This is What Happens When 5,000 Homesteaders Get Together

Foggy day this first day of Homesteaders of America. Going on a little walk, Mr. Brown. I want to call him Mr. Brown sometimes. Henry. This is the trick to staying healthy at a big event, 5,000 people. We got broth, we got our own food from home. We're gonna heat this up and put it in the thermos. What else, Beck?

Lots of water.

Where's our vitamin C packs? Do we need to take one of those yet?

I need to take some garlic too.

She's gonna take some garlic. We have some elderberry, uh, vitamin C packs.

Took our vitamins last night and we're taking more today. And we're also— we got a gaggle of hand sanitizer that we're bringing with us.

Are we gonna be like, uh, who was it? Was it Tim Hawkins? He made that joke about how people, after you shook hands, used to get crazy with the hand sanitizer. What's that look like?

You got 4 kids? 4 kids, that is amazing. God bless. We love kids here. Kids are like a little gift from God is what they are. They are just wonderful little creatures that God gives us. Mm-hmm. Yeah, where y'all from? Arkansas?

Okay.

What is this, Rebecca?

Peak?

This is the elderberry. You don't have this experience, but it's got a hint of chocolate in it. It does not.

Other people have said that. I don't think it says that at all.

We are on our way. We heard it's cray cray. Cray cray long lines. Henry's not happy about being in the car, but Rebecca says she knows Is this a back way?

Well, it's just the way we always go is the back way.

Oh, well, let's see if it works.

It's only like 6 minutes from here.

Is this it? This is it. Oh my word, they're way back into this parking lot.

It's insane.

Oh, it's so much better though right now.

I told you.

We can get in though. That's the key. There's my— there's our last year's bodyguard. How are you gonna hang with us if you're out here directing traffic?

Yeah, I, I, I'm all over the place.

Good for you.

But this is our only entrance. We'll get you parked.

Okay.

I love it. Passenger van family.

Hey, it's Flip Flop Barnyard.

Oh, you know these people?

Yes, I do know these people. How are you? Good, how are y'all?

Good. Anybody in a passenger van is cool to us.

I know, we're like, look at that family.

We're pulling for the passenger van people. Uh, it's Flip Flop Barnyard, y'all. Where do they live?

On YouTube. They live in Virginia.

Yeah, and they are on YouTube. This is kind of like a YouTube homestead conference.

Tomorrow we're gonna have to maybe get here really early. Yeah, so that we can be here.

We had the first talk tomorrow. I know, but they're moving, they're moving it along pretty fast.

It was very long. Meg Holler texted this morning and said that they were sitting— as she texted in like 7, they're off the highway probably. They were out on the highway waiting. She said the line was insane. Wow, this is good.

This movement is just exploding, the homestead movement.

It is. I'm super excited for all the new people.

All the new—

all the old people.

I bet most of these people are new people.

All the old fans, but also all the new people that are coming into this movement and wanting to take, take control. Control. Thank you. Of their food supply.

All right, we are there. It is absolutely crazy. They got us a ride because this is as close as we can get, and we're extra, remember? We got a lot of stuff. What's your name? Mark. All right, Mark. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. You getting all right, Kathy?

Yeah, I'm doing great.

Okay, good.

He just said, man, that's a heavy bag, let me hold that for you.

We made it. Thanks, Mark. All right, we found our tent. We got a line meeting these wonderful people. Anybody excited to be here? I told them to pretend they're not in a very long line to the bathroom. Oh my word. I got a secret for you. Right behind this building, a lot of grass. A lot of privacy. Fertilize the grass. We are at the members meetup. Look at all these crazy chicken ladies. Two Cracks and Front Porch Farm. This is your 15 seconds, buddy. Subscribe, please. Hey, we're gonna get her 15 seconds of fame right here.

Assorted Life.

Assorted Life on YouTube. What's your story real quick?

Um, a foul woman.

Lots of chickens. Gateway drug.

No, what you're saying is you're crazy chicken lady.

Sort of, yes.

Okay, can't just have one. Okay, well, do you have more than 12? Yes, sir.

Then you might be a crazy chicken lady. And Tommy Gun, he's gonna live with us forever, the turkey. I was gonna say, have you named a chicken or a turkey? You might be a crazy chicken. That's a toy. Okay. All right, we are back at our tent signing. We got a bunch of more crazy chicken ladies in here, but I think this wins the coolest shirt here. The Chicken Ninja Master. I like it. In training. He's even got a flat cap. I like it. Oh, we got a goat wrangler.

