photos and solar shower

tabithas flower garden

twisting twirling

this years bean arch incarnation

our new out-door shower

the complicated water heating for our shower.

animal roll call at the pile

nurtured animals
laying chickens 25
broiler chickens in tractor 25
guineas 10
goats 2
cows 2
dog 1
cats 2
people 5

feral animals
whistle pigs 2
squirrels 8-10
squash bugs 10,000

please consider yourself tagged and comment here so we can tally all.

roosters beak

pico de gallo, yes it is true we harvested our first tomatoes yesterday and today. tabitha roasted one of our recently butchered chickens and i suggested that i make salsa (pico de gallo style) and have roast chicken tacos. this occasion was one where we produced most of the meal on site. tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, chicken, sour cream, milk, cheese and a sliced cucumber on the side were all home grown right here at the pile of omelays. what a great feeling of accomplishment.

onto further accomplishments, i finished the pour on the root cellar. i have another week or so of curing time before i can get back at it. i also finished tearing up the floor in the bathroom. it looks like hell right now but we are one step closer to a new beautiful bathroom. the new tile is on order from home depot. i tried to buy local but none of the local shops carried`our choice. as an interim solution for showering i made a makeshift outdoor solar shower. 100 feet of black hose concentrically draped on the roof and sent to a shower head with cold water mixed via two hose bibs and a ball valve for abrupt on and off capability. eventually we'll have an outdoor bath and shower but the piles of dirt that will re-cover the root cellar must be moved out of the way first.

saturday i plan to get the bath tub ready and tear out the old, now leaking from several cracks, bath/shower. the new tub needs some cleaning and slight repair of the surface. we will also paint the cast iron underside and decorate with kids hand prints.

the garden is really coming to the front. i'll try to get a panorama together tomorrow. tabitha pickled beets yesterday almost 12 hours straight. that was about 1/3 of the beets that we have in the garden. the tomatoes should really start cranking here in the next few days. the cucumbers are about to burst at the seams. there are so many little ones just a day or so away. summer is here, the true tell-tale-sign was having fresh pico de gallo. i wish you could be here to taste the first fruits of summer at the pile of omelays.

partito di compleanno della principessa

kassi is my princess. i sometimes call her principessa, thats italian for princess. five years ago in santa barbara and during the early pursuit of tabitha she was in an italian class. during a viewing of Life is Beautiful i started calling her principessa. the name stuck and was an obvious carry over to kassi.

we had her big birthday party. tabitha made cake (delicious beyond any other) and ice cream. we bought a hand crank ice cream maker. if you have a jersey cow an ice cream maker is a necessity the hand crank model keeps ice cream production to special occasions only. we invited many friends and were a little disappointed in the turnout. the thompsons were sick and justifiably absent. hand cranking the ice cream makes the build up to crescendo palpable.

kassi was doted upon and showered with presents. she was truly gleeful with a perpetual smile. we continued our piñata activity and acquired this piñata from the local mexican food restaurant. it was heavily constructed and took several hits by every child before giving up the ghost. kassi recieved a huge package via fedEx just at the tail end of the party. it was stuffed with dress-up stuff her excitement was so extreme that any verbalizations that came from her could only be heard by dolphins and dogs.

we over packed the piñata for many more children than were present (grumble). candy saturation was taken to new heights the old title was previously held by halloween. birthday festivities are now suspended until august 9th.

kassi big party

i got some cool tea as a late birthday present i'll try it out today--thanks a lot.

the big cement pour is slated for today. i hope i can hold up for the entire task.

our new bathtub arrived today also. well, it is old but new to us. we are also in the process of re-doing our bathroom. the old bath got a micro crack and leaked under our flooring and ruined the tile work:(

county fair

we went to the county fair again this year. as an adult once you have been to a fair of this caliber you have been to them all. kids are a different story. they had the same rides as last year with the exception of a broken merry-go-round which caused a little heart ache. the county fair is pretty rinky-dink but the kids loved it.
they only have the usual set-up of traveling mechanical rides and concessions--you've seen them. the favorite ride for the second year in a row was the gigantic slide. kassi and tristan both climbed all the way to the top, alone. they managed to follow instructions without getting intimidated and slide down. after a few assaults on the summit kassi got tired and we moved to the next ride.

