Unpopular Opinion : 24 Years of Marriage

Happy day! Very special day. It's our anniversary. We've been married 24 years. We've been best friends for 30 years. Very hot right now, and these guys are more mature. They're looking pretty big even at just 6 and a half weeks old. They mean— are they gonna be ready to harvest? Well, no, be 7 weeks in a couple of days. The beautiful one and I, well, we aren't going away for our anniversary, and I think that's okay. And to be honest, I don't even— oh, we should get the other water going, Henry. I'll continue that thought in a second. We're doing 3 waters. I've never had to do 3 waters before. So hot, and we probably have more survivors at this stage than in the past. You start with 125 now instead of 100. We didn't really do go anywhere for our 20th anniversary, and next year will be our 25th. We're probably not going anywhere then either. You see, we've created a life where a lot of living beings are dependent on us. It's a very satisfying life, but a lot of human beings are dependent on us. I mean, you're still very close, especially with Mama. Okay, there's 100 and something chickens right here, and it's going to be 90 degrees. We're there, but we're not there. I mean, we went and had a a, um, midlife crisis, and we're like, oh wait, we're gonna get too old to have children, we better have one more. So we basically started over again when our youngest was that— I mean, we were in that stage. Come on now, I'm not saying I regret it. You ever met a parent that said they would regret a kid? I mean, no parent would ever admit to that, would they? Andrea, if you're watching this in the future, That's not what I'm saying. We do not regret you at all. But to be honest, it did put us back into the baby/toddler, whatever stage he's in now as a 4-year-old. Uh, what I'm about to say, and I'm trying to figure out how to say it, I might have to let the camera roll for a minute just to make sure I nail it. Uh, it's probably not popular opinion. At least in the circles I've been exposed to. Let me get John started. Let's get out. Let's get away from the two men. Okay, keep two men going. They look pretty almost ready for— I know, Wednesday they're 7 weeks old. You're supposed to harvest them at 8 weeks, so— but with new country delaying our feed order, we don't know when that's coming. These guys are getting pretty close. We might have to harvest them sooner than later. Welcome back. How was your Excursion to Texas. It was fun. All right.

Good morning. It is mine and Justin's anniversary today. We're— we've been married 24 years. I'm gonna weed and get some grass clippings in where there's shallow, kind of prune, do stuff with the cucumbers and tomatoes, stuff like that. Fun stuff. So. Uh, Justin and I are going on a date. Oh, we got some peppers! Look at that! Oh yeah, that's great. So we've got peppers coming on. These are kind of like the specialty peppers. I've got some lunchboxes, I've got a poblano, poblano, jalapeños, stuff like that. So, um, yeah, I'm gonna probably pick some basil, maybe pick some, some herbs. We'll see. I've lost one of my yellow crooknecks. Um, I don't know what happened. I'm gonna take that out, get rid of it. I planted some crooknecks yesterday in the garden. The boys string trimmed in here, which is so nice, um, to be able to walk around and have that. I wonder what the beets are doing. Oh, they're just looking good. Put some more grass clippings in here. We've got some lettuce going. Hopefully it's not too hot the next couple of days. The next couple of days are gonna be scorching hot, which is annoying.

You can walk backwards.

You might hit the wall. Watch out. That was easy. That was easy? 4 jars gave me a jar opener. I've never done it before. Mom, it's a little one. It's a little one? Yeah, it's a little handle. How do you do it? What am I doing wrong?

Aha!

If we read the directions, it's not that hard. That's amazing. I'm headed back out.

