Victor Justin Rhodes documents a rainy Sunday on his homestead with family chores: installing an electric fence, caring for lambs, splitting wood, and preparing for a Super Bowl gathering. The day moves between practical farm work and domestic moments with kids and animals.
Chapters
I guess we're not clearing today.
No. Happy rainy Sunday. Sea day. Hey girl, did you scare the Amazon delivery last night? The deliverer left a message. Dog wouldn't let him get to the home. Good job, Winnie, defending the homestead. They said they put it in a black box. Didn't sound like English was their first language. Is that the black box? The mailbox? Where's the trash can at? No, that's That ain't it. Must be the mailbox. Now you are dying to know what it is, aren't you? Sounds bookish. We opted for day delivery, but this time I guess we forgot. Oh, not one book but two books. James Reebank's wife book. I got this one for Rebecca because it's raining doesn't mean we don't have to eat. Doesn't mean the animals don't have to eat.
Oh!
He just fell down. Drop and roll.
Did you crash?
This ain't gonna be good.
No! I wanna go home! Come here.
Get some comfort. It's okay.
I wanna go home!
Well, let's go home in a little bit. You wanna go ride with Josiah? No. Okay, you wanna play with Gideon in the dirt? We gotta get him happy. Also gotta show you something in the house happened over the weekend. Which, by the way, we do not publish on Friday and Saturday. Sunday through Thursday publish. 11 AM-ish.
Where's his boots?
Psh, I don't know. You tell me. He didn't want to wear his boots anyway. He wanted to wear his flip-flops.
I know where they are.
Where?
They're over there. I remember now.
That's great. Time for morning project. Obviously it's not going to be grading. We actually don't have that much time because we have to have brunch because we're doing a lupper.
Why don't we just set some chairs up and sit?
What? And think. I'm not doing anything. Set some chairs up and think?
I'm tired.
Ah, good news and bad news. The good news is they sprayed insulation yesterday. Bad news is— whoa, we ain't going in there, it's fumy. What I wanted to do is get electrical wire supplies, put our net back up and run electricity to it so the little sheep don't go trying to go through our net without getting shot. Just been energized. Oh, that's a good idea, that'll do it.
Is this our third year?
Go ahead and get one, guys. If our cable's on the outer stall, not inside, we can hook up to the grid. And y'all know I love the grid. Let's see if the cable is on the outside. You look in the container, I'm gonna look over here. Hopefully it's in one of these outside stalls. See if we have alligator clips. And do we have a— there's a T-post or some sort of post.
We're gonna run it under the road.
Yeah, we've already got— is this a PVC under here? We can run our electric under the road. Let's get a little trench. Whoops. So that we can get to it. We're opening it up on both ends so that we can slide our electric wire through the existing pipe under the road. Is it a PVC pipe? Yeah, it is. The little sheep get out of the metal pen there, they're deep bedding, and they come around here. They're not going to go too far without their mom, but I have a feeling they're going to start going through this fence. And if they start going through this fence and it's not on, there's no consequences. And then when we turn it on, they're in the habit of going through it, and if they go through it fast enough there's no consequences. And welcome to another day in the life of a bunch of health fanatics building a legacy so we can enjoy our grandchildren till our ripe old age. That means we're growing food. And if these lambs were to get out and something to happen to them, we need 1 lamb a month for a year to be able to eat 5, to keep up with our 5 pounds of lamb consumption a week. We don't even have 12, so we especially can't lose 1. 2 more expecting. They can give twins.
Why don't we get the excavator?
I guess best we got is 11.
I need to cut a hole right here so that it fits over the pipe so that the hose comes up and I put a lid on this.
And then whenever we're bigger than that one—
yes, you just cut a hole and all your hoses—
but it needs a lid so that crap doesn't get down in it. Yeah, we're trying to get to our access point. Yeah, you can just follow the hose to it. I don't want to lay our electric wire on the ground because it'll get in the way of our horses So let's dig a trench. Guys, dirt's gonna fall right down in there.
That's why I put that piece in through here. That's why I had that there.
