Chit Chat

 

In May of 2024, I ordered a brand new, USA made stainless steel tomato strainer.  In the fall of 2024, I called to check on the order, because it did not arrive in 6 months as I was told.

I was then told, the new sauce maker would arrive in May of 2025.  Keep in mind, you have to remember this over all this time too.  Well, May of 2025 has passed. 

It's now June and I called again.  I'm told (and before she even asks for my order number) the production won't produce any until "May of 2026" (seriously). 

I asked for a refund.  I'll let you know what happens, as I do expect that refund one way or another.  Once that is back in my bank account, I need to find a better source for a stainless steel tomato strainer.  I thought I would share, if case anyone has thought about ordering from them.  I'm not "bad" mouthing the company.  I'm just sharing my experience in attempting to order a tomato strainer.

Who knows what I'll be doing in a year from now?  My instincts told me that next year would arrive, and this company would tell me the same story  - not ready for another year, blah, blah, blah.

I may have a secret summer home by next year, sold the house, and started traveling the world in an RV by next year.  I could be sailing the oceans too.  You never know.

Either way, I was not going to wait another entire year to find out if the tomato strainer would be shipped or not.  So....if you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them (for a stainless steel one).

I have been taking advantage of the hot water the garden hose has in the first use in this heat wave.  I can clean chicken feed pans, my lounge chair, and the chicken watering units, not wasting that hot water.

No rain yet, and the heat continues, but very slightly lower than the 100's.  Rain was due last night, but nothing.  

We have been very thankful to once again get garlic scapes from our garlic.  These can sometimes be found at Farmer's Markets as well.  Garlic scapes form on mature garlic plants, and you need to cut them off before they bloom. 

I have once again made our favorite spread - radish garlic scape spread. The spread is cream cheese, garlic scape, radishes, fresh spinach and a bit of real lemon juice.  It's delicious!  The only thing missing is freshly made cream cheese from goat's milk (we really miss that).  I also use 2 garlic scapes in this recipe.  I do cut off the flower end.  It really has a good flavor, and the cut scapes are not wasted.  I plan to freeze the remainder for future recipes.  I may even freeze some garlic scape pesto.

We were gifted a lot of fresh dill from a co-worker of my husband's.  I put much of it in the dehydrator, but saved some for salads and other recipes.  It got me thinking.  Has anyone ever made a dill tincture?  I'm looking into it, only because of the large amount of dill we were given.  

It's a small start this year, but this is my husband's attempt to start back at the new chicken coop project.  The ladies deserve a chicken castle picnic table, ha ha ha!  We have much to do on the coop, and are now looking into solar exhaust fans for the new coop.  I can say, I am thrilled we picked the location for it now.  They will have more shade when their new run is built and installed.

Homemade peach crumble.  The only thing I've done with peaches this year.  So far anyway.  Georgia peaches from a local produce stand (we planted another peach tree this year).

Back in May, I visited a locally owned coffee shop/book store.  I walked by this book enough, and finally opened it. 

I did a check at Goodreads to see what the rating on it was.  I am still reading a book, so it is now on the list to read.  We shall see if it's any good.  My first "blind" date with a book.

Chit Chat  ©  June 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Heat Wave ~ Record Breaking Day

 

The heat index was 105°F yesterday.  Today it is said to be a record breaking day.  I have yet to hear what they actually do expect today.  Yes, we did outdoor work yesterday, but very early.  AC is on, but one system has to be worked on before we can turn it back on.  The sunrises are still smoke hazy sunrises. 

A heat wave means it's officially salad season again. We were gifted some garden romaine.  I made us a big salad (apples added later) - chicken, apple pecan salad.

Something new (a first for us) this year - growing a Meyer lemon plant.  I have wanted to do this for several years.  One blogger I used to follow was going to mail me seeds.  When that didn't happen, I bought some on Etsy, and not one seed sprouted.  Years later I found a plant and wa-la!  We have some lemons on it this year.  

I have a lack of photos, partly because I have lost my blogging mojo (numbers show a lack of interest anyway), and partly due to the heat wearing us out.

The chickens have been treated with some chipped ice, and will be until this heat is over with.  They are being treated with some sprouted peas, and maybe later some frozen veggies.

Of course, there is nothing ready to harvest from the actual garden but I have harvested lots of oregano from the herb garden.  I am waiting for the heat wave to end, before I continue to cut more.  God provided us with a lot of oregano this year, so I have more plans to utilize it soon.

The dehydrator is off during this heat wave, but we have lots of herbs to dry for the season this year.

We located more local strawberries and peaches, but there will not be jam made (so far anyway).  It's been nice not to have to can/bake/cook for more than us two. I also located a lemon balm plant (I dug ours out of the garden a few years ago, and the new location is not doing well).  I may have a new way to enjoy lemon balm this year.

I finished a few baby washcloths, and completely used up this crochet yarn (discontinued).

Miscellaneous blog thoughts:

- I miss reading an actual newspaper in my hands.

-we attempted to donate to a free little pantry, but the door was missing and the items inside were old.

