Water, Food, and MINERALS

We'll divide and conquer. You go to the pigs and I'll go to the chickens.

It's Josiah's birthday and it was Jonah's idea to get up early and surprise him by doing the chores. Good morning, birthday boy! How old are you today? 12. Yes, big brother got you.

I'm making cake.

Why are you smiling?

Because the kids are arguing in the background about something.

Oh, it's okay. This is real life, Becky. You're making yellow cake, the classic.

I'm making spice nut cake.

You're making spice nut cake, which is a blend of Danielle Walker's yellow cake plus spice nut cake spices. Yeah, which is a tablespoon of cloves, teaspoon of cinnamon, a cup of walnuts. Chopped.

Do not do it.

Add before egg whites.

So basically what I did is I had tried to adapt the regular recipe, um, that was like— it's like in the— it's in that red and white checked cookbook. I don't— I think it's Betty Crocker cookbook. I don't know, it's like a classic. So that is the spice nut cake that I had always used growing up, but it of course uses gluten. Gluten. One day I was like, I I just need to find a grain-free yellow cake and then I can add the spices that are in that recipe to the yellow cake and make a spice nut cake and it worked. So the yellow cake that I chose was from Celebrations, Daniel Walker's cookbook.

Where's Jonas? Is he wrapping presents?

I think he is.

Y'all wrapping presents?

We just put it all in there.

Project for today, we're gonna keep working on this mineral shawl. It's a must, guys. It's a must. Water, food, and minerals. Hey, Rebecca, did y'all mark the mineral— the new mineral feeders?

No.

I'm gonna leave them off then. I'll get all the supplies. Uh-oh, my drill bits weren't put back already. My tools in my closet is not working. Hey, Jonah, I said to put the tool bits back yesterday. They're not back.

They're down in the garage next to my drill.

That's not back. Okay, we march them up to my closet.

Yes, Papa.

I hope there's not one drill bit missing.

There isn't.

Let's go. Now wait, let's see if there's not anything missing.

Oh my, those—

there's one missing. Oh my gosh.

Oh, there it is.

Okay, that better be right. All right. Hey, I want to work with you on your birthday, bro. The problem is the calves get under here and knock these minerals off, and we need to put a protective guard in front of them. It can go too big and the post is too small. So the idea is to put a wooden frame. I did that off the Luchador wrestling ring and it worked. The idea is to put a frame around this. And if that goes out 6 inches, it'll be all right. Since we're going to repeat it on both sides, 2 70-inchers. You could get that 2x6, we'll rip it in half. Yeah, and then some scrap 2x4s will do it. I'm being careful with my voice because I'm going to be doing my audiobook all afternoon. What you doing?

I'm gonna write on the mineral feeders what the actual mineral is, but you need the electric What are you climbing for? I'm gonna do the drum roll.

Can't hold Grandma down. She's got to be doing something. She's organizing our stall. Got 2 strip boards and 4 2x4s. Looks good. That's gonna work. There's a screw that couldn't come out. We got stripped. You gotta get as close as you can. It's not working. Can I break it off by bending it back and forth? Now we need deck screws, but I don't think we have any. I think we're out. We'll see if Big Daddy has any.

Shut the door, please. I think I've got some 3-inch out there in the, um, 3-inch will work.

You found some? Yeah. Cool, thank you. She's marking the initials for the minerals. So we can identify what needs what out in the field. Fast. Okay. Oh, not so fast. You ripped that one. All right. No, no, you have to go straight at it. Fast. And at the angle. At the angle.

Here, I'll help you a bit.

We've got our minerals. In place on there. But unless we make the same mistake, we're gonna put the frame around them now. This thing ended up being too— look, it's the— the legs are too short. I'm supposed to put this in front. Yeah, that makes sense anyway. Go up right up to the— the labels. Jonah, can you hold up this end? This is so satisfying. Look at that wood frame around this thing. They can't bust it off now. Rebecca's marking on top with a marker for now until we get a burner. They can't rub it as bad if it's on top. A little mineral spill on it and we lose it eventually. This has been a nice little sheep shaw. Plans for this, by the way, are in Abundance Plus. Free trial going on right now at abundanceplus.com. Guys, do we have rice?

