Pioneer Woman at Heart

Guess where I've been? He he!  This was where we had lunch one day.  By late afternoon, the marina was packed with boats.  Just a warning, this post may be long, as you know I like to talk. Hubby and I have been working on spending more nights together, we call "date nights."  They vary from a dinner out, to a candlelight dinner at home, to an outing of some sort.  Sometimes, it's a long bike ride, a trip to the orchard, or even renting a DVD to watch at home (with some yummy "snackages").  With 5 kiddos still living at home, we both feel it's so important to not let our time together wash by in our lives.  The younger girls moan and groan, but they'll get over it.  Besides, they get their "trips" and special times too.

Meet Alias.  He's a 12/13 year-old pit bull mix.  His owner, according to the shelter, lost his job and could not take care of him properly.  He was up for adoption at a "kill" shelter.  My son and I walked all the cages, and we asked to visit with Alias.  It's been about 9 months since we lost our dear friend Gus, and I know we will never be able to replace him.  However, we felt there was an empty spot here on Rooster's Crow Farm, and we thought we'd take some time to go look for a new member.  The shelter said, that if there was a problem, we could return Alias within 10 days of adoption. Most of the dogs at the shelter were of a hound breed.  In fact, one was in there because it was caught going after chickens.  There were a variety of dogs of all ages and sizes.

Remember those baby food jars I needed?  Well, I finally got around to making one jar of homemade vapo-rub.  I think I will be trying several recipes. A farmgirl shared the recipe with me.  This recipe is for adults (over the age of 12 I believe, but you could always swap out the peppermint for a safe oil for children).  Always do your research on what oils are safe, if you have young children, infants or if you are pregnant.

These plastic hangers are typically found on packages of socks, kitchen towels, and other linens.   I've been saving them in a recycled glass jar, and keeping them with my craft supplies.  I finally found a way to reuse them.

I'm reclaiming my vegetable garden . . . . . . cleaning  it up

It was bound to happen.  I got bit by the "granny square bug."  I made several bottle cap keychains with round granny squares for garden.  These can be made into magnets also. I made several bottle cap necklaces (and more keychains) as well.

I am learning to be much smarter with my dehydrator, and saving money at the grocery store.  They had 16 oz. tubs of organic cottage cheese marked down for clearance.  I paid $1.49 each, for two tubs.  They are normally $4.89 each.  They fit nicely on the 4 trays in my dehydrator. 

(sharing another awe-inspiring sunrise) My 11 year-old is writing notes again.   "Hi mommy I love you.....he he he" I received it in my inbox.

I'm still hacking away at the garden weeds, and it's been a long week.  Orion (aka Big Boy), has his "stink" on.  You can smell him everywhere now.  And guess who gets to babysit him, and water him?  Ugh.  Yep.  Me.  I need to call him "stinky la' pew."

From the Homesteading Journal . . . Garlic was planted this weekend.  It will be harvested next spring. The heat wave we had is over, and they are calling for much cooler weather.  I also made homemade seasoned salt. I used my homemade garlic and onion powder to make it.  It's the first time making it, so I am comparing it to the smell and taste of Lawry's from the store. Recipe I used:

While working on making our bottle cap-embroidered necklaces, I found that E6000 glue gives off an odor.  I went in search of advice, but decided to do my own experiment with types of glue, using felt.  I used, from left to right, regular tacky glue, clear gel tacky glue, crafter's adhesive (Locitite, odorless and dries clear), and felt glue.  As you can see, I glued them to a scrap piece of cardboard. Ironically, the felt glue left a white residue on the felt.  The same thing with regular tacky glue (it's difficult to see in my photo).  The crafter's adhesive left the felt hard where the glue dried, and a somewhat darker color.   The winner is the clear gel tacky glue. I'm now another step closer to posting the bottle cap necklace tutorial. Have a wonderful weekend!

