In this vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes documents a day on his family homestead, focusing on several intertwined activities. The morning begins with a quick inspection of dead wildlife and a brief discussion about feeding birds, then shifts to planning and executing a water‑line repair in preparation for moving the pigs the next day. He improvises plumbing solutions by heating plastic fittings, cutting T‑pieces, and re‑routing hose without needing to disassemble the whole system, emphasizing on‑the‑fly problem solving and the desire to avoid a trip to town for supplies. Throughout the repair, he coordinates with a helper (referred to as Mr. Brown) and navigates rough, weed‑filled terrain, highlighting the physical challenges of homestead work. After the line is installed, the vlog moves to a pasture that was converted from a garden; the family milks their cow (Flossie), noting a higher-than‑usual yield (2.5 gal) thanks to the improved pasture, and reflects on the productivity gains of converting land. The segment then transitions to a simple farm‑style breakfast—bacon‑sausage patties cooked in farm‑produced bacon grease—showcasing self‑sufficiency. Finally, the vlog wraps up with a Fourth of July greeting, a brief mention of a 2016 mountain‑fireworks video, and an invitation to view family growth in the description. The overall tone is informal, instructional, and celebratory, offering practical DIY insights, family dynamics, and homestead philosophy.
Chapters
Old spinach and lettuce for the birds. Need to convert this for the winter garden. What do you think, they were thirsty? You coming with? Uh-huh.
All right, come on. Good job.
What is that?
A dead bird.
Oh man. Looks like the cat got ahold of it. It's missing a head.
That's the head.
Yeah, don't touch it.
Oh yeah, there's a bunch of ants.
Gideon's shutting the door for me— the gate. Thank you, Gideon. Boys must have left it open. The boys did the chores this morning, so I figured I'm gonna work on this water line. I had a realization yesterday, we're moving the pigs tomorrow, so they're gonna need water. We got a lot of line to go, so I am going to fuss around on it for about an hour here, see what we can get done. Hey, are you guys ready for a move? You're not quite done chilling in there, but if we don't get on a weekly routine, we forget. So you don't want to go past the 12-day mark. It's easier to say, hey, let's just move them every Sunday. Now next time we'll tighten this up, guys. That's what we'll do. Won't get such a big area. Wow, you're pushing. They're knocking out the hand that feeds them. We're gonna start right here, bro.
I'll remove them today.
Uh, no, tomorrow. Let's see, I don't want to carry our entire kit, so let's just carry what we need. All right, I got the essentials for today's project, I think. All right, Mr. Brown, we're going on foot from here, bro. Hey, did you not bring any shoes? No. Oh my man, my man, the terrain's a little too rough, a little too poison ivy. Come on, come on, just have to piggyback, piggyback to our station and then I'll carry you. This is going to be crazy. Why didn't you bring shoes, buddy? Well, let me guess, you couldn't find them.
I can't find my white shoes.
All right, well, you hang on there because I don't have any arms to hold you up. Well, that wasn't very far. First station right here. Let's grab this fitting. I'm heating up this plastic so we can pull the fitting out.
Have a look at the bottom.
Hey, I got our fitting. We're also going to drag our hose out of here, okay? Hang on good. Okay, I've got to grab our kit. You hang on. All right, Mr. Brown, there's another fitting and there's another tree for you. Aren't we getting by with this? All right, can you reach up there? Good, good boy. Ah, there's two here. That's good. This is the piece we're lacking. One reason I'm working on this today is because I'm afraid we're not gonna have enough pieces and we're gonna have to go to Lowe's in the morning. I just realized this— the way I connected these, this is the way I connect the T. So I don't even have to take this off. I can just cut it right here and we have our piece for our T. I just realized on this end too, this can be a T. We'll just remove that quick connect there and cut it right here. Oh yeah, I'm glad I figured this out. No reason to disassemble it completely. And then put it back together. Hopefully our line is going to pull out of there and not snag on anything. Hey, Mr. Brown, you ready? Yeah. Okay, hopefully I can pull that one that's up the hill plus this new one that's downhill and Mr. Brown. Oh, we already snagged. No, you're gonna wait here because I'm gonna come back for Sally. You want to wait here? Yeah. Okay, you wait here. Well, you can wait in the field out here. This is smooth pasture out here, bro. You could even walk. Oh wow, little tiny stump. That's not really gonna work. There's way more than that kind of stump in here. Got a little further, a whole lot further, got caught up again. Once we get out of that and it gets straight, we'll just be pulling it straight. And it shouldn't catch as much. Catch on this time. Another minor little snag. Cruising now. I thought we got almost out of the clear and we snagged, hopefully for the last time. How you doing up there, buddy?
