Participation Plummet and Random Thoughts

 

March rolled in quicker than I expected.  I had some goals for the end of February, and here we are at March.

There seems to be a blogger participation plummet for whatever reasons.  So many blogs I used to follow, with such interesting and useful homesteading content (sometimes humorous), have left the blogging scene.  I get it for the most part.   It can be time consuming, and in winter the writing content can be very limited.  Things change for some as well.

I mean, we used to raise dairy goats (Lamancha), and we stopped doing that years ago, so I do understand change.  Life changes constantly.

I'm experiencing the humdrum of blogging.  I know spring is around the corner, but maybe like all the other blogs I used to read (and now don't post anymore),  I'm sort of falling off the blogging "thing" lately as well.  

Maybe I am the one who needs a new change.  Although we are still undergoing home repairs, and staying busy, sometimes change is a good thing.  

The rain held off, and we had a few very nice 70 degree days here.  It may stay in the upper 60's today, but thunderstorms may actually roll in later.  The weather causes that itch to clean up gardens, but I know I need to refrain for now.  It's still too early.

For the first time this year, I was able to wash and dry the bedding and quilts outside on the clothesline.

We also blew the dust off our motorcycle, and got our first ride of the year in.  The weather has been that nice. 

Here is an update on "what I am crocheting" for the time being.  I have to admit though, as the warmer days stay, I'm on hold for this blanket.  If we cool back down, I'll be back to work on it some more, and in hopes to finish before the cooler days disappear for the year.  The photo doesn't really show the colors very well.  

That is a burgundy yarn, leftover from crocheting a cardigan, and the others are heather gray, teal, and soft white.  The gray and white are also leftover project yarns.  The colors remind me of a cabin.  I wanted to use the other pattern, but his one has less ends to sew in.  

Blogger is once again having hiccups with posting.  I am having trouble with photos loading, and for the font to stay the way I type it.  I have to constantly go back and fix the post.  

I may also remove the "popular post" widget.  I am getting some outrageous view counts on some very old posts, that is not normal.  Most of my posts barely get 100 views within a few years, and some showing up in the "popular" post widget are well over that.

I am using the stats and google analytics to watch those this week.  Another reason I am contemplating continuing to blog - a lot of work to maintain for all reasons. 

By the way blogger "stats" is not working properly.  It was working the other day, but now it is not.  Anyone else having blogger issues?  Also, I tried adding a jump break on a post, and it would not work either.   I may try an entirely new blog theme.

Participation Plummet and Random Thoughts  © Mar 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Sunshine ~ This and That

 We had the most gorgeous 60°F day Wednesday.  It was also one of my most busiest days of the week for me as well. 

Sheesh.  There were lots of dishes, more laundry, cleaning, cooking and so on.  I also started on the stairway clean up project.  It may take a month to finish, as I am fitting it in my cleaning schedule, as I have time for it.

I finished dusting and cleaning all of the kitchen blinds and windows, and the valances were washed and put out on the line.

It was so nice to open windows and let the fresh air flow for a day.  So intoxicating for the soul.  Winter can seem so long sometimes, and this day was welcomed by all.

To focus on what's in the freezer and pantry. . .

I made a batch of Einkorn pumpkin pancakes for us for breakfast, and more egg cups, as I had one more cup of cooked sage sausage to use.  I used thawed frozen pumpkin puree from last year's garden, for the pancakes.  Einkorn flour pancakes are the best.  These pumpkin ones are more of a scoop and spread type batter.  It is much thicker, but so good.

Today the rain moves in, but the temperature is still nice.  For now anyway.  

We have been enjoying some organic snack bell peppers lately.  Especially when I have a very busy day, and lunch is eaten standing up (ha ha!).  We add a slight layer of cream cheese topped with homemade everything bagel seasoning.  Some days we add a few slices of turkey pepperoni or other meat.

I have also been making us a healthy peanut butter fruit dip, to have alongside our daily fruit - apple slices, banana slices, blueberries, and grapes.  It's very good, and so easy to make.  To be honest, most days, I just mix some peanut butter in some yogurt without measuring.  It's good either way.

One of my daughter's gave me the idea for this dip, vs. using plain peanut butter on fruit.

1 cup of organic Greek plain yogurt

1/4 cup organic peanut butter, creamy*

1 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp. homemade vanilla

Mix and store in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.  Our dip does not last that long.  I pack it in little containers for my husband's lunch too.  You could leave out the honey too.  Especially if you do not have access to wildflower honey or other honey that is not from bee hives left in or around sprayed crop fields.

*We buy the organic peanut butter that requires you to stir it.  If you buy the "no stir" kind you will see that they add bad oils to it, so read your labels.

By the way, the bell pepper snack and fresh fruit with homemade peanut butter dip are both great take-a-long food ideas for gatherings.  Especially if you want to make sure you have something there for you to eat that is healthy.

Stay tuned for an update on the hallway repairs/renovation project.

Sunshine ~ This and That  © Feb 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Thanksgiving Cactus ~ This and That ~ Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal (new recipe tried) ~ More Roasted Pumpkins and Seeds

 The weather is all over the map.  We recently dipped to 35°F, and yesterday we hit 80°, but then rain moves back in later this week.  They predicted the next weekend to be very cold, and that changed quickly.  Friday they are saying we may hit the 80's in our area.  It's literally crazy weather.

The Thanksgiving Cactus is blooming more blooms right now.  I will definitely be re-potting the plant.  It has more blooms this year than last year.

We have been so busy with just about everything here lately.  The AC units have been put in in storage for winter, and we started back on the new coop (very slow going, always running into an issue).

Heck, I still have to take down the hanging porch plants that have died off.   

I am contemplating putting any Christmas lights outside this year.  They are sitting in the kitchen awaiting my decision.  I'm just not into it this year (yet), and I believe it's due to all the unfinished projects around here.

I tried a new recipe and we love it!!  I used home roasted garden pumpkin of course, and made homemade pumpkin pie spice.  I had some GA pecans left, so I used those, and this recipe is a keeper!  It's online with The Real Food Dietitians - Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal.  

I roasted two smaller pie pumpkins at the same time, so I have extra pumpkin to bake/cook with now.  I put two more pints in the freezer.  I roasted the seeds, and saved some seeds (drying on a screen).

I have more pumpkins to roast, but gaining on that task.  I don't have a proper storage area for them, so it is how I put them up for the winter.

Just when I think I will have some free time, I do not, ha ha!  I took advantage of our Indian Summer, and washed up all of the camper bedding, and put it on the clothesline.  However, the bugs were terrible.  I could not even sit on the porch, the bugs were that bad.  

Stocking Up ~ Freezing and Dehydrating ~ Herbs ~ Bag Holding Hack (if you have a jar lifter for canning)

 

Our last 87°F day was yesterday.  Woke up to find one of my older hens has passed away.   We are on the downward slide to cooler weather, with a pretty chilly weekend coming up.

Feeling a bit better, I took advantage of the heat, and washed bed covers, bedding and other laundry.  I mostly washed the large bed covers, so they could dry outside.  The bedding smelled so good too!  

Someone else wanted to enjoy the sunshine.

I even unpacked (and washed) our holiday bedding, which I forgot about, and had not used for 2-3 years or so.  I mentioned it to my husband, and he was all for using them the next few months.

Okay, now on to other happenings here. . .

I don't see the price of any culinary herbs and spices going down any time soon.  I am busy putting my herbs into storage for winter/spring.

Bag Holding Hack:  Use a jar lifter to hold your freezer bag in place while you snip away or fill your bag.  I used a quart freezer bag in this photo.  Worked great!  I haven't tried this with heavier fillings, but if I do, I will update.

I dice and freeze my green onion and chives.  These two do not dehydrate well.  They just blow all over inside your dehydrator.  Trust  me on this, as I have tried it.  I am freezing these two in freezer bags this year, due to freezer space.  Otherwise, in the past I have used freezer containers.

I am dehydrating sage, yarrow, spearmint, peppermint, and more oregano, and thyme.  The peppermint this year is limited, as the plant is not that big.  I have my mints in pots this year.  I have yet to convince my husband for a medicinal/wild growing weed garden somewhere around this homestead.

My cilantro has gone to seed, so I am saving the seed.  My outdoor basil is still going strong, so I have taken a cutting for propagation, and the same with parsley.  My dill has also gone to seed, so I am saving dill seed as well.  Not one store in our area sold dill seed (for culinary uses).  We had to travel 3 hours to the Amish area stores to find any.  I will be sure to dry as much of our own as I can.

Mullein that grew up in a flower bed, but has not gone to seed/flower yet.  I will harvest it before our fall frost arrives.

I have been making notes in our garden journal, on new herbs to grow next year.   A few that I used to grow and for some reason just didn't get them planted, like Tarragon and Marjoram.

Garden Explosion!

