Pioneer Woman at Heart

Here are some new colors in my flower beds this month.

Daylilies Forget-Me-Nots Foxglove

This has been growing at the edge of a few barns.  I'm pretty sure is wild burdock.  The stalks are short and the leaves have hairs.  Either way, if it is burdock I can't do much with it.  We are all allergic to ragweed (just by the touch also).  I read that burdock is in that particular family of plants.

I made these buckwheat flour waffles for the family, and they were delicious.  The kids love to top these with natural peanut butter.   A week ago or so, I found a set of TV trays with stands, at our local thrift store.   I spent the afternoon cleaning the trays on my front porch.  These are wider than your normal TV tray and will be helpful with meals on the porch, and to take camping.  I had planned to spray paint the stands on these, but I may just leave them as they are. I spent time reading a book of writing prompts, and got a laugh out of some of them.  The kids and I shared quick and short verbal stories with these.  I do have a notebook to hand write these in, but would love to "jazz" it up with a fun cover.....adding yet another project to my "project" list (ha ha ha!). While cleaning a bit in my room, I noticed that I left two flowers pressed in my flower press (from last summer/fall).  I really enjoyed lookin...

I used pieces of cheese cloth to cover the head of my sun flowers, and tied it on with string saved from feed bags.  Hopefully the birds won't get to them anymore. I'm now on the hunt for recipes using sun flower seeds.  I mentioned, to the family, that foxtail grass seeds, and the other red flower we found, is edible.  My  husband looked at the kids and said, "you guys can all take the first bite." He's just a big chicken when it comes to foraging. Although, he is up for mushroom hunting.  We may be taking a mushroom hunting class to familiarize ourselves with what is edible and what is not.

My 5 pumpkins resulted in 9 pints of pumpkin butter.  After researching canning recipes, I decided to heat my lids, after sterilizing jars, and simply attach the lids.  I allowed them to cool, and then moved them to the refrigerator.  They will last up to 6 months this way.   Canning is not recommended.  In fact, I plan to take the last of the pumpkins, and make pumpkin puree to freeze.  Then I can simply take it out to make pumpkin waffles, pumpkin bread, muffins, or pumpkin pie.  There are tons of pumpkin recipes to try it with.   Having always purchased sunflower seeds from a store, my husband was actually "giddy" when I shared these with him. "We grew those?" he squealed like a little kid getting candy (ha ha ha!) I will have to start covering some of them with cheese cloth.  The birds are starting to get into them, and they are not all ready to harvest. And once again, I am shocked at the fresh taste these little gu...

I am so glad we are boarding Blondie at a stable right now, so that we can research the plants on the property (and get the fencing in place). I am finding plants that can hurt horses, and we need to remove them.  Here are some of the poisonous plants that we found here (I have milkweed growing along the creek and isn't near where the horse will go, or the goats): and Dogbane (no photo yet).  I guess we have some work to do.

I'm working with a park expert and a master gardener, to identify flowers and weeds on my property.  However, we are still unsure of this red colored one.  I think the chickens are the reason we have it all over this year.  I'm not exactly sure what it is.  Unless I hear back from the experts, I may have to keep looking in books and on-line.  

You know you are a farmgirl, when you find wild chicory growing on your very own property!  And you get really excited about it.  He he he!  My kids, and my husband, just think I'm plain nuts. I need to find out what that red weed is.  I'll have to look in my books and on-line to find out what it is.  I'm just tickled pink to find wild chicory on the property - chemical free.  Woo hoo!  It's only one plant, but one is better than none.   Now I just need to research how to make the coffee from it. Oh...he he...that photo was taken today in a garden that had zucchini and melons.  We had so much rain that it killed the zucchini and rotted almost all of the melons.  That garden now looks like a weed patch.

I have no idea what I was thinking.  I picked a small piece of wild growing catnip and put it in my flower press. Every day, my 9 year-old's cat (Tiger) would attack my flower press.  I finally opened the flower press yesterday and gave him that dried catnip.  He went nuts!  Then along came the other cats and wanted some.   My 9 year-old has been wanting to dry some to make a safe cat toy for her cat.  I had her look at my wild flower book, so that she could identify it correctly, before she picked it. We now have catnip drying in the garage, away from Tiger.  The catnip will not be making an appearance on my wild flower book, for the sake of keeping my book in tact. Dear Lord, Please bring me some of that delicious catnip tomorrow. Amen.

The kids just take over the computer when they get home, so while I waited for my turn, I worked on my wild flower book. My 9, 12, and 14 year-old daughters were sitting around the table watching me.  It's turning out pretty nice too. I just need to label each page and write down where they each grow. After I worked on that, and got my turn on the computer (he he, I needed to see how to bind off with knitting on YouTube again, I just forgot how to do it already), I went out to pick more wild flowers. We came back in with this flower, and honeysuckle.  I saw bushes that had clusters of white berries on them.  I am pretty sure it's White Baneberry - a completely poisonous plant.  I'm working with a park district expert to see if I am correct on the baneberry, and will have to remove it somehow.  The word "bane" is typically found in names of poisonous plants. If it stops raining, I will pull on my mucking boots and go get a few photos of it. I have...

I've been chatting with a park district expert, in regards to the wild flowers, weeds and invasive plants on our property.  At first I thought it was fun to press some of them, but it's been more that just that. I've not only found out we have some very interesting flowers, but some weeds that are the cause of our bad allergies.  In fact, the dork that I am, went out and pulled Common Ragweed from the goat's pen area.  I had gloves on, but after pulling two armfuls, I had to stop.  My neck broke out in welts and it had the appearance of poison ivy or oak.  My neck was read and very itchy.  However, after wiping it with a cold, wet washcloth, it disappeared.  Phew!  I woke up congested and could not smell my clothesline fresh bed sheets.   In this one picture I took, you can see three wild flowers, and they surround one giant weed.  The Tall Ironweed in the picture is taller than me, and I'm tall.  I am pressing some of the ...

Over the years I have collected odd books from used book sales.  In the beginning they were placed on a shelf for homeschooling, and for my public school kids.  So far, every book has been helpful with school reports and other needs. One book I am using a lot lately, is a book on our state wild flowers.  I've had a flower press for many years, but have not used it recently.  I got it back out after finding these wild flowers on our property. The other day I was flipping through the pages of the book, and said, "Hey!  I know this weed.  I've seen it before." My husband responded with, "What your mother really means to say, is that she probably fed it to you." Ha ha ha ha ha!