In this vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes documents a busy day on his regenerative permaculture homestead. The crew plants a new row of pumpkins and evaluates the need to expand garden beds for a larger pumpkin patch. They confront several logistical challenges: moving oversized turkeys and pigs to new pastures using improvised mobile cages (the "turkey shawl" and a "pig port"), repairing a leaking water line that supplies the mountain‑fed tank for the cows, and fixing a malfunctioning propane tank. Victor explains the design philosophy behind the mobile turkey coop—drawing inspiration from Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm—and demonstrates how the structure is built to be minimal, mobile, and multi‑purpose. Throughout the day, the team improvises with zip ties, makes quick repairs, and adjusts equipment to keep the animals contained and the farm functional. The video also includes a brief promotion for the "Homestead Builds" book/kickstarter, outlining the limited‑time sale, bonuses, and printing schedule. By the end, the water line is patched, the pigs are moved before a 10 am deadline, and the pumpkin planting is set to continue the next day, showcasing the blend of hands‑on problem solving, permaculture principles, and community‑driven product development that defines the homestead.
Chapters
Yesterday we planted our row of pumpkins. Pumpkin trellis is also doing good. Pigs are ready for a move. That means we can shape the beds behind them. They've been prepping this ground for new garden beds and plant this— a pumpkin patch. These guys are growing daily, and they've only got so long before they outgrow these small growing areas. The Big Max has already started to suffer. In yellow. They just don't have enough soil. Good morning. Are they ready to go on your ride? Yeah, I bet he liked it much better in the morning, huh?
Yeah, they're so muddy.
All right, I wish that were it. That's all we had to do. But we are on a permaculture homestead, which means we've got diversity. Plants are too big for their britches, their pots, and the turkeys are too big for their britches Their little yard they're in, they need to get on a different job. If that weren't enough, we need to see why we don't have a strong flow of water off the mountain for the cows. And it wouldn't be the Justin Rhodes Show without some crazy deadline. Guess we have an appointment at 10 AM. So we've only got about 2 and a half hours. La la la la la, let me be free. Happy day! You know where Selma is? Yeah, she's, she's up there. She got zip ties in her? I don't know. Do you know if Jonah's got the water running off the mountain good? Is he working on that? Yeah, I think there's a breach in the line somewhere and it's draining the tank. We need zip ties in order to— oh, why'd I bring that cage? In order to tie that cage together so we can move these turkeys. Happy day! See if you get any zip ties. Do you know where those zip ties are? They were in the side by side? No. Dang. Are you gonna get the water going off the mountain? How? Going. How? It's just going. It doesn't go for long. I'm afraid it's not building up in the tank. What do you think?
I know where some big zip ties are.
Where? The truck. Oh, that's right.
That's where I saw them.
Happy day. Welcome to another day in the life. Of— what are we, regenerative homesteaders growing what we eat and eating what we grow? Yesterday I didn't move them. I was sort of at a loss as to how, and then I remembered this. We got a big move. They got to go from that yard all the way over to here. We did some grading over the summer and the pasture's suffering a little bit. Nothing like turkeys to help bring that back. This works fantastic with pigs. Let's call this the pig panel triangle. I've had to invent a lot of things to make this style of homestead work. This is like Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, mobile infrastructure, deep bedding style homesteading, style farming, but to the homestead, to a very small scale. Go. How you gonna move turkeys from there across a road to the other, to a pasture? We're a homestead. We might not have a big trailer. We might not have— I mean, I guess you could get poultry crates, but how you gonna catch them in here? You know, they're getting a little big for poultry crates. These turkeys have become a little too much for our yard. See how they're wearing it down in a shorter amount of time? Plus we got little new turkey poults that need to come out and be in this yard. All right, my idea is to herd them into here and then we'll have a mobile cage. We can just walk them over there. Nice, everybody. The turkey shawl, basically a 4-foot cube perching spot for turkeys. This is probably the most classic example of how I took what Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm was doing. I literally went to his farm. Yeah, this pasture is more brown right here, you know, that's because it was recently graded last October. We're gonna run the turkeys and their paddocks in here. I literally went to Polyface, measuring tape, jumped in with the turkeys. He calls it the Gobbly Go. He holds 600 or 700 Oh boy, look, Gideon! How'd they get out of the cage?
I bet they slipped out.
Oh wow. Oh no. Oh shoot. All right, come here. I didn't put the finer mesh on the bottom and I think they just walked right through. First rule if an animal gets out: don't panic. I literally did the math. Okay, Joel Salatin does 600 birds, this much bird space. This much shade cover. Just a second, guys. Let me put up your net. Every one of these homestead builds needed to be multi-purpose, mobile. Well, except for the garden stuff. These things needed to be minimum in their design. You can't get any more minimal than this. No walls. Turkeys don't want walls, they want open air. No roof. This is actually just a shade cloth. They want shade, they don't care about getting wet, they don't mind. Big wheels for easy move. Turkeys can get under there. The floor is the perch, and then a row of perches, and that's it. That is a very affordable way to raise 24 turkeys. Functional, like functional for the animals. How do they want to live? But also functional and like can get some work done. See, a chicken coop doesn't have to just be a chicken coop. A chicken coop can be a chicken tractor and a tilling machine, fertilizer, a compost maker, manure catcher. Come here, boys. Try to get them to help me. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. As far as function is concerned, we don't just house and put up these turkeys we put them on a job. They're improving this pasture for the cows, the centerpiece of our farm. Okay, we're almost there, guys. Let's electrify this thing and we'll let you out. In the beginning here, turkey shaw, water, feed, all in the middle. Keep the pressure off these fences as they train to stay in. They're a little, little yet. We got piglet nets. What this is, we can easily step over it, they don't fly over it. The finer mesh on the bottom so they don't get through. And looks like they're staying in nicely already, mowing and fertilizing. For the cows. This week and this week only, excited to say we're having our going-to-print sale on Homestead Builds. A dozen of these plans in a book, digital version, are yours. They're all— every single one of them available. We already got them to all the Kickstarter backers. Thank you, Kickstarter backers. We're gonna open the cart till the end of the week, till Friday, I don't know, 8 o'clock-ish something PM. East turn. We got lots of— we got 3 bonuses for you guys, and it's our last chance to ensure a physical copy by Christmas. Printing is quite the turnaround. Printing is quite the turnaround, and so we need to get in our orders. We need to know how many to order, and we have a natural cutoff there. If everybody wants to get their shipment by Christmas. Digital version immediately available, print version by Christmas. Shall we assess, get in? What? We've got an hour and 40 minutes. Not really, we should be there a little early, mic checks and stuff. Garden's behind me. We really need to go check on this water. You up for it? What? Let's see if the water's coming off the mountain. What are y'all doing? Picking up trash. I can't recruit you to check this water, huh? I have it under control. Okay, I'm gonna go check it. So you guys are picking up the farm, huh? Okay, it's hard to argue with that. Well, we had a 15-minute pit stop, but we got us a helper. I still have Henry and Gideon. Oh wow, we're near the spot Flossie kicked me. She kicked me in the nose. Ah, the memories. That's a good sign. We're overflowing. Although, why didn't it stop? Hey, I like the amount of pressure right there. We just have to replace that. Otherwise, this is going to be draining all day like this because it won't shut off, and we will drain the tank off the mountain. All right, we got our piece, plus we saw a leak in the line. Let's fix that. We might get to this pumpkin project after all.
Nothing even works.
Oh no, it doesn't work? Why did you put dirt in it?
No, Sam did. He threw it down the mountain and dirt got clogged in it. Whoa, it works, it works, it works, it works! Papa, Papa, get away from it!
Go, move, move, move! I got you. That's not how it's supposed to go, is it?
No.
Okay, I went to put on that propane tank and it just started spewing. We need that.
Where?
Tell me.
At the garage. Leah's here!
Okay, you think thinks he knows where another one is. Yes. Should I ask Randolph? Let me ask you something, Randolph. If I'm gonna replace the tank, do I just screw that on? Yeah, and it should be okay. I did that with the other one and then it started spewing. Really? There's a little rubber gasket in there. Uh, that it doesn't have that rubber gasket. All right, thanks. Lighter, torch. Let me drive. We don't have much time, Gideon. Wow, okay, turn that— wow, that's a lot of pressure. There's leaking right there. Let's take care of it. All right, I was able to twist this back on down flush. Now be able to put the band where it's supposed to be. Seem to fix it. We'll see. Got a lot of pressure out, but boy, this was amounting to something, Gideon. This could have been very well our problem. Stopped dripping out here, but The slightest little knock is gonna set this off. Let's try switching it out. Very slightly, but I think that's okay. All right, it's pumpkin time. Let's move that pig port, but before we do, let's see if Sally can actually fit through this. Wow. Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up, back up. All right, all right, she's gonna be too tall. Definitely, it's definitely wide enough. It's too tall. We may raise that just because of that. Nothing permanent until we're very sure that's where it goes. Our gardens, our pig port. We've got to swing our pig port and get it up there. This is why also we don't ever build permanent fence until you've had a temporary there for a while. I can already tell you we're not going to be able to make that turn with this fence right here. Now, will we ever have to do that again? I don't, I don't know. No. Because we've built these beds. But I can already tell you, this garden isn't enough if we're going to be independent of the grocery store one day. 50 feet, 4,800 square feet is not enough. We're gonna have to extend these to 100 feet, double it, to nearly 10,000 square feet of gardening. We have a couple complications here. We have to make this turn. I don't know how well-braced this pig port is.
It's prototype.
We have a bit of a compost. We have a bit of a mulch left that we're going to be turning right into, so hopefully it plows right through that. I just realized we need to move this part. Well, I don't want to tear up our bed. Almost wonder if I don't come out here. Maybe, maybe I do. Maybe I try to land. Should I try to land on this and then they have their deep bedding? I should try that. I forgot the water. Shoot, where's the bucket? You move and I'll open the gate, and when And it slides out.
You stay there and it'll come out as you move.
I'm afraid those pigs will get out.
I'll shut it back. Oh, Papa! Papa, they got out!
You can only turn this thing so much, so I pulled it out and now I've hooked it up on the other side and I'm gonna bring it back. I don't know if we're gonna land right there, but I think I got it in position now, further enough away, straight enough away that I can pull it right onto our leftover deep bedding compost there. It's important when the animals are still and not moving that they are in deep bedding. It's a must. Pigs are on the pig Pig port making compost now right next to the garden. That looks great, doesn't it? I had high ambitions. We're not gonna make it. We need to get to our show. We did get a water line patched. We did move the pigs all before 10 o'clock. We're gonna cross our fingers that the pumpkins don't grow too much today and we can get that garden done tomorrow. Has to, has to.
