Pioneer Woman at Heart

It's confirmed that one family member will raise the meat birds in the spring for extended family.  We will all chip in for how many we want.  We are thankful for that. I finally finished the sleeves on the cardigan.  I am now finishing up the back panel and have one shoulder panel to do, then I can sew it up. I'm tickled pink that my husband bought me this as an early Christmas present.  I can keep a few projects organized and not sitting all over in different project bags. Question for those who buy faux fir balls for hats:  where is the best place, for the best price, for the best quality to buy online?  Neutral colors?  I don't want 4 inch ones either.  I am looking for the ones that are a bit smaller and less awkward looking. I finally got around to getting some more homemade seasoned salt made.  It's great for a lot of recipes.

We had pretty good day in the garden, and I am kind of glad we did not get the weeds out between the smaller pepper plans, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, nor the carrots.   It's raining again, but today's forecast is 100% rain, heavy rain, windy, flood warnings, and flash flood warnings.  We are to get 1-5 inches of water.  Maybe the weeds will help protect the plants from the wind today? I also successfully weeded half of the herb garden.  The green onions look terrible this time of year, but I do see little sprouts forming already.   I picked more berries, cut some oregano, and had a daughter shell peas for me, and clean off the dried thyme.  Overall, it was a pretty good day, all things weather-wise, considered.

I have been trying to get clips of the kids (baby goats) romping around the kitchen, but I end up laughing so hard, the videos end up with headless goats or just feet.  Or, as you'll see in the video, the dogs get excited when they hear the pitter patter on the floor.

I n the recent box my Aunt sent me, there w ere a few more items to share.  ... a loom for No-Nee dle Knitting.  The inst ructions she sent me are the origina l pages from a 1978 Wom an's Circle Magazine.  How coo l is t hat? ...and she sen t me some vintage stencils for decorating fabric a nd such.

I have had more re quests for this pattern, so I am re-po sting the link on my blog.

(bottom two right drawers are only primed) ...still painting kit chen cupboards, and putting old knobs back on for now.  More to paint.... ...I haven't had much free time to work on my k nitte d shawl, but i t's down to the last 20 or so ro ws and then the fringe.  ... weather ha s not been conduc ive to putting up outside Christmas lights - rain, rain a nd more rain.  It's not helping me dry my laundry either.   ... finally started a variegated blue set of pot holders for my Mom. .. the search for jobs has become a tedious headache.  Unless I want to be a truck driver or dancer, there i sn't much out there right now. ...Tiger or Jasp er got another mouse in t h e house (n ot sure which cat got it, but they are both getting treats .    ...my son 's most c urrent drawing , and soon to be for sale. ...my son took our youngest dog (Jesse) to the vet today for me.  H e suffering from two puncture wounds on his...

Tiger loves to hang out on my writing chair, but sin ce I' ve been using it more often, he' s found another location - in front of the corn /pellet burner. I keep a clothing rack in fro nt of my corn/p ellet burner, to dry clothes, when I cannot hang them outs ide, or when they d on't dry completely ( after being outside) .  Tiger loves to stay warm there.  I'm down to the last 10 ro ws or so, and adding the fringe, on my knitted shawl.    Although I found "In Defen se of Food" interesting, I am enjoying this book more.  This book explains the cont ent and benefit s of s pecific foods that folks should be in cluding in their diet more.  G rowing u p, I can't remember being served b russe l s prouts , Kale, or Swiss Chard.  We have started growing th ese in our garden, but there are so many ot her foods we should be eating too.  Watch out kids , Mom's adding more vegetables! Tonights frugal dinner - Ham Bone Soup and h omemad...

Before After - In Progress I got the se cond coat of p aint on 2 cupb oard doors and 3 drawers.  I also got a second coat on the cupboard front itself.  When we moved in here, the cupboards di d not have hardware.  We bought cheap kn obs, and those will be replace d also, as income allows it. The dishwa sher hose , under the s ink gave way the other day .  The c l amp simply gave up , spra ying water everywhere.  The back door kn ob is need ing replaced now also. I made 3 q uarts of organic apple sauce, but was too tired to can it.  It's going to be eaten at breakfast , lunch and dinner for a fru it side.  I love mak ing this, don't get me wrong, I just didn't have time to can it.  I love not having to recycle jars from store bought applesauce. My son helped install new smoke ala r ms - all have been check ed and have batteries.  He also took items to the recycling center and took the lib rary returns in.  He also cl...

We weren't really snowed in yesterday, but we did get snow.  It was perfect for sitting down in front of the wood burning stove, and to start braiding a rag rug.  

I finally did it!  After all these years of buying these knitted dishcloths, I knitted not one, but two myself.  The first one was a basic square, and I put it up for sale in my on-line store.  The second pattern involved a diagonal garter stitch. I do not have size 7 needles, so I made it with size 8, but it ended up 2 inches smaller than the pattern stated.  I am also concerned, because my starting point and the ending point do not look the same.  You can't really see in this photo, but to me it appeared different. I found another pattern on-line this morning, and the woman had the same feelings about the starting and ending points.  I will try her pattern also, and make sure to keep measuring as I knit.   I'm excited to finally do this.  I am still crocheting, tatting and making other crafts, it's just been one day at a time.

Another, much prettier scarf completed (knitted).  I have another skein of yarn, the same color, for another scarf also.  For the next one, I will need to make it a bit thinner on the width, so it will be longer. We also, thanks to extended family, completed several yard projects.  The ground over the septic is now flat again, and ready to re-seed the grass and cut down the pipe.  We also made our own cement cap for the distribution on the septic/leach bed.  The back hoe ran over it and crushed it in last year.  They run about $50.00, so making it ourselves was a smart move.  Now, it will interesting on watching the men lift it and move it, once it has completely set.  It feels good to see work get completed.  I have also been able to pick more wild black raspberries every day now.  I will soon be baking my first pie with them.  I never did get a picture of baking the quiche with milkweed flower buds, but will try to remember ne...

There is an advantage to being home sick ( horrible allergies) in bed - endless hour of crocheting and knitting. I don't know how my youngest daughter sweet talked me into knitting her a scarf, but she did.  This scarf has doubled it's length since I took the photo.  The first trial scarf, I did in scrap brown yarn, was taken apart and put away for another project.  I have to say that this one is turning out better and with a prettier yarn. Now....if I could just finished the crocheted blankets, the hand towel, and ..... and .... and ....  It's all good!

My kids were chuckling early Sunday Morning.  It's not often they find their mother at the computer watching YouTube.  However, I was.   After throwing my "How to Knit" kit in the "get rid of" box, I made one more effort to teach myself to knit.  I found a series of "how to's" that were slow enough for me to catch on.   Here is the first one, for anyone wanting to learn to knit.  I am now teaching one of the willing, daughters to knit.