Pioneer Woman at Heart

We had a beautiful morning sunrise Monday morning.  It was cold out, but gorgeous sky. Never hit your shin on something.  The pain is like no other.  I've been using up my freezer stash of comfrey poultices.  They are helping, but man... (used my mortar and pestal for a small amount) I've also been picking plantain.  I somehow got an itchy patch of a rash on my ankle (hm, could be from wearing flip flops out when it was warmer and brushing on something).  I got rid of it using a fresh plantain poultice in two days (second one I added fresh chickweed).  Yay, for the power of weeds.  Our plantain isn't very big yet, but we are getting some here and there.  I also ordered a free small food processor for small batch making.  Does anyone here take horse chestnut for varicose veins?  Would love to hear your input.  Just wondering if I order the horse chestnut, do you make the extract as you would a "tincture?" I p...

Does anyone have a natural ant killer I can use in my herb garden.  I was walking by it and saw a puffed up area in my oregano.  I stepped on it, and poof a bunch of ants came out.  Urgh.  Cornmeal doesn't kill them, and I can't use artificial sweetener nor borax.  I'd contaminate my herbs.  I am however, dumping boiling water on the hill.  I will have to do it a few more times, and if it works, replant some of the oregano. This my friends, is my rose bed.  Does anyone have a natural homemade weed killer?  I don't care if it kills off the roses either, I want different ones anyway.  It's the most frustrating bed we have, and nothing has worked from weed fabric to 6 inches of mulch on top.   Well, since I wrote up this draft for the post, I found another way to handle this weed garden from hell - roofing shingles and rocks.  We know someone re-roofing, so we hope to get some of the old singles soon. Until then, gu...

Saturday morning I had a plan to harvest as much chickweed as I could, but we had a crisis.  Daughter's prom.  Although she is very capable of doing her own hair and nails, she broke down and sobbed Friday night.  Overwhelmed. Those are her real nails. Prom "do" We spent the day running her around to friends we know at a salon, getting toes, nails and hair done.  That really took up the day until we then had to figure out where to do photos.  Rain was moving in about the time we needed to do photos.  Prom prep went from 9am to after 4pm, then we took photos in a hotel lobby (rain).  Ran home and literally had 30 minutes before heading to the school.  Her Dad walked her in the "march" before prom, and I think it made happy tears for all who were there to watch.  He announced daughter's name being escorted by her "Dad" and it was so sweet to watch.  We were so tired.  Not to mention broke.  One more year of a prom....

We are still unpacking, a week after our trip, ha ha!  It was our first "vacation" in almost or over 20 years.  I guess I deserve more time to unpack.  The nice part of it, is that what's still in our bags, is clean clothes we packed extra. We are getting boat loads of rain, so there is no garden work going on, and we are to get rain for about the next 7 days.  It'll take a while for things to dry out.  We are down to the lows in the 30's again. Jesse, eye balling my carrots.  I made roasted carrots to go with dinner and he had to have a few bites.  Crazy dog! The other day Youngest Daughter got home from school.  I said I needed to put the hens in from the run.  She said, "I'll do it."  I was totally shocked.  When she didn't come right back in, I wandered out to see if she had trouble.  I heard voices in the barn.  I popped my head in, and she was not only standing inside the coop with the littles, but hold...

The process of this spring jelly is so intriguing.  It starts out the color of this (above). Wild Violet Jelly 2 cups freshly picked wild violets 2 cups of water, boiled Place violets in a quart canning jar and pour boiling water over it.  Seal with the canning lid, allow to cool, and refrigerate overnight. Day 2 Strain the violets from the liquid and add juice of one lemon or 3 Tbsp. of organic/non-gmo lemon juice.  Pour liquid into a steel pan and add 1 pkg. powdered pectin and bring to a boil. Add:  4 cups of sugar, bring to a boil and boil 1 minute. Power into sterilized jars, wipe rims, add lids and rims and place in canner pot to boil for 15 minutes.  (1/2 inch head space) Cool for 24 hours. Yield:  approx. 4 - 1/2 pint jars or 8 4oz. jars. (3rd time I made this, I squeezed the liquid from the violets, getting 1 more 1/2 pint jar of jelly. Note:  I break this up into 2 days, since it takes a bit of time to pick all those vio...

I'm posting a very short post today, since I bombarded you with a over lengthy one yesterday. I had pulled paper out of a box, and I found him pouncing in the paper.  He then darted in and out of the kitchen, flying into the mound of paper.  So funny!  Glad he had some fun before I cleaned it up, ha ha!

First, I apologize.  This post is a long one.  Grab a java or tea.  Or a meal, ha ha! Wednesday my day was a bit wonky.  Hubby sent me all around the "big city" to fetch more tomato plants and flowers.  Even the back streets are getting close to the construction zones.  Ugh.  I have to use more gas to take the long route too, taking all the back roads.  Better than getting caught up in the construction zones though. Early morning, the sky looked like the sun might shine, but minutes later it turned to this: Thunder rolled in, but no rain thankfully.  Some areas got short rain showers though. I had to zip back home to pick up sticks.  Hubby hired our biker friend to mow the almost 6 acre homestead (not all is mowed).  Anyway, the back of the house, where the trees are mostly, and winter wind ripped branches down was a mess. The guy was already mowing when I arrived.  I hurried and changed into work clothes and lo...

Although vacations are nice, home is nice too.  My own bed, my homemade food, my teas, weeds and what not. Poor Jesse must have missed my company.  He's been following me around like a kid wanting his Mom.  His Mom didn't take long to take advantage of us being back home.  She left all day Sunday and didn't come home.  Jesse has been by my side constantly. Speaking of Easter Sunday, our oldest wanted a meal on Sunday, so we drove to the store Sunday morning, but by 2pm we had canceled it.  One left, one was working, and one didn't respond, so we were literally in pajamas on the porch at 2pm, playing cards and drinking adult beverages.  Our biker friend who came and took care of Jesse while our daughter was at work, came to drop of the house key.  He stayed and chatted on the porch for more than 5 hours. My fitbit is making a liar out of me.  The day we walked out of Dollywood I had over 15,000 steps.  Most likely had over 20,000 by...

Our spring break trip to TN had a hickup, snafu.....unexpected event.  Youngest daughter woke us up at 5am Sunday.  She was pretty sick.  Best guess was food poisoning, but she wasn't going anywhere any time soon. I quickly made a batch of homemade ginger-ale to start with, and go from there.  She rested most of the day Sunday, but still pretty sick.  We canceled our  trip reservations and waited to see if she'd be better by Monday (and try and re-book another lodging choice. We rebooked for leaving Tuesday, and she still wasn't feeling her true self.  I expected we'd cancel when Hubby woke up early Tuesday morning (3am) sick.  I thought for sure we'd cancel the entire trip.  He got up, sucked down homemade ginger-ale and made the drive Tues. morning. I'll admit it was a rough 9 hour drive (with many stops).  Both Hubby and Daughter had upset stomachs.  We made it, and crashed for the night.  The next day, they bo...

Not much going on here lately, other than indoor work thanks to Mother Nature and the cold weather.  Egads, this is a picture-less post.  I've had to refill some homemade goods lately like our foamy soap and vanilla extract.  It's been so cold, I had to wear my carhartt out on Wed.  The wind was wicked. I took a day for me!  Got a real hair cut, joined one kiddo for a lunch, picked up seed potatoes, made a library return and other fun stuff.  By the way Youngest is being trained now to color hair.  She is allowed to take manicure appointments during school hours too.  Too bad I don't have long nails right now, or I'd go just for her to get the experience.  Garden work started, so my nails are cut short.  I may just have to go in a few weeks anyway.   I have been spending most of my mornings cooking and baking for the day and week, and find myself getting dishes out that I had just washed and dried and put away.  I...

It's amazing how much beautiful sunshine can change your attitude for the day.  It's been so nice to see a bright sun-shiny day lately.  I had a lot on my to-do list, but first things first. Blueberry pie was baked, and because I will forget about it if I go work outside, I put laundry on the line. While that was baking, Hubby sent me a text - "Bike Ride."   I just hurried up my garden work.  Got another bed weeded. Woohoo! Our 19 year-old stopped in the previous night and brought her kids with her.  King just looks so cute in that photo.   Chickweed is coming up.  Super excited about this.  It's not ready to harvest just yet.  I am about out, so I'll be checking on it often this spring. As for the "iron" you probably guessed it.  That's referring to the bike ride we took.  Just an early week "refresher" on the "sanity saver."