In this vlog, Rebecca, Justin, and their children (Jonah, Josiah, Lily) document a day on their farm while a stomach virus sweeps through the household. The illness forces them to modify their usual routine: they relocate the king feeder to keep chickens out of mud, skip milking some cows (Phyllis, Moose) due to low energy, and rely on adult help from Arthur to complete tasks like milking Flossy and moving animals. Rebecca describes fluctuating health, taking charcoal, and caring for the kids, while Justin attempts to edit footage despite feeling ill himself. The family discusses past missed work days, reflects on their farming resilience, and shares candid emotional reactions, ranging from determination to feeling like "we're gonna die." The vlog captures the practical adjustments, family dynamics, and the strain of producing content while sick.
Chapters
Justin is not feeling well. We have had a stomach virus going through our family, so it is just Jonah and I. It's gonna be interesting, that's for sure. Good morning! Are you hungry? Do you have everything? Okay, so we're changing things up. Last night Justin and I had had a plan about what we were— how today was gonna go and what we were gonna do. And, um, obviously that plan is not gonna happen. Whoops. The plan is to put the king feeder in with the main flock chickens because our plan today was to throw in dry material Jonah and I will not be able to do that. It would take us hours to do all of that plus do our regular chores. So we're trying to just like shorten it all down. Because the main flock area is so muddy, we're putting in the king feeder so that chickens aren't eating out of the mud. Is that— is that good enough, Jonah? Okay. Good morning. What are you doing? Are you looking for a mouse? All right, the fence looks good. It's going to be a long day. Is this a complicated move today, Jonah? No. Hey y'all, that's a workout. I'm getting fit. That Earth's Gem. Lily came out just for a minute. She's feeling a lot better than she was yesterday. Can we do this? Oh yes. Sorry, when it's soaked like that, you have to like bonk it on the ground. I start feeling really bad, so I'm gonna push through for as long as I can. So we'll see.
You got it.
Here comes Jonah with the water. I'm going to turn off the fence. Should I like back it up? No, it's fine. I can roll the males down. Okay, y'all, I'm not feeling so good. That's not good. We're not milking Phyllis today because I don't have the energy to do it. I don't feel good myself, so we're gonna put her out, get Moose out, get Hamburger in, milk Flossy. I hope that's all we have to do today. Well, I mean, for right now, I'm pretty sure that's all the animals. Huge thanks to Arthur for coming down here and kind of just being had adult presence. Flossy did great. We are not milking Phyllis and Moose because they are— Moose can keep up with Phyllis, um, and I don't feel so good. I do, I do not feel as bad as Justin and the kids do. I went in and checked on them. With Arthur being here, I was able to kind of move about and kind of get some things done, not have to be right here in the milking area because Arthur was here. Helping. Um, and so I went back in to get the arnica for hamburger, and I checked in on Justin then, and he is in a bad way. He is not feeling well. So I do not feel that bad. Um, I definitely feel pretty good compared to him. Justin, yeah, we're gonna check in with you.
Okay, Rebecca, I have a question for you.
Yes.
In all our farming career, how many days have you missed? Have I not been able to go out there?
Hold on, I got a really bad stomach cramp.
Before this month.
Okay, before this month, I want to say it's very few.
None.
Yeah.
None.
Zero. No, you have missed a couple days here and there. Like when you had surgery. You couldn't do it.
How'd we do that then?
I think we just— we had— we were calf sharing and we had heritage breed and the calf totally was doing it. No, you didn't. I'm trying to think of how we did that. It was because Jonah was a kid. I think we just didn't put the calf up. We just didn't put the calf up. Poor thing.
Alright, it's everything I got to get up out of that bed and edit. I mean, if I have to, I'll post a sick— but it's not too crazy just sitting here. Not that much worse than just laying there. Just kind of picking away at this edit.
It hit. I am having moments where I feel really bad, and then I have moments where I don't feel as bad. Justin has— I'm talking to the camera. Justin has— is trying to get it. He's gonna try to edit because I thought I was gonna edit, but I don't think I can. I feel so bad. And he wasn't planning on me editing, so the way he shot the film yesterday and all that, it's but he said it would just take me really a long time. And quite honestly, I don't feel good. So now I'm laying in bed feeling not so good. I took some more charcoal. I've been taking charcoal, um, and I've been dosing the children. It's not like so bad, but it's not— I don't feel good, you know. Josiah still doesn't feel good. Jonah feels fine. He is always either— he evades it or he's the very last one to get it. It's all the time, every time. We haven't been sick very much, so I guess it's our turn. He's back. He was editing, but now he doesn't look It hurts.
She took a turn for the worst. Ugh.
Feels like we're gonna die.
Alright, let's try this again. Oh. Well, I did somehow manage to finish the vlog. Sorry if this vlog's lame-o. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. So sore, so I'm gonna just maybe try to walk a little bit. Rebecca went to hell's door and stepped inside for a little bit. I had that same moment about 2 hours before her, so it was good that we weren't exactly on the same time frame. The chicken coop didn't get moved forward like I'd hoped, but gosh, we're lucky they got fed. Thank you, Jonah. Hopefully you don't get it, buddy. They're doing a good job there. I think we might cut some greens for them soon. They're going to start tearing into the beds. You got to time it just right so they scratch the surface, eat the greens, but don't start tearing up the beds too much. Anyway, pigs have made it. They're still in. It looks like from here they've done a ton of work. It's kind of cool to be out of commission. And the animals are actually out doing the work of the farm. That's kind of cool. This was the project. We were going to get these pigs out of— chickens out of the compost corner. We were going to throw all that material down, and then we're going to move— we were going to move them tomorrow. So in the meantime, we just put a king feeder so we don't have to put their feet on the ground. Still like to have their feet dry though. Jonah moved the cows from over there to here to their next paddock. They got one more day in there, there, a little tiny pasture. Uh, he's gotten Moose and Hamburger out. They look happy. Tell if that fence is on from here. Hopefully he remembered to turn the fence on. All right, that's enough. There's home. I'm going back.
