You Forgot this Struggle

Pig skins. Pot's too small. Those pig skins almost went bad because they've been sitting in the fridge so long. Are you going? You going to get the eggs? I guess it's helped that we've gotten rid of that ornery rooster. Go ahead, drop them in. I sometimes get so caught up in the process, like we've got to go get the piglets to the forest The journey. I forget about the destination sometimes. What's that? It's that metal bucket.

I had to feed them on the, um, with that because I couldn't let the real bucket.

That's for the ashes from the fireplace, bro. So have you gotten the eggs? Is the other rooster bothering you? He don't pay you no mind, does he?

He doesn't bother me when he's— when I'm collecting eggs.

Okay, that's good. Have you moved it? Can you move it? Yeah. Chickshell 5.0. Oh yeah, nice. I suspect this is why our sea monsters aren't growing. Everybody's getting grower feed right now. I don't think anybody's eating it like they should. I mean, are you guys not interested in that? I'm afraid the feed mix is off. You guys are still laying eggs. What's wrong with that one?

He does not want to lift up his foot.

Hmm. Focus.

Lay back down.

Wow.

Touch it. Feel that?

I don't know if I feel anything. I put it on there. Sometimes if they're dewy, the electricity can travel through them a little bit. A little bit. Is that your popsicle for the day? 7:20, you're not gonna have another one?

Probably am. I tried not to.

You're supposed to only have one in a day. I forget.

I literally forget. I don't remember.

You're rooster feeding our chickens yet? Oh yeah, lots of maggots in there. You're gonna carry this? You said you want to help me milk. You gonna milk one side today? Yeah, I think Lily was milking by your age. It started by milking the other side. That's how much those layer chickens should be eating in a day. They're not. Now they could be getting a lot off the land. Well, they're probably getting a lot of time, but that much I don't know, they're probably eating about half that. I don't know, I'm thinking soaking it— well, you'll get the benefit of breaking down the anti-nutrients. Maybe they'll enjoy it more, but also maybe it will combine the feed better. I think they're just eating certain things out of it. Some of it's powdery, some of it's not, so they're probably not getting a real balanced diet right now. Maybe like this should— they're leaving a lot of this corn, just not eating it well. Look at this. I feel like the King Feeder does good. It makes them eat it. Look at that, they're attacking that. They're not touching this stuff in the trough.

I don't think they like it wet.

Okay, they're starting to peck at it a little bit after I turned it a little bit ago, but still they're packed around the king feeder. My only guess is they're more forced to eat it whole and they're being choosy with the other stuff. And perhaps they're getting the best stuff, leaving their less choice stuff. We keep adding feed to it even though it's empty— not empty. Maybe that's it. It didn't help that they pooped in it. I want you guys to look at this pasture. This is— yeah, that's mucho clover and rotational grazing after years. Look, this was what it is today as we set them in there. This is what they mowed down. And because we'll give this rest before we hit it again, it'll come back even stronger. In the end, rotational grazing is less work because you're going to get more production out of less land. Maybe less work isn't the word there. Certainly more productivity. Effort per results. Yeah, it's a big bang for your buck. It ends into it suddenly, so we're gonna go with it. That's okay, I'll help you, I'll help you. Yeah, it's good that you're careful. Okay, are you gonna clean it or you just being my assistant?

I'll do— I'll clean it right next to—

no, no, like get closer.

Right there.

Right there. No, don't stand out. If you stand out, you'll get hurt. Stand close. If you'll stand out, you'll get your nose broke like I did. There you go. She can't break your nose like that. This cow, Vanilla, Unlike Flossie, hasn't kicked ever. Stepped, yes. Kicked, no. Honey too. And that's why they're, you know, hey, that's why Vanilla is our replacement for Flossie. You'll be milking on your own in no time. Your milking days are done. Flossie's not leaving because she broke my nose. Well, per se, she was on her way out. One reason, because she's ornery. Second reason is because she's old. Those are two of three O's The other one being open, and open she's not. She's able to get pregnant. She's got 2 strikes out of 3 for culling, so we're culling her. That's, that's why, that's why this— that's why Vanilla's here. Well, why hasn't she gone yet? Well, Flossie's got a calf. That's what— how old's that calf? Getting 2 weeks, maybe a little more. All right, you milk that side. Henry, do you have a bigger sister? Is that what this is? You always in these little dresses. He had to carry something. You're a good helper.

He trips on it.

Take it in there to the sink. Every day is a beautiful day with the beautiful one. Potatoes off the land, soon to be bacon off the land. We just gotta get rid of our boughten bacon. Rebecca might have single-handedly saved our pork rinds. I've been boiling these skins for 4 hours, and then this morning she's like, how long you boil the skins? I said 4 hours. She says, uh, I think it's 2. Mr. Google Pants Says 1 hour. Henry, is that apple juice? Hey, time to eat. Are you gonna eat? We slammed that meal. Look at that. You ready to do some skins? It's a good job for you. You're getting into this too? Yeah. Why's he in a dress?

Because we were pretending he's the girl. Oh, I'm the mom.

So you have a girl and a little boy?

Yeah, and that's Henry's bed.

Okay.

And that's my bed.

Okay. Cutting the fat off the skins. How you feeling? I'm feeling good. How you doing on pain medicine?

I'm not doing any today.

No Tylenol or anything.

What's your scale of pain?

Like a half of a 1.

Oh man, you got this. We got it dehydrating now. How long, Rebecca? 24 hours? We're gonna move the pigs to the woods. We're gonna move Nacho to the 2 acres, and we're gonna put the chickens on the compost where the pigs were. We're gonna take that Mini X and pile that material up. The chickens are gonna help compost it. That's probably 3 days of work, maybe a week's work of work, but we're gonna do it today. We're gonna aim for the impossible, and then extraordinary things happen. Kids, let's go! I should mention, we've only got an hour till we have to break for lunch. Then we'll be in for lunch and clean up, which is another 2 hours. So then we have an hour before 3.

This is what people— it takes a lot to grow it, but it takes a lot then to process it into food.

That's the forgotten stuff.

That's the forgotten stuff.

What we just did in here, dehydrated the— did the— dehydrated the pork skins. Got the chickens going for lunch. Don't you love it, living on a farm?

Sit on the couch.

Is that what you want to do? That would grow old real fast, trust me. It seems like it might be fun, and it might be for 2, 3 days. Kind of like vacation, you're over vacation by the end of it. I've been trying this. Help my attitude. This is gonna be awesome. We're all together. It's a beautiful day. We're gonna have problems, but we're gonna overcome them together. It's just gonna be awesome. Don't think that it's gonna be a whole lot of all hands on deck. It's gonna be a whole lot of everybody sitting around looking at the other one doing some work.

Should I go get my book?

This is kind of a job— some jobs where it's like, it's not like we've got 8 shovels and we're all digging a ditch. We're fixing a water line, clearing around it. You think we can do it with the mower? Yes.

These are the charged batteries.

Hopefully they work. Everybody want to do a little dance? Look at this precious car.

Oh, it's so dorky.

Ah, it won't always be like this. Jonah will be running off to Lowe's in a year and a half. You got your book? Can't scroll out there, there's no internet.

Actually, there is a little bit. Oh, but I don't want to scroll on. I'm—

this book's—

it's interesting. It's an interesting book. I don't know if I recommend it, but it's what I read yesterday.

Jonah says he thinks he can mow. Got it. Jonah's been off the farm for what, 10 months? Feel how cooler it is in here though, right?

Much cooler.

Jonah, Lily will come help you if it's too gnarly. We had the string trimmer in the back of Sally. Get in and— isn't that something? It's holding water. Lily, you guys get these logs out of Jonah's way. Are you moving the fence out of your way?

I was. Get the fence out of the way.

Our broken valve, and there's no way to turn it off above. He's mowing. Hopefully he's not stuck. We're gonna take some pressure off of it here. Yeah, that's going to take a lot of pressure off, but that water coming out above it We don't have much coming down through here. We have none, basically, so that's gonna work. It's gonna be easy. Do you know how good that flows now? Let's put it over here where we're definitely gonna get a little more sun. Put it as far away and out as we can. How's that? We want this to blink green, green. Oh, oh, thankfully we did figure out the water situation. We did fix the fence. Timer's been going off. Bottom, 170. We're good. You cool off in the shed, Winnie? What do you think, we'll get the pigs out today and not your move, then the chickens in?

No, the first part we might get done.

How'd it come? That's good. If prep for cooking time is overlooked, this is certainly overlooked. Got a dishwasher and a half ready to be emptied and loaded again, and it's just lunchtime. It's a lot, isn't it, to stop and do these things?

Yeah, it's a lot.

Hey Beck, maybe our goal should instead be 3 nails a day.

Yeah.

And then everything else is about us. Then we won't feel like it's such a distraction. Lucky, you gonna start? Back. They ate all those weeds I gave it to them. I gave them a big old pile of weeds. Another reason for putting them in the forest. And their poop is starting to— yeah, pile up.

No, I like this idea of putting the chickens in here. I think it's gonna be fun.

I mean, you've got 2 chickens, right? Yeah. My idea is to get these pigs out, pile this into a compost pile, and then put chickens on top to help stir it. I don't know, but they're pretty smart. There we go. Bill, you come spot this one in here. I got out last time, they were little enough I could get them some skin and pick them up.

These ones, we put them out already once. Yeah, these are the ones that—

yes. Oh dear. I know. Gonna get them in here. We're gonna turn the fence on. We know it's hot. It's nice and cool. You got lots of greens.

All right, go turn that fence on. 5.6.

They're in the woods. Hopefully this time, whatever it was, maybe it was the fence wasn't hot enough, they stay in because I'm not gonna be able to catch those guys by hand. They seem happy. They don't seem like they're pressing the fence. You want to go to the house? You better not take a nap. 3 o'clock, we're gonna go set up for nachos. This is the 2 acres that we cleared over the winter. Let's get some animals on it. Nacho, here we come. I mean, maybe there's a chance it's running. This vegetation back— how are we doing here? We clogged up? It's hard to tell. We'll go see if it's dropping in our tank. I hear water coming in. That's good. Oh, you know what that tells me? Water's going down into end of the pipe, and the Everflow water is working right now. We have it set up as the Everflow waterer, so we need to go shut it off down at the bottom so it starts getting filled up. The Everflow is useful to keep water moving through the pipes, but we don't have to do that in the summer, and we can keep that thing full. It's flowing from the spring. Down through this pipe all the way back down into the creek. We'll put a stop on it and it can build up. Hopefully there's no vulnerabilities in the line from here all the way up to the tank. It's kind of amazing that it's flowing like this still. Y'all have to join us again tomorrow to see if this held. Is that dinner right there or what?

Yeah.

How's that?

I don't know if we can say.

Is that enough for dinner? Yes.

It's only for storage.

You're stepping all up on the bed. Sorry, tell your soil microbes you're sorry.

I know, I need to get out here. Maybe tonight I'll come out, I don't know.

What about your tomatoes? We gotta go in there, don't we? You got at least water them. Yeah, crushed it.

It's so good. I got my sauce, my coconut aminos, and my kombucha ready to go.

I want to make 2 trips.

No, I don't.

How is it, everybody?

Good.

I guess I'm sitting next to you. Yeah, you suck some coconut aminos over there.

Some of the kids like it, some of The kids don't.

Coconut aminos. Yeah, but this dinner is a win. One plate meal. Oh no. Okay, well, we didn't get all—

we didn't get barely anything.

Well, we got the pig done. We got the pigs in the woods. And if our goal was 3 meals together as a family, which, which is very important, we did it. This is our 3rd meal together. It's the only one we got with us this evening. Dropping like flies. They've been working with us all day. It's mid-July. We've been going at it Sunday, seed day. No appointments, no meetings. Favorite day of the week. This should not be running unless they just drank and it's filling up the trough. There's a bust in the line. I'm on to something. It's a gigantic puddle here. It's a blowout.

Only little leaf make that big of a puddle. He's clutching on to me. You're cold? It is very cold.

See right there on the right side of his neck, right here? Absolutely full. That's his crop. Everybody's had their way at the King Theater. Wow, they've eaten almost half this in just a day. That's more like it. All right, now we're shifting. They're gonna gain weight fast. Put it into reverse, Henry. Look at that gargoyle, he's after us. This what you're up to tonight, harvesting taters?

I harvested the onions. Yeah, let's taste it. This weedy mess needs to get covered.

I know, before it all goes to seed.

Well, it's already gone so much, but considering we did nothing pretty much— what, how many times you weed this?

None. Okay, I mean, I went at it after became a jungle. But right, we got breakfast for a while.

Yeah, we pick up that one that dropped out.

Mama provides. How appropriate.

The red potatoes, Justin, we did not plant. Volunteers from last year.

Volunteers, that counts. That's just—

whoa!

Can I try?

Sure. Whoa!