Happy Homemaker Monday

Anyone else up at 4:57am?  Just to wash the bedding, dry it and remake the bed before your night shift working husband gets off work, and because you can't remember where the second set of sheets are and you are too tired to look for them?  Now that's one long run-on question.

Once again, a wren (at first I thought he was a chickadee) is building a nest in the same flower pot as last year.  They don't even care that I'm on the porch either.  They have their babies and they are gone instantly after the kids can fly.  He landed right on the chair next to me yesterday morning.

Sunday was the looooongest, most boring, dreary day for me.  Although it was much cooler, it was too wet to weed just yet.  Maybe I'll get some done later today.  Depends on the amount of time it'll take to get new tires on the car. Another day interrupted, but it needs done ASAP.

Today I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Enjoy!   I gotta get things done around here and it's a busy day today.

If you are wanting the Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing recipe, go to this post to get the link.  


On the breakfast plate . . . 

..along with some much needed black organic coffee.


The weather outside is . . . 
Cooler - woke up to a 64°F, with a high of 81° and no chance of rain.


Right now I am . . .
Writing this post as the dryer (gulp! have no time to dry them outside until I find the second set of sheets) hums away, and getting ready to make a second pot of coffee.


On my bedside table . . .
A total mess - ruler, cup, notepad, pen, reading glasses, homemade lip balm.  Need to tidy it up after Hubby is off nights.


On my reading pile . . .

Movies I watched . . .
Sahara, Law Abiding Citizen


On my TV . . .
Mostly Hulu or Amazon movies


On the menu . . .
-Grilled burgers, corn on the cob, leftover bruschetta salad and melting potatoes (maybe)
-Apple/chicken/Pecan/Cranberry salads with homemade pomegranate vinaigrette
-Grilled chicken pesto/tomato kabobs or possibly Drunken Chicken with garlic mashed potatoes or crock pot chicken alfredo
-leftovers hopefully


On the to-do list . . .
Everything ha ha ha!  Can't do much until Hubby is off of night shift.
-wash bedding
-take car in for new tires
-sweep and mop kitchen
-tidy up kitchen
-tidy up front room
-dust


What I am creating . . .

A set of pot holders in this color.

Looking forward to . . .
Hubby off of night shift, no long 12 hour shifts for him, and an overdue and much needed trip to the island.  I have to remember not to bring up subjects like building a new chicken coop during this work schedule.  Hubby is a bit on the grumpy side, as well as me.  No need to poke the bear right now.  Conversations are kept to a light topic for now.  


Looking around the house . . .
Another total mess.  Brand new sweeper and haven't used it since I'm too tired to do it when Hubby gets up (and too tired to use it before he gets home).  I have to open the new shampooer and put it together too.  Papers need filed, office area is in disarray, and so on.  Not to mention recycling needs dropped off (we are too far out in the country for any sort of "pick up").


From the camera . . .

One of my simple pleasures . . .

An afternoon cold coffee with a splash of Bailey's and Kahlua (homemade is the best) in it.  I little adult afternoon pick me up.  Don't worry folks, this is a very rare occasion.  It just may have happened on Sunday.  I may very well happen again today. 

Prayers . . .
Our weather, farmers, Hubby and his long hours, my sanity

Insanity?

Heat and humidity are still with us.  Sigh.  Gonna get more rain, even though we got more last night.  Almost makes me want to laugh, it's to that point of insanity.

We got more rain yesterday.  As well as through the night.

I have had a few more unsupervised days here lately.  I don't want to run the sweeper, in fear of waking up Hubby, so cleaning is not really getting done either.  Master bath seriously needs a cleaning, but it's off the bedroom he's sleeping in.  Garage needs recycling cleaned up, but it's too close to the bedroom too.  Which leaves me to unsupervised online shopping.

Ordered a new vacuum, carpet shampooer (badly needed), leather making kits to get started on a new venture (1/2 price), placed a small yarn order, printed out a new pattern (another new venture), ordered beeds, and a few more items for leather crafting.  Good golly get me off the computer.  What's next?  Possible unsupervised  (rescue) puppy shopping?

Dinner?  Grilled chicken/bacon ranch kabobs with homemade ranch mix, grilled butter/herbed homegrown french breakfast heirloom radishes and a bruschetta salad (unfortunately not my homegrown tomatoes just yet).

Heat Index Returns ~ Keeping Chickens Cool

Friday the heat index was predicted to be up to 100°.  It reached 98°F in our area. Weeding is still at a halt for me.  Just not worth the risk to be out there.  The humidity is sooo thick and my camera lens steamed up.

Chickens were iced again.  Did you know that although they eat the ice to cool off, they also pick some up and put it under their feathers?  Mine do anyway.  Just an FYI for those undergoing the same heat as we are, and raise chickens.  When we had goats, we froze water in small bottles and added them to their water buckets.

Nothing really "homesteady" to share today.  Youngest Daughter ditched me for another sister and is spending a few nights with her, so I'm unsupervised for a few days.

Bought myself this. . .

I sure hope I take the time to read it now, lol!

I have yet to deliver roosters to those taking them, but they are crowing now.

Thanks to being stuck inside with the AC this week, I have new projects on the handiwork to-do list.  They will be fun too.  I'll update as I finish them.

