Pioneer Woman at Heart

I have dug up several volunteer herb plants, that were planted into small pots we saved from previous garden planting.  These were simply plants that spread into other areas of my herb garden.  I have not yet decided if I will put them for sale, or gift them to those wanting to start their own herb garden. Moving on....a few of my new devotionals.                              Just flipping pages in this one, I am going to like it.  It will stay in the camper of course (Devotions for campers). I love the concept of a combination brain activity (word search), with a daily devotional.   I'll be back when the canner pot releases me from captivity.  Possibly before that.  Taking breaks is nice, but tomatoes are getting ripe at the same time (which is what is supposed to happen).  Use them or lose them. Meanwhile, I have another big bowl of green beans to freeze, and a big bowl o...

  Tomato sauce canned.  It's been time consuming this month, so hence the lack of blog posts.  Sigh.  It's been very tiring lately, as well as dealing with life in general.  Canning is nothing new to my blog, so new content is an issue too.  Unless we grow something new or can a new recipe.   I'm continuing to dehydrate more home grown lemon balm for the winter teas, drying more calendula for salves, and so forth. Catastrophe has happened with my husband's cell phone while mowing.  He said he didn't realize it at first, but when he turned around and saw smoke, he new he ran over his cell phone.  More expenses have rolled in.  Life has a way of doing that once in a while. I have not worked on my crochet book blanket in many months.  Canning season can do that too.  It can be very consuming, so much that you often feel left out of fall events. We hear zero from our kids, so we are considering our holiday plans (or no plans) ...

  August was a very full filled month.  Overall it was great.  I learned things, I tried new things, canning season started, Ketchup Sweet Pickle Relish (just a few photos to share)  processed a lot from the garden, dehydrated on cooler days, and wrote a lot.   The storms we got a few days ago, have taken out several more of our tomato plants. I have to admit, I have not read a lot lately, but I am getting some itty, bitty travel time on one book. It seems to be taking me forever, but I will finish it eventually.  I am loving the non-fiction book I'm currently reading as well.  Two pages a day is better than zero a day.  I also have two new devotionals I will share soon.  I just need to get a photo of them.  So yes, "fun" and "relaxation" are still in the our lives while canning season is in full swing.  Just not so much crochet, ha ha ha! I planted cilantro indoors, dug up more herbs and replanted in pots, and even started har...

  A "first" time experience for us this year.  Cold infusion with our homegrown spearmint.  I have always brewed teas with fresh spearmint, and never even thought about a cold infusion.   I read, according to the Herbal Academy, that a cold infusion brings out a more crisp, cleaner, and sweeter mint tea.  Heating it brings out more bitterness.  Who knew?  I love learning new things. Spearmint Cold Infusion  ©  June 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Our yarrow is going to flower, so it is next in line for the dehydrator.   We have used our homemade yarrow salve many times, and it's definitely a keeper salve.   I've saved some to dry for tea, and other uses. I think it was last year, or the year before, where I found out that yarrow deters mosquitoes.  I added it to our homemade but spray. Speaking of bug bites, I went out one day while gardening, and forgot to use our bug spray.  I was got bitten by something that I never saw before.  Sort of like a fly, but different colors.  It left a bad red spot that was large.  My homemade plantain salve worked very well to treat the redness and swelling (works as a drawing salve).  Much easier to apply and re-apply than a poultice, but a poultice would work much faster. We planted more in the herb garden, but the rain has not arrived.  Yet.  Hopefully soon.  My green onions could use a good ol' dose of Mother Nature. Dehy...

Pardon me, while I down coffee with the hopes to revive my tired self, and gather my scrupples.  One can easily forget the amount of physical labor it takes to plant a vegetable garden, until it's planting time again.  Wowzer.  Nothing like popping a few arnica capsules, after rubbing arnica salve into my knuckles and very sore hands, and all before heading to the garden.  Kicking myself for not dehydrating enough dandelions to make dandelion salve, but weather was against us this spring. Allergy season this year is the worst year ever.  My eyes feel like daggers stabbing them most days, and my nose is so dry, I have to use a spray with aloe to survive outdoor work.  The cotton wood is terrible, and looks like a fuzzy white blanket over the grass top.  Thank goodness for nettle tea for some relief.  However, it's not been enough.   One day we battled awful wind while gardening, and I developed a really bad earache.  I have not had a...

  A few of our lavender plants are ready to harvest to dehydrate some.  I also picked some to enjoy indoors, and placed them in a small vase. The dehydrated harvest will be used for a few things, but it all depends on how large the harvest is this year.  I did not dehydrate any last year. Dehydrating Lavender  ©  June 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart  

  It's 45°F out this morning.  The rain may have quit for a while, but the cold nights remain.  May is that way most years.  It could rain, snow, be 90°F, or a drought.  You just never know. I could not believe I picked this yesterday.  My goodness.  What a grand year for our asparagus. It's been a very good month, although we still have a few days to go.  We would have liked to have more done, but sometimes we just have to look for the good in what we think is not good.  I often times, have to remind myself. The good?  Cleavers are still growing, as well as more asparagus coming up.  The herb garden is looking grand, although I do need warmer days to drop parsley seeds, basil and more.  Two cilantro plants, that self-seeded, are still doing pretty well. Cool May Nights ©  May 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart  

  My 20 year old garden sign gave me a chuckle.  It is sort of how we felt after all that rain here.  The sign is broken, and it will be replaced.   Flower beds are weeded, rose bushes trimmed and flowers planted.  Whew!    The vegetable garden?  Not planted.  It is still, even with this heat here, way too wet.  I managed to weed out the rhubarb plants, but I think I carried about a pound of wet mud on my muck boots out of the garden.   We are still getting a few straggler asparagus.  The rain God's gave us a lot more chive blossoms, so I started another chive vinegar, and this one is with organic red wine vinegar.  It'll be great for summer salads and more.  I think we use red wine vinegar more often, but we now have both infused with chives (white wine and red wine vinegar). There really is no excuse to be so far behind, but I finally (yes, finally) got all the last 11 granny squares sewn on to my crochet ...

  A blind date book gift, that I received from someone last December.  I'm finally opening it, and I have already used the pampering eye mask.  In fact, I've already been using the post-it page markers too.  I have no information about the book or author, but I did see it has a 3.88 rating from Goodreads.  I have yet to even open the book to read, but it fun opening it and all the goodies that came with it.  I'll be enjoying the tea soon too. No rain yesterday, nor today (so far), and no rain in sight, so we may be drying out.  The evenings are running about 49 degrees, so it's still cooler out some evenings. We enjoyed, what may have been the last of our asparagus harvest this season.  It's been a wonderful year for asparagus too.  There wasn't a large amount of the asparagus, so we grilled it with other vegetables. Other than the green onion, the herb garden is springing back to life with the recent rain.  Everything is growing in the ...

  It's a happy month for me.   Don't get me wrong, as things can go haywire on any given moment, but good things are happening. Back in 2015, I posted about some writing adventures.   At that time, it was 11 years ago. You can read about them (it's a short post) HERE .  It feels like I put writing to the pasture long before that year, but.... I used to freelance many years prior to that, but put it all aside to raise the kids, and run the household (one was in about 4-5 school sports and activities  - softball, basketball, you name it!).  They were all active in something - school plays, band, sports, etc.  In other words, we were a very active family, so I put my writing on hold.  It wasn't on purpose.  It just happened. Well, back when I had surgery last December, I decided to enter a poetry contest that was local.  I did not win the top prize, but my poem is printed in a book (have yet to pick it up).  Not long after th...

  Whoops.  I guess donating two books, instead of one, is a good thing too, ha ha!  I have been able to harvest chive blossoms, and it is rather early for that to happen.  You can read about how I did it HERE from last year.  We are only early on doing this by a few weeks, and all due to the rain this  year. While the chives are dehydrating, I picked more asparagus.  I will have to now replace my asparagus patch fence, and I will need to dig out a few wild raspberry plants the birds planted. What's new?  Well, I found a new houseplant to add to our home, and love it.  We have also planted a new apple tree, a new plum tree to replace the one that died, a new lilac bush, and one new hydrangea (also died over winter).  New landscaping edging was upgraded on one flower bed, and another is being worked on during dry days.   One volunteer cilantro plant, in the herb garden, survived the last frost.  One died.  One sage plan...

Regarding my recent sprained toe...  I unfolded each piece of gauze to prepare and make the poultices for my toe area. (looks like ants are chewing holes in the leaves) I harvested some comfrey from our "weed" garden, to make poultices.  I only had 2 x 2 gauze, but it worked for my toe.  I used my new smaller food processor this time, and it worked great (comfrey leaves, a bit of water, and flour {can use arrowroot, or whatever for a thickener}). The plant is springing up pretty well, and was large enough to get enough leaves cut for the poultices.  I used a freshly made poultice right away, and froze two more.  The frozen ones work to also reduce the swelling. I also used my homemade comfrey salve, and the bruising is very quickly healing, and pain was gone after day one of poultices.  Thankfully, it was a sprain and not a break. A strong thunderstorm, with rain and wind, moved into our area last night.  Only about half the mowing was completed before...

  In working on my home "apothecary" clean up, and re-organization, I found one lonely jar of dehydrated, wild picked stinging nettles.  I decided to grind them, and create a homemade herbal seasoning. To the seasonning, I brought in some dandelion greens and dehydrated those, and ground them as well.  I added that to the nettles, and added homemade garlic powder. Finally, I will be adding parsley and salt to the mix and using that for meals. I did not measure anything.  I just sort of eye-balled the amount I ground in even amounts, and in actuality, the salt could be left out.  I tend to salt lastly. It's my little herb seasoning experiment.  If we like the flavors, we may be trying it with more options - mint, thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, ginger etc. The rain continues here, and it's hit or miss with picking more wild violets,  wild violet leaves and dandelions. We had a really bad storm come through the area early evening, and of course we needed to...

  Brisk 14°F and high of 38°F.  I used my clothesline yesterday, but the wind was crazy.   We are seeing wild ramps on our walks lately. Planted:  Mullein (very hard to seed start, so we shall see) Harvested:  Green onions, Yarrow Purchased:  Flower seeds A small, removeable fence has been placed around the "weed" and herb garden.  Thankfully, I had the fencing, and did not have to purchase any.  Hopefully, it will keep the rabbits out of it, but I have seen a chipmunk who runs among the outdoors.  Ordered a few books and DVD's from the library inter-loan program.  Just doing my part to keep the library open, but also to use the free resources. Speaking of resources, you never know what freebie you can utilize, and one fell right into my lap last week.  More on that later.                  Finished this book.  As a result, I learned a few new fun facts.  Like the fact that ...