Pioneer Woman at Heart

. . . . Peanut went into heat, and is now bred for a March due date.  She's so funny when in heat too. I heard her crying and crying and asked my daughter what was wrong with her.  Dumb question.  My daughter said that Peanut will flirt with Orion and even lay her head on the top of the fence to woo him.  So funny.  Misty will be next. (don't forget to click on "read more" to read more)

Our largest barn is set for destruction next year.    We have used this barn, and even updated parts on it over the last 5 years, but it's too much for us to invest in.  The loft has caved in from one of the storms as well.   The roof, on both sides, have been ripped off over the years from storms as well. If we had the money, we would save it, but we can't. However, we are using parts of it to repair the other two barns.  Yesterday, I was walking Alias, and looked up at the barn.  For some odd reason, I discovered something I had never seen before.  It made me smile.  Do you see anything yet?  Look to the upper right of the window. Ha ha!  Now to you see it?  This made me laugh.  There are four license plates, from 1971, used to patch the barn.  When the barn comes down, I want to recycle those plates one more time.  Even after being used on this barn for 42 years.  I don't have a ladder tal...

(right out of the oven) In the midst of waiting for my pear liqueur to finish, I decided to tackle the 5 large bowls of pears that awaited me. Okay, so I tackled two whole pears (of the 5 large bowls). Ha ha! I decided to make a Puffed Pear Pancake (Real Simple Recipes).  It's baked right in a cast iron pan.  Simple right? Not only simple, but delicious. I took the advice of other reviews, and added a second pear, and extra spices.  It was a nice after school snack for the kids.  The batter bakes into a crust that has a somewhat "egg" flavor.  It was really good topped with maple syrup too.

It was the most beautiful morning.  Crisp air, and absolutely not one vehicle (or noise) on the highway.

When I had a difficult time locating pear liqueur in our area, I decided to make it myself .  With all the pears from our trees this year, I was excited to experiment with new recipes.  I'm not even sure what type of pear we have.  These trees were here prior to moving here. I searched books and the internet and found this one: Pear Liqueur I filled my quart jar with pears, cardamom and a lemon peel.  I could not find cardamom pods, so I used ground (I know the flavor would be much better with the pods).  I gently shook my jar, and placed it in a dark, cool closet for a week. My plan is to use it to make a pear liqueur frosting to go over homemade Pear Berry bread.  I will have that recipe to share soon as well, if it indeed rates high with the family. Other than using the liqueur for baking, you can also simply drink it.  There are many mixer recipes it could be used with, including a pear martini. Pears have so many possibilities. . . ch...

Have you heard of the "ALICE" program yet?  If you have kids in public school, chances are, you may have. A.L.I.C.E. is an acronym for,  Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Escape - Active Shooter Response Team. For weeks now, two of our girls have been chatting about it, day after day.  It's beginning to become ingrained in our brains here at Rooster's Crow Farm.  It's a program that teaches "young people" to fight back and not sit and "take it" if a shooter would come into the school.  They have been, as a class (and most of the school from what I am listening too), discussing what they could use as weapons, or do to fight back.  Quite honestly,  I can't wonder if this was created to keep school's from putting guns in our teachers hands.  Anyway.... You know it has been ingrained into your brain, when you go to bed in your camper, and prior to that, you look around and say to yourself "what can I use for a weapon if...

A few months ago, Hubby and I were gifted with a few bags of homegrown, local, English Walnuts.  We cracked them all, and froze them.  I decided to make a butter spread with them. Although I still have a bit of congestion and cough, I got up early and made the family French Toast for breakfast.  The butter is now "kid" tested, and approved.  I'm looking for more ways to sneak the nutrition of walnuts into our diet.   A few years ago, I gifted my family Cinnamon Honey Butter , and it won over well.  This butter is another healthy, homemade gift idea. Here is the recipe:

What you see in this basket is not from our hens.  They are from the pullets we bought this past spring.  They are shooting out eggs like there is no tomorrow, however our 1 year-old, and 2 year-old hens are not laying. They stopped laying about 2 months ago, when I saw that they were molting.  I did some research and read that chickens will stop laying while they molt, and need the energy to produce new feathers.  And from what I read, it takes the hens about 2 months to start laying again.

I'm excited to say, that we got another fall camping trip in this year.  Hubby and I decided to camp the first night by ourselves.  Woot!  Oh, we needed the time alone.  It was a relaxing, romantic, camping date night.  And surprisingly, I did not take my camera this time. The second night we picked up a few stragglers - 2 kiddos.  Although it had rained a bit, we relaxed in the camper, reading, knitting, drawing, one kiddo doing school homework, and chatting.  After the rain stopped we started up the fire, and had more fun with s'mores and such.

Remember when I was telling you all about how I stopped to crochet, right in the middle of cleaning up my messes?  Well this is the result.  One completed "project" anyway.   I ended up not using a pattern (not all mugs are the same size as all the printed patterns are for), and made my own for these camping mugs.  I did not want to mess with sewing buttons on, so I simply single crocheted 12, double crocheted into the 3rd chain, counting that as the first chain in each row, and dc across.  I measured about 10 inches, before finishing off, then simply sewed ends together (just enough to secure a hole for the handle of the mug).  

