Original subtitles

[birds chirping]

Nosing around here looking for water.

I discovered something quite unusual.

A graveyard.

This gravestone reads 1880.

Until now, no one has lived here for 100 years.

Question is...

Why?

[Marty] When we think about homesteading,

you want those basics.

Food.

Extremely bleak.

My tomatoes are rotten when they were still green.

[Marty] Shelter.

[Matt] Everything fell on its face.

[Marty] And water.

All of a sudden it just stopped flowing.

We're not doing too good on any of those.

There's something very mysterious on the sunset.

I don't see where the answers are going to come from.

We just have to try.

[Matt] Get a good run.

Perfect.

[Marty] No one's gonna believe this.

If we don't solve the mystery,

we will leave this homestead completely dead.

[narrator] Marty Raney, master builder and stonemasons.

[Marty] I don't see problems on homesteads,

I see challenges.

[narrator] Daughter, Misty, garden and food preservation expert.

[Misty] I believe you can grow food anywhere.

[narrator] And son Matt,

skilled craftsman and predator protection.

[Matt] Wildlife is a constant threat,

but I draw the line between their home

and your homestead.

[narrator] Together, they use Alaskan knowhow...

-Let's find some power. -Yeah.

[narrator] ...and ingenuity.

That's perfect.

[laughs]

[narrator] ...to save the off grid dream

of desperate homesteaders.

[Marty] We work every second we can,

trying to help complete strangers.

That's who we are.

[opening theme music playing]

[Marty] Welcome to Virginia, kids.

The beginning of America.

Because a 100 miles from here.

1607, a 104 men and boys, landed.

They drove a stake in the ground,

and they called it Jamestown Bank.

[Matt] Pretty cool.

[Misty] This is where it all started.

[Marty] I mean, you want to talk about homesteading?

That's what those early settlers had to do here.

Virginia's got hot summers,

and it's a place, if you know what you're doing,

you can succeed.

It's nice now, but winter is right around the corner.

[narrator] In the wilds of Central Virginia.

The Raney's are a stone's throw from where the first English settlers

carved a life out of untamed wilderness.

By using flora and fauna to their full advantage.

But frigid winters, scorching hot summers,

and unpredictable growing conditions

have proven to be a worthy challenge

for many who followed.

Now, four centuries later,

a family of first time homesteaders

are in over their heads on this very land.

Struggling on a problem plagued property

with ghosts of homesteaders past.

I'm Kathy.

I'm Danny.

And this is our little...

-[both] Patch of dirt. -[Kathy chuckles]

in Central Virginia.

[Danny] We have 6.75 acres here,

and there's nothing around us.

[Kathy] The county was settled in like 1749.

Knowing that there's been people living out here for a long time.

You want to find out the history.

[narrator] After moving on to the property from the Virginia suburbs in 2022,

a series of strange developments,

has Danny and Kathy's off grid dream

on the brink of being a failed footnote

in this homestead's history.

[Kathy] Two years ago, he found the spring,

and we developed that, and we had great water,

until about three months ago, and then it just...

went away.

Not having water is devastating.

We're running to town and buying bottled water

every few days, and that can get very expensive.

And we can't source our own meat

because we don't have the ability to hunt.

And what I'm doing with the garden isn't working,

so we don't have our own food.

Last summer, our garden was immensely successful.

But this year was just a disaster.

We've tilled it, we've put in garden soil, you know, fertilized,

but not one plant grew.

[Danny] The power system is very limited.

We've been running off solar panels.

Pulling from these five, and I've got two more on top of that trailer.

[Kathy] We do pretty well in the summertime.

But then when fall comes around,

and we have a lot less sun, we lose power.

We're literally just surviving every day and...

How do you fix all these things

especially when you're not even sure what's wrong?

[Danny] Y'all need to come out here and help us.

We need your help bad.

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] Hello.

We at the right place?

-Yes, sir. -[Kathy] I think so.

-I'm looking for a man named Danny. -That'd be me, sir.

-And? -I'm Kathy.

-Nice to meet you all. -Nice to meet you.

And did you build this cabin?

[Kathy] We did.

[Marty] That's pretty cool.

The two of us and Daniel came out on weekends and helped.

[Danny] From the ground up.

But right now we live in a camper...

-A camper damper down here. -Okay.

Until we get the cabin finished.

[Misty] So, you've been here for how long?

Two and a half years total.

[Misty] Two and a half years.

How's it been going?

Well, it's difficult to say the least.

[Kathy] We can do construction.

We can do some mechanical stuff, you know,

working on equipment and such,

but trying to put all the rest of the puzzle

pieces together to make it,

a full homestead is where we struggled.

[Kathy] We met three years ago.

[Danny] Kind of met through some friends.

We have seven kids total between the two of us,

from previous marriages.

All of them are grown.

Danny and I are best friends,

we work together so incredibly well.

[Danny] The more we started talking about things we wanted to do,

we realized that our mindsets were just about identical.

I grew up in Florida, and I've always lived in the city.

[Danny] I grew up in Central Virginia, close by here.

[Kathy] We decided we were, you know, just done with the city

and the rat race, and we wanted to move out.

[Danny] A friend of mine that owned the property said he needed

somebody to come out here and,

you know, be a property manager for him.

And over time, it just really grew on us.

[Danny] We lived there for a little while.

We kind of figured out that, that's where we want to be at.

Then he asked me, if I want to buy it,

-and I was like, absolutely. -Yep.

[Danny] Where I grew up, I spent most of my time in the woods and outside

working on projects with my dad.

So, this just kind of, was like coming home.

[narrator] But with the recent unexplained failures

of critical food and water sources,

Danny and Kathy are at risk of losing everything.

My vision for being here is to be self-sustainable,

to be able to grow our own vegetables

and to have some livestock.

So we're not dependent on outside resources.

[Danny] I'll take the struggles all day long.

But if this whole thing fails,

I can't walk away.

We put everything into this.

They're gonna bury me in the field up here somewhere 'cause

I don't plan to put this place in the rearview if I can...

Any breath in my body, I'm not gonna let it go behind me.

[Marty] What am I looking at here?

[Danny] This is the hose that I pumped the water up to the camper.

-[Marty] Okay. -And the power cord trails along with it, too.

This is the...

The system that I've kind of put together.

The water comes out of the ground right under this.

And when this thing I first put in.

Crystal clear water used to come up into that pipe straight up from the ground.

Does the barrel have a bottom in it?

It has a, a metal screen bottom.

That I've got sand and gravel on there to filter through the water.

Looks like you did a lot of work here.

Did you ever test the recovery?

How much that it would recovery like,

-pump it out and see how fast it would be. -A gallon in half a minute.

That's a lot of water.

[Danny] Then all of a sudden, three months ago,

it just stopped flowing.

So I came down and looking,

there was nothing in here.

[exhales]

[Marty] Water is life and the well is dry.

What made it go dry?

I have no idea.

Did they not have it in the right spot originally?

Did they not go deep enough?

Is there fracking somewhere?

How about an earthquake?

There could be a million reasons

why they are without water,

and I need to figure out what the problem is.

-This is all the housing. -Yeah.

-And this is the solar? -Got five down here and two more up there.

Do you know what the total is of your wattage?

-I'm pulling 800 watts of solar power right now. -Okay.

I have a secondary system here, I uses backup.

And then you've got this hooked up to the car.

What's happening here?

I call this the Chryslerlator.

Usually about 3:00 in the morning,

refrigerator will kick on and kick the alarm off.

So, I come out here and sit in this for about two hours

to charge up the system until daybreak.

Wow, so, it's not so much the sun as it is this Chrysler.

As of now, yeah,

This Chrysler this, that's actually the source of the power for your homestead.

I'm impressed with Danny.

He's smart.

He's resourceful and he's creative.

However, as creative as he is,

his system is not gonna work in the new cabin.

