This is NOT where Your Food Comes From | Day 4 Surviving off the Land

Happy New Year! It's New Year's Day. Hope you guys have had a great New Year. They slept in. They stayed up and watched the ball drop last night. I'm happy with the idea of— it was midnight in London, the ball dropped there. I didn't even have to see it. This celebration, let's go to bed by 10:30. Oh my, you never know what you're gonna get sometimes. You never know. Happy day and welcome to day 4 of living off the land. What reason should we talk about today? For growing your own food? How about one that might easily be overlooked? You might grow food because you care about the animals that you're gonna eat. It's not lost on me that this is a little ironic I said that as I'm feeding cats. We'll take such good care of you because we're gonna eat you. No, we're not gonna— we're not gonna eat the cats. The cats have a different job. They keep the rat population down big time. Especially this one, half wild, smaller yet boss of all these cats. That's probably why you don't see her much. We don't see her much. She'll come eat for a week and then we don't see her for a month. I am living off the land this— in January. January. I think it's just proof that these systems work. We have continual ever-flowing systems of food. How's it gonna go? Up and live off the land sort of on a whim. It's because we already are, mostly, probably 75%, the entire family. This time though, for this challenge, I'm like 95, 98%. The only thing I'm allowing is some supplements like minerals, salt, a little bit of sauerkraut, spices, sauces. And for that, I had to walk to the general store like my relatives did back in the day when if you didn't grow it, you didn't eat. And if they did eat it and it wasn't grown, they walked 2.5 miles to the general store. Not sure how the boys are going to do this in 20 minutes, for in 20 minutes they have a shooting appointment. It's New Year's Day, you got to shoot guns. You know, if people ever come here and they want to watch a butchering, and they've maybe never seen one, and they say, hey, we just wanted to come see where our food comes from, and they don't grow food, and you gotta say, this isn't where your food comes from. This is plenty of room for them, uh, new spaces every day, uh, not overcrowded, not shot up, not in a building. They're outside. Um, there, it's just— isn't where your food comes from. Sorry. And this especially isn't how they're getting killed. You ever see those animals, those livestock pigs cramped into a tractor trailer, or, or or cows or chickens for that matter stacked a dozen high, that's how your food's being raised. So if you want to see how your food's being raised, you need to go to a factory farm. That's of course you're buying sustainable. One of the reasons you might grow your own food is because for the animal's sake, or you don't want to eat food from an animal that wasn't happy. That's not fair. They're giving you the ultimate sacrifice by giving their life so that you can live. Every day something dies so that you can live. You might want to give it a good life. And that's not exactly what I have in mind. That's a little too good chicken, free range. I made sure I got everybody back in to this new setup in the high tunnel, and that, that one's still getting out. I'm pretty sure two others are. Those were crows, hopefully. I saw— I think I saw some crows. Well, here's the nice thing you can do for your chickens this week: get them in the greenhouse. Guys, back when we were first starting and we couldn't afford a big crop tunnel greenhouse. We found these plans— I think they're still on the internet— like DIY your own greenhouse for like, I think it's $150 or $200. It was just PVC pipes looped over, and I kept my chickens in there on deep bedding. They're so happy. They're out of this wind, they're out of the any rain, they're out of snow, just out of the elements. And it's warmer in here. They're just, they're just happier. We're good on water. We're good on water. It's starting to get cold. We need to get these going. Oh, we need to prepare for this Arctic blast, they call it, which is dramatic for cold front. Cold front. Gotta get ready for this cold front. Another thing, build your chickens a mobile coop. Even if in there their poop falls through the night and I moved it, I cleaned it. They don't have a poop in their coop, you don't have to clean that out. In their run, give them wood chips. See that holy chicken squat? It's only holy because it's set on this wood chips, and it's going to mix with that wood chips and create compost. Something has to capture their manure or it's nasty. So you might as well sanitize your chickens, give them some deep bedding, dry leaves, wood shavings, wood chips, anything you can get your— a hold of. If you're in a tropical, coconut coir. Oh, and plenty of space. Even if you give them just 3 square feet per chicken, which is what Joel Salatin gets, that's much more than the industry. Cut it back in. Let's get a garden stake. Jonah, can you get a couple of garden stakes? Put it in the bottom, maybe 2 there, 2 there. Y'all's shooting appointment is in 5 minutes. You think that's still happening? Josiah better be out and ready and milking. How'd our boiler do this cold day? 165. It's working now. I don't know, it worked last night. I've been stacking it a little looser. Maybe that's what it needs.

