pile of o'melays

Thanksgiving at Mount Tamalpais

2011-11-29T07:31:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving was our one year anniversary of leaving Missouri. Yes, it has been a whole year already. We packed our every possession into a rental trailer and went to our wonderful friends for thanksgiving dinner. Wonderfully bitter sweet, it was to be the last time we would see close friends for a long time. After a delicious dinner we said our goodbyes and headed for the state line into a snow storm.

This thanksgiving we had much to be thankful for. Most especially, that I am still on this mortal coil. My brush with death weighed heavily on our first year here. The financial ruin of being off work for several months will keep us especially humble for years to come. I still see the sadness in my children's eyes sometimes.

This past thanksgiving we spent at church. It is a glorious place--God lives there. After a brief service many of us went to mushroom hunting at Mount Tamalpais water shed.

The kids hiked, played and, frolicked.

Earlier that morning there was a light rain and the woods were magical.
Here we are being instructed about the proper mushrooms to collect. Father Stephan is an expert mushroom hunter.

The trails were so beautiful. Keep up Rome there are mountain lions here...

These are Honey Mushrooms
.

The hike was about five miles maybe seven. Here we are at the top. Toly ran most of the way.

This is the top of this trail where we waited for the clouds to part and reveal the peak. Kassi and Rome flitted around like bundles of energy.

Tristan collecting thatching for a school project.

Just off the trail was quite steep.

But, that was where all the mushrooms were.

Father holding a huge bunch.

Tabitha spotted, hiked down and picked the prize of the day.

A huge lions mane.

After the hike dinner was fabulous, decadent beyond our current diet and much appreciated.

It was a perfect day.

soap making in the city

2011-10-02T22:17:00.001-05:00

Our church has a bazaar coming up very soon. Our contribution was teaching soap making and making a bunch of soap. Tabitha put together a whole curriculum.

I made a bunch of soap molds the days leading up to the event.

They needed to greased up and put together.

father Stephan kept dropping in to see what was happening.

Kassi's Godmother sporting the latest in kitchen wear.

It was quite a production.

Not really something to eat.

mix until trace....

The pouring of the liquid soap.

Here is a bunch of cut soap from the day previous--an attempt to teach the whole process.

This soap is set and ready to cut.

Here I am at home cutting the soap made the the previous day at church.

I made this miter-box in Missouri.

vernal pools

2011-10-01T16:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went for a hike to some vernal pools in the Berkeley hills. Part of our homeschooling group organized this excursion. It was up hill both ways;)

I was carrying Rome on my back "paxie".

It was roughly a five mile hike. My legs are very sore today.

Tristan and Kassi got out their nature journals and drew the different plants and general landscape.
The trails through the area were cow trails. Toly had a great adventure.

The view was spectacular.

All the home school kids climbed the cattle gate and waited in silhouette for the adults tho catch up.

It was such a steep climb that I had to take several breaks.

Here I am standing on the edge of one of the mostly dry vernal pools.

There were lots of blooming plants. The purple stuff is a type of field mint.
Rome was fascinated by the huge cracks in the ground.

Everybody loves Rome.

This is about half of our group.

We plan to come back in the early spring when this place is allegedly teeming with life.

This seems like the deepest one.

Vernal pools in California

The school year has started

2011-09-10T19:12:00.005-05:00

Tristan, Kassi and Toly have started school. Home-school funded under a charter school. Tristan has started foil fencing classes. Fencing is also known as physical-chess, a sport for the mind as well as the body. Tristan Loves it with a true love that only little boys can have for a sport that involves battling an opponent with a sword.

Kassi has started ballet. It is a serious ballet academy. She is a serious girl and embraces her responsibility as a potential ballerina with determination and focus.

Toly hasn't started any outside classes. Along with Kassi he is doing "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons." He is only a little way behind Kassi. They are both on the cusp of reading.

I have been playing games with the kids. We mostly play crazy eights when it is all four kids and I. Rome mostly holds the cards and plays out of turn. He has fum anyway. I play kings-corners with just Kassi and Tristan. Tristan plays it so well. Between he and I it is merely a challenge of who has the better luck.

I have also been playing Monopoly with the three eldest. It is really helping with counting and place-value regarding money. Having been physically restricted for such a long time it changed the types of play I have with the kids. A few months ago we went to an estate sale where the couple obviously played bridge because they had many decks of cards. I bought over twenty beautiful collectors set decks, a domino set and other game related stuff for five dollars. Now we have plenty of decks of cards. I can let the kids play crazy eights alone and not worry about losses or destruction.

East Bay Depot for creative re-use
It is a wonderful store (toly calls them scrappy-shops) that sells donated supplies. some of the stuff is old and technologically replaced, offal from industry or just donated by businesses. It is a wonderland place for the artist type. Tabitha gets much of our school supplies there for pennies on the dollar. An example is, I bought a brand new monopoly set from 1972 for three dollars.

The best tool for the school year has been Paddy-the-ipad. A gift to the kids for the upcoming school year. Given that we use online resources for homeschooling extensively the computer has been constantly busy. We have been at this place where we need another computer desperately for a while. Another apple computer is out of the question since the financial ruin of 2011--we'll never waste another penny on microsoft even indirectly. We reluctantly settled for an Ipad. It has exceeded our every expectation and has become integral to our household overall. One caveat, no blogging from paddy. It is just too clunky from a browser interface. Blogger needs an app for that. Two words - angry birds... ...enough said.

I am mostly healed from the heart surgery. The only remaining recovery is muscle tone. I put on a little belly too. Laying around for two months will do that. We have been going to church very regularly which is saying something given Orthodox attendance expectations. I am officially converted to Orthodox, they sped up my Chrismation because of my impending heart surgery. Tabitha and the kids are still Catechumens for several more months. We live too far from St. Nicholas for our taste. The place is truly mystical, beauty for every sense oozes from every fiber of the place. To quote Sean Gleeson "God lives there."

happy birthday tristan

2011-08-09T20:40:00.000-05:00

tristan is such a great boy. he is responsible beyond his years but still very much a fun loving boy.

gifts were a little shy this year since me being off work for the last 45 days. he is simply happy with what little he receives. it makes me proud that he is like that.
we got him dangerous book for boys.

a new charger for his Nintendo DSi. it is like a whole new toy for him. He and I went to Harry Potter 7 1/2 last night. he was so appreciative that he thanked me over a dozen time just on the short walk home from the theater. he glowed with appreciation. I'll never forget the beaming look in his eyes.

happy birthday rome

2011-07-30T02:01:00.001-05:00

Here he is holding the flower he is named after Romneya

He is three, amazing and magical. Happy third birthday Romneya Martin Grey O'Melay!

Surgery Success

2011-07-15T14:10:00.001-05:00

Hi, this is Tabitha, Karl's wife, updating.

Karl had open heart surgery yesterday morning and it was a success. The surgeon was able to repair Karl's mitral valve and replace his aortic valve with a bio-valve. Karl did very well, not even requiring transfusion. I waited at the hospital during the surgery and saw Karl soon after he was moved to the ICU. He looks pretty good, considering. I also visited him later in the day yesterday. He is experiencing a lot of pain, as one might expect, but the nurses say he is really strong (already off the ventilator and drinking on his own) and should feel a lot less pain by today. I will be visiting him this morning. At this time I do not have a room number for Karl and he is not able to accept many visitors in the ICU. Karl has been though an amazing ordeal. Our children have not seen him yet, that too must wait until he is settled into a recovery wing.

The surgeon let me know that while everything went well, it was apparent by his heart that Karl desperately needed this operation. We are so glad to be on this side of it. Your hopes, help and prayers have been and will continue to be instrumental.

Please contact me for more updates tomelay at gmail dot com . We don't know at this point how long Karl will be in the hospital. I will keep you updated as I know.

Love, Tabitha & Kids

Before the operation

Nearly there!

Karl has been admitted

2011-07-13T00:34:00.000-05:00

Karl is in the hospital again, and right now the timeline has his open heart surgery scheduled for Friday. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you to all who have reached out with help and kind words.

The perfect storm

2011-06-16T01:56:00.003-05:00

Everyone has staph growing on their skin. Our bodies repel the stuff and normally we just happily fight infection and continue. I was exposed to carbon monoxide in a boiler room. The CO bound up my hemoglobin and didn't allow any white blood cells to replicate to fight the simple staph bacteria. I got terribly ill with the Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Later, the doctors discovered that I was born with a bicuspid ventral which really isn't a big deal but it does cause turbulence in my heart. That turbulence is where infection likes to collect. The staph infection seized the opportunity when nothing was fighting it. It went septic literally overnight. The common staph settled in my left Ventricle and severed a cord to my Mitral valve. These cords keep the valve from prolapsing. Now my heart doesn't work properly and back pressure to my lungs causes my lungs to fill with plasma easily. The doctors have me on high blood pressure medicine--even though my blood pressure is normal. I get tired easily because of my heart and this is exacerbated by the blood pressure medicine. They don't want my heart to work too hard.

Now in five weeks I must go have open heart surgery to replace the prolapsed valve and while they are in there they will replace the bicuspid ventricle.

The perfect storm continues...
As you know we have only moved here six months ago. I was hired back at my old company but under a trial period. This trial period was cut short and they hired me in a permanent fashion roughly five months ago. My company offers subsidized health insurance but I never got my three month review. My decision at open enrollment (after being hired three months) to decline health insurance wasn't really a decision at all. Given my introductory pay scale and no three month review to offer any hope of a raise we simply couldn't afford our half of the premiums. We opted to wait until January (normal open enrollment).

So here we sit without health insurance. Healthcare facilities that take the uninsured are so over crowed that getting simple blood work takes an entire day. Most of that day is spent processing analog records and confirming that I do indeed qualify for the services that they will render. Every doctor that I have seen has been top notch but the callousness of the general staff is degraded to the lowest form of apathy and feels like it is sucking the life out of you as you talk to them. Of course they must develop burnout and callous themselves to it otherwise they would surely go crazy because the need is so great.

So you might ask why not file a workers comp claim. First we are going to get this all paid for, albeit with excruciating hours of waiting. Your tax dollars already pay for this kind of stuff. But you might also know that your tax dollars are paying for incredible waste the magnitude is unimaginable until you actually live it. Best case, workers comp would only pay a percentage of my final bill. That worker comp insurance company would fight me tooth and nail into legal oblivion trying to prove that the liability isn't theirs. Furthermore, I cannot ruin a wonderful company (sun light and power) with a 500,000 insurance claim that would skyrocket their workers comp premiums to a level that the company cannot sustain--even if my claim were bullet-proof.

Instead I will sit for hours on end waiting in the most awful waiting rooms to get the care that I need. My wonderful wife has sat by my side and endured the soul wrenching onslaught of apathetic waste and waiting. These systems aren't broken and degraded because of incompetence or intended waste. They are stuck in this awful place between huge oppressive insurance companies which debilitate them and the trickle of over bureaucratically tangled funds from Uncle Sam.

Our friends have been wonderfully supportive and we have genuinely needed their help. I am so appreciative of them it makes my heart swell with pride for humanity and the village that we enjoy the full support of. Thank you, thank you our great friends we appreciate you in ways that go beyond simple words.

Love, peace and blessings to you all.

More Karl Update

2011-06-11T09:50:00.000-05:00

Karl will probably be coming home today! Having him home be such a relief.

He will be at home with us for 3-4 weeks if all goes well. We'll be administering the IV antibiotics during that time. Doctors will keep a close watch on his heart health. Then he will return to the hospital for open heart surgery which will replace the heart valves (mitral and aortic) that were damaged by the sepsis. The surgery is very serious and will last about 5 hours. He will be on a heart/ lung bypass machine and general anesthesia. Afterwards, he will be in the hospital again for a week, then home for 3 months of recovery before he can return to work.

Right now we are struggling with a decision about which kind of valves. We are so early in the decision making process that we are not even sure we have a choice between the two. But if we do, it would be an important one. It seems like every day has an important development like this.

We are so appreciative of all who have helped us so far. It has allowed me to visit Karl, the kids to visit, us to eat and life to go on for the last week. The kids love the company of this 'village' atmosphere and so do I. We are excited for Karl's homecoming but frankly we may need more help for the first week with him back than when he was in the hospital.

Our friend Patricia Scott continues to organize the care calendar. She is adjusting it occasionally so that it best fits our needs. Your meals have been delightful and nothing has gone to waste. Please feel free to call Patricia or myself about the calendar if you have questions, or go to the page and just sign up.

Your prayers are always welcome and appreciated.

To contact us, Facebook is probably the best option. Just make sure you leave a note when you add me as a friend so I know who you are.

Tabitha O'Melay | Create your badge

Update from Tabitha

2011-06-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

Some of you may already know from reading my blog or following along on Facebook:

Karl O'Melay is hospitalized with a septic blood infection. It is not contagious, but has infected his heart valves and he will need valve replacement surgery. The surgery can't be done until the infection is completely eradicated. He is very, very ill. The good news is that the antibiotics are working well and Karl is already looking so much better. He has great doctors. He's at Summit in Oakland which is a great heart health hospital.

Our family physician feels that probable Carbon Monoxide exposure on Wednesday of last week, which alone would not have debilitated Karl for more than a couple of days, suppressed Karl's system and at home a common bacteria that rarely is dangerous bloomed in his system and took over. The bacteria proliferated in his heart valves and damaged them. The infection thus was circulated through his body with every beat of his heart. The functionality of Karl's heart valves is greatly impaired and he will require valve replacement. In the past two days we have learned that the mitral and Aortic valves must be replaced through open heart surgery, which will be done after 4 weeks of IV antibiotics to completely clear the sepsis.

We appreciate your prayers, thoughts, and offers of help. As you can imagine this has not been easy on our four young children or myself. We are not able to be by Karl's side very much, and I can't leave the kids for too long to visit alone. Karl, naturally, is the worst off and he needs to not be worrying too much about the future or us right now.

To that end our close friends the Scotts have set up an online care calendar for people who wish to sign up for meals, groceries, housework, rides to and from the hospital, errands or child care. You can bring personal meals or offer take out, etc. Any offer of help is welcome. If the calendar doesn't have a spot for what you'd like to offer please call Patricia Scott (the coordinator) to offer it. She can be reached at 510 913 3151. Below is the calendar information:

Patricia McMahon Scott has set up a helpful calendar for people who wish to help us by donating time or meals. Some things can be donated long distance. Contact Patricia if you have questions. Thank you so much.

Enter the following info for our calendar:

CALENDAR ID : 77273
SECURITY CODE : 5087

CareCalendar - Filling the needs
www.carecalendar.org
Web based system to organize meals and other help for families during a time of illness or life changing event, such as the birth of a baby or death of a family member

Kassi's first art show

2011-05-14T17:22:00.000-05:00

She only has one of her pieces up there. The flower vase on the left.

She is so proud..

Flexible

2011-04-06T06:46:00.001-05:00

It is funny how it seems like we have been here forever now. Missouri seems almost like a dream. It was a pleasant dream. Toly still talks frequently about Missouri. The other day he was telling Rome that he wished we had a chicken back in Missouri named Borsky. Borsky is that Swedish chef from the muppet show. It is also the most derogatory name in Rome's vocabulary. When he's mad at Toly he'll say "you're a Borsky."

Rome is so feisty. He's two and likely the most feisty child yet--I wouldn't have believed that possible three years ago. Here he is clad in tunic.

We were attending a period accurate archery contest.

Toly and Rome played with this little boy on the left.

They had considerable fun even if mom was off shooting most of the day.

Kassi got bored since there were no other children her age/gender. She found an old notebook in the car and had to crush some berries for ink. She drew a good portion of the morning that way.

A piece of pine cone as a quill. Such a resourceful girl. During the afternoon Kassi went on the archery hunt with Tabitha and Tristan.