We need more power and

we gotta bring...

our homesteader into...

the 21st century.

Last year, we had more vegetables than we knew what to do with.

And this year...

They just did not do anything.

My carrots came out this wide and about that tall.

-[Misty] Like stunted -They did.

My tomatoes they...

They started rotting when they were still green.

[Misty] This is insane.

[Kathy] Mmm-hmm. [Misty] Like this is the wildest thing I've ever seen.

They would just rot with big black spots.

Just a pretty bleak harvest.

Extremely bleak.

Yeah, brutal.

[Misty] Farming is alive and well in this part of the country.

This is the place where you should be able to grow anything,

and the struggle shouldn't be this hard.

Did you see any pests or anything?

No.

Did this past summer seem unusual?

-As far as weather, rainfall? -No. Mmm-mmm.

How much sun are you getting a day here?

'Cause you're really close to, to some very tall trees.

-You're really close to the tree line. -Oh!

Summertime, we'll have 12 hours of the sun.

How much, how many hours a day are you getting right now?

Maybe four, five hours of sun.

-Plants, definitely need at least six. -Right.

And then you were watering this garden how?

With rainwater.

-[Misty] Inconsistent watering can be super hard on plants. -[Kathy] Okay.

It's kind of hard when you see things

like this to pinpoint the exact reason.

This homestead is an absolute mystery when it comes to this garden.

I don't know if it's the minerals,

the inconsistency with the watering,

this homesteads maybe been over farmed because it's got a lot of history.

We need to figure out what happened here,

so we can give Kathy a fighting chance

when it comes to food.

[Matt] Okay, I like this.

We're getting into the woods now.

This homestead needs a protein source.

And this area of Virginia.

There's a lot of wildlife that runs through here and the forms of deer.

[Daniel] Actually, a couple hunting stands.

-Oh, yeah? -They we're already on the property.

[Matt] Where are they at?

[Daniel] I got one right here.

[Matt] Somebody was hunting here at some point,

and this seems like a really good spot.

There's deer everywhere.

This homestead is teeming with life.

There's tons of deer coming through.

All Danny and Kathy have to do

is be able to bring in, you know, three or four of these things a year,

and that's a realistic way to put food on the table.

Any hunting in the family?

I have experience but,

my dad or Kathy, they don't really hunt.

Oh, really?

That's really interesting.

That could maybe set up the homestead for the future.

This old hunting stand is a clue,

about how to be successful hunting on this homestead.

I just see the opportunities, you know, and then see if there...

like a legitimate thing to pursue.

[fly buzzes]

[Marty] They had water and they don't have it anymore.

That's a mystery.

We're not checking one box when it comes to homesteading.

And there's something very mysterious on this homestead, when it comes to growing food.

I feel like this is the place where you can grow anything you want.

And for some reason, Kathy can't.

The first thing I wanna do is get a soil test, find out what the results are.

Also, they're trying to build the shelter,

but it's far from being finished.

And these solar panels aren't enough power to get them through the night.

So, in the middle of the night,

he comes out here and he jumps in the minivan,

and fires it up.

It's kind of crazy.

[Matt] Daniel showed me an old tree stand,

so somebody used this place to hunt.

It's hunting season right now,

and I'm gonna show them how to hunt and put food on the table.

I like where your head's at because this homestead desperately needs food.

But it, it seems next to impossible, if there's no water.

There are a lot of questions,

and I don't see where the answers are going to come from

at all at this point.

[dramatic music playing]

You've got some challenges here.

Where's that water going?

Right.

It might outsmart both of us.

So, we're gonna start with some rain catchment.

I appreciate anything you all can do for us.

I have ideas, but I don't know how to pull them off and really set you on your way.

Is hunting something you wanna do on the property?

I'm very interested...

-[Matt] Okay. -In doing it.

That's really good.

So, we're hitting the ground here tomorrow morning.

The same problems are gonna be here.

We're just gonna have to work together to try to solve it.

See you in the morning.

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] Danny.

[narrator] It's the first full day of the rescue on the Judson Guest homestead.

With the dried up spring proving an uncertain water source.

Marty's first task is to utilize Virginia's high annual rainfall,

for a surefire source of clean drinking water to their cabin.

[Marty] So, when it comes to this water mystery...

-First thing that comes to my mind right now... -Mmm-hmm.

is what else can we do to get water?

The wells went dry.

Hauling water to this homestead is expensive.

We can begin to solve the problem in a small way.

Why wouldn't we put metal on this roof and

have it there in case it rains and we could start with catchment.

I would love to do that.

Do you have the metal here?

-Yes, sir. -Where is it?

It's sitting around the side of the building here.

[Marty] By putting the metal on,

get in some catchment containers,

and if it rains, at least,

we're catching water, while we're trying to solve

the bigger problem of, no water.

[Marty] What's the length of this roof?

-[Danny] Fifty two feet. -[Marty] By?

-Thirteen foot six. -Thirteen.

-If it rains... -Mmm-hmm.

one inch on that roof,

you could collect over 700 gallons.

One inch.

Wow.

Right now, we have no water.

The fact that we can get the water catchment there,

is a, is a great thing to have.

[Marty] You got any place to put that water?

I have one, 300 gallon tank.

How about you get your tools,

I'll get my tools and meet you out front?

-All right. -Thank you.

I'm gonna climb up on the ridge.

What are the advantages of a metal roof?

Let me count the ways.

Right now, in Virginia, there's forest fires.

The number one roof that I'd recommend in forest fire country...

Another sheet, please.

A metal roof.

What's the best roof for energy efficiency?

I would recommend a metal roof.

Sun bakes down and the metal reflects that heat.

As well as from inside the house in the wintertime,

that heat gets reflected back towards the house.

Whoo! Whoo!

And when it comes to rain catchment.

Boom!

I think it's the cleanest way to catch water off of a roof,

as opposed to an asphalt shingle.

It's gonna be a job.

Jack be nimble.

And they're one step closer to making that cabin a home.

So, win.

Another sheet.

Win.

Done.

Win.

[upbeat music playing]

The real important thing is to see if this can be used at all.

[Matt] At some point, somebody used this to hunt from,

but it's pretty rusted.

That is pretty frayed.

[Daniel] Yeah, I'll go up right after you go up.

[chuckles]

So...

I think it'd be cooler to build...

A hunting blind.

Because we're talking about,

starting out somebody like Kathy.

-She's never hunted before in her life. -Okay.

I think we should build something close to the ground,

something that's way more functional.

And it's gonna serve this homestead

-probably a lot better than this tree stand. -Yeah.

I think you can do better than this.

I think we can do a lot better than this.

Sounds like a good idea.

I'm really excited to get started.

When I hear and,

and see my dad and Kathy struggling with food.

I wanna help with those things.

[Matt] I want to find a good game trail that leads up to the edge of the property.

Okay.

This looks good.

There's tracks all over the place and what I love about this,

you know, you've got about 20 ft of a nice clearing

that goes all the way to the edge of the property.

Put us a hunting blind over there,

and then use this whole area

as like a shooting lane.

[narrator] To provide an all weather hunting blind,

Matt and Danny will construct a 12 by eight foot Hunt hut

perched four feet off the ground.

Tucked away from an active game trail.

Open on two sides.

It will provide multiple shooting angles.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Matt] We've chosen our place,

to cut out a path and make a shooting lane.

Now, we've just got to get chainsaws in our hands and start cutting.

Felt pretty good to, to get out there and get my hands dirty.

Probably took down, uh, about a 100 trees.

[Matt] Usually when we fell bigger trees,

we don't just let them stack up on top of each other.

But because all these trees are so small,

I can actually bring in some heavy duty equipment,

to make pushing them out of the way,

so we can actually see deer a lot easier.

Between the bucket and the backhoe.

We have a nice shooting lane that is ready

for a really cool hunting blind.

