Total Farm Transformation

What do you guys think? You think these are pajamas? I thought they were pajamas, but Mom assures me it's an outfit. Odd wood piles and blocks everywhere. It's gonna be our event barn this weekend, absolutely full of homestead remodel paraphernalia. Paraphernalia, the right word? And I need to do something with this four-wheeler and this dirt bike. We need to list it for sale. Fortunately, the mowing looks good. The boys took care of us there. Manure spreader is a nice accent. We are having a tour for two event this weekend for those that backed the homestead builds at that tier. You guys ready for the tour? You guys ready for— yeah, it's gonna be fun. And right behind you, that's where I set up with some some fresh wood chips. I know our house looks like crap, but we can get our front yard looking nice, right? We go through these plants. I haven't forgotten about this big patch of crazy weeds. Total farm transformation coming today. What's it at? Here, I'll come. Signs of white means it's burnt. It could be burning. I don't think it is. This white is a feather, and that broody's still broody. Pin it today. All right. We go get your egg basket. You want to pin her first?

This is what you call broody, wanting to sit and hatch out eggs.

It's not the time of the year, so we're giving you a place with no nest. Tried giving her a cold bath, that didn't work, so we're gonna have to go to this method. Where are you going with him? He wants to come with me. All right, what are you gonna do? Oh nice, these are backers of Homestead Builds, so hey, do you let's get these homestead builds on display. Let's switch that one out. What are we doing? We're gonna switch the 5.0 out with the 3.0 so that people can see the 5.0, what's possible on their homestead.

Is there egg in it?

Okay, well, we have to get it out while we're over here. The Chickshaw mini-me, so beautiful. I think that's such a beautiful sight. We're gonna switch it out too and put it on display. Hey, is that door gonna work enough?

There.

I think it's attached with one screw, maybe. Chick Shaw 5.0. So stinking proud of that thing. Dang it, our three-part wood did not work. I am super discouraged by that tree getting eaten. I get so close to the edge. In that case, we We need to string it away into the center. Let's see how close this is to the edge. They might be right about that. In that case, we should have just done that for the day. Can we do that next time? This one is in the middle and they weren't able to get it. You're leaving?

Yeah, I'm gonna go to the bank and get that notarized.

Fun. This 3-boarded fence does seem to be working when the tree's in the middle. Oh no, you see those still eggs? That's why we take these eggs every time. Like a little big for you?

I'll be the traffic person if you'll pay me.

I like the little at the end. Let me see if our assistant can help us with the traffic. Hey Gideon! Gideon has a bad habit of taking this off to wash his hands. Did you take the little Yeti cap off?

Yeah, I saw him.

You do, you take it off to wash your hands and to play and to goof off. That's Super Jerry. It does work. That's funny. Dang, everything was going so good. Oh, oh, oh, oh, I guess it's Yeti. It's universal. Get in. Take that to Lily, please. Okay. Jonah tidying up our parking lot. Jonah, my man, you did such a good job. Oh my word, this is what's next. It's a shame that I got filled up with so much. We've gotten away from our once a month community gatherings. We've been busy, but really, I think it should take a priority and we should try be too busy for local community. There's nothing like a big event, like strangers— I mean, they may know me, but we don't know them yet— to make you clean up your farm. Thank goodness. Oh, I bet they won't take that fridge. Habitat for Humanity is coming at 1 PM to take most of this reusable stuff. We're gonna make a big donation today. Thank you, Josiah, for getting the wood chips into the chickens. We just spotted a tree service truck turning around down here with a wood chipper. Let's go see if we can get some free wood chips. Whoa, that's like a boom— a brush hog on a boom. Wow, nobody in that truck. There they are. Well, it's worth asking. He said, how many loads you want? A load of wood chips costs about $200. So I said, you want an easy place to dump wood chips? And he said, how many you want? I said, probably at least 5-10. I'm nervous. It's actually 3 o'clock. They said after 1, but I just want to make sure I'm still on the list today for pickup. Oh, no worries. Thank God they just unloaded the truck. And they are coming our way. It is time to keep on working. I'm sitting on the porch so that I can see when they arrive. They're finally here. It's all in that barn right over there, so you can back in up to it and I'll help you with it. We got doors, windows, showers, baths. Do you take fridges? Yeah, as long as they work. Fridges works. Oh my word, I'm starting to get the people barn back. I'm very excited about that. It's still a mess. They didn't take everything. We got some stuff to do. It's the next day. Farm prep, event prep must go on. What is your role?

I'm gonna bake some muffins.

Oh, and that video of you baking muffins on your channel is hot. It's taking off like hotcakes. They must like that. Rebecca making a chili because, you know, what else are you gonna feed 60 people? This morning we've got to clear out the rest of the people bar.

Look!