Tristan was a true star. I am so proud how confident and comfortable he is around everyone. The archers in this line up are the best in the bay area. The one directly in front of Tristan is his instructor.

They are attempting to hit a flying dragon traversing the range on a zip-line. Certainly not many other subordinate archers would have proudly stood in that line-up. Here he is taking pointers from another instructor that came down for the shoot.

Everyone was impressed that this was only his second time shooting a bow.
He is so focused.

I especially like this photo of him.

He is serious, calm and comfortable.

Tabitha made all of our matching attire.

She really enjoyed herself also.

The juxtaposition of a farm-centric life to a life of perusing interests is amazing. I am so happy to be able to take the kids for a short bike ride to the beach any time we like. Some of my fondest memories as a child were playing in the sandy shores of Lake Michigan. All of the kids love the sandy beach, it is in their blood. I especially like how I can show up with the clan of kids bringing nothing except drinking water. Most other families on the beach will have a menagerie of toys and tents and their kids will be bored. Where my kids have nothing except the sand, sticks, shells and whatever else they can find and manage to drum up huge excitement. Assaults on castles, tsunami defending break-waters, wild west stockades and lots of water play are on the itinerary.

The kids have completely settled in here. We haven't built any raised beds for greens and herbs yet. This will probably happen within a few weeks. My job is amazing. I love it so much it is hard to imagine why I ever left it those five and a half years ago. Don't misunderstand, I wouldn't trade our time in Missouri for anything. I simply get so much satisfaction from my job and the work that I do. Those five years in Missouri I took whatever work I could find. The farm was my source for job satisfaction.

I actually have free time

2011-03-13T15:16:00.000-05:00

If forecasters are correct, gas prices are threatening to reach previously unimaginable highs. I have been getting my old bicycle ready to commute back and forth to work. I had to put new tires on it because while scrubbing the decade of dust off it the inner tube popped out the sidewall. I put slick narrow street tires on it. It got a new seat about a month ago.

I bought a new set of battery powered work tools. I got a set containing a new drill, impact driver, sawzall, and circular saw. My old dewalt set has had battery issues and finally the sawzall broke. For the purchase price of new batteries and repair cost of my sawzall I bought a shiny new set.

Plus

I will keep my old dewalt set at home so I can work on stuff around here. Frequently charging crappy batteries at home is more acceptable than at work.

This works into my bicycling commute plan perfectly since I will no longer have to transport my work tools home every time I need to get something done at home.

I also re-purposed an old bike trailer into a commuter cargo trailer.

I can use this instead of the car for many things.

The kids are loving California. Kassi's art class is wonderful. She is learning single point perspective. I love the art that she brings home. Tristan started archery instruction.

He is so excited about it. Toly loves bicycling around. His passion for his bicycle is wonderful.

In fact, I am going to take them for a bike ride...

My thanks to the CMF

2011-02-20T12:29:00.003-06:00

The *CMF was the catalyst that changed our life a few months ago. Now I have to say thanks. We are happy here. The kids love this place. An excellent library is a short four block walk. Books on preloaded i-pods--all you need are earbuds. A huge selection that boggles the mind.

Our most extraordinary friends live five houses away on our nearly traffic free street. Our house is the upper half of a huge victorian. It has exceptionally tall ceilings. It is open and filled with light most of the day.

We travel mostly by bicycle. Toly learned to bike well enough to travel three miles his first day sans training wheels. The farmers market (during winter) has a mind boggling selection of cheap, fresh produce.

Homeschooling with funding from the state to afford the multitude of classes available within a short bike ride. One of the best fencing academies in the bay area just six blocks away. Kassi has a weekly art class that is of a standard that adult students might hope for.

To top it all off, I have my dream job. They treat me so well that I have to regularly pinch myself. I get to do exactly what I like all day long. I feel good about making a difference in the world--installing solar. The systems are large and exhilarating to work on. The last job I worked had five inch diameter pipe. The collectors were six stories up from the mechanical room.

We are going to work with a new product. It uses tracking concentrated solar electricity integrating hot water dissipation and thermal capture of the heat. A hybrid system suited exactly for my skill set. Plus I have been tentatively assigned a huge radiant heating system in the queue. I am in my hay-day of interesting, taxing and enjoyable work.

We are off to bike around the island today. Our island is like a small town completely separated from, yet in the middle of the big city. It is completely flat and filled with old victorian houses, tons of stained glass windows. It is the perfect place to live with a family in the S.F. bay area.

So, thank you *CMF wherever you are. This life change, that I resisted, is an incredible blessing. We are happy here, although we might be happy anywhere, probably not this happy..

*Crazy Mother F'er

bike to the beach

2011-02-19T15:39:00.000-06:00

This beach is biking distance from our house.

The kids love it.

Such a different world from Missouri

Moats and sand castles

Just a few blocks away

These waves are never big.

We are on an island in the S.F. bay.

It is still salty and a little wavy.

It reminds me of Lake Michigan.

Nothing scary about this body of water.

Rome had to be nekkid

many shells were collected

Kassi found a crab claw

There even was a para glider.

Sunday at Point Reyes

2011-01-23T21:47:00.002-06:00

Point Reyes is a magical bit of the California coast. I took Tabitha there for our first afternoon together. I was stopping in at Petes for an afternoon coffee, where we met, I asked if she wanted to go to the beach. We were retracing our path and showing our kids one of the most beautiful places we know of.

The kids loved it. Toly was scared of the big noisy surf.

The surf was huge and crashing on the shore. Tristan and Kassi began running toward the retreating wave then running up the beach.

I closely monitored their frolicking.

Rome mostly stayed far back from the scary waves.

Many calories were spent.

The wave just after this one was huge and pummeled everyone.

Tristan remained fearless.

occasionally a huge wave would crash all the way up the beach. There was no safely dry place.

Tristan was drenched.

and covered in sand

I consoled Toly and Rome after the big pummeling.

Luckily we read this sign on the way out otherwise we'd have probably stayed on the bluff.

Home at last

2011-01-10T08:12:00.000-06:00

We have been in our new home for ten days. We have new beds IKEA rules. I, in all my years, have never owned a brand new bed (mattress). Plenty of new futons, plenty of lightly used beds but never a brand spanking new mattress. It might seem silly but spending several hundred dollars for a bed never seemed like money well spent.

I have been getting two additional hours of sleep per night. Money well spent indeed. The kids got a new bunk-bed set. They also got good mattresses. That was our big splurge most of the rest of our home furnishings are coming on-the-cheap. Freecycle is our friend. We did spend money on an antique bench. It is beautiful. This is also my first piece of antique furniture.

Tabitha got a new desk. I am sitting at it now. It is well constructed and very cute. The internet is finally working here at home. Now if we could simply get settled. It seems like all I ever do is work or put furniture together.

We have been going to Catholic Mass. Our first experience in the bay area was midnight-mass Christmas Eve/Morning. The music was divinely inspired and spiritually moving. Sixteenth century Gregorian chanting mingled with the most delightful quartet. It was sublime.

My job is going amazingly well. I found a leak in a new installation that has plagued the thermal department since the installation. My immediate supervisor wrote a letter for my file praising me and recommending me for permanent employment, ending my probation. We'll see where this leads.

The kids are adapting very well. Our longtime friends live six houses away. They have kids of similar ages. Rome loves, with a true pining love, their oldest daughter. She is twelve and babies him so magically that he is completely smitten.

There are still many things to be settled but we are methodically crossing things off our list. Well, mostly I got off to work and Tabitha manages to cross things off our huge list of to-do's.

We do have a new camera and I promise photos in the very near future. There have been several stumbling blocks in the photo department, including no reliable internet.

I must work out of town two nights this coming week. Tabitha is fine with this--a testament to how comforting our new home is. She really needs to convalesce from the bad neighbor trauma in Missouri. This home is safe and cozy.

rainy park

2010-12-26T11:14:00.001-06:00

The little boys got scooters for Christmas. Even though it was raining lightly we made the obligatory visit to the skate park for a test run.

All the kids got raincoats for Christmas. Toly got a green one. He loves green anyone that knows him knows this because he declares all green things his.

Rome has amazing balance and rode his scooter like he owned it since last Christmas.

Of course Toly got a green scooter.

Many collisions were only just avoided...

The older kids rode the skateboards.

Feliz Navidad

2010-12-25T00:58:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas

We'll have photos in the morning

extended living in a hotel w/o the continental breakfast

2010-12-21T22:18:00.000-06:00

Living here in this place is difficult since it is transitional. Ten more days we'll begin our new adventure in earnest. The new residence becomes available on the first of January. It is like holding your breath for a little too long.

My job is going wonderfully. I really missed it. I fixed the heating system and everyone really appreciates it. I have been doing different and interesting things each day. My days are long but fulfilling. Tomorrow I will decommission the P.V. system on the office. They are selling it to a co-workers father for cheap. The entire company will be moving to a new larger location within a few months and this is the first step of disentanglement. I helped install this system several years ago.

I am excited to do this kind of work since it is cross over to the P.V. side of the company. I aspire to be the employee that can do everything.

Uncle Matt sent photos of our visit to Tilden park. Such fun, I had just met his girlfriend. She is very cool and likely a new addition to my extended family--if she'll have him.

the last digital download from this camera

2010-12-19T21:52:00.000-06:00

uncle matt...

Moving again

2010-12-11T09:18:00.000-06:00

We are moving again. Crazy? Our current place isn't a good fit. The neighborhood is marginal. The residents in other units keep diametric hours. We have lovely friends that own a beautiful house in an excellent neighborhood. It will be available in a few weeks. We have given notice here and our landlords are sympathetic.

Everything is so expensive here but I am working long hours to compensate. The kids love the new neighborhood and friends there. Connectivity is an issue and is further delayed by the next move. We have a crappy cell phone but is gets great reception in the new neighborhood too.

I love my job. They are warming to me. I get deep satisfaction working in an industry that is making such a difference for the environment. I miss my kids working such long hours. They are very happy to see me when I get home.

My best friend, "Uncle Matt" is up for a visit. The kids love him. It gives me such pleasure to see them climb all over him.

As of mid January we'll be more stable and connected. Everything is great, different but great. I'll be able to get caught up then.

In the meantime http://harvesthaven.blogspot.com/ is where our Jocelyn and Astrid live. Ianto went to http://jerseyknoll.com

k-)
After The Change, ATC

sigh of relief

2010-12-02T04:34:00.000-06:00

So I am officially gainfully employed. We have a place to live that we like. Our refrigerator is full of food. Boy was that weird buying all that food. For the past five years we provided most of our own food from our farm. Today I got the final word on my job and we celebrated by going to Berkeley Bowl. Berkeley Bowl (a grocery store) is impossible to describe. I'll try...

Imagine a high end grocer that has the highest quality produce, meat and groceries. Then multiply that idea by ten, cut all the prices by 40% and mix in a deli/bakery to die for. Oh, that is not all, the place is so aesthetically pleasing you loose all track of time. They had six different types of pomegranate to choose from.

We even bought seafood, I truly missed great seafood. I know that I am not doing the place justice because I was amazed and we used to shop there every week when we lived here before. That was a celebration extravagance and are committed to going to the farmers market on bicycle weekly but that sure was fun.

The camera is still packed or missing in a deeper way than I am willing to admit right now. When this camera issue is resolved we'll take a few photos of the place. Even without olfactory or tactile senses it is still something to behold.

A grocery as entertainment and celebration? Has Karl gone mad? Quite possibly, the stress has been treacle encumbering my every move. I am sure it will take some time to recover. If anyone has been to Berkeley Bowl West please chime-in defend my craziness.

Tomorrow will be our first home cooked meal in... it seems like eons. I start work on Friday. I look forward to working with my new co-workers. They seem very cool. Very cool...

My interview was kinda crazy. I guess I made quite a lasting impression when I left five years ago. I think mostly good but the word cowboy was used in reference to me. I admit I was in rebellion from corporate America and searching for freedom. Sun Light and Power afforded me many latitudes that are no longer acceptable. Wearing a Kilt to work everyday was brought up. That was the culture then and it isn't like that anymore. I also admit that for the company to grow, that culture needed to change. I see the truth of it and sure don't have any problems with the change, nor will I.

I just miss the feeling of going to work everyday and feeling like I am making a difference. Making the planet a little bit better with every solar installation. I am so appreciative and humbled by our good fortune that I cannot sleep.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, well wishes and hope. We made a huge leap of faith and the faith held thanks to you.

Karl

Home

2010-11-29T17:06:00.000-06:00

Apartment in Oakland secured. We move in tomorrow. We got a cheapo cell phone with unlimited long distance, month to month.

Going to a meeting at four. Please hold your breath one last time.

Fingers crossed
Karl

Berkeley

2010-11-28T18:07:00.000-06:00

We have arrived in Berkeley and staying at La Quinta Inn. I am exhausted. The kids finally broke down for the last three hours, such good kids for almost the entire trip. Unbelievably good kids. Rome actually got the feistiest.

bakersfield

2010-11-28T11:41:00.000-06:00

snowy pass on the way in. scary...

in and out burger = wonderful

one more day of travel today

left turn at Albuquerque

2010-11-27T07:05:00.000-06:00

We are just outside Albuquerque and safe. My fingers are too fat to type on this mini laptop. All the well wishes seem to be working. The drive grueling, the kids are behaved, we are all scared.

Thank you,

Karl

Pray for us.

2010-11-24T11:12:00.000-06:00

The stress is overwhelming. Many things are still tentative. We need your well wishes, contributions to the collective consciousness and prayers. There are six states to cross and a promise of questionable weather. Luck favors the prepared, hopefully the seat of our pants will work one last time.

Please think of us.

Karl and family

forever?

2010-11-20T19:57:00.000-06:00

As many have guessed we are going through a drastic change–life altering. I have tried time again to write this post. You are all my friends and I need to explain. First, Tabitha and I are together forever. Second, I have the best boss at The Alternative Energy Company ever. Zeke has my allegiance and will continue to be my friend.

Here is the deal. We are leaving our little farm. The reasons we are leaving are many and mostly logic based. The catalyst however was pure emotion. Tabitha is terrified of handguns–an incapacitating phobia. Our newest neighbor, just out of our back door, had a propensity to have a few drinks and repeatedly fire his hand gun. We entered civil conversation. I pleaded with him that my four year old autistic son couldn't bear the nightly extended gun shooting, which is true.

Finally, his landlords stopped by and asked us "did the hand gun shooting trouble us?" We answered a gleeful "yes" hoping for a simple solution. They responded that they had a prior agreement that *if there were any complaints* they would have to stop the nightly shooting. The Crazy Mother Fu%*er, CMF for short blamed us even though all the local neighbors complained. At one point the Sheriff became involved and the CMF became enraged. He started threatening my wife, children and animals by yelling across the hallow. Tabitha became racked with fear and would not let the kids out to play in our own yard. He would brandish his gun and yell *BANG BANG* toward my children and wife. He would yell "you better get your cow out of here" while holding a gun. (expletives deleted)

Tabitha did not feel safe and fell out of love with our little farmstead. The disillusionment was complete and all encompassing. She began to work on me trying to explain her terror and that there is a better way. Needless to say I resisted and cited promises of living here forever. Foremost, I love my wife and desire her happiness and safety.

The contributing factors are my spotty employment during the past six months, and our barely keeping our heads above water. Maintaining during financial difficulty requires a deep blind love for this lifestyle and a hope for the future. On the positive side Tabitha has been pining to go back to University but commute from here is unrealistic. This is especially true since it would require stopping homeschooling. Our local schools are simply not an option.

In the end we have decided to move back to the San Francisco bay area. A risky endeavor indeed but we are on the five year plan. Tabitha will attend University, the kids will attend a charter school, I will get employment in the active California solar industry (my true passion). After five years we will reassess our position.

