01x01 - Homestead Reborn

[bunniefuu]

INDY: If you've ever

dreamed of owning a farm,

come with me.

MAN: Things are living

and things are growing on the rooftop!

I'm Indy Officinalis,

I'm a farmer who loves

helping other farmers.

My passion for

farming started in my teens.

Working on a

homestead in North Carolina and

led me to urban farming in L.A.

I've worked on farms

from coast to coast,

but farming is hard work.

MAN: We planted about

ten variety of fruit trees and

they all died.

INDY: So, I'm traveling the

country to offer some hope.

Hi

WOMAN: Indy!

WOMAN 2: Oh, my gosh, Indy!

INDY: Join me as I transform

farms on rooftops,

in backyards, wharehouses

This is insane!

And even out on the ocean.

Farm rescue on a boat ♪

Along the way, we'll

get tips from some of my

expert farmer friends.

WOMAN: It's so awesome!

(high-pitched squealing)

Today I'm driving through the

Columbia River Gorge of

South West Washington.

I've come here to transfrom

the ten-acre homestead of

Grace and Will Lyons.

They've lived on the property

for two years and bought their

land from their neighbors.

Now Will and Grace and

trying to restore the farm

to its former glory.

With a new baby on the way and

Grace's health at risk,

it's important that I

help make their farm go from

struggling new venture

to thriving success.

GRACE: Hey!

WILL: How's it going?

INDY: So excited to

finally meet you both.

That was the most beautiful

drive I've ever taken.

WILL: Yeah, we ordered a

little snow up for you.

INDY: I appreciate it,

I appreciate it.

Looks like you're

farming for two.

GRACE: Yeah farming for two.

INDY: How far along are we?

GRACE: 36 weeks.

INDY: Wow.

Your chickens are

having some breakfast.

WILL: Yeah, that's the pig feed.

We're about to go do chores

if you wanna come help us.

INDY: Yes.

So excited to see everything.

WILL: Get outta here birdies.

Alright, this way.

Lead the way chicken.

INDY: Grace and Will's farm

definitely has potential,

but they're only beginning

their homesteading journey.

WILL: We've had this

property for two years.

GRACE: We're still

learning along the way.

WILL: Been a steep

learning curve at times.

GRACE: C'mon over here guys.

Let me feed you food.

INDY: The pigs decide

to have their uprising.

WILL: Come here pigs.

GRACE: Yep, shake a bucket,

they come runnin'.

INDY: My farm beginnings

also started on a homestead.

I worked on a homestead in

North Carolina for a number of

years and I learned so much.

I was constantly learning

from my mistakes.

I used to live with this

really terrible pig that

would charge you.

GRACE: Oh no.

(laughs).

INDY: So any time you'd

go out in the field,

I would always take a metal

trashcan lid and just kind of

use it to shield myself.

GRACE: Oh 100%.

We're swappin'

swine stories, Will.

INDY: How many pigs do

you guys have total?

WILL: We have six pigs.

GRACE: Actually one of

our pigs is pregnant.

I think we're gonna be

due around the same time.

So, she's like me, we've got

that pregnant waddle goin' on.

(laughs).

Will's been on the road for the

last ten years working and part

of settling down and starting

a family was keeping Will home.

WILL: The thought of losing a

large chunk of income is scary,

but being an absent

father is even worse.

GRACE: I was diagnosed with an

autoimmune disease six years

ago and it changed the

way that I saw food and

the way that I

lived essentially.

Having a homestead and growing

our own food became a mission

of mine to be able to

continue with good health.

I'm currently in remission

and I'm planning to keep

it that way.

INDY: So you guys

are homesteaders.

Is the idea to just kind of

try to keep everything as local

here to the farm as possible?

GRACE: Yeah, I mean our goal

here is to try to be as most

self-sustaining as possible.

INDY: Mm-hm.

When we think about

a closed system farm,

that's a farm that doesn't rely

heavily on outside resources.

Each element of the farm

contributes to the whole and

nothing is wasted.

In order to homestead,

you have to plan ahead,

especially in the winter

so that you know exactly when

to breed the animals,

when to plant seeds

and when to harvest.

Homesteading has come to

be known as a lifestyle of

self-sufficiency, but

the term is linked to a

painful part of America's past.

The Homestead Act of 1862

accelerated Western settlements,

granting American citizens

free land on which

to build and farm, and in

turn pushing indigenous people

off of their homeland.

It's important as homesteaders

for us to acknowledge that past

and move forward in a way

where we're growing food not

just for the betterment

of the planet,

but also for the

betterment of people.

WILL: We feel really

blessed on having what we have

and I feel an

obligation to keep this

little piece of land

alive and do whatever I can

for any of my neighbors

that wanna do the same.

This ground has had animals

on it for a long time and

they just kinda need

to be revitalized.

But I don't currently have

enough animals maybe to graze

all of this ground.

GRACE: One step at a time, man.

WILL: Yeah, I gotta go bigger!

(laughs).

INDY: There's a lot of

history on this land,

but you guys are creating

your own little family here,

starting your own history and

so as much as farming is an experiment,

this is kind of an experiment

that you can't afford to fail.

WILL: Everybody tells us

like it's not gonna work.

GRACE: Yeah, we

get a lotta that.

INDY: Really?

GRACE: People

telling us we're crazy,

"What are you thinking?"

INDY: Yeah, farming really is

all about the audacity to hope

and you guys seem

pretty audacious.

(laughs).

WILL: In some way I guess it feels a

little bit like a calling.

GRACE: You gotta believe that

it's gonna work out, you know.

INDY: Ten acres might

seem small for a farm,

but the Lyons have a lot

of pasture to graze.

And once the snow is gone the

ground will be covered in more

weeds that need

to be controlled.

Will wants healthy soil so that

he can eventually use that land

to grow more crops.

WILL: A lotta people

romanticize about movin' out

into the country,

gettin' some animals and

it is incredibly rewarding,

but it is also an

incredible amount of work.

Since we didn't buy a farm

that was in operation with

plans in place and

livestock and systems,

we've kind of been creating

this thing from the ground up

and that's not a terribly

efficient way to do things.

GRACE: It's so rewarding

building these relationships

with the animals

that we have here.

INDY: Which came first,

the pigs, the chickens or the cows?

GRACE: The cow came first.

INDY: Oh really?

GRACE: Will woke up

one morning and was like,

"Grace, I found a cow,"

and I was like,

"What? What do

you mean, a cow?"

Like, what are you thinking?

WILL: And I'm kind

of like one of those people that

goes all-in on

things I think.

GRACE: And he was like,

"No, the cow is really

like the start of the farm,

like this is how

we're gonna get started."

Will got a trailer, we went,

we met Trudy, we fell in love.

INDY: Aw.

GRACE: Brought her

home and once we were,

at that point we were like,

okay, I guess

we're goin' for this.

INDY: And you guys really

started from the bottom up,

starting with livestock

actually makes a lot more sense

because you're building your

soil before you even put a

single seed into the ground.

Pretty genius.

WILL: I don't know about that.

GRACE: Well don't tell him that,

oh my gosh.

(laughs).

WILL: See?

She thinks I'm a genius.

GRACE: Uh-huh. Sure genius.

INDY: Cows and other livestock that

feed on the land have so much to offer.

In addition to providing milk,

their manure adds nutrients to the

soil and makes the land healthier

and more fertile

for crop growth.

She's a lap dog.

GRACE: She loves you Will.

INDY: She really is a lap dog.

WILL: You gonna help me move this thing

over and then we can unroll it, I guess.

INDY: Yeah, definitely.

Later cows.

WILL: Later cows.

INDY: I'd love to

see the chickens.

GRACE: Oh these girls

are gonna be excited.

Hi ladies.

So all of these guys are layers,

all these gals.

INDY: Where are the chickens

normally hanging out?

WILL: The way our

chickens are currently,

they're in a coop right

next to our house and they

wreak havoc on everything.

Our food garden,

our flower gardens,

we have no way to control 'em,

they kinda run our lives.

GRACE: So last spring we

built this fence around the

garden to keep the chickens out.

INDY: Mm-hm.

GRACE: 'Cause the first year

when the chickens discovered

the garden it was game over.

INDY: It seems like the

chickens are the antagonists

to the farm.

WILL: The chickens,

I love 'em, but.

INDY: These chickens

are running rampant,

but they could be put to much

better use if Will and Grace

could just control them.

So how do you envision this

garden space looking this year?

What are the goals

for the garden?

GRACE: I think it'd be really

amazing to try to make some

baby food this year.

INDY: Oh great.

GRACE: Just because we have

such a short growing season

as you can tell.

Like, you know, we can

get snow up until April.

I haven't been able to like

really grow a second season,

like the fall harvest, I

haven't figured that one out.

How to start it

and when to start it.

It's like, I'm not a

master gardener by any means

but I wanna figure it out.

My biggest concern is if we

don't have our homestead and

farm up and running and

all the systems in place,

everything is gonna

completely fall to the wayside

when this baby comes.

INDY: The goal for the Lyons

is to have a full functioning

homestead and for both of

them to be able to stay at

home full time.

I think for that to work

there's a few areas that need

to be tightened up.

Winter is the best time

for me to get them set out

for springtime planting.

To do that I need to help

them figure out how to manage

the chickens effectively,

put all of that

underused pasture to use and

maximize the potential

for their garden.

With Grace's autoimmune

disease and a baby on the way,

all of this needs to be stress

free for the new parents to be.

I've got a few farms friends in

mind that I think can help and

I have some ideas about how to

repurpose some of this stuff

I've seen lying around the farm.

But their baby will

be here any day now,

so the clock is ticking.

Thank you guys for

an awesome day.

This was so much fun,

I have so many ideas.

GRACE: We're really excited.

WILL: Yeah, we're

excited for that.

We need ideas.

INDY: Awesome.

Alright, I'll see you guys soon.

GRACE: Awesome.

We'll see you,

thanks for coming out.

INDY: Yeah, take care.

WILL: See ya.

INDY: In every homestead

and on every farm,

you kind of start

out as a beginner,

but having a

community of farmers,

people you can talk to and

rely on as a network gives

you a little bit

more confidence.

It makes you realize that

you're not in this alone.

INDY: Hey.

MELISSA: Hi! Come on!

You made it!

INDY: So good to see you.

MELISSA: Girl, it's freezing,

let's go inside and warm up.

INDY: So cold.

MELISSA: Yes, yes.

INDY: I'm in

Rockport, Washington,

visiting fifth generation

homesteader Melissa Norris.

Melissa is an expert at

gardening and preserving food

for her family.

I'm hoping I can get some

inspiration for how to better

plan out the Lyon's

growing season and make

their homestead prosper.

How long have you been here?

MELISSA: So we've been here in

this house, on this property,

since 2006, but this is

property that my grandparents

bought in about the 1950s,

it's not their original

homestead when they

first came out here.

So, a long time.

INDY: I feel like most people

don't really, you know,

have this desire to follow

in their family's footsteps,

but you continued to want

to farm and homestead.

MELISSA: Yeah.

We like dove in head first

and really embraced the

homesteading movement and

producing our own food.

INDY: So that's why I wanted to

get your advice on how we can

help our my friend Grace

and her husband, Will.

Just to kind of get their farm

into a place where they aren't

expending all of their energy

and they're still enjoying some

of the perks of

being a homestead.

MELISSA: Yeah.

INDY: So Grace, she actually

has an autoimmune disease and

realized that if she didn't make

some kind of change through her diet,

that she wasn't going

to be around for her child and

for her family.

And now she's pregnant and with

her pregnancy and with her child coming,

she wants to keep

up her good health.

And as you know, a baby can.

MELISSA: A baby

changes everything.

INDY: Yes, yeah, baby

changes everything.

I know that for them it would

be incredible to be able to

extend their growing seasons.

MELISSA: You don't have to have

a bunch of expensive equipment

in order to seed start indoors.

Like, I do spring crops, like

the cooler weather crops which

actually have seed started now.

And then we do the main summer

garden and then I'm also

planting at the end of

summer for the fall garden.

So it means that you have

produce almost throughout the

year coming on.

INDY: It's like when you're thinking about

extending your growing season,

you're also extending

your harvesting season.

So you have to do something

with that extra produce.

Canning, fermentation and

freeze drying are important

ways to preserve

crops from the garden.

MELISSA: I have to say this

is one of my favorite spots.

INDY: So Melissa not only grows an

abundance of food in her garden,

she's able to store

it in various ways,

made to last year round.

That's amazing.

So you're kind of able

to plan meals for your

entire year just by what you

can in the summer?

MELISSA: Yeah.

INDY: That's incredible.

Being able to make it stretch

throughout the year I think is key,

especially when

you have a family.

I would love to know what

you're putting into your soil

to make such amazing

looking produce.

I wanna see your garden.

MELISSA: Yeah, let's go.

INDY: Yeah, awesome.

I realized from my time on the

homestead that being a part of

where you source your food is

one of the greatest things you

can do with your time and I

had so much more respect for

just a single tomato,

because I knew how much time,

how much care and how

much love I was putting into

all of my plants.

This soil feels great.

It's like so spongy.

MELISSA: Thank you.

We've been working really

hard on the soil health,

so it's so nice when someone

sees and appreciates that.

INDY: It's the off season

for Melissa's garden,

but I can tell she knows

all of the tricks to get the

most out of her soil.

MELISSA: This is

the berry patch.

So our autumn

bearing raspberries,

they start producing

fruit August, September,

October until we get

our really hard frost.

Then these ones start in

June for the raspberries.

So I have fresh raspberries

coming on all the way from

June through October.

INDY: So you're having berries

pretty much all year long.

MELISSA: Pretty

much all year long.

INDY: That's amazing.

I feel like that's the

key to homesteading.

Yeah.

Melissa has this gardening

thing down to a science.

She knows exactly how to

get berries all year long by

planting different species.

I can also see how rich

all her garden soil is,

but none of it would be

possible without fertilizer.

And for that, she

needs her chickens.

MELISSA: Oh the chickens

are excited to see us coming

because I have not let

them out yet for today.

Hi chicks.

Is there somebody new?

(laughs).

INDY: As soon as I walk

over to the chicken coop,

I realize it's unlike

any I've ever seen.

I love that you have this

chicken tractor on wheels.

MELISSA: The wheels are great.

So this is just nice because it

gives us both the protection of

the chicken tractor and

directing where I want the

manure for our pasture health,

but then I can also let 'em out.

So these were like off an old

broken-down riding lawnmower

that didn't work anymore.

So as long as the bearings are

good, like grab those wheels,

there are so many things you

can do with them on a homestead.

INDY: That's so great and then

it keeps it in that closed

system feeling where you're

just able to upcycle things that

you already have so you

can bring your chickens all

over the homestead.

They till things up with their

feet and then they add in their

chicken poop that, as

we noticed is so great.

Could I see this thing moving?

I wanna see it in action.

MELISSA: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

An ATV is a homesteader's

best friend.

INDY: Awesome.

This mobile chicken coop idea

could be a game-changer for

Will and Grace.

Wow, that's so perfect.

That makes moving your

chickens around so much easier.

It's so cool.

I love it.

No wonder Melissa's

crops are so abundant,

she can put the chickens

right where she wants them

to nurture the soil.

MELISSA: I always like to

make sure that I've got enough

manure for the springtime

planting and we're actually

seed starting those.

INDY: I love seed starting.

WILL: You love seed starting.

Well, yeah, let's

go check 'em out.

INDY: Melissa's homestead

runs like clockwork,

with everything perfectly

connected in a closed loop.

To best understand

how this all happens,

I went to see

where it all begins.

Oh wow.

INDY: It's warm in here.

MELISSA: Yes.

INDY: I love this.

MELISSA: So here are

all of the seed babies.

INDY: Oh, baby seedlets.

Melissa can show me the

best ways for Grace and Will

to get their garden

started indoors.

It's so simple.

Grow lights, a bit

of soil and seeds grown

in various containers.

What do you have growing?

MELISSA: Predominantly

all of these are the

cool weather crops.

INDY: Okay.

MELISSA: So I've

got Columbia cabbage,

Chinese cabbage which is great.

And then I've got early

broccoli over here,

cauliflower and some kale.

INDY: I know that you're

using full spectrum lights.

Could someone start these just

like in their windowsill at

home or could you use

just a regular light bulb that

you already have?

What do you recommend?

MELISSA: Yeah, I don't

recommend the windowsills

because we're starting

the seeds still in winter and

we don't have full

daylight hours yet.

INDY: Okay.

MELISSA: And you can get

just like regular shop lights.

You just really wanna

make sure that they are as

full spectrum as possible.

INDY: So you have some starting

trays but it looks like someone

could just use their empty

salad containers and pretty

much achieve the same concept.

MELISSA: These work really

nice when you're seed starting,

because once you've

gotten your soil moist and

then you've got

your seeds in there,

then you just close

this and it creates the

perfect greenhouse effect.

INDY: That makes so much sense.

When you're taking these little seeds

and you're watering them consistently,

then you become

really invested in their future.

MELISSA: Yeah.

INDY: I would love to have

Grace and Will start seeds at

this time of year too.

MELISSA: So I actually

have some carrot seed

INDY: Oh, my gosh!

MELISSA: And some

bean seed that we can send

to get them started.

We'll just put

some from each jar.

So there is carrot

seed for them.

INDY: Oh my gosh, thank you,

they are going to love these.

This will be perfect.

I think starting with carrots

is one of the most rewarding

veggies that you can grow.

MELISSA: Carrots pureed

up are a great baby food,

because they have a little bit

of natural sweetness to them,

but they're not as

sweet as a fruit.

And then these are

some of the black bean.

So these are an heirloom bean,

so it feels really,

really special to be able

to have this history with

these heirloom seeds.

INDY: It reminds me a lot of

one of the reasons that I got

into farming because when you

think about all of the cultures

that have passed on the

seeds of their heritage,

no matter the hardship that

wherever they were going they

were going to plant seeds.

They were going to

plant the future,

they were going

to put down roots.

MELISSA: I am very excited

to be able to pass that

on to another family.

INDY: Thank you so much for

sharing your homestead with me.

This was beautiful.

Everything is working

in such perfect harmony.

MELISSA: I'm so

glad I could help.

INDY: I think it's important

for us to go out and

communicate with one another

and teach people what we know.

That's really the

essence of farming,

the people behind it

helping one another.

Visiting Melissa has

been eye opening.

Finding ways to extend the

growing season to build a

homestead around renewable

and closed loop practices and,

best of all, to build

a mobile chicken coop.

I've learned a lot, but I still

have to figure out how to turn

the pasture at the

Lyon's farm into a healthy

field for planting.

That's a big task, so

my quest is not over.

I'm driving to the town of

Bellingham, Washington to meet

with Kay Clark and her

daughter-in-law Jordan.

Hey.

KAY: Hello.

INDY: Such a beautiful drive.

They've been running

their family homestead

Portage View Farm for 15 years.

JORDAN: We've got chores

to do, animals to feed, so.

INDY: I'm game.

JORDAN: Let's do it.

INDY: They strive for

self-sufficiency by growing

a lot of their own food

and raising their own meat.

KAY: This is a greenhouse

my husband built for me and

I call it my tomato house.

INDY: What varieties

of tomatoes?

KAY: Well, we grow

cherry and beefsteak, Romas.

You wanna go in?

INDY: Yeah, let's do it.

KAY: Okay.

Oh it's so toasty in here.

KAY: Isn't it nice?

INDY: I love it. I love it.

So your husband built this.

Did he come up with the plans?

KAY: Yes, he made this plan,

but these are all reclaimed

timbers from big pallets.

INDY: So this is a greenhouse

design that you could use from

reclaimed materials and

then just a few new things.

Wow.

JORDAN: And it just like adds

to the homestead essence.

(laughs).

INDY: Jordan and Kay are

super cool and they have a

really well working homestead.

Building a greenhouse is

an even more ambitious way

to extend the growing season

and help plants thrive in an

indoor setting

even when it's cold.

KAY: Alright, let's

go feed some animals.

INDY: Oh yay.

KAY: C'mon, nanny, c'mon!

