In Day 41 of the 100‑day homestead build, Victor (Papa) and Rebecca document a packed day of chores aimed at progressing toward a winter‑ready farm and a Christmas tree. The vlog opens with a rundown of the day’s agenda: clearing land for a better view, handling a pig that escaped its pen, treating a cow with mastitis, and sourcing a Christmas tree. Throughout the video the family discusses and performs a variety of tasks: feeding hay to sheep and cows, setting up net pens, attempting to sprout grain (peas and corn), assessing a broody hen and deciding who will raise the chicks, organizing chainsaw and other equipment, and executing a mastitis treatment protocol using a rope halter, drench, and teat injection. They also retrieve an escaped pig using improvised carabiner‑based gate lifting, celebrate the cleared view, prepare a brunch of sausage‑egg biscuits, introduce raw milk to a child, and finally load a large Kenyan Christmas tree onto a trailer, cut its base, and secure it for transport. The narrative interweaves practical farm management, problem‑solving under time pressure, and family collaboration, highlighting both successes (view cleared, tree secured) and ongoing challenges (pig escape, mastitis, broody hen care).
Chapters
Day 41 of 100 days finding water, establishing access, clearing 2 acres this winter, all in just 100 days. Today we are clearing for a view, the pig got out, and we are treating mastitis, and finally getting a Christmas tree.
Oh, he's gonna give me— you ready to go? All right, my chores today, I'm going to be giving the sheep and cows hay and picking up nets. Now that the weather's getting colder, we're giving the cows hay because there's not as much grass growing. My next chore is to pick up nets. I'm going to set them up for 3 days ahead paddock. I'm putting them in the garage because tomorrow I'll set them up because the cows are going to be in their paddock 2 days.
Day 4 or 5 trying to sprout this grain. We haven't had any luck. Oh, this is a good sign. We have a pea sprouting. Yay! Corn sprouting?
No.
Is it softer? Not really. I got through it. Pig could get through it. Chickens aren't eating that corn whole. They're eating everything else, but maybe sprouting it is, uh, will help them eat it. It's raining, but that doesn't have to stop us. I actually just read that it's actually— you got less friction in wet wood and it can be better to chainsaw in the wet. What do you got here?
A broody hen.
Really?
Eggs under it.
Well, let's see if she growls at us. She puffs up.
Yeah, she puffs up.
She's probably broody. You got to get these out every day or they're going to start hatching.
Okay, but can I, can I take care of these? It's not the time.
It's always a terrible time to raise chicks. All things Think about it. Talk to your mother. Should let kids fail. I should, because then it might not even fail. I don't know, where would you do it?
In the broody.
In the brood? Oh, okay. Yeah, in the brooder. Okay, if you want to set that up and take care of them, it's 100% on you.
I know, but I did it last time.
I'm just saying it's 100% on you. Yes or no? You agree or not?
I agree.
Okay, that's what you got to do. Set it all up. Go get Everybody's gear separate so we know whose is who. And then fuel up everybody. Barn chain oil and gas.
Giselle, let's go get the chainsaws ready.
I'm gonna be getting the milking done. They're gonna go get the chainsaws ready. There's really nothing for them to do while we're doing that because we want to get some clearing in. We have a deadline today because we're gonna go get a Christmas tree.
Right now I am separating all the chainsaw equipment into bins. This is mine, this is Papa's, and that's just—
has the tools of trade for mastitis treatment. A rope halter. Excel 7000. We're gonna drench that. 30— what do you call these? 30-something. Excel-X Gold teat injection. We're ready to go. We're really gonna sock it to her. Let's milk it all the way out. I think this is certainly infected. I don't know if the other one is, but we're gonna be careful.
Hey Papa, by the way, I squirted it.
I can see the hole. Boom! You have it right here. Okay, but we now have to then flip it so that this rope, the long end, is on your right. Okay, and then that way it pulls her nose in here. It pulls down, not up. We have to do this rope holder to get her head— hold her head still so we can give her a, uh, drench.
Hey, Papa, um, do you know how to lasso?
No, but I know you need a lasso rope. We gotta tie her head down close so she can't move it around too much. She'll resist the trench. They always do. See that? Oh, I guess it's 30 milliliters.
Wow, did you do that? I thought, I thought you lifted a little, poured it in.
No, I mean, I guess that's one way. Here we go. Well, we got most of it. What are you up to today, Beck? I just wanted to nap. That's all right.
I'm so tired.
That's what happens after 3 days in bed.
I'm so tired. Of cooking.
Well, how many days of leftovers do we have?
Hopefully lots. Hopefully lots. 11-25.
I saw when I was watching the video of us clearing the other day with Shawn, there's actually a view out through there. I didn't notice when we were clearing. Why don't we keep clearing the way we were the other day, and maybe by the end of this session we'll have the satisfaction of a view. What do you think? When they saw, they're excited and they're involved and they want to do it. I love to saw, but I'll give it up if it, if it, if it means they'll get excited about this project. If I just let them do it and I haul brush.