I made a batch of caramel apple jam yesterday.  The grocery store finally got in some organic granny smith apples.  I used organic ingredients, and my homemade vanilla.  Yum.   I apologize for the poor photo.  As fall rolls in, the lighting in the house gets worse.  Here is the recipe:

Projects?  Pieces of work?  Tasks?  They all sound like "work" right? Ugh.  I got myself into a tizzy this week, and had to get crackin' on doing some actual completions.  Otherwise, Hubby was going to call "hoarders" and turn me in. Seriously.  I had so many "projects" going on at the same time, I literally lost track of what needed completed first.  

(garden before we tilled it)   The garden is getting back into shape.  We secured the pea fence again, dug out the plastic and stakes, and mowed down weeds.  We started to till it, and get it ready for next year.  We battled tons of mutant lady bugs though.  Just standing to take the photo, I ended up covered in them.  I moved back pretty far to take the photo, and even then, you can't see all of it.

In desperation to give my hands some relief, I bought a paraffin wax hand therapy machine.  My 16 year-old is also battling sore hands from hand milking goats, so I felt it was a good investment. We immediately opened the box, read the directions, and heated the wax.  The other girls were so enthused, that they too joined in with dipping a hand.   I had to laugh, as we all wanted to take photos, but we all had one wax covered hand in a plastic bag.  

I stitched up a few more cards and have them up for sale now.  I hope to get more stitched before the holidays arrive. So it was bound to happen.  Stove pipe repairs (or not).  The chimney sweep was finished, and handed me a paper with a quote for new piping.  Wanna know how much?

Back in the spring, I ordered meat chickens.  I specifically ordered pullets.  One particular chick was picked on by the rest, and we brought her back inside with the layer chicks.  They layer chicks mothered her, and she slowly recovered. We decided to keep her for a layer, as this breed was a dual breed of chicken.  We thought we could use the extra eggs.

I wanted to share, that I have made and used the homemade "lime-away" recipe that Nancy shared over at A Rural Farm .  Thank you Candy for telling me about it.  It's awesome.  There are three simple ingredients - vinegar, lemon juice and dish detergent.  We have well-water, and even though we have a salt softener tank, we get build up. The kids are responsible for one bathroom, and I the other.  My shower is tile, and my homemade tile/grout cleaner does the job very well.  However, over in the other bathroom, the shower is a stand-up version, and a cheap one at that. I sprayed it down, and cleared a spot clean.  I waited for the kids to come home and showed them.  The response? "That really comes off?"  Sigh... "Yes kids, that really comes off."  Now they have no excuses. Recipe: Fill a spray bottle half-full with white vinegar; add 1/4 cup lemon juice, then fill the bottle the rest of the way with dish detergent.  ...

Alias is enjoying the outdoors, and I think he has more energy than the other two dogs. The house is a mess today (go figure), and the chimney sweep is coming this week.  I'm about a month late in getting it taken care of.  The kids will be working overtime to get this place "ship shape" today.  I like my kitchen "company ready" when I get up in the morning, and I have not been successful at getting the kids on board with this.  Where there's a will, there is a way, so I'm not giving up yet.

Hubby had the entire weekend off.  Yay!  However, the rain kept us from going camping.  Our 11 year-old was very energetic, and in between bouts of rain, had fun with backyard archery. She worked her dad hard with a game of basketball too.  Sunday we took the family bowling.  We were geared up for some old fashioned family fun.

This is Alias's favorite spot to sleep and relax.  You can find him here most of the day and night. He's less anxious now, and starting to get the commands for "potty" walks.  He's developing a way to signal us when he needs to go out too.

I've been busy in my kitchen these past few days.  The rainy days here, have simply motivated me to bake, mix, and shake it up a little.  I am finally at a point in our self-sufficiency stride, where all of my homemade goods (and home grown) are coming together in all of my recipes. Homemade Mexican Taco Mix is made using home grown oregano, onions, and garlic.  I can then use the seasoning mix for all sorts of recipes, such as my salsa dip (using home canned salsa too).

While sipping hot coffee, in my island coffee mug, I sat and looked through the photos we took from our weekend getaway.  Oh, I miss the gorgeous sunrises, the relaxing sounds of the waves, and the unique place(s) we sat and enjoying time with each other (and nature).   I'm wondering if I can squeeze another camping trip in this fall.  Hubby is back to working every day with major over time, so we hardly see each other already.  We are having what I call a "voice mail" week.  I leave him a voice mail, he leaves me one.  Sometimes we actually get to talk to each other.  On the phone that is.  Okay, I'm getting a bit off track with this post, but let me get to the point.

I used our library's free interloan program to borrow this book from another library.  It's wonderful!  If you liked Letters from a Woman Homesteader, then you most likely will enjoy this book. It is not full of letters, but journal entries from Mollie Dorsey Sanford, from 1857-1866, while she and her family moved from Indiana to Nebraska and Colorado Territories.

A blog follower told me about a recipe where baby food was used for the pureed squash, in a recipe.  So, curious for more recipes, I borrowed the book from the local library - Deceptively Delicious , by Jessica Seinfeld. If you freeze your squash, pumpkin, beets, carrots, cauliflower, or any other vegetable, you may like this cookbook.  Almost every recipe includes some type of pureed vegetable (or fruit) in it.  Not specifically baby food, just pureed. However, I did take up the challenge to try out a recipe using baby food - pureed squash.  I needed the jars anyway, so why not? 

The leaves on our maple trees have started to turn a beautiful orange.  This coming weekend would be a opportune time to go hiking, collect leaves, and enjoy nature (in our area).  I'm betting the canoes will be out (for the last time) at the state park too.  Laundry dried on the line, this time of year, smells so good.