Pioneer Woman at Heart

  The to-do list(s) are staying continuous, and in doing so, I found a small flower pot with loofah seeds that some how ended up at my house (from Mom's house).  They are from my Aunt J, from Florida.  I know many (many) years ago, Mom gave me some, and I could not get them to grow here. I decided to humor myself, and put some seeds in a bag with a wet paper towel, to see if any were even good.  I put them in the bag June 27th (although late in our growing season), and on July 12th, I noticed one sprouted.  I planted it out where it would get a good amount of heat and sunshine, and marked it with glady posts (and to give it something to climb).  July 19, 2022 (very late to plant in our zone, but I did) July 21, 2022 July 22, 2022 (new leaf)   July 24, 2022 July 26, 2022 August 4, 2022 (very hot and humid, just got rain) August 10th, 2022.  It's now about 2 feet tall.   Just ignore those weeds.  It's not getting pulled until the gard...

  We had a beautiful evening sky last night.  We were out shucking corn on the front porch, and Daughter E pulled in for a visit.  We fed her and she helped shuck some corn.   My tool to clean the last of the pesky hairs off the corn - inexpensive bottle brush.  I learned about this a few years ago, while watching the cooking channel.  Works great too. It's weird to be freezing corn today by myself.  No kids to help, and we joked about my husband taking a vacation day to help.  I'll get it done, and the chickens are going to be very happy today. I did however, get a good portion of carpet cleaned upstairs.  It has to dry, get vacuumed again, and possibly spot cleaned.  I hope to hire a few strong men to move the treadmill up there. 

  While shopping in Amish country, we walked thru a few antique stores, and I found a butter dish to match my salt and pepper shakers.  By the way, there was one store that had a ton of this Jadeite in their booth. I also found a few more mini hen and nests for the cubbies in the kitchen.   I double checked the garden, and had enough for a half batch of hot pepper mustard sauce.  Those have left the kitchen.  Now I need to go check on the jalapenos.  I'm glad I checked the tomatoes.  Some of the tomato stakes had to be straightened again. I tried a new fresh salsa recipe and it was so good!  We are getting tomatoes from the garden now.  I also made a lemon cheese cake pie that was also a new recipe.  It's a keeper. Another produce stand has closed their doors.  I counted on them, when I needed just a few more hot banana peppers for my canning recipe.  Sigh.  More and more small town restaurants are now closing th...

  The rain has brought on the garden.  More rain is coming, and the bell peppers look great. My husband and I took a short weekend getaway to a nearby Amish country.  We checked out their new flea market, but wasn't impressed.  We did however, bring home some items for the newly repaired/remodeling bathroom.  It's now all put together and looking nice. We stayed one night in a historic hotel we stayed at years ago.  I was so disappointed with the new owners.  They completely took the "nostalgic" away from the hotel.  The parlor was completely remodeled into a quilt room.  It was one of the reasons I loved that hotel.  No more.  Our room we stayed at years ago, now has no refrigerator nor microwave. We brought food with us, and could not keep it cold, nor heat it up, and the other rooms also had no refrigerator.  I was blown away at this.... Literally in front of the toilet. See the toilet paper?  We checked out and got cof...

My husband got the ceiling piece back up over the kitchen sink.  He had to use screws (old house, old house rolling eye moments), so I'll be painting over that, taking down the curtains, and finally putting in the last window blind.  We are gaining slowly, but love what we've accomplished.  It rained all morning, so instead of taking the donations, I spent several hours upstairs.  I made several trips to the burn pile, trash, and put stuff in a box for our friend to scrap.  I also added to the donation pile. I finally got a few minutes to prepare onion dip to try.  I decided to make it earlier in the day, and put it in the fridge until we wanted to bake it.  I'm just a stickler on getting dishes done and put away, and don't like to do them later after dinner. Anyway....it was delicious.  It's from AllRecipes.  It's made from sweet Vidalia onions (these come from GA), organic mayo, organic swiss cheese, and organic parmesan cheese.  It's...

  We had a heat advisory yesterday, and they were not kidding.  It was over 100 degrees and humid as heck.   I finally got bread and butter pickles canned.  Daughter E stayed until about noon and left to go enjoy the county fair with her boyfriend.  She saw I was crocheting a new item for the holiday craft shows, and took two.  I'll get photos soon.   We had a late evening storm that brought us a good downpour for a few minutes.  It was enough to give the garden a drink. There is a chance of rain today and tonight.  My kitchen floor is filled with items to donate again.  I'll be loading that all up soon.

  Other than preparing a breakfast for a few days, which now will last a day, I cleaned out much of the upstairs.  I have filled the kitchen with items to donate. The plan is to load up the truck this weekend and donate.  I offered it to a family member, who is seeking funding for an adoption.  I suggested a garage sale, and we'd donate it all, but they say there may not be a date set.   I just don't have anywhere to store the items, and I need to get it out of the kitchen before anyone trips on it. Daughter E came out and had dinner with us, and stayed the night.  She is loving our newly repaired/remodeled bathroom.  Now we just need to get the upstairs worked on more to make a spare room. Today there is a heat advisory.  I watered everything yesterday. There is a possibility for rain later this week.  I guess we'll find out.  The rain keeps leaving the radar, which is not good. If I have enough, canning resumes today....