In this weekly vlog, Justin Rhodes and his family give a lively, on‑the‑ground tour of their homestead. The episode opens with a frantic chase to recapture a few escaped guinea fowl, then moves to updates on the pig operation, comparing fermented versus dry feed and announcing an upcoming on‑site butchering workshop and an online masterclass. Justin details progress on a DIY “Chickshaw” cart, promising a step‑by‑step guide with photos and a collapsible kick‑stand. The garden and greenhouse sections showcase new plantings—spaghetti squash, corn, blueberries, raspberries, turnips, and a mulch‑bomb experiment that benefits the soil and nearby pigs. Guest Josh from Full Circle Farm joins to discuss cream separation, cottage cheese making, and the current herd of 30 pigs slated for processing. The vlog also highlights family helpers, especially Mike, who assists while a family member recovers from surgery, and includes light‑hearted moments with the animals (cows Bear and Violet). Throughout, Justin encourages viewers to subscribe, follow links for the Chickshaw plans, and sign up for the processing masterclass, blending practical farm education with personal storytelling.
Chapters
Go feed them before they bust the fence. Oh, you— they gonna start with your pinky toe?
I'm afraid.
It's in there.
I use it.
But you gotta wear boots. Hey, I guess they're not going crazy for the broccoli stem, huh? Guys, relax.
There's that other good food. Don't eat it, Papa.
But Yeah, the pigs are starting to get their work done. I could use them going a little bit faster. I hope they get done in time. We might need this in what, 2 weeks, 2-ish weeks? And then let's let out the chickens. This fence, since we doubled it up, it's doubled up right there, tripled up right here. Pigs are staying where the pigs are supposed to be, and the chickens are staying where the chickens are supposed to be.
Drop it! Get in, get in, they won't hurt you.
That, that's what me and John think they're Yeah, once I filled up the dust box with dirt, we've had no more problems of the Chickshaw tipping because the wheels are centered. We haven't had it tipping. I think we are though going to install a collapsible kickstand just in case, just in case folks want that. The plans for that Chickshaw— we're building another one for a friend Drew at Wax Acres, and we're going to take pictures of every step. I've written all You're gonna help me. I've written all 50 steps, super detailed pictures for— we're gonna have pictures for every step, video for every step. Hope to have that out by August 1st. If you guys are wanting to get in on that, I've left a link down in the description so you'll be one of the first to get the plans when they come out.
Which chicken?
Okay, look, right next to the chickens. This is the chicken garden miracle, guys. They're prepping this area. We've planted this area. Oh, we have some fruits. Let's check on it. I know we had some spaghetti squash coming. Look, that'll be ready in just a couple of weeks. Plenty of other stuff flowering. I just love this. Good morning and welcome Welcome to our weekly update video. I'm Justin Rhodes. If you haven't already, subscribe. We're a happy family doing our best to grow most of our own food, and this is a weekly update of what's happening. We have some corn here that the boy's planted. No, it's not ready yet.
Well, there's this piece.
I mean, close, close. I mean, I guess you could try it if you want, but I think you might be disappointed.
How many days?
So give it a few more days. Uh, I'd give it a week or two. Okay.
Jordan says this is his piece to eat.
Yeah, that makes sense since it is his garden. He planted it, right? Or did you help him plant it?
I didn't. That one's mine over there.
Oh, look who it is! This is a recognizable face if you've been following us for a while. I'll give you a hint, we went to this farm 3 times. The Great America Farm Tour, Full Circle Farm is where we first met you. You doing over here?
I'm setting up the cream separator. I'm gonna make cream and then we're gonna save some skim to make cottage cheese, and then the rest of it will go to the pigs.
And then we went and met you when you did some work up in New York.
Hey, what are you doing?
Trying to tame that pig?
Usually she doesn't make this much noise.
Don't get attached, Josh.
Oh, I know, I know.
And now you're back at Full Circle Farm. What has changed at Full Circle Farm since we were there last?
Well, Ben went on to another farm in Virginia.
They're hungry, Ben, they're hungry.
Watch out!
And we are raising the pork now.
Okay, how many do you have?
Uh, we got 30 pigs right now. Okay, we're gonna take our first group to the butcher on the 30th.
Okay, are you happy to be back? Yeah, yeah. Sea monsters getting big. Fed another 2 bags of feed. We're moving them along. Look, lots and lots of manure. But this— see, this is where they are. This is where they were. It's coming back beautifully. We're going to be butchering them soon. We're having an on-site workshop here for our members on the processing this, a master class. But the good news for you guys is we're doing an online version, and it's for a limited time. You can get in on that. We will put that link down in the description. You're looking real good. It's hard to believe we're almost going to process them, and then we're going to be on to batch number 3. Some things I'm gonna— we're gonna be comparing. These guys have been on dry feed the whole time. The first batch was on fermented feed, so I can't wait to compare the numbers.
We've got some runs, a lot of runs.
Runs, runs over here. You know, I don't think they've grown as well.
Yeah, that's a runt.
Honestly, Jonah, in my heart, I feel like they're not growing as well as fast. Now that's a big guy. There's always a big guy.
There's a whole bunch of those, but there's a few runts.
Yep. What do you think? You think they did better on fermented feed or dry feed?
Definitely fermented feed.
Definitely.
It was a little more hard to do this.
Well, we'll add up the numbers. We're gonna see how much these guys weigh on average versus the other folks, and then how much feed they consumed. Oh, I'm holding Laurel for this next feature. The word on the street is the guineas are out, a couple of them.
Aha, right there is where they got out.
Okay, how are you gonna fix that?
Uh, I'll just get a block of piece of wood like I did right there.
How are we gonna get them back in?
You're going to open it, you guys are going to go around and herd it open.
Boy, they are not cooperating. They're right here. The other two have disappeared. Oh, here they are, Josh. Oh, I see them. Debbie quit.
Okay, I got one.
Good job. She got a bunch of grass in there with her.
No, get there, get there, get there!
Jonah, get to this guy.
Oh, you little booger.
Went into the other stall. There she is, she's in the corner. Ah, she's in that corner. She just can't— yeah, you Got her! Oh, the guineas are doing good. Looks like we'll need to move them maybe next week. Do you see it, Florida boy?
Tomatoes?
No. Well, tomatoes, because you're envious. You want tomatoes. It's so hard to grow them in Florida. But now there's something that's easy to grow in Florida.
Oh, sweet potatoes!
Josh, this was an experiment that's going really well right now. This was just an old pile of leaves that we just planted them in. Super Super easy. What we have here, Josh, is this is where the pigs were. This grass, this grass is coming back beautifully. I really like that, but it's encroaching in on our— well, this one's doing fine. See our plant? All right, corn squash looks good. Let's go around and— but see, this one is going to get choked out. Let's go around the ones that are going to get choked out and rice knife, sickle. So you're just gonna cut and drop, okay? What you cut is mulch. You can see our plants. I can hear them breathing. I can hear them taking a sigh of deep breath. Not bad for just letting the pigs in there, planting some mulch bombs, planting some plants. Let's go check the blueberries, see if we got a morning snack. How are raspberries doing, buddy? Well, they need, they need, uh, trained. We need to put in a trellis. I see any blueberries. I mean, I was happy to just get a handful of blueberries this year. First year and we had blueberries. Oh, there's some, Josh. Go ahead, you're the guest. Go ahead. You sure had a fresh blueberry. Yeah. Okay, good.
Wow, that's good.
There's one. We've got squash growing right here. We've gotten the sheep out of the yard. They're mowing too spotty. Moving them here along the bank where there's plenty of grass. How you guys doing this morning? They've got water, they've got plenty of grass, they're good. Inside of our greenhouse, somehow these small plants survived the soaping. These turnips may survive. It looks like they are starting to get a little bit better. We're gonna switch out the— we've been, we've been doing the shade cloth and that's taking some stress off of people. That's definitely keeping them moist. Good strong gallon of milk, thank you very much, Violet. Bear, oh my word, you're so huge. Laurel, you better be careful, she'll accidentally step on you. Come on, come on. All right, enjoy yourself, Violet. Enjoy the green grass. Hey, you guys remember all those briars? Yeah, those are no more. Look at this lane. Look at this lane. So nice. Remember when I said you guys would do anything for us? Well, one of you contacted me and said, hey, put me to work. I can do this, this, and this. And I— one of it was like string trim, blade trim. I want you to meet Mike. Everybody meet Mike. Say hey to your kids, Mike. Hey kids, what's their names? Ashlyn, Lauren, and Jocelyn. Boy, you working up a sweat. You like the farm sauna? Uh, yes, I like it. This guy's real good. Knock this out in what, an hour maybe? Yeah, I don't know how long I've been here. Good job. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and everybody else for helping us during this time that Rebecca is going through surgery and then now recovering. Thank you.
Get him barefoot into our stanch that we built. We're going to put him in our stanch that we made. Hope it fits. Come on, Bear, in here.
Get as much as—
Whoa, he almost— Come on, Bear. Poor him. Poor him.
There he's going. You guys got to remember he's never done this before.
It's okay, Bear. Come on.
He's a little scared.
Get it.
Do you want to— I can help you. I need to get—
Looks like it might be a little low for him, but yeah, he's cute, isn't he? Oopsie. Keep doing it. You can show it.
Come on, keep showing them, Josiah. Come on, Bear, get him up.
I think he's just a little scared because there's— yeah, yeah, there's a valiant effort, Jonah, but it's not gonna happen on the first day. I don't think it didn't happen with Violet on the first day. Okay, well, take him home, take him home.
No bear, so don't let him eat any grass because I don't know if there's poison.
