Pioneer Woman at Heart

During my last trip to the store (2nd attempt at another store), I bought the very last bottle of classic pectin.  However, I am still unable to find a vegetable brush for the camper (3 attempts).   As far as produce?  I have not found what I need other than I found a half dozen ears of corn to grill.   Although I have no photos to share today, I have a funny story to share. We went out with friends to our first cruise in.  It is where the town has all older cars drive up and down main street.  People park along the roads and sit and watch.  Well, we decided to eat out before that.   It's sort of funny, yet frustrating.  First we asked for silverware while we were ordering drinks.  Didn't get them.  I got my crowne royal served without the "rocks" so I fished them out of my ice water and added them.  We ordered 2 appetizers.  One arrived cold.  The other never arrived at all. We asked for silverware aga...

  The first thing I needed to do was bake a breakfast for us. I used the teeny tomatoes from the garden, asparagus and fresh basil for this one.  Oh, and sausage on the bottom layer. Next?  I put up shelves upstairs and started the process of moving totes of yarn and getting that organized.  It may be a week long job (or more due to carpet cleaning, which we do plan to replace when the last kid is out), but so excited to get started. . . . meanwhile, in the garden. We finally got some glorious rain, so I sure hope it gives the garden what it needs to give us a bounty this summer. My husband, Daughter K and myself went to the last day of the fair to watch the demolition derby.  We had 4 family/friends in the derby this year.  The best part is we bought pit passes and drove the truck right into the arena area and sat on the tool box to watch.  We didn't have to sit in the crowded stadium.  It was great.  My husband's Godson won 1st place and $6...

Daughter K and I made another trip to a small town to finish up our Easter Baskets.   I bought myself a few treats of a different kind . . . I honestly had no plans to buy anything, but decided to treat myself.  I bought a motorcycle garden stone for the flower bed, and a few pairs of new socks - camping and wine bottles/glasses.  I am now officially on their frequent buyer system.  After so many dollars spent, you get $5 off your next visit, and the points to not expire.  They are locally operated, and have lots of neat items for gift giving. Oddly, the antique stores were all closed, so we ventured onto another larger city.  I, for some reason, thought they had a JoAnn's Fabric, but did not.  They had Michael's and Hobby Lobby.  We ventured into Michael's.  I haven't been to one in a long, long time. The prices on items were so high, I did not know they didn't sell fabric, and their yarn section was small and over priced.  They al...

  January 1st was a day to catch back up on things.  Laundry was caught up, Hubby finished replacing the brakes on the truck, I mended a shirt, and cleaned up "party central" in the kitchen.  We started the new year by trying a new recipe.  Had to laugh though.  It was a crock pot recipe, and all day I thought it was not.  I had to make a few changes and wha-la, black eyed pea casserole baked in the oven.  It tasted good too.  Original recipe is online with Food.com.  I used fire roasted tomatoes and added my own jalapeno's that I froze (and cooked along with the ground beef and onions first).  Healthy and delicious.  Will it bring us good luck all year?  I guess we'll find out.  I've never been one to believe in such things, but after last year it was worth a try. My new 2021 planner is being filled up with plans of travel, and a bright shining year of possibilities.  The weather was absolutely miserable ye...

We had a Father's Day cookout to go to yesterday.  It was nice to see family, but there were people there I didn't even know and we all sort of didn't mingle that much.  I talked to some, but not all.  It was also very hot outside. I also took a cold fruit salad (homemade, not store bought), but when I went inside it wasn't put out. When I asked about it, I was told that there was more dessert so mine wasn't needed basically.  So why bother making something I thought?   Why ask us to all bring a side dish?  I put it out anyway, and it was basically gone by the time we left.   We later went to test drive a car. My car is toast.  It will require a new engine.  So tired of the car situation, but hopefully it will change if we find one (need 2 more vehicles). Today I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. The weather . . . Well, it was to rain all day yesterday.  We got a 10 second rain shower.  Rain is in...

Quarantine Day 24 Monday evening we let the kids roast weenies (non-gmo/beef) over a backyard campfire.  They were in heaven and I'm glad we could give them a bit of normalcy in all of this. Finally found one bag of whole wheat flour, but it cost me dearly for shipping.  I'll go without after this, unless the stores restock here. We got a text this morning from our friend who has parents on ventilators (confirmed cases of the virus).  Her father passed away early this morning. Our youngest daughter has been having bad headaches, I have been dealing with a cough, and yesterday my husband got a phone call that he had been reported having been around someone with the virus at his work.  I had a mental breakdown last night, so I'm praying for a better day today. We had bad storms last night, so everything is soaked outside.  Otherwise it would be a good day to do some garden work, cut wood or other work. We picked up our masks and they are...

