Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Wow, the time has really flown by, and it would take a very long post to update every single thing.  Goodness. Thank you all for your advice on recent post question.  

Even though I know spring planting time is not here yet, it was depressing to know that there was a freeze warning out last night for us, and is still in effect until 10am today. We are hoping it won't damage the asparagus or rhubarb.  I'm sure it may damage some of my early spring herbs however.  My sage plants were just starting to produce again too. I found the pattern location for the crocheted rose cup coasters, using crochet thread #10.  Sharing for those who were interested in the pattern. The pattern is in this book, on page 55.  Check your library for the book. Book information:  Creative Crochet, A Leisure Arts Publication, ISBN:  0-942237-63-3 Not wanting to go fetch my recipe binder, I recently just used good ol' google to find a breakfast casserole with sweet potatoes and breakfast sausage (the hubs bought sausage that needed used).  I also thawed and used some kale, added garlic, onions and frozen bell peppers (from last year's garden), a...

  It's nearing the end of our garden season.  The rain is arriving here, so I will wait for the garden to dry up before pulling some more plants/stakes. The hot peppers are doing okay this year, but some did not make it.  Oddly, I got one lonely Anaheim pepper from 3 plants I grew from seed.   I brought in another 15 green bell peppers as well. It's getting down to the 40's at night this week, which is perfect weather for camping.  Speaking of that, we got our very first camping trip in this year.  It was so nice and relaxing, and the campfire meals were delicious. One breakfast we made - omelets with garden bell pepper, onion, spinach, bacon and cheese.  The other breakfast contained spinach, feta, bacon, and topped with homemade fresh salsa (made with garden goodies). We took a walk, played cards, I brought handiwork along, and a book.  On the drive home, I pulled out my knitting project, only to find out that we must have accidently l...

  A few of you have mentioned that purging/organizing/tossing seems a bit overwhelming.  Well, this is how I do it. I put the boxes of "stuff" in the smack dab middle of the living room.  It's in plain sight, and that will bother me, so it's tackled and taken care of and more out of the house faster.  More put in their new homes, or re-organized.  I am cleaning as if I was moving, so I handle each item asking myself, "would I take you to a new home," which helps make decisions on keeping or donating much easier. I do have a ton of paperwork, that got taken out of a file cabinet 1 year ago (and 2 months to be precise).  The boxes were shoved into the office when the kitchen was boxed up to repair the flooring. I found my hand crank coffee grinder, and my apple peeler/corer.  I honestly never had a chance to use the peeler.  How many of you have a peeler/corer combo and use it?  Decisions are to be made here.  That fan was left upstairs by...

  I forgot to mention, I baked a sheet pan chicken dinner with brussel sprouts and carrots when Daughter E visited.  We cracked open a jar of the sweet chili sauce I canned this year, and it was very good.  In fact, we enjoyed it on the veggies as well.  We took our first, and possibly the last, camping trip this year.  We met up with friends and had the best time ever. It's back to reality and garden/house work.

We went on yet another camping adventure, and a well deserved retreat.  Just the outdoors, nature, card playing, music, campfires, campfire meals and time for us. We drove to another city and picked up some of Mom's favorite popcorn (a different kind), got locally made ice cream and other treats.  We both laughed when we looked down and we both had on our slippers in the store (ha ha!). I took my latest unfinished project I found in the closet and enjoyed the great outdoors.  Meals were cooked over the campfire.  Our camper has a radio that plays inside and outside, so we took advantage of that too.  We can't wait for the next adventure.   Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. I'll link up when she posts (and I remember to, ha ha!) Weather . . .  Hot!  We had beautiful weather over the weekend.  Perfect for camping, but we are now back to hot weather.  90's.  Possibly rain Tuesday late and into Wednesday morning....

  It's been a whirlwind of a weekend, although we got our 2nd camping trip squeezed in.  I'll have the full report on that tomorrow ha ha.  Oh boy it's too much to fit into today's post.  It's not just about camping, but the entire weekend, returning home and stuff I just can't make up. However I have photos down below for you all. By the way, blogger is still not working correctly for me.  My reading list is zero.  It keeps telling me no posts to read at all, and it's frustrating.  I have found a way to search for your blogs one at a time, but it's easier for me if you comment. Then I can click on your blog (if you have one) and read updates.  Hopefully they will fix it soon. Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.  I'll link up when she posts. The weather . . .  Absolutely gorgeous!!  What I call perfect camping weather.  In the 70's and so nice out.   How I am feeling this morning . . . Well, rest...

We got our first camping trip in this year.  We haven't camped since 2019. Although we decided (and a good decision) to pack up early before the rain hit, we had a wonderful time. I'm definitely going to be working on new campfire recipes for future trips.  We needed a dose of nature. Yesterday, my husband and I took Mom lunch and had a nice time catching up.   Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. The weather . . . Rain.  Lots of rain. Not sure why the photo is so blurry, but you can see the rain in the forecast anyway. How I am feeling . . . Sad to not be on our weekend vacation, but ready to tackle the housework I guess. On the breakfast plate . . . Blueberry pancakes, sausage and coffee. Looking around the house . . . It's a mess.  I have camping stuff to put away, tidy the kitchen, sweep and mop it, do some dishes, empty dishwasher, do laundry, purge a small lock box, purge a filing cabinet, get Daughter K to clean her stuff off one...

Got back from our first camping trip last night.  Puppy spent the weekend with his buddies Zuri and King, and with the kids. We really needed a weekend of camping too.  I took along some home canned hot pepper relish too.  We had guests Friday night, so I made some foil packet dinners to cook over the campfire with sausage, potatoes and beans.  Breakfast was easy to pack, meats, eggs, potatoes and bread for french toast. What's your favorite "go-to" natural remedy to take in your "first aid" kit when traveling.  I take chickweed salve and homemade neosporin, and sometimes mullein tincture.  Would love to know what you suggest and why.  I'm considering digestive bitters next trip. Friday morning I also baked us some Einkorn peanut butter cookies to take with us.  Mmm! Before we left I made sure the bedding was already washed and back on the bed, Hubby's work clothes washed and dried, and so forth.  It really saves a he...

Winter is a good time for me to sit and make homemade campfire fire starters, but I recently made another dozen. You can get directions here . These come in handy to take camping or for starting a backyard fire.

The rain took a day off, so that meant the spectacular event called laundry.  The lines were loaded.  Followed by lots of dish washing, vacuuming and other various house cleaning. Bedding washed, rugs washed, floors swept and mopped.  Sinks cleaned, toilets scrubbed....all so I could return home Sunday to a clean house.  Which by the way, didn't completely happen. Those beautiful jars I recently canned were all labeled and put away too.  Most of them anyway. Medicinal teas were brewed, essential oil steams were done, salt water "snorted".....all three of us caught the "creepy crud" and we were really wanting to feel 100% by Friday. The best event? Camping.  I wrote out a grocery list, with a meal plan, checked and rechecked the camping supplies, and we hit the road.  It happened to be the motivation Hubby had to get the new hitch put on the truck too.  It was a wedding reception/camp out. (during our set up, we had a bit of a roug...

I just realized, if I run out of pantry and freezer space, I can always utilize my dehydrator. I can make tomato sauce leather.   You simply spr ead out he tomato sauce on par chment paper and dehydrate.  This  would come in handy for backpacking trips or camping meals (uses less space to pack food).  You just combine it with equal parts of hot water, and you have tomato sauce again.  Then you can add spices to create pizza sauce, or make other meals using dehydrated ingredients. The t hing with tomatoes, is that y ou always have so methi ng to make with them.

Although we picked the hottest, most humid weekend to camp, we went.  Eve n though the air conditioning w asn 't working in the truck, and it was to be 90°F. It was our first time to go camping at this beautiful, scenic campground.  Waterfalls, long hikes, horse riding - the works. Meals were super simple this time, and hiking shoes were donned.  Two took off work, one taking the entire weekend off , and two were take n out of school for a day. W e packed up cooler s, bicycles, chairs, and tab les. Two ho ur s or so into our 3 hour drive, and we stopped at a gas station.  A guy starts waving at us.  H ubby says, "now what ?" H ubby gets out and then shakes his head.

We've been "off line" for a while so these are posts will catch up all up to date.  Hubby took us camping!  Oh the fun! This is the fire ring that we cooked on.  We bring along a tri-pod as well.

I have been searching for a replacement bulb for this battery operated camping lantern for two years.

Remember all those English Walnuts we bartered for?  I was still cracking them this month.  Apparently , the kids have lost their mojo with helping me. The shells are always saved from these walnuts.  My older brother and his wife gift me their cardboard egg cartons.   Four dozen campfire starters are in the making today, and I have more shells.

Yesterday's chores were still getting worked on when the kids got home from school.  I had to get everything washed and on the line as rain (storms) are expected today.   I got all the rugs washed and dried too.  Speaking of rugs, our 18 year-old daughter took the peach colored (crocheted in cotton yarn) rug for her dorm.  I just read somewhere that they cannot have rubber backed rugs, so that worked out nicely.  So, if you kiddo is heading to college, a handmade crocheted rug would come in handy for her/him.  The ones you see on my clothesline are from old sheets, old jeans, and scrap cotton yarn.  They all wash up nicely too.   I forgot to dump my ice trays and bag it, so I could freeze all the organic collards I had yesterday.  I managed to get half of them froze.  I have more to freeze today.