Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I got the chance to go on a new outing, and with a surprise outing with one of the kids.   I was over joyed to get out of the house and do something fun.  It really has been a year for "first" times for so many things, and it is bringing me (us) pure joy, adventures, and fulfillment.  Big or small. First, I received gifts!  A bag, new Spring bathrobe, garden gloves and a coffee mug. The garden gloves are touch screen, so I can keep them on to use my cell phone if needed.  They work too!  Fit great! Love them! Oh, and here is the "first time" part of the special day. . .we went to a coffee shop that we have never been too ( first visit ).  It's been open for many a year or so.  It's small, quaint, and oh boy, sells used and new books (gulp!).  They also sell locally made crafted items as well. I got to try hot and iced coffee flights for the first time ever!!  Oh my gosh, these were delightful. My first ever blind date with ...

The refinery my husband works at had an explosion last night and two (last I was updated) were badly burned.  Please send prayers, although I do not have names. Update:  The two people died from their injuries. I have been distraught since we heard about this.  My husband has been working a supervisor position with lots of over time lately.  If you haven't watched the movie Deepwater Horizon, you really should.  Then you would understand why I stay busy when he is at work, to keep the worry bugs away.   Speaking of busy, I had a special request for a hair clip, so I'm working on that between everything else.   Daughter K showed up late, but showed up.  Her stuff is out of the living room, and she also helped me out by taking a small table. She always has stories to share and gives us the giggles and shares interesting stories. Her latest one was saving baby birds.  She literally had to hide them at her work place.  I guess...

Although we got zero rain, we had a beautiful sunset for a short time.  We can't really see all of it, due to the woods behind our home, but the sky was a pretty pink. I spent about 2 hours cleaning stuff from the upstairs.  Mostly, I spent time bringing down any larger items to donate.  I may have found a home for a pole lamp she left up there, and I have a kitchen floor full of boxed up stuff to donate somewhere.  I filled the trash, and put a few things in the burn pile.  Today, I need to spray Lysol up there, as I realized she had 4 animals up there, and I am not sure how well she cleaned, as in sanitized.  There is still much to clean out. I cannot tell you all how happy I am to have an entire summer of wicked, miserable work hours end for my husband.  He was home, and out mowing after work!  The handyman finished the bathroom, but left without putting the bathroom door back on.  My husband and I put that back up, installed a new toilet ...

  Although late, and due to rain again, I planted some shasta daisy seeds in the flower bed. I also planted basil, cilantro and parsley for indoors.   Made Einkorn pancakes and blueberry sausages for breakfast.    Baked another peach crumble, and a chicken/brussel sprout/carrot sheet pan dinner. I love rainy days and yesterday was one of those. I also printed another new crochet pattern.  Like a need another pattern...ha ha! Daughter E came over and raided my closet.  She is attending a country concert soon.  She left with some cowboy boots, a summer dress and a jean's skirt.  Well, she helped purge my closet anyway, ha ha! Our smaller bathroom now has a functioning toilet and sink.  The rest of the shower goes in today. I filled a box with old dvd's, and it's ready to be taken to donate somewhere. The green beans, cucumbers and squash are rolling in now.  Thanks to the rain, and the bell peppers are on, but not ready to harves...

  Here are the two blankets that my sister sent home with our Daughter K.  Of course she tells me to take care of them.  Urgh.  I'm sure that my Grandma on my Dad's side crocheted them.  I have no use for them, so I guess they will be donated.  The colors!! I cleaned out the walkway from garage door to garage.  Daughter K left a box of flavored waters in there from 2 years ago.  Sheesh.  Now I have room to store flooring for the living room. I also went upstairs to fetch packing tape, and found dishes in her old room.  She has a lot to clean out yet.

I made good strides yesterday, but once again fizzled out about noon-ish.  Oh my gosh, I have to get a photo of the drift in front of the coop.  Maybe today I'll take the camera out.  Thankfully, it stopped short of about a foot from the coop, so I can just narrowly squeeze between the drift the coop to get into it. There is no melting going on either, and we could use it.   I managed to make a meatloaf, mashed potatoes and dug a bag of frozen corn off the cob for dinner last night.  I however, now have a sink full of dishes to do (again).  It's never ending.  The dishwasher is full of clean dishes, so it's a rinse and repeat of yesterday.  I didn't even get the vacuum out, so that is still on the to-do list. I am up early, so fire is stoked, and coffee is brewed.  I am thankful to have breakfast leftovers for my husband's to-go meal, but will have to bake something for the rest of the week. Daughter K is back home, but working full days...