-I'm looking into new tinctures to make

-making lists for new home projects, home repairs, new "try-its"

-I really miss the bloggers I used to follow (no longer blog), as there was a connection to homesteading, preserving, home remedies, eating real food and the like.  In fact, we have zero family/friends that are like-minded and I have been having acquaintances tell me to stop gardening, saying it's too much work.  Funny thing is, is that once the garden produces, I suddenly get text messages asking for "free" produce from our garden.  I love to share, but I'm done with people who are negative and who offer nothing but negative vibes (or help in the garden).

-still looking for lemon verbena seeds or a plant

Heat Wave ~ Record Breaking Day  ©  June 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Hot and Humid

 

I debated just freezing the last of the peaches, but canned a smalled batch early in the morning.  We'll get more peaches later this summer.

I made a new recipe for pomegrante vinaigrette.  One recipe uses the seeds (using a blender) and the other uses juice form concentrate (the one I tried).  I used a bit more dijon in ours to thicken it just a bit more, and we love it.  We are enjoying more salads this week with the heat index so high.

I was out checking berries and taking the chickens fresh cold water, when I discoveredd this growing between the raspberries and asparagus patch.  Does anyone know what it is?  The plant itself is growing just like a red raspberry bush, but it obviously is not a raspberry bush.

I have never see this before.  In finding this, I do see some poison sumac in another area, so we need to remove it.  Always something to take care of around here.

It was so humid and hot, I was getting seriously worried about my chickens, and I was about to go look for a box fan and extension cord, when I heard thunder.  The heat index was 103°F and extremely humid.

Soon enough we had not only a few hours of pouring down rain, but thunderstorms.  I'm not sure what took out our power, as it could have been due to everyone's AC on, or the storms.

Thank goodness I keep extra watering units for this purpose, and had them filled for the chickens.  I had to take them fresh cold water almost every 2 hours, due the heat index.

We also have several battery powered lights in each room, candles, a portable phone charger (however even 5G was not working to get weather updates), and I am very thankful I purchased our power source that runs on the same battery our power tools run on.  It has one outlet, a light, and a few charge ports, so we can charge our chargeable fans (we have two) to stay cool, and charge anything else.

In light of this, and for the fact the power has gone out more often, we plan to add some new items to our list.  A generator has always been on the list, but they are expensive.  We do have a plan to keep the lights on (more than the one the power source can run).

 By the way, we took the power source off of the lamp, used some candles for light, and plugged a laptap into the power source to watch a DVD.  Save your DVD's and don't get rid of them.  Our interent was out until this morning, so no netflix or amazon.  We were thankful we kept the DVD's and the old laptop for this purpose.  Otherwise, we could run one lamp and read books or play cards.

My husband is in agreement on keeping the lights on, so I'll update you if/when we locate what we are looking for.  We have considered a well hand pump in the future as well.  When the power goes out, we cannot get water from the well otherwise.

Once our power was back on, we could only watch a DVD using a DVD player.  Our interent was out the entire night and we had trouble getting connection this morning, but it's back on.  It makes you wonder about everything digital these days, and what to do with the power/internet out.

(source:  Amazon)

Our smaller one is similar to this one.

As for the fans, I had a small chargeable fan with a clip, that we use on the treadmill.  It worked like a charm to cool us. 

(Source: Amazon)  Our foldable chargeable fan is similar to this one.

The other fan we have is adjustable in height, and folds up, and we take it camping, so we had that one too.  Both have been used a lot, and my husband was impressed how well the smaller fan worked.

Of course we purchased them many years ago, so I can't say for sure if it's still on the market, but there are some very similar to them.  I'm just glad we had them, along with everything else.

We are thankful for the rain, as the gardens got a good dose of goodness, and the temperature dropped just a bit.  It is still very humid here however.

It's been too hot to do any garden weeding or tilling/cultivating at all.  The weeds are growing, so I hope we get a break soon.  I was literally dripping with sweat just being out there for the watering of everything.

At the end of the day, it's too exhausting to crochet, read or do anything really.  We are thankful for the AC (when the power is on) or the fans.

Hot and Humid© June 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

It's Hot!

We've entered a heat wave, and yesterday we had a heat index of 102°F.  No one is enjoying the outdoors right now.  The chickens are being treated with frozen treats, ice water, and I have even frozen water in a tin.  I am also freezing water in bottles that I put inside their watering unit to keep their water nice and cold.   I have more treats in the freezer for today, but the forecast is saying the heat wave will last the entire week.  It is unusual for us to have such hot weather this early in the summer.

Our red raspberries are slim pickings.  I have to water the plants this week, as the rain we were to get, never arrived.  Watering the entire garden and flower beds is a full time job this week.

That's a bell pepper dipped in a new hummus recipe I made.  It's a red lentil hummus, and my gosh is it creamy and good.  I used 1/2 cup tahini (recipe said 1/4th), and used 3 cloves of garlic (recipe said 2).  It is higher in protein and less fat, and does not contain olive oil.

I have made red lentil hummus before, but used a different recipe.  There are many online, but if you want to try this one, it's called "Easy Lentil Hummus" by "It doesn't taste like chicken" online.

It''s Hot! © June 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart