They Quit the Rat Race to Farm | SIX Months In

Wait a minute, really? Grandma wants to buy two?

Yeah, she told me.

She's getting big, 70 years old, right? Good for Grandma. Good for Grandma.

Hey, hey, hey, that would be Petunia. Yeah, she's a very pushy hog.

How do you know?

So as I found out Hogs go into heat every 3 weeks. Oh, so since we've had them, I've had to deal with that a couple times now, which means they just get a little more rowdy, right? She's a lot rowdy, and she's my friend.

It's just—

it's weird.

Well, you're the man. Look, you're providing for her out here. Get a little confused, Ben. Your boyfriend's giving you some more food. Oh look, they're little squills. Oh, they're hilarious. Rebecca picked one up. They don't like it.

Stop disturbing my baby.

How old are they then?

Uh, 12 days.

It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.

How many, how many males you got?

3.

3.

Do you want a pet? You want to pet them?

We're here to castrate One of two bad days for these males.

Two bad days.

One of two. He won't remember the second one.

Gosh, okay, this is gonna go well.

Hey, do you not come hold the pigs? You don't come hold the piglets every day?

Not everything every day.

And they still squawking.

Rebecca doesn't care.

It don't bother me. Yeah, I have kids. I know, right?

Just get your ergo for that pig.

Good boy.

So Mama was not happy that we had some of the kids, so she was not— we're moving out here. Justin's getting some stretches in.

Right here.

He's getting good. He is getting good. Just the last one.

This one's like, what the heck just happened? Where's outside?

You got to go outside.

Dugout.

The dugout.

Yeah.

This guy and that guy, they're not feeling—

How long have you had pigs, Ben?

Uh, like a month and a half.

Describe that month and a half for me. Was it what you expected?

Yeah, it's been really cool. Like, all under there was where we had them first, and it's so cleaned out now. Yeah, I can get in there and get it all the garbage. I can pull trees out.

That's right.

They ate all the brambles. They tore it up.

Did you even know there was trash in there, Woods?

Oh yeah, we haven't been able to get to it.

Are you able to keep this unfrozen?

Uh, I've had a little ice on the top. I think the thickest it got was about an inch.

Does the ice develop in the nipple?

I haven't had a problem with that yet. It hasn't been real, real cold.

Yeah.

But I noticed up against this side, the sun hits it first.

Okay.

When it was down there, oh yeah, I'd have to go break ice every morning.

Okay.

What's this been?

This is bumblewood going out.

This is, uh, soap orders. Soap orders for Meg's soap business.

It's like a—

so that's happened. Can I help you? Uh, here, hold the camera. Okay, so this has happened since we came. You guys got her soap business up and running.

We are back in business, and it is like overwhelmingly exciting how well she's doing.

Well, look at this. What are we carrying? 4 loads.

4 loads, and this is only a quarter of the orders.

And this is Christmas time, so you're probably getting a lot for that.

Oh yeah.

Uh, is this every day, Meg?

Please, uh, no, because we only do restocks every couple weeks.

Okay.

Yeah, trying to, trying to do a restock once a month.

Okay.

And so far it's been amazing.

Okay, how many units you make a month, uh, Meg?

How many bars of soap?

Yeah, um, I think I'm close to about 1,000 now. Maybe more.

1,000 bars of soap?

Yeah, and we're planning to up production again.

Yeah, because you already have production ones.

Yeah, for 2020 we're almost doubling.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's, uh, bumblewood.com?

Bumblewoodhandmade.com.

Bumblewoodhandmade.com. She's, she's taking all kinds of soaps from us right now. What states are they going to?

Uh, I think countries, all of them except Alaska. We've done Canada, and it's open to the UK and Australia too. I think Germany I've got up there.

Wait a minute, nobody's ordered from Alaska?

Not yet.

Come on, Alaska, come on! You've sent to Mississippi?

Yes.

Maryland?

Yes.

Delaware?

Yo, maybe not Delaware.

Oh, I got you. Rhode Island.

What was that?

Rhode Island?

Yes. Okay, okay, Delaware, get on it.

Well, you put windows up since we were here.

I got a few more since we were here.

We helped rip the walls off. Your friends came in behind us and put walls back up. It, uh, because we ripped the old ones off.

It's watertight now. Yeah, which is nice. But still, it's just like we're kind of in this weird in-between right now. We kind of needed to stop and get the business going and get some income coming in. And yeah, you know, so—

and no, you are not sponsored by Lowe's.

No, I wish we were.

Although it's all over your house.

It's cleanish right now because, uh, you know, company was coming over, so clean the house.

But yeah. Oh, okay, you cleaned for us, huh?

It was just— it had gotten to that point where it was just a million projects had started and finished in here, and it was just a mess.

Okay, well, you got your— you got your indoor fireplace there.

We've got a wood stove I've thought about putting in, but okay, nah, because this is not where you're living.

You're living in the camper still.

Yeah, we're living in the camp.

And are you still working on this? Are you just wait until spring.

