Pioneer Woman at Heart

It's still very cold here.  Woke up to -9°F.  We are really not likely it either (who would?).  I got everything marked off my to-do list yesterday except for one thing - wash bedding.  If the water is flowing today, I'll get it done.  I'm thankful for leftovers and pre-cooked breakfast. Hubby is not feeling 100% himself, and found out that some co-workers have been out the entire month of January, and one was out 17 days.  He felt he should have stayed home a few more days to get his body feeling better.  I agreed, but he is back to work anyway.   Yesterday, I felt off.  Just weird.  Can't explain it, other than I'm not my 100% just yet.  Daughter K can't get rid of a bad cough.  My cough is a bit better.  My cool-mist humidifier arrived and was set up and running before bedtime.  I also sipped some sage tea, and made ginger tea (freshly grated) for my husband.  Thanks for all your support and encouragement...

I heard we were to get up to 50 mph wind last night.  We got it and I can still hear it from inside the house.  Last night I had to ask my husband to go latch a lock on a barn door.  I didn't want to, but the wind would have whipped that door upwards.  He did go out and latch it. I am thankful for the easy meal ideas I put in the freezer.  I thought we had bought a cauliflower, but after looking around I don't think I ended up getting one.  If I remember right, the organic were sold out. Anyway, I put meatballs in the crockpot yesterday, with home canned BBQ sauce, and then later roasted asparagus and made easy quinoa.  We have enough of two meals to do all leftovers tonight.  Yay for that. I called Mom.  We shared our high's and low's from her recliner and from my bed.  We got a few chuckles.  She has been looking for her favorite nail polish.  The stores are sold out.   I helped her find it online, and it's shi...

I started some cilantro and parsley seeds indoors, and they were doing great.  However, I had two spray bottles in the kitchen, and one is not labeled.  I have a 50/50 of vinegar and water in one (not labeled), and one with water.   I was spraying the plants with water and they were doing great.  They other day I noticed them all dying.  Guess who used the wrong spray bottle?  Yep, ha ha!  Labeling the bottle and replanting. Back when I was at the greenhouse picking out some plants for the garden that I didn't start from seed, I asked for "serrano" when I meant to ask for San Marzano (tomatoes).  That's how I ended up with 6 serrano pepper plants, ha ha!  I never figured it out until I went to plant, and that's how I ended up with so many. I picked more hot peppers, and gave some away.  I am finally getting some cherry bomb peppers. Due to high price of disposable gloves I am rinsing off my gloves after slicing then, and reusing to ...

I don't know if it's my internet or blogger, but I'm unable to read anyone's blog.  Hopefully blogger will fix it soon. More blooms from our glady's.  Oh, by the way, we were sitting on the front porch late evening and two hummingbirds were enjoying my tall purple phlox for the longest time ever.  It was fun to watch them. Rain is in the forecast today, but as of waking up we have zero.  I sure hope it does rain.  My garden actually needs it.  the mosquitoes are horrible this year, but we do need the rain. Road construction has started out in front of our homestead.  They literally just did this in 2012, and it really doesn't need done (there are worse routes that need re-surfaced).  I'm not looking forward to it, and the dogs will bark and bark.  Sigh. We had plans to go to another "big city" and then those plans changed and then we ended up not doing either.  The heat was horrible, and after Hubby worked in it all day, he just wanted t...

  Sorry for all the laughing in the video, but it was so hilarious!  King got winter boots for the first time.  Hoping it puts a smile on your face, or makes you laugh.

It's been cold here lately.  Like waking up to 16°F cold.  Brr.  Saturday was a wash as far as working on the hallway.  We finally had a Christmas with the grandkids.  There have been so many close calls with the virus at my husband's work, we haven't been going around too many people. While out looking at new trim, I picked up new toys for the dogs.  I laughed so hard upon walking in the door.  King literally jumped up and grabbed a long stuff dog toy I had in a shopping bag.  He is so happy.   Saturday morning, my husband and I had breakfast at a local restaurant that has been open for 75 years.  Good food, homemade and delicious.  We thought we wouldn't get a table, as it is small and a dinner type setting, but we did.  So good!  The best part?  I didn't have to cook nor do any dishes. I got rid of 3 of the boxes of books I purged as well, while we were in that particular city.  Woohoo to that. We picked ...

I totally forgot about the tomato stakes until I was loading wood to the porch.  I hauled the cart out there, filled 'er up and put them away for the winter.  I then hauled the cart to the house, and filled it with dead hanging potted flowers etc.  Those were dumped and porch is bit more cleaned off for winter. King had a seizure last night that lasted 3 minutes.  I will have to watch the dogs very carefully today.  No rough-housing.  Poor pup.  We believe he ate something poisoned when that daughter lived in the apt.  There were people putting out food to entice loose dogs to get poisoned.  He never had seizures until after he got out loose at the apt.

