Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Down she goes ~ Dogs ~ Family

Sometime during my illness, a swift wind or storm came through our area.  More of the "big barn" came tumbling down, including a large beam.  Just sharing today's biggest news discovery, ha ha!  We still plan to get inside the other half and cut beams into firewood.  We haven't found anyone to tear it down that has not wanted a hefty fee, so it's our life-long project.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Random Tidbits

There is indeed a kitten in one of our barns.  A long haired, female, calico of sorts.  Not good.  Leo, is not "fixed" and so we'll need to be making a move soon.  Fix Leo, find a home for the feral or somewhat feral kitten.  Hm.  No more rooms at the Inn, and I do not want kittens.  Who does?

Made some headway with getting better - laundry, cleaned the wood stove, picked up some some clutter, making the coffee every morning, washed the bedding, etc.

Don't ever try to write a blog post when your 17 year-old daughter is up making you breakfast - chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter.....

....she's still talking, ha ha!

Hubby has been asked to work so much overtime.  I think there is a lack of knowledgeable workers for the parts that need fixed, and he's plum tired every night.  I told him he was a grouch last night, and he slowly warmed up to being home and in peace.  Not on "work" schedule.

Bought this book from a used book store a year ago.  I'm finally reading it, and about 1/3rd of the way through it.  I had no idea what the book was about, and so far, it's been pretty good.
 

 

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Before and Progress

I was whining to Hubby that I didn't have a good photo nor post to share, and it felt off for me.  I'm so used to writing, posting, and sharing, I am feeling the need to go outside to explore already.

So...

Here is a photo of me in the hospital at my worst I think.  Or close to it (after 3 ER visits and the ambulance ride).

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Baking up the rolls....old post

Pre-Thanksgiving (while still sick), I used King Flour's recipe for soft white dinner rolls, I substituted home grown potatoes for the instant potato flakes (thanks to some advice from an avid bread baker).

I let the mashed potatoes cool, while the butter came down to room temperature, and took to filing away my last "file" pile.

Using the directions on King Flour's blogpost, I divided them into 16 rolls, and froze them.  

How did they turn out? Well, I forgot to take a photo, but they did not rise enough.  I'm wondering if I should have thawed them in the fridge the night before vs. the same day we baked them.  Anyone have tips on this.  I used my dehydrator to help them rise too. 

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Good Morning!

One of these days I'll have some photos to share.  We've made it through our youngest daughter's birthday - she's now 15.  We made it through Christmas, and had a long visit with our oldest daughter. 

It's true.  My grand kids will be 4-legged and furry.  Oldest brought along her dog Mia, and a German Shephard she is is fostering.  She saw it in a kill shelter and immediately went into action to rescue it.  She has had many people say they'd adopt her, but many have backed out.  We got to meet her on Christmas and she is such a good dog (better than my 1 year old pups).  She loves toys and she never growled or barked when she was here.  In fact, she favored our "vet-tech" daughter and kept curling up on the sofa with her, ha ha!

And yesterday, Hubby and I made it through our 18th wedding anniversary.  We are now heading into year 19 folks.  We got showered, dressed and went out to a restaurant.  We were gifted a gift card by one kiddo, so that was very nice to have.  I felt like a real person getting out, even if it was walking in and out of a building.  It felt weird, but great at the same time.  I felt horrible I had no gift for Hubby, as he had prepared one gift for me.  He said the only gift he wanted was me healthy and home.

After we ate our anniversary lunch, we drove to the box-store and picked up a few odds and ends.  I pushed the cart around and got a bit of exercise, but was pretty tired upon arriving home.  My head is still groggy, and my walk still a bit unstable (frustrating, but getting better every day).

Hubby was called into work, but we were all okay with that.  I rested, and had one kiddo to help me at home with animals.  

Not sure if I shared this, by my "nail tech" in training daughter, gave me a long foot massage soak (we have a foot bath thing that vibrates), a pedicure (much needed after the long hospital visit), and a manicure.  Since I can't do much work, she took advantage of the time and painted my fingernails too.  It felt so relaxing and rejuvenating.

Today, however, I plan on doing laundry.  It's a step up, and don't worry, a slow step.  I'm using drying racks inside vs. the line outside.  I also have my first doctor check up later today.  I cannot wait to talk to her either.  I have a long list of medications I cannot take, and can't wait to get back on some probiotics for good gut health.  So far, all the good food that Hubby and the kids are feeding me has helped every single day.  I even get up and make the coffee now too.  Although we are using a back up pot, that takes a half hour to brew, I am very thankful for it. 

 

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Christmas Goat Fun!


