In this vlog, the host of the Rooted Life homestead walks viewers through a day of post‑storm recovery on a two‑acre property. He coordinates his children (Jonah, Henry, Waylon) to set up netting, clear fallen trees, and dismantle unnecessary fencing while discussing the challenges of using a mismatched chainsaw chain. He explains the slope‑related damage that caused extensive trail erosion and a broken water line, then outlines the plan to chip debris, restore the water line, and rebuild pasture for livestock. The host also mentions bringing sheep, beef, and pigs into the freezer, and promotes Homestead Builds products (raised beds, chicken tractors, turkey brooder) with a COVID‑themed Easter‑egg. Throughout, he emphasizes ambitious goal‑setting, improvisation, and the necessity of self‑sufficiency in food production.
Chapters
Happy fall day! All right, let's go. Welcome to another day in the Rooted Life. We're growing our own food whether we feel like it or not, because we must. You just can't buy this kind of food. Mineralized milk and beef, 16 different minerals, rotationally grazed. Don't kill me, Jonah, I gotta go get Henry. We somehow have to make this fast. I don't want to leave Jonah out there having to put up nets by himself. All right, no, no, we're not watching nothing, we're leaving. I would watch it. Watch what? Chocolate. Chocolate? Does he have his chocolate? I ate it. You ate his chocolate? Yeah. You're going with us. Do you like me? I know, I'll make you get out now. 46. You want to be in that bed with Mama, don't you? You got to put on your shoes or go barefoot. I want my shoes on. I'll string trim. You can start putting up nets. Trees that are close, come straight with your net. At here, and then you take a 50-footer off of it to go cover it. Might be able to rip that fence off. We don't need these fences really anymore, except maybe deer protection when we're not in here. That looks 1,000 times better than this. Hard to get in there to get this stuff up. It's not this beautiful peach tree. Hard to get in there and mulch that. We want to plant more comfrey around these trees for a living mulch. We want to get in here and wood chip these in the meantime. The only problem I see with that is possible deer. We don't have a lot of deer. Might be worth it. Take all those fences down, mulch those real good this winter, cut free them real good. How are you? All right, well, let's go. Freezing cold. You don't even know what that means. Come on, we're gonna get you warm. Where's your toboggan? Okay, bring it. You really are determined. You want what? What does he want? Cheese? You want one for Waylon too? I've stretched my chain out on my chainsaw. Got a new one. Hopefully it's right. Hopefully it'll take just any 20-inch Husqvarna chainsaw, uh, chain. Yeah, loose that is. That's as tight as it'll go. Yeah, I was afraid of that. That's not— just can't get only any 3/8-inch, 28-inch, or 20-inch blade. Doesn't fit them all, buddy. Well, I'm gonna have to order a proper chain for mine. Then let's see, we have another chainsaw, of course. The project over here is to get our animals in this little 2-acre nook, but it is just absolutely destroyed by Helene with all kinds of down trees. And but there's pasture here, there's grass here, and we're short on it given a lot of our pasture across the creek got washed away by Helene. I think we start chipping away, clearing this road and getting this water line back. Impossible goals. We don't have the track loader right now, the boys are busy. Can we get these limbs? And can we get that up? We got about an hour to get us to the entrance of our trail. See this water line? See this tree? Oh my God, this is overwhelming. Forks. Need to cut it there. Need to get this branch down first. Keep this one here, you can stand on it. Wow, this is fun. Fun easier with the mini axe, getting this out of my way as I go, but I think after right through there, we're through the thick of it to get it off our hose and to get us up to our water line. Wow, out of fuel. Woo! What we've learned why this side is so bad is this slope this way is south-facing. That's where the, the storm and the wind came from. So that's why this, this, these trail— this trail on this side of the property is so much more jacked up, even though it's like a fifth of the length. We have more trees down on it. I got way further than I thought. Pays to aim for the impossible. I exceeded what I thought was impossible today. Don't limit yourself, you know. You never know. Just aim for crazy goals. If you don't get there, extraordinary things happen. Still, I expect the worst case. In the afternoon, boom, boom, bring on the frozen meats, y'all. Our sheep and our beef and our pigs are coming home soon. Into the freezer. Also, oh my, we shipped out another whole pallet of Homestead Build. We're starting to even break into this. Homestead Builds includes the Pretty Shaw raised beds, compost corner plans, and can you see it way up in there? Of course, the Chick Shaw and the Chick Shaw Mini Me brooders, Turkey Shaw. Oh, and by the way, this is a little bit of Easter egg. This is a little bit Where's Waldo. We are all, every single one of us, on the COVID So I dare you to find us. You're gonna have to get the book. Homesteadbuilds.com. If you're just curious how it's going, we're giving the free chapter for the chicken tractor plans also at homesteadbuilds.com. Happy day, y'all!
