Save the Chickens | Not What You Think

I have some tears. I baby wine. Happy foggy morning. Did you decide to go today? Well, started very early. I went to bed at 1 AM. Cousins came in at 11. We had some delay with their luggage. Long story short, 6 hours later we're waking up. And then I hit stop record and I thought I was recording. Henry and I had a beautiful moment. Yes, buddy. What we were— we were throwing away that stuff. There was some— there was some knives that introed me into today's project, which Annie used those knives to dissect a chicken after it died of sickness. It looks bad. I introduced the project for today. Yeah, what is it? Oh yeah, there's a towel hanging up. Good eye. I said we've got to do some things with the chickens just to make sure if that was something spreadable, it don't spread. Oh, that's loud. I observed how in the moment this one lives, and it made me think of the book I'm listening to, Shoe Dog. It's the story of Phil Knight, of the founder of Nike. Oh yeah, there is mud on the ground. Nothing like rainfall to show us where our vulnerabilities are. In that book, Phil's older— his young adult son died. I'm at the end of the book, and I don't know if Phil said it, but it feels like maybe there's some regret there. But anyway, it made me think, you know, for the relationship, but it made me think I gotta start living more in the moment like Henry. And sure, have goals. Come on, let's go check on Randolph. Okay, you hang on to that. She's at the house, and then you come back out. Okay, I made notes to that of just, you know, live in the moment. You never know. Love, you your loved ones. You never know. Our time's limited then with, with them, and we never know when that is. Now this, it's got to change. We've been having a lot of rain lately. We had something get a chicken, a disease. We got to take care of this. This is getting to be boggy. We don't know what for sure killed that chicken, but this could very well help. We don't know. That's got to get done. It won't hurt. If it doesn't help, it's always better to give them good dry bedding. Hey, you coming back? All right, let's reenact that moment I had at the dumpster this morning. Come here. Didn't you tell me running? I saw you running. You're a good runner. This is open. Should I shut it? Yeah. Is that the sigh of relief or of trouble? That's the size I've lifted that thing. Oh, let me help you. Oh, I done got her on there now. Did you really? I was coming to help you. Oh, here she is now. Plumber's coming today at 10 to install the— to hook up the gas so the gas inspection can happen tomorrow. No, it's coming Thursday. Thursday. Uh, what you got? I'm just taking some— okay, so it does not have a conversion kit. The plumber can still hook it up. So where do we get one? Yeah, conversion kit, that part that's on the top. I paid for one. Okay, that's what we thought. I hate what a plane. Okay, so we gotta text him. You gotta call him, I guess. No conversion kit to convert it to propane. Rebecca ordered one, so we're gonna find out where that is. That happened again. Oh, there's our problem. It was the gallon jar this time. Mom said we got the half-gallon jars during COVID and she thinks they're cheap. I left a message and then Randolph texted me and he said he found the part. The house is the number one priority. Can I help Randolph this hour and 20 minutes until the, the plumber gets here? I think we have our plan for chickens. Wood chips in there and the, the sick one was in the compost posse. They're done making compost. Good rule of thumb, when somebody's sick like that. Move them. What do we have? You found the kit. This is a dolly or something. Oh wow, you don't even need me. All right, well, Randolph doesn't need me. That's good. Where do we, um, go? There be beavers. Where should we put these chickens? Um, Somewhere that needs it. The pasture. Where should we put the pasture posse? This is gonna— the compost posse becomes the pasture posse. We could put them in the pasture. Which, which pasture? Where? The 2 acres. Oh, that's not a terrible thought. So I just had a thought. We could get all their material out of there, put in new material, and get Pound Cake's bedding out of there and then make compost out of it. Let's make sure Mom's okay with this. No, we need to load We need to load the compost. You guys go ahead and hook up the— did you clean out the milk water and everything, Jonah? Yeah. Heck yeah. You guys go ahead and get the, uh, manure spreader loaded with that stuff, and I'll do the upper 2 acres with that compost where you're not going to grade. Hey, Beck, a different thought. What if we got all the material out of the compost corner, compost posse, and then we started another compost pile with, with, uh, pound cakes bedding and get her fresh bedding. We need to keep compost going if we're building these. I just was thinking if we're not gonna have any more compost in there, we— um, and I'm thinking it's like the end of July, we got to get on these. Keep bedding, compost, Beefcake's material too. Oh boy, those boys get with it. I didn't feel right about the pasture plan, so we've got another plan. They could go to the pasture That's sanitary. We could use the chickens to help improve a certain area, but nothing improves certain areas like compost. And I realized yesterday, if we're gonna add 5,000 square feet of gardening, we're gonna need some compost to fill in those newly shaped beds. That's so wet. I hope this manure spreader will sling it. Oh, there's some dry. We got this lift it up and figure it out. You want to run it out there? I'll direct you. So the goal is to get all the compost out of there and spread. John, you want to meet me over there? Let's wait. Yeah, let's use this compost on the garden. Just go put it by the side behind the greenhouse. We're just gonna do so much grading there. There's really only— okay, for one strip of this compost. All right, this is— come here. This is what I'm thinking for the compost for a garden. I'm a meat man. I'm gonna grow some meat with this compost and milk. So we're gonna get all this bedding out from Beefcake. That's from the cows, isn't it? Or no, that's pretty new. We're gonna take