This Future Doesn’t Suck

Okay, they're still good, but they're 2 days harvested and they need to be dealt with fast. Those are fine ripened homegrown tomatoes, not terribly shelf stable. I also need to check on the cow's water coming down from the mountain, if our little fix yesterday fixed our overall low flow problem. Uh, we should probably move that sometimes. Get a little wild, get a little wild. Front yard needs a haircut. Looks like there are a lot more tomatoes to be had. Austin, I'll get you some shots of those tomatoes. You know, boom boom boom, it's tomato season. Really, what I hope this vlog title is about— hopefully mostly what we're doing today is building these beds. Pigs just went through here and we can build 3 garden beds here. As always, at the height of summer It's a race against the sun. Let's get going.

Let me be free.

Happy day, happy day. Welcome to another day in the life of the Rooted Life. Piggies, how y'all doing? They've spread out their wood chips. They're gonna start building compost here. We'll just add a little bit of mulch every day. Smells great. Never thought you could say that about a pig. Sty, but you can. Deep bedding is the key. Mr. Brown, where is your shoe? I can't find it. Well, I guess one is better than none. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. It was their first night across the street, first night in a pig net. How'd they do? How many times did you have to chase them back in yesterday?

Once.

Just once, and then they're trained. Hey, lucky us. Move their turkey shawls. See how the manure has concentrated underneath it where they perch? Oh yeah, you don't have but one shoe. There you go, just a link for Lou. All right, it's gonna be crazy hot today. It's been crazy hot. Let's go make sure these cows are gonna have water for today. How's the water situation? It's good. Give me some info. Pressure. How do you know? Because I tested it.

It's a ton.

And it's gonna fill up? Yes, it's already full. Oh, it is? Heck yeah! So maybe me fixing that little leak yesterday helped. Why not?

So I went and cleaned it out. Oh, this is mud.

Okay. When'd you clean it out?

Yesterday.

Oh, good. Unbelievable. Didn't plan it. That pig port is 10 feet wide. Just so happens to be a perfect size for 3 30-inch garden beds with 12-foot, 12-inch footpaths between. Get in. We got to build 3 garden beds. This could be really hard, it could be really easy, or somewhere in between, but I'm probably leaning towards like 100% is the most difficult. We're probably looking at 70%. Let's pull our line so we'll do a straight row. Get in. Is it broadforking? Hey, if you're getting it in, it might be possible. Rock forwards and backwards. Meadow Creatures broadfork. Let's see what happens. Boom! It's hard. One row broadforked. I think I want to break this up. I could broadfork all three at once, probably even the more efficient thing to do, but boy, it's monotonous. Can you get me the track loader and a load of compost? I'll spot you. Yeah, I'll go get it. Thank you. Doing good. Proud of you. Here comes Josiah. Let's go, let's go, let's go! We're building these beds. It's day 2 of the Homestead Builds. Let's call it the Christmas in July. Thank you, chickens, for your contribution. It's Damon. You see, we're about to go to print with Homestead Builds. It's my new book on how to build the foundational builds of the homestead. You got some known Nonsense Homestead Builds, ready to go digitally. We're getting orders by— I say Christmas in July because if we're about to go to print, it's a big turnaround. We got to get in orders by July 26th. That's this Friday. I'll take it far because I don't want to step over the— what I've done. That doesn't make sense. So let's take it a distance. This is going to take forever. Orders by the 26th, we got some bonuses. We got How to Butcher Chickens, a printable worksheet, check— checklist, step-by-step, Instant Chicken Garden, uh, How to Raise a Year's Worth of Meat— chicken meat in 58 days. These are all things that you can implement with the different builds. Oh my gosh. Yeah, maybe I can throw it. It's homesteading for you. Sometimes it's very monotonous jobs. We're building new garden beds. I reckon it's easier than tilling and shaping this raw soil. We got one half of a row built with compost. It took a half a thing of bucket of track loader while the track loader is parked. We don't want to move it around too much. We'll go ahead and do the second row and then we can go from the other side. All was going well. I think we were on pace. Altogether we've done row, you know, two half rows, so one full row. Almost 10 o'clock. These guys are, uh, getting— Henry's helping All right, but I totally forgot I've got a tour of the farm with the local community college, my alma mater, Blue Ridge Community College. Hey Henry, you gonna help her plant that Big Macs? He's not so sure. I gotta go greet this tour. Shoot, Lily, you finished this? Okay, you can finish going down on both, both rows.

