stormy night

i woke at five am to the sound of heavy rain. i mustered my courage to brave the morning. kassi and tristan had some how turned 90 degrees in bed and formed a mini bulldozer with their feet. perched on the precipice, exiting bed was easier than usual. the fire was out but the house wasn't cold. my wood calculations will need adjusting. we are using way less than my pessimistic projection suggested. tabitha optimistically thinks that the three quarters of a load left (loaded feb 17th) on the porch will be our last one. sorry to bore you with silly wood stuff but i'm trying to document wood usage for next years planning.

mike, tabitha's father, had his 220 to 250 pound hogs killed by a pack of dogs. it was gruesome sight and deeply disturbing. he bought ammo for his gun and plans to kill any dog on his property. he loaded his truck with the three pigs and drove it around to show all the neighbors. he informed everyone of his intentions and if they cared about their dogs they'd keep them contained. i think, if he manages to kill any, he will be doing the neighborhood a service. after seeing the killing-for-sport slaughter of his pigs i fear for my children. i am sure that rosie would alert us (like she always does) and protect the kids but it is still scary. any troupe of dogs that can kill hogs of that size could easily kill small children. we live in a drop-zone for abandoning dogs and have several unsavory pit-bull-ranchers within two miles. tabitha and i have been considering purchasing a gun. i was reluctant, although i am proficient with a gun, i just don't really like the idea of having something so dangerous in the house. we took photos for mike and nancy of the pigs, i'll spare you the horror.

gardening has begun

i roto-tilled a few rows of the garden and planted about three pounds of onion sets. these are the local grocery store variety *red*.
we have several hundred plants arriving in the mail in a week or so. they will fill out the rest of the the prepared soil.

the root cellar is coming along nicely. we had over an inch of rain during the last storm. normally that'd have left standing water in the cellar but my drainage measures seem to be working so far--
i shouldn't have any problems once all drainage measures are in place. this photo shows most of the progress that i have made. additionally, there are a few more earth bags in the front and i have started the entry rock-work. i had to figure my entry a little differently since the water main needs insulation and enough cover to keep from freezing. that insulation and back-fill buffer encroached into my original plan.

rosie is really turning out to be great dog. tabitha spent a few minutes with her and taught her to roll over. she really really wants to please. she mostly meets all of my expectations chickens are completely off limits and she knows it. she will stop in her tracks and sit down where ever i command. she has almost completely stopped licking and she does her business in the far corner of the yard. additionally, she likes to hang-out with me when i work in the forest. she knows that she is not to go through any yard gate without permission. she is such a good dog and will sit and wait at any gate for me to come back through.

root-cellar plan

here is the general plan for the root cellar.



the U-shape on the top of the bags is a row of cement beam block that will hold the entire roof to the bags via re-bar pounded down into the earth bags. i opted for this instead of using bags to create my arch because i plan to pile a bunch of dirt on top of the root cellar and i believe this will be stronger. we'll grow some ground cover over the top of the root cellar and pump house. earth roof for the pump house plan will be shown at a much later date.

in response to...

squire & tansy,
thank you, the root cellar is a ridiculous amount of effort.
sugarcreek,
yep, healthy & happy.
edifice rex,
thanks for visiting, i like your house blog too.
uncle matt,
as ever.
Wendy,
thank you also for visiting.
Kristianna,
sweet and cute? i agree. and, tristan is already better help than some adults that i've worked with.

root cellar progress

i have made some real progress on the root cellar. this photo was mondays progress. as of last night i am flush with the ground. i am planning to make a ferro-crete arch for a roof the bury the whole thing. electricity will get installed with a inside light and an entry light over the door. my grand father built several ferro-crete structures on his property one of them held a reservoir for a water-fall. they were amazing organic structures that looked like rocks, trees, streams, ponds and hills. i plan to cover most of our ferro-crete structure with a mixture of recycled styrofoam and reinforced concrete as a layer of insulation. then i'll skim coat to make a water tight barrier and finally earth berm over the entire thing. i have a bunch of rock that will make the retaining wall at the entry and the front of the cellar.

i plan to berm earth onto the side of the pumphouse. that should stabilize the temperature in there to allow dry storage for other food items. if my styrofoam/reinforced-concrete plasters well i will plaster the side of the pump house also, otherwise i'll just have to install a water tight barrier.




