Pioneer Woman at Heart

  There has been no more snowfall this very chilly day, and by chilly I mean a wind-chill of 14 degrees.  Snow is on the ground, but no more snow in the forecast for now anyway.  It's slippery out for sure. My lovely ladies have started to lay again, after a much shorter (but still long) molting hiatus, compared to last fall.  They love their new coop.  They have more room, more roosts, more light and more protection from the predators.  It only took us 3 years to complete it ha ha!  Photos to share soon.  We are actually considering on keeping the old coop and using it for the actual "brooder" now.  We'll be adding more ladies to the clan, so we'll figure that out sooner than later. I have not made all of our gardening plans for 2026, but I am putting in an order for some herb garden seeds.   The rosemary and chive plants I brought indoors are still alive, but the rosemary is looking iffy (crossing my fingers, saying a prayer)....

I am almost done weeding all of the flower beds.  I have yet to weed the herb garden, but it's in pretty good shape thankfully. We came up with a solution to "fence" the other vegetable garden on a budget.  We are seeking out a person to come till the vegetable gardens on a budget.  It seems that the only one we can find so far, is with a large tractor (so glad we removed two sides of the fenced garden).   We had a coyote in the gardens lately.  We are also hoping it has moved on. The new coop build is on hold (sigh), but there is nothing I can do about it. When you run a homestead, you run into set backs here and there.   Our AC units are not in yet, and we are in the 80's.  Again, another job on hold (for now).   I've started harvesting chive blossoms (more on that later). I managed to gather yarn scraps to crochet the latest book blanket granny square, but have yet to crochet it.  Progress. I was asked if I had anymore croch...

  The recent days have been in the high 60's and low 70's, up until Friday.  We dipped just a hair, and the rain moved in.  The rain did not stop me from working on the new coop.  I've dubbed it the "Hillbilly" hen house, ha ha!  We've had to do some crazy work in order to make things work with what we have.  Nothing seems to come together straight, nor level, but it's getting done. I decided to do things a big backwards, but it's a race against the clock with painting trim.  Instead of waiting for a day to measure and cut the trim, then paint it, I just painted what we had.  I can touch up later, but it's painted now, before the weather gets too cold.  The weather is quickly changing here. I bought my husband that wrist wrap that is on his wrist. It is magnetic and holds the screws for him.  Now he needs a carpenters apron and/or a tool belt.

  The arrival of fall, and end of garden season (for the most part), is bittersweet.  I am thrilled to get a break from the work, but will really miss the fresh vegetables.  Next year I am planting cantaloupe and watermelons.  The price of fresh fruit this year was outrageous, and you can't really "clean" a cantaloupe from the store.  At least here, I know what is put on it or not put on it.  I may add honey dew to that list too. The last of the last yellow squash was taken care of.  I know I said I wasn't going to freeze any diced, but I was at the point of just being "done" with it. The last of the picked jalapenos were sliced and flash frozen for the up coming months.  I think we will have enough, although the hot peppers produced a lot less this year. Order is resuming in parts of the house, and it feels pretty darn good.  It's funny how just having all the sinks in the house clean at the same time can make a person feel more at...