Pioneer Woman at Heart

The things I do when I cannot sleep.  Take photos of the moon.  This was, I think, from last Thursday early in the morning. I am being very bad at eating breakfast at all.  I have a light lunch and come dinner, I don't want to eat either.  The stress has been over the moon bad.  Just lots of things going on. The chance for rain on Saturday (60%) went off the radar as fast as it went on.  However, we thankfully got a nice pour down last night.   My 21 year-old and I went on a small day adventure and visited an antique store in the Big City.   I've been wanting one of these for a long time.  First, I thought I might paint it red, but I may leave it yellow.  I kind of like it. We also went to a thrift store, which I sort of thought was not stocked by much (oddly).  I snatched up this green pepper dish for $1.00 and it now holds my vegetable scrubber. Picked up this wine bottle stand for a few bucks as...

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...

What happens when your husband takes the laundry down, lol!  Sort of made me chuckle.  He had told me "I probably didn't do it right."  Ha ha! I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom today, although it's not been happy around here for a very long week.  The weather . . .  Well, it's supposed to thunderstorm this afternoon.  We'll see if it actually happens. How I am feeling this morning . . . Frustrated, mad, sad.... On my mind . . . A lot.  I may be canning for the first time this garden season.  We shall see. On the breakfast plate . . . (I'll add a picture later) Sausage, egg and cheese muffins. On my reading pile . . . Nothing right now. On the TV . . . Anything interesting. On the menu . . . I'm going to cook for the first time since last Friday - crock pot sloppy joes and oven baked sweet potato fries. - have no idea otherwise From the camera . . . N...

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...

I still haven't been able to get a photo of the wrens.  They are small and quick.  I didn't see many out at all this morning.  I think they know it will be hot and getting hotter as we go into the week.   We spent all of Saturday on the Harley, and I never got sun burn oddly.  Had a fantastic weekend, with another ride yesterday.    Although we went to one of our favorite restaurants and won't be back.  They changed their menu completely, and nothing looked good.  They took away the perch, and many more items including my favorite Philly.   One burger was served cold, with toppings that were asked to be left off.  It was raw, and when they brought toppings, the BBQ sauce was as thin as water.  The service was horrible, messed up one drink.  They switched perch out for cod and over priced it.  It was horrible too.   I'm sure they changed it due to this pandemic, lack of employees returni...

The heat rolled in as they predicted.  No sign of rain is exhausting.  There is a caution of drought conditions, which will be an issue with the gardens.  We are still in the 90's here. We have been diligent with garden work and outside work, like finishing the pressure washing. Peas are still rolling in with constant watering, but plants are not as tall as they should be.  Harvest amounts are lower.  I've been much better at logging the harvest.  The numbers will determine what we will plant or not plant next year.  Although I attempted to get pictures of our wrens, this guy wanted to be the star of attraction yesterday morning. Thank you all who had concerns about my sciatica.  I have been doing my stretching diligently, because if I don't get better, the garden dies, chickens won't get fed and watered etc.  I can sleep without pain now, and that helps with a better start to the day. We had the best 4th of Jul...

I watched a group of 3 deer cross the road yesterday morning, but they turned back and went back across to the river that runs behind us. Later another group of two crossed. Early morning (which brought us home at noon) one daughter and I took Momma cat and her 2 kittens on a road trip.  We found a Humane Society open that would take them.  I gave them a bag of cat food and wrote out a check.  I'm so glad they took them, as our temps will reach up to 96°F this weekend.  It does anger me that I have to pay to have them get a new home, when they were not our cats and 99% sure dumped here.  I believe in karma for people like that.  Kitty's will have a nice place to stay now until they are adopted. I have a friend who is the wife to a co-worker of my husband, who is so stressed over the possibility of another lockdown (and the recent loss of their long time dog).  I decided to make up a basket of goodies to lift her spirits - 4 pack of KY Bourbon ...

The water receded this morning, but we had horrible winds, and our lamp post that was propped up in a tree was blown down again and looks broken this time. The ground is saturated and I fear it'll be another year like last year.  Not sure, but the weekend is the only good weather time to till more and it all depends on if this ground dries up. The library is open but curbside, and next week by appt.  Not sure I'll be going for a while.  I do miss it, but too many restrictions - no interloaning at all.  Our library is very small, and doesn't have many choices and can only loan out from their library to city patrons with their library card. Next week's predictions of weather do not look good for us at all.  Thunderstorm after thunderstorm.  Not only is this a problem for putting in the rest of the garden and the condition of the garden for growing, but for hardening of my plants indoors.  They got two days outside, but the wind and colder weather t...

I woke up to this sunrise on October 1st.  I can't help but wonder if September went out like a hurricane or tornado, topping off our worst garden year ever.   Although I have a good start on medicinal prep (see past post), I just woke up today feeling like a wasted so much time and money on the garden(s) this year. It's not just weather that affects a good garden harvest, it is also  life in general.   This year has been rough.  All around. After this year, I have been asking myself "is it worth it?" and "why do I do this to myself?" I've even thought about getting rid of all my chickens, because no one has "time" to feed and care for them for me.  Hubby works many hours and daughter has had a TON of homework lately.  They are not laying either right now thanks to the darn roosters I obtained by buying straight run and no one interested in taking any.  The struggles and disappointments this year have never been m...

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 ...

Not from our garden, but organic.  I got 4 pint bags in the freezer so far.  Organic is pretty difficult to locate, so when I see it right now, I'm buyin' it. Our first picking.  It's a meal, but nothing yet to freeze. Poo!  You can tell how horrible of a year it's been for us.  It's still raining.  Yay!  The garden will love it.

I've been on "puppy duty" for a few days now.  He's such a good puppy too, but I think he senses I am a bit sad inside.  He's been stuck to me like glue, refuses to nap until his "Mom" comes home, and literally barks at me and whines, to get into my lap (ha ha!).  Before someone tells me ropes are bad for dogs, we soak it and freeze it for teething and we keep it frozen so he doesn't eat the string. He knows "sit" and will go to the gate or door to tell us when he has to go out, and if I'm busy at the sink or whatever, he'll bark to tell me he has to go out.  He's very smart. Ha ha!  If he could speak at this moment, it would be "But I don't wanna go back in yet!"  He is such a stinker, but a cute stinker. His Mom came home with flowers and a treat for me.  She said here Mom, I knew you were missing Jesse and thanks for watching my dog.  It put a smile on my face for sure. The early mornin...