Yep.

Oh, and eggs getting, goat milking, bread making, kidstetter. I like it. This is your 15 seconds. I see a camera. I see you YouTubing.

Yep, I'm from New Start Homestead and I am so happy to be here. Great to see Justin.

What is it about?

It's about— well, we started our property, uh, we are building a homestead. We haven't got no animals yet, but we're starting out. We got a tiny home, we got a kitchen. Um, we're clearing out our property now, and the next step is hopefully to get some animals and some gardens started.

I like it. All right, New Start Homestead. All right, see y'all. I found my twin. There's another apron-wearing permaculture chicken ninja master. Yeah, I like it. He even had me sign his apron. That's cool. I like it. Keep it up, buddy. All right. Oh, the flip-flop barnyard. Tell me what you just told me off camera. Oh, well, being afraid.

We did the, uh, we did what we would do if we weren't afraid. And, uh, we've purchased 136 acres, um, living in campers, but God has just blessed us. It has just been one increase after another.

You went from 5 cows to 30? Is that what I hear?

Yes, 5 cows to 30 cows. We've got chickens, turkeys, pigs. We're farrowing our own pigs now. Dairy goats.

You went all in. Now that you're on the other side, is it as scary as you imagined?

No, it's way more awesome than we could have imagined.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

For the Plott Barnyard, y'all.

Yep.

All right, on We just finished signing with folks. It's now time for my talk. It's good that we've been busy meeting people because I haven't had time to get nervous. I just got to remember I'm serving. I'm serving people in my speech. Nobody's ever been nervous doing dishes, right? So I'm just serving. I'm about to go on. Look at all this. Okay, a bunch of world changers right there. I'm excited. Okay, we just wrapped up the talk. So many So many people there. Such a blessing to see all this, all the people wanting to be entrepreneurs. That's what the talk was about, because that's the biggest way that you can make change. Just taking a minute here. Yeah, regrouping. Where's Rebecca going?

She's going to get scissors that I told her where they are.

We need some scissors. And then we got a bunch of wonderful people coming in. You're in the vlog! What's your channel?

Inside a Blessing.

And what are you guys about?

Uh, we just moved because our My daughter has lung problems, so we moved south from Iowa, and, uh, we are starting a homestead. We got 66 acres in Tennessee and starting from scratch.

So, all right, you go for it, buddy. I see another vlogger.

Yes, we are living the Hite life. You can see on the back.

All right, I like it.

And we are new— we are new homesteaders. We are in South Carolina. We're turning 16 acres of raw land into an off-grid homestead.

Nice.

Okay, cool. Good for you guys.

Thanks, we're glad we got to meet you.

All right, you too. Two babies meet you.

Meet you?

Both of them.

I know, they're just 4 days apart.

4 days. He was my— our anniversary gift. Oh, okay. But was he born at a gas station?

He was not born at a gas station. Not quite as exciting.

All right, we've met a lot of cool people. They're cutting us off though. We had a good line and they're sending us away, but we'll be here all day tomorrow, so Tomorrow's another day. We are back at the house and having guests, and it's a passenger fan family. I'm going to show you who, who's in the van. You might recognize them. Tim Schmoyer, video creator, video creator right here. I think I found you guys. Well, if anybody at any time has had a problem with YouTube or trying to figure something out, you end up with Tim Schmoyer. So if I have a problem, I'll like Tim Schmoyer blah blah blah.

Oh really?

Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize that. Let's see what comes up.

Yeah, well, I've been making tons of videos, so hopefully whatever you need, if it's not there, let me know.

I know, right? Make sure we get it covered. So have you guys had lamb before? Oh yeah, yeah. Not everybody has had lamb.

I haven't had lamb burgers, but yeah, we've done lamb for Passover.

America eats 0.6 pounds of lamb a year. Really?

I think one of the reasons for it is it's really expensive, like if you're gonna buy it, at least where we get it from. So we had it for very special occasions, which this is.

Yeah.

So thank you.

Okay, good. How many of them are you? We have—

we had 7 kids in 8 years.

So yes, so the oldest is 12, the youngest is 3. This is cool.

Yeah, and we did have a set of twins in there, which helps them out a little bit.

But yeah, yeah.

How are the twins now?

The twins are fine.