Oh hi.

You want some food?

INDY: Oh yeah.

(laughs).

You're the cutest

little goaties.

You know what I have?

What breed of goats are these?

KAY: So these are are

Nigerian dwarf goats.

We can milk 'em.

INDY: Oh amazing.

KAY: And you can breed them

and sell 'em so it's kind of

you know being self-sustainable.

INDY: So are you

throwing their manure

straight into your compost?

KAY: Straight in.

INDY: Yeah.

KAY: Yeah, so every

time we clean a barn it goes

on the compost pile.

INDY: It's like Melissa said,

making the most out of manure

is a clever way to

double the productivity of

your farm animals.

Kay and Jordan get milk

and cheese from their goats,

but then it occurs to me.

Do you use these to graze?

KAY: When we had our big goats,

our Boer goats

they do a better job,

like bigger goats.

INDY: Okay.

KAY: And you need quite a few.

INDY: Maybe a different

type of goat would come in

handy as a way for the Lyon's

farm to graze their pastures.

So do you feel like you can

pretty much take care of these

goats here on your own

or do they require any kind

of extra care?

KAY: Pretty much and

my suggestion is try to

get a mentor.

INDY: Yeah, farmers

helping farmers.

KAY: Yes.

INDY: I love it.

I'm in love with these adorable

goats and they really could be

a key piece of the puzzle in

helping the Lyon's family farm.

I have so much to

tell Will and Grace.

But first Kay and Jordan said they have

one more surprise for me in the barn.

Oh. Oh my god.

(laughs).

KAY: Now this is a sight to see.

INDY: Oh my gosh.

KAY: Okay, this is a girl.

INDY: There's always

time for baby goats.

JORDAN: Aren't they so little?

INDY: They're like puppies! Ah.

How old are they?

KAY: Three days old.

INDY: So obviously these

baby goats are adorable,

but maybe on Grace and Will's

homestead I should look for

something a little bigger

that can eat more and like you

mentioned having some

sort of goat mentor,

just finding someone local

to them that can kind of teach

them the ways of the

goat would be really helpful.

KAY: Yes.

JORDAN: What about

Mary in Goldendale?

We could connect them and

she'd be a great guide into

getting goats and kind of learning the

different breeds and figuring

out which goat would

be best for them.

INDY: Wow.

Having some person like

your friend Mary who I could

introduce them to

would be great.

For the beginner homesteader

having a low maintenance

animal is key.

Goats are incredibly adorable,

but they also serve a purpose.

Goats can make the perfect

addition to any homestead that

has extra room that

they need grazed and wants a

cute cuddly companion.

This has been so much fun.

KAY: Yes, thank you for coming.

INDY: Of course,

thanks for having me.

I've gotten some invaluable

tips and a few big surprises

from these other farms.

For Will and Grace homesteading

is a new way of life and the

goal is to keep their

family together.

If I can help them make

these improvements,

Will can leave behind his life

on the road and stay home with

his family and Grace

can maintain her health.

I really hope they're

open to these changes.

WILL: Oh hey, Indy.

INDY: Hey.

GRACE: Oh Indy, hi.

INDY: I have something so exciting for

you guys in the barn.

WILL: Oh really? In our barn?

INDY: Yeah.

INDY: Yeah, throw on

your jackets and let's go

check it out.

GRACE: Okay.

WILL: Alright.

GRACE: Yeah, let's do it.

To the barn.

INDY: It's awesome.

WILL: Lead the way, you

got your jacket there Gracie.

GRACE: Yeah, it takes me a

minute to zip it but I got it.

WILL: Tighter every day.

(laughs).

GRACE: It really does

feel tighter today.

WILL: Hi pigs.

What have you seen?

INDY: Don't tell 'em

anything, pigs.

(laughs).

You guys are gonna love this.

Stay right there.

Stay right there.

WILL: Okay.

GRACE: Okay.

WILL: What's going on?

GRACE: I don't know.

WILL: I can't see in there.

GRACE: What is this?

WILL: I don't know.

Look, Gracie.

GRACE: Oh my gosh.

WILL: That's a goat.

GRACE: What?

Are you serious?

INDY: Yes. Yes.

WILL: She got my goat.

GRACE: Hi.

WILL: Hi goat. Hi goat.

GRACE: There's more?

INDY: There's more.

WILL: Sorry goats.

Need to mellow.

Hi goats.

GRACE: Amazing.

INDY: And this is

my friend, Mary.

She's a local goat farmer.

WILL: Hi Mary. Really good to meet you.

MARY: Hi. Good to meet you.

GRACE: Hi Mary,

nice to meet you.

MARY: Congratulations

on your Kikos.

(laughs).

GRACE: Thank you,

they're Kiko goats.

WILL: I have been researching

Kiko goats a little bit.

MARY: The advantage of the Kikos is that they

are really low maintenance,

you know, they're really

bred for managing on pasture

without any extra input.

INDY: These goats are gonna

be working for you guys.

WILL: Yeah, I know,

that's great.

INDY: They're just

what you guys need.

They're gonna graze and

they're gonna turn that fodder

straight into fertilizer.

