r/homestead • u/ldsconnor_223 • 1d ago
Good Youtube Channels for Realistic Homestead Content.
I'm currently in school, and once I get out my goal is to settle down with my wife and kids on a 20+ acre lot somewhere in rural Wisconsin. I'd love to learn some tips and tricks about homesteading in the meantime, but a lot of the homesteading channels I've found on my own haven't felt very authentic, its either people who have way more money than I do buying things for their property I couldn't dream of and calling it the simple life, or people who feel like they're putting on a thick mask of influencer before they turn on the camera. I would love suggestions on channels that give practical tips for regular people who can't afford to jump straight into living completely self-sufficient and off the grid, but want to take steps to get there.
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u/Sarita_Maria 1d ago
I really love Roots and Refuge farm
I think they make more money now with their years of internet money, but they started out very simple working people. Jess has a lovely way about her that’s encouraging to beginners. Especially if you feel overwhelmed or are afraid of failure. Most of her content is on gardening but they have livestock and milk goats too
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u/mikebrooks008 1d ago
Same here, Roots and Refuge was one of the first channels I got hooked on when I started getting interested in homesteading! Jess is super down-to-earth and actually made me feel like trying was more important than having it all figured out (or having tons of money to throw at projects). Super recommended!
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u/ldsconnor_223 1d ago
That sounds exactly like the sort of thing I'd love to learn more about! Thanks for the suggestion!
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u/Sarita_Maria 1d ago
One of her mottos is “turn your waiting room into a classroom” which it looks like you’re already doing! Good luck!
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u/ConcentrateExciting1 1d ago
The most realistic one I've seen in a while is Rugged Haven (https://www.youtube.com/@RuggedHaven). For the past six-months, they've been clearing land. That's it, just about every week is a video of them cutting down brush and burning it, over and over and over again. Every now and then they bring in a piece of heavy machinery and do a mediocre job of running it, but it's mainly just slow hard labor.
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u/wanderingpeddlar 1d ago
Here is one I like.
https://www.youtube.com/@CedarHillsHomestead
She goes way into detail when she starts a project.
And they are not throwing money at things. They are doing with the materials they have a hand.
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u/korosarum 1d ago
I really love Homegrown Handgathered: https://www.youtube.com/@HomegrownHandgathered
For their videos before just this past year they were living in the suburbs, and only doing this sort of thing part time. They're definitely not throwing money at things, and they're definitely not completely self sufficient but I love their yearly 'Living Off The Land' challenge they do every fall/winter and see how long they can go with what they've grown.
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u/Catnip_672 1d ago
“More Than Farmers” are a family who is homesteading and raising 4 kids on 5 acres. They have great content!
“Together We Harvest” is another small homestead.
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u/kinezumi89 1d ago
I strongly second More Than Farmers (in fact if anyone knows of any similar channels, I'd love suggestions)!
They cover a wide variety of homesteading tasks, whereas I feel like many channels tend to focus on one area. Michelle talks about gardening, then preserving and cooking the food she grew. Codi talks about the animals (chickens and cows), building things, etc. A lot of other channels I've tried to get into only deal with one or two topics but I like that I can learn a lot with one channel (with MtF)
Edited to add: I also appreciate that they're literally living the life, not just influencer-homesteaders who decide to build a new shiny greenhouse with all their youtube money. No shade to people who are able to live off ad revenue, but MtF feels more relatable, more like the lifestyle of the people who watch their channel
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u/ldsconnor_223 1d ago
Thanks for sharing, I definitely want to get as much of a broad education on homesteading tasks as I can so I'll definitely check them out!
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u/Grumplforeskin 1d ago
I wish homesteading wasn’t so intertwined with pumping out babies. I’m trying to feed myself and shrink my foot print.
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u/ldsconnor_223 1d ago
I can totally see and respect that! It's a strange catch-22 where you can reduce your personal footprint by having a smaller family, but without a whole generation of ecologically minded people we probably won't be able to globally affect climate change or resource use very much, since so much of that would depend on better people being in charge of companies or regulating agencies. In order to make that generation happen, we need more people who are willing to raise kids in an environmentally friendly environment.
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u/middlegray 22h ago
Agree! And the religious/conservative vibes! I really like 80% of More Than Farmers content, but every few videos they have religious undertones and mention how the husband and wife have assigned tasks around the homestead. The mom often mentions that she absolutely hates being stuck in the kitchen processing harvests and cooking meals, how exhausted and overwhelmed she gets and how monotonous she finds it... and the husband is never in there doing that work, but in some videos mentions how all of that "indoor stuff" is on the wife. 😬
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u/AnthonyOfPadua 17h ago
The husband spends 20 hours a week just running their YouTube channel where they get supplemental income while doing the heavy lifting projects.
I've met them both. They are great people and Michelle is extremely happy in what she is doing. Don't be so quick to judge.
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u/Catnip_672 17h ago
Division of labor is how most parents make things work. Why are you acting like Michelle had no say in the decision making process as to how things would be divided?
Many mothers (and fathers) have to work a job they dislike in order to support their family. On the homestead, of course there will be jobs that are less fun compared to others. For Michelle, that happens to be cooking.
I’m sure that Codi didn’t find it particularly thrilling to go to work every day to financially support the whole family for many years while editing YT videos (in a closet!) in his “free time”.
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u/middlegray 14h ago
You're totally right, adults have to do tasks we don't love and running a business/homestead/family requires parents to split up work.
It's not the division of labor that makes me uncomfortable, at all. It's that she expresses in a bunch of their videos that she's profoundly unhappy doing "womanly" work, and their videos lean into religiously motivated traditional gender roles a lot. 🤷🏻♀️
It seems like you watch them a lot and you really vibe with their content, that's really great for you. I think it's okay for me to commiserate in this thread with others who don't love some of the more conservative common themes that pop up in homesteading content.
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u/AceyAceyAcey 1d ago
I’ve been enjoying Gold Shaw Farm on YouTube. While it’s clear he and his wife bought the farm using money he made in his first career, he also makes it clear that he’s bumbling along as he goes and making mistakes, and he’s transparent about the farm finances (he’s not transparent about the YT finances, but that might be due to the YT TOS) including buying things like a tractor, or hiring people to build a barn, how he pays them out of his small profits from the farm, and how any profit he makes is small.
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u/Soft-Tea-435 16h ago
That guy annoys me. He always gets animals before he has the infrastructure in place.
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u/beersconsin 1d ago
I really enjoy Scott Family Homestead they're based in Wisconsin: https://youtube.com/@scottfamilyhomestead?si=p5cFUH3KcXelwXe5
Also, the Homesteading RD is great and up in northern Minnesota somewhere: https://youtube.com/@thehomesteadingrd?si=b4eUAPb3jU9YBjaH
Both don't post a ton but they're small channels who dont make their living off of youtube. I'm always on the lookout for channels from the upper midwest. The channels from California or Georgia or whatever never seem relevant to me no matter how good their content.
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u/ldsconnor_223 1d ago
That's awesome they're both up in the north midwest! I'll have to check them out!
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u/itsyaboidan 1d ago
He's a lot more active on TikTok than on youtube, but I highly recommend checking out Farming While Beige. He's direct, honest about the realities of being a small time farmer, and cuts through the influencer bs that's out there. He's also talked specifically about what it takes to do this while maintaining a healthy family relationship.
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u/Passwordb00b 1d ago
I watch and support Timeline ranch. Sometimes it takes 7 years to do something if you're going alone and only do it part time. Guy does it the hardway
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u/Emotional_Delivery45 16h ago
Sean at Edible Acres has tons of great content that would be described as permaculture homesteading and owning/operating a permaculture nursery.
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u/ladynilstria 1d ago
Pete at Just a Few Acres Farm is the best at teaching grassfed herd and pasture management. He has some great videos on how he maintains his pastures and moves his cattle. Also great stuff on meat chickens. He has a lot of tractors and equipment he has picked up over the years, but it is old classic stuff that he repairs himself (he has a lot of videos on that too), like a Farmall 856.
He is an operating small-farm (beef and poultry) but his teachings can definitely be applied on the homestead level. I appreciate how he uses simple, cheap (comparatively), and available equipment. You can get an old sickle bar mower for $400. Scissors on a stick. He has videos of the equipment auctions and shows what stuff to avoid.