Animal Tracks in the Snow ~ Freezing Temps Prep

 

Coyote maybe.

Dog vs. Coyote (photo from Google)

Cat on the left, and possible coyote on the right.

Cat.

Birds. 

                                          Raccoon again.

Although the snow is melting today (the thaw before the freeze), yesterday I was able to get some photos of more animal tracks in the snow.  I was most curious if my thoughts were correct, and that the coyote has made it's way to our property.  I have not seen it on our property yet, but I have seen a very fat raccoon.  To note about that, we have not seen a raccoon here in several years.  I'm guessing they are sensing that there is an extreme cold front coming, and the wild animals are all trying to fatten up.

There is a stray cat we have tried to feed, and have seen it many times since the day after Christmas.  The tracks lead all over the place.  I have a food shelter set up for it, but I do have to remember to bring the food bowl in at night.

Last night I forgot to bring the food bowl inside and low and behold, the big (and very fat) raccoon came up to he house to enjoy some of that cat food, ha ha!  A knock on the door did not even persuade that bugger to bug off. It was sort of funny if you ask me.  I remember when one of the kids used to name raccoons that kept stealing the cat food years ago.

Weekend preparations are being made for the upcoming surge of freezing temperatures.  

The list includes, making sure laundry is done, dishes are done, floors are swept and mopped, chargeable light bulbs charged, batteries charged, wood cut for the wood stove if needed, water in jugs (if needed to flush toilets, water the chickens or water for us - if the power goes out, the water pump to the well does not work), oil lamp oil in stock, and extra wicking, and so forth.  Oh, and extra straw in the coop for the chickens.   Bread and PB and J are always the back up meal plan for a power outage.  Out here we have to prepare for just about anything when the temperatures go to the extreme cold.

Animal Tracks in the Snow ~ Freezing Temps Prep © January 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

The Wonders of Nature

I purposely get up early enough to recharge with coffee, and watch the sunrise.  I also go outside to take in a breath of fresh winter air.  Even if it's just a minute.  Some days, I catch a beautiful sunrise, some days I see animal tracks, some days I see the beauty of mother nature in wild animals.

I took these photos, not realizing I what I would see.  It was quite a sight to watch, as it appeared the largest buck was standing guard, while the rest of the herd got into the woods nearby.

What I didn't expect to see in the photos.  A stalking coyote.

Keeping an eye on the coyote.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. They are not the best, as I am using an older camera, but still pretty good.  My husband gifted me a new camera for Christmas, but due to a problem with it, it had to be returned.  A new camera (we are going with something else this time) is being sought out, and hopefully soon.

We are getting more snow, and they are still predicting a big dip in cold temperatures.

The Wonders of Nature  © January 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Reset ~ Recharge

It wasn't really planned, but the first day of November was dedicated to resetting my home and health, and recharging for the fall/winter chores.

The travel coffee maker (single, but cheap brand) was cleaned up and put away.  The cooler we traveled often with, was also put away.  Counters completely cleaned off and sanitized (I like my homemade 4 Thieves cleaner), extra purchased dry goods were canned and vacuumed sealed, travel totes with paper plates etc. were put back in storage, and the suitcase put back in storage.

I have two absorbant coffee pot/grinder mats.  While one is being washed the other is put out.  It really helps keep the coffee pot area tidy.  We like coffee.

I double checked canning supplies, expiration dates on pectin, and so forth.  Checked the winter tea supply, and even dehydrated more sage.

I had a half bag of sugar sitting on the counter for a few weeks, and finally put it canning jars, and vacuum sealed them.  I did not can a lot of my regular condiments this year, due to lack of garden harvest, and it needed to be stored for future use.

I did the same with some extra oats I purchased as well.  I am, however, running out of wide-mouth canning jars.

There is nothing better, than to wake up to a spic n' span cleaned up kitchen.  It was then, that I could light a candle, relax, re-write my to-do lists, and really recharge physically and mentally.

 Kitchen Tip:  Did you know that if you are out of baking soda, you can substitute 3 teaspoons of baking powder for 1 teaspoon of baking soda?  

I just learned this, but typically we have more baking soda on hand than powder.  I thought I would share this tip, but I have not needed to try it.

The first Sunday morning (time change for us), despite it being 36°F out, I took my coffee to the porch to watch the sunrise.  There were 4 deer that came out for viewing.  There were 3 bucks and a doe grazing in a harvested corn field. You can see the bigger buck the very right.  We saw two more later in the mid-morning (doe and a buck).

We finally did a garage clean out.  Whew!  I could not believe how much we were able to donate, give away and toss out.  It really was a big mess in there.  I even moved all of my empty plastic drawers (used to store yarn) out there to organize things.  

No menu plan yet this week, but I came up with the most delicous breakfast burrito with leftovers.  You could eat this as a scramble too.

(husband added hot sauce to his, but you could also add jalapeno if you froze any, or even fire powder)

I used leftover scrambled eggs from my husband's to-go breakfast, diced up leftover brisket, cooked half of a butternut squash that was already cubed, added bell pepper, onion, garlic, rosemary and sage.  We added just a bit of shredded cheddar cheese.  It turned out so good, and we wasted zero leftovers

The to-do list is pretty much the typical list for November, although much of it was done in October last year.  We are finally getting rain this morning, and we are expecting a warmer month.  I'm still waiting on cooler days to roast and preserve pumpkins, spaghetti squash, acron squash, etc.  I have tinctures in the making, and oils infusing for salve making, so the month will not be idle (but yet a much slower pace).

Until next time.  Toodles.

Reset ~ Recharge © November 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Hot Mess Express

 

Hot mess express checking in for a quick minute.  October has been, and still is a crammed month of commitments, projects and whatnot.  More so on the commitments (preventing other work to be done).

