Building a Homestead in 100 Days - Day 21
In Day 21 of the "Building a Homestead in 100 Days" series, Justin Rhodes, Rebecca Rhodes, Jeremiah, and several guests tour a neighboring homestead, discuss and demonstrate a range of farm equipment, and explore ideas for using that equipment profitably. They compare a track loader, a Mini X mini excavator, trenchers, a high‑flow stump grinder, and a forestry mulcher, describing each attachment’s function, cost‑benefit, and rental possibilities, and they brainstorm turning equipment into a small grading business. The conversation shifts to pasture preparation, tree planting (about 80 trees), and the process of clearing land with mulchers, stump grinders, and dozers. Later, Justin and Rebecca talk about their plans to build a passive‑solar farmhouse, the aesthetic challenges, and the desire for energy independence. The episode culminates in a community barn dinner organized by Jessica, featuring farm‑grown food, a long communal table, and reflections on the social aspect of homesteading. Throughout, the group shares weather updates, travel logistics, and light‑hearted banter, illustrating the practical, collaborative, and aspirational dimensions of modern homesteading.
Chapters
Happy day!
The Sowards are providing lunch for like 50 people, so we thought we'll bring supper for the after-party with them.
Oh, shoot!
Pit stop.
Windshield wipers. We need new blades, and it's supposed to rain. Well, it's been raining, and it's supposed to rain definitely on the way home.
Half a mile, turn left onto—
It's hot down here. I know, I could not live here.
It's gonna be 80 degrees today.
75, it said, but it also said it wasn't gonna rain.
Hey, the truth runs a good story, babe.
478.
You need help putting them on? Yeah.
So much better. I drove in the rain, I could barely see. I was like, this is not—
Where's your self-love at, man?
Well, no, what happened was I was gonna order some online to have them shipped, and I totally forgot that we were driving somewhere today. I would have done it yesterday.
I should have.
Let's go.
You ready, big man?
Got his chocolate.
What are we, 20 minutes away?
15.
Okay, sweet.
Let's do it.
We have arrived, and just in Roots and Refuge fashion, planted lots of trees. When were we here last, Rebecca? They got their high tunnel sides on, more green stalks, some raised beds. They got their chickens doing their gardening, silage tarps down. Look at their raised bed system, Beck. You like it? All done, all done. You ready to go? Kids are going to look at the fort. Good morning, Jeremiah. Good.
Looks good here.
Smells good.
It's nice weather.
Yeah, good weather. How's this weather compared to Arkansas weather?
It's about the same.
About the same.
It's a little more humid here being on the coast, and you know, it'll rain.
Hey kids, how was the fort? Did you get a shot of it, Gideon? Uh, Jeremiah, the moment Jonah's been waiting for. I want to see his track loader and mini excavator. Which one, if you can only have one, Jeremiah?
That was hard.
That's probably a question for the end of this, but Honestly, the track loader. The track loader? Okay, why do you say that? Actually, no, the Mini X, because you were looking at the Mini X when you said that, and I was wondering.
Because this can do a lot, but I could do a lot of the same jobs with the John Deere tractor, the ag tractor. Uh, it would just take longer. Yeah, so the bucket's like twice the size of a regular ag tractor, and so you can get a lot more material moved. Yeah, and it's a little bit faster, but you could do the same job with a regular tractor, it just takes longer.
Really?
Now the Mini X can do things that neither of those things can do, so I'd probably go with the Mini X if I had to pick one. Okay, but I mean, that's very situational.
Rebecca's already jumped on it. So what are these good for as far as work is concerned then?
I mean, they do the job of lots of manual labor. They just can knock out stuff. For example, you can dig a trench by hand with a shovel. I mean, like, yeah, like bare minimum, if you had nothing else, you could dig a trench. It would take you an awful long time with a lot of calories burned, a lot of back.
Will this help you dig a ditch?
It will. So then you can get, then you can get a, a handheld trencher that you walk behind, and that just jostles so that faster, but still a lot of work, a lot of involvement, a lot of time, a lot more time. Or something like this, and I can put a trencher, which is that thing right there with the blade on it, and I can trench from here to my house in about 30 minutes.
What?
3 foot down, perfectly width for—
so we could put the water line in like that. I run—
I already had— that's why I have water line running all the power.
I mean, I didn't know this.
Let's, let's Oh, she's changed her tone. She's changed her tone.
I told you this.
I told you this.
It helps you get your house.
Just from that, I priced how to rent a trencher or to have someone trench for you. Every month that I have this equipment, it pays for itself on a job that I would have had to pay someone else to do. Okay, it pays for itself.