Crazy? Yes, I agree but we have learned countless lessons here and can better try it again with true preparation. I want to build our own "perfect" home someday. At that time, Tabitha will carry the torch of employment while I and the boys build our dream home. It must be geographically protected and neighbors few.

Are we financially OK? Kinda, mostly, but we are scared. I have been repeating to myself "hold on tightly, let go lightly." I fear for my children but I want them to be fearless and can only show them this by example.

I will continue my blog taking lessons learned from the country to the city. It might even be more useful to a greater number of people. Buying in bulk in season and preserving while in the city is something of true value. Attending U-pick, buying in bulk and everything fresh in season is our lifestyle. I hope to ride my bike to work everyday. I spent most of my twenties with only a bicycle as transportation and miss it.

It will be a new deliberate adventure. I hope you stick around to see what happens next.. I plan to document our preparations for our next foray in to self sufficiency and sustainability. A pastoral life is something not to be attempted lightly. Our lessons from this practice farm promise decisive preparation for our next iteration and future.

Special thanks to Patrick, Bob, Zeke, Matt, my sister and all of you. Your support has been well appreciated.
I love you all, blessings of peace.

Karl

2010-11-16T20:10:00.000-06:00

dias de las muertas

2010-11-01T11:32:00.000-05:00

A celebration of life through celebrating death. Also the day of finding half eaten pieces of candy stuck to various surfaces in the house.

Me: "alright, who left this here?"

Our kids almost never get commercial candy. Although they do get to binge during this brief season--it is part of being an American kid. The kids are now begging for "real food." I jokingly said "NO, all you get to eat all day is candy." a little reverse psychology?

(one Hour later)... my plan might be backfiring on Toly.

yesterday...

The Halloween line-up.
Black Kitty, Percy Jackson, Prairie Princess, Mermaid Princess, Saber Kitty, Prince Zuko & Christmas Tree

Saber Kitty is a homage to kassi's kitten, may she rest in peace.
Prince Zuko we love the animated series "the last air bender." Even adults should appreciate the depth of the character development. Easily a precursor to a reading child. Following a complex storyline is a necessity for this series of shows.
Christmas Tree, this was entirely Toly's idea. He loves nightmare before Christmas mixing Christmas and Halloween seemed like a good idea to him. The costume was a huge hit. The lights lit up and he guided our way on the darkish streets, kinda like Rudolf.
Rome had to be a kitty since Kassi was one--MEEOOW..

pumpkins + squishing goo = jack 'o' lantern

2010-10-30T20:17:00.002-05:00

Rome, Kassi, Tristan, Toly

toly's was voted the scariest

Today was a long awaited day of our first green egg.

I hope all the auracanas start laying soon. It will be a nice mix for our customers to have colorful auracauna eggs in their dozen.

I thought this was brilliant

2010-10-29T20:40:00.001-05:00

http://www.khanacademy.org is a wonderful site for education. It is so profound that a person might believe that his quixotic nature must be spiritually divine. His reply to this query follows..

If you believe in trying to make the best of the finite number of years we have on this planet (while not making it any worse for anyone else), think that pride and self-righteousness are the cause of most conflict and negativity, and are humbled by the vastness and mystery of the Universe, then I'm the same religion as you.

--Salman Khan

just trying to cheer myself up after the sweet potato fiasco

sweet potatoes were a bust

2010-10-29T20:09:00.000-05:00

I can't even bring myself to take a picture of those measly sweet potatoes to show you all what a failure they were. Obviously they weren't in full sun. The soil there was very rich, probably too rich. Next year they will be planted if full sun in the garden.

Failure :(

Autumn Lingers

2010-10-27T08:30:00.000-05:00

We still haven't had a killing frost yet. Last week I covered part of the wood pile.

There should be plenty of extra wood in-the-dry under there for the entire winter. Four rows ten feet long by five feet high. Sorry to bore you but this is how I document this sort of thing. There should be a few ricks of wood left over for next winter.

I might use the surplus to make some terra preta. I have discovered an easier way to make charcoal than previous searches have revealed.

It is described in detail at http://www.saveourskills.com/lump-charcoal

Last week I also turned the compost from these two bins..

..into this larger bin.

I wet it down as I forked it over. Yesterday it had settled about a foot and was giving off considerable heat.

Last evening I took a break from work and raked some of the upper field with Tristan and Toly. We raked hickory nuts and leaves onto a huge piece of tarp. They helped me drag it to the pigpen and dump it. several more evenings like that and we'll have the entire paddock cleared of leaves and hickory nuts and acorns. The pigs should really enjoy the fodder.

The chickens are finally laying a reasonable amount of eggs again.

One of our neighbors had a stroke and gave us his chickens. I reluctantly took them, because I felt bad for him. They promptly gave our hens mites and probably worms. One day I went to collect eggs and there were merely a fraction of the expected amount. Since we treat everything naturally and only when necessary it takes a while to get over this kind of stuff. That was several weeks ago and with intensive treatment and they are finally getting better. No good deed goes unpunished--I didn't even like that guy either.

I also got a bit more slipform masonry completed on the milking barn.

The weather has been perfect for this kind of work and I have been stuck in-doors doing web design. Aarrgh..

Here is that bad cow on pasture furlough. She has been promptly going directly for the acorns. She can poison herself if she eats too many. We have been keeping her up and feeding hay until I can do something about it.

The boys are getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Their raw diet agrees with them. They still have that sheepish puppy look to them. astrid has been keeping the dominance pressure on them even though they are beginning tower over her. Ianto, the tallest, is starting to not take it anymore. I imagine there will be a power change very soon.

broken drawing arm

2010-10-21T14:50:00.000-05:00

Kassi is beside herself not being able to draw. She still tries but gets frustrated.

Foray into slipform masonry

2010-10-15T13:28:00.001-05:00

This masonry work will be below grade so it will never show. That is until some distant future archeological dig. This is my first try using this method. Besides the rocks being too small and my cement being a little too runny I think my experiment turned out fine. During this first below grade course I'll adjust my cement wetness and rock placement to judge my end results.

I used some rough planks as the form. The next tier will have to include embedded tension wires to hold in the bottom. I'll show that technology when I get there. I also embedded some barbed wire to add reinforcement.

The kids were incredibly helpful. They placed all the rock while I shoveled in the cement. As aesthetics become more important I'll monitor that process more closely.

Tabitha just arrived from the hospital. Kassi does indeed have a broken arm, a small incomplete fracture.
No more jumping from the barn loft!!!

Barn Progress and broken arm?

2010-10-15T08:34:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I managed to pour/slip-form part of the barn foundation. The kids helped. They gathered rocks. I showed Tristan how to place the rock while I shoveled in the cement mix. All of this will be below grade so aesthetics aren't important yet. This is good practice for the upper layers when we want a certain look.

Having the kids help meant they were playing in and around the barn. Just after I cleaned up Tristan and Kassi were playing in the loft. Kassi was jumping and got tangled with Tristan. He tried to grab her but she slipped and fell on her wrist. We are taking her to the doctor this morning to probably get an x-ray.

To top it off I have fallen ill with some allergy related stuffy nose and head ache. Tabitha will take Kassi and Rome while I stay and rest with Toly and Tristan.

I might get a photo of the slip-form progress later this morning.

Don't be scared, I changed how things look around here

2010-10-14T20:14:00.000-05:00

I haven't changed my blogger template for eons. Mostly because I'm lazy, I'm not resistant to change. I swear, I'm not crossing my fingers either...

Tabitha is the furniture mover around here and has suggested that I update things. I usually just go with whatever is easiest. I will have a new banner very soon. Order will prevail.

The real motivator was that our new separator videos got clipped by the old layout. I can't have that. Also, I like the wider template and that will stay. The background is some stock photo but could be just down the road. I'll likely keep that too.

there is also some additional response clicks at the bottom. reactions funny, interesting, cool? i might try to put "lame" in there just to even things out. Tabitha suggests "get a hair cut hippie" that would be good too.

I'll tweek things a bit more but this is now the new skin I wear.

Cream separator videos

2010-10-14T18:45:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post we are happy with it. The main flaw with the unit is the instructions are near impossible make sense of. The interpretation from Russian is horrid and gut busting funny at times. Tabitha and I got so giddy that we giggled the entire time. That was, until milk was flinging all over our kitchen.
Not wanting to cry over spilled milk we decided to figure this thing out and promptly fell in love with it.

So that others might enjoy the separator as much as us, we made a video about it. Well, several videos. Comments were made toward me, disguised as constructive criticism, regarding my over use of certain words. Hurdles aside we managed to produce two videos. One of them is the assembly of the unit.

The second one is the use of the unit.

At the end of the day we had a great time doing it. There will be more to come regarding this topic, sorry to everyone that cares nothing about cream.

Happy Birthday Anatoly

2010-10-10T19:55:00.002-05:00

Sweet potatoes

2010-10-10T06:55:00.001-05:00

We have been planning this sweet potato harvest for two years. We put our first round of pigs on this little plot contained by pallets. In June of 2008 I built this from recycled pallets:

Thanks Ron.. The soil there was rocky clay and could support only the worst of weeds. Originally it was to be a calf pen but it quickly became our hog pen. Instead of shoveling most of the field cow patties into compost bins I simply threw it into their pen. They thrived in the fodder churning and rooting through it making a rich hot thick layer of almost soil.

Then we left it to rest for an entire summer. All the while knowing this is where sweet potatoes will grow next season.

This past spring after struggling with sweet potato slips and their apparent decision not to grow, we finally planted a bunch of different variety slips into the their long awaited place.

We are in the home stretch and waiting for the first killing frost. There are many views on the topic but we plan to dig them that following day. We are extremely hopeful since the vines have completely consumed the old pigpen. Also we had a failure in our butternut squash patch this year.

Sweet potatoes don't directly replace winter squash but we will happily have them in their stead this year. Every year is different on what fails, what is marginal and what succeeds. Mono culture would be our ruin this winter if we didn't plant with diversity in mind. Besides planting a bunch of different stuff is fun.

I will post about the harvest the day following the first killing frost.

Ginger finally came home

2010-10-09T19:59:00.000-05:00

In neat little white packages.

Why is it no matter what measures I take, like giving them a business card with my name spelled correctly across the top, everyone spells my name wrong? I am always surprised on the rare occasion someone gets it right. The butcher taking twice as long as they said and the "name" issue left a sour taste in my mouth. That was remedied this morning by the taste of extra thick cut bacon smoked to perfection. Their quality is worth the extra little trouble.

I gave the owner of the butcher shop a little trouble for the lateness. He responded very graciously bribed my good will with two feed sacks of bones for my dogs. I will still recommend him because it is all about quality. A good butcher is hard to find. He'll likely have my business more in the future.

We are planning on getting three maybe four pigs this next round. Furthermore we are planning to raise a gilt to farrow. We love having pigs and during times without we miss them terribly. Having a sow means never being without a pig. Also I hope to raise pigs to be ready for butcher in the cold of winter. I want this because I want to butcher my own hogs someday. I want to smoke my own meat. This will be another tier of self sufficiency that I hope to enjoy.

Mike, Tabitha's father, has permanently spoken for one of our pigs each round. Many of our customers have expressed interest in milk-fed pork. I think we can pasture raise in combination with milk and hay. Our test will be with our first piglets born on site. They will also help me claim some of our forest for even more pasture.

This is a huge endeavor and will require plenty of work on my part but the kids are just getting to an age of helpfulness and I hope to instill a strong work ethic in them. Fencing will have to happen this winter in earnest.

Sustainability

2010-10-09T16:47:00.001-05:00

I was recently lucky enough to attend a sustainability conference in Springfield Missouri--O.N.E. Ozarks New Energy. My employer The Alternative Energy Company had a booth but I got to attend every seminar I wanted. Well almost, seminar scheduling conflicts kept me from a couple of interest. The highlights were ammonia as a fuel alternative to compressed hydrogen NH3, tierra petra, Greensberg KS, Steam Engines, Local Food and a few politicians spewing rhetoric.

The politicians made so angry that I went to a seminar immediately following day two lunch about micro-hydro hoping for some hippies to hug. It proved to be the best seminar ever, engineers and architects designing a beautiful 1-4 kw micro-hydro system.

I feel good, recharged and motivated to continue to live as sustainably as possible. If you have read our blogs for a while you know the measures we take. We have been of this mindset for so long it is difficult to see any other way. I had several opportunities to discuss during presentations "new ideas" from a real-world experience perspective. I have tried and will continue tierra-petra for example. I have built a bio-diesel reactor. We eat local to a degree that is near impossible for a city dweller. I am not trying to be smug, I simply feel proud to be living this way. I want everyone to know this because the more proponents of an idea the greater momentum a movement can achieve. Lord knows Missouri could use some momentum.

Here at home we received a new cream/milk separator from the Ukraine.

If you milk an animal you need one of these. It is wonderful. It separates the milk and cream straight from the cow and is amazingly exact. Cream is in the highest demand here for butter and cream in our coffee.

We got the hand crank version. It has been really fun. Being hand crank makes it a two person operation but we could alter our system a little and solve that concern also. One huge benefit is it makes the most wonderful milk froth/foam. I spoon it onto my creamy coffee in the morning. This must be where the cappuccino originated.

ahh tasty indeed...

Day lilies, Bikes and Love

2010-10-06T06:55:00.000-05:00

My parents came for a visit. They stayed three nights in our little house with us. We had loads of fun. They brought me an old truck that my sister gave me. It is loaded with a swimming pool, lathe and a band saw. I have yet to unload it since we have been so busy.

The reason for their visit is to buy the kids bicycles. Oh, what a hit they are. The kids love them, have given them names and are constantly begging to go to the bike trail. The yard is a little bumpy but they are undaunted. We pledge a weekly visit to the trail, maybe Sundays after church.

They also brought hundreds of day lilies. They collect them and show them in their yard every summer (bus tours, write-ups in the local paper ect..) My parents have an excellent idea that Kassi might have a day lily business someday. Her passion for flowers and nurturing demeanor seem an ideal match. This year is the first stage of the business. We planted the beds in a manner for display and propagation.

The next phase will be to set her up to sell them. A website and market stand are on my queue. For now it will be mostly Tabitha and my effort but Kassi is really excited. This links to the entire album of what we planted--forever documented and able to reference.

Kassi has an entire photo book of them in bloom listed alphabetically.

I'll get photos of the kids on bikes and other stuff today.

farm kids

2010-09-29T08:50:00.000-05:00

Farm kids and their barn.

Fall is here and they are enjoying the weather. Out-of-doors is the place to be. Much later after these photos they moved a bunch of soft hay to the drop-zone and started jumping.

It seemed like a good way to help increase bone density but I stopped them anyway since rome needed to be involved and I was terrified of broken limbs.

The kids are really excited that my parents are coming to visit soon. I am finally plumbing the outdoor shower this evening. Our set-up isn't really visitor conducive but when you really want visitors you make-due.

I worked all yesterday on the alternative energy company's website. Morning to night, I need to take more breaks today. I had many braincells that thought they were in retirement. I recalled them to action. Tabitha said there were probably many new recruits. I'm not sure that was a nice thing to say;)

Happy Fall everyone. We are really enjoying the weather I hope you are too.

I liked this...

2010-09-22T18:19:00.000-05:00

captain jack and ianto say good bye to ginger and pepper

2010-09-21T07:35:00.001-05:00

The boys as I call them are growing like weeds. They have been on a raw diet for quite a while. It suits them. Chicken has been their staple. They ate all of our "flatties"* during broiler raising season. We lost quite a few of this time around. They began their journey heat stressed and were overly susceptible to it from then on.

This gate is one of their boundaries they are not supposed to cross. They are pretty good about following that rule.
This is Ianto about half grown. He reminds me of Henry. I still miss Henry.

Ianto is my favorite, I admit it. I can't help it. Here they are waiting for dinner.

