Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Beautiful Sunrise ~ Garlic ~ Me



Yesterday morning, the sunrise was just gorgeous.  I took this in the beginning.  Then I took this photo...

That was about the time the school bus came.  Then I was getting ready to do laundry, and another dog wanted to go out.

I ran back inside and grabbed my camera before that little bit of rainbow disappeared.  Do you see it?  In the center?  I heard it was a double rainbow, as one of my daughter's saw it going to class. 


A few months ago, I pre-ordered a 1/2 pound of Russian Giant garlic. I counted 29 cloves cloves. This is new to the garden.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Random Tidbits


I snipped a few containers of chives and got them into the freezer.  We plan to add these to every breakfast scramble, soups and whatnot.  Sort of like greens, but a lot more.   As the cooler weather approaches, I go into panic-mode.  We have not even started splitting wood, so I'm madly stocking up the herbs before the first frost.
 


Today, breakfast was "on the go" as Hubby and I made our first visit back to the gym.  We get up at 4:30am and get about an hour work out.  I pre-made the breakfast yesterday, using my crock pot.  I was completely out of apples, and thankful to have a few straggling pears left from our tree.  I made steel cut oats with pears, organic raisins and locally grown walnuts (which I am about out of).  It's a pity that stores here do not sell organic steel cut oats. 

Monday, October 10, 2016

More Tomatoes. . .

We opened a jar of Cowboy Candy.  Wow! Even I liked it, but you have to like hot peppers to enjoy it.  We tasted it with organic cream cheese and a cracker, but they would be delicious topped on a burger of sorts too.  Hubby topped his chicken with homemade BBQ sauce with them too. 

In one last trip to get a few more items for the homecoming attire, we stopped and picked up 10# of organic beef, and one (almost) 12 lb. organic turkey.  That pretty much emptied the pocket book.

Hubby and I enjoyed a picnic in the park after his second doctor appointment, and was due to return to work today, so we played hookie all weekend.

...which meant I did not go into the garden one iota.    

And this happened.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Been a bit busy....

We woke up to thick fog Monday morning.  School was delayed 2 hours, then eventually closed.  As I took the dogs out, it started to rain.  Urghhh.  Rain.  Like we need anymore. 


 Tuesday the fog was bad again - another school delay.
 

However, some lovely green peppers were stuffed and

Monday, October 3, 2016

Poof! Tomatoes and Pears have disappeared....Tomatoes re-appeared!

This is how we began our pear wine - pears were seeded and stems removed.  We purchased a wine sieve bag to place in our 6.5 fermenter.  We had just enough pears to fill this half-way, which was about 23-24 lbs. of pears.  We added one cup of sugar for every pound of pears (approximately), then poured boiling water over, with enough water above pears.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Get'r Done List

The list is getting knocked off by just a teeny, tiny bit.  Hubby can only rest so many hours sitting or napping, so I put him in a chair......

 ..gave him a brush and paint....goodbye black, hello red.  His stent was installed through his right wrist, and is healing nicely.  We finally got his first doctor's appointment made for next week.

While he painted the door, we had a good conversation, while I prepared tomatoes for the freezer.  Today we started the pear wine.  I'll have more on that tomorrow.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Random Tidbits

I had 4 mashed potato servings in the freezer from last year.  They had a small amount of ice on each one, but guess what....

 ...we baked them up the other night, and they tasted absolutely fine.  No freezer burn taste.  Just delicious-ness.  They are not yellow, that was the lighting that evening, as it was dark outside and raining.  Oh, the rain fell, and fell and fell and is still falling today.