OUR DREAMS FOR OUR LAND | PROPERTY TOUR

we thought we would walk around and kind of share with you guys some of our dreams save your savior baby it's not a full day unless you use some sort of power tool hey buddy we just walked to the like back corner of our property that's just disappointing well this is probably the best way to kick this vlog off danielle just broke my brand new 3d hunting deer what do you think about that you want to sleep here you can hold your weight just not mommy yay it's not real dear say dear look is he oh my gosh oh why you gotta do that he's dead this is why he can't have nice things he's dead now you think it's the kids nope i think we could fix this i think we need some caulk oh my god gorilla glue gorilla glue he tried to feed it you're gonna feed it you can give here a special treat all right while it's quiet here and our kids are not here which is the only time it's quiet here we thought we would walk around and kind of share with you guys some of our dreams for this place and this space a lot of people were really confused when we moved because if you've been following along with our family we built the last home we were in from the ground up and that was such a fun process and like we loved it so much and it suited our family at the time a lot of people were confused why we would be moving after just like building a home and being out for two years so i thought we'd share a little bit of that and kind of walk around our property and show you guys you have to use your imagination with us a little bit because we can't really show you but try to get you to visualize along with us what it's going to look like over time [Music] first things first i'm putting on what happened pinch my finger i can't talk good then you can't whatever that is pot john nice muck boots i've had these they're not like really designed for working outside but they are rain boots and the rubber they come up really high so i don't feel any of the itchy grass they kind of make me feel better about ticks they also help with briars you know like bramble and stuff so and poison ivy that's low to the ground so when we're traipsing through areas it just makes me feel a little more comfortable to have something worthy traipse worthy on my feet so that's the first step john do you want something better on your feet where are you going well you said something going on the creek you said somebody walking around we were gonna walk all around walk i don't need the boots to walk down to the creek all right if you get scratched by a briar then it's my fault and it's your fault okay patio situation we've got some stuff we brought from our other house i think i'd like to hang a swing honestly i'd love to like build in a barbecue versus our like double grill setup over here wouldn't it be nice to have like just something like an outdoor kitchen type situation yes maybe one day or build like a deck over there in that corner and like like a low just a wooden you know grilling station i also thought it'd be cool to put like a little pool like a stock tank pool or some sort of above ground pool with the deck around it right here but that's kind of close might be a flooding issue i'm not sure what the basement anyway backyard i just picture lots of like little bonfires out here hanging out we have some twinkle lights we're gonna put twinkle i said twinkle lights there bees these like lights that i want to put up okay so when you look out here we have like quite a bit of space immediately here is our septic field it's like right where i'm standing so we can't drive over this with anything like heavy you know like big tractor car anything like that because underneath it are septic lines you don't want to damage those very costly mistakes to do that so this is kind of a space we want protected the thing about septic is it filters your waste through the soil the soil acts like a filtration system and purifies all the minerals and whatnot so all of the waste especially when you eat a clean healthy diet it can act as a really great fertilizer so we are going to utilize this space for a garden we are going to plant and maybe do raised beds just because i think they're really pretty i don't think we necessarily need to as long as we're planting stuff that doesn't go too deep with roots i want to look out here and see beautiful raised garden beds and a trellis several trellises and then behind that a greenhouse there's a beach chasing me it's still coming after me ah it's still there it's still there he's trying to get him just kill it john just clap your hands on it why clap it save your save your baby save your baby clap your shoe oh it's right it's still right there right by the you're about to step on it it's a wasp y'all it's not a honeybee it's a wasp did you get it so proud of you that was that was a close one i can do trees don't do bees garden bed garden bed garden beds trellis trellis you know like with things growing up over it and then back there kind of where the wagon is actually maybe a little bit that way right here um a green house like a beautiful greenhouse with doors on the front and like little wreaths on it and the inside is pretty and i put all my cutesy things out there and start plants and grow things and it's just a little space i'm picturing there so garden stuff all out here close to the house so we don't have to travel far to harvest also so those pesky deer stay away from it but really to utilize this space the best way that we can and then greenhouse and then possibly like a static chicken coop which is just a chicken coop that like doesn't move um stays in one place maybe over here somewhere near it so that way we could use the it's called the deep litter method where you make the the bedding very deep and you