I didn't write this ditty yesterday, as my blog was so very long already for the day.  I've been free ranging the ladies and stud muffin Sparta all day after about noon lately.  One, they get their grit and dirt baths, two they help me reduce the bug numbers, and three it cuts the organic feed cost down. Oh, and four, they help "till" up the garden too. I went to put them all in, and I had left the coop door open.  The barn was shut, but once I opened the barn door, the hens followed me in.  I had a container of goodies in one hand, and a bucket of water in the other hand.  I started to fill the water when all h-e-double hockey sticks  broke loose.   At first I thought a raccoon was in the coop with me.  It was that dang stray gray tabby that's been hanging around.  It took forever to find the door out, and was literally climbing the chicken wire at high rates of speed.  Once I realized it was just a cat, I stepped back unti...

The sunrise was just plain gorgeous yesterday morning.  Hubby was called into work, although we planned a family day with the girls. Grab your coffee - this post is a "rambler." There's not much on homesteading packed into this post either (strangely).   Sort of a "play" day for us that ended on a not-so-good note.  With my treadmill out of commission, and Hubby off to work (yeah, I could have done squats, push-ups etc), I went to the porch and watched the sunrise in peace.  Although a teensy chilly, it may be the last good weather weekend we have.  Good morning sunshine!   By that time it was still too early to head to the garden.  The dew was pretty thick. So I debated. And waited. And made breakfast to kill some time. A totally self-sufficient breakfast - garden potatoes, onion, jalapeno, one dinky bell pepper, a bit of kale and eggs.  Then Hubby announced he'd make it home in time for the "family" ...

Hubby, Youngest, and myself, visited a "Vintage Market" event for the first time.  It was ex-spen-sive!  It was fun to walk around and see what they had.  Some "tents" were old time campers you walked into.  Sort of a fun time, lots of "gypsy" style clothing, jewelry (some handmade), homemade sauces, jellies, antiques, food and music.  In the second photo up, the first camper sold coffee, the yellow and white sold lemonade.  Just lots of cute camper "stores" and lots of stuff to look at.  Just out of my price range.  I wasn't really looking for anything, we just wanted to come check it out.  There were lots of customers dressed in "hippie" and "gypsy" outfits for this event.

Although I had different plans, my daugther reminded me it was Family day at the zoo (provided free by Hubby's work).

One good thing happened due to our camping dilemma on Friday - I finished the baby blanket.  ( We had planned to deliver it today, but......) While Hubby and his nephew went to fetch the stranded camper, I retreated to the front porch to crochet and relieve my headache. I also got 1 boot cuff finished, and another started. Then I sulked again, as the air cooled off and I was imagining myself sitting around a campfire.... I got over it.   Sa tu rday Hubby

So, you know how I blogged about adding greens and adding the nuts, and "boom" my weight started coming off?  And my nails grew? Well, come to find out, I found this article on " Why Adding Copper ...." from Clean Eating.  Makes sense to me.  Maybe I was lacking the copper in my diet.   I knew my thyroid was wonky, but the more I read the more I learn. And for a twist on things.... I took one afternoon off from tomatoes (hoping they didn 't over -ripen), but jalapenos were having t heir day, thanks to someone who bought two pounds a t the Farmer's M arket.  That would be me of course.  The th ird pound came f rom my own garden.

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.

You all may have to check on me in the morning......the house is still rockin' at 10am today.  I did sneak out to the porch for my coffee and sunrise, but slowly they woke up.  They devoured the mini caramel apples I made.

We made these the other day, and that is not my homemade tortilla in the photo (sadly).  I had purchased food supplies to go camping, so we ended up making "camper" meals this week instead (minus the camping).

We booked our last camping trip for this weekend, but had to cancel it yesterday.  Why?  Rain and wind.  We've camped in rain before, but this time the weatherman predicts we'll get over 2 inches of rain on Saturday alone. It is to start raining tonight, and it rained yesterday.  The temperature is nice, but cooking would be an issue.  We don't have an RV, with a full kitchen inside.  We cook all meals outside the camper (which I prefer).  When the wind is in bad, we can't put our awning out to cover the gas stove either.

While I was shopping for school clothing and supplies, Hubby was on his way home from work.  However, he stopped to shop also.

I finally finished The Sun Also Rises, and now I'm onto the next one.   I think the most enjoyable part of this one, was reading his descriptions of the bullfighting.  I, as a youngin' got to see a real life bullfight in Madrid.   I have a photo album with photos somewhere around this place.

Hubby and I typically take the kids to a hotel for a good night of swimming during winter.  We however, we had other things happen to delay that.  

After reading a post on another blog, I remembered taking a dutch oven cooking class with my oldest daughter and best friend from high school.  That was April of 2011.  I haven't really done anything that exciting since then either.