1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:05,900 I guess we've reached the end of season one. What are we going to see? So I want to do a little bit 2 00:00:05,900 --> 00:00:11,140 about the fruit trees. We had a little bit of a setback in the bed that we planted. We'll talk 3 00:00:11,140 --> 00:00:16,540 about what we've done over there. We've got peacock babies. Okay, I can't wait to see that. 4 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:21,600 You remember you did all that plowing? Well, the corn is up. I don't even know what a baby 5 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:31,180 peacock looks like. We're awaiting the foals. Foals are going to start in just a few weeks. 6 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:34,660 Here we go. I don't know what Robert's going to put me through, but we're going to find out. 7 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:36,340 We're going to put you on to work. 8 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:58,720 Well, hello, everyone. We're here at Drs. Robert and Jill Malone's farm. It looks like 9 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:03,820 we're going to reach the end of season one. It's been a long journey, and we're going to 10 00:01:03,820 --> 00:01:08,660 finish it up with a farm episode, as you can see. We've done a lot on the farm up to now. 11 00:01:08,740 --> 00:01:13,000 We've been away for a little while, and we've got to kind of catch up and see how things have 12 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:19,280 developed. And clearly, the emu has developed substantially since the last time we were here, 13 00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:21,580 and many other things. 14 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:25,880 And, of course, the people like the farm episodes, which we weren't sure about 15 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:28,920 when we started this. So it's exciting. 16 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:31,220 They all want to see the farm episodes. 17 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:33,300 So what are we going to see? 18 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:41,240 So I want to do a little bit about the fruit trees. A couple episodes ago, we pruned the trees, 19 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:43,400 and there was fear that we were over-pruning. 20 00:01:43,740 --> 00:01:46,080 They look amazing. I mean, I'm kind of shocked. 21 00:01:46,260 --> 00:01:46,880 Yeah, they're thriving. 22 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,540 It's amazing what vegetation does, right? 23 00:01:49,540 --> 00:02:03,820 But we have some challenges now that have happened with the fruit trees. The whole focus here is what can we do to control the pests and the parasites and the deer and everything else without having to resort to chemicals. 24 00:02:03,820 --> 00:02:18,100 We've had a little bit of a setback in the bed that we planted. So we'll talk about what we've done over there, share with our viewers some of the tips and tricks that we've picked up that more and more people are starting to use in their gardens. 25 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:20,380 We've got peacock babies. 26 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:22,280 Okay, I can't wait to see that. 27 00:02:22,380 --> 00:02:29,960 We've been successful in hatching them out. We're getting about 80% hatch, which is huge for peacocks because we're using a good incubator. 28 00:02:30,100 --> 00:02:31,560 And so we'll show the incubator. 29 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,640 I don't even know what a baby peacock looks like, so it's going to be interesting. 30 00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:36,580 They're different from chickens. 31 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:36,960 Right. 32 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:37,920 Absolutely. 33 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:47,300 You remember you did all that plowing? Well, the corn is up. It all needs weeding. Sorry, you're going to have to come back and I'll put you on the sharp end of a hoe. 34 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:54,480 And then, you know, these guys are continuing to grow and just become a key part of the farm. 35 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,260 And we're awaiting the foals. 36 00:02:58,980 --> 00:03:01,280 Foals are going to start in just a few weeks. 37 00:03:01,620 --> 00:03:06,420 We've got six in the pregnant mares right now waiting to come out. 38 00:03:06,420 --> 00:03:08,140 The horse training continues. 39 00:03:09,380 --> 00:03:12,300 Well, so we're going to deliver in spades today, folks. 40 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:13,520 So here we go. 41 00:03:13,620 --> 00:03:16,200 I don't know what Robert's going to put me through, but we're going to find out. 42 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:17,840 We're going to put you on to work. 43 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,840 So the fruit trees have been kind of always an issue. 44 00:03:26,260 --> 00:03:29,620 And so we had a question, what are we going to do about this? 45 00:03:29,660 --> 00:03:32,280 Are we going to go ahead and spray the tree with pesticides? 46 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:35,640 And so we looked around for the natural remedy. 