Pioneer Woman at Heart

I made some lemon balm popsicles for when I get out of the garden all hot and sweaty.  They are so refreshing after becoming exhausted in the heat.  Recipe is online from Edible Wild Food. Friday we had rain, and it was told it would be heavy at times.   It was not.  We got rain, but not really enough. It was nice to have a change in my routine and get some indoor stuff done.  Not to mention free time to play with the yarn. It's perfect camping weather here this weekend.  To bad we can't go camping.  It's beautiful, but too cold at night for tomatoes and other plants.  The peas will love it.  Thankfully, I do not have my other plants in the ground yet.  We are to have cooler nights over the next 3 nights (40's, and it can stunt their growth). Yesterday morning I watched 2 coyotes in the wood across from our place, and this morning we watched deer crossing the road in two places.  

While out doing garden work, a hen got out of the run and was following me around.  I found it so funny.  I got her back in, as she would tear up my garden.  I planted more flowers.  I finally filled the driveway pots with flowers and beautified a bit more.  I found non-gmo catnip seeds but not spearmint.  I guess I'll break down and buy them on Etsy.  I could not find one thyme plant either.  They had way less to pick from than any year I've ever seen.  The ones I put in the ground didn't make it through the onslaught of rain we had a week or so ago. Hubby has been begging for apple crisp.  He got it. I baked a new breakfast casserole.  Sort of made it up.  I cooked onions and organic red potatoes, then added bell peppers and garlic.  I poured it into a baking pan, layered in some cheese, cooked bacon and eggs/milk.  I topped it with home grown green onions.  It turned out delicious.  Sorry ...

Our library is only open for appointments, and they are not interloaning anything.   It's a small library.  I finally broke down and purchased a few books.  I added this needle tatting book to my bookshelf.   The tiller is finally fixed.  It needed a new belt, which lasted 12 years.  However, while putting it back together, Hubby had a spring he didn't know what to do with.  After dumping out our container of manuals (that's another purge job), we found a free manual online.  Boom! Tiller fixed. We are a bit behind in tilling, so I haven't planted more yet, and it may rain this morning.  Time will tell what gets done, but we are more ahead this year than last year.

I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend.  We spent most of it in the garden and on the Harley.  We now have to do a repair on the tiller and the mower to resume work sadly.   We have decided we will do our motorcycle rides before or after our meals at home.   No more eating out unless we can order ahead of time.  It is taking us 2-3 hours to get food inside restaurants and then good luck getting them to give you your bill timely.  It's not worth it to help a business, unless like I said, we can order ahead.  The wait time is awful.  One day we put over 300 miles on the bike.  I am now sun burned, but will be outside again today. The plants are hardened and ready to plant though.  I just need my awesome husband to repair the tiller and get more tilled. We are getting more asparagus from the garden. Yum. The green beans, carrots and beets are coming up now. Our daughter who works, was outside on her break and...

Mullein planted in a pot last year and survived winter, but it's small. Mullein that popped up in a bed close to the house, along with burdock.  Big difference in size.  I think this bed will be my weed bed now, aside from the mints.  I need a bed in the ground somewhere for those. Burdock.  I never planted this in a pot, as it grows wild all over the place.

Yesterday I shared a blast from the past recipe, from my Spanish class (High School Days).  Today, I am sharing another blast from the past recipe.  It's funny and somewhat frightening that I saved these recipes.  When I was hunting for the sopaipilla recipe, I ran across a binder full of recipes from my Home Ec. class in Junior High School.  It uses applesauce vs. apples.  It was a very moist coffee cake, and apparently the family loved it, as it went very fast after I baked it. Spicy Apple Crunch Cake (adapted with organic ingredients) 2 Cups All purpose flour 1 tsp. brown sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 cup canola oil 2 eggs, farm fresh 1 cup home canned applesauce 1/4 cup milk 1 cup walnuts, chopped Topping: 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 1/4 cup flour, all purpose 3 Tbsp. butter, melted 1 tsp. cinnamon Preheat oven to 350°F and grease only the bottom of a 9 x 13 bak...

