Homesteaders of America 2023 Edition

How you feeling this morning, beauty? Feeling great. Ready for the speech?

Ready for the day. Already been outside to start the car and it's actually not that cold.

52 outside.

I'm dressed.

I've got layers on, so I'm feeling good. We're here and we're here an hour before we need to be. That was just in case it was ludicrous traffic.

Well—

And we couldn't get in. Rebecca has the first talk.

Correct.

What are you talking about?

Minerals for animals and humans.

Most crowded talk at 8:30. I'm talking against some other people.

Let me tell you who I'm talking against.

Oh, let's see who you competing against.

Joel Salatin, Daniel Salatin, Daryl Patton, Cassandra, Daniel, me, and then Josh and Jordan Kelly.

Ah, nice sunrise. We don't see those in the holler. We're snuggled down in the holler and we don't get such a dramatic event. She's gone. She's nervous. She's got the first stock. I got the last stock, so I get to be nervous all day long. Thanks, Josh, Heartway Farm. Thanks, man. Yeah, I hate y'all.

Y'all been doing all right? I follow you. You carefully get a picture. First time here.

Hey, good morning. You're up top.

I'm going to lose to Rebecca is what I'm doing.

That's right.

Good morning. I know, I did tell him. I was like, he's like, who are you competing against? I was like, Daniel Fallotin.

They put me against your dad, though. Oh, geez.

Oh, he's just reading.

You're getting me.

I was like, that's so strange.

I was like, did they tell people you're training? Yeah, I got a chance. I got a chance.

Are you really doing 2 tomorrow and not 1 today? No, he's doing 1 today. He's done that.

Okay.

Oh, okay. Must be wrong.

She's found out her family's wildly popular daily—

it's wildly popular.

It's wildly popular.

You prefer feral?

Yes. YouTube channel, The Justin Rhodes Show. She's also regularly featured on Abundance Plus.

Okay, so today we're going to talk about minerals. I think it went good.

You do so good. And every year you get better and better.

Yeah, too bad we're gonna stop doing events just as you got— I know, right? When I got good.

Zachary and Reagan, tell me what this is all about. From the Farmyard podcast, where we talk a bunch of topics from the farmyard. He's from Virginia.

I'm from Pennsylvania.

Okay, so now where did you meet? Where did you— where are you now? Instagram. She's still in Pennsylvania. Oh, you met on Instagram? Yeah, started DMing each other. Yeah. It's so nice to meet you.

Hi, it's so nice to meet you. We want watch y'all's vlogs like every day. It's like, it's like it's her after work. Yeah, 1,000%. Yeah, I work in Congress and so I need to decompress.

Swift Family Farm. Yeah, mucho niños. Yeah, cuánto? We've got 7. Yeah, and one, one's not here. He's grown. Okay. Yeah, where's he at? Uh, he's at home. Okay, somebody's got to run the farm. Yeah.

Lily, how are your sales How's it going?

Good. I think I made $150. What?

She's doing better than we are, Beck. I think. Is it still warm?

Yeah, it's just, I think it dried out in the fridge. You know, the biscuits are fine.

This is a nice gift.

It is. So you do, here, let me show you this. It's February Farms.

Yeah, is that online?

It is. And then shop February Farms.

And you do custom, uh, cutting boards? You do custom engraving.

Yeah.

So amazing. I love this. You don't even want to use it.

I like this more than he does.

I know, she's like, I'm like trying to.

So we moved to our farm just a few years ago, and I basically grew up in the city, knew nothing. And so we were just researching how to do this stuff without chemicals and all this stuff, and I think I stumbled across your channel at some point, and we just started watching stuff, and it was just— yeah, it really kind of kick-started a lot. Um, and then, um, my mother-in-law offered to show us how to butcher chickens, and I was like, no, we're not.

But this one has actually— has actually lived in the chicken run for 24 hours-ish.

Oh, multiple times.

Multiple Not just once. I thought I was the most crazy, ultimate crazy chicken lady.

Yeah, you were.

You should actually have you beat as far as the ultimate crazy chicken lady. You might be the ultimate if you've done it twice.

Okay, yeah, took all of them with her. And yeah, but you taught me how to butcher chickens. Oh yeah, okay, good. That was a mistake. Yeah, just— we've just learned a lot about balancing homeschool and farming from you guys, and we're just really grateful.

All right, you got to check out the booth. I think I speak at the same time you do. Oh man. I mean, there'll be like 4 or 5 people coming this way. Oh no. Well, you guys are both the Victor Justins. Yeah, but he's just reading, so. I know. We get to say hey for a second. Good to see you. You too.

Did you know that my child is horse crazy?

I have seen that. You do know that you might be responsible.

I know. You just hold on right there, okay? I'll lead her around for you.

Oh, you going to grab the reins? She said forget that.

Like, I'm ready. Uh, Horse for Lily or something like that.

Everyone's like, they are always trying to Yes, she either caught the bug at your place or at Full Circle Farm.

Yeah, well, no, I feel like—

where'd you catch the bug?

She got more horse time at your place.