47 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:37,600 It's something called tangle foot. 48 00:03:38,660 --> 00:03:41,460 And so what this is, is a really sticky preparation. 49 00:03:42,180 --> 00:03:46,380 And then when the ants come try to climb up the trunk, they get stuck. 50 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:50,220 We have these three problems of the Japanese beetles. 51 00:03:50,380 --> 00:03:54,740 And then we've got a herd of about 12 deer that didn't used to be here. 52 00:03:54,860 --> 00:03:58,380 We had one or two, but now we've got a lot of deer pressure. 53 00:03:58,380 --> 00:04:05,960 We have the problem of the ants coming up to harvest and picket the fruit, which damages the fruit. 54 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:17,620 As you can see, we have fruit with little holes in it and all this kind of tumorous-like granularity from the insect pressure on it. 55 00:04:17,620 --> 00:04:23,020 So what we're going to do is go ahead and put the tangle foot on. 56 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:33,260 Now, these wrappings are here to protect the young trees from sunburn, largely. 57 00:04:33,260 --> 00:04:40,980 But you can see that underneath that wrapping, we've had other insects kind of parasitize this. 58 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,260 And so what we do with the tangle foot is... 59 00:04:45,940 --> 00:04:47,080 Want to come over here, Goose? 60 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:53,160 We put some wrapping on it to protect the tree trunk from the tangle foot. 61 00:04:56,660 --> 00:05:00,180 And then here's the tangle foot product, a sticky goo. 62 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:06,460 It's like a glue, only it stays fluid. 63 00:05:07,220 --> 00:05:09,040 And we just spread it on. 64 00:05:09,100 --> 00:05:10,160 It gets all over everything. 65 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:12,520 It's a real attractant to the ants. 66 00:05:13,060 --> 00:05:14,980 The bark doesn't like it either. 67 00:05:14,980 --> 00:05:18,240 Yeah, so that's why we have to put the protective stuff on it. 68 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:18,600 Right. 69 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:23,580 So now we're pretty well protected against ants coming up. 70 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:25,200 So we got that part down. 71 00:05:25,300 --> 00:05:28,120 Now what are we going to do about the Japanese beetles and the deer? 72 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:37,580 And this netting product is really sweeping both nurseries and gardens and small gardens. 73 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,460 A lot of small gardeners are really going to using this. 74 00:05:40,700 --> 00:05:43,520 It's just a plastic netting, particularly hard to cut. 75 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:49,320 So here, if you want to grab an end, let's spread this out because we're going to have 76 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:55,780 to basically open it up and then cut it in half because that's too much for this little 77 00:05:55,780 --> 00:05:56,460 tiny tree. 78 00:05:57,840 --> 00:05:59,880 We're getting a little bit of support here. 79 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:01,160 Of course. 80 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:03,420 Everything has to be investigated. 81 00:06:03,420 --> 00:06:07,020 Perfect. 82 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:07,640 Okay. 83 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:09,440 So now we've got that split into halves. 84 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:16,020 Now, if you'll take a side of this, we just want to kind of lift this over it. 85 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:18,660 Easier said than done. 86 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:19,080 Perfect. 87 00:06:20,260 --> 00:06:21,160 There we go. 88 00:06:21,300 --> 00:06:22,180 And get it centered. 89 00:06:22,180 --> 00:06:29,620 And now, these are clips that are made for this kind of netting. 90 00:06:29,980 --> 00:06:30,600 It's interesting. 91 00:06:30,740 --> 00:06:33,720 It's quite fine netting, but it's quite porous as well. 92 00:06:33,820 --> 00:06:34,240 Exactly. 93 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:36,780 So you get all the sun through that you want. 94 00:06:36,900 --> 00:06:38,700 You can get the water through, etc. 95 00:06:38,700 --> 00:06:44,320 But the bugs, the Japanese beetles in particular, the bugs can't come in and the deer can't 96 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:45,020 chew through it. 97 00:06:46,220 --> 00:06:52,800 So what we want to do is take these ends and just tie a loose knot because this stuff is 98 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:53,440 strong enough. 99 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:56,500 It'll last for years if you take care of it. 100 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:58,700 So just gathering it and clipping it. 101 00:06:59,380 --> 00:06:59,520 Yeah. 102 00:06:59,620 --> 00:06:59,960 Perfect. 103 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:03,480 For this little tree, he's going to get dry. 104 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:11,480 And we want to do things that will both feed the tree and retain the water, the moisture 105 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:12,280 underneath the tree. 106 00:07:12,300 --> 00:07:15,480 And it doesn't matter that it feels kind of squashed there on top. 107 00:07:15,900 --> 00:07:16,660 No, not at all. 108 00:07:17,500 --> 00:07:22,500 What matters is those leaves are not going to get eaten by the deer and by the Japanese 109 00:07:22,500 --> 00:07:23,000 beetles. 