This Empty Part Of Our Farm Is About To Change Forever!

[00:00:16]Good morning. Hope you're having the best day  ever today and I hope you're staying cool. Woo!

[00:00:28]We do have us a warm one today. But uh I want  to um get uh Brooke to help me and I've been hinting around this and I've kind of talked  about it before, but uh I want to go ahead and get started on something now that's going  to eventually be a huge project over time. I'm not going to try to do all this tackle this  all at one time for sure. Well, good morning, Miss Peaches. Y'all, I am happy to report that  Peaches seems to be much, much better yesterday afternoon. As a matter of fact, she was all  the way at the end of her and Pocket's pasture, which is quite an improvement for her. And uh  she's standing while eating. So, I I'm feeling much better about Peach's situation, and I think  that she's just going to continue to improve.

[00:01:23]I am going to shut this door because Pocket's  over here having her breakfast and we want these two to be separated during that time. There's  something on the other side of this door right outside there in that stall that's been screaming.  Of course, she's going to be quiet now that I come in the milk room. It's something that can't  hear very well, but she makes up for it with her squeals. Any guesses on what that something  is? Any guesses? I see you, big girl. You got to get down so I can come through and get you  your wonderful breakfast this morning. You get rather quiet except for your munching once  your breakfast does arrive. Don't you, girl?

[00:02:15]All right, enjoy. I'm going to get the rest of the  crew fed. Come on, my beautiful babies. Come on.

[00:02:38]All right, brother. All right, Mr. Willis.  There you go, partner. There you go. Come on, resca. Quit worrying about Maggie.  Come on. Quit worrying about Maggie.

[00:02:56]There you go. All right, Mags. Come on,  girl. Let's go. Come on, beautiful. Come on.

[00:03:09]Love that girl. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.  A little bit more in there. Hang on. Now.

[00:03:23]All right, you two fellas. Y'all are  up next. Anxiously awaiting. Yeah, it's coming. Y'all kind of make a mess.  Just a little bit of a mess. All right, got three goats that need to come  in. Good job. All right. Now, I'm going to feed the outside crew. Now,  this is the one that can't quite figure it out. And I have always given donkeys  credit for being pretty intelligent, but I'm starting to question my thoughts. Every  single day, it's the same routine. And you can see down there at the very end standing outside  the emu stall are Honey and Jesse. And I don't know why they can't figure out that they're going  to eat over here. They do it every single day.

[00:04:22]They usually have to hear me call them before  they actually come to the bucket. Y'all are trying to show out today, aren't you? Trying  to let everybody know that you are indeed intelligent. And I'm just making that up. And my  grass on this area where I added the old hay is starting to come up a little bit. I don't know  if it's showing up. I can't seem to. There's a little bit right there. And it's just a sprig  here or there. So, y'all just know that. That's why that looks like that. I'm trying to grow some  grass. We've definitely had enough rain. Okay, you two enjoy your breakfast. I'm going  to go take care of five hungry cows.

[00:05:09]I knew I was going to have quite a crew  waiting on me. [laughter] Look at their faces. Mildred's like, "Um, could you  feed us already?" Tater, of course, Big Moody in the back. And little man's  peeking around back behind Mildred.

[00:05:32]Good morning, Pinky. Good morning,  Pink. How you doing, baby?

[00:05:43]Pocket's already done with her grain and  made her way out into her pasture. So, that means I can open Peach's gate and let  her go. Good morning, Mr. Bramble. Aren't you beautiful? And then we got Miss Biscuit over  here holding down the goat grain, the big stack of Kalmbach goat grain. And it looks like you guys  and girls may be finished. Beautiful babies. Well, they're not so babies anymore, but they'll  always be my babies. All right, Miss Peaches, you got finished up. You can head on out  to the green grass if you choose to do so.

[00:06:32]I just gathered a basket of 20 beautiful  eggs and on my way out of the coop, I spotted something. Guess what?

[00:06:45]Another big feather. How about that? [screaming]  And I also think that I have an egg from one of my little cream leg bar hens. This is one of  those right here. You can tell because she has that little tuft on the top of her head. They lay  a beautiful blue egg. And I've been getting one that's a good bit smaller than the other ones.  Let me show y'all. This is the egg that I'm thinking she laid. And I got one yesterday,  too. So, I do believe it's about time. Now, the black copper marans or morans shouldn't  be too much further behind. I should start getting a darker brown egg, darker  than what we're used to any day now.

