Home made "Solar Oven"

Solar Oven by Jadence Welte

A Solar Oven is something you cook in using the sun's power. I first saw a Solar Oven at the Homestead Expo last August held in Marshfield, MO. It was an interesting item and an interesting idea. So, a few days later, after we were home, my siblings and me decided to make our own. Malex, Matthan, Mirren and I gathered material. We collected a cardboard box, plastic wrap, and foil covered cardboard that was reflective. We also gathered marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers. We assembled the "oven" with the foil facing up to reflect the sun and the plastic wrap over it to keep in the heat. It worked! We were able to melt the marshmallow and chocolate enough to get S'mores to enjoy.

The end...until the next adventure!😉
 

Emily Dickinson

                                                                  

Emily Dickinson

By

Matyus Welte

For school I was assigned to write about Emily Dickinson, which I find very difficult to do because I don’t like her work or much that I have read or heard about her character. I personally find it interesting that a lot of the well known poets were, in their own time at least, considered insane. Emily, much similarly, was considered different in her time, being a recluse that didn’t emerge from her room as an adult. Emily locked herself in her room and refused to see anyone. Her sister discovered her poems after Emily’s death and pursued having them published. Despite Emily’s peculiarities, she wrote words that in today’s society are considered “beautiful” or “fascinating”.

If you want to read about Emily Dickinson or read some of her poems to form your own opinion look for these books at your local library. 

“Becoming Emily: The Life of Emily Dickinson” by Krystyna Poray Goddu

“On Wings of Words: The extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson” by Jennifer Berne

“Emily Dickinson” by S.L. Berry

“Poetry for Young People Emily Dickinson” by Frances Schoonmaker

BEST HOMEMADE TOMATO SOUP EVER!!!!

We traded jalapeno peppers to a friend for several pounds of her rare heritage tomatoes. There were all kinds of varieties. Brandy Wine, black truffles, green zebra and I don't even know what else! Our family is very fond of tomato soup and I thought it would be nice to can some homemade soup for the long winter months when the taste of summer would be a distant memory. 

I happened up on this "Fresh Tomato Roasted Garden soup" and decided to try it. It was so good, 

I dream of it! 

First step is to wash about 10lbs of tomatoes, cut out stem and slice in half. Put them in a large Dutch oven or stainless steel bowl. Quarter two large onions and add to the bowl. Chop two to three garlic cloves and add them to the bowl. Add 2 tablespoons salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, one cup of torn fresh basil and parsley. Swirl in two to three tablespoons of olive oil before placing in 400 degree preheated oven and roasting for 45 minutes. After removing from the oven, I ran the roasted veggies through my food processor to break into little chunks. In a large stock pot I put two store bought cans of tomato paste and two large (28 oz) cans of pureed tomatoes. I added my chunks to the pan and cooked on low for 15 to 20 minutes. If eating fresh, add 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of cream, as well as, 2 teaspoons of stevia (or sugar). Stir well and serve. 

If canning do not add milk and sweetener until you heat it up later. Wash quart jars well in hot water and soap. Fill jars with hot soup until 1/2 inches head space. Place flat on on jar that has been boiled in hot water for 5 minutes and tighten ring to finger tight. Place filled jars in a water canner and process with 1 inch of water over the top of jars for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool, check lids for seal before placing in pantry.

 

Welcome Fall!

Fall is my absolute favorite season! The changes in nature are so dramatic and beautiful. I love harvest time, too! All the hours of planning, prepping, watching and watering come to fruition. It is so satisfying to harvest your own food. But there is nothing that brings me joy quite like my pumpkin patch! I always plant extra because I love the beautiful blooms, the jumbo leaves and sharing the wonderful, orange globes with others. 

This year we planted Jack-o-laterns and sugar baby pumpkins. We kept several for ordemental purposes and processed several as well. We even toasted our seeds for a yummy snack. Now we can pull a jar of grown-in-our-garden pumpkin puree from our pantry and make a yummy treat all winter long.