110 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,000 Let's jump on the tractor and you and I go get some mulch. 111 00:07:27,340 --> 00:07:27,520 Great. 112 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:28,340 We can mulch this tree. 113 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:57,520 Out into the grave wide open. 114 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:19,960 So how wide do you want this? 115 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:21,220 That's about right. 116 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:22,700 So just kind of spread it even. 117 00:08:24,780 --> 00:08:27,780 And there's already some insects that are caught in our trap. 118 00:08:27,980 --> 00:08:28,900 So that's perfect. 119 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:31,220 That little tree is really going to appreciate that. 120 00:08:31,780 --> 00:08:37,280 It's, you know, doing this kind of work is incredibly clarity creating in the mind. 121 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:41,080 And I mean, and I think this, you know, when you're doing your sub stacks, when you're doing 122 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:47,400 your analysis, I imagine this is actually an important part of getting there. 123 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:48,580 So thanks for saying that. 124 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:48,760 Yeah. 125 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:56,920 And I think it's been one of the core messages of our fallout series is work-life balance. 126 00:08:57,580 --> 00:09:03,960 It's important to let yourself do some recreational stuff, to do some manual labor, get your fingers 127 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,080 dirty and get a little exercise. 128 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:11,600 Okay, so let's take a break from this and go work on the garden a little bit. 129 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:13,660 I think, Goose, can you take the tractor back, please? 130 00:09:13,660 --> 00:09:22,720 So Jan, you'll remember that when you were last here, we planted this bed, and it looked 131 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:23,580 quite a bit different. 132 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:32,480 It was lower, the level of the soil, and the soil that we were using was a commercial preparation. 133 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:40,140 It's become a hot topic in gardening to avoid the use of peat, which comes from peat bogs. 134 00:09:40,140 --> 00:09:46,940 And there, which is, peat bogs are now considered to be a protected, important ecosystem and relatively 135 00:09:46,940 --> 00:09:47,360 rare. 136 00:09:48,260 --> 00:09:54,700 And so the whole gardening industry has decimated peat bogs in, particularly in Canada, where 137 00:09:54,700 --> 00:09:57,200 a lot of it comes from, and also in the United Kingdom. 138 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:05,680 So the trend is to go with a non-peat-based mulch or compost. 139 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:13,300 But the compost that I put in here commercially before, which was sterile, didn't have a whole 140 00:10:13,300 --> 00:10:14,640 lot of nutritional value. 141 00:10:15,540 --> 00:10:22,920 And so the truth is that we planted all those lovely seeds, but only some of them came up. 142 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:28,700 And when they came up, the bugs got on them, and they didn't thrive because they didn't 143 00:10:28,700 --> 00:10:30,320 have enough nutrition in the soil. 144 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:38,760 And so what I did is I just had to redo this bed, and I brought in horse manure from over 145 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:39,120 there. 146 00:10:39,940 --> 00:10:45,160 And the problem with using horse manure, which is great in terms of fertilizer, but the 147 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:51,420 problem is it's full of weed seed, because the weeds have adapted to basically pass through 148 00:10:51,420 --> 00:10:53,300 the gut of these herbivores. 149 00:10:53,300 --> 00:10:59,260 When I went and tilled that horse poop into the mulch that was here before the compost, 150 00:10:59,860 --> 00:11:05,540 there were no worms, not a single worm in the material that I bought. 151 00:11:06,700 --> 00:11:11,960 And when I scooped this, every scoop had multiple worms in it, great big fat worms. 152 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:17,060 And then we took some started plants. 153 00:11:17,060 --> 00:11:23,160 So what we have here is some bell peppers and some sweet potato. 154 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:32,280 And then we also scattered some seeds, and that included radishes, pimentos, poblano peppers. 155 00:11:32,620 --> 00:11:36,680 And what we found was that the poblanos are starting to come up. 156 00:11:37,500 --> 00:11:39,020 I can show you, here's an example. 157 00:11:41,100 --> 00:11:46,000 And you know, we have this famous netting here again. 158 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:47,000 Yeah, absolutely. 159 00:11:47,460 --> 00:11:50,060 Well, this is because we're having problems with the bugs. 160 00:11:50,220 --> 00:11:55,180 Here's a bug that wants to get in and munch on our plants. 