I don't think it's necessary for couples, at least us, to get away on our anniversary. There, I said it. Or get away much at all. See, we've set up a life where we're together a lot. I would imagine it would be important. I don't know your situation if you're not together a lot. And you don't have time to be with each other and talk and spend each other and build the core. That's the family, the marriage, so that then you can minister to the children, which is, I guess, ultimately why we got married is to recreate ourselves. But there's a societal pressure to, oh, you got to go, you got to get away, you got to leave the kids. Well, maybe this isn't our Maybe it isn't the phase that we're in. It's not the phase that we're in. These kids are going to be grown before I know it, and we're going to be married longer without dependent children. So the 6 years before we had children and the however many years after that our children are going to be largely independent and not need us— I'm not saying they won't be around— we're gonna have time for this. And now is not the time, and the marriage is the long haul. We're in it for life, so what's the rush? What's the hurry? John, we gotta get these turkeys in. So this is like the third day in a row they've gotten out. The little pig net is not working for this batch. Thinking about it now, how do we do it? Well, Rebecca and I— well, every day after supper we go on a walk together, and generally the kids are not allowed to come. We try to get them occupied with something. And so each day we have that time together. Of course, there's little bits of time in passing. There's times we work together. But officially, at least daily, every day, 7 days a week, we know after supper we're gonna go on a walk together. Okay, I'm gonna go check on them, and as soon as we get the side-by-side, we're gonna move these pigs.

Why do we need to get everybody water?

Because it's gonna be 90 degrees, bro. Let's get it. John and Nat, these turkeys are gonna get got if we keep letting them out. Let's get a net for these turkeys because they keep on getting out, and that means They're gonna get killed. Everybody wants to eat a turkey. We just want to beat them to it. John asked if pig net's too short for them. Yeah, apparently it is. I mean, for, for at least 3 years we've been using pig nets for turkeys, but something about this batch, they must have got a wild gene in them. You know how to set up a net? I do. Okay, okay, you're gonna get the feed. Thank you, Henry. I'll get in. I'm gonna finish my little video essay here. Yes, you can. You do them then. No, you can, but you're not gonna. Uh, this will be interesting. Video essay while Gideon's finishing filling up the buckets. This is a homesteader's day right here. We were gonna go overnight to Raleigh, the state capital, and show our support against, uh, immunity for chemical companies in agriculture in North Carolina. We are obviously not supportive of them getting immunity. If they harm someone, people ought to be able to sue them, right? Uh, and why is the government interfering? Are the government for the people or not? I'm, I'm coming to start to wonder if they are. I grew up in thinking and believing whole in my heart the government was here for us. But I'm wondering— that's not even the video essay. What was I gonna say? Okay, we were gonna go to this thing. That was our date, all right? We were gonna go to Raleigh, have a, have a nice meal. There's a Bull City Burger there, grass-fed burger place. Then we were gonna go to this, uh, we were gonna go to a tiny house Airbnb on a farm and then go to this hearing and come home. But the more we thought about it, the more we're like I don't know if we should. It's kind of difficult. Come on, load the, load the, load the things.

I did.

Full buckets? Okay, put them in the truck. Thank you. So I don't know if we can leave him alone. Henry is very attached to Mom. He might be weird not with her at night. We might pay for that for several days. It's going to be very hot. It's 90 degrees. This is— it's just not— oh, we were gonna— it'd probably be $500 by the time we need to get Ashley to help with the kids during the day. The, the Airbnb, the, the wear and tear on the car. And I mean, and count time, just that, it's probably nearly $500. So I don't know, maybe, maybe it'll be that much sweeter when the kids do grow up and when we are out of debt. See, we really need to top these off. And I just feel like we got caught up on the farm after getting back from the event. Watch him get in. I am stressed. Out about this feed. 10 days is too much when it's supposed to be 7 days max, because 5 business days is the tote allowance. Best quality of feed I found— there's a local-ish company that the animals were performing like 50%. We might start experimenting with Azure. I don't know, the delivery was tricky or something. I forget, Victor. I don't know. I guess I need to start ordering 2 weeks before. I think I need it. What am I gonna do? We have— we can tap into our poultry feed, but that's going fast too. And pigs and chickens, unlike cows and sheep, are dependent— okay, go have it, breakfast is ready— they're dependent like 80%, 90% on this grain. I need this to get the pigs over. Hopefully this is tall enough. I didn't think pigs could jump, and then I tried to move Beefcake with this. The jack has bent over. Whoa, it's gone through the trailer. Why is this out here? We have a bass shed called the shed, the bass shed, the big shed. I hope no snakes are under this. Some guy just got airlifted out of Pisgah, got bit by a rattlesnake. John, a local friend of mine, brought my son You've been coming and helping on the farm for how many years? Um, your whole life. Now he's got a little part-time job working for us. What do you do with all that money? Well, mostly right now just buy birthday presents and other small items. Well, my birthday's on Halloween, okay?

