Randy left his software engineering job in Minnesota due to health concerns and now runs a regenerative farm with his family. He uses rotational grazing to restore soil and break parasite cycles, and recently visited Mark Shepard's farm in Wisconsin to learn sustainable practices. His goal is building a wildlife-rich landscape that can sustain his family and inspire neighbors.
What in the world is a software engineer doing growing his own food? Why do you do what you do?
Well, you see— Welcome to Minnesota.
It's been a whirlwind couple of days. I'll explain in a second. When we go to meetups or we meet people, you know what the number one question we get asked? Are you tired? We're exhausted. I believe we did like 3 states in 2 days. Let me explain. Randy, you doing anything right now? Yeah, can you hold a camera?
Get a shot right here like that.
Let me show you something. We were in Versaland, Iowa on Friday. Left there, went over here to the Seed Exchange, somewhere, somewhere about there in Iowa. Same day, went all the way up to Wisconsin near Viola there, near Mark Shepherd's place. Slept there, filmed Mark Shepherd on Saturday morning. Hour and a half I got with him, a tour. It was absolutely amazing. You'll want to check that video out if you haven't. It's right there. Stun Method. Sheer, total, utter neglect. I asked him how to plant.
I'm so sorry.
No, you're right. I love it. You can totally photobomb. Randy is photobombing. I'm going to introduce him in a second, but he's going to go ahead and photobomb and steal the show right now. He's going to take a picture of me vlogging. That's okay. Totally. Anyway, I asked him how you plant a tree. This is what he said. Oh, you just take a shovel and shove it in the ground and step on it. Right? So simple. Well, we filmed him Saturday morning. That was Wisconsin. That same day we drove to our hosts here. Randy, say hello to everybody. Randy.
Hey everybody.
We had so much footage from Mark Shepherd, we didn't film any of our time getting here. Well, we didn't publish it in the vlog. We did. We filmed them doing their chores yesterday. Randy and his beautiful family.
Duck under a bunch of fence.
It was absolutely beautiful. I just tried to capture that moment. Sure, we go to the grand epic places of the Salatons and the Mark Shepards, but I believe this is where it's at. If you've heard me say it once, you've heard me say it again. The small family farm just growing a bit of their own food and their own backyard. Just watch.
Bobby, can you stay off the roost— stay off that shelf tonight, please?
That other chicken tractor around?
No.
Has it always been going that way?
I didn't do anything with the chicken tractors. You move the chicken tractors.
Yeah, that's true, that's true.
I don't move them.
Who wants to go back to the shop and turn the water on? Or maybe— hey, can you turn the water on?
What about that one? Is that one a chicken or a turkey? Turkey. That's a turkey, you're right. It's a male turkey.
Let's take the water out first.
Okay, here, watch out, Elsa. Oh, watch out, baby.
Just dump it all out.
Watch out, turkey. No, no, no, get out.
No, it's a water for the chickens but a bath for the turkey.
When we first put them in here, the turkeys were like, so, uh, what, what are these things? They're, they're, they're minuscule.
All right, heads up, watch your feet.
Watch out, chickens! Oh, that's lots of food in there. Here, you need some help? Yeah. Okay, ready? I'll lift you up. You did get maybe Oh, you're gonna feed them like that? Okay, ready? Here, we'll open it up and then you can throw it in there for them. Okay, good job.
Yeah. Heads up, birdies. But we rotated the sheep all the way through this pasture over here, and then we started on this one up here to rotationally graze them through. So we're not, uh, weren't born farmers, and so that seems a little odd to my neighbor next door, but the only thing that we've been told how to put animals through pastures and rotate them. So we have a sheep mentor who told us to watch out for parasites and stuff, so we move them every couple of days to break that parasite cycle. Did you shut the fence off, Manny?
Yeah, I turned it off. Come here. You're not gonna come here? Come here, Patsy. Come here. Just hold really still. Really still, really still. Okay. Oh, oh, she took it and ran away. She got fun. Ooh, can I do the grounding rod, Daddy, please? Can I do one? Yeah, you want to do some? Here. I want to do some. Miss Brown, you want a racket? You want to try? Yeah. Get in. Can I try? Let him try. Hit the stick. Okay, good job. Okay, Shirley's turn, and then my turn.
Randy, tell us everybody who was in the video. Your family. Introduce your family to us.
Well, there was me, my wife Karen, my daughters Maddie and Grace, who are 12 and 10, and Jack, who's 7, and Elsa is 3.
You're a software engineer. What in the world is a software engineer doing growing his own food? Why do you do what you do?
Well, you sit in a cubicle or at a desk all day long, and your health kind of slowly goes downhill in that sort of environment. They say that sitting is the new smoking, and we just wanted to be able to deal with some health issues that we were having. In a more natural way, and we wanted to get out and use our bodies.
What are your goals here?
Our goals are to regenerate the land. I mean, this was a horse farm for 30 years, and it got a lot of beating, and all of the hay went off of the land and all the nutrition and minerals with it.
You're regenerating your body and the land. What's this gonna look like in 10 years?
Well, I hope it'll be more lush, more diverse, hold a lot more wildlife, and have nuts and fruits and vegetables. Everything that we need to sustain our life and lifestyle, and we really hope that we can do the same thing for families around us.
Another thing, I was flat-out exhausted, I'll admit. I couldn't fly the drone. This place deserves some drone footage. It's about the same light as yesterday, right? Let's add some drone.
If I had to start my Homestead all over again, it could only pick one animal… 
