Spanish to English Art/Literary Agriculture ranching and farming

the context here is of a pioneer who has carved out a homestead from what was wilderness 20 years ago. Would "hacer un rancho" be something like "to settle"? And, in the original text, "con su trabajo" seems to carry the force of "by the sweat of his brow" or "with his own two hands". Again, this is a literary translation. But I want to err on the side of not translating too literally while not taking "poetic" liberties with the source. The writer is a poet whose prose is sparse and colloquial in a dignified way. Much trickier to render aptly than I thought it was going to be!