In this episode of the Rooted Life vlog, the host walks viewers through the concept, design, and prototype testing of an "Everflow" cow waterer—a gravity‑fed, continuously moving water system intended to keep water from freezing in winter and enable year‑round grazing. The segment details the simple plumbing layout (quick‑connect hose, PVC elbows, inlet from a mountain source, outlet back to the main line), a homemade filter to keep debris out, and a live test showing water flowing through the system. Interwoven throughout are personal reflections on parenting (potty‑training, decision‑making with five children), a discussion of chicken coop options (the high‑cost "Pretty Shaw" versus the low‑cost chicken tractor), and a promotion for the host’s new book Homestead Builds, which includes free plans and a giveaway of signed copies. The video also mentions practical logistics like sourcing parts at Lowe’s, budgeting for builds, and the broader philosophy of doing hard, creative work on the homestead.
Chapters
Happy day. Today's episode of the Rooted Life. I got a little crap-sticking time bomb on the back of my back. He's Commando. He's potty training. He could go off at any minute. And this behind the scenes, I've been working to put together a little contraption. I have an idea for Everflow cow water, and I put this in here on this side with a hose Quick connect down here on this side, pipe up to drain it, going back down to our water line. Water coming in, water coming out, always moving, never freezing, always full. What do you think about Everflow water for cows? That would enable us to graze the 2 acres into the winter. Lily took Sally. No, I set that up for hay. Why did she take our Sally? Lily! Yeah, I need Sally, honey. I got the little guy on me. I'm excited. 5 kids, they're all extremely different. He— well, that's his— that's his choice, his consequence. Gideon's not coming. I don't want to make my kids do everything. They're gonna have to make decisions eventually as adults, right? So you make the decision. You're gonna come by this certain time or you're not. Natural consequences either way. This one, we just thought he didn't like to go with me. Do you like to go with me? I guess he doesn't, but he does, he does. He just pitches a little fit at first, unlike the other kids. They all liked to go. So he has a little fit, but then he just rides and we have a good time. And we get your boots, right? We have a good time, right? Let's be honest though, it is a pain in the butt to bring the little kids. But bring the little kids. Just because it's a pain in the butt doesn't mean it's wrong. Often doing the right thing is the most difficult thing. But it gives mom a break, he and I time together, and really we're training them to be adults. Be creative, do hard things, work hard. Yeah, they're coming. It's a big problem. And have water freezing in the winter. And being a permaculturalist, one day I said, well, how does nature keep its water unfrozen during the winter? Ah, okay, it's always flowing. It starts up higher, it goes down, it's always moving. So how can we mimic that to our advantage? I'm thinking we could do this today. Hey, look who made the right decision just in time. You better be lucky, we had to come back for gloves. Henry, alarm's going off every hour. Pee pee. You want to go pee pee? He only had one accident yesterday. We just started yesterday. If Gideon takes you back, will you go with him to the potty? Yes. And then you'll play train tracks? Okay then. No extra alfalfa for these guys. I'm so happy you work, He-Man. You work. Oh my gosh, you might be further along than, uh, she might have been pregnant for a while. And this is all the milk we got. It's maybe a gallon. Let's see in the height, what do we get out of 2 cows? 3 gallons. It wanes, okay, gradually goes down. That's why we want to keep having babies. Oh my gosh, the ordinary obstacles in our way of our goal. This Everflow waterer. Oh boy, we got a huge mess. New habit: cleaning up as we go. You look nice today. Happy Thanksgiving week. I know, I'm so excited. She's got Because I want to get the Christmas tree this week. Not this week, but like after Thanksgiving. We usually get it Friday. Well, that's this week. She's got a chicken boiling for some chicken soup tonight. Chicken pot pie soup. I'm gonna make biscuits right now and put them in the freezer. I see you've got your Thanksgiving list already. The secret to Thanksgiving, peaceful Thanksgiving, is to start on Sunday. We have got to go to Lowe's to fix the water line above where this overflow water is going to be. Well, don't delay me, Gideon. We should make sure, just double-check, that I have all the parts for this Everflow waterer. So on one end we've got this. I have quick connects to my hose. That should be one end. That's the water going out. The water coming in has got this. So simple. The supplies— normally go to the Lowe's, they harass me for toys. I have an idea. That makes it all worth it right there. Mr. Brown, where are your shoes? I don't know. I guess he left them. I gave up on his shoes a long time ago. Mom, did he buy the roof juice? Did he? I don't know what he said. We should maybe get another one for