they did have a mini bull riding display in the arena which was amusing for a while. after a bucking ride one of the bulls refused to return to the corral. we left a few minutes later because during their incompetent attempts to subdue the bull they fell back on a comedic routine which included crude and explicit jokes. sadly, all judging competition of farm animals happens at the state fair in sedalia missouri. once the kids are older we might pursue a 4-h project animal raising and make the trek to sedalia.

county fair 07

not really venturing too far from my immediate circle left me amazed as to the sheer quantity of smokers walking around. i had to get out of line several times from a ride to avoid the envelop of blue smoke around me and toly. i just don't get it. historians will look back at this era with amazement. they will wonder how our species survived the rampant self inflicted poisoning.

fowl news

our friends whom have a delightfully large family came to help us butcher our remaining broiler chickens. the kids played while adults got gruesome. i showed shane how we butcher. he was a quick study, i knew he would be. we killed 19 in about four hours. after the first two hours the girls gave up outdoor plucking and retreated to the air conditioned house to do the final touches on the birds. they also had the tougher job of monitoring the progressively feisty children. about three hours is the physical limit of children in that situation.
we plan to give them five chickens for their much appreciated help. i hope they feel it is worth it. we got these chicks from the local hatchery estes and they didn't do nearly as well as the ones that we get from mcmurrary hatchery. it might be all luck but it seems that every chicken we get from estes is of questionable bloodlines. slightly wrong combs on our layers, flecks of wrong color in the broilers are two examples. further more the (leg issue)death rate on the estes broilers is not acceptable. the reason for my rant is because i know that five broilers of last batch (from mcmurrary hatchery) would be more than enough compensation for the grueling day our friends spent butchering. the problem is we can't really afford to exchange any more because our financial equation will be backwards. i know that they were hating it toward the end of the day but i hope that it is similar to child birth, the pain is easily forgotten when the reward is tasted.
when we tried our first experiment of six chickens and butchered them at the end of the day we said "this isn't for us" then a few weeks later we ate one of the chickens and promptly ordered 25 chicks to raise and butcher.
in other fowl news we got ten guineas in the mail (from mcmurrary hatchery). five of them promptly disappeared, vanished without a trace. we thought a snake was the only explanation, there wasn't any sign of death or escape but i promptly shored up the edges of the brooder coop which was sitting on the ground in the corner of the garden. we leave the bottom exposed so they can scratch the earth and grass as soon as possible. you might see where this is going. then the next day tabitha was walking by the compost bin and thought she heard the keet squawk. there they all were cozied up under the warm compost and all survived the cold night. imagine the odds that they found the only possible warm safe spot to hide. anyway we are very happy to have them all safe and sound.
i was tagged for a mime and want to do it, really i do, but just haven't had the time. friends and family have been bleating for an update so i must carry on.
i know that i am overdue for a panorama but my ftp issues still plague me and relying on tabitha's xanga account is just daunting enough to keep it on the back burner.

finally happy birthday to my perpetual fathers day present, Kassiopeia Saffron Rose O'Melay, she is a big-girl three years old today.

the problem with..

the problem with having mostly farmstead type blogger friends (if i may call you friends?) is summer farm duties take uber amounts of time. time must be spent in the garden, yard and farmsteads. blogging turns to treacle--my reading material dwindles.

a storm is expected today so i'll try to get a full blown post together photos and all.

root cellar ferro crete shell

this is what sixteen tons of chat looks like. well, minus the small amount needed for the bond beam on the root cellar.
the ferro crete shell is on.


