Pioneer Woman at Heart

The year has been crappy overall.   I feel like the government is keeping us from family and friends, so we may have a bonfire out here, but it depends on the heat.  It's been dry and hot.  That's not a good mix for burning. I'm seriously concerned for our state.  A few days ago, after midnight (in the big city two of my daughters live in), there was what they called purging.  I can't make this stuff up.  People with cars without plates went around shooting at people randomly.  I read a toddler and an elderly man were shot and killed.  Purging?  The world has really gone to h-e-double hockey sticks. Oh, and I have 2 more dead hens.  This time it was a weasel that came in the top of the fencing (which we recovered with harder wire fencing, and he said it would hold until we get the fencing up on the new coop). Well, he felt awful, so we moved the hens last night.  Temporary fencing goes up tonight.  Then we start remo...

My bell peppers are starting to come on.  I just hope I am watering enough to plump them up in size.  It's still a drought at our homestead (even though surrounding areas are getting rain). The trees are starting to lose their leaves, and my berry bushes look terrible. We spent most of the day with our daughter's boyfriend's family.  We took them dinner and went to the funeral home with them.  Long day, but I know they appreciated us being there. It's another hot day here. 

I have a nothing new post today.  Strange.  I'm always so pumped to get something posted, but not today.  So much on my mind right now. We got spit on yesterday.  The storm came through and it literally sprinkled for less than a minute.  I am so sad on top of everything else.  We are in drought conditions and now I am worried about the garden. Hubby is out watering flowers.  When he's done I'll start on the garden.  My root veggies are not getting what they need.  I can't remember a year like this.  Ever. We had visitors all day yesterday, and even had a meal delivered.  Our daughter is not okay.  Youngest.  We are doing our best to keep her around someone.  She is not allowed to drive herself anywhere right now either.  She is having the most horrible time right now.

We are suffering drought conditions.  No rain, and I'm watering daily to keep the garden from burning up.  Green beans are on, so I must be keeping up with it pretty good.  I have to start really early so the plants can soak it up before the sun burns it dry.  I am concerned about the height of my tomato plants and the growth of our root vegetables. Tomatoes are starting to come on, but again, plants are short. I am emptying the dehumidifier 2 times a day, the humidity is that bad as well. I had peaches that were getting soft, so I whipped up a peach pie before it got too hot.  People are asked to conserve electricity from 2-6pm this week. Look who stopped long enough for a few very quick photos?  They are not in focus, but I was quick to snap a few while the sprinkler watered the garden(s). I'm re-doing the menu.  We had taco salad last night.  Too hot to cook.  Egg salad sandwiches sound good too.  What's your...

So, I went and did it again.  I'll be taking a small hiatus (I typically post a blog post daily) from my blog, but hope to be back soon.  Meanwhile, I'll have my foot elevated.  About a week and a half ago, I was inside the garage, putting it up, to put camping chairs and tables away.  Daughter's friend put the table against the outside of the door and it slammed down on my foot.  Apparently, if you have varicose veins, an injury (not always, but I'm the lucky one...sigh) can cause pressure in the veins and more injury. Weeds will be growing and I just don't care.  I hope Hubby and Daughter will help pick from the garden, tend my ladies and gent, get the mail, etc. I have no idea how to manage a breakfast for the both of them, nor dinner, so we'll see what happens.  I'll manage something. My survival bag over the next six days.  Praying I don't need it much after that.  Possibly down the road for definite vein surgery. Meanwhile,...

It was so hot and humid yesterday.  I had a smoothie for my lunch.  There was spinach and kale in it too.  Yum. I put together another emergency crochet kit too.  Most items were only $1 each. Oh what a mess it is.  It's the last thing to try and save.  The potatoes. Day 1.  It doesn't look like I weeded much of it, but I un-buried about 8-10 potato plants.   Day 2.  Not gonna happen.  If anything grew I'll know when I go to dig it all up.  Just not worth the aggravation right now. It's back to the herb garden and flower beds.   All depends on the rain.  We got more last night.  A lot of it.  The herb garden is a total mess this year.  I don't have enough green onions to keep the grass down.  I'm about ready to dig the entire herb garden up and start over.  Hubby said no, but I'm tired of dealing with the grass. All of my thyme died too.  Maybe it is time to dig ...

Dirty dish pile started early Thursday morning.  Sausage/potato egg burritos with cowboy candy.   I canned more strawberry margarita jam. Froze more strawberries. The rain just poured down on us. I also diced up a bunch of onions and popped them in the dehydrator - homemade onion powder.  My supply is getting very low.  Also for winter, when I we get a lot of snow and I need onions to cook with. I had herbal infused oil to strain, and a tincture to strain.  I had dishes to wash of course too. I made an iced coffee for an afternoon "pick me up" since Hubby gets home so late now.  It was organic brewed coffee, cooled, a bit of milk, a splash of Bailey's and ice. Mmm! It' literally poured and poured all afternoon.  I had to turn the dehydrator off until the thunder and lightning stopped.  I also couldn't feed the chickens until it stopped.   The front of our yard flooded and the field a...

Sunday we got on the Harley and headed to meet up with some friends to head to the very last day of Ohio Bike week.  We got as far as the gas station meet up point, and turned around and went home.  First we waited 1 1/2 hours for our friends, and in that time watched the dark skies to the east, and the wind pick up, and that time gave us time to change plans.   We headed home, waited the weather out, and ended up staying home.  Too many flooded roads in every direction.  On Hubby's only day off, we ended up playing cards on the porch and retiring early.  Monday morning we woke up to weather in the chilly 40's, but dry.  We had more thunderstorms Sunday night too.   I decided, after 4 days of sinus pressure to see a doctor.  I tried everything in the book first.  All this moisture is putting havoc on my sinuses despite using a dehumidifier in our bedroom.   I drove home with a diagnosis of an eye infection in on...

