after saving twenty thousand dollars..

several weeks ago my boss's boss sent me an email praising me for saving the state of missouri over twenty thousand dollars. during the past three months i have spent over half my time in training classes for required certifications for our facility. i have been preparing for a long and healthy working relationship--even committing to retiring out of division of youth services, state of missouri.

the main problem is that i am only halftime. in fact, i remained the final half time employee in DYS. until now that is.

yes, i got laid off as of upcoming february first. the real explosion hasn't happened, so the dust can't really settle yet. i am optimistic, my department of natural resources certification has come through just in the nick of time. i wrote a letter and my boss signed it stating that i did indeed have the experience necessary to qualify for the the "C" license.

ultimately we have plenty of food, a roof over our head, plenty of wood to heat with, and big car payment--our only scary expense. the kids health insurance will change but they'll remain covered. i plan to apply for unemployment and look for work. i also hope to get some sorely needed things done around here. we plan to make many upgrades to our garden. i hope to build the kids a play structure out of cedar logs that will double as a garden shed. the feed barn needs to be redone, exterior and roof. i have most of the materials for this.

more importantly i need to get the milking barn done. we'll use a bit from our tax return to buy the few needed materials and we will make a family project out of it. a cob barn with a slip-form foundation. i'll make a blog label and accompanying series of posts. this might afford me the time to really flush out this blog with sustainably minded projects.

my brain is percolating with ideas to make extra money around here. i might attempt to fill some niche markets that would have served our needs and i assume that others would benefit from them too. to be announced..

we will be selling seedlings this spring, tomato, pepper, sweet potatoes and several flower varieties. we have the green house and will need to start ours so we'll start all extras and sell them too. this could actually be a real boon to our spring finances.

i'll post further about this as the dust settles.

sunday, snowy sunday

don't try and take me off this sled. it's mine i will permit only one passenger though.
-rome


a true snow-boy. he takes after his father in this respect.
-tristan


snow tastes good.
-toly


kassi and tristan blazing the trail with rome in tow.


ok, i'm getting cold.


the trail to the summit.


ready..


set..


go..


kassi patiently waiting her turn.


my beautiful baby mama princess.


this is where the new sled broke.

the new year

we spent the day cleaning out the refrigerator and defrosting it. yes, we allegedly have a frost free fridge. this has happened before whent he drain tube got clogged by errant food stuff. i hope this works because if it frosts up again then that means it is broken. our local repair guy is reasonable but this is bad timing having just had christmas and all.

henry is still very sick. tabitha mentioned that he might need to be "put down" i can't bring myself to do it. i still harbor a glimmer of hope that he might snap out of it.

the kids are still very happy with their christmas gifts. tristan has been glued to his nintendo DS, legend of zelda spirit tracks. i have been helping a little but finally showed him how to find the walkthrough via google.

we got toly one of those crank-up flash lights.

it is the most popular purchased toy. i especially like it because it teaches the kids how much effort/energy it takes to make a light turn on. furthermore they have stopped stealing my flashlight that i need for evening chores. i highly recommend this as a gift for a destructive, precocious three year old.

no news about tristan yet. we are going to see the doctor about a biopsy in a few weeks. none of the doctors seem to think that it is anything really bad. i just want to know..

kassi is wonderful and really really want to go visit my parents in michigan in the spring. she takes after my mother in many ways. it will be exciting to see them together.

rome is great, too cute and knows it. he and toly are a team and when they are being good it is like bliss but when they are being naughty i worry that i might not survive.

happy new year
my resolution is to try to post more often, that is if i believed in resolutions..

terra preta

the charcoal controversy as a soil amendment has boggled me for quite a while. arguments on both sides have been so convincing that i just stayed away from forming an opinion. my google-fu has been very strong of late and i believe that i can form an opinion and defend it. so here goes,

the good

charcoal is very porous and it can afford places for the beneficial stuff to latch on. the little fungi and other microorganisms that help plants get nutrients like to live on porous stuff like zeolite and charcoal. it can also lighten the soil and make it retain water much better.

the bad

charcoal can absorb great amounts of nutrients which your plants might like to use. this is especially true when composting and many believe that charcoal and compost should never be mixed.

the solution

terra preta is portuguese for black earth. some time near the birth of christ the indigenous amazonian people were making a rich black soil. they a have basically been trying to reverse engineer the stuff and now believe that they understand it.



if i read this correctly then all i really need to do is "charge up" my charcoal with something very nutrient rich like urine or chicken manure tea. i am normally kinda scared of chicken manure compost since it easily burns plants. i then can add my "charged up" charcoal to my compost and get all the benefits of the charcoal without the deficits.

further reasons to use charcoal in this way is it sequesters carbon that breaks down fairly slowly. ideally i would create my charcoal in a low temperature situation but my wood stove is a great place to get charcoal since i already waste some when removing my ashes. ok, i realize that the small amount of carbon that i can sequester is infinitesimally small but at least i'm thinking about it..

christmas photos

making cookies


colored pencil holders, and pajamas by tabitha. i made the castle facade. the kids were up past two am. a reasonable person might think that they would sleep past the crack of dawn--but NO.


fairy princess outfit from my parents.


blurry dance.


tolys new cape by tabitha. yes it is magical and will make the wearer take flight.



the chin scruff is from a pre-cape landing.


kassi is dragging rome into the photo wearing his new pajamas. while kassi is sporting her new dress that tabitha also made.


redecorating the boxes was an attempt at extending the gift opening era.


father and son glued to the new zelda game.


rome really likes his plane.


it snowed indoors too..


sweet satisfaction.

secrecy forces me not to blog

it might be just wishful thinking but henry might be getting slightly better. please keep those collective conscious thoughts flowing. there is no news on the tristan front except that he doesn't have TB. probably tomorrow we'll know something about the blood-work that was sent last week. if this were a TV episode we'd already have the results. i wonder which geographically impaired lab they are using?

i have been making presents for the kids. tristan reads this blog so i can't tell you yet nor show photos of progress. you'll just have to wait like the kids, sorry. the kids are really excited. toly wants me to decorate the exterior of the house. i might have to crumble under his innocent pleas. the kids will have an excellent christmas in spite of our financial woes. the home-made things we have collectively mustered will make a christmas to remember.

pandora has been keeping us in a steady flow of christmas music. the kids know the words to most of the christmas music available. i admit i'm a little overwhelmed by it. anticipation hangs thick around here. kassi has been wrapping random stuff and putting it under the tree. i had to put my foot down after the tv remote got "lost" in some wrapping paper.

nothing good to report

henry has taken a turn for the worse. every morning when i go out to see him i creep up on him like i would if he were the grim reaper. his breathing is very shallow. i can't muster the will to put him down. every evening i wishfully entertain that he might pull out of it.

tristan has been sickly for the past few weeks. migratory lymph node swelling with pain. we find out about scheduling for a biopsy later today. the doctor is sure that it isn't anything really serious but has no real answers.

sorry to complain but i was feeling like a slacker and not posting. there is really nothing else consuming my brains processor right now.

the greenhouse took a mild setback during a cold night last week. i have installed a new heating method and things are alright for now.

i passed my certification test 90%. i can't get get certified yet because i took the harder test trying for a higher certification. they sent me a letter of decline because my lack of experience in the field. i have 12 months to reapply with further hours-in-field and training, otherwise i have to re-test.

this is a homemade christmas this year. purchased toys are at an all time low. we are struggling to make time to work on gifts. nosy kids attempt to thwart our every effort at secrecy.

180°

i know to most it seems such an awful waste but items one through twelve  on the above diagram are all ground meat. we still have steaks left over from the half beef that we got in the spring. it is the burger that goes quickly around here. spaghetti meat sauce, tacos, meat loaf, chili, burgers and many other tasty dishes all require ground meat and that is what those kids mostly like.

the meat processing went wonderfully. james has this three quarter horse commercial meat grinder. it chewed everything that we could throw at it--first time.  i also cubed twenty plus pounds of lean meat for tabitha to can. it made a pressure cooker load and dinner last night. the kids liked the stew from the butcher two days prior. another ridiculously-local meal from the omelay farm.

cancel the appointment with the slaughter plant..

i have already recovered from the mad-slaughter. i plan to do it again. those pigs will be next. seeing the stuff that we didn't add to the grinder and realizing that a processor would have just added it plus.. even though it took four shots to kill that steer i am sure that it was more gentle on him than riding to a slaughter plant and getting killed there. plus, meat tastes better from an animal that isn't stressed. yes i already ate some. it is good.

thank you everyone for your words of support. it was traumatic but, so was the first time we butchered chicken. now we have a system and it is just part of our lifestyle. butchering our other animals will likely become part of our deal too.

i really liked the home schooling opportunity when i was sawing up the bones for beef stock. explaining a ball and socket joint having a working example on hand is rather interesting--anatomy 101.

we played uno (card game) for several games this afternoon. toly joined in for the first time. amazingly he got it right away. i was totally blown away. tristan was really trying some strategy but didn't win until the very last game. it is difficult to understand, no matter how well you play uno is still mostly a game of luck.  it doesn't help having a really lucky sister that taunts you with her alleged mental powers of mind over matter. he was in tears before that the final win. furthermore he harbored a grudge toward her for quite a while. i was only a minor villain, even though i actually threw the game and tried to throw it on several earlier occasions only to have one of his siblings swoop in for the win.

jocelyn is back from her visit with her beau. we hope she is bred--fingers crossed. she is really upset that phoenix is gone and the place probably smells like blood.  it is raining tonight and hopefully it will wash away the rest of the kill smell. henry is feeling better, he is happy to have jocelyn back. but when we arranged a meeting between jocelyn and astrid, henry noticed that jocelyn was throwing her head toward astrid and threw a fit. he came rushing toward her with all his most aggressive force and suggested to jocelyn that the puppy was HIS.

i guess after he had to save the puppy from being mauled by the pigs he is a little defensive of her. oh yes, he saved that puppy's life. before that i was sure that he didn't like her. in fact when i heard henry making attack sounds from the upper yard, i was sure that he was killing astrid. joy, he was saving her from the pigs. what a good dog.

i take my certification test tomorrow. i should be studying instead of blogging...