Once Ianto is full grown he'll stand like that but only on the top bar.

Ginger and Pepper are going to the slaughter house tomorrow.

I know I professed last time that I would never do that again. Luckily I'm allowed to change my mind. The job that they did on smoking the meat and making sausage was so great that they have won me over for at least another time.

We will save every little scrap of bone and usual waste from both pigs to freeze for the dogs. They eat less on this diet and are much healthier. Tabitha really appreciates the fact that their waste is small and turns ashen white and benign within a day or so. Our large dung beetle population makes short work of three large dogs feces this way too.

So, goodbye to Ginger and Pepper but hello to them all winter long.

They are such friendly creatures we love them on so many levels.

I don't think that I will ever put pigs in the garden again.

Their smell is a little too close to the house. But, the main reason is they only tore up certain areas of the garden a little too deeply while left other areas completely untouched. Huge craters in the garden are not what I was hoping for.

I still have a little more tear down of the butcher area. The big-top worked perfectly this time.

I am trying to complete some compost for when my parents arrive with Kassi's Daylily starts. Two of these bins were full of nitrogen rich waste bedding and cow manure.

This is how far it has composted.

It is about a third of it's original volume. I have turned it twice in the past few weeks in attempt to get high compost temperatures. The feed stock was full of weed seeds and I wanted to be sure to kill of them. My moisture content was a little high and I lost some nutrients.

Composting is easy and difficult at the same time. Predictable results are the elusive factor. Last season my compost, although complete, contained far too many weed seeds. I hope for much better this time around.

*flatties are what we call chickens that have died and are laying there extremely flat when we come to check on them.

We survived... (warning graphic photos)

2010-09-14T18:18:00.000-05:00

Tabitha, myself and the kids butchered eighty seven chickens in two days.

I'll admit they were long days. It was difficult, tedious and left us raw. The whizbang chicken plucker purred most of the day. Feather clogs caused a little slippage a couple of times.

The kids were unbelievably helpful. Tristan and Kassi caught every bird for the killing station.

Anyone that has tried to catch chickens know what a feat catching eighty seven birds is. They both got scratches from chickens and chicken tractors climbing around arms full. Plus, that is not all,

Tristan cut, cleaned and peeled every gizzard while Kassi cleaned the hearts and livers. They also met the demands of their younger siblings. They made sandwiches, poured juice and milk and even cleaned urgent messes in the house. It was truly unbelievable they are just eight and six respectively. When it came time to do the final clean-up on the birds they both were right there picking pin feathers and doing a secondary inspection of the internals.

Tabitha loosened crops, cut feet and heads, killed, plucked and scalded. I eviscerated and cleaned the body cavity. I also leaped to where I was needed but mostly I was the bottle neck. We chilled the birds and did the final processing at the other station.
The kids really made a huge difference, at least thirty percent increase from their input.

On top of all that Tabitha is milking twice per day. Our refrigerator is full of milk products.

Milk, yogurt, fresh cheese, sour cream, and cream. Jocelyn in making over four gallons per day.

We are trying to find another fridge on freecycle--milk fridge.

I also finished work on the Houlahan's Photovoltaic system.

We have been busy and this weekend we have another thirty five birds to kill.

WHEW...

my intention

2010-09-11T07:28:00.001-05:00

My intention has always been to put up all the blog suggestions on my blog roll then categorize them as I found time. Please be patient as my time for this endeavor has been limited.

Today is butcher day. I have been working overtime this week to get a photovoltaic system installed before deadline.

I really appreciate all the blog suggestions. Of what I have time to enjoy they have been great.

Thanks,

Why I am here

2010-09-05T10:14:00.000-05:00

Going into winter I start thinking about what I will read on those cold dark days next to the warm fire. Spring, summer and fall are a time of action. I am too busy to dedicate much time to reading. My reading exploits lean toward research and education (the immediate gratification kind). Ahh but winter is the time to be able to pore over books purely for enjoyment. I have a list of books all set for the winter and will likely stumble across a few extras that will squeeze in front.

What I really need is more blogs for my blog-roll. This is where you come in, yes even if you have never commented before. First, I want YOUR blog address--nothing else. If your blog is already in my blog-roll *where I hang out* then (and only then) please suggest your favorite blog that you think I will like. I Want You!!! You should be getting a visual image of me pointing my finger right at you.

Why am I here? Many reasons really, but mostly I want to capture these moments so I might better learn from them. I also romanticize that my great grand children might want to know who I was.

I would love to have read either of my grandfathers journals they didn't keep during their lifetime. My grandfather Horace was an amazing artist, inventor and landscape architect. During the depression he held a patent for Formica. Dupont had a similar patent of inferior quality. Horace sold the patent to Dupont for $1000 and provided for his family through those troubled years. He also pioneered many methods for coloring cement still in use today.

My grandfather Gustav immigrated from Germany at twenty five. With only the clothes on his back he eventually became a pillar in his community. He engineered and invented many things to make his life easier on his milk farm. I wish I had the plans for the smokehouse that he built. As a teenager I went to stay a summer with friends of his. Their patriarch employed Gustav as a machinist in one of his first jobs in America. I saw the respect and esteem he commanded even a generation later.

I don't feel like I live in their shadow but they set the bar pretty high. I know how curious I am about them and my namesake Karl, Gustav's father. My descendants will have one of those weird records of a little family, their family, struggling to make a go of it off a little slice of the Ozarks.

Of course that is not the only reason I am here but it is surely one that kept me blogging after my original reason proved for naught. Pablo and Danielle kept encouraging me to keep going which really made all the difference.

It is finally raining...

2010-09-01T15:43:00.001-05:00

Tabitha and I cleared the garden for the pigs to go in there and clean it up. This morning we decided to attempt the move. We opened the appropriate fences and gates. Tabitha got a bucket of grain while I opened the pigpen. They wanted nothing to do with her and her measly pulverized pig feed. Tabitha had just cleaned out the freezer and gave the pigs the waste. Note to self, make sure pigs are hungry before trying to coax them anywhere.

The rodeo ensued in earnest. I must admit it was really fun. I love pigs. Our farm is mostly dog proof so we were not in any danger of loosing anyone. First we tried chasing them. Pigs don't react like other animals in this respect. They immediately think it is a game wherein they are the puck and you are the goalie. They rush past just out of reach woofing just to taunt. Did I mention I love our pigs?

After trying several methods we simply relied on their natural curiosity and closing gates behind them. Surely the garden is the place with the most interesting things to eat and root. Finally they realized that it was. We closed them in and they were happy.

Then the heavens opened and praised our good work by offering us with a much needed rain. It has been over a month since it rained here. The grass crunched with each step like walking on fall leaves. Tabitha also put some clothes out on the line just to taunt the mischievous clouds into cutting loose.

We are hopefully going to get more this evening. All that beautiful chicken fertilizer from moving the tractors across our paddocks needs to be rained in. Oh if we get a couple of inches over the next few days the pastures will perk up into a lush cow heaven.

My rain water storage for the chicken coop was down to twenty five percent. I had a broken water fountain and it dripped for over twelve hours. Here is a picture of it filling up. I installed a chain for the water to adhere to on it's descent. I watched it for a while it was hypnotic like a campfire.

I took a video but when I watched it I decided it wasn't worth sharing because the moment was lost. A little video of it seemed stupid while in person it was almost spiritual. It is funny how some things can be captured and others can't.

Rome almost got bit by a copperhead snake yesterday. He actually stepped on it. It was between the house and garden. It struck at him twice but didn't pierce the skin. We were so lucky. I grabbed him up by one arm with a jerk. Luckily he is used to me picking him up by one arm since a baby. Otherwise, he surely would have a dislocated shoulder.

I guess they mostly travel in pairs so we are on *high-alert* until further notice. I raked all the leaves and debris from that area of the yard to be sure the other snake wasn't lying in wait. I showed Rome the dead snake, yes I killed it. I warned him that this snake could kill him and to stay away.

river of hope

2010-08-28T20:34:00.002-05:00

Our cow had her calf today. It was an event to say the least. Tabitha has been on *high alert* for over a ~~month~~ week. This build up to bovine crescendo was tedious. Fraught with worry of worst case scenarios Jocelyn gave birth without a hitch. She is a genetic-old-pro.

A whole new set of worries can now consume. We are selling the calf. I admit she is a show-calf and opportunities like her are infrequent. A beautiful heifer--she glows like Jocelyn did when she was born. Kassi is smitten to a degree that only little girls can achieve. I told her that Jocelyn's next daughter is hers. This time is too early. Kassi won't be old enough to milk her in two years, but maybe in three. It isn't that she couldn't take care of her everyday. It boils down to stamina. Milking takes stamina.

It is really hard for me to say no to my only little girl. She understands, in a little girl way. Mostly she loves that calf but abides daddies wishes. It was magic watching the birth. Toly learned volumes today. We have always explained where babies come from but he never believed it. Today was a epiphany. I could see the wheels turning in his brain. I love my boy.

Tristan thought it was really cool "it was like a rainbow on a cloudy day." Where does he come up poetic metaphors at eight? Rome thought it was a huge poo for a while. Of course he did.. Kassi named the calf River. She is the resident namer of things. She has a gift.

Our friend Janet has first option on this calf. She is exercising her option. Even with other interested parties if Janet declined we'd be keeping River. We need the money, I'll admit it. Jocelyn needs pricey feed for the winter. I can't help but think of Rumpelstiltskin, trading a winters food for the first born. Kassi and Tabitha are both harboring something subconscious and bitter toward me right now. I accepted Janet's offer to purchase. We set the price, well $50 less than my buyout was.

How much would it cost you to have your daughter and significant-other disappointed with you?

We agreed for the past ten months that we weren't keeping the calf under ANY circumstances. I repeat "UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES." Our farm is too small for a second cow. Our system won't support another cow this is especially true in this economy.

Here are some gratuitous baby calf photos.

the first breath.

the impatient pile

tongue bath

rome took a kitten break.

the dogs were anxious to meet their new charge.

Kassi still had hope that she was keeping River in this photo

Angel the kitten.

true love..........

"Bring out your dead" CLANK

2010-08-22T17:06:00.001-05:00

No one talks about the dark underbelly of cute little farmsteading. We have had some significant losses in our broiler chickens. Not quite industry standard losses yet but we are closing in on it. Why? Well is is the heat and all things associated with the hottest summer on record.

The chicks are at their most vulnerable state. They are five weeks old. At this stage their size gain is out racing their hearts ability to keep up. Normally they are fine but temperatures have not dipped below eighty at night and soar well into the triple digits everyday. This has been ongoing the entire month of August.

I don't have enough solar fans so that each tractor has a fan. We shuffle the two of them to the sunniest placed tractors. Additional shade *sheets* were added to our borrowed tractors. I thought I had things stabilized. Yesterday, while Ron was visiting one of my water fountains failed. The little lock-nut that locks the adjustment nuts together released. The water had only quit for an hour or so. But, it was during the heat of the day. We rescued several of them near death by dipping them into cool water--whew.

In the future I plan redundant water fountains in each tractor. This will afford a much needed security cushion.

Lessons to remember:

Broiler chickens won't step from the shade even to get to the water when temperatures are above 100 degrees.
Raise larger batches in the fall and spring. Keep the batch in the heat of the summer small because Missouri summers are too intense.

Since we feed our dogs on a raw diet they are happy for any early deaths. They are perfect guardians though. Even after getting fed whole birds with feathers they would never chase or kill any chickens.

I am alright now, knowing exactly what caused the deaths and how to mostly avoid them in the future. It is still upsetting since we have never had losses of this magnitude. We had an excellent visit with Ron. He saw me at a really vulnerable moment. He immediately got it when I yelled "bring out your dead"

On a better note. Our dehydrator is truly magic. We dehydrated all of the onions, some elderberries and a whole load of tomatoes.

It is amazing that five gallons of tomatoes could fit into two quart jars. We love our dehydrator.

I'm going to go check on the chickens for the umpteenth time today. *running with fingers crossed*

bucket fountain to water chickens

2010-08-18T10:38:00.000-05:00

Here is an illustration of my low pressure water fountain supply using a five gallon bucket as the reservoir.

This diagram connects directly to the Little giant fountain.

This is the brand we started with and like it as long as we use a (sock) pre-filter. There are other fountains that have benefits and shortcomings. Mostly, this what we started with. The unit has a small screen in the threaded connection point but it gets clogged quickly. Using the sock pre-filter mostly solves this problem.

The bucket can hang from the bail or sit over a horizontal support with a hole in it. I use both methods. In my father-in-law's tractor it hangs from the bail. In my tractors I use a milk crate with a hole cut in the bottom zip-tied to the tractor for security. If I remove the fountain by the quick dis-connect the bucket can lift out of the milk crate for dumping or maintenance.

The piece of hose allows the fountain bowl to hang level and makes swirling the fouled water out quickly and easily with one hand.

I also use this style fountain in my rain water collection system for the laying hens. I had to employ a different pre-filter than a sock.

taste of marrow

2010-08-15T21:33:00.002-05:00

Sometimes life seems too wonderful, while other moments are bitter with strife. Questioning the condition is a product of leisure. Busy living one doesn't analyze the moment, hopefully we live it. Lately I have been grasping the instant, the spark. The adoring look of my child's eye I relish. I live there for as long as I can. This moment is mine to cherish until all other memories fail. When I die this is the moment I want to resurrect. Full to the brim, rich like no wealth can describe. I am happy...

Dayglo'melay

2010-08-14T16:10:00.002-05:00

Last year we only planted one German-stripe plant. I saved seeds from several tomatoes from it because I loved how they taste. We planted a whole row of them this year. Most plants were true to type but we had one lucky variation. A whole plant of the most fabulous tomatoes I have ever tasted.

They taste like peaches and vibrate with day-glow iridescent pink and yellow. We have dubbed the tomato Dayglo'melay. We will plant an entire row of them next year. I will save seeds from the best of those and possibly offer seeds for sale. Yeah they'll be cheap, mostly to cover the shipping.

I have eaten so many of them this year. I would normally have a mouth full of canker sores. I usually eat cherokee purple to excess and they have a much higher acid content. Not these babies.

Tabitha has also discovered the perfect canning tomato. We occasionally watch *Lidia's Italy* on the cooking channel on PBS. She is always raving about San Marzano tomatoes. We grew some of them and are extremely impressed. They are not a good salsa tomato nor taste good sliced but add a little heat and they are amazing. They cook down very quickly and make thick rich tomato paste. We also grew an organic version but they failed almost immediately. *shakes fist into the air* They suffered from the blight the earliest and worst. Even the copper spray didn't stop the death. So we are on the hybrid band wagon for the time being. I might try and save some seeds from them anyway. What is the worst that can happen? Poor/no germination or never set fruit might happen. But, I might get lucky and have my own seed. The book gardening when it counts states that most of the newer *heirloom* varieties came from hybrids from the fifties.

My parents sent Kassi a bunch of Iris rhizomes. They are labeled and organized for Kassi to grow them for sale. Four varieties will be ready next year and dozens will be ready in a couple of years.

We planted half of them in the raised beds by the peach tree. The other box of longer term plants are still in my closet. We need to get beds ready for them and it is too hot out to do that kind of work.

Bob is loaning us four fencing panels for a dog pen for Astrid. I know, that doesn't sound like me. It appears that she will go into heat before the boys are ready. Plus we'd like her to not get bred her first heat. So we'll put her up during her heat until the boys are ready and she has had a few heats.

Tucked under the fence panels are four twelve foot long telephone pole sections. They are going to be a play tower for the kids. It will overlook the garden and paddocks. It will be like a guard tower. I'm thinking a zip-line careening into the forest.

The broiler chicks are growing like crazy.

This is my new door design. It requires a pipe bender to make but it is really elegant and simple.

I also put an improved handle on this tractor.

