Day 53 of the 100‑day homestead build follows the Rhodes family as they clear two acres, tackle a stubborn wood‑burn boiler, and celebrate Jonah’s 15th birthday by cutting down his biggest tree yet. The vlog interweaves practical farm tasks—delivering pig and chicken feed, managing a water leak, setting up raspberry trellises, and moving feed pallets—with personal moments, such as family members coordinating chores, training the pig Guacamole, and reflecting on Jonah’s growth. A significant portion of the episode is devoted to diagnosing a TC1 thermocouple error on the Central Boiler, discussing the challenges of part delays, and recommending system redundancy. The day culminates in a coordinated tree‑felling operation, with the family measuring progress, handling safety concerns, and celebrating the birthday with a homemade meal. Throughout, the narrator provides candid commentary on equipment performance, logistical planning, and the emotional significance of milestones, offering viewers both a realistic look at homestead problem‑solving and a heartfelt family narrative.
Chapters
Day 53 of 100 days of building a homestead. Clearing 2 acres, finding water, establishing access. Today my oldest turns 15 and we celebrate that. And what he wants to do? He wants to cut down the biggest tree yet.
It's raining.
One more obstacle standing in the way of you and your big tree. This time 15 years ago, we're at the hospital with you.
Yeah.
7-Eleven. We've got to get chores done by 8 so we can milk by 8. Skyler gotta leave by 9 for a town appointment. And then there's training, and then there's a big tree. What's happened to your dirt bike?
Chain came off.
Chain broke or came off? Oh well, I guess it did both. Today is the day on this wood boiler. It's not keeping attempt. Supposed to be to 185. We're getting a TC1 error. That's a thermocoupler. We're only going into the third season right now. I can't say I'm satisfied. I can't say I recommend it. I mean, right now it's probably 45, 50 degrees, but what if I lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont? This has been weeks. It's this temperature gauge right there. The dealer replaced that, but it still didn't work. And I I feel like it's taken a while for the manufacturer to send the cord. And what if I was in Wisconsin? And what if that was my only heat source? I hope I can make another video in 3 years and haven't had these problems. I definitely thought it was going to be more simple. Didn't get a rush on it like I would imagine that you maybe should when in a heating situation. Like, somebody could be cold. Rush that cable. I hate to say that, guys, but I feel like I have a certain obligation. I mean, you see me using this thing, and so in that way it's an endorsement. But I just got to be real for a moment. If a friend were on the phone with me and said, should I get a Central Boiler, I would have to say, well, I've had problems with it since I got it. When we were diagnosing problems and getting parts from the manufacturer they're not coming promptly. I'm still going for it, haven't given up on it, have I? Because the concept's great, having 100% of our heat from wood that is off of our farm. That's absolutely incredible and worth the struggle to me. What I would definitely recommend, that friend, is redundancy. I recommend redundancy anyway. Randolph made us some raspberry trellises yesterday. We hope to put those tomorrow in with Benjamin. It looks like Randolph's got us some cables too. That's good. We don't have anything to unload our feed with. They come in these pallets. We need to make room. Two more feeds are coming, another pig feed and a chicken feed. We're not putting this in the garage because a truck can't get down there. We've ordered— pay the extra money, we got the lift gate so they can pull up And that, that means a smaller truck's not an 18-wheeler, and they can pull up to this concrete. And once they get it off there, we have pallet jacks. Good morning!
Good morning!
Oh boy.
I know he's lost.
And a reminder why you don't come in the morning. Oh, swine's for you the whole time.
Hey baby!
And he gets on her and he's whiny on you. I know. The cows are here. They gotta go way over there today. You want to go do it? Open it wide. I'll bring them, okay? Hopefully that's enough blockage to keep them from going that way. Well, that water— that water's been leaking all night. It's not even leaking, it's just been running. Look at this guy, he knows. You've been around long enough, haven't you? Put your leg up, Jonah. Oh, don't let him step on the tarp. Good job, Lily. Hey, this will be your home very soon. We probably only have 2 weeks more grazing, maybe a week and a half. Don't have to have hay in here Hey, your lane worked for the cows. Good job, Jonah, set up this semi-temporary lane. Rebecca's here. She should be able to train Guacamole while we milk. My son's slowing me up a bit, so it's good that she's here. What we're doing with Guacamole is you stand right up on it and have her eat. Uh, don't, don't walk away and leave it for her to eat if you're If you're not standing there, she's not eating. Okay, okay, because she's learned, she's learned that if she just waits, we'll leave, and then she can eat it. We got to be able to do this one day with guacamole.
She keeps moving it. It was too much to try to touch.
Yes, I can't believe— Jonah, you think it's gonna clear up by this afternoon? It's gonna be a soggy mess anyway. We gotta make it happen though, it's his birthday, right? We just ate lunch. We're taking a look at our maps. We're trying to figure out when these were taken. We have a ditch here that we can kind of remember when we did that's uncovered. I can remember covering it.
We have the shower.
Yeah, uh, Big Daddy's shed is just built, and that was just so, so recently.
And we put the back of thing on the back shed of it.
Oh, and look, the chick shaw is out with the minerals.
That's the sheep shaw, and that's the milking.
So everybody's in the pole barn, and you can see this. So it was not in the fall, Rebecca, because we don't put people in the pole barn until Christmas-ish. This is late winter, early spring. Lily pointed out— you guys cannot see this on camera— Mom and I are laying in the sun in the yard. You can kind of see it. This is hilarious.
It's hilarious.
So it's probably taking about 1 o'clock.
Zoom in.
Hey, you guys go get, uh, the chainsaw ready. I'm gonna cut up your chicken for tonight. Jonah just parted the chicken. Does that look like enough? Looks like the rain has finally let off. This tree is definitely falling this way. Look at that notch in it. There's so much weight leaning over. Oh yeah, and then you got that big limb You got any rotten limbs about to fall off?
There's a big limb right here.
I don't think so. They're rotten right here. Disease. Yeah, this is so falling left. Good big notch. Not, not halfway through it either, so start— you don't want it to start falling before you do your back cut.
Ready, start the bomb. You ready?
Go!
Gas back up.
Wow, that was loud!
You can feel the earth hit.
Woo!
How was it?
Fun.
Now we gotta work all that up.
Definitely nervous. I was definitely very nervous.
What happened?
We both got stuck at the same time.
We'll get the PV. That's why— that's one reason we brought it. Oh, he'll get his out. Look. All right, good job. Got something in your eye?
Yeah, shaving.
You want to do— get through the shield?
It went flying up under it.
Hmm.
Okay, just a little piece of bark. You need a Q-tip.
It doesn't bother me as much right now, but okay.
What do you think, you young boys? These, these big trees, they aren't quite as satisfying as clearing a patch of rhododendron, is it?
Yeah, besides when you hear them come down, that's a thrill.
Is it worth it?
Um, kind of.
We're gonna get a little bit of both today. The thrill of the big tree and then the thrill of the big clear, because we got about an hour and a half more. Let's roll these Get these piled up till 3:30. Or is that when you want to quit? 3:30?
Is that when we are? It's a 20-inch tree.
Is it?
Yeah.
How big's your blade?
20 inches.
Well, that's about to the max, isn't it?
Yeah.
Well, this time next year your voice would be big and deep like this, and you'll be driving today. In one year you're gonna be going and getting your driver's license.
Yeah.
Where are you gonna take me?
Uh, I don't know, to Lowe's or something.
I like it. It's got his head on straight, doesn't he? We've got only an hour and 15 minutes. Let's aim for the impossible. There's our old tape way over there. Let's make connection to this tape.
Oh, like from this tree all the way over there. And if we can, if we can do more, that's great.
That's so easy. We'll get that in an hour and a half. Well, I guess we could see how much more we can do than that, huh?
We cannot get these nails off. Whoa!
We got our markings. You can see the old line. That's cool. We can build off of that. Then we gotta get this section. 2:48, an hour and 12 minutes left. Probably 2,000 square feet. 25 minutes, guys, if we hustle. Boy, we end up being pretty ambitious. We got a lot of brush on the ground. It's hard one man keep up with two saws. Boom! And 10 minutes to spare. How about that? We get some margin. I'm telling you, we're getting this dialed. 2,000 square feet-ish. I think we have a 1,300 square foot quota. We probably need to calculate that. Josiah asked me, he said, well, what happens if we don't get done today? And I said, I guess we're losers. But not today, we're winners today. Hey, hey, are you saying Papa? I love it when you say that. How's it going in here, Beck?
You're going great.
Fried chicken turning out good? Besides on grit duty, you like grit duty? Yeah, keep him from getting burn duty. Sausage gravy, creamy dreamy grits. It's a very yellow meal. Who's glad Jonah was born right about now? Let's see, he was born at 5 in the morning, wasn't he? No, 5 in the afternoon. Oh, or 2:30.
Happy birthday to you.
Oh, you get to wish.
I didn't wish.
What wish is it?
I didn't wish.
Well, what is it you want?
Uh, you wish after you blow it.
I don't know. I don't really need anything.
Rebecca, you've perfected this cake.
Yeah.
The gluten-free spice nut. It's turned out amazing.
Actually, gluten-free and grain-free.
One more thing. That's the blessings. Youngest to oldest, bless your brother.
He's a good brother. He likes the chainsaw. Jonah is very nice. And he's a good brother and he likes to watch Henry and he likes it when I make lunches.
Yeah. Hey Henry, you want to say something nice to Jonah?
Eh.
Can you say I love you? Can you say thank you?
He's a good older brother. Sometimes he helps me with my chores and he's fun to be around.
Nice.
What about how I'll help you with your motorbike? And build jumps for you to jump on them.
And— Hey, what is this?
Can I ask one more question?
What is this? Come up with your own blessing?
Yeah.
Can I ask one more?
Sure.
And he liked it when he cut down the tree.
Oh yeah.
You're 15 and you're gonna be driving a car soon.
This year.
This year you're gonna get your permit and Then next year you're gonna get your driver's license, and I just can't believe that you're growing up so much. When you were in the hospital, I realized how much you had grown up because you were able to converse with adults and you were very mature surrounding lots of things that happened to you, and I was really proud of you that you were handling everything so well. And so I'm just very proud of you. And I'm very thankful for you. You being down has showed us how much you do, and we're very proud of you. You are just learning so much and doing so many first things. It's fun. I'm just so proud of you. I'm just thankful that you're my son, and I'm very happy that you were born. 15 years ago today.
Ever since you were very little, maybe Gideon's age, what you started wanting for gifts was tools. Yeah, you started wanting DeWalt. You had DeWalt everything, and once you got all that, now you want Husqvarna everything. And then you want the track loader and, and excavator, and you're running that chainsaw. And you haven't slowed down. That's pretty cool that what you want on your 15th birthday is to cut down a tree. A lot of 15-year-olds doing a lot more nonsense, so good job.
Thanks, my big boy.
Wow. Here, I'm gonna stand up.
Let's just toss you yet.
Not yet.
Let's see, let's do back to back.
Hey, let's measure me in 11-1. You're not much further than you were in November. Okay, come on. Get out. Wow. Uh, 5 foot 1, 2, 3. 5 foot 3.