kassi will dance for hours non stop. watching her dance is such a joy.


toly adores his siblings


tristan his hair is long and flowing

the juicer

tabitha took this photo of me at my morning station. i bought this juicer for the family for christmas. our carrot through-put is astounding. tabitha, tristan and i love the juice. our bodies crave the stuff every morning--tristan really likes to shove the carrots into the juicer.

i woke to a cold house

at five am i peeled myself away from my sleeping son. the house was unusually cold. my exposed arm that cradled tristan was still stiff as i tried to push myself upright. the front room that keeps the wood stove was just as cold. no light, no glow, not even a flicker stirred in the fire box. i pushed the ashes around and found my prize a single coal fiery and hot. a few slivers of oak and some added draft sparked new life into the house. i piled some smaller wood on the tiny blaze and closed the doors. days before i cleaned the glass on the stove and my reward today was a beautiful dance of fire. mesmerizing, i let my mind drift trying to find the patterns in the fractal of rich color. i thought about God and my family always returning to the next lick of flame. the room began to warm. the only noise was the gentle roar of the breath of our captive dragon. i decided that God does exist, my family being the proof and that the only thing that could make this moment better would be a warm cup of coffee.

weekend photo update

figuring stuff out

where i work is a state operated girls school. mostly troubled teens and drug addicted girls live and study there trying to turn their lives around. the closest comparison i can think of is a corporate retreat camp. they have a huge rock climbing wall--six stories. it has a zip line from the top that careens across the forest. there are three cabins, two class rooms, a vocational building and several support ancillary buildings. it is located ten miles from nowhere on a winding road surrounded by mark twain national forest.

there is a huge well that supplies the entire complex. no one claims that they know how the well and pressure tank works--even the local pump/well company. it is not a standard system since the pressure tank is huge and doesn't have a bladder. any way i have been trying to wrap my brain around the thing since it has been causing problems for quite some time. i think that i have figured it out. the tank has to be filled with air and water at some ratio that i don't know. the water is there for obvious reasons--to flush toilets and wash hands. the air is there to compress and expand maintaining a reasonable pressure for the system so that the pump doesn't have the run continuously--it would wear out quickly otherwise. since there is no bladder, a rubber barrier separating the water and compressible air pocket, the air slowly integrates under the higher pressure into the water and the tank ends up filled with just water. there is a compressor attached to the system to add more air in the event the water level gets too high in the tank--causing the pump to cycle. the part that isn't obvious is that there seems to be a float with a mercury switch that decides if the compressor or the pump should come on to add to the tank when there is water usage. the other issue is that the ozarks have incredibly hard water--off the charts. lime build-up causes water heaters to fail early and shower heads to clog. i am assuming that (if this float exists) the float is exposed to the same hard water that causes all the other problems. if so, the float might need some cleaning and mechanical encouragement to preform its task.

anyway, i giggled that switch until it worked loosely and things seem to be working fine now. i could take the float and switch apart but i am afraid that there would be a million little springy parts that would fly into my face as i took the cover plate off the unit. so for now, i'll just giggle the switch making sure that it moves freely occasionally and wait until that no longer solves the problem.

spring like conditions

today was t-shirt weather. i left work at bobs at 1:30 to come work in the yard. tabitha clipped the dead tops of the aspargus. kassi and i weeded. tristan and i got some straw that nimue already rejected and was busily trampling. we put the straw over the entire bed and cozied our baby asparagus in for the rest of the winter.

i also moved the mailbox back to the original location. we have decided to quit using our po box and receive our mail at home. the old postmaster recommended that we have the box across the street and i built a small inadequate approach berm. the mail delivery person said we needed to make it longer and wider. that is when we decided to start using a po box. through the grapevine we discovered that we could allegedly move the box to the original location and start using our cute little red mail box. when the bill came due for the po box i made a formal request to the new postmaster if we could really move our mailbox back where it was when we moved here. he consulted all the powers that be and verified that indeed we could move our mailbox back. a person might think *what a fiasco* well, it's all over now--as i knock crossed fingers on wood.

mike, tabitha's father, dropped by and needed my help installing his new show french doors. the entire family piled in the car and journeyed down there. it took a few minutes and a few remove and replaces but it is now in place and fairly square. the kids got to play with their new puppy. it is a blue heeler. the puppy is so cute. we almost got another puppy too. tabitha kept saying WWMD (what would matt do?) matt, my best friend, loves dogs and would certainly have gotten a new puppy.

if rosie were already trained we might consider another dog but two puppies means that misbehavior cannot be addressed when the guilty party isn't obvious.

finally feeling better -fire wood calculations

that is, i'm feeling better. the kids are still fighting off strep throat.

i loaded the porch with four wheel barrow loads of wood and tried to calculate our usage. i paced off nine ricks of wood that were in my original long pile. that is not including the the rick that i gave john and pam. we have roughly four ricks of wood left in the field and the better part of one rick on the porch. a fully loaded porch lasts between seven and twelve days. this last cold spell forced us to go through the porch of wood in eight days.

so, if this porch load lasts until next wednesday that will be half way through february. given that the last frost here in missouri is sometime during the month of may, i claim we won't have enough wood. lets see, there should be about six or seven porch loads of wood left in the field. if each porch load lasts ten days. february has two more loads, march will have three loads, april will have two loads and may will have one load. 2+3+2+1=8 by my best guess we'll be one porch load short. i have roughly half of a load that needs to be split in the field and a bunch of dried dead wood in the ravine. the last porch load will be a bit more work.

one problem has been general wood quality. we had the better part of two ricks of mulberry which is crappy to burn for heat. a large portion of the wood had been oddly cut. short stumpy pieces were on the last tier of the the entire long stack. crappy wood is always going to be an issue since we only harvest wood from our land that is undesirable. i'm really glad that i finished out the barnifactors wood with that last mulberry. mostly because the barn has a bad leak in the roof and the doors are barely hanging on their hinges. i might sell any future mulberry that i get at a reduced rick rate or for campfire wood. at the end of our road is a marina and campground. last summer people were constantly stopping by asking if they could buy some campfire wood.

we placed our onion set order today--to be shipped the last week of February. we ordered from dixondalefarms. growing onions is a bit of a fiasco. allegedly our area, which isn't calculated via the normal planting zone method, the days don't get long enough to grow a good storage onion. in the onion world there are only three types of onions long day, intermediate day, and short day onions. that means that north america is divided into three overlapping areas. we are deeply steeped in the intermediate day onion section. but, short day onions overlap well past us. to make matters worse, we want good storage onions--which only occurs in the long day varieties. did i mention that long day doesn't overlap our area?

to make matters worse, i really only truly appreciate red onions. so am i screwed? the answer is yes. but there is still hope. we might live in a micro climate that will work for long day onions. are you confused yet? i sure am. anyway, the answer to the onion puzzle is to purchase the long day onion sampler and hope for the best. but the long day onion sampler doesn't include my favorite red storage onion--so we bought some of them also. back to the trial and error gardening method.

one of our great canning successes was the salsa/relish from farmgirlfare. the real problem is we didn't put enough of the stuff up. we are down to our last three quarts. next fall there will be so much green tomato salsa/relish that we'll have it coming out our ears. if you grow tomatoes you must try this stuff. it is amazing and uses green tomatoes. so at the end of the tomato season when there are still tons of green tomatoes this is the perfect answer.

tabitha also canned a spaghetti sauce to die for. we are running out of that one also. i'm not sure the recipe--it might be off the cuff what ever was fresh at the time.

the root cellar is plaguing my sleep. i really really want to complete it. the barn is going to be so cool. we have decided to do it in strawbale. i have calculated that we'll need 150 straw bales to do the job. the local straw seller charges 4 dollars a bale. what a rip off. i need to find a better supplier.

frozen pipes

i woke this morning to frozen pipes. it was only the hot line to the bathroom but it prevented me from going to work this morning. i ran to the hardware store and purchased pricey heat tape. in the interim i plugged in the chick starter heat lamp and pointed it at the place where i thought the problem was.

during the fall some varmint dug into my insulated closure in the crawl (rather wallow/worm) space. the cold winter wind could penetrate the varmint exposed pipes.
i left the cold water drizzeling at the bathroom sink last night but that only protected the cold line.

when i returned i got out my high powered heat gun and managed to to melt through the frozen blockage. i then wallowed under the house to my navel and wrapped the plumbing in question with heat tape and bubble-foil-bubble insulation. i also re-insulated the little door that i made to cover the access point and closed the space back up.