While out doing garden work, a hen got out of the run and was following me around.  I found it so funny.  I got her back in, as she would tear up my garden.  I planted more flowers.  I finally filled the driveway pots with flowers and beautified a bit more.  I found non-gmo catnip seeds but not spearmint.  I guess I'll break down and buy them on Etsy.  I could not find one thyme plant either.  They had way less to pick from than any year I've ever seen.  The ones I put in the ground didn't make it through the onslaught of rain we had a week or so ago. Hubby has been begging for apple crisp.  He got it. I baked a new breakfast casserole.  Sort of made it up.  I cooked onions and organic red potatoes, then added bell peppers and garlic.  I poured it into a baking pan, layered in some cheese, cooked bacon and eggs/milk.  I topped it with home grown green onions.  It turned out delicious.  Sorry ...

If it wasn't for this weather, we'd be popping up the camper and roasting weenies over a campfire.  Literally.   Romeo has free range of the entire house now.  He is loving it.  He can see out all the doors and windows and is a wonderful watch dog.  He came and joined me during my 2pm crochet hour yesterday.  He just melts my heart with love.  And yes, those are Christmas socks on my feet. Speaking of being a good watch dog, (sorry if I already told you this), a car pulled in, honked his horn and rolled down his window.  He wanted to know where the lady lives that repairs boat covers.  I had a word for this guy, and it wasn't nice.  Anyway, Romeo is always watching out for us. He later stole my pillow.  He is just so full of love, and we need it right now.  So glad my Mom has her two cats, as she lives alone and has been locked up longer than we have. Rebecca at Rebecca's Hearth and Home blogspot , shared th...

On top of being a hot mess on Tuesday, so was the weather.  We got boat loads of rain, so everything is a muddy mess.  It's cold now again, and nights in the teens.  Stupid, crazy weather. By the way, when I post things that are just not going our way, it's simply reality.  I'm not complaining , just pushing through.  I don't post that life is all posh in the boonies if they are not.  Although winter is a time to rest, we may be cleaning up the garage this coming weekend.  Not willingly though.  I guess we'll see. I checked off my to-do list as best as I could yesterday, which started with washing the crock pots for another two crock pot dinner - turkey meatballs/marinara sauce in one, and veggie quinoa in another.  However, I realized I was completely out of quinoa, so glazed carrots went into the other crock pot. By the way, I had cauliflower to blanch and freeze, but decided to "rice" it with some onion and parsley.  We toppe...

Yesterday Morning.  We got zero sunshine, even though they said we might see some. I had to make a trip to the "Big City" to fetch not only the overcast hot pads, but a set of soft violet too.  She didn't want either set, so they are up over on my farm shop blog . With that said, a trip to town cuts all my work/play time out of the day.  I literally had time to feed the chickens before dinner, and get the mail.  There is no stove to stoke.  Hubby worked until midnight last night - no wood cut. Last night I wasn't feeling all that great either.  I woke up to a scratchy throat.  I sipped some hot ginger tea with honey and downed some sage tincture for my throat.  I was feeling off too, so I didn't even wash the dinner dishes. Well, I can say we are glad we haven't built the dog fencing yet.  We now know his capabilities as far as sailing over a gate.  We've moved the stairway gate up halfway to the top (the steps turn halfway up)....

Romeo strikes again.  He hates it when his Mom goes to school.  He's been putting his paws into the cat hole in the kitchen gate and yanking it open, when she goes out the door.  He actually did it so fast he got outside!  We got him in, but now I need a different gate there, but Tiger needs access too.  I got another batch of fruit/nut bars made.  I have made many "granola" bars, but we love these the best.  Less fruit, more nuts and seeds.  Yum (King Arthur recipe online)! Here is the recipe for the "Low Carb" Garlic Cheddar Biscuits I made the other day: 1 1/2 Cups Organic almond flour (superfine) 1/4 tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. baking soda (non-gmo) 1/2 tsp. homemade garlic powder (organic) 1/2 tsp. homemade onion powder (organic) 2 large farm fresh eggs 1/2 cup organic sour cream 4 Tbsp. organic butter, melted 1/2 cup organic shredded sharp cheddar cheese Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.  Mix we ingredients, then a...