We got away from Habitat. We got Habitat taken, most of it. But we've still got tables to clean. Jumbled couches, very disgusting, dirty, filthy tables. Gotta deal with some things Habitat wouldn't take. Scattered couches. Look how dusty these two. And loads of something or another. First order of business, get all the tables out so the beautiful one can clean them later this morning. We're starting to look like an event center. To get that Speed Queen out, we gotta— that means we gotta get the track put around here. That means we gotta move the tables out of the way. And he's like, I'll move the table. Oh, oh, you finally done, homeboy? Been playing in Grandma's house. Although with Josiah because Grandma on a trip across the country. Let's get that Chickshaw Mini-Me for our pasture posse and switch it out so we can display the new Chickshaw Mini-Me. Can you sit back there and hold it, Josie? The new Chickshaw Mini-Me. The old Mini-Me. We learned to put the door in the back, then the handles don't get in the way. We also learned that we can make the handles the bottom frame, and we can put the legs out here at the end of that instead of there. So then when the chickens get out, we don't pop a wheelie. And I'm most excited about— look, the hitch! And Chris Suttery, my co-author on this, has just made this such a sleek design, just cleaned up the edges, and he actually made that hitch removable. See, this thing's ready to pop a wheelie because we have the leg right there, and then it's hard to tell people how to make this angle. That is just so much more simple, and And you guys, you're about to start laying eggs. And look, I don't need a kid in the back of Sally holding it. Look at that, so easy an 8-year-old can do it. He's going to get the chicken tractor we just built for giveaway this weekend. We're gonna have to go help him, but I want to show you guys this first. This is probably my most favorite feature. Chickens have been in this for months. Okay, okay. Did you notice? No squat, no poop. This thing is basically self-cleaning. Every once in a while we're gonna have some in the Chickshaw 5.0 because the goose pulled hay off. The hay gets on top of the 1-inch mesh and then poop can't fall through. But otherwise, poo falls through if it's just chickens. And then every day the coop is just moved, so the manure is on the ground and you just move on. You want some help?

Yeah.

That's one of the major appeals of These mobile pole set builds, these things turn that evil chicken poo into holy chicken squat. Chicken tractor is too wide and the forks don't go all the way under it. You got to do straps, you want me to walk carrying it? Let's position it a little bit better so when folks come in they'll see the front of it. See that? You see that, don't you? It's kind of exciting because fall feels so good and it's just around the corner. Walnut trees are generally the first to lose their leaves. Fall weather is so amazing here in western North Carolina. But if fall's coming, that means winter's coming. And I just, I just love summer so much. Did you notice how easy that was to take off? I'm getting these Chick Shawls over for a car wash. Wow, don't those look so good? Movable nest boxes, by the way. They— it's these milk crates, so they've got this self-cleaning feature too. Dirt falls through the bottom. Be easy on them though. As a permaculture, I really like this design. I made sure we had multi-purpose everything.

The handle—

you clean out the inside too?

It doesn't need it.

You heard it from him, it doesn't need it.

Come on, Gideon.

30 minutes till we have to make lunch. I would really like to give this front yard a makeover. He never stops finding use for this thing. They like the weeds. We did it! Doesn't that look much better? Boom, boom, boom, boom, etc. And we got some fruit. We just got a break for lunch. This will be a first. The track litter is coming into the people barn, but we do have some friends here to help us for 2 hours. That's about all we have too, so we got to get it done. Hey, are you okay with being on YouTube?

Do you know how many videos you've done so far?

2,700. All right, that's something. Wow, how many have you done?

4,500. Oh, you got me beat across 9 channels.

You got me beat. I know some of you might recognize Tim Schmoyer if you've ever looked up anything YouTube. I looked up one time, does a poor performing video affect future videos? And he had a video on that, something like that. Turns out it doesn't. I do wonder if that's debatable. I saw a video the other day, uh, it was Food Theory— no, who was it? It was Film Theory— on what's happening to Disney. And his advice for Disney was you can't have too many tank in a row. Yeah, well, so you can't have too many bad videos in a row or your people aren't going to come back. That's the key.

Yeah, most people think the algorithm hates it, but it's really the viewers are just learning that the content's not that good.

Yeah, and they're less—

they're less likely to click. But that's not algorithmically driven, that's like human behavior.

Yeah. Well, anyway, that's Tim Schmoyer, Video Creators. How'd you get into homesteading though? Like, I think I ran a consult I got— I hired you for consulting a very long time ago, and it was interesting that at that time you were just starting to think about getting in homesteading, I think.

So she grew up gardening and on a ranch and doing all that, and we had our 0.29 acres in our little HOA neighborhood, having, uh, 7 kids in 8 years, and that was an intense season of life. But then, uh, as the kids got a little older, we always knew we wanted more— a little bit more elbow room, and, uh And so we had a small garden, and then that turned into moving to a place where we can do chickens and stuff like that.

That's cool. You know, that's where Rebecca found you. Rebecca, you found them because they had twins. Yeah, and you vlogged it.

So I found you guys when you were living, I think, in a smaller house. Carolina, you're probably right. Yeah, that was great. And it was when I watched Sam and Nia. Okay.

Yeah, he found out she was pregnant. And that video went viral because he snuck a test on her pee. Yeah, and then she started following them and it was like, what is this? And we're like, maybe we can do this. That's when we got the idea to vlog. We have cleaned this out. Look at this, Becky. It feels so nice in here now that it's cleaned up. We got our barn back. Heck yes. That was a pain. In the butt. Today is the day. The day that got us in motion cleaning up our farm. It's here. Look at this. Many people enjoying the fruits of our labor. Anybody like the chili? Oh boy, it's almost gone.

