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Building a Farm from Scratch: Lessons and Advice from Kenya · Earn Your Leisure

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  Speaker 3: And it was a tea farm, so I'm asking.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: I was like, okay, well how much are you actually well, fine,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: you're producing tea a gat it? Okay, so how much
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: you what's your revenue a year? And it just did
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: not It didn't add up at all, like at all.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: But for them, it's like a lot of times the
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  Speaker 4: herritage land, which I totally respect, I get that right,
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: And if they don't have to sell, then there's no
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: motivation there, you know what I mean. It's not like
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: I think, it's just a different system here, right, so
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: you just have to adjust to that.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: So there are deals one thousand percent.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: You can absolutely find land that is comparable I would
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: say some parts of California, and like I keep comparing
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: it to like Texas, right, Like you can get great land.
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  Speaker 2: I I heard like ten thousand and acre on it
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  Speaker 2: is that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like a good yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And then sometimes though, like there might be land that's
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: like ten thousand a plot, but it'll be because it's
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: like they really value the road, right, so like it'll
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: be like things that we don't really think about, but
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: like if it's close, they'll tell you how close it
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: is to the main road, and the closer it is
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: to the main road, the higher the price will be.
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  Speaker 3: So I've seen plots that.
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  Speaker 4: Are like, say you could go anywhere from like three
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  Speaker 4: hundred square meters, which is like I guess the size
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  Speaker 4: you would like build a house, right, And they'll be
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: like it's ten thous dollars for that plot, which you're like, wait,
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: I just could buy an aggre for They're like yeah,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: but not here.
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  Speaker 3: They're like, where's the road, yeah exactly exactly.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: One of the things that a lot of people, especially
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: away from ignorant to is how profitable farming can be. Right,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: you said, we went to a tea farm, we got
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to see your farm, and we brought down the onion thing.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about that and why people should really be looking
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: at this as a business opportunity.
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  Speaker 4: Oh man, I mean like when you think about I
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: knew it had to be profitable because you see it
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  Speaker 4: and you're like, these guys are doing it because it's
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: making money. But I couldn't really wrap my brain around it.
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  Speaker 4: But my lawyer again who's been super helpful, he's a farmer,
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  Speaker 4: and he was like, I make way more money farming.
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  Speaker 4: It's like this is a short fire. So he started
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  Speaker 4: to break it down for me. When I started to understand, Okay,
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  Speaker 4: it's like this is something that especially here because I
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: think it, Yeah, really I think here, like this is
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  Speaker 4: so much agriculture like opportunities here, and I feel like
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  Speaker 4: the younger people are not doing it as much that
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  Speaker 4: they need it right and so like, for example, the
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  Speaker 4: reason I decided to do onions is because a lot
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: of you know, they were getting like a year ago,
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  Speaker 4: they were getting a lot of the onions from Tanzania,
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  Speaker 4: and then recently they kind of banned the onions from Tanzania.
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  Speaker 4: So it's like they need onion farmers here. I was like,
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  Speaker 4: I can do that, right, So things like that. But
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  Speaker 4: for example, like you know after your costs, right, if
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: you if you put in five acres of onions, right
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  Speaker 4: and with everything, so you got your with the exception
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: of the borehole, which will make your money back within
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: the year. But say like just all of your driplines
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: and all of that stuff, right for five acres, if
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: you once you spend all that, which is like say
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: eleven thousand dollars, you can make between let's say thirty
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  Speaker 4: conservatively till like thirty five thousand dollars within let's say
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  Speaker 4: a quarter. Right, so at minimum you have two harvests
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  Speaker 4: a year for only five acres. That's a good you
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  Speaker 4: can live on that, right, it's a good living. And
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  Speaker 4: then say you add another five acres, like so it's
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: it is actually extremely profitable.
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  Speaker 3: They're looking for farmers. They want people to farm.
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  Speaker 4: It's such a good opportunity, especially Kenya. Kenya has so
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: much flat land, you know, and it's great soil.
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  Speaker 3: This is Africa.
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  Speaker 4: It's like you throw a seed in the ground and
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  Speaker 4: stuff just grows, you know what I mean. Like literally,
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: like it's amazing.
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  Speaker 3: It takes.
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  Speaker 4: It doesn't take as much as we've ruined our soil
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: in the States, you know, And it took me so
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: much to I mean even thinking about that, Like when
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I think about my farm in California, it took me
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  Speaker 4: a year before I could plant anything because the soil
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  Speaker 4: was so depleted and it was just so ruined.
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  Speaker 3: Like I had to go.
