Wife + Kids Take Over Busy Farm After Dad's Surgery

Clouds are coming in, kind of reflecting the mood since I'm about to go have oral surgery here in a few minutes. A little nervous. Glad to know it's not brain surgery or heart surgery.

Yeah, it's not something like really major.

Your mom said Aunt Ann had this and took care of herself, so it must not be that bad. I guess I was more nervous about pain.

Yeah.

Inability.

I think that's the unknown of what is gonna be after the surgery. I think is more fearful than— than the surgery. Like, I'm not worried about that. Like, that— it's gonna be fine, and if something does go wrong— it's just gonna be because the goals that we are hoping to accomplish with the surgery are not met. It's not like you're gonna be maimed or anything.

All right, we're here. That's really where you're gonna pick me up, huh? Now I'm gonna be talking crazy. So you got to be asking me stuff.

Oh yeah.

Get an epic funny video.

Yep, hopefully.

Me talking crazy.

All right, Justin, how you feeling?

All right, trying to get my mind off of some YouTube.

So Justin's in surgery and I'm just waiting for him. It should be another 20-ish minutes. I came out to the car to bring the camera because we cannot record while we're in recovery. In the office. It's a HIPAA violation. So I brought the camera back out here. I was hoping to get some funny stuff. Hopefully Justin will still entertain us once we get in the car. But I was able to talk to the doctor and ask them some things, and they're gonna go over most more post-op stuff, um, when he's in recovery and I'm in there visiting him. So just kind of anxiously awaiting for this all to be over and Looking forward to getting him back and feeling well. Hopefully it will be a fast recovery, although he can take as much time as he needs. My mic went out here, so what I was saying is that I met with the doctor and everything went really well. He was really pleased with how the surgery went, and now I am about to drive over and go into recovery and get him. My mic is still out at this point, and so we got him in the vehicle. Unfortunately, he was not talking crazy. He just was really tired and a little bit out of it, but nothing hilarious like we had hoped.

Cold from the Polar Plunge, or do you think I'm cold from that?

That is probably— it's a lot of body, it's a lot of work on your body.

They take, uh, 3 shots. I took 3 Proud to get blood.

Going to the grocery store to get your prescriptions.

I'm so dizzy. Is that normal? Yeah. Are you gonna go get me some medicine?

I am right now. We just got home. How you feeling?

I'm embarrassed. Randolph's right over there. Come look at the stanchion area.

He's like, I'm embarrassed. I'm like, what?

I feel good. I've been able to text members.

He's been doing member texts.

I can't believe it.

So I'm gonna get him— I'm gonna get him out. All right, just leave the door open.

Okay.

As you should.

Or not.

All right, so I'm gonna get him in bed, Randolph, and then I'll come and see you.

I'm busy.

Do you want to change your clothes or anything?

Yeah, I want to get out of this sweater.

Okay, now he's hot. He was freezing cold. Okay, they want you to sit up. Sit, sleep, sleep with your head up.

Oh really?

I don't know if you need to sleep much more than that.

Got our hand up. I'm sorry.

Here's some water. You want it?

Take out pictures so you can show them the fence that you like. I will.

Okay, thanks. We got some visitors. Hey, Papa.

Tell us everybody.

Jonah's not here yet. He's coming. Hey, can we see our teeth?

I did find— I guess. Do you want to see it?

No. Oh, well, I don't know if you'll be able to see it. It's kind of hard. Oh, don't, don't stick your hands in there. It's on this side. Don't, don't stick your hands in there. I can't see it. Yeah, we're gonna have to wait. You glad he's back? Yes.

Hey, working man. Any complications with the chores?

Oh, you got injuries on your hand too?

They stuck an IV in me. They stuck a shot in me.

For how long?

Pulled out blood.

Did it hurt?

And that's how they administered the medicine.

Did it hurt?

Yeah.

Are you in pain?

They tried here and then they tried here and then the nurse couldn't do it, so the doctor had to do it. 3 times.

So I dealt with Randolph. He's gonna come back next week to start working on the thing right there. I'm about to give him some of his pain medicine that was prescribed from the doctor, and he's starting to feel tingling.

What am I really supposed to swallow? That is that pain medicine.

If you take this drug with— with— you can take this drug with or without food. If you have nausea, it may help to take with food. So So that's why they're saying the milk, but that's also good nourishment for you just to take that. Where's my paper go?

Where did I put my paper? I keep spilling it, but I can't—

can't fill it. Okay. Oh, here it is. All right, why don't you lay down a little bit more and I'll get you your computer.

Should I pee first?

If you feel the need to. If you go in the bathroom, I'll help you.

Yeah, yeah, put that heater on because that made me cold.

Lay down. Go lay down more. Okay, lay down more. Like, go put your butt further down. Okay, there we go. Now, where did the ice pack go? I'm a crazy lady. Can you hold it there? How is that? Okay. Okay, can I put a timer on your phone?

It's not gonna last too long though.

Face and jaw will probably swell. Swelling is most marked within 48 to 72 hours. You might have a slight earache. You may have a sore throat. Don't blow up any balloons, okay?

No birthday party.

Are you hungry? Oh, I'm sorry.

It's a good sign though, right?

Yeah, that is a great sign that you're hungry. And, uh, you're numb. Let me see how you're looking. A little bit swollen. Let me see. You're not too bad swollen.

How was supper?

It was— we missed you. How was your movie?

It's good. Good.

The kids have been helping bring ice back and forth, and they got him his coconut water, which is good. I got him some coconut water and some other things to kind of help him today because he can't really have anything. So those things, what are they called? Chocolate milk. The chocolate milk, but they're all for Papa. I know that. I saw it in the fridge. People are checking in with me, seeing how you're doing, letting everybody know with people who ask.

Thanks.

So, so it's 6:30 Friday night, doing okay. Look who's looking good. He's looking a little bit bright-eyed. I noticed the change in him when I came in here.

Half later.

Grandma helped tremendously. Tomorrow I hope I'm gonna catch more of what I'm doing than opposed to what he's doing because he's just doing it. But today was kind of all— today was all about him though. Good morning. Good morning. Early morning. I woke the kids up at 6:30 this morning. I made them tea so that their ritual with their pop is still happening. We woke up early this morning to take pain medicine, staying on top of the pain medicine, and so I'm getting the boys out and then continuing to help the other children and Justin. Ben is coming today. Justin asked Ben to come and help me. —so that I'm— I can be in more places. Come sit here, buddy. Oh wow, it's not cold. Goodies! It's only 58 degrees right now. So it's almost 60 degrees. You guys are gonna be way overdressed. He has no pain at all. That's really good, actually. We were really afraid when he had that last tooth pulled. He was in a lot of pain. When we were in Seattle, Washington, he was in so much pain. This is going way better than that. In fact, he was in more pain with that than he has been with that. He is gonna get— they're called implants. Are they gonna be gold? No. So what it is, is what they did is it's called a bone graft, and they put this— see where your teeth are? Uh-huh. It's wide enough for your teeth to sit in, your— the root of your tooth to sit into it. So because there's no teeth there, it got thin. That got real thin. I know. Okay, you saw it. So what they did is they're trying to expand it to make it wider, which the doctor said that's easier to do than height. He has good height, he just doesn't have enough width. They are widening it. This was yesterday's surgery. And then what they're going to do once it's good and hard and the bone's there and grown, because they can both grow bone. Isn't that cool? Then they're gonna put something called an implant in it, and that's like a post, and they're just gonna screw it in to his bone, but he won't feel it. I don't know, I don't know what kind of surgery that entails, if they'll put him to sleep or not. And then they'll put a fake tooth on top of that, temporary, it's a temporary crown is what they call it. And then once the post is all in and feeling good, And like, it's— there's been no problems with it. Then we'll go to the regular dentist and they'll put a crown on it. Rise and shine! What you been doing in here?

I've been napping, laying here thinking.

You're talking good. Yeah, you don't have any pain.

Medicine has worn off, or the numbing's worn off, and I'm still not in a lot of pain or any pain really. Yeah, then, uh, when it gets light outside, I'll go step outside and call it pose. Get the lumens in my eyes. That's a good idea. It might be good for me to get my own eyes. What do you think? Like to walk a little bit over here?

Yeah. Do you want to get it every 20 minutes though? No. Yeah, okay, so we'll still utilize— the kids want to help me, you know, doing that. Okay, let me, um, get your timer started. Okay, kitty kitty, are you all wet? Oh gosh, look, y'all, blowing rain. We're bringing the food. You ready to eat? Hey, look at my spatula.

Now you're getting in the way.

What's getting in the way? You need Mommy? I'm here. You want me to cuddle with you? Okay, I'm coming. Look who showed up! Yay! To help. I'm very happy that they're here, especially since it's raining.

I like this weather.

This is wonderful. Oh good, I'm glad, I'm glad. Well, it's not cold. It's not cold. It's just— Ben's also going to fix that for us. I asked him so nicely to do that. And then, um, it's the blowing rain that sucks. Yeah, it gets in your eyes. Yeah. Look at this, like cow's already ready to go. Yeah, man. Flossy doesn't— there might not be a lot of milk in her because the calf is on her 24/7 still. So, and you don't have to like milk her out, like, I mean, obviously get the majority of the milk, but there might not be a lot. But now With Phyllis, we're doing the hind milk. Okay. With Moose. Okay. Where we bring him back. Yeah, I'm going to, um, go and check the kids' jobs. That's my job is now to go and check the kids. Crack the whip. That's right. See how— see how they did. Just make sure that everybody has food and water and shelter. I'm gonna check on Justin, see how he's doing. Taking a nap. Taking a nap? Mm-hmm.

Did you tell them we got off the pain medicine?

No, I didn't.

I can feel the soreness a little bit, but it's totally bearable so far.

A little headache. Okay, got ice pack on you. Is it, is it where it needs to be? Okay, all bundled up for afternoon chores. I lost battery. The umbrella kept blowing away because it is windy out here. It's actually not too bad that it's, it's only 60 degrees out, which is like not normal for January. I'm only wearing like a layer of clothes under this, the clothes that I was wearing upstairs, like a t-shirt and a fleece and then sweatpants and one pair of socks and then my rain gear over that. And I am really almost a little too hot. So that's awesome that it's at least it's not like bitter cold. I mean, it could be snowing too, which would be no bueno. Going great. And apparently the door just got left open, and that's okay. They're little piggies eating their grain. And from the chores, got my wet clothes off. He is just waking up.

Wonderful nap, but I better get up if I want to sleep tonight. Night. Yeah, pretty sore now. I can feel the pain.

Okay, okay. So do you want to take some over-the-counter medication? Not yet. You still— are you sure? You don't want it to get out of control. And why don't we do half a dose? Okay. All right, back inside. I've got meatloaf in the oven. Dinner is done. We ate it. I didn't even vlog it. I was— it's just a lot. This is a lot doing vlogging kids, food, taking care of Justin, farm. I'm tired, so we're gonna have an early bedtime tonight. So I experimented with a different glaze. This one was a little bit runnier than this one over here. I'm actually gonna put this in the fridge and see if it firms it up a little bit, which it probably will. And then here's the glaze that I did earlier, so we'll see, we'll see which one everybody likes. And, um, I think we're gonna try to do donuts tonight before early bedtime. Justin's doing good. He ate some dinner tonight. He ate a little bit of the dinner and some eggs with it, had some broth, and I think he's gonna eat a donut. We're eating the donuts. Is it good? And they're delicious. Are you enjoying it? Yeah, I ate this much, but I'm gonna save the rest for milk. Did you enjoy the donut? I love this donut. Gideon, what is it? How many, how many thumbs up do you give the donut? 2? Nice, 2 thumbs up. Zion, Lily, mine is— lots of thumbs up. I'm on to something with the glaze. I haven't perfected it yet, but We're just gonna have to keep eating donuts until I perfect the glaze, right, Justin? Good morning! How are you doing? I'm doing good. You feeling all right? Yep. How's the pain?

Good, good. Bearable.

Ready to go outside? Ben and Meg are already here. Of course the boys are already playing. They actually woke up early to do their chores. Today is Sunday. I'm gonna put my collar down. What's going on here? Yeah, the kids were all like, it's warm. It doesn't feel that warm to me. I thought I put my long underwear on. Oh good, Jonah's milking. Yeah, how's it going? Is there a ton in there, Ben?

Ah, so far so good.

I thought there would be a lot. We've probably got about a half a gallon so far. Nice. Gorgeous afternoon. I am about to do chores. I'm gonna get Sally, get some minerals in her, and then go out and help Jonah do the chores. Well, actually, since this morning we ate breakfast, we watched a movie as a family, I made more donuts, which I haven't glazed yet. I'm still working on that. So it's been a productive day, and I can say that I'm pooped. Move the cows over. Good for you. I know that they're out of, um, BBC and A. Those are the two things that I brought. Checking on the cow minerals to see what they need. Jonah is gonna— Jonah is over fixing the over— the overflowing waterer. Do you need help? It's good. Kelp's good. BBC, we'll put a little bit more in there. What's this? It's iodine. They don't really use it that much. Cow minerals are done. It is such a, such a bright day. Looking forward to having Justin back on the farm a little bit more hands-on, right? Do we need to do leech doors? Pigs first. Pigs. Okay, I'm going to pick up that screw. Is that what you used to start up? I had asked them, should we get a wrench? She's like, no, it's no big deal. Here, we can turn these off too. You turn that off. Oh, so sorry. The boys are going to do the luchadors alone so that I can go back inside. We'll go check on Justin. I I need to finish dinner. Hey bud, you sleeping with the lights on?

Yeah, I didn't care. Got tired, huh?

I came back in to finish dinner and I think I got the glaze pretty, pretty good. So, and some people on my Instagram were asking about this recipe. I got it from Eat What You Love by Daniel Walker. And it is not 100% GAPS compliant. I have been adding in some different starches that are— I've done fine with, as well as maple sugar or maple syrup. I've done fine with both of those, so I'm not necessarily like 100% abstaining from those, but those donuts are gonna be good.