Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Can anyone else relate?  I use them all too.  Crazy, but when you grow a garden or cook from scratch, it's necessary.  Reality at it's best, and one more drawer emptied and organized. It's cold here now.  In the evenings anyway.  We are waking up to below 40 degree weather now.  I'm still using my clothesline.   I have two appointments this week with the ophthalmologist.   Organized?  ©  October 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Canning season for sauces has been successful this year.  My house has smelled amazing, and we have restocked some barbeque sauce and taco sauce.  Yes, I am tired, but don't read that as a complaint.  We are very thankful for the harvest this year.  As of now, I have not canned any new recipes. Although, I had planned to can every day, I did take a day off in between.  I needed to harvest cucumbers, green beans, and such.  I have dedicated a small storage container for "canning" kitchen towels/hot pads now.  Those tomato stains can be frustrating to wash out completely, so I'm a bit more organized with that. I am thankful this year, as I had some help this year from my husband.  I typically can during the week when he is at work, but canned on the weekend.  He helped do the chopping, and I'm glad it happened.  He was totally shocked at how many ingredients went into some of the sauces.  For example, there is a lot of celery, ...

Whelp.  It rained and rained and rained here.  We are getting a slight break this morning, but we are saturated.  Rain returns in a very short bit, and then off and on all day (again).  If we are lucky, the rain will stop come Monday.  Maybe.  Many area festivals are canceling, or have already canceled.  On the bright side, it's watering the new trees we planted, and flower bushes, but I do have one red raspberry plant to plant too. The Bad:  Our weekend camping trip was canceled.     It's not camping if we cannot have a campfire, go hiking or biking and/or campfire cook, or even go fishing.  Stuck in the camper would be zero fun (in our current camper anyway).   Yes, we we have an awning, but the rain was just too much, and our camper is small.  It's not a comfortable place to be when it's raining out.  In fact, we had more seating room in our 7 person pop-up camper than we do in our current hard sided camp...

  We went from sub zero straight to a week of up to 64°F, and a sloppy, slushy, muddy mess.  I was very tempted, and almost twice, used the clothesline.     However, with the warmest weather days brought us rain and thunder storms (yes thunder storms in February).  Add that rain to the already mushy mess, and you have slosh yards. The house was refreshed with several days of open windows, and we are very thankful for that. Nothing better than fresh air circulating indoors.   Of course, as it is still our winter season, the weather cooled right back down to the 30's and brought a small but of snow.  We got outside anyway, and did our very first "snow" walking trail. It's been a mish-mash of a February.  Lots of re-organizing, purging, and home repairs.  It seems like the hardware store shopping list is maintaining it's weekly to-do list. We have not cleaned out clothing in more than two years, so it's been this month's focus, and boy...

  I had another long weekend, but productive.  My husband worked again (2 long 12 hour shifts), so I decided to tackle another big job while I could.  In reality, it was because we got more rain, and it's been raining every single day lately, so garden work was not happening anyway. I emptied the entire standing cupboard that holds my canning pot, freezer containers (as they empty), extra canning jars, and all things homesteading that don't have place anywhere else. A shelf had collapsed (it's the cheap wood type put-together-yourself type cabinet, but it works for now).   I purged the entire thing, cleaned it, then moved it from the wall and cleaned behind it and under it, moved it back, re-organized it and prayed it will hold together a few more years. I filled a box with items to take to the thrift store. We have had some cooler weather lately.  Woke up to 42°F this morning. Brrr!  Some evenings are below 50 degrees.  There is rain in the forec...

                  I've been spring cleaning so to speak.  Really, the entire house needs swept and mopped, so I'm tackling one room a day when I can.  I am moving furniture and washing any rugs.   I have also been washing bed covers/comforters.   The weather is up and down for using the clothesline. I pampered myself with a home hair treatment.  It saved me  $$ from going to the salon.  Well water is not my hair's best friend.  We all deserve to pamper ourselves. Another "finish" for April - set of cotton hot pads to donate.                               The deer have started to roam the homestead, and we are not happy.  We have not gotten the fencing up (deer jump fence if it's too short).  There has not been time to do it. Heck, we haven't even had time to buy the rest of the supplies to get the job done....

  Remember the scarf I started to crochet for my husband? Not the greatest picture but I was taking in a hot minute before my husband took off for work (early this morning).  I finished his scarf last night, and had enough yarn to add the end fringe.  I even have a small ball for a scrap blanket.  Anyway, it's a brisk 13°F windchill here this morning, and tomorrow will be even colder.  He is very happy to have the scarf on his drive to work today.   The yarn was "newpaper print" by Red Heart.  It matches his hat that I made him back at the end of October. On another note, I have my work cut out for me the next few days.  I'm cleaning out my old desk, and will be removing it from the last room with carpet in it.  Dogs and cats both have ruined the carpet (and the desk), so once the carpet is pulled, I will need to check the subfloor, treat it most likely and paint the room eventually.   I have not used the desk since we complete...

  Friday was an extremely foggy day.  I was a bit worried about my husband's drive to work. By 11am, the fog had lifted. My husband and I were not happy with the glue-down flooring that was installed in the kitchen, after half of the  floor was torn out  for joist replacements and new subfloor over a year ago.  it was coming up, spreading apart and dirt was sticking in the cracks. A wrench in my winter hallway repairs, but the flooring was on sale, and the installers were free, so my husband made arrangements. On Wednesday, we emptied the entire kitchen, other than the refrigerator.  The flooring/installers were to arrive at 10-11am Thursday to install (same flooring as hallway).  Around noon, I am notified that they are not going to make it.  Friday they arrived, but had to come back on Saturday to finish up.  Hence my delay on posting. During my waiting process, I had collected all of the pattern binders (but one), purged them all, tossed o...

  One of the recent boxes to go through contained our DVD's.  We don't have a lot, but enough that it needed organized somewhere.  I was previously on a bookshelf in the closet.  (carry handles) Now they are in a zipper, dust free, viewable carry case that is stored up on a shelf in the closet.  They are out of sight, organized in one place, I don't have to dust anything but the carry case, and we can see the movie titles easily.  I had to order this online.  I could not find it in stores. I bought these strong magnets at Menard's with the intention to put them on the grill, but I found a good use for them.    I have metal shelving in my kitchen for jugs of water, vinegar etc.  I had been using S hooks, but they kept falling off.  These magnets hold my strainers wonderfully.  I am guessing you could find them in the summer grilling supply section in most stores.  These magnets are stronger than the hook magnets intended fo...

I got a little bit of time each day to catch up on handiwork. The rain helped me out, although I should have been shampooing carpets or something else, ha ha! I was thinking "from stash to cash" for this project, but I'm not so sure about it now.  Maybe just the coasters. I finished this coaster and cozy set for myself.  I was feeling the fall weather, with the dreary cold and wet weather we were getting early in the week. My "Grad" Daughter eye-spied it, and exclaimed, "I want one of those!"   She may get one.  In her stocking or for Christmas.  Maybe.  The only problem with the matching cozy, is that the granny square fits larger mugs only.  I didn't follow the pattern either.   Instead of two squares, I used one and then made the strap and added buttons.  I wanted an area to drink my coffee without getting yarn in my mouth.  I also used scrap, 100% cotton I had in my stash. I used buttons from my craft st...