Two Truths And One Lie

I just wrapped up— Liam, what are you doing? What? I gotta talk, bro.

What?

Uh, just wrapped up about 15 minutes going through comments. So sorry. In yesterday's video, I talked about the upcoming Great American Farm Tour showing across the world, like 30 states, uh, 5 countries. You can go watch the Great American Farm Tour and hopefully meet homesteading friends, feel less crazy. I forgot to leave the link in the video so you can find these hosts, so I went and updated it, but I'll also leave the link here. Lily, looks like your bike came. Yeah, bye-bye. You got him ready for this 34-degree day?

Yeah.

Are you bundled up and ready to go? He's probably hot. I'm burning up. Are you sure it's this cold outside?

Oh, it's cold.

I mean, by their wear, you would think it's -9. They're like, hey Pop, you finally wearing a coat? I'm like Well, it's finally cold enough to wear a coat, you crazy people. We got a bit high-pressure day today. We're doing a video podcast for Abundance Plus. We got Holistic Hilda here. It's gonna be a long-form thing. 3 cameras, 3 mics, a live segment for our members. It's a lot, and it's our first. I have to say, I'm kind of nervous. I'm not sure this is working out. This Agribond is too fragile for a stiff frame like this. It's just ripping up.

I mean, it's working out.

Do they really? She said the cats get on it. Let's play a little game. I'm gonna tell— Hilda taught us this game. I'm gonna tell 2 truths and 1 lie.

Can I play the game with you?

Sure. So let's tell them 2 truths and a lie, and they don't know which one's a lie. And see if you guys can guess.

So, well, Papa, they know most of— they know of like 5 years of our life.

Maybe we've been vlogging for 6 years, but when I met all the people at Homesteaders of America, most of them have been following us within the last couple of years. One, we as a family have been to all 50 states. Another one, There was a time I went to— here, you want to put these in there? Here, I'll do it. Let's get you guys a little closer. There was a time that Rebecca went to bed before me. We were married. I came in after her and she got startled. She was, she was a little alarmed, you know, and got kind of scared. To comfort her, I said, hey Rebecca, it's just me, it's just me, relax. And she said, who's me? And I said, "Your husband." She said, "You're not my husband." I said, "Who is?" And she said, "Me." I said, "How's that working out for you?" She said, "Okay." Is that a true story? I don't know. Don't tell them. A third story is when I was a kid, we had a babysitter. It was nighttime. Time to go to bed, but I didn't want to go to bed, so I stood on top of my bunk bed and I said, if you turn off that light, I will shoot you. I had a BB gun in my hand. So which one of those is a lie, Lily?

You want me to tell it?

Sure. And you know, you know?

Yeah, I know it.

Which one?

Grand American. We went to the— we didn't go on the Grand American Park Tour with our whole family.

Yes. Uh, that was a bit of a trick because we actually did not go to all 50 states with our entire family. We went with— we went to all 50 states with most of our family before Henry was born on the Great American Farm Tour. Indian Wednesday! Okay, Ben Roberts is coming. Oh, and we have those three Yes, so I'm glad we set out extra.

So he's only one?

Yeah, he'll only be one.

Yeah.

Oh, and Jason's coming too, so 3, 4, 5 people. Yeah, I don't think Big Daddy and Grandma will be here though.

They don't come for lunch.

They don't come for lunch. So when we were on the Great American Farm Tour, one side effect is Christmas. Even this, this was— oh, I mean, this was not our goal. I mean, it wasn't one of our— it wasn't one of our goals.

You know how good this smells?

It smells pretty good. When we went across the country, we would do as many meetups as possible because folks were wanting to meet us, and we had been, we had been vlogging for a year at that time, and we decided that we would do that as much as we can. And we had a great time meeting everyone. I guess that was one of our goals. We wanted to do as many meet— I'm sorry, yeah, it was, it was, but there was an aspect that we did not expect. It was, it was our goal to meet as many of you as possible. It was our goal to see where we wanted to be in America. Do we really want to be here? It was our goal to showcase America's greatest homesteads, farms, and backyards. All right, we got the, um, we got, we got the pig feed. Okay, let's get the grain. We need 2 more buckets. Yeah, where'd you find that?

Right there.

I could really use that these days. Will you put that in the back of Wheelie?

You cannot. You have to fix the belt.

Do you think I have to have the belt working?

