In this vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes (Speaker A) documents his first on‑farm beef butchering with helpers Jonah, Rebecca, and Arun. He begins by reviewing a members‑only masterclass on the Abundant Permaculture site, noting equipment (gun, knife, gambrel, chains, buckets, twine) and mental preparation. The team transports a steer to a pasture, slits its throat, and manages the bleed-out, describing the emotional tension and safety concerns. They then move the carcass to a flat area, skin, gut, and quarter it, detailing specific cuts, mistakes (cutting into meat, mis‑placing knots), and teamwork dynamics. After cleaning, they place the quarters in a barrel, collect organs, and plan to hang the meat for two weeks before sending it to a butcher. Throughout, Rhodes promotes the Abundant Permaculture membership, highlighting the masterclass, fall registration bonuses, and a free‑trial link. The vlog concludes with a personal note about a family birthday celebration, homemade ice‑cream cake, and plans for a future “day in the life” video.
Chapters
It's just starting to get light outside. We just finished all the morning chores. It's butchering day for our steer. It's our first time. First, I got a review. I have a— I have a— I have a member video, thankfully, on how to do this. I filmed it myself. We just need to go over it, freshen up. So I'm going to do this like anybody else would. I'm going to go to the members page, members.apartmentpermaculture.com. Since I'm already a member, I just go log in here. If you're not, you can hit the Join Now button, and it's already— it's remembered that I'm logged in. And I need to go— well, I could search for it right here, uh, but I know it's in Master Classes. I want to show you guys these Master Classes anyway. We've got Permaculture Chickens, we got Great American Farm Tour, we've got, uh, Raising meat chickens masterclass. Raising the art of beef butchery masterclass. That's what I need. And the art of pig butchery masterclass. Come on, Anna, we're reviewing the notes how to do it. So look, then he's cutting down the arms. That's after you cut off the feet. Okay, I got this. I filmed this years ago. I found this 2, 3 years ago. 2. I'm Now getting the nerve to do it. Okay, look, he bent that leg and he's cutting right through the joint. I'm writing down the steps in case I forget. Man, that video was so good. It was just 19 minutes, but it's showing me how— well, we're just gonna do the kill and the gutting and the halving. Okay, nice, nice drawing. And, uh, and then we're gonna put it in the fridge, take it to the butcher tomorrow. They're gonna hang it for 2 weeks. You gotta hang beef for 2 weeks, uh, just I don't know, soften it up, age it up, tenderize it. We've got to get the honing tool. Do we have the honing tool? The butcher twine, right? They're really drawn this morning. Okay, I wrote down notes so I can remember. You know, that's in the member area. If you guys want to learn how to on-farm harvest chickens, pigs, cows, it's all in the member area. Used to be only just available at premium level, but I've made it available at all levels, even monthly. So check that out, members.abundantpermaculture.com. Right now we're doing a fall registration Monday till midnight. We've got some bonuses going with that. Okay, you've got the twine.
Yep.
So I think I might add these notes to the member area so you guys have it, so I have it next time, don't have to do it all over again. Will you guys get a pan of alfalfa perhaps? I don't know if we'll be able to do that with the other cows in there, but we need a pan out there anyway to catch the blood. So a pan, a bucket, the gambrel, chains. A knife. The gun. I'll go get the gun. So I was super nervous about this until I watched that video. That made me feel a lot better. And I've got notes for it. I think we got this. I've done sheep before, it's very similar. I've seen this done before lots of times. I was so nervous, that made me feel better. All right, so now I think I'm more nervous just about finishing on time for milking. We have about an hour and a half. We could go 2 hours. I think we got it. It's not something that if you start you can really quit. You, you got to get it up. The plan is to go kill on pasture and then bring him back here, kill and bleed out there, and then bring him here under this tree and skin and gut. Give us a sign if this tractor starts really well.
Oh yeah.
It's gonna all go really well. Okay, I think we got everything. Yeah, one chain will do it. We got our gambrel. Okay, we got our pan for catching the blood and pour it into these buckets.
Yep.
All right, boy, we're a sight right now, Rune, if somebody were to drive by. So he's actually up eating minerals. That'd actually be really good. We got to make sure Polly isn't right behind him, or the cows. Guys, I actually think this is perfect. I actually don't like that. I think those cows are plenty clear. That'd be a really bad shot. But I'm— yeah, I'm a hair nervous about Polly right there. Actually, he's looking right this way, so I could get him to look at me, and then nothing is in the background. Nothing. We got him down. Jonah has slit the throat. She's bellowing, but she's bellowing for her calf who's right here. Oh, what happened?
He shot me with his poop.
He pooped and it shot out? Yeah. Oh my gosh, disgusting. Okay, you can go clean up. We're gonna pull him on down the hill with our hands, and then we're gonna pull the tractor in. I don't want to get the tractor on a hill, it's just too easy to tip, so we'll get it down here flat. All right, we've got him hooked up. I'm just happy that part's over. It's definitely the hardest part, scariest part. It's over. Okay, I think it's downhill from here. All right, let's get him, uh, over to the barn. Yeah, just— I unhook him from the tractor bucket. Arun's got the other 4x4. You're gonna get started on this one?
Yeah.
Okay, be careful not to hit bone. Okay, my notes. And so we're supposed to do the 4x4s. Good. Cut straight down neck to tail. You guys are getting around the joint. I'm gonna go ahead and start getting the skin. I'm gonna switch with Jonah. He said it's too hard to get the leg off. Okay, I got the back leg off. I'm breathing hard. That was difficult. I think that's one of the most difficult things. Oh, the boys are really starting to get the hide. 2 legs down, 1 to go. Oh, somebody cut into the meat big time right there. Oh well, keep on trying, keep getting better.
It doesn't get on the hide. I make sure to not cut—
cut it the hide. Yeah, and not the meat.
See, when I do that—
there you go. Good job. Good.
And then I accidentally get meat on it.
Just say you're doing really good, taking your time. Arun, good job, you did it. Now according to our notes, we're gonna cut down the arm. And across. All right, we did it, guys! We've got it skinned the belly. I think that's a good job for our first time.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, now what you do is you cut right through there. Here, let me get it started. Okay. Wow, it cut through a lot of bone. Oh, I made a mistake. I'm pretty sure the back leg— I should have cut off right here. I did this with the sheep because that's what I'm supposed to suspend it up with. Shoot, I did this with the sheep. Why'd I do that? We're gonna try hooking it into that, but I do not think it's gonna work. All right, I am the epitome of just do something even if it's wrong. All right, but I'm learning. I'll never do that again. Never did it again with a sheep. Never do it again with the cows. So let's cut around this so that then we have more of a knot right here. It's 10 till 9. Normally we milk at 9. We can go to 9:30. I think with this, this is a little bit of a setback. I think we would have been on track. Maybe we can catch up. We did a slip knot around this, so the more weight we put on it, the tighter it gets. We should be able to hook the ropes up to the gambrel. Tractor won't start. It's not even trying. It's like it doesn't engage with neutral or something. Some does this sometimes. You can try it. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I doubt it. We're getting the Suburban up here. I don't know, we're gonna try to jump it, but I don't know if that'll work because it's not neutral. Now we can't pop the hood. I can feel the latch here. Maybe I didn't pull it hard enough. That's as far as it'll go. Battery's on that side. Extra long cables, heavy duty right here. Cross our fingers. Okay, good. Yay!
Okay, the rope held.
It's the chain.
So that chain's got to be hooked to itself, guys.
It didn't break our knot. Our rope broke, so we doubled up our rope. Okay, we put it 3 knots in this one this time. Arin's got to pull in case the bucket drops.
Safety.
Okay, now if this hydraulics give out, we have the pole. Everybody's safe. Now we're gonna skin it and gut it. All right, we are jumping a little ahead of ourselves, starting to split it. So it's going good actually. We got to get it up, get the head off, finish splitting, and then that's it. Wash it. Okay, we've got it washed off. They want us to cut it into quarters. I'm thinking we put the barrel And under it, and then cut it off and let it— hopefully it falls in the barrel. That was pretty easy. I cut along the bone, or yeah, in between the bone.
Now I'm just going to cut that saw part.
Whoa, we got them in the barrels! I'm so happy, I'm so ecstatic. We got our fat, heart, and liver. Man, I am so I feel like I might feel like what a member feels like when they go inside that area, go to instructional video, get right to the point. 20 minutes, guys, it was 19 minutes and I learned how to do that. So empowering, so empowering. And I'm just so excited. I did this alone, alone. There's no pros. Erin's never done that before. I've seen it done, never done it before. Made some mistakes, but it got done. I won't make those same mistakes again. So anyway, join us. Fail a lot, fail often, try to fail small, but that's, that's the best way to learn, by just doing. I want you to join us. I'm not perfect. I teach you what I know. We're in there together learning things from each other. What? Oh yeah, well, this is Moose. Now that when we eat beef. And we have somebody over, we like, we're gonna eat some moose. So join us, guys. We got some bonuses up during the fall registration until Monday. If you're missing that and you're in a pinch, I feel for you. So we're actually gonna do, uh, I'll leave a link for a free trial down, down below. I mean, you won't get everything you, you would if you sign up now in the fall, maybe with some bonuses and stuff, but you would still get the video library and the mem— and the the private Facebook group. We're in there learning from each other. I hope you'll join us. Members.abundantpermaculture.com. I'll also leave a link in the description. Let's get this cow inside and then, uh, the cool room. And tomorrow we take it to the butcher to have it broken down. We'll let it hang for 2 weeks and then it gets broken down. Not, not that one. That one's not really off-road. Let me go get our off-road one. Our future's looking bright. Rebecca's made ice cream, homemade ice cream. What's the occasion?
Lily's birthday's tomorrow.
It is, it's tomorrow. Little 9-year-old tomorrow. Can you believe it? Your little girl.
I still think of her like a little kid.
I know.
I mean, she is a little kid.
She chose well. She chose the ice cream cake.
Ice cream cake. So we did a layer of chocolate, and then I made hot fudge sauce that will be layered in there, and we're gonna cut up some nuts.
And she chose chicken parmesan.
Chicken parmesan with Alfredo.
Yep.
Um, and broccoli.
All right. And I am totally cheating for the birthdays.
Totally.
That's the one exception.
It'll be interesting to see how you feel after.
Yeah, yeah, that's true. She chose good. I'm looking forward to it. Birthdays are always fun. Normally we don't have a weekend vlog, but we're gonna vlog it. We're gonna, uh, do Lily's day. Let's follow along a day in the life of Lily and let's celebrate her life tomorrow. Well, I don't know if this video will go out Saturday or Sunday, but it'll be the next video.
