One More Day Of Dirt Work... HUGE Difference #alaskahomestead

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:08]Welcome to Modern Homestead Alaska. I am Jessica and somewhere around here is my husband Aaron. Today we are in a mood called Everything on the Homestead is trash. Um just trying to get it cleaned up.

[00:00:22]Everything moved around. We were able yesterday to get the shelter logic placed in its new home back there by the cow pen. We um have some machines in it because the hay is just now starting to grow up here and then we'll fill it with local hay come this fall for the cow throughout winter, spring, summer, winter, fall, all of those things. So, with that said, now we just have to move and clean up the rest of it so that the dozer can come through and do all of the dirt work. Okay. And in that process, Aaron and I have decided that everything we see is trash because we're tired of moving it all around. So, I'm not quite sure what is going to happen in today's video, but I am certain with how beautiful the weather is, how warm it is, how fantastic it is that at the end of it, we're going to have accomplished something out here today. And it probably is going to be a whole lot of everything on this trailer is going to be taken in to a shop. Some of it will be thrown away. The big uh I've been asked about this like 50 times. This is a giant piece of insulation that Aaron got. They use it on like concrete buildings. It's a structural foam and then you can pour concrete on top of it so you're not having so much weight in concrete when you're building stuff.

[00:02:00]Just yelled beep beep when he drove by.

[00:02:02]Oh my goodness.

[00:02:04]>> So that is what it is. And Aaron was thinking, "Oh, we could cover it somehow and start like making a dock out into the lake." And that won't work. We're not going to put any foam in the lake.

[00:02:14]We'll figure something else out.

[00:02:16]So, that's going to go. It can probably be used on a job site, something like that. And then everything else, they have a big construction dumpster. Then we he drug our dumpster down from the road over here.

[00:02:32]And we're just filling stuff. We're just throwing everything away because we're getting rid of it or giving it away, but it just has to leave the homestead.

[00:02:44]We're gonna start robbing some of these great big hooks on the back of the woodshed. It's on a a board that I can take down, but staying the same color as it. But I don't want to put all of the stuff that we normally keep on the back of the woodshed facing the neighbors anymore only because um we want it to be really pretty back here. And normally I had all these tools over here. Well, what's going to happen is the tools are just going to be scattered all across the yard if they're supposed to go on the back of the woodshed cuz I'll hardly be in this area.

[00:03:22]So, these are for Aaron's tire chains.

[00:03:30]Those won't be hung here. And then that one is for our um dip nets.

[00:03:40]And these things can go on the back of the barn. The barn has an overhang on the back and so they won't get weathered. Plus, they won't be in the direct sunlight either. So, I'll throw all these over there and then I can grab some. I think I'm just going to put them on the post in the garden. I don't use too many of these tools in the garden, but I also use several in the um cow's barn. And so, just start seal. They're nice cuz they have these little screw heads on them.

[00:04:14]And I just um do a hole, like a pre-drilled hole, and then screw them in.

[00:04:23]All right, so this is the back of the barn, and it used to have a giant dirt mound behind it. It's a little messy right now. We'll get it all raked and cleaned up. The Argo, the side by side, all out of my vision now. Isn't that great? So, I'm just going to put a couple of these hooks right here on the back of the barn. Uh, two for Aaron's tire chains and the dip nets.

[00:04:52]And then one or two inside of the barn for we do a um pitchfork.

[00:05:01]So loud.

[00:05:18]But here's the dip nets. I'll have to get a ladder to do those cuz they need to hang all the way from the roof down. But just that little bit of overhang on the roof line there is going to be perfect. So I'll put a couple in the cow's pen. These are going to go right here where I can stick shovels and things like that. And they're a little bit high, but with snow and all of that in the winter time.

[00:05:51]So, pitchfork.

[00:05:56]That's the one for the nets.

[00:06:02]And then I can reach right along here and she doesn't like access it. But I'm also not bumping into it because we did scoot the milk stion.

[00:06:12]Um because we had to do her feet the other day.

[00:06:31]Pitchfork. Shovel. Rick.

[00:06:53]I went and got the rest. All except for one. Um because I do like to keep a shovel over there for the dogs.

[00:07:38]We're going to use this for rainwater this summer on the other side of the barn and then the peaks of the barn.

[00:07:45]Aaron's going to put gutters on it, run it in here, and then we're going to use it to water the greenhouse and the garden when needed. So, I'm pretty excited about it. He's going to bring me home some pallets. We're going to put on pallets so that it gravity feeds. And I do have a pump for it if I ever need that. We got to get it out of the way cuz we're keeping it.

