0:00

Hey

0:01

friends, welcome back to the old fashioned

0:03

on purpose podcast. So today

0:05

I have a rare treat. Well, if

0:07

you're watching this, you're going to see it's a rare treat.

0:09

If you're listening, I'm going to explain to you why I just said

0:11

that. I have done very few in person

0:13

podcast interviews here on my homestead. Every once

0:16

in a while it happens, but not very often.

0:18

But today is one of those days. So I

0:20

have Austin from Homesteady

0:23

joining me in the flesh here

0:25

in Wyoming today and we get to do podcasts

0:28

together. So I just recorded one for his

0:30

show and then now we're recording one for

0:32

mine. So this is super fun. So

0:34

if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll see both of us,

0:36

which is. kind of a treat. So I

0:38

don't know, maybe it's pretty hot.

0:41

We're all getting a little bit. There are flies

0:43

here. I tell everybody my interview. I'm like, if

0:45

I start waving, it's because I'm trying to get the fly off my nose. So

0:48

you can hear the fly go by. Yes. It's

0:51

a little warm in here. Yeah. So

0:54

I'm so excited to have you guys swing by. You

0:56

guys have been on quite the tour. Tell

0:58

us a little bit about that.

1:00

So we left. In the beginning

1:02

of the summer for what we've

1:04

been calling the off grid challenge, the off grid

1:06

adventure our family has been

1:08

wanting to build a new homestead. We've been

1:10

homesteading for over a decade, but we wanted to kind of

1:13

reset what we've been doing and

1:15

go off grid. Yeah. And for about

1:18

six months, nine months, we were planning

1:21

and designing an off grid homestead. And

1:23

then I realized I was making a huge mistake. I

1:25

was. I was the gardener designing

1:27

a garden who had never gardened, right?

1:30

I was, I was designing a market garden and I

1:32

never did a raised bed. So we figured, you

1:34

know what, let's go live off grid,

1:36

experience what off grid life is really like.

1:39

And then we can come back to this idea of living

1:41

off grid and designing a life off grid with

1:44

some experience. And this summer

1:46

has been some

1:46

experience. I bet I

1:49

can only imagine. And I, I'm

1:51

excited to hear what your conclusion

1:53

was of. You know, getting in there

1:55

and actually doing the things, but

1:58

I, I know we're going to, you're going to reveal that when you put

2:00

all of your adventures together in the series,

2:02

it's series, right? On YouTube and a podcast.

2:04

Yep.

2:05

So we're going to be covering on the YouTube channel,

2:07

this whole off grid series. You'll

2:09

hear about it on the podcast. We've had the.

2:12

Wonderful chance to interview lots

2:14

of different people on this tour. We

2:17

started with people living off grid

2:19

in Alaska. We went through,

2:22

eventually, we were in Alaska for the summer. We're

2:24

driving home now, which is why we're here in Wyoming.

2:26

And it's a slow go, because it's the whole

2:29

family, all eight of us. And the dog

2:31

and the, and the cats

2:32

the cat that's in, that's impressive that you brought

2:34

the cats.

2:34

The cats was next level. Yes. We almost brought the

2:36

goats, but that was just

2:38

a, it's harder to fit in a van. It was the border.

2:40

Yeah. honestly, the

2:40

border check, it was like we'd lose our goats

2:43

in the border. Yeah. So yeah, so we've been

2:45

going and we've been having really great conversations and this

2:47

is the last one. We got to talk to Jill today. And like

2:49

she said, she'll be on in that series.

2:52

So stay tuned. You'll get the grand conclusion, which

2:54

I'm very curious to hear what

2:56

they decided. We have a really fun topic

2:58

today. We were, we were discussing like what we

3:00

could, we could chat about. We're going to be talking

3:02

about homesteading myths, lies,

3:05

and opinions. We're going to get into some controversial

3:08

topics today. You and I might not even agree on some

3:10

of this. So this'll be fun. I love talking to people I

3:12

don't agree with. I think it's so good. Whenever

3:15

I do these episodes, like I was telling you before I hit record.

3:17

I'm always nervous and my audience generally

3:20

loves them because I think everyone

3:22

just wants to hear the truth

3:24

and nothing but the truth. They just want to hear it put out on the table

3:26

and just have frank discussions.

3:28

And, and you know, Jill, you mentioned it just

3:30

there, right? We might not agree because we have a different

3:32

experience, right? Yes. So people listening,

3:35

we might go, we have a list here to go

3:37

through and they might agree

3:39

with half and think the other half is baloney.

3:41

Yeah. But it's all our experiences, just

3:43

good to see things from someone else's angle, especially

3:45

in the world of homesteading where we can kind of, you know, get

3:48

in our corner and think our corner is the right

3:50

corner. Yeah, I think it's really healthy and in

3:52

so many areas. So, but before we

3:54

get into the the juicy stuff I

3:56

was interested in something you said you've

3:58

been homesteading for over a decade. Yeah, you

4:00

want to simplify so a lot of people

4:02

are going wait You already achieved the

4:04

the ultimate what do you mean?

4:07

Why what happened? Why are you simplifying again?

4:10

Great question. We Started

4:12

homesteading. My son is sitting in the studio

4:14

right now. My oldest he was on

4:16

his way and we decided

4:19

we were switching from being a couple who's in an

4:21

apartment and ate Taco Bell to

4:23

well we got a baby to think about now so we gotta do better

4:26

and it started very very small

4:28

scale I learned we

4:30

didn't have any land so we couldn't raise animals

4:32

so I learned to hunt it's the only thing I could figure out

4:35

and fish so hunting and fishing to put meat in

4:37

the freezer that taught me how to butcher

4:39

right so well now I know how to butcher an animal

4:42

and we had a little apartment

4:45

yard where Kay could put in a garden.

4:47

So she put in a little garden and the

4:50

first year we got no deer

4:52

and no tomatoes. we grew. And

5:01

we got to the point where now fast forward

5:03

13 years and

5:06

we have been running what is more like a farmstead.

5:09

We've had, we peaked last

5:11

year with 13 cattle, a

5:13

bull and 12 girls. We

5:15

had throughout the summer, five

5:17

feeder pigs, as well as some breeder pigs

5:20

and all kinds of little piglets running around.

5:22

We had goats and sheep

5:25

and chickens and chickens and chicken tractors.

5:27

Then we had the meat birds and the egg layers. We

5:30

did a day in the life of video on our youtube channel

5:32

to show like how crazy our day

5:34

was and We

5:36

looked back at that video and we're proud of it.

5:39

We built a huge Thing

5:41

we we do all our own meat. We don't buy meat

5:43

from the supermarket anymore, right? We're proud

5:45

of what we've done But when you watch

5:47

the day in the life of video Kay

5:49

and I, we give each other a kiss, walk into the barn

5:52

and we go like this. I know you could probably

5:54

relate with all the stuff you guys got going on. And

5:57

we really wanted to build a life

5:59

where we were together more and we've done better

6:01

than we had before we started homesteading.

6:03

I worked in construction. I had to big commute.

6:06

I was never home when my first two

6:08

were little. I missed a lot of stuff, but

6:11

now as things grow, we're very, very

6:13

busy. They're very busy helping us, the kids.

6:16

And so it's gotten to the point where. we

6:18

realized we need to reset, simplify

6:20

again. And that means

6:23

doing a better job of juggling, you know,

6:25

how and what we're actually doing and

6:27

what things maybe we now let our community

6:29

around us take care of.

6:31

So that's still good. And

6:33

so important because I found that

6:35

well, January this of this past of this year,

6:38

I felt that same thing in my businesses, like, I love

6:40

my business, I've been working on my business for a decade.

6:42

And it was grow, grow, grow, expansion,

6:44

expansion, higher, higher, higher. And I'm like, this

6:47

is a behemoth. And I am not liking

6:49

this as much as I used to, like, it's too

6:51

complicated. There's too many irons

6:53

in the fire. And I just started purging. I

6:55

closed down programs. I let some employees

6:57

go. They were good employees, but I'm like, we're too big.

6:59

Like it's too, there's too much. And it, it felt

7:01

so good. I'm still doing, I'm still in that mindset, but yeah,

7:04

to have that self awareness is sometimes

7:06

hard, but it can feel really good. Once you lean into

7:08

it,

7:09

we say it's like within your homesteading, it's like

7:11

pruning a tree. Yes. You have to, otherwise

7:13

the fruit gets too big and the leaves you break

7:15

and get disease. So it either

7:17

will happen by. As you've

7:19

probably seen if we grow too big too fast,

7:21

there'll be failures. Yes, right We'll or we

7:23

can self prone and we've had both. Yeah Talk

7:27

about a lot of failures a lot of things that we've

7:29

learned the hard way And sometimes we've been

7:31

smart enough to self prune, other times things have gone

7:33

wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Good life lessons

7:36

though, all the way around. Always. All

7:38

the way. Always, always. Okay. So should

7:40

we get into the list? Yeah. Ready for this? All right. Okay.