Friday I started my morning by paying bills, doing laundry and posting items up for sale on my Rooster's Crow Farm (handiwork) blog. Our weekend weather was not just wacky, it was insane.  We had 60 degree weather Saturday with pouring down rain, and thunderstorms, and today we woke up to "feels like 23°F" and snowing. I used some frozen garden pumpkin puree to make dog treats for Romeo.  I'll use more for pumpkin soup, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin pancakes or waffles, pumpkin BBQ sauce and pumpkin/sage macaroni (using Jovial Einkorn noodles).  What else do you use your pumpkin puree for?  Besides pumpkin bread or a dessert? Homemade bruschetta, using the leftover mix from the chicken dinner.  By the way, I bought a new basil plant now, so we will have plenty next time I need fresh basil.  Yum! My new kitchen shelving arrived.  I am replacing a wooden stand with metal and on wheels.  I can easily move it to sweep and mop under...

Normally I get up about 5am.  Not today.  Woke up at 7:30am.  Could be the warm, new cozy pj's I opened last night.  We have a tradition of new jammies Christmas Eve, but we opened them last night and do not regret it. We had our first big Christmas yesterday.  I think we had 30-40 people there.  However, they forgot about beverages other than coffee.  Good thing we brought water bottles to refill. I lack photos today, we were so busy yesterday.  The grands opened their gifts and were very happy.  Our daughter (with the grands) is married to a guy with two of  his own, so we gifted 4 grands.   Today baking officially starts.  However, it starts with a trip to the grocery store.  We had planned on going last night, but we were zonked.  Literally so tired.  I'm glad we slept in.  Last year we still had Jesse with us.  I miss him so much.  I know there is nothing we can do about a visit...

I should have paid more attention to the weather.  It's much warmer, but 90% chance of rain, and it's raining.  No wood cutting today.  Ugh. My sets didn't sell at the craft show.  Not one, so this one went into my youngest daughter's hope chest. I found these reindeer antlers in the Christmas totes.  Romeo didn't like them, but let us put them on for a short while.  I finished the granny square scarf with matching slouchy hat for our 20 year-old daughter. The stray cats are trusting me a bit more lately.  I found both looking inside the door at me this morning.  They will run off if I open the door though.  Just ignore those doggie nose marks on the glass, ha ha! I went out to the "Big City" for a few errands and one was to find paint brushes for water painting books.  Believe or not, I found the books at the dollar store, but no brushes. I found those at Wal-Mart.

I had my first yarn stolen by Romeo.  Sigh.  Goodbye Blue Hawaii crochet thread, and hardly used.  A chair was left out and not pushed in and in a millisecond, he was up on the chair and out with the yarn. Got three sticky notes taken down and off the to-do list.  Woohoo for that.  Propane is on the way. I got one of our 3 porches cleaned up.  Flower pots dumped, coolers put away, and other misc. items.  One down, two to go.  I do need to re-do the outdoor winter cat house.  It needs cleaned out and re-packed with straw. Homemade Croutons 6 slices organic whole wheat bread (or baked bread) 2 tsp. homemade Italian Seasoning 1 tsp. homemade garlic powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 cup organic olive oil Preheat oven to 350°F.  I like to put everything in a bowl and toss as I drizzle the oil, but you could also do it all on the baking dish.  Bake 14-16 minutes or until crisp enough.   Freeze until needed.  We ad...

Thank you everyone for your prayers, good thoughts and well wishes overall.  We are all so shocked and deeply saddened over the passing of our grandson.  They have no diagnosis, and his family awaits an autopsy.  They awoke to him not breathing. On a more pleasant note, when I changed my bandage this morning, I noticed the wound (at my ankle) getting smaller, which is a sign of healing (but still nasty looking). Hubby plans to go load up the car our daughter totaled, tow it here, and scrap it for parts.  He then plans to sell what's left for a derby car.  The engine, tires and other new parts will be sold.  That's the plan. Daughter will then use that money to help pay for a new one eventually.  We hope the car is derivable, so they can get it up on the trailer today.  It's costing us $17 a day for every day it is still there at the tow yard. I am trying to figure out a crock pot dinner, that can be tossed together and then just heated up to...

We enjoyed the weekend weather.  Gosh it was so nice out.  Sweatpants and sweatshirt weather.  Oh my. The sunrise Monday morning had so much color to it.  Just beautiful! We got more checked off the to-do list - installed another dead blot and two more new door knobs, replaced all the broken drawer brackets, cleaned up two kitchen drawers and reorganized, cleaned one upper cabinet and reorganized, cleaned up a ton of recycling in the garage and delivered it to recycling, got laundry done a day early since rain is due, Hubby fixed our car, installed a new window switch in one daughter's car, got one hour of mowing done and cleaned down all the cobwebs in the chicken coop. Here is my new thermometer I was telling you about.  It's made by Thermoworks, and is called the ThermoPop.  It can check temps up to 572°F (not that I need that), but this will make grilling steaks so much easier than my non-instant read thermometer.  The Th...