just turn it over what that does is it allows you to feed your chickens scraps from your kitchen and they then create compost out of it so then you can take that compost from the coop use it right in the garden so that would be super cool to have our first steps for our chickens is to build a mini mobile coop or a chicken tractor and this would be something that has wheels that we can move from one area to the next that they go in at night and then we're gonna buy some electric netting so it's like a fence like a net fence that uses solar electricity the purpose of that keep the chickens in but mostly to keep predators out we obviously are surrounded by mountains and trees so foxes possums raccoons coyotes snakes those kinds of things skunks could be a risk to our chickens so the netting will really really help minimize predators until our dog's big enough to stay out with them and help and then she will be predator control that's what livestock guardian dogs are for they are working dogs they thrive outside they bond to whatever animals they are like shepherding like that's their flock basically the chickens we her flock any sheep we have would be her herd her herd was like you got it anyway that's kind of our plan for right here then we have this hill which there used to be just a path mowed down to the creek remember and it was all brushed on both sides and while we love cleaning up the brush it's kind of sad were you sad no i'm happy he's happy i was a little sad because the kids like i could look out the window and see them running down this you can kind of still see where it's green right here just all our little kids frolicking down the path to the creek so then i thought i wanted to have some sort of path i know what we could do we could plant an orchard so this hill as of right now we're still kind of watching the seasons and and the rain and the lighting to make sure where we're putting stuff is going to work that's like one of the most important things when you start a homestead even if you have half an acre is to kind of know your property know where the water flows know where the light hits and what gets shade and what doesn't and kind of learn that so that you know what to put where and what's going to do the best but tentatively we'd love right here going down to have an orchard with different fruit trees kind of on both sides so it does create that little path and then all of this behind us john you want to tell them what we're going to do all of that everything bambi's little forest right there we're taking it all down what what are we we are what are we doing i didn't think we're taking all that i think most of it some of the big trees we can leave i guess we don't even know what's in there so we don't even know it's really exploring and figuring out we know that let's go over and show them what we're working with hello old friend sorry about your leg kinda bad okay this right here is a rusted box spring mattress springs some sort of bed frame situation if you look through here there's like more metal something there's also this very charred piece of something there so what have happened was there was a barn where our house is now and i guess they tore the barn down like shoved everything back here another barn um jody sent me a picture from 2014 there was two buildings so there's one back like up here and there's another big one right here two barn it looks at least that's what it looked like so some sort of barn here and i think what they did is they tore it down shoved everything back here and then lit a match and just burned it and then whatever didn't burn was just left for all of this to grow up around and over so it's kind of a mess in there when we had our neighbor come and help us with the cutting down all the brush that he got that stuck in his tractor and was like well we're gonna have to pause on this area because i don't know what's in there uh it seems like there's a good amount of metal so he said maybe waiting until the fall when things start to die and you can see through it a little bit better would be wise so that's kind of the plan although i did bring the weed eater and i might hack out some of these weeds today just for funsies because it's not a full day unless you use some sort of power tool equipment and do something i just want to get it done so this will be i think the immediate plan is to clear the underbrush and see what kind of trees we're working with try to see through the trees maybe take some of them out these are big sycamore trees which that wood is really nice there's a bunch of these tulip trees those can grow like over 100 feet tall yeah they're like very fast-growing trees too they're great shade trees but not like that valuable as far as wood goes anyway there's like a lot of just random brush and stuff under it there's a lot of smaller trees we may be able to just sell or move maybe put some in the front yard but my goal is to see through at least the bottom so even if we leave some big trees here we want to kind of see more of our property uh one thing i'm excited about is this elderberry bush which i think i need to go ahead and harvest a bunch of these look like they're ready to go what was that cicada anyway elderberry you can make elderberry syrup they're really good for your immune system look it's all over here it's so cool so i think we're gonna harvest some of that it's been really fun to walk around the property and see what is naturally like just here already we have blackberries we have muscadine we have elderberry a lot of things you can use then there's a lot of other plants that have medicinal uses all around the property so that's really cool all right john tell them what you did over here what we did well well you mostly i just helped supplies i just climbed on john's shoulders on top of our car put up a uh go ahead get in it well we wanted to um i want to have a little swing for them anytime i've gone to like people's properties they have some land they always have this big swing and the kids just go like crazy high and i was always like man i want to do that but never got to as a kid so i want to make sure our kids could do that so i bought this i can't swing much or i get very like motion sick like i can't even swing but we good anyway it's fun it's a little breezy and the kids have been loving it all right picking back up on our tour of our property slash dream with us we've come down to the creek area this side has been largely like we haven't thought a whole lot about this yet so behind us you'll see like this is that from i showed you guys from the other side big pile of trees some stuff in it kind of i don't know it seems like there's a clearing in the middle i'm not really sure a couple thoughts here one fence some goats around it and let them go to town eating whatever they can reach because they will they'll eat all the brambles basically everything in their height then we'll really be able to see what's in there so that's probably at the top of the list of ideas we'll let you know because it would be the easiest way since there there are so many thorns i'm just having trouble imagining like how we'll actually clear it out without tate just taking it all down we could go in and just like hack down everything but we don't want to hack down everything so we want to clear underneath so we can kind of see what's happening figure out which trees we want to keep so we might throw some goats on there and we'll probably honestly end up clearing a lot around the outside leaving a few trees for shade this might be an area that we fence off and actually use for goats long term i'm not really sure yet i guess we'll have to see but we want our plants and few include a dairy cow we would love to have a dairy cow i love buying milk from our friend's farm and supporting them although i have a feeling in the years to come there will be no shortage of customers seeking out raw milk and the benefits of it and also being able to get quality organic milk without paying the astronomical prices at the grocery store anyway all that to say we want our own dairy cow we've talked about sheep maybe raising sheep i don't necessarily want like beef cattle but potentially like some sheep or something along those lines and that would be more of a farm situation where we would sell the wool potentially sell the meat i don't know there's a lot we still have there's a lot like our thoughts about are just baby thoughts just baby thoughts that need to grow and mature cute little japanese maple that's left we'll probably end up transplanting these to the front yard or somewhere yeah they're like ornamental trees they're really pretty it doesn't really need to be down here all by itself and all of them but down here i think we might put a play set for the kids shooting range target practice for fun whatever this would be a good area for it archery those kinds of activities down in this long stretch kind of tucked away y'all remember that video where i was like in the creek and cutting stuff and cleaning it up and making it beautiful we just walked to the like back corner of our property the creek there's a lot behind us that we would like to buy and we thought it was like hunting land you know not really used but i guess they've been logging it as of last week and we just walked back here to find that there's like trees down like the creek is not totally stopped up but it's definitely like it's getting stagnant because they've just knocked a bunch of like look at this mess and this is our property like the creek is completely our property so they cut down a tree right there on the other side of it technically not ours but the fact that they've just like let all this fall in here and blocked up the flow of the creek and like it's really frustrating i mean we've sweated our butts off and worked so hard in here to make it nice and clean and like take care of it and then that's just disappointing and even that john sorry but like even buying that they're leaving a mess yeah like they're not cleaning it up they're cutting down valuable timber and leaving a mess anyway that's disappointing and look kind of frustrating just because it's not your property like have some respect you know show a little bit of respect for and they probably don't know that we come down here literally every single day and that our kids play here but that's also like makes me glad when we've heard them working we've had like tell the kids to come up from the creek just in case and now i know exactly how close they have been other than that down here we don't have too many plans i would love to plant like hydrangeas or something along the creek bed because they grow in these beautiful like bushes almost like a hedge full of beautiful flowers and i think it'd be really pretty but we just want to keep this kind of like you know just this beautiful amazing space for the kids to come play and explore god's earth as he created it so that's what we're thinking here so that's pretty much it for right now as we get started it'll evolve and change and our visions and dreams for the place will probably grow i imagine yeah that's kind of what's in our immediate future what we're thinking hope you guys enjoy i hope you stay with us and enjoy the process alongside us watching what we build here how we make this into our own little i don't want to call it like a farm like a homestead mini farm murray farm thing yeah all right izzy say we love you say i love you can you say i love you hi see you guys [Music] we bye-bye [Music]