In this 30‑minute vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes (Speaker A) and his family walk viewers through a busy farm day in western North Carolina. The episode opens with a quick thank‑you to Violet and a review of milk harvesting, then moves to the main project: relocating the pigs from their current pen to a new garden‑adjacent paddock. The family constructs a temporary lane using extra pig fencing, installs and tests an electric fence energizer, and lures the pigs into the stall with feed before guiding them through a chute into the prepared garden area. Along the way they handle chickens, a cow named Bear, and a broody hen, checking on feed, cleaning, and testing fence voltage. After the animals are settled, they turn to garden preparation: measuring a 252‑sq‑ft plot, deep‑aerating with a broad fork, and adding soil amendments tailored to their clay soil—gypsum (20 lb/1000 sq ft, ~5 lb for the plot), lime (same rate), and blood meal (1 cup per 20 sq ft). They plant cucumber and acorn‑squash seeds using paper‑plate “mulch bombs,” discuss mulch, cover crops, and finish the day with a family dinner. The vlog ends with an announcement of a planned hour‑long “mega vlog” for the following Friday, inviting viewers to watch the extended day‑in‑the‑life episode.
Chapters
Well, wow, look, he's in intense.
He's in intense.
Look, thank you, Violet, for your contribution this morning. Oh, a good strong gallon. You got royal? Yeah, that's good. We harvested our milk, stored it. Let's go, let's go do our project for today. Today we got to get the pigs out of where they are. See, we are overdue for a move. Josiah, how's your automatic water working out? Looks like it's working out good. You know, Josiah's trying to make his chores easier. I'm all for that. He actually asked me to go to Tractor Supply one day so he could get some things to make his chores easier.
But not the paint.
We haven't built a shelter yet, so we're still dependent on the stall. We're gonna need to make a lane from the stall out to here, and then another square garden area like that. So Josiah, let's use this for our lane. We'll set up another fence right here. It's hard figuring it out sometimes. Yeah, okay, I think I got it. This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna take one of these extra pig fences, we're going to start one right here, and then we're going to start one end of it right there, and then the other end of it right there. That leaves an opening. We'll, we'll, uh, drape it around as big as we need to. If we have some extra, we'll loop it back on itself. Can we get our post too?
I can get in the stall. Okay, good.
Well, hold on, hold on. You think that would be the method to do? Yeah, just get them in the stall. That's not a terrible idea. Wait, take the food in there for them.
Uh-oh, Papa, what do I do now? You run!
Don't lay down, Jonah! You gotta come get your food. Wait, don't you want to feed them?
No, not yet, Papa. That's how we're going to get them.
No, they're not getting it. Hey, if you guys lure them into the stall with food, they can eat. Hey, hey, hey, if you lure them to the stall with food, they can eat. And then when we get this set up, they can just come out on their own.
Okay, Papa, they come to me, they know me.
And okay, but I want to feed them. They're hungry, it's getting late.
Go get their turkeys.
Then how are we going to get them into the They'll come out the chute when they want to and they'll go into the other paddock. They will. Here's what we got going on. Up here. Basically, we started with one fence on either side. So we did that fence that ends at the— that ends at the stall, and then it comes all the way out and around as far as it'll go in that paddock. And then we did the other fence on the other side of the stall and came all the way out around. They met each other, they crossed each over each other. Hey, I'll climb off the roof.
Thanks, babe.
I think I trust getting off this roof more than I trust that Widowmaker ladder. Put the energizer on the lower one. You got it. And flip it around. Okay, you got it. You got it ground in. Yeah, flip it around towards the sun.
Okay, ready? Let's go release the hounds, Papa.
Actually, we should put this over there because the sun's going to be behind this building real soon. So you don't have to do it right now, but move, move this just out of the grounding. Move the energizer down to that corner so it can get more sun. Oh yeah, see, our tall fence is right there. Josiah can get over this without turning it off, so you can try it. Just test it. Just test it every night with your Energizer, or better yet, test it— wait, just test it every night with your fence tester. You open up the pigs. The theory is they're gonna walk down this chute and into our new garden area. See, look what they've left behind. We got cover crop, we got our Three Sisters coming up. Look who got in our garden! Ha! She got out. I guess I forgot to lock the stanchion and she got— she got out. She got out, just walked, walked right out. Free-range cow. Afternoon chore time, check on the birdies. How y'all doing, ladies? Y'all remember the rule? Oh, they tipped over the feed.
Lily! Yeah, get them.
Let's pick up their feed, honey. Okay, remember the test? This one's still broody. See how she's puffing up? See how this one's running from me? Oh look, see that?
See that?
