This and That

 

The rain continues to flow here, so planting anything has been a thwarted by Mother Nature.  It's a waiting game right now.  As soon as the ground dries up, the rain returns.  The only seeds planted so far, are collards, swiss chard and Red Russian Kale.  I'm trying my best to be patient.  I'm not feeling too bad about our delay, as we've also had cool 50 degree nights and mornings here lately.

We still have not figured out the mystery of the missing garlic we planted last fall.  

The flower beds remain unfinished as well.  They still look better than last year.  I'm actually glad I have not weeded the "rose" bed yet.  I have some wild growing catnip that I want to utilize, and am not ready to pick it just yet.  I actually have catnip growing all over.

The oregano has spread like crazy this year, and is also growing in the "rose" bed as well.  I will be thinning it out soon.

We can now say we tasted butter cheese for the first time.  It's creamy, but the mild flavor is too mild for us.  

We discovered homemade yeast donuts about 150 miles away from home.  Let's just say, we are glad we only brought two donuts home, or we would have eaten more than one, they were that good.  They are simply glazed, but if you have not indulged in a homemade yeast donut, you are missing out.  I have since found a recipe to try, but will save it for cooler weather, so I'm not heating up the house (and for a not so busy summer planting season).  Have you made homemade yeast donuts?

I absolutely love the homemade butterfly pea flower face toner, and the homemade facial serum.  Love, love, love both and will continue to make both.  I also love the homemade hair detangler.  I've been using the detangler a lot longer than the other two, and I have a lot of new hair growth.  All of the recipes are online from Mommypotamus.

Note:  I don't think I posted anything about the facial serum, but I made it with my home infused rosehip oil.

I now have a yarnaholic daughter.   Oddly, someone other than myself has encouraged her to crochet, and she is seeking more yarn to learn with.  Oh boy, can I help her out!  I'm filling a container for her.  I may even have some hooks for her too.  

This and That © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

May Gardens ~ Bringing Up to Date

 

I trimmed our lilac bush.  Last year a pine tree fell on it, and took half of the bush.  I did not cut any flowers this year, and the dead flowers have been trimmed, along with a few dead branches.  May is the best time to trim it, so it has all year to produce new growth.

Lavender mid-May.  I was too late with a spring trim.

Transplanted a few bunching onions that grew in areas they were not planted.  Same with chives.

Planted more perennials in the flower bed - more blue delphiniums, and a few tall dianthus (Rockin Red), and a few Astra Blue Balloon Flower.  I also added two new lily's - one yellow and one pink.

Note on perennials:  We had a conversation with a shopper about these plants, and she much preferred annuals. She said they bloom all season long, but perennials bloom once and are done.  It made sense with what she was saying, but I explained to my husband, that we have a variety, so we have different blooms all season long.

The start of our garden season has been brutal with unusual hot weather, but we planted two Eastern Redbud trees.  One was planted were there was an invasive honeysuckle growing.  It took longer to get that tree planted, as the ground was rock hard dry.  I had to water the area for 3 days, and then dig out the invasive plant, and then plant the tree.  

Also, the rain continuted to shift, and not arrive as forecasted most days, so we opted to plant herb plants this year vs. drop seeds.  I, of course, planted new rosemary plants, but I'm still determined to win in keeping them alive over winter.  I got a few tips from a friend, but it is a battle (as they do not survive winter).

I took this photo on 2-29-2024.  Also, my husband said he saw "several" sprouts when he was mowing.   We had several garlic starting to sprout above the soil.  We put them in waist high raised beds this year, and covered them with framed, half inch by half inch wire.  We had planned to remove the screens once they were all tall enough, but we went out last week, and these sprouts were literally gone!!  Zero.  I dug through the dirt, and found no rotting bulbs.  NO bulbs at all.  All of the garlic was gone!!  

Okay, so obviously, a large rodent can't be the eating it with the screens on the beds.  The soil was new, so we find this completely odd that a grub or bug ate them.   Scratching our heads, but we will not be buying garlic to plant, for at least two more years to find out the cause.   We've never had a problem growing it, but the last three years we have.  We may go back to planting it directly in the ground.

We had purchased the garlic from Territorial Seeds (music garlic).  Bad garlic?  We'll be buying ours from a farmer's market or produce stand this year (not for planting, but for eating and making homemade garlic powder).

What I planted - new spearmint, 2 basil plants, 2 cilantro plants, 2 rosemary plants,  2 parsley plants, and an extra peppermint plant because I accidently thought I was buying spearmint.

I have once again dug out all of the lemon balm and moved a bit of it to my "weed" garden.  I am forever reminded of making that rookie mistake at planting it in the herb garden.

I use spearmint primarily for infusing in our iced tea.  I learned to make it from my Grandmother on my Mom's side of the family.  Spearmint, along with all other herbs and spices, have medicinal benefits, and we absolutely love the taste of spearmint in our iced tea.

Sharing a few snippets from the flower beds.  It's not all of them, and there may be a few stragler weeds in there yet.  The second day after hanging new flower pots around the front porch, we were delighted to see our first hummingbird visit them.  We don't put out hummingbird food, we put out flowers and they love them.

We visited a tree nusery and looked at one more new tree possibility, and possibly fruit trees, but for fall or next year.  We also found out they also sell a ton of perennials.  There were green houses we didn't even go in.   We found creeping phlox, after searching in 3-4 places.  You can see that my husband picked out another flower to add to our flower beds.

Although May is not over just yet, we most likely will be planting the vegetable gardens into the first week of June.  Our mid-week rain never arrived, which gives us more days to plant, but then it also requires us to water.  I have purchased new hose sprayers this year, and a new sprinkler.

I apologize for the long post.  I'll try to keep them shorter in the future.

By the way, how did May go by so quickly???

May Gardens ~ Bringing Up to Date © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Hot Weather ~ Chit Chat

 

We have all been shocked at having several days of 80-90 degree weather in May.  Tuesday morning was much more doable for outside work, but only early in the day.  I managed to get the rest of the flowers planted, and dumped 10 bags of mulch, but we will need more.   

We've been eating easy breakfast meals and salads for the last few days.  The hot weather is the reason.  Breakfast is pumpkin oatmeal bake (with our home grown pumpkin), and  scrambled farm fresh eggs.

I treated the chickens to some home grown sprouts ( I use a sprout jar system, but you can do this in any quart canning jar with a screen top), and boy were they excited about it.  I have since then, restocked their meal worms.

Crazy as it sounds for such hot weather, but I finally finished this scrap yarn lap afghan.

Hot Weather ~ Chit Chat © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Homemade Butterfly Pea Flower Facial Toner

 I decided, after doing some research, to buy butterfly pea flowers (instead of growing them).  Everything I read stated they prefer a very hot season, and otherwise, do not produce enough flowers.  I have been intrigued to try the tea with them too.

Here is the witch hazel after 24 hours, after infusing it with a few flowers.  Very pretty right?   I started using it on May 19th.

Do I like it?  It's only been a few days, but feels great after a washing my face, after a hot day of work outside.  My face feels great in the morning too.  I'll continue to use it and update after a few months.  I did do a test on my arm first, to make sure I would not have any reaction to it first.

The recipe is online with a free printable page - Mommypotamus, DIY Butterfly Pea Flower Skin Toner.

I included the link on this post, as she has a lot of other DIY recipes and how-to's.

 

It's just infused witch hazel (organic, double distilled), infused with the butterfly pea flowers, and a bit of glycerin.  I stored mine in amber bottles, so I could keep it in the bathroom.  I found that if it's a toner, that has to be refrigerated, I forget all about using it.  

The flower is said to have a lot of health benefits as a tea, and benefits in skin care too.  I believe the online recipe states the benefits, but if not, you can always google it.  I could not find any information in any of my herbal books.

Homemade Butterfly Pea Flower Facial Toner © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Happy Homemaker Monday

 

We finally got one full day to work on the flower beds. Sorry I don't have photos of them.  I will try later once we are completely done.   Between his horribly long work ours (and on weekends), add to that my foot fracture, we are very behind on outside work.  I can't hire help for this work.  Side note:  I may be hiring someone for interior painting that still needs done.

