Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I normally fall plant our garlic, but once again it was eaten over winter (all 80 cloves!!!), and we believe it's the work of voles. I need to spring plant garlic now, and I cannot, for the life of me find anyone selling organic music garlic seed for spring planting.  I can only find "fall" planting garlic. I like music, but I would try any organic garlic at this point.  I'm so frustrated right now.   (Source: Territorial Seeds) Anyone?  I even looked on Etsy, and all that I see are pre-orders for fall.  Sigh.,....urgh... By the way, we have moved the garlic grow bags closer to the house now.

  (recipe is from The Southern Lady Cooks, online) I made us a sausage/tomato/chili and cheese grits breakfast casserole, to use up some tomatoes from the freezer.  It was the first time to try this recipe, and it was delicious.  So delicious my husband kept coming back in the kitchen to get another bite, and another, and another....so good.  I made farm fresh scrambled eggs to pair with it.  I will be taking some to youngest, as it made a lot. Where do you all buy your grits?  I'm having a terrible time finding organic/non-gmo grits.  I need to day to search online I guess.  Any tips on where to buy them would be great.  It's been a while since I bought any, so if I find some, I will stock a bit in the freezer.   In celebration of the crazy work schedule ending, I baked a strawberry crunch for my husband to take to work, for their celebratory dinner at work.  I love having those frozen strawberries on hand, and they smell...

  We made it through it!  My husband had to work 14 days straight, with a switch to 2nd shift, and that was hard for the both of us.  It has finally come to an end.  Now we can get back to our home projects and have the evenings to ourselves.  I literally have several lists going right now.  I figured, when this schedule is back to normal, I have options on what we do next, ha ha! I have been painting the upstairs sub flooring with odor killer paint, and have one room more than half done.  We are super excited to get this job done, so we can install flooring.  I should the larger room's flooring painted in 3 days, 4 tops. We have purged many boxes in the last two weeks, donated quite a bit, and our trash bin filled up as fast as it was emptied. I have just a few more boxes to go through, but they are larger boxes.  The bedroom/closet are almost done.    We haven't talked much about door paint color yet.  We'll pick up paint swa...

  I have noticed, when I make an all-in-one chicken dinner in the crock pot (with chicken breast), it is the most tender chicken. So.... I started to do this, for any baked casserole dinner that has shredded chicken as an ingredient - place organic chicken breasts (fat trimmed) into a crock pot (I salt and pepper it first) and cover with organic chicken broth (low sodium).  I cover the chicken completely with the broth. I cook this on low all day.  I haven't really kept track of the hours, but maybe 6-7 hours.  I then turn off the crock pot, and shred the chicken, and add to whatever recipe I am baking in the oven.  I've even done this the day before, that way the chicken is already done.  It is the most tender chicken for our recipes.   Note:  The chicken is so tender I use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the crock pot, or it simply falls apart in the crockpot.  It makes it easier to get to the cutting board to shred. I don't...

  I like to dice up jalapenos I freeze from the garden, but the tip below is an idea to keep fresh peppers fresh, after harvesting.  Anyway, this breakfast had a lot going on in it.  I had a red bell pepper, bacon, a few sweet potatoes, onion, leftover pesto, eggs, jalapeno, and fresh green onions from the herb garden.  Delicious.  No recipe.  I just tossed it together. As we near garden season, here is another tip I learned (America's Test Kitchen): (source:  America's Test Kitchen) I did not know this.  Typically, we either eat, can or freeze as we harvest, but at the end of the season this could be useful. My husband has not had a day off for 2 weeks now.  Not even weekends.  We cannot wait for that schedule to end. I have switched gears, and started to go through all the crafting supplies that were moved out of the bedroom closet.  There is a lot to go through.   Tough decisions on what stays and what goes. There is no...

  I have wild violets on our property, and they only bloom for a short time.  One area is around my clothesline, so I have to keep on top of it, before someone mows it down. In the past I have made wild violet jelly for gifting and enjoying ourselves.  I just don't have the time to can anything right now, so I decided to make a medicinal tincture this spring. Here is how I canned the jelly:  Wild Violet Jelly It's perfect for gift giving because it is a beautiful color, and it tastes delicious.  I can it in 4 oz. jars, to make the recipe more shareable.  I typically only get enough blossoms for one batch when I do can jelly.  I first made the jelly back in 2018.  I got the recipe from another blogger (go to my link and it will then have a link for her blogpost). (I picked these, and made this Sunday, before the frost) The tincture is new to us.  I am doing research on uses, but so far cough, throat issues are two.  Have you made this tin...

  I've mentioned that we make Four Thieves Vinegar for the year, and especially for winter months, and now I am making a Four Thieves Spray to clean the house with. You can get the instructions with Mountain Rose Herbs online (there is a video). It's been rough lately, when it comes to daily chores.  In the process of going through every single box/tote/bag for the closet, there are daily chores to do first.  It's been a bit overwhelming, but I know it will all be worth the work. I decided to mix up some herbal tea mix for my version of "calm the fluff" down tea.  There are so many recipes for this online.  I used what I had on hand. Asparagus is up a few weeks early and we are expected to have a frost tonight. If you were asking about the recent afghan pattern, for the granny/double crochet ripple with a straight edge, I posted it yesterday:  HERE Question: Forget The Pharmacy - Grow Your Own Medicine: The Homesteader's Ultimate Self-Sufficient Guide to Gr...

