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Great Big Ideas & Takeaways:
- Grow more than 75% of your food in less than 10 hours per week.
- How to identify your goals and limitations to create a garden design that works FOR you.
- Discover how to get chickens to do most of your work.
- Simple tricks for beating weeds (HINT: timing, seed starting & mulch!)
- Changing your mindset about what you eat!
- How to set food production goals that are realistic.
- The cheapest way to increase your garden yield.
- Where to get FREE or CHEAP supplies to build what you need.
About The Speaker:
Justin Rhodes is a daily YouTuber and founder of Abundant Permaculture, where he teaches and inspires folks to grow more of their own food in a natural, yet productive way.
Justin trained under the highly accredited Geoff Lawton of PRI Australia for his Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and has studied natural chicken care under popular author, Pat Foremen.
He’s now a seasoned homesteader in his own right, having enjoyed many years of practicing “beyond organic” and permaculture methods on his 75-acre family farm near Asheville, NC.
QUESTION: What’s your favorite takeaway from Justin’s presentation?
Justin is the Casey Neistat of Homesteading. Always informative and always inspirational.
Love those kind words!
Haha, Justin is 10 times cooler than Casey Annoyingstat. 🙂
Great, Justin 😉 I loved that you encouraged recycling our personal surplus..the’golden elixir’ 😉 And ladies, we can easily capture our perfect fertilizer, too. Just use the yellow, plastic chocolate-drink-powder container (brand name begins with ‘N’.. use the larger size, btw) … it seems to have been designed for us 😉
Great vid! How do I get on your email list? I do not see a link? Many thanks
Just love following his daily VLOGS!!!!
Thank you Justin.
Thanks 🙂
It’s inspiring to see what’s possible with a plan, a little work everyday, and a willingness to just try stuff. Thanks, Justin!
Yes Amy, I really liked how he emphasized – a plan!
Right! It’s all about consistency.
Justin, My son and I have been following your VLOGs all summer. I love your positive, fun, encouraging, family inclusive, integrated approach to having chickens and gardening. I keep watching because you still teach me.Thank you for being so generous in sharing your knowledge (and family) with us. You make the world a brighter place! \
I know you have electric fencing for ground predators but how do you combat aerial predators while the gals and ducks are in your garden with no overhead netting? We have staked and rope-rigged (probably not a word) with poultry netting overhead to prevent the numerous hawks and eagles. Even during certain times of the years, we’ll have owls come around at dusk/dawn. I’ve personally seen a hawk land on a coop, study it and then hop down inside the coop and drag a laying hen out. Just curious on your secret to this?
Sorry…I just meant the hens. I’ve got hens/ducks and always mixed the two.
We let our free range and our roos do an amazing job at protecting The Ladies. We’ve never had a problem with aerial predators. Our dogs have been our biggest problem, actually.
Justin has said in his youtube vlogs he has not had any hawk losses after he adding a goose to the hen posse.
Joel Salatin also uses one goose per flock of chickens to keep watch. Geese are super watch birds. I have tried to sneak up on my geese many times and never did surprise them.
I’ll talk more about this in my Sunday video about predators. But, no lie.. the guard goose has solved all my aerial predator problems. Before that, I ran smaller chicken in a pastured poultry pen or a chicken tractor. Both of those are completely enclosed.
Thanks for the great tip about a guard goose! Question: If I wanted to truly have the chickens free range (not in an electric fence) would the guard goose still work or would they all spread out and the advantage of the goose be minimized?
He has a “guard goose”!!! =) Thanks to Justin, I am planning on getting one next spring for that very reason.
My three year old absolutely loves you and your whole family! He has watched every vlog and asks continually all day to watch Justin Rhodes.
I just love the little kid fans. Didn’t see that coming when I started out, but now I consider the young audience in what I film. Tell the little one, we said hi.
