This Can't Happen Again

Henry, come with me. Let me be free. Happy Sunday, sea day. A little bit of a late start today. We're just all tired this weekend. Let's move these turkeys. We're gonna have to protect mom's garden and harvest those potatoes today, but he's wanting to mow. Cows got out last night, actually third day in a row. That's a record, I think. Oh shoot, I went to get this trash and it bounced on my arm like that and there was glass. I think I cut myself pretty dang good. Gideon, can you empty— finish emptying that of its trash? Double Band-Aid. I feel like if you're gonna get cut, that's a great place to do it. I mean, it could have been on my fingers. You didn't empty any of this?

Like, there's buckets, there's boots.

Yeah, hold on. Donna, wait! I need to talk to you. I didn't want to do the net because we have to move over the net and charge it, or keep, you know, keep it mowed. It's a pain to keep the net mowed. Let me see what we got first. Let me see if they got in our high tunnel. We're dead. Shoot. So what plant? Mom isn't going to kill us over that. She's got that plant name, bud. This is an option in case the cows get out again. Let's protect Mama's garden. But see, grass grows and then you got a string trim and it's a little tricky getting in here. What if we put T-posts where we think we're going to end up putting our permanent fence one day and seeing if that's where we want it, you know? And then we can still get in and out of the high tunnel pretty easy. Getting so hot. We should have gotten out of here at 6. We have enough T-posts. Maybe we have enough wire between this and this. See, I got no worries, Papa. I'm as happy as can be. Lily made breakfast. Come eat, Henry. He's in that stage where he just basically— I don't know what he eats. How are you surviving? Are you— should me and you go do errands or you want to eat? You want to eat? Okay, let's get you a plate. You eat that, bro. Come on. Afraid that Jonah's trying to put up that fence so we can be done. Not a bad thing, but we need to do it right. Jonah, it's time to eat! Come eat! Don't put up that Fence without me. Too many nuances. Do not put up the fence. I need to show you what to do. Anything before I go back out? We still got basic chores to do. Then we're going to protect your garden. Keep sweeping, buddy. Keep sweeping. As much as I want to get back right back out there, we really need to pick up as we go, especially in the house. Can you grab the wand? For watering in here. You know, we, uh, we got a lot to do. One thing I can take off our list is harvesting potatoes because it's supposed to rain this afternoon. Lord, we got a lot to do in the next few days, this week. All this corn is ready to transplant. We're good here. This, this needs a few more. Well, this needs a while. These onions could probably go. Cucumbers need to go. These tomatoes definitely need to go. They've way outgrown their pots. Oh, Jonah! I need to talk to you about that. Go ahead. Before— gotta get these potatoes up. They need time to dry in the sun. We just learned, guys, we're learning something every— even though we've been homesteading 19 years, we're learning something new. Harvest the potatoes, let them dry in the sun, and then they're dry going into storage. Onions definitely need to be harvested. That could maybe happen today because we cure them in the shed. How are the 3 little piglets doing? They still got a little patch right there they need to till up. Gonna soak it down. Look, makes it soft, so it makes a lot easier for them to kill it. Take some metal wire, wrap it around this so that when you drop the gate, the whole line doesn't fall. See, I don't want you to do this quite yet because this pole needs to be shifted over to right here so that you can run your fence all the way around. So that we can actually protect over there too and electrify it. Yeah, understand it. All right, so this has gotten uprooted. Here, Josiah, get me some water. Oh, we'll do some compost tea too. This one had gotten ripped out. I've replanted it. Let's get some compost tea on it. Oh wow, dude, you gotta get more before they get that big there. That's actually weird. Well, if it ain't one thing, it's another. You got your compost tea? Yeah. Okay, was it still running? Yeah. Okay, good. You left it running, right? Yeah. Okay, pour some on that one. Pour, pour on a bunch of them while we— well, we have so much. A little more. All right, good. Now do the others. Thank you. Good job. Maybe we'll save it. Look, they've knocked this down. Look, they've left evidence. Dylan, go get a pitchfork for us please so we can get this poop out of here. Josiah said, does Mama watch the vlog? She's actually not watching the vlog these days, and I'm not gonna hide it from her. It's just better if we get it back under control before she discovers it. Get rid of the evidence. Okay, we are the luckiest people alive right now. All the way through, look at this cow manure right there. How did they only knock down 2 or 3 of these things? And I think they only probably killed one, although we might save this one yet. John, how's the fence going? The cows did have access to these wonderful walnut trees. There's so much cooler in them. It's been extremely hot, but now— well, they had that locust, but now they're on past it and there is nothing there. So we got to get them the milk slab. Sorry for the specks there, guys. How's our crippled lamb doing? Doing a little better, I think. Need a little break. Come on, I'm gonna see you walk. Yeah, it's doing a good bit better. That little one has— it looks like been injured, so we've separated it from the cows so it can stay clear out of their way. I'd say they wanted the shade. Cows are there in their rotation. We're in a particularly dangerous spot right now because there's the garden. The idea is— I mean, tomorrow they're moving yonder, but at least we'll have this protected. Eventually we're gonna have a permanent fence. Before you have a permanent fence, you want a temporary one there for a while to be sure. Two strands. It may not keep out a calf, but it will only be a calf getting in there, and they will only get away so far from their mom. Two strands of electric around mom's precious garden. We've made peace. Oh, he's already working on it. It's the second thing we got to do.

