Pioneer Woman at Heart

The heat rolled in as they predicted.  No sign of rain is exhausting.  There is a caution of drought conditions, which will be an issue with the gardens.  We are still in the 90's here. We have been diligent with garden work and outside work, like finishing the pressure washing. Peas are still rolling in with constant watering, but plants are not as tall as they should be.  Harvest amounts are lower.  I've been much better at logging the harvest.  The numbers will determine what we will plant or not plant next year.  Although I attempted to get pictures of our wrens, this guy wanted to be the star of attraction yesterday morning. Thank you all who had concerns about my sciatica.  I have been doing my stretching diligently, because if I don't get better, the garden dies, chickens won't get fed and watered etc.  I can sleep without pain now, and that helps with a better start to the day. We had the best 4th of Jul...

I watched a group of 3 deer cross the road yesterday morning, but they turned back and went back across to the river that runs behind us. Later another group of two crossed. Early morning (which brought us home at noon) one daughter and I took Momma cat and her 2 kittens on a road trip.  We found a Humane Society open that would take them.  I gave them a bag of cat food and wrote out a check.  I'm so glad they took them, as our temps will reach up to 96°F this weekend.  It does anger me that I have to pay to have them get a new home, when they were not our cats and 99% sure dumped here.  I believe in karma for people like that.  Kitty's will have a nice place to stay now until they are adopted. I have a friend who is the wife to a co-worker of my husband, who is so stressed over the possibility of another lockdown (and the recent loss of their long time dog).  I decided to make up a basket of goodies to lift her spirits - 4 pack of KY Bourbon ...

I finally got strawberries at the last picking of the season (not mine).  I have yet to re-vamp our strawberry patch and sadly have about 4 June bearing plants currently (with plans to move them and add many more next year).    I started a double batch of strawberry vodka.  We like this.  Recipes are all over the internet if you are interested.  I have more strawberries to freeze today. I made a batch of freezer pie crust crumbles too.  It makes 6 pie crust crumbles.  I use the recipe on King Arthur Flour (available online). My tip to do this recipe:  I cut the butter and put it in the freezer first. I then measure out the flour etc. and add a bit of it to my food processor. I toss in the butter and pulse it until it looks like this. I then add it to the rest of the ingredients and measure it out using my scale, and freeze them.  All I have to do is thaw it a bit, and add ice cold water and r...

Baby yellow finch.  So happy to see that Mom and Dad had a baby.  I will have to keep an eye out for more. More blooms in the flower garden. My new addition to the flower bed is blooming wonderfully. I almost had a close up photo of a Boston Oriole, but by the time I got my gimmpie rear to get my camera, he/she flew off.  Hubby and I got to see it though while playing cards on the front porch last night.  That's about all I accomplished, other than watering everything.

We had another weekend retreat at our favorite island.  It was the best weekend ever.  We went alone this time.  We met more islanders and laughed and laughed and laughed.  Tried a Storm Cloud shot for the first time.  Hubby didn't like it so much, but I did.  Sort of on the sweet side. It was pretty busy on the island and the place we rent is now booked until mid August already.  Our friends that own it, have a machine that they set inside and put a timer on and it kills anything.  Sort of like what the UV machines do, but different. We were home early, unpacked, laundry started, lawn mowed, garden checked, catnip went into the dehydrator and potted plants watered. Sage went into another dehydrator.  It was hotter here than at the island (beautiful weather and nice breeze at the island). We have six acres, but not all is mowed.  Our old goat pasture looks like this now.  Hm.  Time to locate people to bring the goats ...

Pea picking is daily right now.  Shell peas are now on thanks to the goodness of rain. Oregano is abundant this year (unlike my thyme and rosemary), but I'll take anything this year.  I filled the dehydrator, and may do it once more. Although there are a lot of sugar snap pea recipes, I went with what I had - used homemade garlic scape pesto, tossed in pasta and snap peas, topped with grated Parmesan cheese.

Tuesday morning we finally got some of Mother Nature's medicine for the gardens.  It was very much welcomed. We also celebrated our one daughter's 21st birthday (she baked and frosted her own cake), and we celebrated it by going out to eat and buying her first adult drink. Daughter and I went to the "Big City" to get our licenses renewed.  Her renewal was easy, but because mine expired during this virus mess, I had to have all sorts of information brought with me.  I dug through paperwork and actually found every single thing I needed for my renewal.  It took us an hour to get through the process.  We timed it right, with only 17 people ahead of us, but a very long line behind us. We have purchased one car thankfully too.  However, we need 2 more to be completely functional, so we are car shopping for the daughter who turned 21. View from our front porch last evening.