I'm gonna keep that coal bed.

I need some wood over here, bud. The cows only needed one bell, huh? Neat. That means the cows are eating less than 3 bells a head, because that's what I gave them yesterday, 3 bells. Probably don't eat quite 2, but they eat more than 1. Shoot, we should— I forgot, we got to let them get some mineral. Give them half a bag of chaff hay, which is, uh, fermented alfalfa. A little lesson in good husbandry for Cows, up to 6 cows, 120 square foot per cow. Wood chips, deep bedding. They poop more, so you got 50 pounds of manure. It's not a bad thing. We let this get quite a bit sloppier before we add another layer of wood chips, probably 2, 3 more days. Certainly if you start smelling ammonia, if you start smelling excess manure— it doesn't smell right here. That's our bedroom. It can't smell right here. If you have a bad smell, you have a bad management. These cows are happy as can be. They've got cover.

It is open here.

They've got the sun to shine on them. The wind comes through. You have the hay strategically stacked on the north side so it blocks a lot of the north cold winds. They're very happy in this. This, once it gets deep enough, will heat up and it'll actually be 100 degrees under the surface of the mulch. And some of that heat will be radiating, certainly be when they lay down. Ditto on the sheep. Maybe the difference is sheep— 5 or 5 to 7 sheep equals 1 cow. So 5 to 7 sheep and 120 square feet. There'd be plenty more room for more sheep in here if we needed it. Industry just doesn't get this. This is RC Gold, which is a probiotic in their food. This is organic alfalfa. Have you put the apple cider vinegar on there yet? Half a cup of apple cider vinegar. Cows get no vaccines, they get no dewormers, they get no nothing chemical, no antibiotics. We're gonna get the cows munching, then we're gonna let the sheep out real quick. Don't let me forget to show you the pig's happy place and how we can make animals happy and they can be doing the work of arm at the same time. The sheep have a mineral program, and so do the cows. On a homestead, you get a chance to give your food the utmost respect. The uttermost respect. Give them the most utter respect. Udder. U-D-D-E-R. Rambo's ready. Oh boy, you got a shotgun?

Yep.

Okay, that's an exciting date. Remember, as you're setting New Year's resolutions, if you do that kind of thing, goals— I heard it said before, goals without a plan is just a wish. And I say a plan without execution is just trash. Set up the systems to accomplish those goals. Your goal to get in shape, put it in the calendar. To train 3 times a week or whatever it is. Set aside the time, identify the time, make these plans. Okay, your goal can't just be to get in shape. Your goal has got to be train 3 times a week at this and this hour, uh, or this and this time. This is what I do if that doesn't happen. This is how I make up for it. These— that, that's the plan. Our goal, quit the grocery store sometime in 2025 for a period of at least 30 days. The plan is already in place. Oh, I forgot to go show you the pigs. Hopefully we'll do that later after we shoot guns. Is it time? You actually kind of need to hurry, really. Austin has to go. Wow, is this your first time shooting an AR? No, I shot Mr. Holler's. Okay, you know, you remember how to do it? Hold it hard. Hold on, don't do it yet. Let me cover my ears. That's a gun from the movies. What's that on it? So that's the light. It's a light, and that's a red dot. All right, what's the AR specialty? Uh, close combat. Gonna shoot the— what's it called? Tannerite. All right, because like you would think, so she's cranking them out for the beautiful life.

Channel.

This time, homemade marshmallows. Just made a barbecue rub. Tablespoon chili powder, garlic, onion powder, paprika, half a tablespoon of pepper, tablespoon of salt, tablespoon of cumin. Tablespoon of everything except the cut pepper in that. Put a little olive oil in it. This looks so good, I'm having a hard time bringing the temperature down. We're basically going to but no air into here. Just barely little any air. Maybe this is okay. Hopefully this isn't telling of the new year. Cows got out. I did forget to put them back in the pole barn after the gun shooting though, and that fence is not hot. I believe it's been 1 year since we got Blaze. He came late tonight, didn't he? I see these goods. Nice. I'm gonna go do some winterization. Jonah, can you get us over a couple of bins of firewood? What? You could do that while lunch is being made, right? And eat at 12. You got soccer with the friends? Hey, are y'all playing nice?

Yeah.