Yeah, because how are you gonna sit? Then it's gonna be like so wiggly wiggly.

You think?

It's only one leg.

I think some of these nuts are frozen.

We can try it. Arun's right though, the belt is broken on it. Stud muffin broke that one day. Well, maybe not. We had these wonderful meetups, and it was actually one of the highlights of our trip. We got to meet such wonderful people. But there was— I think we have it here. Let's try that stool. I traded this out for my stool. We'd go to these meetups and people would come to meet us, and then they'd end up having to wait in the line or whatever, and we're only so many people. What ended up happening is they came to meet us, but they went away with friends. I think that'll work. Yeah, I kind of like how low it is. This is a hair high. So will you put this back? When we're near the end of the Great American Farm Tour and we're thinking about premiering it, I thought, ooh, wouldn't it be really cool to have a premiere across the country? All our hosts, everybody who hosted on the farm tour, we would invite them to be hosts and anybody, people, the public, you guys could sign up and go watch this show with one of our hosts across the tour. Well, long story short, we were just off of an epic trip and I just didn't have the wherewithal, the resources. Rebecca's health crashed. We want— we had— we wanted to get our farm going. We ended up having a really nice premiere here, like 300 people or something. That didn't happen, but that doesn't mean it got off my mind. It just kept nagging at me and nagging at me. Although it didn't come out exactly like I had originally envisioned. I mean, we've lost contact with Gosh, most of our hosts, they've moved on, all these kinds of things. It's just, it's, it's been 4 years, fellas. But I don't want that story of the Great American Farm Tour to die. And I realize many of you don't even know about it. I mean, Hilda was sitting right there yesterday and we played this game, the 50— somebody, Lily, had mentioned that she had went to 50 states as one of her things, and Hilda guessed that that was the line. It's not So if Hilda doesn't know we went on the Great American Farm Tour, I imagine many of you don't even know. Let's change that. It's too, too much of an epic story. It is going to relate to you. I basically traveled America so you don't have to. Really, really. I won't, I won't give you the closing conclusion or I'll just blow the whole movie, uh, but it will bless your heart and it will inspire you. Where you're at. It will not inspire you to travel. In fact, when I was, uh, on the tour, and two different kinds of people— the person that would come up to me and say, oh, I have a homestead, or I'm gonna get a homestead— and I would be happy for them. There was another kind of person be like, I'm about to travel in an RV or this and that, or a converted school bus like we did. But— and my heart sunk for them. It was— it Don't get me wrong, it was exciting, fun, and I'm so glad we did it, but it nearly killed us. It really nearly killed us. You ever seen those marathon races and the marathon runners collapse at the end? They just absolutely collapse. That was, that was us.

But we have to do it again for Henry.

I'm sorry, Henry. Is he even awake?

No, he's asleep.

I'm sorry, we're not gonna do it the same. If we do the farm tour again, maybe we'll do a 10th anniversary edition. We're so happy. We're so happy here on the farm and staying put. We barely even go to town. Rebecca and I have talked about it. We'll hit all the organic restaurants, which there are very few in America, like real organic, like 100% organic. I think we're gonna just— we're gonna tour those places. What are we gonna call it?

Great American, um, restaurant tour.

The Great American Restaurant Tour. Tour. I like it. That means Trader's Point Creamery in— what was that, Illinois or Indiana? Indiana. Picnic in Austin, Texas. Man, there was a co-op or something, some sort of grocery store in San Francisco. They had all organic pizza buffet, gluten-free too, and a taco bar.

Come on, come on.

There was a hamburger place in San Francisco. I think that's where we'll linger. Actually, I think our bus, honestly was too, too big. And if, you know, if we had to do it again, we would get a newer, more powerful, more sealed up bus. Like, the fumes came in, it was rickety as we drove. I think we'd save money on size and get a smaller, more smooth, powerful ride. Because we had the car on and its front wheels turned, it didn't work like a trailer. You couldn't You actually cannot— you could back up, but you would actually destroy the car. You just should not back up. So if you got into a situation where you needed to back up, like turning down a busy street and finding out that it's a 180-degree turn and you cannot do that in one shot, well, you have to stop in the middle of the road, block all traffic at rush hour, and unhook the car and then back it up. Yeah, true story. Here we are, 4 years later. My member area is exploding. Abundance Plus, we got so many people in there and I'm like, hey, I'm remembering this idea of the farm tour coming on like our 4-year anniversary of being home. And I thought, why not? And I reached out to my members and I said, hey, would anybody want to host We're gonna do this party. Let's do it November 13th, and you guys can show the Great American Farm Tour. It's in Abundance Plus, so you guys can just stream it at your very houses, and you'll sign up for host. We end up having 77 people sign up, 30 states, uh, like 5-ish countries, and now we're opening it up to you guys. I forgot the link in yesterday's video. I'm gonna put it down in the description.

