In this informal home‑garden vlog, the narrator (Victor) and his partner Beck spend a rainy February day tending to their garden while preparing a chicken‑broccoli casserole for Don and Heidi Hendricks, the couple to whom Victor’s first book is dedicated. The video walks through several practical tasks: harvesting and sifting wet compost from the chicken run, troubleshooting a bike kick‑stand, cutting and installing lock nuts, and transplanting broccoli seedlings using an Agribon row cover to protect against an upcoming freeze. Interspersed with the work are personal reflections on how receiving four chickens 14 years ago sparked Victor’s homesteading journey, led to a career creating content about chickens and permaculture, and culminated in his upcoming book, The Rooted Life. Victor reads the dedication, honoring Don and Heidi’s son Ryan, and expresses deep gratitude for the mentorship that transformed a small act of kindness into a thriving community and business.
Chapters
Oh, what you making, Beck?
I am making chicken broccoli casserole.
So good. Special day. We're making a meal for the folks that we actually dedicated my first book to. Beck, I'm gonna go put it in the car so we don't forget it. I wouldn't put it past myself to actually show up and be like, um, yeah, here's a meal. By the way, we dedicated my book to you, and yeah, we forgot it at home. We'll ship it. No, let's get this in the car now. I want to get in here today and do the gardening, but it looks like it's raining again. But maybe not too bad. Maybe we could do this. I believe that's the surveyors. Continually marking our property so we can make full use of it. Good morning.
Good morning.
Josiah's nuts for his bolts came last night— yesterday. We're cutting this. This will hold the bolts that are the axles. You got to make sure they're pointed out that way. Okay, and then you bolt— you bolt these on. That's a great idea, clamping it so you can drill through it. I love it, love it. Good job. What's going on with your electric bike?
I need to put this kickstand on because I don't have a kickstand.
What do you need from me?
I need to take this one off, and I can't— I don't want to have to take all of this off. Okay, so do you have any ideas how to get this in there?
I don't actually, because it would go like that and hold it. Yeah, you might have to take it off, but he's wanting to be careful about that because his buddies are coming in 2 days. Want to show off. Okay, let's see if we're gonna be able to harvest this compost. We have got to get these transplanted. Look, they're already starting to suffer. To do that though, we need to We gotta put down compost in the gardens first. Found our compost sifter. Needs a little repair though. Papa, what?
They're trying to mate. Two babies.
They're just practicing. They can't mate yet. Come on, Gideon, you can help me hammer. Absolutely. Let me get it started. We got it. How's it going? You got one or two in?
Just two.
Nice, that means it's working. Gideon, come on, can you bring the sifter?
Nope.
At least he's honest. Hammer back. This book dedication is special to me because this is the people that got us started with chickens, and they've lost someone that is very special. That I would be honored to honor. Where's your shovel? Are you sure?
Yep.
Is it in this fort?
Nope.
Sure enough, your, your shovel's up here at the fort. Good deal. Oh, you got two shovels up here. Grab them both. Hey guys, hey, stay, stay, stay tough, stay tough. Come on, we're getting the rake. Here we go. Step 1 for harvesting compost out of the compost corner that was the chicken— well, that is the chicken run— get the mulch. Pick an area and get the mulch that's on top out of the way. Underneath is just black gold. Go ahead and dig it, get in for step 2. Put it onto a compost sifter. This is a 1/2-inch wire mesh mounted onto a wooden frame that fits over a wheelbarrow. See how it's just big enough to sit on top of the wheelbarrow and not fall in? Then you just sift it through and it keeps this— keeps the big stuff out of it, like these sticks. Get in. I think we got enough. It's gonna be heavy. The The wet is causing us— it's probably 3 times as long. It just sticks together and it's hard to sift. Now it's heavy because it's so loaded with moisture. But given that we're in a temperate rainforest, we just got to get going. We're not promised any dry days. Oh boy, that looks like barely a dent. We've got to get it up to this line all the way around. Shoot, that could be 4 wheelbarrow loads. Let's see what it is. Let's spread it out. Yeah, that's gonna take 4 wheelbarrow loads, and that's gonna take forever. That probably took us 20-30 minutes to get 1 wheelbarrow load. Hey Beck, gotta ask you something. It's taking forever to sift this compost because it's so wet.