7:42

First one on the list. Livestock

7:45

breeds. They may not be as important

7:47

as you have been told. Please

7:49

divulge.

7:50

We have over the

7:52

So we've been homesteading over a decade. We've had livestock

7:55

since he was my son. I keep pointing to my son.

7:58

He's

7:58

in here, we promise.

7:59

He's in here. He was one

8:01

years old when we got his first batch of chickens.

8:03

Okay. So 12 years we've had

8:06

livestock and we've had chickens. We've

8:08

had, I already said chickens, cows,

8:10

sheep, goats, pigs, we even had camels

8:12

first. Oh my goodness. We had dairy camels.

8:14

Okay, that's, that's awesome.

8:17

I don't know what to say. I've never, I've never had a camel

8:19

guest before. So

8:21

we've had all kinds of livestock. Kay

8:23

loves new animals since she was a little

8:25

girl. It was her thing to get a new animal, try something

8:28

new. And So we

8:30

try pretty much everything and we have tried

8:32

many different breeds And so what we tell

8:34

people nowadays when people say like, oh, well,

8:36

what's the best breed for? You

8:38

know, I want to get pigs or I want to get a cow. All right

8:40

family milk cow. Yeah, we have a lot of Experience

8:43

with family milk cows. We love, we have many jerseys

8:45

and we love our mini jerseys. They're an amazing

8:48

breed for your, you know, small homestead

8:51

where you can go out and milk it. It's not a high production.

8:53

You can milk by hand. It's great. We talk a lot

8:55

about them on our channel, mini jerseys

8:57

and on our podcast. So someone

8:59

might see our show and be like, I need a mini jersey. I

9:02

got, it's the best breed for a homestead

9:04

milk cow. I would even have said that in

9:06

videos. That's the best breed. Yeah. Bye.

9:10

What may they may find is what we found when

9:12

we got into mini jerseys. They're high demand

9:14

Low supply. They're expensive. They're hard

9:17

to find They could spend five

9:19

years waiting For that

9:21

mini jersey finally get it or

9:23

they could say, you know, what the breed's not that

9:25

important Yeah, let me get a regular

9:27

size jersey and breed down or

9:30

even better the farmer

9:32

down the road has Whatever

9:35

breed. Yeah, and they're willing to help

9:38

me when we got into pigs,

9:40

I had zero pig experience. We wanted

9:42

to try the heritage pigs and all we could find

9:44

was a farmer near us who was raising commercial

9:47

Yorkshire land raised cross, big pink pigs. And

9:50

you know, we were new and wow, we want to do

9:52

the heritage thing, but well, the, these are here.

9:54

Let's try it. That farmer

9:57

Tom Dexter has become

9:59

one of my biggest mentors. Because

10:02

he was close to me. He was he

10:04

wouldn't let me buy a pig from him

10:06

until I came and toured his farm He

10:09

said listen, you're gonna do it all wrong. Hmm. Come

10:11

see my farm. See how I do it

10:14

So it didn't matter the breed. I was new

10:17

right? Yeah How many times do

10:19

we get into a new animal and wind up it gets sick

10:21

because of this mistake we make it could wind

10:23

Up dying. So for in the

10:25

beginning, don't worry about breed Yeah finds

10:28

what we always tell people is find your

10:30

closest Farmer or

10:33

homesteader who's willing to take you and actually

10:35

help you, you know You can find a lot of people selling

10:37

stuff on craigslist but someone

10:39

who's willing to work with you Give

10:41

you advice. I have called tom dexter.

10:44

I've been homesteading now. We said they're 13

10:46

ish years I've called him every year since I

10:48

first called him. Yeah, not for pigs anymore,

10:51

but still for advice on on pigs

10:53

you know breeds all kinds of things so

10:56

that we find is much more important and

10:58

then the specific breed,

11:00

I totally agree with that. And I see a lot of

11:02

new homesteaders getting hyper focused on the breed. Yes.

11:04

Like it's, I, I like the heritage idea,

11:07

that heritage breed idea. We've had very

11:09

few because I mean, Wyoming is close

11:12

to nothing, so no one is here.

11:14

And so anything special it's you, it's

11:16

far away. And so like we have pink

11:18

pigs outside right now, big pink pigs. And I would

11:20

love every time we get them, I, I have

11:22

this little like, this isn't very homesteadery

11:25

enough because I don't have the heritage breeze, and

11:28

I'm not a real homesteader. But I'm like, there,

11:30

I got them from the neighbor. Yeah. And I can't

11:32

get the old spots anywhere

11:34

near us. And I don't feel like driving 1200 miles.

11:36

And so it matters. Yeah, it matters.

11:39

Yeah. And not only think about

11:41

your source. What is your local vet

11:43

familiar with? Rice. Yes. You weren't familiar

11:45

with camels.

11:45

I can see that. I am not surprised.

11:49

So just, if it's what you can get locally

11:52

that people understand, you can get help with, how

11:54

much better than getting, you

11:56

might see a YouTuber who loves their IPP.

11:58

Yes. You might see a YouTuber who loves their

12:01

old, old spot, whatever

12:03

it is. There's a million different things out there. And

12:06

great. I love mini jerseys, but

12:09

there's things more important.

12:10

Yeah, I agree. I agree. That was

12:12

a good one. Okay. I like it. I

12:14

like it. Okay, number two. Oh

12:16

boy, we're diving in. Oh,

12:19

this is where the unsubscribes start. Unsubscribes are starting. I can feel the emails

12:21

coming now. Big ag

12:23

and factory farms are not your enemy.

12:25

Not your enemy.

12:26

Carefully worded here. Yes. We're real careful, me and

12:28

Kay, when we come up with our ideas

12:30

and talks, we're really careful to word things right. Because

12:32

people will pick in the comments and in the emails,

12:35

right? They're not your enemy.

12:38

The man I mentioned there, Tom Dexter. Yeah. If

12:40

you were to go to his operation, he

12:43

is a large scale

12:45

hog producer. Yeah. A lot of people would

12:47

look at him as a factory farm

12:50

and there are certain practices that

12:52

he does on his farm that

12:54

factory farms do that people don't like.

12:56

Yeah. And if I was, the

12:59

first day I went to Tom's and I saw how he

13:01

You know keeps his pigs I could have judged

13:04

him and said this isn't a homesteader. This is a factory

13:06

farmer He's got all these sows

13:08

and he's got the room with the sows and

13:10

they don't they're not on dirt He keeps his piglets

13:12

off the dirt on a on a raised floor. People

13:14

don't like that. Yeah When you

13:16

talk to tom, you'll learn This

13:19

particular breed is really bad about

13:22

crushing their babies in the mud.

13:24

They'll get sick off of that So

13:26

what's best for his pigs on his

13:28

farm is to elevate them and keep them in a

13:30

heated room. Now people might not like

13:32

that. It's not natural, right? Oh, I want to see pigs

13:35

out in the dirt. And that's fine if you want to do that in yours.

13:37

But I had a pig get sick. This

13:39

was a couple years ago. I called Tom

13:42

up. It was a little piglet. And I said,

13:44

Hey, Tom this, this little pig has

13:46

got diarrhea. I can't stop. I'm going to lose it. Now

13:48

this is again, he could be considered a big ag

13:50

factory farm guy. The first thing he said

13:53

to do was not get drugs. It

13:55

was not go not that again. We'll talk about

13:57

that too. But yeah, it wasn't go get a shot

13:59

pharmaceutical. It was go out

14:02

back Take a one foot square

14:04

of sod Lift it up with the

14:06

dirt and the sod and everything and feed it to it.

14:08

Oh interesting and then feed it a banana

14:13

Big ag right tom conventional agriculture

14:15

big pink pigs I did it

14:18

because this guy's got years of experience. I,

14:21

I, nothing else was working with this pig.

14:23

Stop the diarrhea. Now it

14:26

was a pig we ate. So the end of the story is we ate

14:28

the pig, but

14:30

that's the point seems right to me. I don't know what the problem

14:32

is.

