In this informal homestead vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes walks viewers through a packed morning of outdoor labor and farm management. He opens with a light‑hearted discussion of daylight‑saving time and the freedom of a non‑9‑to‑5 lifestyle, then launches into the main project: shaping roughly 900–1,000 feet of garden beds (eleven 50‑foot beds) before lunch. He outlines the step‑by‑step process—clearing tarps, marking corners, digging, and leveling—while coordinating helpers Jonah, Lily, and the boys. The vlog also covers compost activation, emphasizing the four essential components (carbon, nitrogen, air, moisture) and noting how chickens aerate the pile. A substantial portion is devoted to chicken‑raising advice, including a simple egg‑production calculation (five chickens per dozen eggs), an overview of a 12‑stage chicken‑raising game plan, and a promotion of a free PDF guide. Community collaboration is highlighted through equipment sharing (borrowing a tiller, using a walking tractor) and distributing excess eggs to neighbors, pigs, or friends. The video concludes with a promotional call‑to‑action for the free PDF, an upcoming book titled “The Chicken Tender’s Guide to Raising Your Own Chickens Naturally,” and a Kickstarter slated for March 23rd. Throughout, the tone remains conversational, enthusiastic, and occasionally promotional, offering practical tips, quantitative details, and a glimpse into the social dynamics of small‑scale farming.
Chapters
Hey, I love those pants. You crisscross. You want to go with me this morning? Uh-uh. You want to give that tool to Jonah so we don't lose it? Big day for you. Big day. Going horse shopping today. Try not to get excited because last time I was excited and then they got me arrested. Ellie, he's arrested you. Oh, you're not supposed to shoot them if they surrender. Oh no, we gotta save him. You alright? Feels a little better after bath. Maybe it's just a little bit of Time change blues. Yeah, the cow was milked early yesterday. Let's not be late today. Come on, come on. Oh my, they can't waste one minute without fun. The water's heating, you can't just wait on it. We do this every morning just to prove the vlog. Happy day. By the way, a little housekeeping here, we film on the day these come out. Just a week earlier. So Sunday for me now, it's Sunday for you when this comes out. Happy day. Hopefully by now you're used to the time change. It just happened to us and we basically ignored it. We're an hour late right now. Thankfully in our rooted life, we don't really have to heed to it right away. It's not like we have a 9-to-5 job or something. We don't go to church early in the morning. I remember when I was a kid though, My parents would take me, take us to early service. That was rough because you'd lose an hour of sleep. With this, we didn't lose an hour of sleep. We just slept our normal amount. We lost an hour of dofulness during the day. Productivity, right? During the day. So hopefully we'll just go to bed early tonight. On our impossible list to do today before we have to quit for lunch so we can go to Lily's horse. Oh, we got 3 more 100-foot-long garden beds to build. We want to do this. We want to stir it up. We want to get those weed seeds aerated and excited and get this covered and keep it covered for enough time before we have to plant. So this is really important that we get this done today. Also, if 300 feet of bed shaping isn't enough, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 11 50-foot beds to shape. That's hard physical labor. You guys ready for the impossible? Two young strapping men, you think you can do this? Before lunch. Hey Jonah, is the, is the flatbed trailer empty? We gotta empty it because you got to take the, uh, BCS back today. Another project for today, get this compost piled up. Let's get it wet, it's so dry. It needs a fourth ingredient, wetness. You need carbon, nitrogen, air, and wetness. So when we pile it up, we'll also stir it up. Of course the chickens are helping getting its air too. First thing you want to do when raising chickens is how many do you need? Well, how many dozen eggs do you eat a week? Get 5 chickens per dozen eggs. You're gonna get twice that many eggs this time of year. The reason I say that is because, well, you're gonna lose some chickens, and then it accounts for this ebb and flow, and then you're still getting a dozen of eggs a week even if it's in the winter. You'll have no problem with the excess. You could, uh, break them up, feed them back to your chickens. You could feed them to the pigs. You could give them to neighbors. You could sell them, give them to friends or family. Turn this off. The boys promised me they're gonna— I wanted to do this now. They promised me they're gonna do this later, turn this pile. I got my free PDF for you, the 12-Stage Game Plan for Raising Your Own Chickens. I get you from chicks all the way to eggs, all the way to the