Typical Homestead Sunday ISN'T so Typical

There's deer up in our pasture.

Okay. Oh, I see him. They're running.

No, those deer came out of the woods and I was right there. They were like 100 feet away from me.

That's cool.

I tried to track them down acting like a turkey.

What did you find them?

Well, I saw one jump over our fence.

Cool. Well, hello there. It's a little Icelandic chicken. I actually used to live here. Supposed to be living over there with the Chickshaw, but we're having problems. They're getting out. We've got a plan though. We've got a plan to keep them in where they're supposed to be, the Icelandics, because they get out and they wander back here, which is very close to Mom's tomatoes. So how am I going to get you to the right place this morning? There's no catching her. The overflow water is not flowing very hard. I'm gonna have to— probably clogged up with the pond. Today we want to plant into our winter garden and transplant into our winter garden. Got to get these chores done so that then I can help find the stuff, and then I think Beauty actually wants to take it from there. She'll do a great job.

Can you make my dry pig grain?

Sure. So the pigs are 6 months old now, so they're getting 7 pounds a day each. Out in the forest. That's the forest pigs. So that's 2 10-ish pound buckets. Good morning! What happened to you? Looks like you got flushed down a toilet. Oh, what happened?

I took a shower.

You took a shower and didn't dry off, huh? What happened?

It's been stuck for like a week.

You got the hook stuck on the roof.

I think she's probably on a nail or something.

Gideon, I'm going this down below to get a chicken. I'll meet you over there, okay? Good morning, Lily.

Good morning.

She's a busy girl. What are you doing with that waterer? You're watering your garden?

Yeah.

Which one's your garden?

The one beside the, um, that.

Okay, I gotta see this. I didn't know she had a garden. Oh, this one. What'd you plant?

Watermelon, um, and green beans.

Okay, you got some peas coming up. Cool. Two 10-pound buckets is much more manageable than one 20-pound. Turns out I was able to catch that chicken. Kind of hurt it, you know, hold bucket in one hand, kind of hurt it with this one against the A-frame. Caught this chicken, I couldn't believe it. Caught it in the bucket, just kind of kept it here for a little bit. And how to calm a chicken while you hold it is hold it backwards, put your hands between the legs in the back, then it sits on your forearm and it doesn't feel like it's gonna fall. Calms it significantly. See, just put her back in there. All right, the idea is— so these guys have been getting out. They didn't get out the first day, so if we're more diligent about moving them every day like we're supposed to— we've kind of dropped the ball on that a little bit, admittedly. Well, there's all their clothes. Well, before we move them out—

up—

all right, they're rafted. Okay, before we move them out, let's see what's wrong with this overflow water. I'm up at the pond. This is the source of our water. Oh yeah, it's gotten clogged up major. It looked like it hit the bottom. I would show you guys, but I don't want to lose the suction that we got. I need to tie it here so it doesn't hit the bottom. I can tie it to the dock with this strap here. Okay, there we go. Now it won't drift over there into the bank and suck up all the dirt. All right, we got them loaded. We got the fences up. We got the rows and the buckets loaded. Will you guys spot me, lift up this fence when I come through? I'm a little nervous, always going down this path, to be able to pull this thing and stop. I think we did it. So the second thing we're gonna do Let's just put them in one net since we're moving the cows slower, the grass is growing slower. We don't need it big as a paddock, so it'll be more energized and we can take time to more fortify it. I just put our two extra fences away, guys. It's 5 till 9. We gotta stop to milk Flossy at 9:30. Look like she's ready. Hopefully we can get this up and find Mama's stuff. In time. We got one net. We'll get it pretty hot. I am concerned though, it drags, you know, certain places, and I'm pretty sure they're just jumping through that part. But maybe if we get it real hot, maybe this will make it hotter and they won't. I mean, if they're in the air, they don't get shocked, but maybe they'll try to step through it.

Yay!

Fresh cut grass. Holy cow squats. We gotta get that tighter.

Papa, that guinea needs to be shot.

That's a little better. I found one of our problems. The guinea is picking on them, so they don't want to be there. We already got somebody already get out. That guinea's chasing everybody. That's why I don't like running guineas with chickens. You're done, you're done. We got a new flock of guineas coming on. That one can be done if y'all can catch him.

He's done. Come on, Dad, help me try to catch them. Oh look, no, they're huddling in that corner.

Here, we're gonna catch that guinea. Can y'all actually catch a guinea? Yeah, you're not scared?