Oh, well, why don't you just wait for another dry day?
I don't know if it'll ever be a dry day. What about not sifting it? Because I'm not catching a whole lot. That's fine. Try it. All right. Yes, let's try it. We'll never know. And boy, that would save us a lot of time if it works. And again, look at all the wood chips that rose to the top of that. If they're rising to the top and Maybe I'm not too worried about it. And these gardens are jamming. I think we're all right. What I'm concerned about is this— these wood chips tying up nitrogen. So you don't really want to plant into wood chips and soil. We want to get as many of them out as we can, but I think there's so much soil here, I think we'll be all right. See what we got here, Gideon.
I got those 3. Yeah, I think we'll be all right.
3 wheelbarrow buckets, not 4 like I thought, but still, these are hungry gardens. No wonder they jam. I mean, we're giving them compost like this every year, once a year. And then it's pretty much bulletproof. Great, let's get that broccoli. You ready, bro?
Yep. We gotta go spades too.
For broccoli, I could go 3 or 4 across. I really do think every foot, so 24-ish in a bed. All right, let's check their job. Let me check it. Good.
Don't you want to see the lock nuts?
Yeah, sure, we can do that. He's put his lock nuts on, but for two of them, and didn't do the washers. So he's wanting to take it off and can't.
I'll hold it here so you can try. All right, got in anywhere? See what it did?
Strip on that one? No, I got that fixed for Josiah. Let's grab our Agribon real quick. Bed's 8 feet, but it needs to drape down on either side, so 2 feet on either side is enough. That'd be 12 feet. Can you guys each grab a sandbag? That Agribond is key. Lets air in, lets, uh, water in, but also keeps the temperature in and the frost off of them. So it's supposed to freeze this weekend, so I'm glad to be on top of this now. Now, Manzo, we don't need that kind of contribution to the garden. Keep moving. I think it's plenty.
Yep, it's plenty.
Of course I'm just gonna lift it off because it's gonna be very warm today, but that's what it's gonna look like come this weekend. Gideon did spill a sandbag, but so worth it, so worth it. I love working with these little guys. We are on our way to the people that planted a seed into the apron-wearing permaculture chicken ninja master. Looks like they still have a little homestead. I believe they had their chickens was right over there. Do y'all remember how many years ago was it? This is when I was pregnant with Dylan, so 14 years ago. 14 years ago you gave me 4 chickens. Yes. Do you remember the story? Why were you guys getting rid of 4 chickens? Uh, I don't know. That got us started and that got us into chickens. And I don't know if y'all know, but that ended up being a really big deal for us. Yeah, because we launched a whole entire career, right? Livelihood. Such a blessing. Got us out of poverty, got us into success and even significance now. So this I want to give to you guys because I actually wrote my first book. This ships in March, March 1st. Oh really? And I want you to pay attention to the, the acknowledgments in the back, but also the dedication. All right, let's see. Turn it over there. Okay, I can't read out loud. For Don and Heidi Hendricks, who gave us our first chickens, in memory of your son Ryan, who sacrificed his life in the line of duty. That is very nice. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Don, you got a, uh, you got raised beds. Looks like you're just taking care of it now. You're tilling it. Yep. And then you've got rabbits. Rabbits. What do you do with the rabbits? Well, we love— we use them for fertilizer. Okay, yeah, look nice. He doesn't do chickens anymore, but he does do quail. Look, and I just learned they start laying eggs at 6 weeks. He could also use them for the fertilizer too. Look at that, and it's falling through just a half-inch wire mesh. Just a little feed, a little water. It was so nice seeing them. Everything I imagined. They're full of gratitude and appreciation for it, and it's so happy. I was so happy to just tell them what an impact they had on us. Yeah, who knew that 4 chickens could just take us from, yeah, just, I don't know, average, mundane, just, uh, eventually, you know, we go through a struggle, regular life, and then chickens and creating content around those chickens and helping many other people, uh, could turn into such a blessing. Yeah, to give us this wonderful community, you guys, a wonderful business. Kind of crazy. Without that, somebody willing to give up some chickens, who knows what would have happened. So it just shows you how far just a little act of kindness can go sometimes. Yep. So deep appreciation for them. And thank you. Thanks to all you have gotten The Rooted Life so far, our book. And thanks to all you guys who will get it. We love and appreciate you so much.
