We Moved Out Chickens into The Greenhouse for the Winter

Happy Sunday seed day! Feet on the ground. We've got another impossible day. Shoot, there's some chickens out. Freezing weather is coming this evening. Now is a good time to get our chickens— we cooped them up last night, most of them— and we got to get them in the high tunnel. It's gonna feel like 11 degrees tomorrow morning. Hard to believe since it's so nice right now. You gotta get piglets separated. From Mama. It's about time she be weaned. It's over time. Chickens are going right there. We have a spot cleared for them, but we got a garden project. Yes, early November. We're a few weeks late. Hopefully it's not too late. We got to get the garlic in the ground. And the most unsexy job I can possibly think of— rats have sort of taken over our root cellar, and we need to nip that in the bud first. Everything else we need to do on a homestead in a day— breakfast is champ. Fried apples. Billy has made the Lost Boys pancakes. Yeah, that's what I call the Rhodes Holler combo. It's like the Lost Boys straight out of Peter Pan. Mom and I, some gaps pancakes. I made her a chicken sausage. All right, let's, let's do mine and Mom's egg. And the Lost Boys need to empty our box trailer of all the, uh, all our books and things so we can start getting ready for our camping trip next week. Group Mighty Man coming up. Also And excitingly this week, Dollywood with a fan on Wednesday. A fan works at Dollywood and has gifted us, is taking us there. There's supposed to be 30 million lights. You excited about the Christmas lights at Dollywood?

I'm excited for the rides and stuff.

Are you excited for the scary rides?

I'm excited for the, I don't know if I'm excited for the rides.

His face when I said, are you excited for the lights? Replay that, Austin. I tend to underestimate things. I wanted this, I thought I had enough time to get this done by 7. It's 7:20. You guys underestimate or overestimate? And speaking of which, I probably underestimated to do all these projects today. But that's all today before the cold sets in. It must happen. It's going to be really hard to work tomorrow in the 11 degrees. Yeah, let's avoid that as much as possible. Let's get this 10-odd things done. I like it when the Lost Boys are together. Do pretty well because they're going to be pretty motivated to get done so they can play before they leave today. Will you wear these? Shoot, I forgot the chickens are cooped up. Um, he's gonna go train Harriet. Hey, no, we gotta get these chickens out. We don't want to stress them out. They'll stop laying eggs. They're already struggling enough. Hey, they want freedom more than they want food, so we'll just leave this here.

Um, so we're just gonna—

we're gonna kill two birds with one stone. We're gonna move these chickens because we haven't captured for the move. We're going to clip their wings. Come on, get in, Henry, whichever one you are. It's almost too warm for this sweater. Hard to believe it's going to be 11 degrees tonight. Go around that way and scare it this way. I'll keep it from coming this way. There you go, there you go. Oh, it just went right around it. Go, keep going. Go around. No, this way, Henry. You gotta run it this way. That chicken went right around this. Slow down, slow down. Ah, she missed it again. Okay, once you get over here, slow her down because she's just running right past it. Maybe third time's a charm. Don't let it come past you, Henry. It sees Gideon. It sees Gideon. It slowed it down. There we go, did it. Come on, Henry. Look at this, turn this up into nice compost. We're consolidating our flock under the high tunnel where they'll be nice and warm and dry. Can you go get our drill driver, compact driver? We screwed this shut. Cool thing about these mobile coops— the Pretty Shawl from Homestead Builds. You can get that book at homesteadbuilds.com. It's on wheels, so we put them up. They've been on this deep bedding making us compost, and when we're done, we'll put them in the high tunnel. We'll just transport them in this over there. Never, never, never have a permanent coop, even if you have a permanent run. Protect our lettuce. Simple low tunnel, 4 10-foot 1/2-inch electric conduit bars bent with a pole bender. They do an X up front and then back, and then the standard Agribon. It's a 10-foot width too, goes over this nicely. What do you got, buddy?

I got this and a half of this.