161 00:11:55,560 --> 00:11:55,640 Right. 162 00:11:56,140 --> 00:12:02,140 And this has become more and more common now to use this netting as a way to keep both 163 00:12:02,140 --> 00:12:06,460 the bugs and the deer off of the garden, because the deer will come through and just chew this 164 00:12:06,460 --> 00:12:07,100 thing down. 165 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:11,140 And not to mention the emu and the goose. 166 00:12:11,140 --> 00:12:18,060 Uh, and, and so you can see that we've got a fair amount of weeds, but we've got some 167 00:12:18,060 --> 00:12:19,160 peppers coming up too. 168 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:22,920 But some of these peppers are being chewed on. 169 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:25,560 You can see that, see? 170 00:12:25,740 --> 00:12:26,600 Yeah, absolutely. 171 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:28,260 Okay, so here's another one. 172 00:12:28,340 --> 00:12:29,040 Here's another pepper. 173 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:31,080 Uh, and then we've got all this. 174 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:34,360 A lot of this is what the locals call pigweed. 175 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:39,420 Um, it's a nasty local weed and it develops spikes. 176 00:12:39,420 --> 00:12:46,740 And basically, uh, nobody will eat it, you know, the horses or anybody else, except for 177 00:12:46,740 --> 00:12:47,020 pigs. 178 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:49,240 Pigs will plow right through it, apparently. 179 00:12:49,460 --> 00:12:51,340 So that's why it's called pigweed. 180 00:12:51,680 --> 00:12:51,840 Right. 181 00:12:52,020 --> 00:12:52,880 Uh, by the locals. 182 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:53,220 Yeah. 183 00:12:53,340 --> 00:12:55,780 And I'll bet if I dig down, um. 184 00:12:56,300 --> 00:12:56,800 Oh, man. 185 00:12:56,900 --> 00:12:58,700 There's a good chance I'm going to see a worm. 186 00:12:59,040 --> 00:12:59,700 Maybe not. 187 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:02,440 But it's a, but they're absolutely in there. 188 00:13:02,620 --> 00:13:03,720 It's amazing dark soil. 189 00:13:03,980 --> 00:13:06,420 Yeah, that's, so that's the kind of thing we want to see. 190 00:13:06,420 --> 00:13:10,860 And, uh, what we're going to do, Jill and I had decided that we're just going to let 191 00:13:10,860 --> 00:13:14,200 the weeds and the peppers start to grow. 192 00:13:14,620 --> 00:13:15,520 Here's radishes. 193 00:13:17,140 --> 00:13:19,320 Um, you can see the radishes are really thriving. 194 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:26,560 But, uh, we absolutely had to create something that is going to keep the insect predation down. 195 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:29,160 So that's this structure of hoops. 196 00:13:29,620 --> 00:13:30,700 Very simple stuff. 197 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:32,200 Anybody can do this at home. 198 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:32,400 PVC pipe, right? 199 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:35,840 It's just half inch schedule 40 PVC pipe. 200 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:39,600 These are 10 foot lengths and this is a four foot wide raised bed. 201 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:42,840 Uh, and it just turns out that that works perfectly. 202 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:47,700 And then what I do, there's a lot of ways you could solve this problem. 203 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:52,940 You could drill holes into the wood over the great big bore and slip the pipe into that. 204 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:59,380 But what I've done is just taken these cheap galvanized straps that plumbers use to hang 205 00:13:59,380 --> 00:13:59,820 pipes. 206 00:13:59,820 --> 00:14:00,000 Right. 207 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:04,800 And, uh, that seems to really do a good job for not too much money. 208 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:12,660 And in this case, I've left this bed open in, in this one, we've got a combination of onions 209 00:14:12,660 --> 00:14:21,080 around the edge, shallots, uh, shallots are an onion type that's really popular in the UK. 210 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:27,940 Jill's family is British and one of the home things that they've, her mother used to always 211 00:14:27,940 --> 00:14:31,300 do that I loved and Jill loves is pickled onions. 212 00:14:32,020 --> 00:14:35,140 And to make pickled onions, you need good shallots. 213 00:14:35,660 --> 00:14:39,760 And the only way you can get good shallots really in the United States is by growing them 214 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:40,180 yourself. 215 00:14:40,620 --> 00:14:44,880 And, uh, we're, we're having pressure from a goose and emu. 216 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:51,320 You can see how the onions and the shallots are starting to get picked at, uh, and I just 217 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:59,760 wanted to show, so this is the typical 10 foot length schedule 40 half inch PVC pipe that 218 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,200 you can get at your home supply store. 