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  Speaker 4: Through this whole process of like fixing the soil just
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  Speaker 4: so I could grow stuff. Whereas here it's like, I
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: mean I could put anything in the ground. You're like, oh,
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: look it's a tree. You should see my backyard right now.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: I a little in an apartment. My backyard is like
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: a jungle I have, but I ended up have been
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: here a year, right, So I've banana trees that are
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: like literally like twenty five feet tall, and like I
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: had to cover them to keep the monkeys from taking
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  Speaker 4: all the fruit.
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  Speaker 3: And I made It's amazing, you know. So it's just
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  Speaker 3: to show the difference.
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  Speaker 5: Like, so I was gonna acually, what is the process
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  Speaker 5: that actually said, because buying land is one thing, but
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: having an operational farms another thing.
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  Speaker 2: You got to like have an irrigation system.
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  Speaker 5: You gotta you know, I'm assuming you to plant the seas,
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: you gotta have people that's working it. You gotta have
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: pesticite control. Perhaps you gotta put the fence. Like I
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: think people don't understand how complex farming. They look at
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: farming is something that's like especially people from cities, right
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: as something that's like backwards, right or something that. But
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: it's like it's so people don't associate technology with farming,
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: But that's like the first form of tech.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, it is farming.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, And like I said, it's also real money, right,
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  Speaker 4: Like it's real money.
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  Speaker 3: And it's also like.
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  Speaker 4: When you think about like food safety and just like
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  Speaker 4: no matter what's happening in the world, if you're farming,
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  Speaker 4: you've got this.
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  Speaker 3: I mean honestly, like the only thing that's.
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  Speaker 4: Gonna be could be the weather, right, But even that,
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  Speaker 4: like there's there's safeties that you can you know, take
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  Speaker 4: to get around that.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I think, like for me like buying all
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: this stuff.
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  Speaker 4: One thing I have to say is that like especially
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  Speaker 4: in the farming areas, people are people want to work.
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  Speaker 4: So it wasn't even hard, Like I got an agronomous
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: and these are people would like full on like degrees
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  Speaker 4: in agronomy and like farming stuff that I was just
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: kind of like fumbling through it, like they really know
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  Speaker 4: what to do, you know, And so I ended up
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: I ended up finding someone. It was very again, it's
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: just random, like because Naivasha specifically is a farm area.
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  Speaker 3: So like my car broke down and.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I was talking to the mechanic and then he was like, well,
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  Speaker 4: this is a good This guy's a good agriculture like
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: he's a horticulturist actually, and I was like okay, cool.
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  Speaker 4: And then I talked to him and he was like.
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  Speaker 4: I was like, well, who can I have help me?
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  Speaker 4: Like really do this and.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: He's like why no guy?
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: And then I just like what snapped him? And he
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: was like I'll be there on Sunday. I was like great.
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  Speaker 4: But it's also like you have to talk to people.
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  Speaker 4: You have to like some people are not gonna be
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: as good.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 4: You just got to kind of get out there. You
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: can't be afraid to speak to people and kind of
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: figure it out. It is something you have to learn, right,
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  Speaker 4: Like I'm still learning, but it's totally doable. One thing
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  Speaker 4: I will say to you different here than anywhere else.
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  Speaker 3: And people are so willing to help. They're so well,
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, they really are.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: There's like no dumb questions because I asked tons of
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: questions and they're just so willing to help. And they
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: don't want you to mess up, you know what I mean.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: They're like, no, no, no, that's terrible, don't do that, you know,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: And you're.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Like, oh, I was going there because as you were
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: talking and we spent a few days together, I'm thinking, like,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you're really knowledgeable in this. So there's been an education process,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: but even when we are with our drivers, they're knowledgeable
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: about everything. And how has the impact that the locals
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: had on the process of you saying all right, I've
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: got this acreage. I want to add more. They gave
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: me some ideas. I'm going to add this. Wait, how
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: do I power this? This might be a new idea.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: How much is the impact you had on you so much?
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: I mean, when you think about even moving to a
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: place where it's like the people, That's one of the
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: first things that I fell in love with here was
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: the people, and like these people are loving and care
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: and they care and it's just from the top to
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: the bottom, like you could be in the mall, bump someone,
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: and just how that interaction goes, you know, to really
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: needing someoney, to be like, I need help.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: I don't know how to do this. Help me, do
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean?
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: Like, it's just so it's so different culturally, I think
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: from that perspective, it's like welcoming, right, it's warm.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: And I think too, like what I.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Really appreciate and what's made this so feasible is that
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: there is a process. Even if it takes a long time,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: it's the same. They'll be like, no, this is what
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: you have to do.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: You've got to do this.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: And so whenever one keeps giving me this same answer,
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: you're like, okay, you know you're not being taken for
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: a ride. It's like, this is how you have to
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: do it. And so then it becomes like, all right,
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: well this is the way to do it. This is
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: how we do it, and they, like I said, what
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: you don't know? People will help and even you know,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: I'll talk to random people. They're like did you plant this?
