The transcript captures a lively family farm vlog where the participants respond to a black snake discovered in the shop, relocate a pastured poultry pen to a new "Chickshaw Mini-Me" coop, discuss the pros and cons of using the old pen as a stationary brooder versus building chicken tractors for broody hens, consider wing‑clipping free‑range chickens to prevent them from roosting in trees, and share a brief tutorial on making calendula oil with home‑grown flowers. Throughout, the family members coordinate tasks, exchange jokes, and manage the day‑to‑day chores of feeding, moving equipment, and handling eggs, illustrating hands‑on, small‑scale sustainable farming practices and the dynamics of a multigenerational household working together.
Chapters
Josiah and Jonah called me down. There's a black snake in the shop.
Coming with us, Laura?
You got your goggles out this morning, Mr. Brown?
Yeah.
The hay we got came fresh out of the field the other day, so it's still a hair moist. That's why I have a fan on it. We have this tarp over it because our porch is right above with cracks in it. Let's go check on the main crop. Out. I know already from waking up this morning, looking out the window, everybody was out. So we must have not put the nesting box in right. Everybody must have escaped out the back because the front door's shut. Hey, did all the newbies get welcomed? Looks like they fit right in. Is it off? They've got one buddy that's always over here. Hey, are you gonna feed them? What?
I'll go in there with you.
Okay, get the handy overalls on. Great for lifting little boys over fences. Whoa, our jungle is encroaching! That's a pretty barnyard flock right there. Watch out, they'll eat you. Glad your little toes aren't exposed. There's like 3, 4, 5, 6. There's 6 out. I only remember 3-ish jumping the fence. 7. I only remember 3-ish jumping the fence. What we're gonna do here is get rid of their old chicken coop, the pastured poultry pen. I'm gonna haul it way up to the old barn. That way it'll help for them to associate the new Chickshaw Mini-Me as their home. I still have this fence around. I keep the Chickshaw Mini-Me in there so that they'll come back, hopefully get in that, and we won't have to catch them. But at least we'll have the net. I'm pretty sure they'll at least go inside the net and we can catch them from there and put them inside the Mini-Me. How they doing in there?
Good.
Yeah, they're doing great. Okay, we could let them out even before moving this, but I'm waiting for Jonah for the feed. I want them to have another good association with coming back to this area. I've got to move this thing from here out there, up the road, across the street, and behind the barn.
I like to walk in to help you.
You go from getting carried to help me? Yeah.
All right, good.
And this thing, uh, I've got— I'm pretty sure that's manure. All right, why don't you let me hold it since it's so poopy? I may or may not be starting a boneyard there. The poultry pen, it's okay. It might take more work to get it to grate than it's actually worth, so that might be done. I think, Jonah, we should retire the poultry pen.
Yeah, it would be a good stationary coop for like broody hens.
Oh, then let's haul it on up to the barn then.
Yeah, but what I mean by stationary is where it stays.
I know, like a brooder.
We use it as like a brooder.
It's got some rotten boards for attaching. We'd have to redo all the, the netting. I don't know, I'm kind of inclined to maybe do chicken tractors for that purpose.
What is a chicken tractor?
This is from the days of 75 meat chickens in there. That's what that's best for. We have put broody chickens in here and let them hatch chicks. It's great for that. It was kind of big for that. We put multiple broody hens in there, but then they fought and adopted each other's babies or kidnapped each other's babies. So I think we should do our chicken tractors, one per broody hen. So those days might be over on this farm. You gonna carry that big guy? Well, you're helping her today. Here they come. I think those are the ones we moved over to. You think that many got free, or are these coming over from Mama's flock? They're in no rush. They don't know the drill yet. You know, Stub Muffin, it's a slight miracle that you're not overturning that. Do you just somehow know that that's your feed and you need that? You don't need to be flipping that. You drink 100 gallons. Open that door for her. She knows the drill. She wants to take herself down there. Hey, hey, Violet, make sure you look before you cross the road. Thankfully we are on a dead end, and besides Not too many people out this early in the morning. Who needs a lane? Did you cue it up? Yeah, good.
Wrong way now, wrong way.
Up, up, up, up. I'll get her. Eggs and Swiss chard from the land. Sausage, not from the land yet. Hey, beautiful one.
I'm making calendula oil with flowers that I grew myself. So I'm just— I'm harvesting them every, every couple of days, and then I just dry them out to get some of the moisture out of them. Yeah, and then I'm just adding them into my oil that I already have going.
What was your oil base?
Um, just use olive oil.
And what do you do with calendula oil?
And then, um, once I let this sit for 4 to 6 weeks. And I like to— I like to use the old method where, um, I put it in the window. I'm using the sun as opposed to using like a newer method is a crock pot. You put water in it and then you would put this in it and then it heats for like 3 days, and then you would— could use that oil to make a salve or whatever. Um, but I'm just using it. It's called the folk folk method, which I don't need this right now, so I just put it in my window seal.
Josiah and Jonah called me down. There's a black snake in the shop. Look, we've left eggs here and they've got eggs in it. He's got eggs. A bunch of eggs. He's got a bunch.
Catch him!
Gosh, he's huge. Back up, Jotai.
I am.
Cut his head off with the chop saw.
He is so big.
So freaky, even though he's just a black snake. Whoa, he's not very, uh, quick.
Catch him! You're going to bite him, Poppy, from that high range. Cut his head off!
No, he's a good snake.
You better not let him on the floor. What's he doing? Quick, Papa, run!
No, I'm not running.
A little bit.
Come on, come on. It's just squeezing me. Come on.
Who are we letting in?
That thing's over 6 feet tall easy. All right, let's, let's get our eggs and put them up in the house.
That's cool now. Oh my goodness, the goose is out! The goose has never done that.
Let's see if we've made any progress from last night. I think one bird is where it's supposed to be, and I don't even think that's one of the Icelandics. That's, that's not even supposed to be in this coop, so We haven't made any progress. Most of the birds have taken up residence in the tree. Hey, look, some of them are going up in there. I'm thinking we're gonna need to clip wings because they're just gonna fly— they're just gonna keep flying the fence, flying up into the tree. And then when we free-range these guys behind the cow, they're gonna be getting up in God knows what trees. I see it. You don't— I mean, I don't want to clip free-ranging chickens. You want them to keep their flight methods of getting away from predators, but we don't have that much daytime predator pressure, so I'm gonna think they're gonna be safer out of the trees and into our coops. Okay, hold on, hold on. Josiah, lower that branch. Jonah, get over there to where you can grab her. Why don't you get here on the ground? Here she goes. Okay, we're gonna corner her.
Come on, come on.
Hey Jonah, come on Josiah, a little closer. Come on, don't let her get hung up in the net. Connor. I dropped my scissors.
I pulled the boat.
What is it?
It's our boat.
Are you about to debut it? Yeah. You about to put it in the water?
Yeah. See how heavy this is to lift. Feel it. You stop it.
Pretty intense, dude. Okay, let's go.
I'm going first.
Are those wheels attached to the boat? No, no, that's just your transport.
Yeah, look, I'll get that. Oh, I'm going.
Can I go? It works for It works for Laurel.
It doesn't work for us.
She hopped right on that. Yeah. Oh wow. Yay!
What if you fall off?
I can't hold both of you. This is boring.
Lily's got it. I'm sitting on it. I'm stuck! There you go.