outside view

inside view

Hermione Underfoot

the parallels between the television series of yore *green acres* and the pile of omelays are scary. one example is our post master jeff or heffe as i call him. when we first moved here he told us to move our mailbox because a circle drive isn't within government parameters. i moved it across the street and made a modest approach which was promptly rejected by the delivery girl--some hateful grudge toward us that involved years of pining for our little homestead. we simply paid for a mail box at the post office. a year and a half later we decided to pursue a house box because it will be easier for tabitha to get pressing mail without relying on me to drive there. in the interim heffe transferred to another rural post office. the new postmaster authorized in concert with the delivery girl that putting our mail box back in it's original location would be fine. bastards...

anyway, recently heffe returned under dubious circumstances from the other rural post office. he promptly needed to drop by to see our new calf. upon arrival he promptly displayed his wares mr haney style. he had a kitten in a white postal bulk box. it was too young to be weaned and demanded that the only chance it had for survival was fresh colostrum from our cow. tabitha couldn't refuse and wouldn't let me refuse either.

well here she is Hermione Underfoot O'Melay


mr haney aka heffe aka jeff the post master got us again.....

farm photos

the tomatoes are coming to the front

the new loft floor. rough sawed hickory, still green.


the gate that karl built

birthday panorama

this was taken on my birthday may 19th.

thwarted by ftp issues

panoramas are a special deal, to be able to pan across them they must be uploaded and viewed full size. for months we have relied on picassa and google to automatically download our photos from camera and upload them to the huge free storage online. picassa is amazing and does so many things automatically that days of my life have been given back to me. the problem is that picassa resizes the images and doesn't provide http access to the full size versions. i used to employ *fire ftp* to upload my panoramas to omelay.com and then access them from my blog. that worked fine last summer but i now have a different host that denies my every attempt to upload a simple photo via *fire ftp*.

--whatever

that was my lame excuse for not blogging because i really want to put up panoramas and have been thwarted every time i try a new avenue. the new calf's first steps. i rushed home from work and carried it from the covey in the background so the kids could see it's first steps.


here at the pile many thing have been happening.
the new calf has been born
the garden has exploded into lush summer glory
i have most of my barn loft finished
i built a new old-timey gate
we have a new kitten
i have been working instead of blogging

i'll take a bunch of photos today of stuff and make a picture loaded entry.

bean arch - II

i spent the better part of the day yesterday putting up the new bean arch. although last years arch was very cool we completely changed our construction material. last year bamboo was the obvious choice. it was free, it seemed strong enough and it is a completely renewable resource. the unforeseeable downfalls were when it rained and got wet it flexed and couldn't hold the weight of wet bean leaves. i repaired it several times. this year cattle panels are used. they are pricey but if they don't work we will have many other uses for them around the farm.
another thing we learned was we only really like *rattlesnake pole beans* the other one we tried, missouri wonder, was vastly inferior. it was tough and a very pronounced string and not nearly as tasty. besides the *rattlesnake* has a beautiful purple flame design that disappears when cooked. it is like the turkey timer that pops out when done.
we made one alteration that might be risky. last year we noticed that the south end of the bean arch produced substantially more beans than any other part of the arch. i assumed that it was because of lack of competition with other beans for sunlight. in an attempt to replicate this we opted to make five separate bean arches each three and a half feet apart. these are still lined up to form a long tunnel but they might produce more beans from fewer plants. we'll see, it is always a learning experience.

friday fertility photos

tomatoes before last nights hail storm

nimue, step back shes gonna blow. that poor swollen cow is ready to spring any second.

henny-penny-sally is such a good mama.

not quite as good as this one

i'd say rosie is such a good dog except every time i do she does something really naughty. well, you get the idea.

water baby, one sure way to contain the feisty behavior is to immerse child in water--toly is following in his siblings footsteps. often an half a dozen baths are taken each day.

kids at play, play kids play...