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: And are you putting this around it? And oh no, no, no, sister,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: you gotta put baking soda. And I was like, I
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: did hear that? They're like yeah, yah, yeah, I put
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: baking soda if you don't want those. But you know,
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: little things like that and you're just like, oh okay.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: But they're always willing to help. So it makes something
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: that could feel really daunting and new. It makes it
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: easier because it's not like it doesn't feel like crabs
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: in a barrow where everyone's just like, you know, fighting
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: to win.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: It's like they're like, we're farm't we farm?
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: It happens you you can't drive up a road and
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: can you not see some sort of someone selling some
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: fruit or vegetables or something, right, Like, there's so many
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: things people are just they're farmers and so it's great,
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Like you learn a lot just by regular conversations.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: I feel like, so, what's the hardest part of farming? Right,
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: even from you learning in America to now having a
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: farm and can't like what is the heart? Dealing with droughts,
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: even animals off your font? Like, what's the hardest part
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: that you had to figure out?
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: I think I keep saying that.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: Like my farm in California was like my like training
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: ground for this, right because it was smaller and I
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: had major pests there too, So like it's just figuring
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: out like, Okay, what am I dealing with here? I
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: think water has been a challenge, Like the rain, No
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: rain is great, it rains so much here. I think
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: getting like the borehole says like that system is so.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: What is that?
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: So a borehole is like, well, right, so it's it's
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: basically they're digging into the ground and well, first you
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: have to get like a water analysis to see if
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: there actually is water there, right, So you'll pay someone
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: to come. Then you need a geologist to check and
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: make sure like see what the rock situation is. And
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: a lot of people will say, oh, you don't need that.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: I did it, so I just was like I need
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: to know, like what's happening. It is an extra cost obviously,
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: but you need to check like if there's water there,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: and then you need to have someone come. And what
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: I learned was someone will tell you like they can
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: do it for cheaper, but you don't really necessarily want
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: that because then your borehole is gonna break down. And
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: so essentially there they come, they check the water, and
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: then they have to dig down between two hundred to
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: three hundred meters and then they put the casing in
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: there and then you've got this pump that's gonna bring
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: the water up.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: It's a well, it's like a well.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like a smaller well essentially.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: And it pumps up. But what is the purpose of that?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: To keep the crops?
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: It wills to irrigate?
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: And also because even if you're gonna build a house there,
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: gonna need water, right because a lot of the land
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: that you're gonna buy is rule right, so there's been
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: nothing there before, so you need to make sure because
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: a lot of land like there was. I was about
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: to sign papers on this other land and then I
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: and the guy was like, you should just check. And
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: that's when I was like, I wasn't gonna do the jelige,
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: but the guys.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: You should just do it. That's okay. I'm just gonna
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: keep doing it for all the land. And I ended
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: up doing it.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: And he's like, there are these massive boulders up to
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: seven meters down, so my farming would have been a wash.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: How much water is under it? Like does it?
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: It just depends?
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Right? So like for me, right now, that first borehole
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: that we saw that we just dug pulls up. It's
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: like ten point four cubit feet of water or whatever
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: every day, right, So that's so then that's how we
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: did the math. So then I know they said that
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: that amount of water, if you're continually getting that can
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: cover up to maybe ten acres. Me wanted to be
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: on the safe side. I decided to do five right,
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: and then I'll put another borehole, so I know that
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: no matter what, we'll have water.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: But that's also solar.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: So then you have to figure out if you're gonna
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: get a generator or if you're going to hook into
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Kenya Power, which is also an option. Yeah.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: One of the things we kind of like breezed over
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: was the animals, and you know we grow up in farms,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: is like, hey, hopefully these groundhogs don't eat this or
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the birds don't eat it.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: You have a whole different set.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Of animals hienas zebras.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: How is that now?
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Again?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: That and making sure that they're protected because it was
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: their land.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: I think the thing that I've learned so much about
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: being here too, and it's funny actually even being in California,
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: is that there is a way, and people have been
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: doing it for millennia, right, there's a way to farm
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: and not completely like ruin the ecosystem, but become a.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Part of it.
• 12:56
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• 13:20
  Speaker 6: Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally,
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: your next you will be fine nearly one thousand dollars
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: a day, imprisoned and deported. You will never return. But
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: if you register using our CBP home app and leave now,
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right,
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: will be protected.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,