My little man loves donald, watching your vlog has become a daily family routine
I second that! My 5 year old and 1 year old love to watch. My 1yr old loves the music and seeing the kids and chickens 🙂
Love the production quality of this video. I know that’s secondary to the information contained (which is also great), but it does make it more engaging for an audience. When I see slide shows, it feels like I’m back in college listening to a lecturer. An HD video with a stable camera, great sound quality, and and good lighting and color balancing makes it feel more like I’m actually there.
I know it can be a lot more time and expense in producing a video, but it makes a real difference. So far this is my favorite video of the conference.
Thanks ILW. Yes, some of our presenters can do the live action camera thing well. Thanks for your comments and we will try to include more live action in the future.
I loved this video. So much information! I can not wait to try new things out in my garden 🙂
So happy!
Thank you Justin for the practical tips in prepping and growing vegetables.
edgar
Love Justin and his family, I am a fan of all his videos, especially his chicken videos, Keep up the good work!,
Thanks! Love ya too.
Been watching Justin’s videos since the beginning. Love all the information he puts out there.
You’re our hero.
Another great instructional video Justin! Thanks!
Justin this was great! I’ve had chickens for 2 years at my (then) boyfriend’s house. We got married this year and bought a house on 100 acres. I’m starting to plan our garden for the Spring, so this was the perfect video for me. I took some good notes, and I’m looking forward to checking out the additional downloads. Thank you!
His step by step makes me feel like even I can do this. Love his youtube videos and family. Looking forward to the bus road trip. Safe travels!!!
Thanks justin. Love your enthusiasm and ability to get things across simply
Wonderful and even useful for my suburban lot with an HOA
Love this! So much information! We love your videos and sit down as a family to watch them at night. Thanks for giving a “wanna be farm girl” an opportunity to be one! Even my husband started listening to the shows and podcasts at work. I do have a question…what do you do with all those chickens when it snows? Do they still have a job in the winter?
Hi Justin,
The local grain store doesn’t carry pea’s in the whole grain, so is there another grain the I can use to to supplement the green pea in your whole grain mix formula? They do carry corn, wheat and oats. Would cracked corn be better to buy rather than corn? Thanks for all your help, I love my chickens and geese!
Hi Sharon, Justin will probably coming on here soon, but I’ll pitch in. Peas are high in protein and almost any other legume type seed would work. And in general cracked is going to be easier for the birds to digest than whole corn.
I like whole corn, because that gives me the option to sprout it as well. You can ask your store to order peas or order it directly from New Country Organics.
So excited I finally get to see this! I’ve been waiting for this to come out. 😀
My kiddos LOVE to watch your videos, too.
Thanks! Tell the kids we said hello.
Brilliant, as usual of course! Thanks Justin!
I love the Rhodes family. Our family watches their daily blog. They are so inspirational and I have learned so much from them. I truly envy their lifestyle and I am so thankful they share it with others!
Great Job Justin. You and your family are my inspiration to get my handicapped body up and moving more. We have 3 acres to start working on and raising our own food. Thanks again for your awesome Vlogs.
You’re a HUGE reason of why we do what we do.
Great video! Very informative in a concise way.
Great step by step instructional presentation Justin ! Thanks! Looking forward to make good use of it as I plan and plant my garden next spring.
Great video as always, excited to try this out this spring!
I always love your videos. Your enthusiasm for growing food is contagious. I built your chickshaw modified to fit through my gate and my chickens love it so much that they prefer it to their more permanent house. They are free range right now so they get to choose. All of your information is extremely useful and your wife does such a wonderful job helping to create beautiful videos. Thank you so much for all of your hard work!
Proud of you!
I love seeing the Rhodes family vlogs daily! So inspiring! I first started looking because I thought of having some chickens in my back yard. After almost a year of seeing all encouraging videos (including failures) I now bought a second-hand small chicken coop and am planning for the chickens to come in next spring. Justin’s videos were encouraging too for doing my very best in my vegetable garden.
want to add: I live in the Netherlands in a ground-floor-apartment in a suburban neighbourhood. So in a completely different setting …
You’re one of our #1 fans. Good to see ya here.
