Recover 2025

Hey, good morning! Happy day! 2025, the year of recovery, guys. Let's recover our health. Let's recover our food security. Let's recover— I don't know, what do you need to recover in your life?

Uh, finances?

Homesteading can help do that. There's a ton of content with Joel Salatin in Abundance Plus. We've got an early bird discount until Tomorrow, Friday night, 6:20 PM Eastern, 15% off New Year's registration Abundance Plus. Happy day. Had a little treat for Mom and I. Remember those steaks we got at Pauly Face Farm? Extra big, extra thick. I guess we're killing our squirrels much earlier. Look at these ribeyes. Ribeyes for me. I've never dry brined before, but I heard it's all the rage. We're gonna try it. I wish I would have tried it last night, but these were still frozen. It just absorbs that salt. Wow, where does it go? It's gone. It's gone in the meat. Y'all ever heard of dry brining? As tender as this meat already felt, we might not need to have done this last night. I guess that salt gets penetrated inside. Tenderizes the meat, which is important with grass-fed because it tends to be tougher. It's Valentine's Day tomorrow. To celebrate, we've traded with some friends. We'll watch their children one night from 5 to 8, and they'll watch ours. We'll flip. They're just down the street. Kids are excited because they've got friends over there, and I'm excited because sending the kids away means we get to have a stay date. We don't like to go anywhere. We like to eat polyface steaks at home. Last post of the week. Gonna hang that, uh, at least one hoop cover hoop, if not all of them. Happy day! Happy day? What? Happier day. Happy day in the barn. Happier day. His nickname, the barn. Happiest day. Now they're all up there. Unsupervised. Oh, Jonah, we need firewood over here, and if the fire's out, you're gonna have to put it back on. Told him to get me wood before all this rain came. Guys, it rained till early morning last night, all day yesterday, and a little bit the day before. Hey, this has been bending. We didn't work on it yesterday because it was pouring rain. This will probably be pretty well bent. Oh look, It don't care. Wow, that didn't bend at all.

What?

I thought it would be bent. I was going to start another one and let it sit at least while we do the chores, but basically sitting there straight. So what we're going to have to hope for, we're going to attach one end and hopefully, maybe because we had it in this, it'll take that same shape again, or else it's going to be weird. Okay. These, they aren't half, they're 3/8. Maybe that's why we were able to bend them. I'm figuring this out so y'all don't have to. I'll work out the kinks and then teach you how to do it. What we're doing is what I'm calling a chicken hoop. It's not a chicken coop, it's a chicken hoop. It's, it's like this but on a small scale. This is chickens in a high tunnel. Well, could we just do a little hoop? Over chickens in their run, their regular chicken run? I think so. It's worth trying. We've got a little bit of a drainage issue in there. Or is it? I mean, water's just coming. This ain't too bad for the amount of rain we had come in. But anyway, pigs are a little bit of a mud, so all we need to do— I said pigs. Chickens. They are pigs with feathers. Let's move them to the high ground. I just got a text from the beautiful one. She's gonna make a cheesy potato dish tonight for our date. Mmm. You know, our arrangement, because I'm the voracious meat eater and she loves the vegetable and starch, uh, so the arrangement is generally I cook the meat and she cooks the sides. We are wet. Probably gonna have to be next week's project. We're gonna put the pig port over here, and Beefcake's gonna get half. The mom and the babies are gonna get the other half. We're gonna have a little run outside of it. Could I do that today? Not— I could give him a little dry hay right there. He's got a little high spot. I don't think he's been getting under the meat shelf. I think he's too big and too lazy to crawl under there. As fun as that chicken hoop project would be, the chickens are Happiest can be in the high tunnel. I'm afraid this is not the greatest setup for Beefcake. I'm gonna start getting ready for this pig port move. That's the right thing to do. It's not as fun as exciting, but it's the right thing to do. Although if we make an impossible goal to actually move this thing and set it up today, it could— that could very well be very exciting. First things first, this is going to be the divider that separates No mama side from the daddy side. If this is gonna happen today, this is gonna involve Lucky the tractor pulling this thing in here. Should he pull it right through there? We're gonna kind of need this to dry out, or we'll make some tracks and we can cover them up. I don't know. And then we're going to be situating this out in the field. So wet. Let's see if this will fit. Yeah, mama and piglets on one side, a little run outside, papa pig on the other side, and a little run outside. Wait a minute, technically we could install this and put Beefcake in on this side. The reason we don't want to blend them— we could blend them. I just don't want Beefcake eating all he can eat. She needs all she can eat right now, and he'd eat us out of house and home. I think that he'd be fine just over there. I mean, we've put him and her and this whole thing together. Maybe that's something that we do to get him going, get him going today. We just lead him over here, bring his water, and we're done, and he's dry. And then we still work on the chicken coop, and then we move this on a drier day, hopefully Sunday. I see what's happened here. Why this gets loose is because it's tearing into the tin and it's tearing up our strap, cutting it. So we need to actually put it on the other side further over so that actually wraps around this. It's to hold this feeder steady so she stops flipping it. Just be happy. I guess, I don't know, he doesn't need to be walking around in the— will he be happy in there? See what the weather's going to be like. Could rain on Saturday and Sunday. Let's get him in here. Let's haul out a little bit of wood chips every day. Manure covered. He won't have a lot of places to get away from his manure, but we'll just keep freshening it with wood chips fast. Shoot, look how soaked this wet is. Soaked this wet is— soaked this wood is. It's totally drenched. Totally drenched. It is soaked to the core. I think there's just enough coals on the bottom. The blower's going right now. That's really good. Let's go I'm gonna go check on the kids. See if I can't get any help. Hey, we stay on task. We got vision? Who's gonna help me set up the pig port? Do we have any gate hanger hooks? You know what I'm talking about?

