A lot of things around here I had to learn how to do stuff to even start. Thankfully I spent much of my childhood around construction.

Greetings from the BIG SKY.

Good job in production and block laying. This work is the best family videos for the girls ever. They will look back and appreciate all the work you all did for building your family home and is a legacy that can last for generations. Hope you are able to take advantage of a few warm sunny days coming once the front passes. All the best in 2024!

You are excited as you should be, but I am also very excited that you will be sending us more videos. I learn so much from you sharing your thought process plus the incredible explanations and camera work you do to provide an entertaining and learning experience ❤

WOW just WOW! You said, “I just need to work harder”, laying block is the most labor intensive job. Great job!

Good to see you doing very well. Looking forward to seeing more.

Love the progress, no pressure = no stress day by day is progress

I. Proud of you. 😮you've done amazing job doing those blocks. The girls are growing up so fast . God Bless you all. Praying for you 🙏❤.. all.

Great job John, definitely need a meg. 👍👍💛

Wow, nice job! Still really appreciating your can-do spirit -- and I Iove the Perkins Bro's videos. Pretty sure those were C-130s of some variety flying over.

Great work Jon! I always knew you were a Wall Nut! Haha see what I did there? Man I came up with that all by myself! haha

Greetings from the BIG SKY. Looking good!

Looks great Jon! Glad to see you doing this.

Greetings from the BIG SKY. When I built all the furniture for my living room I made everything out of redwood and cedar before I made it all out of red oak. Now, I have 2 sets of tables and an extra coffee table hangin out.

Love seeing the progress! You guys are living the dream!!

Hi John. For future reference, to make holes in the bottom of your 'burn barrel', use an Angle Grinder with a thin cutting disc and make an 'X' cut about 2 to 3 inch, then fold in the 'petals'. This method is much faster (seconds) & easier (effortless), plus you can make the holes any size you wish ... Your welcome 😎........ PS. Put some food dye (colouring) in your 'Water Level to make it more visible ? 😉

Great work! You're attention to detail and doing it right is commendable. Even your little mistakes you own up to. You learn and keep moving forward. Can't wait to see future videos.

Way to go John, nicely done.

Learning how to lay a cinder block with concrete must take patience.

Happy New Year Jon and Meg! Great video on the block. Looking forward to seeing the next installment! Take care!

Happy new year! Glad to see you back.

Your skill set is amazing! So glad to see your compassion for the dogs too. Blessings always and happy New year.

John it is so cool to watch you figure these things out and use those tools to make this homesite get built. Miss Meg on the videos but I do enjoy watching as you build. Will be interesting to see when you start drying your lumber and build this home. Happy New Year to you and your ladies.

Happy New Year to you, Meg and the girls. Your explanations are easy to understand because you are a great teacher. The block walls look great. Blessings to you.

Looking good!

You quickly mastered the "buttering" technique on the blocks, and attention to detail in the leveling/plumbing of the blocks that you improvised was really good, too. As you said, mastering techniques and experience on that project will sure go a long ways toward being ready to do the house foundation. Glad you were able to get this project done before the weather turns too cold for concrete/cement work, too. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! Off to a fantastic start. Autumn sure is growing quickly, and thank God she looks like Meg😀 Looking forward to learning more from you!

Love what you do, Keep the videos coming

Wow, add masonry to your skill set, a regular Mike Hudak! I watch Perkins brothers also, I think that was the worst injury ever for the younger brother though, the hand prosthetic is really amazing. Awesome work, looks fantastic!

Doing great brother !

Nice job. I'm sure your house foundations will turn out great too. Good video, we almost had a Meg sighting.

Happy New Year to your family. Glad to see you're making progress! Looking good.

Great job on the cellar

You are making great progress, lot of hard work, I'm glad you are sharing all that with us, all the best in New year!!!!!

About your burn barrel....cut the bottom off and set the barrel on 3 bricks. It will burn really fast this way and this makes it super easy to empty the barrel. Keep up the good content and good luck on your Homestead.

Happy New Year from Wales in the UK. Excellent progress, and I really appreciate you taking the time to record and share this with us. The temptation to get on with the building work without setting up cameras must be very high! An interesting observation. In the UK, it's rare to use premixed mortar. It's far more common to get sand delivered loose and then the builders mix the correct ratio with sacks of Portland cement in the mixer on site.

Here in Montana looking at how much light is left in the day is a very common action by everyone I've met here.

First time viewer here, and now subscriber. I'm a Canuck youtuber in Japan, doing pretty much the same thing as you, at the same time. Needed to find this video 2 weeks earlier though cause you had so many block-laying tips this newbie could've used. Lucky to find you, and thoroughly enjoyed the episode. Cheers.

I quit watching for a while but your camera presence and confidence is much better than when you started this build. Good job!

A Happy New Year fron Aegina, Greece. A tad warmer here, lookin good Jon, cool skills on the wall construction. It's nice to have a little project to perfect things before taking on the big build. All the best.

Happy new year. You amaze me with all the simple little ways to make things better. Awesome video

Block walls look great.

My friend hit me started on your episodes! I’m on # 74. Watching them all!! You guys crack me up! I loved the clothes you modeled. How awesome you guys are doing what you’re doing!! Best wishes to you all! The kids are having an awesome up bringing! And those are two lucky dogs!! Don’t know what I will do when I get caught up!! Keep on keepin on from Minnesota!! ❤

I think you have done a heck of a job there. Although I love seeing your videos, please dont concentrate on them at the expense of your progress. Love the fact the military are checking out your bunker build with the fly by's

Jon, happy new year to you and the family, I hope 2024 will be full of great working on the house, thanks to try to give us more video :)

Merica! Good practise for the home build. And these comments appear a wealth of good will. Happy New Year to you from here in Cornwall, Uk. Pasty capital of the world.

I definately missed your videos, so please get me more!😉

Oleic acid is a type of fatty acid. Oils with oleic acid are used to replace saturated fats in the diet. There is a film called Lorenzo’s oil which is about finding Oleic oil 👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧

Happy new year

Proud of your ambition to keep a project going as this took a lot longer than the video. C&C equipment is a great source for skid steer attachments or other stuff equipment related. Also name of their website and address to communicate or order from. Clint is a honest man but most likely will be speaking with "Uncle Scott", a all family business. All in all, if you need it, they either have it or will find it at a decent price, and get you quality materials. Paying for stuff thats cheap many times just is insanity if you expect something better. I been watching for a new video knowing that you don't really depend on videos for your building and kind of expected you to quit and just focus on this home. I wish you the best, hoping you continue and pray its a great new year for you kids. I am seventy four so your extended family for me

Ready for more Videos😀

HAPPY NEW YEARS !!! And where in the world have you been. I was about to go crazy waiting for you to come back./...

Happy new year. Dont rush the video's or stress yourselfs too much, remember why you choose this lifestyle!

Happy New Year 🎉 wishing the best for your family 🎉

Neat idea with the water levels. Why didn't you use a laser level? Some are cheap and some are expensive, but they are really convenient and accurate. Doesn't really matter though, because that water level method is awesome, and I guess that's how it was done before we had spinning lasers driven by computers with gravity accelerometer sensors. I love the things you teach us on this channel!

I haveBlue Diamond forks for my tractor. They have served well. For your level of service, I would recommend Everything Attachments. I have several other implements from them. Made in the USA. Quality is 2nd to none and their customer service is equal in quality.

Hi Gary from the UK here grate video very interesting and informative keep them coming, I have a tip for you add a bucket of water to the rocks in the mixer when cleaning it will clean the mixer better, plus a cup of dishwasher soap to the morter mix it makes it creamier and sticky on the trowel, a better mix, plus will you be pouring concrete into the blockwork to give extra strength and more rebar sliped in as well, plus are you making your own lintel as well for the door way, it's easy to make a form to create the shape don't forget the rebar for extra strength

Happy New Year 🎉

Check out Capt Kleeman he has a work crate, it was a tote he put a fuel tank in it, a tool box, bottles of oil & plenty of room for more things. He also has a chain saw hold mounted on his tractor like a holster for his saw 👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧

Nice block laying . I have played a few thousand in my life . Try to use the trowel to bang down the block you are laying . . Wait till you have to lay a 10 or a 12 inch block .

48:20 good tecnique ......

