How much $$$ did we save????

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Transcript

00:00Mom, are we going to do cows?

00:02Yep, we're going to go do cows.

00:04Say snowman!

00:05Snowman!

00:11Hi guys, welcome back to another video.

00:13We did not grocery shop for all of February.

00:17Well, we did but just bare minimum to see how much money we could save

00:22and today I'm going to give you an update on that.

00:24Thank you to Blooming for sponsoring today's video.

00:28Let me tell you how it went.

00:29First of all, if I knew what would happen in February,

00:34I probably wouldn't have picked February.

00:36And no, it's not because of the tariffs.

00:38There was a lot of talk in the news at the beginning of February

00:41after we had already decided to do this with politics changing the guard

00:47and President Trump talking to all these countries about tariffs.

00:53There was a lot of speculation that prices are going to go through the roof

00:56and Solo, roof, however you say it at your house, and Solo and I talked about it.

01:02Well, we'd already decided to do this grocery challenge

01:04and save a lot of money this month.

01:06Is this a bad idea?

01:08We had the conversations and then we realized, you know, we have enough food.

01:12February is usually a short month.

01:14I think we can do it.

01:15And then when I actually looked at a lot of the food

01:17that I buy from Azure Standard that we would eat through,

01:20I realized most of it is from the U.S.

01:22and I hadn't even realized that before.

01:24So that was good for me to kind of do a little research on where I'm getting my food from.

01:27A lot of my food from Sam's Club is not, probably.

01:31And I know that prices could be affected even with U.S. food.

01:36I'm sure in some way I'm not an economics expert,

01:39but it did make me feel good to know that a lot of that food from Azure Standard

01:44is sourced in the U.S. and so prices from tariffs shouldn't affect it so much.

01:50Anyway, that kind of all was put on hold days after,

01:54but I did see so many of your comments like,

01:56what are you doing?

01:56This is a crazy time to not buy groceries for a month.

02:01It worked out in that regard.

02:02I haven't seen, at least not that I know of,

02:05I haven't been in the stores yet.

02:06I'm going to shop this week,

02:08but I haven't seen that prices are extremely high

02:12beyond how high they've been all this time lately, the last year.

02:16So that was not a concern.

02:19What was a concern is that I ended up being sick for so much in February.

02:23I was sick in bed for a week, almost, not fully.

02:28Then I got, I was starting to get better the next week

02:32and one of my kids ended up having surgery.

02:34I was up all night one night.

02:37I had talked about this in a previous vlog

02:39and I think just my immune system hadn't quite recovered

02:42and I ended up getting something else.

02:44And then I was sick for almost two weeks

02:46and I think it was 10 days.

02:48I finally, 11 days, I finally went into the doctor

02:51and he's like, you need antibiotics.

02:52So I'm on antibiotics now, but it is harder when mom is sick.

02:57Let's just say it how it is.

02:59I usually make all our bread.

03:01Thankfully, I make it a lot.

03:04So when I have extra, I put it in the freezer

03:06and bread freezes really well.

03:07But we were, I wasn't even making bread this month

03:10because I just was not well.

03:12So I did it a few times,

03:14but when I make bread, I make huge batches.

03:18But we also did rely on some on our freezer stash of bread,

03:22which was very helpful.

03:24But yeah, I wouldn't have picked it

03:25if I would have known how sick I was

03:27because I just wasn't in the mood

03:29to be creative with meals.

03:30In fact, a lot of my kids did a lot of the cooking

03:32and Solo did too when he was around.

03:34And so I wasn't on my game this month.

03:38In that regard, I wouldn't have chosen this month.

03:41However, we still made do.

03:43We got through.

03:43In fact, even Solo told me this morning,

03:45you're ending the grocery haul?

03:47We could keep going.

03:48And we really could.

03:49Guys, we have plenty of food.

03:50So we stock up well on all our grains, sugar,

03:53baking items, canned goods, and our meat.

03:58And so what happens when we're doing a grocery challenge

04:01is our meals just get slightly more boring, I think.

04:04And another big thing that happened,

04:06which had some to do with me being sick,

04:09some to do with the temperatures being horrible this month.

04:12Like the worst of the worst.

04:14We even had negative 18 degrees Fahrenheit here.

04:19It was just so bad.

04:20So our milking did not go well.

04:23We have two milk cows.

04:24And so we have our grocery budgets come down recently

04:27because of those milk cows.