end. Look at this Easter egg variety. Probably gonna feed those dirty ones to the pigs because here's why. Look at this abundance. Actually, I'm gonna get— give a couple of dozen, uh, so, you know, you can feed them to pigs. You give a couple of dozen to the, the guy we borrowed the tiller from. We're gonna give him some money, but let's also give him some eggs. I mean, that's just like priceless stuff. You just can't buy that. It's just special. Treat the people of your community or help contribute to the farm very nicely. That's just step 1 in the preparation stage. There's 12 stages, but 5 steps in preparation. I've got a PDF for this, it's totally free, the, um, 12-stage game plan for raising your own chickens. I'm gonna leave the link for that down in the description. It's free, you get it on our waitlist. We're launching my new book, working title The Chicken Tender's Guide to Raising Your Own Raising Your Own Chicken Naturally, something like that. Ninja Master, would that be a good name? Yes, I was thinking the Chicken Tender. That's a good name too. Well, thank you. I mean, everybody's got a book called Raising Chickens, but when you get chickens, you become something. Well, what do you call somebody who raises chicken? A chicken tender. So I'm gonna have a guide for you guys. We're kickstarting that March 23rd, but You can have the free PDF right now and get started. It's, it's March, people are jonesing to get started. Slow down, wait till last frost date, but let's get planting. How perfect that was! Oh my gosh, that's cheating, guys. It's not cheating, you already had one practically dug for you, one hole. There's gonna be no pathway. No, there's no path, that's normal. That's right. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yes! Now you guys enjoy this because You only have to build build beds once. You reshape them in the future, but only have to build them once. Just size them. Are you shaking your head or nodding your head? Well, he's been telling me absolutely how mad he is. Hour and a half till I make lunch. What— how could we best utilize two shovels? We only have two shovels. You can leave this one covering it. That was step one, getting the tarp out of the way. You want to move that one while you're down there with the tape, and then I'll need it down here. Tarp's out of the way. Step two, marking our beds. This is a set corner. We know it's safe to measure off of it. It doesn't move. We're getting ready to go into step 3, which is actually building the bed now that we've shaped it. Does that line up pretty good with your sole bed? Yeah. Or do we need to reshape it while we have the string pulled? Just fine. Okay, give it a good dig. It sinks a lot. I think it's harder that we— now that it's settled for a couple of days, or just the same? Because I can feel it's not as soft as it was. Gravity's already pushing this down. It wouldn't have been a bad thing to shape the old beds too, rid them of weeds. Look! You guys did it! You did it! I wonder how many feet y'all, uh, dug up today. Well, you did 12 rows here, that's 600 feet, and then you did 3 in there, that's 300 feet. You did almost 1,000 feet. Yep. He was wondering if it's a workout. Oh, it's a workout. So what's the plan for loading this? We'll just pick it up. Walking tractor. Let's pick it up and put it in. All right, I want to see y'all pick it up. Okay. Okay. Make sure you come get me so I can film it. Y'all pick up the tools. I'm gonna go help Lily with lunch. Be sure to come get me if you start trying to pick Pick up a 900-pound machine, okay? Because that works better with a camera. I told them they can't pick it up, but I'm not going to argue. I love them too much to argue. Oh man, that is nice. Shaped beds covered up, weeds encouraged but will now be killed because we can cover it for, I think, hopefully at least a couple of weeks before we start planting. Also, we're getting a walking tractor. Back in good time. He said we could borrow it for a week or two. We are at one week today. You okay? Let's see if we can find anything. Wow, what is this? There's a lot of sicknesses going around. Hope he doesn't have nothing. Here you go, bud. Can you sit up? I want you electrolyte. Have you tried to lift it yet? We're not gonna come put on the trailer. Gonna put on the trailer. Come on, look who's had a miraculous recovery! Yeah, look what came in, in the evening. Remember that PDF I told you about a little bit earlier? Know your why, prepare the 5 steps for preparing for chickens. Stage 2, 2 weeks before your chickens arrive. Stage 3, arrival day. Stage 4, monitoring during brooder stage. Stage 5, accommodating growth. Stage 6, hardening off. Stage 7, graduating to the brooder, get outside, egg laying, replacement chicks, harvest, and eat. Boom! Plus, this is all free, plus a bonus cheat sheet that sums all that up. Print it off, hang it on the wall. This is what I gotta do when— link in the description. Happy day.
