Pioneer Woman at Heart

Wed. night Hubby, tired as he was tilled a small bit of the garden for me (for potatoes).  I yanked out one section of last year's plastic we had down for peppers, but left the rest in.  It's too wet to work in. (That's puddle of water, and it's way too wet to till) It's saturated in most parts yet.  We were to get rain all night, and did not thankfully.  Rain was 80% at 6am Thursday morning, but quickly changed to 50% at 7am.  Then it stopped early.  Although it was a muddy mess, I planted 17# of red and white potatoes (90 starts).   Took a break, and headed back out to plant 53 sweet potato slips but only had room for 26.  I managed to plant a row of radishes too.   We are really hurting in our area, farmers included.  Not one farmer has been in their fields this year other than to do soil tests.  Organic farmers may be having the same issue. Our plan is to take it one day at a time, and then decide what's...

Horrible thunderstorms woke us up Tuesday morning, and later I found out there were tornadoes that touched down within an hour of us. Youngest started her internship, and with the rain constant along with Hubby's work schedule, it's been indoor work for the most part.   I broke down, did some research, and ordered us some reusable potato grow bags.  I just need to get the dirt and give an update on that.  I could not find one person with experience or a resource for bags, so I went with what my out research did.  It can't hurt at this point, as we are as desperate and desperate can be. I sort of have a plan for the 54 jalapeno plants, but not for the 54 plus green pepper plants. Rats chewed another hole in the chicken coop.  We patched that and built a rat trap, but noticed a crack in the bottom of my 5 gallon bucket.  We'll buy a new one and reset it. As for the ants in the herb garden, I sprinkled grits on the hill.  So far, no ants....

Rhubarb is in season now.  Guess what concoction I made?  Well, the title of this blog sort of gave it away, ha ha!  I created rhubarb vodka. You can find the recipe online just about anywhere.  I used the recipe from BBC recipes online, adapted with homegrown and organic ingredients.   Rhubarb Vodka ·          1¾ pints (3 1/2 cups) organic vodka ·          2 stalks of homegrown rhubarb           3 Tbsp sugar ·          Lemon zest from half of one organic lemon or homegrown ·          3 organic whole cloves ·          1 organic cinnamon stick ·           (right after adding the sugar - shake it up when you sprinkle it on the rhubarb) 1.  I used my food processor to chop...

We got massive amounts of rain.  Sadly, we will not be planting popcorn, squash of any kind, beets, carrots, cucumbers, greens and more.  We may not even be able to get the sweet potatoes, potatoes or green beans in either.  No way to till, and more rain in the forecast.  It's going to be our biggest loss ever.  Almost makes me want to cry, but there is nothing we can do about it right now. I could buy buckets for the potatoes, but the cost for them and dirt would out way having to buy them.   The fate of our 100 plus pepper plants has yet to be decided. It rained all night and it's raining this morning, and rain all day again tomorrow.

Youngest and I spent about an hour on the porch Fri. night waiting on Hubby to arrive home.  We read books and watched all the motorcycles go by (Bike Week). Hubby had good intentions to till, but it didn't happen.  Again. We also watched about 7 deer come out of the woods across the street.  One doe and a lot of young bucks. I got two more tomato plants in the tomato garden Saturday morning - making the total up to 70 plants so far.  I also put down 453# of mulch down in the flower beds, but need more.  By 11am, they downgraded the storm, and had only 45% of rain.   I've been asked, "what do you do with all of them?" Tomato sauce Pizza sauce BBQ sauce Ketchup Taco Sauce Tomato soup Tomato paste Crushed tomatoes Frozen tomatoes Dehydrated tomatoes (soups, crackers etc.) Salsa Green tomato salsa Green tomato chutney Fresh tomatoes to eat Baked stuffed tomatoes for dinner ...there's probably a lot I'm forgetting too. I had m...