Come on, come on, come on! You can scare him into the bucket, it'd be great.

All right, I got him. These are much wiry than chickens, much stronger. It's the same holding technique, doesn't really work. They're more Wow. Okay, you got it. Somehow get those 3 chickens back in. Shoot, that's what they do, they just walk right through the upper. We might be in big trouble. All right, let's turn it on and just hope it's gonna shock hard. Jonah's got the guinea. You know, you gotta go because the guinea's chasing the chicks out and the chicks are getting into Mama's tomatoes. So yeah, I'd rather harvest that guinea than the Check.

2.5.

All right, let's see if that's the fence or what. Okay, we have a weak energizer. Hold this just high. All right, look, I can test this energizer.

I wonder if that one's bad. It's not even going off.

It's going to 4, so that's not great. It's not even— maybe it's a bad ground. Let's try it. 4. 4 with nothing attached. That's not good. Just 2.5. That's not really gonna do it.

Can we go get the other energizer?

Yes. But maybe we should harvest that bird first. Can you keep holding that while we go? Yeah, let's, let's get this fence hot while the chicks are occupied eating grains. Let's switch out the energizer. This one's more powerful anyway, it's a 120. It should be unconnected hitting that 8 easy. Do you guys want to go get my other tester? This tester is kind of jacked, but it's going to 6 at least.

Try it with the other one.

That's hitting good. That's hitting good. Oh shoot, what the heck? Why is that getting me? Turn it off. Okay, gosh, it kept shocking me. Is there a hole in this?

Probably.

That could be our problem. It could be because it was wet. We're at 12.1. No wonder I got hit so hard. Okay, there we go. This will shock them. This will keep them in. Let's see what the fence is hitting at. 2.3. It's grounding out in too many places. It's wet, so let's, let's just tighten it up, see if we can't improve on that.

I'm not touching—

no, don't touch that. That's hitting hard. We'll go around and like try to get it off the ground right here. You know, we might have to do the FiberTuff posts. Okay, that's looking better. We're getting this fence off the ground. I don't know if I'm worried about them going under it as much as they are jumping through that top. We're not going to stop them jumping, but we're going to stop them stepping through. 3.7. How did that not help? We totally got this net pretty much off the ground. There's no way we're going to completely get it off. I mean, we might have solved our problem just by getting the guinea out. The guinea's in the cage. Okay, we gotta go take care of that. Try it now. That one last one did get it off the ground quite a bit. 3.8, so we raised it a point. So it's almost 4, it'll get up higher this afternoon so they get more tempted. All right, take care of that guinea. All right, Mom's gonna not want to sit around while I milk, she's going to want to start seeding. So let's get her in the stuff. We, we have our old Earthway seeder, it's not as good as Casey's Uh, Jang, I could bring— it's what we have. Okay, you can bring that, put that out.

I'm gonna take the tarp off here and I'm gonna transplant.

You're gonna do a Rune's Garden? You're gonna transplant? You're gonna leave one row for carrots?

No, carrots are going down here.

Oh, why do we even set that up?

I don't know, you were just obsessed with setting it up.

I thought you were gonna put carrots up in a Rune's Garden. I thought we were running out of time on carrots. I just thought that we— I'm— we might not be, and that probably needs another week at least. Okay, um, but if you think we can—

let me just think.

Sure.

Well, I was gonna do— we can do carrots up here.

No, no, I— you have a plan.

Okay, this is my plan.

I'm not trying to—

we were just going— everything that we were going to keep over winter, we were just going to keep in this garden.

Oh, we were gonna—

yeah, that makes sense.

Keep in the cool room, we were going to put down here because it made no sense. Well, that makes sense.

I can do that. Can I plant cabbages down here where the carrots used to be?

I don't see why not.

That's been tarped for longer than a week, and you—

we may have more time on carrots. I don't know. I'm, I'm just— okay, listen, we gotta stop. It's 9:30. That's going to be part of our prevention plan is we got to milk when we milk, you know, at least within an hour. Every single day. No, because we're just gonna bleed them out and feed it— cooking for the pigs. The guinea is in a cage. Uh, sure, I'd like to harvest him, get him going now, but we gotta milk, so we're having to put some other stuff off. Beauty says she's got all day. It's not supposed to be terribly hot, so I don't have to rush. I don't have to rush for her. I can get her the rest of the stuff after. All right, so why can't BB just get it all ready? Well, I'm disorganized in that area. Every day, in every way, I'm getting better. One day she'll know where stakes— wood stakes are for margin gardens, where the twine is. I'll just say, just go down to the garden stall, it's all there. And if I didn't do anything else today to improve my organization, I at least hung those seed discs out of reach of the niños. Here, let's hang that right there, and then the kids can't get it. So milking her— some of you guys have reminded me that milking her out is not the only possible cause of mastitis, one being manure on the teat, which she happens to have today. I can't do anything about that. She lays down in poop. She's got plenty of clean places to lay, but that is gross, right?

