sunny side. See, they don't even have to get under there necessarily. Like, this shade is 2 feet away from the structure, and right now you've got more than— more shade than this is wide. This extra loose hay and let's, uh, put it in here. We want hay everywhere. This has got to catch our organic— well, it's going to be organic matter itself, but it also catches their manure. Does it let it leach down into the sand? Although some of that would be good, right? We want to build soil deep. So probably be all right. Let's finish putting up this net and then get— we got one more critical thing to do. Let's make sure our Energizer are working. We are coming off of winter, hasn't been used in a while. Need to keep this open so we can bring the pigs in. So let's test this fence to bring the trailer right in there, let the pigs out. I hear it clicking, laying on the ground over there. I hear it clicking all around. 10.3. That'll hold a pig in. Yes! Without power security, it's useless. This little net would be useless. Hey babe.

Hey, how are you getting them over here?

I'm gonna put them in the trailer.

What are you doing?

Well, I'm inspecting this water. Every one of those nipple waters leaks, so I'm just kind of thinking, is it slow enough? That the pigs can be in here with a day.

It doesn't seem to be gushing.

No, it's not gushing. So I think, I think I could get them in here, and then that would have been a good rainy day project. I'm gonna go get the— oh, it's almost time. I'm gonna get the trailer hooked up then.

Just put a cage in the back of this.

Okay, we had a good idea of a cage, especially since we're handling them. Do we have one intact? We do, but it's kind of buried. Better idea than the trailer. Why?

Because we don't need that gigantic one. We have smaller ones.

Where?

In there.

Teeny tiny one?

Yeah.

Is that gonna hold 3?

It will hold 3. They're gonna move from there to there.

2 minutes. Can we lift that up before we have to do the root vegetables? Okay, this could be easy. Peeling carrots and turnips. I'll cut the onions. Onions, turnips, potatoes. Hey, how are we gonna tell the turnips between the potatoes?

Adventure for the kids.

Oh yeah.

All right, this can be cooking. It's gonna go awesome with our short ribs. Austin's here. All right, we're going. Come on, get in. Come on, Mom. Normally we're putting piglets in our forest to help underbrush, to help us prepare to then begin clearing that forest for pasture, you know, uh, pasturing our forest. But this is not the year of expansion for us like a normal year. This is a year of recovery. 2025, our word for the year is recovery. So in making decisions of where do these piglets go, because they cannot be in there, we need to wean them off of mom so she can dry up, rejuvenate, and we can start rationing her feed again because she eats all, all she can eat, and that's fine while she's lactating. They're 2 months old. It's time we can move them out. She's eating us out of house and home. We need to ration her feed. We need to continue feeding them all they can eat, so we're going to be putting them in the field with all they can eat. The plans to— I'll grab them. Gideon, I wonder if you could spot me. I don't want to grab her while— I don't want to grab her while she's with Mom. How did you say that go, Austin? That went pretty good. Need some earmuffins next time. Yeah, we're a little deaf. Yeah, I know. What?

What?

Be careful, there's poop everywhere. Let's get them out of here. Let's get that manure where it belongs. This poor pig can't figure it out. Guys, that was a 5-minute journey and look how much you pooped. Hey, Austin, we scared the crap out of them. That's the magic shot right there. Hey, the one in the middle is urinating. Look, look at this one here on the right, Austin, turning this manure. Look at this, spread it out, spread it out, baby! I think that was a record, Austin. I think we had 5 cameras on that. You like the effort on the vlogs lately? Special for you guys.

Look, look at this.

Rooting it up. Once they're done, we'll come in here and level it out. We'll throw down some cover crop seeds. You keep doing that, you keep doing that, honey. Oh, we got another pee, Austin. You already got it, you already got pee. They're as happy as can be. They're out here roaming, searching. They're flipping poop, cows' poop pile. We had the cows go before them in a hay bale. This, uh, there was a lot of leftover hay here. We've added some all the organic matter we can get. They're still trained to the fence, although there's kind of a gap in this one. Can you— do you know how to turn that fence off? Yeah, put it in the middle. That would be a good chance for you to get me back. All right, fixed it. I'll beat Jerry. Hey, already in their shade, munching on some hay. Hey, the pigs need a place to go anyway. Why not put them to building land? I did find out where all my tools went though. Cost of a free-range education for the kids. Something feels really right about having these pigs out on pasture. They have to be somewhere, so why not put them to work? And there's something very special about building something back and recovering, isn't there? I'm finding this out. There's something very special about it. It sucks, but it's also epic at the same time. Fulfilling. One thing I want to show you guys— I got the drone in the air. Austin, play that clip again where I was droning over this destruction. This was a mess. Now let's go, let's fly over it again. Now we've used cows to hay bomb, we've worked really hard to work up All the trees there on the right and then burning brush, wood chipping, and then Josiah just hauling tons and tons and tons of rock out of there. I mean, we've come so far. And now the pigs are gonna take us even further. Did you accidentally get a turnip? Yeah. You found it! I told you. Wait, these are turnips, not potatoes? Okay, how is it? It's delicious. Is there— is the short ribs and vegetables a good idea?

Yeah, it's delicious.

All right, it's a win. Happy day.