Leaving the Farm Life for a GOOD REASON! #farming

Neighbor's got a turkey over in the woods over there. Let's see if I can make it gobble. Come on, boy. You hungry? Come on. Good morning. How are you this morning? What a good boy. Yes, sir. Kitty, giddy, giddy, kitty, giddy, giddy, kitty, giddy. Come on, boy. Let's get you breakfast. Good boy. Here's a good boy. Get your breakfast. [Music] >> Hey homies. Hey homies. [Music] Good morning everybody. Welcome back to another gorgeous day on the Stony Ridge. I'm going on vacation. I'm finally going to go on vacation. It's been a year uh since I've been on vacation. And today I'm going to take you around. I'm going to show you what I have to do to prepare to leave this place. I've got a farm sitter coming later today. What a challenge it is to prepare for a vacation. You become a prisoner to your property, guys. You just do. So, let's get Buddy fed and taken care of real quick and we'll take you and show you what we're doing. Eat that breakfast. Good boy. Good boy. Uh, every day Buddy gets a scoop of food. He doesn't live in the kennel. He just floats around the farm wherever he wants to go, pretty much. Uh, my fig tree looks like it's about to start producing. Check it out. I got some yummy figs in here. This is a tree I planted, gosh, probably nine years ago, eight years ago, something like that. Right there beside Buddy's dog line. A little bit later today, we're going to be mowing. We're going to be mowing where the u chickens are. And I've got to mow my entire yard and down by the pond and the front yard and down by the creek. It's a busy day. It's really busy. When you've got a large piece of property like this, you got to make sure first and foremost the grass will be fine. The animals need to be safe. And that's the biggest deal about all this. I have to work very closely with my farm sitter to make sure that he knows exactly what to do to keep the animals safe. His main job is going to be monitoring fences. Okay. So, typically the cows are so used to moving here on this property. I'm moving them about every 12 hours, 12 to 24 hours. Now, they're so used to moving, they're spoiled brats. So, while I'm gone, I'm going to be gone for like 5 days, and they're going to be set in one specific paddic. And the reason I did that, it's a very large paddic, probably 15 acres, which is just fine. And I've set out enough hay bales, and you guys will see the hay bales from the drone shots. They'll have access to this entire area right here, this entire uh ridge line and in the woods. So, it's really concerning to me that my cows stay comfortable and that they have plenty of nice cool places to go chill out. And they can go chill out, lay down by the creek, and stay nice and cool and graze in the mornings and in the evenings. So that's what happens. If I didn't put the hay out here, the cows would definitely be balling and they are going to waste some hay. So when I go on a vacation like this and I put out eight or 10 bales of hay, each bail cost me 50 bucks. It's expensive. I pay my farm sitter and I have to set out all this hay so that we make sure the animals are taken care of. That's my number one priority. The chickens are super easy and I I don't have to worry about my farm sitter not handling the chickens. But the cows are a struggle. We've also got a tree down right by the pond. I've got to get that out of the way so that my farm sitter can drive through there and check on the cows every single day. It's a chore. Let's hop on the four-wheeler. We're going to head up and check on the chickens. So, we are not going to need any fence wire right now. And we're not going to need the egg basket right now, but we are. And we're not going to need these either, but we're going to Yeah. Stick them in there. This is my trash bucket. This is my water bucket. We'll go ahead and uh grab another water bucket. What we'll do is uh make sure that the chickens have all their waterers slam full before I leave. Simple enough. This is a Honda Foreman 500. Awesome four-wheeler. The rack system right here is from Culpin. And these are called Culpin Rhino Grips. Something that I use every single day. You see how they hold the fence post really, really well. This is just an ATV that I use every single day. I have a Honda Pioneer side by side, but it's big and it's bulky. It's easier for me to get around the farm and it puts less uh compaction in the soil if I'm riding the four-wheeler. You're going to see water splashing around uh from these buckets. And that's okay. Every time I drive over to check on the chickens, I bring water with me. And that way we have water stashed over there and my farm sitter doesn't even have to worry about it. So we'll fill up three fivegallon waterers over there. And that'll last the chickens probably the entire time I'm gone. We'll have a backup. Always a backup for a backup. For a backup contact. Y'all can see we got the Belmont trailer all hooked up right here. Going to be moving some equipment to dad's house pretty soon. We're going to help him clean up around a pond. That's going to be pretty fun. Stay tuned. Hope you're subscribed. garden is doing awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Got a