14:33

So we saved him until much of that. So

14:35

it totally fixed the problem. Now,

14:37

I don't, if you look at my farm and you

14:39

look at Tom's farm, they look very different. We

14:42

have now, since years later, done

14:44

breeder pigs. We've done heritage pigs.

14:47

We don't elevate them off the floor.

14:49

We don't use the heated rooms. We, we find,

14:51

but I've learned so much from that guy and

14:54

I could go through the list of interviews we've

14:56

had on our podcast. We've interviewed

14:58

Kirsten Bordner who does the IPP pigs.

15:01

She works in a grow facility

15:03

for turkeys, factory farm, right?

15:05

It's a big grow house where they put the turkeys

15:07

on one side. She does, she handles

15:09

diseases and cross contamination.

15:12

When all the turkeys drop dead, she comes and figures

15:14

out what's wrong. How much have

15:16

I learned from Kirsten, right? Like, so

15:19

these people who work and you talk about this,

15:21

I got, we got a sneak peek at the book Jill's

15:24

book. You talk about this a little bit. How

15:26

people wind up working in a factory farm,

15:29

you know, big ag, maybe it's the way their

15:31

family's done it forever. Yes. You know,

15:33

maybe it's just how they've learned

15:35

to do things. There's so much knowledge,

15:38

right? They have so much more knowledge than us. Who

15:40

knows more about pigs, me or Tom Dexter. Yeah.

15:43

So we can learn so much. They're

15:45

not our enemy. Yeah. Even if we don't like

15:48

everything someone does, we can still learn

15:50

a lot.

15:50

Yeah. I think that's so important. And I think,

15:53

I think as homesteaders, I know at least I, I think a lot of us have

15:55

dipped into cause we get passionate, right?

15:57

We dipped into like all pasture,

15:59

all regenerative, you know, it's all bad. It's

16:01

all industrial. And I, I have definitely been

16:04

there, but as I've just kind of matured a little

16:06

bit and also it, you know what's that

16:08

saying? It's hard to hate up close,

16:10

not that we're hating, but like, once you get to know

16:12

somebody in the other camp and you

16:14

look eyeball to eyeball, it's like, Oh, you're just

16:16

a human. And you know, we're surrounded,

16:18

we live in ranching country. So

16:20

it's like old school ranches here, but these

16:23

are people who raise cattle for feedlots and

16:26

we raise grass finished beef. A

16:28

lot of these guys don't appreciate grass

16:30

fed beef. Like they don't, they, they don't

16:33

want to eat it and they think it's a horrible idea.

16:35

And so initially I was like, Oh, let's,

16:37

let's fight. And I'm like, no, they're really

16:39

good people. And they're the ones who have mentored us as

16:42

we've learned how to run cattle. And

16:44

so, yeah, it's get to know these

16:46

people. I do think, you know, I'm not

16:48

a fan of Monsanto. I, I really don't

16:50

think they have a lot of good in mind, but there's

16:52

a lot of humans, you know, on the

16:54

local level that are just really awesome. And like

16:56

you said, have a ton of knowledge to share.

16:58

I think it's you, as you go through

17:00

life, you see division is a tool to

17:02

control people, right? The more we can divide,

17:05

here's a guy who's raising cows for

17:07

people to enjoy. And here's another

17:09

guy raising cows for people to enjoy. If

17:11

they do it differently, they're still doing a lot

17:13

of the same stuff. So yeah, finding, Just

17:16

finding more learning

17:18

from each other even if we don't copy everything. Yeah,

17:20

totally. Yeah, I think I open minded is good It's really

17:23

healthy too. Yeah. Yeah, but it doesn't

17:25

get as many hits on YouTube. No Division

17:30

sells Yeah, all

17:33

right Number three,

17:35

here we go. Your homegrown food isn't

17:37

always better than the grocery

17:40

store. Okay, again, worded carefully. I can

17:42

tell there's even asterisks around.

17:47

Because, I mean, there's a reason

17:49

we've been homesteading for 13 years. Raw

17:52

milk usually is pretty delicious.

17:54

Yeah. You know, the, the pastured pork we raise

17:57

in our backyards, the bacon we've cured

17:59

just fantastic. Right. Yeah. And

18:02

we, by nature we have YouTube channels and

18:04

podcasts that we tell people about our products

18:06

and, and usually we like to share the wind.

18:08

Right. Yeah. And we're also, I know, Jill, you're good

18:10

about sharing the realities. We try to, on

18:12

our channel, be very open and honest. There

18:15

are a ton of times you go through a ton

18:17

of work, you spend a lot of money. I

18:19

can think back to the most

18:21

problems we've had have come from either dairy

18:24

endeavors, usually uh, or

18:26

chickens. We've raised Cornish

18:28

cross chickens, Red Ranger chickens, heritage

18:31

chickens. We have seen you ever

18:33

seen green meat disease. No, so

18:36

yeah, you you finished this big

18:38

fat bird, right? You spent eight weeks dragging

18:40

him around your pasture sweating it out

18:42

bringing him water bringing him food doing

18:45

it You know the Salatin way and the tractors,

18:48

you know You're John Siskovitch chicken tractors

18:50

and you're feeling like such a homesteader butcher

18:52

day comes and you're you get them all packaged

18:54

and sealed You're so proud and then you go

18:57

in your kitchen you cut into that and you open

18:59

it. It's green Like green,

19:01

green. Like green, green. And

19:03

you're thinking, okay,

19:05

this is rotten, this is spoiled, you know, but

19:08

then the next one's green. Oh. And

19:10

the next, green, green green

19:12

meat disease, I should have wrote this in my notes.

19:14

It's something like green meat disease, basically it's

19:17

something to do with a weird

19:19

oxygen issue. I don't know the science

19:21

behind it, but your chicken meat turns green.

19:23

Yeah. Do you want to sell that to your customers?

19:25

Do you want to serve that to your family? Technically

19:27

they say it's edible.

19:29

It doesn't look, doesn't look great. Doesn't look

19:31

great. No. We've raised chicken tractor

19:33

chickens that have been so, so

19:36

tough. Like, like,

19:39

you know, all right, well, stick them in the crock pot

19:41

for 24 hours and we'll eat

19:43

it. Yeah. Oh gosh. It's so much work. And

19:45

then, and then on the, like on the dairy side,

19:48

dairy goats, weird tasting

19:50

milk, funny issues with the flavor.

19:53

No, it is not all that right. We have

19:55

our wins, but before

19:57

you get into like, you know what, I'm going to grow all

19:59

this and it's going to be amazing. You have to know

20:02

there's a lot of failure. Yes. Yes.

20:04

A lot of times the quality

20:06

or the flavor will not match

20:09

either what you're used to. Like you mentioned with the grass

20:11

fed beef and the you know, feedlot finished

20:13

beef. It won't either be what you're used

20:15

to or it'll just be outright worse. Yes.

20:17

Yeah, that's so good. It's so good

20:19

because I everyone's small and I I have totally said

20:21

this But i'll have people come up and go well homegrown food

20:24

always tastes better and i'm kind of thinking You

20:26

haven't really grown a lot of food Because like

20:29

it's not a fun thing to admit because

20:31

I am a huge evangelist of homegrown food,

20:33

obviously but I have cheese in the house

20:35

right now homemade cheese That

20:37

it's okay It's

20:40

edible. Yeah, but like my family

20:43

is like if my

20:45

husband will like, it's in there, my husband will go to the store and get

20:47

a block of cheddar and we'll go ahead and eat the cheddar

20:49

from the store before we go. We only go back

20:51

to the homemade one if it's like, okay, there's no cheese

20:53

in the house. So we have to use this one.

20:55

I love that you mentioned cheese. Cause we were talking

20:57

on the way here in case like how many wheels of cheese

20:59

have I made or yogurt? Yeah. The kids

21:02

won't touch. Yes. Yes. They'll eat their,

21:04

their, their, the Greek full fat from the supermarket.

21:06

They love that with a little honey on it. Yeah. They don't

21:08

touch. It went too long. It went too short.

21:11

It's too grainy. It's too sour. Something

21:13

in the air. Yes. Dairy

21:16

is such an art. It is so,

21:18

it is so hard. I love it, but it's

21:20

so hard. Yeah. Yeah.

21:23

What are some other ones? Yeah. I've had a lot of those.

21:26

my, I had a big shock when I first started making

21:28

sourdough bread back in the day. Like I

21:30

was just like, it's sourdough. I went to a hundred

21:32

percent whole wheat right away. Cause I'm hardcore

21:35

like that. And I'd be like, look at honey,

21:37

I have homemade bread for supper. And it was like,

21:39

it would choke you. But

21:41

yeah, and I was like, I didn't want to admit it, but it's

21:43

really not better. It's actually worse. Now,

21:47

now, now I can actually make bread that's

21:49

better than the store, but it took me a long time.