Oh nice. Uh, then we just rolled up the edges in these This was kind of lucky. It's just kind of what we had, and we rolled that up. It's a nice— it's a nice access. You can just lift it up and get in there. Gotta do cold hardy crops, leafy greens. Well, I can't carry the goose and the coop at the same time.

I'm getting something.

Yeah, you're hitting the deep bows.

Oh, you know what? Get in, Henry. We're gonna clip their wings, so this is probably okay. We'll take one out at a time. It's Big Daddy's birthday. He's gonna be 80 years old. You want to hang in and see that birthday party because it's gonna be something. All right, Lost Boys are gonna plant garlic. How long's my fly been down, Austin? Too long. Let me help you in. Hopefully the scissors aren't here so we don't—

I got it, I got it.

Okay, you got it. I was hoping to help him so we don't compromise the fence, but he wants to be a big boy. Do you want me to hold it down for you?

Yeah.

Okay, I'm glad we got that gate now, aren't you?

Yeah, it's really nice.

Okay, can't use the gate right now though because the coop's blocking it. I'm thankful for those boys though. It wasn't that long ago that Rebecca and I had to do everything. Okay, we got some happy birds. It's gonna be warmer, it's gonna be dry. Hey, look, they even have their dust baths. I can't reach them though. I mean, I could finagle through this door. The door on the Pretty Shaw is thinner. I could lift this up, this hinge is up, to be able to get birds. I could go behind and get them from the nest box. Or I don't want to do that because then that— or I could get a little guy to go in there. I didn't know you were shooing them out.

I thought I didn't even argue.

Now we ready for your posse? Beautiful. When you're having to buy a few eggs today— oh, oh, she's gonna buy a few eggs because, uh, she needed 18 for, uh, the steak. All right, Boots would be proud to get your friends to work. These are the best kind because they actually know how to work. Homestead friends, he's shucking. You guys are pointing the point up, right? Oh, you've got hoe handles for this. They've, uh, hoe handles for the— oh, it's working, isn't it? We obviously need more than 50 feet of garlic now, but if we plant 100 feet right now, we won't have anything to eat. Are the chickens getting out? Oh shoot. Okay, all right, well trying to— oh no, no, no, no, no, no! What's going on?

No!

What's going on? Get in, get it, Henry! We gotta, we gotta keep the bin in. They won't know to come back here. All right, we gotta finish this. That's a lot of chickens for 10 eggs. That's definitely one of the downfalls of raising your own chickens. They do slow down in the fall and the winter. They don't stop completely, and it's because we raise new chicks every year and they start laying. We get the new chicks through the fall and the winter. We miss out on the 1-year-old chicks during the fall for about 2 or 3 months because they're molting, but then they pick back up in the winter. And then about February, March, everybody starts picking back up again. So it's an egg season just like any other season— broccoli season, apple season, raspberry season. What'd you just say? Chocolate season? Yeah, or it's chocolate like banana and grows all year round. And don't do it loose. Henry, you think we can chase these other birds in here? Come here and chase these chickens. They have no idea where home is right now. That's the worst, is to get a chicken loose before they've been cooped up for the night. Henry, come help me herd these chickens. All right, Jack, back up. Here we go. Whoa, we got one in! Oh my gosh, call the Inquirer. Getting close to have some chickens set up. I know he's been sneaking off drinking kombucha, hadn't he? At least it's not beers. Did y'all finish the garlic? No. What's your plan here? All right, we're getting it to where we're gonna put the two big pigs over here in this big one. Okay, these piglets being right next door to Mom, they're gonna be pretty desperate. I know. When we rebuild this, we need to build concrete forms around the whole thing. Crawl this wood instead. All right, this is about to be quite the display of the homestead builds. We're gonna also go get the turkey shaw. Where's Josiah?

Who knows?

Really? Yeah, we don't know where he is. He hasn't been here in a while. No. Henry, I'm gonna go get Josiah, then we'll do turkey shaw. Turkey shaw is 8 feet in the air. These chickens don't need a coop. The hot tunnel is their coop. They really don't technically need perches. Joe sells them. My Farming Mentor doesn't even use perches, but I've got it. Why am I not? They will like it a little better. Josie, is everything okay? You're opting to clean the kitchen? Dang. What are you doing?