 

Everything came to halt for a few days.  The truck is fixed now thankfully.  The car has been delivered to the repair man (local man we used before).  There is no extreme cleaning going on right now, nor painting.

It's been impossible to focus on "one thing" and finish it, on a daily basis here.  Canning/freezing season is here, and with a bang.  I can't complain, but boy it's really putting me in a sour mood some days.   I hate that feeling of being overwhelmed.  I told my husband, I would gladly grow the garden and pay someone to can in.  He laughed.  Yeah, who has money for that, ha ha!

I've been taking advantage of the good weather days, and ,keeping the electric bill down.  I'm am retiring those crocheted rag rugs.  They will be moved to the garage for when my husband needs something to lay on under a vehicle.   The rugs have lasted about 12-13 years, but have faded in color and are ready to move on to another use.  I don't have time to make new ones, so I'm buying new ones on my next errand day.

Considering we did not get half of what we wanted planted in the garden this year, we are getting a lot for what we did plant.

We are getting enough rain, that I have not had to haul my 200 feet of garden house out to water the gardens.

I'm not freezing as much as I normally do, but some squash is going in the freezer.  We are trying to eat as much fresh.  I mostly add it to breakfast casseroles, but it made them "watery" (when thawed) so I will try adding them to pasta sauce and soups this winter.  Squash is mushy when frozen and thawed.  I do squeeze the water out of shredded zucchini before I freeze it.

Zucchini are still coming in too.  The nice part, is that I can slice it to use in place of pasta in a meal.  

I froze some more shredded zucchini, and at the same time made another round of zucchini hummus.  I have three different types of shredding/slicing devices for this.  It shreds the zucchini very easily.

Green beans are coming on.  First picking was 6.12# this year (it took an hour to pick them all).  I had so much going on in the kitchen that day, I had to put the bowl on a kitchen chair.  We are eating these almost daily as well now.  They are delicious!

Sweet pickle relish  and bread and butter pickles were canned.  I did not can sweet pickle relish last year, as we had some in the pantry.  I am super busy this year.  We use this to make homemade tartar sauce for fish, homemade thousand island dressing, and we add it to quick meals like tuna or chicken salad.  It can be used for a cold pasta salad or quinoa salad as well.

In the midst of it all, I purchased our yearly blueberries.  I am crazy to do it again, but I am putting up a 10# box, but sharing them with one daughter.

Chit Chat on the Porch

There are always pros and cons with gardening.  I feel both pros and cons are in the daily chores.   I try to take advantage of the weather either way. 

 

I am constantly reminding myself, that I am one person.  It's normal for the housework to suffer, if my attention is on the garden.  The flower beds suffer if the housework needs attention and so forth.  

Our heat index was at 91°F by 11am yesterday, but any time out in the garden is better than none.

I've been using my clothesline despite humidity.   I will need to replace it soon, and the trees need trimmed (adding that to our long to-do list).

Question for those who can:   

My canning pot, which I've used for more than (or about) 20 plus years, has a few rust spots on the bottom.  Suggestions on removing the rust?  I tried googling, and I couldn't find a real good answer to this.  Or is it time to replace it?  Or just use steel wool?  

Spring Weather and Spring Flowers and Tidbits

 

Yesterday I woke up to beautiful weather in the 60's and sunny.  I took advantage of it and washed a white bed cover and bed skirt.  I put more laundry out after that, but just my husband's.   Rain was still in the forecast off and on, but it all dried thankfully.  Next good day I will get more dried outside.

Spring Daffodils are up and more starting to bloom.  I wish I didn't have moles, or I'd have a ton of tulips as well.  

It's been a trying cycle of, move this to get that done or do that to get this done, and where did I put that or those?

It took me a while to find these felt pieces I bought to put under the bedroom dresser and night stands.  I still need to put some square ones under the bed as well.

More door trim was primed, and hopefully will be painted today.  I've unpacked the suitcase and we are getting moved back into the bedroom nicely.  The dresser has moved out of the master bath, we can clean in there and start using it again. 

There is dust everywhere, in the master bath, from the tile being removal in that one end of the bedroom.  It needs a good cleaning anyway.

I didn't even realize that Easter is this coming Sunday, until yesterday.  We are now invited to an Easter meal, and quite frankly the weekend is the only time we get any work done (unless we pay to hire someone else).  I would rather stay home and finish the bedroom.   I am in no position to cook/bake either.  I'd be happy with PB & J and some sliced apples.  We'll see what happens I guess.