[Misty] You ready to get wacky?

[Kathy] I am.

[narrator] On the lower end of the homestead,

the soil test results are in from the lab.

Allowing Misty to take the first step in solving

the unexplained issues with Kathy's garden.

[Misty] Basically, we wanna know what your PH is.

That's going to tell you a lot about what's happening in that garden.

So when you look through here on the scale, you're low.

-You have an acidic soil. -Okay.

-It doesn't look like a lot, but it is a lot. -It is.

And it affects the growth of your plants.

-So, how do you fix PH? -[Misty laughs]

In order to bring that PH up a little bit,

we're gonna add calcium carbonate and

-I want to do it the natural way. -Okay, yeah. Okay.

So, I would love to bring some livestock here.

Because you can amend your soil with livestock waste.

Are you open to bringing livestock here?

Absolutely.

Okay, good.

Every little advantage matters, especially on a homestead.

If you can save yourself a lot of money,

on soil treatment, fertilizer, whatever it all it matters.

[narrator] Animal waste from herbivores like cows, sheep or chickens,

is a natural dirt enhancement that supplies vital nutrients for plant growth.

Increasing the soil's organic matter.

Improves its structure and drainage capability

while reducing the need for commercial fertilizer.

I want to run an idea by you.

Mmm-hmm.

-I kind of peeked in here. -Uh-huh.

What is this?

When Danny sold his old house,

he had to get this out of there.

It had just been sitting on his property.

It looks gross.

-[Kathy] Oh, yeah. -[Misty] It's like...

-[Kathy] It's nasty. -[Misty] It's nasty.

Is this up for grabs?

Absolutely.

I don't necessarily want to like be in here.

-Mmm-mmm. -Or put animals in here.

[Kathy] It smells like mold.

-But I do want the trailer. -Yeah?

Okay, I'm gonna try to see if I can separate the camper

-from the frame from the trailer. -Right,

And if it's still intact and it's still usable,

that trailer and that frame is going to be the foundation and the base for livestock.

In this case, chickens.

[narrator] Misty and Kathy will salvage the base of the old trailer,

and convert it into an eight by 30 foot mobile chicken coop

with nesting boxes for egg collection.

The mobile chicken home will serve the dual purpose of providing shelter,

and creating natural fertilizer from chicken waste to garden areas in need of

soil replenishment.

I'm excited to see this thing go.

-Yeah. -It's an eye sore.

Repurposing the camper is wonderful.

We would have had to have taken it apart and done all that ourselves.

So I'm super excited to reuse, repurpose that trailer frame

to make something that's useful to us out here.

Absolutely.

[Misty] Okay. Ready?

[upbeat music playing]

Oh-oh.

[Misty] Come on, baby. Tear apart.

This is awesome. I love it.

There you go.

Get it, Misty.

Whoo!

Yes.

[upbeat music playing]

How's it going, Kathy?

Good. How are you doing?

-I'm good. -Let's get back to work.

Okay.

[narrator] In a race, to solve the dire and unexplained growing problems,

that plagues the Judson Guest homestead

Misty and Kathy prep

their mobile chicken home build.

Misty's hope?

That the chicken waste will fertilize the soil

and solve its low pH levels.

[Misty] Okay, so this is going to be like a rim joist.

We're going to put four joists in this way and just follow

-the frame of the trailer. -Okay.

This will be the coop, and then the rest will be the rut.

-Okay. -Does that sound good?

-Yeah. -You excited?

-I'm so excited. -I'm so excited.

-Let's build this thing. -Okay.

[Kathy] I've only heard of a chicken tractor or trailer,

but how this particular one is gonna go, I'm not sure yet.

But I think it's a grand idea, I really do.

Okay, we're getting to a point where we should change this tire,

-what do you think? -I think so, I think that one's shot.

One out of four isn't that bad.

All right, there we go. That's what we needed.

And do you guys need a tire for anything?

I got a brand new tire here. I'll sell you cheap.

There's Misty trying to get the trailer up

just one inch higher to get the wheel on.

-And we might need the jack. -[Marty] Guess what?

A few homesteads back, I ran across an antique

1800s wagon jack.

What's happening? What are you girls doing?

-A little tire change? -Listen, it doesn't matter.

If you're in a covered wagon in the 1700s, 1800s,

or in the 21st century, you're going to have trouble

with the tires or the wagon wheels.

Did you pull that out of your truck?

This is a wagon wheel, wagon jack.

-What? -You have different elevations

that you get under the leaf spring.

-What? -And lift that thing up.

[Misty] You know you're having a pretty weird day

when you've got a flat, and your dad shows up,

and you're like, oh, good. He'll help me.

And then he, like, has an old antique wooden wagon wheel jack.

You can't make this stuff up.

-Look at this. -Oh, look at that.

Look at this. Look at the leverage.

What?

-That is crazy. -It works?

-We have that tire on. -Okay.

I'm going to be so happy if that'll work.

-Let it go. -[exclaiming]

-Whoo! -For real?

Yes, for real.

Wagon wheel jack. Wagon wheel jack.

[Misty] There's some work to do.

Thankfully, Kathy's on board with whatever suggestion I have,

because it takes a lot of trust from the homesteader

to really believe that we're going to pull it off.

Looks good.

We're trying to mend the soil in the homestead, little by little.

We wouldn't want a solid floor.

We would want a floor where the waste,

the fertilizer, can pass through,

fertilize a pretty good area, and then hook up to this thing

and move it to the next location.

This is a heavy gauge steel.

No raccoon is chewing through this.

-Awesome. I love it. -Good.

[upbeat music playing]

[Kathy] We worked really hard.

We've gotten a lot done on the chicken coop,

and I'm super excited.

This thing is huge.

This trailer is 30 feet long.

I think this is the biggest livestock pen I've ever built.

This is phenomenal. I just can't even tell you.

They've got eight by 12 coop.

Then they've got an 18 by eight run.

It's absolutely awesome.

This is the four-in-one chicken mahal trailer.

-Yeah. -It does it all.

-It does it all. It slices. -It dices.

-It juliennes. -[laughs]

-I think the heat got to us a little bit. -[laughs]

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] Kathy, are you ready to start your hunting journey?

I'm very excited.

[narrator] Later that afternoon, Matt shepherds Kathy on

her first step toward becoming a master hunter.

We have a bow for you to shoot with.

-I'm down. -You're down?

The thing about bow hunting is it's a lot quieter.

It's a lot less daunting than using a firearm.

And it's a really cool way to start to learn how to hunt.

Kathy is new to hunting, so I think it'd be really sweet

to do some tests and see,

does she have what it takes to get an arrow into a target

and take an effective shot.

You live on a homestead that needs food.

But you won't be providing any food unless

you actually know how to use the tools effectively

-and humanely, okay? -Right.

If you combine rifle season with bow hunting season,

you basically double your season.

We're starting out Kathy with a bow,

and that doesn't mean she couldn't use a firearm in the future,

and she could be twice as successful on this homestead.

By the end of this lesson,

I think you're going to be pretty confident with at least

pulling back and letting an arrow loose.

Okay.

We got a bow right here.

[Kathy] Okay.

First of all, you're holding it wrong.

I know. I'm sure.

You want to have this string facing you.

-Facing me. -Okay, got it.

[Kathy] I really want to learn how to be able to hunt

so we're not dependent on outside resources

and to be self-sustainable.

That's it. That's the first part.

Now, I think we should see if you can pull an arrow back.

Okay.

You want to put this here?

Here's the goal.

I want to put her to the test, get her shooting,

because that's the thing that's giving her the edge

that she'll need when it comes time to hunt.

Get your stance. Find your stance.

Okay? Now pull.

Use your back, both arms. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.

Oh, there we go.

You got it. Keep it pulled.

-Ooh. -A little low.

-That was low, yeah. -But, but.

-I did it. -I mean, you hit the target.

That's great.

Kathy showed a lot of promise the first time we did

some target practice with that compound bow.

It didn't go exactly where it needed to go.

But she's super excited.

And every time she shoots this bow and hits the target,

she just lights up like I've never seen.

You've literally started your bow hunting journey.

How does it feel?

It feels empowering, to be honest with you.

That's awesome.

The more she practices this week,

the better she's going to get.

-Let's do more. -I'm excited.

[upbeat music playing]

Okay.

-Let's talk a little bit. -Okay.

Well, I'm going to cut right to the chase.

It's going to be up to you whether or not we find water.

You have to sign off on me coming down here

and nosing around with an excavator.

I'm good with that.

As of right now, I can't use it anyway.

[Marty] We got the water catchment system in place.

So now the plot truly does thicken.

If we don't solve the mystery of the spring gone dry,

we will leave these homesteaders high and dry.

Let's roll the dice, spin the wheel,

pick a card, any card, and get started.

[upbeat music playing]

[narrator] With several big mysteries on the Judson Guests'

homestead still unsolved...

[Misty] Okay, we're ready. Here we go.

[narrator] ...Misty tests the mobile chicken home's mobility

to ensure it effectively dispenses much needed

chicken waste to fertilize the garden soil.

[Misty] This homestead can't grow food.

And the solution is use chickens not only for egg production,

meat production, but also fertilizer.

-Kathy! -Yeah?

-How did it look when we moved it? -It looks good.

-It looks rigid, strong. -[Kathy] Yep.

[Matt] This is going to be sweet.

[narrator] And over at the game trail.

Now steady it so it doesn't tip.

-You want me to ride it? -You don't need to ride it.

Just hold it with your hand.

[narrator] Matt and Daniel break ground on a new hunting blind.

[Matt] There's definitely enough deer roaming around this property

that putting in a hunting blind is the way to go.

-Everybody has heard of a cube. -Yeah.

And that's usually what we build a lot of the times

when we build sheds and even hunting blinds.

I want to go a step up from the cube,

and I want to build a

icosahedron.

Okay.

-Have you ever heard of this before? -No, I have not.

An icosahedron is a 20-sided shape made

entirely of equilateral triangles.

Everybody knows what a cube is.

It's a box.

I don't want to build that because the corners

are going to be a little constrictive.

But if I build a 20-sided dome structure,

it'll actually give us a lot more space,

interior space, and make it a lot roomier.

Because you need a lot more room to shoot

a compound bow than you do a firearm.

So take a triangle and think about it like a flat,

like let's build like a flower where

all the triangle points are connected to each other

and they're all pointing outwards.

Okay, like a sun.

Like the sun, exactly.

Okay, let's put some joists in here and sheet the thing

-and start building on top. -All right.

When I was younger, we heard lots of stories of my dad

and his father in the outdoors has kind of been passed down to me.

Follow me. I think I have the perfect spot for this thing.

He does enjoy this lifestyle. And my dad's a fighter.

Kathy's a fighter.

And they absolutely need the blind to put some food

on the table and to have a sustainable homestead.

The deck is sitting at about waist height.

It's the perfect height to just get a clear shot

of anything that walks through this field.

But we're not there yet, so we'll brace it,

get it sheeted, and then go into the triangle mode.

[chuckles]

Coming in.

[narrator] With Danny working on the cabin,

Marty attempts to revive the homestead's mysteriously dried up well.

Oh.

Sun's going down, but we're here.

[narrator] Marty's plan, redevelop the spring

and install a new well and water line,

connecting the water source to the homestead's new cabin

400 feet away.

But any misstep could destroy the source,

making water on the property all but impossible.

Six acres, no ferns except right in this area.

And by the way, I started seeing them over here.

These ferns are here for a reason, though,

telling me that there's moisture here

more than anywhere else on the property.

So on the way down here, I hit sand.

I hit rock.

And the water's not going to stay on top of that.

It's going to go down through. It's going to filter through sand and rock.

But right here, it's clay.

Maybe the water is standing on top of the clay right here.

I think we're going to look for a little water

right now before the sun goes down. Let's see what happens.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I think there's water there.

I got to tell you, that looks like water to me.

Oh.

That's wet.

Wet's good.

Well, that could be just water from rain

or whatever sitting on top of the bedrock.

But that ain't enough water to run a homestead,

so we got to get after it.

Let's keep looking.

Often when I'm looking for water, I see mirages.

I dig that scoop of dirt out, and I think I see water

dripping from the bucket.

But as long as I keep digging, there's a chance that

we're going to find water.

Went a little deeper.

There's some water right there.

Yep. There it is. Can you see it running?

You see the movement?

Boom. There's a spring right there. See it?

Running on top of the bedrock.

This is not bad news at all, but it's not very much water.

I'm not convinced that that amount of water sustained

all the people that allegedly, assumably lived here.

I'm hoping water will find the path of least resistance, right?

So opening this trench up, I'm wondering if new water will go,

"Hey, let's go that way, right?"

So...

talk's cheap.

We'll look at this in the morning,

and we might be in for a big surprise.

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] Come on down, guys, please.

[narrator] With 72 hours to go, Marty gathers Danny

and Kathy after a discovery at their well site.

Left here last night, and since then, give it a look.

We got water.

-There it is. -We got water.

That's awesome.

There's some really good news here. It's filling as we speak.

I think I know what happened here.

This water is running through these mountains of Virginia in the bedrock.

Danny's been picking and shoveling,

but you're not going to go through that bedrock

with a pick and shovel.

You're getting the surface. That surface water may go dry.

But with an excavator, you can peel back layers

and hopefully between the green ferns on the bank,

the swale in the ground, and a huge excavator.

It's a perfect, perfect recipe for

finding a new water source.

-Wow. -Wow, that's pretty good.

This is amazing.

Absolutely the most water we've ever seen.

So this is one of the huge pieces of the puzzle.

If he can capture that somehow, we're set.

We were hoping we could get it back.

Because that is pure water.

I'm really happy for you guys

because I know what this means.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

But I'm not happy with the little amount of water

that I see seeping in.

So I want to give you more volume.

I want to dig down with the excavator.

But potentially, if I get too aggressive,

we lose this water forever.

-It's a bit of a gamble. -Right.

We're all kind of excited, but in the back of my mind,

I'm thinking, it's not enough water.

Not to thrive on this homestead.

The search isn't over.

We've not fixed the problem.

What I want to do is dig it down deeper.

And that is a gamble.

Because if I go through some layer of bedrock and,

you know, it's like pulling the plug in a bathtub.

-Yeah. -Right.

But we're going to try to develop this water

with your permission.

Like I said, have the Reins, Marty.

Do what you need to do.

-Take the Reins. No pun intended. -I trust you 100%, man.

Never give a Raney the Reins.

-[all laughing] -But in the meantime, I'm going to get back to work.

-Thank you. -I'm happy for you.

[Kathy] Thank you so much.

[upbeat music playing]

I just saw a massive hawk, like just now.

-[Kathy] Right. -Massive.

It would take out your whole flock in the morning.

-Yeah. -So I think we turned the area underneath

the trailer into a run as well.

I love it.

-It will double the square footage. -Right.

Obviously, protection from any aerial predators,

protection from all the ground

predators, like it all matters

if you're going to raise chickens humanely.

[Kathy] Yes, I agree.

They don't have a fighting chance when it comes to predators.

They get attacked from the sky.

They like raccoons, fox, whatever.

In order to really keep them safe,

you want to have a protected run.

If you do a soft hinge and it allows some flexibility

-with movement of the ground, these things, -Right.

as long as they're just sitting level on the ground,

allows no space for any predators.

And then flip with me allows it to flip.

-Like this. -Okay.

And then when you go to move this thing, you lock it, you latch it,

drive it to its new location, unlock it,

and then just flip it down.