Courtesy of my 20 year-old "Vet-Tech" in training daughter - happy photos of the goats.  She dressed up all of her animals and took fun photos of them playing (including her rabbit!).  This brought smiles to my face, as I am unable to walk to the barn yet.  Gosh I just love these guys.  They are sporting their Christmas collars and bells, ha ha!  Of course they were not left on, but they seemed to enjoy playing around with them.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Random Tidbits

I finally got my hot bath, using tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, and bath salts.  Boy it felt great, especially on my belly.  It's slow going for sure, just to get my walking balance back.  The slow intro of food is the most frustrating.   I'm starving, but I know I have to introduce slowly, and meats are far down on the list sadly.  I could devour a homemade bacon/potato omelet this morning, ha ha!  Coffee is back in action, followed by afternoons of tea and water and rest.   Jesse and I took a short nap together.  He pretty much was on top of me, making sure I didn't over due it, ha ha!

First goal, wash a load of laundry, and put it on drying racks.  In a day or two anyway.  Second goal?  Mix up a frittata for Hubby to take to work (easier than standing to mix up a scramble).  That may take a few more days longer.  Bills are an entirely different big job.  I had it all under control, but with being gone so long, we are very far behind on daughter's college.  This part worries me, but I keep praying.  She is doing so well, and now they are giving us a "cut off" date if we don't pay by and if we do not, she can't go to college.  Our medical bills just quadrupled.  Thanks to me. Ambulance ride, xray by the ton, medications, hospital room, etc etc.  I have to keep calm and pray and pray and make some calls.  I haven't put a dent in Hubby's hospital bills yet either.  Anyway.....

~ our egg supply is about 5 dozen right now (ha ha ha!).  With Hubby staying at the hospital (then going to work) and me not cooking, the eggs are piling up.  We are boiling them for me for one "soft food" and the kids are planning to bake up some holiday fare (I get this year off).

~my araucanas are now laying of all times.  Lol!  They must have listened to me about going into the stew pot.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

I'm Home.....

I just got home from the hospital yesterday.  I'm a bit loopy yet, off kilter, running on a blip of a cylinder, but I'm home.  It was a long 30-some days of illness.  In reality, it was an illness gone wrong by antibiotics my body could not handle.

I have not been sick for years, and well, the Z-pack as they call it tore me up literally, after getting over the pneumonia.  I tried telling the ER people that the first trip.  They sent us home with more pills, even stronger than the last (blooting my innards to a point of non-function).

Second trip to ER - more xrays, more everything, they put in an NG tube (a tube they insert into your nose and down into your stomach to "deflate" it, and you must be awake and participate to get it in correctly) and ambulanced me to another hospital.  There, they continued the higher, more potent drug, and added yet another.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

The purple pill from h-e-double-hockey sticks

Four days of being sick, followed by 10 days of being in bed, one urgent care visit and a visit to the hospital ER, I am pushing myself upright today.

Long story short - low immune system allowed me to pick up walking pneumonia, doctor prescribed a pill that ended up killing all my good bacteria, hence the trip to the hospital.  I ended up more sick than I was in the being, more pain, and agonizing nausea (the just repeated a process that was painful and exhausting).  It felt like the antibiotic was trying to kill me.

I'm not even close to being back to normal.  The trip to recovery is very very slow. My energy level is the lowest of all lows.

While I was in one hospital getting treatment, and pumped with sodium and other things (my sodium was low from not being able to eat), our son was in another hospital getting tests for being sick.  He however, will involve a surgery.  Either last night or tonight he had/or will have surgery for appendicitis.  Hubby is going up there later.  Unfortunately, my health is on conducive to that much moving around yet.  As you can see, my brain is not functioning on even one cylinder yet.

Oh, to top that off, our 17 year-old called Hubby as we were returning from the hospital.  She was screaming she was bleeding all over the floor and had cut her foot.  He raced us home, only to find a few drops of blood on the floor.  Crisis averted.  She doesn't like the site of blood.

By evening, I asked my 17-year old to mix me up a special smoothie.  I needed food in me, and crackers and toast were not tasting good at all.  She brought me the best tasting smoothie, and probably my first meal in 2 weeks.  I ate it all.  With a spoon, to avoid gas.  She mixed organic non-gmo probiotic juice mix with organic yogurt, some banana, and lots of ice.  Oh my gosh it tasted so good.  I most likely will have one for breakfast, if my nausea med kicks in.  The are giving me stuff they give to cancer patients, the nausea is that bad.  This antibiotic really is/was the pill that tried to kill me.  

As for the doctors at the hospital, in the end they would not confirm nor deny that the antibiotic made me sick.  They did every test they could, including a CT scan, and came up with nothing that would cause it.  

I hope this doesn't take too much longer to recover from.