[00:08:04]>> Where you going?

[00:08:06]My Let me just get an exc behind the gate, behind the fence. right back there off the side. So, the gutters will come down and then into the tank back there. And I'll just run a hose.

[00:08:45]Peaches's barn is kind of on a high spot. The garden, the greenhouse, everything is below it. In fact, I'll try to give you an angle. I can climb up this hill. Just shove it right there.

[00:09:00]Not the project for today. So, look at this rock wall. I love that. It's so beautiful. Um, but we just quit cutting the land out. Her barn. And look, it goes down into the greenhouse to the lake to the garden to everything.

[00:09:21]Aaron trimmed her feet for me. He told me on the first toe of the first foot, he said, "This is the most work I've ever done on a cow's foot in my entire life." So, we got her all trimmed up. I cleaned up her whole pin and I cleaned out the barn. I didn't film any of it the other day. I just got out here and worked probably almost till 10:00 at night. I had finished filming one of the videos. I'm not quite sure, but I was just tired. I was exhausted.

[00:09:50]It was the week that we lost um Tipper, and I just couldn't keep myself upbeat and happy, and I just needed to zone out. I put in a bunch of like 1980s music and uh jammed out and did all of that work by hand. Um Aaron was not home and then when he got home he helped me put the fence back together. But now when all this is done, we get to extend the cow's pin hopefully almost equal with the garden fence. Um and it'll be even bigger for her.

[00:10:29]I'm pretty excited for that.

[00:10:35]Oh my gosh.

[00:10:38]So, what do we have over here? Stuff we're keeping. All of this is behind the like cutout line. Um, so he has a few railroad ties left. This is all the pressuret treated wood that the shelter logic was on. Couple of pieces of dunage. that stuff's good to have around.

[00:11:00]Uh, dunage is for the ladies that watch, it's these chunks of wood like this little chunk of 4x4 or whatever. So, when you set them down on the ground, we can come in with the forks like this and pick stuff up instead of sitting everything on the ground. So, that is what dunage is. If you ever hear us saying that word, so other than these couple of things right here, here. Um, obviously a hay bale. The wheelbarrow I'm going to dump.

[00:11:53]I I got some more trash I'm going to grab out of the barn area. This is a weight that goes on the back of the tractor. This is a light that came with the property. I have the lantern part, the top. We're going to have that rewired and it is going to go somewhere.

[00:12:09]It came out of one of the small towns downtown area and the original owners of this place left it and they gave it to me. So, I think it's adorable. It may end up painted or something like that, but you can hang pots on it. Like, that's what those hooks are for. So, you can hang pots. We'll have it rewired and it'll have a plug and the light and all of that. And it's a huge piece of history. So, I think it'll be really, really beautiful somewhere at the corner near where the shop is. just something really beautiful. Or it might be, wouldn't it be beautiful as the light pole leading you into the um right here is where the uh the greenhouse is going to go, the permanent greenhouse.

[00:13:01]Wouldn't it be beautiful if I saved it and it was right there at the front entrance? That would be so so cute. So anyho, this stuff is all keep I had to do with the trash. Aaron, I had to take that door out to deal with the cleanup.

[00:13:16]And then it's kind of torn up and needs some paint. So, he's going to take all the doors off in a week or so off the barn, bring them to me. I'm going to paint them. We're going to wash the barn, do any touch-up paint we need. Um, it'll be beautiful as well.

[00:13:53]So, this was loads of recycled asphalt concrete that we brought in and leveled it all out to put the shelter logic on it. Let me show you what he's doing with it.

[00:14:25]Why did I move the rake?

[00:14:27]>> What?

[00:14:28]>> Why did I move the dang brake?

[00:14:33]Let me grab those.

[00:14:49]Heat. Heat.

[00:15:17]I got to walk over and get the rake. Why did we spend the whole beginning of this video moving all the rakes?

[00:15:24]When this landscape is done, I won't. Or I can I can have a couple of hooks on the back of the garage. But I'm walking down the driveway here so I can show you something. When you pull into our house, the first thing you see now is actually that wood shed. The boat will be moved, then you get the lake, and then the house. Well, I want to open that view towards the lake. Not open it in the sense of like going and cutting down trees. I want to move the boat out of the way. Well, I have this bench that came from Gom from her house in California years and years. She built that house in 1998. So, she has this rod iron bench that's so heavy. I want to set it right there in front of the woodshed with my really beautiful pillows on it.