I think so.

If we do We're gonna squeeze out some Japanese. We have some raw steak left over. We do have some cold rice, and there's some of that. We don't need a whole lot. And we have some leftover chicken. Oh, there we go. Bring out the rice. Bring it all out. We're doing this. Heavy steak.

That's okay.

You guys want to see a butterfly? Chef Blue taught me that trick. Thanks, Chef Lou. That's also a good dad joke. Lily's frying the onions. So I just cut up the zucchini. We got the steak ready. That's what we need to put in here, I guess. Steak. We need another pan for rice.

What about chicken?

I would have liked to hear the sizzle there. I didn't let the pan get hot enough. Redmond, how about from way over here? Ready? Ready? Oh! Oh, oversalt. Can I try now? Yep, let Lily try. Oh wow, she just chucked it. Okay, let's just pick it up and put it in there. It's sizzling now and I managed to get a sear. That's good. Just added the chicken. This is probably delicious. The zucchini turned out nice. Salt on everything. A little bit on the eggs, zucchini, onions. A little bit more on the meat, on the rice. You don't want to oversalt because you can always add more salt later. We don't do soy in this family, so what do you do? What do you do instead? It's called coconut aminos. Tastes just like it, maybe even better. And it's got that— it's got that, uh, soy sauce feel to it. Add your eggs in here. I didn't have enough room for the eggs and the rice. Cool. Birthday boy first. What's your birthday wish?

Have a good birthday. Mmm.

If he could have anything in the world, he wishes for a good birthday. I think we can make that happen. Hey, what do you want to be when you grow up?

I don't know.

You're not sure? You're still undecided?

I know what I want to be when I grow up.

What?

A farmer.

Ah. What's your biggest guess, Josiah, if you're gonna watch this when you're 25, and you're gonna make your best guess now? Farmer. Your guess is you'll be a farmer.

Yes.

We could use a pig farmer.

I know what I'm gonna be.

What?

A cook farmer.

Oh, you're gonna be a cook? We could use a cook too. Give me a break.

I'm gonna be a bee farmer.

You want to be a what?

A bee farmer.

A bee farmer? We could definitely use that. I will let every single one of you create jobs here for yourself in my business, and it will become your business. Okay guys, everybody is more than welcome to stay and work here. Actually, we're gonna make it as lucrative as possible so that you do. That means your own projects, probably. You too, little man. It'll be interesting to see what your role is. I asked him yesterday, how do I not lose my voice? A hot drink. They offer tea. I don't, I don't really like to eat plants, so Fruit's good. They said fruit, apple, and water, of course. I had that yesterday, but warm drink. I'm just gonna warm up some milk, put a little bit of cinnamon in it. This is your coolest idea for transporting this stuff?

So you can put it on there like this.

No cool metal lunchbox?

No, I'm sorry. Bye.

You're going on errands. You're gonna come see me at the studio.

Come and see you at the studio.

I'll be at the studio.

Yes.

Bye-bye, birthday boy. Bye, have a good one. Well, we have a few minutes, so they decided to come look at it now before I get started, and then that way I don't get interrupted. So look, guys, that's where I'm at.

Is this where you're—

we keep it dark.

The booth.

What is the idea of dark? I see that all the time in the music world.

It's just a way to relax people.

It's relaxing. I like it.

We can turn the overhead on.

No, it's good. I like it.

Sometimes the fluorescent lights kind of tax It helps me focus.

So there's a little iPod there, or iPad, something like that, and I scroll that so I don't have to turn a page and make noise.

Oh good, I was wondering about that actually.

And Matt, he stands over here, he's doing the hard work. Oh wow, he's running the mixer.

Yeah, and then we're—

he has to back up a lot. I read a few sentences, mess up, and he's got to back up. We gotta start over where I messed up. Yep.

And we got the director in Portland, Oregon.

Yeah, live.

They're on this Zoom meeting. If I push this button, he, Justin, in this room hears me, and then also, uh, the director Carrie will hear.

Oh, can you hear me?

Can you hear us? Hey, we've got a family in tow and we're showing them how everything's working around here.

Oh, awesome! That's cool. They came along for the tour.

Everybody, can you say hi from Fletcher, North Carolina? 1, 2, 3.

Hi!

Fletcher, North Carolina.

Fletcher is a person who puts the feather on a bow.

Oh.

Or an arrow, I mean.

I'm sorry.

And a bowyer is who makes the boat.

Home sweet home. I have wrapped it up. We did 2 and a quarter chapters today, and that was after a style switch. My voice is staying strong. It's gonna be so good. This is very hard work, but I reckon this audiobook will be out there forever-ish. It is now party time. Oh look, that's festive! Y'all hung up lights? Are you ready to party? Yes, yes, let's party! Hey everybody! Oh boy, let's get Teddy taken care of. Hi, you remember me? Yummy! These chicken nuggets look amazing.

They're like— they look like chips, kind of.

All right, Mom, Grandma, we're lighting the candles.

Happy birthday to Josiah. Happy birthday to you. Blow it out. Yep.

Who's this from? Better open this one next to go with those batteries.

Go for it.

Oh, you know what it is? Yes. All right, it is a trail cam. So when we put our guts out You can put this up and see what kind of wild animals—

another cow camp?

Gideon, you want to bless the birthday boy?

Josiah's a good boy because he likes to play with me in the dirt and he is a nice— and he likes to go places with me.

That's nice. Oh no, I wasn't ready yet. He likes to go play with him.

I like Josiah because he's my older brother and because he's nice. Josiah's a nice little brother. Me and him like to play. And we have a lot of fun together.

Well, just, I remember when I was pregnant with you and they couldn't find your heartbeat. When, let's see, they couldn't find it at like 10 or 11 weeks, and so then they had me come back at 13 weeks and we still couldn't find it. So they had, had me go do an ultrasound, and I was just so worried that something was wrong. And so we went to the ultrasound and they put it on my belly and there you were just bouncing around, moving your arms and legs. And it was just because my placenta was in the front and they couldn't, couldn't go through it. So I was so happy that, that nothing was wrong with you. We found out you were a boy and we were excited because Jonah would have a— you guys, we knew that you guys would be best buddies. So you're my second child, second boy, but first home birth. So that makes you special 'cause you were the guinea pig on that one. You've always been very quiet, but when you speak, we always listen because you always have something to say and it's usually profound or funny or both.

Josiah, where were you born? Right here. Right there.

There's more over here.

Let's get it straight.

There's more in this area, but that's fun.

When your mom got pregnant with Henry, you were the only one that wasn't really excited. But now that Henry's here, you're like one of the ones that are most excited. You have a nice relationship with him, so I say that to say you're the guy that is kind of like, "I don't know, maybe not," but then you actually do it. That's better than being the guy who says, "Yeah, I'm gonna do that. Yeah, let's do it," and doesn't do it. So I'm glad you're that guy, and I'm proud of you for that.

My friends Bill and Kathy, he wanted me to give you a blessing. He said, "The Lord loves you." And I said, I tell I can't tell you, but I'm thankful that you like to help me in the kitchen and you like to peel potatoes and make the salads, and you're just an all-around great guy helping in the house.

Josiah, you're the quiet one of the whole bunch. You say the least and you listen. And I, I've noticed that you do a lot of the stuff that maybe the other children don't want to do, and you help Mom and Dad. And, uh, that's, that's a very good, uh, characteristic for you to have in your life. You're a real helper, and we all appreciate that. There's all kind of chaos in You're just sitting there. What are they gonna do next? I think you bring peace a lot of times by not contributing to what's going on. They just sit there and watch. I don't know what you're thinking, but I know you're thinking about something. You're a real blessing to the family, and we love you.

Hug time!

You're growing up.