Victor Justin Rhodes and his farm team talk through setbacks like herbicide drift destroying a garden, a cow's death, and rehoming a dog named Laurel. They share how taking time to learn, diversifying farm projects, and planting something new helps process loss without erasing the pain.
One of you guys, actually a viewer, lost his entire garden due to spray from neighboring hay fields destroying it. He's actually one of our premium members, and at the webinar Sunday night, he asked everyone, what do you do to get through when something bad happens. It's raining, but the show must go on. We've got to get those pigs moved. I've got to get a raincoat. At that point, my heart goes out to him because there's really nothing I can say or even do to make it completely better. So me and the beautiful one and some others came up with some answers, and I'm sure they're of some help. It's not going to erase it, but there's some help. Just realize and know it's gonna happen. You're not an exception. It happens to everyone, and sometimes just knowing that helps.
Got our umbrella over the tools. We got a little less than an hour, Joni. You think we can do it? First thing first, get the water— the cow's water trough out here. Let's get the pig's water up here.
Yay! Focus on the diversity. So being diversified Like when our cow died, we had so many other things to focus on. It helped, and we had so many other things to make up for the loss as well.
We turned on the water, but I don't see it coming out yet. It takes a minute. Okay, next thing is to get their water over here and starting to fill up so we can check it and maybe even turn it off by the time we're going home.
And one of the other members had a great suggestion: when they fail, they take a timeout from that and think about it, research, learn, while focusing on the other things of the farm, or even picking up something new on the farm. And that preoccupies our mind. That happened to us last year when we lost Violet, we lost the sheep. We planted a garden, and although it was a hair too late for a winter, we did it. And and it grew up and we had a nice little winter garden that we probably wouldn't have had before.
This rain has helped the grass come up. Look at that. And no, I do not plant grass seed. It's in the seed bank. This rain will also speed up their tilling, so I'll probably give them a bigger plot. We got a very little bit of water coming out. Guess that'll do it.
Those suggestions might help a little, but I'm sure I'm sure they don't take the pain away completely, and my heart goes out to hear these types of situations.
Jonah's rolling up the fence.
Yesterday I published the video on why we had to rehome our family dog Laurel. It was hard. It's a hard situation. It's a hard video to post. It was a hard thing to do. We've had to make a difficult decision to give away our dog Laurel. I got a text from Adam yesterday about that video when it published. Sorry to hear about Laurel. Thank you. And sometimes that's all that needs to be said to somebody in pain. I'm sorry to hear about that. I'm sorry it's not easy to share such a crushing experience with the community, but it does give others that look to your— to you to realize that everyone goes through tough times on the farm.
Now let's go around and clear. We'll come from here with our other fence. We need to clear stuff like this, get any logs out of the way. What do you think? Right here, Jonah? Give them this paddock. It's a little wetter, they're gonna have a bigger area. Maybe right here. We got to get this brush out of the way. Jonah, you gonna size? Oh, okay. And I'm gonna lop her. We're just getting stuff like this down with the scythe, this brambly stuff right through here, through our path. And then where'd we decide, Jonah? Right through here? Oh, right through here. Let's go right through here.
So you were speaking from the heart on the webinar, experiencing loss on the farm— herbicide garden, milk cows, family dogs. Thank you again for your openness.
We got it clear all around. It's 9:05. I want to start milking by 9:30. I think I can do it in the 20-ish minutes if all goes well. Well, it's not going good so far. I've got this tangled up.
All right, I got it done. This, uh, Premier One net can be your best friend or your worst friend when it gets tangled, but most of the time it stays untangled.
I publish these things because I want you guys to know you're not alone in the struggle. You're not alone, and everybody struggles. Even somebody like me who's been doing this a dozen years.
Okay, hopefully they'll follow me straight to where we want to go. They aren't out. At this moment, we need them over here.
I'm worried they're gonna go up there, like I said.
We did it! They're there, they're happy. We've got some work to do.
I go through it with you guys. I lose a family dog. It's hard because we miss her and she was part of the family, and I lose livestock.
A couple dead chickens in there. Do you know what happened, Jonah?
Um, they died.
It's pretty fresh. They haven't—
huh? They're hurt.
They got hurt?
Their foot.
Oh, okay. Okay.
Yeah, like they're still surviving. It's hurt, but—
Yeah. Every once in a while you get a lame one, and every once in a while they kick it, and every once in a while they don't. All right, let's go.
I work in the rain. I work through pain.
I just twisted just a few minutes ago, and it's like shooting pain went all throughout my ribs.
And I speak from the heart when I say I say this, homesteading, farming, it's tough. It's so tough. It's not always unicorns farting rainbows. Rarely is it ever that. I don't have any. Have you guys seen any unicorns on this farm? There are no unicorns on this farm. None.
Okay, 9:26. Let's grab the cow on our way home. We're right on schedule.
So I conclude this video to remind you and say, it's tough, it's worth it, and we're in this together.
If I had to start my Homestead all over again, it could only pick one animal… 