It is inspired from mikes tractors that I am borrowing. We are very pleased with his tractors. They turn on a dime and squeak next to fences more easily than mine.

I also had an epiphany regarding the water fountain for this new tractor. The pipe connects to the bottom of the bucket with a homemade bulkhead fitting and a sock as pre-filter.

It goes straight down to the water fountain using a bit of old hose so it will hang correctly in an incline situation. The whole thing clicks apart and removes from the tractor quickly and easily for dumping, cleaning or repair.

Having the water fountain connected to a flexible hose has the added benefit of easy dumping of the bowl when it gets fouled.

I also added the new style doors to the old tractors.

We zip tied billboard-vinyl-tarp to the doors. So far we are very pleased.

These birds are looking so healthy.

We also turned the sheep loose in the paddocks. They promptly used the dog pass through and went to the upper field. They like being where the dogs are. The dogs love them, respect them and genuinely seem to enjoy protecting them.

solar energy rules

2010-08-10T12:30:00.001-05:00

Tristan is now eight years old as of yesterday.

Last week I attended a solar conference in St. Louis. It was great. There were some technology improvements and many more on the way. Five years ago when I was installing solar in San Frisco bay area inverter efficiency was 85% at best. Now efficiency is closing on 99%. This is huge since you needed several thousand dollars worth of P.V. panels to compensate.

I got all excited, met many interesting people and learned about all the new inverter technologies. Tabitha survived my being away for two nights--barely. The kids were so excited to see me my first morning back.

The water heater went out immediately after I left the house for two days. I came home and needed to replace the water heater first thing. I have cleaned it and replaced the elements enough times to make it unreliable. I bought a water heater with a clean-out port so this one should last longer and be easier to maintain.

The broiler chickens have grown like crazy. We have them on an improved feed formula. It is based on Joel Salatin's recipe. Part of the protein is fish meal. This means that the birds eat vegetable and animal protein in a proportion that makes them grow healthier and slightly faster.

The problem is most feed mills won't mix animal protein unless they have a dedicated facility. Our mill has us buy the following batch of a different formula to be sure the that the system is cleared. Our layer ration usually is a good follow-up. We are good customers for them and they work with us in a way that is difficult to find. Finding out that standard (*chicken chow* and the like) almost always has Arsenic in it was really scary. Arsenic is poison both forms of it. If you are feeding your chickens chick-frye or layer-ration call your corporate feed supplier and complain.

I am going to collaborate with Tabitha and make a large post about our chicken raising operation. Promoting healthy local food in an open-source way can only have benefits for everyone. Health conscious people should be aware of what you eat, eats.

On grass

2010-07-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

There is something so thrilling putting the chickens onto the grass. At first they are timid and school around like fish. Then a brave chicken will tentatively investigate and perhaps chase a bug. Within a few hours they are all very comfortable running around stretching their wings.

Their brooder was so small. It makes my soul feel good watching them be chickens. Although they are confined, they are not suited to roam the fields free.

I didn't get my chicken tractor finished in time for them to go into it. Outside temperatures have been like a blow-furnace. I worked as much as I could. Alas, I couldn't get it done. We decided to divide the remaining birds among the four coops that I had prepared.

Here is one of Mikes tractors that I borrowed for this round of birds.

It is heavier than the ones that I make but have the benefit of bicycle cantilevered wheels. They employ a mechanical advantage and compensate for the added weight remarkably well. I like the "A" house shape.

The birds seem to really like it.

Astrid is happy to do her job and guard these little guys.

Jack and Ianto are almost as big as Astrid already. They will be substantially larger dogs in the end.

The pigs get a shower a few times per day.

They got all the off-fall from Mike and our corn processing. It will be mashed into rich beautiful soil within a few months. We love pigs.

We never did catch up on some of our garden after the visit to Michigan. Weeds just seemed to take over. We just fenced the sheep in that area. They should get things back into a more manageable state in short order.

This wagon really gets a workout around here. I used it to haul full feed barrels 350# each to distant areas of the farm. Here it is on trash duty.

The kids can load it heaping full with wood and bring it to the porch. Tristan pulling while Kassi and Toly pushing. One of the better farm investments I have made.

Speaking of investments, we we most graciously gifted a new dehydrator. The Dehydrator of dreams is now full of onions I am anxiously waiting to see how long they will take. I loaded four times as many onions in the thing. Very exciting, thank you thank you Annette. I can't wait to try dehydrated tomatoes, yum.

Rome had his second birthday.

He is such a smart boy. Being recently two he has been testing his boundaries. Oh that boy...

Our chickens are almost ready to get on the grass.

2010-07-26T21:16:00.001-05:00

We believe two weeks is the soonest broiler chickens should leave their brooder.

I am working on a new chicken tractor. It will incorporate all of my latest improvements. The new door style, new feeders, and an electric hot-wire around the top. This tractor will also incorporate a D.C. fan that will plug into my solar panel.

Very high-tech. This little cross pipe will support the milk crate that holds a five gallon bucket for their water.

I also am going to borrow two of my Father-in-laws chicken tractors. He has a different style tractor we are excited to try them.

I have to go to the feed mill tomorrow. These are the barrels that we use to store and transport the feed.

It saves on the bagging charge.

We have always fed our meat chickens custom mixed grain. Tabitha found this link that makes us feel good about five year old choice.

Arsenic found in children traced back to commercial chicken feed.

gratuitous kitten photo.

children of the corn

2010-07-25T12:04:00.006-05:00

We had a windfall. Tabitha's father planted ten rows of sweet corn. It is in ideal conditions, an old fallow garden spot that he planted beans in last year then a cover crop of turnips through the winter. A healthy dose of chicken and cow manure tilled and planted. He coddled the corn early then left it to it's own devices.

Today was a day of bounty. Late morning I picked four of the ten rows of corn, only the top ear. Tactile memories from my child hood covered me. The sound of a breeze rustling in a corn field is specific. Tearing corn from the stalk, I have done this in a previous life.

Before I left the "show-canner" needed to be set to heat water for corn blanching. Our new grill has almost the exact footprint as the amish canner. All that heat could happen out-of-doors.

Once home the shucking of the corn began. Toly was the first to help in earnest. Then everyone got into the act.

My neck knife was the exact tool for the job of cutting the wormy ends.

Tristan takes his work very seriously.

He has inherited the meticulous gene from my mother.

Everyone helped even Rome.

Working together, saving food for winter what could be better?

These kids know where their food comes from.

I taught Tristan a nice method for getting all the silky hairs.

Sweaty and hot, Tabitha requested that I take off my hat for a photo.

I own a very sharp knife. The best thing is, it stays really sharp. Anyone that cares about "the little things" should have a knife like this.

Admittedly I'm biased my friend Patrick forges knives and made this one for me. After cutting the tips from corn cobs all day I will be able to shave with this knife tonight. It might seem machismo but having a really sharp knife around your neck but it is incredibly practical.

Tabitha has a neck knife also. She claims that it has changed her life.

We started by collecting jars from the root cellar and pump house. I went and picked the corn while Tabitha cleaned the jars and got the canning stuff ready. I arrived home with about four bushels of corn.

As you can see shucking the corn was a family affair.

We assembly line worked the corn until it was ready for blanching. The USDA canning guide said three minutes in boiling water.

I plopped them into cool water to stop the heat.

Then the corn queued up in the cooler with milk cartons of ice.

in the end the cooler might have been able to hold three or four more cobs.

Having all that heat outside really made sense but it sure was hot out there over that boiling pot.

Tabitha had all the jars ready for corn and came out to the production line.

We brought all the corn inside and started processing. I used an electric knife and a bundt pan to hold the cobs. It seemed to to do an excellent job.

I didn't try any other method. I can't say if it is better than specific corn knifes or not.

We chose the hot-pack method. The corn must be brought to a boil then put into the jars.

I was cutting corn so fast that my hands were a blur.

Here is my skinny wife packing the jars.

She stopped eating wheat and dairy. This has had a huge affect on her metabolism. Now when I say "I'm watching my girlish figure" it is Tabitha that I'm talking about.

Here they go--fingers crossed.

I finally got smart and got a stool to sit on. A knot started in the center of my back while standing.

Just ignore that huge pile of papers Tabitha is cleaning it today, really she is...

The corn was beautiful and very tasty.

Here is a picture of some of the final product.

There was a grand total of 19 quarts and 36 pints.

New Job

2010-07-20T14:38:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I accepted a new job. Tabitha wrote about it here

This is the company The Alternative Energy Company. Check them out and let me know what you all think?

I am excited.

Me and the kids are off to the creek to celebrate.

your faithful servant,
karl

Dehydrating Onions

2010-07-18T13:10:00.004-05:00

Dehydrated onions are one of our most useful garden stores. They are wonderful just as a snack--like hearty candy. Mostly we use them by the hand full in soups, chili and sauces. Tabitha also grinds them up and adds them to taco meat. This is about half of our harvest left in this wagon.

By the way, I would like to fully endorse that sprayer.

They have made the entire spraying process better. Subtle little innovations just make things easier.

I cut the tops and peel them in the sink under running water. I leave the root end because our mandolin likes it better this way. I prepare enough to fill the entire dehydrator.

This part of the process is entirely tearless, the running water really helps.

Our old cutting board split in two and we had get a new one. This one is so great, I don't know how we lived without it. That little routed trough around the edge has saved me many messes.

I set the mandolin (thank you Nicole) to the thickest slice possible. We have experimented with all thicknesses and we prefer this because it is yields the most product for the least amount of work.

Kassi is in the background sewing.

I load the racks thickly and over lapping a little especially loose rings. Slabs are best tightly packed.

Having tried every wives-tale to keep the tears at bay, I use the fan method. By the end of the process the entire house is filled with teary gas.

It is a parts-per-million kinda solution. Kassi is very affected by the teary blight.

We store the completely dry onions in half gallon mason jars. Last year we started with one gallon and could have used much more. Onion slices of this thickness take about thirty six hours with vigilant tray rotation. We have a cheap dehydrator with only a heating element. Someday we dream of a better model.

This one has a fan and element, larger capacity equals faster dehydration times with larger loads.

Gratuitous garden harvest photo.

Harnessing untapped sources of energy

2010-07-17T19:02:00.001-05:00

Tabitha has been employing Tristan to do the glasses for a few weeks. He does a great job and gets to earn a privilege.

He cleans them better than the dishwasher does and makes stacked dish art.

Tristan earned two privileges today. The first one was because he picked up a wheel barrow load of cow patties from the upper paddock. We compost all of our cows manure and it is a huge help for him to clean up the paddock like that. Furthermore, the cow won't eat the grass in about a one foot radius form one of her old cow patties for many months. If we left all of them in the field there wouldn't a blade of grass left to eat within a few months.

Sure the fields don't get all that fertilizer from the cow but that is why we raise chickens in tractors. There are no diseases that transmit easily between species (from the chickens to the cow). It is a perfect symbiosis. The cow doesn't mind eating after the chickens move through a field.

We received our latest order of broiler chicks. The post office had a little debacle and left them in a hot warehouse. We have already lost a few. I hope they thrive.

I made a brooder out of stacked bales of straw. It seems to be working really well. Now I just need to build three more chicken tractors. It was too hot today for me to work outside on them so I worked on my portable solar fan system. We use them to circulate air in the chicken tractors when they must be in the direct sun.

My system will utilize one large solar panel and two recycled attic fans. I attached wheels to the solar panel to make it easy to move.

Then I attached the D.C. leads to a regular house outlet.

This way I can use standard extension cords to run power from the panel to the separate tractor fans. Sure there is the potential for confusion with regular A.C. stuff but this will be nowhere near A.C. stuff.

Plus I know better. One tip if you plan something similar. Cover the panel with complete shade(I flip mine over) when plugging and unplugging. A direct current spark will ruin standard outlets and plugs.

This just wheels around like a wheel barrow--easy.

On other news the kitten factory is in peak production. In true Ozarks fashion the matriarch grandmother is raising her grand children and her own children at the same time.

Two of her grandchildren haven't survived but this is the best we can hope for.

Twelve hours later (a day of preserving peaches)

2010-07-14T08:51:00.002-05:00

Have I mentioned that I have an amazing wife? She spent the entire day canning peach jam. We stumbled across an astonishing deal on peaches and bought the lot of them.

I had to be gone for the morning. When I came home Tabitha was well into preserving jam. I sat down and helped as best I could.

She had already done the lions share of the work. This is what she had in half pints. I thought it looked pretty.

I helped feed the kids, chop fruit and clean some of the dishes. Tabitha worked over the giant canner. She had a system where she was heating jars for the next batch, canning the prior batch and heating the lids in a steamer rack all in the canner. It was very efficient and streamlined. I having had cut all the fruit left her to really get into production. It is funny that my little contribution could make such a big difference.

The purple stain on the table cloth is from one of our wonderful egg customers dropping off two plus gallons of blackberries. I dumped them into a strainer (the only clean large vessel left in the kitchen) oops...

Tabitha has been nursing a bad back since butchering chickens and toughed it out to get ninety five half pints of jam done.

Such a beautiful comforting sight. What ever happens we won't starve this winter.

Today we need to preserve some blackberry jam. I have to get ready for the one hundred and fifty baby chicks coming tomorrow morning. I have already built the brooder. Now I just need to sterilize all the equipment and hook it all up. Over the next two weeks I need to build three more chicken tractors. Whew and I haven't even started the slip form cement work on the barn.

I need a clone that doesn't want to steal my wife and kids from me;0

And who will help me eat the harvest?

2010-07-12T15:40:00.001-05:00

We have started to add to our pantry. Onions are the first harvest and I have ran through two dehydrator loads of them. This is what I have left to peel slice and load in the dehydrator.

This year has been a successful year for beets. We grew a F1 hybrid from Johnny's called Merlin. We love them. Big healthy and very tasty. Where appropriate we grow heirloom plants but beets are not something we'll attempt to save seeds from in the near future. Although we have been enjoying the thinnings for several weeks, we just got around to harvesting them in earnest. This batch is from the front yard row.

It is very weedy. Our trip to Michigan left this row in shambles. I'll cover this row with a black tarp, kill the weeds and sterilize the soil for a few weeks. After that I'll plant a cover crop. These are the littlest beets after sorting and removing the larger ones for this first batch.

Here are some of the larger ones in the queue for the cooker.

These beets are partially cooked and will cool so we can slip the skins off, slice them and stick them in jars.

As I type the last quart of fifteen is being added to this canner.

These will be pickled beets and here are the spices to be added to each jar.

Other recent additions to our pantry and freezer are two quarts of black raspberries, three quarts of black berries, fourteen quarts of green beans.

The sheep are working out nicely. We have kept them in a fifteen foot piece of snowfence and move it regularly along our fence rows. They are excellent at keeping me from having to weed eat the fence rows.

A simple piece of tarp for shelter and a bucket of water are all they need. We plan to shear them before butcher. I also hope to tan their hides. So far sheep seem to fit well into our farm. Lamb being my favorite meat affords them a little more latitude than usual.

The dogs are doing well. They are shedding their puppy coats and look a little scruffy.

Astrid is an excellent livestock guardian. She also has enveloped our house into her sphere of protection. Visitors are notified that a large dog lives here with a deep menacing bark.

The other night Tabitha went to the barn with a flashlight and Astrid did not recognize her. Astrid ran around at lightspeed to the upper paddock to surround her. Astrid and the boys closed in on her to attack from front and rear. This scared Tabitha and she yelled their "disarm" word. They immediately stood down and marched around with ruffled back fur snorting heavily. Scary but kinda makes a person feel good about personal protection.
Astrid is nine months old and will only get better at her job. She is probably 75% grown in size. The boys, Captain Jack and Ianto will be quite a bit larger than Astrid. They come from larger stock and they are boys. We feel lucky to have these dogs. They are on a raw meat diet plus table scraps. Very healthy and anxious to please.

