When we Realized we Grew 100% of our Meat

What'd you say, Lily?

You just come out here and look at them. They're pretty big.

Yeah, they're pretty much almost full grown, huh? Good job. Is that how you do it? Yeah, I'll help you out. Did it get clogged? Yeah, it's shut. You know that? Oh, okay. Oh, that's not right.

Okay, that's better. Good morning.

Good morning.

I didn't even bring my camera.

Let me go get it if you want to, if your phone's tossing.

I'm feeling saucy.

That went really well. They are doing pretty good. Now we're gonna let the weathers in so that we can set up a new paddock for them.

I need to feed the sea monsters and the luchadors. We're trying to get our chores done early today. I need to take my dad actually to radiation. His wife Ginger is unavailable to do it today. I actually look forward to that, but I need to get the chores done and editing to be able to leave by 3:30, which I think is very doable.

There's a king in the mix. Yeah, we'll be still.

Jonah is helping me this morning, and so is Lily.

First week on grass, these sea monsters, they're little. We just use one net, but they quickly grow big, and we need to move this meat shawl more every day. So I'm adding a net, and we don't have to do move nets but once a week.

We did it!

Hey guys!

Yeah, okay, we got a little bit of project time before milking. Kelp and salt, that's the two minimum minerals I would put out and putting out. But ideally we like 17 different mineral choice choices, just like the cows. These are the cow minerals, all kinds of crazy stuff. Okay, one side, that's just one side, 17 total. So I'm thinking, can we attach minerals to this wrestling ring for the luchadors? Can we? I'm gonna try, and then we still only have to move one thing. If needed, I'll build them a little mural shawl, but it would be nice to attach it to the wall and be able to move everything at once. Let's check on Gideon real quick before we start the project. How's it going in here, guys? Okay, I don't see any keys on the floor. You must have picked them up. Thank you. Okay, you be good for Josie. Josie's cleaning up. Everybody's got a job this morning. Josie's cleaning. Good job, buddy. Proud of you.

Okay.

Hey Gideon, your birthday's coming up.

I know that.

What do you want?

Uh, a work site from Grandma, and we're gonna buy it while she's gone.

I'm down here, Gideon. I heard Gideon wanting to come with me. Okay, so we do not have— we're missing— we missed one mineral tray. We didn't buy enough, so I'm seeing if we had— I feel like we have one floating around. Do you know where a mineral feeder is, Gideon? Hey, I think I might have found one. Okay, so how many do we have here? We need 9 to make 18. We only need 17, but there's 2 in each. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. No, still missing one. You know where another one of these is, Gideon?

Nope.

Aha! I bet Jonah wouldn't mind if I borrowed one of his tool trays. Hey, lay out the minerals on one side just like that.

Poppy, you can give them to them.

I'm gonna hand them to you. You're gonna put them down, okay? Right next to each other. And put the backs to the— put the backs to the wood. There you go. Can't remember what length I ordered the mat in. We'll make two different ones. Ah, and then we won't have all the weight on one side. Let's do that. One on one side, one on the other. All right, Gideon, let's go see if the invoice for this mat is here, if it says Are you going with Mom?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, let's get your town shoes on.

Did you get them on? They're right there, Papa.

Oh wow, I didn't have to look for them. At Lowe's, sheep shaw and some stuff for the fence out there, right? Jonah, get some more T-posts. I haven't told you how many T-posts. I mean, Gideon, you can't have your snack on the couch, bro. Case in point. Okay. How many T-posts should we get?

What size?

8-foot?

6-foot?

No, 6-foot. Uh, 20?

30?

Because all we lack, all we lack is getting them from just a few right there.

Yeah, hold on, we lack this field.

Yeah.

Oh, that's right.

And I want to do T-posts around like—

yeah, more perimeter. So, gosh, just get as many as you Get as many as you feel comfortable getting.

Okay.

With— I mean, somebody could help you load them, I guess.

Someone's gonna have to.

Are you really gonna put T-posts in the back of your Suburban?

They're in good condition. Okay, they're not dirty yet.

Okay, good. What size did I get these mats? So Here it is, finally. 12. So 226 footers, we got it. Gotta fit half of these on in 6 feet. We're gonna be in trouble if I can't. There, that's it. That's what it's gonna have to look like for the sheep jaw. Whoa, yes, I can do it! Comes all the way out to about right there, so that's going to be Very nice. All right, I'm just gonna have to stop. It's milking time. It's Monday, so we do a weekly CMT test, which is a California mastitis test. We don't suspect anything, we just do it every Monday. Best practice, once a week. She's just fine.

Next.

We need to start walking him soon before he gets too strong to pull, which is pretty much upon us. That one looks a little like it's not absorbing it, so let's look for some other signs. But I doubt she has mastitis, she's got a calf on her. That front left quarter didn't absorb the liquid as much, but that is like the calf's favorite. The calf nurses that one out all the time. That's so— what's at the end is cream, so it's going to be thicker. So let's just feel around there, you know, for other signs. We're looking for heat, soreness. She's not sore, there's no heat. Calf's on it. It's very unlikely she's going to get mastitis like that, so I'm going to say she's okay. Thank you for your contribution. All right, got a good bit of editing done. It's such a fun edit because all the interns were here, trying to give them justice. It's gonna be a nice little, uh, piece, musical inspirational montage there. Lunch is ready. We're doing good on time, 2 o'clock, hour and a half. I think I'm gonna be able to make it, go with my dad. Look at this lunch. Thank you so much, Anna. Broth, coleslaw. That's not our cabbage though, is it? It's not. We did not have a cabbage year. That's about the only thing we weren't good at this year. So we'll take—

we did, we had some cabbage.

Yeah, we crushed it on meat though, you know that? It kind of snuck up on us. We're 100% meat sufficient, you know that?

We are.

All our own meat, all of it. And that's what's hardest to get in the store, organic. And beyond. You just can't get it in the store, right? So we got to be happy about that. You can get organic cabbage at the farmer's market or at Whole Foods. You can't get this pork though. You cannot.

I don't think that's pork.

Chicken. You cannot get this chicken. How was it, Lily?

Good.

Looks good. All right guys, I'm going back to it.

It also sounds good.

Okay, I finished the edit. It's one of those that was It's so much fun. There's a lot of heart into it. I gotta watch Rebecca watch it. That smile makes it all worth it. It makes this job all worth it. Something we do with a smile. All right, Sadie. You wanna give me some instructions? That's perfect, baby. Wasn't that a good movie? So good. Wasn't that fun? Those interns?

Two thumbs up and two toes up.

Did they give you hope for the future?

Yes.

Such hope. Yeah, what are they? Are they even millennials? They're like after that.

I don't know what the next generation's called, but they're great. They're a great group of cats.

Farmers.

They're farmers.

They're 20-year-old farmers.

Okay. Vicious guard dog. Hey, Pop, you coming?

Oh my, why are you— thank you so much.

Yes, sir. You need you a lowrider like this.

Oh yeah, I love it.

He's over halfway done with his radiation. And how's it making you feel? Well, the radiation, you doing all right?

No, it takes the energy away.

Yeah, so you got 3 and a half more weeks and it's more concentrated now. It's not as intense.

3 and a half.

You want your drink?

No, I better not.

You want to leave it?

Okay, I got one in here. Goodness gracious.

Thanks.

Nice.

How'd that go, Pop?

It went real good. It was a lot shorter than— yeah, than what normally is.

That was no time. So you got a nice nurse?

Yeah, she's real nice, and they're concerned about my legs.

Yeah, they said your legs were hot. Yeah, are they?

Yeah, she said they're the same though.

So both your legs are hot. So are you worried the infection's cutting up?

Worried what?

Are you worried your infection's cutting up?

Well, it's definitely there because they did a culture that they reported on to me.

What are they going to do about your leg infection?

Well, I've got my own antibiotics, which I've been on for— when I finish this run, it'll be 25 days. So obviously it's not been too successful.

Would you take a bath? Yeah. Would you want to try an Epsom salt bath?

Yeah, I'd try.

We might bring you some yogurt and some Epsom salts later. That's what I healed my infection with, Epsom salt bath and charcoal poultices.

Well, we used to use it.

You know about it?

Well, when I was a kid, I had boils. Yeah, we call them boils. Or what else did we call them? Another name for them too. Rises.

Head southeast toward Doctors Drive. And it worked?

Well, it was all we had back in that day.

That's all you had.

Yeah, penicillin came along during World War II, and I had boils again in high school and got penicillin for it and was allergic to penicillin. So I've been allergic to penicillin all my life.

So did you go back to Epsom salt?

Yes, that's the only amount of sulfur it seems like we used.

All right, we'll see you.

Man, thank you, son. I love you.

I love you too. I will. Some rotten fish. You're very welcome. Jonah, do you feed the sea monsters dry feed in the evening?

Yes, and I do think they eat it better.

You do? Why do you say that?

I don't know.

You think they clean it up better, leave less behind? Yeah, it could be that they trample the wet stuff and then don't get it. It's true. Okay, let's try it. So we fed it to them wet this morning, and there is quite a bit still there. Let's feed it dry in a new spot.

Watch out.

And see if— wait, can you move that water up? He's just right in front of it. And we'll see if they are more efficient with the dry. Yeah, they're happy largs. We just found out from the butcher today we are bringing 2 withers in Thursday, Jonah. Thursday afternoon. So no, Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon. So we're gonna harvest Wednesday morning. You up for it?

Yeah.

You and I? Yeah, just you and I, buddy.

Probably.

Hey, we've done it before with, I think, like 2 days notice. We can do it again. All right, if we're gonna go to Pawpaw's, we need to unload the Suburban. Of its sheep shawl materials. I saw everything but the axles. Jonah, did Mom not get the axles? Okay, hey, we'll use that for Papaw. Can you rinse it out? Rebecca, you with your sheep? Hey Mom, did you not get the axles?

There were no axles on it.

All right, let's see. Do you still have the paper? Okay. Okay, put that over there, Jonah. Thank you. Okay, you guys ready?

I'm gonna have that for my birthday, but I'm still looking.

Okay, you got everything? His birthday's coming up October 1st. How old are you gonna be, Mr. Brown? 5. Here's my list for Mama. There it is, it's, it's number 2 on the list. Okay, bless her heart, she's rarely wrong. It's usually always me making this kind of mistake. Bless her. Let's break it in gently. Hey, what's number 2 on that list?

Oh, whoops. Sorry.

Wow, that's okay. You make so few mistakes, we'll let this slide. Hey, yeah, all right, you got the stuff?

You gotta grab the bucket.

Yogurt.

Grab the bucket.

Medicines. Don't get that dirty, I just cleaned it. Hey, Papa's growing something— hot peppers. Papa got you some yogurt. Oh my goodness, for your probiotics.

Thank you so much. That that you gave me the other day, yeah, I mean, it takes a back seat to what we went out and bought after that.

Okay, good.

So this is really good.

Good. We'll put it in the fridge.

Thank you, Jonah.

Yeah, what you need. There we go. He's got to get warm out here. It's cooling off.

Well, it's probably that cold.

Y'all play in the yard. Pop's got all these abandoned apple trees and we got no pigs. I'm thinking we should have 2 pigs all the time. What do you think, Beck? Yeah, then we have something for our skim and our squash and our rotten apples.

I think it'd be okay to have two. Yeah, so long as one of them is dead and cut up in nice slices to put in the fry pan. What about that?

Okay, Freddie, you got to tell him what to do with this. He's gonna soak his wound in that bucket.

You take it to your cabin.

Yeah, no, you just fill it up. Okay, with as hot water as you can stand.

Okay.

Then I got you a cup of Epsom salts in here.

Now we have some Epsom salt. Oh, you do?

Well, I got— I gave you 5 cups here. Okay, so just scoop out a cup.

One cup.

One cup.

And I'm gonna— I'll put it to about right.

Yeah, and do it twice a day.

And then you can— you could do it 3 times a day.

And for how long?

20 minutes.

20 to 40 minutes.

If it's real hot, you can't As long as— I hope I find him some chestnuts. They are, they're fat. They should be all over the ground out there.

Oh, he stepped on one.

Oh, the bird.

Oh, he did?

Okay. I knew he found one.

This is the activated charcoal. Okay. And you put it in. I should probably show this to Ginger.

Who nurses you? You nurse yourself or Ginger do it?

Oh, Ginger helps me.

But we should show her.

I'll write it down for her.

Did you get this out of there?

No.

Oh yeah, you're funny. I bought it.

Now tell me about that.

So what you do with this, you make a poultice. Are you familiar with that term, poultice?

Well, I've heard the term, but okay.

So what you do is you open up the gauze pad and you open it up, open it up, and then you pour you some charcoal in there. A good amount depending on how big the wound is. You put it on and it's dry. It's dry. Well, then you wet it. After you put it on, you fold up the gauze again, wet it, and then I like to take another gauze and wet it so that it's real nice and wet. Or you could do a paper towel. Then you put the charcoal on it and then the wet paper towel. And then I like to put like a piece of— what's that stuff? Plastic wrap that you put on your thing because you want, you want it to stay moist. So as long as it's moist, the charcoal is working and pulling out infection. You can leave that on for like 2 hours, 2 or 4 hours, and that will— and then sometimes when you try to do it at night when I went to sleep, yeah, you could put it on your leg when you go to sleep if you don't move too much.

You wrap it up with like an ace bandage.

So then, so then I would— yeah, an ace bandage is good to, to put over the plastic wrap and then wrap it kind of on a bandage and then just leave it on there for as long as you can. You want, you know, you want it to stay moist. And then when you take it off, sometimes when you take it off, you can actually see the pus that it has drawn because it draws it out and it absorbs toxins, or adsorbs toxins. Then I also brought you two different other things.

Gracious, you robbed the drugstore! So you have this drugstore in your room up there?

Oh, it's in here. So I have two different things that you can put on it after you do the charcoal poultice. Silver dressing. So it kills— and this is just, you buy this at CVS— it kills bacteria like Staph aureus and other—

another—

I should be using that all the time.

Yeah, and you can do that or Or you can also use honey, uh, manuka. Manuka honey is also really good.

That's at CVS too. Jonas got something for you.

What is this?

What, what is this for?

Just to give it to you.

Oh, you can't do that, son. I need to be giving you stuff.

He said— I said, what are you gonna give him money for? And he said, I figured he's going through a hard time. And I want to be a Giving Gary.

We love you, baby. Thank you so much.

Give him a hug.

Oh my goodness, this is my precious boy here.

I guess all the little kids got in the truck already.

Son, thank you so much.

Yeah, I love you. Yep, love you too, buddy.

You're my hero.

Thanks. You're my hero. Yay, Mr. Brown Cane!

What a good tug.

He's a good hugger.

I'll tell you, that was perfect.

We already got you on the Epsom salt bath. That's great.

That's right.

Okay, I guess Lily's hiding.

Don't forget your flowers are in here too. Put them on the coffee table. Lily picked you a bouquet of flowers.

Okay.