i now have to go back to town to get a prescription for kassi. it seems that all the kids have strep-throat. toly has an ear infection. now, everyone is on antibiotics. we are a sorry lot. i have the go into work this afternoon so my my will be a busy one.

getting things done

i spent the afternoon cutting down unwanted trees from our shaded pasture. i left all of the large trees, dogwoods and persimmon trees. i cut all of the huge grape vines plaguing the remaining trees and all of the dead wood i could manage. what remains are more than a dozen huge trees, two or three persimmon and a couple dozen dogwood trees. there is about a cord of wood sitting waiting to be stacked. i'll leave it stacked in the woods until next fall. it will be lighter once dried for a season.

this area is next in the queue to get fenced. this will be an alternate pasture for nimue. the barn is situated immediately between both pastures and will be easily accessible for milking and shelter.

tabitha started thirty six cabbage plants and a bunch of onions. everyone suggests that we'll have better luck buying onion sets when planting time happens but we have to learn some lessons for ourselves. we still plan to buy sets because a family like ours can never have enough onions. only one of bob's fluorescent lights worked. so i'll take it back and hope for better luck next time.

i am getting excited for spring and the garden. there is too much to do between now and spring. i need to cut enough wood for next winter. i want to finish the root cellar to act as a storm shelter before spring tornado season hits. i'd like to get the barn completely ready for the walls.

we have changed gears on the barn. since nimue is just-now getting bred back we have time to do the barn with straw-bale walls, earthen and lime plaster and skip using the steel siding. it will be a great test for our intended addition which we dream to do in straw-bale also. the barn will be a much better structure this way and we like the idea of straw-bale better.

sometimes i get down because of the amount of work that we hope to get done in the near future. i have to make a forced effort to look back and reflect upon all that we have accomplished. i get so caught up in trudging forward with the next project and several emergency fires that pop-up that i forget to notice that we are actually making real progress.

we were gifted some new mattresses. i seem to sleep better than i did on our futon. i have hardly wake in the middle of the night since their arrival. the house warming fire suffers a bit since it is barely embers after a long nights sleep. i imagine i need the "real-rest" that i am getting now. maybe i'll go back to my normal schedule once my body gets caught up.

tristan is trying so hard to read. the other morning he attempted to spell out everything that he would try to say to me. it was very impressive. of course he didn't spell much correctly but i knew what he was trying to convey. kassi is my wonderful princess. most times i forget that she is only two. she is her very own person and has a presence far beyond her years. toly is growing like a weed--a chubby weed. he weighs twenty pounds and is so tall that his special baby back carrier doesn't support his head any longer. he wants to play with the older kids so desperately that it tortures him. he adores both his siblings. he looks at them with such desire and connection that i fear we'll have another torturously early walker. kassi walking at seven months was too painful to watch and i don't know if i can bare to watch another of my children force their will so feverishly as to bruise their bottom from the repetitive stand and fall that occurred constantly for weeks before success was met. kassi and tristan love toly they continuously engage him and affirm their sibling bond.

stopping milking bothers tabitha a little now and then but this is the best time to get nimue bred back. besides, milking in the dark cold morning has to suck. she is suffering without dairy. milk, cheese, cream in the coffee, sour cream, the list goes on and on. it is surprising how little is made without milk. my sympathy really goes out for her sacrifice.

sinus infection continues

i have been ill for too long. household tasks have been neglected and as you know blogging has screeched to a complete halt. toly has been extra needy--we speculate that he is allergic to dairy. tabitha has stopped eating dairy in attempt to make toly happy and well. when i have been home my attentions are directed toward entertaining toly and the kids. since the sinus infection has set in i haven't had the energy to attempt anything else. since my last post i did manage to cut down a diseased tree in the back yard and work it up into fire wood for the barnafactor. that transaction is now complete. he has picked up most of his barter share. tabitha has stopped milking in attempt to get nimue bred back and re-calf. nimue is a swollen sad mess. she seems healthy but unhappy about being cut off from alfalfa and beet pulp.

