Pioneer Woman at Heart

  You may get a laugh out of this discovery, but it's a reminder to get your recipes out before you do early prep work.  I started a catnip infused oil earlier in May, thinking it was what I needed for my homemade bug spray.  It was not.   I then thought I used catnip oil for homemade tick repellent, and that was not it either. Having said that, I started a catnip tincture .  Good grief.  I started making the bug spray way back around 2015.   It works to repel bug bites, but if it's very hot out, you do need to re-apply it during your time outdoors. (photos from September of 2015, when I first made the bug repellent spray) The link for the online recipe no longer works, but the original recipe was from Mountain Rose Herbs.  They have changed the recipe and the title over three times since then.  It was first called Bug-Away Spray, then a Skeeter spray, and again changed after that.   I went searching for the link to share,...

Thanks to the rain, dreary skies, and much cooler weather here, I have managed to get some handiwork done.  In fact, last night we got down to 47°F, after a full day of thunderstorms and downpours.  Crazy cold nights for May, but not unheard of. The sun is shining today, but it will take a few days for the gardens to dry out.  In fact, a portion of one of our vegetable gardens actually flooded.  We have taken note, and plan to fill it in more with soil (but that will have to wait, as the price to have a truck load delivered has more than doubled). . . . crocheted 3 baby washcloths.  I need to sew in the ends and block them. . . .crocheted a bookmark.  I have blocked it, but I am wondering if I should starch it or dip it in 50/50 Elmer's glue and water?  I have made many bookmarks in the past, but I have never once stiffened them.  I feel this one needs it.  I just think if it was completely stiff it would be an odd bookmark.   I onl...

  The rain continues to flow here, so planting anything has been a thwarted by Mother Nature.  It's a waiting game right now.  As soon as the ground dries up, the rain returns.  The only seeds planted so far, are collards, swiss chard and Red Russian Kale.  I'm trying my best to be patient.  I'm not feeling too bad about our delay, as we've also had cool 50 degree nights and mornings here lately. We still have not figured out the mystery of the missing garlic we planted last fall.   The flower beds remain unfinished as well.  They still look better than last year.  I'm actually glad I have not weeded the "rose" bed yet.  I have some wild growing catnip that I want to utilize, and am not ready to pick it just yet.  I actually have catnip growing all over. The oregano has spread like crazy this year, and is also growing in the "rose" bed as well.  I will be thinning it out soon. We can now say we tasted butter cheese for th...

  I trimmed our lilac bush.  Last year a pine tree fell on it, and took half of the bush.  I did not cut any flowers this year, and the dead flowers have been trimmed, along with a few dead branches.  May is the best time to trim it, so it has all year to produce new growth. Lavender mid-May.  I was too late with a spring trim. Transplanted a few bunching onions that grew in areas they were not planted.  Same with chives. Planted more perennials in the flower bed - more blue delphiniums, and a few tall dianthus (Rockin Red), and a few Astra Blue Balloon Flower.  I also added two new lily's - one yellow and one pink. Note on perennials:  We had a conversation with a shopper about these plants, and she much preferred annuals. She said they bloom all season long, but perennials bloom once and are done.  It made sense with what she was saying, but I explained to my husband, that we have a variety, so we have different blooms all season long. The ...

  We have all been shocked at having several days of 80-90 degree weather in May.  Tuesday morning was much more doable for outside work, but only early in the day.  I managed to get the rest of the flowers planted, and dumped 10 bags of mulch, but we will need more.    We've been eating easy breakfast meals and salads for the last few days.  The hot weather is the reason.  Breakfast is pumpkin oatmeal bake (with our home grown pumpkin), and  scrambled farm fresh eggs. I treated the chickens to some home grown sprouts ( I use a sprout jar system, but you can do this in any quart canning jar with a screen top), and boy were they excited about it.  I have since then, restocked their meal worms. Crazy as it sounds for such hot weather, but I finally finished this scrap yarn lap afghan. Hot Weather ~ Chit Chat © May 2024 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I decided, after doing some research, to buy butterfly pea flowers (instead of growing them).  Everything I read stated they prefer a very hot season, and otherwise, do not produce enough flowers.  I have been intrigued to try the tea with them too. Here is the witch hazel after 24 hours, after infusing it with a few flowers.  Very pretty right?   I started using it on May 19th. Do I like it?  It's only been a few days, but feels great after a washing my face, after a hot day of work outside.  My face feels great in the morning too.  I'll continue to use it and update after a few months.  I did do a test on my arm first, to make sure I would not have any reaction to it first. The recipe is online with a free printable page - Mommypotamus, DIY Butterfly Pea Flower Skin Toner. I included the link on this post, as she has a lot of other DIY recipes and how-to's.   It's just infused witch hazel (organic, double distilled), infused wit...

  We finally got one full day to work on the flower beds. Sorry I don't have photos of them.  I will try later once we are completely done.   Between his horribly long work ours (and on weekends), add to that my foot fracture, we are very behind on outside work.  I can't hire help for this work.  Side note:  I may be hiring someone for interior painting that still needs done. Our initual plan was to get plants into the vegetable garden.  We took one look and had to re-till everything (which required hiring a friend, due to the tiller not running here).  That job never happened until the high heat time of the day. Instead  we finally pulled up the tarps in the front flower beds and put down dirt.  We slightly expanded an area, to make mowing a lot easier.  The plan is to find creeping phlox for that small addition next.  It only took us two years to get this done, ha ha!  We were so busy with home repairs, flower beds...

  We love a good seasoning on our steaks, but we love to use it on grilled burgers too.  My husband purchased the Grill Mates steak seasoning, per a suggestion of a co-worker, and we love it.  However. . . Check out the ingredients in the Montreal Steak seasoning.  Onion in anything will clump up, so I'm guessing the sunflower oil is to keep the seasoning from caking.  Anyway, I went on a mission to make our own. I found a recipe online, and it had so many reviews, I decided that would be the recipe to try.  I don't like to put links in my blog posts anymore, as they so often stop working, but if you google for " culinaryhill.com " and "Montreal Steak Seasoning" and "copy cat" recipe, you should be able to locate it online.  By the way, that site has more homemade seasoning recipes you may like too. I followed her recipe exactly, but used homemade garlic powder, and homemade onion powder .  It says it makes 8 oz, but I stored mine in a recycled s...