I just had to share this.  We got three habanero peppers from the garden this year.  That's all.  I think we planted 4 habanero pepper plants among our 50-some pepper plants this season. Check out how small they are too.  Hubby had to laugh when he saw them.  I'm not sure what I will make with them yet. Possibly a second trial run on a hot pepper jelly. I got three cayenne peppers too.  Those went in the salsa I recently canned.  I think we got one very small green pepper and some super chili peppers. I'm praying that next year's investments will be producing more bounty overall.   Only in our house.....will you watch the sunrise, sip coffee, and chat with your kids about what bat and rat poop looks like.   We have a rat and a bat living in the upper loft of our goat/chicken barn and rat traps are being set.  However, my 16 year-old was attacked early morning by a bat, while tending to her goats.  She laughed, and s...

I've been playing around with recycling more bottle caps here.   This was the first one I made.  The center is hand  crafted with embroidery work.  When I first talked to the girls about this idea, and they saw me painting at the kitchen table (I don't have a "craft room"), they cringed at what it would look like.  I guess wearing bottle caps did not appeal to them at the time. However, when I finished it, my 11 year-old was begging to wear it to school.   How did I make it? 

I finally got some salsa canned, and it was with my very own tomatoes.  I was so excited to see Hubby bring in more tomatoes, we ended up with 10 pints of salsa.  A huge blessing, considering it's been the worst garden year (rain). I even had more tomatoes leftover, but not enough for salsa, so I blanched and froze them (another huge blessing I didn't think we'd get this season). I have been looking around for inexpensive jars for making homemade vapo-rub (cheapest I can find in stores is $2.99/each for a 4 oz. jar).   Well, another farmgirl gave me the idea to just buy baby food, to get the jars. Duh!  I guess with no babies in the house, that simple idea never occurred to me. It's a great bargain if you ask me.  I paid $.59/each for them, and bought sweet carrots.  I used the baby food to make a carrot cake .  I linked the recipe I used, and used my home canned applesauce in place of the oil.  I got my jars, an...

I know it's a bit late in the season, but I have been wanting to try a recipe using basil and vodka.  The temperatures soared up to the 90's this week.  It definitely feels like summer is still here.   I spent the early part of the week deep cleaning my kitchen.  That was a relief, and it kept me out of the heat. I also took some time to file recipes, pitch the ones that didn't make the cut, and recycle most of the paper.   The kids are still sick, and I am feeling better.  There is nothing worse than to have severe congestion when it's 95°F outside.

I have had the wonderful pleasure of more days to myself.  In a way it's saving me gas too.  I tend to get so involved with my projects and work, that I leave little time for running errands.  We've had some very relaxing, and cool nights here, but a camping trip with Hubby and I may not be the picture. Sigh....he's being asked to work over a lot lately.  It's good for the pocket book, but bad for our dedicated time to each other. The other night, I was in town (finally) buying jeans for 2 girls, when he called and said he'd love to have a date night with me.  Shortly after, he called again.  Work called him back. Double sigh.....

It's that time of year again, where I weed out the garden, and get it tilled for next year.  The weeds, due to neglect (I guess I was a bit depressed to even care for it after the weather flooded it out), have grown to 4-5 feet out there.  What a mess.

Despite waking up aching, worn out,  the starting-to-feel-sick overall heaviness, I decided not to sleep in.  Maybe I should have, but I saw another beautiful start to a beautiful sunrise this morning. Sunshine is always good for the soul.  Right?  Maybe it can zap some energy into me today. I've been catching up on things around here, since our 3 night camping trip - laundry, housework, fun mail, bills, floors, bathrooms, etc.  Then Hubby springs one on me.... One of Hubby's co-workers found fall beets, and picked us up 15 pounds.  Or so he thought.  After I weighed out the 6 pounds I needed for canning 7 pints, I was left with about 3 pounds.  Hm?  Either way, I am very thankful he brought them home, and we now have more put up for winter/spring.

We now call ourselves "popupologists."  (Snort) The definition is a devotee of camping with a pop-up camper.  Pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, and join us while we show you are camping adventure. We took another camping trip.  This is the back of our campsite, where there is a secluded area for more tents or simply "chilling out."