Victor Justin Rhodes protects his raised garden beds during a heavy sideways rainstorm, securing tarps with rocks and boards while tending to chicks, calves, and other farm tasks with his family.
Oh my, see the banners? It is crazy windy out there. Big rainstorm last night. Garden's holding up good. You spending some time with the cat? Hey Lily, what about the chicks this morning? You gonna do them? It's too windy outside. Got the umbrella. Wind is blowing sideways, wind and rain. Grandma did say though it's supposed to pass in a half an hour, so Hey, we got the hardcore farmers here. Give them some more shavings. Is that to get them up to the feed trap? Make sure we clean the feed trap afterwards. They staying warm under there, hover brooders?
They are? Yeah. What are you doing, Mr. Brown?
We don't want to spill any in here, okay? Well, half hour might have came pretty quick. We wanted to go ahead and set up the paddock for the cows. There's a bit of work to do on this paddock. For this afternoon. We wanted to get that over with this morning, but it's still raining. It's supposed to let off. Maybe we should do that this afternoon. Rebecca's new planted produce though will enjoy this. Hey guys, remember this? We did finish this. This was— this is a hiding wall inside that. Those chicks, those 100 chicks, actually have double the requirement We had this because we had some layer chicks coming, 100, and, uh, there was a delay. So no rush, no rush. Grab the silage tarp. Supposed to last 5 years, and I think on those raised beds it might because nothing's going to step on it. Yeah, unroll it. Keep rolling. Need to get down to 8 feet. Now hang on, hang on. Hold it right there. I don't know how to mark a black plastic surface.
Pop it!
Uh-oh. I was thinking chalk, but our chalk's not here. Here it is. We popped a line. It did hold on there.
What's gonna hold these things down?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Do we have any more sand for sandbags?
No, it's pretty much all scattered from his RV sand pit.
Okay, then we're gonna have to collect rocks. Do you want to go collect rocks while I do this work?
We've got all those rocks right there on that, uh, pile.
Yeah. Oh boy, the rain's picked up again. What? It's getting crazy. Hopefully it's getting crazy before it goes away. Josiah, come help me please. Oh my word.
He's driving a buggy.
Now we need to cut 4-foot pieces, 6 of them. Alright.
Good job.
For the last two, we had these invisible creases. Invisible? They were barely, very barely, um, visible. This one has it.
I don't know what I want on my birthday. Okay, I want, I want, I want, um, a toy trail and Uh, by the way, his birthday's not— and a tool box.
And okay, you hang on to that wish list. His birthday's not till October, it's April. Terminado. Terminado. 7 till 9.
What's terminado?
It means we're finished. You think? Here, let's put 2 back in the garden stall and we'll come back for those 4. We'll put them up there and hopefully just in time for milking. And it's not raining currently. Let's try it with 1 to see if it's even gonna work. Okay, here's 1.
Oh, Jordan didn't know I already got one.
Oh, oh, get her out, get her out quick! What in the world? What possessed her? That's crazy. Here, Jonah, bring me your rock.
Whoa, why are there so many rocks?
Long-term plan though, Jonah, sandbags. Just set that one down. Jonah, get, get, get a rock. Get your rocks.
It's like we're putting a blanket on it. Looks like we have beds.
Oh good, it did go. They put 2 in the middle. Where you going, G? No, I was thinking like the side middle.
Sorry.
Okay, 1 down, guys. I don't know if 6 rocks is going to be enough. It's catching wind. I think what it needs is a, um, a board. A board to be set on and then weight on top of the board. Well, we did it. The rain picked up again. I guess it's just going to be off and on. The wind hasn't stopped though. I hope these plants that Rebecca bought were hardened off because they're going through the trowel now. Hey, we covered your gardens.
I did go out there. You didn't see me.
We're looking out for you in the pouring rain. Oh, you went out and looked? I did.
I got it. I, um, I went out there because I wanted to see what the weather was.
Do I have milk and stuff? I need to take it down. Goodness. Hey, Jonah, you guys remember thinking you're gonna pull a Mary Poppins, jump off a ledge with an umbrella? Ay, mucho leche, mi esposa.
That makes me very happy.
Let's check the cooler and the ice to see if our system is properly getting this down. Okay, yeah, it needs to be at 40. We're trying to cool the milk to 40. It's on 32. All right, it's the afternoon. Waited out the rain. It literally just stopped raining. You know, I'm underneath a porch. But the porch is soaking wet. It was one of those rains. I think it's been off— well, it's been off and on all day. This might be my window, guys. This might be my window. We gotta get the cows moved. Seriously, that was empty. That's probably from a gutter overflow, but still, we just got more rain than Arizona gets in 2 years. We got the calves up, taking the big guys across the street. They made it, they went right in. See what they like. They like the really short stuff. Phil is just going to town. There they found the big stuff. Supper! This turned out really nice, Rebecca. This cornbread, we put your frozen onion chive— they're like butter balls on top of them— herb butter balls on top of it. It's gonna be delicious. That's chicken soup. We've been looking up how we're going to actually transport these pigs next week. I think we've decided on big Rubber Mates.
Rubber Mates, either one or two.
We'll put shavings in them. That makes it easy. They won't need food or water for the 5 hours. Water, we stop and give them water. Yeah, because I ain't gonna put a waterer in there.
No.
Okay.
All right, we'll get like a 5-gallon bucket and we'll bring— we'll just fill that up some and then pour it into a pan. And let them eat it.
Okay, while we're stopped. All right, that's next week.
That's like countdown.
Start getting ready now.
And then my chicks will be happy. They could take their heads out and eat it.
Oh, that's actually really good.
If I had to start my Homestead all over again, it could only pick one animal… 