Let's cut it right here and it would work literally perfectly.

Why don't we get a gate that goes across? Why don't we use that gate? Is it too long? It's probably too long. Second thing we got to do in case these animals get out is protect the grain and the alfalfa. One, they're grass-fed cows, they don't need to be eating grain. And two, they don't need to be doing— ruining our alfalfa and overdoing it. We decided to hang a couple of gates out here. It's what we have. You found some gate hangers? It works. Yeah, it works. Let's just overlap these two gates. We'll rearrange all this to fit everything in. Okay, see that? That's fertilizer. That can be put somewhere else. I would eventually like to cut the gates— the gate— or get a gate that fits. Yeah, this is probably a 10-foot span. This probably just needs a one 10-foot gate. It's gonna have to happen after lunch, guys. Let's go take a break, eat lunch, cool off, get some water. You wanna get some lunch with me? Yeah. Do not get it all, Gideon. Come on, get this one. Get this one right here. Yeah, your favorite color.

It's spiky.

Okay, well then I'll get it.

No, you get it. No, spiky.

It's not spiky. Get this one that's back there. See it? Can you reach in there and get it? Yeah. Okay, I'll get it. Jonah left. He said, I don't eat until The job's done. Because Boots would be proud. He's got to get a gate and some other supplies at Tractor Supply. Ah, any glimmers of hope?

Yeah.

Would you say it's hot out?

Yes.

What are we making for lunch?

Uh, I don't know.

What are you making? I'm making chicken with salad. All right, I think we'll fry some yellow squash. What's wrong?

He got out of the gate.

You been cutting up onions? This is surreal. I've got one in the kitchen cooking. Josiah's way up the mountain moving Harriet and her posse. Jonah is on here. It wasn't too long ago we were doing everything and dragging them along with us. Cucumber salad, squash and zucchini, the muffin. How many times you gonna change today? Come on, let's eat. Call the Inquirer, you're gonna eat. So I put this spaghetti sauce on top of zucchini and squash as my noodles. It's working.

I want noodles.

It's a low-carb milk solution. He's eating the meat. You're eating the meat. Have you seen Josiah?

I did.

Boy should have been back by now. Maybe he's in the shop or something. Josiah, let's go help him in case he's struggling. He's moving Harriet and the breeding ram Ike. It really should not take this long.

Yeah, it should actually.

He's not in there. Hey, is everything okay?

What is it?