Okay, how long are they gonna be here for?

It'll probably be lunch. This is probably what we're gonna have to do. I think we were on pace to finish it or nearly finish it. And if, if you want, Leah, you can ask Rebecca what other pumpkins you should plant in here. Okay, you can plant them every 4 feet. Okay, well, this is me giving back to the local community, a permaculture class at the local community college.

Two of them have been like, this is the coolest thing ever, I'm really into this. Um, the other ones, this is an elective, right? Like, they want to run a greenhouse, they want to be landscape designers, and then this is kind of like a cool way to add on. It's a new word to learn, you know. Okay, uh, so interest level is kind of up and down.

Welcome to the Holler, and we're gonna do the permaculture-oriented tour, which will be great. And it's a good place to start right here because this is our house. And in permaculture, when you want to know where to start and you're not sure, where do you start? Do you know that rule yet? Bill Mollison taught us Start outside your door. Giving away onions to college kids works better with a camera. Okay, y'all ready? We came by the onions and everybody's oohing and aahing. It's a good group. This is like the wedding, right? And who's next? Who's next to do a garden? Oh, here we go! Everybody gets an onion. Or would you rather have garlic? Onion or garlic? Who's missing out? Onion or garlic?

Onions. Thank you.

Which one are we gonna hide in your food next? Onion.

Onion.

Onion. You know, I was asking her if she likes onions, and it's okay to not. Who likes kale? Really? Okay, we have some. You don't like kale?

No. Yes.

So stay with me. If you don't like it, don't grow it. Don't grow kale because it's cool. I mean, a lot of y'all think it's cool, and that's good. Let's do it. But you, me and you, just say kale no. But some of you are kale yeah, right? So you're in the camp of Rebecca. Who likes kale more than pork? Oh, okay, some two people, but all the rest dropped their hands. Feed that kale to the pigs and turn it— it was— we're clapping.

They're my favorite farm animals.

Pigs are like bricks on sticks. They're just stout and sturdy. Wanna scratch the pig? Yeah. You came for the animals today, didn't you? She's the youngest college student ever. The Doogie Howser. Douglas Doogie Howser is a whiz kid who breezed through high school in just 9 weeks. At age 10, he graduated from Princeton and then passed his medical board at 14. I said she was the Doogie Howser and nobody got it. We're old. Not even the instructor knew Doogie Howser.

My shishito peppers.

Nice. Are they spicy?

No, they're not. They're the ones that I slit open and I put the cream cheese bacon in. So good. And then bake them.

You're gonna give them some tomatoes?

Snack on some cherry tomatoes. I mean, there's not that many.

Okay, cherry tomato, folks. If you like a cherry tomato, get one and eat it. If you don't, feed it to the chickens. No, come on, let's see the chickens go after the tomato. Wrapped up the class. What a good and energetic Young group. I'm happy for our future after hanging out with groups like that. Beauty answering member texts. Then you're gonna come show us how to do this, right, Beck? Yeah. Got her candy box so nice and organized over there at the container. I think since we're doing this, I should go see if we've got any more. Look at this huge— so they would say, just how big is the world, Lily?

Huge.

Teach us, Grand Tomato master.

You're funny. A serrated knife isn't bad.

Tomato butchering.

Tomato butchering.

Where'd you learn how to do this?

Who, me?

Mm-hmm.

Um, like books and the internets and all sorts of places. Look at that! Look at that meat, man! Woo! Yeah, baby! I'm so excited! Okay, see, I'm the grocery buyer here.

I know.

And so this makes me excited because This is less that I have to buy at the grocery store every week.

You feel the weight of having to buy stuff. You're the one pulling out the credit card.

It does, and I know it's, it's us buying it. Yeah, it's me and you, but it does feel—

yeah, like I get it. And when you save money, it's like income plus 30, 40% because you don't have to pay taxes on it.

I know, right? It just feels good. And I'm like, that's one thing I was saying in the, in our podcast the other day that we did. I know it's story. Yeah, and I feel, I feel like it's important to know things.

It was sprayed with nothing, not even organics.

It's just exciting.

Grew in soil the cows and chickens built.

I know, see, that's what I'm saying.

You get this excited about tomatoes? She took one home and eaten on it for 3 days. It was so big, as big as your head.

Well, yeah, when they're that big, you can make it last.

Y'all gonna be the crazy tomato ladies.

Like, this is like normally there's So much of this like gel.

Like, yeah, this is very fleshy.

Like, there's not a lot of seeds.

That's my kind of tomato, a lot of meat.

Like, look at that. That's all the seeds that were in this, this size.

I'd rather not eat those seeds or the skin.

Well, I'm gonna— you know, we're saving the seeds.

We're gonna start seeds and hopefully—

no, we're saving them for next year because they were like a dollar a seed.

Whoa, these guys. Yeah, how do you know that didn't cross-pollinate with something? Well, it's gonna be a wacko tomato. What do you mean?

Like, because this is a hybrid. Oh, so I don't know, I need to read up on it.

Like if you bred a Cornish Cross with a Cornish Cross, right? You don't get it.

You would not get a Cornish Cross.

So then you put it on this rack, right?

And then we're gonna roast them.

How long?

Um, I don't know.

On 500?

Yeah.

Y'all serious? It's about to be the burning up cooking show.

Yeah, there you go. That's what I was gonna say, you took the words out of my mouth.

Cooked them on 500 for 5 minutes. Whoa, it's super easy to peel them now. Nice. What are we doing now?

So now we have de-skinned and we're putting them over here to kind of just like let some of the juice come off of them before we put them in here.

So will this be spaghetti, spaghetti sauce?

It's just gonna be tomato sauce, so it can be whatever we want it to be.

How long is that going to take? Do you have to monitor it? You wait until there's no more steam? You let that steam until it's done steaming? I got lots of questions.

You do. It's not gonna steam, it's gonna boil.

Oh, you're actually boiling it?

Well, I'm cooking it down.

So how will you know when it's done?

Like, the sauce will have come together. It looks like sauce.

Textbook explanation right there. Annie, you're taking over. Don't burn the house down, it's the last one we got.

It's a lot of pressure.

Duty calls to the remodel. I am excited that— and Jonah and Josiah have their first grading job at a neighbor's. We're gonna go check on that, supervise that here in a little bit. Definitely want to stay tuned for that. Rebecca, you're going to take care of the tile guy? It's going to be tile by the end of the day. Anything comes up with the house build, it's stop whatever we're doing and get on it. Keep this project moving. Here we go for Randolph. Randolph, they want to put this hood down there in the garden kitchen. Yeah. And I'm gonna give you this and you tell me if you think it'll work. You'll be able to put that in. All right. Randolph thinks we can work it if we do a different pipe down lower, if the ground is low enough, which I think it is. I believe that's the vent. We would just have one down here instead. I believe it would. All right, it's not too hard to patch that, right? Just jingles over it. And yeah, all right, so these jars have been sterilized by boiling for 10 minutes. That's all we need is 6 quarts?

Well, 7, that's all that fits in, we're hoping.

Oh boy. Okay, Rebecca, that's like— what would we use, 1 or 2 of those in a week?

No.

Spaghetti, chili, taco soup, tomato soup, pizza sauce. Oh boy. Yeah, I think we're gonna need 2 of these a week. We're gonna have 100 of these.

Aho! Just putting in—

What's the lemon juice for?

Um, it is for—

Look at you, you're having lemon juice.