Using manure as fertilizer

is a great way to recycle the

homestead resources

and add valuable nutrients

back into the soil.

WILL: We have a lot of

chicory around here.

MARY: Oh they love that.

INDY: Grazing livestock

feed on grass, plants,

brush and sometimes

tree branches.

When the animals complete their

digestion the nitrogen from their manure,

a key component of fertilizer

goes right back into the soil.

They're pretty much

gonna produce pellet gold

for you guys.

Some people put it straight

into the garden but we can

throw it into your compost

pile and start making some of.

WILL: It's drier, right.

INDY: Yeah, it's a lot drier.

Compost piles produce naturally

occurring micro organisms

that break down the

waste and produce heat.

The high temperatures prevent

parasite eggs from hatching in

the fertilizer and reduces

the problem of weed seeds from

animals that feed off the brush.

So what do you guys think?

Do you like the goats?

WILL: What do you think?

GRACE: I think

it's a great idea.

WILL: You think

it's a good idea?

GRACE: Yeah.

WILL: You like goats?

GRACE: Oh yeah.

WILL: Okay, yeah, she's in.

I was kind of resistant at

first because they seem like

a lotta work.

You know, sometimes you

just need a little extra help

to jump off the ledge.

She's gonna fit right in.

She's got my style already.

INDY: She's already

made herself at home.

GRACE: In we go, yeah.

WILL: Here you go, yeah.

Thanks, Mary.

Thank you so much.

MARY: If you need anything

at all, you have my email.

WILL: I'll be in touch.

MARY: Just give me a call.

GRACE: Thanks, Mary.

INDY: These goats could really

be the key to revitalizing all

that pasture and now

Will and Grace have a

nearby goat mentor, Mary.

But goats tend to do whatever

they want so getting them to

fulfill their new role is

another thing all together.

GRACE: I actually might

go inside and warm up for

a little bit.

WILL: Okay.

INDY: Sounds good.

GRACE: Awesome.

WILL: Yeah.

INDY: I actually have

another surprise for you.

WILL: Another one?

INDY: Yeah.

I just have a question about

something in the bone yard.

WILL: Okay.

INDY: Yeah.

Melissa said to always take advantage of

spare wheels with good bearings.

Last time I was here Will

pointed out an area of the farm

he called the bone yard,

that's full of unused equipment.

There's something I remember

seeing there that I think could

really come in handy.

The friend's farm

that I was at,

they had a great

portable chicken coop.

WILL: Uh-huh.

INDY: What do you think

about turning this trailer into

a mobile chicken coop?

WILL: Ah, that's a good idea.

INDY: Yeah. I mean

it's a great way that you can

get your chickens

out into the parts of your farm

that you actually

want them in instead of

hoppin' around

and hanging out wherever.

WILL: Yeah.

INDY: Chickens have these

amazing little feet that have

claws on them that are perfect

for tilling your land for you.

So if you put chickens into

a movable chicken coop,

you can control what areas

of your land that they till.

WILL: This is a good idea.

It'll be a good size,

you could probably fit a lot

of birds in here.

INDY: Definitely. Definitely.

And then does that truck work?

Maybe we could

WILL: Sometimes.

INDY: Alright, maybe we

could hitch the trailer up and

just bring it over to

the lumber that I got.

WILL: You're a

mover and a shaker.

INDY: Yeah.

WILL: Alright, yeah.

There we go.

Cross your fingers!

(ignition sputters)

She's old.

(ignition sputters)

(engine starts)

INDY: Hey.

WILL: Yeah. Yah.

INDY: Sounds good.

WILL: There we go.

INDY: We can construct

something based on the

chicken tractor I

saw at Melissa's farm,

but sturdier for the winter.

I've never built one before,

but homesteading is all

about improvising innovation and

making use of the

resources at hand.

I was thinking we could

take some of that wood and

start building out the framing

for the mobile chicken coop.

we're gonna staple down

some mesh to the bottom

so that we can have the

poop just coming straight out

of the chicken coop.

a lot less work for you

and a lot more fertilizer

for the garden.

WILL: Okay.

So it can just go on the ground.

INDY: Yeah.

Sweet, you wanna help me get

some of this wood unloaded?

WILL: I would love to.

I don't really know

where these are gonna go.

So, let's just, uh,

yeah, just

I don't really know.

You know, some people are

like really ambitious and

able to build a lot of stuff.

INDY: Right.

GREG: Hey Will, how's it goin'?

WILL: Greg just

lives up the road,

I'm sure he was curious about

what's going on down here.

What's happening Greg?

My neighbor Greg has a

real knack for stopping by.

He loves to just

hang out and talk.

He helps me out a lot.

GREG: What are you guys doing?

WILL: We're gonna build a

chicken coop on this trailer.

GREG: Well, alright,

do you guys have a plan?

INDY: We have a lose plan,

we have a loose plan,

but we could use your expertize

if you're willing to help.

GREG: What are you thinkin'?

WILL: Indy's

seen this in action.

INDY: So we're thinking of

just framing out the bottom

with some of these

pieces of wood.

We have some plywood for

the sides and we can build

a house shaped shelter

for the chickens,

sturdy enough to withstand

the brutal winters.