21:52

Yeah, we did a batch of bacon.

21:55

This was last year, Homestead

21:57

in 12 years, right? I got to, we

21:59

did a batch of bacon. We over salted it. It

22:01

was inedible. We had

22:03

to, to serve it. And

22:06

bacon, we like literally

22:08

raised the breed. We had

22:10

breeder pigs, got the little ones, raised

22:13

them up on the pasture, the whole thing, butchered

22:15

it ourselves, hung it,

22:17

you know, put in the house on the right temperatures,

22:20

cut it.

22:21

Grind it every single step. You

22:23

were invested in that bacon. That bacon. Yeah.

22:25

There was no reason

22:26

for me to tell anybody this is awful bacon.

22:28

Yeah. This is like, I, I look beautiful on Instagram.

22:30

Yes. It was gross. We

22:33

had to re brine it in

22:35

just plain water to suck out

22:37

some of the salt. Mm. Just, and then serve

22:39

it only on like BLTs. Cause the

22:41

tomato and lettuce would forgive the

22:44

saltiness of the bacon. Yeah. So. Yeah. Gotta

22:46

be ready for that reality. Sometimes

22:49

you really mess up and sometimes it's just

22:51

not what you like. Yeah, what do you have any

22:53

Or how do you handle that when you have such like

22:55

bacon disappointments big disappointment? Do you have

22:57

any any words you tell yourself

23:00

when you're hitting those those roadblocks

23:02

chickens got to eat? That

23:04

is the one good thing. There's always something that will eat the

23:07

failures. That, that

23:08

is actually really one of the best ways

23:10

you just having chicken. And you talk about

23:12

that in your book, right? Like just having chickens

23:15

makes every failure. Hey,

23:17

you know what? Cheese, a lot

23:19

of protein chickens can have some cheese.

23:21

Having pigs has been awesome

23:24

for failure. Nothing. And

23:26

this is something when you have a homestead

23:28

with these particular things, chickens and pigs.

23:31

And it's really, nothing goes to waste, but your time

23:33

invested in a high quality product, you

23:36

could say, well, we learned from it and we're

23:38

sharing it with others. So there's value there too. Yeah.

23:40

Yeah. But we talked about it in

23:42

the episode we just recorded for our show.

23:44

You talked about failure. Failure is a thing and

23:46

you're going to learn from it. Yeah. You'll learn

23:48

good from it. So, you know, that'll

23:51

stick with us. We will not over grind

23:53

bacon. Exactly.

23:54

That was, yeah, one time and one time. That's it.

23:56

We

23:56

watch that clock now. Yes.

23:58

Yes. Good lessons. Even though sometimes it's just

24:00

real hard. Real hard. Heartbreak.

24:03

Heartbreak. All right. I,

24:05

I love number four. I love number

24:07

four. You won't save money.

24:10

That's breaking some hearts right now. That

24:12

is breaking some hearts

24:14

We got into homesteading. Talked

24:16

about a little at the beginning, right? We had a baby boy We

24:18

wanted to feed him better. The thing

24:20

I didn't mention was and we

24:22

could not afford to buy

24:25

better quality

24:26

food Yes, that was the same right

24:28

couldn't

24:28

afford it. We couldn't afford we would go to the farmer's

24:30

market I don't know there's tricks and you share a lot in the

24:32

book about how to you know, make

24:35

more from less and from different cuts. But

24:37

at the time, we just, we couldn't figure it out. We couldn't do

24:39

it. Well, we can't do this, right? So

24:41

we'll do it ourselves. We'll save money. We'll do

24:43

it ourselves. And what

24:46

we have learned after doing it now this long and

24:48

with all the different livestock is generally

24:50

speaking, what will happen is,

24:54

You will spend way more

24:56

than you would at the supermarket for sure.

24:59

If you're really good and you get your systems really

25:01

well, you can usually match your farmer's

25:03

market, maybe do a little better. But

25:05

people who sell stuff at farmer's markets,

25:09

Aren't always great with their pricing and they're

25:11

probably losing money. We have found that with beef.

25:14

Like, yeah. And it's hard on the people who

25:16

are actually trying to make money and watching their margins.

25:18

And I'm looking at these, you know, 2

25:20

a pound ground beef sales go by

25:22

on Facebook. And I'm like, you're losing money. You

25:24

can't do that. Barbecue shakes.

25:27

When we moved to 2

25:30

a dozen. There's

25:31

no way they're making money.

25:34

There's no way. They're doing it. So you would

25:36

do better to just buy a person selling

25:38

support them ish. Like ishish,

25:41

I guess you're not really helping them. But

25:44

we did a, a breakdown a video on our

25:46

YouTube channel where we broke down what we spent on

25:48

our family milk cow. Yeah. Every week,

25:50

every week she cost, and this was kind of an average

25:53

milk 'cause we got a lot of cows and stuff, but we tried to do an

25:55

average about 50 bucks a week for a family

25:57

milk cow. Mm. Yeah. Now what we

25:59

said in that video was. If you're

26:01

a big consumer of dairy, you

26:04

have a big family and

26:06

you eat, you drink a lot of milk.

26:09

Cause then with cheese making, as we just talked about, you

26:11

can make the cheese. Is it the cheese your family's

26:13

used to? That's more time, more

26:15

equipment, right? So if you drink a lot of

26:17

milk, like more than 50 a

26:20

week, then go for it. If you're trying to

26:22

save money, otherwise you're probably not going to

26:24

save money. And that's a heartbreak for a lot

26:26

of people, but now you

26:28

can save on the better quality product, right?

26:30

It can be, if you're buying

26:32

it at the farmer's market, you can save

26:35

there. But overall, if you're just

26:37

looking to save money, there's better ways than raising

26:40

animals. Yeah. Okay. So then maybe

26:42

people are asking or wondering why

26:44

do it? Why do it? Oh, man. Why

26:49

did we keep going right after

26:53

you know, after we got so far along, why

26:56

do we keep going? The kids

26:58

is a big one, right? Knowing because we

27:00

have six kids. So knowing that

27:03

I can feed them Knowing

27:05

that we have a good quality

27:07

product. We went through I mean with this

27:10

is interesting in our story Why do we have the camels?

27:12

One of my, my youngest son

27:15

had really bad allergies and

27:18

we had to like watch everything

27:20

he ate. If it was chicken,

27:22

was the chicken fed corn, was it fed soy

27:25

just to give you an idea

27:27

like birth or, you know, kid,

27:29

they track kid's weight percentile. You're

27:31

in the first percentile. You're in the hundredth percentile

27:33

for weight. He was. His whole

27:36

first few years of his life in the 10 and under

27:39

as far down as yeah, scary. Yeah

27:41

So we we got a camel because camel milk

27:43

is super hypoallergenic Interesting,

27:46

definitely don't

27:47

save a dollar. No, no, no. No, I don't imagine

27:49

you save no camel money saving One of the

27:51

most

27:51

expensive endeavors we've ever done but

27:53

to know that we could have it even through the pandemic

27:56

for yes So a lot of it is that

27:58

and and don't get me wrong. They're still

28:00

there and you guys probably seen this, too There are a few things we

28:02

do we can save money. Yeah If you love

28:04

grass fed lamb and you got a lot

28:07

of grass out there, our

28:09

grass, we like to, when we buy lamb

28:11

back home, it's like 15 to 20 bucks per pound. We

28:13

can get bummers from our family members across

28:17

the fence, bummers are, you know, the

28:19

lambs that aren't attached, they don't want

28:21

to bottle feed. So we get a couple of bummers for

28:23

basically nothing and raise

28:25

them out on grass and butcher them. So yeah, we're saving

28:28

this. You can find everybody's situation

28:30

might have one or two things. But net

28:32

net positive. It's much more for

28:34

the security knowing where our food comes

28:37

from. It's a good good thing We enjoy

28:39

the lifestyle. Yeah, and You

28:42

know, you're building wealth Your

28:45

herd of cows you guys got a nice herd of cows.

28:47

Yeah, there's wealth there. You might not save

28:49

a ton of money Yeah, but when

28:51

we sell a couple cows, there's something

28:53

there It's it's you know, you might have

28:55

a stock portfolio and a livestock portfolio.

28:57

So there are advantages to it It's

29:01

just not saving money

29:02

very much. It's not the money part. Yeah.

29:04

And I think it's such a, it's such a fascinating concept because everyone

29:07

comes in it. I think, or not everyone, I'd say

29:09

90 percent of people come to homesteading for the food, whether

29:11

they just want to get rid of chemicals or they just, or

29:14

they think they're going to save money. And I, what I

29:16

see happening is that the people who are going to stick with it

29:18

realize real quick food is cool. Yeah.

29:20

And I, food is important, but I'm, I'm

29:22

staying for those deeper benefits, the

29:24

emotional health, making sure my kids know where their

29:27

food comes from, work ethic, having control,

29:29

having food security. So I think you have to latch

29:31

onto those sooner versus later, if you're going to stick

29:33

in the lifestyle. Yes. Yeah. It

29:35

matters. Yeah. Okay.

29:39

That was a good one. Number five.

29:41

This is my language right here. We're

29:43

not, we're not fighting so far. So

29:45

I don't know, this is too easy. Maybe in

29:48

the comments. I mean, everyone's going to be disappointed we're not going

29:51

to knock down Dragout Hey

29:53

friend, I'm interrupting this episode for just a second

29:55

to give a shout out to our sponsor, Genuine

29:57

Beef. Now, this is actually my beef

29:59

company, the one that my husband and I started

30:02

a number of years ago to bring our grass finished

30:05

Wyoming beef straight to your doorstep. And

30:07

I know that whenever we start to shift into

30:09

this fall and winter season, I get

30:11

the very primal urge to

30:14

stock up on food. And I know many of you

30:16

feel that same way. So we have put together

30:18

a freezer filler special to help you do

30:20

just you're

30:22

going to get four of our most popular

30:24

beef roasts, the ones that are great for crock

30:26

pots and those cozy winter meals,

30:29

as well as three pounds of our

30:31

90 10 ground beef. We're

30:33

going to put it all in a bundle and give it to you for 15

30:36

percent off. Off while supplies

30:38

last. Now we can ship this to

30:40

anywhere in the continental U S

30:43

we do second day air. We put a lot of dry ice

30:45

in there, so we'll get to your doorstep safe and sound.

30:47

And if you want to grab a box or two

30:50

or three, head on over to the prairie homestead.

30:52

com slash freezer. Uh,

30:54

to grab your bundle and I'll go ahead and drop that

30:57

link in the show notes too. Now

30:59

back to our episode. Okay.

31:01

You don't have to go to the extreme and do

31:03

everything to have a successful or enjoyable

31:06

homestead.

31:08

We, during that year

31:11

or two, during the pandemic, my

31:13

son's allergies were really, really bad. I

31:16

mentioned we had to watch what our chickens were eating.

31:18

Yes, right.

31:18

That's intense. Oh, that's

31:20

intense. Yeah, so we

31:23

were raising Cornish cross chickens

31:25

in chicken tractors out on pasture, but

31:28

we needed to make sure that his That

31:32

the chickens feed didn't have corn

31:35

or soy

31:37

That's real hard, right?

31:39

Yeah, really hard to find both. Usually

31:41

you can find one that's corn or soy Yeah,

31:43

we couldn't have corn or soy either

31:46

of them So we thought,

31:48

you know what, we've been at this for a long

31:50

time, we know what we're doing, we'll make our own chicken

31:53

feed for our, for the broilers.

31:56

So we did, and we even worked with someone

31:59

who did feed on their

32:01

own, they did custom feeds, and

32:03

they knew a lot, but they had never done broiler

32:05

chicken feeds. So we put together

32:08

this custom feed from start to finish,

32:10

we fed it to our broilers, and we watched half,

32:13

200 birds, half of them died. Just

32:16

like no way and it was the weirdest

32:18

thing because it looked like a disease

32:20

Yeah, they started getting funny with how they would walk

32:23

and they would start like getting dizzy

32:25

and fall over and then Dead. Yeah,

32:28

and it was a couple and then a couple more and

32:30

then a couple more and then all of a sudden like

32:32

Catastrophic loss. Yeah, and i'm

32:34

calling do I have you know,

32:36

bird flu? Do I have what's going

32:38

on here? It was the feed. We

32:41

did it wrong. They didn't have enough and

32:43

I don't remember now that because I don't make my own

32:46

But it was something about the amount of energy

32:49

they could get from the carbohydrate just wasn't there

32:51

Yeah, and where you could get away with it with

32:53

maybe a heritage hen that's running around

32:56

outside Sure, the broiler chickens

32:58

grow big and fast and they need more Yeah, so

33:00

the moral of the story was we tried

33:02

to do everything just on that chicken And

33:05

it was a big, big failure. There

33:07

are people who are out there making feeds,

33:10

support them, find a good quality feed,

33:13

find something you like. You don't have to go by,

33:15

if you don't want to, you don't have to go to your big

33:17

boxes and buy that feed. Find there's, we

33:19

found really good local sources who make really

33:22

nice feeds. Whether it's feed butchers.

33:24

Yes. Sometimes I Do you see this Jill? People

33:27

sometimes get funny about using a butcher in the understood

33:29

world. Yes, totally. They're gonna steal my meat.

33:32

Yeah. I could, you know, it's an awful place

33:34

for my animals to be. We

33:36

have partnered with some butchers over the years.

33:38

Yeah. Who are, first off taught me so

33:40

much about growing our,

33:42

our best butcher, well, I don't wanna

33:44

say best 'cause we've worked with a few but

33:46

one of the most, we're not playing

33:47

favorites here. Yeah. Well edit the that

33:49

out. Yeah. But he, he was just a fantastic

33:51

butcher. He had raised so

33:53

much livestock. So he not only

33:56

knew how to raise the animals, but

33:58

he knew how to raise them for

34:00

the best end product

34:03

to eat. He taught me what to feed pigs.

34:05

He taught me how to feed pigs. He

34:07

taught me what breeds are better for what things.

34:10

And he never stole any of my bacon.

34:13

Yeah, we've never I don't think we've ever had that happen Right

34:15

or people are like they're gonna mix it up and i'm like the

34:17

butchers I mean unless they're really shady, but

34:20

I mean, I know it could happen it can

34:22

we've had that happen from one I never

34:24

used again. Yeah, so you gotta like

34:26

anything in life find your partner right find

34:28

a good But overall

34:31

we've had wonderful experiences with butchers.

34:33

Yeah I'm a big proponent

34:35

of learning to butcher. It's a if you want to save money

34:38

Yeah, that's a great way to do it. But don't

34:40

be afraid to use a butcher. They're

34:42

awesome They're they're craftsmen that

34:44

are going to turn you elevate your product do better

34:46

than you will. I'm a hobby butcher I like

34:49

to do it as a hobby. Yeah, i've done every

34:51

animal we've raised at least a couple of them but

34:55

When we have a big batch, especially for customers,

34:57

it's going to a butcher because they're just there

34:59

to

35:00

make our life a little easier. We had that same revelation.

35:02

We had initially it was because I can be

35:04

pretty hardcore. Like I have matured into more gray

35:06

area personality, but I am naturally

35:09

very black and white and dogmatic, which I've really

35:11

grown, tried to grow, grow out of that. But initially homesteading,

35:14

it was like, we have to butcher ourself because it's not real

35:16

if it's not cutting it up. And so we would cut up several

35:18

steers and several hogs and

35:20

I'm glad we did it. Yeah. It was good.

35:23

And we still butcher our own chickens. But, man,

35:26

we have a butcher down the road who's a good friend. Like, he's three

35:28

miles down the road. Like, it's not a traumatic

35:30

haul for the animals. Right. And... When

35:32

we would butcher it ourself, we could kind

35:34

of get it done, but it was like, I

35:37

didn't know that, I never knew the cuts, because it would be like roast,

35:41

steak, I don't know what this is, and I,

35:43

I, you know, the tenderloin would be labeled the same

35:45

as the, you know, pork chop, and I

35:47

had no idea, and it, it was, the product

35:49

wasn't as enjoyable, and with the, with the

35:52

cattle, we couldn't hang them. Cause we

35:54

didn't have the weather, the temperature is not

35:56

consistent. So we would just cut them up, hang them

35:58

for a night and then wrap them. And I mean,

36:01

that's chewy.

36:04

Other things you can get away with that. But yeah.

36:08

So I'm like, you know what? I'm very happy to pay

36:10

someone who can knows his cuts. He

36:12

cuts it well. And it's labeled

36:14

as I

36:17

can't tell you how many times Kay has pulled out of

36:19

our chest freezer, a thing I've been

36:21

like, yeah. What?

