Pioneer Woman at Heart

  This pen , another one from my collection , is great for writing.  It's a "Wellness " pen.  It even has it written on the pen. The ink contains a fragrance that is pleas ant and said to create a "wellness" overall feeling, when you write.   ....there has been a lot of writing going on in this home lately.    Two of us in particular. Money.  Have too much , and it can get out of co ntrol and cause yo u to lo se focus .  Don't have enough, and it for ce s you to make unwanted, aching sacrifices .   To feel so powerless to prevent certain thi ngs from happening, can be a tremendously emotional roll er coaster.  Especially when it involves  your own child ren. It becomes extraordinarily stressful and very over whelming.  Helplessness -  shattering sense that nothing will be the same.  Hea daches, heart aches, s tomach pains.   Asking God wh y did it have to be this way .......

I t look s like I will need to do some baking wi th some ripe banana s, as the kids are not eating them up lately.  We are all still battling the "cru d" and wish it to be gone today. We have some work to get done, and have taken inventory on the new goat stalls.  We've got some plans with the goats too.   Blondie remains to be cantankerous.  She loves her grass and will do anything to get at it .  Including breaking her wire fencing.   We have some plans to work on that too.  We may be in a bit of a situation with her too.  I'll have more on t hat as we contact the ve t.

Dir t -Cheap Survival Retre at, One Man's Solu tion , w ritten by M. D. Creekmore. This book is not written as a "ho w -to" for reader s, but more about sharing one man's experience a nd tips on what worked for him , and what didn't.  He shares his tips (and suggestions) on smart storage , stocking up, preparedness, and self-suffi ciency. Today, is my oldest daughter's bir t hday - 19 years ago, she was born , and weigh ed 10 l bs. All but one of my kiddos w eigh ed 10 lbs. or more.  The doc to r's n urses used to jo ke to me, and a sk if I knew the difference between eating a pumpkin and an apple.  For some reason, God gave me big babies. Anyway, she's still sleeping, so I hope to share some photos of her birthday, later tomorrow.   Her horse's birthday is this month too.  I am slowly recovering from this "cru d" that I caught.  The good news is, that my lymph node in the back of my neck, has ret urned to normal.  It only to...

The two older girls saddled Blondie for some exerci se.  Here is my 16 year- old, givin g B londie a head rub.  You can tell she is l oving every minute of it. Since Blondie is still not up to weight, my 16 year-old daughter rode her (light est one in the house).  Blondie seemed to love her walk around the property, and Misty (left) seems to be intrigued about the new arri val on the farm. I had to laugh at a comm ent my o ldest daughter made.  She said that Blondie was staring at the towels on the line, and was pro b ably tr ying to figure out w hat it was.  She said it was al most as if Blondie was warning the tow els they better not try and ste al her food. Ha ha ha ha!  Blondie has never see clothing drying on a clothes line be fore. Peanut, one of the preg nant lamancha goats has a c old.  Thankfully, we have organic pepperm int oil on hand, and it made a world of di fferent for her .  She would n't come out of the barn until my ...

B aking continu es - Iris h Soda Bread (Be f ore )   Coo ling.... Isn't it beautiful? Yum!  I used  a recipe I found on the internet, but used ricotta cheese in place of sour cream, and cu t the 3 cups of raisins down to 2 cups.   I also baked it in a 12 inch cast iron pan vs. a 9 inch (didn't have one).  I just reduced the heat by 25 degre es about half way through the baking process.   The ricotta worked as well as the sour cream.  What can I say, part of our motto is "use it up." Last night I woke coughed and coughed.  This morning I woke to a sore throat.  I am very low on honey so I cannot try the cough syrup Candy mentioned.  I hope to restock this weekend.   Two more girls are feeling ill now.  Y esterday, while I was ch ecking the soup on t he crock pot, I looked o ut the win dow to see Blondie (my daughter 's horse) with her head completely over the fen ce, eating the grass on t h e outside....

" You' ll all need to go get a j ug of sink water in the other bathroom to brush your t eeth," I told the kids since the pipes were froze (again). "Be careful for what you wish fo r, " said my 11 year-old daughter.  "Yesterday I was just saying that I wanted to go camping.  I fee l like we're camping." B lon die finally got a nicely w arm turn out blanket, to cover her.  Golly, I'm so thankful for that.  She' s looking better and b etter every day, and even the hair a round her neck app ears heal thier and thicker.  Her foot seems to b e getting better also. I'm pr aying that th e water pipes do not have any damage during this cold spell.  They seem to warm up later in the evening, but I s till wor ry when t he water start s to flow again.  Say a little prayer we don't have damage.    While my oldest da ughter was shoveling frozen horse poo, her dog Sadie was having a blast playing with the ice that was knocke...

Cell phones were ringing early thi s morning.  Both bet ween 4am and 5:30am.  Hubby was c alled in to work, and the school called.  With tem peratures at -12°F, the school is currently delayed for 2 hours.  I am p raying all the outside anim als stayed warm enough last night.  The barn cats did not come to the door, so I am sur e they found a warm corner in the barn. Our water pipes f roze last night , whic h was to be expected, so last night I warned the kids to fill all the water j ugs for the anim als , and of course f lushi ng toilets.  At 7am, we got cold water, but hot water pipes were still f rozen.   Yesterday I made a hay net for B londie.  The drawstring is a bit too short, but she ate all the hay in it.  I 'll be posting a photo on my S.C.R.A.P. blog later. ...this is what I prescr ibed to myself today , a long with a hot up of tea. I love Leslie Meier mystery novels.   Lucy Stone , marri...

If our life isn't interesting enough, it just got even mo re.  We don't make this stuff up.... Meet Bombshell Blondie .  She 's my daughter's ho rse.  We sudden ly needed a place for her. The people that were leasing her just up and disappeared, and stopped paying her boarding.   My daughter has been unable to reach these people also.  We are told that both the woman and her husband had lost their jobs.  However, I am upset that they handled it this way, by simply leaving and cutting off all communication.  Once I was told, hubby and I scrambled to figure out how to get her here.  It was our only solution, as we could not pay her boarding as well.    With a ma ke-shi ft stall in one of t he barns (a barn that is in the best con dition), and a temporary fencing area, a free trai ler trip to bring h er, a free bag of horse fee d, we succeeded. Unfortunat ely, she is up for sale.  My d aughter had not been abl e ...

In my h ustle and bustle of daily duties, including the terrible habit I have of worrying, a delivery arr ived to my door. A very s p ecial delivery . A beautiful bouquet of  flowers, that were arranged in a beautiful vase.   Smelling and seeing them is just the pre scripti on I needed for stress.  They came from my sister-in-law, who sent me a very in spir ing note , rega rding her enjoyment of reading my blog. S aturday was a busy day around here too.   The gir ls started their day by working on the horse fencing and building a make-shift stall with what ever they could reuse .   I had to make a trip to town for horse fee d, wood pellets and pick up something at my broth er's.  Then it was back home to unl oad the se cond truck load of wood .  I still haven't been feeling good, but the elderberry is definitely helping. While unloading the second load of wood, I ran inside to fetch my ca m era.  We' ve been ...

While I was out taking laundry down, I thought I better double check the garden.  It's been raining here and everything is a soggy mess. I pulled on my mucking boots, and slushed out to the back squash garden.  I found a few more pumpkins, and believe it or not, 3 carrots.  I thought for sure I pulled all of them. I washed off those tasty carrots and blessed Peanut (our goat in milk) a treat.  She gobbled them down.  The younger goats are not interested in that type of food just yet, but our goat in milk, and our billy goat, love veggies. I roasted several of the pie pumpkins, pureed them and they have blessed the freezer "pantry" now.  I can take out what I need for future baking. Tiger, came right out to the kitchen when I sliced the first pumpkin.  I think he can smell squash a mile away.  We gave him the nickname "squash boy."  He looooves veggies, especially squash.  He's nibbling on some pumpkin in the photo. The freezer ...

I am so glad we are boarding Blondie at a stable right now, so that we can research the plants on the property (and get the fencing in place). I am finding plants that can hurt horses, and we need to remove them.  Here are some of the poisonous plants that we found here (I have milkweed growing along the creek and isn't near where the horse will go, or the goats): and Dogbane (no photo yet).  I guess we have some work to do.

Meet Bombshell Blondie.  She's being boarded very close to home, but will soon be here after the fencing is ready.

My oldest daughter got hired by a local area food chain.  She is now saving her paycheck to buy this beautiful horse named Bombshell Blondie.  She is tossing around the idea of starting her own blog, to write her journey in horse care, horse riding, and her overall love for horses. And she will probably include her love for her dog Sadie. I'll post her blog link, once she gets it started. Here it is:  A HORSE OF HER OWN