04:28And we've been making like sour cream

04:30and cream cheese and cottage cheese.

04:32And we had all our yogurt made.

04:36And we were just drinking a lot of milk.

04:40Well, because I was sick,

04:42a couple times the boys had to milk without me.

04:45And then they weren't getting that much milk.

04:47The calves are bigger.

04:48We've been calf sharing fully.

04:50But the temperatures were so bad.

04:52We couldn't start like separating the cows.

04:54I was not well enough to be in those temperatures.

04:56I milked quite a bit while I was sick.

05:00There were two days I didn't milk at all.

05:02The boys did it for me.

05:03And then at some point I was getting so little.

05:05The machine wasn't working well in the cold.

05:07One day I accidentally left in the garage.

05:09So then it really didn't work well.

05:11And then long story short,

05:14we just started getting so little milk

05:15that it was this last week

05:18when the temps were really well below zero,

05:20even for the highs,

05:22I just quit milking because there was no point.

05:24So I think I did it one day this last week.

05:27And we had a gallon that we kind of just made stretch,

05:30just used for the bare minimum.

05:32But we haven't had things like sour cream.

05:33And so that has been a little rough.

05:37The milk products being down.

05:38And the other night,

05:40even on the way home from work,

05:42Solo was, I had him get some sour cream

05:45because we were having chili.

05:47And it's hard to have chili without sour cream.

05:50And we were totally out.

05:51So we have some hard cheese left,

05:53but we just were running real low in the dairy products.

05:56Today it is warm out.

05:58So we're gonna go outside.

05:59We're gonna set it up so that we can separate the calves

06:02and start getting some milk again around here.

06:05So those kinds of things have made this month

06:08a little more rough.

06:09I'll show you one of the grocery hauls we did.

06:11Guys, being sick for weeks when your mom is crazy work.

06:16It is just not, it's not cool at all.

06:18And it feels so good to be like getting up

06:21and getting ready for the day.

06:23I've seen a number of comments

06:24asking me to share again of Blooming.

06:27I've shared with you guys this product before.

06:29It's the Blooming Hair Pro.

06:31And it is really good for stimulating hair growth.

06:34My hair has been growing really well.

06:37I don't know if you can tell,

06:38but I cut it way off last year around April.

06:42And it was chin length,

06:44and it's doing very well growing thick as usual.

06:48I do use this Blooming Hair Pro often.

06:51It has red light therapy.

06:52Even my daughter Tori,

06:54she uses it all the time to stimulate hair growth.

06:56And she has seen some good hair growth

06:58in her, on her, from her scalp using it.

07:02The Blooming Hair Pro is light therapy.

07:05It stimulates hair growth,

07:07increases hair density, and reduces thinning.

07:09It's also supposed to combat early grain.

07:12So you can tell when you use it on your scalp

07:15that it is stimulating hair growth

07:16because you can just feel that vibration and tingling.

07:20And you can tell something's happening for sure.

07:23I don't know if you can see the mist from the serum,

07:25but when I push the button that will release the serum,

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07:32The Blooming Hair Pro is normally $500.

07:34It is on sale right now,

07:35and I asked them for a discount code,

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08:00Okay, we are on our grocery challenge month,

08:03and let me show you what Solo picked up for me at the store.

08:10And the kids, this is my mistake.

08:12I was like, oh, you guys are by Sam's Club?

08:14Can you go get my...

08:15You told me, mom hasn't made bagels in a while.

08:20She has some frozen.

08:21Hey, you asked us.

08:27I asked for four bags of potatoes.

08:29I think they missed the four.

08:31I asked for romaine hearts.

08:32That's good.

08:33I asked for four bundles of bananas.

08:35That's great.

08:36Asked for carrots.

08:37Thank you very much.

08:38And then I got dates.

08:40And then I got my favorite candy that I haven't bought in a long time.

08:43And I was like, did you buy the candy

08:45so I wouldn't talk about the dates?

08:46No.

08:47And he said yes.

08:50Because you need energy to get through the no spend month here.

08:55Oh, okay.

08:56And they came home with bagels too.

08:59Oh my goodness.

09:00How much did you spend?

09:0277 dollars.

09:03I don't know the exact.

09:04Okay.

09:05Okay, that's expensive.

09:06All right.

09:07Well, we're still saving a lot of money this month.

09:10We also went back.

09:12We got more potatoes.

09:13We got a bag of apples.

09:14We got bananas.

09:16And then we got that sour cream.

09:18We also bought some food to have a big party one night,

09:22which usually I can come up with stuff to make,

09:24but I was not well enough to do that.

09:27And so we got a bunch of chicken wings and some things to make hot sandwiches.

09:30All together, we spent about 250 dollars this whole month.

09:35Half of that was the party, the Super Bowl party,

09:39but it was worth it, totally worth it to do that,

09:41to have friends over and just have fun and have some good fun food.

09:45But anyway, all that to say we saved 1250 dollars this month

09:52and that is awesome.

09:54So glad we did it.

09:55I can't believe Sola said we could just keep going,

09:57but I'm like, no.

09:58I want things back like tortillas,

10:00and I don't like seeing my canned goods just get lower in supply.

10:06I'm ready to purchase again,

10:08but I could do it another month this year,

10:11maybe just in a few months.

10:12So we'll see how that goes.

10:14Just wanted to give you guys a full scoop on how the month went.

10:17It was rough a bit,

10:19but not because we weren't buying food.

10:21Although I was going to make tortillas this month.

10:24I was certain I was going to do it.

10:25I have a friend who gave me a recipe.

10:27She's just started sourdough,

10:28and she said this recipe worked great for me.

10:30I tried it, worked the first time, keep doing it.

10:33She sent me the recipe.

10:35This is a person who's tried sourdough tortillas many times,

10:39and it has not worked,

10:40or just regular tortillas.

10:42Anyway, I was determined to try it,

10:44but I just have not.

10:46I have not even pulled my sourdough starter out.

10:49It was just one of those months.

10:51In fact, one night Belle and Katie were like,

10:53well, one of us are going to make dinner for you.

10:55What do you want?

10:55I was like, can you make tortillas?

10:57They're both like, no.

10:59Nobody wants to make tortillas around here.

11:01It does not sound like fun.

11:03It's like this kitchen doesn't like homemade tortillas.

11:05I'm excited to buy some again.

11:09Maybe a few dairy products to get us through.

11:12We'll see how it all goes.

11:14Definitely a lot of fruits and vegetables will be good.

11:17Keep us all healthy.

11:19Let me show you what our freezers look like in our pantry.

11:23Here's our pantry.

11:24This big gaping hole is where tortillas usually go.

11:26As you can see, most things we stock up on.

11:28Well, you don't see a big change,

11:30although we have eaten a lot of those noodles.

11:32I need to get more mixed noodles.

11:36This is a play yogurt, and this is a random chocolate chip.

11:40So what can I tell you about that?

11:42I don't know.

11:44We usually have this whole side full of bacon crumbles as well,

11:48and we've eaten those down pretty well.

11:50We've eaten some applesauce.

11:52We could use a couple of avocado oil.

11:57We make mayonnaise with that.

11:58We could use some more peanut butter.

12:00You know, we're eating stuff down.

12:04Everything up here is good.

12:05I don't like how low that tomato sauce is

12:07because every time we make spaghetti, it's like eight cans.

12:09I think I almost need two shelves of tomato sauce,

12:11but doing these challenges also helps me see how quickly we go through things,

12:16and that is very, very helpful.

12:18Like we didn't go through diced tomatoes very fast,

12:20or we didn't use any Rotel.

12:22We've been using some crushed tomatoes,

12:23but I had tons of that too much anyway.

12:26And then the corn, we do go through.

12:30Ketchup is fine.

12:30Peace's new fun thing to do is just to play with these ketchups,

12:34and so it's not as much as it looks by any means,

12:37but well, it is a lot still,

12:39but usually when it's arranged nicely.

12:42I hear her.

12:43I come in here and watch her like talk like they're guys.

12:46I used to do that when I was a kid, and I remember it.

12:49Everything is a guy, and they're talking to each other,

12:54and they're moving around.

12:56Anyway, our barbecue sauce there is almost gone.

12:59You can see, and oh, somebody even colored on the shelf.

13:04Lovely.

13:06Oh, I got three of those.

13:07So, you know, we'll stock up on some of this kind of thing.

13:11Back up.

13:11Well, not the ketchup.

13:12We have plenty of that, but coconut oil.

13:15I mean, coconut milk, excuse me,

13:17that we use a lot for making curries,

13:20and as you can see, we go through it pretty quickly.