Okay, come out work with me if you're not gonna play nice. Okay, well, it's a content-rich day. Rebecca's making 2 videos for her channel so they can keep posting while we're gone on vacation. Lily's making 2 videos so they can keep posting on vacation. I don't think I'm gonna get a chance to do office hours because I need to winterize this farm. I should take some office hours, right? I should. But clearly the content, the farm, is the big priority. Boy, you're killing me, Smalls. You're killing me, Smalls. Okay, one holiday meal is one thing. I walked all the way to the general store to get it for yesterday's meal, but I'm gonna suffer today. I'm gonna go suffer. I shouldn't say suffer because, gee, I'm gonna get the chicken and steak. I can eat those onions. Those are boughten zucchinis. We have some shredded zucchini I could have heated up. It is day 4 living on the land, connecting with my ancestors, seeing if I can do what they did now in 2024, taking chicken from the land. I doubt they even had it that good ever, huh? Onions. If you want me to film you at 1, I need some help. Okay, I'll get the sweet potatoes and collards. Josiah ran off to soccer, so I'm gonna have to do these dishes. Dishes done. Lily, if I'm gonna film you a video, you're gonna help me prep the farm for the cold. Yeah, let's go film Lily's show.

Hi guys, welcome back to the channel. And today is a very important day because it's mine and Blaze's anniversary. So we've been together for 1 year.

I just finished with Lily, came and checked the meat. It's to temp. You want it to 145, and then you cover it to preserve all the juices. We're going to do parchment paper and then tin over it. We don't want to eat metal. Looks like it's coming along good. It's pretty juicy. All right, we went to camp, so let's just get it going to very minimum temperature. All right, let's get to everything. Let's get some things set up for this cold weather. What we got to do, we got to keep this water from freezing, so we need to get our, our water trough heater out here. And keeping this water warm helps keep the nipple warm. Let me show you the humanity of these pigs. It doesn't stink. Pigs are in this open area. They're outside, they're in the sun, they can move around. They, they can till, they can root. We actually have them— we put this net around where we want a garden bed. If we're going to quit the grocery store in 2025, we need more garden. We're expanding these gardens. These are 50-foot-long gardens to 100 feet, nearly 10,000 square feet of garden. Beefcakes lounging in the sun. They are almost done tilling. They got a few more spots they haven't done, so before it gets nasty in here, they move on. We'll move them on to the next spot when they get done. We'll park them in this Pigport. Pigport because it's portable pig shelter. We'll move this, we'll put it somewhere next to the garden, we'll fence them in and do deep bedding. So move animals or do deep bedding. Those are our breeder pigs. That's a mama pig, she'll have babies in the spring. And so those babies will be born here, they'll never leave here. That is not industry. Born here and, and killed here. We don't even transport them to the harvest so as to not stress them out. Let's fill that up real good. Hey Lily, look at this. This is bad. Look, they're gonna end up pooping in that. They're gonna sit on it backwards and poop. Can you go to the lid on that first? Let's move the water over here. We have a trough heater in that chicken water. To my delight, just warming up the water in these water tubs does keep the nipple waters unfrozen even though they're on the outside. And the extension cord coming out here to heat this. That's the only problem with that. These are electric. I'm gonna plug it into the splitter. Hopefully this works. It was buried in the brooder. Really? How are we gonna know if that's working? Do we have something we plug into that to test it? Hey, it's 5 minutes to our friends get here, 5 minutes to our taste test. Can we wash these pans real quick? Yeah, let's find a lid for that water for the pigs. That'll help keep the water warm. It'd be somehow be great if we could test this power strip. Okay, Lily's gonna wash our pans. I remember I have that light I can use to test things with. More trough years. Let's go test this power strip. Does it really mean that many adapters? So like a 50 amp to a 30 amp to a 12? It's a good reason for deep bedding and keeping them put in the winter. It's easier to keep the water unfrozen. All right, how do we do this to keep this tidy? Well, that RV circuit is separate. So we got 2 heaters on that RV circuit and then 2 heaters on the, uh, one of the house circuits. That should be okay, should be able to handle that. Back to the testing of the power strip. It's time, but I don't see our friends here yet, so— huh.

Hey, look at that! It's working!

Hot chocolate taste test coming right up. Beauty's making 3 different hot chocolates. And we're gonna blindly taste each one of them. Okay, they're here. You guys don't know which one is which. We're gonna tell you at the end. Yeah, there's nothing crazy in it. No, no, don't think that. It's not like horse milk or anything. There's nothing weird in it.

No, get out of here. Oh, it tastes like dark chocolate. Okay, I taste dark chocolate. It's just regular. Is this just Just regular cocoa powder.

Okay.

Like, not the sweetest hot chocolate. I don't like super sweet.

Okay, so remember which one that is.

We have two Rhodes cups.

Okay, I know that one. This is our drink number 2. That's number 1. Yeah, that's number 1. Number 1's pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, I like it. Number 2.

Did you hear that, Rebecca?

Everything I make is delicious.

So far, Jones family, you like 1 or 2? 2. I like 1. They like 2 the best. London likes 1. But all the kids like 2. Rhodes kids, you like the middle one? 1 or 2? Rhodes kids like 2.

It tastes the exact same. 3.

Okay, let's see what number 3 is like.

I know what that is.

I know what that is by that face. I know. Don't you know what that is by that face? It's, it's saltier. It's salty. Salty. Yeah.

Oh, it's like salted chocolate. It's just salted chocolate.

I want some.

Okay, what's up?

Not 3. It's between 1 and 2.

Yeah, so far 2 out of 3.

It's kind of good though. Yeah, Austin and I like it.

That is a good—

the reason that's salty is that's human colostrum.

It's not, it's not a human floss.

Ashley, save some for Ashley.

This is number 3.

That's Ashley's cup.

What do they think? All right, I think dark chocolate, regular, and then salted chocolate. Okay, okay, not bad. I think that's not a bad guess. I agree with that. I think, guys, okay, so you think this is protein hot chocolate?

Oh dang it, that's the one I—

so it has protein powder in it. Oh, so it has unflavored protein with regular— this with this, so it's just cacao powder with protein.

Okay.

And then this, the middle one, but they all liked this one. I think they like this one. Number 3 is an electrolyte.

That's where the salt's coming from. I thought you were gonna do a broth.

Oh no, I didn't do a broth one.

So this is the most regular one, that's why I don't like it. You and I will drink the electrolytes. We'll take the electrolytes. Tell them what's in that.

So that's just gelatin, maple syrup, and vanilla.

Ham turned out nice. Potatoes turned out nice. Cornbread, collards.

Black-eyed peas.

We grew those. We did not grow the black-eyed peas, but we did grow the ham hock.

I wish.

Flavoring it. So I'm going to highlight the amazingness of eating off the farm. I will be eating this amazing ham. It was a little dry, so I put a lot of our butter into it. And the sweet potatoes. I could eat these. I don't want to eat greens. Trying to kill you. Virtual reality comes to the holler. What'd you think?

I was so scared.

Were you on top of the buildings?

There was like—

yeah, so he's in the elevator. Okay, I'm gonna start. I'll pull your hair. So you got 3 walls, you get the elevator, and the door is opening this way, right? So you can see— he can see them. Now there's a button you push. The garage— did he just push the button?

Yeah.

Oh, this is really high. Oh wait, you're out on a plank? Oh my gosh. Are you walking a plank?

Look up, you can see the birds in the sky.

Are you walking a plank? No, I'm not going out.

You're scared?

He's still in the elevator. You're afraid you're not in our house?

It's that real?

I kinda just wanna jump, but— I'm afraid of heights.

You can jump off.

Really? You see the door, you can see— Gideon, right?

Can you see my hand?

All right, there's a button to your right. You can push it. Press it. You're gonna have to—

which one?

This one?

Yeah, the level one. Okay, wait, I want off.

No, no, no, do it, do it. Wait till you open the door.

What is pole?

Oh, don't worry about that. Don't push that. So, uh, yeah, way worse. Then you'll be watching a pole instead of—

oh my God, no. Do you see my hand? Yeah.

Okay, now look to your right. Over here there should be a door.

Level— or push the level one.

The young people have no problem. Josiah's pretty stoic. Is it open? Yeah, you see the plank?

Walk off. Wait, are you on the plank, Josiah?

Yeah. Now—

wow, you're gonna fall this time.

What happens if he steps off the plank?

He falls. Hit level 1. Here we go.

That is crazy. Wow, your brain does not let you not believe that. So this is Lily's, what she's seeing. Uh-oh, what happened? Did you get the pull? It switched to the platform. Okay, my brain would not Run and jump. Run and jump. She says no.

No.

Get in. We want you to run off that plank. Just run and jump. Okay, here we go. Get in.

Oh! Nobody touched me!

That was crazy. Alright, join us tomorrow. Day 5 of eating off the land. I'm gonna wrap up the day with some yogurt and some preserved blueberries. Happy day.