"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.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

More Rain and Random Ramblings

Woke up to rain showers Saturday morning.  My intention was to do the very last of the flower bed weeding and plant the last of the flowers, drop zinnia seeds and plant glady bulbs.  Everything was soaked.

So frustrating.  Farmers have not been in their fields at all around us.  Zero.  On my way to town, I saw a farmer hook up a sprayer to a 4-wheeler.  A friend of the family told us her father (farmer) is not planting corn at all due to the weather.

Saturday we got up to the 80's, but I couldn't do much work outside.  The bees and wasps were swarming again.  I must get that trap up ASAP.  I however, got 3 hours of weeding done in the mailbox garden.  It was full of grass and I neglected it for 2 years.  This year it'll be spiffy.  I will try and get a photo if the bees and wasps leave the area.  Believe it or not we got zero rain Saturday night.


It's Sunday.  Yay.  The only day my Hubby gets off work.  Guess what?  More rain.  Bwahahahahahahahaha!  Yep. Thunderstorms.  Later in the day.  At first they said 5pm, but now they say 2pm.

He is going to attempt to fire up the tiller and start in the tomato patch first.  Updates on if that even happens later.

I decided to buy myself a little treat to enjoy after planting flowers.




On another note, my mother had been asking where she could buy "baby" flamingos.  I found large ones, but she kept asking, leaving voice mails etc.  I decided to just go on Amazon and poof!  In less than a few minutes, had them ordered and shipped to her house.  She was elated and sent me this photo.



I have to admit.  They do look cute behind the larger one, ha ha!  She has since then planted bright pink wave petunias in that flower bed.

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Storms, Flowers, the Un-planted Veggie Garden and a Crochet Emergency Kit

Thursday we had another gorgeous start to the day - sunshine and up to the 70's again.  I weeded the front flower beds. Indoor cleaning always suffers, but I had to take advantage of a good day outdoors.  It needed done badly. I still can't get into the veggie garden.

Evening however, brought on major thunderstorms, wind and possible hail.  I was pretty thankful I had not planted the tomato plants or anything for that matter.




(wasn't cheap and I still need more, and will add color with zinnia seeds and glady bulbs)

This is one small section that edges sidewalk off front porch.  It's a small start.  Needs a few more touches, my rooster planter and then mulch for all the beds.  We lost a few mums over winter, so come fall I'll add a few if I can.  We also lost the granny apple tree, the plum tree died and our large peach tree looks terrible.  The two red apple trees are looking good so far.  Elderberry trees look terrible, but growing.  Darn deer.  I have to put stakes around them this year.  We also lost a blackberry bush, and possibly a red raspberry bush too.

Funny story about that photo.  Hubby finally weed whipped.  He was trying to add more string to the gadget to finish, and we were sitting on the porch.  I told him to just let it go and do it another day.  His response, "If I listened to you I'd never get anything done."  To which I responded, "oh, so that's why the shovel is still sitting in the half dug septic tank?"  Touche.




Friday we had clouds all day, with a high in the upper 60's.  It rained.  Hmpf!  Again. It thunderstormed last night.  Again. More rain is in the forecast for the weekend.  I did some more porch cuteness.  

The wasps and bees are so bad this year.  I can't work in the flower beds after about 10am.  While I ran to the store Friday, wasps literally built a nest in my side door way.  We had to enter the front, go back out and spray it, then wait and knock it down.  Hmpf.




Have you seen this idea on the internet lately?  I made myself one for the truck.  I plan on making two more.  One for the car and one for the camper too.  Ha ha!  I give credit to Blackstone Designs website - notebook (3 for $1 at our Dollar General store), pen, pencil, crochet hook, large eye needle, measuring tape and scissors.  These would make nice gifts for friends and family who you know that crochet.  I also found out that it's much safer to crochet in a moving vehicle than knit.  I don't have a label machine, I just edited the photo with text, but would be cute to add that to it for gift (cricut maybe?).  This one went straight into "Red Lightning" (aka the truck).

I often forget to pack stuff when I bring car projects along on trips.  Speaking of memory issues.  I had to look at my lists to figure out why I ordered jojoba oil.  Sigh....I really did.  

Now, if I can put peace inside my chaotic home, it'll all balance out nicely.  I'm sure the rain will help me out with that.