"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Saturday, May 31, 2025

This and That

 Any writers here?  Are there any free downloadable programs that are similar to what Word offers?  Other than Google docs and notepad?  Looking for one like Word, in which to use for writing, with options to save to a removeable drive as well as save to the computer.  Font options, italics, underscore, paragraph widths and all the options that Word has. Or an inexpensive program to purchase similar to Word?

Our Word program expired a few years ago, and I do not like notepad at all.  It comes in handy for a recipe, but that's about it.

Thanks to anyone who can give me recommendations.  I think I follow a few that write books, and possibly a few that keep journals (not blogs, but actual personal journals) using their computer/laptap or tablet.  



This tip may be a repeat tip.  Sorry if that is the case.  I started buying 2# bottles of Dawn on sale, and use them to refill our smaller bottle.  Saves us a lot of money, as we can, preserve, cook from scratch, and there are always dishes to wash.


I also save a few of the lids from the bottles.  They come in handy for other containers and they come in handy to replace the existing lids on the bottle we use daily.

Short post today.



Cleavers.  I'm considering making a tincture this year.  Anyone have any experience with Cleavers as a tincture?

This and That  ©  May 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

6 comments:

Pamela M. Steiner said...

I've never heard of "cleavers", and had to look it up. Apparently it does grow here in Florida, especially in the spring. I will have to look for it. I also use Dawn, but we just use the big bottle rather than emptying it into the smaller one. However, I like that idea, and I think I will do that because lifting that big bottle is difficult when it is full, and it takes up a lot of space. I used to keep it under the sink and out of sight, but since it is just the two of us here and we don't have a lot of company, it stays on the countertop most of the time. A smaller bottle would look nicer. Thanks for the idea. Regarding your search for a Word program, I still use Microsoft Office Word 2007, because I have the disc for that and have installed it on my computer everytime I've had to replace my computer. It still works fine for my purposes and I hope I never have to quit using it due to being incompatible with the new computers. I know my hubby's laptop doesn't have a disc drive, so I'm not sure if I can download it to a flash drive or not. I may need to try that before something happens to this computer and the next one doesn't have a disc drive. Anyway, I am sorry I can't be of more help with this. I've hung on to this program for a long time and I hope I don't have to give it up! I hope someone out there can give you some better ideas. Have a blessed and wonderful day.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Pamela M. Steiner, thank you for the info on Word. I am somewhat confused, because we had a disc and it was installed on the computer. A few years back it came up on the computer saying our program "expired" and no longer worked. ?? I assumed the program had a length of working time? Not sure, but I guess I will look for a new Word program when out and about, or see if someone has one. I thought once, the program was loaded, it was good pretty much forever on the computer. Not sure why ours "expired" on us. Thanks though. I really miss it for letter writing, writing in general, and for National Novel Writing month (stopped doing due to no Word on the computer). I'll be honest, I have no idea where the original disc is either, because that was so many years ago too.

Far Side of Fifty said...

I do the same thing with the Dawn dish soap. I also make my own Dawn antibacterial soap for my foaming bathroom dispensers once the originals are empty:)

Kara Kwilts said...

Apache OpenOffice is a free word processing application. You can go to https://www.openoffice.org It is a really good program, I used it until I needed to get Microsoft 365 for working from home.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Far Side of Fifty, I used to make the foaming soap too, but now that the kids are moved out I have motion sensor dispensers, so they are filled with a mix of bulk soap (so much better for coming in from the garden and not touching anything). The motion sensor dispenser in the kitchen has been a huge help for washing hands while handling messy stuff, meat, or whatnot.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Kara Kwilts, thank you. I will look into that.