This Garden Thrives (partly) Because of Chickens

All right guys, oh my word, wait till you see this. Okay, they've been at this spot for 3 days. Holy smokes, look at the work these guys have done. They've been in this spot for 3 days. No problem, you're gonna be done in 2 weeks. This is my instant chicken garden miracle on display. Demo small-scale garden with chickens right here. Thanks, my man. On a larger scale— oh my word, I just love walking by this. So beautiful, so beautiful. Chickens were in here, moved them out, shaped the beds, put down some chicken-made compost, and voilà, thriving plants. Those raised beds, I'm talking about them in my Summit, how to build them. These are 2x4s, 2x4x4s, one here, one there. We put these 19 inches end pieces on. We screwed them in with the 3-inch screws and we had a square frame. But why would you want to build those raised beds? Well, we build them because they look good. They're in our front yard. We had a swampy area there, so we needed to get our— uh, did you hose this down? You got it everywhere. He's in a hurry. I think he's wanting to be inside playing Legos. Hey, Jonah, this is terribly wet. You can't water here, honey. That'll not dry out for a long time. And that's where I sit. You have to water right there, but normally you don't make that mistake.

This got left on.

Oh, okay. And that's leaking.

Can I put this water on the garden?

Yes, put it on the asparagus and strawberry. If it wasn't him doing a bad spray job, it was— yeah, this is leaking. I just hate to buy another one. But we can't just— we like to keep it on and then this not leak. Right now we're having to turn it off. Well, speaking of water, we had to get our garden in our front yard. It's at the bottom of the valley, it was flooding. It's right off the road too.

You got no other scoop?

What happened to the handle?

Broke it.

I don't know what's happening to our scoops. We had like 5, 6. He said they're up at Lily's flock. But what happened here You know, you import garden soil, there wasn't a lot of weeds and it was super easy to weed. Guys, you don't even really bend over much to take care of it. Super easy to grow in these things. You found one, Millie? You gotta do your chores. You got your chores all right? Can you fill up your water and everything? Okay, good girl. The media has accurately predicted 27 of the last 2 recessions. Now, there are some people who just don't pay any attention to what other people are doing. For example, I've noticed— Developing the qualities of success with Zig Ziglar. Been listening to that from Audible. Whoa, this is a good problem to have. I can't carry this much stuff. Okay, you guys are going to sit right here while I walk by, and then I'll come get you, put you on my back or something. All right, here we go. Oh, this stays. That's my problem. This stays. This goes in my pocket. Now I can take you guys with me. Hey, what are you doing? What are you doing now? Did you get banished? You must have pooped and peed on the floor in there. Did, uh, Teddy get kicked out? No. Oh, I just spilled. Okay, it's too much. Really? What's the matter? That's what happens when it gets so full it's hard to manage. Running smooth too. Oh my gosh, really? Daddy, come on, try and help me out. Help me. I knew you'd have a direct role on the farm somewhere. Boom! Look at that egg haul yesterday. All right, we've processed the milk. Let's Uh, let's go back down. Count number 2. Well, you're gonna need a lot more clothes than that. Why all of a sudden you don't care about clothes? He wants all the clothes yesterday when it's warm, none when it's a little chilly. All right, you get your sweater on and shoes and come with— or not. Count number 2. 3/4 of a gallon and look, 2 gallons! Oh my word, Flossie—

Phyllis!

Oh, Phyllis, she's liking that green spring grass. What I really want to do is go check on the pigs, but not just check on the pigs, check to see if their water filled up last night. We let the water run a couple of hours, but we went and saw if it filled up. We did have the— stay with me, guys. Just clean the poop off the stanchion. Oh, you probably didn't want to see that anyway. Anyway, clear off this wetness. If we always hang it up like that, either it turns off. This is Asparagus continues to launch. Did a little bit of research though. We don't want to eat this one. Oh, strawberry! Well, the first year we only want to eat 1 or 2 off of each plant, so definitely we don't eat that one since there's only 1.

Strawberries, Papa!

Are you— don't, don't pick them.

Green! Come see.

Oh wow, already green. I think we might want to pick off the flowers of the strawberries too. Sacrifice this year for better produce next year. And then next year I think it's like you can harvest for 2 weeks And then next year it's like 3, and then from there on, like a month you can harvest. You can just go, well, we're gonna turn our water on just in case it didn't fill up yesterday. We're gonna go up there crossing our fingers hoping it did fill up. Kind of curious. You curious? So they've knocked it over probably before it— well, they had to have knocked it over before it even got filled because you couldn't knock it over if it was full. We'll get some water in there.

