Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I ended up cooking eggs for breakfast, using my English muffin rings.  I cooked bacon as well for sandwiches. Although upside down, the order has been started, and the one color I needed I found online with Michaels store.  I found a great deal, considering prices - buy 2 get one free, made the skeins $2.99/each (7 oz).  Free shipping.  I had to order yarn for me, so it got me the free shipping, but what a deal.  It's been shipped, so as soon as it arrives, I will continue making it. Flooring started to go in, but our handyman has a few doctor appts. this week, so it has been slow going.  My house is still a hot mess.  I can't put anything where it needs to go, so I keep telling myself to be patient. We are being told there is a winter storm coming our way.  It is to arrive before Christmas.  Lovely.  I'm checking freezer supply/pantry supply, paper product supply etc. and making lists.  Just in case. Our truck gets a new win...

It's still cold here, and we got more snow.  My husband I spent most of the day at the hospital visiting Mom.  They allow two people in the building, but one at a time at her bedside.  They will do more testing with her today.  Her memory is still hit and miss, and she's feeling exhausted. When I first went into Mom's room, she asked where she was and why.  She said she didn't know how to use her TV, so I helped her with that, showed her the button to turn it off and on, and so forth.  She said she loves to watch the cooking channels, so I found one for her.  I think it got her hungry, because she ordered herself a good lunch before we left.  She hasn't been eating much lately. We couldn't stay at the hospital the entire full day, as we had animal duty back home.  Daughter K is still out of town, so we had dogs to take out, a cat and rabbit to feed etc.  We fed and watered the chickens before we left the house. I have collected a few rec...

The boys came out and plowed out the 3-4 foot drifts that buried a few cars.  They sped off before I could pay them though.  Little turds that they are.  We'll catch up with them soon.  Thankfully, they plowed out the mailbox area for us as well. Woke up to a wind chill of 1°F this morning. I have a 5 foot drift blocking my chicken coop, so after I slowly wake up with some coffee, and get a warm shower, I'll be outside shoveling a path for that. Daughter K is out of town visiting with her boyfriend.  They are looking at more apartments.  That means I have dog, cat and rabbit duty.  Jasper (cat) is already meowing at me from the stairs. My sinus medications have not kicked in just yet.  Hopefully today will be the day.  I'm getting tired of being tired (and sick). We are having trouble getting someone affordable to replace the brakes on the car.  Normally, my mechanic husband does the repairs, but we have the Chevelle in the garage r...

Woke up to 3 inches of snow.  Lovely.  I also woke up and asked myself what day it was, ha ha! Daughter K's car is still in the garage on a jack.  Hopefully it will be up and running by tonight.  They kept running into problems, and now she needs a new battery.   Since we are down one vehicle I had my Daughter K deliver the ornaments to the salon on her way to work. A hunter knocked on the door and said he shot a deer and wanted permission to walk the woods behind our homestead.  I told him yes.  Later in the day I saw them dragging their deer from way out back.  I locked up the dogs (only way to get out of the house without them getting out), and told them they could drive their truck out there and get the deer.  They are thankful. Their 4-wheeler would not start.  Nice guys, and thankful they were respectful to knock vs. trespass.  I'm glad they found their deer too.   Mom has been admitted into the hospital.  ...

Yesterday morning, right after I put up my blogpost, our internet service went out.  I literally stayed in jammies until I got that back up and running.  I had items in two carts to get ordered.  I'm pretty much stuck in this house until the car / truck issues are completed. We can't start on the bathroom remodel until winter is over.  Our house would be freezing cold, not to mention I can't paint in there either, so that is frustrating.  I could however (after Christmas) unload the bookshelves in the hall, move the bookshelves and hire a friend to come re-floor the hallway.   The carpet is old and worn and new flooring needs to go into about every room in the house.  So....it's on the possibility list. I have created a new crochet item.  Not sure if it will sell well, but I plan to get more made for next year's craft shows.  It's an Aldi's quarter holder.  I know one daughter here could use it.  I plan to make some with h...

Our hired help showed up.  Car is running good, but we need to buy a new radiator hose, some anti-freeze, and put one headlight back in.  Then we pull the truck in and replace brakes on that next. Got the house work started yesterday until the sweeper stopped working.  One daughter and I got it back to working.  I can't wait to get rid of the carpet and replace flooring in this house.  One thing at a time. The Mexican Crockpot casserole was a hit.  It's online with Well plated by Erin.  I used home grown tomatoes (I have frozen jalapenos to make those "fired up" too) that I froze (and thawed), and made homemade enchilada sauce (no sugar like store bought has), and only added some hand shredded sharp cheddar cheese upon serving it.  So delicious and it has quinoa in it. Breakfast was a hit too.  I've made many breakfast dishes with broccoli, but changed it up a bit by adding zucchini.  Broccoli is a power house of goodness, and ...