[00:07:42]Actually thought about taking the  horses for a little walk today, but we'll see. It's kind of warm and I'll have to edit this video this evening.  So, I don't know. I may not have time to do that, but we will if we can, we can. Right, girl.  Come on. Load up. Let's go check on mama. See what she's got going on. Come on, load up. That  a girl. That a girl. Yeah. And I And I had even mentioned to Brooke what I want to do today. I  haven't. So, she's going to be surprised. Yeah.

[00:08:17]Oh goodness. Speaking of, here she is right now.  Look at there. What do you think? I need to put that in my hat. You think? Yeah. Is it Tommy?  Yep. Yeah. I need to put old Tommy in my hat.

[00:08:37]Not Tommy himself. No, not not Tommy himself,  that's for sure. just showed it, but yeah, I hadn't told you. I think our uh one of our cream  leg bars has started laying. Got one yesterday, too. That's a blue egg. It is. And they're  good bit smaller than what the other ones have been being. Look at there. I think we've got  either this is the same hen as yesterday or we've got two hens that have started laying. That's  awesome. Yep. That is awesome. Makes you happy, doesn't it? Yeah. [laughter] You want to ride? You  going to walk? I'm going to walk. Okay. All the Faverolles were back outside, you know, they had  to make their way back in. Now they're back out.

[00:09:18]So, they've they know how to go in and out. So,  they've adjusted well. Yeah, they have. And that's a good sign when it comes to laying because you  know that sometimes you have new chickens that go outside and they don't ever come back in, right?  They don't come in to net to sleep at night.

[00:09:34]They'll come in to lay in the nesting boxes, but  they know how to go in and out. So, that's good.

[00:09:38]Yeah. Perfect. What is that? I got something I  want you to help me with today. It's nothing big, but I hadn't told you about it either. What's  that? Well, I'll tell you in the barn. Hey, Holly.

[00:09:54]All right. So, I've been telling you and I've  mentioned it to the Cog squad a few times in the past several months and I've talked to you about  it. And anyways, you know, the back area that I want to turn into a meadow/ prairie. Mhm. I think  it' be way too much and impossible for us to do that whole area at one time. Okay. I just I just  don't see how we can do it. The ground's got to be disturbed. Um, we got to wipe everything out,  which we can I was wondering how you were going to do that. Um, we could burn, which we which was my  plan, but I've been doing some research and I've been following some uh some people that do this  and they do it another way where they can do it in sections. Okay. And they tarp. Oh, okay. So, the  the area that they want in a meadow, they'll tarp it out. And then this fall, we'll pull the tarp  back and we'll plant our native seeds. So, this is perfect timing. This is perfect timing. What about  all the rocks back there? I don't think it's going to matter if I get a native seed blend. It's going  to come up. It's going to come up. Okay. And then Mary Carl asked the on one of the bird bandings,  she talked to the state biologist because that's what they do and that's what they're encouraging  and trying to get farms to do, right, in areas that that's not being grazed or whatever.  They're trying to get that native prairie, those native meadows back. You know what else she  taught me? What's that? And I did not know this.

[00:11:23]What's that? You may already know it. That they  are trying to get people to be buried in prairies.

[00:11:31]Really? Turn like cemeteries into prairies. So  that area can't be disturbed because obviously it's a cemetery. So it can't be destroyed. Can't  be disturbed. So, you know, they're trying to to encourage people to start to want to be buried in  prairie areas. That's interesting. I had no idea.

[00:11:54]I don't know where this is, you know, happening  more so because I don't know about it in Alabama, but yeah, pretty smart. Pretty smart. That is  pretty smart. So, I need to figure out what size cuz I got several different size tarps. I got to  sneeze. Bless you. Probably not the last one. So, that's the one thing I need to figure out and then  I want to figure out I need to walk over there and see what area I want to go ahead and start  with first. Okay. And that would be the thing.