So is it getting a little easier now?

Yeah, it was a really intense season of life when they were first, you know.

It was Katie bar the door for how long?

A few years.

Yeah, we—

because we had—

you're gonna agree with that?

We had 4 kids ages 2 and under for a while.

Okay, so you got to get them wiping their own butt.

Yes, buckling themselves in the car, doing their own shoes. Basically what we learned was like the rest of the world refers to our way of life as quarantine.

Yeah, you know, that's kind of what happened. Yeah, that's the same thing with homesteaders. This is nothing new. It is morning. It's the next day, Saturday. I'm excited. Lots of cool people here. Can you guys even see me? It's dark. Yeah, you can barely see me. Oh, there you go. Getting the text, and they've asked us to be here early because I'm the first talk at 8:30, but they want us there at 6:30 because of the crazy lines.

Before 7, she said. As early before 7 as we can make it.

Like, it's so crowded here.

There's so many people. It's crazy.

It's blowing my mind. It's twice as big as it was 2 years ago.

Yeah.

I'm not as nervous today because I gave a talk yesterday. I guess I'm warmed up. Are you nervous about your talk? It's your first talk at Homesteaders.

Well, I talked in Tennessee.

I guess it's all a different—

This is like, yeah, this is my first time at this one, and I'm a little— 300 people at that one. There's 5,000. I'm a little bit nervous because the sheer amount of people and like Justin's talk yesterday, the entire barn was packed. And if from what I'm seeing yesterday of everyone's talks, every, it's packed every single time.

I think everybody's.

With overflow. It's insane. So I'm a little bit nervous about that, but I have my outline. And as Justin says, I've been preparing for this talk for the last 15 years.

Really, you just need an outline just to keep you on track. Yeah. Lose your train of thought.

Exactly. And, um, Justin's gonna be there to support me, so I feel good about it.

Of course. Uh-oh, Becky, I just texted Jason from Sutherland. I said, how's the traffic this morning? He said, getting packed already. Line to go in. We just got here. That's the people coming in from that direction. Somehow we get to come in from this other direction. It's less than it was yesterday, and yesterday was about, what, 15 minutes when she pulled in there? So we'll say, we'll say 10 minutes. Hello, hello!

We're gonna go to the right.

Thanks.

Good morning, good morning! We are here. More crazy chicken ladies. It's a Saturday, it's 7:30. Who was here at 6?

I was.

Who was here at 5:30? Who's here at 5? I was. Okay, he's got you. Craziest chicken lady, folks, right here. I got here at 2 o'clock this morning. He's been here at 2 o'clock this morning. I'm from North Carolina. Okay, they gave up on that one. All right, we got another vlogger here. I like to see a homestead vlogger. What's your channel?

It's actually— I changed the name from Tall Bearded Doughboy to Michael Hunt.

Where'd you get Tall Bearded Doughboy? I just want you to see something.

Yeah.

All right, my mother and I owned Marcy Jo's Mealhouse and Bakery, and she invited me in to, um, do the baking side of it, open the bakery side of it. And, uh, you know, the beard, tall doughboy, even though I don't cook a lot, you know.

Okay, so it's Michael Hunt on YouTube.

Yeah.

All right, man. Met some wonderful people. Now it's time for my talk.

Time to go pee.

Just wrapped up the morning meetup. Your talk. I meant to get a shot at your talk, Becky. How was it? I mean, I was too busy holding Henry.

It was nerve-wracking.

Kill my watch.

Okay, it was nerve-wracking.

I thought you did good.

Thanks.

And the people enjoyed it, especially the Q&A. But now, speaking of Q&A, we got the speakers panel right now. I'll see if I can get some shots of that.

Also, those asking questions Please ask your question, um, and don't ask like 10 million questions though, because we could have conversations going forever. So we want to try to get as many questions as we can. Okay, let's go, people!

When did you, um, finish the house, Mr.

Doug?

Oh, the house is finished!

I want to know how you guys How do you get started working with interns or these, these stems and getting partners? I want to learn how to build my farm to be able to have people to come and join and help around because my husband and I are not good at chickens.

I'm going to defer to my son Daniel who really takes care of this more. I'll just start saying you have to have something that's attractive for people. You can't be, you can't start until you you are a master. A master— a mentor can't mentor. In other words, a mentor has to have mastery in order to mentor. And so, um, never start if you think this is going to be cheap labor. Uh, that's the wrong reason. You start because you're a master and people are coming to you asking, could you teach me what you know?