Maybe let's feed them.

She's trying to get water. See that? See that? She's trying to get water. All right, let's just see if water's here yet. Yes, there's some here. So it's taking a minute to get down there, so let's just wash this out and give them some water. What do you think happened, Jonah? They knocked it over before it got full, or what?

Before it got anywhere.

Yeah, I'm a little bit of water just to hold them by. The water's right there. It should tip on them.

No, here, Papa, our old pigs.

I don't want to fall down in here.

Whoa, vicious guard pigs!

I'm gonna get them their food, just get them distracted. I tried try to get that water going.

It is going. They don't care, Papa.

I'll take care of it. Okay, do we have water coming through?

It's gonna take 30 minutes.

Okay, we have water coming through. Yeah. Okay, they must have knocked it down before it got to this level. Okay, so I have an idea.

Let's get trees and just stack them all We should get branches and just stack it all around it.

Well, here's something quicker, I think. I got some string and some metal wire from Sally. Look, it won't reach, but I have two strings. I know this is a dinky donk string, but maybe it'll hold it just for the couple hours we need to fill this up. We just did a metal electrical wire around it too. Maybe, just maybe, that'll keep it right there until this gets deep. Once it gets over the nipple, it's designed to have the weight of the water hold it up, and it will. Let's see how big our water got. Okay, we're about halfway up to the nipple. 20 minutes to get right there, another 20 minutes, 40, 60. Let's go 1 hour. Let's turn this off. At 10:40. I already think there's enough weight in there to keep them from flipping it. You know, before I get started editing, I'm gonna print out something and read it to you guys. It's what you guys are saying. That was hopeful. Oh, there it goes. This is in response to the Grow Your Own Groceries Summit, available down in the description. This, this is real people emailing. I've asked that they could share this. This is Oliver: I just wanted to say thank you for all the amazing content you are providing. You're welcome, Oliver, you're welcome. You are giving me and my wife real pause to the ideas of our current lifestyle and sustainability. Yes, it's always good to pause. And giving us amazing insight and ideas on how to become better Earth community members. I appreciate what you're doing and I'm so excited to see what more adventures lay ahead for you and your family. Thank you for making this quarantine time a little easier. Oliver, I'm glad to help in this little way that I can. This one's from— let me make sure you guys aren't blurry or anything. Okay, good. You're still there. Yeah, we're focused. Andrea, I know you're squeezing these videos in between every— she's talking about the summit videos, guys. 5 extra videos this week inside my summit, free with just an email. I know you're squeezing these videos in between everything else you do, and oh, I thank you for it. You are welcome, Andrea. Rebecca helps you keep things in order. For sure, for sure. I watched day 2 twice. Please don't stop. I'm ramping up my deck garden. I have no space but my deck and inside windowsills. I'm going for broke. It will work or it won't. That's right, good attitude, Andrea. I'm thankful that we are here to help. I'm glad you appreciate it. Okay, that's what a few folks have said inside that. Guys, you can get that link down in the description. I'm gonna get on editing. Water going, so we'll need— oh, water. We'll need a couple of them. I watered one wall sometimes. Editing vlog helps me remember. I'm talking about setting up the pigs. Josiah, I totally forgot to turn off the pig water. Okay, will you go turn off the water to the pigs? Sure. Meanwhile, Lily's sweeping, Rebecca's going to town. I didn't know you were this serious. Hey, wait, you stopped. I'm going to put a time lapse on you to go water my plants. This is looking good, Rebecca. Thanks. We don't have to be embarrassed to film out here anymore.

I'm trying to— that's, that's the goal.

That's the goal.

That is a goal. One of the goals.

Another goal is the only reason for cleaning this up.

No, because I want to be able to find what we have and get rid of the junk we don't need.

Gonna take a quick break from editing. We got Arun burning a brush pile today. We need to do a little bit of tractor work to pile up the brush. Assess this job. You want some of the outer stuff pushed on there? Yes. Now it's gonna burn like— oh yeah, and that stoked it a little bit, getting air to it too. Yeah, hey, we'll get some charcoal for our pigs out of here, so we're good. Yeah, they'll eat that like charcoal. Yeah, it's good. It's good minerals for their health.