You're gonna go through those horse gates with us.

Okay, I'll help you with that. Breakfast of champs. Do we have any gate hangers? You know what I'm talking about? Do you know where they are?

Oh, just dump all of my, like, tool, like all my parts and stuff in there.

Maybe you can help me do that when I help you do the gates. Nice water, huh? Yeah, it's not too cold. No. Are you excited about mine and Mom's date tonight? Sure. You gonna have fun with neighbors? Sure, you said you're not. You like chili? They're gonna make you a chili. Tofu tempeh chili. Get in, get ready. You got to help me. Billy, do you want to go to the metal yard even if they're not getting snacks? Sweet snacks? Because Well, I don't know if you can because you got to be back and over to your horse lesson at 11:15. Getting paid to go to the metal yard is plenty of reward. She won't go. Mom thinks you're ripping us off a little bit, taking all the money from the metal. Oh, since it's all ours.

Oh, $200.

What, that's how much y'all have gotten?

Well, probably today we made like $140.

Dang. Yeah, you're ripping us off. No, no, no, no, no, no. Get your, get your boots on. Your boots. Those boots. Where y'all going? Okay, we're gonna go check these gates first. Come this other way, Gideon. Come on, come on, don't get into anything. No, are those the boys' glasses? Oh yeah, I bet they are. This is where I think Jonah was talking about. I know we had a bunch at some point. Happy day. We're gonna let some hanger back here. Look at us. Is, uh, honey birthing? No, that's how they're breathing, which both of them are due sometime. We don't know. First time in our milk family milk cow history we don't know when they got bred. It's a different stage I'm in. These boys consistently have— they have their own projects. Whoa, this is great! Nothing compared to the hurricane though. Whoa! These are the ones we salvaged. They're $150 a piece. Oh, old Joel at Polyface would surely use these. These are usable. I don't think they are. Why not?

You gotta connect them together.

