Today's Vlog

Why do I keep torturing myself and showing you all this? I don't have to show you this. We're moving in. I got some boxes to sort through. We got my hyperbaric chamber. It's gonna go up there to my reading nook. I'll go in there every afternoon after lunch, take a nap if I need it, rejuvenate and get ready for office hours in the afternoon. All kinds of books. The goal is to eventually line this whole wall with bookshelves. And because we're not— we're not— we're not spending any money, okay? We're just gonna get what we have, make shelves, find shelves. We're gonna have a hodgepodge of bookshelves. This is actually not that bad. This isn't that bad either. Beauty stuff that still needs to go into the bedroom. Let's get a shelf over here to replace this, and let's take that dresser. Let's put it right there. I've been dreading this. It's probably why it's been sitting here for how long, Rebecca? New mattress has got to go on. The old mattress has got to fit in here.

That guy is the same.

Okay, Gideon, you watch him while it's very cold, and then you're coming out with me for project. She's bellowing. We out of milk. We ought to give her some action. She's missing her calf. Oh honey, you separated her calf. 6 months old is when we generally do that. She can focus on the next baby that's inside of her. Hey, while we're embarrassing ourselves, lost another couple pounds overnight. Oh man, I've been posting this story on X and I'm like, how am I losing 2 lbs in a day? Like 2 times in a row? They're saying it's inflammation. So then I asked, wait, inflammation, is it physical? Does it weigh? Oh, it will. It hangs on to water. Apparently I'm releasing it. My body loves a fast. My body loves a fast. That was my initial thought this morning, especially since I'm feeling Better. Sluggards, huh? Huh? A little bit slow start in the morning. Maybe they have a cold crank. You're only a truck. 17-year-old? You're a 17-year-old truck. He says he's a 17-year-old truck. When you're done with chores, can you queue up my chainsaw? Or is there a project you want to be doing? You just gotta move rocks. Move rocks?

That I could stack them.

You move rocks. Come on, Jonah. Come on, come on. Let's get it over with. Okay, it's not that bad. It's been a lot worse. It's 27 right now. This is a typical western North Carolina morning. 20s. In the days it gets up to 40, it's gonna be 45. Hey, next Monday through Thursday it's not even gonna freeze at night. My goals for today are impossible because we're also going to clear some branches. Did you remember this room yesterday? It was terrible, and now I have a ping pong table in it and I'm totally utilizing our sunroom this winter. Feels so good this morning. This OMAD's working. I even succumbed to my kryptonite, a Dr. Bronner's dark chocolate sea salt. Ate the whole bar. He's gone mental on account of the chocolate. All 36 grams of carbs. Oh, and guess what? A reenactment. Right here, right here, right there. Right there. I was able to do a getup. It's been a couple of weeks because of my back. Good job, Josie! We got us a barn right under my bedroom. Best places. Come right outside our door. We're at the vehicles that we need, we're at the feed that we need, tools that we need. Hey, even, even where we go to keep the home fires going twice a day, loading that wood boiler. Hopefully today— electrician's supposed to come today.

I knew this would work, but I didn't think it would work this good. Put it side by side.

It's better than you think. Yeah. Now wait a minute, we thought this was going to be in the way. It's not? No, not really. Okay. I mean, it's already been hit, but you guys got to be mindful getting out. I think the way this is situated, we're gonna have to back out. I'm not gonna be able to— right back out that way. I was gonna have to get hay. That's gonna have to wait. We just closed our Christmas sale and Homestead Builds. Hey, thanks to all of you guys. I mean, we had 50 orders the last day. I've got to sign 10 boxes of books all before Beauty has to leave at 9:50. Do the must-do chores now. Who's pulling? Jonah has to leave. No, that's not a sound effect. That's Austin. SOS. Um, Hey, go ahead and have Lily make breakfast then, now, instead of waiting till night. Oh, you're gonna help us? We could really use that this morning. Look at this guy, he came on his own accord. We didn't even ask him, and it's not his turn to do big animals. They don't like to do big animals. Nobody— they don't like to do cows. Look at this shepherd boy, this is cool. Good job, Josie. That was easy. No wonder he wouldn't do that chore. That's fun, huh? That's a fun chore. Jonah's telling me we need to get that area cleaned up by spring. Well, we're gonna hay bomb it this winter. We're gonna scrape up this sand or put soil over it and then hay bomb the crud out of it this winter. I'm gonna go assure him I'm on it. Yeah, I'll explain this to you, the plan here. Okay, now you got everything piled up. We've lacked one thing to be ready for the wood chipper, which is part of the plan— wood chipping that like crazy, right? And then hay bombing it. Yeah, I don't think we need to add soil. We just do wood chips and hay bomb. What do you think?