Yeah, I wouldn't lay in poop.

And then the other thing is, you know, washing my hands real good and washing her down after, uh, afterwards, because the milk, the milk, any milk left on the teeth can cause it. Jetter's feeling normal, or almost normal. Anyway, let's, uh, let's see if her milk is— oh, barely any yellow. So I'm saying she's gonna hopefully be completely kicked us today. They're really the only thing left we're doing is we're gonna milk her twice today, uh, give her vitamin C and extra dose of apple cider vinegar. We've gone through the cycle of the the natural remedies, and I think it's done its job. She's, she's 98% better. New routine: cleaning after, making sure I get the very tip. Yeah, look, I'm getting milk. Wow, it's looking good. This soil is so pliable after the animals, after the vegetables, after the tarp. It's so easy. Oh, and you know, we added compost. It's so easy and fun to work with. This is just great. Hopefully let's finish up maybe 10-ish minutes, then we'll take a break for breakfast. All right, we got it, and we got a line set up for Mom to do her seeder of the carrots. We're gonna have another go at the carrots. She she says. If we just cover them, we can actually leave them in the ground all winter and just harvest as we go. Wow, quiche! That's convenient. It's cooking while we're working. You know, quiche is kind of like a farmer's fast food. Yeah, put in the oven, go back to work, come back in 45 minutes later. This is pretty much 100% off the farm right here. Tomatoes, greens, eggs. All right, we've done with breakfast. Beauty's going at it out here, gonna plant your garden. Uh, hope that goes well. We gotta do— the boys and I, we're gonna do the domestic. So would you guys rather see a time lapse of me cleaning the house, picking up the house, or Beauty planting the garden? Okay, yeah, why'd I even ask that? Mom, you guys have done a good job. You and Lily, you've covered this up so the carrots will germinate. I guess we'll water it, but it's kind of no use to water it right now. We'll water it this evening. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, so I'm doing— these are the 3 rows.

Okay, of what?

For kale.

How did you do a straight line?

I just walked it. And then I'm gonna see how close that kale is together, and then I'm gonna mark where we're gonna do. So we'll— I want to transplant these in here, but I also want to put some seeds in here so we kind of have a little bit of a succession.

Do you think that it would be better to do a, do a line? Because we're gonna have to cultivate, we're gonna have to hoe in here.

That's why I did the straight line. Is that not straight enough for you?

You did it, buddy. You walked.

Well, honey, the thing is, is this— I'm gonna have to— I don't think I'm gonna help. I'm gonna weed by hand. That's what I do.

Hey, Mama. No, not if you transplant. You shouldn't have to. Okay, okay. I just did us all a long-term favor, and I just— I did— I did a line. Beauty got pretty close. You guys are filling in gaps where some have failed. Yeah, but you guys are doing a great job. Your goal is to plant this are all the ruins garden, and I don't see why you're not gonna. We're gonna get some shade out here to the beautiful ones. Thank you everybody for helping. Josiah, you can let it down and probably roll now. There you go. Okay, Josiah, we need to do one more thing before I go edit. Let's take care of that guinea. Put him in there before he tries to catch it and shut him in. Shut him in. All right, now catch it. Okay, you're holding it steady.

Yeah, can we hold feet?

No. All right, we got Flossie's milk from the mastitis, and then he's got us some water. Let's see, guys, though, if that's actually helping us. I don't see any chicks out. Oh, oh shoot, I do see one chick out. I see two chicks out. Three, four. Okay, well, they're not staying in. All right, can you guys catch them and let's put them in this chicken tractor? We've already put one with you. All right, they're banished to the chicken tractor. That's a good idea, bro. What happened to your tent? Okay, okay, that did break, probably when we were putting it away. Yeah, I'll move since you asked so nice. Here you are, way on hidden under the umbrella.

That's right.

How you like— what?

Trying not to get sunburned.

How you liking that hori-dori knife?

I like it. It's been really good because I know the spacing.

