In this Day‑50 vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes walks viewers through a busy morning on his homestead, beginning with a reflection on willpower and the need to stay on schedule after a late‑night Lindsey Stirling concert. He prepares the site for volunteer work, marks the clearing area with warning tape, and checks a malfunctioning water‑er system, troubleshooting the washer and quick‑connect. The family treats a sheep for mastitis, inspects the animal’s udder, and discusses herd health. The crew then moves to brush‑clearing, using both gas and electric chainsaws; Victor and Sean compare tool performance, battery life, noise, and fumes, while the kids help with chain maintenance. They measure the cleared patch (approximately 7,500 sq ft) and set a goal for the day. Later, Sean brings naturalizing tulip bulbs and an auger, planning a surprise planting for Rebecca and Grandma, and explains seed sourcing and planting depth. Throughout, Victor coordinates volunteers, assigns tasks, and rewards the kids with chocolate bars. The vlog blends practical homestead tasks—water system repair, livestock care, land clearing, tool evaluation, and gardening—with family banter and reflections on motivation and time management.
Chapters
I got some tape to mark our territory for clearing. There we go. 10 till 8. Definitely later than usual. We went to the Lindsey Stirling concert last night. Once in a lifetime thing. Basically, the concert's starting when we are normally practically in bed. Yeah, we want to be mindful of our time today because the volunteers are coming at 9, and wouldn't it be a shame of very valuable resources for them just to have to stand there and watch us do chores? I'm learning in the book the one thing: you only have so much willpower. Y'all probably know by now peanut butter is my kryptonite. I guess the willpower Tank is full. A little bit of fuel is being taken out. I'm stirring this, I'm smelling it, I'm seeing it. I really need to teach Gideon how to make his own peanut butter and apples, although he would spill his oil everywhere. It's the problem. I hear you saying, we'll make him clean it up. Yeah, I get you, I get you. That's going to take more out of my, uh, patience willpower tank.
Well, that's hopeless.
Kids didn't put Sally under the garage. Window scraper would be nice, but the, uh, that's where I keep it. Cloth ain't cutting it. I need a string. Finding stuff, you gotta suck my willpower. That book had a really good point about the various things that suck your willpower— resisting something negative happening, uh, trying on your patience. It did lack solutions on how to protect and recover that willpower, except the only solution was do things early in the morning. So I guess I'm doing that because I'm making the vlog. So I just need I'm gonna give myself a break if irritable Justin comes out afternoon, evening, in just a few minutes. Because now we— now they didn't put the scoop back. Something's definitely wrong with our water here.
It's just off balance.
It's filled up over this. It's not— I don't think it is off balance. What we have to do is check first if the washer's still there. Okay, the washer's there. Pull it off now and we'll see what's, uh, what's wrong.
It wasn't tight on there. And it just kept lifting.
Let's put it in a dry, high spot, okay? Like this. Now let's see if whatever the heck we did fixed that, which was tighten the quick connect and tighten the automatic waterer on there. She's getting more crazy for the alfalfa, which is good. She knows I'm going to walk away and then she's she's gonna come eat it. But I can't let you get away with that. We treated her last weekend for mastitis. You can visually tell these were the suspects. This one is still more yellow. I don't know, it's not too— what we need this to do is to dissolve and not clamber up like snot. It all dissolved pretty good there, Jonah. Let's double-check that front right one. No, that's good. She's good. Thank you for helping us, Jonah. Now I can work with guacamole. Jonah wants to switch with me. Jonah says the Seminoles are interested in the alfalfa.
You gotta go back very far, but they do come over.
Okay, the 3 sheep there were over in the Luchador pen. They're from Florida. That's why we call them Seminoles. They're even a different breed. They're not even St. Croix. The breed doesn't matter so much to me as, uh, hardy. And we'll see if they're hardy. You want to run the chainsaw? Chainsaw one day. Sean, you've watched the vlog enough, you know the routine.
So I know what needs to be done.
Yeah, so it's about 9:30.
I think we'd go to at least 1.
So we should have 3 undivided hours, 2 chainsaws, 2 men. I even have some warning tape to mark our goal.
I brought some naturalizing tulips and an auger. If we want, we can surprise Rebecca.
Oh, that'd be fun.
Tulips. And then I brought the, uh, Oh, that'd be fun. Electric chainsaw this time.
What? Got a chicken that's out real quick. Shoot, we're getting down to 2 and a half hours now. There he goes. Come on, Gideon.
You guys can leave us.
No, we can't. No, we cannot. You guys play around here. Maybe go up into Rich Mullins. How's my spring doing?
Broke pretty clear.
Whoa! That's probably 25 feet across. Gets super wide right here though. Bunch of little brush in here, some trees, some big trees we'll save for later. They're advancing fast. So you see our yellow tape here, you see our cleared area there. This is the patch. Let's say it averages 30 ft. It's probably 250 ft long, 7,500 sq ft. Oh, he's taking his coat off, he warmed up.
It does need oil, but it's a great beginner tool. This is only like my fourth time running a chainsaw, but everything's super accessible, you know. I figured out how to use it in about 10 minutes, and, uh, chains come off a few times. You just pop that off.
Yeah, the bar oil goes in there, chain oil goes right in there.
The tree took the chain off and then put itself right on itself.
Oh, that's why we have a linebacker here. You can just lift that tree up.
Is it still stuck in the ground?
No, it's just cut. There we go, got it.
