Pioneer Woman at Heart

Warning.  Grab a Java.  I did not mean for this to be long and winded, ha ha!  I also didn't realize it has no photos, so you may find that boring today. We are having another 87°F degree day today, and tomorrow.  We have been watching the weather closely, and so far, our area will not dip below 40°F this coming weekend.  It looks like possible rain for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so if the two of us are feeling better, there will still be a delay on the chicken coop (my frustrated face here). Update on us:  my husband called our doctor yesterday, and there was no answer.  The answering machine said our doctor would be out today as well.  He was out last Friday.  So, my husband drove into town and went to one of the Urgent Care Clinics.   First, he asked once again for someone to look in his ear that has been bothering him for weeks. Low and behold (after me pestering him to go get it checked), they found a tiny ear bud that fell...

  I got a bit more cauliflower blanched and froze.  It's hit or miss at the store, so I grab it when I see it.  We did not grow any over the summer.  I asked my husband to bring home sweet potatoes, and he said they did not have any.  It's a growing concern.  I will watch for them, and mash and freeze when I do see them. Getting to the store during the week is about hit or miss as well.  Guess who has to go get more wood for the floor?  So, yeah, my truck is borrowed way too much for my liking.  I have already had the discussion with my husband, that if we hire someone we know, they must have their own vehicle, and we'll get supplies over a weekend.  I'm just (whining I know) tired of not being able to just go when I please, get my hair cut, etc. I didn't get any answer yesterday on to blanch or not to blanch butternut squash, so I guess I will try and do more research.  I am unable to get to any of my homesteading books right now. ...

  I finally got to the grocery store.  I noticed that they now only sell one type of tahini now.  They used to carry about 6 different brands.  I also noticed the peanut butter selection is much smaller.   In the midst of trying to find the tahini, we had a conversation with a woman who was shocked at the price of eggs right now.  Then we were talking about hummus and found out she could not eat chickpeas, so I told her she could make hummus with pumpkin, black beans, beets etc.  She was so happy to find that out and said she grew pumpkins this year.  Anyway, nice lady and I was glad I could share with her. We had our first snowfall.  It's officially winter.  It snowed all day, but melted away.  Nice big snowflakes too.  They kind that make you want to hunker in and crochet.  I did that too, only due to the fact I can't really do anything, other than tidy up the boot area in the hallway (I may do that today). I was th...

  It was finally time to start freezing tomatoes.  I cleared off the kitchen table. I also put rosemary in the dehydrator and snipped green onion for freezing. Our green onions have superb flavor this year. It's  a race against the clock this time of the season.  I'm trying to get the tomatoes in before it's too late.  I baked a breakfast for us, for the next few days too. I heard some restaurants are not offering green onions on their menu due to shortage of supplies. We woke up to a very foggy morning.  The air is very cool, but they say we'll heat up again.  

  Daughter E moved out.  She will be back next week to clean up the remainder of what she left (but I'm insisting it all goes with her).  I've already started to clean the carpet on one side of her room, and in the same process, purging the garage. Our workout equipment may get moved to her old room.  I guess we'll see.  We got rid of a lot of stuff in the garage, put some things out for free by the road, and took a huge truck load of stuff to recycling.  Thankfully, recycling is still open. I'll be back out to water all the gardens this morning.  Once again, the rain did not arrive.  I may check out some road side produce stands today.  Our zucchini and yellow squash is doing terrible.  If they are bad (because they grow like weeds), you can tell how bad it is this year for us. I purged a large storage cupboard in my utility room, and sanitized it, washed up everything (dust), and have it all ready for the canning/freezing (if that happ...