They're going all over the place. Well, let's try it then. How come we're smoldering? That fire's still going. How long ago did we start this fire, and how long has it been smoldering? Yeah, look at this brush pile that once was. We did good. Actually, if you just level this whole area over this whole field, it'll probably spread out the ashes even enough. Are you listening? See, this is fine. Yeah, but this one isn't.

One below it.

Yeah, but you can bend it, can't you? Yeah, sure, it's bent, but it's something. We bent that with our bodies. Oh, they're disappointed. They thought they were gonna— hey, but look, what are you gonna get, $1.50? They're worth $150, something like this. Is bent up top, but the hooks seem to be okay. We need to sort through these when, uh, we're setting it up because most of them are good. You want to go build Lily a ring? Yeah, but I think you should use as many of these as we have, and then the rest can be wood. He's gonna get mad at us, didn't he? It can't be half. Here he comes, here he comes. He's gonna get mad. Hey, these are fine. Yes, you get $1.50 maybe for them at the metal yard. These cost $150 brand new.

How are you gonna use this?

Literally, the edges are fine. I mean, we could sort through them, I guess. Okay, but I think most of them are good. You can always go to the metal yard again when we start trying to put this together. Am I wrong? Yeah. Oh, it's out of gas.

It was out of gas earlier.

Oh yeah, there's some right over there. Okay, it is so out of gas. It was out of gas earlier. All right, all right, my wood's caught. I don't think that's a good life, what he's got there. He's in like 4 inches of mud. Here's a general rule of thumb when trying to figure out what to do on the homestead: there's always so much to do. Take care of what you've already got, the live animals, what you've already got. Give them a good life. This is not a good life. He's standing in 4 or 5 inches of mud. We are grateful he's tilled for us. He's done a fantastic job. Let's give him— show him some respect and get him out of there. I'll get you out, beefcake. And guys, most pigs on homesteads are raised in a sty situation like that. Bad news, bad news, don't do it. They're in their poop, they're in their own urine, they're wet. That's going to get them sick, that's going to get them hoof rot. And that can simply be solved by— if this were all I had, I would make this a third, a quarter of the size and just put wood chips down, or put those, uh, leaves down, something to create a dry bedding. And usually make the area much smaller. So we've got to dig down. Boy, this might be harder than—

why do we have to dig down?

Is this going to be compacted? I'm digging this little trench across because I have to put the gate in and it has to be down to gate level. It's not as— it's not as compact as it could have been, so it is doable. What do you think? And Beefcake, I don't know if he doesn't have enough sense or what to go to the high ground. He's just slopping around. It's not good. And with maybe more rain coming this weekend, we've got to do this. Okay, can you go get me the adjustable wrench? We got to go get a wrench to screw this on all the way. This is the problem with the pig parasite and a wallow. You're gonna just wallow in your own parasites, bud. Sit on it. You see the difference? No, you know, we're dividing this in half, then they're limited to just half the space. If you put two in double the space, it's the exact same square footage per animal, but it's still so much more room because they, they likely cuddle together, but then they have more room to roam if they want. But certainly he'll be fine in this little— I mean, she'd be fine in there with her babies. And hopefully it's just for a few days until we can set up their bigger run. You always want to be careful with a mama. She could attack you. She thinks you're a threat to her babies. And she's up, which is good. I got the, uh, hangers. Let's get her out. Hang this gate. Hey, you dig that hole for me. No, it's not laying down time. That's not an S. There you go. All right, my hanger is too low. I went off of that hanger. There must just be some discrepancy somewhere. That's good. Don't do it too big. This gets moved up and put down. Don't lift that end up, please. Just a little bit. That's good. Hey, there we go, Gideon.

Hopefully the gate will open.

It's okay. Oh yeah, shoot, we gotta get it open to get him in, don't we? Loosen it up here and take it off its hinges.

Look at it this way.

I don't want that material to fall out. And I think the nets are in such a way— get in— that we can just move her over to the corner and we can open that net and direct him right in. Before we go doing that, let's get a hole get a hole for our chain. Hey, look, I got some help! I'm told the chain has been removed by Henry. Where did he put it?

Where's the chain that was over here?

Okay, that's, that's a good question. It's probably right here. Gosh, she's laying big ones! Just run it all the way to your edge over there. Yep. Here, how's do this a little thicker. Okay, good. Probably just go in there on his own. Oh my God. Is there grain back there? Yes, look. Bucket. See a bucket. Can somebody go around? Grab that bucket? Come on, Here, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig. It's made it all worth it. I haven't seen him laying down since I got back from Polly Place. He's dry, he's right next to Mom, babies, passed out. Yeah, it's a little area, but I'd rather not have a little area that's dry than a huge area that's soaked. They can even touch. She's got her leg over. I got tired all of a sudden. I'm sitting there thinking, why am I so tired? Well, maybe it's because I'm kicking this virus. You have to do one more thing though. We gotta get him some water. I can't find my half-inch straps for putting up that rebar. Time is up. We got the pig in the dry though. Let's see what this beautiful one is into. Summoning her skills. This is the fun stuff. Oh, he's actually screwed it down. Oh yeah, everything's screwed. Wow. What'd you think, Beck?

I think it's good. I think it works really well.

Just a quick tour.

Still so small, but bedroom 1.

So yes, there was a bedroom there.

Kitchen. The kitchen is going to go all the way to that, that wall.

It's gonna be much more open.

And then we're gonna have a 7 by 3 foot island, which is huge.

Yeah.

And then living, dining will be right in this little nook, which is also a very, you know, it's also a—

so you get to put dining in this little nook. That way it won't have to be in that little area.

So it'll kind of stick out into the living spaces, but it You know, it can be tucked away when you're using it. It'll come out. Laundry.

This came in clutch. So you extended that?

Yes, under, under this master bedroom because the master is still pretty big.

You took some of the master.

So I mean, it's just a small little like closet basically.

That can be closet. This is a little bedroom. No, this is a bathroom. Okay, good.

So you'll open the door like this.

Okay, that'd be the public bathroom toilet.

We're gonna do an 18-inch pantry.

This is great. And you have little privacy walls in these bedrooms?

No, so this is open it up. This will be the closet.

Oh, okay. This is where—

this is where the room—

oh yeah, you had to, uh, accommodate that.

So we're gonna do that, and this will be closet so that we have this space to put a bunk bed.

Okay.

I mean, it's small. They're small rooms. Oh, small, but it's a small house, so what are you gonna do? And then master, you enter the master enter back here. You enter it into here. This is going away. We're gonna have just a single door, two windows. Over on that wall, we're gonna have two windows, and then closet, just a tiny closet, and then the bedroom. Nice.

Lily, did I just see you making brownies? Yeah, for tonight's Valentine's date. You got some on your elbow. She made enough for them and enough for us.

Oh, I'm gonna put me some organic cane sugar in it.

Okay, what are you letting steep?

It's just black tea.

You're making kombucha?

That's what I'm gonna try and make. I'm gonna try to grow my own scooby— scoby.

Really? Yeah. Is it hard to grow your own scoby?

It doesn't seem like it. People on the internet— and that's for starting, and then you have the scoby. The scoby is what you continue to make. Okay, try some things. This this has been something I've wanted to do for quite some time. So yeah, no time like the present.

This is just your tea? Sweet tea. Did you put a browning timer on? Yeah. Oh, okay. Good job.

Okay, and then I'm gonna do this. Then I'm just gonna pour this in here.

This is fun.

And then we're gonna just put it away.

And, uh, how long?

We'll check back on the whole thing.

Yeah. And that's just I wanted to taste that, see what that tastes like.

What I'm hoping will happen here is that all of the bacteria that's in here will eat that sugar. So technically there's not— there's minimal sugar in the, in the kombucha.

How long is this going to take?

A month.

Wow.

To grow a big enough SCOBY to make kombucha.