36:22

What is it? What? Yeah.

36:24

And now I'm like, hmm, I don't know,

36:26

kids, what do you, cause they help out, what do you think

36:28

kids? Yeah. It's like we place bets. Well, what June does, my sister

36:30

does, is

36:31

do the labeling. Yes. So. You blame her? Yeah, just blame

36:36

her, I mean that's fair, that's fair.

36:39

But you know, I think that's such a good example because

36:41

it's okay to admit that you're not doing something,

36:43

like someone else can do it better. Yeah. And then when you do

36:45

find the thing that you know you do better, sink

36:47

into that. Yes. Like, we hired someone

36:50

to butcher our chickens once. I didn't, he

36:52

didn't do a good job. Like he, it just wasn't

36:54

as good. So I'm like, you know what? We have the

36:56

setup. I'm really happy to, to lean into that

36:58

and become more efficient. So I think you just have to pick

37:00

and choose.

37:01

And, and I like that advice because

37:03

then you'll get more from

37:05

what you're doing. If you're trying to do everything, you're

37:08

gonna, even the things you're good at, you'll

37:10

do worse because you're doing everything.

37:13

You're maxed out. So if you're trying

37:15

to feed. Make the feed,

37:18

grow the feed, process it,

37:20

raise the animal, butcher it, you're

37:23

going to mess up a lot. Whereas if you say,

37:25

hey, I'm really good at working with livestock. Yeah.

37:27

Let somebody else grow the grains that we feed them

37:29

or grow the whatever. Or, hey, I

37:31

love rotationally grazing, you know, on grass,

37:33

on pasture. We'll do that. Yeah. Lean into that

37:36

and do what you're good at. Support your local butcher.

37:38

Yes. You know, form that community, form

37:41

that, that web. Because that ultimately,

37:43

you know, a lot of us want to be self sufficient. You talk about

37:45

this in your book. Yeah. If you're doing

37:47

everything and you twist your ankle,

37:49

right? That's your, but if you've got a network,

37:52

a community, like you talked about forming and

37:54

investing in, there'll be there when you need them too. We've

37:57

had a few emergencies where we had to call up the butcher

37:59

and say, Hey, you know, we need a hand.

38:01

Yeah. Yeah. And that, that, that's that

38:03

your net, your network is so valuable when you build

38:06

that it is such a valuable thing. And if we

38:08

look at, you know, historically,

38:10

Even out here like we're out in the wide open prairie The

38:12

homesteads are few are far between like we'll be

38:14

out gathering cattle on horseback and you'll ride for

38:17

miles before you'll see one little house Yeah,

38:19

and then you'll ride for miles and see another little house But

38:21

they still were connected and if you look at their writings

38:24

historically, they were still building houses Close

38:27

ish to each other and they would get together

38:29

at the Grange Halls and at the schools There

38:31

was little schools everywhere and little post offices everywhere and

38:33

they were still neighboring is what we call

38:35

it out there They were still neighboring and

38:38

so we might exalt them as like the pioneers

38:40

and they were self sufficient I think they were more community

38:42

sufficient than we are now as modern

38:45

homesteaders Or we have this idea that we have to do it DIY

38:47

Yeah, and Amish

38:50

are another example They live in communities for a

38:52

reason. We're surrounded by them. Yeah, because you're, yeah,

38:54

where you live. Yeah. And we actually have friends, families

38:56

who are Mennonites, more Mennonites

38:58

in our area. It is huge

39:00

communities. Yes. Yeah, they do a lot of

39:03

stuff themselves. They're

39:05

a huge like Neighborhoods

39:07

of community. Yeah, so it's all

39:09

and they're all helping one of them's butchering

39:11

one of them smoking the meat One of them has a store

39:14

one of them's out in the field So

39:16

it's it's all about just working

39:18

together.

39:18

Yeah. Yeah, it's an underrated

39:20

part. I think yes Yes world on

39:22

especially online. It's easy to get into that self

39:25

sufficiency Yes. Yes. Okay

39:29

moving on to number six replicating

39:32

the natural world won't mean There

39:34

will be problems. Oh

39:37

Let me rephrase that Replicating

39:39

the natural world won't mean that there

39:41

won't be problems. We call this the natural

39:44

myth So what's the natural

39:45

myth we talk about this on our channel from time to time

39:47

the natural myth and it This

39:49

is one that we get a lot of comments for we

39:52

were driving. So we we talked about we've been We're

39:55

in Alaska for the summer.

39:57

Mm-Hmm. And now we're driving from Alaska

40:00

through British Columbia and the Yukon,

40:03

British Columbia down into the States. Now we're

40:05

all the way here in Wyoming going through state parks.

40:07

We were just in Yellowstone Oh, nice. Couple minutes ago. That's

40:09

the Yellowstone. Yeah. And while in Yellowstone

40:11

we got to see some of the big horn sheep right. Running

40:13

around Yellowstone. And

40:16

my kids are all farm kids. My daughter,

40:18

my oldest daughter has her own goats. First

40:20

thing she said they come tumbling

40:23

down the hill. Wow. They look

40:25

really healthy Those those

40:27

bighorn sheep and we were all like gazing

40:30

at look at the hindquarters. Yeah Shiny

40:34

coats okay right away. Notice the hoofs.

40:36

Boy. Their hoofs are beautiful. No

40:38

one's out there trimming their hoofs. Yeah No one's

40:40

out there deworming them. No

40:42

one's giving them any shots any medication

40:45

Yeah, look at this beautiful creature

40:47

in its natural habitat. It is the

40:49

healthiest sheep we've seen maybe

40:52

ever Yeah, right if

40:54

we just do what they do on our homesteads

40:57

Right, you don't need to give them shots.

41:00

You don't need to give them medication just mimic nature

41:02

You shouldn't have to worry about their hooves as long as they're out on the

41:04

dirt and on the rocks You hear

41:06

people say stuff like yes the difference

41:09

is You don't own

41:11

a state park.

41:12

Exactly. Right? Yeah. I mean, yeah,

41:14

no you don't. You

41:15

don't have, maybe you do. I

41:17

don't own a state park. You don't have

41:19

that much land and we just,

41:21

we were just researching because this piqued our interest. Look

41:23

at how healthy they look. The mortality

41:25

rate of the lambs.

41:28

They did a study. They rake radio collared.

41:30

They caught up a bunch of bighorn sheep

41:33

lambs. 95

41:35

percent mortality. No way.

41:37

Would your beef business be able to

41:39

operate with a 95%? No. Yeah.

41:41

Not only could you not handle that financially, emotionally?

41:44

Yes. If every baby you saw

41:46

on this homestead, if

41:48

9 out of 10 died. Now, 30 percent

41:51

was because of predation. So we put up our fences

41:53

and we get rid of that. Yeah. It's still like 60,

41:55

even if we're generous, say 50%. Every

41:58

other one is called by nature.

42:01

Nature is a hard farmer. She makes,

42:03

no, if, if your feet are bad,

42:05

if you're bad, mother traits, she

42:07

calls you. 50 percent call

42:09

rate. I don't have the heart to call my herds

42:12

at 50%. No,

42:13

no,

42:14

I don't have the heart to watch a sick

42:16

animal. This was interesting. The 60

42:18

percent mortality after you took away

42:20

after you took away, uh,

42:22

predation was mostly pneumonia.

42:25

And this is where we base this whole

42:28

principle of the natural myth. There

42:30

are some people out there and if they want to do this on their

42:32

homestead, I will not argue. Hey, it's your home.

42:35

You do what you want. They don't want to use

42:37

pharmaceuticals, right? Yeah. We've

42:39

had pigs get pneumonia. We've had

42:41

our cows get pneumonia. Our precious

42:43

mini Jersey cattle have had pneumonia. We've

42:45

had in the past instances of this these

42:48

bighorn sheep. 50 to 60

42:50

percent mortality, mostly pneumonia. Now,

42:53

you can give them a shot. Yeah

42:55

Pharmaceutical and it will I've

42:58

never lost an animal that we've treated with a pharmaceutical

43:00

to pneumonia. Yeah, never or

43:04

you can mimic nature, but

43:06

you have to be ready to accept a

43:09

50 60 percent death

43:12

rate. Yeah for certain things. So

43:14

we although we try to honor

43:17

the natural practices, right? We rotationally

43:19

graze, right? We try to move

43:21

things on fresh grass as much as possible.

43:24

We try to make sure that our goats have, you know,

43:27

gravel and rocks to jump around on.

43:29

We're also going to trim their hooves. Yeah.