all this bedding. Will this be enough for the new gardens, or do we need some from in there? Oh no, where is she getting this moisture? This bedding, it's ready to be turned into compost and replaced with fresh wood chips. The question is, is this enough for our new 5,000 square feet? You know, you're gonna have to— if we, if we take this as compost for the garden, we're gonna have to use the track loader and just go back and forth on the road dumping it down that bank. If you put it behind the greenhouse, then we're wheelbarrowing it uphill. No, and we don't want to drive through the pastures if— and yards if we don't have to. So it's better to take it up the road and drop it. We're gonna get Pound Cake's bedding out. We're gonna give them something to do with helping us make that compost. Okay, we could do Beefsteak's too. Josiah could get the rest of this pile and put it over there. And then what he gets off the surface though needs to go in the manure spreader because it's not going to be broke down. So Josiah, you can start taking trips over. Need to help him spot him here. Let me go spread this with him first. I'd feel better if we got all this material out of there. By the end of today's vlog. Oh, go up the road, I'll meet you over there. Current garden beds, new garden plots. Am I crazy? Are we crazy? Are we crazy? Why? Well, 5,000 more square feet of gardening, 10,000 square feet of garden. Where do you want me to dump this? He said yeah, but I think if we're really gonna kick that grocery store habit, this is what we're gonna need. Um, I'm kind of thinking right here. That's why we have a temporary fence. We learn where we're going to want to put gates. So yeah, if we're going to want a wheelbarrow, we have to wheelbarrow material. Boy, it's a lot of work. It's going to be a lot of work. You want to think about your placement. It's a slight slope, so we want the compost above. We happen to have the road there, so we're not tearing things up when we go back and forth with the tractor. Where the landscaper dumped our leaves. We're kind of doing half and half. The more fine stuff that was in the proper compost pile will go to the garden. The beautiful one will be happy. And then I'll get the surface stuff. It's probably still gonna have some wood chips in it. Go into the pasture for the animals and I'll be happy. Can I wheelie the tractor? Sure, I guess I could try. He didn't expect me to say sure. He can't wait to try. I don't know, can you? Just push the clutch, some gas into it, and let go of the clutch. We did it! We stayed safe. I'm wondering if I did more harm than good spinning out a little bit and then putting material down. You want to ride? Woo! Let's ride! He's not so sure. Serious heart attack. Josiah is getting all up This material, take everything off the top. Our cousins live. Big trip yesterday. Oh yeah. You guys all right this morning? Yeah, we're good. Okay, good. Slept in a little bit, but okay. Good, good. Grace. All right, I got it. Kate. Kate, you always wear glasses now? She has bad vision. Okay, so that's how I can tell y'all apart. Yeah. And you remember Henry? Oh yeah, he's driving the tractor today. Working on this lower pasture where we graded last year. I want to say this is our 4th load. It's 10:20. Plumber was supposed to be here at 10. I don't think he's here. Of course, he could have maybe missed him. Taking a little bit longer. I should have declared it. I thought I was gonna— I thought I was gonna empty this out. I'm not gonna leave them in mud. We're gonna have to do something. Okay, that's good news. Jonah's smoothing it out. We're done getting material. I'm gonna take the last load. They can't be on this mud. I mean, they're enjoying it. They're finding all kinds of microbial life. That's just nasty. The eggs will get dirty. They're gonna be in their own poop is what it's gonna be. Let's put down wood chips. That'll be their carbonaceous diapers, Joel calls it. And it'll just make more compost like that over time. I mean, we've gotten loads and loads of compost out of there. It's absolutely amazing. Hey, keep that, keep that up here. All right, come on. You want to ride? I just put the tractor I think I got more than that. Jonah, Jonah. Okay, something's better than nothing. This feels good. They're mixing, they got clean ground. Yeah, the kids think they're done, they've hooked it back up. Let me show you what else we did to maintain. Yeah, see, we're gonna have to get wood chips on this. All right, tomorrow's another day. I've got to go to this accountant meeting about taxes. We did put apple cider vinegar in there, or we were supposed to. I'll make sure that happens. That'll give them a little probiotic health boost. We also put in there Minerals, kale, poultry, nutrient balancer. We spread it. We're gonna— some of these big grits, and then they can get the little grits underneath. Oh my, look at this! How come no more wood chips? Are there wood chips? Okay, let's double it. And then did you put any in the breakfast posse? All right, yeah. How many loads? One. I need 4. And I guess, I don't know where the— Boy, Rebecca got the short end of the stick on this one. That's a truckload of bikes. We are going on an epic adventure with the boys. 100-mile mountain biking camping trip. Like backpacking but with mountain bikes. You're smiling now. Rain or shine, have to carry all our gear, food, cameras, hammocks. We're gonna make sure these bikes are in good order. Well, that was pretty nice, guys. They let us drop them off and they're gonna assess them. We are back and the plumber is here. Let's see what's going on. Yeah, Randolph will get it out for you. Yep, Randolph will be here to help you. That guy's lines won't go back too much. Um, we can turn a 90. That's a nice stove, but— and there's more. And there's ovens. Ovens. Wow. Whoa, that made it easy. Was it hovering? So you think it's hitting like here? Wow, this is Back to the Future stuff. Cutoffs hit that. Cousins reunited, having a good time together. They're quizzing each other. All right, y'all ready? Community soccer night. Even if it's just us tonight. We saved the chickens, multiple meetings, dropped off the bike, soccer with cousins. Happy day.