Loved this presentation. so much great easy info and thank you for the notes and plans. I’m going to be a follower1
So much good information! Thanks for the notes, I printed them at the start and then took notes on your outline 🙂
Justin has a new fan…me! Thanks so much, very encouraging and enjoyable.
welcome to the family!
The Rhodes Family does a fantastic job educating through vlogs! I love how Justin and Rebecca show how to make it work even with little “chidlers” running around and how to get them involved. Mistakes and all, the family embodies a wonderful lifestyle in a fun and relatable way. Justin provides some of the most specific, consistent, and helpful content that I have found online.
All I anticipated it to be! Justin, you are intoxicating! You make people want to be just like you!!! How fun to live the life of your choice, I think that is the best example you are giving to all of us. Thank you for an information packed video that covers the basics in a very thorough way!!! Thank you Majory for inviting Justin to be part of the Summit.
Hey Justin, are y’all planning to visit Marjory’s homestead on your great American farms tour next year? We’re in Austin and would be interested if Marjory’s planning to host a gathering for that. Hope yall will check out ECHO’s farm in North Ft. Meyers, FL too. It’s pretty cool what they are doing there. Contact Rick Burnett or Brad Ward about that if you’re interested. I sent you an email with their contact info a few weeks ago when yall announced it.
Keep up the great work – the bus is looking awesome!
YES! I still have to get up with Marjory about that (But, I’m sure she’ll be up for a visit). Thanks for the Florida lead, I hadn’t heard of them.
Excellent presentation! The notes are very helpful too!
Thank you Justin!
I really like how Justin “thinks” things thru. He is a great teacher, father, husband and homesteader. I have learned so much from him & his family. One of his tips saved all my baby chicks this last Spring. Thank you Justin! The Rhodes family is TRUE blue and I recommend everyone supporting them however you can. They are truly blessed!
I had no idea! I’m so happy about that.
What tip did you use to save your chicks?
Spot on, as usual, Justin! Informative, concise, well produced (thanks Beautiful One!). Highlight of the Summit for me so far. Thanks for including Marjory……let’s see their bus adventures in the next Summit!
Love the the care and thought you put into your content. And making them available to everyone.
Many thanks
Another wonderful video by Justin Rhodes! I love watching his blogs, too. (Vlogs?) I would add for the planning stage – a limitation I always underestimate is time to process the wonderful harvest (chickens included). Taking care of 5 tomato plants (or a small flock of chickens) isn’t difficult, but wait until they’re ready for harvest, and you trying to can/freeze/leather/whatever them while working full time and taking care of kids & house & everything else is on your plate, and see how little sleep you get. It is a short span of time, and it is definitely worth it, but I would recommend not starting too big your first year of a new crop (to put up for later) until you know how long the processing takes, so you don’t get overwhelmed. And listen to Justin! If you do get too much, and can’t process all you wanted to, don’t stress. Give it away, feed it to the chickens, even compost it, and it won’t be going to waste.
I’ve learned so much from Justin Rhodes. Thanks for everything!
Thankful its okay to make mistakes and learn. “It is okay”.
I will take this style of teaching over a powerpoint slideshow any day. THANK YOU! Great stuff, great video, great job.
Tried to watch your video with my toddler since she loves watching your daily Vlogs. She spent the whole first 5 min asking “where chickens go? Chickens, Chickens.” I had to stop and visit your channel for a bit.
Funny. I know, the instructional type of videos aren’t as fun for the kiddos.
wow! great session!
I love this teaching! Making a list of goals and prioritizing. It makes life so much less stressful. Having a plan, a diagram, a map. For anything that is overwhelming, right? Thanks for the wonderful reminder!
My day is not complete if I don’t check in on the Rhodes family. Enlightening and entertaining through daily living. I have implemented his ‘working chicken’s’ and have many other of his daily bits of wisdom. Thank you for including Justin and his Abundant Permaculture methods.
Good for you putting your chickens to work. Thanks for being such a great fan.
What do you do to protect your crops from rabbits and deer?
What is this H he sprays on the plants?
It’s a Shaklee product, Basic H.
This was great! Love your energy and enthusiasm! I’ll definitely be checking out your vlog for more inspiration.
This video was by far the best… I loved it…. I really appreciated the show notes and all the extras……. 4 stars for me…
This one I have been waiting for from the start and it is not working.
So many questions now…hopefully Justin will answer questions on his vlog…I will subscribe and watch, we are moving to our 8 acre property in East Tennessee just before New Years…I love the idea of using the chickens to prep the land! So excited to know how to get the land ready for my new garden. Thank you Justin. Great presentation of course!
Thank you Marjory for this summit. I will be checking out The Grow Network more too.
This is weird, I don’t usually comment on things, I’m a “voyeur” you might say.. I discovered you Justin about 2-3 weeks ago.. I’ve been binge watching all the vlogs.. I want a life like this.. Simple, green, slowing it down, and be with my baby.. I had a rough 4-5years and am now getting at a crossroad where I need to choose my next step.. You’ve been helping see the light.. I’m up in suburban Montreal, Quebec.. And I sneeked 4 hens under my backyard balcony steps.. I’m planning next year’s garden in my tiny backyard.. but yeah, the key is planning.. Thx Justin, you and your family are very inspirational.. keep up the GREAT work
You are very welcome. So glad to be an inspiration.
Wow! Best presentation yet! Never heard of this guy, but will definitely look up his You Tubes or “vlogs” or whatever they are. So much useful informaton so well presented. Thanks for including Jason in the summmit.
Cool! Welcome to the family.
LOL “Chickshaw” – love it! And yes, I let my chickens till my garden too.
This was a fabulous video! Thank you Justin! I have 3 questions, if you don’t mind. I didn’t see the “Notes” that I can download? What do you do with dehydrated zucchini? And can have your “Honey sweetened, cream filled” butternut squash pie recipe? 🙂
You can get the notes by clicking on the photo in the upper right-hand side of this page. Dehydrated Zucchini is absolutely amazing in a lasagna instead of pasta. That butternut squash pie came from Phil Maffetone’s Big Book of Health and Fitness. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/2f6ywFD
Thanks so much Justin!
Great energy Justin! Enjoyed your info! Looking forward to the next pres from you!
Love the enthusiasm! Love love it.
Ditto on wanting the squash pie recipe. : >
http://bit.ly/2f6ywFD
Well, the biggest take-away that I got from this is that I need to plan and not do the “flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” thing (that, strangely, hasn’t worked for me–ever!).
Also, I’ve tried to rate this presentation, and the button that one is supposed to click is not there! I would really love to rate this presentation with a big ol’ 5 star rating! Maybe if I keep trying to find it–go in and out a couple of times…wish me luck!
Thank you so much for the notes, Justin! You really saved me from writer’s cramp and the couple of hours that I would’ve spent trying to get all that information and write it down!
Love your family and vlogs! This was a great video, I have learned so much from you. I think planning is my biggest issue I need to get better at that and your right paper is so much easier to correct I have reworked my yard way to many times.
Justin, like usual I enjoyed this video. I heard about this summit from one of your other videos. I have to say a big than you. Because of this summit I will be working to make next summers growing season to be even better!
As always, absolutely LOVED this video and we watch your vlogs every single day! Love your family, your personality, and all the educational advice you give for our homestead! I thank you very much for the word you spread and the great work you are doing to help the average person live a healthier life. We will continue to watch and support! Love from The Stone Family!!
A Big Ol’ THANK YOU!
Love your videos, you always make me laugh! Especially Mr Googlepants! HA! You’re a wealth of knowledge!!!! I have a small garden and chickens, never thought to use the chickens to till the soil!!!! So ridiculously simplistic but ingenious!!!!