Good.
Okay, good. That's the end. Now that this is straight, no more ewing, I don't think it'll catch. It's gonna be a hot one. Hot Fourth of July. That's nice. Happy Fourth of July, y'all. Another connector. I'm super excited that they have two of these connection pieces. Guys, we're just trying to avoid town. Uh, we're not scared, it's just annoying to go to town. With all that's going on. So basically, we're growing what we eat, ordering some stuff that we don't— most of it we can order and get here, uh, with Lowe's and other places, ordering it in time to have a store pickup or shipped, even better. Just staying on the homestead, that's a good homestead principle anyway. Hang on, hang on with my— onto my shoulders, not my neck. There you go. We made it in this lane. We've got to go from here— oh gosh, oh, probably 400 or 500 feet, but we're gonna get a little closer today than we were. Well, I just cut into the end there and I realized— whoops. It's on. Shoot. Oh boy. So from there, walking all the way to the water source, turn it off. Now it wouldn't be homesteading without props. All right, just went and turned the water off. We got 20 more minutes. Let's have goals. Let's have goals. Realistically, let's put 2 lines on. Let's put 2 Let's get 200 feet. This is what our tees look like. Ended up doing 2 of those because we went 2 lengths. So our supply line into— remember how I cut this? This is, this is a whole piece, this and this from the old hose. And so we can turn it on and off, on, on and off here. We still have this those we pulled over here. I think we're gonna have enough, and now I have to go to town. Yes! You ready to go? Yeah, that one's ready to go. You're gonna milk with me? He's over it. He's over it. You want me to carry you to Sally?
Yes, on your shoulders.
On my shoulders? Somebody's been busy. Lily and I just milked. What did I say about that pasture? Look, okay, one bucket is probably a gallon, and then that's 2 gallons. Oh boy, I don't want her to kick this. You're gonna carry that one? I'll carry this one. Don't spill it. I think we might have a record, honey. So that's our best pasture on farm. That was the pasture We converted from a garden. We had our pigs till it, level it. We raked it out, planted some pasture seed. The results is in the milking. Probably 3 gallons. Let's see. And boom, 2 and a half gallons of milk. Usually we're getting 2-ish gallons of milk from Flossie. That's amazing. And just think, over time What if all our pastures were like this? This is the future. More productivity from the same amount of land. This is what I'm thinking for breakfast this morning, Lily. How about bacon sausage patties? How about, how about let's make patties with bits of bacon in it from our farm? Yep, tastes so good. Well, that's how they turned out. I don't know if they're gonna hold together. Got a little extra bacon, so let's get the pan greased, huh? Yeah, and a little bit of sausage, and then we'll cook the sausage in the bacon grease. It came out a little crumbly, but added some cheese. It's still going to be delicious. Cooking the eggs in the remainder grease. Alright, I'm gonna close out the vlog right here. We're just gonna rest and celebrate the Fourth of July with our family. I hope you guys had a good one. And I got a little bonus for you if you guys want. I just thought I would maybe pull up— you can see it back there. That's 2016. We climbed a local mountain and watched the fireworks. If you guys want to see how much the kids have grown, I'm gonna leave that for you. Where does it go? I don't know. Somewhere, somewhere around in the screen, and I'll leave a link for it down in the description. Happy Fourth!