Just making sure, tomatoes are acidic, but they like for you just to make sure.

Who's they?

The FDA. The FDA. The FDA? The FDA. It would probably be okay, but we're just not taking chances, you know? Like, we're just being responsible. This house is not easy. Yeah, there's like nowhere to set it right next to your stove without like dripping everywhere.

You're just gonna have to drip. We're gonna have to pick it up. It looks good, guys. That looks crushed.

It's, it's blended.

We've made it to a sauce, and this isn't even gonna have to be refrigerated. No, it, um, this is going to the, uh, root cellar.

It goes to the, to the root cellar.

How'd Granny do this? Well, this is all they did.

That's my guess.

Should we do it over in the butchering shed? No, it's so hot.

It's so hot outside right now. This is tomato juice.

Oh, that works really runny.

Yes, it's like water.

Is that what we put in the rice? The Mexican rice?

No, but we could. We could cook the Mexican rice in it.

2 tomato juices and how many tomatoes?

5.

5. Okay, so we do that every other day, 20 days, you'll have it. Look at this horse mecca. You'll have to just work around the tomatoes, okay, for dinner. Okay, you want to make me pork rinds? That's one less thing. Hey, let's go see the boys. They've been clearing this trail for the neighbor. Looks great, you guys have done a killer job. What happened to the track loader? Tracks come off. They told me to bring a chain. Oh, so it's not off too bad. No. How are you gonna get it back on?

This has come with the mini excavator.

Look at this, it's gonna be a nice little trail for these people. What's one of the best things you can do for your property is put in access roads and then you can enjoy the entire property. What a wonderful project. Look at that, how wonderful. Look at these boys, roads bros. So proud of them. Hey, fantastic job, doing a great job. Y'all are going to get the first loop done today, huh?

Yeah.

Do you know how to get a track back on? All right. I don't know how to get a track back on. Do you guys know how to get a track back on? The track has shifted out and over this way. Now what? We hook the chain up and pull it back on. It's gone too far over. That's all you do? This might take a while. Have you done it before?

Yeah, took a while.

We're a good mile Mile and a half into these woods from home. Winnie, did you take the shortcut through the woods? Did you ride the trail? And how did you know we were here? That's a good dog. Put your bar down when you're doing that, and that's not going to work. It needs to be moving, it looks like. Problems compounding. We're back home. The track loader ran out of fuel. Diesels are not like gas. You can't just run out of fuel. They're hard to start back. There it is. Keep going, keep going. That's not going to work on this hill.

Keep going all the way, all the way.

That lock— oh, that lock's too close. There you go, there you go.

Now you just have to pull it off. Stop.

Oh yeah, look, there you go. Leverage in the tree. Communicate with Josiah, tell him when to spin. Spin now. Reposition the machine. Maybe we can get this at a better angle. Getting late in the day. We got community soccer tonight. We got to figure this out. All right, there it goes. It's gonna do it. It's gonna do it. It's gonna do it. It's gonna do it. Oh, I think you did it. Okay, back it up a little bit. All right, there it is. There. Hey, good job. Good job. Hey, we're here. We did it! We got it back on track, Beck. Lily, how'd you manage with the tomatoes going?

Um, a little difficult.

I think we'll have to start earlier. Yeah, so that it's not going by dinner.

The rice, and then I had to cook the meat, and then we had to cook the bean dip.

Okay, I want to know what these are. These are from our garden.

They're shishito peppers. Okay, and I just put cream cheese and bacon in them.

All right, let's go.

They're cooked a little too long. They're delicious.

Wow, they're fun. You love them?

He helped me fill them and he ate some of the filling and he said, I love it.

We did not get the pumpkin beds built. We win some, we lose some. Sometimes we're rained out. The boys are safe. They started their first grading job, but we did can 7 quarts of tomatoes, and we're gonna start earlier tomorrow, aren't we?

I don't think we have any tomorrow, but maybe the next day. But yeah, 5 quarts of tomato sauce and 2 quarts of tomato juice.

Awesome. Happy day.