In this episode of the Burn It Up Cooking Show, Victor Justin Rhodes (Speaker A) and his family members (Jonah, Gideon, Rebecca, Arun, and Grandma) tackle a full day of homesteading and cooking tasks. They start by upgrading the waterer system for 20 ducks and 4 geese, replacing an old feeder with larger trays, and checking on the birds. The centerpiece is a cooking segment where they spatchcock and smoke a whole chicken, experimenting with halving the bird, removing the keel bone, and setting a smoker temperature while joking about their lack of expertise. Simultaneously, they plant seed trays for a winter harvest using a 2‑inch soil block maker with biochar, dealing with limited tray numbers and running out of soil, prompting a quick trip for more. The vlog also shows troubleshooting a wood‑pellet compost system that isn’t delivering pellets properly, involving manual adjustments and temperature checks. Throughout, the tone remains informal, instructional, and collaborative, encouraging viewers to try similar projects by following along and learning through trial and error.
Chapters
How's everybody doing? Out of water? I think it's time for a bigger waterer for those guys. It looks like the wooden platform idea did great to keep the bedding dry. Let's try this, guys. They can reach. Afraid that bigger one might be too big, but they got no problem. That means 20 ducks and 4 geese, 25-ish waterfowl go through twice the water 100 Cornish Cross would go through at this time. Jonah has opted to put 2 trays. We're getting rid of the King Feeder out here. These turkeys are too big for it. King Feeder is the automatic feeder. They've been eating more out of these trays anyway, haven't they, Jonah? He's gonna move these guys. I'm gonna go way down there and move the, the sheep. In today's episode of Burn It Up Cooking Show, smoked chicken. First they tell me, Mr. Googly Pants, let's halve it. Let's halve it this time. A whole chicken. You guys know how to halve a whole chicken? We'll learn together. Put it on its breast. And cut it up along the spine.
I halved a chicken during Butchering Day, like completely.
You did? Worked good for you? Oh, nice. Okay, well then maybe you need to come over here and coach us. Look how even that's gonna be.
Boom! Oh, oh, I cut this part and then it made a half of a chicken on the go.
That's, that's not a terrible idea too. You want to do that? You didn't— we're cutting down the keel bone. Oh, you know what, let's do— let's remove that keel bone. There's a way to remove this thing. I'm gonna peel around the edges of this thing. All right, before it gets too ugly, I'm gonna see if there's a way to remove that keel bone. Mr. Google Man is my assistant chef. It's called spatchcock. It's all we got to do, Jana. Oh, there it is, there it is. Okay. Yay, look at that, look at that, look at that.
Wee wee, got it out! Could you sell halves of chicken?
Yeah, now do you want to leave it beautiful or you want to just go ahead and cut this in half?
Just go ahead and cut it in half. All right, see what it looks like. Just go snip, snip, snip, snip, snip.
Look how beautiful. And you want to cut that in half? I guess it's going to eventually be cut in half to get in everybody's bellies.
Might cook better.
What's my motto, my man?
Copious amounts of butter.
Copious amounts of butter.
One time I did put too much salt— uh, butter on my rice.
You did?
Yeah.
How'd it turn out?
It didn't turn out that great, but—
Okay, I stand corrected, folks.
You can put too much butter on rice, but I don't know if you can do it with chicken.
Salt. Could do a lot more seasoning, a lot more fancier stuff, but we're going simple these days. It is burning up out here. How appropriate. The hotter the better. Can you say it?
The colder the better.
225. Supposed to be 3 hours. I doubt it'll take 3 hours, but I guess I'd rather have it done early than not on time. Now let's get something straight. I'm not a cooking expert. Mr. Google Pants is my assistant. No, I guess maybe he's the head He's the head chef. Hopefully this is an encouragement to you to just cook. You can read, you can follow instructions, you can cook. All right, who's going with me? Gideon, let's go plant! Happy Sunday seed day, y'all. Yeah, let's go plant 37 trays. If you guys want to eat fresh produce in the fall and even winter, all winter long, winter harvest garden, you're gonna plant now while it's hot. It's like 90, and, and it, and it's like 90 degrees out there. It is hot. Oh look, that's what I'm Talking about deliciousness. Burn it up! Can you say burn it up?
Burn it up!
Burn it up! While that's cooking, we're planting. I think we'll set up right there, but first let's check on these ducks. Hey ducks, doing good. Water's working, they're not out. Two feeders in there too, so everybody can have something to eat. Hey Gideon, you want to make best friends with these ducks? Go get them some greens out of the instant garden. Instant chicken garden, I love you. Maybe 2 stalks of lettuce. Do we have 37 trays? Uh-oh. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 12-ish, 10-ish, 20-ish. Oh boy, we don't have 37 trays. Put it there up in the corner, or right there in the middle.
I'm just gonna, um, chop it up.
Oh look! Ooh, they like it. I've got my stand-up 2-inch soil block maker. I got my pot. You can wet it a little bit, Gideon, not too much. We got some soil there, uh, got some soil block soil there with 10% in biochar. We're gonna try that. It's supposed to hold moisture, nutrients, all kinds of good stuff. Wooden soil block trays. Two boys stirring it. What do you think, needs a little more water?
What's up? If you're not testing, you're guessing.
Oh wow, I feel like maybe it's a hair dry. Pretty good. Maybe a little more moisture and we'll be good. All right, let's try it now, Jonah. Feels a little better. Maybe he still needs a little more. It's sticking in the bottom there. That's good. Maybe a little more water and we're going. We actually ran out of soil. Thank goodness Arun's in town, he can pick us up some. It's getting kind of hot. I'm kind of glad we're, we're kind of done there. I found some feed, some leftover feed that was wet. It's got some fly maggots in it. We end up with, what, 8 trays, Rebecca, total out of 37? But we don't need all 8 because some don't take as long. Nearly a quarter, so that wasn't too bad. I mean, half an hour, and once we really get going, probably do any faster than that. I bet we can finish tomorrow morning. What do you think? Yes. I'm even sweating down the front.
Oh wow, that's what you have to kill.
There's a wasp nest in your happy place, Beck. I know, I don't like it. Okay, so what are you planting? This is broccoli and this is cabbage. So that— those two things are broccoli, three things, and then this is cabbage. I've come check on this and it is totally stopped. It's on air. I looked in here and it was totally out. The wood chips— not the wood chips, the wood pellets— we're not falling all the way down in there because we're running low. I'm wondering how we get it on the sun. How do we get them to fall down in there a little bit better? I can't open this grate to get in there. There we go. Shake it a little bit. Let's see if I can reset this thing. Hang on, you wet dog. Oh, wet dog, wet dog, wet dog. All right, 1, 2, 3. Hey, you don't want to be a wet dog touching these electricals. Now let's try it. There we go. Hopefully that'll work now. I'm trying to find my Thermapop to measure the temperature. Just checked it, we're at like 135. I want to get up to 160, 170. We got a little less than 2 hours. But anyway, I turned it down to 200 because I think we're well on time for a 5:00 supper. That feels good after a hot workout making soil blocks. Let's check our chicken. Looking good, looking good. And by the way, I'm totally guessing, I'm totally guesstimating and just hoping for the best on, on the timing with the chicken and the temperature and all that. Lest you think I know what I'm doing, remember, we're figuring this out together. That's it, that's it, 166. Looks good. Thank you, Mom.
Very good. This is our first time tasting smoked chicken.
You've never had smoked chicken?
No.
All right, get ready to never go back to roasted.
Oh, that's delicious. How was it, Grandma? Wonderful. And beets from the land.
