In this 20‑minute YouTube walkthrough, Victor Justin Rhodes (the host) guides his family through a day of homestead tasks while using the garden as a metaphor for coping with the uncertainty of the COVID‑19 era. The video blends practical how‑to advice—watering strawberries and asparagus, mulching, feeding pigs, sheep, and chickens, spreading cow manure, installing a weed‑barrier, and training animals—with reflections on Stephen Covey’s “Circle of Concern vs. Circle of Influence” to illustrate how focusing on controllable actions can reduce anxiety. Throughout, the host emphasizes family collaboration, the inevitability of some failure in gardening, and the therapeutic value of working outdoors. The latter part of the video transitions into a promotion for Rhodes’s “DIY Abundance” membership, a summit on growing food in 60 days, a private Facebook community, and a bundle of printed permaculture books and seed packs. The overall message is that building a garden provides a tangible, controllable project that can bring certainty, community, and resilience during chaotic times.
Chapters
Do we need water? No, I already took it. Okay, let me get some water for the luchadors and I'll go with you. You sure yours don't need any water? Okay, I'll get— is this hot? I'll get some for the ewes too. Okay, good deal. How'd they have it? They got so tall, right? They sprung, man. The asparagus crushing it. If you see any strawberries flowering, nip it this first year. We sacrifice the first year for more food than the next. There you go. Yep, just pinch it off. This is one of the best ways to describe the mood across the globe right now. Uncertain. We're uncertain of how our lives might continually be affected by all that's going on. That uncertainty no doubt comes from us just not knowing. That's what uncertainty is, not knowing exactly how things are going to play out. Move down the edge a little bit here. You waiting on me? Yeah. Thanks, I appreciate it. Looks like they need to get out of here soon. You want to maybe move them tomorrow? Sure. All right, let's pull it up a little bit, spread them more. All right. —and it seems that much of what's happening right now is just out of our control. What happened to my bucket? What do you mean? Is it not here? You have a little bucket? Yeah, for getting water. I think Jonah took it. There's a little bucket right here. I don't know if that's it or if this is it. This it? And since we feel out of control, and we all like to be in control— where's the scoop? That makes us nervous. So that makes us nervous. Hey, Jonah, Josiah, will you guys get me some grass for the piglets? Sure, there are some things we can do. Um, you know, take some steps to stay healthy and, uh, maybe occupy our time with something positive. A little bit of skim milk in the spring. Josiah, Jonah, will you get me some grass please? Oh, I guess so. Nice. It's behind you too, buddy. Oh yeah. I like that trick. That'll do it. Give these new pigs a little bit of a health boost, bit of apple cider vinegar in their food. Hey, are y'all anticipating us yet? We want them to start coming to the door, anticipating this food. Look, we want to be a little hungry each time we come in. Train them with this bucket. So, you know, it feels like that's— that we're just playing defense. All right, little guys. Come here. They've eaten all their grass, all their grain. Come here, guys. Quick, quick, quick, quick. You see this white bucket? You hear that rattling? Look, here they come. This is what Stephen Covey would call our circle of concern. Everything that we might be concerned about, whether we have control of it or not. Just checking on the, the 3 chickens. You guys are doing a great job. All right, Josiah, you guys, do you have the cows in? Sweet. Okay, let's grab our milk and stuff. Unfortunately, our circle of concern can be really large, especially these days with so much knowledge at our fingertips. So what can we do, if anything, to go on the offense instead of just the defense? This is what Stephen Covey would call your realm of influence. Things that are within your control. Good to connect with her a little bit. They're huge! Aren't they stout? Here's one of the best things I can think of. Saw it in a song the other day by Lucas Nelson. Turn off the news and build a garden. Powerful, powerful. That sums it up right now, doesn't it? We're coming there today. Hopefully we're gonna get some wood chips a little bit later dumped right there. We gotta mulch it. Strawberries and asparagus need mulch. Look how hard he's pulling against me to come to you. That's not far. That's not far. Yes, we love each other. You want to be a farm dog and you just peed all over me. Dang it. Oh, yep, you get excited, Teddy. Let's see, dummy, what do I need to do? I want to mess y'all up. I have no idea what's going on. I just got out here with the 3 nets. You're taking care of the sheep then? I was gonna put hay in the sheep. Do you want to put him on this, hook his leash there. Yeah, if you then— you'll then deal with him with time. You got a job for me? Who's in charge here? Jonah, what do you want me to do? Looks like you're gonna need another net, huh? Now I must say, gardening, homesteading, it's not 100% guarantee. Actually, the only thing I can guarantee with it is that you're gonna fail at least some. I, after 15 years of growing our own food, make mistakes, and there's failures that happen, whether by me or by natural circumstances. It happens every day. Sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep! You're gonna think you're a sheep, Moose. Sheep, sheep! Look at him running, look at him running! Oh snap, snap! I don't want them to train to jump over this or to go over this. Jonah, when we do this line, we got to roll it up, honey. I do not want these sheep to touch a electric fence that's not on and learn that those are safe. I want it always to be hot. They're experience Needs to be always hot. Sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep. Teddy became boss in scaring them. Yeah. Did he? Yeah. He can bark and they leave him. Look, They're just going to town. Hang on. They're just going to town. You can have one sheep per cow and not need any more land. They eat such different stuff. But what we can be in 100% control of is our response to things that happen to us in our lives. We can control that. We can control that effort. There's one more thing I want to do. We tried it over the weekend. We're going to try it for you guys now. Well, it worked great. There's no trying it. We're going to hook up this drag. Why? Well, look, there's manure that the cows left behind. In patties. See that patty? See that? Well, that's a lot of nutrients right there in the one spot. Look, see how green the grass is around that manure? Look, and the flies aren't active yet, so it's no use having the chickens behind them to scratch through that, get the fly larva and spread that. Chickens will do that. Look at that other patch. But what do we do until then? Well, we get a drag and do this. Look what happened here. See that manure line? Spreading the love. We're spreading the manure love. All right, I think Rebecca's gonna back up Sally. I could play. Sure. Thanks for the help, buddy. Hey, there. Thanks. Proud of you. Okay, a hair more. That's good. You're holding the mascot. I got the mask. Are you the mascot? Are we dragging it? Boy, Sally has no problem pulling that. 2, 3. The wood chip guys are here. We lined them up almost a month ago. Keeping socially distant from them. Thank you. Thank you. Although we ought to go see what that's like. I've asked them to put some wood chips right here. So hopefully this evening we can— what? Turn off the news and build a garden. One second, guys. Come here, come here, look. I'm just gonna stay here so they get used to me. Here, see that I'm all right. Look at that, look at that, look how easy you can train a pig. It's crazy. The hungrier the animal, the easier you can train them. All right, Jenna, let's go see this. Will you go get us some pitchforks, manure forks, and some shovels, please? Here, here's— that's a little hoe for you. Yeah. Oh shoot, somebody took— I hung a hoe right here so that nobody would Find it, get it. Did you find that hoe, Gideon? No, I didn't see no hoe. So we can slip off our shoes, roll up our sleeves, get our hands dirty, and if we're lucky, get some calluses. Lily, are you barefoot? Yeah. You're barefoot. Uh-oh, Mom, you want to join the club? I didn't know it was a thing. It's a thing. Okay, so we're just gonna weed around the plants. Because we can only put the weed paper so close, and so there'll be some gaps. Okay, you don't have to worry about weeding here in the aisle because that'll be completely covered. Okay, be real careful of the asparagus and the strawberry. Whether we succeed here is kind of beyond the point. It's more the journey to the destination that's counting, that is in our control. Now let's put down our weed barrier. This is to stop the weeds from coming up through. Mother out the weeds. It's a non-toxic paper. Just to even be able to do this one strip, we need to set one up here and one here. We bit off more than we can chew tonight. Nope. Okay, we're getting outside, we're breathing fresh air. Listen here, how beautiful. We're working together as family. We're getting more in touch with nature. At the very least, we're clearing our minds, getting our minds off some things for a little bit and doing something positive. That's amazing. Oh, you want to put comfrey over here, Rebecca? Yeah, we have this comfrey plant we were covering up. It's an amazing resource. What's y'all's project? Getting this one out. Oh, that one can stay. Mom wants it. I was thinking it wouldn't because that'll be grass eventually. Okay. All right. Oh, Mom, the joy, the joy of wood chips again. Yep. And from our own land. This is exciting. Oh, and that's going fast. Everybody's involved. Everybody's excited. And the good news is that you don't have to do this alone. Are you with me? You guys want to build a garden? You want to build a garden with me? And if you want to lower your rate of failure, I can be there to help you with that too. And many of you need to get growing food fast, and last week that's why I created my summit. You can get it down below if you missed it. It's basically how to grow your own groceries in less than 60 days. But what if you want more than that? What if you want help getting the chicks all the way to maturity, all the way to harvest? What if you want to know what's getting your— what's eating your cabbage and what to do about it? Or you just need a direct line to somebody with more experience. Perhaps you have a specific question just Mr. Google Pants can't answer. I can be that I can be here for you. I used to struggle myself wishing somebody was there for me, somebody for my specific questions. I just had the books and experience, and it took me a long, hard time. And now I'm being the solution to that problem, hopefully. Well, yeah, I've been able to help thousands of people already in your situation. People wanting to get started, just people wanting to grow more, people wanting to get better, people wanting to get a new and different kind of animal. But it's not just me, guys. My thriving community is here in our Facebook private group. People getting in there, encouraging each other, asking each other questions, giving each other tips, just talking about life and homesteading. Just especially now, it seems more important than ever because at least it's a sense of community. I encourage you guys to check that out. This is what I'm calling my Do It Yourself Abundance member area. Link is down in the description. Right now we're doing spring registration, open only until April 15th. Guys, we like to just open up registration, get some folks in, and then I can adequately take care of people. I can adequately create content and don't have to worry about the promotion and stuff like that. And get in there. We close that April 15th. And plus we have bonuses, guys. We have real books, books from me. Intro to Permaculture, Design Your Home, Best Homestead Ever, Attainable Sustainable— a real book like that thick, like, uh, how to tend a garden. How to can, all kinds of useful homesteading stuff on a book on your shelf, not reliant on the internet or anything like that. Good old-fashioned book. Oh, and seeds, guys. I'm dropping seeds. Everybody, at whatever level you get, you're gonna get packs of seeds that'll get you going fast.
