Pioneer Woman at Heart

I decided to stop in for a chat, but my post ended up sort of long.  I apologize in advance, ha ha! Hard to believe that we are nearing the very end of August. The garden(s). . . What happens when your barn cats have expired, and either field mice or chipmunks find your beans.  Good reason to have a solar electric fence if you don't have a good rodent control.   First good haul, but not even close to last year's harvest.  I'm thrilled to get what we do get.  I brought in another 3# the other day too. Bell peppers are rolling in, and they are about 1/4 inch thick.  I don't feel this particular pepper smells as good as the type we grew last year, so I will looking that up in my garden journal for reference.  Taste is important too. Meals have been based on what I brought in from the garden.  It has been nice to have fresh canteloupe for breakfast.  We haven't grown fruit in the garden for several years (due to space). We literally sliced o...

  Back in the June fo 2024, I waited patiently for my yarrow to spring forth flowers, so I could brew up a tincture.  In the end, I ended up putting both catnip and yarrow in one tincture, for a experimental mix for bug repellant spray (for us). I strained it and used it to make the every changing recipe that Mountain rose herbs keeps changing (on their website). You can read about the bug/mosquito repellant here on my blog.  Original post is here, but their link no longer works. (dried yarrow on a screen) We have added powdered yarrow to our "medicine chest" of remedies.   We learn something new every year.   We have already used macerated yarrow for a bleeding cut, and it is said to be great for wound healing.  If you haven't read up on yarrow, you really need to.  According to Learning  Herbs,  yarrow is also great for treating a fever.  In the past, we have grown and dried feverfew, but we now dry yarrow.  Yarrow salve...

We finally got one evening of rain here.  I'm not sure how much more we'll get from the cucumbers, but they are almost all dead plants at this point. The jalapenos are rolling in, so I have plans to bake us a jalapeno cheddar frittata for breakfast soon.  I also have plans to try a new hummus recipe (Jalapeno-Avocado). I've been trying new tea infusions, and have included some new ones and excluded some we didn't like.  I found that yerba mate iced in the early part of the day is delicous with nothing else in it. Once again, there are locals stealing, cars getting broke into, and in one small town, a person walked through the woods to break into a house.    I have discovered something new!  I can substitute pie pumpkin puree for mashed bananas in a zucchini muffin recipe.  I have only made the recipe a few times, as we lacked the zucchini (squash bugs). I did not know I could swap the pumpkin for the bananas, and I am blown away how good it tastes in t...

The start of August regarding rain. . . I do not have a rain gauge here, but I will be getting one for next garden season.  The news finally called it a drought, but said lots of rain was coming.  We had a tornado warning, and a boat load of rain with it, but that has been all we've gotten this month (so far as of today August 14, 2024). The squash bugs were infesting all of our squash.   Do you have a sure fire solution to organic pest control for squash bugs?  We have tried Captain Jack's organic garden dust, and we have tried organic neem oil spray.   We may not plant squash next year, in hopes to eradicate the nasty varmits (squash bugs).  It will mean no squash at all. I don't know what continued to eat the greens, but the neem spray did not keep it away.  Just when it was looking great, it started looking like this.   Frustrating for sure. (2 1/2# that I had planned to can into hot pepper mustard sauce, and I still had another...

I apologize in advance for the length of this post.  I honestly, didn't think I'd be back so quickly with a post at all. The home project list continues.  The master bath is not checked off the list just quite yet.  We have made progress, but the shower tile floor is dragging on. My husband hired a brother of a friend to replace the tile floor to the shower.  First, good luck getting the guy to come on the day he says.  He canceled three times.  I was about to google YouTube and install the floor myself.  He showed up (after canceling again, after coming out for a quote), and literally asked me if I had a trowel for the grout.  Literally! Sigh.  He came and gave us a quote, and said he had the "tools" for the job, and he had experience.  My husband even told him that we know nothing about installing tile.  He also mentioned he didn't bring his tool to cut the tile.  Huh?  He knew full well what the job was - install a tile...

  The weather is much to be desired this garden year.  We should have been picking weeks ago, canning and enjoying by now.  We literally just picked (yesterday) our first heirloom Shintokiwa cucumber (English variety).  One plant already died, the other two types of cucumbers are are not looking good. I picked two pickling cucumbers, and have put them in my vegetable storage containers, that keep them fresh longer.  In hopes to get more, and possible just get some relish canned this year. The humidity has been at it's worst , and with the lack of rain, the garden suffers.  The weather these next two days will be in the upper 90's, and the humidity at it's worst yet.  This morning the humidity is 92% already.   We have only gotten green beans from two plants so far, as we had to replant twice (after we finally fenced them). The tomatoes are at their worst ever.  They are very small, lack any production good enough to do any canning, and t...

  I may be popping in here now and again.  It's only been a few days, and I miss writing my blog.  You may get a post here or there in the near future.   Although in that short time, I have purged about 40 books, and most were literally from home schooling days, and non-fiction books from when the kids were all in school.  I have also purged 2 boxes of craft supplies.  I kept a TON of crafting, recycling craft supplies and more, for when the kids were in school as well. Cleaning the "spaces" has been gratifying, so we can eventully "enjoy" the newly organized spaces.   I'm am working on transitioning from raising kids, and having the roll of "Mom" for so many years, to "empty" nesters.  It's not like I am out of "things" to keep me busy around here, especially during garden season. You'd think I'd be busy with the role of "Grandma" but sadly that is not the case.  I'm trying not to dwell on the fact, th...