Oh.

-I like that. That's awesome. -You like it?

I want to hinge drop-down doors on the side that allows

chickens to roam around underneath the chicken trailer.

So I'm thinking cut up an old tow strap, soft hinge.

That way there's no gaps, there's no space,

and the chickens are nice and safe.

Okay. Come in here.

-Oh, this is so cool. -So good.

-Look at this. -[Misty] Nesting boxes.

-I made the little chicken trap door. -Awesome.

This thing, we got the metal on.

But I stopped short for a reason.

-Okay. -Winter's right around the corner.

You missed your little window with your growing season.

-So here's what I think we should do. -Okay.

I think we should have a temporary greenhouse

on this and this little corner of the coop.

Okay. I think that'll be a lot of good passive solar

for the chickens, too, because we do get cold nights.

Yeah, and light.

They lay more eggs with the more daylight that they have.

-Right. -It's good for egg production.

It's good for all of it.

-Let's go. -Let's go.

The coop is amazing. That thing is huge.

I love it. It's multipurpose.

They've got nesting boxes. They've got perches.

And we're talking now about putting a little greenhouse space

in the front of that.

I love the idea of a greenhouse.

I always wanted a greenhouse.

This is a great starter for me, which is great.

I can start seeds. I've got a couple of plants

that need to overwinter somewhere.

It's warm enough, so I think that will be ideal.

So I'm very excited.

-Throw them on there. -Okay.

-Love it? -I do.

-I love it, love it. -Better than the trailer?

Yes, much better. They'll get light.

This is way better.

We just need a little water.

Okay.

And I mean, this is like, it's not a big space.

-Right. -But these guys were living in

a trailer with no sun at all, so this is an upgrade.

-Absolutely. -And I feel like when it comes to doing

-your chores, it's all right here. -Absolutely.

I'm pretty pumped on this thing,

but it's getting too warm. So let's get out.

Okay.

I'm on top of the world.

[narrator] On the outskirts of the homestead,

Matt and Daniel piece together the walls of the hunting blind.

This three-triangled structure that we built here,

this is basically like our first wall.

And now we need to build one on that side

and one on this side.

And we'll get a good idea of where we need to cut a door,

cut our areas where we can shoot through with our bows.

And we'll get an idea of how tall it will be

because this isn't going to be a place where you're going

to be standing up inside.

The structural integrity, it actually happens once

the whole thing is together.

And once we get the roof on, it's going to be incredibly strong.

-Locked in. -It'll be all locked into place.

Just like that.

Okay, now try to push those boards out

and try to match the tops up. We're gonna go.

-Go wide. -There you go.

Nice.

Okay, so that's looking really good, actually.

There we go.

Here's our top plate.

I think it's so sturdy.

Is it gonna all go together?

It's not going together.

Oh, my God. Whoa.

-Why is it not going together? -We messed up.

The math is not mathing.

Oh, my God.

My perfect plan to assemble this dome,

is starting to unravel because the roof is not going together

exactly how I thought.

And the math isn't mathing.

But you can't spell math without the word Mat.

And I am definitely not quitting.

And I'm going to figure this roof out.

I think I made a mistake.

We need to figure out what dimension triangles will go together

to come in to a point at the center of our roof.

Still, it's very rigid, and it's going to work.

It's just not the perfect dome that I thought it was going to be.

This is going to slow us down a little bit,

but I think I can figure this out.

I don't know if it was your fault or mine.

[laughing]

[laughs]

[Marty] Need a hand?

-No, I got it. -Oh, well, shoot.

Back at the cabin, Marty takes a break

from digging to get to the bottom of another

important homesteading issue.

What are you going to do for heating in this cabin?

Well, the whole thing's built around my dad's stove.

We want to put in here the last thing he built before he died.

-Can you show it to me? -Sure.

Let's go.

-Thing's pretty cool looking. -Yeah.

And he welded the date in here.

October 1978?

Yes, sir. And he died November 1979.

Oh, no way.

-In a car accident. -What?

Head-on collision with a tanker tractor trailer.

-[Marty] How old were you at the time? -11.

You mentioned to me the other day that you've been working

since you were 13 or 14.

-Hmm-hmm. -Is this one of the reasons why your dad was gone

and you were kind of fending for yourself a little bit?

Yeah, because mom had her own things to deal with.

She had an illness, you said.

She had [indistinct] which is a brain tumor

that they took out.

Yeah, I had no idea. That's kind of rough.

Yeah.

I mean, it had its struggles, but it made me who I am today, you know?

He's always been a big part of my life, whether he was here or not.

The wood stove was pretty much the last thing my dad built

before he died.

It wasn't the house that we grew up in until my sister

renovated the basement, and she no longer needed it.

So I told her, like, "Well, I want it."

And it's been in storage for about 15 years,

waiting for this place.

[Marty] This thing is more than enough to heat this cabin.

So if the plan is to get that wood stove in there,

-I say we do it while we're here. -Okay.

Every step closer is well appreciated.

I have quite a few memories with that stove.

It was down in the basement of the house.

We'd have, you know, a bunch of the neighbors over

and have what we called sing-ins.

There was two pianos down there,

and Dad played the wrench, and my uncle played the spoons

and things like that, and we'd just fire that stove up

pretty much every time.

So there was always a lot of good memories there.

I'd love to start using it again.

Came through a 32-inch door, so we should make it through a 36.

[Marty] Your dad was smart.

One, two, three.

You got it?

Boom.

Everybody come right now, everybody.

This is amazing. This is the mother lode.

It's insane.

All right, climb in there.

[Matt] I need to test Kathy and see if she has

what it takes to bring down a deer.

[arrow fires]

[upbeat music playing]

[narrator] With less than 48 hours before the Raneys must leave,

Danny and Kathy's Virginia homestead is buzzing with activity.

Okay, I figured out a way to get this to work.

[narrator] On the outskirts of the property,

Matt nears completion on a 20-sided hunting blind

where the deer teaming the land will be culled for use

as a valuable food source.

And then we'll turn it into a really cool hunting blind

by opening up this front wall and giving ourselves a place

where we can actually shoot from inside.

[Kathy] Misty!

[narrator] And after figuring out that low pH levels caused

Kathy's garden to mysteriously stop producing crops,

Misty seeks a fresh start while awaiting a delivery of chickens

whose waste will replenish the homestead's nutrients.

[Misty] The old garden was on the lowest part of the property.

Lots of cold air, lots of shade.

And I just think the best thing

I could do right now is create a new garden space.

I'm actually really excited to finally talk about

gardening and just never looking back to the garden mysteries

-that you're having down there. -Right.

And just setting yourself up for success.

And I think we should do a winter garden.

-Okay. -We should do a winter garden on this homestead.

It's just a matter of where.

[narrator] Winter gardens originated in the 17th century

when European nobility built conservatories to house tropical

and subtropical plants.

Today, modern winter gardens are planted to produce edible crops

that can thrive in colder temperatures

and with minimal sunlight, like carrots, broccoli,

onions, and leafy greens like kale and spinach.

For me, I like keeping gardens

and livestock close to the home.

Right. We can go right off the back of the house.

Right off the end. So here's the thing.

We're getting into the shade.

But you want to be downhill from the water tank.

-So I guess let's go in here. -Yeah.

We are heading into wintertime in Virginia,

and there's still time to plant.

What's really epic about this winter garden

is that we'll be able to salvage what we can of the growing season.

We're putting in a winter garden. You ready?

I am so ready.

-Let's go. -That's awesome.

[narrator] Misty will create a fenced-in 25-by-50-foot winter garden

with hardy vegetables planted in covered raised beds

that will capture heat and withstand cold winter temperatures

to produce a bountiful year-round harvest.

Okay, Kathy.

Yes, ma'am.

-You ready to amend some soil? -Yes, absolutely.

