Pioneer Woman at Heart

  The gutters have been cleaned!  Woohoo to that!  His timing was perfect as well.  He helped carry in the subflooring for us after he was done with the gutters. Actually, it was my husband and him that carried it in.  As soon as he was in the house (he's family), all the sudden our handy man's tune changed to "oh I can't carry that at all, blah blah blah"  so who did he think would carry it in?  Just a head shaking moment, or eye rolling.  Also, Handy man told my husband he was "on break" when it was time to move more subflooring in.  My husband is now also frustrated.  It was just a fluke that my husband was off work for the holidays. Subfloor is going in now!  However, it may not be done until week 4 of this project.  I can't say that even half is in right now.  He doesn't work weekends either, and remember he took Wed. off, and Thursday was a holiday. We are going to do a test run on the removal of the popcorn ceiling ...

  Thanksgiving morning was a beautiful morning.  They day was a perfect porch day as well.  Rain slowly crept in as the evening fell.  I can't say we really did much.  Daughter K came over for a visit. I was given a pass on all that holiday cooking, but I did restock my homemade seasoned salt. Our guy to clean gutters called and was to come Wed. morning.  I then got a message Wed. morning that he said the weather may be better on Thursday.  It was too.  Anyway, he never called, messaged or arrived after that. I finally got around to setting up an account to register any new tools (and register any we purchased this year), for the lifetime warranty.  So get this?  I was reading over receipts from the living room supply runs.  I have been giving the handy man our credit card vs. cash (easier to keep track of and we trusted him).  It may sound petty, but he purchased two energy drinks with our card.  We haven't said anyt...

It's been one year since Hubby's mild heart attack.  We are so thankful he is doing well health-wise, and doesn't get sick as often either. We took the Harley out on Saturday, and visited the flea market festival we visited the very day he had the heart attack.  It was fun to get out to ride.  We ditched it early due to the 90 degree sweltering heat and us in long pants and leather boots. We took a long ride to get lunch.  We rode all day, visited a family birthday party and ended it at home to fry up some bacon. I tried a new recipe for an overnight breakfast casserole.  It used "croutons" vs. cubed bread.  I had some (homemade) in the freezer that needed rotated out for new, so I tried it. I used homemade sausage and organic bacon both.  We typically make a sausage/egg souffle (also overnight) dish, but I wanted to try a new one with greens in it. The results?  

I'll be honest.  I am not feeling the "family" thing for this coming holiday.  It's been a long month for us, and the thought of spending the entire day baking has been taking a toll on me.  Vet-tech Daughter said she'd cook everything, and just wanted a lot of food. My Oldest Army-college Daughter stopped in and asked for us to save "a lot of leftovers" for her as she has not had time to cook.  No pressure there. I really didn't want to cook.  We only had one day to have the dinner.  Thanksgiving day.  Oh, and on top of that same day, Hubby's family is having their big meal.  So he wants to go there, and have the meal here too.  In one day.  No pressure there.   Of course the one volunteering to cook, doesn't care what's in processed food, and said to buy it vs. make it. Yeah.  That's not happening.

I went back through my blog recently, and compiled a post today to share many handmade gifts I made over the years.  Hopefully, you will find an idea here, or have one to share. What I gifted in 2015:  Christmas 2015 Handmade Hand Lotion (they loved this!)  I ended up putting it in 4 oz. canning jars to gift.  I do suggest adding the preservative for gifting too.

It's a bit blurry, but I have a new project on the crochet hook now.  I'll share photos when it's completed. 

I made myself one last handmade Christmas ornament. . .

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Barbecued green beans are are already in the crock pot.  I decided on that, and a yellow squash and corn casserole today.  The green beans are made with my homemade ketchup , and the casserole with the corn we put up (and homemade baking mix).  Simple. I'm lucky to have found organic yellow squash at the grocery store.  (sorry for the links to the recipes, I got kind of lazy today) Today is a good day to post a gratitude list.

Although very rewarding, gardening can be exhausting work to say the least.  No, we did not go camping (again).   I am just dreaming and looking at some old photos. We are having the most perfect weather, and where are we today?  

I gifted Mom with this hand crocheted bath mitt, and a bar of daughter's handmade grapefruit goat's milk soap.

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (NIV)

From Pile..... . . .to File - Extreme Clean. I pulled another magazine page from my hoarded pile of recipes, and made Woman's Day magazine's Ginger Bars (Sept. 2010, just Google the recipe and you'll find the site). I'll admit, I had my doubts about this recipe. We are still experiencing cold temperatures, so baking in the kitchen just helps heat this place up a bit.  Speaking of heat, Hubby installed the new auger on the pellet stove last night and we fired it up.  It is so nice to have heat again.  

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.  I thought we were going to have coon for the meal too.  My son took the dogs out for their walk, and Alias sniffed out a sleeping raccoon (in one of the barns).  He actually woke it up, went after it, but thankfully backed off with my son's calls.  He did get cut in the mouth area, but it's healing nicely.  So, needless to say we set the trap, but we haven't caught it yet.

My father - served in the Navy My Uncle (on right in above photo ) - served in the Marines (My Uncle's Graduation) My Gran d father, Un cle and Grandmother               Grandpa  - served in the Ohio National Guard.          (If I locate a photo of Grandpa in uniform I will pos t it)  

Wa xed paper - $1.00 (65 S q. f eet) .  Made in the USA.  If you bake , e specially over the holidays, th is is a great pr ice too.  If you have kids, it comes in handy for craft projects.  This sells for $ 1.29 at Menards.   I found this waxed paper at a store called The Dol lar Tree .

Made with a wooden honey dipper covered with glue and beads and glitter.  Click on "read more" to see the rest of the post.

I love, love, love to make handmade Christmas tree ornaments.  I've been making them every year for as long as I can remember.  My favorite time of the year to make them, prior to homesteading, was during the summer months.  I'd take my supplies outside and watch the kids play in their small pool.  Now that I garden in the summer, I have to adjust my time.  These are just a few of my handmade Christmas ornaments, but wanted to share a few.  Each one brings back memories of when and where we lived when I made them.  

(Before I started) The photo is only one small corner of the 3 vegetable and fruit gardens we have this year.  Day one started with pulling dead tomato plants and pulling stakes.  A good portion of the back is still under water.  This clean up, considering I'm doing it by myself, will take a week or two.   After starting to clear the corn stalks from the garden, I got an idea.  I took a few of them to the front of the house and added a few pumpkins and squash that won't make it to the table (vines died before they ripened, or bugs got to them).  They will make a nice decoration for fall, without having to buy anything or waste anything.  It's a blessing that the garden keeps giving in different ways. And speaking of the garden blessings, we are still getting more green peppers.  I am dehydrating some of them today, and may be doing that for the rest of the week.  I have no room in my freezer for anymore.  These can be used in sou...

There's nothing better than sitting around in my pajamas, doing nothing but whatever I feel like, and enjoying leftovers from New Year's Eve. We make our "chex mix" a bit different, and use Crispix cereal.  I was so lucky to have coupons for the cereal this year.  The cereal is not cheap.  This is a tradition for our family that I carried over from childhood.  We are fighting over the leftovers so I hid it earlier in the day. He he he!  They are already asking where I put it.  Ha ha ha! Around here you have to hide it if you want it later.