This content was created by Victor Justin Rhodes. This content was uploaded by Victor Justin Rhodes. This is a YouTube homestead/farm vlog titled "Setting the Pigs Up to Clear An Acre of Forest" (created 2022-08-16). The excerpt is an English on‑site recording featuring Dustin as the primary speaker with Rebecca contributing and brief mentions of Jonah, Eric and other family members. They discuss practical farm work: moving market pigs to breeder paddocks, dividing and setting up netting, feeders and waterers, addressing a blowout in a gravity‑fed water system, testing springs for E. coli, using deep‑bedding compost to improve pasture, and training pigs to an electric fence. The tone is informal and instructional/documentary.
Chapters
Now that the market pigs are gone, it's just the homestead stuff. And I can't— I'll be honest with you, I kind of like it that way. But we've got quite the pig land up where the market pigs were. We'll get our breeder pigs up there. They'll enjoy the forest, they'll continue to do the work of the clearing, and we'll be able to get them out of the deep bedding. We'll be able to spread that on our pastures for our very first time on this farm. Jonah's telling me to leave it for him to set up and let the chickens out, and we'll go set up for the pigs. Well, this is what we came up to. Plans have changed. Our gravity-fed water system looks like it's had a blowout. I mean, we've drained the tank and that's just our flow now, but it must have pushed that out. Thankfully Eric's coming back today and maybe he can look at that. We're, we're actually going to explore some other springs because that source from the creek and then we tap that other spring, well, both of them have traces of E. coli. It's fine for the livestock but not for us. We're gonna tap a couple other springs and test its water. Now you can filter for that stuff, no problem, but We have two other options for us, so might as well explore those. This paddock was the first paddock of this 1-acre paddock system, and that's where the market pigs began, and that's where they ended, and this is where they were going. So we're gonna put our breeder pigs in here. There's not 10 of them, obviously, and we need to keep people separated. The little piglets need to eat all they can. We need to ration the mamas and Beefcake. We'll take one of these big paddocks and just divide it by two, and they'll be next to each other. Let's pick up the old net, and then let's set up a new paddock right here, and then we'll divide it down the middle. All right, that's filling up. We got our middle strip mowed. We lack one more perimeter and the other water and the feeders, then we'll be ready for them. Just look at this grass they're going into. Super excited about that. Super lush. I think this is one of the better grazings I've ever done. It's mature but not too mature, but a little more mature than we're usually hitting at. I'm liking this because I think I tend to go too fast. Watch the calves, Jonah. See, they're stirred up. Stop, Flossie! Stop, Flossie! Hey, say, Eric. Morning, morning, morning. Good morning. Well, I got two of your samples taken. You need to find out where your well is. Okay. And we need to get as close to the well as we can. All right, we're gonna test the well right here close to the— we've tested our well in the past and it's been just fine, but we're gonna just Hey, we got you out here testing a couple of springs. That's it.
Dustin is coming home from an appointment right now. The kids and I are hoping to get a head start on setting up the forest pegs. Jonah is grabbing the net. Where's the other net? Because we need to do one down the middle, your father said. Now we're gonna head back down and get the feeders, waterers, and hopefully the pigs. We're getting the feeder, we're getting the water.
I think these guys are ready to go.
We got all these buckets and grain. These two boys helped me. Now we're gonna go load the pigs.
Now that we're just back to our homestead pigs, food that we're gonna eat, something very special about that. Boy, they're acting like as soon as we open this they're gonna jump in. Hey, you guys are going to the woods! We're excited because that's where pigs get to be the most— express the pigness of the pig in the woods. They love the woods, shady acorns to root and search for. They've helped make this deep bedding into rich compost. Compost, then that will go to our field, improve our pasture. Remember, everything complements the cow on this farm. The family cow is our centerpiece.
They're so happy.
So happy. He's gonna get shocked, he's gonna get shocked! Watch out! Oh, he's running the wrong way. Lesson number 1: train the pigs to the electric fence. I thought I had— Rebecca reminded me that we had it on those little guys. Lesson number 2: too much going on in one day. They moved and they're getting away from their mom, so we're gonna ease that transition. Everything's calmed down now that they're in there with their mom. So let them have a couple days like that and then we'll separate them. By that time they'll have low pressure testing of the fence. I think they just get panicked, you know, their moms aren't around, uh, they just moved, it's all new, and they're— but now that they got the security of their mom, feed, and water, they'll hit this fence more at their leisure and get trained to it.