-So we're going to adjust the pH, right? -Okay.

Nice.

So you could smash these with a little rolling pin

in a Ziploc bag.

-Or you could do... -I want to help.

-It's like bubble wrap. -Get in there.

It's better than bubble wrap.

So in order to amend the soil, you need about five pounds

of calcium carbonate, right?

Like garden lime, eggs, whatever.

Right.

But you need about five pounds per 100 square feet.

So that's like a 10 by 10 foot area, right?

So little by little, it's gonna take some time,

-Right. -but you have free soil amenders with those chickens.

Absolutely.

-Right. -You get this whole homestead

to a place where you can grow anything and everything.

Kathy and I are working in the eggshells,

which will help raise the pH, and we're waiting on

the chickens to arrive, which will bring in that

high nitrogen, that organic fertilizer.

And over time, with these things,

Kathy will be able to build her soil to a place

where she can grow anything she wants.

We're actually going to push T-posts in with a skid steer.

Have you ever done that before?

I haven't, but I'm willing to learn.

Nobody needs a T-post pounder. We got the skid steers.

-We're good. -Here we go.

All right.

[upbeat music playing]

Three, four.

-This is 5'4", right here. -Okay, so we're going to call that good.

So we're off to the next one.

So you're going to go eight feet out,

pull your string, grab a T-post, and put it where it goes.

Okay.

Got it.

I am confident in the spot that we picked.

I know it'll get 12 hours of sun in the summer.

I'm not worried about summer sun at all.

I think we can get a good six hours

for a winter garden in there.

This is how you put in a fence.

[Kathy] I have no idea what Misty plans to plant out there

for her winter garden, because I've never done one.

So I'm excited about that.

We'll have to see what she has up her sleeve.

[Misty] Woo! Easier than a T-post pounder?

Yes.

-Here we go. -Okay.

Next.

[upbeat music playing]

[narrator] On the lower end of the homestead...

[Marty] This morning, we did find a little water.

I got the homeowners, we all looked at it,

we all got excited,

but I never was satisfied with that little amount of water.

The challenge here is while I'm nosing around for water,

I have to be very careful because if I over dig or make a mistake,

we could lose everything that we developed.

We could collapse the water source.

I scratched and banged and clanked,

got a little more aggressive with the granite.

Whoa!

And lo and behold, I pulled out this six-foot-long

Matterhorn of a stone, and out of it came...

Check this out. We hit a vein of water.

Look at this. This is the mother lode.

Look at that water!

This is 10 gallons a minute.

It's insane.

Everybody come right now, everybody.

This is amazing.

Sorry to stop all the work, but this might be worth it.

Holy...

[Misty gasps]

-Wow. -Oh, wow.

-Look at this. -Oh, my God.

That's it.

-Oh, my... -[Marty] That's the mother lode.

-There it is. -There she is.

-Look at that. -Oh my.

-Look how clean it is. -That is it.

You found it.

I've never seen a spring like that ever, ever, ever.

-All right. -That's more water than we can ever use in a day.

That's more water than you can ever use in a lifetime.

Right.

Oh, after that, I could even put into words.

I can't tell you.

This is just surreal.

-It is. I mean. -[Danny] To have all this happening here.

It would have taken us years to do what the Raneys

are helping us do now. It's amazing.

I love this. Thank you.

Don't thank me.

-Just be happy that you believed in the property. -Oh, I am.

You believed in it.

-We did. -You believed in it.

-Super Marty. -Congratulations.

We'll develop it. Trust me.

And we'll be very careful and try to get every drop.

We'll all get back to work. We'll leave you two here.

[Kathy] Having abundance of water is amazing.

It means we really can thrive out here.

We can have animals.

We can have a successful garden.

Wow.

[Kathy] And we've got the rain catchment going now.

I'm, I'm super stoked.

I mean, this is great.

This is mind-blowing.

It's amazing. I'm...

I'm overwhelmed right now, really.

I mean, this truly means we can be self-sustainable.

We have our own water.

I could actually get a real show.

-[sniffles] -[both laugh]

[Danny] One thing I've always told you,

-we're always going to be okay. -I know.

Always going to be okay.

Kathy, it's hard as nails, but it's been tough for her lately.

I'd doing anything in my power...

to give her everything she wants.

That, to me, is priceless.

That is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

-[laughs] Except me, right? -Right.

Of course. Of course, honey.

-I'm just messing with you. -[laughs]

We've got it now.

Wow.

[upbeat music playing]

-[Misty] How's it going, Kathy? -Good.

[narrator] With only 36 hours remaining on the Judson Guest Homestead,

Misty and Kathy begin the monumental final step

at the Winter Garden that will bring new life

to the family's food shortage.

You like it?

This is your backyard garden, where we basically use

just logs left over from the cabin.

-This looks amazing. -Look at your square footage.

-It's good. -It is.

The fence is done. You've got your gate.

I love it. This is awesome.

I think we're finally to a place where we should plant.

-I like it. -You want to plant?

-Okay. -Yes, absolutely.

We have a bunch of plants to plant in the winter garden.

So we're just going to keep moving.

But I think this is what all the hard work was all about.

So super excited to get another source of food on this homestead.

So let's talk about winter gardening.

Okay.

Obviously, sun direction, south facing is key.

By just getting out of the cold ground

and doing raised beds gives you all of that warmth

-that you can capture throughout the day. -Okay.

The little things like a raised bed,

the little things like soil mending,

you're going to see a difference.

-Right. -This year.

So there's lots of vegetables that actually can go down

to the 20s, temperatures in the teens even.

-Wow. -So things like broccoli

and onions, things like garlic you've planted now

and are harvesting spring and all throughout the summer.

Also, plants like carrots have their little defense mechanism

where those cooler temperatures give you

a sweeter vegetable because those starches turn to sugars...

-Oh, okay. -...in order to protect themselves,

which is actually really cool.

So you can have better tasting veggies in a winter garden,

-which I think is really cool. -That is.

I did not know that.

to be in a place like Virginia and not take full advantage

of your growing season is a crying shame.

So when you take a step back and you look at this winter garden,

the little things like the raised beds,

the amount of sun, the mulch, the right veggies,

it all matters when you're putting a winter garden in.

So this is the time of year where most people are

wrapping things up, but Kathy's just getting started.

You're not going to have to buy fertilizer ever again

-because you have those chickens. -Right, right.

So that manure will just start a pile,

let it break down, let it compost.

[Kathy] Right.

Give it some time, and it'll be perfect.

This is going to sustain us this winter.

-This is amazing. -It's so good.

With the garden, I was really hoping to do some raised beds.

And so for Misty to incorporate that and to do the hoop gardens

and give us a winter garden,

This is absolutely amazing.

I really look forward to all those wonderful vegetables

and being able just to go out in the garden,

pick dinner, and come in and cook it.

And that's awesome.

So we're going to throw on our mulch

and throw on our plant cover.

-Okay. -So that protects their roots. When you combine the two,

the plants are nice and warm overnight.

And this is essentially just a massive blanket.

The cherry on top for the winter garden

is throwing on the hoop houses.

We have all these small trees that we cut down in order

to create the space.

We're gonna throw plant cover over the top

and protect these gardens from frost.

That's it.

So now these plants are nice and protected.

Like, this is all you need.

-Excited to see what you can grow? -Yes.

So very excited. I love this.

This is awesome.

You're going to have a good harvest even in the wintertime.

Okay, on to the next one.

-Here we go. -All right.

[upbeat music playing]

[Marty] All right, guys. Welcome to Easter Island.

-Oh, wow. -[laughs]

[narrator] As the rescue approaches its final day,

Marty has a solution for a problem in need of a jump start.

We've just installed solar panels,

and there's not a cloud in sight.

And so today, we're going to go from

800-watt solar panels to 5,000 watts.

Oh, my God.

-Nice. -That's a lot.

