In this Day 83 vlog of the "100 Days to Build a Homestead" series, the host and his family tackle a packed day of chores while emphasizing the importance of having fun together. The episode opens with a discussion about making family activities enjoyable so adult children will want to visit. The team then sets up a powerful mobile solar energizer, checking battery charge indicators to ensure enough power for winter days with limited sunlight. They address a broken chicken pen, using zip ties and grain to coax chicks back in, and demonstrate sprouting peas to reduce anti‑nutrients for winter feed. The group repairs a poultry wire fence, temporarily securing it with zip ties while planning a permanent fix, and coordinates a controlled burn of a brush pile after obtaining a permit. Milking duties shift to the host due to Lily’s finger injury, and they test an Everflow waterer system that promises 12‑day intervals without manual water chores. The team moves pigs into a forest paddock, explaining how the pigs till, manure, and disperse seed, and highlights the benefits of rotating them every 7‑12 days. Throughout, they manage hoses, clear fences, and prepare seed beds for planting, all while maintaining a light‑hearted, instructional tone. The vlog concludes with a reminder to watch a pig‑training crash course linked in the description and a brief look at spreading fertilizer.
Chapters
Come on, Mr.
Henry, I want you to go with— okay, our soccer goals came. I'm reading Kevin Hart's book right now. He said in the end The fun man wins, basically. So I want to make sure I have fun with my kids. You're not having fun back there? Okay, we want to make sure we're fun. If our goal is that our adult children want to hang out with us, we need to be fun. There's your sandbox with your tractor. You play that. No? All right, I gotta get this battery out of here. This is one of two batteries. This is going to be our most powerful mobile solar energizer. I hooked it up last night to our charger, one of them, and this light on our charger was blinking green. I'm assuming that means it was charging. Now it's solid. I'm assuming that means it's charged. Now this one, the light is blinking. This would make our life a lot easier having a very powerful energizer when we move the pigs out into the forest. We need as much battery as we can get because, well, it's winter, it's cloudy a lot, and doesn't— we don't get a lot of sun, so you need a lot of battery power. Would you take him in? We'll try again later. I got this little Energizer working last night, but that ain't no Energizer. This is an Energizer. That's not a knife. That's a knife. Good morning, CB. Good morning, my man. You coming to help us with the vlog? Okay, good. I'm gonna put this thing down and you can follow me around. All right, smells pretty permanent. Okay, move these down one. Get in! Your chicks are out. We're gonna have to fix this. I don't want to fix this. I want to move pigs, but it's been too long. His little chicks are getting out and they don't figure out how to get back in. We'll go get zip ties and some grain in there. Again, you gotta stay with me. Every time I have to call you to bring you back, you're gonna have to, uh, sit with me a little bit this afternoon. Perfect zip ties. You can hold the zip ties. I'm working on Gideon staying with me. I'm working on myself not always calling him. I've asked him, stay with me, I need this. Not nag. Just let him live with the consequences if he doesn't stay with me, which are basically, if you don't stay with me in the morning Just stay with me in the afternoon when it's free time. Hey, that's a good decision. You think you could pick up your pace?
Come on now.
You want to hold the bucket?
No.
No? Okay. Guinea, are you warm? Okay, go get your jacket and then come back. This will soak tonight and that'll break down the anti-nutrients. It'll make it more easier to digest. I'll drain it tomorrow. We'll feed this one and I'll drain that one tomorrow. And it keeps coming down the line here and it gives time for these to sprout. The pea has sprouted. Look at that. So then you have not only broke down the anti-nutrients you've sprouted it. So then they have some plant material, some greenage that they otherwise wouldn't get in the winter because there's no grass. Do you know if Gideon is in here with me? Yeah, he's supposed to get a coat and come back out. You can let him make his own decision. You don't have to live with it.
Okay.
The problem is I'm gonna have to leave this door open to herd chicken in. It's like herding cats. Jono, will you stand here and let the chicken not run past? And don't let anybody out. It's a chicken? Yeah, it's the mama and the chicks. Oh, Joyce, I guess you stand there and Jono, you and I will chase the wood.
I got it.
They get so bored they literally tear their pen up.
The pigs?
Yeah.
Okay, that was pinned down in there with boards.
Yeah.
