This content was created by Victor Justin Rhodes. This content was uploaded by Victor Justin Rhodes. This is a YouTube vlog titled "Polyface Farm + Bass Pro Shop (in a day)" (created 2021-10-12). The transcript records an informal family road‑trip vlog featuring a primary narrator (father), Rebecca, several children (named or referenced: Teddy, Henry, Billy, Josiah), and a caretaker/host named Arun. They visit Polyface Farm (touring greenhouses, chickens, mobile sheep pens, buying meats and homesteading supplies), stop at Bass Pro Shop, discuss meals and packing, and the narrator mentions his book pre‑sale "The Rooted Life". The tone is conversational and home‑centered, focused on homesteading practices, family interactions, shopping, and promoting the book.
Chapters
Heading home today, but first a couple of fun stops. Polyface Farm, one of the greatest farms in America, and Bass Pro Shop. You guys excited about that? Yeah. Okay, are you guys excited to go home as you were to come?
Yeah, I'm excited.
Okay, all right, we got it all jammed in there. 720, let's go. You think we got everything?
I hope.
First stop, Polyface, in 1 hour and 42 minutes. Stacked too high.
Are you lying?
Probably hundreds of cars.
I know, man.
Wow, look at the train right there, the locomotive.
Two of them.
Two of them.
All right, we are at Polly Face. All right, this makes me feel a lot better right here. So I was feeling bad for our greenhouse just going to jungle. Well, this is not jungle. They have sweet potatoes here, old corn, uh, look like these are volunteer tomatoes, but maybe they're not. But anyway, my thought is the chickens and the pigs will take care of it this winter. I don't need to worry about it. And it looks like that may be where they're going with this too, with the corn. And then at the end, if it works for Polly Face, it works for me.
There's chickens back there.
Let's go see them. There's their rabbit cages, Lily.
Those are Lily's.
The chickens come in here in the winter and the manure falls down and the chickens scratch it in. We will put Lily's rabbits in the greenhouse with our chickens this winter.
All you of them.
This— look, this gone to weeds, and who cares? The chickens will take care of every bit of it, cuz I've been in this in the winter and there's no weeds in here. Yeah, yeah, no weeds in there. Look at all those chickens coming of age. Are these both pullets? Yeah. These are their egg layers.
There's always one, right? See them up on the—
is there one fooling around? Trying to not obey the rules, breaking stuff. Pork chops, sirloin, and just— I just pointed out all my work. They have bratwurst. Get all the bratwurst they've got. Look at all that bratwurst. Did you guys get yourself some hot dogs? How many do you have in there? How many you got?
We need another basket for one more hot dog.
This is where everything is so people can find the chickens, cows, and the pigs.
Oh, that's cool.
Aerial map, you can see where the meat chickens are in their poultry We're getting a big old taste of polyface by stocking up on a bunch of cool meats we don't have. But let's get a polyface field shot here. Look at this, a mobile sheep pen out of wood. I really want to see this because The one I've done is metal and somebody has to weld, but could I come up with plans for something like this? This is the ram and they have— yeah, he's, he's on a cross beam that's holding up the wheels, and I guess they have a ladder to get in. It's a plain bucket of water with hay string, shade cloth tied up with it. Are you, are you calm? Well, you're a lot, you're a lot tamer than Nacho. I wonder if they can move it by hand. Yeah, I feel like I could move this by hand. It's not 16 by 16, it's probably 12 by 12, but it'd be enough for one or two. Oh wow, and there's a huge gap right there. That's probably 12, 16 inches right there. Somebody can have a gap like that and he not get out. Next door we got a hairpin. This is what we'll eventually build for our meat rabbits. I can always learn something from Polyface Farm. We are back on the road. 5 hours and 21 minutes to go. That was a good break, a little longer than we had hoped. How long? I think we had aimed for 30 minutes, felt like an hour. But we're well stocked on meat we don't have, like bratwursts.
And ribeyes. And we ate all the chuck roast.
Chuck roast. Oh, and we just ate the last of our pork chops, and we could always use another Boston Butt. Well, we didn't make it very far, maybe 15 minutes. Need to get gas. I think Henry just fell asleep, so hopefully he'll stay asleep and we'll get back on the road to lunch. Are you guys all right? Are you all right? Well, I'm glad I had the lens hood on you. Protect the lens. So what's for lunch? I'm gonna be— oh man, one meal a day lunch. Probably some salami, roast beef, boiled eggs from home, yogurt from home. Rebecca's having some chili. I've got some leftover pork in my bowl. I can have cheese and summer sausage. The kids will have some applesauce. I might eat some applesauce. I do fruit, fruit and animal. Uh, the kids will have— the other adults will have some vegetables. Looks like Rebecca's got some salsa. There's some chips and salsa. Teddy, what are you gonna eat? I went to eat this salami. I smelled wet dog. Rebecca said, is that it? This salami smells like wet dog. Hey Teddy, tell me if this is good. Oh, the dog knows that the dog won't even eat it. I'm not going for it.
