In this on‑site farm vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes leads a small crew (Rebecca, Billy, Gideon, Josiah, and others) through a series of hands‑on projects aimed at automating chores and improving animal welfare. The day begins with installing a poultry net to keep chickens cool and contained inside a high‑tunnel, followed by troubleshooting and fitting a new float‑valve auto‑shutoff on a water trough. The team then moves on to a "pig tractor" operation, using two growing pigs to graze and till a hurricane‑damaged pasture, while discussing when to relocate the pigs based on manure buildup. Victor outlines a low‑stress calf‑separation and milking plan that pairs the newborn calf with sheep, and he emphasizes the importance of talking to animals to give them energy. The crew also plans to order and sow cover‑crop seeds suitable for sandy, wood‑chip‑laden soil as part of a broader permaculture restoration strategy. Throughout, Victor provides practical tips, makes on‑the‑fly adjustments, and encourages teamwork, illustrating a blend of DIY engineering, animal husbandry, and regenerative farming practices.
Chapters
Today we're setting out to make chores easier, trying out a new auto-waterer, cooling off the chickens before they get too hot in the high tunnel. It's starting to warm up. We're building pasture with our two little pigs— well, big pigs now. Let's go! That's scraps versus grain. They left their grain! They left their grain! I have to yell because of the geese. If you ever see vegetarian-fed chickens, run! They're eating fat, they're eating beef, they're eating cheese. Scary legs. Look at the layer of dust in here. You— what, you grab the hose and spray this down while I'm— here's my plan, here's my plan. It's gonna be hot in here. It's gonna be in the 60s outside. That means it'll probably be in the 80s in here. I have this idea to run a poultry net along the side, not ignited. I can make it really tight by tying it to these poles. Do I need to go around the outside? I do. I'll go around the outside and that'll keep them from getting out this way if they are— if they're getting around through there. Okay, the battle continues, us versus these chickens. These sandbags fell down and the chickens just went around. I think I got a quick and easy fix and we'll be raising these sides by 10 o'clock. It's 9:09. Let's go. There you go. There you go. I'm gonna put a net up. Okay, you water their, uh, yeah. Thank you. I like those boots. Keep watering it down, buddy. That'll help break it down. What's this strategy? Why don't you just walk to the back? I think the only way this is gonna work Not on, just to make it really tight. Can I trust y'all to do this?
You can trust me.
This comes up here. Why don't you zip tie one? Zip tie one to the right there.
I think that's good.
We go around. Hey, we're close! We're 10 minutes away from opening this up. It's already hot in here. It ain't even 10 o'clock. You got this, Bird. Tightening it all up. Yep. Let's make these chickens happy. Happy chickens equals happy eggs, which equals happy people. Oh, feel better in there already, Lily? Yeah, go ahead. This ain't gonna work. They're gonna crawl right under that. Yeah, look, they're gonna crawl right under. That goose flew up and got me. Pinched me on the arm. If you want a good guard goose, it's gonna be a little aggressive. It's gonna be a pain in the butt. Billy, you were right on this side where you just did.
She'll protect the farm.
I was wrong on this side. This is too high and they're gonna just crawl under it.
I think this one's good right here.
All right, that's the one that gets out a lot. I think we got them this time. You think they'll stay in? Quick, act like we're doing something.
Um, It's kind of high right here. I'm not criticizing, I'm just saying, do you think they could get underneath it?
That's what I was thinking. Yeah, good, good. There it is.
Yeah, the bottom is—
like, we got that fixed.
Jail to them.
It is, it's a nice jail. Project number 2. This one is to get us more More milk. I'm ready to milk you for all you're worth, Harriet. Calf's getting it all. Calf is almost 3 weeks old, so we're gonna start doing calf separating. We will put the calf in with the sheep. Mom and calf will still be near each other, minimum stress. And in the morning, the milk would build up and we'll harvest it. We'll start calf— we don't cap— we won't calf separate her at 2. We'll calf separate her at 6, 6:30, right before our walk or something. Back.
Good girl.
Do you like me? You see me? See, when you have learned that when you talk to them, you give them your energy. You're giving them all your full concentration, which makes sense. All I've got to do— I think it— hopefully it works this way. We just swivel this panel more that way and we'll be able to access the sheep. It's a good hearty spirited one. Spirited one.
How's that?