Do they have water? Yes. Oh, it's good in here. There's no chicken. Yeah, I'm going to put it in with Papa soon. What?
Can you help me get the chicken in here? Sure. Gosh, Papa. All right, he's got him a broody hen.
Why?
I'm just gonna keep her head covered so she can't see where she's at. You've set this up nice. You've got them feed, you've got them water. Uh, put that against the wall so she can't get out. Yeah, you're gonna have to trap her for a bit. Okay.
Yeah, you like you told me last time, just a little bit.
Put that— we're gonna put that over it. Maybe this on top of it. Get some of those eggs out of there.
Why?
How many are there? 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. You technically only supposed to do 8.
Yeah, but though some will probably hatch.
You know what, this is your project. All right, you can learn, you can learn with experience. All right, put that— yep. Now you have to remember to come uncover that tonight. Okay.
Okay? Tonight.
Yeah, so she can get her drinking water. We just have to clear this and this. See this view?
But all of these trees are in the way.
Uh-huh.
Papa, we'll have to clear the big tree.
Come up here.
Coming, don't worry.
But look at that. These are angles of the farm we've never seen before. I haven't, and we're all seeing together. What if today, in this hour, we cleared this and we have this amazing before and after type of feeling? Okay, of accomplishment.
All right, let's do this. A big pig is out.
Rebecca just paged me. We've got— the pigs are out. And they're out, out of the high tunnel. This is not good. They do not follow well. Okay, come on. You know what? What? We might have to catch them with pig panels. Come on, Jonah! It was just going too smooth. Just getting chores done, project done, Christmas tree. It was just going too smooth. Brunch.
Hey, Lana!
John, get ready to open the door.
Yes, it's okay, he'll eat it.
It's good that only one is out because he'll want to get with the other two eventually. This is not happening, this is too easy. Yep, yep, it was too easy. Yes! Okay, well, we can breathe easy. We still have to get him in his corner, but he's catching.
You still have that carabiner?
That's too easy. I do. This is crazy. That's too easy. Okay, you shut the gate. Hey, hey, here she comes!
Hey, got it!
Let's give him some of that food. What happened? Oh, they've, uh— oh, he's lifted it up.
Okay, because he bent it. Now put the carabiner on.
Now I meant to put this carabiner on here. I think though this is not a big enough carabiner. No, I think it'll lift right through. I'll show you guys. So we put a carabiner on the bottom of this, and that way he's smart, he's lifting the gate. No, it's not gonna. This could have been an all-day thing. Well, that might be dramatic, but, uh, maybe a few hours. Yeah, it could have ruined our morning. He went right in. Hey, good work everybody.
That was hustle.
Hot dog! Look at this view! Let's take some time and smell the roses. Now the smell is quickly fading. Let's move on.
So I'm just making some brunch up. We're gonna have sausage and egg biscuits. I am really tired because I have been cooking for 3 days. For Thanksgiving. I don't have a lot of gas in the engine right now. This is like all it has right now. That's all it has so far. Yeah, it's as it is right now.
Rebecca did an amazing job on this. She did a good job. We're gonna eat this and try to leave as soon as we can to go get that Christmas tree. Y'all ready for that Christmas tree?
Yeah.
Okay, see Bee having raw milk for the first time. Oh my gosh, I'll never be the same. You'll never go back. You can't get this in the grocery store.
No. All right, getting a Christmas tree is a big production, especially when you get a trailer.
We're hooking up the trailer because, well, we're going to go through the trouble of putting it on the roof. We don't have room inside, so this is actually the easiest thing. It's working. We got everybody loaded up. I'm putting the final extra chains on here. We're just gonna shop right here because the baby's still asleep. Well, here are the trees. Is there anything y'all want to look at specifically? Well, we're liking this size tree, right, Rebecca?
Well, hold on, just size, baby wants a big tree.
Well, this is a big tree. These are different than the ones we have up front. These are Kenyans. These take more water so they'll last longer and healthier.
Oh God, we're really bad about it. We kill our tree.
We need your hardiest tree you got.
—hardiest tree. This wreath's for the four-wheeler and one's for Sally and then the other two are for the doors.
We got the tree, we got a bunch of wreaths. We're calling it that. Henry's still sleeping. Let's get home. You want to grab that, Ann?
Yeah, this one goes on the front door. I think that's how it goes.
We have a history of killing our trees, so we're gonna go the extra mile, cut off the bottom. You got water in that?
Yeah. Whoa, there's like trees inside! Why in the world? I'm here. Okay.
Okay, it's on it.
Maybe someone could come over here and twist these at the same time as Papa's twisting this other one. This is the top one. That top one, right? That one isn't in.
All right, we did it! What a productive day.
You have to go back. That's it. Wonderful. Oh good. Like all my Christmas wishes came true.