I feel like the days are so out of control, but I dug out my new jars and recipes.  I realized I had not dehydrated comfrey or plantain, and needed it for one recipe.  Of course, we just mowed too.

The kitchen is full of baskets of herbs and medicinal weeds, which are all waiting their moment in the dehydrator.

Our weather changed rapidly, so I am working quickly.  

Sticky notes to the rescue!  Without them, I would be a double hot mess express.  I finally made a phone call for a quote, that should have been done a year ago.  I was to complete that job today, but someone took the wrong vehicle to work this morning.

Purging continues, but not as productive as it should be.  Garage clean out remains on the to-do list (did I mention too many commitments this month?).

Of course, in the midst of trying to stay sane, and cooking/baking from scratch, it appears that many of my homemade baking items need refilled at once - pumpkin pie spice, taco seasoning, and vanilla extract etc.

Saw this deer as we returned home from the farm/feed store.  It was literally walking to us.  We have seen quite a bit of deer this year.

I would say, that I still have about 80% of the garden to pull yet.  I need to hire help possibly.

I have a few new recipes to hopefully share soon.  Like I said, it's been a wild and crazy month here.

Hot Mess Express  © October 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Early September Garden

 I was not too excited for the Labor Day weekend.  First, we were invited to a cook out event (not my favorite, as there is very little healthy food), and two, my husband made several plans, where I was hoping for some finishing touches on projects and some good ol' R & R.

We decided to visit a produce stand to pick up zuchinni (ours produced very little with the drought), another dozen ears of sweet corn (frozen on the cob this time), some plums, cucumbers, and local honey.

First dig - about 5#.  I wasn't even going to plant the potatoes this year, but threw them in the ground willy-nilly.  We were both shocked, because I did not water them heavily during our drought.  

One haul of hot peppers, and the jalapenos are hot this time around.  Hot banana peppers had zero heat.  I bought the plants from a different place, and I really think they were not labeled correctly (sad for us).

We have enjoyed fresh salsa, as the tomatoes provided.  The serrano peppers have flavor, but were not "hot" so I used them in the salsa this year, along with the hot jalapenos.

Bell peppers are the star of the garden this year.  Second picking, as the red ones were just starting to turn red.  Third picking brought in 33 more bell peppers.  

It looks like a lot of bell peppers, but it's not even half of what we harvested last year.  I freeze them diced and use them in all of our meals over winter and the following spring.

We enjoyed some of those bell peppers for breakfast.  I first started making these last year, but this time I remembered that there is too much milk added with the recipe, so I have written down my notes for next year.  The recipe calls for ham, but I used bacon this time, and added green onions from the garden (also has spinach in them).  Very good too.

Other ideas for you are baked bell pepper rings.  They are like onion rings, but with bell pepper slices, and baked.  Recipe is online if you google for it.  You can also bake stuffed bell peppers, or freeze them stuffed for an easy dinner.

New  recipe tried.  It's from Slender Kitchen.com  online.  It is delicious mix of ground beef, thai basil, green onions (herbs I grow), asparagus and other ingredients, served over cauliflower rice.  I will add an egg, cooked over easy the next time I make it.

Green beans and yellow beans started to get rust on them at the first part of the month.  The August storm flattened the plants, and they never recovered.  Most remained laying on the ground.  Not a great year, but we got some of the beans.

I found one rotted spaghetti squash, and very few pumpkins in the squash this year.  The drought has really affected the growth of the garden (despite watering).

Deer have found the apple trees, and are seen often enjoying the ones on the ground.  However, when I went out to check on the trees, the raccoons and squirrels found a way to bypass our homemade tree baffles, and they ate every single apple on the tree (raccoons are notorious for this).  We were lucky last year.  We plan to work on a new baffle for next season.

I literally watched a raccoon try to get up the tree right after we installed the tree baffle, and could not, so after that I never really thought about it.  We have yet to check the pear trees.

As for the deer this year, I was preparing coffee one morning, and caught a young deer eating our hydrangeas.  I then went to the other side of the house, and found two more adult deer lingering (but not eating the garden).  They have been very active the last few weeks here.

The weather has been very cool for the past weekend (low of 44 degrees), but we are going back to the 80's, and thankful for the extended "summer" weather.

Speaking of trees, we planted a plum tree years ago when we first moved here, but it died.  I bought some plums from our local produce stand, and baked a plum crisp for the first time.  Delicous!

On a whim, I talked to my husband about planting two plum trees and a few quince trees.  We have not planted anything yet, but quince trees are difficult to find locally.

We hired a grand newphew to cut down brush around the barns, trim trees and other outdoor work, but that lasted for one day, and for about 1 hour.  He never returned.  Looks like I will have to try and find another person.  I honestly don't know how I canned all season last year, and got outdoor work done.  I haven't canned a thing this season, and I am still busy with freezing bell peppers, pickling banana peppers (fridge style), and freezing jalapenos.  I hate to even say it, but the older I get the less I enjoy doing all this garden work.   

I know it's important for us to have freshly grown goodies, and stock up for winter, but I lack the "motivation" this year.  Especially with the grocery store prices so high right now, it's hard not to stock up with what is growing in the gardens.

I have yanked the cantaloupe plants.  They are done for the season.  I am currently pulling all of the green/wax bean plants as well.  

There you have it.  The lastest garden news.  Drought weather, lack of rain, lack of produce, and strange temperatures.  I will try to get another post up as the month ends.

Early September Garden © September 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Odd Sight

 

Minutes before the darkness set it from the eclipse yesterday, I snapped these photos of two eagles that just stopped flying and sat together in a tree.  They were probably confused as much as the rest of the wildlife.

Odd Sight © April 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart