piñata

today we are celebrating tristan's 4th birthday

tristan wants a tiered stepped cake--kinda like a wedding cake. i imagine that he has some how calculated that there will be extra frosting this way. the cake should be chocolate and the frosting should be blue. tabitha found natural food color somewhere online. our kids freak-out after artificial coloring.
we are having a little get together. there will be a piñata. i am not exactly sure of all the piñata rules. do you blindfold all the kids and give each of them a bat? just kidding. we only have one bat anyway. i'll try to make a video of some of the event. i know that you hang up the piñata and have a controller holding the other end of the rope at to adjust the height for each child. plus isn't it proper to allow all the kids to miss one time through then let them really have at it? iv'e seen lame piñata events where the kids cannot break the piñata. i doubt that'll be a problem with my feisty son.

i have been working on a design for an uber blogsite that tabitha and i both contribute to. this blog (pile of omelays) will, in essence, remain the same. i have also been researching blog technologies. the hosting service that i use for omelay.com is integrated with wordpress. there is no hurry since nothing will change until winter--if it does. there are many reasons for this but mostly we need to document our garden better. this will be a shared to the panopticon yet a personal knowledge base. things like avoiding successive plantings in the same location are very important. another example is: to avoid early blight in the tomatoes the soil must be amended before planting with corn meal. a beneficial mold grows and gets established living off the corn meal. allegedly, this mold is pervasive and allows no other molds, including early blight, to grow. this additional blog should logically be married with a kitchen blog since our whole reason for a garden is to eat organically. important kitchen documentation would be: how many quarts of what were put up? which recipes were used for spaghetti sauce, canned salsa and pickles. can acorn squash really replace pumpkin in a pie? to this end, things like categories will become more important. anyway...

speaking of spaghetti sauce, tabitha put up fourteen pints (one pressure cooker's worth). it took an amazing thirty pounds of tomatoes for a mere fourteen pints of sauce. that ratio is roughly two pounds of tomatoes per pint. the kids can eat pasta and red sauce every day. if we were to put up enough pasta sauce for the every day that would be nearing 800 pounds of tomatoes. hence the answer to pablo's question why do we need so many tomato plants?

homestead progress in photos

these tomatoes are queued for spaghetti sauce. tabitha is making it right now



yummy tomato sauce already for winter sauces.



there are two types of basil growing here. there will be pesto in my near future. some of this basil will be going into the spaghetti sauce that is in the process as i write.



this is a vantage of the tomato jungle. inviting and foreboding at the same time.



our bean arbor is suffering from the heavy rains. this is the second time that i have repaired it. next year it will be much sturdier--live and learn.


i moved this super heavy cast iron bathtub (aka cattle waterer) around to the upper side of the garden. initially i did it so that when we accidentally left the water running when filling it, which happened almost every time, it'd over flow into the garden instead of the woods.

the upper overflow drains to just above the freshly planted beets. the tub drain, needs to be done every week or so, is to keep the mosquito larvae from making more mosquitoes. something miraculous happened as a result. because the tub is in the shade and near her food nimue is now drinking more water. furthermore she is now making more milk with more cream. imagine that....



this is our Georgia flame pepper plant. it is a russian heirloom. it is heavy with fruit. we hope it is good.



we let our spring arugula bolt and it re-seeded this area. i love arugula. it goes perfectly with tomatoes. the larger plants towering above the arugula is okra. the kids love pickled okra.




this is my compost bin with completed compost. it was over half full when i filled this bin from the ones in the background.this is an example of this compost bin just after the transfer.

canning continues

we have this baaad arse pressure canner. it is pretty large but it's best feature is it has a metal to metal seal and is made by wisconson foundry. there is a very cool safety mechanism that blows fairly easily without fail and it has a rocker type pressure calibration. tabitha's mother got an identical one at a garage sale but sans the rocker pressure calibration. so we found that the new rocker type will retro-fit into the oldschool toggle type port. so we ordered a new nipple-vent and rocker weight. now we have two state of the art pressure canners. they are big enough to hold several quarts but they both still fit on our stove top. henry ford would be jealous of our production abilities.

we went to arkansas and bought three bushel of peaches and tabitha has put up forty or so quarts of peaches--peach pie, peach cobbler, peaches and icecream, peaches and french toast, and just plain peaches.



tomatoes are next she already has done a few batches but we should start seeing them really come-on. the yellow bush beans are threatening to really come-on soon also. we'll can the crap out of them too.



have i mentioned lately that i have a good woman. not only because she is spending countless hours canning but she's just a good woman and mother. the last photo from the left tomatoes, pickled beets, peppers and below is a couple more tomatoes then canned pumpkin. by the weekend i'll have the pumphouse cleaned out for pantry storage.

weekly panorama 8/9/6

notice the vacant rows from harvesting and culling dead plants.

where am i going and why am i in this handbasket?

the tomatoes are really starting. this is tabitha's special harvest basket. it needs to be soft as to not damage delicate fruit, sturdy able to carry twenty five pounds of tomatoes and rugged to withstand small children riding and playing in it. this one is from africa and made of rope like weave. i must admit it is perfect for harvesting tomatoes.

i made pico de gallo "beak of the rooster" last night. it is a fresh raw salsa. it has few ingredients--like all great garden recipes it depends heavily on the freshness of the produce.
ingredients:
2 cups of tomatoes
1/2 to 1 cup of onions
a nickel sized bunch of cilantro *
1 to 2 pickled peppers "serrano chilies"
1 lime squeezed into the mix
salt to taste.


the first thing to remember it these are just guidelines. the proportions can all be skewed toward personal taste. many other things can be added like garlic, pepper to help the less-fresh produce. corn, papaya, apples, cucumbers are also a good support to the tomato portion of the mix.

* nickel sized group of stalks and their accompaning leaves. kinda like measuring pasta.

tristan loves pico. i made a double batch and he ate a third of it. he promptly said i need to go to the bathroom and make more room for more pico.

garden goddess

this is a representation of good and evil. the luscious ripe yellow pear tomato and their advisary the tobacco horned worm. it is like lady justice and her scales--showing opposites in balance. only in this case it would be the O'Melay garden Goddess of balance, exhibiting the circle of life.

this is a high resolution photo so you can zoom into the horned worm and see this menace up close as to recognize and hopefully illude it in the future.

edamame aka fresh soybeans

tabitha and co. are picking and freezing edamame. these were a breeze to grow. we planted them, after it was warm enough, next to a soaker hose. we watered them whenever we watered the garden. harvesting them consisted of cutting the entire plant and bringing them inside and sitting at the kitchen table to pick the beans.



the kids were playing with the other garden harvest while we picked the pods. all of these little squash fit so nicely in this egg carton.



stacking the pumpkins is a game of skill and coordination.



romeo is our blue andalusian. he is a smaller breed so he's developing quicker. he just started crowing the other day. he likes to jump up on the fence, being sure that the girls are watching, and crow his best crow

wholesome fun

tristan was trying to impress this girl with a story of his exploits in his dream last night--flying and doing flips.



ohh, the magical button that makes the caterpillar fly.



this ride was the most fun for all. kassi and tristan both loved it and it was kinda fun to ride as an adult.



tabitha, and her funnel-cake not to be separated at any cost.



Silverdollar city albeit a commercialized theme park was a wonderful time. all of the old-timey ozarks personae was very contrived but well done nonetheless. the kids had such a great time. sorry pictures were spotty. i was mostly busy having fun too.
tristan is 41 31/32 tall and all of the big rides required 42 inches. his shoes were flat and we got measured at every bigboy ride. he was amazing riding everything they'd let him on with gusto. except....

there was this huge roller coaster that launches you into full speed from a standstill then into spinning, flipping and spiraling. he got so scared that he was crying for mama. i held his little hand and laughed and giggled trying to change the tone. during the second climb to greater heights and even more terror tristan whimpered and i regretted going on the ride. as we entered the slow down period tristan stopped crying and was just generally unhappy. we got out of the ride and tristan declared that he did NOT like that roller coaster. in retrospect, he says that he'd go on that ride if we would just go back to silver dollar city.

it was busy and hot but they, unlike all other theme parks i'd been too, had lots of trees and with all of the other cooling measures the heat was very tolerable.

there was quite a bit of this behavior. kassi was pushing tristan over to make room so she could sit in the rented stroller



should i jump? is it too high?



happy girl.



at least both kids are looking at the camera at the same time.

silver dollar city

today is tristan's birthday celebration visit to silver dollar city. no we aren't taking our son to a casino--it's a theme park. it is based on the old-time ozark tradition of life, music, food and farming. mostly is has a bunch of cool roller coasters. we have some friends that work there and get free tickets, they normally cost forty five dollars each. we'll take lots of photos and i'll post a bunch here.

umbrella

grandma has come to visit kassi got an umbrella and is completely enthralled. tristan covets it desperately.