We're still working. There's been so many other things. I've been getting the barn going because I also need to start making an income. Yeah, making knives and stuff like that. Now that the barn is set up, I've been able to start turning my attention back here. Yeah, you know, cleaning and stuff like that, getting everything ready.

We might not have made this terribly clear, but as cottage businesses, as a way to produce income off the homestead, she's making soap. We'll go in there in a second. And you like to get into knives. I mean, you did that before in California, and now you're bringing that back.

I've done knives for, oh, 5 or 6 years now, and it was just— it started as a hobby. Just, I love doing it.

I love working with metal.

Yeah.

And so started doing that, I really enjoyed it, and then when we hit the road, it was like, yeah, this is something I'm gonna keep doing.

What's the name of your knife business?

So my business is Renegade Metal Works.

Okay. And do you consider yourself a renegade?

Uh, yeah, I think so. We, uh, aren't doing anything that society recognizes as normal, so yeah.

Yeah, look it up, look it up, look up renegade in the dictionary, y'all, if you ever wonder.

It depends.

He's not normal is what you're telling me.

We are not normal.

Okay, it's really actually cute.

What is cute?

The pink bucket. See, I think hilarious because now we have pink buckets running around our farm. I was gonna say, you probably—

yeah, that's gonna be your new brand.

You know, Jason has to sew the lamb buckets, you're gonna have the pink buckets.

I go out and feed the chickens, feed the pigs, I'm carrying pink buckets. It's like, nobody's gonna steal this.

You're safe.

Nobody's stealing your pink buckets.

And if we see them in town, then we'd be like, I know where you've been.

So what is this? Is this the raw material?

Uh, this is the caps for—

these are all the ends.

So when I make them, they go in a loaf. And then they'll sit and then I shave the top. I cap them.

Okay. Is that what this looks like?

Yeah. Yes, this is the cap. That's the top.

It's usable?

It is usable. They're just not pretty and then I like them to all be the same size.

Is this the soap you guys get or what?

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah. Pretty much.

You just smelled it. It smells so good.

The mint?

You could package these for your friends, you know.

Hint hint. Her friends will take— So it's going to be our soap and your soap.

So how many, how many times is this? Is this just this last time that you made soap, or is it many?

Oh, this is many times.

Okay.

Yeah, 4 times.

So this is all—

this is—

so you're gonna double these then?

Yes.

You're gonna get double this?

That'll be so—

so it'll be way up here, your staff, pretty much.

Wow.

So then you— so you make the soap, you put them in here, and then where do they dry, or cure or whatever?

They'll cure on the rack.

Can you cure them on here?

For this past season, it's been this full rack, all these are full, and then this gets full.

I thought y'all said you sold out.

Yeah, they haven't—

this stuff is all sold. We ran out of shipping boxes.

Yeah, you ordered more shipping boxes?

Oh yeah, I ordered them before Thanksgiving.

Which one's this?

Awake. Awake? Yeah, so this one right here.

Okay, which one do you have in your camper?

Um, right now we have spiced orange.

Is that just because you take— what, maybe you messed up or something?

Uh, no, we get the end. So also with the, with the capping, we also chop off the ends. So with the slicer, it cuts the ends off. I have blue coat all over me. So we'll get the ends too, or these will become samples. These would actually work really well.

Yeah, those actually work really well.

Yeah, so, and I will— those will get sold at some point as samples. So if people want to like try out a small bar, then they can do that.

So when you set up your homestead here in what, June you were here?

Yes, we got here in June.

It's December.

They started— they started Bumblewood back.

Was this all the plan to bring this back?

Yes.

At this point in your journey on this homestead, it was.

Yeah.

Or were you wanting to bring it back sooner or later? What was the plan?

Sure, we knew we were gonna fire it back up. Yeah, just because she did well, and back in California. Yeah. And it was just one of those things, you know, balancing a budget and stuff like that. It was like, we need to do it now, right?

Uh, Christmas season is coming, so yeah, yeah, she launched it, which has always been the best season.

Christmas is always insane.

Yeah.

Okay, so the Close Shave, what is that? So do you actually make it into like a lather to shave with?

Yes, you can.

Have you ever seen like the, the cups with the brush?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's what this is. Yeah, I got to get me one of these.

And there's bentonite clay in it, so it makes it a slicker lather, so your, your razor actually glides along better. Yeah, I know all the guys are like, yeah, that's great, and we're like, yeah, and the ladies can use it too.

That's what I'm like for me, cuz he won't shave, right?

Ben, Ben, I know Ben doesn't shave anymore.

So Ben, did you make these?

No, she buys those.

You buy— yeah, I buy those.

Okay, what are the big plans for next year?

Uh, double in the production.

Double in production. Yeah. Um, doubling our financial goal, which I think we could totally do. Being in the farmhouse.

So in the farm, you're gonna start setting up the soap not in here but in the old farmhouse?

Yes.

So like part of the holdup is because Bumblewood is in here taking up everything. I need to lift the floors out.

You can't do the work on— right, yes, on this house. You can't get in here if—

yes. So we're not having another restock until January, which gives us time to get rid of all this.

That'll go—

this will all move down to that end.

We're not doing anything else before Christmas.