43:31

We try to prevent medical

43:34

problems. We don't want to depend on pharmaceuticals.

43:36

We've seen with goats. When you go to

43:38

goats the world of worms,

43:40

oh man, that's yeah

43:42

Worm problem if you don't avoid it. We

43:44

got to talk to last year The

43:47

author of raising goats naturally. Oh,

43:49

yeah, and she talked about Like

43:52

the best thing you can do for worms is avoid it and

43:54

that's all and how you manage and that's mimicking nature

43:56

But at the end of the day, you will

43:59

face a problem, something will go wrong, you'll have

44:01

that, and if you're not willing to

44:03

take advantage of, like you talk about in your book,

44:06

some technology, some advances,

44:09

then you just have to be ready to handle a much

44:11

higher mortality rate than I could emotionally.

44:13

Yeah, this is such a good conversation.

44:16

And I've seen it so many times in the homestead world

44:19

where, where someone, we get

44:21

so hung up on the natural, like the dogma of the natural

44:23

order. And we have to remember we are still humans

44:25

interfering and that, and I mean, there's, there's

44:27

only a point, like you said, you can't own a state park.

44:30

And so like, I think about milk cows a lot.

44:32

There's a lot a lot of times I see homesteader

44:34

milk cows and obviously milk, milk breeds are

44:37

skinnier than a, than a brief beef. So you have to kind

44:39

of calibrate your eyeballs. Yeah. But you

44:41

can get so hung up on like, I want to only grass

44:43

feed my milk cow. Well,

44:46

when it works, it's great. I love, I would

44:48

prefer my milk be from a grass fed animal

44:50

exclusively, but some of those mamas

44:53

can't do that. Or the grass isn't

44:55

right because you're putting them on pasture that maybe they

44:57

wouldn't have chosen naturally. Or

44:59

you're putting two calves on them. which nature

45:01

probably maybe wouldn't have done, or

45:04

we're pushing production, like maybe nature wouldn't

45:06

have done. And so when we refuse to

45:08

follow up our own actions with some

45:10

intervention, I think that can get us in hot

45:12

water real fast. So we, I mean, I prefer not

45:14

to feed grain to my milk cow, but if my milk cow is

45:17

Skinny and her body condition is poor. I will give her,

45:19

I mean, I'm like, I will give her grain. 'cause I gotta, I mean I gotta

45:21

treat her right for the position I put her

45:23

in. I

45:24

that's a great example. We get that a

45:26

lot on our channel 'cause we have some that we can

45:28

grass feed. Yeah. Our mini jerseys. Some

45:30

of them come from the New Zealand genetics

45:32

and they're just great. And we have, we're fortunate

45:34

we have like acres and acres of Pennsylvania pasture.

45:36

Yes, yes. But when

45:38

we got, we got a Guernsey a couple years ago, we

45:41

had to supplement her. Yep. And it would be

45:43

cruel. And I think it would be cruel to take an animal that's

45:45

been developed on that

45:48

and remove it. It would be cruel to

45:50

her. Yes. In my opinion. So if people

45:52

want to make these other choices, again,

45:55

the minute I cross the border into your homestead, you

45:57

want to do things, it's your homestead. I believe

45:59

we all should be able to choose on our own homesteads, but

46:01

that's why we say, you know, you

46:04

just have to be prepared. If you want to just mimic

46:06

nature, she calls a lot of

46:08

animals. Yep. Yep. That's it. That's such great advice.

46:10

Such great advice. Yeah.

46:13

And the pharmaceuticals is another one, I think.

46:15

And I think sometimes, you

46:17

know, obviously I'm not a fan of big pharma

46:20

in my, in my family's diet

46:22

or my animal's diet. And I think we can get so

46:24

hung up on pushing back against that. I don't agree

46:26

with feeding animals, maintenance antibiotics. I don't believe

46:28

in medicated feed all the time. But that doesn't

46:31

mean that sometimes they need a shot of penicillin

46:33

and you know, mastitis is one. We

46:35

don't have it a lot, but every once in a while, we'll battle

46:37

it. We'll try to do some natural stuff. And if it's not working,

46:39

I'm like, I'm not, I'm not going to ruin her utter

46:42

on principle. So it's, I'm not afraid to

46:44

do that every once in a while, which that's pretty, that's pretty controversial.

46:47

For us to admit. And we, on our channel,

46:49

we try it because people will deal with it. Right. Try

46:52

to be very open with hate. We

46:54

try to keep our goats from getting worms and

46:56

we've done in the past, we've made mistakes.

46:58

We've learned from it. We've lost

47:01

goats to problems. We've

47:03

learned from it, but

47:07

if you are just so dogmatic,

47:09

you won't consider it as a tool to be used.

47:11

It's not the solution. Big, trust me. I

47:14

feel very similar about these bigger corporations,

47:17

how they make money. I have no love there.

47:19

No, no. But if my cow, who

47:21

I do have love for needs a shot of penicillin,

47:25

they're not making much off that penicillin shot. Exactly.

47:27

Exactly. And I'm like, I mean, that

47:29

came from, wasn't it mold? I mean, it's, it's a natural,

47:31

like. So I'm like,

47:34

I mean, I know it's the factory version, but I'm like, it's in nature.

47:37

There's some antibiotic properties in

47:39

different natural things. So I'm like, eh, I'm okay

47:41

with that. Within reason we're not, we're not

47:43

creating super bugs here. I'm

47:45

good with it. Yeah. Nope. I think

47:47

we're safe. Free from super bugs this

47:49

year. So, all right. This has been so

47:51

fun. We have one question left and I think this is a great

47:54

way to wrap this up. Myth number seven

47:56

or maybe not myth. But a fact homesteading

47:59

won't solve all your problems, but

48:01

it's still an awesome life to live and

48:04

it's worth it.

48:04

Yeah You

48:06

know, I know from being

48:09

in the content side of the business, right?

48:11

We've had a podcast a long time YouTube

48:13

channel for a long time. You get the comments.

48:15

You guys are living my dream I get that a lot right

48:18

living my dream and I totally

48:20

get what they're saying Like I understand

48:22

it and I love hearing You

48:25

know, people appreciate

48:27

what we're doing all that. Right. But

48:29

it is not a dream when you're in it,

48:31

right? Yeah, it's a reality. Yes,

48:34

when you're actually there. It's no longer a dream You

48:37

know, there's the cold you talked about in your book the

48:39

day you had to probably not the only day

48:41

Yes, yes this high to get to the barn.

48:44

I there's a video where we're working

48:46

on We have a waterer for our

48:48

cows that freezes up in the winter It's a

48:51

frost free water, but yeah, I did something wrong and it

48:53

freezes and I'm out there in the coldest day of

48:55

the year Fingers freezing and

48:57

water falling down my back

48:59

and in my coat trying to fix this thing. And

49:02

with the torch on it to try to heat it quick,

49:04

put it back in the ground. There

49:08

are some of the worst, saddest

49:10

days of my life. Are direct

49:13

results of homesteading. Yes one

49:15

one day I can easily remember I felt at

49:17

my lowest we lost a a sow

49:20

with piglets We

49:22

changed our water setup new

49:25

infrastructure. Yeah, and changing

49:27

infrastructure There was

49:29

a problem in it. We didn't realize

49:31

yeah pigs when they run

49:33

out of water Very quickly,

49:36

whereas another animal cows can run out of water.

49:38

They get it from the grass you know, they still

49:40

need I mean it's a problem but like It's

49:42

not as pigs they get what's called a salt poisoning.

49:45

Mm hmm kills him real quick Mm

49:47

hmm, and we had to watch this Sal caring

49:50

for all these little piglets Just

49:52

by the time we realized wait something's off with her.

49:55

What's wrong? Oh, no, the water's not working. She

49:57

never she died Yeah, that

50:00

was one of the worst days of my

50:02

and I don't want to be overly dramatic like I've been fortunate

50:04

I don't have a lot of loved ones who've died, right?

50:07

But as far as like everyday life and work

50:09

and what we do that is one of the worst days

50:11

I've had in my life I just felt

50:13

so bad because it was a hundred percent my fault

50:16

It could have a hundred percent been avoided. You'll

50:19

have days because of homesteading where

50:21

you go through that. Yes, but

50:25

net Why do we do it right

50:27

when you zoom out? I can remember those days

50:30

because they're hard and they're bad But

50:32

it's the best life right now that

50:35

I can give to my family my kids. Yeah,

50:37

so you just I feel like When

50:39

you follow our channels when you read our books

50:41

or watch our videos or listen to our podcasts

50:44

We love it. You obviously love this

50:46

way of life since you were little I love this way

50:48

of life But you have to be ready if you're

50:50

gonna jump in It's

50:52

not you it will bring you a new

50:56

Okay, K and B always say everyone's life has

50:58

problems. So you choose your problems. Amen.