Well, Grandpa's bag. Um, I did this part.

Uh-huh.

I sewed the bad part together.

Okay.

And I made this.

Wow.

Pocket. So look, it's gonna be like this.

And Mom hadn't had to help you?

She had to help me.

Oh, that's cool.

But when she comes back from the store, she's gonna finish helping me. But this is gonna be the pocket where you like pencils and stuff.

Oh, I like it.

This is the opening, and then we're gonna have a handle. So it's gonna be a little pocket. No, it's not for you. It's not for me either. It's for Grandpa.

You could make me sometime. You could make— I think they make these things called book pockets or book sleeves. It's a bag just the size of a book with pen holders and stuff like that. That'd be pretty cool.

Yeah, it would be. Are they made out of leather or like fabric?

No, they're fabric. It's hard to keep up with these boys. They've put hay on the garlic. You didn't puff up the hay, did you? I wanted it to be pretty matted, so I wanted it in flakes. Hold on, that works better with the camera. They said the track loader can't get in there, but with all these boys, we might be able to do this. As soon as you can, guys, grab it so it doesn't pull him over. Hey, it's coming down. Heavy one. Okay, they got it. Look at that. Boy, it's nice to have some boys around. Wow. I should have 2 more kids before Gideon— between Gideon and Henry. And then Rebecca and I should have started right away, so we should have had 3 more before you. We were 6 married— 6 years married before you. I could have had 5 more kids. Could this be it? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7, plus Lily, 8. I'd still have 2 more. Okay, you guys got 1 more thing and then you can have fun. What are you gonna do for fun? I don't know. This is your last project and then y'all are free to play. What are you guys gonna play? I don't know yet. Well, we can dig ditches. There's no ditches to dig. We have a ditch digger. Get that unloaded and we're good, and then we can start packing for our camping trip. Here's what we got to do. We can't fit through there. So we gotta wait for Josiah to leave with his trailer. Is that okay? But you're gonna stay here because there's a lot of little kids here. You're gonna have a lot of friends.

And I didn't eat ounces.

Oh, you'll eat sandwiches, I'm sure.

You put some ounces for here when you're almost going camping.

You want me to leave something here for when I go camping?

I didn't eat ounces.

Ounces? Sandwiches?

No, ounces.

What's he saying? Ounces?

The stuff we eat. I like, but what do I hold it on my shoulder?

I'm trying to think. Was it the bread on a stick?

It's ounce. It's ounce like this.

Okay. What is he asking for about around camp?

What do you want?

Tell Henry what— tell Gideon what you want.

Orange.

Orange. Okay, thanks for, uh, Gideon for interpreting. No, no, do it to where he can help. The turkey shaw is basically a perch shaw. Beauty texted. I'm gonna drop everything so I don't forget. Get some tomato— look at all our tomato sauces though, buried under all this rat junk. Looks like they've done a number on our seeds. So gross. Oh, so gross. How does a rat get in there? Health-wise, I think I'm ready. I'm gonna partake pizza with them. I'm not gonna take tomato sauce. We're sus of the nightshades. We're gonna do a white sauce. Which is more animal-based, cheese-based. But I'm excited. I think Grandpa's turning 80. I want to celebrate it just like everybody else. I think afterwards have a nice reset because I'm feeling a little creaky. Having come back off the fast. Felt great after the fast. I'm gonna do a little reset. I'm gonna do a little 36-hour fast after a feast. I'm gonna enjoy everybody. We're gonna have a good time. Cake too.

I'm gonna make some tacos.

Shoot, we still gotta feed them. Gideon! That must be crushed. Okay, here's salsa. Here's tomato sauce. My future self, which is right now, is thanking my past self for working so hard Well, beautiful one too. It's on July 20th. Now we're having pizza in November from our hard labor in July. We got to feed the chickens. You think you can round up their troughs and get them going? Last thing we want is beautiful one to come home and see that I didn't do what she asked. The chicken's feed can wait. I'm looking forward to this. Bitty's gonna make Big Daddy likes a coconut cake. He asked for pizza and then he was like, is that too much? Let's just have chickens. Chicken. Come on, Big Daddy, we have chicken every Sunday. We're gonna surprise him. No way, you're turning 80, we're gonna give you some freaking pizza.

Uh-huh, we're gonna have pizza, chocolate, um, sweet tea.

After we get the chickens and stuff done, we gotta help Mom. We gotta get those— her precious tomatoes. And the tomato sauce. We've got to get out of that rat infestation. Come on, come on, get in. Do we have a trough over here? Can you go run and get us a trough? And then here's buttermilk from yesterday. We'll use that who knows when— week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks. That's the name of the homesteading game. You stay on top of it. Now you're constantly giving gifts to your future self right now. You're constantly giving gifts to your future self. Thank you for your patience. Patience. I'm too worried about them though.

They—

how about those fresh greens in here today? I think they prefer this outside of the trough. All right, let's get on the top of these food scraps. I think they're over a day old. Did somebody already get out? Well, thank you for the goose. There's so much happening on this farm now I can't capture because these kids are so dutiful. You guys go right for the protein, don't you? Papa! We're gonna let them clean up the tomatoes and greens and the weeds that are left in there, and then we'll drop in some wood chips. Did that goose get out? Get in! Oh, it's the other one. Let's give him some water. It's hot. It is freaking hard to believe. I'm sweating a little. It's hard to believe it's going to be— feel like 11 degrees tomorrow morning. We know it's going coming. I sometimes wonder about the Cherokee Indian who lived here before us and had a day like this and then just got sideswiped tonight. Or were they in tune with nature that they could sense it coming? I don't know. The animals sense it. They've got all their coats on despite this. They're ready for it. They've got their winter coats. Oh, can you find the lid to this too so it won't get dusty? Food. Water, they are good. We still got to get food, water, shelter. We're good there. Security, we need to add the Energizer Gideon. We should add one for harvest, and that would be cleaning out the nest box, setting that up, getting the eggs. What?

Yeah, we will.

The new one? Yeah, let's do it. I like it. You can work on that if you want. Well, let's work on together on the drill, on the perch. We got to get— we got to set up a perch for these birds. Not a perch, a landing bar for them to get in the nest box. Right now they have to just shoot, shoot right into that hole. I think eggs were— oh, they're expensive. Organic free-range, which is what this is, it's basically almost a dollar an egg. Energizer from Premier One, let's check it out. The PRS Pro 100, they've made so many improvements. Okay, so what they have here is an Energizer plugged in so it can work off the sun or these batteries when the sun is not up. This can also be plugged into the wall. Henceforth, keeping the chickens in this winter, they'll probably be a problem. So who knows how over the next days we'll make sure the chickens don't get out before this Cold. Matt, let's get any percentage we got. Let's have a kefir smoothie for lunch. This is coming along nicely. What a cool little bag. Does this mean they've already made crust? Whoa. Vic is making the cake. Lily's still sewing, heating up the lunch for the Lost Boys. Well, for everybody else. Let's get this set cleaned up to keep right back on it. Did you make the pizza crust too? Yep, keep my ladies on it, show them some support. What's the matter with you?

I want to sit in the middle.

Okay, I heated them up some spaghetti. Leftovers is key in this situation. A lot of situations. Henry and I are gonna go ahead and process these persimmons. Skinned and now cutting them up. We're gonna cook them down, might as well cook them all down at once. How much was those? 15 eggs. It's $15. Almost a dollar a piece. Organic pasture-raised eggs. Good eggs, you gotta spend almost a dollar. Come on, chickens, get through this molt. Probably won't get much today. They've— so much stress.

Or tomorrow.

I know, they got moved today and tomorrow it's gonna just cold front. Or we should call it polar vortex.

They called it like the first polar something. It wasn't vortex. But it was polar something.

We'll call it polar vortex. That's what the news used to call cold fronts, but polar vortex is definitely more clickable and dramatic. It's a cold front. Tomorrow's title, I already got it: Survive at the Polar Vortex. I cooked these persimmons down. What I was getting at there is there's 16 eggs in this thing. This thing is gonna be delish. Good job, Big Daddy, picking coconut. Something different. Too for this house. Yeah, everybody always picks spice nut, although my dessert was clutch. Well, I already need the buttermilk. What's the date on these, baby? July. Take a minute and thank your July self. Try something different with this kefir. I got my kefir grains separated, pulled my kefir out of it. I'm just gonna pour the whole— I'm gonna do it by the half gallon instead of about a quart. We got a cold kefir. How about a persimmon kefir? Uh, incorporate. Wow, I'm surprised. You won't like it. I didn't put near enough honey.

Go ahead.

The lady's got this. I may be doing some Italian sausage for this pizza. But only, only if I can get done with this root cellar in an hour and a half. Thus stopping at 4, enough time to get that done for the supper at 5. Leave me plenty of margin. This is motivating me because I've been putting this off. This is gonna be nasty. All right, I put this on long enough. Should I give you guys a tour? Austin, 60 frames cinematic, let's go! Note to self: don't, don't store seeds in here. There's just one there. I'm not gonna store seeds in here. Oh, little babies! That's disgusting. You can get the cat in there with them. Now she's eating— he's eating dog food. Watch this, watch this, watch this. Oh, really, really, really? You're eating too good. Our barn cat's not doing their job no more. Catch that mouse! We don't have a mouse here no more. Huh? You don't kill a mouse. I'm a little bit late, but it's worth it. I got it done. B-roll cinematic sequence. What do we got here? Waylon and Stetson and Ashley. Little bare feet on the counter. You better get those down before Mom sees it. You making the white sauce? You know, I just did that. There's good, bad, and ugly on the homestead.

That's the very ugly and the gross.

Are you help decorating or are you eating it? Okay, go get our eggs. Tell me how many we got after this day. This is gonna be a big surprise to Big Daddy. Wait till I get him his, um, birthday present.

Which is what?

What's gonna be a surprise?

I don't know.

That's for you too. I guess not. Did you get one? Are you serious?

I'm serious.

We really did only get one egg. Dang. Was it in the nest box? Hey, let's play along that it's chicken, okay? Let's keep playing that it's chicken. Hey, how's this?

Chicken was ready.

How's this for your, uh, chicken?

Huh?

That's a different chicken.

Yeah, we got a candlelight fire. Eyes going down with the sun. What do you think about your surprise, Big Daddy? Is this beef chicken?

Oh yeah, it's good.

Well, it's funny because I was thinking— we were trying to think before we asked you what you would want, and I thought pizza.

We got a nice sunset. Full fat milk. All right. Yeah, buddy, have some with your cake. All right. Big Daddy's always complaining about this, the, the— we're taking the fat off. So there you see, not full. So there's just some full milk. He knows what good milk is. If you can drink it before it spoils, I'll give you another half a gallon. Where's your present? To him.

I didn't think you'd get it.

Where's yours?

I didn't think you'd get it.

I milked that. You guys could give him one last mow of the season.

Okay, what do we got?

Look, look, from Lily!

Oh wow, okay, you made it!

Yeah, she sewed it, and that's a pin holder. Thank you.

You got a little pocket on the front.

Yeah, it's a man bag.

A man bag. I never had a man bag.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to your big daddy.

That's a lot of candles.

Happy birthday to you.

And this is, this is, uh, not even 80 candles, Dad. If we had 80 on there, we might burn the house down.

That's a lot.

I'm trying to see the table.

Okay, thank you, thank you.

Ready? Better do it fast. You better do it fast.

Oh, he did it!

You didn't even need flour.

What's your wish?

I can't tell you.

Okay, he's old school.

I wish the same thing that, uh, David Jeremiah wishes, which is that I'll be able to win many people and There you go.

That's gonna be some moist cake. Listen, it's quiet. And with that, happy day.