Put a hole in the middle. It's got to be on this side. Boys have got a bucket situated over the— well, I guess the culvert under here. Keeps dirt from getting in there. Gotta get a U-nail and hammer. Kick dirt over this. Whoa! Taking a moment to clean up. Call the Inquirer. Every day and every way we're getting better. Cleaning up even before we tried it. Gotta hurry up before this sheep tests this fence. Yeah, there's a rock there. Yeah, you have to go a little further. Yeah, you have to go pretty far. What happened?
Not bent again.
Hay string to the rescue. Hopefully you have to go so far off we can't make it. We could cut our corner over there, Jonah.
Can I chop something with this?
No, that's for splitting. You want to feel like a man? Let's put some wood by hand.
It actually really does make you feel like that.
Y'all want to go You want to feel like a man? Go split some wood with a splitting maul. So we wait until we have a fence for 3 years.
This isn't your fence for 3 years. This has always been here.
Which fence? This one.
It's been here for 3 years.
This is the 3rd year. Never build a fence until it's been there 3 years.
Haha, I'm so funny.
Okay, test it. You gotta test her. Nope.
It's going though, I can tell. Any little lamb that's gonna touch that is gonna die.
The little lamb is not gonna die, but she will never touch it again. Just as we got done.
So you electric fence it? Yeah, with the grid. Oh, with the grid, because the little lambs were getting in their way.
Yeah, it may not seem like much, but it's a lot. And it's just one step closer to growing more and more of our own food. Uh, we are not football people, but we are wondering if it's an excuse to have a party. I think we should have a Super Bowl party with our fam, just our family. I'm not sure our kids have even seen a football game. That would be good for them, expose them to that. And is it really about the football anyway?
Can I do the pedal?
Sure. It's not about the game, it's about the commercials. Not really. Not about that either. For us, it would be just creating a fun family culture. An excuse to party. What are you doing?
Um, I'm making pancakes.
Oh, hey, let me see your outfit. Is this the first time putting your pants on? Yeah, I like it. Are you crisscross? He's got his pants on backwards. Okay, y'all going?
Yes.
For real? Yes.
Yes.
5 miles is the crow firehouse?
No, it's a mile by the phone.
Got the cell phone, got the radio. They're gonna walk to the potluck. Back in the day, it was horse and carriage here, guys, and they walked everywhere. Oh, the boots.
We are going to walk over the mountain to our friend's house.
How's a mama feel about our wild kids on an adventure?
I feel nervous. I was like, at first I was like, oh, this is not a bad idea, and now they're like been gone and I'm like, where are they?
We thought we were gonna call them on their bluff.
Where are they? Actually, I'm gonna look up Find My iPhone.
Yeah, you can do. They're already over the mountain and walking along the road. They're almost there, aren't they?
They are. I think we're about a mile in and we're on the other side of the mountain.
The kids made it all the way to the house. Yeah, and they made it in only an hour and a half. The phone said it would take 2 and a half hours, so they're beast mode. Becky, that's what we wanted, a faithful dog for our children. We're there. Our friend Brianna and Arthur. Hey, how was the trip? Good. Easy. Okay. Yes. Any mishaps? No.
Just right over the mountain.
You guys made it in an hour and a half.
Yes.
Were you running?
No, we were just walking.
Okay, you did good. How was that walk?
Okay.
Oh my gosh.
It was long.
Hey Winnie, are you a good dog?
Did you go with the kids?
You're a good one. That makes me so happy. You're heavy. She's half wild. She's not used to this. How's Winnie doing back there?
Good.
All right, does this count at nighttime? I don't know, it's pretty close, right? Nighttime hours. We're home. The home's right over there, Henry. He's making me put his shoes on, but we're just gonna walk over there and take our shoes off. Doing this Super Bowl I haven't watched it in over a decade, probably. Have you ever watched it? Once. You understand it?
No.
Who you pulling for? I don't know. Who's in it?
I don't know.
Who's winning it? Um, so far it's 0-0. So I have no idea who to pull for. I asked my best friend Jody, who's a football fan. He said, I'm torn. I think the Chiefs will win. He's like a commentator here, but kind of would like 49ers to win. I like a lot of guys on that team who are true competitors and pursue personal excellence. Sounds like our kind of team. This is what it's really about— bean dip, cheese dip, salsa. I got pork rinds for chips. Well, this is about as good as it gets. It's halftime. We're gonna go to bed. We got some work done this morning. We hung out with friends. We had a party with just the family. That's where it's at. Happy day. See you tomorrow.
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