In this homestead vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes walks viewers through a busy day on the farm, beginning with assisting a ewe named Belle through labor and caring for her newborn lamb. He then tackles a wood‑moving challenge, using his tractor’s forks to shift heavy lumber after a sawmill delay, describing the mechanical limits and improvisations involved. The video shifts to a DIY project: constructing a pig waterer from a 55‑gallon drum, nipple fittings, and a hole saw, with detailed troubleshooting of leaks and assembly steps. Finally, the family welcomes three new pigs, coordinating the heavy lifting of a 180‑pound cage with help from relatives and friends, and introduces each pig’s temperament while setting up their feed, water, and mineral supplements. Throughout, the narrator provides informal, conversational commentary, highlighting the collaborative effort of family members (Grandma, Big Daddy, Arun, Josiah, Jonah) and the practical realities of small‑scale farming.
Chapters
And there is somebody new down here. One, maybe two. There's at least one over there. Yep. And then the other one's over there. Do you think she's having birth still? I see just one baby. Okay, that one's laying down. Mom keeps licking it. It's been here a while if it was when Rebecca heard it, because I was— been like 2 or 3 in the morning. But I come sometimes think maybe she's got more babies in her. We've done the little animal chores. Grandma will be coming down her road. Any minute she and Grandpa are driving to pick up our pigs today. In the meantime, we need to get this out of the way. The sawmill guy was supposed to finish yesterday. It looked like it was gonna rain, he covered it. Guess what? That's not got a drop of water on it. It didn't rain, but here we are needing to turn around a semi. I think I can put the forks on my tractor and move this instead of having to move it by hand. It's 7:30. Arun's here. He had the thought that maybe Grandma and Big Daddy already left. That would have been before 6:40. They're wanting to leave at 7. Finish banging it on there. These are our forks to move the wood. Oh, I sent Josiah to check on them. Nope, they're late. You were hopeful for them, Barun. Yeah, you, you were hopeful because I had the Grandma wake up so early every morning and they're pretty good in this Actually, but I don't know what happened. Maybe Big Daddy. Big Daddy, that's playing Big Daddy. My bet is they were fussing over the cage, putting the tarp over it. Category 5 hurricane proof for Big Daddy. Whose fault was it that you're late? We're taking bets down here. She said, she said 7. I know, but it's 3 and a half hours instead of 4, so we'll leave, we'll be there in the morning. Oh good, they got it strapped down like they're ready for a hurricane. Aroon, the reason I'm doing this— we got to get a tractor trailer in there. I think they're already gonna fuss at me that that's there. I think that was lucky. I just got all that in one swoop. Save the skids and maybe two couple. We can leave those, they might help hold this. Gosh, I wish we could have got this sawdust up before before it rains. That's just going to become, uh, gooky. Okay, we got all the little scraps out over here. Arun wants me to try to move these 1x over there so it's easier to take them in the shed. That's a great idea. I just don't know how heavy these are, if our old tractor can do it. Don't need the 2x, they're lighter, but we'll try. I had a feeling my tractor wouldn't do it, but you never know until you try, so We got under all the boards. I couldn't just move one board because then at a time, because then it would be in my way, you see what I'm saying? I would pull it back and then couldn't run over it again to get other ones, so I had to do all or nothing. So we got under them all, tried to lift the bucket. There was no way the buck— it just maxed out the power, wasn't going to lift it. So we tried to back out and we said, okay, we'll just get two piles. We tried to back out, but the pile, the entire pile dragged with us. So I was like, okay, we're just gonna have to go with this. And I was able to drag them, and Arun wanted me to lift it up, and I wanted to lift it up too because there's a log. But every time I lift it up, because all the weight is in my front, you get really top-heavy. My back tire capsized. It was starting to lift up off the ground, so I wasn't going to push that too much. But anyway, we dragged them back. They kind of caught on the log and spinned towards the shed. Let's see the baby. Okay, it's up. Oh, it's fine. Oh look, it's got a brown ear. I think it's my— oh look, it's going right to Lily. Oh, that's neat. Hold it, hold it, we'll find out what it is. So I guess she only had one. Belle, you did good! You gave us a brown-eared— yep, and a boy, which is gonna gain, uh, that's a lot of boys, a little more weight a little faster, which is good. Look, ordinary scene. I won't mess with it. This is Belle. Our tamest one. Isn't that Belle? Yeah. I gotta hold that baby and show you guys that brown ear. Come here, bring me— bring him over here. Oh, listen, you've nursed, haven't you? You've nursed. Look at this brown ear, how adorable. It's okay, you're— you're— it's okay. I'm gonna give We'll be right back. Here you go. Yeah, Lily, you just kind of hang out right there and watch. Let them just be used to you. Look, she's nursing. She just dropped her placenta. It all came out. It's