In this vlog, Victor (Speaker A) challenges common stereotypes that teenagers are rebellious and difficult, arguing that positive family culture and early involvement in chores shape productive teens. He walks through a day of homesteading tasks—milking a cow, rendering pig fat into lard, making turkey broth, and preparing cornbread—while his partner (Speaker B) assists. Victor explains the technical nuances of each task, from controlling heat when rendering lard to concentrating broth for storage. He also shares his personal experience of a 27‑day fast, describing the anticipation of breaking the fast with the prepared meals. The vlog interweaves family moments: coordinating with his teenage sons Jonah, Josiah, Gideon, and Henry via video calls, discussing their experiences in Dallas, and planning a special Cuban‑style pork dinner for their return. Throughout, Victor emphasizes the importance of involving children in family culture from a young age, using farming and cooking as vehicles for responsibility, and celebrates the reunion with a hearty meal.
Chapters
They lied to us. They said teenagers are going to rebel. They said that teenagers are going to be a pain in the butt. That teenagers are harder than little kids. They lied to us. It doesn't have to be that way. Happy day! My boys, my two teenage boys, have been gone for 3 days and we missed them terribly. They're a wonderful contribution to the family. So it's on me, Austin, my adopted college dropout, and Lily. First up, we got to do the boys' chores. Milk the cow. And nobody can milk like they can, but we're gonna try. But nobody can get as much as they can, but we're gonna try anyway. All right, let's go get in. Austin has gotten the stuff together, but where is Austin?
He's up there.
I think he's moving waters or something. Oh boy. Hey, you coming on chores? All right, let's go. We'll wait. That's the thing about having productive teenagers. If I've learned anything, you got to take them with you when they're little. They don't just magically become good kids. Can't expect teens to want to be a part of what you got going on if they haven't ever been a part of it before. And it doesn't matter if it's farming— maybe you're just getting into farming— involve your kids young in your family culture. Your family culture can be different. Your family culture can be, we're doing a mission together. It doesn't have to be farming, and then it can switch to farming later, and you're all about the family culture. But you gotta— anybody anybody can start the family culture no matter what their living condition is. We don't have to opt in for what the world says our culture has to be. We can create our own, and yours might be different than mine, and that's okay. What's important is we can create our own. We're not trapped. This is the one I've created, and I like it. Gideon, Henry. Henry, where's your shoes? Gideon, come find his shoes. Oh, okay, good. It's one of the biggest battles when they're little, finding their shoes. And then when they become teenagers, stop arguing with each other, don't speed, don't talk back. You want to put the RC gold on it? Just a little bit. Keep going until it comes out. There you go, that's good. Yeah, go let that calf out. Let's see if I've got all I could get out of honey. This is that, and half of that's vanilla. We probably got a little over a gallon. I bet you got more in there. You're holding back for the calf? No. Oh gosh, get that pail away! Get in, get the pail away before they knock it! Sometimes a calf can bring down a letdown. Chores went well, as well as they could without the boys. Now it is time, we've got to do this lard. We have all this pig fat that we've ground and we're going to turn it into lard. I haven't done this a whole lot. There is a bit of a fine line of— you do it too much, do it too much, you burn it, it's no good. Do it too little and you still have meat. See, there is some meat and moisture in there, and that can— that can cause the lard not to store well, and we've ruined it all. This is probably easily hundreds of dollars worth of great cooking oil. So let's see what we have. Do them low, we keep the lid off so the moisture can evaporate. That's the point. Next step, when you're in homesteading, turkey doesn't have to just be for Thanksgiving. We do about one a month. Let's do some turkey divan. The goal is, if the boys are gone And I'm not eating. I'm on a prolonged fast. Can we make enough to have leftovers tomorrow plus more to freeze for future meals? So we froze our bone marrow. Look at this. And it's nice and chipped. I could heat some up, put some on a steak. Mmm. Burger. This is the stuff I crave after being 27 days fasting. This is ideal. This gelatin, we've done it right. We did the right bones, a lot of knuckle bones in there. We did it shallow. We only did it overnight too, and it got out half a cup of apple cider vinegar. And we've got a real gelatinous broth. I like that because we could add water if we wanted to, and it, and it doesn't take this— this doesn't take up as much storage either. It's more concentrated, if you will. Got the turkey parted. How's this going? Okay, good. There's some lard there. Maybe we can speed this up. Turkey is looking good. Now we let it cool. Let's start this turkey divine. Gravy is done. I don't see any more steam. The fat has— you'll see. Let's, uh, double filter this thing. Got a lot of leftover pork bits for the chicken. Now to make cornbread, which I've never made. We'll see how it goes. Now let's cut this turkey up. Cornbread's done.
Wait till you see this.
Nothing like fresh cornbread.
You know this.
Hot cornbread, that's about the only way I'll eat it. Is it so good or what?
It's so good.
That's my first cornbread ever.
Oh good, you followed my recipe? Yeah, from the Holidays on the Homestead.
Yeah, now I saved it. All right. Oh well, I followed the one you sent me.
Yeah, that's the one.
That's my recipe.
That's gonna be in this book.
