Smart Tools for the fragile (and wise) "old" man

No, it's not evening. That's what they've been doing in the morning. You need another wheel? Let's move around in there in the old spot and then move it. Can we do that tomorrow?

Sure.

So Lily, when we're going to catch them and walk with them, we come and do that first. Help her, help her so you're not chasing them everywhere. It stresses them out to run. There you go. Will you go fill that up, please? Happy day, ladies. Yep, you're good. I need more hay. I'll bring me some loose hay, please. Gideon, I found all the eggs. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah, I thought we were a little short. The hay is falling down and we need to get it up. Sam, can you help me prop up this roof? Okay, pull that handle out. You don't have to take that out yet. Chickshaw. 5.0. Rare event to have to clean out a coop. You know what, I think I'm gonna— I think it's this hay. You know what we can do, Josiah? We can put that turf— you got the chickshaws propped? What about the last one? Prop those and then go to our rollaway nest boxes and let's borrow that turf pad. Okay, this is another load. Dawn's on it. We've got these mats from our rollaways. There's no pulling this material out. Eggs stay pretty clean on this stuff from my experience of using this in the winter. We do that and just cut it.

Oh no, no, you can't do that because it won't fit in the other thing. It won't fit in our— in our—

in our—

I'll ruin it for that, won't I? We've got pads, turf, fake turf grass, I don't know, whatever you want to call that stuff. Hey, don't run them into the fence! You guys are running them out of the the fence. I just saw somebody leave. You guys want to catch chickens, go outside and catch them. Why are we catching chickens? Let's stop, it's stressing them out. Yeah, they're already pulling that hay out of there. We're gonna get mats. I don't want to spend the money, but we're spending all this time cleaning this up. The eggs get nasty and then you don't even use them, and it's like, what's the point? And we're not saving any money. We're gonna spend a little money, save some money. If we're going to grow our food and eat what we grow— what's this got to do with it? If chickens don't lay in there, they lay down here, well, those eggs get all cool and disgusting. And one, that's gross. Two, you have to wash them, waste your time. You could get sick. You can get very sick if you accidentally, inadvertently eat some of this chicken manure, like, and washing the eggs and then not washing your hands good and eating. At least these things are easy to clean, this chickshaw. I just don't want to have to clean it in the first place. Looks like how the roof prop is also the handle. That's permaculture. That's multi-purpose everything right there, guys. The floor is also the perch, but it's also 1-inch wire mesh. Manure can fall through that unless of course they get hay on it. So I think we're gonna phase out of hay. Hey, it's free because we're just using spent hay, but it's not free and it's labor-intensive. What's going on here?

I think Pound Cake's in heat.

Oh wow, she hadn't been bred yet, huh? She's in what you would call heat. I guess that's what you would call it for pigs. That's what you call it for cows. What do you think, Mr. Brown? Oh, that's right. What do you think, Henry? We got baby pigs! We're gonna have baby pigs! They say 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, so almost 4 months. 4 months. So what was today? End of October, November, December, January, February. End of February. That's perfect. Wow, went underneath it, didn't it? Yeah, that's wide open right there. They just made it. That's fortunate we got to see it because I got to put it into the calendar. All right, come on guys, we gotta milk the cows. Hey, she need— honey needs more. It's coming, it's coming. Look how fat Honey's gotten since Flossie's gone away. You the new dominant? You the matriarch now? She says yeah. What's going on, brother? Good morning.

I got these guys measuring sheetrock and getting us some paint and stuff.

Okay, you need anything from me?

Moving, moving animals.

Yeah, milking and moving.

Now he's gonna get you a budget.

Okay.

We'll get you a budget, and then I'm glad I was here, 'cause when I talked to Robbie, they had talked about they don't spray anymore. They do the bait, they give you the letter, and then you pay at the end, something about bait stations. But I was like, Robbie, I don't know if Justin wanna mess with that. I said, just tell him, give us whatever we need to get an inspection on the slab.

Right, that's what we want. Yeah. Just the minimum required.

That's exactly what I told him, yeah.

Sheetrock guys are here, mandatory. Termites spray under the concrete guy is here. We're gonna put food growing on a hold for a second and harvest some of our own fuel. So we're gonna be growing our own fuel.

What time is it, Papa?

And using the fuel we grow. How about that one?

What time is it?

Uh, 10:30.

I gotta go in 20 minutes to get ready for my horse lesson.

You want me to take you?

I don't care. Well, Mama's cooking me like 3 times.

Is that the kind way to say yes, Papa, I want you to take me? I don't know, we're gonna have to make this quick. Wow, you're already loading it. Hey, you think we can get 2 of these in 30 minutes? Lily wants me to get her on horse lessons. Be safe for me to stand on one and saw while the wood drops into one? Uh, I don't know, the plastic part is rather bendy. Okay, well, this isn't that high. Could I saw right here and it drop right in? Okay, right here and All right, you do one bin and then Jonah will be doing the other. So each of you get to drive the machine. Okay, I misunderstood. I was thinking— what?

Mama can take me.

Are you sure?

Yeah, she'll give— she'll probably give Miss Lisa the muffins because I don't want to.

Well, I could do that if we need to. Okay, yeah, I was mistaken. This is for the bath, right? Yeah, they're gonna have to get it split. I was thinking this was for the wood boiler. Okay, yes, go first.

Actually, you can put it back.

It was my mistake, my mistake. Please don't be upset. That. He— we have to split these because it's for the bath. It's actually warm today. What's this? All right, let's get the splitter over here. Jonah has a good idea. We're gonna leave the small ones for cutting and just putting right into the bin. The ones that have to be split, those are the ones we'll use for the wood, uh, hot tub. The hot tub. I wonder if we can put them on with the machine. Can you put them on the splitter? Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. Una about to try our new saw. This thing cuts like a. Beef that up by hand or you want to try to get it with the miniature? Dominic, why isn't he getting a tote? Oh, you want to bring a tote down here, bud? You know, we could stack this. I realize we would get more if we stacked it tidy, but I'm looking for the 80/20. I want 80% of the results for 20% of the effort. We go to stack it, we're handling wood one more time, and we're really not getting that much more for the effort. And we have plenty of bins. It was easy enough to get these bent. The idea here is an IBC tote that was made to hold liquid. It had plastic in it. We removed these arms, we got the plastic out. We're gonna somehow configure the lid to fit back on. It doesn't go on over it because it was made to go in it.

And since we—

I like having these bars here to just give it more structural integrity. You can't kind of— you can't just push the lip down into it. I think that's going to dry out a little bit better too. Not like this needs drying out, but the other stuff— this, that'll dry out quicker being jumbled. Finished, Jonah! And we're finished. It's time to make lunch. How many did we get? 4 if we don't count this one. Yeah, don't count that one. We got 4 pallets. This is gonna have to finish getting loaded, and it's going to sit in the sun for a couple months. All right, y'all want to go make lunch? Living the best life now, them two. We don't seem to be able to escape trouble. We have a little hydraulic leak here. You living your best life now? You living your best life now? Oh, thank you. This is firewood cutting at its best because you have all the nice machines to do it. This is splitting firewood at its best, he said. Yep, we got all the right machines. Good saw, good machines, and a good log splitter. Didn't happen overnight. And even a good log ox, that'd probably be a good place to start for somebody if you don't have these machines. It's got an attachment on it to make it— see, to give you a pull, and then you can roll logs with it. And then you saw— you know, I'm getting to be 45 years old. So I'm getting wise and more fragile at the same time. This would be the second step, you know? Chainsaw— well, safety gear, chainsaw, good hand tools to move things around with. And then what would you say? Then the log splitter, track loader, or the Mini X? The Mini X would come in next. It's your turn to cook today. Yeah, come on, let me show you what to do. Don't eat down my password book, bro. Henry, wait, hold on. Oh, we're near the computer.

I've broken 2 iPads in my whole entire life.

Yeah, that's not a good track record. 2. 2. You're only 9.

3.

We don't even let him use the iPad much. Audiobooks at night. This is what happens. Mr. Brown, you're banned from the iPads. They're Henry's, and only when we go on a trip. John is gonna make biscuits. That's your thing? I've been okay if we didn't make biscuits, but it's also going to be hard to resist them. What do you want? Um, yogurt. Let's figure out what he wants. You're gonna have to sweeten it with something. What are you gonna sweeten it with?

Let me see if it's sweet.

Is it? That's good.

He will not like that.

You like it? Okay, he's gonna sweeten it. There.

Can I mix it? I'll mix it for you.

Look at this. See how dirty? See how dirty these eggs are? If we're gonna eat what we grow, we gotta start getting these eggs cleaner. Let's time this. How, like How much of my day is this gonna take up? That was 9 and a half minutes just to wash, I don't know, maybe 3 dozen. My time's worth something, so I'm spending time washing eggs, I'm not spending time building the pig port to host the pigs. I'm not getting the cows or sheep their minerals or getting enough firewood or whatever. It comes at a cost. So our mission needs to be keep those eggs clean. How was horse riding lessons?

Good.

All right, you okay that it didn't go?

Guess what, Papa?

What?

I'm going to compete on November 11th.

All right, asked if we wanted to compete. All right, your trainer finally asked. November 11th, what day is that? Saturday. Oh boy, don't we love you. But it's all— they're all on Saturdays. Take our So we're gonna have to do a rest day on Sunday. We'll do that for you. We'll do that for you. Here waiting on the biscuits. I like those nook and crannies for— well, I checked member texts and I got this delightful, uh, video message from a member who had something really encouraging and nice to say about our new show Elevated. Guys, I can tell you how good it is until I'm blue in the face. I'm a little biased. But how about somebody who has gotten in there and seen it?

Howdy, Justin. Welcome to the South, Southern California. Hey, uh, I had written you a comment on your latest episode, October 2023, of Elevated, and basically just said simplicity equals beauty. And I was just thanking you and Rebecca for investing your time and your finances in something like that, a little makeover. And most importantly to me was the fact that you kept it real, you kept it doable. It wasn't this ridiculous big network, 3 contractors and 100 people swarming over somebody's property, um, that's kind of like winning the lottery. But the reality is, is that's not reality. That's not what we live in. And I don't think that's what many of us are looking for. We are very well connected to the slow pace of patience and work and waiting, but it was so beautiful just to see the simplicity of just a handful of people, a couple days planning, a little bit of equipment, and what a boost that is. So anyway, just wanted to thank you for your work. Keep it up, man. Keep it up.

We're actually giving away the 4th episode of Elevated where me and a handful of team at handful of volunteers go and just give local homesteaders a boost. You'll be inspired by it. It's free right now at watchelevated.com. Link is also down in the description. Who are you gonna ride in your show? Smokey. All right, does he have a good chance? Yeah. What'd Miss Lisa think? Does she think you have a good chance winning something? That's a lot of honey, Jonah. Yeah, and you already have some in there. Yeah, that's where all our honey's going. Getting honey by the 5-gallon bucket. What do you say we do bees next? After 15 years, do we finally give in? I think so. Like I said, spring of 2024 is going to be the year of the roads. What'd you say? You said it's gonna be lit. No, we're gonna be flowing. Tell us what you said. Put away the kombucha. Thank you, you're helping. Mom, you getting it down on the remodel? I'm so tired. How are you? How you doing with your thyroid? I feel better sometimes. It's so unpredictable. It's like, well, it's— I feel like it's kind of like this. Like, I feel like I don't know if I don't have like— it's mostly like this right now. Not that bad. These balloons are tough to blow up. You can't do it? Do you have another one? No, we don't. Amy has one. It's a struggle, huh? It is hard. Last game of the season here at Burrell Holler. No! Whoa! I think we're gonna have a low turnout tonight, but we play no matter what, even if it's just us, right? You gotta give the last game of the season a Big hurrah, right? Right. We're down here early. Mr. Brown's got his shirt tucked in, he's looking sharp. Oh boy, they did come. Sam and John, John and Jonah, Sam and Lily versus Lois, Josiah, Gideon. Well, Sam's got a broken toe. All right, okay, don't say that.

You gotta try.

Oh, keep on him, Gideon. Keep on him. Don't hit Henry. Oh, oh, good block. Ah, overhit it. Ready? Air ball, air ball. Oh, good block. Noon is coming up. I lost both times. Both games were tight though. It was a crowded field. Alright, we gotta get Henry into bed. Let's go, Henry. Happy day to all.