The car saga continues.  When one biker friend never responded to our plea for assistance (paid assistance), we hired another.  He didn't show up until 3pm.   The car is still not completely repaired.  We both feel he won't return today either.  So....we plan to hit the wood splitter early this morning, then start on the car ourselves (yes, I said I'd help). I have a to-do list a mile long too, but those two need checked off first.  However, I got crochet time and kitchen time in yesterday. I hope to have photos to share of both tomorrow.  While the men worked on the car, Tiger curled up with me while I crocheted and got some cooking channel time in (PBS/Create). Hubby has started to feel much better since I started to cut out potatoes again (and rice and whatnot).  We made omelets for breakfast without the potatoes and they were still good.  I'm working on new ways to create breakfast that will eliminate the stuff he shouldn't be eating...

Friday I had one thing I wanted to accomplish, even if it was the only thing I got done - clean the coop.  Oh boy.  It was not easy.  I do believe with all we have to deal with, we will all be on board to building an appropriate coop. Considering I have to hunch over to get into the coop, it took some maneuvering and several tools to get the job done.  I can't just pull my wheel barrow to the door either.  I have a fence with a temporary gate, and it's not wide enough.  Oh, and my straw is out in one of the barns, so that had to be loaded up and taken to the coop.  Two trips.  Job done.  I only hit my head 3 times ha ha! Today we have to pull Youngest's car into the garage.  Praying it gets fixed and up and running.  The rain is already here.  

Homemade Hummus It's amazing how much better I felt Monday morning, after a fun Sunday out of the house.  Got the master bath 75% cleaned (just need to clean shower and tub), did laundry, vacuumed, tended the hens, took trash out to the curb, got the mail, kept the fire stoked, put a roast and veggies in the crock pot, made overnight french toast for this morning, and some good ol' homemade hummus.  Of course there were dishes to wash, but I felt better mentally and physically. It took most of the day, but I quit just before dinner so I could get "me" time in as well. Since I didn't write up a menu and post a Happy Homemaker post yesterday, it's being done today.   The menu that is. Hm.  Better check the freezer and pantry and get that done. Oh, gotta share this tidbit.  So Youngest was not home and had my car, so my husband drove her car to work to check things out and leave me the truck. Upon arriving home (my husband), I looked out the window t...

The car has been fixed.  I'm so blessed to have a husband who knows how to fix cars.  Daughter is a happy camper and so am I - no stressing about how everyone gets to work today.  We live out in the boonies, so getting them all to opposite directions from 25 minutes to an hour for each is much easier today. Hubby had to take a day off work to fix the car, so once that was done we took the Harley (a no coat ride)E out for a few groceries, and came home to grill out dinner.  The weather was a record high of 80 degrees. We however, will dip down to the 30's again tonight, but we enjoyed our warmer weather.  Now that we have a break in car repairs, I need to remind my husband to fix the chicken coop so I can get eggs from the outside.   I purged more magazines, and have just a few more to go through.  Saving that for a rainy day.   I'm going to be taking advantage of a 77 degree day, and putting laundry out on the line.  I need do outsi...

Even though I am home, which should keep the dogs calm, I now keep a kitchen radio on.  It keeps the dogs calm and they are more restful, which helps King stay relaxed.  Poor guy.  He hasn't had any more seizures, but this last one was bad.  Daughter ordered dog CBD oil.  Vet meds are too harsh for him. Tiger has been hilarious and a pain lately.  He has been sticking his paw under our bedroom door again, and banging it back and forth at 4am.  It's funny when you hear about it, but 4am?  Then when I finally am able to let him in and keep an eye on him, he flares up and gets the zoomies like he just had a hit of catnip.  So funny.  Anyway, we got him a Kitty Villa and filled the bottom scratching pads with catnip.  Thought everyone could use a good laugh.  First time to figure out how to upload a video too. I'm not on the hunt for a weather proof lock for the chicken coop.  We will see what we can find to rig up security fo...

Woke up to 40 degrees Sunday morning.  Just a hair warmer than Saturday.   Whelp, one hen flew out of the fence yesterday.  Guess it's time to re-clip wings.  I have never had this problem, so when we get it moved, a permanent fencing with a top fenced cover will be built. Last nights dinner.  Perfect for a pretty cold day.  We never got up to the 50's.  Soup beans, fried cabbage with bacon and cornbread.  I had a ham bone in the freezer from my numerous attempts at a grad party this year, and put it to use. Red onions left the dehydrator and shallots made their way in. Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. The weather . . . Rain.  I woke up to rain.  Again.  No work outside, and as we planned to split wood tonight.  Making plans has been exhausting.  48/37 degrees (now I cannot use symbols on this blog for some reason, tried to use the degree symbol the last few days and it goes directly to g...

I took advantage of a few warm sunny days to infuse medicinal oil for homemade "Neosporin." I was able to find organic ginger root recently, so some was grated and dehydrated, and some was put in the freezer for winter. I put in an order for Thrift books, but one that was in my cart is no longer available.  I guess I will try for that one at a late date. I spent a bit of time on the phone calling places.  I had to call the hardware store and tell them why we haven't been in to pick up the new shower, so they are taking note. It's already paid for, just waiting for us to pick it up.   I decided to not can Port Wine jelly at all this year.  If you have a tried and true (and easy) recipe that used port wine, please share.  Of course we could drink it too. The car finally (finally) was towed to our repair guy, however, the car we sold to our 21 year-old is acting up again.  Our biker friend is coming over today to replace the plugs.  Praying that's al...

I literally have nothing to blog today.  I was so busy yesterday though, and we got one car picked up and paid for (this guy repairs from his home and does an awesome job on "big" jobs).  However, there is no room in his driveway to tow my car over for the new engine.  Story of my life.  I'm told Monday or Tuesday we can bring it over. In the meantime, our 21 year-old is happy now that she has her "own" car now.  We are all tickled pink that our 18 year-old is back home.  Her job is keeping her busy and she is doing very well at the hair salon.  Her dog is so happy too, that we sent her flowers to her work and asked that the card read, "Thank you for coming back home Mommy,"  signed Romeo.   Romeo was so excited that he was zooming from room to room and could not sleep the first night she was here.  Anyway, we had a very long but productive day I guess.  First, even though my husband is working nights, we drove an hour to a cit...

It's been very chilly here, so I whipped up a new batch of homemade hot cocoa. Over the weekend?  Well, I planted 32 more cloves of garlic, just in time before the rain arrived again. My ladies are laying so well, that my mind was made up to use up some eggs.  Although small yet, they made dinner a hit. Meals over the weekend.  I enjoyed a grilled cheese with cowboy candy on it, and I made breakfast for dinner, which was greatly enjoyed. We finally made a trip to the hardware store to pick out a new shower, toilet and paint for the bathroom remodel.  Flooring too.  Next up will be kitchen flooring.  I am so excited to get started on this.  We picked put paint and brought that home, but have to do more measuring for the all of the rest.  We are picking out new flooring for our master bedroom and hallway as well. Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. The weather outside is . . . 61°high today, but woke up to 37°F.  We will w...

Tiger has the right idea.  I may just join him. Had it not been for Romeo and the chickens, I would have stayed in PJ's all day yesterday.  Woke up to 6° and today it'll be 46°F tomorrow. The Almond Butter Chocolate Chip cookies didn't last long.  We are fighting over the last of the last.  I had not made them for years.  Not sure what made me think of them, but surely enjoyed them. Nothing much to post - wacky weather, car still not repaired.

Yesterday went much smoother.  Thankful for that.  The sun shined, although pretty cold.  Before Hubby left for work, I loaded the back seat with 3 large bags of library returns.  I texted him late in the day to remind him to drop them off.  Of course, I had a load to pick up as well.  I've decided not to order anything from the library until the car is fixed. By the way.  Just my luck.  Hubby worked overtime last night, so the library books are still in the truck. 😟 I worked a bit in my office area, and even completely cleaned out a drawer. Much of it went into the trash, but some will be donated.   I am finally getting the tinctures strained and bottled.  I had to do this one day at a time, due to lack of strainers.  I had to wash and dry completely, so I didn't contaminate the tinctures with any water. The only other thing I needed to do in the kitchen (other than a big dinner), was make blueberry syrup for ...

Sunday, while Hubby worked on the car the entire day, I got 3 "F" bombs done for my current order.  Just 3 more to get done. Monday, I went with Hubby to work on the car again.  His exact words were, "it'll be 1/2 hour tops and we'll bring her home."  It didn't happen.  She's still not running after putting her all back together.  I was starving and we were thankful for leftover turkey and sweet potatoes when we arrived home late.    Sadly, we didn't have any time to cut wood.  Hubby is going work on the car every night until they figure it out.  We didn't have the boys help yesterday, and Hubby is stumped.  It starts, but won't stay running.  They will hook up a code test and see what comes of that next. Since we have been super busy with the car, I have a full "to-do" list today.  Over the top long.  The sink is filled with dirty dishes and the housework is so far behind.  Daughter had a full day of musical ...