So trenching, what else?
I know you don't do a ton of fencing. No, but the auger is still useful for a lot of things. I planted trees with this.
We've done deep big holes.
You can get— I see you planted a lot of trees.
Yeah, we have a ton of them.
Justin, I have like 80 trees.
Oh, I know we got 80 trees coming, Jeremiah.
I'm not gonna say buying a skid steer is worth the 80 trees, but when you compile it with all the other things you can do with it, it makes it one month.
It might be right, right. But then next month we have more work.
Yeah, I mean, we, we would use it.
Okay, so I know you're— I know you're prepping the pasture, right? Yeah, we're— so I got a high-flow stump grinder that attaches on the front. You literally drive up to a stump, set it down, and use your thumb controls and just grind the stump out completely. 4 inches into the ground, disappears. Move on to the next one. Takes about 20 minutes to grind out. Wow, a massive stump. So if you're prepping pasture, I like stump grinding and mulching because it produces soil. You know, it basically breaks down all that wood, and instead of just piling it up and burning it, you're shredding it down, and then it starts breaking down, especially if you run stuff like pigs behind it.
Is the stump grinding different than forestry mulching?
It is.
It is.
The forestry mulching takes down the whole tree.
It can take down the whole tree, but we've actually— we have one of those also, and it doesn't get into stumps real good. It can. You can do it. It just takes a lot longer. So we ended up going with a stump grinder.
Yeah, I like the stump grinding idea because we want to harvest the bigger wood for firewood good. And then limbs for mulching, for like a deep bedding.
When we want to have like in our pasture that we cleared, it would be nice to stump grind all those stumps.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. The stump grinder, it's cheaper than the mulcher, I'm sure. By far, by far. Yeah, the mulcher is a big deal. It is. Okay, okay. You got your trencher.
That's trencher.
You can rent this equipment too.
You can also rent attachments. All right, you don't have to buy them all.
Yeah. And then you have the auger, set of forks for lifting capacity, digging for fence posts, set forks.
Yeah, this is a—
that's for the excavator.
That's excavator. This is a trenching bucket, so it's got no teeth on the front and it's got a smooth back. So like putting in culverts, diverting water. No, it's just for the mini. And then you've got a grappler hook, which is also, I mean, self-explanatory. Pick up brush, drag it.
Grab it mainly for just picking up brush. Can you, can you get roots out of the ground with that?
Not really, not with that.
Okay, okay.
No, no, they have—
if you want, they have a root puller.
Yes, they have this thing. I've seen lots of different ways to do it, but they have this one attachment that's like this, almost like an arrow, right? And you push it down under the root, under the stump, and then pick up, and it literally just pulls this. Yeah, now that it's limited on size because at some point there's so much pressure you probably just pick the machine up.
Yeah, yeah, but I mean, something bigger machine, the bigger root.
So this is this Mini X or that's a track loader?
Okay, all right. So Jeremiah, you've heard what we're doing. You know, we're unloading feed, we're getting all the— they, they pulled all the silt out of our pond. We need to put in a manure spreader, spread it out. We're cleaning out deep bedding every year, clearing forest, I'd say you definitely need— this is the one. Okay, over the—
between the two, like, and you may end up deciding later, you know, you want to get that, like, yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, if I see—
I'm just gonna get one, I would go with this first and then get some attachments to go with it because attachments will go—
we'll get you two.
Most of them are pretty reasonable. The mulcher head was not.
All right, so do you have any— you know, I told you about that guy with the tractor. Do you have any regrets? Do you wish they were bigger? You wish they were smaller? No. Wish you would have gotten sooner?
Honestly, no, because we didn't have the property for it. Like, there would be no reason for us to have any equipment like this. I mean, we had a 25-horse tractor that did everything at the other farm. When we got here, I— and I started working on this, I called Jessica. I said, hey, I'm gonna have to get something or we're never gonna get moved. I was like, we would not have made it here and gotten to where we're at without this. I mean, obviously we worked hard and we've had people working for us, but I'm telling you, we are where we are after a year, and we are moved here when we moved here because we went and bought the equipment.
Okay, and it is all very well worked too. It's not, it's not like you just have a big old patch of wild. You're cultivating it all. Jeremiah said we can go see the implements later, maybe drive one after party. We'll see. Yeah, we should. Look at him run! This way, Henry, this way!
Can you make it through?
Come on, you got this, you got it! He can sit up in there. Yeah, don't, don't mess with that.
Come through!
Or not. Come on.
Nope.
There he is.
Walking in that tube. Hey, crawling in it wasn't enough? Walking on one isn't enough? You got to jump from one to the other? I haven't even seen it. I love your dress. Oh, I love you too. We could hear you across that farm, that wonderful laugh.
Yeah, how are you?
Where's Jess?
We had a building friend, a builder friend of ours, when we were talking about it, he was like you're wasting your time and money. Like, it's— you don't have to do that down here. I'm like, yeah, but I still want to do it.
No, it's right. It's the right thing.
That's good because like, that's because Justin and I have always said like, if we ever were going to build a house, we were going to do it passive solar. And we never thought we were going to, but circumstances have changed. And so now we're like, okay, we're gonna build a house and, uh, be excited about it. I'm excited. I'm really excited.
This is a 300-year— this is a legacy, 300-year legacy. And you don't know what the future is for the grid and all this stuff.
So exactly, how about not—
why not build a house that doesn't need energy? Energy in the first place, as much energy, right?
Right.
And that's kind of where we stand with that stuff, is like, we're not trying to get away from the grid, but, but we'd want to be ready if we ever have to get away from it.
Yeah. Okay, thanks, my man. Give us a picture. You got a picture on your phone? No, I want to see our house. There it is.
It's really—
and what state are you in?
South Carolina. Oh, you're rude. Yeah, we're down the road.
And you took a picture of on a snowy day, and it looks pretty too.
That was last year.
That's the thing about a passive solar is a lot of them are ugly. So my—
I was telling her my sister-in-law designed for us. And we told her we wanted passive solar farmhouse, and I grew up in like a 1920s house. And so we wanted to combine that too. And she's like, you realize none of those styles go together? I was like, yeah, but I also know that you can do it.
And she did.
She did.
Okay, good.
I also know that she could probably make a killing if she made some of those house plans available to the public.
Yes.
Because like, I have looked and looked and looked, and I'm like, I don't want to live in any of these houses. They are all so ugly.
They are.
They are.
Like, you are— to build a true passive solar house, it's like utilitarian.
It's a rectangle, it's a square.
That's textbook. Nursing break. What are you doing, my man?
Collecting acorns.
You're leading the charge. Yeah, on one crutch. What you guys collecting acorns for?
To feed to the pigs.
Nice.
I wish we had more acorn trees.
Oh yeah?
Yeah.
Why, you'd do it?
Probably. Or I'd build a processor.
Mmm. Ah, been hanging out with everybody. They are now calling us for lunch. Smells delicious. Word on the street is Jessica made this all herself. Look at this.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
This may be the first event she's had in her barn. Like, this ain't just an event barn, this is like a barn barn. How about that for a table? Hi. Are you hot? No, I'm smiling. That's a recipe for getting in the barn. Right? What's your name?
Where are you from? Mary Crowley from right outside of Austin, Mass. What you growing?
Everything. How crazy are you for Jess?
Words cannot express.
He's nodding. How crazy are you for Jess?
I'm pretty crazy.
Who's crazy? We got a bunch of crazy Jess fans.
Everybody that's here is crazy.
The word on the street is she made the soup.
I heard her say it in the vlog the other day that she was making the soup. I don't eat meat, but I said I'm gonna eat whatever she serves because I know it's not gonna be—
She set aside meat for her and I.
And it's not— well, whatever. The soup has bone broth. I wouldn't normally.
Oh, okay.
I'm going to because I know it'll taste the way it's supposed to.
You're gonna do it for love. Well, because I know it's going to be good food.
Yeah.
All right, Jeremiah.
Yes, sir.
This is the first event in the barn.
It is.
Good job, man.
I mean, the first event for people.
Yeah, we had a cow birth right over there, and we're in a legit barn. It's not just an event barn.
Now we're cohabitating.
Look at this view.
Welcome everybody with open arms and say thank you so much. You are the first the first humans to eat an actual sit-down meal in this barn. So there's that. Many meals have been eaten here by the non-human sort, and some meals have been eaten by the human sort, but never this nice. So I've always had this vision and this dream of a really long table and the idea that whenever you have been blessed, instead of building a higher fence, you build a longer table. So this is a very symbolic thing for me. We were a little ambitious on this gathering, and I decided that I wanted to cook all of the food from scratch from our farm as much as possible.
It turns out we have no food. I hope that you guys can survive on conversation.
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 40+ people at this table. Plus the chickens.
Yes, chicken and rice. Thank you so much.
How long did it take you to make it?
Um, I've been working on it for about 3 days. Well, unless you want to get real technical, because I planted this stuff like 4 months ago. I know, right?
I know. Henry, go through it.
Let's see you do it. Come on, old man.
Party is wrapping up and Lily is on Jeremiah. To show the horses. We have a bit of a conflict. You want to see the horses, Jonah wants to see the machines. Well, why aren't we going out there with him?
He says he's gonna bring them.
Did he say stay? Oh, okay. Whose horses are these, yours or Jessica's?
Never mind.
You ever ride them?
Yeah, hand flat.
Have you fed a horse before, Lily?
Yeah.
Keep your hand flat. Why do you got to keep the hand flat?
Because they'll bite. If you like curl your hand, they'll bite your fingers, not intentionally.
You ever been bitten by a horse?
Yeah.
Is that the colt?
No, she's a Mustang. So this is my friend Wes's horse. She's a little skittish, but she's only 18 or 19 months old, so she's still got a long ways to go anyways.
Have you ever broken in a horse? Not really.
I can't do it. Nice.
Lily's all about it. Yeah, I need a horse like now.
Thanks a lot, Jeremiah.
Uh-oh, don't tell me you found a dirt bike. All right, we're gonna see some more of these implements.
All of a sudden, stickers flying everywhere.
I don't think we have stickers here today.
Jeremiah has cleared this Silvo pasture with a forestry mulcher attachment to the track loader. Looks good.
The teeth are on this side, and it spins like this.
Goodness, this is a heavy-duty piece of equipment. They rent these too?
Yeah, honestly, I don't know. They're so hard on them. Yeah, like it's, it's, it's a lot of vibrations and dirt, and honestly, they're kind of dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. So I don't know if they rent these. They might. Like, you actually, when you get one, they require you you to bring your skid steer in and they hook it up. They calibrate the two pieces of equipment together because of the— how, how the flow works. So this is calibrated specifically to our skid steer. Also, they make you put a ballistic door on it. It's bulletproof on the skid steer.
Your, your track loader didn't come with that door?
No, no, none of them do. You have to get it.
You have to get a stump grinder. A little less learning curve on this thing.
Yeah, this is way, way easier.
So in this case, you would cut down the stump and then come in and grind it.
Yeah, you basically set it down and then it plugs in with like a this.
Yeah.
And once that pin plug plugs in, it changes the controls.
Yeah.
And so you can control this left, right, up, and down with just the thumb stuff.
Do you have to have a high flow on this one?
They make a version that's a little less powerful that's not high flow, but this one is a high flow.
You had a good idea maybe how to afford these things where it's renting it out to friends. Think wildly and start a small grading business. Business.
Yeah, like if you had an operator that you paid an hourly— yeah, providing a job for somebody.
Yeah.
And then you're paying your payment, your insurance costs, and your, you know, maintenance and fuel, and then essentially getting to keep, you know, a certain percentage just as a bonus income. I like that.
That's a big creative thinking where something doesn't necessarily cost you money— well, I mean, it costs money of course, but then you can find a way to earn with it. Yeah, then it's an investment.
Did you clear this, Jeremiah?
Yeah, we cleared this.
What? So you cleared that acre and a half, 2 acres? Yeah, with your Mini X and your track loader.
Don't— you— this— and then we also had— Poppy's got an old small like D3 dozer.
Okay.
Oh, that helps a lot, you know, for pushing stuff. But most of the work was the mulcher and then Mini X.
So you would push stuff down with the Mini X and then the big stuff?
Yeah. And then mulch a lot of this. Some of it was left cut down from when they come and they cut timber.
Okay.
And so we just use the dozer to push it in the piles and start burning it. We still got to come back through with the grinder and grind down all the stumps that are left, and then we got to do some grading. You know, there's a lot of dirt work that needs to happen, but eventually this will just be all part of the same pasture. Cool.
Thanks. They provided the lunch, we provide the dinner, and this roast is fall-off-the-bone. I don't know, somebody's gonna have to tell me how the mashed potatoes are. Another gigantic table. Build longer table. Not higher walls. I like it. I like your pumpkin. Goodbye, y'all. How was the dinner?
It was wonderful.
It was really fun.
Okay, good. Everybody loved the lunch.
Yep.
Thanks for the tours on the tractors.
I'll have to come up in there once you get yours.
I know.
I like your mentality of trying to turn it into an asset. Yeah, not just to do the work on homestead but generate income. Okay, it is rain— it's pouring. Okay, how are we gonna do this? And I think it's supposed to rain all the way home. Made it home. Winnie, how you doing? How you doing? Oh, it's raining a lot here. That's a wrap, folks. Happy day. See you on the next one.
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