There's some spots that need soil.

Okay, and then finish the retaining wall from the pole barn, and then we have all that— a place for all that material. To get it out. That's it. And we'll just keep going, and we'll go far— as far up the creek as we have material. Once we have the material up, then we can install the bridge, because right now, if we had a bridge, I think it would be in the way.

Put a layer of dirt on top of all of that rock.

Where are you gonna get that?

2 acres.

A foot.

A foot is not that much.

We're gonna build soil with hay bombing and wood chips. That's why we're getting the wood chipper.

Oh, I'm talking about just right there.

Where?

We put all that rock up there. Let's just put a foot on that little strip.

Oh, okay, okay. Well, we'll see about that. This is kind of our compost making area, so we don't want to bevel this down, do we? So see, we're going to get material— you've, you've gotten rocks here. Now we build with our material, and you're saying put soil on top of that? Can y'all see it? A little slope from there to here?

No, the composting will like extend out to here, Papa.

No. Yes, the compost was off here. Why? But we don't have to do that again.

But it's better because we don't have any space in there for machines and chicken coops.

Really?

No, we don't.

This is a little tight, but it can be tight, you know. It's actually better because then it's—

but what happens when we have to put actually all that material in there and we have a huge compost pile?

All right, all right, I'm gonna have to trust you as the operator. Pressing chores are finished. We'll have to Finish the chores after I sign these books. Oh, it's good to have you, babe. Hannah, look, for signing. You don't want to help me warm up my hands? 50, 50 we sold yesterday, babe. Wow. Okay. Hey, well, that's good. We got some events we're going to this year. Just signed the last book. That was surreal. So, so you're getting this book. Thousands I want to say 2,000 at least people have gotten this book. Thank you. What, what you're going to build? What you're going to build first? What would I recommend? The chicken tractor. Just get in there, it gives you a supply list of everything you need, and just build the chicken tractor. It's the most versatile coop. It can complement other coops. It can be used for so many different things. And good news for y'all, who maybe didn't get the book in time for Christmas, it's still for sale. But I'm gonna— the chicken tractor plans are back up and available for free. Just go to homesteadbuilds.com, get you the chicken tractor plans, get a nice sample of the book. All right, let's finish these chores. Guess we've never weaned like this where we totally removed them from sight. I don't see any breach. Where did she get out? All right, Gideon, you open this up. She went in back over there, which— yeah, the fence was not connected over there. You coming too, little man? This is the motley crew. Of course, he said he has to have the mountain boards. The underlying quality that's in everyone that mountain boards is everybody's a little bit crazy. You ready to work, big boy? Big mess, cleaning it one day at a time. In order to get that brush behind that tree tree. We got to get to that big tree. We don't need necessarily need the big stuff now. We need the, the little stuff, the branches like that. So then we're ready for this wood chipper. So it's $400 a day. The goal would be to get it done in a day, max 2 days. If it's going to take 3, you might as well keep it for a week because it's $1,200 for a week. Uh, before we start, Henry wants to go show me something. He said he's found a bridge. I know about the bridge. As much as I want to get started and get this done, this is important. Look how excited he is running after it. Whoa, you found the bridge! The neighbor's bridge, they found it way down there. It used to be right here. It used to be right here going this way. Look, can't do that no more.

Ready?

All right, bunch of brush brush here, but I cannot hit that survey line. It's gonna be a little tricky. All right, stop looking at it and let's start getting to work. Ta-da! What would we do without the Mini X and a chainsaw? And a 15-year-old. Look at that. Okay, burn pile, stumps, burn pile. We did the 80/20. Sure, there's a little bit of left, but we took 20% of the effort, got 80% of our results. Last of the fallen trees that are— do not— that, that are not ready for the wood chipper. Now we're ready for the wood chipper whenever it's lucky enough Y'all aren't deaf. I'm deaf because I've got my, uh, earmuffins on. I'm happy about that. Now I've got my morning dose of farm work. I'll be less irritable doing the domestics. I've been dreading this. Oh boy, definitely works better with the camera than with a big old mattress. Oh gosh, so heavy. The idea is to maybe leave that here and we'll squeeze it into this box. Will it fit into that box? The idea is to get this done before Mom gets home and surprise her. What? Why?

Why are we putting it in the box?

To store it. Well, that's a good idea too. Let's keep those strings. We can strap that one. That's going to be an easy way to contain that big boy. I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a try. Time out to get the lamb roast going. It's Thursday. We typically have lamb on Thursday when we're in lamb, and we're in lamb for a while. There you go. It doesn't always go right. 275 for 3 hours. That's gonna get interesting. Put it— we'll push that off and set it up right there. He's gonna be very excited she comes home. Get off with your dirty farm clothes! Come on, get off! There you go. Let's go. No, sir. Okay. All right, let's get it all set up. Beauty lotions and potions in there. That's good for your brain, bud. Anytime you want to bounce. We got the dresser in. Hey, let's go see how buried that shelf is. Hopefully not too buried. How much time we got? We got less than an hour. We're gonna surprise the beautiful one. Looks very nice now. It's not all that I had hoped. I'd hoped to find that. Apparently I built that shelf that we're looking for. It's gone. We're sort of thinking it got demoed in the log cabin. We're renovating that. Uh, I'm moving my attention towards this. I'd kind of like my office back. I'd kind of like to walk in there without— proof that we don't win them all. I didn't get it all put away today. I'm pooped. The beautiful one is home. Surprise her with the bedroom. And although I did not get a shelf in here, it's gone, they accidentally demoed it, I did get this shelf cleared of all my guns and put empty baskets up here.

No big—

a big day, big day. It was a long day, big day, all day errands. What you got? You got a ping pong paddle? Yeah, we got real Oh, ping pong balls! Come here, I got a surprise for you. And I see you got a surprise for me.

Well, I'm making vanilla. It's for vanilla.

Hey, uh, I got this.

This is for my party.

How much vodka?

For the party on Saturday.

Wow. Hey, that's— didn't we get that in Hawaii? In Hawaii? Oh, that brings nostalgia. Hawaii, Great American Barbecue! Did they give us real ones on our honeymoon?

Yes, they did.

Where we first found it in Hawaii. Yeah. And then who knew you could get it here?

I did.

Oh, it's from Hawaii. Look at that. It's from Hawaii. Look at the islands.

Oh, that's nice. This is nice.

Yeah, this is nice.

How's the bed?

That's the new bed. No, but I think it's gonna be awesome. Hold this for a Oh, what are you taking over?

Did it have two different sides?

Taking over the bus?

Y'all can sleep in my room now.

Yeah.

You made sure you got the right side down?

No.

Why didn't you make sure?

I didn't know it mattered.

I messed it up.

I want to make sure we're sleeping on the right side.

Because see, I thought you could flip mattresses, so I thought—

This side does feel far greater than that side.

Oh no, I can fix it, babe.

Yeah, this is the right side.

How can you tell? Pattern.

I don't think they would do this. Yeah, and this feels hard.

Wait, I got one more surprise.

What?

In the closet, like on that top shelf.

Oh, you got your guns out?

Yeah, those are all empty.

Oh, I put them somewhere up.

Yeah, yeah, uh, definitely up. See, I saw the pictures. Why are you pulling away the pictures?

I'm not, I'm trying to see.

It looks like Mr. Papa got it right. Really, I got lucky. I had a 50/50 chance and I guessed. That's a square pattern on top.

But are we sure?

In every picture. Let's see this paddle go.

I've never played with a real paddle. Oh, terrible.

You can hit it a lot easier.

It's so light. It's way too light.

Y'all have no chance against me now.

Oh my gosh, this is terrible.

This is fun. We have a ping pong table in the house.

I wanted to get— I wanted to get the nicer paddles.

Why would you get the nice paddles? That's a good place to end it this week. Thanks for spending time with us this week. Love y'all. Happy day.