Well, it's taking a while. Is everything okay? Okay, what can I help you with? The Energizer. Okay, I'll do it. Got the Energizer in place. Would you say they're done? This is where they were, this is where they're going. Proud of you, buddy, you did good. Got them moved. How'd town go? Fine. You done hanging the gate? What's the hurry? I'm done. That's a nice place to be on a hot day like today. Hey, freestyle, all natural. Let's secure this feed. And you're gonna go swimming? You're gonna go skinny dipping? Looks good. What about this? That's supposed to be a man gate. They'll go right through it. What we have to do here now is get only what is crucial that they might eat, like the grain and alfalfa. Organic chicken manure fertilizer can be moved somewhere else. They ain't gonna eat that. Cows get out, we got our garden protected and our grain and alfalfa protected. Redundancy. I've let the kids go play. It's too hot to make anybody do anything. I am hoping I can get this produce curing rack out.

This is a miracle.

I'm getting this out. I cannot believe I'm getting this out without having to Curing rack for onions. What started out as a screen door slapped together with 2x4s has turned into a legit half-inch wire mesh, 2-shelf curing rack. That's coming to Homestead Builds, guys. Get on the waiting list, homesteadbuilds.com. Coming July 22nd. Can't believe I'm thinking about this. Okay, well, it's almost 3 o'clock. This needs a battery. Shall I go get some water and some courage and some coolness and then come out here and grab those onions and garlic? We really need to, but it is hot. I think this will take that long at all. Look at these fantastic onions. Fantastic. Look at the size of this one. All right, let's get you guys a battery. Now he's set on some yogurt. We'll get some. Let's get some yogurt when we come back, and then we'll settle in and we'll be done for the day. Note to self: carry an extra battery.

Get in!

He must have thought Oh, I'll just get one load. Gideon! You gotta get them back in, Lily. She went to get Blaze out and open the gate. Now there they all go. I'm gonna spot her while she goes get some. I was letting the sheep run with the cows so that the, the mama sheep, while they're in milk, would get the choice grass. The cows go first. Therefore get the best grass. But now that they should be drying off, let's get them out of the cows' way. You getting the carrots? Yes, you could get a handful of carrots.

I did this one.

Make sure you don't break off the stem. Go ahead and pull it.

Wow, it's so hard.

There you go. Okay, come over here in the shade while we get more onions. You testing that fence? Yeah, let's prevent them from getting out in the first place. We got a pile of onions. We did it despite the heat. That feels pretty good. Took a bit longer than I thought, so I don't think I'm going after the garlic. We're out of time and it's hot. I left room for the garlic. Get in, let's go!

Are they here?

No, come on, we're gonna go. Cow's fence is hot. We gotta fence around the garden and we gotta fence around the feed. I've talked to Rebecca about this. We— they're swarming, so I guess they're gonna leave. It's probably too late, but well, some of them are gonna leave. They've probably outgrown those boxes, so let's go add a box. Look at this. Oh gosh, it's just— well, it's not absolutely full. There's hottie.

So there's hottie there.

It's not, it's not crazy full. Oh yeah, see, I don't know if they do need another, but I'm gonna go ahead.

Oh my gosh, empty.

Okay, so the, the lower one's still active. Wow, they're not happy pulling out. That second hive, not happy. They're still swarming. Are they swarming? You get in. The prognosis: second hive is full on the bottom, nothing in the top. This first hive here, the one where there's, I guess, swarming The second one is not quite full, maybe two-thirds. So I don't know if they needed that third box, but we're adding it because we don't know. And we're gonna have to ask Kaylee, our bee mentor, on this of what's going on. Giddy and I are just gonna walk away until they leave us alone. A few swarming around our heads. We've gotten a text from Kaylee. She's going to tell us what it— what this— what is happening. But this is called bearding. And on hot days it's normal. In spring it's a sign that they could swarm, but if that second box is still being worked on, then I would just say the girls are cooling off on the front porch. Mine are doing it too. All right, they're just cooling off. Goodness, I thought we had something bad. Jonah's back and they went and bought ice cream. So that's what normal people got to do, guys. When you let the calf in for 3 days in a row, you got to be like a normal person and just go and buy your ice cream. Didn't have to buy the cobbler though. Jonah and Lily Thank you for getting this ice cream, Jonah. You did a really good cobbler. You guys harvest these berries this afternoon, and that— I'll leave it with happy day.