How does your garden grow?

2010-07-08T06:21:00.003-05:00

Of course Tabitha is an excellent gardener. She is diligent, observant and proactive. The problem has been, no mater what we tried our plants still suffered. This year, I believe that our current level of success with our garden is because of two technology improvements.

Copper spray is a powerful fungicide. It is organically certified but dangerous to use. Full hazmat gear is recommended on the label while spraying. We have been spraying weekly and are just managing to stay ahead of the tomato blight.

Pruning off infected foliage and spraying, exposed some fruit to possible sun damage. In the above photo Tabitha used some old tulle as a partial shade cloth.

Neem is another powerful organically certified weapon in our arsenal. It kills indiscriminately so we are cautious to use it only when necessary and in a very focused manner. We like our beneficial insects to live to fight for us another day. The latest thing we have tried is to neem drench our cucumber plants roots. This really seems to have worked on the cucumber beetle onslaught. Cucumber beetles are a sinister foe. They are impossible to catch by hand in mass. By eating the foliage they infect the plant with bacterial wilt that can quickly kill the plant. If the plants survive this first assault the beetles larvae dig into the ground and eat the cucumber plant roots. This usually happens just before the first fruit has a chance to grow to size.

As you can see there is plenty of cucumbers on the thriving vines. We have been mixing a root drench of neem and fish emulsion and pouring it directly on the plant roots. The neem kills any beetle larvae. The fish emulsion feeds the plant. Something else seems to be happening. Tabitha read that the neem can get sucked up into the plant and systemically deter the cucumber beetles from eating the foliage.

We have eaten several fresh cucumbers and a few tomatoes. We are hopeful of a bountiful harvest this season.

The butternut squash seem to be thriving also.

Our little farm is starting to look a little more kempt since our vacation. Here the echinacea are looking pretty.

I have also started digging the footings for the barn. I plan to slip-form these walls and this is my first step. Why didn't I just have this dug mechanically? We didn't plan to have a cement floor in this milking barn at first. After thoughts are hard on my back.

This is Toly's new playground. I am going to pour it in sections. I am about one quarter the way done digging. Each shovel load requires at least three strikes with a pick axe to loosen the soil. Digging in the Ozarks is no fun.

The dirt is back fill for an intended garden terrace. When done the garden should be fifteen feet wider. Every little bit helps.

We also got a couple of lambs from our friends. Here they are hiding their eyes thinking I can't see them.

Immediately after we ordered a new camera battery charger we found the old one. Isn't that how it always goes?

I lost my chi for a little while.

2010-07-02T07:10:00.001-05:00

Much has happened since I have made time to write.

We took a trip to my parents house in Michigan for a week. The kids love their grandparents and had a blast. Their yard is like a botanical garden (I'm not exaggerating). One favorite was the coy pond with several huge coy, a water fall and blooming water lilies. Kassi's favorite was the fairy garden with a close second being all the exotic day lilies. The boys were intrigued by all the winding paths and sitting nooks. Kassi is going to start a day lily business. It will take several years but my Mother is sending her starts of all her pricey exotic day lilies. We plan to encourage this most passionately. Although top soil is at a premium in the Ozarks this is something that could pay for college and afford a little spending money along the way. Kassi is perfectly suited for this. She is passionate about flowers, knowing their names and is not scared to work in her garden.

We butchered fifty chickens in three and a half hours and survived. Our friends came to help and what a huge help they were. We learned so much from them. They have been selling chickens for a few years and had some revolutionary insightful methods. Usually after butchering Tabitha and I are at each others throats, not true for this occasion. Killing animals always makes me feel raw and irritable. Matt, Rachel and family were a Godsend. Thank you.

We have already ate several chickens and find them to be the best we have ever raised. Customers arrived and picked up chickens. Most everything went off without a hitch. We are expecting one hundred and fifty birds within ten days. Tabitha has declared that we need one hundred chickens in our freezer for winter. This seems accurate since we devoured an entire chicken the other night with no leftovers. We will soon be a two chicken per meal family. We like leftovers.

It surprised me how many unnoticed little maintenance tasks we accomplish everyday. This was revealed to me after coming home and seeing our place in a shambles. The ~~jungle~~ garden was unbelievable, impassible and generally frightening. The yard became so overgrown that Bob had to bring his weed-eater to cut paths just take care of the animals. Tabitha's sage and one of Kassi's rose bushes became victim to the nylon whip. The dogs grew while we were gone and so did the pigs. I hardly recognized our replacement pullets.

We brought tons of plants back from my parents. Our rocky path got an entire makeover. We dug the cracks out and replaced the lime base chat with soil and planted some wonderful ground cover. I had to use the shop vacuum to get the chat out from between the rocks. It took several hours but I think most of the plants will survive and hopefully thrive.

You might be wondering why I have no photos of these exploits. Coincidentally this also explains why I have had trouble finding my writing chi. Alas, the charger to the camera battery is missing and has kept me from taking photos of any of these activities. Does anyone know the name of the saint for finding lost things? We need an intervention here.

Recent failure

2010-06-13T22:03:00.000-05:00

My Japanese beetle trap was a bust. It does not work and I should have actually used a real trap before I tried to make my own. Milky spore and beneficial nematodes are in my future.

On a up note I did build something that works quite well.

It is a mini chicken tractor for between the rows in the garden.

These are some pullets that are too little to run free and too big to stay in the brooder. We have been feeding them the Japanese beetles that our traps aren't catching. We are catching them by hand again this year--a loosing battle. You can't see it here but they are decimating our pole beans.

Another success is our new garden fence.

It is chicken proof and mostly children proof.

I also drifted closer to my rain water catchment goal.

Here the cow stable steel roof sheds to her stock tank.

This pvc guttering is cheap. That is if you don't use their fittings or mounting hardware. A piece of gutter is around five dollars. While if you were to install it per recommendations you'd spend thirty or forty.

Another experiment is our sweet potato patch. We are using hillbilly mulch (aka old carpet) and cut holes in it for the slips.

I hope it works.

We also took delivery of some of our winters hay. Ten beautiful bales of wheat hay that Mike just put up with his new bailer.

Round bales are not our favorite but these were too beautiful to pass up.

The biggest success of the year is the black raspberry patch. Even having to share roughly half of our bounty with the Japanese beetles we are in berry heaven.

Kassi invented a desert. fresh raspberries still warm from the sun and vanilla ice cream.

Heaven on earth...

Every toy that Toly has been playing with of late has to have a trailer of one sort or another.

Kassi found a clam shell at the creek.

meet ropey

2010-06-08T20:50:00.003-05:00

Early June photos

2010-06-06T20:41:00.002-05:00

The black raspberries. Yes they are still red--mostly. I admit to have eaten a few.

Our Peach tree needed crutches.

Our strawberry season is over.

We ran a third hot-wire to maintain the dog boundary in the field where the broiler chickens are lurching around.

They are incredibly healthy seven weeks old.

I'd move them more than twice per day if it weren't so bloody hot.

They mostly lounge around except just after a lurch forward move. That is when they scurry about looking for that illusive insect.

This is a view from where the chickens are toward the house.

Each of the kids have their own raised bed. They love it and are very proud to show them off to any visitors.

They each chose what they want planted there.

The greenhouse is mostly empty of seedlings now.

I like the soil block maker, I admit it.

The tomatillos have battled and seem to be winning.

There be salsa verde in my mouth very soon.

The new soaker hoses get my full endorsement.

They are better than the old ones in every way. We have the 75 foot version.

Here we are trying winter wheat in between our tomatoes.

This is the season where our garden looks the best--right before everything starts dying.

Toly has become fixated on the hose connectors. We use the quick connect style.

Jack is a great dog. We have such high hope for both him

and Ianto

These pigs are our favorites of any we have raised.

Ginger is so cute.

Ianto

Astrid is a show dog.

She'll never compare to Henry but in some ways she is better. She definitely is more protective of Tabitha and the kids already. She is about half grown now.

Yes, she will be a big dog.

This will be garden soil next year.

Jocelyn is looking great these days. She gets a few mower bags full of grass clippings each weather permitting day.

She loves it more than anything. It is like pre-chewed-food.

This is my barn ladder-stairs. They pull up out of the way on a hinge mechanism.

The Japanese beetles have arrived

2010-06-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

In only two days since we saw the first one. The devastation is profound. I set my trap and nothing happened. No beetles ventured toward my trap. This stuff is supposed to be crazy drawing beetles from far and wide. My bait was a last year purchase so we decided that we should but new bait. I believe my logic to be sound. My trap should work!

The new bait said it has the sex pheromone and the floral scent. It also said that most other baits only include the floral scent. Humm... I'll see in a few minutes if my new bait worked.

Yesterday we planted sweet potatoes. The cow promptly broke into that new area and destroyed most of them. All those starts that Tabitha has been nurturing, just a hand full left. Arrgh... We replanted them and are hopeful.

The garden drama has officially started.

A visit to the creek

2010-06-03T21:20:00.000-05:00

Summer is in full swing. Sweltering temperatures always steer us to the cooler temperatures of the creek. It is the favorite spot for the season.

Rome has never been to the creek. He is fearless and surefooted.

That is good and bad since our local creek is a slippery place to walk. But, he is not scared to rush in deeper than is safe. I guess he is sure that Daddy will rescue him if any real trouble presents itself.

That is a scary expectation to live up to as a parent.

Toly is convinced that he drowned last year at the creek. I admit he did slip under for half a second and swallow some water. This year a life jacket is the only way he'll even get his toes wet. Revisionist history anyone? I try to explain that he did in fact not drown. If he were to have drowned he would not be here to enjoy the creek another day.

He loves the creek and talks about it constantly when separated from it.

He was very disappointed that we didn't go again today. We might go tomorrow.

Kassi has perfected the "creek crawl." It is the only safe method to quickly travel from one water slide to the next.

Kassi also caught some local fauna. Tabitha helped her get everything into containers so our new friends could be decanted into our stock tank for further study.

Tristan is an old-pro at creek activities.

This might be the year that learns to really swim. I always take each child into the deeper water and swim around with them riding my back. Rome liked doing that especially well. So much so, that he wouldn't stop until his teeth had been chattering for several minutes. Toly clung to me very tightly but enjoyed it none the less. Tristan and Kassi would never let go of my shoulders if I didn't force them to stop.

The creek is a wonderful way to cool down on these extremely hot days.

meet timmy

2010-06-01T07:31:00.000-05:00

while cutting some brush for a dog thoroughfare i spotted a terrapin. kassi was flitting across the pallet wall that contains the pigs. her balance is amazing. i reached down in the thicket, picked him up and held him high. i got the look of amazement and glee from kassi.

it took him a while to get comfortable and come out of his shell.

we are on a strict homeschooling catch and release program. we observe any benign animal and release it back where we got it from. timmy as kassi named him needed a new home.

he wouldn't be safe where the dogs have access. i pity any animal that interlopes their domain.

in the gods must be crazy fashion everyone seemed to need timmy the turtle. i felt that timmy's life might be in jeopardy. his release was premature for everyone except timmy.

good bye timmy, may you have a long and happy life.

sold out

2010-05-28T18:09:00.001-05:00

we have sold all of our chicken that we are offering of this round of birds. we need to keep a few for ourselves. we like to eat at least one chicken per week.

they look really great, healthy chickens. it is very satisfying moving them twice per day. they get so excited for the new possibility of bugs and such. i made these new feeders just before we put the birds in.

they like them so well that they stopped using their old feeder.

it was just dead weight in the coop and made it harder to move. version 2.0 was four inches wide. see below

i decided that each chicken tractor needed a second feeder. having learned from version 2.0 feeder that they were a little too narrow and could use a little more capacity. my next attempt, i used a six inch wide pvc pipe and cut it length ways in half. also i wanted the center bar to spin so birds wouldn't try to roost above their wider food bin.

welcome to version 2.2

it seems to work as hoped. it hangs from the tractor. we raise it up and it moves with the tractor easily.

we have also restrung the electric fence to include a third lower hot wire. we want the dogs to have access to pastured poultry to protect them. the puppies took to the new paddock immediately--there be chicken poop to eat in there.

astrid on the other hand it took four days of coaxing before she would tentatively expand her sphere of protection.

here the puppies are hanging with their girls.

symbiosis in action at the pile of omelays.

now if we can just keep all those birds healthy for the next month until butcher? we are also compelled to raise a hundred birds for the next round. We have sold twenty birds of that second batch already. we were hoping to raise a hundred birds for ourselves for this winter. we'll have to glean fifty each from the next two butchering dates. i'm not sure that is possible? to make things worse we just ate our last bird when ron came to visit. yes, ron i just outed you;)

now that i am seeing all those tasty birds several times per day i don't want to sell any of them. they are MY tasty chickens.

new pigs

2010-05-22T08:39:00.000-05:00

ginger and paprika

jack is feeling better.

ianto is still a little under the weather.

the tarps seem to have helped keep the drenching rain from my intended planting area. i shallow tilled it late yesterday to let the sun do a little more drying. we will try to plant three rows of trellised veggies in this area.

happy birthday

2010-05-19T20:58:00.001-05:00

uh, forty six i think...

this is my present from the kids. isn't it great. i have either been ill or so busy that i can hardly think. my commitments are more than i can fulfill at the moment. our garden is so far behind that i am extremely anxious.
we just planted pumpkins. i hope they do well this year.

we still have to plant cucumbers, butternut squash, peppers and !@#$%^.

the tomatoes are in and finally mulched.

the tarps are an attempt to keep the impending rain from saturating our to-be-planted garden areas. it is our only hope for getting anything planted in the near future.

the beets, onions and potatoes are really looking good.

we'll probably get ruined by hail just because i said that..

it is really starting to look like a garden.

hello little tomato.

toly stole the camera and took this photo.

and this one..

kassi was crying because tristan pulled up her mullein plant.

he took this one too.

this is a shot while riding the hugantic swing

a side view

this shot is just before tristan tackled him for the camera.

the rocky path is looking like it has been there forever.

we also got new pigs. they always seem illusive whenever we have had a camera. i'll get some photos very soon.

farmer McGregor

2010-05-07T13:39:00.001-05:00

whenever our garden is looking really nice, we say "very farmer McGregor." and, i know that i will regret even thinking this..

our garden is looking very farmer McGregor

i brought a wheel barrow load of compost and top dressed the beets and onions.

this is where we had a row of tomatoes last year. notice the hillbilly weed suppression?

the tomatoes have taken well and seem to like their new home.

now they have changed their forecast to include low forty temps for the next two nights. it is the only job where you can be consistently wrong and still keep your job. where is the accountability?

at least these guys won't suffer too much with new low temps.

our ginko tree is very happy here.

tabitha harvested a large basket of strawberries. there will be shortcake tonight.

the black raspberries are loaded with developing fruit. the bees have been really working on their blossoms.

our friends came to visit and their oldest daughter painted us a sign.

