first batch of tomatoes

fourteen quarts of tomatoes so far. tabitha just informed me that some of them didn't seal. they still might since they are warm. fingers crossed...


we had an excellent dinner. this was the side dish. our squash and onions cooked to perfection.

the onions were left over from the huge bowl that i cut up for the dehydrator when i got home. tabitha squished the dried onions into the half gallon jars. so they aren't quite making the five pounds to one quart ratio.

a fellow blogger was posting about making an income while trying to be self sufficient. being self sufficient is a full time job. we struggle on my three meager incomes. but, i feel very lucky for my situation.

my father-in-law recommended when we moved here to diversify and keep your eggs in several baskets. this means having several irons in the fire and hit the ground running wherever you light. after many struggles and tangents we are comfortably poor. i work just enough to keep us afloat and get to spend the rest of the time with my family. time spent with my kids is so valuable to me that i have shunned full time work. i have a job working 20 hours per week doing maintenance for the state of missouri. it isn't a sexy job. i clean the waste treatment plant. well, i spray it with a hose occasionally. i do just about everything, fixing equipment, mowing lawns, new construction, fixing old bodged electrical and plumbing, installing cabinets, repairing the vehicles and ect.. the facility is in the middle of the mark twain national forest and it is beautiful there. being state work i get benefits and stuff.

i also am building a huge house for bob two half days per week. he is doing it as he can afford it. at this rate it will take a few more years. bob and i are now more friends then employer and employee. he lets me use any of his extensive collection of equipment anytime i want. that is very cool

i also still do a bit of web work for sunlight and power. the company was my employer before we left california.

mostly i work around here on the farmette. that is what really makes it affordable to live here. food from our farm is more than sixty percent of what we eat. our garden, chickens, pigs, milk, beef, eggs and fruit trees offset our need to buy pricey organic foodstuff. we buy in bulk, i'm not talking the super-sized hot pocket packages here. we buy in bulk the raw components for our food. 50# bags of flour and sugar are regular purchases.

we invest most of what i make working-out back into our farmette and kids. school supplies, fence chargers, construction materials, books, pricey plants and trees are normal purchases. this is my hobby and life all in one.

mostly this life isn't for the faint of heart. it is hours upon hours of sweaty hard work. but, i love it. i am teaching my kids by example that they can provide for themselves a nutritious life.

the reason that i am saying all this is because i have been questioning some of our choices lately. we chose to pare down to one car. a car we don't all really fit into. now we have found that we need to probably travel to st. louis for several trips in the upcoming months for toly's medical needs. i knew it was a gamble when we did it. eyes wide open. we were pushing the envelope too far and now we need to re-evaluate and make some tough choices. mistakes like this one are costly.

it is hard to justify our choices when this trouble is just ahead of us. ultimately i know i'd probably do it all over the same but i still need to get this out.

last night picking

we picked these tomatoes from our plants last night.

tabitha has a bit more from the day before to add to our first canner load, hooray.

we are getting tomatoes but it is sad to see the dying plants give up the ghost. we have been eating tons of squash and cucumbers. tabitha has canned over fifty pints of pickles. she also has the second row of beets to put up. they are very small in comparison to our first row.

there is a storm raging outside right now. i was awoke by a thunder clap. the weather here can be so dramatic. i'll take a little drama to get the rain. tabitha broadcast buckwheat as a cover crop for part of our garden. it needs rain since we don't have soaker hoses there.

the bees should like buckwheat. i got into the bees the saturday. they seem great. it was kinda windy so i didn't go for the full inspection. i did notice that we'll have to harvest honey within a couple of weeks. these russian bees are so friendly in comparison to our old bees. i hope they over winter well. you'd think they would being from russia and all. i'd like to split them in the spring or maybe we'll buy another starter nuc. having bees is a love-hate relationship. we love most everything about them except that all four of our hives died this last winter.

we took the kids to their friends for a swim-birthday-party yesterday. they love them it is so great to watch their play. i wish we lived a bit closer to them. as we all squished into my little truck the conversation always returned to our need for a van. we consciously choose to only have one vehicle and knew what we were getting into. now with toly probably needing further testing and accompanying trips to springfield our status has changed. having a second vehicle/van falls from the luxury column over to the necessity column. anyone know what a pound of flesh is going for these days?