GREG: And then cover it

with plastic or tarp?

INDY: Yeah tarp, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, we'd love your help.

GREG: You're gonna

need somethin' to put your,

to screw your panels on.

WILL: Yeah.

GREG: And we also

need to make boxes.

Well, again once you get

something going there you could

do somethin' like this.

WILL: Yeah, exactly.

INDY: Oh that looks nice.

GREG: On the end build

yourself a deck comin' across.

WILL: Uh-huh.

GREG: Your boxes here.

WILL: It's been such a blessing

to kind of move in somewhere

and have built-in neighbors

that have become family.

INDY: A plan is kind of

coming together and well,

Greg kind of has a plan

coming together for this.

GREG: I think we can

make it all work.

INDY: Will's neighbor Greg

has lived and worked on a farm

for decades and has a

wealth of experience and

knowledge to pass on.

He's better equipped

than I am to help Will build

the chicken coop.

I'll leave them to it.

Besides, I can't wait to

share with Grace the gifts

from Melissa's homestead.

I brought a few seeds

from my friend's farm.

So I thought that these would

all be perfect for extending

your growing season.

GRACE: Oh that's excellent.

INDY: Timing is everything,

especially when it comes to

extending the life of a garden.

For an early harvest

seeding can start indoors

while it's still cold out.

Melissa's seeds will go

directly into the Lyon's garden

but we're going to start some

cooler weather crops right now.

Having a garden can help

Grace maintain a healthy diet

and try to keep her

autoimmune disease at bay.

Since you have lights

and water and soil,

we can just start these right

here at your kitchen table.

GRACE: Amazing.

INDY: Yeah, I don't

think that growing your own food

has to be this big

complicated thing.

You don't have to have

acres and acres of land,

all you need is soil,

some kind of container and the

desire to grow your own food.

GREG: We need a big magnet

to pick up the debris.

WILL: Or a bucket.

GREG: In the old days

when you had big old speakers

in your car.

WILL: Oh yeah.

GREG: And then those

speakers get all blown out.

WILL: What kinda music

were you listenin' to that was

blowin' your speakers out, Greg?

GREG: Back then?

WILL: Yeah.

GREG: Probably a little Hendrix.

(laughs).

INDY: Do you have

the pre-baby jitters?

I mean this is your first kid.

GRACE: I'm not feeling

too nervous yet.

I'm sure that once he gets here I'm gonna

have a whole different

a whole different

set of emotions.

But right now I'm feelin'

pretty good about it.

As scary as it is to kind of go against the

norm of having that steady job,

having security,

financial security.

I've got a lot of faith in

Will and a lot of faith in us.

INDY: That's beautiful.

I have so much faith

in your farm too.

GRACE: Thanks.

WILL: Hi. Pretty good.

GRACE: How'd it go?

Greg and I were just out

there, you know, workin'.

(laughs).

You know how Greg and I work.

GRACE: Yeah, sometimes

it's more play than work.

WILL: What are you guys doin'?

GRACE: We've been planting.

WILL: Great.

INDY: So we've been talking about

extending your growing season.

WILL: Yeah.

INDY: I have another surprise.

So this is a gift from Jordan

and Kay at Portage View Farms.

Plans for a greenhouse.

WILL: Ooh.

Nice.

GRACE: Oh my gosh.

WILL: You've got good friends.

INDY: Well, they're

your friends now too.

WILL: Good friends. Cool.

GRACE: Oh amazing.

I've been wanting a

greenhouse since we came here.

INDY: I've done my best to set

up Will and Grace for success.

The rest is up to them.

With the baby

coming any day now,

bigger projects like the

greenhouse might have to wait.

Hopefully Greg was able to help

Will get a head start on that

mobile coop.

without that the chickens

will continue to wreak havoc.

The goats should improve

the pasture for new crops.

They already have

a fenced in area,

but they're also a huge

added responsibility.

That's a lot of kids to take care of on

top of their own child,

but Grace's health and

their livelihood is at stake.

GRACE: There's gonna be a lot

goin' on when you come back.

INDY: There's gonna be babies,

there's gonna be

goats out in the pasture.

I'm going to come back in a

couple of months and I hope to

see the Lyon's

homestead flourishing.

Whether our changes will work

out or not, time will tell.

INDY: It's been over two months

since I visited Grace and Will

and I'm excited and nervous

about what I'm going to see

when I visit their homestead.

A lot is riding on them being able to make

a living off their land,

including Grace's health.

I left them with some

helpful resources,

but their first child was well

on its way and as homesteader

Melissa said, a baby

changes everything.

Oh my gosh!

GRACE: Hi Indy.

INDY: Hi. Who is this?

GRACE: This is Andrew.

INDY: Hi Andrew.

You're so cute.

And hi guys, it's

so good to see you.

WILL: Hi, good to see you.

GRACE: It's so good

to see you too.

INDY: This is beautiful.

It's so warm.

How old is he now?

GRACE: He's nine weeks.

INDY: What?

And then the pigs were

pregnant too last time.

WILL: Uh-huh, yeah,

we got piglets also.

Life is blooming around here.

