Pioneer Woman at Heart

I am continuing to dehydrate Swiss chard, along with the stalks.   The recent rains brought up some nice green onions.  I am dehydrating some of them today also. We are now at war with spiders.  I clean the webs down, and they rebuild the next day.   We have also seen wolf spiders in the garage about 3 inches in diameter.   My mother has armed us with 3 bags of hedge apples. They do have a funny smell, so I hope they work.  I'll be placing these bad boys around the house, garage and barns today. I am starting to experiment with natural dyes.  We have many outside animals, as well as inside animals, so I am trying to work with dyes that I can easily dispose of without harming them, or our septic tank. I crocheted this flower vase doily with 100% 2 ply cotton yarn.  I then boiled red onion skins in a designated pot for dye purposes.  I discarded the skins, and heated the water with the doily.  I turned the hea...

There are so many versions of using walnuts for dye, including making a dye for stamping fabric.  I decided to soak some walnuts in water for 3 days  (slightly browned).  I ran the liquid through a strainer, lined to catch all the small stuff.

In all the strange places pokeberries can be growing, I found them in the loft of one of our barns.  We don't use this part, as it needs major repairs.   I was walking around the property last week and saw these and thought they would make a nice color to dye yarn with.  After doing my research on the wildflowers on our property, I found out that pokeberry juice can be used to write with also.  In fact, I was told the Declaration of Independence was possibly written with it.  I'm not sure if that's completely true, but found it interesting.  Pokeberry is poisonous and I removed a few that had grown near or in my garden this year. Last week I got out the ladder and had one of the kids help me pick a bag full of these berries.  Did you know you can actually freeze these and dye with them later?   I could not locate a local farmer who spins their own wool, so I purchased wool yarn. I chose to use a safe mordant for my yarn....

I'm joining Anne in the Kitchen ( blogspot - Cooking and All that Jazz ) with her Christmas countdown preparations and fun planning posts. Preparing for the next Christmas season.  January is the best time to work on crochet Christmas gifts and/or ornaments.  My family has been overwhelmed with my gracious and over abundance of ornament making over the years.  I need to find another outlet for them now.  Maybe nursing homes?  Adult assisted living facilities?     We have located a non-gmo Christmas cookie sugar sprinkle for next year's cookies.  I had no idea they even made them, and our Menard's sells Watkins brands.  They make this in "green" too with no artificial dyes. Current library book for Christmas possibilities: Delicious Foods to Make and Give Homemade, by Judith Choate.  A good library find for holiday planning if you are doing so during these slower winter days. It has many recipes and ideas.  However, what in the ...

I'm posting early today.  Hubby brought home another 10 lb. box of blueberries and a box of peaches.  I'll be busy for sure. Here's an update on our journey to being self-sufficient.  Each year it gets better.   In the last 3 1/2 years we have really gained progress with self-sufficiency.  It does require some investments, but those pay off.  So far this year, with making our own soap with our goat's milk, have not had to buy any bars of soap (and have used it to make homemade laundry detergent also). We have not purchased dishwasher detergent either, and I am proud that we have reduced those chemicals and costs. We have not had to buy any onions or potatoes this year.  Last year we did.   We went all winter using green peppers we froze versus buying them from the store. When we are low on eggs, we do without.   We have cut down the cost of buying organic milk by having the goat's, and have drastically cut down the trips to...

The younger kids have been pestering me to buy Valentine's candy from the store.  I just shake my head, because of what's in that stuff.  Not to mention all those dyes they use to make them so appetizing.  So....you know me.