chicken on the run here. Probably go pe every tomato once. I had baby chicks to hatch out. I got one baby chick that's still out. I need to get that thing up. Let's head on over here and check on the chickens. Got to mow that later. Already mowed that getting a wet butt. There's a better way of doing that, but I just I don't know. I'm going to be riding over here anyway. Birdie Birds. Birdie Birds. Hey, birdie birds. Hey, kids. Good morning. Morning everybody. Let's turn this off. Guys, this is something really cool. It's called Fence DTEK. I'll post a link to it. You can see it blinking right there. It's Somebody hadn't figured out how to crow yet. Fence dete is a is a fence monitor um which will help you to uh I'm sorry I'm so distracted. Rooster. Oh. Anyway, fence detect. It texts me and lets me know when my fence is on and when my fence is off. So, I just turned it off and yeah, it's already texted me uh that the woes of having all these chickens. It's already texting me to let me know that the fence is off. That way, I can keep a track if my farm sitter has the fence on or has the fence off. So, let's fill up their waters real quick and then we'll go ahead and fill up their feeders. These are awesome waters, guys. Nearly five gallons. Really cool. Got to bring back some more water. Hey, homies. Hey homies. These are Brower feeders right here. Really like those. I'll fill these up. Two of these feeders will last these chickens in about 3 or 4 days. So, they'll be good just about until I get back. The farm said I'll have to fill them up once. Oh, we got ants. We got ants, guys. We got extra protein. Sometimes I'll give them a good sling and the chickens will go out there and eat that. [Applause] These are the best little feed barrels ever, guys. It's a Rubbermaid uh feed barrel. Holds it closed. Keeps the raccoons out. What happens if this gets wet? If it rains, it's all right. It's like oatmeal, righty birds. Birdie birdies. We got a lot of roosters, which means we going to have a lot of fried chicken. Here's how we keep the fence tight. If we get a little sag, I just loop it right over. Turn our fence wire back on. We'll start getting a zap right here. I'll get a text. It'll tell me it's back on. throw our buckets back in. I'll come back later this afternoon and make sure everything's topped off. Got to bring the mower over here and we're going to drop a section of fence. Go in here and mow all this down to about 6 in or so. Reason we're doing this is so the weed load goes down and the chickens actually get in here and forage just a little bit more. It will help. They'll eat the grass clippings, but they won't eat the grass. It's kind of weird. Let's go check on the cows. Contact. Clear. Prop. Birdie birds. All the smart chickens are up under there into the shade and everybody's following me. Birdie birds. Come on, chickens. It's a rewarding life here on the farm, that's for sure. I hate leaving it behind. I love to go on vacation, but I hate leaving it behind. I'm going to a North Carolina beach called uh Oak Island. My aunt actually has a place down there. It's not right on the water, but small, it's cute, it's perfect. [Applause] We got a batch of wild turkeys I'm I'm coming up on right here. You guys, these wild turkeys have been really, really friendly. They've been in the driveway a whole lot, hanging out down by the house, and they tend to follow the cows, which is pretty cool. I think they're eating the larvae out of the manure pads. [Applause] Look at us. [Applause] Hey guys. So, the cows have been in here overnight. They're going to go into here. Okay. So, I've got to grab my uh fence gate wire here. And I got to pull it all the way to there. I don't know how I'm going to do that. I think I'm going to have to rethink my uh scenario here a bit. I don't have enough wire. My golly. Uh, well, that's a conundrum, isn't it? There's always something, man. Always. How am I going to do this? Let's see if that got it. Oh, that did it right there. Okay, need to spread this out just a little bit. All we're doing is giving the cows this little section right here and they'll graze here for probably 3 hours till it gets hot in the middle of the day and then they'll go back into this paddic over here where the shade is. They'll hang out for a little bit. Then they'll come back over here. This evening, I will open it up to this gigantic spot right here. And then they'll have access to shade tomorrow during the day here and all night and all day here. So, in other words, the guy that's watching my farm only has to open a gate. It's all he has to do. Open this gate. Bam. Good to go. Now, the next day, he's going to open a gate to all the hay bales that I have over there. And you'll get a shot of that from the drone. It's a huge area that we'll be putting the cows in. Shade is super important. He's got to do a little thinking, but not a lot of thinking. Let's get these cows moved in here. And that's poop. I just stepped in my nice. Oh, open the gate. All right. Come on. Come out. Woo. Let's go, kids. Sometimes they want to go and sometimes they don't. They're waiting at the gate for me to let them out. That's one of the challenges of having someone farmit for you is the cows