51:01

Yeah, amen Pick your problems, right?

51:03

And these are the problems we pick. Yeah

51:06

So good. I've had those days as well the hard days. We

51:08

lost a calf. This year it was my fault And

51:11

I and everyone online was like it's fine. I'm like, it's not

51:13

fine. I made a huge mistake I mean

51:15

I left I I should have put it in the barn and I didn't think it

51:17

would rain and it rained and she was a day old and

51:20

The beef cow calves would have been fine. And she

51:22

was a little more delicate. She was a brown

51:24

Swiss and she's this big beautiful heifer and

51:27

came out and she was Beautiful

51:30

like healthy and I came out

51:32

that morning. I had this little thought when I went to bed Maybe you should

51:34

go throw in the barn. I'm like, it's

51:36

fine. It's Wyoming. It doesn't rain here. It rains I

51:39

think she just got chilled enough and I like felt

51:41

so bad. Like I mean I was Like

51:44

how I can't even describe how bad I felt

51:46

because it's one thing to have an animal die. It's another thing when you caused

51:48

it in essence, right? And I was like, you

51:50

idiot, you knew better. But yeah, it's,

51:53

it's choosing your heart and you have to choose.

51:55

I mean, you choose your heart. If I was in,

51:57

you know, if I hadn't listened to this calling and hadn't

52:00

chased this dream, I think

52:02

I would be really miserable, you know, fitting into the prescribed

52:04

path. That someone else told me to live

52:06

so I'm like I could choose that and be that

52:08

miserable and this really isn't miserable There's just bad

52:10

days sometimes

52:12

So those days I remember that day wanting

52:14

to quit and this was I mean I

52:17

wasn't a brand new homesteader. This was years in.

52:19

Yeah, no, I'm done. Yeah. Yeah, usually

52:22

there's been I think over our Decade

52:24

plus probably three or four days. I've said no,

52:26

we're done. Yes, and here we are.

52:28

We're still and you're still doing it Yeah, it's okay to quit

52:30

as long as you start again So

52:33

I I think I would love to see more people especially

52:35

as homesteading picks up speed online

52:37

and there's a lot of romantic Sensation of it,

52:39

you know, which isn't all bad. Sometimes it makes

52:41

me a little annoyed, you know But it's all

52:43

white and my aprons and linen dresses,

52:46

but I'd love to see people move past that

52:48

stage of romantic starry eyed

52:50

Yeah Cuz we all go through that and that's fine and

52:53

just lean into it Like, you know those days when

52:55

you're out fixing the water and it's cold Those

52:57

that's your life. That's that's real. And that's okay.

53:00

And it's okay. I mean, that's just part of the gig just

53:02

as much as the days when you have brand new baby

53:04

goats or the eggs look especially clean and

53:06

beautiful in the basket. And I think as long as we can

53:08

just accept both not to say there's some days that

53:10

we just wish didn't happen. But

53:13

I think that's where the real magic is. And we can stop

53:15

chasing just the romance and just lean

53:18

into this the messiness of it. I

53:20

found that's where I find the most fulfillment ultimately.

53:22

And I, I think our,

53:25

our, the bulk of the audience,

53:27

the bulk of the fans, people watching

53:29

and who are dreamers, I think most

53:32

of them appreciate that. I think so too. You'll

53:34

get, I think

53:36

from doing YouTube a long time, the negative

53:38

comments, sometimes it makes you not want to

53:40

be honest about the hard stuff. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

53:43

Those are hard to share a failure that results

53:46

in an animal's death and we've on our channel over the years

53:48

shared a lot of Big ones. Yeah, and

53:50

you get some awful comments. Yes That

53:53

just like add to the injury for

53:55

every hundred people telling you it's okay

53:57

You guys do a great job that one awful

53:59

when you get sick. Yes. Yeah, but

54:02

You'd be doing a disservice too. And that's

54:05

why it's on the list today to the people who

54:07

you're inspiring not telling them. Listen

54:09

There are really hard

54:10

days. Yeah. So, and that's okay. It's normal.

54:12

Yes, it's normal. Everyone has hard days. Yeah. Like

54:14

right, everyone, if we were doing something else, there'd be

54:16

a hard day and yeah, we just chose. We

54:19

just, yep. Cows and pigs and frozen waters

54:22

and worms. Yes, and worms. All, all

54:24

the beautiful things. So, put that on Instagram.

54:27

So, oh my goodness. This has

54:29

been the best. I cannot wait to get the

54:31

feedback from this. I think it's actually, I don't think we'll have

54:33

many. bUt

54:39

yeah, where can people follow along? I

54:41

know. Okay. Homesteady Instagram, right? Just at

54:44

homesteady.

54:45

Actually, it's like the last thing we

54:47

do. I don't even know what else that might, I

54:49

think it's homesteady show. Let me pull up. Homesteady

54:51

show. Okay. I read in a book recently,

54:53

I should delete these apps off my phone, so, oh, delete

54:56

this one. That

54:56

book, that book does say that It's hard to

54:58

delete Instagram though.

54:59

Yes. Okay. So on Instagram

55:01

we are, let's see here. Homestead Show.

55:03

Homestead Show. Pretty much what I always tell people is

55:05

if you Google homestead, if you like YouTube

55:08

videos. We've got a bunch of YouTube videos, you'll

55:10

find us. If you like podcasts,

55:12

we've got a lot of podcasts. If you

55:14

like following stuff on Instagram or, or

55:16

Facebook, we're very little on Facebook, but

55:19

basically Google Homesteady, you'll

55:21

find what we're up to. We have been very quiet

55:23

over the summer because we were doing the Off Grid Challenge,

55:26

so it will look like we have stopped. Yeah,

55:28

but you haven't. We haven't. We've got so

55:30

much good stuff coming, including the

55:32

awesome episode we just recorded with you, Jill. The

55:35

whole off grid challenge, all the stuff we went

55:37

through, some real hard times there, some

55:39

real honest, like, we don't like

55:41

this today, and a lot of

55:44

learnings that's coming out. So, if

55:46

you check out our podcast, our videos, or whatever,

55:49

we're coming back soon. We're in Wyoming, we're

55:51

making our way back to Pennsylvania, and I'll start editing

55:53

again once we're back on the grid.

55:54

Yeah, I can't wait to get your grand

55:57

revelation of what, what you thought

55:59

after the year. I also think it's cool you actually kind of

56:01

went off grid while you were doing the off grid challenge.

56:03

Like that's neat. You went dark because that's a little

56:05

more authentic.

56:06

I wasn't going to, I tried,

56:08

I even edited one video and

56:10

it was so hard. And what ultimately

56:13

we realized is. I'm like missing

56:15

out on we're in Alaska with

56:17

my all my kids and my wife are in Alaska

56:21

My son's wearing a halibut fishing shirt. We went.

56:23

Oh nice. Yes. So instead

56:25

of editing I can edit when I get home

56:27

You know like and i'm gonna I got a lot.

56:29

I got a lot of it. I bet you do. I bet you do

56:31

We enjoyed it. We went dark for a while. We'll be

56:33

back probably We're

56:35

starting to release content pretty

56:36

soon. Okay, good. It's coming. So go, go

56:38

check that out, guys. It's going to be really good. I think

56:40

you're really going to enjoy it. So thank you for coming

56:43

here. Like actually coming here is so

56:45

fun. Didn't see the farm. Yeah. Way more,

56:47

way more just enjoyable to have a conversation face

56:49

to face. The old fashioned way. I also hate

56:51

Zoom. I also hate Zoom. I do

56:53

use it a lot, but I hate Zoom. So yeah.

56:55

Already. So everybody go follow Austin and his

56:58

family and all their adventures. Good stuff. As

57:00

you heard, like he's been around the block. been

57:02

there, done that. He knows he knows this world inside

57:04

and out homesteading on YouTube, homesteading

57:06

show on Instagram, and then the homesteading

57:09

podcast. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed

57:11

this episode. If you have any other myths

57:14

you would like to hear discussed

57:16

on this show, send them over on Instagram or email

57:18

or however you want to contact me. And

57:20

that's it for today. So thanks again. And we'll

57:23

catch up on the next episode of the old fashioned

57:25

on purpose podcast.