INDY: A lot's changed since I

visited Will and Grace a few

months ago and it's

not just the weather.

GRACE: Hi piglets.

INDY: They now have

quite a full house.

WILL: We have a

nine week old son,

we've got five piglets,

goats, 30 chickens,

two cows, three cats and a dog.

GRACE: It's been a very,

very exciting fun spring.

INDY: So far so good.

Baby Andrew is beautiful.

The piglets are

thriving and healthy,

but what about

those troublemakers?

There's one chicken where

are the rest of the chickens?

I feel like they were

everywhere last time I was here.

GRACE: Well we've got

a surprise for you.

WILL: Well here you go.

INDY: Oh my gosh,

this is awesome.

GRACE: The chickens are

in their chicken tractor.

INDY: No, way.

GRACE: Yeah.

WILL: Can't miss it.

INDY: This is luxurious.

WILL: It's actually

a chicken mansion.

INDY: Yeah.

(laughs).

GRACE: Before Indy showed up,

our chickens were

a little chaotic.

They were in my gardens,

they were in my flower beds,

they were on my front porch.

INDY: It's working out.

WILL: Yeah.

INDY: The mobile

chicken coop went

above and beyond expectations.

Now the chickens movement

can be guided for maximum

impact on the farm.

WILL: So I found this thing,

you pop this up and

their eggs come out.

This door is an old door I had,

the roosting bars

are an old metal frame

that a friend gave me.

I got this chicken wire

that you got for me and

put that down and the

chickens can walk on it.

You know, it's got

plastic coated so it doesn't

cut their feet up.

INDY: Right.

WILL: And all the

poop goes through.

We're really excited about it.

You know, this is

gonna help us a lot.

INDY: Will is taking me out

on a trip to the pasture with

the coop so the chickens

can till more of the land.

Nice little vacation

for the chickens.

WILL: Yeah.

(laughs).

INDY: But then I notice

something in the distance that

I wasn't quite expecting.

It looks like you

have a lot more goats than

I remember bringing.

WILL: I do.

You kinda opened the

floodgates on goats.

I got 18 more goats

INDY: Wow. That's amazing.

WILL: Since you were here last.

Yeah.

As long as we've lived here

I've been kinda hell bent on

this cow idea.

Since Indy showed up and

brought us a couple of goats

what I've realized is that the

goats and sheep are probably a

better fit for our program.

You know, already seeing the

benefits that they're providing

to me right now kinda

reaffirms that decision.

These goats kinda came about

because the ones I got from

you, people heard about it

and then they started sayin',

"Hey, can you bring your goats

over to eat my blackberries."

INDY: Oh wow.

Will isn't just using the

goats on his own land.

He's lending them out

to other farms that need

to help reduce their brush.

It helps the land and

helps prevent fires.

Now you're a traveling goat guy.

It's also a great way for

the Lyons to supplement their

income and make a living off

the farm so Will can stay home.

They look happy,

they look healthy.

WILL: Yeah.

INDY: And most importantly they're

clearing this field for you.

WILL: And soon they'll be

doin' a good job for a lot of

other people around here too.

INDY: Yeah.

Should we check on

Grace and Andrew?

WILL: Yeah, let's

go check on them.

INDY: Grace had really

hoped to extend her growing

season this year.

having fresh vegetables

from the garden is an essential

element to keeping up her

health and she wanted to make

her own baby food.

GRACE: He is actually a really

great little garden buddy.

INDY: Aw.

WILL: He can be out here in the stroller

and just kinda rockin' him,

once he goes to sleep

you can work for a little bit.

GRACE: The spring

has been so cold.

INDY: Even with

a brand new baby,

Grace managed to

stick with the plan,

brave the cold

and get her garden started

as early as possible.

Wow, so you're not past

your last frost date yet?

GRACE: No.

I mean we are normally,

but this has been such

an unusually cold.

WILL: Yeah, we had

frost last night.

INDY: Wow, so you have all your cold

hardy stuff out here.

Is that rainbow chard?

GRACE: Yeah, so we've got

some chard here and then some

lettuces, peas and spinach.

The good thing about eating

all this stuff and because I am

breastfeeding

eating leafy greens,

'cause if I eat those he

gets all that nutrient.

INDY: Exactly. That's so true.

GRACE: Also, if I did purée

some dark leafy greens with

some pear and apple or

banana and then canned that,

then he could have some

good baby food for when he

is ready for it.

INDY: I'm like really

impressed that you've made

time to be out here at all.

GRACE: We're tryin',

and that's part of the

learning curve of this.

Indy's been a huge change for

us and I'm really excited that

we had the opportunity to

meet her and she came here and

gave us the opportunity to grow.

INDY: This has been awesome,

thank you for

bringing me into the farm and

I'm really impressed

with what you guys have done

since I've been done.

GRACE: Aw, thanks.

WILL: Thanks for coming.

INDY: I'm really in awe of

their commitment to take care

of the land and in

growing their own food.

And one of the biggest rewards

of getting to know them is

knowing that in the future

Andrew will be doing the same

work that they're doing.

I just hope that they have some

time to share some of their

experience with other folks,

so that everyone knows that

homesteading still has an

important role in our community.