hanging out for a while, but she got it. She's eating it. So I reckon that means she's done. No more lamb babies from her. One adorable one with a brown ear. We'll take it. Look at these guys, one week old. They're jumping up on the hay feeder. You know where that's going. Oh, very able, very able. Good news, I'm milking out this dead teat of Phyllis's. It's, it's only slightly, only the slightest bit of blood. Yesterday it was full-on blood, so that's good. And I'm able to get everything out. It's been clogged a few times, but I'm still able to get it. That's good. Good job, Phyllis, kicking this thing. Pouring the milk. Just says getting a turn with the baby. You asleep? Yeah, I think so. Oh yeah, he snuggled up to you, buddy. Honking his shoes. Mom would rather him turn his head, I'm sure. Everything's well with Belle. Okay, she laid an adorable brown-eared boy. Oh gosh, well, we got a lot of boys. And she's past the placenta. Oh good, so she's doing good. Yeah, I feel like she was so big. I don't know, so weird. It did rain, so we didn't halt work on the sawmill today for nothing. I got one more project to get ready for these pigs. We gathered our supplies yesterday. We've got our nipple, we've got our fitting, we've got our hole saw. We've got our, uh, 55-gallon drum. This is going to be handy dandy for just a do-it-yourself pig waterer. Josiah and I just got the nipple water on, did an instructional on it. Josiah, let's take it and go try it. I thought is to put those 3 pigs in our deep bedding stall, get them trained to us, a bucket, and an electric fence. You guys have boarded this up. Yeah, we're gonna have to unboard that. Okay, it's too dark in here. All right, let's cross our fingers this doesn't leak profusely. I say profusely because they've all leaked just a little bit. Hey, you trying to get that open? Yeah, it's stripped. You're gonna have to tighten that up. So let's tighten that up and then let's put a lot of weight on it if it's stripped. Ready? There we go. Yay! All right, I got that down. I bet that's a lot lighter in there. Oh yeah, look, much better. How are we doing in there? Oh wow, we still got a ways to go. Josiah and I got them some feed while we're waiting. We got them some minerals. We got them a char— some charcoal from the wood boiler, kelp, and swine NutriBalancer. We are leaking. We're not leaking right there though, that's good. So our Our job is done good. It's this nipple water that's leaking. All waters do that. Oh, you think? Do all our nipple waters do that? Let's go see that. Okay, our thread is good. It's the actual nipple water itself. It was the— you— it was a used one. What would we have to do to fix it? We have to empty the water. Let's put that there and just see if it doesn't slow down. See if that's a newer one. I think it's brand new. That's brand new. So we should use that. I don't want to do it, but let's do it. We should empty this with a bucket, restall the nipple water, and then see if that's it. The nipple isn't leaking, the threads aren't leaking. This is a perfect build. Let's, let's try it. It's working. Okay, so they're getting water and then it stops. All right, Josiah, Grandma and Grandpa are probably at the pigs, near the pigs anyway. We've got our feed, we've got our water, we've got our minerals. We're ready. Look at you two. He's just a passed out little doll baby. He is. He slept with Josiah for a little bit, and then, and then he slept with me for a little bit, and then he just nursed, and then I think he's gonna nurse again. He's a cuddle bug and a full-time job. He is. He is my full-time job right now. Look who's here. Big Daddy, Grandma, and our new pigs. The kids are over it. The problem is we're muddy right here before the stall. Are they so heavy we can't pick up the whole thing, or are we gonna have to pick up one at a time? Yeah, they're sleeping. It's gonna be a lot easier if we pick the cage up. 180 pounds of pigs is 180 pounds of pigs plus the cage. Let's get Arun and Jonah. Believe me, it's gonna be easier to get some men and just lift these pigs all at once because grabbing pigs individually— squealing, yelling, weeping, gnashing of teeth. Hey, Arun! Hey, can you help lift some pigs? I just wondered if they were back. Grandma, did you get any footage? I sent her with a camera. Did it take? Yeah. Okay, we'll roll that now. We've arrived and we're getting the pigs. There you go, there you go, there you go, there you go. Oh, there it is. There you go. Oh yeah, this looks good. There's your pig around. One for you, two for us. Oh, okay. All right, you guys got that? I'm having fun filming you. I'll help you. Got it. All right, all right. Oh, look, they're already coming out. I was gonna leave that in there for them, but you're ready to come out. You got your minerals there. Your feed there and your water here. Are they shy? Can they handle— handled more than any other pig we got. This is the— this is the laziest one. I think that's the— that's the gilt. That's the laziest one. That's the breeder. And these two are the, uh, feeders. How's this one? Is this one pretty calm? Yeah. She said they, um, they play with them. Oh, look, she's into that back scratch. Wow, we've never gotten pigs that were this calm. Checking out the charcoal. Welcome, welcome. You look like you're in good shape. Welcome. You gonna eat? Not quite. This one's a little bit larger. They're a little shocked, no doubt. Big journey today. Pigs for everyone.