[00:16:17]So Aaron is making a little pad where we have a walkway um into this landscaped area, but something right next to the woodshed where I can kind of set that down.

[00:17:07]I think you have enough. You can shove it in that side and be done over there.

[00:17:12]And we can put the >> No, I'm not done with this right now.

[00:17:14]>> Okay.

[00:17:16]>> There's only one scoop, one thing. This thing can fill that wrap that thing up pretty quick.

[00:17:49]Heat. Heat.

[00:18:15]Heat. Heat.

[00:18:27]You and I did the woodshed decor. These plants have been out for a couple of days now overnight.

[00:18:36]Not everyone is super happy, but no one is dying.

[00:18:40]Look.

[00:18:43]Isn't that pretty?

[00:18:46]I love it.

[00:18:55]I'm going to be all right.

[00:19:01]Easy to deal with.

[00:19:07]That's a That's a very deep walk path.

[00:19:09]But you said you're building all this up real high anyway. Well, >> I can't really get in right here.

[00:19:14]>> Yeah.

[00:19:15]>> Flatten it out.

[00:19:16]>> Yeah.

[00:19:17]So I Duke says it's perfect.

[00:19:52]>> Duke. Duke loves it. Duke, what are you doing?

[00:19:57]What are you not helping with?

[00:20:02]>> A lot.

[00:20:02]>> There's a lot.

[00:20:07]But I don't know. You could wipe this down and it'll compact itself.

[00:20:16]If I keep pulling like this, it just pulls it down. Right.

[00:20:20]>> Right.

[00:20:22]Do we need a little down? But >> I wanted to stay that way from the garden, right? Plants.

[00:20:29]>> Yeah.

[00:20:35]>> Yeah. All this is the pack back here.

[00:20:39]>> What?

[00:20:39]>> Here.

[00:20:42]I mean, this gate's not staying here, obviously.

[00:20:47]>> Yeah. I was just trying to stay using this as the whole, right?

[00:20:56]You're just putting a table here with some pots. So, >> no, I'm just putting that bench right with some pots on this side.

[00:21:15]That's a piece of crap at work.

[00:21:34]>> All right, that's good for for right now. We rescued all of that uh gravel.

[00:21:41]Um and that's a perfect little pad.

[00:21:43]We'll get something set out there.

[00:21:45]Something beautiful. This on the north side of the building and so it won't get as much sun as the rest of it. But one job at a time finished.

[00:22:09]All right, friends. The biggest job so far.

[00:22:19]When Jews walked on the water, he passed the ship sea with Peter and the disciples on the Sea of Galilee.

[00:22:28]They knew was Jesus. Their hearts were full of fear.

[00:22:32]But Jesus knew their every thought and gave them cause of cheer.

[00:22:37]The boisterous winds were crashing upon the chosen crew.

[00:22:41]But Peter asked Jesus if he could walk there too. He walked on the sea out toward him then quickly in a weak. Peter took his eyes off Jesus and soon began to sink. But the Lord reached out his hand and lifted him.

[00:23:03]So you can stay without a doubt.

[00:23:25]Now the storms of life distract you so you can't see ahead.

[00:23:30]You must adjust your vision to the Holy One instead.

[00:23:34]You think that life's a mess and in your troubles you'll succumb.

[00:23:38]Friend, lift your eyes to Jesus as he simply says to come. But God will reach out and catch your hand and lift you up so you can boldly build up your faith. So you can stand without doubt upon the solid rock.

[00:23:57]without solid rock.

[00:24:05]>> So everything why it's singing out right now is good dirt gravel combination.

[00:24:12]Let me show you where Aaron's moving it to. Someday we would like a walking path down to the lake. And Aaron is why it's uh separating the piles for separate reasons.

[00:24:27]And Mr. Aaron is down there.

[00:24:52]So the I'll turn around because I can hear the wind in my own uh earbud. So it's super swampy right down there and then someday there will be so on. Um so the deck will come off the back of the house and it will connect to the dock that will go out into the lake. big big dreams down the road. Um, but in the meantime, we're going to shove some dirt because to build the under part of that path is going to require gravel, a layer of landscape fabric, gravel, landscape fabric, gravel. Like, it's a whole thing to build across the swamps up here. um to build like a permanent path and then it'll come up and go down and all of that fun stuff.