The girls could use a harbor freight moving blanket by the barrel heater. The dogs silly duck😅

My New Year's Resolution is to be 75 next year.

OK I'll subscribe

Few airplanes fly around here, too. We hear one and look up.

My husband and I were and are scared to death you are going to fall onto those rebar’s.

I do hope you filled the holes with mortar that have the steel rebar. Personally when we did such work every hole was filled and every third corse was reinforced with a steel mesh to tie the length together. Thouroseal on the exterior will help followed by a bituminous waterproofing coating, taking care to catch the joint between the block and footer. It would also help if you could open a small trench out from the structures and lower than the footer and add a French drain pit even deeper. Line the perimeter with perforated drain tile and route it to the French drain. Cover the pipe with geofabric to keep out dirt and backfill a good portion with pea gravel that can be compacted. This will help drain any water that might gather around the foundation and lower wall that could find its way into the cellar and flood it.

If you build a tower that is solid and at a height above your facilities in the structures (house, shed, and storage) t and place one of those containers at the top and feed it from the line, the gravity will supply your water pressure and it will work even if your electric goes out (you know if it is cloudy for two weeks in a row). If you have a full tank up in the air then you would never have to wait for water. The water would be instantaneous and at pressure.

Can't say enough good things about SkidPro attachments. I have Bobcat forks because I needed them fast, but I wanted theirs. All my other stuff is SkidPro and built like a brick outhouse.

Nice job, he footers should be twice as wide as your block. Center the block. Where the rebar is cut the block on the first course so you can cleanout junk, cover with wood and fill the whole cell at the same time to the top.

First comment! Love what you do, keep it up!

👍👍👍👍👍👍

Carry on , pilgrim

I know you are set on having your water at a place where it is a disadvantage to you that is a sacrifice so you can keep it from freezing but you can build an insulated shed on a tower to do the same thing and it will be so much more convenient. Maybe in the future as time and need allows.

I think they have moved and left us stranded.

😃😃👍👍👍👍

Well done with the masonry work. It looks great. Nice and straight, plumb and level. What more could you ask for? This will be a solid base for your office. Moving and laying all those blocks... How is the skin on your hands holding up? Cheers, EJ

👍👍👍👍👍😎

So nice to see an update again! Love you all! Any chance someone can point me to the music playing at the 48 minute mark?

Don't feel any rush on my part.

Look grear

So are the block 8 x 16 or are they short to account for the mortar?

Why not run your corner leads up like a regular mason ? It was as much time fiddling with all your other stuff to run all four corners. Just wondering is all

Check out Express Steel for forks and Good work tractor for attachments

@20:30 How are you using that level? The way you had it laying on the blocks would not give you an accurate reading for level or plumb. I like the low-tech water level. Some things just don't need a battery! 🙂

Titan attachments 👎🏽Titan Implements, in TN 👍🏽

Looks good, but no steel horizontal bars, I'd have had horizontal's every 3 courses especially with a light footing, just saying.

Would love to time jump two years to see how things progressed. But nah. That's cheating. Just hope you are having fun every step of the way.

Olec is unsaturated (good cholesterol) fats Vs saturated (bad cholesterol) fats.

I am catching up on some videos and caught you complaining about fogging safety glasses If you search a bit you can find vented glasses that will help stop fogging but they are a bit costly and best people go cheap for safety and better is just better for safety

If the temp is going to drop below 40 degrees you should not make cement.

Just call Titan Dell correct it.

Well let's see if your root cellar won't fail I've watched dozen youtube channel's build root cellars and they have all failed. The biggest problem was water coming up from the floor or coming throw the walls and no proper Ventilation. OK let's see it

Are you gone fill the block wall with concrete to make it sttongeŕ

corner blocks???? no those are jam blocks flat end is for openings in the wall. there are no corner blocks for 8 inch blocks .

Don't hurry on my account. Doing it right counts. So far I see right.

The airplanes are C-130

Too bad you dont own a broom or a real hammer...lol PS..SOME WOODS , SOME STICKY CONCRETE MIXES WILL FOREVER LOVE EACHOTHER...LOL WHEN BRIDGING THINSPOTS , INSERT A REBAR ETC ...LOL

41:34 incorrect method

Z Zzz z z soon?