In this day‑in‑the‑life vlog, Victor (Speaker A) and his brother (Speaker B) manage the family farm while their partner Victoria is away for several days. The core of the video follows their efforts to keep two‑year‑old Henry occupied, fed, and weaned from breastfeeding. They describe practical tactics—constant activity, frequent snacks, offering bread, popsicles, cheese, and other foods—to keep Henry’s belly full and his mood stable. The brothers involve each other and older children (Gideon, Jonah) in babysitting, role‑playing as “mom,” and turning chores into games. Throughout the vlog they intersperse typical farm work: milking cows, handling pigs, cleaning a ditch, checking a water‑feeding system, inspecting metal siding versus vinyl, negotiating hay contracts, and maintaining equipment. Emotional moments surface as Victor expresses missing Victoria, worries about Henry’s clinginess, and celebrates small victories like a well‑filled ditch or a successful siding installation. The narrative blends informal, humorous banter with genuine reflections on parenting, farm life, and the challenges of balancing both when a partner is absent. The video ends with Victoria’s return, a warm family reunion, and a brief look ahead to upcoming moves.
Chapters
One of the secrets to surviving alone with a toddler— keep them busy. Get up, sleepies. Come on. Keep him busy. Always playing. Keep him always dry and comfortable. It's rainy and cold outside, it looks like, so pants. Is it warm? It's surprisingly warmish out here. You want to help me feed the cats? You bring it here. Bring it here. Scoop it, scoop it in this one. No. One of the coolest things about being on a farm is we are always busy and productive at the same time. Are we becoming crazy cat people? That's not even all our cats. We got one more somewhere. Crazy cat people. Involving him on farm chores on this rainy— at least it's not cold— day, it's gonna be tricky, but we're gonna give it a try. We have to do chores. You can't stay here alone.
I mean, I could watch it.
You could, but you're a little crazy. I'm a little too young for that. Gideon's a great babysitter if another adult is around. He has quite the rambunctious attitude. It might be why there's so much space between Gideon and Henry. No, Gideon plays with him. Yeah, Gideon is more of a peer than a babysitter. Yeah, babysitter. This is one of how many popsicles? Oh, you want up here? Salami? Cheese? I hate this, but Mama's not here. He's weaning, bless his heart. Why does he want bread? Why does he want plain bread? The other trick, keep his little belly full all day. I know from the last 4 days, 5 days, you've been snacking like crazy.
We should have weighed him at the beginning and see how much weight he's gonna gain.
Not only is Mama gone, we're weaning him, hence why he's eating so much. I do wish he would have finished this this morning. Grits this morning? Why do Why do kids crave this kind of stuff? Really carby type stuff. It's not that great. It tastes good. Plain and dry and cold. This is moist, sweet, and spicy. Oh, definitely take advantage of this. Yes, cold burger for sure. Popsicle that's just fruit puree. Let's try not to have 8 of them today though, okay? Every little whim and desire that you can Keep them happy. You want to go on chores? Okay, yeah. Oh, you turned on the light!
Good job!
Oh boy, we should have brought a skim bucket. And look how old the birds and Wei have definitely separated. Let's go milk. You're going to be the big driver? No, let's go milk. Is that why you went over there? What is he saying?
Cheese.
Cheese. You want to go get some cheese? Okay, we'll go get you some cheese, then we'll go milk.
Honey, what do you want to say for yourself?
Mama.
Henry the famous baby. Oops, sorry people, I have to wipe off that. Everybody, next up, Henry and the famous baby. What do you have to say for yourself, Henry? Mama. Ew, ew! Happy day! Happy! Who is it, Henry? Mama? Hey!
Mama!
And it looks like the famous baby got a little mad. So we're gonna have to end the famous baby show. It's got a choking baby!
Whoa! Victoria's been gone 4 days now. I miss her so badly. I'm sure little Henry misses her the most. She had the opportunity to go help a friend friend down in Alabama who just had a baby. Shouldn't have come over here. You were doing so good during chores. And Sally, who's that? Can you say Jonah?
Yeah.
Okay, good. All right. And we knew she was going to be gone 4 or 5 days. Little Henry's 2 and a half. It's 9 hours down there, so we're like, do we really want to put him in the car for 9 hours 2 times? Nope. The key is to not let him get accelerated. He gets too upset, it's hard to bring him back down from that. Then I thought Well, let's take this opportunity to wean you. You want any more boobies? No. Here, come with me. You can come with me. Talked about a whole too much stuff. See if he'll go to you. Okay, good. Whose? We're all out here doing chores, okay? And ministering to the baby includes a chore. So if Josiah is doing the baby chore, then you can help the other stuff. It's been on me to wean him. We didn't know how it was going to go. But it's actually not going that bad as long as we don't mention it. None of you others wanted to nurse this long. All y'all weaned yourself. I don't know, I don't think anybody went even past 2 years. How long do you nurse, Gideon?
I have no idea. I said I didn't nurse on the Great American Farm Tour.
That's right. And so you were younger than Henry on that. I would say one of the chief reasons we would want to wean him, it's because It's difficult for Mom to join us out here because, well, this is what he does. Hey, Jonah, can I get you up here to pretend like you're Mom?
I'll do it!
Get in. You get in the Sally and act like your mom just came out. What? I need to not say Mom so loud. If she were to come out here and I'm Henry. Mama, mama, boobies, boobies, boobies, boobies, boobies. Hey!
Boobies, boobies!
Is that how you do? That's how you do. And nobody else can minister to you. This has been one of the funnest things about this. Is you've let us comfort you. When you get hurt. Yeah, when we can feed you and you can fall asleep on us.
Like you fell asleep twice on me.
Oh, I've really enjoyed this time with you, Henry. Hopefully he doesn't resume his clinginess when Mom returns. Gotta check one more thing. You have size yet? You ought to be getting there pretty soon. Flossy's calf bellowing. It's been a few days, hasn't it? The calf still misses his mom. We harvested Flossy a little bit like Henry. Henry still whines after 3 days. Of course he does. He's gonna want you now. Cleaning out our ditch a little bit so it drains better. That's an old like garden retainer thing.
I could dump that on top of it.
Dump it right on top of the pipe. Ditch has gotten mucked up. Give him a layer of leaves off the top. Hey, that's mad skill right there, bud. I know you're not so thrilled about this job. I'll make you some steak quesadillas, all right, when you're done. You guys radio me when you're done. Mr. Brown, not one but two sets of shoes. More snacks?
Yep.
Okay, at least they're healthy snacks. Come on, come on, Gideon. One more chore to do, and that's measure the milk sled for a member. Do you got one for Gideon?
Yep.
Where'd you find these? Outside.
I brought them in.
Okay, well, I'm just telling you where I found them. Beef jerky. I'm happy about that snack choice. What?
You took a bite of my beef jerky.
You gotta stay eating your snacks. I'm gonna take pictures and measurements. This build is not coming out until book 2 of Homestead Builds, so it's gonna be quite a while. So I don't mind getting members, uh, dimensions. Thanks for your patience. Let's go home. Okay, okay, non-stops, non-stop eating. Here you go. You already ate your banana? Oh my word, more food. Hey, you want to cut up that pineapple?
No.
At least you like the sour cream at lunch. Oh, another popsicle. How about lunch? Makes sense though, nursing, it's kind of like snacking. You just been snacking all day on Mama. More snacks? Yeah. We're gonna go see a guy about hay. Actually, Andrew, you may be able to contract with him for maybe the end of season this year hay, or next year. We're here. He's been building his own house. This looks good. Metal siding actually looks really sharp. What do you say? Hey, what do you say? Trying to get some staining done. I'm jealous, you're further along than I am. Ah well, I'm Surprised how well this siding turned out. Yeah, was that your idea, or is that— that's my idea. Well, you figure vinyl, vinyl siding is, uh, it was going to be $3,900 to do the whole house, and this metal siding went for $3,200. There you go, killed one. Not so terrible. And this had horses until February, and it has not been cut since then. March. Yeah, had horses on it in February. Looks like we got a lot of yellow fox Foxtail or barnyard grass. It's not too bad for not having been cut this season. Whoa, you went snack crazy! He's weaning. Oh, is it? Mama's gone. Uh-oh. So he's been snacking like crazy. Oh, I bet so. We gotta look at these pigs. Yard hydrant to IBC tote, that's gravity feeding down. Got a valve on it, it's to both of them. Nice. What are you doing with that Mangalitsa? I don't know. I know they're crazy. Oh yeah, I've heard. You can hear him. Is he living up to the reputation, him? So I— he's, he's still, he's still intact. And I've got two in there that aren't intact. We are back and up to some boy shenanigans, filming a video for their channel, just making sure we're clearing everything. Oh yeah, we're clear. You couldn't make it to the fair this year, so this is our fair. They're setting up for the Mini-X slip and slide. All right, that was fun. That video will be on Rhodes and Bros. We are counting it down. Mom's gonna be here. She's texted, she's gonna be here about 8. 3 hours. What is it that you want?
He's going down here.
You want cheese stick?
No.
Tortilla?
Yep.
Okay, here's your snacky dinner, Henry. Do you want Mama to come home?
Uh-huh.
She's coming home in 1 hour and 45 minutes. He's eating applesauce. How many snacks did he have today? 1 hour. You think you can stay up? You think if we Watch alone, he'll stay up or he'll fall asleep? He's acting crazy. You afraid you're gonna fall asleep? Are you winding down? Don't you fall asleep. Starting to slow down, nature.
Give him some gum.
He'll swallow it. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't lay down, not even to play. Wait, are you giving him gum? Yeah, watch, he'll chew it.
He wants the round gum. He might need the peel though.
No, he wants the other gum. Oh, 15 more minutes. But no boobies. You scream for the boobies, gotta go to bed.
What? That is brand new information.
5 minutes. She's coming soon.
What?
Yeah, she's coming soon, but no boobies. We see a light coming. Winnie sees it. It's Mama.
Here she comes.
Where are you going? Mama, I think she sees us. Yep, she sees us.
Oh, I'm here!
Oh, look, I was so brave.
Mama went bye-bye.
Lily, Lily!
I'm so confused.
Hey, I'm home! Hey! Oh, you got a new shirt on.
You like it? You got dressed up for you.
You got dressed up for me. Give me a kiss. I love You.
What? Lily? Yes, Lily.
He's been really liking Lily lately. So look, he's holding me. He ain't letting go. You want us all together, don't you? We're going to leave in a couple of days, but we'll talk about that tomorrow. Let's enjoy each other right now.
Well, what happened on your trip?
I know nothing about it.
I'll tell you all about it.
You got to get hugs first. We went to 5 states. Uh-oh, give your mom a hug. We can't be too far from Mom. You want to go to bed? Okay. What a just-sized bed. Going right to sleep. He's not asking for the movies. You asleep, Mom? No. I mean, I wish I was.
