In this vlog‑style farm diary, Victor Justin Rhodes and his helpers document a pivotal day when they finally get a natural spring water source flowing by gravity to their livestock. The team discovers a previously unknown spring, tests its water quality, and spends the day laying over a thousand feet of 1‑inch poly pipe, connecting it to a spring box, a pressure tank, and ball valves to create a pump‑free water line that runs down the mountain to the pasture. While installing the system they juggle typical farm tasks: milking cows, herding a newborn calf back to its mother, fixing a broken pig feeder, picking tomatoes, and observing a hornworm with parasitic wasp eggs. Various family members (Eric, Josiah, Beck, Jonah, Willie) contribute parts, tools, and labor. After a series of troubleshooting steps—bleeding air, checking for leaks, and confirming flow—the water finally runs, prompting excitement and a sense of historic achievement for the Rhodes family, who note this is the first gravity‑fed water system on the farm. The narrative blends practical how‑to details with personal reflections on the hard work, teamwork, and joy of completing a long‑awaited project.
Chapters
This is the day! I think it's gonna happen. Water down to our pastures. We're gonna water our pigs today from the mountain.
The big project this week was getting the the spring water and creek water hooked up to— I don't even know what. We found a spring which we didn't know was there, and that's awesome because if the spring water is clean, which we're having it tested, then we can have spring water piped into our house, which is amazing. It's good to have many different sources of drinking water, so we have a clean well source but it would also be nice to have spring water. It's less work on Justin and the boys with watering the animals, which is nice. To support the project, I am making dinner, just doing things that Justin would be doing, I guess, normally. If we actually get water working today, that's gonna feel amazing. We've been wanting that for a really, really, really long time. It's kind of like the pole barn. It just seemed like one of those things that was never gonna happen, and then it is. So it's, it's really wonderful. I'm very excited about it.
Shoot, the calf got through! We've had the fences off. Shoot, we were just gonna get milk. Dang. I reckon the plan is to herd Flossie and calf back over here. That was first night calf separating. It's always a little tricky because the calf wants back with the mom so much. Turn that fence off. They figured it out quick. I got Willie out of there. We got the fence back on. Hopefully that'll hold till milking time. What are you doing?
Well, I'm picking tomatoes. Those are bad tomatoes. Put that in the bad tomatoes. But look at this. It's a hornworm.
Oh wow.
That got parasitic wasp eggs on it.
That's why you don't want to kill wasps.
Well, this is a certain kind of wasp. Anyways. It lays its eggs on it and then it kills it.
Love it.
Feeds off its body.
Be careful going killing what we might think are pests. Looky here, look who's in. Ain't nobody escaping today after the wing clip last night. And right inside their run, a little experiment going well into our favor. Chickens aren't getting over here and getting that squash, and it's jamming. Really? Beck just hopped on a motorbike with Jonah, you got a hammock in the tree? Yeah, I'm sitting. You got your audiobook? Yeah. Come on, girl, there'll be a time for that. Right now it's time for chores. Well, Flossie, did the calf get to you? She's had birth a week, we haven't got any milk yet. Calf's been taking it all. Hey, hey, hey! Oh wow, she did get untied. She is not into it. Boy, it didn't take long for the calf to drink it all. Basically got nothing. I just milked Phyllis and only got a little bit of milk. I thought maybe the process calf was getting hers, but she definitely didn't get it last night. Let's get her calf over here. She's likely holding back on us. Let's get the calf to bring it down. Got the calf over, letting him nurse. I think he got it down. What do you say? We're still going. Yeah, she's holding back on me. Hour and a half till training. Eric? I don't, I don't see him. I don't see him, but there's plenty of stuff we can do until he gets here. A certain connection piece we weren't able to get at Lowe's. Hopefully Eric has on. And Eric knows how to connect the spring box. Right now it's not going— it needs to go to the spring box, then the tank, then our line. I'm in charge of the line. I got 1-inch poly pipe. We got a 100-pound pressure pipe at the top, 160-pound pressure at the bottom where the weight's going to be. Look who's here, just in time, just before we went up the mountain. I can see if he's got those parts. You don't happen to have the pieces that connect the hose to the spring box or the The ball valves. Yeah. Okay, cool. That's what I was doing this morning. Okay, good. I was supposed to do it. I couldn't find any. We're talking about how to connect the hose now. This will go right in the hose and then— oh yeah, that'll do it too. Oh, and then shut off and everything. Hey Josiah, what's up with their water? They got water? Okay, they got about a foot of water, so we're definitely gonna have to make this work today or we're hauling water. This feeder though, I am not impressed with this feeder. So did it snap off? Yeah, it fits in there. Look, look, look, you're on your bolts. You got to tuck your bolts in. There you go. Let's open this fence up so they can get to this feed. We've only got 5 days left with these pigs. We got to figure something out. Bring that feeder out, Josiah. They eat a lot in 5 days though. It's worth probably fixing that, definitely not worth replacing it. We got the fence around the pig feed more. Really? Do you guys know how far this chicken is off? It's off by like 1,000 feet. All right, let's get these water lines up the mountain. We did it! We got the 1,000 feet of line through, or 1,100 feet. Let's go see about connecting our faucet to the bottom. Oh my word, I'm excited! Final fitting for today to get water. I mean, we got to put line in the whole farm. Final piece. All we lack is Eric finishing it and connecting it at the top, but it's gonna have to wait till after Lunch. Let's shut it off because I want to come down and open it in suspense. We've finished lunch. Let's head up the mountain and see how Eric's doing. Get it connected up there? Yep. Okay, good. The water's starting to go. Okay, good. And I went down to the pig resort. Yep. And bled out all the air. Okay, so hopefully it's working. Okay, Eric's got water to it. Hold on. Are we leaking? No, we're not leaking. It did just rain. Let's see. Oh goodness gracious, that's a lot of power! What do you say there, Josiah?
Water!
All right, get us a hose for your pigs.
Pretty exciting.
This is a unique moment in Rhodes family history. I don't think there's ever been gravity-fed water in the history of this farm.
It's pretty exciting.
Sure gonna make chores a lot easier. What ends up happening makes this easier. We just end up getting more done. We're not going to need this reservoir bucket anymore. Look at this, look at this! Oh, look at that power! Holy smokes, that's more than if we were down at the house from the well. Look at all this water! No electricity, no pump required. Off our land. There's something very special about that. This is going to fill up fast. It's already gone like an inch.