13:23I'm going to get a couple boxes of that.

13:24I feel like I could stock up more on that than I do,

13:27and definitely more on the tomato sauce too.

13:30So as we finish off some of those extra,

13:32we don't need as many crushed tomatoes as we have,

13:35then I'll rearrange shelves a little

13:38to stock up more on the stuff we go through really fast.

13:42Lots of salsa.

13:43This is her level of things.

13:45She's playing with the green chilies and the mushrooms.

13:48We happen to use the mushrooms more

13:50because we're putting them on our homemade pizzas,

13:52which is good.

13:53I did get in the habit while I was not feeling good

13:55of just taco Tuesdays, pizza Fridays.

13:58I was trying to do egg casseroles on Wednesdays,

14:01but it takes a lot of milk,

14:02and we didn't have a lot of milk.

14:03However, our chickens are late.

14:04We didn't have a lot of milk?

14:06We did.

14:06What a waste.

14:07We could have pounds of milk.

14:09I know, isn't it crazy?

14:10Do you think we should keep grocery challenging?

14:13Yeah, I think a little bit,

14:15I was thinking maybe take a month off,

14:17recover a little.

14:18Sure.

14:19Maybe, I don't know.

14:21Our chickens are laying good eggs

14:23when everybody's complaining about egg prices, you know.

14:26They're laying this.

14:27We have more daylight,

14:28so we're getting them often.

14:31Well, those last week,

14:33a lot of our eggs we would find frozen

14:34even if we checked a couple times a day.

14:36So the dogs got those.

14:38But we have been getting like 12 to 15 a lot a day.

14:42We eat all of that.

14:43And then we still have water glassed eggs left.

14:45So starting late summer,

14:47every time we had clean eggs,

14:48we put them in jars.

14:49And you can see this still goes deep back there

14:51that we would just put them in jars and water glass

14:54all the eggs that we would find.

14:56And we still have plenty of those.

14:57That one has a cracked one in there.

14:58But I still have been able to use the ones

15:01that had a cracked one in the jar.

15:03And yeah, so we're good on eggs.

15:06One thing we have plenty of.

15:08Let's check out our freezer situation.

15:10We used a lot of the briskets

15:12and ribs from this freezer,

15:14which is really great.

15:16We have a lot of ground beef down there still.

15:18And a lot of fat to process like tallow and lard.

15:22These are pizza crusts that I froze.

15:25But yeah, this is good.

15:27We ate to where we can see more of what we have.

15:30There's some frozen bananas,

15:31but most of this,

15:32and this is freshly ground flour

15:34that I just keep in the freezer.

15:36Yeast.

15:37But most of this is beef things.

15:39Our pork freezer does not look too much different.

15:42And then a friend of ours brought us more pork.

15:45Just gave us pork.

15:46Isn't that awesome?

15:47But our sourdough bread,

15:48there's not as much as there used to be.

15:50We ate about half of that of our storage of that.

15:53Free ground pork is amazing.

15:55They farm pigs and it's such a blessing to us.

15:58They were going to butcher another batch

16:00and they just had a lot of extra ground pork.

16:02They're like, would you guys eat it?

16:04Of course, we eat meat all the time.

16:06And it even tastes better when it's given to us.

16:10There's a little more pork in there.

16:11You can see this shelf was full of chicken thighs,

16:14I think, and we have eaten that down well.

16:17We still have some of our whole chickens in there.

16:20We only ate a couple of those this month.

16:21I was so busy.

16:22Hi, Bubba.

16:23Are you looking at what we got?

16:25Yeah.

16:26Otherwise, I don't know.

16:28Just the regulars.

16:29Okay, my fruit and veggie freezer here.

16:33You can see what I have a little better now,

16:35which is great.

16:36These are extra frozen vegetables.

16:38But these boxes are all the frozen veggies

16:41I get from Azure Standard.

16:42These are kale and spinach,

16:44little frozen bananas,

16:45a little frozen fruit someone had given us,

16:47some berries.

16:48But yeah, it's just easier to see here,

16:50which is good.

16:51I can see I have a couple of mixed vegetables.

16:53But we have some bags of veggies

16:56that we used to eat a lot more of,

16:58like cauli rice and broccoli,

17:01huge broccoli from Sam's Club.

17:03So we'll still keep eating through those.

17:06It's better now that I can see them better.

17:08There's some peas up there.

17:09And this one's pineapple.

17:11But these are just some protein balls

17:15that I make ahead of time for Friday breakfast.

17:17It says Friday breakfast on here.

17:18So everybody knows not to eat it

17:21before Friday breakfast.

17:22That drawer is full of salmon.

17:23But yeah, it's gross down there.

17:25I need to clean this freezer better more often.

17:28But I don't.

17:29I really need to do that this summer.

17:30There's more Friday breakfast.

17:32And we have eaten through some of our butter

17:34because of the cow situation.

17:37We did find these rolls of cream cheese that we had

17:40as we're unburying stuff.

17:42So that was good to find those.

17:44But yeah, all in all,

17:46we made a little dent in things over the month.

17:49But we certainly have plenty of food.

17:52It really is some of those convenience foods

17:54like the tortillas, sausages that we eat for breakfast

17:58and lunch meats and things like that

18:01that we buy in our grocery hauls

18:03that we went without this month,

18:05which is totally fine.

18:07But we don't buy enough to go for months.

18:10Sometimes we can get...

18:10We got through some of the month with lunch meat,

18:12but we ran out at some point.

18:14So those are things maybe one day

18:16we could stock up on a little more.

18:18But also it's fine if we don't have them.

18:20You know what I mean?

18:22In emergency situations or when we can't shop,

18:24we can just go without those things.

18:26Are you ready to go?

18:28Yep.

18:30Are you ready to go?

18:31Kind of.

18:34Are you ready to go?

18:36I'm ready to go and get a lollipop.

18:39What? That's not working outside.

18:42Hey, you look cute.

18:43But that coat...

18:45Is that big enough?

18:46I think you outgrew that.

18:50You have so many coats.

18:51She has been handed down a number of coats.

18:56She has a church coat and a snow coat

18:58and an animal print coat.

19:02Actually two animal print coats.

19:03Oh my goodness.

19:08We need to share your coats here.

19:11What kind of coat is that one?

19:14Snowy coat.

19:15Your snowy coat?

19:16Yeah.

19:17It's a cute one.

19:22Oh yeah, we should put snow pants on you.

19:32Bubble gum.

19:33Oh my goodness.

19:34You have a sweet tooth today.

19:37Whoa.

19:38Are you ready?

19:39Yeah.

19:39We need some gloves, but yes, almost.

19:42So cute.

19:44You look good.

19:46You're missing boots?

19:48Uh-oh.

19:48I'll go look for some.

19:50Mom, are we going to do cows?

19:53Yep, we're gonna go do cows.

19:55I didn't see dad cow, mom.

19:58The dad cow?

19:59You haven't seen it?

20:00I didn't see dad cow.

20:02Oh, I'll show you today.

20:03The dad cow's out there.

20:04He's big.

20:06Mom.

20:06I already do it outside.

20:08Yeah, we'll show you when we go outside.

20:11You want to see the dad and the babies and the two moms?

20:14Yeah.

20:17Come, have some boots.

20:23Mom, maybe go with my dad.

20:26Or with mom, because you can't big daddy.

20:30Uh-huh.

20:32Do you need help?

20:34These guys are playing already.

20:39We dressed up really warm just because we know we'll be outside for a long time,

20:42but it's not that.

20:43It's in the 30s, which feels so good.

20:46It's been below zero, like I said.

20:48And my grandma, my sweet grandma, she's called me almost every day this week

20:54to tell me what the temp will be and tell me not to let the kids play outside.

20:58I love that she thinks about us.

21:00When she hears that weather report on the news, she calls me.

21:02It's like, can't let them play outside today.

21:04Don't let them play outside.

21:05It's going to be negative 18.

21:08Like, okay, grandma, thank you for telling me.

21:12So yay, we're finally back out to play.

21:16What?

21:19You can't see?

21:22Oh, it is so bright.

21:23I know.

21:28Oh.

21:30We have the most amazing sledding hill right here off of our driveway.

21:36Well, is it the most amazing?

21:38Well, we have a better one that's down by the lake, but it's hard to climb back up.

21:42Oh, it's that steep.

21:44Gosh, you think someone's going to get hurt on that one over there?

21:47That one's wild.

21:50I don't think so.

21:51Probably not.

21:53Well, maybe Eli.

21:54We've got a little stuff we need to clean up here.

21:55Maybe Eli.

21:56He likes to stand up on it and slide down.

21:58Oh my gosh.

22:01He's lucky I haven't seen him do that.

22:11It's going to be a murky mess here real quick with all this warm weather.

22:16I have no idea why, but I just found this big wad of hair on the ground.

22:20It's like synthetic hair.

22:22Wow, that was quick.

22:25It looks so good.

22:26It reminds me of a video Bella and I were watching this week and laughing at together.

22:32It was, um...

22:37Are you making a snowman too?

22:42It was the police coming to the door of this lady,

22:45and they're like, um, we had a call about your trunk,

22:49and are you a hairstylist by any chance?

22:53We have to search your car.

22:55And there was hair sticking out like hanging out of the trunk of her car.

23:00She's like, that's my wig.

23:04It looks so bad, but it was so funny.

23:07Bella and I got a really good laugh on that one.

23:09No guys, just put this around.

23:12You guys built that so fast.

23:14Eli, I'm putting snow around your arm.

23:16Oh wow.

23:19I'll get more rocks in the mouth.

23:20Oh no.

23:21Oh yeah.

23:28Bella's in a play right now, so she's not around a lot.

23:30And Luka drove to Iowa this for the week.

23:34We're down a couple kids.

23:36The dogs are so happy that we're finally out to play.

23:48Oh you hooked it?

23:50Mom, you gotta take a couple pictures before it falls over.

23:52Dad got a couple, I think.

23:59Take a picture of all the kids, and the snow, and the snowman.

24:01No, don't worry, the dog's on the phone.

24:02The dog's right here, Peace.

24:04You have to take a picture of the snowman.

24:05Look at me, Peace.

24:06Look at daddy.

24:07I can't see you.

24:08I haven't gotten to see you in a while.

24:11Come in front of me over here.

24:12Say snowman.

24:16We're all loaded up on something here.

24:19Oh, and there's a truck.

24:20And the truck is full.

24:22We're by the cows, but Seth does not like the smell, so he's gonna go sled.

24:31Look at those babies, they're so big.

24:36That's where all our milk goes, right there.

24:44The next few days is going to the 50s and then 60s,

24:48which is so incredible in February.

24:52But it happens, like last year, I think it happened in January.

24:55The hardest month for me tends to be March, not to be negative,

25:00but because it starts feeling like spring,

25:03and it'll dump a bunch of snow and get really cold.

25:05But it won't get as cold as it was this last week, most likely.

25:09So I'm starting to see it differently.

25:12We love snow.

25:13We don't like drought.

25:14There's some things I never thought of before I moved to the country.

25:18Two things, actually.

25:20How much light is in a day.

25:22Never really cared about it, except when I went to work.

25:24I didn't like going to work in the dark, coming home in the dark.

25:28But other than that, I didn't really think about it that much.

25:32Doing outside chores, you think about it totally different.

25:35And then the other thing is drought.

25:37I would hear farmers in our church talk about it,

25:39and I would feel for them, pray for them.

25:42But it is nothing.

25:44Living on a property with a pond,

25:47seeing your ground with big cracks in it,

25:50I just feel a lot more for the drought, like the rain.

25:54I would probably feel the same with floods now.

25:57It's just so different when you're on land.

25:59Those two things.

26:02Of course, we paid attention to the temperatures and all that,

26:04but the light of day and how much rain we're getting,

26:10or moisture, is huge now.

26:14Woo!

26:17Wow, Pease!

26:23I'm going to give you the biggest push.

26:26Sus, watch out.

26:28Ready?

26:28Sus, watch out.

26:31Watch out.

26:32Move to the side.

26:38Do you want to go fast?

26:41They're all working together to get some water.

26:43Those tanks.

26:45Fill them up.

26:47Mom, look!

26:50That's creative.

27:00Number two.

27:08So we have this shed that we use to milk in.

27:11That's our milking stanchion.

27:14Actually, the friends that helped us build that,

27:16they just put this extra little piece of wood here in this post

27:20so that we could eventually hang a cattle panel right here.

27:23It's measured for the cattle panel, so we're just hanging it today.

27:26We didn't have any hooks in the wood.

27:30I don't know if you can see him.

27:31It's so dark from where I'm standing.

27:33But we actually need to put a few more hooks here.

27:35The cows haven't realized it, but this isn't hooked up either.

27:38It helped in the winter when the ground was frozen,

27:41so you kind of held it on the bottom.