Yeah, with it you're measuring with it, and then you can digging the ground with it and you're using it as a shovel. That's from Truly— that's from Truly Garden. They sent us one of these. They're on Amazon and I guess it's a multi-purpose. It's a knife, it's a— it's a hoe, it's a— yeah, it's a shovel. So thank you Truly Garden for sending us the Hori Dori knife. We're liking it so far. It's got a nice case too. You put it around your belt.

I don't wear a belt. I did put it in my pocket with it on it. And it didn't poke my booty. Okay, see, look, I've got my caddy here.

Yes, I like it. All right, well, I'm gonna go edit. Hey, do you guys want to time-lapse me editing or Beauty and Lily planting in the garden? Why did I even ask? Checking in with Rebecca. How's it been going?

Great. So kale, I planted kale in this. I transplanted and then I direct seeded a little bit, like maybe, all right, 12 plants.

Okay.

Carrots, kale, this will be lettuce, and I think I'm going to break Swiss chard and collards into this one, and I might put spinach in with the lettuce.

Okay, what do you like? Just two more rows.

Yeah.

Okay, storm. You gotta beat the storm, honey. So we're gonna have to get— she called me out here to get the tarps. We gotta fold these gigantic tarps up. By the way, these are not just regular tarps. These are agriculture-grade tarps. These are called silage tarps, so they don't leach. They're UV treated so the sun doesn't leach the plastic out. Well, she got rained out. That's great for the carrots though. They need to be watered. They're covered, they're not going to get washed away. That's great, Rebecca. It's going to force you to take a rest.

Yeah, because I wasn't going to.

Nope, she was going to push through. She even said, you want to know how much we get— you want to know how we get so much done? We don't eat. I just this. Well, no, we eat a late breakfast.

Yeah, we sometimes have an early supper and this snacky lunch. Yeah, sometimes. I was joking and saying that. I know, but I know we also don't say yes to anything but this. Yeah, so like going to the movies this weekend, it's a lot. So once when we leave the farm, once a quarter event, when we leave the farm, it takes took us days to plan it.

It's 5 o'clock, picking music. One more song for the vlog. You know what, it's time. You smell it? You smell it? You got smell-o-vision? Looky vision right here. Oh, let's take that cap off. Oh yeah, Rebecca told me to come get her at 5, but then I saw how much fun she's having and her mom's here, so I couldn't just pull her away. Offered to get it going. It's not that hard. Let's get the squash in the oven. Josiah just added the squash. Got some green beans from the farm queued up. Mr. Brown, Grandma fixed your four-wheeler.

Yeah, Papa, I hadn't had a four-wheeler in my whole life.

Okay, well, there's always time for a first. Goodwill score from Grandma. Oh look, Lily's been begging me to get on this. Think I should get this on this evening? The Rockin' Rooster?

This evening, huh?

This is for the 24 hours living with the chickens. Oh, not for 24 hours, but I gotta act like a chicken at some point in that, right?

Yeah.

What else am I gonna do? It's gonna be so boring.

Sit and draw things.

Should I put the chicken on and come to supper like that for Grandma and Big Daddy? Tonight we're going to— it's a member webinar, it's a premium member webinar. But you know what, tonight let's do— we're about to open up fall registration for my member area, but this week we're gonna give away some of it in videos. And so I'm calling it the Do-It-Yourself Abundance Crash Course. I'm gonna give you guys the replay. How about the replay answering popular questions from members? You guys get it for free. Sign up for it down in the description, no obligation. You get that webinar video, but you get a video from the Hollers, from Mike, from Mike Dixon, the Fit Farmer, Casey, Jason, Ben and Meg, all alumna, all free. Link down in the description. Enjoy that.

Okay, here we go. Chicken feet.

All right, let's hope it fits. These will be my pajamas when I'm out there, okay?

I'll put them on when I go to sleep.

I won't.

Oh boy. I thought it was off, Papa, because it is soft. It's got a little deformity.

Lily put my foot on. Jonas put my other foot on.

You think they think I'm a chicken?

Yeah.

Don't tell Grandma and Big Daddy. They'll come out like this. And Mom. Okay, let's finish this edit. We'll come out and surprise Big Daddy, Grandma. And the beautiful one. What do you think? You think he'll take care of the chickens?

I think the chickens are gonna be scared of you.

I think the roosters are gonna hate you.

Do your chicken dance.

Do your chicken dance.

Do your scratch.

Do your scratch. Do your scratch.

Oh my gosh, okay, let's get out of this. Here comes Grandma.

He's not coming.

Come on, she's out here doing dishes.