Joe Mooney takes the term “DIY” to another level — and his YouTube channel is proof of that.
Mooney started to take his channel, dubbed Homesteadonomics, seriously about five years ago and now has more than 400,000 subscribers, with more than 47 million views across his 251 videos.
“Basically, I tell people when they ask about my videos, at face value, I’m just a guy who likes to build things, make things, create things,” says Mooney, who also works full-time as a firefighter in Southern Arizona.
He has do-it-yourself videos on how to build a firewood rack, a travel trailer, an off-road go-kart and a knife out of a saw blade, among an array of other projects. He also has videos about rainwater harvesting, is his main source of water at home.
“You can see I kinda do a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” he says. “I just do a little bit of everything. I would rather be a jack of all trades — or a Joe of all trades — than be a master at one.”
Ultimately, Mooney says he hopes to inspire people.
“With my travel trailer or a saw blade knife, I always end (the video) saying, ‘I hope this inspires you to tackle a project like this,’” Mooney says. “My DIY projects or my builds — I look at them as inspiration points for people to become more capable and self-reliant. There’s a great satisfaction when you accomplish something like that.”
Mooney posted his first video solely because he wanted to show an old college friend what his garden looked like. From there, he began posting more videos as he started to build the Southern Arizona home he lives in today.
“I think I was 27 at the time,” he says. “I watched YouTube videos on so many things. I remember watching someone showing how to hang a door. I spent an hour and a half trying to hang a door so I looked it up on YouTube.
“I’ve gotten so many ideas from other people posting videos,” he says. “It’s like a snowball. You post more, you get comments, you get people who start following you.”
Mooney says his favorite videos to film are his “odd projects” where he builds “something out of nothing.”
“It’s an opportunity for me to experiment with something,” he says.
But he almost never starts a project for the sake of filming a video. The majority of his projects are things he’s wanted to build anyway.
“Ever since I was a little teeny kid, I’ve always built things,” Mooney says. “I’ve always been into making things and inventing things — that’s just something I always grew up doing. Maybe it’s because my dad was very much that way and my grandpa was a big inspiration.”
Mooney’s 7-year-old daughter is also interested in DIY projects and has expressed an interest in filming videos with him. The two are currently building a bat box, which will eventually be featured in a YouTube video. As for the channel’s name “homesteadonomics,” Mooney says he’s always referred to his house as a homestead. The “onomics” portion represents studies, science and experimentation.
Keep up with Mooney on YouTube at youtube.com/user/homesteadonomics.
