What’s in these totes!?

Got a skin doctor appointment today. Do we have skin cancer? I don't know. It's just a regular checkup. How's it going prepping for the event? Good. What you gonna work on today?

Bench string trimming.

Jonah got all the plastic tanks out of the metal totes.

That one right there, the red one, the very corner, that's vinegar.

Uh-oh. Can you help me milk in a second?

Yeah, I gotcha.

I only have like 30-45 minutes. I said to the boys, what do you want me to do? They said no. Panel blew it up. What do you mean?

Well, there we go.

I keep—

this has been happening all day. The switch keeps getting blown.

Oh, it's a lot on that switch. Hey, what's it at? Has it cooled down?

140.

You know what that means. How's this rain affecting all that you've got to do to get ready for this event?

Makes it a little harder.

That big tour this weekend. It's the folks who backed The Homestead Builds project. Jonah is prepping wooden guards for our— to protect our fences in the field. Protect our fences? Protect our trees in the field. What's the problem? Oh boy, we dunked her yesterday in the cold water and that didn't work. What'd you do, pour some water on her? Get the eggs.

If we had hatched that egg, that would have been 2 chickens out of 1 egg. Yeah, it's a double yolk because you see—

okay, look, I see that. Remind me, we need to put her in the brooder breaker since the water's not working. Not this morning though, I don't have time. Are you ready? Come on, let's go. Hey, are you coming with us?

Yeah.

Where are you going? To get shoes. All right, got your shoes? I'm tired. Oh, leave it to the side so we can fix it. Two trees to protect today. It's working. You guys can't get out of it.

Stomp on the fly.

Is that what's happening?

Yeah, this fly's on the back of my legs.

Morning view. They say Nacho's still limping. Just got done milking. You can't get in there and get that. Trees are thriving. That locust is thriving. Thanks, my man. But that one's doing good. This one's really doing good. A little close to the edge here though. We'll see. I think they could probably get it if they really wanted. Guys, I gotta go. Can you help move everybody everybody over and get water situated, all that. I got an appointment. I'm sorry. What were you gonna do? I do love it that you're disappointed that you can't go string trim. Guys, I think she's hunting water. What are you gonna string trim today? Everything. Everything you mowed? Front yard too? They're mad at me, but I stayed until the last possible minute. And God knows we've taken to Jonah to a lot of appointments. I think it's okay. We'll go check, make sure we don't have skin cancer. We don't suspect it, it's just a regular checkup that is happening to be every 4 years. Why are you so muddy?

Because I've been running through puddles.

Let's ride our bikes here and chores. Come on, someone's got to go on the 8 o'clock lesson. Okay, Gideon, go to your lesson. I need to get some before and after shots. Big tour coming this weekend, it can't look like this. Can't even see this raised bed. Now granted, we haven't been living over here, so it's gotten a little crazy. Like this wheat, as tall as I am. You have some extremely ripe tomatoes. I know, I need to cut them off because they have gone too ripe, but those vines are like crazy, um, attached. Butternut squash. I would say the sunflowers are done. This wheat, this is crazy wheat. Goodness. Uh-oh. Have we bitten off more than we can chew getting this ready for this weekend? That's our style. Bite off more than we can chew. We get incredible amounts of things done. Skin cancer check. You think we got it?

No, I have a couple spots that I want them to look at, but I think that they're not anything.

Gonna be benign. Let's hope. You look smashing. —your paper dress. Affordable!

Very affordable.

And compostable.

You look nice too. It's like a toga.

That's your thing.

Yeah, it's not— I don't think we have anything.

Oh, we do. Is that cancer? Yeah. It's like, kinda white. Yeah. I'm not even seeing it right now. Some splotches. Well! They froze some precancer off of my ear. I didn't know they would do that right then and there, but they— Torched it. You had nothing. Nothing. You got better skin. You tan.

I do. You have the clear—

I use this massive solar panel for sun.

So you mentioned like right here you had some precancerous stuff. Yeah. And but not enough to actually treat it. So I think what I'm gonna do on that is do some black drawing salve at night, put that on there and then put a band-aid over it to keep it not from getting everywhere. And just see if that heals it up. We'll see.

I don't think the boys are gonna be doing any string trimming today, are they? No. You're streak trimming. It's raining. You ready to go? Come on, keep up. I want to go fast. I haven't gotten in the yard yet. I'm proud of that, guys. Uh-oh. So much for my dry set. Water leaking down through here. Yeah, the roof here isn't finished. Drenched. Thankfully these are the old plans, the ones I've already gone through. Hey, how did this happen? It got wet everywhere else but my tools.

That's cool.

We got this much done yesterday. 7 steps in 20 minutes. We've got to pick up the pace. Race today. Stationary bike, you know that's a thing? Yeah, I did just wash these yesterday. They've got dirty being stored here. Making a video about the building of this chicken tractor. I'm building this tractor for one of our Homestead Builds giveaway. They're coming to get it, supposed to be getting it this weekend. Are you gonna help? Yeah? Every day is Bring Your Kid to Work Day on the farm. For once, they're ready for me. Give them that, Gideon. You happy now? No. One more. Come on, get it for 2 minutes. You got a cloth? Thank you. Did you get the rest of the cloths? Yeah, we need more than one. Thank you, Gideon. Look at this guy, he's shoveling compost back in, huh? I like it. What's going on? When you want to put her in the hairpin?

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow it happens. She's broody. She's not gonna lay eggs. Gonna sit on the eggs and she's gonna bite everybody when we try to get the eggs. She's ready to hatch chicks, but it's not the time of year to hatch chicks. That's a fat pig. I think she's too fat. I'm still carrying a little holiday weight. I'm afraid she's not gonna get bred in October being so fat. What do you think? Let's cut her feed back 25%. Yeah, that's too much. Come look at her. Her plate is probably about all she needs. That much, about what she has now. Okay, what do you think?

When she walks, she really, really waddles. This looks good.

Hey, you guys, come before you get cut. Let's go.

Look at all the eggs. Whoa!

It's always a risk coming back to the house because then he's gonna want Mama. But we really do need to put these eggs down, get the pig scrap bucket back. How are you doing? You getting along? He's not staying. Bye-bye. Did we lose him?

I don't think so.

Come on, we got you an apple. You think he's ready to be weaned in what, 2 weeks? We're talking it up to him because Mama's going on a trip and I don't think you want to go. All right. We cut a side out. It didn't fit over it. Turns out we're supposed to cut the top. Getting your morning exercise? Lily's going to get her shoes while we wait. Why'd you throw your apple? Still about the apple? I still think there's a good bit of apple left here. You're welcome. It's all clean. Just inspecting it. Don't trust me?

Where should I take the IBC totes? Cut them up, put them in this dumpster.

All right, come on, come on, stop. Let's go. Can't sit around too long or else. Johnny, can you turn my fence off, buddy? She's in heat. She's not standing heat yet though. Cow cycles every 3 weeks. It comes in what you call heat for about 3 days. She'll only stand for half of one of those days. It's called standing heat. She's not in that. I think it's good she didn't get pregnant the last round because we're actually going to harvest her in like less than 2 weeks. She's gonna get crazy. She's gonna want out of here bad. Okay, I gotta get over quick. She's like, get me out of here. He won't even eat, he'll be so interested. Whoa, Lily, be careful. Where's your helper?

Not being a helper.

He hates protecting trees. Look, it worked! We're gonna go play in the sawdust after this. You want to play in the sawdust? The sheep are getting the tree. Get in! You got to be an old school shepherd. Come on, you naughty sheep. Shoot, pressing in and getting to it. She must have stuck her head through. She's eating some of that locust tree. Look at him. So naughty. He literally went over the top to eat that.

Every single one of them has a little bell on it and it stinks.

He said, does Papa know about this wheel? This wheel has been broken.

He wants to lift it up. Look, the bearing's broken.

Oh no. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's— no, you'll damage other things if you use that. Henry, are you filming? In a metal tote. Problem number 1, the wheel bearing. I've texted Mark. Problem number 2, we got liquid in this. Hold on, hold on. If you lift it up with the track loader, I can pour out the liquid in one of these. We can, you know, dispose of the waste properly.

I should cut them off and then you can just dump them in.

I think we should put the one we're gonna put liquid in in a metal tote. What if you just cut down and then it could fold on itself and put it in the dumpster? All right, we were able to fold it and put it in there. We could add a third board and that would maybe keep the sheep from going there through the middle. But what about the cow going over the top? Shoot. I was hoping we would have a cattle panel. I don't want to do cattle panels. But a cattle panel might work. They're more rigid, and I think it'll get more space between the animals and the trees. The steers aren't gonna get over it as easy, but I still think the sheep are gonna push through. Well, they'll be able to get their head through. They might not be able to push that. Lily, I don't know what to tell you because, uh, we gotta go make boards. Run that to her, please, and she can have something to listen to. Come on. And then I got stung by a bee, and Henry got stung by a bee. I was gonna have all day to build that chicken tractor. You got stung? You got stung? Did he get in a nest? No, no, there it is under his armpit. All right, more to talk to you about. Okay. Oh boy, the sheep are getting through our two boards. So we can add a board or we can get cattle panels. We keep on trying not to get cattle panels because we don't want to spend the money. We have all this stuff on farm. But do we have a 16-foot cattle panel anywhere? Just that— I think we have one.

I feel like we've wasted a lot of time and money if we're just gonna do cattle panels.

Cattle panels are expensive. They're like $33 a cattle panel. The woven wire and the boards from the— I can drive. We're a lot more— we're a lot more frugal. It's not any frugality if they're gonna eat our trees. Just had an idea, see, that could save me some time. Yesterday I jacked up our mesh for this chicken tractor. I'm making a video on how to build the chicken tractor. Hey, my man, I may have a little job for for you. Cut me another 47.5 by 2 feet out of this. Yeah, you did it and I screwed it up when I was drilling through the board. I caught it. I was probably supposed to cut that out of the way. I would make it work for myself, but we've done— somebody already won this and I gotta give it away. That's one weight lifted off my shoulder. And I wish you could drive, that'd make it so easy. You just go get some cattle panels, we would have already been there. Did the boys tighten this up? Okay, I raised this one up so that'll help the steers not go over the top.

That muffin will get caught in this and it'll get ripped off. Yeah, when he's trying to scratch himself.

We put 3 on there. We moved this one up so it's gonna stop them from going over. This is more of a stop in the middle. They can put their head through, but they're only going to be able to get it so far. I'm kind of like, oh, can we do it with just these 3? They're trying to talk me into the cattle panels because they are easier to put on them. Second one done. They're not getting through.

We're never gonna catch him. Why not? Just run at it. Nacho him.

Now we're going on to the next problem. Oh, don't make him run. He's looking like he's in pain. Now we're setting our eyes on looking at Nacho and seeing what's wrong with him. So you got the right tool for the job. That's one handy tool right there. Yeah, you got a— you know, cooler. I am hoping it's just this. Hopefully we can catch him without Falfa. There are Dweebs picking up and batting manure at each other. His feet are fine. It's not it.

Shoot. I don't think that's gonna help because it's gonna put the tender feet more open.

All right, I don't remember the other ones— the other sheep being this tender. Yeah, what do we do now?

Well, I think we let them go, ask a professional.

Okay, we got bigger problems than the sheep eating the trees. Nacho is our one male that breeds all the females, therefore half of our breeding stock. His hooves, the bottom of them, are— seem super tender. I'm gonna grab one of these other sheep and see if that's the case, compare them to those hooves. All these guys are walking fine. Belle's laying right over there. Let's see if she's running better. Uh, Belle's doing a little better. Yeah, it's that back left foot, but she's getting better. All right, let's go get some alfalfa. That's a young locust. An amazing shade, an amazing rub, an amazing fly catch. Let it come up, let it come up. You'll have more of those. They care about the now. All they care about is eating. It doesn't matter who we catch, just somebody that's not limping. I feel like if I can get one of these healthy sheep and feel their hooves, I can have a comparison. Like, it seems like he loosens up, which might mean it's like an arthritis type of thing.

That one's yelling. Well, she needs some work, doesn't she?

It's tender too. So gosh, we should probably do this to everybody. I think because it's been so wet, this nail was over it so long it got tender. What if we use those totes? They're ugly. Oh, they are ugly. How big is this? I don't know if it's even big enough. We're looking at 15 feet. You measured it with the metal tape too. Did that go around? Yeah. So that's probably a 16-foot panel. You know we're going to take the woven wire off, right? Yeah, taking the woven wire off. That goes to waste. A lot of waste. Been very patient. Let's go. You want another apple? Been texting with Claire inside Abundance Plus. It could be any number of things, including his mating activity. He does have like a dozen ladies. He could have actually got a muscle injury. The bottom of the hump looks like it was peeling too. So that could be it. I don't think it's an emergency. I'm gonna leave him alone the rest of the day. He's had enough stress. I'm gonna check that tomorrow, get more pictures. We'll find out what's going on. Kids, where you at? What's going on?

We're making a surprise.

Oh, you're making a big surprise? Who's it for? Gideon. Look at those boys going on that bank. Thank God for Randolph. He got us to where we were left off yesterday. I've got to get this done today because we have to finish cleaning up the farm for this event in 2 days. Hey, what's wrong? A bunch of bees. There's something— how many times you get stung? I got stung once. We got the perches up, we got the door frame in. You guys want to look at these totes? They're ready to do— they're ready to go. We need to get that tote in here and it can be our liquid tote. We've got our liquid in there, dispose of it on hazardous waste day. It looks like a lot of it was oil, but like, what the heck is that pink stuff? The boys have an idea. They think they can throw that in the dumpster, and then they think they can crush it with the mini X. I would like that because then they wouldn't have to cut it, be exposed to any of this stuff. It's working. I'm proud of those boys. I would have had them cut the 4 walls down and folded it. I would have been much more difficult. And we got the door on. Mama's home and it's time to eat. You come empty-handed. No, uh, cattle panels, huh?

Oh, I waited for an hour and let's just say the Tractor Supply people never actually showed up at the cattle panels where I was waiting. The guy was like, oh, I went out there and looked, I didn't see you. I was like, I was waiting there. He goes, oh, you were sitting in the truck. Where? How else would I get cattle panels home? A sports car?

Lunch ready? Yeah, we just picked that on lunch. You guys ready to get this chicken tractor done? It might be a fat chance. We got 2 hours till dinner and something like 40 steps, but we'll try. 2 hours. I don't know, maybe we can do it. Uh, 30 more steps. We'll see. Plans for that, printable plans, downloadable plans, link down in the description. Homesteadbuilds.com. Go build that yourself.