you guys. Maybe one more? Here, I have an idea. All right, here. Now let's get you some parts. Instead of buying them junk toys, let's get them some PVC stuff and they can build things. Like, here's an elbow. You have to get the right size. I don't think this is any cheaper, but I don't know, we're doing something more creative for sure. Aha, we got to fix our water line coming down the mountain. We need some of these. Oh, back home she's cooking up a storm, y'all. Oh my gosh, I'm feeling déjà vu. Are you serious? Running out of daylight. Finally got that cleaned up. Put it outside there in our quasi-office. Austin and I edited. You ever feel like domestics are holding you back? Too blessed to be stressed, too blessed to be stressed. I've got to go pick up Lily from horse lessons. I'm not gonna have time to get started on that. Hopefully this evening before we go to Lily's. In the excitement of my new book coming out, Homestead Build— Chicken Minute. Let's have a chicken minute. So one of the biggest problems with ordinary chicken coops is they tend to be very expensive, especially nice ones. Like, this is pretty, right? We call this the pretty shawl. It could be turned around, you know, in the winter we kind of like to keep the— this open end on the south, you know, it's just warmer. One of the biggest problems is that they are expensive. Spread that manure love just by moving it. Never have to clean this thing, but that's another point. I'll get into that another day. But today, a lot of you are getting into chickens because, well, you want less expensive eggs. Eggs are— organic eggs especially, $6 to $9 a dozen. If you get caught up into the trap of these pretty coops, we're talking about thousands of dollars. And all of a sudden you went from $6 a dozen eggs to $6,000. Let's say you build the Pretty Shaw. Have plans for that at Homestead Builds. For the first time ever, I have plans for the Pretty Shaw. You can build that with cedar lumber, all the good stuff, that the nicest coop we have, a beautiful coop, mobile. You can build that for no more than $1,700. That's if you bought everything yourself, okay? And that's our most expensive coop. Go to the other extreme, build our chicken tractor, the most practical coop there is. Holds up to 12 chickens, only this tall, can move it around, can Keep it in place, gonna have it build a garden for you. Less than $700 you can build that thing for. Speaking of the chicken tractor, here's my book, Homestead Builds. Well, which, by the way, 1, 2, 7 of these plus 3 more I'm giving away, like physical books to lucky winners. Everybody who enters to win is going to get free chicken tractor plans right now at homesteadbuilds.com. This, print it out, go get all the supplies. All the steps. Build the checkered tractor. Get the plans. It's on me. Plus you get a chance to win. 10 people will win a physical signed book. Time's ticking, I better get going pretty soon. There's 24 in this, this, and the equivalent digital versions. Giving away 50 digital versions. Time is limited though. Sign up down in the description or go to homesteadbuilds.com. We've got just a few minutes. Can I just go ahead and maybe get the tools for doing this? And then I could do this really quick tonight. I think it'd be really quick. I think that's it. So not gonna be too bad once you have everything. Let's hope I can get that tonight. Let's get moving. How was your lesson? Um, it was good. Liz was really good except for one part. Which part? When I fell off. We were about to go over this like big 3-foot jump. What was it like, 3 foot? It was like 2.5 feet jump. I've come to learn it doesn't matter how much you get done in a day. It's just that you get something done in a day and that over time compounds. So just do something towards your journey. For us, it's our food growing journey. Everflow water roof. I can already tell this is going to stick a little further out in the trough than I would like. Once I put that on there, it ain't coming off. I didn't want to glue anything yet because, well, you never know. This part is guessing my water filter is going to be right here, but we're going to be uneven. This sits on unlevel ground. Could put this in and be done. So see what's happening? Water is going to come in right here off the mountain. It's going to fill up. By the time it fills up, it'll fall down through here and then it'll have fall to get going again, gravity feeding to the exit line, back down to the main pipe. We could leave it just like that and water would go through. Also, crap would go through. So I have an idea. Sound effects and everything. I just made a homemade filter basically. Shall we test it? We'll have a hose like this in the field coming off the main line, gravity-fed water. We'll do the quick connect. It won't be coming out nearly that fast, but it'll be coming off the speed it's coming off the mountain. That will fill up. Come through the filter, should come out the other end. And we have a quick connect down there at the bottom so it can run back to the main line, down the line, and back to the creek where it was going. Are we working? Oh, we're coming out the other side! Happy day! Tomorrow we'll set it up out in the field.
