Brian your our hero. Just discovered your next level gardening channel and this channel. We are hooked. Please keep up this channel. Love your way of cooking bacon!!! We will be cooking it like you do from now on. Thanks soooo much for you sharing!!❤❤
Welcome to our world! I have been following the CA weather and was surprised to see you got the snow. I'm a transplant from the La Crescenta (LA) to Bend Oregon. It is snowing as I sit here wanting so much to see our spring break out. I have to tell you how much I have enjoyed seeing the move to your new home and following the garden plans and progress. Hang in there!! You all need the rain sooooo bad but could do without the hail. The coop is adorable.
Hello Brian, I wanted to say Hello and tell you that I love Both of your Channels, I recently came across them and have been binge watching them to catch up. I have learned show much from them and look forward to seeing future ones. You are very creative with your gardening and give me inspiration. God bless you and your Family. "Never give up on your Journey" That is a great way to make bacon, I will have to try That.
Great move with the sandbags, I'm sure your neighbor appreciates that! We have relatives in Ranco that sent us pics oflots of snow,... at leat you didn't get that, too. Gotta admit I'm surprised about the crab apple tree. We were given a Fuji Apple tree years ago, only to discover years later, after much frustration of no apples, that it was really a Crab Apple tree. All it did was feed the raccoons, squirrels, and other rodents.
We’re north of you in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. Mid morning we had snow flurries, and I’m talking big fat flakes of snow! There was enough snow for our neighbor kids to build a snowman. First time I’ve seen that. Worried about my overwintering peppers.
Oh wow.. kinda looks like Canada.. lol.. Mind you, I pray your gardens All bounce back, because omg!! You have put in soooooo much work to get where your new property is now. I'd hate to see you loose what u have done.. Good luck.. (to all of you!!) 😍
I live in Illinois and I have never seen that much hail. 😳. On the bright side, with that much rain all at once you found areas that still need improvement. Praying you can get it taken care of quickly.
I've been following your other channel for a couple of years now. Finally, I visited this channel and love it. You'll have been in drought for so long. Now have reverse, careful what you wish for. I'm in Coastal SC and we tend to get those flooding rains often in spring. My neighbors and I joke about lake front property in yards and compare how high water is.
I’m really enjoying your homesteading videos. All the ups and downs. Weather in particular and just decision making. Praying all is doing better with the weather. I’ve been trying to keep an eye on it. At least y’all are getting some rain. Mississippi gal here.
Try putting full strips of bacon on a broiler pan and bake at 425° for about 10-15 min. No splattering. All the grease is in bottom of broiler pan and the bacon is perfect!
David Austin roses are wonderful! I planted nine of them, Queen of Sweden and Desdemona. They were gorgeous this first year and are already leafing out for the coming season. Have you ever cooked your bacon on parchment in the oven? I love cooking it that way. Place is coming together nicely....enjoy the couple rain days, work will soon be in full force.
I’m a Master Gardener in 2 states and 3 counties. You may have to French drain the coup but, knowing you, a rain garden might also work. You can email me about particulars. Love both channels and EVERYTHING you’re doing and sharing. You might also consider a feng shui garden just for something new which you are really good at. ❤️
Thanks for the bacon tip! I'll have to give this a try. I make my bacon in the oven on a rack, on a baking sheet, whole sliced. After the bacon is done I let the bacon drippings cool off then spoon into a jar.
We are carnivore/keto and it has been a game changer...health changer..and we are in our late 60s... Was thinking about your area as we hear about how the weather has just clobbered CA...
Heat oven to 400 degrees, place parchment paper on a cookie sheet, place bacon strips evenly on cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Perfectly cooked bacon.
I lay my bacon on the oven pan that comes with the oven, it has slats so grease goes below to catch it. I place in oven about 425 less babysitting, cook tell done, drain grease when cool enough to handle pan. Nancy from nebraska
Brian, your kitchen must have smelled amazing on such a cold rainy day. It always makes me want to cook bread!!! We are still discovering the wild things the weather can do to your property after 35 years. The extremes in the weather patterns and rain fall is unbelievable. Keep up the good work. Cheers, Muffy from Oz,
You might be able to put some half bricks glued down just upstream of that drain spaced just right so the water will go thru and catch the debris flowing down with the rain, garden looks great, hard work is paying off.