Kittens, on the back i plan to paint campfire wood. i'll turn it around when/if we run out of kittens;)

tacos with shredded radishes for dinner.

the barn is looking really nice too.

i put in a place to hang the carcass for our next butcher.

our chicks are almost three weeks old

i built them a hanging feeder out of 1/2 of a 4" pvc pipe.

they seem very strong and healthy. all natural pastured poultry.

not enough time

2010-05-06T07:21:00.004-05:00

just a quickie to document garden progress.

as of last night we planted thirty nine tomato plants, three rows.

this will be new soil to tomatoes. this area is where i sowed winter wheat. each row got two and a half wheel barrow loads of compost tilled into it. each plant hole was dug extra deep to the subsoil and back filled with straight compost.

this compost still has a small amount of oak leaves not completely disintegrated. in this state they should help make my soil slightly more acidic during the next few months.

i hope our tomatoes like this treatment. we also added about a tablespoon and a half to each hole of calphos, a fertrell product.

i have more compost this year than ever. it has slow cooked all winter so there are some hay seeds that have survived the composting process. i figure that i had six yards of completed compost as of this spring. there is another yard or so of compost that is almost ready. our new method of putting the cow in the stable each night and forking the manure each day is making quite a bit of raw materials. i might accelerate my queued amount for the fall garden and use it as compost tea. we have been putting compost tea on our berry patch and it seems to really make a difference.

i also have almost a yard of chicken manure compost. this will make fantastic compost tea too. i need to turn that into another bin and clean out the coop. i love having animals that we feed naturally. it is a comforting source of manure for our composting needs.

the tomato lineup is as follows: the first row, closest to the garden shed, is german stripe. the next row is jersey giant. the last row we planted was a mixed bag containing four cherokee purple on the south end. this will be the "salsa row" tomatoes of every persuasion. it is going to be a fun year. already we worry about the blight, bugs and hail.

we still have to plant the row and a half of marzano tomatoes. a cooking tomato that is renowned for it's full flavor, meaty flesh, smooth skin and few seeds. some of the italian cooking shows on pbs carry on about it's perfection. we are planting fewer tomato plants this year with wider spacing in hopes of better ventilation, more access to nutrients and easier access through the garden.

our intentions are to make more reduced tomato sauce during canning. that is what we really use the most. having a jar of reduced tomatoes means a quick meal.

wish us luck...

art from kassi

2010-04-30T21:16:00.001-05:00

titled "A girl looking at the ocean"

kassiopeia age five
she is truly amazing. everything is intentional even the droplets trailing away. it is like she sees it in her mind and makes it happen. lately i have caught her poring over my art books.

hay door

2010-04-30T19:30:00.001-05:00

are you sick of the barn yet? here is my new hay door. this baby is heavy, so heavy that i had to install a pulley to remove it from the pins to add the final center hinge.

see the pulley on the top right?

here is the east end of the barn almost finished.

just a few triangles left over the window.

the dogs found a baby wood duckling. tabitha rescued it. we called the proper people and they said try to raise it it will go wild as soon as it sees other ducks. so now we have a wood duckling. she is trying to feed it with a huge syringe. astrid was gently carrying it to her. she must have thought it was one of our chicks. crazy...

jack is ok and happily being a puppy again.

tabitha and i hung out in the barn during a heavy rain. it was fun, noisy and it smelled good. i am excited to get some progress on the barn. digging and rubble trench foundation are next.

the other end

2010-04-30T07:26:00.001-05:00

i worked on the other end of the barn yesterday. that big opening is where we will load hay.

i just have to build and install that door and finish a few trim spots and the upper section of the barn will be done.

the next big thing will be to start the rubble trench for the slip form foundation. between the slip form rock work and the wooden top will be cob. momentum has gripped our barn and it is exciting. building with that sycamore is heavy work. each piece weighs five time more than standard pine construction lumber. i am very sore today. i can't finish the door today it is supposed to rain and i need a break anyway.

the bamboo is really shooting up. we hope this entire half circle will be a huge hedge of bamboo. eventually i'll cut a cozy little hiding spot in the middle.

blocking our house from the road will be nice. the larger bamboo is loosing it's leaves and growing new. i didn't know it did that. i wonder if the existing stalks will get any thicker as a result? the new shoots are definitely thicker. it is magic to watch this stuff grow, so quick, almost startling.

the cow, jocelyn, was playing with astrid and hurt jack. he seems ok but that was a close call. he limped around late into the evening. the cow is moving paddocks today so this won't be able to happen for a while. maybe by then the puppies will be a little quicker and not so easily accidentally hurt.

ianto is almost twice the size of jack right now. jack had worms, obviously got them before he came here. we treat that stuff naturally. since ianto didn't have them jack will have some catching up to do. astrid loves her puppies. being a puppy still herself they are kinda like her siblings yet she also treats them like her babies. i am happy for them since they seem to have richer lives with each other.

jocelyn's mother is owned by our friends and she got snake bit recently. it is very sad and she is very sick. it is almost like having a relative get sick. she was part of our family for over a year. i hope she pulls out of it with her registered calf that she is carrying.

we didn't get any planting done yesterday like i wanted. the barn competes directly with any other item in my queue. it usually wins. i love spring. i could do without all the pollen this year but spring is a glorious time.

happy spring..

milking barn progress

2010-04-29T05:46:00.001-05:00

monday i drove to a local saw mill and picked up a pallet of sycamore. this is dimensional one inch thick rough cut very green lumber. a pallet weighs twenty seven hundred pounds. including the weight of the trailer i topped out the towing capacity of the van. i was surprised how easily our van towed it.

we stacked it by width to make it easier to find the piece i need. it took tabitha and i the better part of an hour to unload the trailer, organize and stack it.

that is a big pile of wood.

first thing in the morning i measured my intended window and made the window box. then i had to scratch my head a while because it was barely too big to fit in the intended spot. i had to recess the window a little and i was in business.

yes i am installing a perfectly broken window. i can easily re-glaze it and i like this style of window for my barn.

it is starting to look cozy.

the kids played and helped.

here they made sail boats.

tristan was especially helpful. he knows most of the tool names and can be counted on to retrieve things based on a simple description. here he is trying out his boat.

rome got a boat too.

it is wonderful how kids can imagine a boat out of a piece of wood, a nail and a leaf. those were kind of toys i enjoyed the most when i was a kid.

toly poised to hand me screws

that is a dangerous opening.

kassi helped too. mostly she flitted from pile to pile of wood.

the day was a home schooling extravaganza. everyone learned plenty, great fun was had and i got to finish the east end of the barn.

my peeps

2010-04-24T19:17:00.000-05:00

we have successfully sold (taken promise and deposit for) the minimum number of birds to offset our costs. the omelays are officially in the business of selling pastured poultry.

follows is the email that we sent out to local resources that disseminate that sort of information:

Hello from Karl and Tabitha O'Melay
We have had so many people request pastured chickens that we have decided to offer them this year! We will have a limited number of birds available on three different dates this summer into fall. The first date will be in late June, and of course we will have a better idea of the exact day as the birds grow. We are offering this email as an opportunity for you to reserve the number of birds you would like in June.
To give you an idea of what our birds are:
We raise our chickens from day one with natural feeds fortified with Fertrell minerals and probiotics - nothing synthetic, ever. These chicks are the picture of health. By two weeks they are out on grass doing what chickens do. They are moved twice daily in "chicken tractors" that protect them from predators while giving them free access to grass and bugs. They are part of a biodiverse and sustainable little farm that we call home. All of these ingredients come together on the day we humanely bring them to table-ready and offer them to you. The birds weigh from 5- 10 pounds, dressed. They are bagged, whole and clean and come with their pure giblets. They are ready to eat or ready to freeze for up to 9 months. We have raised our birds this way for 5 years and feel proud to offer them to others. Pure, natural, local food!
You may reserve your birds by email or by phone, but we request a $5 per bird deposit which you can bring by or mail after sign up. The deposit helps us to raise your birds and also helps cushion the cost for you, so I hope everyone will feel comfortable with it. And the price is right- $2.50 per pound of whole bird. The birds' final weights will not be known until pick-up day, but you should have your pick from a variety of weights between 5 and 10 pounds.
I hope you will try some of our chicken. Email or call for more information or to sign up.
Please feel free to forward this email to local people who might be interested in pastured poultry.
Karl & Tabitha O'Melay
223 State Highway O
Kissee Mills, MO 65680

http://www.omelayfarm.blogspot.com

if you live locally we still have some bird reservations available.

on to other news my mower finally gave up the ghost. the motor is fine, still starts on the first pull. it is the metal chassis that is completely rusted through on the motor mounts. i might reinforce it, put bigger wheels on it and convert it to a brush ~~hog~~ suckling piglet. we need something to help manage our paddocks between tractor (real brush hog) visits.

so we went to the local bigbox building store and bought a new mower at the height of mower sales. i got one with a honda motor, i'm still tentative about that. briggs and stratton has treated me right for years and i'm prone to brand loyalty. of course it was raining when i got home and i didn't get to test my mower on any grass.

the mower is integral to our deal here. i bag all that i mow and most of it is fed to the cow. at other times of the year it makes mulch for our garden. it also chops leaves for compost or chops hay for bedding for baby chicks, nest boxes, or the hen coop floor. i have abused my old mower and it was nearly worn out before the latest catastrophic failure. if i can recondition the old one it will take the dirtier jobs and the new one can live the life of luxury.

i also needed a new wheel barrow. the old one would need more money in brazing rods, time and acetylene than to just purchase a new one. the old one will also be given a second life in a similar manner as the mower. i simply cannot be without a wheel barrow while that one is taken out of service for major reconstruction. eventually i'll have two wheel barrows around here--something i have needed for some time.

monday i go to pick up a skid of green, one inch thick plank, rough cut sycamore. it should be enough to finish my hay loft. once that is done we can start cobbing the lower half in earnest. with that sycamore i will also construct an outhouse. we hope to invite people to our farm for a cob construction workshop. we need to have a privy. i'll also be hooking up the outdoor shower so we'll be ready for guests.

the rest of the sycamore will be queued for fence planks. we want a fence of horizontal X and level top and bottoms. the entire thing should be white washed. i hope we have enough lumber for it all.

mourning

2010-04-24T14:09:00.000-05:00

my world just got a little smaller. someone i really wanted to meet in person someday has moved on.

goodbye matty

compost day

2010-04-21T21:05:00.000-05:00

today was almost entirely dedicated to compost. the nine foot space between these two pallet bins was two thirds full of compost. that large bin was starting to fall apart. so i decided to empty and demolish it. it held about six yards of compost when full. it was full before planting started this spring.

i put about half of it in the new bin on the right. the other half is this huge pile in the garden waiting to nourish our little seedlings.

over a dozen full wheel barrow loads.

then i decided that we needed a couple more bins to take the daily manure removal from the stable. i wanted them next to the stable door for easy access.

here are the new compost bins.

the one on the right was filled from turning another demolished bin. that compost will be ready for our fall garden. the pink door is because i opened an old can of paint that couldn't be resealed. i painted a few other things around the farm. i hate to waste paint.

ianto and jack have settled in nicely.

this morning we planted red raspberries.

yesterday we planted tomatillos. they are a little more hardy toward cooler temps than tomatoes.

they are just to the left of the bean arch in this photo. here they are from the other angle.

i also hooked up one of the manifolds to the soaker hoses.

i put the hoses and manifold (four way splitter) on tarp to suppress weeds and expose any leaks that always appear throughout the summer.

our giant bamboo has just started to show. it comes a little later than the smaller local bamboo.

our ginko tree is looking healthy.

in the background is a cover crop of winter wheat and my huge pile of compost.

tabitha made a bamboo gate.

cute..

our beets are up and doing nicely.

beets = good

our wisteria likes the new bamboo trellis.

the new toy

2010-04-21T08:47:00.002-05:00

because work is play.

as most of you know, i enjoy environmentally conscientious methods of construction. my root cellar is a prime example. although i am not a hippie zealot, well, i might be deep in my soul. nonetheless i construct many things like my chicken coop out of standard materials. i confess that most of the materials for the coop were either free and recycled or seconds and very cheap.

this is the summer of the milking barn. our heifer is due in september and we have solemnly sworn that she will be milked in a barn. to that end, we need to finish the barn and we want to make it out of cob-construction. cob is like sculpting your structure out of clay, literally.

cob needs to be protected from the elements else it will eventually wash away. we plan to lime plaster our cob barn. lime plaster is messy, potentially wasteful and caustic stuff. that is why we needed a stucco sprayer. stucco is usually made from cement but lime, earth and papercrete plasters are interchangeable materials for this applicator. i wish i had this baby when i was making my ferrocrete shell for my root cellar. it would have made short work of the initial shell support structure.

my mortar sprayer arrived yesterday. this thing is elegant and seems robust. i might have to try it at bobs house first since he has a huge compressor. i want to see this thing really preform before i hook it up to my little compressor. i might have to invest in a larger compressor than i originally intend.

i can't wait to try this thing. my new label plaster sprayer will highlight it's use.

beans in the garden already?

2010-04-16T06:23:00.001-05:00

planted in the garden to date.
potatoes, which aren't coming up yet and might never.
beets, little plants almost an inch tall two rows.
onion plants, two rows they have taken well.
pole beans, yes we planted our beans already.

after observing the extended forecast we couldn't resist.

since our first year here we have been making arbors for our beans. the first year we tried to make it out of bamboo. although it was like a work of art it wasn't strong enough for heavy wet pole beans. our next year we started using cattle panels to form the arch. this has been a glorious thing. it provides a shady avenue to the back of the garden. initially the beans are like low hanging fruit. it is a delicious morning stroll.

this is the season that bamboo shoots with blazing speed. here one is skewering two oak leaves.

our bamboo hedge should finally offer substantial privacy this year.

today we mulched between the strawberry plant beds.

there are many blooms we are hopeful of a big harvest. the black raspberry brambles are doing nicely in their relative confinement.

we put down landscape cloth then a thick layer of wood chips.

this is our new grain storage.

these drums should pay for themselves in bagging fees within a few visits to the mill. they seal so well that i can tip them on their side and roll them around full of grain. originally they held tomato paste.

here is what we are using the snow fence for.

it is chicken proof and we want to keep the girls in the lower paddock away from the garden and yard.

their paddock is so large that they don't really try to get into the upper paddocks or yard.

i had to move the red farm gate to improve our chicken proofing

the new broiler chicks have arrived.

they look very slick and healthy. i like our new hatchery so far.

the upper paddock is looking very healthy this year.

some of our tomato seedlings are looking leggy. i put a fan on them to encourage stem strength.

tabitha's new additions to the root cellar are blooming.

we also started to mulch around the fruit trees.

this is last years tomato bed covered with leaves, plastic then cattle panels. i did that in the fall. soon we'll peel it back and see how our soil fared.

i still have to paint the new arbor.

other gardening duties have superseded it's final cosmetics.

kassi posed, asked me to take this shot and wants to put it on her blog.

kassi walked around with me while i took photos for this post. looking back through them it makes me feel like we have an idyllic farm for a child to grow up in, i hope so.

torchwood fans get your fanfic elsewhere

2010-04-10T20:06:00.003-05:00

we have been waiting for another puppy since we got astrid.

she is a good dog but we never ever ever want to be without a LSG dog again. we need back up and we want replacements in the future. great pyranees, in my humble opinion, are the greatest dogs ever bred. people that have had bad experiences with them haven't gotten them young enough or haven't given them an interesting job.

if you thought those kitten were cute a few post back, brace yourself..

ready?

meet ianto pronounced yanto, he is on the right. that is jack on the left.

jack for short, aka captain jack harkness.

rome is really excited.

kassi and rome are waiting for me to introduce astrid to the boys.

toly and ianto

astrid checking things out.

rome thinks they are little polar bears.

they might be.

i think that kassi looks a little like my mother in this photo

tristan trying to teach them their names.

kassi waiting her turn.

time for a nap boys

photo heavy progress

2010-04-06T18:16:00.002-05:00

i finished my rainwater chicken piping. i only had to purchase a few parts. i already had most of them. one critical part that i had and didn't purchase was cracked. i was almost thwarted but luckily i changed my plan. a few modifications to some fittings and i was in business.

here it is nearly finished. all i need is to cover it from the sunlight and install a leaf screen pre-filter from the gutter chain.

my self flushing screen is integrated in the valve from the tank.

i epoxied a fine mesh screen to the end of the pipe. after reaming out the "T" so the pipe would slip clear into the fitting, i glued the pipe into the branch side of the "T". the water normally takes the turn in the "T" to go to the water fountain. when i use the bucket fill valve it automatically rushes water past the constricted screen area. this flushes my screen and keeps the system operational.