She's attacking this one. Broody, not broody. You want to try to put this one out in the field? All right, now watch out, she's mean. I'm thinking it might help if she's in there by herself. I'm pretty sure this one is over it. We'll check on her tomorrow and see. Go to your old buddies, be free. Lily, I need a dustpan and a broom. You got it. All right, do you dare go in there? You want me to go in there? Go in this way, it's a smaller door. Sweep it all up and take it to Josiah's chickens. They won't eat your poop, but they'll eat the grain. They're not out here right now, it's so hot. Been doing the chores in the afternoon though, get the sauna effect, break a sweat, it's good for you. Lily, Josiah, thank you. She's as happy as a broody hen can be. Hey, look at that, is that gonna be a storm?
I'm not—
we could actually use that. I think it's only rained once since Uncle Pete was here. Hey, I just noticed something. Y'all got matching shirts on. Aren't you guys cute? Well, somebody go shut the gate. I like to herd Bear against the gate.
I don't know where it is.
Okay, they don't always do what I tell them to do. Okay. Oh, she's nursing. This is why we're getting— he's nursing. This is why we get him up. He's getting our milk. Come on now, cut it out. Hey, if not, just go past it and don't let Bear go past the gate. There they go. Stud, come on, you know the drill. Get out of the way. I just want Bear. Thank you, thank you. Aha! Reward him with some petting. I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm just gonna rub you down real good. Yeah, all right, let's go. You want to ride on him?
Yeah.
Okay, I'm gonna hold you up there. Okay. Okay. All right, just hang on to me. Ready? Here we go. Real gentle.
You're doing it, you're doing it!
All right, make the turn.
Up here, up here.
Wait a minute, how did Violet get out this morning?
Like this, like that.
Somehow, I bet she got under it. Thank you, Jonah. Hey, did our pigs make it? Have y'all made it out? Our goal is to plant this today. They made it out, no problem. I know because the grass is already wearing out. They've made a circle right there. Oh, it doesn't take them long. And is it— and then their daughters— no, maybe they haven't made it out. I think they've made it out. Well, they have now, so actually happy that the weather—
water over there.
I got a special announcement for you guys. How would you like a special mega vlog, like an hour long? Like, that would be our goal, an hour maybe. How about this Friday? How about movie night with your family? We'll try to get it up by 8 PM Eastern. It'll be an hour long, a day in the life kind of thing. Uh, yeah, I think that would be fun. We've been thinking about this for a while. Let's just see how it does, see if you guys enjoy it. So if you like that idea, gather your family Friday night, plan on an hour-long vlog, and we'll see if people watch it and enjoy it. This is where the cows were. This is where they're going. They've got happy lives, those cows. Hey, are they staying in, Jonah? Yeah, nobody's out.
Only in the morning they come out.
How many got out this morning?
And they get shocked coming out.
Was it any of the big chicks?
It was a few big chicks, and most of them were Isis.
We don't want the big chicks to get out. I'd rather them get out here than up there in Mama's garden. That's why I'm training them here. This was yesterday. Here's today for the sheep. Yeah, I hear you. They have more in here. We could, uh, maybe wait another day, mow it down a bit more, and then we'll move them out. Okay, let's go start planting this garden. The very first thing we want to do is measure our garden. I think we're ready to get started on this garden, the garden right over there that the pigs have prepped so beautifully. The first thing we need to do is go in with a broad fork and do a deep aeration. The second thing we need to do is add amendments. For us in western North Carolina, we have a clay soil, so we're going to add gypsum. Let's add gypsum at the rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. This is 252 square feet, so about a quarter of that, so about 5 pounds. Then let's add lime because we have a low pH. We want to try to bring that up. That's the same rate as the gypsum, so we'll do about 5 pounds of that. And then we'll do blood meal. The pigs have been here, they've put down nitrogen with their manure some. From what I've seen from following behind the chickens is the garden still needs more nitrogen, so we're gonna add some at a cup per 20 square feet. You stout little thing. Laurel, you want to come with me? Come on. We took a hair of a break to get our seeds— cucumbers, acorn squash. We got our plates for mulch bombs. Start with cucumbers. What do you say?
Yeah, you like cucumbers?
You can have what we don't eat. One row done. Got a few more cucumbers frying in a tray. Got my starts planted. I did run out of paper plates. Still have acorn squash to plant. About 4 plates left, need 17, so I'll get some cardboard. Since that's all we have left to plant, we got more than enough room for it. Let's just kind of like spread it out sort of evenly. It's been a project. We have only put mulch down and then cover crop. I think we can do it. It's probably supper time, but maybe not. Time to put the mulch down. Supper was not ready. Hopefully I can get this done before supper. One more wheelbarrow load. Supper is ready, but we're all busy doing something. It's one of those days everybody feels good, the weather's good, projects are almost done. Let's just finish. Everybody put your hands up. Let's do one more thing. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Cover crops. If it goes black right here, it's tomorrow. If it continues right here, it's cover crops. Well, we're gonna get to sow the COVID crop.
