Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 62
In this Day‑62 vlog of the "Building a Homestead in 100 Days" series, host Victor (Speaker C) walks viewers through a full day of farm chores and family collaboration. The episode opens with feeding and watering the chickens, milking, and troubleshooting frozen water lines as temperatures drop to 3 °C. Victor outlines a forthcoming YouTube lesson on raising pigs, estimating that two pigs can yield about 300 lb of meat in roughly seven months. The family then moves to land‑clearing work: chainsawing, deciding which trees to fell, and discussing safety and efficiency. Throughout, Victor shares practical tips (e.g., using submersible de‑icers, feeding eggshells to chickens) and reflects on the deeper philosophy of homesteading—balancing the desire for tangible results (milk, eggs, firewood) with the intrinsic value of the work itself. The vlog emphasizes teamwork among family members (Jonah, Lily, Gideon, Josiah) and the iterative learning process that has shaped their 15‑year homesteading journey.
Chapters
I'll be right there.
I'm gonna bring you some apples. Good boy, I like it.
Great balancing act today. As you can see, I have farm chores I've got a movie to make. Thankfully CB is here, and so we have another shooter today. Take care of the babies. Mom's got to go with Jonah to PT. And what else? Oh, and I want to do a lesson on raising pigs for a special YouTube video. Great balance. Oh, of course we got to clear. Is that too much? Hey, good morning, my man.
If you wait till 11 to clear, I can help you clear.
Oh, really?
All that stuff.
Yeah, 11 to 12.
What time do you get back?
I get back at 9:30, and then I have to go on a lesson in 20 minutes.
Yeah, you have a 10 o'clock lesson, then you're done at 11. Okay, I might take you up on that.
Hey, good morning. Good morning.
You got your chickens fed? You got your grain soaked? You on that?
Okay.
We're a little later milking this morning, about 20 minutes. It's good and light, but you know what? It's fixing to be 3 degrees at this time next week. That's crazy for us. I know you Minnesota people, that's balmy, but that's ludicrous cold. For us. I can't ever remember it being that cold, like bad things are going to happen cold. I bought submersible de-icers for our water troughs and water barrels. Kind of cold. Love this innovation. You're doing it, my man. I wasn't sure. Thank you. We've been having some beautiful eggs.
The chickens are gonna cast some. The eggshells are super thin.
Oh really?
Yeah.
Okay, well, I just fed them some eggshells yesterday. We probably waited too long because it was overflowing. We should get their chicken mineral sled going too. Yeah, gotta get some shots of the beautiful one. I don't think you'll be here the whole vlog shoot.
No, I won't be. All right, sorry. Bye guys.
Bye.
Jonah was like, I was hoping you would be coming out sooner, I made you eggs. I was like, I've been trying.
Oh gosh, you're 6 minutes late. Eggs, Curtis. Love you too. Eggs, courtesy of Jonah. All right, let's go. Good morning, piglets. I'll be seeing you guys in a little bit. Gonna do a lesson on how to raise you guys for people who are going to buy feeders like this, raise a couple of pigs. You end up getting at least 150 pounds per pig in your freezer. So you get 2 pigs, that's 300 pounds. Let's say there's 50 weeks in a year for easy math. I know there's more. At 300 pounds, that's 6 pounds a week pork. Most— good enough for most families. The cool thing is it only takes about 7-ish months to get them up to that. Bird, you water your chickens?
No.
Do they need it?
Well, there's enough water.
Oh, there's turds in that.
I know.
Well, it's got to be white. That's gonna be emptied and filled. You want to go turn that water on? When I say bad things can happen at 3 degrees, I'm thinking water freezing is getting to where the cows, chickens, or pigs won't be able to drink. Or the sheep. Is that it? I'm thinking warmth issues inside there. Our wood boiler's been working sketchy. I mean, it's been working good lately. Hopefully we fixed it for sure. I guess I didn't get it. Okay, sorry, I thought I got it. Maybe it's this one. I am, I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I'm working on it.
Shorts? It's for PT.
It never got on. This never turned on. Okay, let's trace it. We're gonna make sure that we actually hooked up the right one. It's this one. Okay, it's hooked up. You know, if this is— maybe— I don't know, it didn't freeze last night. Let's go test the line.
Did it persist?
We can take it off here and see if water's coming through. It looks like it is. Is that off? Barely. Okay, there's some ice in it. I don't know, I thought the low was 40 last night. That's your problem, Lily. This just says pig water work. Yeah, this is totally clogged up. This is going to be the problems we're going to have at 3 degrees. Looks like it's working. There's all kinds of water out. It's not working. I know because this is on and this is not full, and this would be filling if this were working. Certainly thawed. Hold that, hold that, hold that shut. No, there's all ice all up in the line. I wish it were just at the entrance. But when it gets 3 degrees, we're gonna have to not only drain our hose lines at night, we're gonna have to drain them during the day too. In North Carolina, most days, most years, water lines thaw out by the afternoon. We do water chores in the afternoon. Oh look, maybe the pig one wasn't on, but I'm sure it's frozen too, right?
Do you want to run and see if it's going?
This is it.
Oh, but the barrel's full, but it's the Straw front, is water running into it?
No, I don't think it is.
Well, let's, uh, thankfully it's sheep and they don't drink that much and we can just haul them some water. You and Lily feel like milking today?
What? Yeah.
You didn't rinse it out?
No, because there was no water. I scrubbed it out, but I didn't rinse it out.
Okay, rinse it out. I'll go get another bucket.
There's no water, Papa.
All right, I think that's enough. For this afternoon, I think.
Yeah, I think that's enough.
Code?
Yeah.
Okay. He said I can't get on the computer for his license. He doesn't know the code, but apparently Lily does. And maybe it's time to change the code. How's that? You drink guacamole, okay?
Where do you put milk? Act like you're going to put it down. Be ready in case she puts her head up.
Can you carry anything else? Like this pan?
Yes, I can. Carry those.
I like that attitude.
I can only carry these.
All right, let's warm up for a second and deal with this milk. Hey, Josiah!
Hey, there he is!
I'll change him. What about me chainsawing too?
No.
Is it too much? I kind of miss it. I feel like chainsawing a little bit, but maybe I should. All right, well, let's just both bring your chainsaw too. You want a haul brush? I figured. All right, come on, Lily, help me empty this. Come here, Gideon. Your chainsaw needs sharpened? Well, you just want me to saw?
Yeah.
Okay, your saw's not sharpened. Maybe since we only have an hour, you're just gonna go for your whole brush. Yeah.
Oh wow, I think it's changed. I could get a bigger blade.
Could it? Yeah, I think so. Out here trying to decide what to go at. Jonah wants to start going out some of these big trees, but I'm like, these big, big trees, it might be more efficient to get the graders out here, right, who can haul it and stuff. Although there's not a crooked 16— there's not a straight 16 feet in it. And is that poison ivy just all over it?
Yeah, just let my friend Mathis get the big ones.
We might let him get that one just because of all the poison ivy. And is that poison ivy all over this one? Holy smokes. Okay, so what could we get then if we come in here?
No, we won't. We'll just go up to where you want to—
you want to keep clearing little stuff? There's kind of a patch of little stuff. Oh, we haven't done on that side of the creek over there. Well, we haven't done— there's a big thatch. You want to go get that thatch right there? 7 or so trees, huh?
No, no.
And are we keeping that one? You think that's a maple?
That's a good shade tree, you think?
Well, it leans over, leaning right over. It's not bad. Yeah, let's save the big ones. Why don't we go get that cluster right there? Get this cluster right here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5, 6. And then if we get time, John, a bonus, we'll drop this gigantic poplar. We'll cut that down to its roots if, if we get enough time. We won't, we won't save it for the machine because we don't want to pull the roots out. Let's cut it down as low as we got on the ground. Then it'll coppice and spring forth, uh, poplar leaves, and it'll be a good mineral source for the animals. Okay, you ready, buddy? If you come to homesteading for the results, which often is what we're looking for when we come, and I don't blame you, and that's how I started out— the results being the fresh glass of homegrown milk, the fresh salad on a hot day, the moment you get your first egg and run inside and scramble it— those are the results, and those are the exciting moments. And those are perhaps the goal. You're such a good help, my friend. You're here, you're ready. Gideon and Lily, where'd they go? Gideon! Lily, let's go! There he is.
Lily!
Lily! All right, start with the smaller ones first. I'm learning in observation of others and feelings in myself and longevity in ourselves and our family. We've been homesteading for 15 years. Certainly if you only come for the results, you're going to burn out. You're going to be done. Which way is that one going?
Oh, it's more roots on this side. I think it wants to go that way.
I hope it's going this way. I don't want to fell it into that ditch. Let's try. I'm hoping I can fell this one this way because that ditch, it's gonna be hard to work it up What happens is you come for the results and then the work ends up being surprisingly different, most likely more difficult than you imagine. There is more time, there is more money, there is more energy put into this than you ever imagined. And there are times where you look and say, this would totally make 100% more cents just to buy it, I give up. What I'm thinking about today though is really why we do this. Well, we're out here working as a family, so whether we got our project done or not, we work together doing something good. Whether we cleared more land for our livestock so we can have that fresh milk and beef It doesn't matter. We were also getting our sunshine. Movement, just work in itself, by itself, is good and precious.
Where does that gentle slope go up to Grandma's?
That's the end of the gentle slope. Where the tape is, it starts getting steep. Okay, right. I mean, it is more mellow right there. Yeah, than right here. So yeah, we're probably gonna go through and get a lot of the rhododendron anyway. Yeah, and encompass that so people can go to the woods if they want to.
I like that.
Maybe steeper, but it's their choice. Oh, the sheep can handle it. They're out. So the rhododendron— there might be a chance some grass will grow. Yeah. There's more here than we thought. There is.
There's a lot here.
It's amazing because you got the edges and then it goes way on back up in there.
Is it more than 2 acres?
Or we might be getting— we might be getting there. We did the fun part, now we got to do the cleanup. So oftentimes we look at work as the obstacle to the goal. I look at it that way, but I think we need a reminder I'm being reminded today that the work can be the goal because there's something so pure about it. And sure, when you get done with a day like today and you spend an hour clearing and you have a pile of logs for firewood— gosh, guys, that's 4, 5, 6 days of— that's a week of firewood. And you have I don't know, 600 square feet that we knocked out and chipped away. And look, and we see that we've done today, and then we look around and we see what we've done yesterday and the day before. There is satisfaction there. There's satisfaction in just the teensiest bit of progress, and there's satisfaction and letting the goal, the end goal, go and just enjoying the process, making work your favorite. Make work your favorite. That's your favorite, okay?
Okay.
Work is your new favorite.
Fine.
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