Do you remember going to their place in Wyoming and riding a horse? Yeah. Are you horse crazy too? Not near like she is. I see them as a tool, not as like a passion.

You're like one of my favorites.

You are her favorite. Good. Lemon lime.

Yeah, I knew it.

I knew it.

Here, you do want stick packs or do you want a scooper? Do you have a scooper? Oh, You know what?

I don't know. I think you're out of it, Scoops. Hey! Bye. Yes. See that sign leading over? I think it might be. Thanks. I'm not sure. Who y'all trying to see? Me. I'm the speaker. Are you? You're— Justin Rhodes. My wife is wanting to meet you. I hope I don't disappoint all these people coming to learn about chickens.

I know, right?

Would you mind if I took a quick picture of Victor? Sure. Just to rub it in. That's rubbing it. Yes, let's rub it. Did you know that goat is the number one food consumed in the world? I mean, meat consumed in the world. The number one meat consumed in the entire world. Not just America, obviously, but kind of the entire world. I couldn't figure out if it was because they love goat so much or they hate goat so much. What's this, Tim?

You want to pull the wagon?

You put the nipple on here. Yeah, this is where your pipe comes up. Wow. This right here, you can run it, put this on your 8x8 post. Okay. Here's the straps and everything, and you turn— you can either bleed it out It's in line. Oh, you can run another hose right here so they can fill up buckets. Oh nice, I told you I can make you a fix. All right, thank you. Hi. Hey, what are you doing? Are you being shy? Oh, you want to hug me? He walked right around. Jonah wants to hug me. He got his mom. He walked right to mama. Do we have him for dinner? Hey, I tried to call y'all. I texted you. I want you to take the fish. Don't you see it out on the counter? Yeah, let's have it. I haven't had fish in 3 months. I've been on a mercury detox. Lily, how was your sale?

Good.

How many dollar bills you earn?

$244.

Is that what you expected?

Yep.

Is that a record? No. Oh boy, love me some salmon, which is a low mercury fish anyway, right? This is Civic caught, wild caught salmon. Dinner and a movie, relaxing to something. Nothing to do with homesteading. Homesteading is great. We're taking a break. Nice. You like to eat it all together? Green beans, salmon, rice. You gonna watch Beckham with us? Docu-series on Netflix. David Beckham, the soccer player. Tonight we bring you the story of how David Beckham became a global phenomenon. Do you remember them back in their prime? I don't remember them back in their prime. Apparently they were this big thing.

I don't remember all this drama.

We're watching for the soccer. It's the next day. Happy day.

And it's rained.

And it's supposed to be off and on rain all day. In all the 6 years we've been coming to Homesteaders of America, it's never rained on us. It's been cold. It's been hot. Never rained. Nice view, right? Here in Virginia. How'd you sleep last night? Good. How do you sleep, you hard-working entrepreneur? You entrepreneur. I don't worry about Lily. Do you worry about any of us? Look at these guys. Josiah's rotation to cook. I don't worry about you either. He can cook. You're playing chess on the computer now. I don't worry about this mechanic, this engineer, this grader. Or you the grader. But then of course, guys, you always have a place on our farm. We'll incorporate them into our business somehow. They don't have to worry about getting jobs. If you're hardworking and creative, we'll make it work. You can find a job with us. You want to be a grader? We got that, huh? I don't know. You want to be a professional airsoft player? We got that. Homegrown bacon. Boy, you must have it on high heat. Oh, he had it on all the way. Was it burning up, Kasey? The little tiny pocket Redmond salt. Hey, help us find the salt, guys, before this bacon fries. There it is. Boy, we've used this whole— we've used half the salt. How much do you need?

6 tablespoons.

I feel like that's half, isn't it? What if we cut it in half and estimate 6?

Uh, go estimate.

It would be about that much. Jonah's the biscuit maker. We've got some chicken pot pie thawing out, made from home. We found that Biscuits go excellent on top of some chicken pot pie. That's good enough for me. I'm gonna pull some of mine out because everybody else likes it dry a little bit more. I think I eat most eggs than anybody, don't I? Breakfast on the couch. Heating up chicken pot pie biscuits on top of the soup. Inside this, this is the game changer right here. It's called Lunchbox. You're able to Have a hotline. Beauty's— oh boy. You're pushing super over. Just a hair too much. You playing yourself? No, I'm waiting for Shonna to come back. That's different, isn't it, Beck?

Uh-huh.

Leaving the kids alone.

I don't really like that.

Having 15, 13, and a 12-year-old. All of age to be home and babysit.

Babysit the 9 and the—

You don't like it? Well— Freedom. It's not our house. Oh.

I'm afraid something's gonna get broken. Oh.

Last day of Homesteaders, Rebecca. Last day for us for at least a year. Yeah. How does that make you feel?

I'm okay with it. I'm tired. We've done a lot of events in the last 5 years.

That's the thickest locust tree I've ever seen.

Is that a locust in the back?

Let's go look. What could be more important than going to the top? My top? My top? I'm the speaker. This cannot be— okay, it's not a locals. Let's show them what I was seeing. That tree is probably 5, 4 or 5 feet wide. We're not gonna go any further, we might be trespassing. Okay, we don't want to be those people. The thing I'm gonna miss the most— I enjoy public speaking, teaching in masses. I'm gonna miss meeting people individually. Yeah, folks come up and say, oh, is that weird? We know you, but—

well, they also tell us how they—

we think we know you. They actually say that I think they know us, and I'll be like, no, you do know us. This is like a reality TV show. It's not a lie. So you do know us, it's just we don't know you. There's actually—

did you bring your jacket?

Yeah, it's called parasocial relationship. So we have to develop these new terms with the new technologies. I forgot about Lombardi time, but we're on Lombardi time, aren't we? I don't know what time we're gonna be. 15 minutes early, aren't we? Oh, almost. We got 1 minute. To be Lombardi time. Ask Mr. Google Pants about it if you don't know.

My husband's gonna be so sad. He's been waiting to say hi to you. He is running around with my— with our baby. He's active duty military, and him and his friends watch all of your guys' YouTube videos when they're on deployment. Like, even like set up a garden on one of their deployments.

Getting introduced by McMurray Hatchery.

Welcome everybody. My name is Tom Watkins. I'm the owner and president of McMurray Hatchery. We're a 106-year-old company selling the finest chicks ever known to man.

You guys all know who Justin Rhodes is.

Talk about when homesteading hurts, mistakes on the farmstead. And I don't want to say like he's an expert at making it hurt, but—

I am. I am. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Tom. Y'all want to be in the vlog? This is it. This is it. Holler! Act like you're real excited. I've been watching you for years on YouTube on all these deployments and everything like that. Lived out in San Diego for years and wasn't able to start up anything. Moved down to Virginia Beach and finally got an acre and getting it all set up, doing the meat birds and chickens, you know, gardening.

Are you—

so your career, you know, 14 years right now. What's cool about that is you're going to be able to retire.

But we're not coming back next year. We're not going to do it. That's going to feel terrific. Isn't it going to be nice? Oh, it's so nice. Well, because our house is going to be done. We're remodeling. Which, by the way, you've got to come and visit us.

That's the only way you're going to see us.

Yes, that's the only way you're going to see us is if you come visit us. Smart. Our life has just been go, go, go, go, go, go, go for so long that we're just like— So if you stay home, we have people there. We'd be doing events there?

Yeah, we were— we hope to do one event. We'll organize an event. So maybe that's how we'll see. We'll hire you to come to the event. Oh Lord, no. Lord, no.

Right, right, because that's exhausting too. We're talking to Beth.

That's a lot.

Good to see you. Hey brother. Hey my man. How you doing? All right.

Joe's looking different. It's a different look.

New vest.

Yeah, you don't have your carhartt on.

I'm trying to stay warm as Speaker Q&A time, a crowd favorite. All the speakers come up together, get on stage, and anybody can ask anything. It can, it can get interesting.

Who's ready for speaker Q&A? Okay, same rules apply to everyone.

Joel, she looks at me. Justin.

Oh, what?

And—

oh yeah, yeah, yeah, she called you out.

You want me to be the one? Behave yourself. You're in jail. Behave yourself.

Our land is not flat, so I was wondering on the sides of the tractor, like, what you would suggest that kind of— as you're uneven securing it so they're not getting out.

The reason that we went with the shelters that we did is because of the undulation of the soils that we had as well. Um, I'm just going to jump in and answer the question because you mentioned the southern shelters, so I'll just go with that. Um, with the idea that with the bigger, like the MRCs, the mobile range coops and things like that, were pretty much designed in large, um, flat areas, right? So all I'm suggesting is that if your land is very up and down, you may want to make your shelters different size. Obviously, the smaller it is, the easier it is to find a spot that doesn't have a lot of holes. Okay, so the smaller the shelter, the easier it's going to be to find a spot that doesn't require a lot of what we call plug plugging holes.

Okay.

How do you prioritize like your day-to-day and the family stuff and then the big projects you have to do?

Yeah, well, I compartmentalize things at first. So I have a certain amount of time for chores, certain amount of time for projects, certain amount of time for cooking projects. Well, that has to be one of the things. That's one of the things. Then I have a certain amount of time for self-care. Okay. And so that's all limited. So you have to have all your ideas for all these different things. Sometimes at first you need to write it all down, and then you need to pick of all the possible things that you wrote out that is the most important. So for me, during my self-care time after dinner with kids on audiobooks, they go to bed, she and I get in the bath, and then after that, if there's time left, I get in the sauna. So those are the most important things. There are other things that you can do in here at the time, like reading, I could do whatever, going on a walk. But that, that's what I found to be the most powerful for me for self-care.

It's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. New Jersey.

Man, look at Randy. It's a bonus.

Whitney, nice to meet you. Hey Whitney, I like these shirts. Oh, let's see. Yeah, it's our sheep farm.

A flock. Yeah. And then, "For Flock's Sake." I love it.

I did not get a book, and I was like, I was like, how did I do this and I didn't get a book? I was like, how do I come home and watch Justin Justin's family every day and I didn't get a book?

You gotta get a book. You gotta have proof that you were actually here.