"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Chicken Vegetable Soup ~ Baby it's Cold

 

The chicken vegetable soup is from Clean Food Crush online.  It is literally a completely self-sufficient recipe.  You can grow every single thing in the soup (and the herbs for the homemade Italian seasoning), make the broth, and raise meat birds.  My husband is not on board with raising meat birds again just yet.  Anyway, I utilized our frozen garden green beans, and diced bell peppers for this soup.  I also had previously cooked the chicken, shredded it, and had it in the freezer as well (worked great for the soup).  I used home canned tomato sauce (I used an entire pint).

There are no potatoes or corn in this soup recipe.  I mean, you could, but I followed the recipe, other than I am not a fan of cooking my raw chicken in the soup ingredients.  We loved it!

Definitely a slight variation of a vegetable soup, but also with chicken vs. beef or simply vegetable.

Perfect leftovers for a cold brisk day.  Woke up to 7°F windchill, icy roads, and only a slight dusting of snow.  It's more of a black ice on the road situation here.  The high winds took out some power for some folks, but thankfully ours is on.

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

It's Cold ~ Scarf Finished ~ Desk Project (which leads to Other Projects)

 



Remember the scarf I started to crochet for my husband?

Not the greatest picture but I was taking in a hot minute before my husband took off for work (early this morning).  I finished his scarf last night, and had enough yarn to add the end fringe.  I even have a small ball for a scrap blanket.  Anyway, it's a brisk 13°F windchill here this morning, and tomorrow will be even colder.  He is very happy to have the scarf on his drive to work today.  

The yarn was "newpaper print" by Red Heart.  It matches his hat that I made him back at the end of October.


On another note, I have my work cut out for me the next few days.  I'm cleaning out my old desk, and will be removing it from the last room with carpet in it.  Dogs and cats both have ruined the carpet (and the desk), so once the carpet is pulled, I will need to check the subfloor, treat it most likely and paint the room eventually.  

I have not used the desk since we completely replaced half of the kitchen floor/joists 2 years ago) However, the first concern is a storage area in the same room that is underneath the stairway.  We have discovered that it has huge gaps in the drywall corners, and it needs completely enclosed/replaced (after the carpet is removed). As the temperature dips, field mice look for warmer spaces (hence the drywall project in the storage area).

In order to crawl into the under-stairway storage area, the desk needs to be removed first (it's a small room).

In the meantime, mouse traps are set in the storage area, and project 6995847 (ha ha!) begins.

I'm going to need more coffee today. 

Progress report:

Christmas totes reduced by 3 totes (another donation box started)

Yarn totes reduced by 2 totes

It's Cold ~ Scarf Finished ~ Desk Project (which leads to Other Projects) © December 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart