Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I'm cramming a lot into one post for the end of July.   Gardening work has been in full motion, for veggies, herbs and flowers.  Despite cutting the planting down by almost half this year, we have had a lot to up-keep.  On top of all my regular chores and happenings, sweet corn is in season.  Oh boy, the work load has doubled, but happy to get it done this year.  Corn frozen.  Job done. If you did not read about it, we did not plant any squash at all this year, to kill off the squash bug.  However, we have not been able to locate many produce stands with yellow squash.  Zucchini is everywhere, but a lack of yellow squash.  Our adventures continue.  We did our very first local 4 mile bicycle ride.   After many years of having this on my "bucket" list, I grew our very first lemon.  It was delicious too. We have taken more camping trips to off set the work days, relax, and enjoy life.  I have brought home two...

  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...

  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.

  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...

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.

Hubby was so excited to try out the new canoe, he hooked up the camper a night earlier than we had planned, and away we went. 

The weather was absolutely heavenly on Friday.  Too bad for me I had to spend most of the mid-morning getting my teeth beautified.  Sadly, I had to sit in the chair for almost 40 minutes, after the cleaning, to see the dentist.  After they adjusted the bite on two crowns from last year, and a free oral cancer screening, they finally released me.  I had high plans for a day of outdoor work, but that flew by quickly. By the way, I kept getting told how great I brush my teeth.  At one point the hygienist asked if I could come in and show folks how to brush.  I give the credit to herbal teas, which help keep the mouth, and gums healthy (teas that have natural anti-bacterial properties, like thyme tea). As soon as I arrived home, I had goats to tend, then dogs and then laundry.  Hubby finished the mowing (parts that our buck does not chew down).

I have only tried my home canned pepper mustard sauce on chicken so far.  I know meatballs would be wonderful, but this time I tried it on organic pork tenderloin (in the crock pot). Delicious.  Another winning way to eat from our summer stock up.  We topped it over organic brown rice, and had a side of roasted brussel sprouts.   We are having another cold day. 

We earned two free nights at the campground.  Not knowing how the weather will be in October, we decided to go.  We still came home during the daytime (some of it anyway) to get work completed. We enjoyed the campfire again, on quiet cool evenings.

A few asked how I make my laundry detergent.  I simply grate a bar of unscented homemade goat's milk soap (you can use a bar of Zote as well), add 8 cups of water, and heat until melted.  I then add 1 1/2 cups borax and 1 1/2 cups washing soda, and continue to heat and stir until dissolved. . .

The reason my laundry was up before the sunrise last Friday?  A college campus tour.   After traveling 260 miles round trip and paying $12.50 in road toll fees, we are pretty sure our next child will be attending college there. The Hubs drove.  Need I say more?  If my brother and sister-in-law were driving behind us, they would have been gasping.   On our way home, we passed an A & W drive-in.  Remember those?  We had one in our home town growing up.  We passed it, Hubby pulled off the road, then pulled a "Dukes of Hazard" straight across all lanes of traffic, and up (yes, up) the the entrance to the drive-in.  Needless to say, any projectiles in the car went flying.  People were staring at us.  I was shrinking in my seat and trying to recover, and make sure we were still all okay.  So after that, I really needed a weekend off. We went camping.