In Day 29 of the "Building a Homestead in 100 Days" series, Victor (Speaker A) and Becky document a low‑activity rest day that still involves essential field work and planning. They walk the 2‑acre clearing, inspecting creeks and ravines to determine where water runs, debating whether to smooth terrain now or wait for machinery, and noting the impact of recent rain on water flow. The vlog shifts to household tasks: cooking Cajun chicken, managing a limited heat source, and preparing for the upcoming cold night. Victor outlines winterization steps—unplugging frost‑proof hydrants, relocating soaked grain to a cooler basement corner, and protecting chicken eggs from freezing. He also introduces a county GIS map as a permaculture design tool, showing the layout of their 55‑acre property, the 2‑acre development zone, and nearby features, and discusses how they will use a laminated, dry‑erase version for tracking progress. Family dynamics surface through mentions of the children’s chores, safety gear for Jonah, and scheduling constraints (appointments at 8 am, chores at 18 °F). The vlog ends with plans to mount the GIS map for ongoing task tracking.
Chapters
This is our only heat source till we get our wood boiler rewired, until we get the root cellar finished and we can wire in the propane for our furnace.
It's like a big one! Look at his legs! He's a gigantic boot. He can't even move!
Rest day today, but we still gotta walk. We still gotta get outside. It's rained in the last couple of days. We're gonna go see if there's any water in this ravine on the land that we've been clearing. It is cold in the woods, out of the sun. Winter's hit us. Yeah, and we got one little stove.
Don't fall.
This is the creek and it runs right down through the middle of the 2 acres we're clearing. But we got to work ahead of us, don't we, Beck? Yeah, to make this graze— grazable. Can we smooth this out later on when we get machines? We got to make sure there's no running water in it. On up ahead there's more ravines. I think the best way is not the way you're going back, but you can try. We'll go. It's probably that way, but maybe not. See this ravine? Just deep. Perhaps we leave it like that, but perhaps we smooth it out. Is there running water in this, or did somebody just dig this up in the past? We wouldn't want to smooth it up and it just be a spring. See, guys, that is running water there, and it's probably not normally like that. It's just that we've had more rain lately. Here's running water too, and so you can't just smooth this out because You got a creek there and a creek here. The water goes completely underneath the ground right there. Do we have a big spring or is it just coming from the creek? Yeah, look, this creek goes under the ground here. The path of least resistance under the ground. We have some running water feeding the mainstream. At some point it's like a gully washer. But not even on this last storm, the real rain events come down through here. Look at our clear job back. That's progress. I think that times 10 and we're done. I think we're gonna do it. 4 weeks in, we're gonna have to find a way to speed up. The sheep have cleared this place crazy though, haven't they? We're out of the woods. You guys want to keep walking?
I think I'm just gonna go inside. Henry's grumpy. I think he might have a start of an earache.
My hands are going numb. That sounds like a good idea. Becky made zucchini and onions, a little bit of rice. It's been a good rest day. Sorry if the vlog's a little short.
Yeah, it's a much-needed rest day.
We got Cajun chicken. We gotta rest one day a week. This week we go strong. We got more safety gear equipment for Jonah. You gonna be up and at them soon? Sawing. I hope. They got wood stacked for the night. It's burning up in here right now, but we got to stay on top of it because when is it going to get 18 degrees?
Uh, tonight.
Tonight? And we got to do chores early tomorrow. We have a— I have 8:45 and you have a—
8, less than 8. I'm off the roof.
Your appointment's at 8? That means we're going to be doing the chores in 18 degrees. I made Cajun chicken. I may have went overboard, but at least we'll have leftovers tomorrow. Did you take him outside?
I did.
He's begging to go outside.
Well, I'm not going outside.
It's too cold. Here, I'll take you. Cold out here, huh? You ever felt this before? This is kind of trippy, huh? I'm vlogging in the evening. It's rare because I like to get the footage to Dan early and there's not much going on. I'm usually tired in the evening. I'm tired this evening, but honestly, I feel bad. We didn't get much content today, and, uh, you know what? I just thought of something. It's kind of lame on the rest day. I want to rest. I think we need it. So this is maybe what I think we're gonna do. I get— boy, this is a nice evening sunset. Wow, smoking hot. So I'm thinking Dan likes me to get the Friday's footage to him by lunch, so we, we lock that vlog in by then. So, but usually things still happen on Friday afternoon. I'll just start filming that and tack that in on Saturdays. That'll take some of the pressure off, and then you guys will get a better vlog. Let's go and winterize a little bit tonight. These frostproof hydrants are great, but you gotta unplug them. They shut off down in the ground. Their shutoff is, I don't know, 2-3 feet down, and water can sit still there and not freeze because it's below the ground. And you could come out here tomorrow and it's 18 degrees and the water will work. That's why it takes a minute to bring it up. Got them all parched. Even in the high tunnel, it's gonna freeze tonight, so let's empty our waters. And we need to get these out of the shed. This is our soaked grain. Let's put them deeper in the corner of the basement where they won't be subject to freezing. The ground temps help it keep a little more even in there. Well, the chickens aren't eating the corn. Not sure if it really didn't soak it properly, but honestly, I think it's still probably too hard. I can't remember the last time Gideon actually got eggs, but it's gonna be 18 degrees. You got to get the eggs out, they could crack. Look at the bounties! Everybody cleaning up? Let's show them one more thing, and that is the GIS map. Incredible tool for homestead permaculture design. We just go to the county, get what you call a GIS map of your property. My idea is a laminated one that we can mark on it. We can show our progress and stuff.
Wait, is this a new one?
Wow, that's the master homestead. We own this triangle, we own this little parcel, and this big 55-acre parcel. We're using this 10, 12-ish acres right here. This is not us. Here is where we're developing right now. There's our house. We go across the creek, you come up in here, and I'm estimating this is where we're developing right now. Okay, this is the 2-ish acres we're gonna hit in these 100 days. I'm impressed at how gigantic these are. Now the question is, does a dry erase marker work? Do it and try to erase it. We don't really care. Yeah, that's, that's the neighbor. Heck yeah! See, it starts getting steep right there.
How many feet apart?
Go ahead and draw it where you think it is. That— yeah, as long as we get close. We think we have it. Go ahead and mark it. Boy, everybody's excited now since this works.
Can Henry draw?
I think we need to mount it up there and frame it, and I think we need to put Task. We need a whiteboard, although Jacob's taking our whiteboard. We need another whiteboard or a chalkboard for tasks list that day. Okay, that's the goal. Good. All right, that was insane trying to do that with the kids, but at least now we have a better vision. You guys are gonna have a little bit of vision. Hopefully we're gonna hang that up on the wall, get a progress report going. That's a GIS map from your county. Now They, they, they give you a huge file and then you take it to a printer and you have to have your printer laminate it, and it works. See you guys in the next one.
