Hippy days, and soap...

  

It appears that a few of our children have taken on the "hippy" gene, and are doing well with it! We have often been told that due to our choices of names and other random facts, that we are definitely "hippy-ish". I take this as a compliment. Because we were not around during the height of that era, we have the privilege of not taken on the "baggage" that some might associate with it! We tend to describe a hippy, (every time our kids ask, "what's a hippy?") as someone that tends to go against the mainstream and make a stand for what they believe in, and maybe a few quirky things thrown in there as well!

Anyhow, Journey plays the part well, as does Treasure. Fischer and Cedar are just having fun with big sis's.

Currently, we are in the process of building a soap building, finally! It will be nice to have that part of our lives contained elsewhere, so we can have our home back! The soap business is growing fast, so this is a huge blessing. There are a few more products that we have added, such as liquid soap, and beeswax candles! So far, all of our "beta" sights have had good feedback.

Here is our newest "message taker", if you are having trouble

leaving a message,

just keep trying, she is only one...

Keaton on Stilts...

Not so good...

He's ok...

Keaton mastering the steps on stilts... from Dale Emmons on Vimeo.

Stilts...

 

So we are taking a few days in between fetivals to just play, and this is what came to mind...

"Hey, why am I always the first one to try this stuff?" he said...

Something was just not working out...

There we go...I was the first to make it up the steps without falling...

He's much better though...

Now they are all doing it, its a blast! Now to try the 16 footers...

Farm Update

Good morning! We just finished up an excellent festival weekend! Cory had the privilege of a Bluegrass filled day in Todd at the New River Festival, and I had the much more honored experience of my 4th year at the Sugar Mountain Oktoberfest jam-packed with 13 hours of Oompah music! The oom-pah sound is usually made by the tuba alternating between the root (tonic) of the chord and the 5th (dominant) — this sound is said to be the oom. The pah is played on the off-beats by higher-pitched instruments such as the clarinet, accordion or trombone. Oompah is often associated with Volkstümliche Musik, a form of popular German music. It is often associated with polka. In triple time genres such as the waltz it is oom-pah-pah. The musical Oliver! contains a song named Oom-Pah-Pah, which is named after the oom-pah. I highly recommend both of these festivals to be put on you calender for 2011! The oompah music is starting to grow on me, I think. The farm is a little quite right now, which is nice. We are mainaining our fall crops, which should be ready for harvesting very soon! A little rain is in the forecast for this week which is greatly needed! This upcoming weekend we will be in Banner Elk again for the Wooly Worm festival! It is the largest of the festivals that we do, and offers a lot of fun things for everyone, so go and find yourself a fast wooly worm and enter in the races for your chance to win $1000 on Saturday, and $500 on Sunday! The kids love it! We received a few feedback emails from this year's CSA members, thank you, but we would appreciate a few more! Also, not to put it in stone, but we would like to get an idea of who might be interested in next years CSA. We plan on adding a couple of weeks at the beginning, and maybe change up a few things. We enjoyed the year and loved being able to supply good food to the community! Have a good week! I will let you know when the lettuce/brocolli/cabbage/spinach and other items are ready!

Dale

Glory's usual face...

Unless she has this one...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sky and Glory are good buddies...

Beach Trip

We had a great time at the beach last week! Everything was perfect, 80 degree days, 60 degree nights, clear and sunny with a breeze. The house was perfect, right on the water and there was even a full moon for night walks! This is a great beach to visit, and we plan to return next year, or sooner if we can!

Scary day at the aquarium...

Cedar looking at the fish looking at Cedar...

Glory Z. intently looking at momma...

2 of my girls...
This is the dock from the beach
house that led to the water.

Beach bums...

The guys...

This particular beach was a "turtle sanctuary"
This was our find...

Keaton's beach doo...(is that beach doo-doo?)

"The Amazing Flying Cedar"

Happy girl...

Not sure if he was being funny, or
if his head was sunburnt, I think
the first...

Look at those kids...

Jewel-feet in the sand...

Sunrise, day 2...

Momma and Glory...

Where's Skylar?

There he is...

I think she had fun...

The working crew...

Sisters...

Wow, look at all that water...

Can we go in yet?

A few random things...

Summer crops are ending, that being said, we are eating as much as we can in hopes of remembering them throughout the winter.  Fresh is so good, in fact, most of our market customers have a lot of the same thoughts we are having, "What are we going to do this winter? Grocery stores?". Hopefully at some point we will be able to acquire a greenhouse, which will be second best to field crops. Winter time is definitely as welcomed as summer time, a lot less activity, which its always nice to have a little break.  This picture, one of our last pickings of beans, is a great meal all by itself. We use about a pound of green beans, one cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon of black sesame seeds, minced garlic, olive oil, butter, salt, pepper and a fork! Cook a few ears of corn, and you have a great meal!

I made this walnut spatula the other day, and the maple cutting board its on. It works great to chop up the ingredients for the green bean meal, and to stir it while cooking! I finally got a belt sander, so watch out trees! One day I'll get a welder, then I will have officially accomplished one of my last "building" goals!

This is how we make work fun, ingenious...

Now the fun part...

Pea shoots have been a huge success this year! People love them! They are growing so much better with these cool nights...