dehydrating onions

this will be my second dehydrator load of onions.

i didn't get to build my solar dehydrator this year. our onions were only moderately prolific. we'll be able to process all of them in our little dehydrator without too much trouble.

the mandolin has been a real time saver.


i use the the fan to dissipate the onion fumes that make me cry.


a full load is about five pounds of onions. i guess we'll have about eight or nine more loads. one load is about a quart of finished onions. we use them like crazy all winter in soups, stews and crock-pot recipes. i like to eat them plain. they are sweet and surprisingly fulfilling.

race against time

we are in the thick of it. our garden is quickly being consumed by death. we are working diligently to out race the majority of it. we have been harvesting summer bounty and putting it up.

this is our current garden pantry
pickled beets
regular beets
pickled cucumbers
green beans
tomatillo salsa
quantities will be added once tabitha wakes

this is the canner of dreams sitting on hubert. yes, our stove has a name.

it sits over two burners and heats up very quickly.

i bought tabitha a new probe thermometer. one of the best fifteen dollar investments i have ever spent.


onions are being processed

this is two five gallon buckets worth. i filled the dehydrator and plan to work these up over the course of the next two weeks. they will be eaten fresh in pico, added to the dehydrator and used in any salsa that we can manage from our tomato plants. this little device has saved me hours of time.

it is scary to use but worth the mustered courage. it was a gift to tabitha but i use it almost exclusively. tabitha's history with sharp objects keeps her safely at arms length from this thing.

this is our row of cherokee purple.

we have gotten two naturally ripened tomatoes from it so far. green fruit is hanging in clumps. it has the blight but is still fighting the good fight.

this is our worst affected area.

these are the yellow pear plants and seem the most susceptible. we'll never grow these again.

these are our amish paste plants.

they seem to be fighting the best fight.

we have been getting a few tomatoes daily and expect a deluge any day now. they are only mildly blighted. this row is our best hope for canned tomatoes.

these are our omar lebanese plants.

they are beginning to trickle in also.

we are eating salsa, fresh sliced and generally gorging ourselves on tomatoes.

this bowl was mostly full a few minutes ago.

one of our primary defenses is to shore up the healthy plants. compost tea is our attempt at a solution. this is my remaining pile of compost.

here is the steeping bin.

this is the filtering bucket

this is the final result.

this is very concentrated and we usually dilute it 1/4 tea to 3/4 water and generously water each plant.

another defense we have recently employed is cutting strips of black bill board tarp for between row mulch.


our bean arch looks nice but high temperature have stunted our blooms. bean production has fallen sharply.

the sweet potatoes seem to like the plastic mulch.

this row of cucumbers has all but died from mold. it is spread by cucumber beetles.

this is our second planting that we have hope for.

the white stuff is called surround. it is basically clay powder mixed with water and sprayed in several applications on the plant to coat it. these guys are growing exclusively in compost. plus they they had the advantage of a row cover until they nearly burst forth from it. row cover technology might enter our lives in a big way next year. this egg plant struggled and struggled.

row covers would have seriously helped this guy.

my hair plugs for root cellars seem to be taking hold.


this is my bottle stash for kombucha.

i need to bottle some badly.

i also scored this 140 gallon stainless tank the other day. i have decided to use it as my solar storage tank instead of the bulk container because high temperature cannot affect it.

it had a small dent and i was scared it woouldn't hold water.

it had been leak free for several days.

these tomatoes are huge i can't wait to slice one of these and hide my burger under it.


tabitha's parents have borrowed the chicken plucker and love it too. we are not crazy. it really is amazing. on saturday they are killing their last fifteen chickens and will be hosting a viewing of said plucker. tabitha has named it "mother"

wednesday we spent the afternoon in the hospital with toly. he had a five minute seizure and then spiked a super high fever. this is is his third one and the fever is supposed to come first for it to not be extremely scary. he got a complete work up along with a ct scan. we have discovered that toly has an extreme resistance to ketamine. it took them three progressively larger attempts to get him knocked out enough to get him calm for the ct scan. he never completely knocked out like he was supposed to. the entire staff was baffled. he did get really funny and cute all hopped up on ketamine. asking perfect strangers if they liked different stuff. "you like cookies?" "you like honey?" toly rarely talks to anyone except our immediate family.