[00:12:25]Um cuz number one, the not only I think it'll  be too much for us to do that whole area first, right? But those seed mixes aren't cheap either.  Uh-uh. Um No, they're not. So it's not like we're buying a pack, you know, a pound of zinnias, which  is fairly inexpensive. This is native grasses and native wild flowers, something that will be  there for a long period of time. Therefore, the cost is more. Correct. And it's hard to  harvest. It's not like, you know, I mean, these these seeds are usually coming from a a biologist  or someone in in that field that's or it could be a seed saving company and it's trying to keep that  going and they have to physically harvest hand harvest these seeds. That's right. So, it's not  labor intensive. Very labor intensive. So, that's what I want to do. I want You want to tarp today  or I want I want to tarp today. I want to figure out where it won't go and I want to tarp today and  um start getting prepared for the uh the future of that area back there. And we can just do a little  section. Start towards the house. That's what I think. Start towards the house instead of starting  at the bottom. And we need to think about pathways because I want it where we can walk in it. And if  we had to mow, we can run the mower through there because that's what a lot of people are doing.  More than 4 foot, then maybe we'll figure out the width of our mower. And that's what they're doing  with their pathways is they'll they'll mow it.

[00:13:51]Kind of like that one park we went to in Maine.  Oh yeah, they had mowed. Well, you know, there was a place that we recently went to to look at a  grasshopper sparrow somewhere in North Alabama. I can't remember. Chicka Magwa was the name of the  park, I believe. And it was untouched. There was an area of this. It was like a recreational ball  field, but it was also a park. Okay. And it was it was absolutely untouched. Now, I don't know if it  was native native plants, but they did not touch it. You could tell they had that not cut. I'm sure  it was native plant. They had not cut it in years.

[00:14:24]And these sparrows, that's the only place in the  state they live because they had to have that specific native plant. Gotcha. And or native cut  where it didn't get cut. It couldn't be cut. Um it may have been burned but not cut year after year.  And uh that's something we won't do. We won't be cutting it. We won't be cutting it. We'll just  let it reseed itself over and over for a while, but that's what you got to go through to get to  where you want to be. Well, I think that's a good idea. And I have some blocks down by the pond that  we put there when we built it to try to slow some of the water that was coming down. But there's  enough grass now that it can slow it down. So, I would like to move those blocks. Absolutely.  Instead of, you know, getting the block. We're going to have to have more blocks anyway,  but use some of those blocks as well. Okay.

[00:15:13][music] [music] Oh. One announcement real quick for those that  did not see the live stream [music] and do not get our newsletter, our weekly email, our weekly  newsletter, and that is there is a Cog Hill Farm app for your smart device or your phone or  whatever you call I call it a phone. Some people call them smart devices or even a tablet. But I  will put links to the app stores in the comment section. It is free, completely free. We don't  ask for any type of information or anything.

[00:16:19]So when you do click on our app, this is what  it looks like right here. And you can see it's all us right here. Number one thing, and this is  the main reason we built this app. I had so many, and I mean so many emails, messages, comments.  I'm not getting notified. I'm not seeing your videos. I don't I don't see your videos anymore.  I used to see your videos on my homepage. All that we started just like, man, I wish there  was some way that we could notify people when a new video is out, when we're live. And that's  when the idea of the app came about. And that's what this app is so great about. It's going  to alert you as soon as a new video comes out.

[00:17:03]It will alert you as soon as we go live. You have  to look right here though. If it's not on, you see Brooke and Mildred. If you look up under there, it  says farm alerts. Be sure you have that turned on and you will get those notifications. Also, you'll  get notified when we have restocked something.

[00:17:21]Say something sold out and it's been restocked.  Uh, a lot of y'all want to know when something's being restocked or there's new merchandise in  stock. You'll get notified with that as well.

[00:17:31]and working on some stuff here and there with  that. Uh, also this is a work in progress. We've gotten a ton of feedback from you guys. We are  making some changes already. One being a spot that has all of our links and promo codes to it. Say  like for LubriSyn, that was been a big one that you guys asked about. So, we're going to put that  section in there. Uh, you can watch all of our videos from here if you want to. You don't have  to watch the videos from here, but you can. Also, we have the recipe section right here. There is  a little I don't want to say a glitch, but it's something that we are working on. We're going to  get fixed. That is on the recipe section. You can see all of our recipes here. And when you click on  one, let's see, overnight oats. You click on it, you go, "Oh, it's not popping up." Well, it  does pop up, y'all. But it's all the way at the bottom of the screen right there. So, when  you click on a new recipe, see it changes. So, you have to scroll all the way down. And we're  trying to fix that and get that corrected. on here is the Cog Hill Farm Country store. And there's  one more thing we saw that we're trying to get that fixed and that will be fixed. So, don't  worry about that. We will update it. And that is it's showing some of the older merchandise  on there that's no longer available. But we'll get that squared away, too. But the app is here  completely free. Doesn't cost you anything. If you're going somewhere and it's asking for  personal information or costing something, you clicked on the wrong thing. and I will  put the links to that app in the comments. So, if you got an Apple phone, you want to go to  the Apple link. If you got an Android phone, you want to go to the Android link. I will  say this, for people that have a Kindle, we are working on getting that included as well.  We thank you guys so much. Um, and this is a kind of a big deal for us and appreciate y'all more  than you know. Y'all look at the barn swallows.

[00:19:34]They are everywhere. And we're pretty certain  these are babies that hatched here this year, which means they should keep coming back  year after year after year. Come on, Holly.

[00:19:53]That a girl. That's my girl. All  right. Big day. Big day. You up for it?

[00:20:04]So, what kind of makes me excited and passionate  about this new meadow area? Several reasons that I want to do this. Uh, number one, it's going to  bring in so many natives. The native butterflies, the native moths, the native insects, the  native pollinators, the native bees, birds, all that's going to thrive in this. Plus, once  I get this established, it will basically take care of itself year after year after year after  year. And we won't have to cut grass back there anymore. As it stands now, we're constantly  having to cut grass back there. It's real, you know, rocky and gravelly, which also makes um  planting natives awesome because they can handle our climate, they can handle our weather, they  can handle my soil, they can handle all that.

[00:21:05]And I don't have to worry about watering. I  don't have to worry about any of that. So, it's going to be a huge huge part of our farm. I  want to work as much as I can with nature itself.

[00:22:13]Hey guys, what's going on? Sim and crew. We going to get all these blocks up. Got some  here. We got some over yonder. Yeah, we're going to get them up. Look over  here. You can see the duck gang over here chilling.

[00:22:53]May I come up some? No, you're good.

[00:23:07]I can't get those. Hello.  They're too far in the ground.

[00:23:15]Five, six, seven, eight. So, just  kind of even there, ain't it? Mhm.

[00:23:24]All right.

[00:23:29]Kind of goes the other way though.  Want to turn it around? Yeah.

[00:23:36]All right. And this goes this way. Yeah.

[00:23:55]And then here's my mark right here.

[00:24:29]Yeah, this is a big enough area for us to work  with. I'm glad we didn't do nothing bigger.

[00:24:40]It looks a lot bigger over here than it does in  the garden spot. Yeah. You reckon why? I don't know. All right. You want me to drive around  there and come backwards and do that front row first? Yeah. And we'll get the  corners locked down, too. You know, good thing the wind's not blowing. Hush. Also,  the bad thing, the wind's not blowing. [laughter] Good answer. Oh, man. Cuz it is warm. Holly  decided she needed to stay inside. And I'm glad she did. All right. You're going You're  going on. You want to hit the corners? Let's get the corners. Let's put something on  the corners and then we'll come back and get the rest of them. Well, I can drop them  as I drive and meet you around there. Okay.

[00:25:22]Y'all, this thing looks way bigger than  the ones when we put it out. I don't know why. It's the exact same tarp we always use,  but man, it looks massive over here. I guess maybe because we're so used to just seeing this  ground on this side, I reckon. I don't know. It's just really crazy how much bigger it looks over  here versus it does in the garden spots. But, but this will get us started right here. We uh  we ended up moving it from where we originally wanted to put it because we know Mr. Jordan says  he's going to come fix our purple martin houses and we do not want to we won't be able to maintain  those purple martin houses if we have to without disturbing our new prairie. But yeah, we won't be  able to get to this without disturbing anything per se. So that's why we kind of moved it. But  uh this is a start and it's covered a lot more ground than I thought it was going to. Um, which  is also great. I'm excited. I'm so excited about this. You have no idea how excited I am. This is  something that I've been wanting to do on this farm for a long time and I just didn't know  where. I just didn't know how to get started.