We got massive amounts of rain.  Sadly, we will not be planting popcorn, squash of any kind, beets, carrots, cucumbers, greens and more.  We may not even be able to get the sweet potatoes, potatoes or green beans in either.  No way to till, and more rain in the forecast.  It's going to be our biggest loss ever.  Almost makes me want to cry, but there is nothing we can do about it right now. I could buy buckets for the potatoes, but the cost for them and dirt would out way having to buy them.   The fate of our 100 plus pepper plants has yet to be decided. It rained all night and it's raining this morning, and rain all day again tomorrow.

I've lacked the motivation to do much of anything for winter prep, and slacking horribly.   I finally went out and drained all the rain barrels and flipped one upside down.  That was the extent of my "winter prep."  One barrel has poison ivy growing in front.  Wonderful.  I'm flipping the rest today. It's a winter without beets as well.  I did my first dig and they are the size of the carrots - pathetic.  All that weeding for nothing.  Can't even save the greens - tops dying off. I took some time to dig up more carrots, but if you saw my post about it, they are getting tossed.  No carrot seeds saved this year either. I saved some of the carrot tops.  I'll have another post for that project. More tomatoes were picked - 7#.  Last picking.  Plants are coming out.  I would have started it yesterday, but I left my knife in the house, and walking back and forth to get it was not on the agenda - too hot anyway. Glo...

There will be no pumpkins this year.  Jack o' lantern nor pie pumpkins.  Such a waste of seeds, time and hard work.  The large one I saw is no longer there. Raccoons or squirrels got to it. While avoiding the garden like the plague, I've been inside lately.  I'm just not motivated this year.  Whatsoever.   I was able to get another mug set done. Made a few cup cozies. Started on a pair of candy corn earrings and matching necklace. I'm thinking I may take a blogging hiatus soon. I'm not that perky, I have no comments most of the time (and way less views), and there isn't much to talk about this gardening season.

I hope your labor day weekend was fantastic.  Ours was hot, productive, and yet fun.  We didn't go camping, but Hubby and I stole off on a one day motorcycle ride.  Our first motorcycle show/stampede about an hour away. But oh,it was hot. Too hot.  We were so ready to be home sweet home. I made a batch of black bean hummus to go with those homemade einkorn chips.  Yum!  No tahini either.  I even added a garden jalapeno to it.  Oh, and I seeded it and got about 100 seeds saved from one.  I plan on saving more.  I also saved hot banana pepper seeds and green bell pepper seeds. ...made an einkorn pumpkin spice bundt cake since I had more pumpkin puree thawed.  Very good too!  Recipe is online. Almost had ground hog for dinner.  Almost.  It was headed straight towards the garden (not that it would have gotten much), but still.  It ran off in the opposite direction just as my hand went on the door knob. ...

Our green pepper plants we started from heirloom, organic seed, are producing.  However, they are not tall enough, and as you can see, the peppers are half or less the size they should be.  I only saw these and a few more out there.  It sure doesn't help me start the day in a happy, motivated, upbeat, peachy-keen attitude. I can't weed very much due to the ground being so wet yet, but I managed to pull all the thistle from my front flower beds.  I was contemplating what to do, with nothing to harvest, nothing that could be easily weeded etc.  A few balls of pizza dough made it to the freezer, but that was about it.  I am out of everything all at once it seems. I have had a few very nice tea breaks on the porch with this cooler weather.  I'm still working on the crocheted lapghans, but I can only handle sitting idle for so long.  I decided to head to the garage and at least try to clean up some stuff.

Monday, while Hubby and daughter were scrambling around getting ready at 5:45am, I was mumbling.   "I have to work out, can jam, clean the coop, make a scramble for the week, do the dishes, do the laundry...." Hubby said, "what'ya gonna do after 9am?"   I laughed, and laughed.  That is true.  There is an advantage of being up early.  Sparta was giving me heck while cleaning the coop.  He kept getting out of the door, and out into the open garden area.  I had to keep chasing him back into the run.  I think he's getting old or his broken leg from years ago is giving him trouble.  He's having a bit of trouble walking and climbing the ramp now. Speaking of scramble - this weeks breakfast for a few days.  It's made with some swiss chard, jalapeno, home grown potatoes, onions, green pepper and bacon. Tuesday, I was up at 4:26 am precisely.  Work called Hubby in, and the thunder and pouring rain kept me from going b...

On the pro side of no rain, what I had weeded is stayed weed free.  On the con side of it, I had to water one day and weed another day.  It was like concrete. Oye.  This is one corner of the potatoes.  It's a total mess. On July 18th, I started weeding them.  Sadly, all the tops had browned and the potatoes I checked were about 1 inch round.  I continued to weed, not giving up, and hoping the next rain would revive them. A few plants still have green on them, so I continued to weed.  you know I'm not one to give up unless it's obviously just not going to yield us food.   Yeah, as the days passed by, and the weeds came back (after that photo), I started digging. Here's what we got. Dinky is this summer's word.    A complete fail.  We planted 15# and harvested 15.43#.  The heat waves, despite watering, caused the plants to die off way too early.  Such a waste of money and time. I will be buyi...