27:42Yeah.

27:43Whoa!

27:44It's warmer.

27:45They think we have food.

27:47Yeah.

27:49Did you bring more corn?

27:53We bought these hooks at the hardware store,

27:56but look, he uses a hook to twist in a hook.

27:58That is so smart.

28:00I would never think of that.

28:04What do you think, Lenny?

28:06I can't figure out what we're doing.

28:11Corn is candy.

28:14All right, we hooked it up here.

28:15We hooked it up here.

28:16It can swing out.

28:18The only thing is we may need to cover it in chicken wire

28:21because I think they'll be able to nurse through that.

28:25We want them close to their moms

28:26because it helps with their anxiety in the night.

28:31But also, you don't want them to be able to milk

28:33and they nurse, rather, and they can.

28:37You know, there's some people who've never kept cows

28:39and never been around them that drink milk

28:42from the store and everything.

28:43They're going to say you're doing something really cruel right now.

28:46Just be prepared for that.

28:49It's just for a few hours and they can eat hay.

28:51They already do eat hay.

28:52We'll give them corn trees, a little.

28:55They'll have water and food in here.

28:56I don't know if we're ready to start tonight

28:58because we haven't really trained them to come to us with corn.

29:01So getting them in here is going to be the hardest part by far.

29:06We're well aware.

29:07And then if they just nurse all night through that hole.

29:12Micah's been helping too, but now we're doing the outside.

29:21Micah and Solo are going to finish up.

29:23I'm going to give you a good view, the good view I have.

29:26They're going to finish up filling all the cow water with the buckets,

29:30which is exhausting and we're all kind of tired.

29:33So we're not going to separate the calves tonight.

29:35I think they're going to nurse right through that panel anyway,

29:38but we'll try it one time without putting anything on the panel.

29:41I have a friend at church, the guy who helped us build the stanchion.

29:45I'm going to ask him tomorrow what he recommends us put.

29:48I don't know if chicken wire will be cut up their noses or whatever.

29:51I'll ask him for some advice so that if they do nurse through that, we know what to do next.

29:57Otherwise, tomorrow is church Sunday and the one thing that does change

30:04once we separate them is that we have to milk them right away in the morning

30:07so that we can reunite them and they're not separated too long.

30:11We'll give them food and water, but we don't want them apart too long.

30:14So I don't want to start that tomorrow morning.

30:17I have a super busy day tomorrow. I'll be gone all day

30:20and then Solo will be home in the afternoon, but he has a lot to do in the afternoons.

30:24So we'll try, I think, tomorrow night for the first time and see how it goes

30:29and then cover the panels with something if we need to.

30:32But yeah, this is a big step.

30:34If we can just get like three gallons or more from milking again,

30:39which we used to when the calves are younger.

30:42Like today we got one and a half gallons. That's not much.

30:45And that was after two days of not milking.

30:48So if we can go back to getting like three gallons or more,

30:52then we just don't need to even milk every day.

30:54We can just separate them on the night before the morning we want to milk

30:58and then if we get three, five gallons, something like that.

31:02That would be ideal. So we'll see how that goes.

31:04You know, we're just learning. This is a year of learning for us.

31:08And we have milked all through this cold winter.

31:12Knowing we can milk through the winter gives us confidence

31:16about having cows because that's the hardest part.

31:18Our friends of ours told us the hardest is January and February because of the cold

31:23and July because of the flies.

31:25Oh, I can't even imagine.

31:27I want to build a stanchion that's outside.

31:29They all left their stuff right in front of the door.

31:32Oh my gosh, if that isn't kids, I tell ya.

31:36It's me.

31:37All right, back inside.

31:39We did leftovers for dinner, my favorite kind of dinner,

31:42especially when I don't want to cook.

31:45Next up is bath time and then I'm gonna lay down and rest.

31:51Everyone's in such a good mood here because we haven't been outside for a long time

31:54and then to get to be outside for a long period of time is just wonderful.

31:59I don't know if you can tell, but the sun is just starting to set

32:03and it looks so beautiful in these trees.

32:05I got a gorgeous picture the other day I'll post here.

32:08Thank you guys so much for being here, for watching today.

32:11Don't forget to check out Blue Mean and be one of the first 100 people.

32:16It'll be linked in my description box below and we'll talk to you later.

32:19Bye.

32:29Bye.

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