The compost has all been tilled into the gardens, and they are ready for planting next month.   We still need to build the new raised beds, but we are ahead of schedule thankfully.   We are still working on purchasing an electric solar fence. The recent weather was perfect to catch up on laundry and dry it on the clothesline.   It's been a long week, and we got some rain too. By the way, those Einkorn waffles I posted about the other day?  Well, they taste great re-heated.  They are not a crunchy waffle, and are soft, but so good! A few of you mentioned you were interested in the pattern for the most recent, and newest, afghan I am crocheting.  I have to admit, this pattern is getting rave reviews, and a lot of inquiries.  I had spent time searching for a new pattern to use up yarn colors I had in my stash, and this is the one I came up with.  As I said previously, the woman who wrote the pattern mentions to change your yarn color ...

  Years ago, my Dad gave me a container of "crafty" items from his mother (my Grandma).  She lived through the Great Depression, and was very creative on recycling "trash" into items to sell (above is a magnet she made). She used to recycle egg cartons, but punching holes out using a single hole punch.  She would make many things with them, and in the container, along with several bags of punched circles, was a magnet she made with other styrofoam trays.  My biggest memory from these punched circles, was her necklaces she made with them, using dental floss to string it and other beads.  Several years ago, I wrote about it.  You can get directions on my S.C.R.A.P. blogspot. She also made beautiful beaded jewelry.  I have completely emptied that container, sorted it and boxed most of it up.  It will be donated to a home where they house women recovering from mental/health and addiction/recovery issues.  They are very "crafty" and were asking fo...

  There is so much going on here right now.  Crazy busy with purging and re-organizing a lot of "stuff" in our closet.  I decided to take a slower morning, and tried Jovial's Einkorn (recipe is on their website) waffle recipe that uses yogurt in the recipe.  I had to use more dishes than I would like in the morning, but they were good.  They turned out nice and fluffy, but need cooked about 1 minute longer than traditional recipes (or they will be doughy in the center).  Delicious! We are going through every single tote that was in the closet.  Together we emptied 5 totes (so far).  I am washing them out and putting them aside for now (I may be able to use some for yarn).  We will not get rid of them for sure.  They are too expensive to buy right now (like about everything else). We are once again having wonderful weather, and the spring flowers are blooming on the homestead. Update on the chickens and barley grass.  They don't seem...

  I have been spoiling my chickens with lentil sprouts and they love them.  They are not only inexpensive to grow, but grow in about 4 days.  They are very easy to get out of the quart canning jar. I have started to grow them barley sprouts.  They take longer, but I used the same method.   They are also harder to get out of the canning jar, so if you use this method, I suggest a wide mouth jar.  They all stick together vs. lentil sprouts, when grown in a quart canning jar. I also grew barley grass for them, using my microgreen tray.  I'll admit, it was just as fun for me to grow, as it was for the chickens. I used this barley, and soaked about a 3/4 cup of barley overnight.  The next morning, I spread the soaked seeds out onto my 9 x 13 microgreen tray.  I rinsed them every day, and made sure they had ventilation.

  . . .I am thankful for the spring green onions coming up in the herb garden.  They are very delicious and healthy. . . .I am thankful for the continuous eggs from the chickens. . . .I am thankful for the friend and family member who came over to help re-wire the closet light switch to the new location (it was not even working where it was).  One more thing to do in the closet and I can move it all back in. . . .I am thankful for recent bits of sunshine we have gotten. . . .I am thankful for a recent visit and overnight stay with one of my kids. . . .I am thankful for coffee in the morning.

  The "clay pot" on the left was crocheted with an "H" hook and the one on the right was crocheted with an "I" hook.  I am not sure what I will do with the smaller one yet, but it was a mistake in the making. During the process of the bedroom flooring/painting, I kept two hooks in a drawer in one of the end tables of the living room.  One night I grabbed the wrong hook for my blanket and had to frog quite a bit of it. I had this yarn sitting at my bill paying station (aka the procrastination station computer area).  I decided to go ahead and use it up and see how many "clay pots" I could get out of a ball of cotton yarn.  I will most likely add this to my inventory, or gift them once I get the leaf coasters made for them. Nothing exciting to share today ha ha!  Just a hook mishap.  I've also been pretty exhausted at the end of the day.  I probably should not be crocheting anything. I am not getting much done, as we are in the midst of bad wea...

  The closet "extreme clean" is still going on.  I'm impressed if I pull at least a few items a day around here.   My green onion is in full harvest due to the recent weather.  I could not let it be ignored with the twist of weather today.  I made a batch of fresh green onion/parsley pesto.  I plan to use some in our breakfast this morning. Compost has now been added to the gardens.  I have yet to pull the bean fence, but we have a few days before tilling is done.   I think this year has been the earliest to get these jobs done, and I am thankful for that.  In May, it's typically hit or miss weather for getting planting done.   Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. I will link up when she posts. The weather . . . 43/34°F and possible snow. As I look outside my window . . . Very cloudy and dark, and it's snowing. Right now I am . . . Brewing coffee. Thinking and pondering . . . Thinking about taking some...