I live in Rialto, CA zone 10a. We had snow today! I'd say about 3-4 inches at least! AND... it snowed at about 10:30-11:00 am... it's 5:15 pm and it still hasn't all melted. There's at least an inch still left on the ground. Talk about weird! 😱
My comment is about making the bacon. There is another simple way to make it; it takes about the same amount of time, and you don't have to babysit it. Heat your oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Lay you bacon slices on it. Put it in the oven for 15 minutes; then check to see if it is done to your liking. Sometimes I turn it and bake a little longer, especially if it is thick cut bacon. Then you can remove the bacon to paper towels, pour you bacon fat into a container, or strain it if need be. Lift the parchment off the sheet and dispose of it. Easy clean up! You may have to clean the oven more often, though. 😔
Horrid weather Brian worse if your not used to it, hope it passes quickly and everything is ok 🥰 microwave bacon nooooo the smell 🤮 lovely to see Emily 😊
I bake my bacon on a rack. 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I hate having to stand around a pot/pan. Once the pan cools off, I can collect the bacon fat for later use.
This weather system is crazy. We got 8 inches of snow on Friday. We are in the foothills between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. We have had fun sledding playing in the snow the last two days. Getting ready for the next storm.
Oh my gosh. I did laugh! I’m from Southern California. Lived in Agua Dulce. We did get rain and sometime light dust of snow. I was worried about your chickens. Maybe put in some French drains behind the cottage. I’m now in Arkansas and live in a subdivision but on a hill. We had to put drains in. The back yard especially because the rain just went from yard to yard. Unfortunately we had a lot more snow in the last couple of years for my liking. Just wanted to say I loved the video. Blessing❤️🌺
Watching you walk around at night in your robe, I do think it's very cool that you got an entire dumping of that "slush puppy" drink ice!! I would have done the exact same thing! I'm sick of snow. I'm over here in Ohio. I'd much rather have the occasional novelty of it all! Can't wait to move back down south and start my Homestead. I'll be around my family again and hopefully... rarely... see this mess 😂
I love what you're going to do with the berm, pond and wildflowers, can't wait to see that! So glad you're getting into fig trees! Last year we bought a young fig sapling and planted it here in the great white north (it was -13 Celsius during the day going down to -21 tonight, so yes, I laughed at your hail) and we have our little fig tree all wrapped up for the winter and hoping it survives. Looking forward to your upcoming videos!
Thanks Brian for the great tip on bacon! Sorry for the bad weather there. Hopefully all will be ok and dry soon. We sure are getting it in the Midwest also. Very interested about the blueberries in a pot and watching more about the fig trees !
Love your place Brian. It looks so homey and fill of promise. That's a nice place to grow old. I especially love the chicken cottage. Just looking at it is peaceful to me. Thanks for sharing with us a d giving us these tours. Love it.
Thank you for the tip on cooking bacon! I always cook mine in a tall pot to reduce splatter but I have just been cutting in two and cooking in a single layer and it takes forever to get the whole pound cooked. I will definitely try your method. We have always cooked with bacon grease, nothing better!
Be safe during your very unusual weather. Get your chickens to a dry structure or they will get sick & could die. A cage in the garage would be wonderful & a heat lamp so they don’t chill. They can’t remain in wet conditions.
Okay - you got a LOT happening. I am very intrigued to see the blueberries in container vids. And no, that's not all I got from today but THAT is a huge nugget for me. Thank you.
Bacon grease is great for starting fires too. Blackberries are terrible, very invasive here in Oregon. I have been fighting them for years, it's a bloody endeavor.
That hail was crazy. In Northern California we have snow too but only seen on the mountains so far, I hope those snow does good things for our California summer.
Enjoy watching your youtube channel very much. As far as bacon I don't save my bacon grease and I use my air fryer to cook the bacon. I put the bacon strips in the air fryer. I cook the bacon on the preheat setting which is 5 minutes at 400 degrees. When the buzzer sounds and it says add food the bacon is done. I put it on paper towels and blot all the surface grease. Perfect bacon and so easy to cook.
I’m in Michigan and I don’t like hail either lol. However, I think when people tell you not to complain about your much needed rain it’s because all other times we’ve had to listen to people piss and moan because of no rain. This has to be helping your water table and I’m sure the state will get back to dry and hot fast enough. Your new building looks great (your chicken coop, right). Really nice.
Just a small FYI you can slip and bust it on those hail stones BE careful. I will be looking forward to the blueberry lessons. I tried to grow two last year and one is still alive I think. I would really like to add to them and make some healthy bushes. Thanks for the water view. I sure hope those chickens have a roof.
I made eggs and bacon this morning for my family. I've cooked bacon like that before when I've gone camping. I didn't do that this morning and made a splatter mess all over my stove. I'll try that at home next time :D I live in Los Angeles and it's been insane here with all the rain as well. Thanks for sharing your last few days with us!
Disagree with you on the 80's microwave bacon trays. Got the one my childhood from my parents, cooks bacon perfect and it's flat not curled, and all the grease drains into the catch basin for us to put in our bacon fat jar. Yes, that is a lot of hail. We get dumped on like that every 3 to 4 years out here in South Carolina, Zone 8a. It's just when the golf ball sized hail comes down that it gets scary. Enjoyed the video and good luck on building up berms to help redirect the water to help your neighbor.
