Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Remember the empty jars piling up? I checked butterfly pea flower facial toner off the to-do list.  One flower per every 1/2 cup of witch hazel (let sit overnight). Once infused, strained, and only a small bit of glycerin added, it's bottled up to use.  The most easiest thing you can make for yourself.  I have been using it for more than a year, and I have a travel bottle to take it on any sort of overnight trip as well.   I still need to make more handmade items to re-stock, however, I was also able to get my homemade hair detangler made.  My hair is loving it. The cucumbers are rolling in now, and I dug out my vegetable chopper, but it's now in the trash sadly. The top part that is pushed down to send the vegetable into the metal slicer, and then into the catch tray, broke off some plastic pieces (and I can no longer use it).  In hindsight, I should have thought of that before buying it, but it last a few years.  The top parts are not re...

  Two weeks ago we had another heat wave, bringing temperatures up to 104 degrees.  It was very, very humid too.  Following that, we got 5 days of rain.  Good for the garden.  Bad for the weed problems.  We just go with "the flow" of things and do the best we can. Humidity has been about 100% lately.  The thickness in the air almost takes your breath away.  Too hot and humid for anything outdoors. Harvested our very first zucchini July 23rd, and our very first yellow squash July 24th (a late harvest year).  They both went into breakfast, and my husband was delighted with his go-to breakfast - Eggs from the ladies, roasted squash with onion and herbs from the herb garden, and smoked bacon from an area butcher store (a breakfast win from the freezer).  So good! I am making a meat re-stock list of course, but the meals created by randomly picking freezer items has been fun and successful.  I did, however (gulp), find a few bags of fro...

It's 21 weeks, but that is also 4 months and 28 days until Christmas.   We attended one Christmas in July event, and it was themed with a German festival of sorts.  We enjoyed (even on a hot day) a bowl of German potato soup.  Most items sold, were antique sellers.  I did not not get any photos of the event, nor made any Christmas purchases (very limited selection to buy from at this event). Visited a store outlet of sorts, and picked one Christmas door mat out, and a Christmas mailbox cover.  It's going to be fun figuring out how, and where, to store the door mat until Christmas.  What was I thinking? I washed up our Christmas tablecloth.  It has a few yellow stains, so I have ordered some special cleaner, that is specifically for antique yellowed fabrics.  The stains actually came out better than I thought, by using "Grandma's Stain Stick" that is made from lard and lye.  I was just waiting for a day to hang it on the line to dry (vs. using...

  Yes, you can buy cans of chili peppers for about $.70 and up, but there is nothing better than homemade diced chili peppers.  A small 4 oz. can of organic diced chili peppers are costing about $2.19 a can in our area now. I have had this on my "try it" list since last garden season, and had intentions of canning them.  I am "on the fence" with canning them for now.  I'll explain. How I made our chili peppers - picked larger fresh Anaheim peppers from the garden.  Washed them, dried them, cut off stems, sliced them in half lengthwise, and cleaned out the ribs and seeds. I placed them all cut side down on a parchment paper lined baking dish, and roasted them in a pre-heated oven at 450°F.  I, however, decided to reduce the heat to 400 before placing the baking sheet in the oven.  I roasted my peppers for about 20 minutes, until the skins were bubbly (watch them so they do not burn).  These smelled fantastic right out of the oven! I removed them fr...

I have had one run-in with a baby deer this garden season.  I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or him/her.  Off it ran and no damage to the garden.  I do think we may have another ground hog, but have not seen it for a while.  A bug of some sort is having a feast on my garden kale, so once we catch up on the weeds and such, I'll sprinkle some flour with pepper mixed into it (husband's trick). It's a bit disconcerting to not have much to harvest yet , and hear the sound of locusts announcing fall is around the corner.  The rain is coming down almost every other day or every day, so the weeds are winning I think.  The bonus win is not having to drag 200+feet of garden hose out to water stuff. Our first Anaheim peppers from the garden.  They are huge as they should be.  However, it's not enough to process, so they are in the crisper drawer to use for current meals.  Or I have plan B too. The cherry type (heirloom) tomatoes are finally on an...

Finished this baby blanket.   These bookmarks are not a new project, but a "found" project I found tucked inside a container.  I have no idea how I made the flower part (I assume printed on cardstock and sealed using the library resources).  I simply crocheted the "string" part of them.  I honestly do not know why I made them, but they are stored in a bag to donate to the little library service program.   I finished these 3 crocheted flower bookmarks (had them in parts for a while now).  I have added them to the service donations for the little libraries as well. For those who crochet -  Something fun to share!   Go to the National Park Service (on your computer or phone), and put in "crochet" in the search bar.  They have free crochet patterns for a Beaver, Lighthouse, Walleye, Saguaro Cactus, and a few more. Who knew?  . . . from the handiwork journal   ©  July 2025 by  Kristina  at  Pioneer  Wom...

  We had another rainy day, so I was able to have a much slower indoor day (sort of).  It was also so humid outside after the rain stopped, so it was not even enjoyable.  There was also a smoke haze in the air, compromising the air quality.  I did not get any Swiss chard cut as it heavily downpoured most of the day yesterday.  Our garden is about 2-3 weeks behind, compared to last year.  I think it was due to a very cold May, and we planted much later.  I am getting kale, Swiss chard, and radishes.  The zucchini is on, but only about 1 inch long right now. I do need to dig the fall planted garlic up soon.  I dug one up already, and we are very happy with the size of it this year. I'm trying out my "vegetable" keeper container to see how long it keeps our freshly cut kale fresh.  I bought the containers on clearance a few years ago, specifically to keep pickling cucumbers in, to collect and keep fresh, until I had enough to can with....