[00:26:48]Now we got to go get some more blocks.  [laughter] Oh, I knew that was going to be the hardest part is putting the blocks out. The  reason why I like the concrete blocks cuz some may be wondering why am I using concrete blocks  because they're heavy. And that's why I'm using them because they are heavy. Typically these  uh silage tarps, that's what this is called, silage tarps. And we got ours from Hoss Tools.  and they'll cut it to length for you, I believe, or they used to. Now, I know they got them  pre-measured, but if you need something, you could call them and I'm sure they would  cut it to length for you. But silage tarps, cuz they're UV treated. That's what makes this  different than a normal black plastic that like concrete people use, those are not UV treated.  This is UV treated. It comes with sandbags. I don't like the sandbags. I'm just going to be  honest with you. I do not like the sandbags.

[00:27:42]They dry rot. They're not weather resistant.  They'll break open. Weeds will start growing in them. Ants will build ant nest in them. I just  don't like that. And they don't hold the tarp down like in a storm in my opinion. I like the  concrete blocks. That's been for me works better than anything. And we had so many concrete blocks  on this property when we bought it. So I didn't buy any of this. This was already here. We just  gathered them all up and put them in one area.

[00:28:32]Not for sure how many trips  we're going to have to make. Um, maybe one more. Maybe one more. We'll be done.

[00:29:09]We're hoping this is the last load. I think it is though. I think we should  be able to make this work.

[00:29:27]All right, Brooke. Got it done. Got it done. You  know what I foresee? I foresee some scavenger hunting in our foreseen future looking for some  native flowers growing on side the road where you think we'll just where they go to seed and  we'll cut the heads off of them and put them in some bags. Good idea. Plus, we're going to  order some too. But yeah, definitely going to definitely going to be looking around for  some wild stuff growing on side the road. Now, always be What word am I looking for, Brooke?  Don't go take all of it. That's not what we're going to do. We're just going to cut a few  seed heads here and there. We're not going to pull up everything we see. We're going to  leave some. We, you know, always say, you know, leave it like you never been there. That's right.  And that's what we're going to do. Little warm, ain't it? It's a little warm. I like it, though.  All right. Well, I'm gonna take these down there and put them behind the old barn. Okay. And then  you asked me, should we till it first? And again, my research is no, we're not going to  till it. Um, now when we pull it back, we've talked about buying an aerator and we may  aerate this spot and then throw the seeds out. Um, but they're saying don't till. Don't put any  compost out there. Don't put any manure out there because that's probably got some seeds in  it that you don't want. We're trying to get away from pasture grasses. We want native prairie,  native meadow, that style or that's what we're hoping for trying to get back here. I don't know  how long it's going to take cuz I started thinking on the way up that road right there. That whole  side would be pretty in wild flowers, wouldn't it? On the on the left side where we worked  the road. Yep. Yeah, it would. Just something, you know, in the future, right? How pretty  that would be in wild flowers over there.

[00:31:27]At least it's not washing. No, it's it's great.  Yeah, it's doing good. Wild flowers and native grasses on that side would be beautiful.  Mhm. Hot dog. Thank you. Appreciate you.

[00:31:52]Y'all remember those profusion zinnias we  planted several weeks ago? Y'all check them out now. Look at them. Look at they are a  bushing zinnia. Look how that one little plant has bushed out. Look at that. And  look at the blooms on it right there. Oh my goodness. These do make a great border plant.  I could see why that was suggested. You can see that one right there. I think I got some more  right down here. Here I want to show y'all.

[00:32:23]This one has got an orange bloom on it. So  they're all different. They're all different colors right there. But how about that? A  bushing zinnia. That's pretty awesome. Oh, you fool y'all fussing that. I think  we got two fledglings or one fledgling and one parent of our mocking birds. But I  just had to show you guys that right there.

[00:34:21][music] Appreciate you hanging out with me, Brooke,  helping us get that tarp out and listen to us talk about our dream meadow or Dream Prairie back  there behind the house. I cannot wait. Um, super excited about it. Really, really am. Appreciate  y'all to the moon and back. Y'all be sure to check out our free app. And again, we'll do updates and  make changes as you guys make suggestions. We love y'all. Catch you on the next one. Y'all be good. [music]