Took the chain off and, and pinned it. Yeah, boy, we might not have made a big enough goal for ourselves, huh? See the tape?
Yeah, we can do it.
It's the end way up there. What's the reward?
I get a chocolate bar.
Chocolate bar split for Josiah and Jonah. Here's definitely where that chain— like, electric chainsaw comes in handy. You're hauling brush, you don't want to crank up a gas saw, grab the electric chainsaw and cut it. How long did that battery last? This one?
Uh, probably, probably close to 2 hours. This battery is pretty big.
Wow. It's nice that it's not loud so you don't have to wear ear protection. Also, um, it doesn't smell, so you don't— you aren't breathing in toxic fumes.
So this battery is a 60-volt battery, but it's also capable for all of the 20-volt, uh, implements. So my chainsaw and my string trimmer, it can only utilize this battery, but all of my other tools can.
Yeah, so I like it. Yeah, so it's a good homestead saw for you.
It's a good— it's a good beginner homestead saw for me. I don't have this much acreage. I just have more, um, fence to clear, and I have small pockets of trees and tree trimming and bush trimming and stuff like that. Yeah, so for that application, uh, it's, it's just what I need.
Come on, boys, you making the gas saws look bad. What's wrong? The chain won't spin. I'm having to go check Henry. What's going on?
His coat's a little bit wet, and his, um—
Henry, you want to go in?
Hands and his boots.
Yeah, his little hands are getting red.
They're, um And also his boots, water got in his boots. He fell down on his knees. Okay.
Hey Lily, can you watch Henry? Did you get it wrapped around? I don't think he did. It's beyond me, I think, Josiah. I don't, I don't have any idea. And then Jonah's saying he's having problems. What's wrong with your chain?
It just fell off again.
What happened?
The chain came off again.
Why?
I was just cutting it.
Well, is this— is this loose?
Yeah, I loosened it.
You sure?
Look, you see how that is injured? That's a problem.
Is it?
Yes.
The brush saw would work good on that too. Should we go get that? Then you don't have to bend over so much.
Yeah, luckily I have a young back.
Okay, I'll be all right. So what are you doing, trying to grind it out?
I already did, and then I got it tangled.
There, that should do it. Gosh. The candy bar dreams are fading. Well, I know. With all these problems. That was probably not a big enough goal if we didn't have any problems. Hey, he's got his saw going.
It's like the blade's staying on.
Well, we made it to our line with the little stuff. You come back next year, it's gonna be all— who knows, the sheep might be grazing on it. That'd be awesome.
Let them work that up, then we'll get that big pine.
In order to get to that pine, I think you are gonna have to get out of territory and hit that one. But you know what, guys, you've earned your chocolate bar because I'm pretty sure You've crushed it. Can he get it between this hut and this building? We don't want him to hit the buildings because then nails or screws will go and that will end up on our pasture and the cows could end up swallowing it and get hardware disease. It's dead as a doornail in there. Perfect. Good job. This thing's all hollow. How's your, uh, saw doing?
It's doing great. It's really fast.
All right, let's hit it. You don't need air protection, but you do need eye protection still. Helmet won't hurt. Let's see. Wow, what do you think? Slow.
Looks like it's dull.
Save that for the branches. Jonah ran out of gas in his saw, so Shawn went to get some more. Trying the electric chainsaw. I don't know if it's lack of power or lack of a sharp saw. Well, we did our quota. Now looking at it, I don't know if it's 7,500 square feet, but it's certainly more than 1,300. It's probably 3 or 4 times that. We get a bonus. Let's go. Jonah thinks this is a maple. I think this is a sycamore. Run back, run back! Nice! That's going to be fun to work up. Watch out! See, you got to watch out for that stuff.
Hey, you're going to get close.
Okay, how do you compare that saw to the electric So a lot better. What is— which one?
This one.
Is it? What do you think, Shawn? You got to drive it a little bit.
Oh yeah, I mean, Ferrari versus Corolla, but the Corolla will get the job done if you don't, you know, if you ain't got to go in a whole lot of places in a hurry.
That's true. If you're super sensitive to fumes, well, I don't know if any of us should be breathing the fumes. Before you go, tulips in this bed. How many you plant in there?
I don't know, there's probably about 100 in here.
You think they'll make it with all the shrubbery ahead of it?
Oh yeah, tulips. These are naturalizing tulips, they should do, you know, this should, this should, uh, do very well with this much mulch.
This would be a nice surprise for Rebecca and for Grandma, for that matter. That's the driveway to her house.
About a 6-inch hole is what I'm aiming for. Go 2 to 3 in a hole, and so that way if there's any duds, they have more, more opportunity.
Where'd you get all these tulip seeds? Uh, we ordered a bulk, uh, wholesale tulips.
Nice.
Yep, we planted a bunch for our wedding at our house in the spring, as well as a lot to sell for cut flowers.
Sweet. That'll all rot away.
Yeah. Mom, what'd you make us for lunch?
Chili pork.
Well, I hope you don't get any on that nice robe.
For people who can eat it.
Henry, are you supposed to be in that? Look at you looking guilty. This is our rice for our electronics when they get wet. I see you've gotten it all out of the bag and put it in a drawer and you're playing with your trucks.
I want to have an idea.
And now this rice is in the police car and it's gonna get all over the house. Back on the animal wagon. Salmon and cheeseburgers and our own homegrown homemade butter. The moment you guys been waiting for. You made the quota. Go to town.