219 00:15:02,980 --> 00:15:07,040 And I'll tell you, this is the first year I've done this, made these bows. 220 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:14,540 And I was afraid that this stuff would break when you bend it like this, but just to show 221 00:15:14,540 --> 00:15:20,480 it goes just fine. 222 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:24,100 It's super flexible, but you want to get the schedule 40. 223 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:25,420 That's the thicker stuff. 224 00:15:26,020 --> 00:15:29,680 Seems paradoxically you'd think the thicker stuff is going to be too stiff. 225 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:39,120 And then what here, you can see what happens is you just attach one end with those little 226 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:41,180 brackets, those galvanized brackets. 227 00:15:41,900 --> 00:15:49,160 And then I draw a vertical line and set the brackets on the other side and then just bend 228 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:51,180 it, slip it in. 229 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:56,420 And then later on, I'll come back and put screws in on the other side to lock this in. 230 00:15:56,420 --> 00:16:00,660 Yeah, so let's set up the netting on this one, keep the bugs off. 231 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:07,120 So we've got another one of these packages of this, uh, insect, uh, bird barrier. 232 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,520 It's just about perfect. 233 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:26,480 And now it's kind of like we've stretched the bedsheet. 234 00:16:30,580 --> 00:16:32,380 Now what we have to do is tuck the corners. 235 00:16:32,380 --> 00:16:42,960 So you were asking me about things that have happened on the farm since you were last here. 236 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:48,320 And last weekend we had basically a little mini tornado touchdown in the back of the farm. 237 00:16:48,420 --> 00:16:51,040 It took out a bunch of trees that were about this big around. 238 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:58,500 And what I found was this brand new power pole just put in this last year, just got snapped 239 00:16:58,500 --> 00:16:59,440 like a matchstick. 240 00:17:00,140 --> 00:17:02,580 Uh, the power of the weather is amazing. 241 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:08,640 This storm, whether it was mini tornadoes or whatever, kind of went through that way and 242 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:10,820 took out a whole bunch of power lines. 243 00:17:10,980 --> 00:17:17,120 It's, it's, you know, interesting when you, you realize this kind of reminds you how important 244 00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:19,080 this sort of basic infrastructure is. 245 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:19,640 Absolutely. 246 00:17:20,420 --> 00:17:20,660 Yeah. 247 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:27,120 Now, now our question is, do we want a generator or do we want to set up a solar system with 248 00:17:27,120 --> 00:17:28,060 a battery backup? 249 00:17:28,060 --> 00:17:31,560 And I'm kind of biased towards going with a solar system because the problem with the 250 00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:36,620 generators is you either got to have diesel or LP gas brought in. 251 00:17:36,860 --> 00:17:38,920 And both of those are starting to get expensive. 252 00:17:43,620 --> 00:17:48,200 So Jan, I'd like to show you another thing that's happened here on the farm since you were 253 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:48,740 last here. 254 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:55,120 And that's been this amazing success Jill has had in hatching out peacock eggs. 255 00:17:55,960 --> 00:18:02,780 We've got a, as you saw before, we have a bunch of peacocks, hens and cocks, and they 256 00:18:02,780 --> 00:18:03,440 started laying. 257 00:18:04,100 --> 00:18:05,900 So we've been collecting the eggs every day. 258 00:18:05,980 --> 00:18:07,060 We get two or three eggs. 259 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:11,360 And Jill's been putting them in the incubator in batches. 260 00:18:11,360 --> 00:18:16,400 So, um, yeah, so we, we've had really good hatch rates with our pea fowl this year. 261 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:22,320 And part of it is that we have a really nice incubator and with, with this incubator, we 262 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:26,680 can adjust the temperature because different poultry need different, the eggs need different 263 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,400 temperatures to hatch and we can adjust the humidity. 264 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:35,440 The pea fowl, the pea hens lay eggs and we collect them and we just let them sit because they 265 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:37,560 won't start developing until they start getting warm. 266 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:39,060 So I'll collect them over the week. 267 00:18:39,060 --> 00:18:41,780 And then I put them in the incubator all at the same time. 268 00:18:41,780 --> 00:18:48,000 The other thing this incubator does is the mother bird will roll the eggs, um, a few times 269 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:49,000 a day. 270 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,820 And so this actually turns the eggs every two hours. 271 00:18:51,820 --> 00:18:53,100 I have a plate of eggs. 272 00:18:53,100 --> 00:18:56,420 I take a pen and I mark them all with the date, actually a pencil. 273 00:18:56,420 --> 00:18:58,280 And then I put them in the incubator. 274 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:01,940 So peacocks take about 29 days to hatch. 275 00:19:01,940 --> 00:19:07,400 And so at day 26, I pull these eggs out and I put them in the bottom of the incubator because 276 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:09,940 at that point you don't want them turning. 277 00:19:09,940 --> 00:19:13,760 Then you watch before they hatch, they will do what's called a peep hole. 278 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:17,480 They'll make a little tiny hole that says they're getting ready. 279 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:20,640 And they take a rest and they get fresh oxygen. 280 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:25,580 And then, um, in the next day they'll, they'll hatch. 281 00:19:25,580 --> 00:19:26,580 And that's it. 282 00:19:26,580 --> 00:19:33,660 And then on the top we have a reservoir of water and gravity feed and a little float like 283 00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:36,300 a toilet bowl float so that it doesn't overflow. 284 00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:38,660 And so, um, we don't have to worry about the humidity. 285 00:19:38,660 --> 00:19:45,040 And I have the automatic egg turner, which I press and then a little light comes on. 286 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:48,660 And then every two hours it'll turn. 287 00:19:48,660 --> 00:19:54,660 You can see that the, the egg tray moving. 288 00:19:54,660 --> 00:19:57,780 And it does that every two hours. 289 00:19:57,780 --> 00:20:02,420 Earlier this year, we, we hatched about 65 chicken babies all at the same time. 290 00:20:02,420 --> 00:20:04,820 And yeah, they all hatched. 291 00:20:04,820 --> 00:20:08,840 So some of those babies I sold, they're a specific breed and the rest we're going to 292 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:12,360 go ahead and process our own meat, which is going to be a new step for us. 293 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:19,360 So we're, um, we're about to start that, which is going to be kind of a big deal. 294 00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:25,980 So Jan, you wanted to see the, the baby peacock. 295 00:20:25,980 --> 00:20:30,480 So in, in the back of the barn, we have kind of an air conditioned space that we, we keep 296 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,300 our babies and they're still under lights. 297 00:20:33,300 --> 00:20:36,360 Really soon this batch is going to go outside into a separate little cage. 298 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:37,360 Um, do you want to hold one? 299 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:38,360 Sure. 300 00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:39,360 Okay. 301 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:40,360 Sure. 302 00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:41,360 I'll open. 303 00:20:41,360 --> 00:20:42,360 Yeah. 304 00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:43,360 Yeah. 305 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:44,360 Here. 306 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:49,360 Got it. 307 00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:55,360 Now we're not kind of traumatizing them here. 308 00:20:55,360 --> 00:21:00,360 No, it's actually, I like to hold them and handle them because then when they get older, 309 00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:03,360 they're less traumatized if they get hurt and you do have to handle them. 310 00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:04,360 Yeah. 311 00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:09,360 The birds, you really have to have a gentle, calm demeanor move really slow. 312 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:10,360 Trying hard. 313 00:21:10,360 --> 00:21:11,360 Yeah. 314 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:13,360 Peafowl are in the pheasant family. 315 00:21:13,360 --> 00:21:15,360 So they're really quite flighty. 316 00:21:15,360 --> 00:21:16,360 Mm-hmm. 317 00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:20,360 But that's actually an interesting point that it's actually, you know, you're, we're not 318 00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:25,360 doing anything untoward to the animal and it's actually better for the animal to be handled 319 00:21:25,360 --> 00:21:26,360 more early on. 320 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:27,360 Yeah. 321 00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:28,360 Yeah. 322 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:29,360 Yeah. 323 00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:32,360 Because we end up being their protectors is the truth. 324 00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:33,360 Right. 325 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:35,360 The guineas most definitely see us. 326 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:38,360 The guineafowl, they, they follow us around if we're outside. 327 00:21:38,360 --> 00:21:42,360 They, they really, especially if we have any fox predation, they really want to be with 328 00:21:42,360 --> 00:21:43,360 us or with the dogs. 329 00:21:43,360 --> 00:21:44,360 Mm-hmm. 330 00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:47,360 Um, we're not foxes. 331 00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:51,360 Although I don't know if we've talked about this, but you know, the emu is, the foxes 332 00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:54,360 are one of the reasons you have the emu in the first place, right? 333 00:21:54,360 --> 00:21:55,360 Absolutely. 334 00:21:55,360 --> 00:21:56,360 Yes. 335 00:21:56,360 --> 00:21:57,360 Yeah. 336 00:21:57,360 --> 00:21:58,360 The emu are, are like guard dogs. 337 00:21:58,360 --> 00:22:00,360 They, they will protect their flock. 338 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:06,360 So, uh, let's go take a peek at the, um, moms and dads. 339 00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:14,360 Well, so we were just going into the enclosure for the peacocks and one of them just jumped 340 00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:15,360 out. 341 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:31,360 And, uh, right now we're trying to reclaim it. 342 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:33,360 He's looking, uh, impressive. 343 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:42,360 Come on, I want to show you the corn that's planted in the row that you plowed. 344 00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:44,360 Remember all that tractor work you did? 345 00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:48,360 I let that set and then I went over with the rotor tiller. 346 00:22:48,360 --> 00:22:52,360 Then I went through and it was still just wet as all get out. 347 00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:53,360 We'd had a lot of rain. 348 00:22:53,360 --> 00:23:00,360 I went through with the end of a broomstick and, uh, put holes and then dropped corn seeds 349 00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:01,360 into them. 350 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:03,360 Apparently corn, you got to get about an inch deep. 351 00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:04,360 It's amazing. 352 00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:08,360 You know, over time you don't, when you're not here, you really see the difference. 353 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:19,360 So I guess we've reached the end of our farm episode and we've reached the end of season 354 00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:20,360 one. 355 00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:21,360 It's been quite a ride. 356 00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:22,360 Absolutely. 357 00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:25,360 Eventful period of history really. 358 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:29,360 And we've covered it as, as, as it's happened. 359 00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:33,360 Uh, while still doing our best to maintain some balance. 360 00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:34,360 I mean, I had a ton of fun. 361 00:23:34,360 --> 00:23:43,360 I got to, you know, learn how to work with farm equipment, uh, till some soil, ride horses. 362 00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:47,360 I mean, the wonder, you know, wonderful time all along. 363 00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:50,360 We, we, we created a garden. 364 00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:53,360 Um, but let's go a little bit deeper. 365 00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:55,360 What did we accomplish here? 366 00:23:55,360 --> 00:24:00,360 Well, when you and I were discussing this and we were discussing it for almost a year 367 00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:12,360 before we started shooting it, uh, was we discussed that there seems to be a hunger for information 368 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:22,360 about living closer to the land, about homesteading, uh, whether it's backyard chickens or, uh, setting 369 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:28,360 up a greenhouse, uh, you know, small to large, the idea that anybody can do it. 370 00:24:28,360 --> 00:24:31,360 You don't have to have a farming background. 371 00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:38,360 You've kind of served in the role of somebody who doesn't have a strong farming background. 372 00:24:38,360 --> 00:24:45,360 And, and yet you were able, you know, with no problem at all to drive the tractor, plow the 373 00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:50,360 ground, uh, work the bucket, uh, get involved in planning. 374 00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:58,360 Um, and, and I hope that this shows our viewers that they can do it too, and that they don't 375 00:24:58,360 --> 00:25:02,360 have to resort to pesticides and herbicides and all that kind of stuff. 376 00:25:02,360 --> 00:25:07,360 And I think we covered in some of our episodes, some of the toxicities associated with something 377 00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:15,360 with some of these agents that are being used in modern farming, desiccants, glyphosate, some 378 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:22,360 of these other things that are turning out to have reproductive harms, uh, and, uh, other 379 00:25:22,360 --> 00:25:28,360 kinds of toxicity and that are damaging our land, which is our legacy really. 