Pigs Helped me Do This (Silvopature)

The video is a candid, multi‑speaker farm vlog documenting a day of work on a silvopasture project. The narrator and family members coordinate a variety of tasks: using pigs to clear underbrush and convert forested land into a shaded pasture, locating and fixing a mower pin and a chainsaw blade, milking cows (Phyllis, Flossie, Nellie) and managing their calves, planting and transplanting garden crops such as squash, zucchini, and carrots, and herding escaped cows back into the pasture while adjusting fences and lanes. Throughout the day the participants exchange casual banter, delegate chores, and reflect on the benefits of creating a forested pasture that offers shade, grass growth, and habitat for wildlife. The vlog showcases practical low‑tech farm management, family teamwork, and the ecological rationale behind silvopasture.
Chapters
Can you carry an empty bucket? Hand me the milk. Oh no, see, so much water I think comes off of this roof and down straight into here.
Inside, where's the pin?
We had a nice pin. Good morning, buddy. Do you know where the mower pin is? Big cucumber you got there, Mr. Brown. Jonah! Jonah!
Yeah?
What are you doing? Dishes. Good morning, Mom. Good morning. Did you volunteer to do dishes? Mom didn't have to tell you? No, I came out. I came out and he was doing it. Although he did say, do silverware. Oh, delegating. Hey, where's the pin for the mower?
On the mower.
I threw it on as it was sliding down the hill.
It's in the bed of the mower.
Done! In the trailer, in their little box.
It's in the trailer.
It's in the box. It's in the trailer. It's in the trailer.
Yellow trailer.
Yes, my trailer.
Okay, you catch up to us with the jigsaw. Okay, well, if it was a snake, it would have bit me.
Okay, let's go.
These pigs were in here. We use them to strategically underbrush. Whoa, till— look, new grass is already coming up.
Look at all this grass.
Look at all this grass. Grass that was not there before. This was a forest. Now we've kept beneficials like locusts. There's a pine there for shade. We are turning this into— we are pasturing our forests. In doing that, we create shade, yet grass still grows. Ends up being a much better habitat for pretty much any animal.
Place it in here so they'll underbrush this.
You see that wild bush? That wild bushy area? Yeah, that's what this used to look like too. But now after they're out of here, you can get in here and cut these less desirable. So this is what this looked like. We're gonna clear it up even more. Okay, you think that'll do good on some of these? Yeah. Okay, let's, let's get it done. First, let's pull out the brush that's already cut. Well, we went to saw. We got about 20 minutes. I think we could have done it. Look though, my, my— I'm having the hardest time with the saw. Blade is loose and off. Jonah's gone back to get the tool. In the meantime, we can do the blade trimming. Yes, he went to get the tool for the chainsaw. It's, uh, it's, uh, chains off. What? Oh my gosh, now the earmuffs come off this helmet. What is the deal? Yes, I'm not gonna blade trim. Jonah's back. Oh, Jonah, can you fix this? I thought I fixed it. Okay, um, let's see if it's gonna start and run all right. And we'll have it queued up, and hopefully this afternoon we can come back and finish. I'd really like to finish, wouldn't you guys?
Yeah.
Okay, watch out everybody. Yeah, that's true too. We could maybe do that. Coming for you soon. Whoa, that's a monster! Taking a timeout for milking to deal with the monster poo. Oh, we don't have any yet. Do we have any? No, we have some in this one. A hair. Okay. Done milking Phyllis. Let's say a strong gallon and a half. You let the butt bar down. Looking nice this morning, beauty. Can you get me the rope halter, Josiah? We're getting Nellie so that we can get a picture of her so that we can sell her. We don't need 3 milking cows. We gotta dry off Phyllis because she's gonna be having another calf.
August.
Let's just get her right here, out here, and take her picture. She's nice and halter trained. Take her just that— stand in frame there, Josiah. Wait till her head gets up.
Come on, hold still.
You're as bad as Gideon. There you go, that's good.
Perfect.
Josiah, you come up behind me. I'll get up here and open this gate.
Got the cows up.
Josiah, we'll need to eat breakfast and then clean up the stanchion, get the pig poop out, and then we'll need to get the cow poop out to the pigs. We've decided to work this morning after breakfast instead of in the afternoon because— hey, how are y'all doing on feed?
So they have food and water in here.
These chicks, layer chicks, have eaten all their food.
Let's see how you're doing on it.
Pretty good. I'm excited to say this has been heated up for several days. Probably tomorrow opening this up and you guys will start helping me turn this compost. Beauty transplanted squash into these rows here, and then right next to that, a whole new garden plot. She direct seeded, uh, she direct seeded mostly squashes. She's wanting to go at it again here, so let's get this uncovered for her. I got that uncovered. Tarp's over there drying. Beauty's about to plant them. I just— I found these from over there. Okay, good deal. All right, we're gonna go back to the woods, Mom, get this pasture forest going. 1 hour, a little bit more than an hour. You think we can do it, Jonah? Yeah, I hope that rain holds off. I think it will for an hour. Laurel, how you doing? She gets to be outside. She has to be chained up though. I think one more day in just like Very soon we're gonna be walking through our very first forested pasture, pastured forest. Oh my word, it's like I'm in a sauna. Literally, I am soaking wet. You see it on my eyebrows? Holy smokes. We went past our time, but we got to, we got to, we got to just mow this. So This is your before. And now, a forested pasture. Look, Josiah. You're half in the sun, half in the shade. How's it feel?
Good.
This is nice. This is so nice. Right in here. So much cooler than just right here. Does that not look nice? Yeah. What? It looks so good. From this to this. Partnering with pigs to make this a better place for all the animals to come through in the future.
How's it like it?
Oh, cows will love it. All right, I was in there editing, changed. I'm soaking wet. What's the matter, Grandma?
Well, I found two of the cows down the road, so there they are. And bear.
How far down the road?
I'd say a quarter mile.
Oh my gosh.
But they were eating that good green grass.
And you sure the other ones weren't with them?
No, but that's all the two I saw. Okay, they were in the next to the road.
Okay. All right, those two dorks got out. Why? Why? How? The plan is then to put up this lane so I can herd them here. They can't go any further. That's just starting to rain. I wonder if the fence was on. Fence was off. Put the lane gate down. I think I'm ready to herd them back in, but I'm concerned about Phyllis. And Flossie and their calves. Really? Really? Did Bear and Stud seriously start a bromance?
Oh, they did!
They did! I see the— I see Phyllis and Flossie up where they're supposed to be. This is the breech right here. I'm gonna hold them back when it's off. There we go. Thank you guys for staying in. Are you guys just rolling your eyes right now at the bromance? Yeah, me too. All right, let's go. Hopefully I can do this without Jonah and Josiah. They went fishing.
Don't eat the lilies.
Come on. Hopefully he'll go straight into the right in the lane and not go down the gravel road. To the other pastures. Oh shoot, he did it! He went down. This is what I was afraid of. So we get him down here, we can put this lane up and then go get him and bring him back up. Although there's no lanes up down there, so we don't hurry, there's nothing stopping them. Yeah, he's just gonna go on God knows where. Hey, hey, hey, come on!
Okay. Whew. All right.
All right, back to editing. So far so good. I just got sweaty again. And for supper, show them that carrot, Jonah. Carrots. Oops.
Carrots. Look at this.
That's huge too.
That's at least an inch through.
You gonna eat them too, Mr. Brown?
That's actually so good.
Wait, now the zucchini too, Mr. Brown. This is a zucchini from your garden. The zucchini needles. Thank you. Thanks for growing those, buddy. Wow. And the salad from the garden. Wait, that's from the garden.
We're doing good.
Yeah.
Yeah. Wait, that's from the kids' garden.
Yeah, look, he's got it strung out. That's from his wall garden, the wall garden that's down by the wall.
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