I am already picking my varity for next year and begging James to make my patch four times the size of this years. My patch this year may or may not have been four times the size of last year!

TIP: to grow round, non-odd shaped pumpkins, place pumpkin bottom down, (when it is possible with out damaging the vine) as soon as possible on a paper plate or a ceramic tile. This takes the pressure off the sides of the pumpkin as it grows and helps ot have a beautiful, uniform shape.

Literature study and poetry

 "The Scavengers"  

by Michael Perry

Novel summary: 

In Ford Falcon's world, people live UnderBubble or OutBubble-in the protected cities or in the wilderness without electricity, gasoline, or any modern conveniences. Her family lives OutBubble in a slapdash shelter on Skullduggery Ridge near Goldmine Gully, an old trash heap where they scavenge for lumber and supplies. A partnership of government and corporations have genetically modified URCorn, a miracle food that makes people stronger and healthier. That is, if you can eat it. And the GreyDevils, strange creatures, human mostly, will do anything for URCorn. Anything. Add in solar bears and weird weather that can't decide whether it is summer or snow and you can bet life is not easy. But there's something much more mysterious going on, and Ford Falcon things it has something to do with her father. 

We read "The Scavengers" this semester and are working our way through the Progeny Press study guide for the book. In the book the main character, Ford Falcon, shares a love of poetry with her mother, specifically Emily Dickenson's poems. So, we have been doing a bit of poetry reading and I assigned the children some writing assignments. We studied about alliterations and consonance, a flow of sounds and words that create an almost musical effect. Alliteration is a poetic device in which a beginning consonant sound is repeated for dramatic impact. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the middle of words. An assonance is the reputation of vowel sound repeated in a sentence.  The following poems don't follow these rules exactly, and really they are more humorous that musical, but they were written with the thoughts of alliteration, consonance and assonance in mind.

Hope you enjoy. 

Hillbilly Hay

by Mundan Welte

"Hillbilly hay" that's what people say

when they see the over stocked trailer coming their way.

Some might say it is the wrong way.

But rather they shake their head and say 

"My, oh, my! Hillbilly hay!"

Farming is Charming

By Matyus Welte

Farming, from the outside, doesn't look charming.

But its argument is very disarming, this you might find alarming.

But a simple look and you will be hooked.

Now that we shook the lie that our government cooked,

in one of their meetings, listen to this pleading!

We are farmers needing, if you want to keep eating.

The Chicken Massacre by Jennady Welte

                 The Chicken Massacre 

By Jennady Welte

 

 In August we traveled to Braymer, Missouri to visit with our older sister Janel and her husband Isaac Rude, but also, with the intent of killing meat chickens.

Monday the 26th morning, we woke up and made breakfast. We ate quickly and dressed in our worse clothes, knowing that guts and blood was going to be everywhere. Then, we went outside to the yard where the butchering station was set up and the chickens were to be collected in crates.  Scrap, scrap, scrap went the knives as they were sharpened for killing the chickens. Up went the killing cones and the water was heated for dipping the chickens in. The chicken plucker was set up, the tables ready for the eviscerating. The containers for clean butchered birds were prepared with fresh water, as the innocent little birds slept in peace.The Rudes took time to talk and quickly demonstrate the process to us. Specifically with great detail of how to remove all of the vital organs. 

When the birds woke they set waiting to be fed but feeding time would not come that day or any other day. For they only had a few hours left to live. As the birds waited, the Rudes and us headed to the coop to round up the chickens. There were lots of flapping of wings, but finally all were caught and put in cages with bricks set on top of the cages to secure them.

The massacre started!

Out came the chickens two by two and into the killing cones they went. Slit. We cut their throats. We tried not to cut the esophagus. They bled out slow with a steady flow of crimson. Then, into the boiling water they went. The water was hot enough to loosen the feathers but not so hot as to scald off their flesh. Then, to the evisceraters who remove all vital organs. When that was finished the carcasses were rinsed and put in ice water. We repeated this process from the morning to noon, about four hours in total. We did a final wash of the carcass before we bagged them.

