Pioneer Woman at Heart

  The flower beds may be looking 100% better this year, but the planting of the vegetables and fruits in the garden has been the worst battle this year.  The tomatoes are in, as well as most of the hot peppers, but the tomatoes look absolutely terrible. We've already eliminated a few foods from the garden this season.  Time, space, and weather hasn't been nice this year. We are just now having the recent flood (literally flooded a portion of our garden) dry up, only to see more rain is coming tomorrow. The problem?  Today it is to be over 90 degrees, and full sun.  Planting time, in such heat, is very limited.  On a postive note, the rain brought us the biggest oregano harvest ever.  Battling the Weather © June 2024 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer Woman at Heart

  At 7am yesterday, we were at an air quality of 174.  If you see the chart below, that put us in the "red" zone (unhealthy).  Very close to the "very unhealthy" level on the chart.  So there was no outdoor work at all.  Areas within in hour from us were in the 300's - hazardous, stay indoors at all times. We've been praying for good winds to change direction and give us a break.  I was miserable all day, and the numbers reached to 204 (purple level) according to our local health department.  I had to run to the store, and the library ( needed their fax service). Speaking of library.  I walked into our little library for the first time since Feb. of 2020.  It's been that long since I've been to our library. This morning we did a complete turn with the air quality.  When I look outside, I do not see any haze at all, and the air quality number is a healthy low of 28.  However, today there will be more rain.  I am not sure how muc...

  We have been getting rain, so I'm not doing any garden work currently.  I weeded out the larger weeds in the rose bed, but the rest will have to wait until the the rain stops. I have been successful with my new to-do list (the 7 areas to tidy up).  I have now crossed 2 off of my list of 7.  My husband hasn't noticed. Speaking of my husband, there is no sign of the long work hours ending.  He promised me a "date" night, which was taking the motorcycle out and dinner out.  Didn't happen.  They held him over at work.  We are all tired of it.  He has been forced over every night.  One night he was to be home by 8pm, and ended up home at 9pm. I'm considering going back to work.  We never see each other, and there is no sign we will be getting our projects finished. I still have a list for us when these hours stop, but I not able to vision any of it being accomplished.  I'm still upset half of the garden was not planted.  Noth...

I finally took a look-see at the carrots.  I managed to grow the world's smallest carrots in 5 months of watering.  Dang drought.  Oh well.  I can't leave them in the ground either.  They will never grow to size by Nov even if I left them in.  Sheesh.  We did get a chuckle out if though.  Our one daughter's rabbit will love to munch on some of these teeny tiny nibblets. We've harvested 95 bell peppers so far this year.  The season for them is winding down. We've harvested 19.47# of jalapenos so far this year.  They have done amazing this year.

Photos of the sky before the sunrise this morning. Well, we are not camping tonight.  Not at all this weekend.  I had to cancel.  We decided that the return of the awful heat would make us miserable.  We cook all meals over a campfire, and it would awful to do in 89-90 degree weather. Yeah, I am bummed.  I was looking forward to unplugging and it won't happen.  Not anyone's fault but the weatherman.  The weather up until now was absolute perfect camping weather. I got my dentist visit done.  So, first I went and got my crown glued back on, second, I went back the next day for a cleaning, so that's done before winter.  All the hoop-la they say about going to the dentist on social media is false.  I just had to wear a mask until they worked on me and wear it out.  That's it.  Other than they don't rinse as much due to the splatter of water, but they have face shields on etc.  Such a different world right n...

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...

I brought in more green and wax beans, but boy are they not as large as they should be.  Watering has been almost daily with this drought and heat index, it's so frustrating. I put 1 1/2 cups of blackberries in the freezer too.  The green beans need cleaned and put in the freezer today.  Not sure how I'll have time for all my work today. My 21 year-old knew that I have been having a very difficult time lately, so after diligent watering, and prepping dinner for 2 crock pots, she swooped me off to a day of fun.  However, we found several of the local shops closed on a Monday (and Tues).  That sort of put us in a depressed mood, but we located another town with a general store open and drove there for some local shopping.  Then.... We hit Adli's for some much needed adult beverages and picked up some hard root beers to try as well. Returning home, I had to batten down the hatches for a storm rolling in.  First they said 75mph wind, then 60...

My garden visitor the other day, and oddly, orange and blue.  Those are the favorite colors of daughter's deceased boyfriend. Monday we got a glorious pour down from the Rain Gods!  So happy to have that happen.  We were getting worried about the well and no rain lately.  However, in the morning, you could never tell it had rained (it's been that dry here).  Youngest was gifted a butterfly bush and a rose bush.  She planted both just before it rained. I canned.  It was a half batch of hot pepper mustard sauce.  A success, even though splitting all the ingredients in half taxed my brain.  Thank goodness for google to make sure I was accurate. In total, I have now lost 3 hens and 2 roosters.  Trap has been re-set, and only time will tell. Somehow I scratched up two of my pairs of readers.  I ended up ordering some on Amazon.  I didn't want to go to the store and most likely I wouldn't find them.  The last t...

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...