The boys came out and plowed out the 3-4 foot drifts that buried a few cars.  They sped off before I could pay them though.  Little turds that they are.  We'll catch up with them soon.  Thankfully, they plowed out the mailbox area for us as well. Woke up to a wind chill of 1°F this morning. I have a 5 foot drift blocking my chicken coop, so after I slowly wake up with some coffee, and get a warm shower, I'll be outside shoveling a path for that. Daughter K is out of town visiting with her boyfriend.  They are looking at more apartments.  That means I have dog, cat and rabbit duty.  Jasper (cat) is already meowing at me from the stairs. My sinus medications have not kicked in just yet.  Hopefully today will be the day.  I'm getting tired of being tired (and sick). We are having trouble getting someone affordable to replace the brakes on the car.  Normally, my mechanic husband does the repairs, but we have the Chevelle in the garage r...

  Happy New Year Y'all!  I'm starting out the year of 2022 with a blogger hiatus.  I'll be back in a while.  Not sure for how long, but wishing you all a new year of blessings.

  I did more research on the door knockers the other day.  No one we know (in the area) knows anything about them.  One family member said two guys stopped at their house trying to sell them meat.  Their dogs scared them off after their persistence to sell. Update on the washing machine boot seal - It's on and washer is running.  A few parts need to go back on though.  I think he just wanted to make sure it worked again before putting all major parts back on (like the top of the washer, ha ha!). We got another very cute Christmas card.  Love it!  I wish I had been able to send more out myself.   Today, if it's the only thing I do, I will be taking down the outside Christmas lights.  I have meant to turn them off the last 2-3 days and have failed.  I normally leave them up until after the 1st of the year, but weather is always an issue. My younger brother gave me a huge stack of dark chocolate bars (which have been suggeste...

Our wood stove door got dropped off, but not by me.  I had Daughter K drop it off for me.  I had something that was irritating my eye, and didn't feel up to that long drive.  Door is there, but the glass cutter was not.  Not sure when it'll be done.  My husband brought me home eye drops and my eye feels a bit better today. On the sprained ankle.  I can't recall anything I was doing that would cause it,  other than I tripped on Daughter K's boots in the hallway this week.  I am guessing because I walked on it, fetching fire wood, tending the hens, etc.  I made it irritated, because I was not icing it, or wrapping it for 2 days. Go figure, I have zero comfrey poultices in my freezer, but I do have comfrey salve.  The ice pack will be used for now.  Thankfully, I have a cane to get around, but foot will be up most of this day (sigh).   Does anyone know if I can make a poultice using dried comfrey and comfrey root?  ...

I watered the flower beds and herb garden first thing in the morning. We are once again lacking rainfall. Scramble - hannah sweet potatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, jalapeno, sausage, eggs and kale. Extreme clean update:  a box of my oldest daughter's left behind items left the house, and more doodle paper for my niece and nephew.   Daughter K is helping babysit my niece and nephew this month, as well as her regular job.  Good for her to pocket some savings for her move out. I told both girls, that when they move they need to take everything.  Leave nothing behind.  If there are things they don't want, it's their job to take it to donation or toss out.   Daughter E started boxing up her bedroom to move this coming weekend.  My first plan was to move my totes of yarn to her room, but I think I'll clean the entire carpet first, then add shelving units for now. Sad news.  A local salon is closing their doors after 47 years (due to the buildi...

  A bit of rosemary made it's way to the dehydrator. I picked more radishes.  Enough to make dip again, but this time I used garlic powder (garlic scape season is pretty much done). Although hot and humid, and a complete soaking muddy mess, I managed to free the bean plants from their blood sucking weeds.  What a job on such a hot day, but I beat the rain in the process thankfully. We are now under a flash flood alert with rain all day today and tomorrow. Daughter E is leaving the salon she is working for, and moving up to a salon that does hair color/highlights etc.  Risky move (requires booth rent), as she is also getting her apartment next month.  We hope she does very well.   Something I learned - one of the large flea markets located in Amish country in Ohio are closing their doors the end of October 2021.  Holmes County flea market sold their building.  Sad to hear, as it was one of the main reasons to visit the area.  The Walnut C...

  Our apple trees have apples this year.  However, we need to get the tree baffles made very soon or the raccoons will strip the trees. We are having some fantastic weather lately.  I got more weeding done and more crafting time carved into my days. I have been working on crocheted water balloons.  I have located these colors so far.  They are eco-friendly and re-useable and washable.  No mess to pick up on a hot outdoor fun day.   Finally!  We haven't had these bad boys since 2019.  2020 was a wash out due to a very dry season.  Of course these are up much later than usual, but we are getting them.  