After, we showered and napped for a long time. We all were very tired.

 

  

THE CHICKEN MASSACRE WAS FINALLY 

OVER!

A bit about us...

It is a bit intimidating to make the "first" post on a blog. I never gave it much thought until trying to make this one. Where do you start? 

What do you say?

Who will read it?

I guess I will explain why this blog came to be and then do an introduction of who we are. 

I enjoy journaling in general, in fact when I pass my children get the joy of inheriting several completed volumes of my sloppy handwriting and sappy thoughts!😂 

Social media has filled that need for me the last several years as I have posted about this or about that but it doesn't have the same satisfying feeling as a physical journal. I have some social media post that cataloged an order of events, like our remodel of our farmhouse, that I may transfer to this blog, at least in part, to keep a more collective record of.

Journeraling tells the story in the moment and shows growth over time. My journals always include highs and lows. My journals include praise and prayer request, something I didn't always feel comfortable doing on social media. 

The idea of this blog was actually birthed from the subject of our 2022-23 school year. We are doing a year of notebooking the subject "Homesteading" and I wanted to be able to record some of our adventures and share them with a private crowd of friends and family. We hope to include our mini "vlogg" in the content of this blog but it is all Greek to me and technology hates me.🤪

I guess with that I will tell you about "us". 

We are James and Shela (yes, that is how I spell my name but it frequently has an "i" in it and there is a whole story behind that for another day) Welte. We were high school sweethearts and will be married 27 years this December. We have 13 biological children ranging from ages 26 to 4, two son-in-law and currently two granddaughters. We have eight sons and five daughters. I will list their names here, specifically for those who might not know birth order or all their names: 

Jenika, 26, married to Travis Schreck who are the parents of Adeline, 4, and Annalise, 4 months. 

Janel, 24, married to Isaac Rude. 

Maverick, 22, Malichi,18, Mikale,17, Mundan,16, Jennady,14, Matyus,13, Malex,11, Jadence,9, Matthan,8, Mirren,6, and Jedida, 4. 

The LORD sure has blessed us. 

We are starting our 22 second year of homeschooling, so it is just a way of life now. We have graduated four and have another senior this year. 

In 2017 our family made a big leap from the home we had lived in for 20 years to move across the state for a job transfer for James. With the move came opportunities we had dreamed of for more than a decade. In 2020 we were able to purchase a small 10 acre farm, which is were our daughter Jennady came up with the name of the blog, and begin to build a more self sufficient life for our family. Our older children were die hard enthusiasts and, to be honest, we would NEVER have gotten the house ready, nor the farm up and running with out their help. 

The house originally had 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms and small, boxy rooms. We needing at least 4 bedrooms and we also wanted a dining and living room that were large enough for us to all be in at the same time. So over the course of about 6 months (two before we moved in and four after we moved in) we re-divided the space and made two more bedrooms and an open floor plan for the center of the house that makes one great room that allows for two sitting spaces--one with a projector for more of an entertainment feel and one in front of the fireplace for a more conversational feel--and a dining room that fits our table that seats a dozen. We have done a few more projects here and there since, and still have the master bath to remodel, but at that point we were able to turn our attention to the outside space. 

Outside we have added apple trees, pear trees, blackberries, dwarf cherry trees, greenhouse and large garden (but not large enough! We are doubling next year). Our current animals are: eleven cattle, one pig, five cats, four dogs, 43 chickens, and a dozen ducks. Goals are to be 

self-sufficient in eggs, chicken, pork, beef and milk. We would like to produce over half our needed veggies and fruit. We like to barter and are working with some other local families to build a small farm community to support one another in our homesteading endeavors.

That probably is a good place to end our introduction. If you have read this far, hope you enjoyed and that you come again to see what we are up to on this wild adventure of life. 

God bless.