booty from the festival - tomato roll call

tabitha and i both got straw hats. five dollars each. we couldn't find our georgia flame pepper so we settled for a serrano pepper. the kids got cherry tomato plants that tabitha just planted in the garden this evening. our tomato varieties are:
- Principe-Borghese (cherry)
- black cherry (cherry)
- cherokee purple (purple full flavor)
- omars lebanese (large pink slicer)
- pantano romanesco (large red slicer)
- amish paste (red canning tomato)
hopefully we'll have a yellow pear that was a volunteer from last year. that would be a seed saving accident. if it did make it we'll be sure to nurture it for next year also. it'll be the first omelay heirloom. actually it was tristan's favorite i really hope it makes it for his sake.
we had a bunch of fun. deb from work came and brought her husband and another couple. i guess gale and husband from work were there also, i didn't see her though. the thompsons were there with their whole family in tow. we really like them, their kids are nice and fun for our kids. i brought them our extra tomato plants that wouldn't fit in our garden. i hope they produce for them. i invited them to help butcher our chickens. we'll share a few with them (around 5) for their trouble. we can do the butchering ourselves but having help would make it less of a daunting task. plus we want to share our wonderful milk-fed chickens with such a nice family.
nimue is bloating up--she'll calf any day now. i can't wait for fresh cream in my morning coffee.
the garden is starting to really look good. i put mulch (wheat straw) between all the planted rows of tomatoes and beets. the swiss chard and other greens are still to small to mulch in yet. i hope to get cattle panels from mike tomorrow. we'll use a total of eleven cattle panels in the garden. five will make up the pole bean arch. two will be for trellised cucumbers. two will go to pumpkin trellising and two will go to the butternut squash. i'll buy them from mike since they are only slightly used in perfect shape and it'll save me the trip to ozark-MFA in a borrowed truck and trailer.
best of all, mike is giving me his surplus wood from making his loft in his barn. it will go for exactly the same purpose in our barn. i have heavy plywood there now but cool rough cut hickory one inch slab will keep up the rustic feel. i can see the finished barn in my minds eye. i hope to get to work on it very soon.
summer is almost here. life feels so rich right now that it seems like a dream.

as child i made an estuary

as a preteen my father took me and my childhood best friend bob camping at the upper peninsula of michigan. it was so cold at night that i wore every piece of clothing i brought and still shivered awake most of the night. i woke to the smell of bacon cooking on a campfire. i'm not sure if any meal has tasted better.

later that day my father decided to go for a walk down the beach. bob and i followed. we were soon distracted by the the shoreline and sand. my father continued down the beach. we played and ran around then we noticed an inland lake. it was blown there by storms. it ran along the shoreline. further inland was thick forest. we followed it and noticed that it was huge spanning several miles. we named it lake superior too. further down the beach it came close to the real lake by about thirty feet. there was a large hump of sand between them.

being an industrious child i decided that we should connect the two with a canal. work began in earnest--bob was always a willing participant in my exploits. soon we had a hand width channel almost completed. it became apparent that the inland lake was several feet higher than lake superior (the big one). so instead of a canal we'd have a little creek. so we dislodged the final dam and stood back to observe our handiwork.

at first it slowly widened and we watched as little aquatic life slid past. then it picked up momentum and widened at an alarming rate. we both barely leaped to the campsite side and a looming darkness crept over me as i realized that my father was still way down the beach and on the wrong side of the new river. we stood there and watched a force of nature dumbfounded as to what we were going to do and how my father might get back to camp.

the river stopped widening at about twenty feet but still showed no signs of letting up. finally my dad came walking back towards us. as he surmised our handiwork i explained that we had no idea that this would happen and was sorry to have trapped him over there. wading across wasn't an option since it was at least four feet deep and very cold. i started to get really sad. then my dad noticed that the torrent had created a sandbar out in lake superior about fifteen feet from the shore. it made a crescent shape and was just beneath the surface--two or three inches. he leapt out to the new sandbar and ran across the crescent and leapt back to our shore. he got a little wet but was relatively unscathed.

have you ever built a river between you and your parents?

baker creek festival this sunday

we are going to the baker creek heirloom seed festival this weekend. what are heirloom seeds and why are they so important? heirloom seeds are basically seed lines that someone has raised from generation to generation saving the seeds each time. ideally, only the best tasting and the most suited to that specific environment pass their genes to the next generation *nurtured selection*. we believe this it important because bio diversity in life is one of the reasons we are here today. dead-end hybrids depend on monsanto and others like them to provide for the next years seeds.

mostly we are interested in saving seeds because we live in a micro-climate in the ozarks and having our garden adapted to the subtle nuances of this area seems like and obvious choice. besides our seed order next year will be much less expensive.

saving seeds is serious business and people are as passionate about it as some are about solar energy. it is another way you can make a difference for our future.

nine chicks so far

two more to go. none of the wyandottes showed any signs of going broody. only henny-penny-sally rose to the occasion. she is a newhampshire red--one of the free chicks that came with a broiler order from mc murrary. she has been the friendliest chicken all along and is now the best mother.

a friend that raises many chicks told us to leave a bunch of eggs in one nest and someone will surely go broody. i have no other tricks to offer except we have moved the whole nest to the chick brooder to make her job of protecting them easier. we have yet to have a complete success.

******************* UPDATE ***********************

all eleven are hatched and cozied in under their protective mama, henny-penny-sally. it appears to be a mixed batch. i believe that the rule of gray-scale chickens will still loosely be followed.

new compost bin

i finally got some pallets and made a new compost bin.



tabitha's milking area was getting kinda deep. she continually adds new straw on top of the general area which gets trampled down. i pitchforked everything into a wheelbarrow and filled the new compost bin to the top. this stuff should decompose very quickly since the raw materials are much smaller than my usual raw ingredient. i still have a couple of yards of compost that is almost ready to be added to the garden.

i also took down the big top. it was an eyesore that has passed it's time.

sorry for the boring post. this is the best place for me to document this stuff.

*************** UPDATE *******************

chicken hatching chicks at the pile of omelays




the tomatoes are liking their new digs.


left to right--nimue, romeo, aliyah

tabitha picking our evening salad.

the tomatoes are in

this weekend i:

mowed the yard
worked on the calf pen until my batteries ran low on my drills.
made a bunch of mulch from the old bale of wheat hay.
spread compost in the garden.
roto-tilled the garden.
repaired and installed soaker hoses.
helped tabitha plant a bunch of tomatoes, eighty or so.
turned the compost.
shored up the fence and cut the opening for the calf pen.
delicately put mulch around the new tomato plants.
mowed the winter wheat in the top part of the garden.

we have been eating fresh salad from the garden every night. tristan loves it. he can recognize the different leaves. his favorite is tatsoi. kassi likes the salad too. she is really good at picking the leaves from the row. she is going to be a big help this summer. ahh, the joys of a spring garden.

we have shuffled our garden plan slightly. i haven't had time to make the changes in the document. the beets are starting to make. their little roots are just starting to fatten up--pencil width. the garlic and onions seem to be doing very well. i need to get a soaker hose on them as soon as the spring rains slack off.

the area where we planted the tomatoes has wonderfully rich, loamy soil. compared to last year i hardly recognize it. my composting efforts are really making a difference.

i didn't get new compost bins built. i need a few pallets yet. my current system is too small and i'd like to move the entire process to the outside of the garden. if i manage to build it as planned it will be too large and garden real estate is valuable.

the goats seem to be doing well. the little one is growing so fast. tabitha has been getting about a half gallon of goats milk each day. the kids drink almost every drop. the cow seems like shes getting much closer to calving. i can't wait until we start getting fresh cream again.

we are slacking off from tv. the nightly plop down in front of it until we go to sleep has stopped. the kids still watch some pbs in the morning. there is simply too much to do each day and having such a waste of time using up precious hours seems rediculus. we'll see how we fare this time around on the no-tv merry-go-round.