our garden is blooming

as temperatures approach triple digits the kids stay inside the house playing things like thomas the tank engine and dolls. kassi, tristan and i have been playing cards--go fish. mostly it's me playing everyone else's hand and letting one or both of the kids win. we are expecting our first overnight guest--tabitha's mother. our house isn't really set up for it but i'm sure we'll make do. we put up some curtains as a privacy screen for the bathroom. that'll have to be fine. the wall flowers are shots from our garden this morning. we picked beets this morning along with tomatoes, beans, squash and cucumbers. we have sooo many green tomatoes right now i hope they all vine ripen. we want to can a couple hundred jars of marinara sauce, salsa and plain tomatoes. i repaired the door on the pump house and have decided that it stays fairly cool in there. cool enough to keep our canned goods. also as i finish the root-cellar i plan to mound dirt against the north and east side of the pump house. this should maintain a better constant temperature without the high humidity of the completed root cellar. i even have entertained the idea of putting a living roof on top of the pump house. this would help further to regulate the constant temperature. plus, it should be a nice test of a living roof system.

panorama july 30 2006

here is our overdue panorama. the bean arch/arbor is getting some yellow leaves. the castor bean plants have huge leaves--some are over two feet across. one of our tomato trellis fell over during the last thunderstorm. we had to prop it back up and re-tie several plants back up. they all seem to have survived.

instructions on how to use the panorama link for the best possible experience are located at this previous post.

tomato

i had a half inch thick slice of this tomato on my cheese burger. it stuck out about three quarters of an inch all the way around. this is allegedly a brandy wine tomato but has a different leaf structure than all of our other brandy wine plants. it has performed better than all the others--we'll save some seeds from this one. we hope to re-populate our garden with this variety and cherokee purple next year.

these are exciting times at the omelay homestead. living off the garden and eating like kings. life is good.

my kassiopeia

need i say more?

monkey boy

this is my monkey boy and "the reason that we moved here." i recall climbing so many trees as a boy and this is all i really ever wanted for my kids.

we took a stool sample to the large animal vet in ozark. nimue is fine. she just looks like a milking cow. compared to all of the the local beef cattle she seems skinny and unhealthy. she tested out perfect.

i have been working on a huge green house for a local guy. it had some storm damage and needed lots of help. we are installing a wood fired heater and an additional exhaust fan. the work i have done so far is. repair the main rear wall, re-install the main sliding door after fixing the slightly warped track, install new siding, cutting all the metal to the curve of the green house, pour a slab and piers for the 6,000 pound wood burning heater, i replaced the bent aluminum rafters and installed a structural beam above the proposed wood fired heater.

i have yet to install the heater on the slab and build the steel building around it. that will take a bit of effort since there are many facets like chimney, roof penetration and ventilation for the heating system.

on the home front i plant to install the new air-conditioner tomorrow. i have some more computer work to do for SLP. i need to bill them immediately.

bye

panorama postponed

the yard is too junkie for a panorama. we just killed chickens and the mess, pallet temporary pen, buckets, and other random junk have taken over the yard and tabitha doesn't want to up-load the shots i took.

here is a photo of the root cellar progress. it is earth bag construction. last night tabitha helped and it went very fast holding and filling bags isn't a one man operation. my tube/filler idea won't work with recent rain compacted soil. i had to take a pick to the pile to just get a shovel to dig in. we did a half of a tier last night and hope to make it regular evening thing. the bags are covered to protect from the sunlight. they will last forever if kept from U.V. damage.

why do i blog?

yesterday i was on the phone with my best friend matt. his dog mayday just left this ethereal plane and he made a tribute blog about her. it is a nice window into his soul. anyway, we were talking about blogging and that it is good therapy, ect...
putting feelings, ideas and accomplishments down in a public space is not really anything new but this vehicle "the blog" is such an easy (relatively) new development.
i believe that we, as this incarnation of the species, are struggling for community. sharing deeply with our compassionate community in the past was simply part of our family and village. within the past fifty years we have changed our expectations that each individual should be independent, self sufficient and not need anyone. this is affirmed but forcing our children to fledge by eighteen and then expecting them to not need the parents.
the blog is a great anonymous way to put "it" out there. the electronic community can judge (or not judge) they can feel compassion, pride, admiration, pity, you name it. mostly they just feel and hopefully during the course being entertained. i am not sure that it replaces the "village" of lore but it will due for now.
me personally, i use it for myself. the reason that i created this blog is for my parents. i wanted them to be able to see what we are up to. after installing a sitemeter and realizing through the geographical statistical information that they hardly ever visit my blog. i then imagined that my kids might care in some future about how they were raised, the care and thought that we put into them, finally, i came to grip with the idea that this was for me. matt said that it is for pablo, danielle and him. i must admit that one of the reasons that i have forced myself to update as frequently as i do is because of them. thanks guys.
anyway again, this has metamorphosed into a journal for me and all of you, but mostly for me. sometimes i wish i could protect some entries for my eyes only (this one would probably go there) but it is healthy for me that these things are "out there".

to be judged OR NOT

pumpkin harvest

Tabitha standing amidst the squash holding her first pumpkin. that sunflower on the right is soooo tall.