I will make—

you'll make it, but you're not going to—

no sale, no sale, no sale until January.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, so awesome.

Lucky 2019 people got in, right? So they got to go to bumblewoodhandmade.com and get on your email list. Yep, right? Because they're first notified.

They are, yes.

Okay.

Yep.

All right. These were these little tiny guys that were up in your front yard in just a cage, I think in June or July, somewhere around there.

Yeah.

Now they're full grown. Giving you eggs yet?

Not yet.

I mean, it's winter.

I imagine pretty soon the, the first batch, these bigger ones. Yeah, they got to be getting close.

Yep. My oyster larva took some time 10 months start laying. Good. 5 to 10 months. This is on and hitting hard. This is gonna be a garden area. This is gonna be in April.

I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna— down on this end where I've already got it prepped, I'm gonna— I dug up some pallets. I found some pallets, so I'm gonna build a compost pile.

Okay.

Right in here.

Nice.

And as I move the chickens, when they get closer and closer, when they get to the section where the compost is I'll fence them in in a small yard and open it up and let them tear it up.

Nice, I like it.

I have ideas.

That's smart. Yeah, why not build your compost pile where you're going to want it?

Yeah, exactly.

Why have it somewhere off in the corner?

It makes more sense to build it right there at the garden. Yeah, put it right in the garden.

You have some kale that hadn't succumbed to the frost yet?

Nope, kale hasn't died. The Swiss chard doesn't look too good. The bok choy It's freezing.

Your, your fire pit's getting upgraded, buddy. Why wait, right?

Why wait?

Yeah, I had to think when I was here, it was just a little, just a few of these, and now you have a barbecue pit.

So that grill that was on the smoker comes out here, and yeah, if I'm gonna grill, you know, burgers or something, I just scoop some coals out of there, put them right here, and that's where I do my grilling. But now that I got that smoker—

so now you're 6 months in going into the winter. Has it been worth it?

Oh yeah, it's frustrating. Yeah, I will say that. It's very frustrating sometimes. Stuff's not going as fast or the way we thought it would. But yeah, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Yeah. An example is you thought you would be in there in the winter. Yeah, I did too. I'm not— I'm not—

I—

we probably still could. Yeah, there's not too much else we have to do and we can get in there. But it's like, why am I worrying about doing this, breaking my back? Yeah, no point stressing myself out. We've got the trailer, like, it's no big deal.

That sounds like a key to your success, that attitude right there. Finally coming, you know, stressing and hurrying and hustling and then finally coming to a point and saying, all right, all right. Take a deep breath. I really need to do this.

That's basically what we did. It was like, let's stop and take a deep breath and slow down. Yeah, it's winter. Let's just like enjoy winter and some downtime. And it's been great. It's good on the psyche.

Yeah. Do you guys still do Friday Fire?

Uh, we haven't in a while. We've been busy.

No Friday Fire, Meg?

No, it's too cold.

Taking a break.

Yeah.

So what do y'all do instead of Friday Friday Night Fire.

We let the kids watch YouTube for the first time in like a month. They just haven't wanted to.

What do they like to watch?

Uh, Jigging with Jordan.

Jigging with Jordan.

He's the treasure hunter.

Yeah, he's— keep going. It looks like you like to watch that too.

I was the one who found it.

Look at that grin on his face.

I found his channel. It was like, I really like this guy. Like, some of the stuff they find in rivers, like phones and GoPros and cool stuff like that, it's like, this is really cool. And the kids love it. Yeah, hand tool rescue, stuff like that.

They like the smashing guy too.

Oh, the hydraulic press channel. Have you ever seen the hydraulic press channel?

The smashing guy.

Well, you can be anything on YouTube, can't you?

I know, we were watching one the other night. We're like, we are in the wrong business. And it was like, we found—

it was just a random video I found. It's a guy that has a fish tank.

Oh, that's what it was. And he's just filming his fish.

He's like number 5 on trending.

It just goes viral and we're like, we need a fish tank.

He just films his fish.

Just films his fish.

And what's the name of the channel? I don't know.

Bob's Fish Tank.

I don't know, we'll just go on the trending channel and find out.

It had like 2.5 million views. I was like, why do we not have a fish tank?

It's like, we're obviously doing it wrong. Like, all this guy's doing is filming his fish in his fish tank, right?

All right, chickens.

The primitive technology guy, all you gotta do is just not say anything, right? Don't put any music on, just set up a lot of different shots. Yeah, you gotta come on, man.

Just get a lot of different angles. We'll just pretend we're out in the jungle somewhere, put on the dugout and build huts.

I like it.

Bye-bye, y'all.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

We'll see you later. You're doing great. Proud of you.

We're getting there.

I know, we're getting your piggies. Yes, bacon seeds.

Bacon seeds, first things first, right? Forget the house, we just need bacon.

We need to eat.

I'd like to thank our sponsor, Lowe's.

All right, what do you got to do to get sponsored by Lowe's?

I don't know.

Is that not enough? You decorated your entire house with Lowe's logos.

Come on, Lowe's, get with it now.

Hook these people up.