We did 100, um Cities. When I grow up and make these farm tours, at least.

We even went to New York City.

And this is a city.

Yeah. So I'm not gonna let the Great American Farm Tour die. It's a classic story. But you know what? Yes, this isn't about— this isn't about the Great American Farm Tour. Nope, nope. It's like those meetups. This is just an excuse to get together and then y'all meet each other. Wow, look at this. Look at this clean concrete. I like it, I like it. I don't see the hose anywhere. Aha, bless him, he filled up my polar plunge with this thing. He made me a homemade paddle too. That's awesome. One meetup we went to in Michigan with part-time permies, they kept doing it. They kept having an annual meetup and Just recently at Homesteaders of America, we had a members meetup, and a number of people met each other and were like— came up to me and be like, hey, I found a butchering buddy, I found somebody I can bounce my ideas off, they're just right down the street in one case. So I encourage you guys to get in there, look at that directory, see if you can't find somebody near you. There are a lot of people now reaching out to me, oh, I'd be a host, you know, blah blah, there's nobody in here. It's a little too late to get in that directory this year, I welcome anybody. I mean, throw a party, throw a party on November 13th, invite your friends and family. You don't have to ask my permission, I give you. If you're in Abundance Plus, just show, just show the Great American Farm Tour on that day and invite a bunch of friends. And if you're just absolutely not near anybody, can't throw a party yourself, when you sign up down below to see the directory, you'll be in, um, we're gonna make it available online as well. So I understand. So it's going to be available online, member or not, totally free to everyone. That's just my gift and my hope to try and create community. Get in! You're getting your coat wet, bro. Don't drink out of the cold plunge. It's fine. All right. Yes, Papa. The little calf is— is she tangled? Yeah, she's tangled.

I don't know why this isn't on, because I think yesterday when they put the car back, I don't think they've turned back on.

I'm glad we caught that on time. It's connected here. No, that's where you shut off in the field, so the boys must have shut it off. Oh look, no, that doesn't have anything to do with anything. That's tomorrow's. That was disconnected, but it's meant to be. Oh, there it is! Look, the ground— the grounding rod was off. Now test it. 6.8. Yeah, that's good. We're warming up the mower. We're gonna get it out of the way, get our trailer out, because it's butchering soon. Butchering tomorrow. Just one last move. Let's get them on to fresh green grass. What a good way to go. They all made it. Every single one of them. It was 34 degrees last night. I'm a little worried about them. These guys are little, probably going to be 3.5 pounds is what I'm going to guess. In the freezer. That's not crazy little. But we're used to like 4, 4.5 pounds, 5, even 6, 7. But hey, that's what we get for starting late in the season, losing 100 to a rat, losing 40 to cold weather in the spring, and then having to time out because of reactive arthritis. So overall pleased. I mean, this is going to be 175 pounds of meat. That's nice. I'm wiping her down. She feels very empty. The calf must have gotten to her. Let's see if she's even got anything. I don't think so. Boy, that calf really got it. We got you in the stanchion. We'll treat you. We'll treat your teeth. We'll get you your alfalfa and your RC Gold. Yeah, and I'll go ahead and treat her. Her vitamin E is kind of Congealed. Is that the right word for it? It's hardened up because it's cold. This needs to be stored inside. While we're up here, let's see if this is gonna work. It helps me because it's hard for me to squat anymore. My ankles and knees and toes— we use a lot of joints to squat. I think that would work. All right, we'll keep it for tomorrow. This is all that's broken. I'm wondering if Grandma— she knows how to sew— could she bend that over and sew that on there like that? Look who it is! You're ready for anything. I am ready. You're such a good sport, you'll go for anything. I know, I always say yes, including back and forth from Polyface in one day. Yeah, twice. Yeah, yeah, 5.5-hour drive. It's all fun though. That's the film shoot. How's it going in here, Grandma? More skim? What's going on in here? We're just talking. Okay, you ready for the show today, Hilda?

