In this vlog, Rebecca opens with a brief plug for the Homestead Builds Kickstarter, explaining that backers will receive step‑by‑step plans for essential homestead structures such as raised beds, greenhouses, chicken tractors, and chick‑shawls, with early access promised before the plans go to print in Christmas 2024. The family then heads to the post office to pick up a new batch of meat chickens and layer chicks, dealing with a broody hen that escaped the brooder, counting the chicks (about 40 of various breeds) and setting up feeders and a lamp. Next, Rebecca and the kids demonstrate a pond overflow project, laying out a pipe, digging a ditch, and discussing water‑level calculations while the horse assists with moving logs. The segment shifts to a discussion with a local horse‑logging contractor from Mountain Works Conservation, who describes the Draft Animal Power Network and regional connections for horse‑powered timber work. The vlog then moves to the house site where the roof has been removed; the crew drops a top frame, prepares for further construction, and the family jokes about the missing roof. Throughout, the family shares everyday farm moments—cooking Dutch babies, planning meals, a zip‑line idea, and checking on Lily’s eye injury—showcasing the blend of homestead projects, community collaboration, and family life.
Chapters
Giant maple tree.
Real quick before we jump into the vlog, I am in Ohio at the Food Independence Summit. Video on that soon, but I just wanted to jump in here real quick because there's only one week left on our Kickstarter Homestead Builds. So here's what's happening. A lot of times we know where we're going, we just don't know how to get here—
get there.
So in this case, we have a goal. You have a goal of growing your own food, but you just always don't know necessarily how, what, what are the plans every time. So as far as the gardening structures like raised beds, things like that, greenhouse, seed starting trays, and chicken structures, chick shawls, well, turkey shawl, uh, chicken tractors, those things, the builds, the foundation of a homestead, I got you, I got you, I got you.
You want those?
I'm going to help you know how to make those in a step-by-step plans in our book, Homestead Book— Homestead Builds. You guys are going to get those plans as we complete them, as they drip out, if you back the Kickstarter. If and only you back the Kickstarter. Otherwise, these plans are not going to be available until we go to print Christmas 2024. So it's going to be a minute, but not if you back the Kickstarter and get the plans early. Chicken tractor plans are ready. Chickshaw plans will be ready by the end of the Kickstarter, so you got till Friday. Anyway, enjoy the vlog. Uh, see ya. What was I gonna say?
All right, let's go.
Is Josiah gonna get mad at you for wearing his sweater? Where are your shoes?
I don't know.
Oh my.
And Sally?
There they are.
Oh yeah.
Did you find your sweater?
Yeah.
Did you find your camera?
Yeah.
What's wrong? I'm getting pants.
Where are you heading?
Post office.
I knew that, but y'all didn't know. I'm helping get informed here. Yay, post office! So exciting.
We're going to pick up chicks!
Yay! If given the choice, he said he wants to go with Mom in the car seat. Where are you going, Henry?
Baby.
We got more meat chickens and some layer chicks. Papa coming back soon? Yes. And oh my goodness, what happened to your eye?
I got stung. There's a new bee's nest between the holler house garages.
And what'd Mom put on it?
Uh, mud.
Not like mud mud, but— Clay.
It has clay in it.
That doesn't look clay. Porch roof is gone. Dumpsters fill up. We're waiting on another one. He's warming up for him. Okay, bird, please, please, please, please. Yes! Setting up the brooder and Lily came and got me, said the broody hen jumped out. She apparently went to get the little feeders. I didn't want to get the one out—
we can't get the feeder out of the broody hen because she had one with the lid and the chicks, baby chicks, can't eat the Feeders.
I was just thinking you'd get the ones beside it. I don't see the chicken. You said she jumped out? Yeah, like out, out. She's gone. She's abandoned her duty. No telling where she is.
She ran that way.
We'll leave this door open in case she decides to come back pretty soon. She can't be off those eggs very long though, they'll die. I think I heard her. Maybe if we heard her back in there. She'll get back on them. But if Lily said she was off of them, she could have already been off of them too long because she, she senses that's her home. Door shut. Why'd the door shut? Hope it's not too late. Remember to come back and see if she got back on those eggs. Goodness. Cornish. There's the layer chick.
Cornish.
Cornish. Hopefully it's just 100 and not 125 because those 125 They're really maxing out the system out there. All right, I think I got it. We probably need to eat more chicken. Let's put chicken on. We have to make room for all these. We've gotten a little excited. Well, look, already they start drinking.
Crazy.
They must be thirsty.
You want another lamp?
Yeah, I didn't even count these.
Oh boy, we should count them.
Oh, it's right here.
Did you know?
Oh, I did not know that.
I did not know that either. Okay, blue Andalusian, buff Orpington, Americana, Bispelbeard, Dominique. Whiting, true blue, green, green. All right, total 40 birds.
How'd it go, my man?
Good.
Get some milk?
Yeah.
Did you process it too? Yeah. Heck yeah, buddy. Pineapple piña colada?
No.
What is it?
It's, uh, Dutch babies.
Dutch baby. Cube steak in my future. Anyone want to guzzle that like a Thinking you're gonna eat a pineapple? No, it's sad.
It's sad.
Do ya?
Definitely not.
While I wait on breakfast, I'm gonna show the boys this pond project. Rebecca, almost there. I think we get a board with a level, put a level on it and stretch it out there, and then cut our pipe accordingly. Your hole here, this is just the overflow. Hopefully it doesn't use much. It's only used in a major rain event. Right here is our lowest spot, the pond. We don't want it to overflow here. As long as it's higher than this— this was about where you're standing. This is a homesteader's breakfast. Egg-based Dutch baby fried eggs. Egg is the main course, eggs on the side. Henry, you're eating so good. I messed up. I told the boys they could go ahead and dig this overflow ditch, and I wasn't thinking that's where the horse comes, like right over that, to make our piles right there. Whoops. Ian's here. I don't see see the horse here yet though. They got too much dirt.