  Today I'll be freezing most of these bad boys.  We have already had a cold strawberry pie, but there is one more frozen one I would like to try.  It's been hot, hot, hot here, so frozen sounds great. We got lots of rain yesterday, but it stopped shortly after dinner time and the sun came out.  Our road almost flooded, but this year, a farmer's son came out and cleaned the drain that goes from his field to a branch of the river and then out to the river.  Thankfully it drained.  However, more rain is in the forecast. I feel like my to-do list keeps getting bigger and bigger ha ha!  I am trying to balance some indoor jobs based on when the rain is going on outdoors. My additional grow bags finally arrived, so we'll be busy filling those this week.  Our mower quit on us.  We had to borrow a trailer an haul a borrowed mower in for our "mower guy."  Hopefully we can get ours fixed.   The garden work has put a huge limit on my hand...

  More pretty blooms are coming up. We are getting lilacs this year (unless the upcoming freeze kills it again like last year). Wild violets are coming up early this year. Asparagus is coming up early this year too, so I hopped out to my beautiful garden and weeded it.  I can see what needs covered if covering is needed.  So excited to be in the garden for once. A woodpecker built a home in the tree that my clothesline is attached to.  It comes out and gives me heck when I use the line now. I finished the order for 2 scrubbies using the scrubby yarn from Red Heart. Where I spent most of my day.  So far no rain either.  The wind has picked up this morning, but no rain yet.

  Woke up to one beautiful sunrise yesterday on our first morning back home.  Just gorgeous. The day started with firing up the wood stove, much laundry, housework, putting travel stuff away and baking. Did a quick check on the mailbox, chickens and such.  I'll probably hire someone to chicken sit if I am gone for a week anytime this year.  It was too much for Daughter K, as she worked almost every single day. Breakfast was thrown together with zucchini and dandelion greens.  I need to go shopping for some sweet potatoes. I took yarn for the drive for our recent vacation.  I hope to share updates on what I got made soon. I wrote up a to-do list for when we returned from vacation, but low and behold, I can't remember where I put it.  I'm sure I won't run out of things to do, but found it funny.  

I decided to take a break from purging Friday.  I did a few tidy up areas, but focused on a day without dust (ha ha!).  I can't believe how many books I really had.  Oye. I cleaned up part of the other kitchen table.  We have two tables, because I use them a lot during tomato season.  One way or another I want a Christmas gathering here too.  They are saying with the vaccine now, we should be back to almost "normal" this year.   Anyway, I made room to cut more netting.  I've had a few requests for scrubbies and needed netting cut first. I'm thinking about doing a give-away soon.  I think I can part with some things I found that I've just decided I don't want, need or will make. Maybe that will boost my spirits by making someone else happy?  I just ordered some shipping boxes from the usps store, so when they arrive I will post pictures of the give-away. Here is a photo of the embellished paperclips I made with tiny crochet flowers....

I'm so glad we are getting rid of what carpet we can.  Man the dust!  Cough, cough!  My allergies will be so much better.   I had to laugh about the whole thing though.  Hubby said, "no problem, we can knock this out in a few hours."  Ha!  That didn't happen, but we are glad we are going it.  We have two steps in the hallway, and those take a bit more work to get it right. We haven't done anything like this for almost 15 years.  I'm so, so glad we dove into into it.  I have no idea what made me all the sudden want to do the updating on the house, other than it keeps me busy and my mind off of the world and what horrible things the government is doing to us.   It's hard to get a good photo of the actual flooring, as it was cloudy and snowing.  You can see in the top photo that halfway thru putting in the flooring, that my husband had the idea to beautify the walls a bit.  We started the lower half, but still need ...

  I managed to finish the rag rug I started this year.  It's for the bathtub.  Sorry about the lighting, I took the photo just before dinner time. The book store never called me back on the book they were waiting to price.  I'm assuming it was a legit signed copy and they were selling it for well more than I could afford.  I don't want a signed copy anyway.  I just wanted the recipes. Happy New Year! 2020 has been a total bunch of hot garbage.  It can only get better from here, as I see it.  Dad's place is empty.  I can't explain how I feel after seeing it that way.  On a funny note, he had several typewriters - electric and manual.  There were 4 typewriters when I arrived with one daughter.  I told her "load 'em up, they are your project now."  She was fascinated that people used to use them. May 2021 (but I said this in 2020 too) be better than the year before.  We can only hope right?

There might be some peppermint schnapps in my coffee this morning. Today is the last day to clean out Dad's place. I got the last of Christmas decorations put away, drained an infused oil, got most of the kitchen back in order (whew! thankful for that), got more wood split after Hubby got home from work, and other cleaning caught up with.  I put a fresh vintage tablecloth on one table, but I'm still working on the other table.   I still haven't found a box of Christmas cards I lost.  However, I found my husband's missing truck keys. The sun was out most of the morning yesterday.  I was also thankful for that.  Snow was predicted, so was rain. Woke up to a level 1 emergency, so I'm praying roads are okay later when we need to be out.