Apparently, in this pandemic time, people are going crazy over "fair food."  One restaurant started it.  They dedicated one night for serving a drive thru with just fair food.  I didn't go, but the entire town (Big City) went.  I heard there was a 3-4 hour wait in line.   The next day, the town announced that fair food vendors will be set up this weekend at the fair grounds for selling food.  I am sure that will end up a crowd too. I decided to do a fair food night at home.  I made homemade corn dogs with real beef dogs and homemade batter. We also made hand cut fries to go with them, but that's not all.  I started us out with a batch of homemade sopaipillas, an old, old high school recipe from Spanish class.  We used to make them and sell them at lunch at school to raise money for our Spanish class.  They are like mini elephant ears you'd get at the fair.  Just for the update, all the fairs have canceled their fair t...

We split hostas a while back and added them to the troublesome rose bed.  These are very large hostas and will crowd out the grass, but we have much more work to do on it.  Hopefully, I'll be back with a good update. Yesterday I planted 23 sweet potato slips, but the rain returned and the garden is swamped.  I could only plant from the edge.  More rain fell last night and I am so sad that it may be another year of battling the rain. We now realize how important a greenhouse is.  It may go to the top of the list if the rain continues. On a good note, the plants have had 4 days of hardening, and we pray next weeks (predicted the entire week ahead) is wrong.

It was breakfast for dinner. Biscuits were baked for sausage gravy, scrambled farm fresh eggs (thank you chickens), and fried potatoes.  I forgot to see if I had enough apples for fried apples though. I also cut all the yellow netting up, and got them the strips rolled into balls for future dish scrubbies.  I have a few more colors to cut in strips, so I won't run out of things to do on rainy days (as well as deep clean totes in my closet, which I discovered high school stuff I can clean).   I finally felt like crafting after I cleaned up some rooms around the house.  Got the last two of these painted with white paint.  More work needs done to finish them. I think I did everything that was not on my to-do list this week, so I need to get back on track ha ha!

The water receded this morning, but we had horrible winds, and our lamp post that was propped up in a tree was blown down again and looks broken this time. The ground is saturated and I fear it'll be another year like last year.  Not sure, but the weekend is the only good weather time to till more and it all depends on if this ground dries up. The library is open but curbside, and next week by appt.  Not sure I'll be going for a while.  I do miss it, but too many restrictions - no interloaning at all.  Our library is very small, and doesn't have many choices and can only loan out from their library to city patrons with their library card. Next week's predictions of weather do not look good for us at all.  Thunderstorm after thunderstorm.  Not only is this a problem for putting in the rest of the garden and the condition of the garden for growing, but for hardening of my plants indoors.  They got two days outside, but the wind and colder weather t...

My radishes are already coming up.  I picked a bit more asparagus, and dropped some zinnia seeds.  I also planted my thyme and rosemary plants, and dropped some cilantro, parsley and basil seeds. By noon yesterday, I had only accomplished that, plus 2 rounds of dishes, some of the laundry and had taken the trash out.   We are getting more rain today, but my recently planted seeds and flowers are loving it.  I need another day indoors anyway.  In between rain storms or rain, I'm hardening my pepper plants and tomatoes. Woke up to this today.  The planted field across the street is completely flooded.  They need to clean the drain out that drains it to the river.  A sheriff is out there warning drivers to slow down, so they do not hydroplane. I have yet to check the garden, but will later.  I am sure it's okay considering we haven't tilled the wetter part of it yet.

Sunday's rain that was predicted all day changed on us.  Thankful for that, as we had time in the morning to plant more flowers.   (just a few snippets of our work) We had 4 bags of mulch leftover from last year, but we still need to go get a truck load of it to finish the flower beds and add some pine mulch to my herb garden.  We worked the good part of the day beautifying the front of the house.  I'm debating on dropping some zinnia seeds today or not.  They keep saying torrential rain, but we are not getting it and so far completely wrong on when we are getting any and how much. Today I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. The weather . . .  99% humidity, 73/59°F, Thunderstorms How I'm feeling this morning . . .  Ready to get back to a regular work out schedule.  With Hubby's crew off two weeks and on two weeks, I've been off track. On my mind . . . Just my to-do list, and making...