I don't know, I don't even know what we're going to talk about.

Okay, well, this is my first official podcast interview, so— but he's interviewed a lot of people. Don't let him act like it's fun. It's fun to have— yeah, I know, we interviewed a ton of people on the Great American Farm Show, but so this will be like a first down, sit down. This is like— main purpose is the audio. Yeah, but you, you've interviewed a lot of people.

I have, and I have been interviewed as well.

You're also very nice, so this is a good first one for me. She's asking me what we're going to talk about. So, okay, so we're going to, uh, I've done a little bit of research here about hacks. We're going to talk about the health hacks you have. That's kind of your expertise. Love it. You have a lot of experience in other countries and adapting their health practices into this modern-day American society. And then, then I'm sure— because most of my podcast has been about business, so we'll have to tap that. Yeah, so we're going to be all over the place.

It sounds great.

What is something you'd like me to ask that nobody asks you? What do you really want to talk about? What's burning in your heart?

It's actually about spirit, how there's more to our body than meets the eye, and how to develop a positive mindset and a spiritual practice that really can help us live our best lives.

What will make this podcast interview for you a home run? Oh, coming away from it, it's published. What makes it a home run for you?

Well, it's really just the honest conversation and connection with you. Like, I love becoming friends with the people I talk to, whether I'm the guest or the host. Okay, that's the most important thing for me.

Then we're on our way to home run because you've been here 2 days, right? We milked a cow together. Oh, look, Jonah put that together for you. It's the one time you can ride a bike in the house. Yeah, before it gets dirty, so you better enjoy.

Clean shoes inside.

That's right, brand new shoes. Look at this. Oh, I think we need to revive this because of my reactive arthritis. Okay, so it needs to be sewn on. I wonder if it— stay up and rip it. Did you think you could sew it? Sure, you're not that little, so that's why it So then it goes something like that. I'll measure from the other side and put it exactly— yeah, like that. Jason got dropped off early, so we're all doing a little bit of business. What you working on, Rebecca?

I'm, um, I'm coming up with a solution to my problem of all my gluten-free flours. I'm gonna buy these. Okay, it's bamboo lid and they stack nicely. I already measured my cabinets and everything.

1% change every day, babe. We're not naturally organized, but we're trying to change that.

I'm terrible.

Hence all these unbroken down boxes. Jason, this is where the magic happens for Show the Land. This is on this little laptop. Laptop and iMovie. Oh, you're still using iMovie? I'm old school, man. You are. The free version that you get on there. Free version. I know, and you've become a professional YouTuber. Doesn't have to be fancy. No, you just have to do it.

She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes.

She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes. She'll be coming around the mountain.

Ben is here, Jason is here helping him. We've got this going pretty good. Ended up not being too complicated. It's gonna look so good. Got lots of sandbags holding this thing down. Safety first. That's right. Just got a lecture from Ben on all about it. I just tried to scare— I've got to keep the kids out of here. Not on this. Have you done a sit-in? Sit-in with each mic? Yep. We'll see how it looks once everybody's in there. We'll kind of like, we'll kind of start trying to perfect it a little bit. Okay. All right, we're not being too— we're not trying to be perfect here, but all right. How'd the, uh— that looks nice with the lit up photo, huh? Yeah, we— I mean, I can give you a little bit more. There you go. Yeah, now we can really see it. How do you like those GH5s? Well, you're the one that recommended them. Yeah, I was just, I was just telling Nolan I've never touched one. They— the reason we went with GH5 and not the Canons I already have is they don't shut off at 30 minutes. Canons shut off at every 30 minutes to cool down. This looks super nice with the light lamp in the background. Those chairs could be removed. Well, we just wrapped up the show. Little man joined us, nursed, and passed out. How would you say it went, ladies? I think it went good.

I think so too.

Was it a drink? Was it a home run?

Because my water wasn't full, so—

Okay, well, hopefully it'll be a home run for you, Hilda.

Oh, it was, just because we connected.

Don't forget, we made a good connection. We grew deeper in our relationship, created community, experienced community. Totally.

We really do.

So this will go on Abundance Plus first as a video podcast, and then I think over time we'll drip it out to my podcast and, and maybe even on YouTube. We'll see.