Our initual plan was to get plants into the vegetable garden.  We took one look and had to re-till everything (which required hiring a friend, due to the tiller not running here).  That job never happened until the high heat time of the day.

Instead  we finally pulled up the tarps in the front flower beds and put down dirt.  We slightly expanded an area, to make mowing a lot easier.

 The plan is to find creeping phlox for that small addition next.  It only took us two years to get this done, ha ha!  We were so busy with home repairs, flower beds were on the bottom of the list.

It was very difficult to find flats of marigolds this year.  We never planted one iota last year in the flower beds, so we added some perennials this year again.

We finally found what we wanted, so much of the planting was delayed until this week.  It's limited to cooler hours of the day too.

It's officially everything-in-the-house-is-a-mess season.  It happens.  It's garden season.  If you grow any sort of vegetable garden, or have large flower beds, you know what I mean.

Today, I realized, while watering the herb garden (and new herb plants), that I bought peppermint instead of spearmint.  Sigh.  I have to go back again, but I think we want to get more flowers anyway.  The more perennials we plant, the less annuals we have to buy each year.

Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

The weather . . .

We are in an unusal May heat wave - 80-90 degrees and sunny.  Possible rain Wed.

Right now I am . . .

Finally getting some coffee, and then clean up from planting flowers for two hours this morning.  I have a bit more to plant, but then my full attention will be in the vegetable garden.  If we have enough t-posts, we plan to change they way we tie up the tomatoes this year.

Thinking and pondering . . .

Do you start your days with a plan?  A to-do list written out the day before?  Or do you start your day willy-nilly, and just go with the flow?  I would say 99.9% of the time I have to have a plan for the up coming day/days/week etc.  

To invest in a new sauce maker or not.  Sigh.  It's expensive, and my old one, almost 14 years old maybe, has plastic parts that keep breaking (expensive, always out of stock parts) on me.

How I am feeling . . .

Well, I'm happy to be getting back on track.  Sort of.  It was not fun to get up to days with no plans, due to my fracture.  I've been to the ortho doctor, and other than an x-ray, he said "see you in 6 weeks."  Sort of an eye rolling moment.  Other than to make sure it's healing correctly, sort of a waste of my time and money.

I was given the green light for some specfic exercise, but told me "you are your own doctor" and said that even if the x-ray shows a partial healing I can walk on it without the boot if it doesn't hurt.  My own doctor?  Good gravy.  It is exactly what my husband recently told me.  Also, I now see the importance of having a second person to have another pair of ears, to hear what the doctor is saying.  A lot of mumbo jumbo this last visit.

On the breakfast plate . . .

Have no idea.  It's now about brunch time I think ha ha!

On the lunch plate . . .

With the heat wave, and working in the heat, it could be a fruit yogurt smoothie, or peanut butter on a swedish bread crisp and a boiled egg.

On the dinner plate . . .

Have no idea.

On the menu . . .

Have no stinkin' clue.  We grilled dinner a few nights ago, but man it is really hot outside.

What I am wearing . . .

Dirty garden work clothes.  

On the reading pile. . .

Currently reading this book from my own bookshelf.  The librarian suggested a few places to find the rest of the series for free, but I do not want to read on my small cell phone.  Most are all free, but online such as ebooks.  I'll most likely skip the rest of the series and move on to another book off my shelf, sticking to the "borrow and not buy" motto this year.

Current library loot!  I'm so far behind with these right now.

On my TV this week . . .

Netflix movies I think.  Not sure.  I was so tired last night I fell asleep watching TV.

To-do list . . .

-plant flowers before it gets too hot

-boil eggs, and make chicken salad

-wash yesterday's dishes

-mix up my face oil recipe

-sweep and mop floors

-clean toilets

-check on laundry

-write out a meal plan, and healthy snacks

(this may be the list for the entire week with planting the gardens)

From the camera . . .

Catnip infused oil brewing.  I use this to make homemade bug spray.  Oils can be infused on the stove, but with the recent sunshine, I chose to do it this way.

What I am crocheting . . .

Nothing!  I'm way too tired at the end of the day right now.

It's even too hot to read a book on the porch or patio.  All works in progress are on halted for now.  I do have plans to check my stash however, for colors to put together for making two more lap afghans (for extended family living in an assisted living home).  I want peach yarn for one.  Actually two different shades, but I am pretty sure I have zero of that color.

Devotions, prayers, Bible verses . . .

Prayers for a family friend named Bobbi.  She broke her back, some ribs, and other ailments recently.  I don't know they how of this, but she is depressed from it all. She helped cater food for a family funeral for us once.

Happy Homemaker Monday  © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning

 

We love a good seasoning on our steaks, but we love to use it on grilled burgers too.  My husband purchased the Grill Mates steak seasoning, per a suggestion of a co-worker, and we love it.  However. . .

Check out the ingredients in the Montreal Steak seasoning.  Onion in anything will clump up, so I'm guessing the sunflower oil is to keep the seasoning from caking.  Anyway, I went on a mission to make our own.

I found a recipe online, and it had so many reviews, I decided that would be the recipe to try.  I don't like to put links in my blog posts anymore, as they so often stop working, but if you google for "culinaryhill.com" and "Montreal Steak Seasoning" and "copy cat" recipe, you should be able to locate it online.  By the way, that site has more homemade seasoning recipes you may like too.

I followed her recipe exactly, but used homemade garlic powder, and homemade onion powder.  It says it makes 8 oz, but I stored mine in a recycled spice jar and put the extra in another spice jar.  The smaller one still has the shaker top, to make it easy to use on burgers, chicken, steak etc.

Tip:  I used my coffee grinder (used for these purposes), to grind up the larger ingredients like the red pepper flakes, kosher salt, peppercorns, and dill seed.  I then mixed everything together.

We'll be trying this on grilled burgers first, but will give an update after several taste testings.  

Homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning  © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Too Many Eggs?

 

I have not baked an angel food cake in a few years.  There were just not enough eggs.  However, with my foot fracture, the eggs multiplied here at the homestead.  I decided to bake us one, and it is delicous!  I also now have a recipe for a frosting for the future (family recipe).  We are enjoying this one as it is, but a drizzle of fruit or whipped cream will be nice too.

On a side note, I checked my blog, and I last baked one in 2022, and guess what?  It was raining, ha ha!  Well, it wasn't raining yesterday, but it is today.

I saved all of the yolks, as I was already making us a breakfast scramble, and added them to the scramble. You can save the yolks for pretty much anything.

I used another dozen eggs for the breakfast.

From the freezer - garden green bell pepper, diced ham from the last holiday, and I thawed some dandelion greens and added those too.

In the end, I tossed in some chives from the herb garden, and some tomatoes.

I saved the egg shells for the vegetable garden.  However, too many egg shells is not a good thing for your garden.

I have another 2 dozen eggs in the refrigerator, that I will boil soon.  I love having them on hand for snacking, a quick meal, egg salad, or adding them to other meals.  I'm shocked that so many new chicken owners do not know you can boil them. We keep the coop clean, and the roosts as well.  You just have to wait it out a week or two, so they are older, otherwise they will not peel when you do boil them.

We woke up to more rain, and I am not mad or sad about it.  It will give me a break from weeding the flower beds.  I am making progress, but at a slower pace this year.  It will be nice to give my back and knees a break.

If you got to the end of the post, I can share a little chicken story for you.  My husband has been working double shifts (3rd midnight and 1st shift back to back).  He finally got back to his regular work hours, but fell asleep early.  I went out to put the chickens in for the night, and found out that 3 had flown the coop!  Ugh.

I chased and chased.   Mind you, my foot is fractured.  Ha.  There was no way I was going to wake up my husband.  I finally got them all in, but was exhausted.  I went back out and rigged the run fence.   So far, so good.  Sigh.

Too Many Eggs? © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart