the Thing about having FIVE kids

Come here. Come here. Don't fuss. I'll change your diaper. All right? I'll change your diaper. Is that better? Is that not the mama? Is that not the mama? 6 days old.

I know, it's going too fast. Is it 6 or is it 7? Because tomorrow's 8th, because he was born on Tuesday.

You got child duty this morning, Josiah? Okay, that's a good duty. It's kind of cool having so many kids and some of them older. Like, we're taking turns taking care of little Henry. Josiah did it— or Jonah did it yesterday. Josiah will do it today. Hey, thank you. I shouldn't say they take care of Henry. Mom takes care of Henry and they take care of Mama. Works out nice. March 1st and there's already spring in the air. Look, grass is growing. We already kind of— look, we need the string trim in here already. Arun and Jonah are on it. Big rain event last night. It was a crazy rain. I don't know, did the bedding get wet? It doesn't look like it did. Hey guys, did you know Flossie was out? Nope. I've been taking hay from the most vulnerable side. See, it's getting a little wet on the side, so we'll take from here. We did have a whole row sitting out here getting wet. For me to get this, I think I gotta get this first. There is something special about having that fifth child. Yes, we are older and we're feeling that. At 42 and 41. There is something to be said about, I don't know, getting older, getting a little more— I find myself being a little more appreciative, you know, noticing more things the little guy does. As I get older, I'm getting a little more appreciative of time, and I realize this could be it. This, I mean, this could be our last one. I mean, it's inevitable. A last child is inevitable. A whole hay bale in here yesterday. Now something— maybe the big animals got in here. I wonder if we put it on its side, guys, could we get another hay bale in here? Let's try leaning it right there. So as you get older, you get wider, wiser, more appreciative perhaps. You also get more of a network. Big children, real big children help on the farm with the room. You usually are more successful, and that includes increasing your social circle your networking ability, and, uh, and generally your resources. When we had Gideon, it was the Katie bar the door. All our kids were young, we had no help with them. Arun was not our neighbor. Grandma and Big Daddy weren't living here. We didn't have all the homesteading YouTube friends that we have today. We didn't have you guys. As you saw in the first episode of Rooted, we were strapped financially. We've been blaming it on like kind of get in spirit of why we haven't had any more kids. But I wonder, it was his spirit but our lack of resources at the time. It was just— it just felt so dire compared to this time around. I think that'll work, putting that hay bale behind that. The sheep aren't as likely to pull it out, or the cows. Let me give you an example. So, uh, little Henry, meconium. So what first comes out, it's tar-like poop. It only happened for like a day and a half, 2 days. When that was over, it was sad. Sad over the loss of a certain kind of poop? Yeah. A milestone gone. Maybe forever. Don't grow up. I used to wish this hard baby stage away. You're so tired. It's hard to have a schedule, you know. He wakes up at 9 when normally you go to bed. I used to wish that away, but I don't wish it away anymore. I wish it'd just stay. Normally I'm like, just give me that walking baby stage, that 1-year-old stage, my favorite. But it's coming soon enough. Let's go. You want to come build?

Come on, let's go.

We'll be at this stage, uh, before we know it. Come on, come on. I'll be begging them to come work. Using the calf to get the milk down. They've got this idea. They say we're going to bring her through here. Let's see if it works.

We've been doing it for a long time.

All right, nice. As I was milking, I got my knees on the mulch. It's feeling warm. We got the compost thermometer. What do we got? Whoa, it's close to 95, 96. 96. Woo! Our deep bedding system is working. We're doing good ratios of manure and carbon. There's certain areas that aren't as hot as others, I think. Is it, is it that hot everywhere? Yeah, it's dropping. I bet that's because there's more urine because they're eating there and peeing and pooping, so there's more waste.

I wish there was a track and the hay feeders could go around.

You know, that's not a terrible idea. Joel had talked about that, is maybe he would have He might get away from the, the hay bales and do a mobile— you know, they have those big hay racks that you move around and you could have in different places.

It is 2 here.

Okay, that's pretty good since it's probably only, what, 60 outside, maybe less. Look how happy.

19.

Yeah, look, it's rising up here. Okay, so that— you know what that's telling me? We're putting down too much carbon, I think. So instead of 2 wheelbarrows of wood chips, let's just do 1, and then we'll use their spent hay to kind of COVID the rest of it. Yeah, it's almost 100. Yeah, that's this— that's what that's telling me. Hey Jonah, I wonder if they make a small— we're talking about a bale, a round bale feeder. If they made a smaller one, because those things are so big, they made a small one, we could feed hay in different spots every day. I have to look into that.

Typical here, they're all in one place. Sometimes they're like— affiliates don't get much also. Yeah, if they're separate, they can pee everywhere.

Waste too, like spent hay, it only ends up being right there and we have to move it around. But if we moved a hay feeding situation every day, the, the spent hay would just be left where it was. So there's some things to think about. So until then Not as much wood chips every day. See, that's probably a good mix. You can actually see it a little bit. We've probably been a little too thorough in, in our carbonaceous diaper. This is our future this morning, Jonah, if all is well with Henry. Mom, how's it going back here? You got the baby?

He went to the bathroom.

Oh, does he need changed?

He farted.

He probably needs changed then. Yeah. Mom's in the bath? Yeah. I can't tell if he's awake. Oh, he's asleep. Well, we're gonna let him sleep then. We'll change him when he wakes up. You like being big brother? He likes you. He's relaxed around you. He just smiled. See, he's smiling. How's it going in here? What are you looking for?

Blanket.

Oh, that's a good idea. Here, use the one Lily made for him. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh hey, little man.

What?

How you feel now you got a little brother?

Good.

He's not jealous at all. You gonna go with us to do the pretty shawl?

What pretty shawl?

Make mom's pretty shawl.

Wait, are you painting it?

You're pretty cute. Some— it's a little bit of painting left, but we're gonna try to put wheels on it.

Oh, I don't want to.

In the past, I've just set the axles underneath the frame and I secured them with EMT straps. I'm curious to see if I could actually go through the bottom frame. I'm gonna try to see if this will reach through. I already see a problem. It does— because we added that outer wall, we can't quite see. It won't go past that 2x4 right there. We have 2 nuts here to get us off— well, gets off the wall, but now get us off this trim. This is our problem because this trim's sticking out. I think that we have to have those 2 washers. Hopefully that's enough. Even. Let's see if that's enough. Here, let's just do it like right there. Oh heck, we could get maybe rid of one of those washers and still clear. Let's see if it will clear this, uh, it'll clear that, still clear the trim. I think it's just enough that we could get a nut on there. What do you think, Arun? I think it is. Yeah, I think it'd be worth a try.

I think this looks okay.

All right, the more that we could put the wheel in the center the easier— the more weight will be on the wheels and easier it will be to move. But the more you have it on the center, the more this is likely to topple and do a wheelie. But now that we've switched this and the handles are in the front, I think that might be enough counterweight. So I think it'd be worth it to try to do it right here in the middle.

Look at this. Do you see the junk here?

Oh my gosh.

Boxes.

And then what are you gonna do with it? Jump in it. You think that'll work for this? Yeah, that'll get it through there. What is that, 3/4? Yeah, that's it. I'm on the underside. There's my hole. We'll mark along this little perch, and that's how we know where to drill right into there. I'm thinking we definitely want the center weight on this because this is a heavier coop, you know, with the metal roof and the walls. See if it's even gonna go. Yeah, I screwed in crooked, so I'm gonna have to try to make my hole a little bit bigger. This would be much nicer because then the whole 2x4 is holding this up. Oh yeah. I just got to re-drill the other side too now. Yes! Now I'm trying to decide if we can just do— can we just do a washer and a nut here, or do we need to do it on both sides? I think we can just do it on this side. Nut, washer. There's a little problem I think I might have. I think this rod is going to spin. I'm turning this wheel and the axle is not turning, so I think these lock washers keep it in place. So that's good. The good thing about this is it's more simple. I keep simplifying these chickshaws, which is good. It's also going to be stronger because it's in the 2x4s and it's not held up by EMT straps. It does mean it's a little shorter which means it's gonna be a little more difficult for the chickens to get under there. But because these are 26-inch wheels, I think it's still going to be very comfortable for them. Let's get off the blocks and see if it works. Oh, oh, we forgot to put front legs on. How is it? It's good. It's good. Look at that!

Like a moving house.

Is it too heavy? No, it's not too bad. No. Okay, I'll put it back on blocks and then we'll put front— well, uh, legs on it. We forgot to do that. I mean, we're not gonna do the hitch, but we forgot to do the legs, which putting the legs on the front too will help it from, from teetering. What do you think, Jonah?

It's so light.

Yeah. Look at you two.

We even went and sat outside.

Oh good. This is where he loves to be. He does. With the mama and the chat.

I love for him to be here.

What's the best thing about having a baby at 41?

I'm not as, um— Like, I know that this time is fleeting, I think. I, like, I wish that I would have taken this time with Jonah. My recovery was long with him because I had a C-section, but, um, I don't remember enjoying the recovery, like enjoying taking the time to, to just like look at him and kiss him and talk to him. I'm sure I did that, but I just don't remember like the enjoyment. I think, I think it was kind of like I was like, this happened, now I need to get better. So I can just like keep moving instead of being like, no, I'm gonna enjoy not moving. I'm gonna enjoy cuddling.

See, we got her some food. Thank you, Josiah. But look, I know he ain't gonna take it.

He's like, I'm not so happy.

I'll walk him around if I need to. Okay, he loves to have his hands up there.

The pacifier is the voice.

Not sure if he's gonna take that, Becky. No, he's kind of been like, ah, let's go. Come here, come here. You let the mom eat, okay? Here we go. All right, I just put him in a swaddle. Josiah's got him sucking. That's 2 of the 5 S's, so we got suck Swaddle, sway, shake. I'm doing all 4. Oh, there's one more. Okay, all 5 S's at once. Well, she got done with the soup, we got him eating his soup, we're all good. That's pretty amazing. That's all he needs for food and drink.

I know, you know, I was thinking that we would maybe have escaped the Rhodes calic.

Yeah, he's got the calic.

All of them have it.

Oh well.

I'm going to be building a ramp for our pole barn because we need to get mulch into our sheep, and there's this, um, really big wall and we can't get it over, so I'm going to build a ramp. So I put 4 braces on here, and this is 4 feet and 4 feet, and this was, um, 3 feet long.

Oh look, Jonah's putting in his ramp to the sheep. Oh look, he's vlogging it. Can you guys see the camera on the mulch? Let's roll that and see what in the world he's up to.

See if it works. It's working.

Proud of that kid. Proud of Josiah. Proud of Mama. Proud of little Henry, little Gideon, little, little, uh, who else I'm missing? I can't believe I have 5 kids, huh? Lily. I want to count. I can count them all on one hand now. Proud of everybody. Thank you guys for watching this, enjoying this journey with us. It does get easier as we go. And much of it is due to kids like that stepping up, not only getting chores done but improving the place.