[Marty] These solar panels are all basking in the sun,

pointed right at it, but more importantly,

generating electricity.

Take a look at this.

Holy cow.

This is a complete system to power a fourplex.

Wow.

This is a home-scale power plant,

so this will fully power a home off the grid.

You've got 10,000 kilowatt hours,

10 kilowatt hours, 10,000 watt hours in there.

[Kathy] Wow.

-[Daniel] That's a lot more. -You don't have to start

the car now.

Oh, man.

[Daniel] That's a lot more watts.

You guys don't know what a blessing that is.

He literally gets up two, three times a night

and runs the van to help out our camper.

That is amazing, y'all.

It means a lot. It means a lot.

[chuckles]

[laughs]

Your nights of waking up in the middle of the night,

hopefully fully over now, and with all that solar

to fill up those batteries should work perfectly for your house.

You'll be able to power your well pump,

your fridge, any lights that you want to put in your home,

be able to really give you guys a new life here.

Oh, my God.

Don't know what I did deserve this.

That's truly what's going through my mind right now.

I'm actually speechless to a certain degree because...

I mean, I never expected that.

I was just hoping to get the panels that I had up

and running better and, you know, do a little tweaking on that.

This was just unbelievable.

[Kathy] It's absolutely a life changer.

I mean, just the thought of you being able to get sleep

if you want to or can. Heck, yeah.

-It's been a minute since I've done that. -That's awesome.

You did the same thing we did.

You chose to live in the country

and persevered in spite of it all.

That's why you're getting this.

Wow.

Oh, man.

[laughs]

[Danny] We had really no idea what he was bringing in.

It was that tall in the back of the truck.

The whole thing was maybe a refrigerator.

I had no idea it was going to be something like this, though.

[Kathy] This is life changing.

-It really is life changing. -[Danny] Yeah.

[upbeat music playing]

-[Matt] On this next one? -Mm-hmm.

Instead of that bullseye, aim at the one on the top.

-The one above it? - [narrator] It's the last day of the rescue.

But Matt's effort to bring hunting to the homestead

will not be complete unless Kathy can pass

her final round of tests.

That's all right.

[narrator] If successful, she'll be able to share

her new skills with Danny so they can keep their freezer

filled with much needed protein.

[Matt] Getting closer.

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.

And that is so the case here.

I mean, it's definitely a challenge.

Like, I'll keep trying, because that's just the way I am.

I will keep trying.

I think it'd be really beneficial to practice sitting

or kneeling position.

-Okay. -Okay?

Why don't you give it a try?

Kathy's been shooting really good with the bow.

I don't want to call it beginner's luck,

but we're going to give her a real test,

shooting while kneeling, and see what she really has.

Getting closer.

The more you practice, the more sure you're going to be.

One more shot.

-That's a nice grouping. -That is tight.

That's really good.

-Awesome. High five. -Thank you.

Kathy might be a natural.

She's picking up this archery for bow hunting really quick.

But I think the main goal will be to get her up in that blind,

have her shooting at more realistic targets

is going to be the true test whether or not she has what it takes.

That'll get your mind into the hunt

and get you more into that hunting mindset.

-Okay, I'm game. -No, you're a predator.

[laughs]

-Yeah! Look at my man. -All one!

-[narrator] Across the homestand. -Perfect.

-What do you mean? -It's exactly perfect.

That's perfect.

[narrator] It's a race to complete the most critical project of all,

bringing water to the cabin.

The first step, Marty and Danny install

a 1,000-gallon catchment tank that, along with the well,

will provide ample drinking water.

Coming back, coming back. Whoa.

-Pretty good in there. -It's got to be perfect.

Look at that tank.

[Danny] Pretty good right there.

Let's get it perfect. Thank you.

[Misty] Whoo-whoo!

-Let's go check out the chicken. -[Kathy] Awesome.

[narrator] Over at the mobile chicken home...

-How's it going? -Going great.

Hi, you guys.

-How are you? -Misty.

-Brent. -Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you. -Thanks for being here.

-What do you have for us? -This is the chicken wagon.

-Yes. -Oh, my goodness.

[Misty] The chickens are here.

Last day on the homestead.

Super big day.

So we're just going to keep moving.

But I think, you know, this is what all the hard work was all about.

Finally, we get the payoff.

[Brent] Here's the rooster.

-Oh, yeah. Here's the big boy. -You do the rooster.

-You all right? -Tell them hi, buddy.

-She's a big fat girl. -There's some bagels in here.

How many did you bring?

25, counting the rooster. 24 girls and one boy.

-Oh, my gosh. Thanks, you guys. -Yeah, thank you.

-This is great. -You've never had livestock here.

-These are like your first animals. -These are my first babies.

So you're looking at like an incredible amount of eggs

and an incredible way to amend your soil.

[Kathy] Absolutely.

Having chickens here is a total game changer.

These chickens are both laying hens as well as meat chickens.

We can have fresh chicken for dinner.

We've got eggs for breakfast.

-So that is phenomenal. -See the door?

We got our little trap door, so you don't have to go in the chicken world.

[Kathy] I love it.

This is the most ingenious contraption

I think you've ever come up with.

-It feels nice and warm. -Yeah, it's nice and cozy.

The greenhouse part is bringing in lots of warmth

for my plants.

It's just amazing.

You really appreciate the good when you've been through the struggle.

-Yeah. -There's times when you're just running around

like a chicken with your head cut off.

No, I'm sorry, girls. That was not a good...

-That was rude. -That was rude.

Chickens are in the coop. Now it's time to drop the sides

and let the chickens out.

-Okay, got them on, tied. -Mm-hmm.

Last but not least, there's this little trap door which allows,

when you're home, to...

drop.

And that way you doubled the run, right?

That's amazing. Do you remember what it used to be?

Do you remember the camper?

Oh, God, yes.

-Yes, I do. -We've come a long ways.

-Oh, absolutely. -Good job.

-Thank you. -Now we're going to the garden.

Okay, Kathy.

-What you think? -Look at this garden.

-It's awesome. -It's so good.

-It is. -This is your winter garden.

That's amazing. I didn't know I could do this.

Yeah. You've got your raised beds.

You have amazing sun south facing.

You've got your little blankets, your little plant covers.

You've got your mulch for the insulation.

-Right. -And you have the right veggies.

I'm really happy with how the winter garden turned out

and just figuring out its location.

All the tips, the raised beds, the plant cover, the mulch,

the toys and veggies, all of it makes a huge difference.

And guess what?

We have water to water it.

You have over 1,000 gallons with the new catchment system.

-It's amazing. -So much water.

You're set.

It's a good day.

I think it's official.

We've solved Kathy's garden mystery.

[narrator] One week ago, Kathy and Danny's garden

mysteriously died on the vine, leaving them unable

to sustain themselves.

Now, they have a bountiful winter garden

with nutrient-rich land and a mobile chicken trailer with a full flock,

which will provide an essential source of protein

while rejuvenating the soil with natural fertilizer

for future growing needs.

You have solved so many of my gardening issues.

This is just the beginning.

-Yeah. -Thank you.

-Good job on hanging in there. -Thank you so much.

And working so hard. You did it.

All right. Woo!

[blows whistle]

[narrator] With the sun fading in the final hours,

Marty still has one major task to complete,

connecting the water from the revitalized spring

to the new cabin.

-Let's put this water line in. -Okay.

I'm going to try to sneak my teeth right under wherever

you say and start digging a two foot deep water line

from here to there.

-Okay. -Show me where to start digging.

Okay.

When you find water, you have to get that water

to its destination.

The water line doesn't run on top of the ground

because it would freeze in the wintertime.

So every state has what's called the frost line.

Do me a favor. Grab a tape measure.

I'll start digging. Make sure I'm two feet. And here we go.

Okay. All right.

Thank you.

