Pioneer Woman at Heart

It's been one of those weeks, were we need to be here and there, and still somehow manage to get things knocked off the to-do list.  Today, the windshield folks are to arrive here and put a new one in.  They didn't arrive when I was told, so it was re-scheduled for today.  Crossing my fingers they get the job done and it doesn't rain. The new time change is for the birds.  Hubby leaves for work when it's pitch dark, and arrives home in the pitch dark.  I've managed to get a good load of wood each night before dark, so he doesn't have to do it after work.  So far, so good. Tiger (youngest daughter's cat) has been in heaven again.  Without Mia here, his anxiety is down and he's out and roaming the house again.  Poor thing.  Jesse has been great.  He's true farm dog.  Behaves well, roams the homestead on his own again (no sign of coyotes), and is a great watch dog.  Speaking of dog, I will need to buy Jesse a red battery ope...

  View of the larger garden, and raised beds looking south.  Pretty scary, and downright a frustrating mess.  These photos were taken a few months back. I "bit the bullet" and went out day after day ripping it all out.  Yeah, rain prevented us from winterizing the garden this fall.  I'm pretty frustrated, but what can you do?  Nothing.  That's what we can do.  Spring will be a very, very busy spring for us though.  Snow is in the forecast for the weekend, and Hubby is working overtime all week, including the weekend. I'm so happy the political ads are done.  I got so much junk mail this year.   We are past the funeral now, and continue to pray for "A's" family.  We are so emotionally drained, I can't even imagine what his family is going through right now. We had high winds yesterday, so I can thank the weather Gods for clearing all of the leaves off one of my porches.  The wind has died down today...

Homemade dry onion soup mix 1/4 cup  homemade, organic onion flakes 1/4 tsp.  homemade, organic onion powder 1/4 tsp. organic home dried parsley 1/8 tsp. organic celery seeds 1/8 tsp. organic paprika 1/8 tsp. organic ground pepper Mix together, and store in an airtight container.  1 serving.  I like to store this in my freezer if I make it ahead.  The onion powder will draw moisture if you do not.

I printed off new recipes for the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.  I dried more onion flakes and onion powder.  Deep cleaned the bedroom and kitchen (more in there to do yet).  Got some work done on our 19 year-old's car, put away half of the porch pots, picked up long sitting weed piles, swept off one porch, put some barn siding in storage for any future needed repairs, washed a few rugs to later used for laying on for car/truck repairs, and put the camping coolers back in storage.  We also got one of the air conditioners removed from the window and in storage.  Mia is back with her Mom for a few days, but may be back soon again.  She too, is in looking for new living arrangements.  Mia chewed the cover off of one of our youngest daughters books (borrowed from me) while we were out running errands.  I guess we'll need to keep those put up now too.  You know how much we love books too.  Sigh... I made a few sets of hand cr...

  1918 I inherited a few antique cookbooks that belonged to my great-grandmother, who had passed them onto my mother, and now myself. 1936 1935 This book had a piece of paper in it with my grandmother's handwriting. Look at those costs.  Sorry for the dark photos, it's been nothing but dark, rainy, dreary days here lately. Our dear friend in hospice, just one year younger than myself, passed away last night.

We woke up Tuesday morning, to find most of my green tomatoes all over the kitchen floor and living room.  Mia, the hairy green tomato thief stole them during the night.  There were teeth marks in all of them, and it appeared she didn't eat one.   Yesterday's start of the sunrise.  Our temps got up to the lower 60's! The sorghum cookie recipe I used (posted in a previous post), is found online called "Sorghum Syrup Crinkle Cookies" by Golden Barrel.  I used my local sorghum, and regular ol' sugar.  They were delicious and the family has requested them again already.

I have lost my notes on our pear wine. Sigh.  I found a recipe in my County Wisdom and Know How book though.  I may have to adjust it depending on how many pounds of pears we have. Thanksgiving plans are falling into place.  We are not going to the restaurant like we did last year.  We are having two meals this year.  Once with Hubby's family here, and one at my younger brother's house.  I am just trying to figure out what to make for each get together.  Pies do better with our Christmas meal, so I doubt I'll bake one.   I devoted Monday Madness to paperwork.  Got so much done, and have a pile to burn now.  Now if I can just keep it that way. Unfortunately, the wife to a very good friend of Hubby's had a bad stroke a few weeks ago.  She's close to my age.  We got word last night that she is being moved to hospice today.  We are so emotional today, and feel so badly for them.