We started planting flowers yesterday. It rained, so we have more to plant.  We found hanging baskets too, but could use a few more to brighten up the front of the house and porch. We woke up to fog this morning, and cooler weather due to the storm front coming in down in FL. Our daughter who is graduating is getting her yearbook made by us.  The school declined the photo I took, saying it was not "professional" and her dog was considered a prop.  She told the school if you don't use the photo, I don't want in the school yearbook.  So sad that she had one more disappointment added to her senior year. Mom got her hair cut and colored and is a happy gal.  She plans to grocery shop herself soon. I am still getting new asparagus shoots, so that makes us all happy. No sign of the raccoon for the last few days, so I hope it moved on. Not much else going on here right now.  Sales for my "farm" store have been zero since last early March.  Far...

I decided to freeze some green onions.  I think they are pretty hearty in cold weather, but froze some anyway. We had two good garden days - tilled up more, decided to keep two raised beds, and rip out the other two, layered cardboard between them and piled it high with mulch the county workers left us from the tree they cut down. Tilled even more, planted the radishes, carrots, beets, and green and wax beans.  The kale bed is weeded.  I just need to add some soil and get that planted. Due to the weather my mini velociraptors were moved to the smaller coop finally.  So glad to get them out of the house. Whelp.  I saw a raccoon for the first time in a few years.  It came right up to the door looking for cat food.  I'll be on the look out to see if it was passing through or hunkering down in a pile of old barn wood or in one of the barns.   I made homemade shower bombs to lift my spirits.  I used sweet orange (builds up ...

Crocheting a rag rug.  This project is on hold for now.  I am having to use all my spare sheets and pillow cases to cover my asparagus, rhubarb, etc.  We had another freeze/frost warning.  Once the cold wave passes, I'll make more strips of old sheets to finish this rug. Knitting a dishcloth in red/white and blue. A set of pot holders.  Sorry for the bad photo. Off the hook. . . A new dishcloth pattern.  I learned the waffle stitch this year, which is very easy to do.  I however, feel this is way too thick for a dishcloth.  It also uses twice the amount of yarn than a regular crocheted dishcloth.  It's going in my stash of cleaning cloths and will be used for that. I dug out my tatting, but haven't yet got back to it to see if I even remember how to do it.  Could be fun.  Who knows. Does anyone have extra organic spearmint seeds?  My potted plant died and I cannot get the seeds from ...

Three hours of work, but it doesn't look like much.  That pea fence is about 40 feet long.  We got started, so that feels good. (wind damage) Wind kicked up to a nasty speed, so we quit for the day.  We'll resume again today.  Our frost warning for tonight is now a freeze warning.  Not the kind of May weather we normally have.  I can't believe we are having this cold weather right now. Tonight we hit a possible low of 28°F.  Unheard of for May.  My chicks need to be re-homed to the barn, but now I cannot do that until possible next Wed. thanks to the weather.  They are out growing their home indoors.  I'll be covering my rhubarb, garlic, asparagus, and herbs in the herb garden that have already shown spring growth. I started a triple batch of rhubarb vodka last night.  Today we add the vodka.  You can find the recipe HERE with photos from last years.  

I checked the rhubarb after watering my garlic and checking the asparagus.  Woot!  I baked us a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and kept several stalks for another project.  This is a new pie for me this year.  So excited!  I thawed strawberries for this, that we froze last summer.  I know fresh is better, but it worked. Hubby did a lot of mowing, and we ripped out the weeds in the rose bed.  There is a lot of work to do in the rose bed, so while the pie baked I worked in that bed.  It's in progress, but lots to do to prevent the grass (again for the umpteenth time).  He promised to get the tiller out and do more of the garden.  We ran out of time yesterday.

Thankful the farmer's markets are opening. Thankful the vet is opening. Thankful I get my husband for 2 weeks at home.  So far we've mowed, moved brush, cleaned up the house, knocked down more wasp nests, and today we plan to work a bit in the garden. Thankful for good music that boosts my attitude and personal well being. Thankful for motorcycle rides. Thankful for the amount of sunshine we are getting lately. Upbeat news!  Our Senior High School Daughter, who has been so very depressed lately, reached out to fellow seniors and friends on social media.  She asked if anyone needed to hear positivity, to let her know.  She is mailing out her first 6 letters today and has many more requests already.  If you feel like donating to her cause, please email me.  She could use upbeat stickers to decorate the envelopes, stamps and envelopes.  I'm not sure how she is on writing paper, but I still have loose leaf in the school supply box.  If a...