But if you communicate what the relationship's going to look like and what the journey is what part of the journey you are on, you can still have very successful relationships along the journey.

We just wrapped it up in there. I'm being quiet cuz look at this, he's asleep. So we got a bunch of more people ready to mingle. We got another YouTuber here. Tell them your name and what you're about.

Yeah, so I'm Jill with Whispering Willow Farm. I am in Arkansas. My husband and I bought Jess and Maya's farm, Roots and Refuge. We grow a lot of food. My husband's been getting lots of animals. We've been trying to fill out their homestead.

Cool.

Yeah, good for you.

Thank you.

I've met an inspirational right here. How old are you?

I'm 12.

And what do you do on the homestead?

I milk the cow, feed the chickens, feed the broilers, move the cows. I mean, essentially everything.

Her mom introduced her as like the girl version of Jenna.

Yeah. I am.

Good for you. High five. Good for you. I'm proud of you.

Thank you.

Keep it up.

I will.

Hello, Monica. She's told me she's inspired. She's gonna launch a YouTube channel. She just did a bit with us. She's gonna do something people might say crazy, but she's gonna go in that thrift shop, get a boot. Tell them what you're gonna do with that boot.

So Justin gave people the idea to just plant a seed. Yeah, plant a seed in a boot. Plant a seed. Put some soil in an old dresser drawer. Everybody has furniture to throw out. Why make more trash in the landfill?

Use what what you have.

No, seriously, use what you have and grow a garden in your house, in your apartment. For those who don't have balconies, have a windowsill, grow something. So I appreciate Justin for letting the audiences know to just plant a seed.

What's the name of your channel? Hoodsteading.

Hoodsteading.

And are you gonna get this out by Monday?

Very beautiful. Um, am I gonna get it out by Monday? Put some pressure on me.

That's when this is coming out.

It's gonna be your first video. You're getting plugged, And I'm gonna have the people who would follow me, who understand what I'm saying, I'm gonna put it out just for you.

Okay, all right, all right, all right. Another YouTuber family. You guys might recognize this one, White House on the Hill.

Oh my gosh, I remember when the first time you put us on the, the vlog at the— we went to a, we went to a petting zoo and all of a sudden you had the flip-out screen and, uh, and it was just like Oh gosh, big time. This is the moment.

Now wait a minute, that wasn't the first time though, was it?

Yeah, I think it was.

We did, but you didn't film. You didn't film. That was like a Father's Day. You were already done or something. Okay, so nice.

Okay, so now are you just as nervous or are you over it now? No, I've stayed at your house. You totally know I'm a real person. He could do an exposé on me now. Tell me what you're about. It's White House on the Hill. What's the story?

White House on the Hill. We're in Missouri. We, we bought a farm a couple years ago and we're, we're changing it over. We've got a bunch of birds, but we're starting to get into some other animals. But we're working on an aviary and a greenhouse, and we do bees.

Yeah, they do fun things.

That's kind of my hobby. Yeah, it's kind of—

still got the emus.

We still got the emus.

Yeah, yeah. And peacocks.

We got the peacocks.

Okay.

We've got some like Mandarin ducks and pheasants and, uh, milk cow.

So nice.

Yeah.

All right, thanks, Jake. We are back. Had a good day.

We did.

Built off the energy of all those wonderful people. It was wonderful to meet you guys. Thank you for those that came. Yeah, for those that didn't, there's an online version, isn't there? I think so.

Yeah, Homesteaders of America.

And, and, well, there's cameras at every tent, so That's gonna be going up with the Homesteaders of America membership, I think.

No, they did my talk, so yeah, I know, it's good.

People are gonna flock to that, babe. Well, let's see, what are you gonna do with all those oranges?

I'm gonna cut them up.

Okay, and eat them for dinner tonight, or make a— okay, so this is a vitamin C drink, electrolyte. It's electrolytes.

This is orange electrolytes.

He's got oranges on orange. And I just did my Relight. Shout out to Redmond's, who was there. Our salt source. But they also do electrolytes, and this is animal-based friendly because it's just salt. Yeah, it's great. Just a few ingredients. What's that in it? Potassium chloride, calcium, and magnesium, and of course salt, sodium. So thanks Redmond's for that, keeping us healthy. We have some friends over. Wrap it up. See you guys in the next one.