Wow, is that at a good height?
Well, I don't, I, I don't think so. I'm worried that only 2 feet higher isn't gonna really—
and then you can let your water normally come up to about right here, and then we have an overflow. It's gonna be up to the half of that rock. It'll be up to the bottom where it used to be. See how it's washed that rock away over there? Yeah, I guess that's where it used to be. That's where we need to get it to. The problem is you got to have enough dirt on top of it that you can come over it. I think you could come up some.
It's going to be here. We can always just like kind of hump it, you know what I mean?
Direct me how high you want this, Josiah. How about that?
That's good.
You got to put it gentle on the side so dirt will fall underneath it. Good.
Mama, once I get in another pipe, you can start covering it.
It ain't one to go, that's for sure. He likes that. You got to make sure it doesn't bend that at all because then we'll really have a hard time getting that end down. All right, go ahead. Hold on, it's just pushing the pipe. When he pushed this pipe, just push that other pipe. I've got an idea for not destroying the end of that pipe. Put this piece of plyboard on it and he'll push on the plyboard and the plyboard will evenly distribute the weight over the entire opening.
All right, we can come do this.
Stretch out this bank a little bit. Horse is here, but I don't see him coming up anytime soon. We've got a stick and a half to cover, and the horse is good. You ready to push this?
Yep.
Keep going.
Two worlds collide.
She spooked with the machine.
Oh, he's just getting buried.
Smells those apples on you, Lily. Look at that. He was hesitant in that new ground, but Lily got him right through. Lily is in heaven. She don't care what kind of horse it is. There's a horse on farm, she's with it. That's a big footprint, Henry.
Can you lay down?
That's too— that's bigger than your butt.
Can I— Henry, can you lay down?
Why are you making—
it is bigger than his head. No problem that time. Henry, you're as red as a beet. Do you ride the Ergo? Yeah. Alrighty. Are you red as a beet?
Yep.
You do not want to be in the line of fire. Okay, are we out of the line of fire?
Yes.
Wow, just holds that log like it's nothing. You going to take a break for lunch? Yeah, when you take— okay, let's walk down. If somebody's in Western North Carolina and they want to do this, like, where do they go? How do they find out about you? Oh, you're also in East Tennessee?
Yeah, Southwest Virginia. We work, you know, kind of the southern high country.
But, and what's the name of your business?
Oh, Mountain Works Conservation.
And it's MTN—
yeah, mtnworcs.org.
What happens if somebody's in Kentucky?
I can definitely refer you to good friends up there.
Okay, so if somebody's in Nevada, there's—
yeah, and so there's actually a group. There's actually— again, I know a few people out there.
So in other words, wherever they are, no, no, not at all.
But I will tell you about— I will tell you about a group called the Draft Animal Power Network.
Oh, there we go.
Which is a national organization that's actually developing a map, um, to help, you know, people find horse loggers.
Okay, cool. Sounds like you know a lot of the people.
Well, it's not a big community. We know— we do know a lot of, a lot of the same folks, you know, all the— we all kind of try to work together. And even the fella here, he's a local friend named Bob Richens, and he's brought his horse out here to pull these logs. Young horse who's really learning.
Yeah, it was cool how you networked and brought him because you could have brought your own horses, but I could have.
Yeah, but it was nice. I like to work as local as possible. I'm kind of the mind, the more people that can be involved with something, the better. Then it's a community project.
Yeah.
So, you know, we got a fella here who's going to drive the lumber local now, and that's right, another guy that you knew. It's definitely a team.
And then my sawmill guy knew a kiln guy.
That's right. But we'll take the lumber to our shop once it's dried, and then we'll make the flooring. We'll come back and install it.
That'll be fun.
Yeah, man, I'm looking forward to it.
Just did some editing. Those aren't your boots. Where are his boots? Come on, let's go check the progress of the house.
Yay!
Big Daddy's over there.
Yay!
Yay! There you go, you rough and tumble guy. No roof. Our roof is gone.
Go see her.
Go see Mama. Mama's coming. They're gonna drop this top frame. They're about to drop this top frame.
No.
Good job, guys. The horse got all these logs out and the boys got them down here to the barn.
Yeah.
Ready for Andrew to move.
Too bad I can't drive or I'd take him for you.
I know. You can do it.
Jump!
Oh, you did it! You did it! Gone!
He popped a throw up! He shook his head!
What? You think that's big enough for a slide? Can't really sit in it.
Oh, it's—
ew. Oh, Josiah's going. Yeah, that's too little for a slide, guys. Hope he doesn't run into any snake eggs.
Stop.
Lily, how's your eyes feeling now? How was the horse?
Good.
Do you ever get to drive it? No, just watched.
Yeah, you were safe up the hill up there.
How's the pond?
Wait, has it lowered?
Yeah.
No, it's about 4 inches from the rock. Just remember this, it's about 4 inches from the rock.
I don't know, we're gonna make a zip line, Papa, from that up below to the dock that's here.
I smell something cooking. She's gonna hit my heart after being out there picking up fences, doing afternoon chores.
Chicken fried steak.
Chicken fried steak. We end up having a lot of cube steak. We got chicken fried steak, I got mashed potatoes back here, and I'm gonna guess green beans.
Nope.
Classic American meal.
Collards.
Oh, also a classic Southern meal. Is it starting to rain?
Not yet.
Oh my gosh, what happens if it rains on our house, Beck? We need it on the farm but not the house. We do have the tarp down on the floor. I mean, what are you gonna do? And they take a 3-day weekend. Another meal.