[00:25:46]But that dirt would just be hauled off and so we need to build up some dirt in certain areas. So that's what Aeron's working on. What is back here? Stuff.

[00:25:56]The things that still need to be burned.

[00:25:59]Wyatt snow machine. We're going to get it undercover for the summer while we wait on the hay bales.

[00:26:06]my free scaffolding that still needs uh it needs new boards. You couldn't stand on that if you needed to. This is broken, but it's come in handy.

[00:26:16]So, my windows that we're going to build cold frames out of, you know, just stuff everywhere.

[00:26:26]What is this man doing?

[00:26:31]Do you want me to pull those Heat.

[00:27:02]Heat.

[00:27:20]Heat. Heat.

[00:27:26]Oh, heat, heat.

[00:28:10]Heat. Heat.

[00:28:17]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:28:48]Heat. Heat.

[00:28:57]Why?

[00:29:22]Heat. Heat up here.

[00:30:15]Heat.

[00:30:31]Heat.

[00:31:02]How do you feel like Heat. Heat.

[00:31:58]Heat. Heat.

[00:32:21]Heat. Heat.

[00:32:28]Heat.

[00:32:47]Heat.

[00:33:17]Heat. Heat.

[00:34:07]Wait a minute.

[00:34:22]Heat. Heat.

[00:34:32]Heat.

[00:34:47]Heat.

[00:35:14]Are you two over here not helping?

[00:35:21]I can't see.

[00:35:45]What are you two doing?

[00:35:50]Found a stick.

[00:35:51]Is that your stick? Is that your stick, Die? Did you find that all by yourself?

[00:35:57]Yeah, that's a nice stick.

[00:36:23]What are you thinking?

[00:36:25]>> Well, I just made just walking through it cuz I just wanted to show him that right behind him is where we're going to have to keep elevation because of the barn in the shed, >> right?

[00:36:34]>> But then here you can see the belly down and how high we are right here. So, I wanted to pull this out and then see how we're still coming up right here. We're high.

[00:36:41]>> Are you going to have to do a rock wall from the garden back?

[00:36:46]>> We could either build that or ramp it.

[00:36:48]Make a nice transition that way. But a lot of work to do.

[00:36:55]We had a coax over there, too.

[00:36:57]>> Oh, Dave. Oh, Davey boy.

[00:37:18]M.

[00:37:43]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:38:18]Heat. Heat.

[00:38:39]Where's your dog? Huh?

[00:38:40]>> Where's your dog?

[00:38:42]>> In the water.

[00:38:43]>> In the lake.

[00:38:46]Jump.

[00:39:08]Heat. Heat.

[00:39:38]It is it's 7 o'clock at night, so we are finishing up. But I got the whole front of the coupe cleaned up, ready to go.

[00:39:46]Aaron and Wyatt did a massive, massive amount of dirt work. I think Aaron's gonna keep going with that. But that is wild to look at that.

[00:40:54]Wow.

[00:40:56]So, you're just going to keep trucking this other places until >> we're going to use >> All right. So, our neighbor who's Wyatt's boss was just here at the house um talking elevations and stuff with Aaron. So, I'm asking Aaron really quick. He's not He doesn't love the camera, believe it or not. As funny as you are.

[00:41:17]>> I am >> big joking man.

[00:41:21]>> Hey, wait, wait, wait. First, before we get to that, um I was laughing at myself because you were cheering me on and they wouldn't have heard any of it because it was on time lapse when I moved those glue lamps by myself.

[00:41:32]>> Mhm.

[00:41:33]>> And I thought of how Joe Rogan is like, "I like a hearty woman." Or a a sturdy woman. So, a woman that can help you move a couch.

[00:41:41]>> Do you like a sturdy woman?

[00:41:43]>> You do not like a twig.

[00:41:45]>> No. I moved those glue lamps.

[00:41:47]>> Hercules. I could barely move them and I had to use um a dolly to do it.

[00:41:53]>> I saw you.

[00:41:54]>> But I got it. And then I couldn't scoot it because it didn't lay down perfectly.

[00:41:58]But you fixed it with for with the >> I took care of >> skidster for me. You moved it this far with the skidster. Thanks for taking care of me. Thanks. This is not a fishing story.

[00:42:07]>> Thanks for taking care of me. So anyway, what were you and Matt decided had to happen? I'll get you. I'll get you ready. All right. What were you and Matt decided needed to happen?

[00:42:17]>> We got a lot more leveling here to do.

[00:42:20]So, we're going to take a whole bunch of this stuff out and then we'll use what we can down there at the on my path to the uh lake. Just let it get ate up and then I'll put gravel on top of it. But we got to come in here and get this out.

[00:42:33]Matt will help. We'll truck it out. And uh >> that So, the sticks and stems are what he's going to truck out. The dirt you're going to keep shoving. Oh, so all of that he's going to take.

[00:42:43]>> He'll take. And then all of this you're going to keep digging and moving around.

[00:42:47]>> Yeah, this there's a bunch more dirt here because >> they can't see on camera. It just looks like it just goes flat. There is like a drop right there. And then that hill is huge.

[00:43:02]Look at the drop. So this you're just going to slowly chuck chunk away at.

[00:43:08]>> Huh?

[00:43:10]>> Look it.

[00:43:13]I mean, that's across an entire yard.

[00:43:16]That's a lot of dirt to move.

[00:43:21]Oh, big guy.

[00:43:24]>> It's a lot of dirt in the shop cuz this is kind of where Matt got us the one year. So, we're going to kind of same use that same elevation cuz we're going to build a lot of gravel in the driveway and then bring it and let it feed out so everything drains out this way.

[00:43:42]>> Right. Oh my gosh, look at Duke.

[00:43:44]>> He loves it.

[00:43:45]>> King of the mountain. He's like, what did he have in his mouth?

[00:43:50]>> A ball.

[00:43:50]>> A ball.

[00:43:52]>> He's been playing hacky sack with himself.

[00:43:54]>> I love him.

[00:43:57]>> Right.

[00:43:59]>> All right. Looks good.

[00:44:01]>> Got a couple more trips and this pile would be almost gone. Yeah, but then it all has to get dug down here.

[00:44:12]>> Yeah, I know.

[00:44:14]>> So, >> I keep eating it up down there for a while, but this is I don't know. I'm going to Jessica, let Wyatt get away with it.

[00:44:24]>> What?

[00:44:26]>> I need to go play some video games.

[00:44:29]>> I've never seen you play a video game.

[00:44:34]Not ever.

[00:44:36]with that. That's where we're at with this project. Wow, that is looking good, Aaron.

[00:44:46]It is windy and cold.

[00:44:48]>> That breeze. Let's have a tip. Huh?

[00:44:51]>> It's It's something else.

[00:44:54]Oh, that's looking nice.

[00:44:58]>> Huh?

[00:44:59]>> It's going to be a good walking path.

[00:45:00]Your walking path is seeping.

[00:45:05]Why are you laughing so hard?

[00:45:08]>> Because I I took Danny's advice. He's like, >> "What was that, >> man? You put dirt down there, it's just gonna keep eating." I go, "Oo, I got a lot of dirt."

[00:45:14]>> Oh, I got so much dirt. I got so much dirt and so much water.

[00:45:19]>> Yeah. Just let it start eating it up.

[00:45:22]>> I mean, it looks good. When you get the landscape fabric and the gravel, it'll make it >> beautiful.

[00:45:29]>> So nice.

[00:45:31]I mean, obviously the dock will start way up here where it is dry and tied into the dry ground.

[00:45:40]God, that's pretty, huh? Duke. Duke who got in the lake. Duke needs a bath. He can't go in the house like that.

[00:45:48]>> He needs a bath.

[00:45:49]>> Duke needs a bath.

[00:45:51]>> Are you cold?

[00:45:52]>> No. She's like, I'm totally fine. Leila doesn't like the water. Thank goodness.

[00:45:58]But we haven't seen her on an 80° day either, so remains to be seen. All right, I got the strawberries out. I have no heat. I haven't had heat and I haven't shut the doors in the greenhouse for a couple of days. We do have some plants out around the garden, but I want to take you guys along to do all of the finished planting out. We need some more herbs. Herbs need full sun. The sun comes this direction. So, those two and then I did check.

[00:46:28]Um, the flag does not whip into the strawberries. There will go a hanging basket. We'll plant all that out. It'll be so much fun. So, if you haven't yet, hit the subscribe button. You won't miss any of these adventures that we go on on the homestead. Thank you for joining us today. This might have been a short video. Um, we worked super long and super hard, but there is just so much dirt moving going on. So, I hope you enjoyed it. Anyway, uh with that, be blessed, have a beautiful week ahead of you, and come back to see us in the next video. Bye for now.