recognize other people as strangers. It's like an alien just invaded. >> Even with me, sometimes they don't want to move. >> Come on. Come on, kids. [Music] Come on. Don't be whiny. [Music] Come on. There you go, Tammy. [Music] this little baby right here. Uh this is the water tank right here, guys. Uh inside this water tank is a goldfish that helps keep the water tank clean. It's got a little bit of trash in it right now, but that's what the goldfish eats. Uh a little bit of grass clippings. The cows just inevitably are chewing and burping and spitting stuff out constantly. Uh, we are going to take this and allow no back fence. In other words, they cannot get back to the section they were in just now. We don't need to energize this so we're not wasting electricity. We'll drop that. Tomorrow, we'll hook this up. But for now, we're actually going to take this guy loose right here. And that'll give the cows access to some shade, which is right down there under them big old maple trees down there. And they've got plenty to graze in here and plenty to graze in here. No matter what, if you have cows, what they're going to do, they're going to go right to the place where the fence is and stick their head under the fence to graze it. No matter how good the grass is on this side, they got to jam their head up under the fence. I don't get it. I don't understand, kids. Look at this guy. Go ahead, buddy. Stick your head right under that fence and grace cuz the grass here is so different. I just don't get it, man. Neighbors got a turkey over in the woods over there. Let's see if I can make it gobble. [Applause] So, in review, here's what's happened. Over the last 4 days, I've been placing hay bales down this side, this hillside right over here. These are hay bales for this upcoming winter, and I've got more hay to come, guys. Stay tuned. We're going to be unloading some hay way over on this next ridge. The cows are in good shape right here. My farm sitter is going to have to open this gate and move them into here for a couple days. Then he's going to send them over into the woods. Basically, that whole hillside involves the woods. There's a bunch of weeds. There's a bunch of uh overgrown areas and the cows will just love it over there. They have access to that pond in case it gets too hot. So my farm sitter doesn't have to worry about keeping the cows watered if I have an issue with the watering system, which all the watering system on this farm is solar. If you didn't see the video, I'll post a link to it at the end of this. How the solar water system works and some of the woes of having a solar water system. We don't store power, we store water. The pump only pumps in the daytime. So, if we have an issue or really, really cloudy days for three or four days, we've got to work on that. Pretty interesting. I'll post a link to that at the end of this video. But that's prepping for a vacation. I've been working on this and I had to plan all this out months ago because the cows were way on the other side of the farm, way out there, and I had to make sure that they were right here prior to my vacation. There's so much planning, guys. You can become quite the prisoner to your farm and to your property. Here lately, I don't know, maybe this is discouraging. Maybe these are words of encouragement for other people that are considering homesteading and farming like this. Here lately, I've been scratching my head as to why am I doing this? Like, I want to raise good quality food. That's the reason why I'm doing this. I want to live a good, clean country life. That's why I'm doing this. But I'm working 60 and 70 hours a week to keep these 60 cows taken care of. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of thought to build soil. Guys, I bought the farm about 10 years ago, me and my wife. I'm no longer married. I don't have any kids. I'm just doing it so I have a good, clean, quiet country life. But it's working me to death. I don't know. What do you guys think? Any of you guys own property? Any you guys have animals? Is it tough for you to go on vacation? Let me know, guys. It's a lot of planning and most people can't watch your farm. They just can't. Nobody knows how to do this kind of stuff anymore. Nobody knows animals. If there's a problem with an animal, I've got to saddle up and come back from the beach, handle that problem, and go back down. Isn't that crazy? Can't go anywhere. Imagine if I was going to Wyoming or going to the Grand Canyon. I don't know, guys. Thanks a lot. Let me know what you think. Are you a prisoner to your farm? Do you think I'm a prisoner to my farm? I don't think so. I think we got this. Take care, guys. We'll see you next time on the Stony Ridge. Hope you enjoyed the video. I got to go mow over there at them chickens and the yard and the sideyard and everything else. Take care. >> Come on down to the Stony Ridge. Bring your wife and bring your kids. We're living life pure and sweet. That's the way it's supposed to be. Stony Ridge. Oh, we got ants. We got ants, guys. We got extra protein. And then we'll go ahead and fill up their feeders. I'm an immature. I got to get out of there. Let me go. Let my people go. Hey, homies. Hey, homies. [Music] All right.