(old photo, but this one is back in it's home for the garden season) First, welcome to my new followers.  I hope you are enjoying my blog, where posts are reality (the good and the bad), and photos are never staged. Good Golly!  We are so low on our stock of greens.  I may have to buy some until my seeds are planted.  Don't want to, but we need our greens. Thursday night my "till man" was too tired to till.  Shoot.  Couldn't plant the potatoes and popcorn.  Dang it.  He was too tired to weed whack my raised beds.  Couldn't plant my greens.  Dang it. However, I tended to the herb garden and worked outside for 3 early hours, starting at 7am.  Daughter had a friend over, and all the kids slept in while I worked.  Even Jesse was caught snoring. I thinned my over grown lemon balm.  Got my rosemary, basil, parsley and cilantro planted.  I'm not replanting lavender.  It is so tricky to start from see...

I'm betting my hens are getting coop fever, with all this rain and wind.  Most likely stir crazy at this point.  We haven't had much of a day for them to free range lately. Started my day making homemade condensed mushroom soup .  There is nothing better than homemade.  I made another for the freezer.  The first "can" went on top of pork chops in the crock pot. Thursday morning we had a  major  storm roll through.  More rain is not a good thing at this point.  It's just downright bad.  I prayed my planted tomatoes made it through and went out after the storm let up to check.   The wind was so bad, it took out power in several counties, and took down many trees, limbs, utility poles and more.  One daughter of mine is lucky it moved through our area quickly.  She had a bonfire out back with friends, and left all her stuff, plus all my furniture including seat cushions.  Nothing blew away, but my weed...

Wed. morning we attended our youngest daughter's awards ceremony.  It rained most of the day, so we only got mulch on one small flower bed.  It was cold, cloudy, and the rain just seems to fall.  It was literally cold enough to start up the woodstove, but I held back, due to the upcoming weather. Thursday, I planted more flowers while it rained.   I toted 54 of my tomato plants out to the garden, and planted those in the rain until the rain was too much.   I got about half of them planted, then went to the front porch.  I leaned over the edge and got the front beds finished weeded.  Dropped my zinnia seeds too, but I have more to plant.  Gladiolus bulbs are now planted too. Headed back out to the tomatoes, but guess what?  It rained again, and too much to be out planting in it.  I'm gonna have to buy a rain coat to get that job done apparently. I stayed inside and made a hot cup of mullein/nettle tea.  My sinuses wer...

Just a little teabag quote for the day. Started a jar of comfrey infused oil.  I haven't decided yet, but I'll either use this as an oil or make a salve, to topically treat my varicose veins. Made a breakfast scramble with collards, jalapeno and bacon.  Of course eggs, potatoes and green bell peppers as well.  I felt bad Hubby had no breakfast nor lunch to pack on Monday.  We grilled out Sunday night, and had been busy outdoor Sunday morning. Baked Bourbon Blueberry Banana bread.  Snacks for the next day or two. You know when the weather really is wacky, when you have this much asparagus, and no snap peas to go with it (when I normally do).  Peas aren't even planted sadly.  I roast the asparagus with rosemary and olive oil. Today is our youngest daughter's last day of school.  Considering our weather the last two years, I've asked Hubby to put building a green house to the top of the to-do list.  I can't su...

I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.   Back weeks ago, I guessed I had 4 roosters and 3 hens with my spring chick purchase.  The other day I took another closer look.  I may be right, but time will tell. Debby Flowers do you make and sell goat's milk soap?  Or anyone else that follows my blog?  If so, comment types and prices etc. please. Breaking news! With the hot day we had on Saturday, and the early morning break from rain, the tiller was humming away.  Mower too.  We had to mow down the garden (last year's neglect), to start tilling where it was dry enough.  Hubby got 3/4 of the larger tomato patch tilled, but it started to rain.  Only a small portion of the large garden was mowed down. On the breakfast plate. . . Have no idea yet. The weather outside is . . . Cold.  We went from 80's and major storms yesterday to no rain, and we'll dip into the 40's tonight. On my reading pile. . . Book from t...