Speaking of white stuff coming down, we had the local refinery flume some potentially nasty stuff into our area. I need to get my soil tested and have no idea what is a reputible company to use. I need to test for aluminum, barium, chromium, nickel, vanadium and zinc. I am in tears as this happened in November but they didnt warn us of the toxcicty issue til last week. We have already eaten some winter crops and my peas are close. I dont want to have to throw everything including my raise bed dirt out but dont want to poison myself either! Help!
Oh my goodness! I just found my Grandmas microwave bacon pan. LOL. I just used it and explained to my kids this was the coolest thing when I was growing up. I usually bake my bacon but this is super cool. Learned something new today. YUMMY! So many eggs….what a beautiful sight.
Oh my goodness, wow! I hope you are all safe! If I try all that beacon, I'll probably eat it all, maybe I will share a bit😋😁 Hope you are all safe!🙏💞🤗💞
Ooh don't say water catchment in California, they will come for your first born lol. It snowed at the buttes the other day in northern CA where it doesn't usually snow. The weather is crazy. Love your channel Brian. Following both. Gardening and homesteading.
Hi there! I am at 2900 ft. So Ca high desert. Had snow and stayed over night. i always get excited when we get this weather. I'm staying inside. Going to try the bacon your way. Crunch, crunch.. Helping neighbors and each other, great to see. Looking forward to fig tree lessons. Be safe. Thank you for all the information.
Appreciate how you keep it real and are always in a state of changes, updates, and redos sometimes; just like most of us. We just bought 2-1/2 acres in very wooded Conroe Texas 8mths ago and struggle with letting others see our place because seems nothing is completely completed and final. But yours is so similar and your open honest videos help me to be okay with our completely mid process work we have going on. Thanks !
Now I want bacon! The weather has been wild-it snowed at the beach, right on the sand in Santa Cruz! The most use my panini maker gets is to make “flat bacon” as my nephew says, but now I’m hungry. 🙂 I can’t recall if you are doing thatch roof on the back of the cottage, if not, maybe add a gutter and rain barrel.
A gutter on the back roof edge with a rain barrel would help with the flooding on the back of your coop! We’re about to start building ours & are definitely using this idea because of the location & it’s tendency to stay soggy when we get heavy rains. So excited to be able to have chickens again!😁We’ll be getting our chicks in Thursday!🐣🎉
Hi Brian! Omg’sh! I just watched your Q and A video on the gardening channel and saw you had this one as well , and just subscribed to this one too. Good luck on both of your channels. I have so enjoyed watching and learning from your gardening ch. Some things you talked about on your Q and A I wanted to encourage you on, we live in Southern Oklahoma on a farm and we have gophers as well. And, they ate my tulip bulbs! Lol! We have started killing the grub worm that they are after, and that has helped tremendously! Like you, I also have suffered with anxiety. 2022 was a tremendously challenging year for me. I believe I am on the mend and gardening, not watching news, and prayer have been my go-too. Those 3, not necessarily in that order, have literally saved me. Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge and God bless you and your family!
I think some patio umbrellas inside the chicken coop would keep it a bit drier for them. Love your videos. It's been crazy weather up here in Capitola. I finally got some good clips to keep the citrus covers on in all this wind and freezing rain. Cheers to inclement weather teaching us where the next French drains will go!
That's the kind of crazy hail we get in Colorado all summer long. It's a challenge gardening each year, we have to cover everything with hail cloth or polycarbonate panels. We happy you made it through the storm. The sandbags were a good idea👍
Fun video to watch - loved seeing your excitement over the hail. I hope you get a chance to witness a snow fall in a more northern location someday. It’s hard for a Michigander to imagine never having seen it. We like our bacon as crispy as you do but we have loved baking ours on a rack over a foil lined sheet pan. No spatter, no pan to wash (the rack goes in the dishwasher). 425 degrees for about 23 minutes .
I am also in SoCal. I am north of Brian between him and L.A. near the beach. We had that hail in the morning. He got more than we did. Where I am we rarely get hail and when we do it can be crazy. One night I was in the grocery store and walked out to a hail storm and was waiting with a bunch of other people for 10 minutes for it to pass. The weather has been craaazy. Just sheets and sheets of rain for hours last night.
We were supposed to be in Camarillo today. Had to reschedule our appointment due to the Grapevine closer. All of this rain has been 'next level'.... lol. May you and your family stay safe and warm. Looking forward to the fig video!
Oh no! We had hail like that when my brand new car was 4 months old. It happened at night. When I saw it in the daytime the next day, it looked like a purple golf ball. The dents were relentless. Hope you guys are doing ok.