Work smart, plan well, eat well
I really appreciated his energetic presentation. My takeaway which is something I do is scavenging for useful items; scavenging helps keep the environment clean and I think that “found” items are more exciting than purchased! I hadn’t thought about construction debris! Thanks for that tip!
You inspire me to continue to garden as my heart tells me to do. My neighbors think I little crazy because I plant in my compost pile (still have tomatoes in Wisconsin) and I dig up my plant boxes and plant compost. Lots of worm!! Thanks for the sanity check Justin, I will check in with UTube often.
Justin we just bought 100 Cornish cross and I’m so excited about the possibility of having a year’s worth of chickens in 8 weeks. We’ve had them
1 week and only lost one so far. Sure hope we do as well with them as u and your family did!! You are really an inspiration and we love your videos!!! Thanks so much!
Oh yeah just so u know Justin we would have never got those kind of birds if we hadn’t watched your 100 days challenge. 🙂
Justin-
You have great energy and enthusiasm for homesteading. You provided valuable information on using chickens, recycling, gardening and thinking about eating in a new way. I love your A frame green house. Keep inspiring.
Thanks Justin for many great gardening ideas.I learned something new about the abilities of chickens for helping prepare the soil. That’s pretty amazing! And yes with limited space a plan helps to make good use of space. And your use of recycled material in your garden is being clever and creative too. The video kept frreezing but I still learned quite a bit anyway from you.
Your apple cider in the water tip has saved my exotic baby chicks who got wry neck and i can’t thank u enough for sharing your experience.
Thank you for a wonderful video. I was wondering, though, if you had any advice for someone that cannot own chickens? Currently our city, even in suburbia, will not allow any chickens.
Great info as always, Justin! Any tips for keeping chickens through the winter?
Sure. I wrote an HUGE article about that here: http://bit.ly/1c4iiKN
Justin I love your presentations, so much information to share to help the rest of us get off on the right foot. I get the whole concept of letting the chickens do the work and the chicksaw and chicken tractor. Unfortunately my spouse is stuck on the concept of gasoline tillers, etc. I found one of your presentations almost a year ago and he turned it down without even giving it a second thought. He never even looked at the diagrams. I know this is a better, more sustainable route, and I hope to work all these ideas in as much as possible along the way. Thank you for the knowledge.
Thank you for a great presentation. I am reviewing your show notes and clicked on the links for Shaklee H and Basic H and am not sure l have the correct website as these seem to be cleaners.
Yes, they are natural cleaners. And, they do wonders for pest control. Totally safe. Even edible, although I wouldn’t advise that.
Hi Justin,
I’ve been watching your videos since just before you finished your 100 day challenge (only just discovered you then… but went back and watched everything) and I love chickens and have cared for them before but the way that the people housed them was just in a coop. If you wanted them outside they had separate little pens. When they were first getting used to us we had to catch them and put them out… they slowly got trained. But I love how you guys keep and release your chickens!
My questions are:
– Are those chickshaws warm enough for the chickens on cool night since it is just a wire around them? What about the winter?
– How do you not have issues with predators? I know you have Donald but what if there isn’t anywhere to buy a goose or you don’t feel safe yet around geese (have had some hiss at me before and weren’t nice).
-With an open top cage for roaming how do you keep them in? Is clipping the only way?
These chickens I would want to use more for gardening and as pets… I don’t think I could ever kill.
Sorry. a few more questions than I thought. Those are the ones that usually pop up to my mind while admiring your chicken flock. 🙂
The chickshaw is fine for winters down to -20F. I suggest the book open air poultry houses. Just tarp up the sides and leave the front open and facing the south (the sun).
I should also say thank you 🙂
My boyfriend and I farmed on one of our professor’s farms last summer and pretty sure we’d like to stick it out and try again once we have more money to start up again. After watching you and your family for months he has started watching as well! 🙂
You family is beautiful and your work is wonderful! We need more like you guys! 🙂
Love your videos, Justin! Seeing you and Beauty working your homestead with small children is inspiring to us. I would have never considered beginning a homestead while our kids are little, but you have inspired us to not wait to make our dreams happen! So, thank y’all!
After watching Justin’s YouTube channel throughout his 100 day challenge I am still so amazed at what I am continuing to learn! Absolutely love this presentation!! I am so inspired to create my dream garden and homestead. Thank you Justin!!
Love your presentations, Justin! Now if I could just get my family on board with changing their mindsets (including the vegetarian who is extremely picky about veggies she’ll eat)… . And if we could only get chickens (not allowed even though we’re on an acre out in the country…). [We have several families of foxes surrounding us, so maybe it wouldn’t be feasible… .]
He’s not just about farming. In a few of his vlogs, Justin has talked about his family, about people having different dreams and goals; about things that may or may not get done. Very inspiring. My grandchildren love to see the chidlers and their adventures. Even at a young age, they are learning some valuable lessons watching the videos. The one where he gives his little one an extended hug to “fill up his little love tank” was especially heartwarming.
Thanks for the very kind words 🙂
Great information, very positive and basic, a newbie like me can follow along. Thanks
Justin, you are a beautiful example of dedicated, sacrificial, loving, hard working husband and father. I love your sense of humor and simple living. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, learning, and your family with us.You are a blessing and make the world a brighter place!
We love you Justin. It seems like you pass along the love poured on you to everything you do. My kind of Messenger. I never forget your saying “Too blessed to be stressed”. I am sure it helps many others….Love
I always love watching Justin and his families vlogs. Your children are so precious! Thank you for another great presentation!!
I love Justin’s energy and have learned quite a bit. I don’t have chickens – not in an area zoned for them, unfortunately, but there were still lots of good hints. THANK YOU JUSTIN!!!
This is the first time I have seen you Justin and I have to say you have a new fan. I watched the video three times. First two by myself because I was drawing the acreage around my house and missed a lot! Third time I roped my husband, he knows everything pretty much. So he has his phone in his hand fiddling around. Looking up your blog, only paying half attention and then, Tada! You caught his attention and then phone goes down and he is really watching. HE thinks your cool, says you have a lot of great ideas, thinks we should do a lot of what you’re doing with the soil blocks, letting our chickens work instead of him! Not sure why he liked that so much? We will be watching you now. Thanks. It’s like having a super cool neighbor who knows a lot and makes you want to listen. Enjoy the way you present stuff.
welcome to the family!
Hi, i believe that i noticed you visited my website so i got here to “go back the desire”.I am trying to find things to improve my website!I suppose its adequate to make use of some of your concepts!!
Out standing! Thank you!
I missed out getting the correct link for the show notes and checksheets for the chicken predator presentation yesterday. Can you add that material to the bonuses that show up in the link for this talk? Is that available somewhere on your website? Thanks so much for your great presentations!
Sorry about that one. Here ya go:http://abundantpermaculture.com/heres-predator-bonus/
I’ve started this process (Thanks to you, Justin!), but I’m hung up on one thing. I let my garden rest this year and before long it was full of 7 foot tall stands of perilla mint, jimson weed, and poke weed (all toxic-ish to chickens). Should I just mow all that down or can the chickens help in some way?
P.S. My 11 year old son is our resident Chicken Ninja and he rarely misses your vlogs. We love them!
P.P.S. If you designed and sold a Chicken Ninja T-Shirt I would buy one for my son. Just sayin’…
Mow it down. And, tell your son that I said hi.
My 3 year old is always asking to watch the chicken man, she also tells me she is friends with your daughter!
Love that! Tell em the chicken man says hi.
I am so happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the accidental misinformation that’s at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.
Thanks for the motivation and inspiration! I have put my toe in the water and grown a few veggies in containers in my backyard in Northwest Florida, but am eager to attempt chickens and more prolific veggie-growing! 🙂 Can’t wait to “introduce” your family to my grand-girls and learn more about organic homesteading!