Right here in Virginia, it's 18 inches.

But we're going to make it deeper to be safe.

Where's two feet?

Are we there?

Yup.

The water down there, that's really important for us.

But we also have to be able to get it up to the cabin.

I'm a little concerned about it, but hopefully we can.

[upbeat music playing]

He's fast with that thing. I'll give him that.

[Marty] In every large city, there is a water utility.

On a homestead, you don't have a big city water utility.

You have to figure it all out on your own.

Look at that water sitting in all that beautiful stone.

-I know. -See the rim of it?

[Danny] Yeah.

-That's amazing. -That gray rim.

I'm going to start burying it, so just anchor it up.

Here we go.

When I showed up here seven days ago,

I had all the time in the world with no water.

And now I've got all the water in the world.

But guess what?

Once you find a water source, it takes 10 times longer to get it

from point A to point B, the cabin, the house.

I'm running out of time, but we're not going to give up.

We're going to do a hack. We got a 400-foot water line.

We got a three-quarter horsepower pump.

Look at that thing.

Matt's nephew, Owen, is kind of new to the crew,

and I asked him, how would you put a screen

on there to protect sand from getting in that pump and compromising it?

He had no idea.

Stay right there for a minute.

Oh, no.

[laughs]

So I was gonna pull a prank on you,

and Clint pulled a prank on me.

[Clint] Do I wear nylon stockings?

I guess it depends on what day of the week it is.

Let's put the filter on the pump.

Nylon will last forever.

Anything fine particle, it's not going in.

Don't tell the homeowners that that was on my leg.

Let's go put it in.

[car honks]

Here comes the culvert.

Perfect.

[laughs]

Love it.

[narrator] Racing the sun on the final day of the Central Virginia rescue,

Marty scrambles to seal the well and bring running water

to the Judson Guest homestead.

We got a little rock here. It's going to serve as a filter.

We have to go inside this, underneath it, and around it.

-All right. Got it. -That's the plan.

-Got it. -But...

Most of this water, I think, is going to hydraulic from underneath.

But we're going to help this thing collect more water

by cutting slits in the side.

-All right. -You up for it?

-Absolutely. -Okay.

We put the water line in.

Now we have to put in a bunch of clean,

washed rock and put in a culvert.

We're pretty fortunate so far to have struck this much water,

but how do you capture that water and keep it clean

and enough water so no matter what

the water needs of are on this homesteader, you have enough?

The more holes, the more water.

That's why Danny's cutting slits into the culvert

so that we can get every drop of water oozing

through these Virginia hillsides.

All right, let's set it in, all right? Hook it up.

Here we go.

We'll put some rock in there.

[Danny] Getting culvert in the ground now.

We got gravel down the bottom and putting gravel around the end.

And the felt right there goes around it to filter out

some of the sediment and keep out of there.

[Marty] Coming around the mountain when she comes.

There's no turning back.

Are we catching water?

-Look at that. -That'll work.

It's right at 100 gallons per foot.

-Right. -Okay?

So my guess is you're going to have hundreds of gallons

-of water on call when it's full. -Right.

So as I stand here right now, we've got a well filling up

with more water than they'll ever need.

[Matt] What do you think of this hunting blind?

[Kathy] I think it's awesome. I love it.

It's either a hunting blind or a time machine.

I can't figure out which one it is.

This hunting blind is one of my favorite builds

I've ever done.

I think it's the coolest hunting blind around.

All right, climb in there.

Getting Kathy inside the blind, getting her comfortable with

that environment is, I think, absolutely necessary.

Kathy has showed real promise with archery,

but I need to test her and see if she has what it takes

to bring down a deer.

Nice. Okay.

Here's what I want you to do.

-Okay. -Aim a little bit higher.

Now aim for the heart.

-Nice. -Oh! That was awesome.

Nice.

-That's really good. -I did it.

Let's look and see how good you did.

All right.

So your best shot was right here.

Heart.

-Lungs which is just like a bullseye. -Okay.

Her shot placement is perfect. She's not going to be sitting

in that blind very long before a big buck comes into view

and dinner is served.

[narrator] Seven days ago, Danny and Kathy lacked

a sufficient protein source.

Even though their property was teeming with deer, now...

They have a hunting blind at the edge of their game trail,

and Kathy has essential archery skills,

allowing the family to procure all of the protein they need.

All right.

Let's see how we're looking in there.

You well know that this cavity of gravel

-goes that way about six feet. -Yeah.

Goes about eight feet that way.

There's a lot of water sitting in here.

The potential here to provide water to anything

you ever want to do is here.

-Yeah. -We did it.

On that note, let's put the lid on and protect it.

All right.

I keep walking around here looking at stuff,

and it's a lot to take in as to what actually happened.

[Marty] Looks a little different with the panels on.

-Yeah, it does. -You know how many panels you have?

-12. -Do you know how many watts each one has?

Now, I know.

They told me the total thing is 5,000.

-[Marty] Okay, so you got 410 per. -Right.

That's a big panel. Here, I want you to do something.

Put your ear on that.

What do you hear?

The ocean?

Yeah, just a little bit of a little fan going.

That's about it.

Sounds like the ocean.

I'm going to tell you what that noise is.

It's making power.

-Yeah. -Okay.

You got a lot of power, more power than you can,

than you'll ever use. I don't care what you built here.

[narrator] One week ago, Danny and Kathy

had a mysteriously dry well and a faulty power system

that couldn't run through the night without help from their car battery.

Now...

They have a roof catchment system,

a rejuvenated spring pumping hundreds of gallons

of clean water into their cabin,

and a revamped solar power system

providing all of their off-grid electricity.

Are you better off now than when we rolled in here?

I know.

It's phenomenal, the changes.

-This was not easy, right? -No.

No, it was not.

I mean, we had a house, but you guys came in

and helped us put all the rest of the puzzle pieces together

to make this a fully operational homestead,

and we're so grateful.

We didn't even expect a tenth of what y'all did here.

I thank you all for what you've done.

It means a lot to us.

Absolutely.

We were just hoping to get the medal on the roof, so...

[canned laughter]

Whoo!

[Danny] This is something else.

It's awesome. It's amazing. Thank you, guys.

-You're welcome. -[Kathy] Bottom of our hearts.

-Thank you. -You're welcome.

[Kathy] The Raneys have really set us up to succeed.

And I couldn't be more grateful for the knowledge

that they've shared with us about homesteading.

They've got decades and decades amongst all of them.

And to have that shared with us,

it's an honor and a privilege.

And we won't let them down.

[Kathy] We're determined to succeed here.

-And they set us up for exactly that. -Yeah.

From this moment on, if you guys want to be

homesteaders here in Virginia, be my guests.

All right. Thank you, Marty.

Misty referred to this property

as a mystery homestead.

For the last 100 years, no one could make it on this property.

[exhales] I'm thinking now that two people can,

Kathy and Danny.

Power, water, gardens, a means of hunting,

the sky's the limit.

Virginia might be for lovers, but Virginia,

at least here,

is also for homesteaders.

-Bye, guys! -[yodeling]

[all laughing]

[Kathy] Since the Raneys left, things have been going along pretty well.

We've got insulation, we've got plumbing,

we've got our electrical, and his dad's wood stove

has been installed.

This is our newest addition to the homestead is Jenny.

The well system worked perfectly.

We've got crystal clear water.

Our water catchment system, slam full up to the top.

The garden's great.

The chicken tractor, it's doing its job.

The chickens are great.

And we've got eggs.

We've been getting about a dozen a day.

So this is the morning batch.

This power system has been amazing.

Now we can actually use the van for a vehicle

instead of the Chryslerlator.

I've been in the deer blind a couple of times.

So I've been practicing.

Say thank you, Raneys.

If the Raneys''s hadn't come to help us,

it would have been years to get to the point

where we are now.

We can't thank them enough. Priceless.