Shoot, I don't know if this is big, but this will help us. The problem is this cattle panel line is just on the edge of this board and it's hard to get a zip tie into it. This poultry wire is supposed to be pinned in the board, but they've somehow pulled it up. Pigs are strong. Some of them I've managed to get under there just with some finagling. This is a temporary fix, guys, until we re-pin that poultry wire. I got the burn permit and everything. I assumed the boys were gonna put the tree on the brush pile. Like, they want to have fun, that's fine. But we might as well get something done at the same time. Burn the brush pile. Hey, why didn't y'all put it all in the brush pile?
Because we didn't think you wanted to deal with a lit brush pile.
Okay, well now they want to go start it. I guess so, but, but just do it while I'm getting ready for milking and then meet me.
We burned the tree up here earlier and now we're gonna burn the brush pile. I'm gonna start, start another one. I'm gonna try.
Okay, where's all the stuff? Should be right there.
Lily's not milking today because of her finger, and you so kindly volunteered. She gives a lot of milk. I think it's because they— it's an alfalfa and hay. This is like an alfalfa timothy mix. I don't know what else would explain this. They're on hay, they're supposed to get less. I'll set the gold up. Okay, do that later.
I am.
Now I'm hoping yesterday my fix of the overflow water worked and that it's actually flowing and not overflowing.
You cold? Yeah. I'll warm you up.
I'll warm you up.
Huh?
I think there's water in that line.
It's not overflowing.
Oh, it's still working! Water coming in, water coming out. Heck yeah! Okay, we got an Everflow waterer for pigs. You got no water chores for 12 days, and then you move this, and then you got no more water chores for another 12 days. Let's hustle and put up the net. Get ready for these guys. How are we going to get them in there? There's no way to get a trailer there. You might have to clear this away— oh, out for us. Can you be clearing this, Jonah? You will have to get a chainsaw. We're gonna have to back these pigs up to right here. Go around now with like these temporary posts. See how this inner— this fence is hitting the ground there? It's going to ground out. The black one doesn't have electric, so it doesn't ground out there. There, but see, ones above it do. And this will help keep it above the ground here on this hump. There, voilà. We got to get this log out of the way so that we can bring our trailer in here, cuz if we were to unload them right here, they're not going to go over that.
Hold my chain on. Thank you.
This is still charging, so we won't use this today. How'd the other Energizer work? Did you test it? I guess we should have done that. Okay, thanks. Everybody cross your fingers. Lucky I'll start on this cold day.
It's gonna be a good day.
Okay, let's clear the fences and we can back in. How low was the tent sitting at?
7.9.
Yes!
All right, watch out. See if we can put the, uh, Hot dog!
6.7. TB the cameraman says, "Is that hot?" I should have said, "Touch it!" They're doing it. They're doing their job. Look, they have already tilled. They're tilling this up, bringing up the ancient seed bed, and we can come in behind and, and plant choice seeds. Y'all are already doing it. They won't let me hug them.
What are we going to do with this hose?
Good, good observation, Josiah. We actually should have— we should go in from the outside.
Here, run it out.
And then we'll roll it up beside it, or maybe we'll loop it around it. Work up there so it doesn't get on that post. Can't have the hose in here because they'll chew it, break it. I think we can loop it around this and boom. How's that, Gypsy?
Good.
And that went as smooth as we could possibly ever want. Get in, let's go. He stopped watching the baby. Okay, your choice. Okay, I want you out within 10 minutes, actually within 5. Great, that's enough time to pick up the mess and then you can come out. You want to come out with the calves?
Oh yeah.
Well, this time we haven't run out of luck yet. This means all the cat— all the ruminants are under one roof, and we got one less chore to do because everybody's together. They can share water, they share shelter. We just made it a little easier. Now we can really grind going at the tail end of this 100 days of building a homestead. Good choice.
You got it.
Pigs are relatively amazing. They're underrated. You see, if you put them in a paddock like this out in the forest, move them every 7 to 12 days— we'll do 12 days— they're tilling it up, they're manuring it. We can plant seed behind them, they're bringing up seeds, fill up a water tank, fill up a feeder. In our case, we have an Everflow waterer, so it's maybe even less. But 2, like, real visits, like with chores, a week— I mean, come check on it every day And really, these pigs were born, and then 8 months, that's gonna be 175 pounds of meat in your freezer. I have a class free on how to do that. Uh, no vlog tomorrow, so you want something to watch, go watch the pig training amongst my homesteading crash course, link down in the description. Love you guys, see you in the next one.
Is this the last bucket?
Yeah.
Good, because I'm getting tired of spreading.
Whoa!
I need to really spread. Look at that little crack. We need to put in that little divot.
