Foray into slipform masonry

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?

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.

Day lilies, Bikes and Love

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.

solar energy rules

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.

Harnessing untapped sources of energy

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.

art from kassi

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.

soap, kittens and soil blocks

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.

critical thought = latin

tabitha wants to learn latin from www.galorepark.co.uk in turn she will begin to teach it to the kids. of course, we'll continue on our attempt to expose them to spanish. galore park seems to have a very interesting teaching method and we are intrigued by it. being always on the lookout for excellent teaching tools for our quiver it is exciting to find something of this caliber.

tristan is so far ahead in his reading for his home school that next year we will augment his core reading queue even further than we already have. there is nothing that makes more proud then to find tristan sitting quietly in a corner reading unsolicited. when he is finished he'll rush in to where tabitha and i are and begin to update us on the story line. i love it.

i have been playing the uno card game with the kids nightly. there are fierce emotions regarding that everyone should win at least one game. and, we cannot stop until that criteria has been met. playing with four of us a set of games can last an inordinate amount of time. my remedy was to deal from the bottom of the deck after the match became grueling and tears were threatening to emerge in a noisy way. i thought i was being sly but kassi noticed my bottom dealing. last evenings game she started to plea "daddy give me the bottom cards." busted.. i guess i'd never make it as a vegas dealer.

toly has been on strict regime of starfall for several hours per day. computer time is at a premium lately. netflicks also took nightmare before christmas off their instant queue. it almost broke his little heart. he watched that movie at least once daily. we were forced to purchase it on dvd. it has been one of his happy places that he can retreat when the world starts to spin too fast. he really associates with jack the pumpkin king. the hero that is just a little naughty and usually doesn't realize why. but mostly jack has a good heart and wants to do the right thing. if he could only figure out what the right thing is?

rome is doing the cutest things lately. he is on the verge of talking. of course he
has several words but he is still encumbered by his inability to describe what he needs at every given moment. i guess i still have that problem. he knows when he is being cute and shows off.

our matriarch cat hermoine has had her kittens. they are very cute. all of them are spoken for. good farm cats are hard to come by but we should have some more in a few months.



tabitha has started to blog a little over at http://omelay.blogspot.com/. we also started an "omelay family farm" site to promote our pastured poultry to our local community. it is still under development final release to be announced.

tabitha did paint the cutest sign over the past few days. i went into the woods and cut a cedar for the posts to mount it on.



photos of kittens and sign are on the way. i'll just add them in this post later this evening (for those of you on the RSS check back tonight)

sorry about the delay but i finally succumbed to the stomach flu that has been making its way through the pile of omelays.

hey mom, can i write my own proverb?

that is what tristan just asked tabitha.

tabitha "sure"

tristan "a friend is always nice to his friends"

i love it! he captured all the necessary elements of a proverb.

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..

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.

swords

O'Melay kids are really rough on stuff. in fact everything we have ever loved is now broken--no joke. over the past six years tristan has had several swords--more than ten. from plastic play swords to bamboo karate sparing swords. none of them have survived. the longest surviving sword was one of my manufacture. it was thin enough to fit into a long extinct scabbard that came with an inferior short lived purchased sword. it lasted and lasted and i was convinced that it would pass the grade and others might need to be constructed for his siblings using the same paradigm. alas it failed and the flaw that caused it was not easily fixable. the wood split down it's natural grain. that happened several months ago.

every night since all O'Melays have dreamed of nothing except swords. i got daily request from at least one O'Melay that they needed a sword. finally the stars aligned and the weather forced indoor activities only. sword making began in earnest.

i began with a thin board of oak that i had planed down at bobs for the old thin sword. i cut the board in half and glued them together making sure that the wood grain crossed so no further splitting could occur easily. here is a piece of the laminated stock.

i cut out the shape of three swords making it a single piece from tip to end of the hilt. i cut out a guard to protect little hands while crossing blades.

i glued two pieces of the the thinner oak on as the hilt to hold the guard in place.

the final product is incredibly strong and should not have the earlier flaw of the obsolete sword. tristan is practicing his most threatening grimace.

i also fixed the old broken shield. i predict that it won't last two weeks. but the sword should last for several months if not years. as long as they don't leave it out in the rain or let the grass grow up around it and destroyed by the mower.

i could never sell these things since i'd have to charge over a hundred dollars for them. even at that price it wouldn't be for any kind of a profit. maybe if i had more than two clamps and some other power tools my production could increase. currently they are mostly hand made. files and chisels remove oak wood very slowly.

now that all three sword are finished the kids are out on some adventure. i made each sword a little different so they can easily tell which one belongs to whom. toly's hilt grip is smaller for his little hand while they get progressively thicker for kassi and tristan respectively.

there is no place like home

we are home and home is good. we had a wonderful stay with tansy and co. our kids love their kids. in fact toly cried the last hour on the way home, he wanted to go back to tansy's. he wouldn't get out of the car for fifteen minutes demanding that this was the wrong place.

our trip went well. toly's test results have yet to reach my ears, most likely tuesday. he was diagnosed with epilepsy and has to go on anti seizure meds. scary warnings all over that stuff... the test went beautifully, better than imaginable. toly sat there while the technician attached all those electrodes to his head. then he fell right asleep as necessary for the test.

we did go to the zoo and it was great.


our first stop was to visit tansy at her farmers market before leaving her area.

toly might be a plumber someday.

kassi liked all the pretty flowers


we had excellent lemonade


finally we re-piled into the van and headed for the city.


very exciting business.

yes, this is tristan with his new haircut.

toly got so excited


a gentle learning moment.


rome was fascinated by it all.


the day before we left kassi got stung by a brown recluse spider. she got very sick and swelled up like a puffer fish. i was scared to death. we went to the emergency room with her. they couldn't do anything for her. luckily tansy came to the rescue with a poultice and she started on the mend immediately. she looks great here just a few days later.


here is the classic zoo photo. the day was very sunny and hot.


even the shade offered little reprieve.


the obligatory squint eyed camels in the back drop photo.


we were quite the troupe.


toly was nearly uncontainable, fences schmences i want a closer look.


the carousel was a big hit. i stood next to toly and made sure he didn't fall. a look of sweet bliss came over his face. he reached up and put his arm around my neck and said "I love you daddy." that is what makes it all worth while.


cute boy having the best time.


romneya marched around and had a blast.



it is hard to catch the while gang. this is the closest i came.


tristan enjoyed it too.


a much braver second round.


kassi frolicking while sitting.


look one hand.






another highlight was the cool-down fountain.


rome got into the act right away


loud screeches could be heard for miles.


romes little baby dance.




toly gradually warmed up to the idea.


all four of them


this straw came out of this cup daddy.


eaten by the wild hippo




caught in the giant spider web


the three of them running non-stop to the top of the slide


rome needed his shoes on those soft baby feet.


big strong six and 364/365ths year old boy.


running


monsanto's genetically engineered beetle. you'd better buy their pesticide or else.


too much fun was had by all. we stopped by meramac cave on the way home to cool off. the kids got down right chilly. the camera chip was in the laptop, sorry no photos.

monday will be the day of deep cleaning and dislodging any spiders from their habitat.