i tried to shut up the chickens early the other night and one was still out and dead in the morning. i was very sad. the girls are finally back to laying eggs again. boy we sure did miss fresh eggs for that month or so of molting. rosie maliciously chased and bit henne penny sally chicken yesterday. tabitha really got after her. she now seems to understand that chickens aren't to be chased. if not we'll have to get rid of her. that would be a sad day. otherwise rosie is a good dog and really tries to please.

work is going well for the state of missouri. i have been accomplishing many tasks. they seem to like me. i helped a friend do a bit of roofing the other day and now have two huge blisters on my hands. one of each type, a blood blister still intact and a popped and dried and bloody cracking regular water blister.

i just built a seed starting shelf. some of the peet moss starter soil is soaking for seeds as i write. we need to purchase more peet moss, probably tomorrow. i have been aching to cut some more wood for next winter. time is getting short. the winter wheat cover crop is still keeping it's germination a secret in the garden.

today has been a dreary day and being by the warm wood stove is barely a consolation. i haven't worked on my root cellar or barn for so long that i am embarrassed. the dull ache in my head from the sinus pressure keeps me from reading or computer work. i feel like i'm swimming against the current.

feelin' puny

yet another affliction sinus headache for two days.

the kids are hold up inside playing the island of sodor.

they have been playing the same set up for days.

rain and freezing rain

we are getting a winter storm. it is only rain right now but freezing rain is expected. freezing rain usually means power outages. we have heat without power. we can cook without power and if it is freezing we can probably keep our food reasonably safe. i have 1200 watt inverter that i think can run our freezer. i don't really want to have to test the system though. a few hours without power won't be a big deal but more than that we'll have to take extraneous measures.

insulate the attic is on my hot list agenda. i hope tomorrow affords me the opportunity to get it done.

new job

yes i now have a real job. i work for the state of missouri doing maintenance. i started monday. it seems fine. things move kinda slow. people submit to a regimen of waste and bureaucracy. a few people really care and have managed to stick around for many years--which is a good sign. things are still revealing themselves. i generally like the idea. there really isn't enough physical work to keep three maintenance people busy but deluge of paperwork that envelopes every task means that three people aren't near enough.
my position is part time and allegedly will include benefits after a few months. yes you heard right (part time and benefits) the entire reason that the job seems perfect. i can still work for bob and at home for the lions share of the week and get the kids and tabitha health insurance.
flue, colds and general bad health have plagued us for the past month. tristan just got over rosiolia a week and half ago and now has a fever again. kassi has had a runny nose and general restlessness for as long as recent memory. tabitha has been ill and making the antibodies for toly. we are a sorry troupe. amidst all this the world carries on. our neighbor has a nice perspective on getting ill. it forces you to stop. it forces you to appreciate normal life. it forces you to purge your system. it forces you to look at how you take care of your health and look more closely at what you eat. we have great diets and are continually concerned with what we eat. the kids are the reason we are getting sick. their inability to keep from touching every filthy grimy thing in the grocery store is only second to the their compulsion to stick anything that appears like it might fit into their mouth. no amount of monitoring is enough to keep this from occurring. sometimes i just don't want to ever leave the house with the kids.

chess anyone

back on track

my back is almost all better. on christmas eve i was carrying one of those rice bags filled with 150 lbs of crushed stone for the root cellar wall i fell and broke the water main. i needed to scurry to lowes and get the parts necessary. anyway a few days later my back started to hurt and got progressively worse until i could hardly pick up toly let alone wear him in the sling. a few days ago i went to the chiropractor and it felt a little better right away but it took until today before i could load the front porch with wood. i hate letting the wood pile get low. it makes me anxious.
meanwhile, i have been staving off the cold that kassi has disseminated through the house--but only with moderate success.

the new champion juicer that i got for the family for christmas has been a big hit with tabitha and myself. we both have been drinking huge glasses of carrot juice each morning--it is like an addiction.

i am getting excited about the garden. i have to build a seed starter rack. bob has offered the florescent lights necessary in exchange for transplant ready heirloom tomato plants. we have been making lists within lists and plans within plans lately. siting around laid-up has that effect. i am so ready to get back to getting things done around here i feel like a sailor standing in line to the gangplank after a six month cruise.

subtle changes in garden layout

the sweet potatoes are really going outside the garden. we will put them in a raised bed--location to be determined. probably just to the left of where the final map suggests. i have to cut down a dying mulberry tree that lives there.