Oh, that's good. Gross. That's what happens when there's poop in their water. Now tonight, stay tuned, we should be able to open that and herd this calf in. It's a little tricky the first few times. You got to keep the sheep in while we herd the calf in. Calf's never been in there. You're going to cooperate with us, February? They will not drink poopy.
They will drink water.
I mean, if they're desperate enough, and then they'll get parasites. Trying to find the drain line for this little ditch here. I don't remember it being that far back. Project 3: Gideon, did you bring the pit— did you get the pit forks and Sally like I asked? Okay. Oh shoot. Go back, switch this out for Salma, who has the hitch, correct?
I think.
Get the brush. We got to clean out their pan.
You guys are nuts.
And a fork so we can spread their manure. In lieu of a machine, y'all want to do the, the, uh, pig tractor feature at Earth Gym? Okay, 1, 2, 3, jump on. You'll get— All right, get the water going, it takes the longest. What do you Thank Beck. Look at this progress. Yeah, I mean, look, this is where they were. Turkeys helped us. The wild turkeys came and scratched at this.
That's so cool.
I love that. Look how level they've made it.
I know.
And that, that actually looks like half soil. I know, like what we would want to use if we could plant into that.
I know, it's so great. I love it.
You can't just grow grass on hay and wood chips, but these pigs wear it out. So the people want to know, how do I know when to move them? Well, I move them when— look, when there's enough manure here in their little poop corner, kind of sporadically cover the whole area. They're starving. This time I soaked it. Getting— let's start soaking their feed. I should have stirred it as I soaked it. I wish I had my cover crop seeds here right now. Rebecca, let's make sure we order those today because it'd been good to put the COVID crops down and then cover it with this hay that she's spreading around. Set a timer for 3 hours to order cover crops. Cover crop will help us. We're just doing permaculture. We're having animals and plants do the work of the farm. We're going to use cover crops that can grow in sandy, wood chippy, not much soil ground, and that will help us restore this land too. So happy about this. I didn't know how this pig tractor would work, but it's working beautifully. I bet you there's turkeys. I bet you those wild turkeys are gonna come scratch through this and level this like this. And we're gonna have our pasture restored down here in no time. Hey, I believe in the end we're gonna have more pasture than we did before the hurricane. The hurricane just wiped out this area, mainly this area where we had a forest. It just— it's actually grazable this side of the creek once these pigs help us establish this. One more project, 45 minutes. We gotta find the drill driver, the new auto shutoff. I'm gonna find the supplies for the trough. You guys are gonna keep working at finding this hole.
Where is it?
Hey, homeboy found it! Good for you. Probably rocks in front of it to stop it from clogging up. Okay, pile a bunch of rocks in front of it and put your dirt back on top. Now you got to put rock over it so the dirt doesn't get clogged in it. That's why it's— that's why even with all that, it's open.
What rock?
That rock's fine. Watch, let me show you.
Like that? Yeah, so water can get to that.
Yep, there you go. That's good. We just been using the regular auto water shutoffs on these troughs and they've just been getting beat up and stripped and we just keep buying them. Okay, so we want to dig, drill a hole right in the top of this, right? That's gonna go right through there. We have to test it out and yeah, that'll— I think that'll work. Yeah, it's going.
We have to go like right there.
So like, no, cuz you can adjust the ball. You can unscrew it right here and make the ball go down or up. So let's just do it right there. Let's do it as high up as we can. After I get it started— hold on, it doesn't have the drill bit in it, so it's a little harder to get started. Oh, it'll be sealed in just a second. You know, it might be better cuz it doesn't— just one second, the hose isn't stewing like this. Nothing sticking up here. I don't know, we'll see how it works. Hand me the, uh, adapter. When that float valve comes up, it should shut it off. Try it. Hang on, we need to tighten that wrong way. There you go. All right, try it. Okay, we're good now. It should run, and that's down. Now let go. Cool. All right, well, we'll see if that is— if they give that less trouble.
Justin, what we could do is have some sort of thing that goes across it.
Yeah, that's true.
Don't touch it.
We've done a trough cover before to keep them out of it. Yeah, let's check out what Josiah's been doing. Well, they got rid of their airsoft field. We're turning this into pasturable land, perhaps the pig land. How's it going? Good. Yeah, buddy, looks good. We could hay bomb over here. Animals are happy, chores are more automated, and we're building back pasture. That is a happy day.
