Pioneer Woman at Heart

I wanted to share a clip from a newspaper that my oldest brother shared with me.  I do take out warmer water this time of year.  I am going to try the suggestion for feeding them - lighter in the am, and heavier in the pm, and see how it goes.  I'll let you know if the egg production changes for the better.  I do believe they need a break after long summer, but having some eggs would be nice too.  We got one egg yesterday.

I was asked to explain our daughter's Hope Chest.  I do not have an actual "chest" in which items go into, but they go into storage bins. A Hope Chest simply refers to preparing your child for independent life.  To us, it doesn't mean simply "marriage" but independent life, and have a good start for it. (not my photo) There is actually a book written about the Hope Chest, and suggestions.  I used to own this book, but passed it on to a friend years ago. We don't want our kids going broke, when it's time to leave the "nest" so I try to add to their stash quite often.  The first three to move out even had boxes of homemade Christmas ornaments for their own, first Christmas trees away from home. (Made with scraps of cotton year leftover from knitting dishcloths and other items). I recently added a scrap rug to our youngest's daughter's "Hope Chest" along with a few Christmas ornaments.  I also added a s...

Sort of a boring post, but not much else to talk about in winter time.  Hope you enjoy. Meal prepping from the freezer and pantry has been a complete success, not to mention sort of fun.  It's been a fun challenge for sure. When I made the banana bread the other day, I swapped out the oil for home canned applesauce.  I also used walnuts from the freezer (grown locally). Tonight's meal is soup beans, using a ham bone from the freezer.  I'm pulling some sour cream from the freezer too.  Adding some to homemade buttermilk (using homemade buttermilk) corn bread makes a very moist bread. I also pulled organic ground pork to make homemade sausage.  I'll be back to let you know what I use it for as well. (Tiger keeping warm under the bed quilt) Well, the weather man wasn't wrong.  We went from freezing cold temps to a boat load of rainfall.   Clean/purge/re-organize updates: Garage:  5% done (looks like a losing game...

The forecast is expecting 6 weeks of rain in two days here (starting today).  It seems like this happened the year we had a bountiful garden, so I'm praying the Weather Gods are good to us and we get through this upcoming flood. Photo from 2016.  Just came across it and found it cute! Hubby has been taking overtime lately.  He's been leaving the house at 6:30am and not returning until after midnight. (not my photo) I don't sleep well when he works so much either.  I know we could use the extra cash (new coop, new barn roof, and on and on), but it does mess with my sleep. Making meals from the freezer and pantry has been a success.  I whipped up a zucchini and swiss chard frittata for a breakfast. By the way, freezing organic ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese and sour cream has been very handy for baked meals.  The texture changes when thawed, but works great for baked recipes.  I will do that again, since I have no access to ...

Hard to believe this was Jan 7th, 2015.  Five years ago.  This year we do not have snow, but we are told lots of rain is heading our way, with a small bit of snow.  Gotta love that sunshine we had back then. It didn't take long for our internet service to hike their rates.  I called, there are no "deals" right now, and I was told all customers rates went up.  We now pay $70.00/month just for internet.  Unfortunately, we are in the boonies, and extremely limited to any other source.  One said nope, we can't get service through those trees. The chickens are laying, but on a limited basis.  Not sure if it's just their slow return to laying or lack of sunshine.  I'm just thankful for the eggs. Freezer rotation is still in progress.  I dug out one area of the freezer, re-organized and made notes on what meals it all could be used for.  I also made notes in my "canning" journal, to better utilize what we put up last fall, and...

Boy it felt so awesome to not have so much to clean on Monday.  I devoted some more crafting time.  Thanks to one of the girls, I am restocked with new candles too. Finished this UFO.  I think I had it for a gift but never got around to finishing it.  It'll be in my kitchen now with Valentine's Day coming next month.  It can hang around all year though (I did the cross stitch that is in between the red flower pattern that came on the towel). Finished the remaining sheet music Christmas Tree ornaments.   I think the blue one needs a silver bow at the top of the snowflake on it. I have only 4 more UFO's, unless I come across more.  They'll take more time to finish, but I'm on it. I'm thankful for leftovers tonight.  I used all items from the freezer and pantry, and made us Salmon Romanoff using MI caught Salmon (by my older brother), and a side of organic peas.  I'll dig out another veggie to go with lefto...

Over the weekend we took a car load of stuff and donated it to a thrift store.  Stopped at the hardware store and picked up supplies.  We made a visit to Mom's too, where one of our kid had also stopped in.  I took her one of the spool ornaments and a jar of homemade taco mix.  Hubby started on his "to-do" list too.  Nothing is completely checked off, but one job is half-done right now. I finished another UFO (unfinished object, but I think it should be UFP - unfinished project).  Anyway, the scrap yarn rug went to our youngest for her hope chest.  We also cut, split, loaded, unloaded and stacked wood.  We didn't want to, but we needed to. Blueberry pancakes made with whole wheat Einkorn flour, sausage, and organic black coffee.  That's what's for breakfast this morning. I'm working on this UFO - kitchen towel.  It am using various patterns from library books to finish this project.  Hubby laughed when I t...