heat and lethargy

the temperatures and humidity have made it difficult to accomplish anything. it takes so much effort to do the smallest task. i have been working on repairing a storm damaged greenhouse in the cooler morning and doing web design stuff in the afternoon. we hold up in the airconditioned bedroom, the kids bounce off the walls and i work on the computer. our wireless internet is spotty there so when it is available i use it for work related activities. i was planning on moving the wireless transmitter but we have decided that we need to air condition the entire house. tabitha cannot get regular household maintenance done with these high temperatures. triple digit temperatures should continue to be a threat for the next month and we'll get too far behind if we dont take immediate action. by action i mean purchasing a larger, more efficient air conditioner. the place we intend to install it will require opening a port in the wall. i don't relish that but it will be nice when done.
i'll take a bunch of photos tomorrow, kids, garden and homestead. toly has been kicking and spinning. he is really active like both kids have been. we spend many hours wonder what he'll be like. how will he be different and similar to the other kids? just fun entertainment dreamy baby stuff.

in the hay

i spent the day in the hay. i have been working to get some bales of alfalfa for nimue. she likes it when she is being milked. we also give merlin a flake when we put him up from his mother for the afternoon and evening.

i was driving the tractor pulling a conditioner. mike was cutting conditioning and furrowing the hay and i'd follow with a second conditioner. this device further crimps the stalks and helps the hay dry more evenly. alfalfa is tricky to get put up in perfect condition. doing this second conditioning helps the process.

while i was working on the root cellar tabitha and the kids went to springfield. i pushed kassi on tristan's swing for a while before they left.

kassi is such a happy girl.

tristan loved dressing up in the kimono and pretending to make sushi for his friends. he loves sushi like his dad.
our bean arch also fell-in in a few places. i went down to the creek and cut some more local bamboo cane. the cow loved eating the stripped leaves. allegedly cane makes great forage for cattle it just grow slower than other grasses. the arch took both tabitha and i to bend, hold, tie and repair. it looks a little different but still very cool.

oh my God

we got a new camera gifted to us. it is a canon elf sd 550. we have been making due with a camera that has a broken lcd screen with no way to change the flash or any other settings. it has been very frustrating and we were very concerned as to how we were going to take decent birth photos. during birth tabitha has always wants low light. i have been researching new cameras. what we might be able to scrimp and save to get before the birth. whew, the camera we were going to try to get is about three price brackets below this one. we have been so blessed and lucky. thank you--you know who you are.

tabitha squealed like a little girl and it almost sent her into early labor when we opened the first box.

one of the first photos tabitha took of me and the kids.

cucumber water

one of my favorite ways to have cucumbers is: on a hot day where iced tea just wouldn't do. you slice half a cucumber into a half gallon of iced water and that's all. drink the water and relish in the fresh glory of the best drink of water you have ever had.

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the first time i had cucumber water was in calistoga during a full immersion mud bath. as i sat in the steambath after my mud bath and waiting for my massage there was a picture of water sitting on the tile. i was very thirsty. at this point i already had slices of cucumber over my eyes and thought that there was some kind of flavor leakage into my drink. then i realized what they had done. it was the most refreshing drink of water i had ever enjoyed to date.

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i highly recommend a mud bath but better yet when you are really thirsty make a cucumber water you'll be surprised.

animal census at the omelay homestead

here is a list of animals at the omelay homestead:
nimue the milking cow jersey (nim-ou-way)
merlin the calf son of nimue
sylvia the cat black polydactyl rumored to be her own aunt (aka: the mole killer)
laying chickens "the girls" eight silverlaced wyandottes
rooster, enrique too young to do his job yet, mostly he is a scared silverlaced wyandotte
rooster, romeo enrique's cohort in fear he was the "free chicken" blue andalusian
guineas adam and eve they live the garden of eden
georgina (horhina) the tree frog also lives in garden of eden
broiler chickens we are down to ten they are all named "dinner" smacking of lips immediately follows after using their name.
we'd like to get a puppy but we had a bad experience and are still in recovery.
tag you are it... please census your animals and link to your blog or as a comment. i'd love to see what every one else has.

weekly panorama 7/7/6

the weekly panorama. the corn is over 11 feet tall. the tomatoes are huge and we expect a few for lunch tomorrow. they will be our first. we have cucumbers coming out of our ears. there might be a cucumbers for sale sign made tomorrow. the bean arch has kinda stopped blooming. i hope it starts again. we ate our chicken for dinner last night it was great. well worth the trouble. the evisceration, the daily moving of the chicken tractor, the expense and all the daily effort to feed and water them was well worth that first delicious meal. and we have twenty or so more meals like it.