It's pretty much gone.

Chili's good. Which one's that?

Pork?

Just called for volunteers. And it came down to you guys. What's your name and what you're growing? I'm Austin and this is Heather. We're growing babies and ducks, geese, turkeys, and chickens. Okay, anybody want to be in the vlog? What you want to know?

Uh, 14 minutes.

You must have gotten an Airbnb. We did. So what do you like about events like this?

What I love is this is really—

that's the apple pie.

Oh my gosh, it's so amazing. Um, you know, it's just this community of people that understand how this fills your heart up, you know, it becomes who you are. I don't have a homestead, but I have my, my homestead's in my backyard, but I still homestead. And you're the one who told me 2 years ago at Homesteaders of America, whenever you said, are you a homesteader? And I said, I'm a wannabe. And he goes, do you grow food?

Yes.

You're a homesteader.

I started a channel and we just hit 1,000 last It's what's in your heart. Because you could be in the city in the apartment and just go get a whole chicken and cook it. Okay, when we first butchered our first chicken, we had never cooked a whole chicken. Oh yeah, well, we'd always bought boneless, skinless breasts or whatever. What little things are y'all doing right now?

Oh well, you got us to get chickens. You just basically zoomed in close and said, I can't remember how you said it, you're like, just do it. Just go buy some chickens.

I was like, all right, ready? Let's go.

Yeah, we did it, and we lived in the Village of Romeo, and we practiced civil disobedience, and it turns out our neighbors loved it.

Yeah, I mean, who cares? Sometimes you got to do the right thing even if it's wrong. That was the chili.

Oh, it's delicious.

Which one did you have, the pork, which is from the farm? Yep, one with the pork. Both. I had both.

Yeah.

How's the apple pie?

Oh, it's delicious.

Okay, good. You want to be on the vlog? Why not?

Right now, going tons of peas, tomatoes, peppers, jalapeños.

I know what to ask y'all because y'all, y'all made me break up an argument earlier. Should you guys guess? Should they get pigs? One of them wants pigs, the other one's a little hesitant. Do you think it is? He's the hesitant one. The hesitant one. That's okay, I was the hesitant one. Did you know I was the hesitant one in all this? This is all Beauty's idea. I heard that actually.

The young lady here was telling me that just a second ago. She said it was all Rebecca's idea. Yeah, actually my hesitancy was more so about the fact that, you know, just because you've always heard they're really dirty and nasty and smelly.

Yeah. And I always thought, man, I just, I don't know if I want to do that.

You know, we've got cows and chickens and ducks and they're overall fairly clean.

Yeah.

But the pigs, but after seeing what you have and her continuing to push me down the road.

Yeah.

Yes, dear.

Yes, dear. Come on, get in the vlog now. Future Farmers of America. Is that true, or did you find a deal at Tractor Supply? I found a deal, but it is true. Okay, supporting, throwing down. She got the OG. So what are y'all growing? Everything. What are we not growing? Everything.

Garlic, onions.

Okay, all the things. Chickens.

Okay, we have meat birds.

Okay, do all your friends do it too, or they think you're nuts? They think we're nuts.

Yeah, they think we're nuts.

But they want our food though. Yeah, they want the food, but they think we're nuts. They'll come around, won't they? Well, what gets you up every single morning? Do you have chickens?

Yes.

To let those chickens out.

We don't.

Every day. We don't. Oh, you do mine? Yes, we do yours.

We leave the coop door open.

You just changed your process, made it a little more fun.

Absolutely.

All right, good. Thanks for getting the book. Yeah. Thank you. Feel that handshake, man. You got a milk cow. We're using hands. Okay. All right.

You shaking it like this?

I know, I caught you wrong. Now what? Now what? Yeah, I hate when you get caught off guard in a handshake. Oh yeah, yeah.

Or you can be like my husband and purposely make it awkward, and he like gives them a dead fish just to like see what they react with. Or he does the dead bird where you like slap your hand. It kills me.

We had this neighbor one time that was like early 20s, and he wanted to kind of intimidate me. And you know, they were, they, they were kind of ornery neighbors, and he was timid. He come shook, shook my hand. He was overly aggressive with it. I'm thinking, who you kidding? I milk every single day. It totally backfired on him because I milk every single day. I'm like, we can play that game. Yeah, we can play that. Jen wants to be in the vlog. Well, tell us something vlog worthy. You guys get the long distance award, traveling all the way from California.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How's it different growing in California than it is in North Carolina?

What's the big difference?

Okay, water. That's a challenge.

We water every single, every single day.

Every single day. Water doesn't fall from the sky in California. It does.

It actually— we've got plenty of water now, but no, it doesn't fall from the sky.

All right, well, you stay strong over there in California. Oh yeah. All right, you can hear the crickets. Had a good time with everybody. You have a good time with everybody?

Good.

It was so good. It was a lot of fun. Worth it.

Yes.

Now we have our space back.

I know, I'm so happy to have it back.