We Built a Compost Machine Powered by PIGS

Uh, what's going on? I'm like in the 60s. I wake up and my blood sugar spikes. And I felt extra tired this morning. It's called the dawn phenomenon where your blood sugar spikes in the morning. It should be at its lowest. As soon as I start waking up, but I've never seen it go out of my range and 17 points out of my goal range. I don't know what caused that spike this morning, but my best thought is the only thing I know to lower it quickly is some exercise. So I'm doing something, ready or not, walking around on the farm. The skim milk has been sitting here. Honestly, I'm a little worried because I didn't eat late last night. I've been doing— I was doing good for 9 days, like I kept it under my range 9 straight days. Okay, I panicked for nothing. Well, I'm at 100, but then it shows the spike never— that never occurred. I've only been over a little over 100. I brought it down maybe 10 points. I bumped it. Ah, I bumped it again. I bumped it again. Okay, okay, don't bump it, Justin. Don't bump it. Guys, I'm so excited. I've been working so hard to lower my blood sugar and I've been successful, and that was a real It was a real scare. Scare might be a strong word. Discouragement. My average is like 88, guys. I'm kicking this in the butt. La la la, let me be free. Solar dryer. Come on, Henry. Come on, my man. Let's go. Looks like the drought is over. The pond is filled up and overflowing. It's been about a foot short of that. Happy Sunday! Sea day is a good one. 55 degrees. The only day of the week undistracted. No appointments, no phone calls, nobody working on the house. We get a whole day to work on our mission, quitting the grocery store and growing what we eat. Wow, I put that fourth one on and it looks like it's gonna be just right. That's pure luck. I did not plan that as far as width and amount of tin I need. Although I was sticking out on one end, thankfully I was in on the other. So all I had to do is to make some adjustments all around and we're ready to screw in.

We screw into this part?

Yes, that's where all the water collects and it puts too much pressure on that rubber washer. And it eventually leaks.

They're not long enough to go all the way through.

Oh shoot. Okay, we gotta find some longer ones. Please tell me that's not gonna halt this project this morning. Let's hope we have some screws. These are longer. They don't have any washers though. They're not for— actually, those aren't roofing screws. Oh, you found some! All right, with washers.

Do I do one on every single one of these?

One in the middle and one on each edge. Beauty's putting in a turkey for supper. Turkey devonx and that. She called me up for something. What'd you call me for?

Um, look inside that turkey.

Yeah, that's just cartilage and stuff. You want me to pull it out? Oh no, I can't see any water in there. Smoke! Homemade. Got this off the top of our broth after it gelled in the fridge. Um, Rebecca, one last thing we have to buy. Oh, that's great.

Now I'm a little bit—

This is the pig port to house our pork. Yeah, this is going to be the sides. It can be permanent. It's real firm. We're going to do deep bedding in here, and so the material will pile up, and this is going to have no problem holding fat. Why aren't— well, we're not going to do that right here. Why? Why? Well, the port part of this is port— means portable. We'll hook it up to a machine. Pigs are done, we have all that deep bedding, we pull the, the, the fence up. Well, I hooked up and nor could I pull that by hand. And what will be left behind is their bedding for us to turn or to use as mulch right there on the garden. Excuse me, this looks terrible. That's better. Maybe this cattle panel will cut nicely at 10 feet. Yes, lucky dog! Look at that, came right to an edge here and we don't have to— we don't have to have a weird cut right here. Plan is to put 10-foot cattle panel, the 10, and then T-posts every 2 feet. We're gonna need something to mount these to, so can you screw that on?

About right there.

You guys want to move them over here today? Why not?

It's a lot more than you think.

Oh really?

We gotta get the water. You're actually just moving them.

Our brace board is getting in the way. It's too low. We gotta do it so it lines up so that we can actually slide this on that and get it on this side. Important that we get it on the inside because all the weight is going to be like this. Then we have that board there. I don't know what this is about. It's tight up here, loose down here. Anyway, let's staple it to the board.

I figured it out. Every 5 spaces. So if I do 5 spaces to here, it's another 5 spaces to to another post, and then it's another 5 spaces to the other end, so then it's even. And that's about—

you have less support with those T-posts than you even do the boards. We got to get a lot of support. No, we don't need it. Hey, it worked out nicely. The, the The cattle panel set nicely and the tin set nicely. I do wonder if we drilled some holes, is that going to bang up against this and make it not fit right? Does it matter to you? I don't know. What have you made?

Hydrogen.

How did you get that to curve like that?

Just used that— this is the sander.

Just use the old one as a template? Yeah, you like drew it out or something, or you just looked at it?

I drew it out and then cut it.

Man, you made this handle from scratch. Okay, now you got to get to where this will fit down in there.

I've even cut the spot to—

all right, he broke the, uh, little hatchet on accident, and now— heck yeah, buddy! They don't sell a replacement handle for this particular model, so you're making one. What'd you make that out of?

Oak, I think.

Nice. Wow, we're at bring in material get the other wall ready, and we'll— well, yeah, we'll get the other wall ready, bring in material. First load of wood chips, and probably the only ones we need. Nice and dry. Oh look, we fit in nice. Only wanting maybe a couple of inches. Getting my water filled up. It is lunchtime though, so the pigs are gonna have to wait.

After lunch, after lunch.

The homestead church bells are ringing. Lily's got a plan. She wants to ride her horse beside me. I'm walking them during my after-meal lunch walk. A bonus meal. We had a leg of lamb. Look at all the meat that came off of that in a— I'm thinking a broth. I'm gonna have a very meaty soup. Look at this. Wow, you even wedged it! Look at that, Becky! That's legit. Wow, Jordan. Oh, we got a handy guy. You're a little dusty. Why don't you go dust yourself off on the porch? You just found some scrap wood and shaped it. Did a good job, didn't you? Pretty good warm-up. You want to get on? Good job. Now we're going on a walk with a horse. No hands. Pretty tame guy. First time riding a mile on the road. Yeah.

Do you want me to put that on? What? Oh yeah, you can do that.

Good job eating lunch. Walked ourselves and the horse. Let's get these pigs in. No ramp? The ramp's right over there. Think they'll go in there? Did you put food in there?

No, you gotta get them some in there.

Oh, why didn't you do that?

I just had to take the gate off.

There they go. Pig, pig, pig! Here, Jonah, get me that pan right there beside you. She's coming. Beefcake will get jealous, he'll come. Oh, she left. They make 10-foot mesh gates that I think might do for this too. It's a little more expensive. Just, I just want to showcase this budget option, just 4 T-posts, a tin, and cattle panel. All of which we had around the farm here and there. If we had a gate, I might do that on the next one. We're gonna build another pig port. It, you know, we could just— we'd have a gate, we'd open it up now, and then we just shut it and let the compost build on it. I have some ideas on how to make this even better for our second one, and, and we'll do— we'll, we'll try gates on it too to see if it's worth it. We only do this once or twice a year, so T-post it is.

All right.

That's super easy. Don't let him realize there's nothing to this wall. Our cattle panel isn't going all the way across. We're tight on this top strand but loose on the bottom. Look at that bow. We've measured, the legs are a little spread out. It's like, uh, we need to push them in about an inch. Y'all got better you in there than me.

He got me in the leg!

I wish it was rolling then. Dang, Austin, I missed it. Beefcake scared him good. You don't want to stay there and steal for him? These borders— All right, am I gonna have to do this?

No, I'll get in the other side.

Hey, go, go, go! Come on, you got about 45 seconds.

Oh, I can't do that, he's enormous.

All right, let me go get the kickboard. Gosh, are you gonna let me go get the board or what?

Yes, go grab it.

All right, let me get in there and spot you. They're eating something and they're turning that wood chips. It's peeing. First deposit. Compost needs 4 things: carbon, which is our wood chips; nitrogen, which is their urine that you just saw; plus their poop, poop, and then water. If we want, we can hose this down from time to time. We want it to stay dry enough so that it absorbs their manure. There's really no need for a pigsty. Those are gross. They're in their own poop, their own urine. Just put down some wood chips, get them some cover so the wood chips aren't soaked and they can absorb the manure and urine. And then at the end, because they're turning it, uh, they're manuring in it, it's carbon. You're gonna get compost. Oh, good to me. Oh, don't, don't, brother, don't crumb my side, baby. I'm 9 days in a row under 120 glucose reading. We got 6 months. I'm just gonna keep on day after day after day. My average right now is 88, girl. The A1C is what we want down, huh? I just turned 45. I'm claiming it. This is the year I heal, and I sure have made a lot of changes so far, and I feel very strong and committed to it.

Did you tell them you ran the other day?

Just yesterday. I was like Forrest Gump. I just felt like running.

I just felt like running.

So I just put on my gear and just— I went running up the mountain, exploring the mountain, looking for access roads. I came back with a sore heel, but I did it.

You did. You just did it, which is great. I was very happy for you.

Yeah, and that might have been just from going downhill.

What?

You just felt like running?

I just felt like running like Forrest Gump. How long has it been since I've been able to run? Um, it has been probably over 10 years, and before that I was a runner for 15. I absolutely loved it.

Runner for like 20.

I missed it. My goal on my 46th birthday at Halloween is to run the local mountain. It's actually a 5K, but it's all uphill. 1 mile on pavement, 1 mile on dirt road, and 1 mile on trail.

Well, 'cause you did that right before you got sick in 2005. They actually had a 5K, and you came in 12th.

Yep.

Of that race, and you didn't even try. Like, you were just kind of like in the back. You didn't expect to do it.

I had to pass a bunch of people. I underestimated myself.

And—

That was May of 2012, and you got sick in August of 2012. So I think that's why it's in your heart that you want to do it.

It's called Bearwallow Beast, so I'm gonna beat the beast this year.

This is always so funny. You talk about running and then something happens and you stop running.

Yeah, I know, I know. It ends up hurting my feet. So hopefully we're gonna figure out this feet problem. Jonah made his buttermilk biscuits from the farm. What are you gonna eat first, turkey divine or biscuit? Yeah. What are you gonna eat first? Definitely turkey divine. Oh, got of emu oil. I think we found a way to eat turkey. We were about to only grow 4 turkeys next year because we're over it. We are not over this turkey divine. I think it gives it enough fat, all that cheese and sour cream. So that's, that's a fat that we with that lean turkey. What do you got your ears covered for, boy? You're a good Southern boy. You like those buttermilk biscuits?

Delicious. It's crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.

Buttermilk is clutch.

They can eat a buttermilk biscuit right in front of me. Zero temptation. Zero temptation. I have found the way. Staying in this range of blood sugar glucose monitor, for some reason that's what does it for me. I'm probably eating less than 10 grams of carbs a day to stay within range. If I do, I'm eating behind protein and I'm going walking after.

You're a new person.

I like to have 2 biscuits.

Yep.

This is the lifestyle. Before, I was always waiting for it to be over so I could pig out.