All right, I'm going to come out and water my seedlings and just check on them and see how they're doing. Hopefully they're doing good. It looks like someone might have already been in here. So look, so we've got zinnias coming up. These are all tomatoes, so they're going to take a while. More tomatoes that are going to take a while. Spinach. Spinach, Swiss chard's coming up. Over here though, my marigolds, they're going crazy, which is awesome. I got cucumbers coming in. Oh, one of my zucchinis! Yes! I have a whole bench that I gotta get planting because I've got more to plant, if you can believe it. I love this time of year. And if you don't know, this This is a fog nozzle, and that is the best way to water soil blocks. You can't use just a regular hose or a regular, like, spray nozzle. You definitely have to have something that is like a mist, just in case you didn't know that. Oh, what is going on here? Dear Lord, help us, I pray. I am checking on my peas that I planted the other day, and look, they're coming up. Here's one, there's a couple there. No cilantro has come up. I don't know if it will. I don't feel like I've had good luck. I'm gonna have to try to find some starts. I think that there is a local place in town. And then onions, it seems like I have a couple coming in, but let's go check out what I planted. When did I plant that? Sunday and Monday. See how it's doing. Seems to be doing good. My plants are all thriving under the bug net and over here. Man, everything's looking so good under the, under the bug netting. Oh, looks like the cats or something might have happened up over here. I did order a motion detector sprinkler. Oh no, it doesn't look like anything is disturbing my beets, which is good. But I did order the motion detector sprinkler. I don't know when it'll come because the mail's not running normal, but, um, yeah, that will hopefully keep the cats out of my garden. The onions are looking good. I guess now I'm gonna go work in the loft.

You're gonna break for a bit of a juice? Actually, I work and juice at the same time. Eden's gonna color. What are you gonna do, Lily?

Listen to an audiobook.

Listen to an audiobook. What are you listening to?

Penderwicks at Spring.

Penderwicks in Spring. Papa? What are you gonna color, bro?

That ship that told those robots.

Okay. Here we come, cows. We're gonna move them one over. You, you want to go do that and I'll go start getting the sheep net? Yep. He's moving the cows. We're gonna move the sheep todos los días, every day, until like, uh, December, January. Hey, I got a helper! Yes, you and Teddy. He doesn't leave your side, does he? Is he peeing? Yeah, that's good.

You went pee-pee outside.

Yay! All right, Rebecca, it's sort of another tricky move. We're gonna have to utilize our lanes.

You're gonna get me to run a little bit.

Not nearly as much, but yes, you're gonna run a little bit. Mom, you're doing good. You're staying ahead of them. The sheep I seen that down there. Let's get that one. All right, look at this, we got a cart full of nets back. Lay it down right there, I've got a string I can put on it. Oh, that's the trick to moving that, tying them. Oh, it's got string on it. Oh, don't do it like that. I always do it like this.

You want to go see Papa?

Go lick him, right? Moose, you want to be closer to your cows? It's It's about to happen, buddy. Rebecca, they're getting antsy. All right, we're gonna put the Energizer on the new spot. We got it set up in the night. Look. Lots of food in here for them. Oh, don't use the rubber hand. That's ready. Ready to grab your honeys. Say it again.

Starting to sprinkle.

Yeah, yes, let's, let's get this done. Let's get inside. It's a little cold too. Yeah. The sheep are over there right behind our house. It's been nice looking out our bedroom window and seeing them. Yeah, get some hay. Yeah, for sure. We're gonna bring the sheep through here. They're gonna come right through here. Hopefully not get confused and go that way. Hopefully not get confused and go straight. Hopefully not get confused and go all up in there. Hopefully right into here. Teddy, no, he's not. He just can't see you. But that is not gonna work. He's gonna scare the sheep.

Hey, hey, see here, I'm right here.

You want me to open that? Yeah. Okay, you start calling them. Moose could cause problems. All right, so far so good, guys. Jonah, you're on that side, I'm on this side. Jonah, be aware. Jonah, shoot! Why aren't they coming? Jonah, back. Just back up. Jackson, get down in the road so you're blocking the road. Here they go. Okay, just give them a second. Okay, I will, but they're gonna run back. Let me get Moose. Let me get Moose forward. There you go, there you go, there you go, Mom! Run through there, run through there! You did it, you did it! We got grass for you in the new plot. All right, Josiah, you can abandon it and watch, watch this. All right, there we go.