Yep.

It's easy to remember. All right, my boys are back. You want to get on?

You're driving.

Don't pop the Gonna just set it up right here. We're using— gonna use the pigs to help us restore the land here. Hurricane washed a lot of the topsoil away. Now Rebecca and I aren't gonna do nothing right here. We're gonna— yeah, you can start right there and then go that way. We are gonna make a day date, which is more appropriate at this season in our life. We're back with the kids at night. We can check on the animals' waters this evening. It's a heck of a lot less expensive, and we aren't 100% sure they're even gonna hear that part of the bill in Raleigh. So are we really needed? And even if they were, how effective is two more people? So we've called all the Congress— Rebecca's called all the congressmen, and that's—

I feel like that's all we can do.

We've got our paddock set up. It's huge. We did two nets. I don't Feel like the pig's net's big, that big over there. Hey, do you think they'll get in without, without, uh, panels? Yeah, don't push them. There you go. Oh, we got one. We might have to go get the pig panel, Jonah. I'm gonna have Josiah go get a pig panel, guys. Uh, pig panels. See if we get pig panels. Go get the pig panel. Go get pig panels. Going through the jungle. To Rich Mullins. Is our pig panels over at the bass shed? There's only cattle panels. They've got two in. Okay, you got to watch that edge.

It's going to be—

there we go. Are they going to stay? Let's go before we find out.

You have to find it yourself.

I found it. Can't get it into neutral.

Oh, crap.

How'd you do that?

Huh?

You just banged. All right, now that they're in, we went and got the water and their shed. That's gonna be the first priority, get this water going. I don't think it's coming that great off the mountain. This side of the creek, we're depending on the mountain water. It doesn't seem to be flowing very strongly. Second most important thing, shade. They might have some throughout the whole day with these trees, but just in case, let it down real quick before we check to see if that water's filled up Jonah's cabin. We're making some real progress here. They've been really busy. Sheetrock. So Randolph's cutting and you boys are hanging? Yep, hanging sheetrock. Let's check it out. They've done the master bedroom.

Is the water filled up?

Not even filled. Shoot. Oh wow, nothing. Okay, do we hurry up and try to fix that water line, or do we just get water off the well? Yeah, it's our anniversary. We should probably just get water off the well. You're probably looking for water, aren't you? Yeah, we have to take care of this before we leave. It's got to be higher. The source is going to be higher. Or go to that line right there, and then there's another hose down there at the end. Creek goes straight. It actually used to bend and go down through there to the edge of the bank and then down, but I think in the end it's gonna be more beautiful. Yeah, this is long. I I can feel it. Beautiful day for our anniversary. It's hay cutting time too. Hold on, let's connect it.

I'm gonna make this jump.

Get in. This could be one reason it wasn't filling up. I mean, not really, the water stopped. You gotta plug it up at the bottom. Good old well water. Electric pump.

Oh, the sun is now out, so it is going to heat up. Today is going to be our first day of 90, over 90-degree weather. It's gonna be 91. Hopefully no animals ran out of water. We told the kids that we are going to check it 3 times today. We need to be on this making sure that everybody has what they need. Victor Justin Rhodes. So yeah, here we are back in the garden. Yesterday I planted 2 pepper plants and I forgot to water them, so I'm gonna water them right now in hopes that they revive. I don't know, they were really small pepper plants. They got missed in the planting yesterday. We asked Henry, we said, how many plants are left? And he said, just one. And it was the one he had in his hand. He didn't understand what we were saying, obviously. Then when I walked over, there was more. So I was like, oh, I'll just plant them. Where is this coming from? Oh, there it is. Okay. Oh, look at that! That's a beauty. Okay, one thing that I've been doing is— this is the goose. She likes this grass, so I feed it to her. She's chilled out on me a lot now. I think that she knows that I'm her friend. All right, since today's our anniversary, I'm not going to pick the herbs. I'm going to wait to do that tomorrow. Um, I think that it'll be fine to wait a day. And, um, I'm gonna— because I, I won't have time to do it because I still have to go work out and then get ready, and then we're gonna go on like an afternoon date as opposed to like an evening date. So, um, and then we'll be gone like all afternoon so that we're here for dinner and bedtime with the kids. So I decided against— oh, that sun, it's not a great light. Sorry about that. Hope you guys can still Trying to show you guys what I'm doing here with the tomatoes. So one time on the internet, I think it was on Instagram, I saw a woman in her garden, I don't know where, and she had bush— like, it was the whole arch, and it had the most the most glorious tomatoes on it. Like, they were like this, and just, it was thick. And she was like selling some gardening course. You can just put them right here, Lily. Thanks, Lily's being an MVP. Went and got me some clips from the high tunnel, so I'm clipping. You can see here, clipping the tomatoes to the trellis so they kind of grow to it. So like, ever since then, I was like, oh man, I want that. I want that in my garden. But alas, I live in a super humid— not that it's very humid here. I live in a very humid— Lily's like, it's not that humid. I'm like, yeah, it's hot and humid. I think that that must have been out west. Like, now the more I think about it, it has to have been out west because there's no way on earth that this could be like this. So I'm trimming for airflow. Airflow. So here, like, this is probably too much leaves here. I need to cut some of that off. I'm trimming suckers off. So like, here was a sucker. I'm, I'm not completely trimming suckers off. I've left some, but overall I'm trying to just create airflow. I'm cutting off any like leaves that are like starting to look like they've gotten some sort of fungus or blight on them, you know, that sort of thing. So That is what I'm doing. For all you people who are like, she's murdering her tomatoes, I'm just trying to help them survive. Oh, there's a squash bug. I'm gonna squash him in my, in my clippers. Oh shoot, he evaded me. I'm gonna have to put you guys down so I can get him. A gigantic zucchini. Super excited about that. I'll have to eat that for dinner tonight. Little cukes. I bought these, they're called Quirks. I don't know if this is how big they're supposed to get or if they're supposed to get bigger. Those were the biggest, so I was like, maybe they're ready. And then we got 2 cucumbers, and we got 1 cucumber yesterday. We have basil, so I'm gonna cut that back tomorrow. Um, and dill, we have dill. And Lily remembered the basil pizza that we had on the Great American Farm Tour in 2017. And then look, first tomato! One thing that you may be dealing with are squash bugs and eggs. So what I'm doing is I have a a jar of soap water. I'll put squash bugs in here too. I'm gonna put these Japanese like beetles that look like— they look like, um, what you call it, ladybugs. Thank you. They look like ladybugs, but they are not. They are very deceiving. This one right there, pretty nasty. And if you don't do this, they will just— you do it with your hands. It's so gross. I really hate touching the squash bugs with my hands. I don't know why. The ladybug— the orange ladybugs, I don't really care about orange ladybugs. See, like, harm stuff. Yeah, they eat— they eat the— like, see this right here? That's because of the ladybugs. Yeah, look at all this damage. Okay, this can be another ritual that you could do every morning, is coming out and— and I just leave it out here. Like I'll just put the lid on it and it'll stay out here. And then, um, once it gets, you know, fuller, I'll like change the water. The chickens don't really eat these bugs, so you just throw them away or just put them on the ground, you know, like they don't have to be done anything special to dispose of them. But the, um, the chickens don't eat these bugs. So I guess they know they're gross. And we'll leave you with that. We're gonna keep— we're gonna keep on the hunt for more squash bugs. Henry just came into the garden. What is that, Henry? It's a cucumber. And what is it? Is it a baby cucumber? Yeah, he said these are the babies. Oh, this one is so big. Those are It's spiky. It is spiky.

I don't know, that looks like somebody's celebrating 20, 24 years. Anyway, we're gonna go on a day date. It's a home service kind of date anyway. We'll see if we can't make this very special, just staying home and saving a lot of money.

I love you, Papa.

Oh, I love you too. I love you too, buddy.

I love you, Mama.

Goodbye. Hugs. Hugs. We'll be back. You think he would have done it all right if we'd left?

I don't know.

He would have been fine.

I think he would have been fine eventually. I think there would have been some weeping and gnashing of teeth though, also.

All right, special date. I get to drive. I'm still not as good as getting around as you.

We might not make it.

She's still got ideas of how drives should be done. We are going to We're going to Pisco Bakehouse. We should probably put it in and then you won't have to bother me.

Justin and I have been talking. One thing we've established is that we're old.

I thought you were gonna say we're gonna go to El Chapala Mexican restaurant.

Well, we did just talk about that, but we used to—

we miss it.

Justin and his friends used to go mountain biking in Pisco, which we just passed. And then they would go eat at El Chapala, and I saw it on the map and I pointed it out to him and he was like, ah, so good.

We just eat the seed oils and GMOs.

I know, maybe you should just take the boys sometime to go do it. I— we used to eat El Chapala quite frequently actually. Justin's dad loved Mexican, and so we ate Mexican Mexican a lot, just in general. If you'd say you want to go out to eat, it was always Mexican. We're almost to the restaurant. I'm very excited to try this. Jonah came here with one of his friends after, um, biking in Pisca.

Tastes good. I'm starving. 91.

Good time for a hike.

It was not this hot.

Thankful it's in the woods. What's your rating?

Of that food?

Yeah. I mean, I can't believe it's $90 to eat out to eat. I know, not at a fancy restaurant. It's just what it is. We would go back.

Yeah, I enjoyed it.

Anniversary.

I mean, let's see, if we take our kids, it would be so expensive.

Easy.

We just need to make a pizza, um, a wood-fired pizza oven in the back of our car.

In the back of our car?

In the back of our— in our house.

We were over in Brevard, so we might as well go on a hike in Pisgah. Really easy hike to a waterfall. We passed on the 100 miles. Nice bike ride. 3 degrees cooler here than just in downtown. It's a cool 88. Some of these people, they laugh because, oh yeah, they're in Missouri or middle Tennessee and it's 104.

Well, it feels like 104.

That is a free country.

You can move, but don't move here.

A tenth of a mile in, we're taking a break.

I worked out this morning, and I don't know what my excuse is.

It's hot.

Oh, we just pigged out.

No, well, my calves, my upper calves my knees are hurting, so whatever I did today, maybe.

This is probably one of the most easily accessible waterfalls in Pisgah that's not right off the road. We have it to ourselves right now. Feel how cool it is right here?

So nice.

5 degrees cooler here. How was the hike back?

It was great. I enjoyed it a lot.

You're scared when I take you on hikes. I know this.

I am a little nervous because we've had some experiences where he takes me on crazy hikes or bicycle rides or whatever.

No, it wasn't.

Break a sweat. I glistened, but it is It's really hot. So glistening definitely is normal. It's just crazy to think of what was happening during Helene there, you know.

I'd like to have been here to see it.

I know.

We couldn't have gotten here. Well, I mean—

There were 5 trees over our road.

Maybe we could have eventually, but— I'm pretty sure Pisgah was closed after that.

There were trees all over this road too.

Yeah, I know it was flooded and Pisgah, there's something special.

Here.

Every time I come, I'm always like, I need to go here more.

Hey, we're back! Can we get a hug? Come here. Ah, they want to see their treats. Is this our $20 anniversary present?

This is our last one. $20?

What do we get, a bunch?

Uh, yeah, they don't come single. Like, it's weird.

I haven't had a wedding ring in I don't know how long.

Okay, black.

Okay. With this ring, I be wed.

It's silicone, so if it gets caught on something—

Gotta do it on me.

I don't get my finger caught.

I hope that fits.

It looks kind of small. Mine's a little tight.

Gotta say it. With this ring, I be wed. Are you gonna wear that forever?

Yeah.

No, just try it on your leg. You just do a little modeling. You have to get used to it at first.

I know.

Remember when we— remember when we got married and, um, when I put the ring on, you went like this in the video?

I know, I, I— it's crazy. It took me forever to get used to it. Oh, how's your, uh, sauerkraut doing from yesterday?

Look at it, it's got more liquid in it.

Wow, it's— we're about to do our That would last us a week right there, easy.

Oh look, it's got bubbles!

I'm ending it there. Happy day. Thanks for joining us on our anniversary. Thank you. Just your time and attention is present enough. We appreciate it.