I ate 2 pieces.
Oh boy, everybody full?
Yep.
Everybody ready to go? Yep, let's do it. How much we got? We got 2 hours to Bass Pro.
Could you fill up my water bottle again?
1 hour and 48 minutes.
1 hour and 48 minutes to Bass Pro Shop. We are committed to making the journey the destination. So today it's been the excitement of Polyface and now the Bass Pro Shop. Have y'all got a vision for it yet?
Yes!
What are you looking for?
Bow.
Like a bow and arrow?
I don't know about that.
I'm gonna look for I'm sore from kettlebellin' yesterday.
Good for you though. The kettlebell fight didn't hurt.
Muscles sore yet.
Took a nap.
Took a nap. Taking a week off. I did. He's holding up well. He's happy. Now he's gonna get a break.
Look at that, don't whirl away. Papa, you got a penny?
I don't have a penny. Oh, you want to make a wish? What would you wish for?
A cat. I wish for a dog. I wish for a kitty cat. No, I wish for a big dog.
Oh, you found a penny. Alright.
My penny.
Boom. What's your wish?
To get another kitten.
I'm just kidding.
I don't know. I was gonna say get me one of those boards.
You wish for one of those paddle boards? I'm joking.
I'm joking.
Here's some nets for catching chickens.
Let's actually get one.
I think Premier One's got one. Let's get one from them. Had to say no to the impulse buys. I think they're mad at me. They're handling it all right. Tell the kids we did buy something. Vacuum seal bags.
You know what? Yeah, I got a tablecloth and some food covers for when we travel.
Like it. I think we're calling it. They got— you guys got stuff at Homesteaders?
I didn't get anything.
I think we're good. We're just looking around, stretching our legs.
How do you get one single thing?
All right, we're out.
The sun is shining and I want to be laying.
I know, right? 2 hours to home.
I don't want to be in the car anymore.
No, we should have— we shouldn't have gone in there. We should lay in the sun for 30 minutes.
Really?
On this grass? Yeah, walk barefoot in the grass with our shirt off.
Well, I couldn't take my shirt off.
Not you, but me and the boys. Home sweet home.
Oh, I'm so glad to be home.
It takes getting away to appreciate it so much more.
A little flock of turkeys over there.
It looks so green and happy.
I love it.
Yeah, the walnut tree has lost all its leaves. The color's coming in. Rotten pumpkin. Enjoy it. Hi, cats. Hi.
Good.
Looks like everyone took good care of you. They said there's a surprise in here.
Dinner made.
Oh, dinner! That rascal. That sneaky guy. Oh, thanks to Arun. Not only he kept the farm, he made us dinner. Yeah, we'll take it. Thanks, Arun. Are you happy to be home? He's happy. He knows this place. He is, isn't he? You know it. Are you happy?
Yeah.
Billy, you happy? Josiah, you happy?
Yeah.
Cool. That's what they say on the Nourishing Traditions podcast on the way home. What? That's what that guy said. The number one thing you could do for your health is to be happy. Happiness. So we're ending on a happy note. Hopefully this vlog made you somewhat happier because I agree, it's the number one thing you can do for your health. In other really good news, my book— I told you guys about it a few days ago The Rooted Life. It's number— well, I cannot believe this— number 50 on all of Amazon books. It's number 1, boom, in organic gardening. Yes! So thank you guys, those who pre-ordered. We just started a pre-sale that This weekend I gotta walk and talk because look who's crawling. Look who's crawling. We just started pre-selling that over the weekend at Homesteaders of America, and now we have the link available for you guys, therootedlife.com, or I'll leave the link down for the description. No, you don't have to get it on Amazon, but that is an option. Look at him. I'm just so excited. It's my first book. Dad would be so proud. He said he's watching this. Dad, here you go. I wrote a book. Thank you all for supporting this. The better we do on Amazon, uh, the, the more books Amazon will buy, the more they'll push it out to others, and the more we expand this wonderful homestead community. Just overall blessings. And you guys, we're in this together to reach the broader community and see more homegrown food on everybody's plate.