Dinner was once again salad and fresh cold fruit.  Too hot to cook a darn thing, and with the heat this bad, we all have non-zippity do-dah appetities.

Hot, Humid, more Thunderstorms ~ Homemade Pomegranate Vinaigrette

When water starts to flood this field it's not a good sign.  I took this photo yesterday morning.  We got a lot of rain the previous night.

We are getting burned out of this night shift business.  I should go to "nights" when he does so we are on the same schedule.  Ugh.  He's on this shift until middle of next week with no days/nights off.

What did I do on the 4th?  No celebrating for us. Too hot to grill out as well.  Hubby had to sleep then work night shift, the girls went to the movies, and it was just me and the dog and the AC.

I baked some chocolate bourbon spiked banana bread for the us.  Recipe is online, I just adapted organic ingredients (leites culinaria).

Cooked up a breakfast scramble with bacon and dandelion greens.  Tossed in some jalapenos too.

I made us a salad for dinner on a very hot and humid day.

Organic greens, cooked and shredded chicken, dried cranberries, blue cheese crumbles, glazed pecans, apple slices and homemade pomegranate vinaigrette.  Delicious!  Best vinaigrette I've ever made too!  Recipe is a keeper!

Although I fed this little bugger steak at breakfast, he was sure wanting some of the chicken I was cutting up for the salad.

Homemade Pomegranate Vinaigrette
1 1/2 cups organic pomegranate juice - heat to medium heat and reduce until you have 1/4 cup.  Cool completely.

Whisk in:
(all organic ingredients)
1/3 olive oil
5 tsp. honey
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. salt

Yield:  2/3 cup approximately

Random Tidbits

The news is calling the storm that hit my home town a "micro burst" and not a confirmed tornado, but it did a lot of damage.  Power was out in many places, roads blocked, lines down etc.  We are guessing that so many trees came down due to the massive rainfall, and roots very wet at the time.

Early Wednesday morning, I was sipping coffee on the front porch.  County workers cut grass on the highway and it was thrown all over the road.  Before I could call the Sheriff (pretty bad when you have to call on county road workers), someone else did and they came out and walked the highway with a leaf blower.  Pretty dumb way to do this, as it's unsafe, but they had a truck behind them.  At least they blew if off.  One motorcycle had already come up the highway before they arrived.

Our biker friend who mows, came out and helped clean out our barn, taking broken down weed whackers and a mower.  He'll fix them up and possibly sell them, and we are glad to help him out and clean out stuff.  He also took our tiller to do some repairs on it for us.

I took a trip there to do some shopping, and try and locate a salad dressing I wanted  (plan b was to try and make it from scratch).  I picked up our 20 year-old and spent some time with her.  Plan b is now happening today.  Hopefully it will taste even better homemade.

We got more rain last night.  If we get more today, the country highway by us will flood for sure.  Field is already flooded with standing water this morning. It's hot, sticky, no breeze whatsoever, and more rain possible today.

Heat Wave ~ Storm

The heat wave has arrived.  We hit a high of 93°F and yet another day of no garden work done.  Weeds prevail.  It would have been a good year to invest in a solar oven (in my best sarcastic but realistic voice, lol!)

Too hot to enjoy one bit of porch time, but we all knew it was coming with the massive spring rains we got.  

Hubby sleeps all day, so indoor work has to be at a minimum as to where it won't wake him up - no vacuuming, loud anything.  I managed to wash 3 blankets and got them on the clothesline early.  I also made a cold healthy treat for him in case he didn't feel like eating dinner on during this very hot week - homemade hummus and organic celery sticks.

I went outside very early to tend the chickens, pick plantain, picked radishes, water the half dead flowers (veggie garden looked okay), in preparations for possible afternoon/evening thunderstorms.   

We got a downpour about 3pm.  Thankful for that.  Except that I forgot I had blankets drying on the clothesline at the time.  Ugh.  A horrible storm went through my hometown and took down trees and power lines.  Thankful all is okay and thankful it wasn't that bad out here.

A second storm came through and took down trees south of us about 4 hours later.

Was disappointed to find out I cannot harvest my feverfew until the 2nd year of of growth.  Sigh.  As for Arnica?  It's my 3rd attempt at growing it from seed, and it just doesn't like our weather.  Double sigh. 

Although I didn't want to cook, I put chicken in the crock pot, and made radish hashbrowns. 

Although I'm tired of weeding, milkweed randomly growing in the flower bed has killed off my poison ivy.

Keeping Radishes Fresh and other Tidbits

I went out to check on the radishes again.  

To keep them fresh, if I don't use them the same day I pick them, I cut the greens, wash them, and place them in a damp paper towel.  Then I put that inside a container or reusable plastic bag.  Works like a charm.

The ground hog who got away.  I think there are two now.  Sigh.  Gonna have to keep my eyes open now.  Can't lose my garden after all this work.

A beautiful sunrise the other day.  We are entering into a very hot week this week.  AC filters were cleaned and temps turned down for the week.  Monday we reached 93°F.

With the temps soaring, the chickens are getting treated with shaved ice this week.

Woke up to a balmy, sticky 72°F at 5am.  I had plans to wash blankets and rugs.  Hm.  Yeah, that's not happening.