The host and Rebecca build a Joel Salatin-style pole barn in a day for winter housing, then show off a milk explosion: over 10 gallons from their dairy operation. They also tour the barn's layout with deep bedding and hay storage, update on livestock, and decorate their Christmas tree.
They got the rafters up, about to start putting on the roof. We're looking at— I know it's 4 o'clock, gets dark at 5:30, about an hour and a half. We are back. Is it good to be back, Rebecca?
So good to be back.
And we are back with an explosion. We've got 10 gallons of milk here. There's more. We're gonna cream separate today. I think we're gonna be able to make butter. That's another thing, that's another reason to milk. Even while we're gone is because of the butter. There's all the jars from what went in there this morning. 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and a half.
I took one out of there and handed it to you. Okay, you handed me this and I handed it up to you.
Okay, so 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and a half, 24, 25, 26. This kitchen is going to be an explosion of jars. When we come back, we got like to come back with an explosion, I guess, because yesterday, the very first full day we were back, we erected the pole barn. That's how they get it done in a day. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 trucks. Right there, right beside my home, we're putting in a Joel Salatin style pole barn for winterizing our sheep and our cows on deep bedding. It's happening today. First thing we're going to do is mark the corners. I want to be as far this way as possible and as close to the house as possible. 48 this way. Now gets more narrow down here. It's cutting it real close. Not doing it, is it? Right in here is probably about as far as— Okay, will that do it? Yeah. This is the most important part, getting it set to where it's going to go exactly. It's taking a while. I have a feeling it's going to speed up big time after they get that done. The truss was actually backwards, so they're having to flip it around. The truss company, which is the metal that we had to wait like 6 weeks for, ended up making these too short, so they're having to add a block to reach out from the post so it will rest properly on it. All right, we're trying again now with the blocks up. Man, that looks cool. We put some skylights in on this side. This is where the animals will be. That's the— behind us is the south. Here, let's pan slowly. The sunny side. That's why that side's open. Still need a light in here. Yeah, they still got to do, uh, 4 posts in the middle. And, and here's that corner where I stood this morning. And now behind us we have a support barn. How cool is this, my man? I mean, you'll be using this even after I'm gone, my man. They're doing a great job. They're gonna put the middle poles in, clean up. Looks like they're gonna get it done.
Well, almost all the way.
Yes, well, almost all the way. They did leave their— they left after dark. They left their lift. I don't think the middle poles are done, uh, so hopefully they'll come back today and finish that. But it's not even— it's not even 9 o'clock, it's like 8:30. Look how much we've already done. It's like not even a normal person's start time. We knocked it out. How many creams? A gallon and a half?
Just a gallon.
A gallon. Hey, Rune, you did a good job while we were gone. Thanks. Yay to Arun! The guys are back and they pretty much did finish. They've got to do these posts, they got to put some concrete around these posts, but they're pretty much almost done. And it is finished. Well, we still got to put a concrete pad in. I've put in a word to the guy for that. And then we got all the different configurations— the deep bedding retainer walls, just like, uh, cedar, 2x6, 2x8, probably 16 feet long. This is 16 feet long in between posts, so we can put in cattle panels. They're 16 foot long. You can also get a machine in here to clean out the wood chips. This is going to be nice right here next to the house. This is cool. Hey, hey, so deep bedding there on that end, hay storage here. We've also got room for some wood chip storage here. Got a lot of different possibilities here. Check in on the cows. Arun tells me that Flossie just went in and out of heat. Hopefully she got bred. I think that craziness ended, um, yesterday. He also said that the calf is now used to being separated from Flossie, so it's not such a spectacle to put the calves up. That one was easy. Wow, look at that! Look at that! Now that's a good farm sitter right there. He kept the progression of the farm. He didn't just maintain it, he kept progressing with it. He's that good. Good job, Arun! One more thing before we close out this weekend vlog. We got a Christmas tree yesterday. Rebecca, you've done a good job lighting it up. Putting your beads up. You gonna put on ornaments?
Yeah!
You guys love that?
Those were from when you were a baby.
Yeah, those were either mine or Mom's. She's got hers too. Pick out a special one, Mom, and show me what's special. Well, I—
this is my special. This is my very, very special one.
Okay, what is it so special about that?
Um, I got it in the third grade. From an ornament exchange, and it's made it this far. So what, I was like 8? Your father's ornament that we made last year in honor of him. This one from the tour.
Oh yeah, look at that.
That we did.
We had a star for it that we moved around Yeah, but I don't know, different states as we traveled around.
We have the Grand Canyon.
Oh, you were—
I finally got wise and I started buying ornaments as we were going to the—
yeah, from the national parks. But you didn't start in the beginning, so—
nope, they didn't. So we only have out west, but that's okay. Here is mine from first grade. I was in— I was Mary in the Christmas play, and that was Joseph. And I think his name was Joseph. I can't remember. But Yosemite over here.
Where's your—
you have your— Justin used to wear these pajamas, so Grandma had purchased— well, not this, not this one, but ones that looked like that.
That's that size.
No, this was our wedding topper. As you can see, it's seen better days as well, from 20 years ago. It's silver and what we had, we stuck it on top of the cake and flowers went down. So we didn't want to do those, um, the people. That was what was popular 20 years ago. So this is what we did. And so now it goes on our Christmas tree every year. I might actually, I was thinking I might try to fix this, get this welded back on there. Yay!
Perfect. Alright. Oh!
And we have the first casualty with Teddy.
Teddy!
He didn't, he didn't, he didn't, yeah.
Is that a precious one?
No, it's one that you buy from Target.
Okay, good.
If I had to start my Homestead all over again, it could only pick one animal… 