And then once you have a SCOBY, how long is that going to take?

That's why I was going to buy one too, so that we could have it sooner. But I also wanted to try this. I've always wanted to try that.

How are you gonna know how to flavor it?

I'm just gonna buy like juice.

Okay, good.

So like I'll buy like a mango juice.

Oh, fun.

And then I'll buy— I mean, we can do anything. I'm gonna buy— I want to buy a peach and a pineapple, and I want to make my— I want to make— I want to try to make a buchi one too, which is like elderberry, watermelon, blueberry, schizandra, strawberry.

How come there's no strawberry?

There's strawberry ones.

All right. Getting all the old ductwork out, huh?

Yeah, you find everything too.

Yeah, you do.

Everything you lost.

Is this here on purpose, bro? Yeah, that's what's got to be brought back when you're done with this. Stack this lumber in the house where the island's gonna go. Stack it according to its kind, okay? This is, uh, gonna be Jonah's house one day, huh? Yeah, I'm in no mood. Tired. Oh, you're tired?

There's a bunch of plexiglass.

Well, y'all do this wood so we get it out of the weather. My office is ours today. New Year's launch in the works. New Year's registration for Abundance Plus. Time to set out that steak to room temp. You can see it's dried up a little bit from being in the fridge uncovered. It's 3:45. I probably need to start Cooking this in about an hour, a little less. I'm happy I remembered to set this out. Now what are you making? Is this supposed to be burnt? Sorry.

I know, I was trying first to cook.

Oh, okay. This is your second attempt?

My second.

Sometimes things don't—

this is real life cooking. Maybe I should change my channel name to Real Life Cooking.

I was going to be strong today. I was going to go low carb, eat a big old steak.

Well, you can.

Eat a small dessert. No, I'm— but then you said you're gonna make something called cheesy potato.

What vegetables are we gonna eat?

Because I would like to eat vegetables. All rules went out the window. We have mixed vegetables, we have green beans, we might have broccoli.

I don't think we have any broccoli, but if we did, I would love that.

Are we gonna have to put our chalkboard, our fancy chalkboard, up in the window for our date? Probably. We've got our dry brine steak. It's kind of weird to be saying this I'm a carnivore and it's the first time I've ever had dry brine steak. Yeah, a little stiff on the outside. Seared them, they're a little over 100 degrees. We're gonna put them in the oven for the rest. Be a good even controlled temp. Thanks to this hood vent, I'm not burning it up so much more. The smoke's going right up and out. Let's put it on Mach speed. So I got this to 127. Pulled it out, let it come to rest. It'll keep cooking. She's got her cheese potato dish out. Yeah, that's all I need, steak and potatoes.

It's so good.

And we got some leftover green beans for you then.

Yes, because you don't eat that.

You gotta have the 3 things: the veggies, the starch, and the meat. During office hours, I landed Joel Salatin for a Q&A back March 4th. 2 hours, everybody can ask him anything they want. And that's on top of his show that has just come out on our show, The Lunatic Farmer. We have 2 episodes in there now in Abundance Plus. More about this in our New Year's launch next week, but for now, early bird till tomorrow about 6:20 PM Friday, 15% off. What are we gonna do with all this quiet? It's gonna be so nice. Everybody listen. I'm gonna— nothing.

I'm gonna saw it without even bothering.

We're gonna have spa time early.

I'm gonna eat my dinner and not have to hold somebody. Then have conversation.

Lily was so nice. She set us up. She even put us a place, a napkin with silverware, 2 forks, candles. She made us some brownies. We got some ice cream for dessert. I kicked everybody out. I'm kicking you guys out now. How long we've been married? This is not an anniversary. We're just doing Valentine's Day for once. Um, 23 years?

It'll be 24 years.

All right, we're gonna enjoy each other.

Almost 24 years we've been— we've been together though.

Long. 30 years?

29 years.

29 years.

Wild.

Happy day. See you guys on Sunday.