he seems fine now but have no definitive answers and probably never will. we are being referred to a specialist for further testing.

trickle of tomatoes

we have been eating a few tomatoes. tabitha is worried that we will be consumed in blight soon. i just want a few canner loads worth of tomatoes. admittedly our canner is huge but we really really want some tomatoes this winter.

tabitha put-up 15 quarts of pickled beets and still has two thirds of a row to go. those beets are amazing. we have been having a majority of our meals from our little farm. this is our busiest time of year. keeping up with the garden has been trying.

we have slaughtered all but eight of our fifty chickens. the plucker works great. i realize now that i didn't get the plucker fingers pulled all the way seated in the bottom feather plate. some of them are flinging out occasionally. when i replace them i secure each one properly. when they are wet they insert better than trying to do it dry. with the knowledge of hindsight i'd use plate aluminum for the feather plate. the hdpe cutting board material is thick and makes the fingers difficult to attach. i doubt that i'll ever need to build another plucker but if i do..

kassi had a marvelous birthday. much friendship was had and everyone really enjoyed it. there were three cakes. new heights were reached in the kids sugar buzz. it was almost like the entire place vibrated. the hillbilly slip and slide was a hit. there is almost no greater joy than watching kids play in a sprinkler.

kassi and tristan have discovered network warcraft on the computers. free computer time is getting more and more difficult to find. another computer isn't the answer either. that would mean that toly could play too. then rome would be next. crap everyone needs their own computer. what sinister snowballing spiderweb have i stumbled into?

actually, kassi has been spending plenty of time on starfall. she'll be reading soon. toly is in the middle of a language explosion. he still gets frustrated when he can't get his point across. tristan is a full blown teenager at age six, almost seven. he is just so big and has his own strong opinions. rome is toly's minion of naughtiness. they are always getting into mischief.

i had no idea...

the chicken plucker exceeded my every expectation. i thought i knew how cool it was going to be. alas, it is too amazing to describe. even videos of it in action don't do it justice. it has forever changed our idea of butchering chicken.

i put so much effort into building it and making sure that it would last. i was worried that if it didn't work that i'd have to set the thing ablaze;)

the birds came out of the thing "slick" every single little pinfeather and part of the scales from the feet were removed.

i added the water sprayer to the top. that works ok. it looks cool but hardly worth the extra effort.

this is our set up.

the scald pot with propane burner and manual temperature control is on the left. tabitha's thermometer arrived to the event broken and we were worried that we'd have trouble. we have butchered and scalded plenty of chickens and have an idea what a good scald temperature/time is. we mostly just guessed at the proper scald time and temp. everything worked wonderfully.

we were making up little songs about the plucker and how wondrous it is.

local firefly population in serious jeopardy

the kids have been patrolling the yard each night for fireflies. there is almost nothing more fun than watching little kids scurry around trying to catch fireflies. i believe they have created a no-fly-zone in the immediate yard. the fireflies have obviously pheromonally communicated to each other that if they fly there they will be chased down. they will be caught and imprisoned in the glass cage of doom. all hope for catch and release practices should be abandoned.

kassi is the most adept and has decided that concentrations of fire flies are greater in the upper paddock. i assume there will soon be a bug implemented no-fly-zone there very soon. now if squash bugs were as much fun to catch we'd be in business. although the other night tabitha employed kassi's prowess on the recent onslaught of japanese beetles. we'll be dosing our yard with milky-spore very soon.

i finished my chicken plucker yesterday. well, almost i still need to attach my belt tensioner. finding it might be part of my problem. i also plan to attach a spray system, if needed, after i test it. that will be version 1.3, tensioner will be version 1.2. i must admit it is pretty cool. now if it just works like all the u-tube videos and as well as real life witnesses profess we'll be in business.

i am going to make a chicken plucker post only after i test it. if it sucks we'll never speak of it again...

i lost my paper list of stuff i need to do. i used to be able to have a mental queue. then i started making lists. i like to blame the need for written lists on the magnitude of stuff that i need to do and not my deteriorating brain. now since i'm loosing my lists that rationalization no longer stands. i'd make a digital list but then i'd have to remember to write them down when at the computer. the computer is filled with distractions and that has never really worked for me. i might try writing down stuff to be added to my digital list. but, if is start loosing those little lists then i'm screwed..

documentation

lately i have been poring over my own blog trying to glean and re-purpose captured information. i must admit that the blog really helps to keep things in perspective. we are constantly worried about our garden and if we are doing all that is possible to assure a reasonable harvest. the posts where i took several garden photos and talked about the garden status are especially useful. on that vein i hope not to bore you with tons of garden photos.

having gotten the root cellar to a stable place has afforded me the time to work on the chicken plucker. i bought the whizbang chicken plucker book and am very impressed. eventually i'll do a whole post about the chicken plucker. all i can say so far is that if you are considering building a chicken plucker buy that book. it is very well researched and provides excellent information, illustrations and resources. in this photo it is upside down. i used the pillow block mount to hold the feather plate while i drilled it and cut it into the circle.

i really could have used a drill press to drill all these holes.

this the first coat of paint. pretty blue toly li-likes it.



the garden

the sweet potatoes and melons seem to be surviving the black plastic mulch.

although it might be just one big squash bug incubator, nursery and primary school.


here is a better photo of a cherokee purple primary bloom.


the carrots seem to have survived the cats using their raised beds as a composting toilet.

here they are a couple days later.


the kittens are tearing up the onions. they might not make much.


the third row of beets are crooking and seem to have excellent germination.

here they are a few days later.


this will all be filled in very soon.

i hope..

kassi and toly, yes he loves pink, are considering wrestling past the cow. she can bully right past them if they are not careful.


they love each other so much. it is cute to watch them hold hands and march around the yard.


this is our first sunflower. it must be summer.


the willow tree has grown quite a bit this year.


this is the front row of tomatoes. we are showing slight signs of blight, or some tomato disease.


this is kassi's flower bed.

she started all these flowers from seed.

btw, thank you wendy for the additional edible flower seed.


the hair plugs for root cellars a taking hold nicely.

notice the solar shower box of the roof of the pump house? here is the front view.

rube goldberg would be proud of this shower contraption.

here is a link to when i built this version of it.

just at the top of the hill from where i work this family makes these baskets.

they sell them at silver dollar city for a fortune. this one was nine dollars. the oak waddle was still green. tabitha needed one for her clothes pins.

this is our hot house tomato

i wonder what the taste difference will be?

hello tasty little tomato. i will be eating you soon.


these are the omar's lebanese plants. they are almost to the top of the cattle panel.


these are the later planting of cherokee purple. they are ten or so days behind the rest of them.

their seedlings were also much smaller too.

can you spot the green beans?

the pole beans are almost setting beans.

i am excited about this purple variety.


the tomatillos are vary tasty. we had our first bait of salsa last night. it was fabulous.


hello little cherokee purple tomatoes.

i'll be eating you very soon too.



this is the tangle of amish paste tomatoes

some of them are five feet high.


our squash like it here. so do our squash bugs.


the chickens have settled into their coop nicely.

i finally caught the egg pecking, eating destroying hen red handed the other day. she left this mortal coil too soon to take a ride in my chicken plucker. bad chicken..

cucumber beetles are rampant in our garden. we are buying some beneficial nematodes to help but they might not arrive soon enough.


the hot peppers are setting fruit. i hope we get some in time for pico de gallo. that store bought pepper we ate last night with the tomatillo salsa was merely a waxy version.


tabitha has been spraying surround like crazy.

it is apparent that the bugs don't like it. although there is always new foliage.

the okra seems to be doing nicely.


almost time to harvest the first row of beets.


the girl broilers are looking very tasty.


i'm standing in the barn loft for this shot.

a little to the right

tabitha was trying to look up my kilt.


such loving kids

ok, i can't breathe

HELP..

that's better.

tristan making a guest appearance. oops, sorry had to remove the photo toly was nekid in the background.