Okay, stay tuned for that. All right, good. That's good. That'll pick up the mood, right? Well, it's not bad. Time to build this casserole. Finally cooked some of our broccoli and dried it. I don't want this casserole to be runny. Back to the sauce. We just heard from Jonah. He's checking in. It's so good for them. They're having a totally different experience, different food, different way of living. They are in Dallas. They got to go to downtown Dallas the other day. Uh, totally different for them. I think they'll come back more appreciative for sure. That's what traveling does for you, isn't it? Go eat that twice and then we'll have some leftovers. That's the goal. And looky here, white as snow. That's what we wanted. I pulled it at a good time. Put cornbread on the casserole. What do you think about the lard, babe?
It's nice, looks good.
You did a good job. We better stay— oh man, I put love into that baby. Guys, I'm stopping my fast tomorrow morning. Gone long enough unsupervised. Feeling my heart. It's the right thing to do. I've hit a plateau. All right, this is how it turned out. Only a little bit of liquid in the bottom. I want you to give me a full review. It's delicious.
Every bite.
Uh, how's the sauce? I feel like I really nailed the sauce.
The house is good.
Onions in it and garlic. I think that was new to us, wasn't it? But did that add a pizzazz?
So much pizzazz.
Yeah, see, I can't eat, so I need her to— I need to live vicariously through her. I will not be tempted to eat that cornbread. Just give me that freaking casserole. I don't even have to have cornbread on it. You'll give me a little section without the cornbread on the casserole. I'll kill it. Yes, I'll kill that. I'll murder that. I'd put some butter on that. We gotta have that third cow just to keep me in butter. All right, you guys joining us out here? Good deal. We're gonna make the boys a really nice meal. It's gonna blow their mind. So we've never had a Cuban twist. We have special guests for the podcast. She's Cuban. I said, how do you cook a pork in Cuba? We're going for it. You help Rebecca with the spices. She's telling me to sear it, then we're going to slow cook it. We would have marinated it, right? What? We would have marinated it in what?
Cumin, oregano.
What else?
Um, and then do you have garlic, like fresh garlic, or do you have— actually, I have both. I have garlic powder and fresh garlic. I would do fresh garlic if you can, and onion. How much? Is that all the garlic you have?
Yeah, that's all we want.
All right, so that's fine.
Cuban's pretty crazy about garlic.
Lots of garlic, lots of onion. You start everything, that's your base.
Ooh, onions are garlic. I might be Cuban.
Awesome.
You might be Cuban. Okay, so we would have marinated in that.
I like a lot of garlic, but you know, some people—
we didn't know she was Cuban when I ordered. I think it's too much garlic. And it just so happens we soaked black beans. Heating up the crock pot. She said this is an 8-hour roast. This is a little roast for us. You go way heavy on the onions. Oh yeah, cuz they'll cook down I gotta go way more on the onion. I'm an onion guy. If I could only have one vegetable the rest of my life, it'd be an onion. Done.
Oh yeah, no, that looks good.
Do I just stick it in the oven like that?
Do you have orange juice or lime juice?
Ooh, Becky, lime juice. Chicken broth and lime juice. Mmm. Oh, and that's for your coffee. That has nothing to do with— Cubans like maple syrup in their coffee.
I like any kind of sweetener in my coffee, so—
You just like it sweet.
Yes. My grandma would make it espresso and sweetened condensed milk.
Okay.
And when I was a baby, that would go in my coffee.
Okay, wow. Hey, my man. Hey, what? I miss y'all.
Yeah, me too.
Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm driving right now. I think I'm an hour away.
Are you guys hungry yet?
Yeah, we're gonna stop and get lunch. Mama said I could.
All right, well, we were going to make you a killer supper.
All right, I'll still eat a killer supper.
So don't eat too much. Um, are you going to eat supper with us, or are you going to soccer?
Oh, I'm going to soccer.
Well, shoot, your ball game's at 5.
Yeah, I know. Okay, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll money— I'll eat sort of a big lunch, enough to get me through the afternoon at soccer. And then I'll have a dinner when I get back from soccer.
When is, uh, but we like to have dinner together, but when is Josiah gonna stay and eat with us?
I'll be back by 7.
We're not gonna eat, we're not gonna eat at 7. We'll just save you some. Is Josiah gonna be with us? Yeah. We have completed the meal. You guys gotta see this. The boys are home. We're gonna have to dope on Josiah. Look at this. Oh, just fall off the bone. I'm breaking my fast, so I'm refeeding. I'm not going to be able to eat that. More on that in a future video. Oh, they are back. Jonah went to soccer. He's gonna miss out on this fresh. Welcome back, welcome back. Am I, am I thinner or what? You are. Do you recognize me? Yeah. All right, you ready to eat some good food? Yeah. And all you want. We made you a special meal. Cuban pork, pico de gallo, shredded cheese. Just 3 ingredients in these corn chips. Black beans, soaked chipotle copycat rice. Oh man, I want you to eat a bunch for me. Oh, eat He's so happy and he's giving me a hug. We're all back. Nothing like getting a recipe from part of our culture. It's so spicy. It's good? I don't know, flavor. They taught me to use a lot more onions and to sear it with the meat and cook it with the meat. I'm gonna do that with the beef roast. Test this. Do you kids like it?
I like it.
Does it feel like just another roast or is it pretty cool? I love it. And to have it with Mexican beans and rice, is that good?
Uh-huh.
That's good. I like it. It's good to have the boys home. Wish Jonah could have been here for the vlog, but anyway, they loved the meal and it's a huge win. Great to have teenagers. Happy day.