i finished that in the morning then we went to harrison arkansas. they had the exact snow fence that we have been looking for. it was very inexpensive since it was sitting around for quite a while.

we borrowed bobs trailer and it worked perfectly.

then we worked on the calf pen. i finished roofing the entire thing. it has been renamed "the stable."

here is my mineral feeder.

here is the cow first day in this paddock.

she slept in her stable last night.

astrid is really coming into her own.

guarding and protecting are heavily in her nature.

this morning we started on the arbor. here are the raw materials.

i was gifted those arches from a friend.

the o'melay boys ready to help.

we decided to turn the arches up, japanese style.

i love it.

the cross slats were parts from our old grill. i like to recycle everything.

it will get painted a dark brown and be covered in kassi's roses. there will be slats ascending up each side.

tabitha and the kids picked three quarts total of violets. here is their first batch.

pretty violets

customers

2010-04-04T06:31:00.001-05:00

we have been selling eggs for a few months now. it seems to be balancing out. i mean, we are mostly paying for our eggs and have extra for extended family. we were frightened of "the other fella" as my father-in-law calls customers. so far most everyone is very nice and gracious. i must admit that our eggs are amazing and that goes a long way to securing return customers.

a couple of days ago i was working in my messy garage and an extra big shiny new truck pulls up. an older gentleman wearing a veteran of some war hat says "how much are you gonna charge me for a dozen eggs?" i say "two fifty." he carried on to balk at the price. finally, he asked if i knew how much he could get them for in the store. "a dollar ninety three just down the road." he listed some local store near springfield that sold them for less and would i take two dollars? i said "i would just as soon give you a dozen eggs" i was heavily implying that if he might be too poor to afford them (obviously, he could afford them).

we exchanged a few more words, his face got pretty red and he left. i almost asked him directly if he couldn't afford them i'd go get him a dozen. it was just as well, he wouldn't have been able to taste the difference between our eggs and those minimized eggs in the store anyway.

that is the exception. most of our customers are wonderful. this is especially encouraging since we are preparing to take deposits for our pastured poultry starting april fifteenth. that is when we will take possession of our new chicks. our friends just got their chicks from the same new hatchery we are both trying this year. they look great.

yesterday we went to the semi-local feed and farm store. we got some new chicks. we are hoping for some colored egg layers. that will mix it up a little. we need to have a culling of older hens pretty soon. these new birds should pick up the slack in a few months. we have always ordered our chicks from the springfield hatchery or mail order. this method is new to us.

i also bought a new stock tank. two by two by eight feet. i put it next to the cow pen and plan rain water collection from the barn and pen shed. tabitha and i have decided that i need to roof the other half of the cow pen to keep control over the deep bedding. i might try to get to that after the annual easter egg hunt today.

happy easter

primrose path

2010-04-02T19:24:00.003-05:00

if you have ever been to our house just after or during a rain, you have had to jump the puddle. we have been forever wanting to remedy this. our answer was to never ever pour cement there. in fact we already had a small pad that would need to be removed prior to realizing our plans.

a rocky path

one thing tabitha and i both have in common, we are purists. that is, we like to use natural stone wherever we can. if cement is necessary, we try to hide it. a person that has been to the ozarks knows that if you find a rock in the ozarks and throw it odds are you'll hit a baptist preacher. that joke is funny because it is profoundly rocky in the ozarks and there are many times many baptist preachers here. my friend james is a baptist preacher and finds that joke funny so please take no offense.

all rock are not the same. having a flat side is a blessing which we only enjoy a small percentage of the time. luckily just across the road in a ravine is a little dumping of old quarried stone. most of them are too large to get. even the ones that two people can carry are difficult to extract from their resting place. mike, my father-in-law graciously offered to come over and move our barn with his big-dig*. while here he offered to go get the stones that we carried to the top of the ravine.

the barn used to live between those two trees on the left.

three front end loads later we had a huge pile of beautiful rock. the following early morning we decided to dig the path for a suitable bed for the stones. it was a job that only a large adult with a pick and shovel could accomplish. toly was a huge help shoveling loosened dirt into the wheel barrow.

first thing was to put down a layer of chat.

then we started laying the stone.

tabitha was in charge of putting the puzzle together and my job was to set the stone.

we collect rocks that exhibit certain characteristics. can you tell how many of them are in the primrose path?

it was an entire day job for several people. well, two determined adults and four distracting children.

we were incredibly bushed, sore and collapsed into bed.

i am still surprised by it each time i walk in the front door.

today we planted two double rows of beets. we love beets. then we got the most glorious rain. it was slow steady and soaking. our beets should like it. i fixed the chicken water fountain. it was in a sad state and filled with mosquito larvae. i took special pleasure in dumping the mosquito laden water for the chickens to pick through and eat. i replaced the pre-filter sock and made a reinforced screen for the top of the bucket. it hangs under the eave gutter and automatically fills when it rains. i need to hook up my other rain water tank to a second water fountain. i have been struggling with the type of filter i need to make for it. finally have an idea. now i just need the parts.

we visited our friends yesterday for a deserved break after the rocky path. it was great fun. they have a very enviable green house filled with seedlings. they also had two sows farrow. those piggies were so cute. we are going to get two of them to raise out and butcher on our farm. i still need to build that smoker.

happy happy spring...

* toly calls all large machinery big-digs. now papa's tractor is forever named big-dig

big day on the little farm

2010-03-29T18:21:00.000-05:00

we accomplished so many things today. i don't know where to start. i know, first thing this morning we weeded the asparagus. chickweed has surprisingly vast root system. there was tons of chickweed and grass. it was a big chore. tristan helped a great deal. here it is finished and amended with compost.

we love asparagus.

the next thing we did was build the boys flowerbeds. tristan drilled all the holes for the screws. here they are on either end of these beds.

the dirt came from when we dug up the calf pen in preparation for deep bedding. the last little bit of it came from the old bathtub where we attempted cucumbers last summer.

here i am busy holding up that shovel.

this is my new hat. i love it. i forget that i am wearing it and the wind blows through keeping things cool.

this is tabitha's new hat. she loves it for similar reasons.

my beautiful wife.

the main reason we got so much done today is because the kids did this all day.

and this,

and this

and this

our next big thing we did was move the mailbox and make a bed around it and our sign.

we need a new mailbox. this one had seen better days when we moved here. i mortised that support beam with a hatchet and spade bit.

it is starting to look really cute, no? that was a ton of work. tristan hauled most of those rock in. i got the big ones, tabitha had to help on the really big one. the dirt came from our jerusalem artichoke bed. we need to re think where they are since they don't seem to thrive there.

tabithia transplanted lemon balm

to the root cellar.

while i raked leaves from the upper paddock and put them in the chicken coop as floor cover.

the cow is looking great these days.

this is the leftover rubble from the seed blocks yesterday.

they seem happy in their new diggs.

cute friendly happy little tomatoes grow now grow.

see what i mean by elegant?

these are just so aesthetically pleasing.

our little greenhouse is almost full. this is where you might find toly grazing.

spring is here in the ozarks.

proof...

gratuitous sleeping baby..

happy spring

soap, kittens and soil blocks

2010-03-28T21:37:00.001-05:00

having just promised three bars of soap to contest winners adjusted my queue for the day. we have been planning on making soap for several weeks now. today was the day. here it is curing in three inch pvc pipe as the mold. it then gets cut into thick wafers.

we set it next to the wood stove to cool slowly so it won't crack. i cut the pipe mold in half length wise to make getting the soap out more easy. it works great. thanks again tansy.

our spoken for kittens just lost their perspective home. an unstable economy makes for general instability. people don't want to make commitments when they don't know where they will be in the near future.

they are so cute and already feisty. they will be great hunters.
here they are waiting by the back door to play with the kids.

we are keeping the cutest one (not pictured) can you imagine a cuter kitten than these? well, i don't want to blow your cute socks off so i'll stop now. anybody want a great farm cat? they should start going off hunting with their mother very soon. she is such a great hunter and instills those skills in all of her offspring to date.

we transplanted our seedlings to larger soil blocks today. they look very kempt. our pendulum is swinging toward liking soil blocks again.

moving them from seedling soil blocks to larger blocks was really easy. it just seemed elegant. making the mix took a little time but doesn't everything?

tabitha and i worked together and made two hundred and forty blocks in short order. having those sturdy cedar trays makes things better. if we were putting them on plastic trays it wouldn't be nearly as pleasant. i need to install another shelf in the greenhouse because we are running out of room. having this green house is teaching me about what i want when i build greenhouse version 6.0. i am sure that version 6.0 will still be found wanting in some respects. i hope it's shortcomings are few. only time will tell.

tabitha pulled the bitter fall salad greens and we are planting more. fresh arugula will be in my near future. i love arugula. i know that most people find it slightly bitter, not me. tabitha added some of our swiss chard in dinner the other night mixed right into spaghetti sauce. all omelays here love it that way. toly sneaks into the green house and munches chard and kale raw. he has always liked leafy greens.

tristan got a kids' book of chess from the thrift store the other day. he has renewed his interest in chess. he has begun to see obvious threats but a little misdirection usually gets him, all in due course. he sees strategy in other areas of his life. a little practice will be good for him in this respect. he read the whole book and i think that he absorbed all of it. i look forward to playing him more frequently.

we are suspicious that toly can read. we don't have any solid proof since talking about it to him seems taboo. he spends an inordinate amount of time on starfall. then there is the fact that he knows stuff. an example of this is while driving he'll know what a sign says. does he remember this sign? he does have a huge memory. he does spend hidden moments looking at books. the books i've seen him with seem like something he could be reading. if he is not reading he will be very soon. he is very sensitive about this topic and clams up when prodded even in the most gentle fashion.

rome is cuteness incarnate and he knows it. we might really be in trouble with him.

and the winner is... well winners actually.

2010-03-28T08:26:00.000-05:00

sheila was very close with only the original clues.
so close in fact that tabitha wanted me to call it over.
so sheila gets a bar of soap

christiana's ten year old also gets a bar of soap too. mostly correct still missing the chicken feeding part though.

stephanie got it almost exactly.

the idea:

we have a plague of japanese beetles here every year. they munch our fruit trees and other garden plants. tabitha took to holding a bucket with a little water under the fruit tree branches and shaking them into the bucket. then she would dump the bucket of hundreds of beetles into the chicken coop. the chickens would go crazy and munch them all up.

standard beetle traps clog and need to be cleaned regularly. i guess it can be scary since the pheromone lure can attract volumes of the beetles and if you don't kill them all in an overflowing trap you have just made your problem worse. all those extra attracted beetles eating more of your stuff than they did before.

so my idea is to hang this little hut in the chicken coop. it will hang completely within reach of the chickens. the bait will be protected from the elements and chickens within the cage and roof. it will be easy to load new bait and hang back on a screw for the chickens. hopefully the beetles won't be able to get to the lure/bait. i intend them to just try to get to it and swarm the little shed where my chickens will be poised for lunch.

this is completely untested and still a developing theory. testing will ensue once beetle season starts. i'll have an update regarding this topic at that time.

sheila, christiana and stephanie please email me your postal addresses and your packages will be on the way shortly. omelay (at) gmail (dot) com

happy spring
k-)

first clue

2010-03-27T20:13:00.000-05:00

japanese beetle bait

there are some very close guesses. these clues should clinch it...

little building projects and contest

2010-03-27T10:47:00.004-05:00

at every opportunity i am building a few seedling trays.

we have finally started to win the battle against damping off. we had a turn in weather. is quite chilly outside today. i had planned on making large soil blocks and migrating the seedlings to larger opportunity. i hope it warms up so we can tie into that this afternoon.

yesterday in the afternoon i built a mineral feeder for the cow. i altered my original plan for several reasons. it was going to be round and mount to a stump in our field. now that we have decided to mostly keep the cow in a pen i decided to make it initially mount on her feeder. once she is confinement i will move it to her pen.

i put the final coat of paint on it this morning. i have a large piece of conveyor belt that will cover this like a heavy flap. she will be able to nose up the flap to get to the minerals.

the four compartments will contain; fertrell salt mix, fertrell conditioner, baking soda, and sea kelp. the flap will shed the elements to keep the minerals reasonably dry.

i also built this, is of my own invention and it's use is novel. it will hang from that hole against a post.

it opens like this:

here it is from the bottom.

the first person to guess what this is will win a bar of our lavender soap. i will continue to add clues until someone gets it. the winner must comment on the blog not at FB where my posts copy automatically.

most excellent guesses it is not:
suet feeder
thread feeder

van gogh

2010-03-26T11:28:00.002-05:00

kassi has been expressing a serious interest in art for several months. she draws for a measurable percentage of her day--everyday. it touches my heart in a special place having supported myself for several years as a graphic artist. supported being a relative term. i was a starving artist in san diego california. my beachfront studio apartment rent was more than my last year monthly income. it is all relative.

kassi has been telling me very often that she wants to be an artist when she grows up. so yesterday i sat down with couple of my impressionist books and looked through them with her. she was blown away by van gogh. we spoke about how he created layers within his work using the pallet as texture.

later that evening she got out her tempura paints. after a while i heard her crying from the kitchen. she was upset that she couldn't paint like those paintings she saw earlier. i consoled her "not to worry, if she practices she will paint exactly how she desires someday." she already is expressing a confident voice and is very prolific.

she is undaunted and loves anything artistic. whatever she does in her life, i am sure that she will always love art. her world is filled with the beauty of a child's fresh lens. flowers have a special meaning in her mind that i cannot grasp. finding a simple violet brings her such glee. you can almost see her vibrate.

i am unemployed and still can't get everything done..

2010-03-23T20:22:00.002-05:00

i am sure that my expectations are higher but still...

we intend to keep our cow in a pen during the evenings and rainy weather. she just tromps around and damages our little paddocks hunting for a blade of grass. we have so little pasture that we need exacting control to manage it effectively. we have good hay for her that she thrives on. she just needs to be exposed to the paddocks when they are ready.

we have started training her to lead on with a halter. today i built her a pen feeder. it will fit whole bale of hay. it seems cobbled together but that is only because it is made from recycled materials. it is sturdy and will offer shelter for her hay. i will be able to fill it and clean it out easily.

next thing to have ready will be her water source. i have to get a new stock tank and plan rain water collection from the barn and roof of the pen.

i worked until after lunch time on her pen then i needed to paint the shelves that i built last night. oh, did i mention that i built shelves?

i made them out of 3/4" plywood sanded both sides. one of them is simply a book shelf that needs to go over our bed. we have tons of books and never enough place to put them. the other one isn't really a shelf but a cabinet. i scored a locking door with keys and have been intending on making a cabinet for our bathroom for several months. creating a receiver for the latching mechanism was a little tricky. i think that it turned out well.

the door is metal so magnets can hold artwork and stuff.

there is even a shelf for the kids nintendos with an outlet for their charger. those chargers are very fragile and toly eats them--literally. a safe haven for nintentos and games is well appreciated.

our seedlings are having a rough time with damping-off. we have been diligently spraying them with the concoction without much success. i am beginning to blame the soil blocks. we'll see if the next batch with sterilized soil does any better. if not we'll have to make a big strike against the soil block maker. although we don't have a control group that is planted in a normal fashion.

the swiss chard seems to like the heated green house.

tristan ripped the net guard for the trampoline. i told him that he was on restriction from it until it got fixed. he convinced kassi to sew it for him so they could play.

i got the new trailer hitch for the van. i'll try to get to that tomorrow. it'll have to be in the afternoon assuming the rain stays away.

this evening i built two more cedar trays for soil blocks. i might be cursing them very soon.

we had rotisserie chicken for dinner. we got the grill to ease kitchen pressure during summer. having the ability to cook a chicken outside will be great. the stove is usually filled with canning stuff and grills are generally easier to clean up after.