380 00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:35,360 Uh, you know, what, what we're experiencing here on this little farm with, uh, our horses 381 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:42,360 and the gift of having horse manure that we can plow back into the soil is that, uh, we 382 00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:43,360 can bring it back to life. 383 00:25:43,360 --> 00:25:46,360 This, this was pretty sterile when we moved in. 384 00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:48,360 It was just a overworked hay field. 385 00:25:48,360 --> 00:25:53,360 And, uh, gradually, gradually now we have good grass. 386 00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:57,360 Uh, we have really a little botanical garden. 387 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:01,360 Uh, we have more and more diversity in, in our animals. 388 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:06,360 The other thing I want to highlight here is that, you know, we really didn't, aside 389 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:12,360 from me learning how to, you know, ride a horse where we had, you know, uh, you know, 390 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:17,360 double gold medal winner, medal winner, teach me. 391 00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:19,360 Um, we didn't really set anything up here. 392 00:26:19,360 --> 00:26:21,360 This is just how you actually live. 393 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:22,360 That's true. 394 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:25,360 Which is, I think, you know, I, I don't, I don't know if everyone's fully aware of that 395 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:29,360 because you live in this world of kayfabe where everything, you don't know what's truth, 396 00:26:29,360 --> 00:26:31,360 what's reality, what's the mix. 397 00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:32,360 Right. 398 00:26:32,360 --> 00:26:33,360 And this is, this is actually the way you live. 399 00:26:33,360 --> 00:26:35,360 So we just saw Ted and Kelly. 400 00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:41,360 Uh, she had a little art exhibit down the road in Charlottesville, uh, two days ago. 401 00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:45,360 Uh, and, uh, got to meet some of their children. 402 00:26:45,360 --> 00:26:51,360 Uh, they're, they're, uh, familiar with fallout and familiar with the kind of things we're 403 00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:52,360 doing with their fans. 404 00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:57,360 Uh, I, I need attention. 405 00:26:57,360 --> 00:26:58,360 Clearly. 406 00:26:58,360 --> 00:27:02,360 Uh, yeah, these are just the people in our lives. 407 00:27:02,360 --> 00:27:10,360 I think, again, going back to that, if, if you have work life balance, allow yourself some 408 00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:15,360 calm time, some downtime, and just be open to things around you. 409 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:24,360 Um, it's like it creates a circle of, of peace and acceptance around you. 410 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:27,360 And, uh, people gravitate to that. 411 00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:32,360 Uh, you, you end up, especially here in Northern Virginia, I don't know what it is. 412 00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:37,360 Somebody once said there must be something in the water because you had Jefferson and Madison's 413 00:27:37,360 --> 00:27:39,360 farm is just a little bit over there. 414 00:27:39,360 --> 00:27:48,360 Uh, there's, there's something about this area that seems to, uh, foster people who value 415 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:59,360 freedom, uh, who, uh, live, you know, in a balanced way, uh, both with the whole intense politics 416 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:01,360 and intellectual world of DC. 417 00:28:01,360 --> 00:28:07,360 But there's a whole lot of DC folks that like to get out of town and where do they go? 418 00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:09,360 A lot of them go right around here. 419 00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:17,360 And, and I think it's because of this calm peacefulness, uh, and, and lack of crowding 420 00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:20,360 and the ability to kind of get back to nature a little bit. 421 00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:29,360 Uh, so I'm, I'm grateful that you've had the time and interest to do this and, and followed, 422 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:37,360 uh, the suggestions of our little readership community that they, they love the farm segments. 423 00:28:37,360 --> 00:28:41,360 And so I, I get that again and again, and again, there's two things that people love 424 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:44,360 most about our sub stack and it's not my political writing. 425 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:48,360 It's the farm segments and it's Jill's funnies. 426 00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:51,360 Those are the things that people really want to read. 427 00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:54,360 So I think we've reached the end of this episode and indeed it's the end of season one. 428 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:55,360 And we'll see you next time. 429 00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:20,360 I have a cat, so I think I can have a goose. 430 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:35,360 We'll see you next time.