Surprise Mail and other tidbits

I was shocked to get this in the mail the other day!  So happy!  I also received a bag of yarn, left tied up in a bag on my door handle from another person.  Yay!

My new truck. It's really for the both of us, but it'll be my daily set of "wheels" so I don't have to keep asking the kids to rescue me to get out of the house anymore.   Remember I said we had "big ticket" jobs/purchases this year?  Well, this one is one of them. Tinted windows and 4 wheel drive.  No massage seats though, ha ha!  Oh my gosh, the gadgets in this thing?  Oye.  Big Red (the old truck) will be sold.  

Something funny to share about the truck.  We took it out to dinner the night Hubby brought it home.  Daughter was in the back and wasn't getting out.  She told us she couldn't get out, it was locked.  Later Hubby left to get in the truck first to let her drive.  He headed out before us.  When we got out there, he was yelling at us to open his back door, ha ha!  He was locked in too.  We need to deactivate the child lock, ha ha!

Good Weather Day!

My husband found the truck he wanted.  It was 3 hours away from home.


Luckily, my step-daughter drove him there for me.  Youngest was home sick.  She had donated blood at school and came home very tired and feeling sickly.  I knew she wasn't going to school when she got up and asked for "tea" yesterday morning.  

First tea I made was a ginger/thyme tea.  Her throat hurt, she had a nasty cough now and then, and she was dealing with fatigue from giving blood.  Second, I made a nettle tea infusion, cooled it and gave it to her over ice (good for blood circulation and fatigue).  As the day went on though, she lost her voice a bit, so it was some sage tincture followed by more medicinal teas.  Poor thing.

Meanwhile, while he went to check out the truck, the weather was good enough to work outside.  I spent 2 hours on another flower bed - only 7 more to go.  The garlic bed has to wait.  Some are not up enough to fix what the wind damage did to my plastic.  We are to get loads of rain for the next 3 days here.  I got myself a good dose of vitamin D and boy it felt great.

I also made the call to check on that propane.  More money to spend, but decision is needed.  We'll now decide what we'll do.   We are told that if you have a buried tank, they have to now do a soil test that costs $250.00.  Not sure if that is per year, but they already started doing it for some, so it would be best to have it dug up and removed.  Updates on that later.

I embroidered a kitchen hand towel for us.  I've been so busy crafting for others lately, it was nice to take time for myself.  We need new towels in the kitchen, so I'll be making more.

Random Tidbits

All of my seeds are up but my peppers. Sigh.  They should be up by now.  I am getting concerned.  I saved hot banana pepper seeds too and even those are not up.  I can't find organic hot banana pepper seeds either.  Only Hungarian Wax.  Those are much hotter, so my question is are they (hot banana) even a real pepper?  A hybrid? Hm.  I may be using Hungarian if these don't come up and I have to resort to buying plants (which will cost me dearly).


We are late on buying seed potatoes too, but I am on the hunt this week.  We should have had them by now.


We are considering replacing our pellet stove with a propane heater for next winter.  Two years there has been a shortage of wood pellets (this year included).  We had plans to buy up all they had on sale, but they are either sold out or sold by a limited amount, and $5 a bag.  I much higher cost than previous years.  It's been a concern for years now, and I would never rely on a pellet stove for a heat source.  Even finding dry corn has been an issue.  Either way, we like to have 2 sources to rely on considering how cold it got this winter.  Solar panels are an option, but not in the near future.


Also in preparing for changes, I've called around to propane companies.  We are looking to change businesses.  Our current supplier quoted 199.9/gallon.  What a rip off.  I called another that services our area and was quoted 145.9/gallon. Updates on that to come soon.  If I also purchase a double oven in the future, the stove will be run on propane (not like the current electric), so that is kept as an option too, as to what size of tank we'd want.


Speaking of propane, our tank is a buried tank (previous owners did this).  I was told by one propane company that people with buried tanks will soon be charged a $250 test.  They are doing away with buried tanks.  So, we plan to have it dug up and replaced with an above ground tank with a new company.  We also heard that you cannot own your own tank anymore.  Not sure if that is true yet, but a tank with the new company is just $1.00/year, but you can only buy from them, so we are smart is asking if the quote to fill it now is a "new customer" rate and if next time the rate will be hiked like our current propane company (which has always been high).

I got an order for another "f" bomb.  I'm putting the final touch on it now.

Yesterday and today are crock pot meal days - love those!  Organic roast, potatoes, carrots and onion one day, and two crock pots today - Burger Slow Cooker dinner in one, Glazed veggies (carrots, turnips, parsnips) in the other.

The "big city" has been doing road construction for a year now, and last year busted a water line closing stores and restaurants.  Two days ago they busted another water line and there is a boil advisory until Thursday.  I had to call the kids and let them know.  Yesterday, the workers busted a gas line and downtown was evacuated.  Geeze.  They will also be closing the Interstate overpass at the main exit for a month soon.  Yeah, we avoid that area as much as possible for now.  

Healthy Homemade Granola Bars

Our favorite granola bars, and freezer friendly.  Excellent for a snack, for car trips, camping, motorcycle rides (minus the chocolate since it can melt), school lunches and more.

Line an 8 x 8 baking dish with parchment paper.  If you do not have parchment paper, you may be successful lining it with foil and lightly oiling it (I have only used parchment and it works great).

In a rimmed sheet pan, place 2 1/2 cups organic oats and 1/2 cup chopped organic nuts of your choice.

Heat oven to 350°F and toast oats and nuts for about 8 minutes.  If you chose to add seeds (read below for the additional 3/4 cup of your choice), I like to add them to the sheet pan and toast along with the oats and nuts.  I use hemp seeds often.

While that is toasting in the oven, in a small pan heat:

1/4 c. organic butter
1/4 c. organic honey
1/3 c. organic brown sugar

Heat on low until sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and add:

1/2 to 1 tsp. homemade vanilla.  I like to use 1 tsp.  Stir.

Pour toasted oat/nut/seed mix into a mixing bowl, and add:

3/4 cup of your choice of dried fruits, seeds, coconut etc. If adding chocolate bits, do not add yet.

Pour the heated honey mixture over the oat and fruit/nut mixture.

Mix well until everything is coated.  This will prevent anything crumbling off when you cut it into bars.  

*wait for mixture to cool before adding any chocolate bits to this.  

Pour mixture into the prepared pan and press down.  I like to use the back of a measuring cup to do this step.  Place in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Remove from the refrigerator, and turn upside down and remove parchment paper.  On a cutting board, slice the bars as you prefer.

Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Note:  I do not add any salt to this.  I use salted organic butter and the taste is great!  

Healthy Homemade Granola Bars  © March 2019 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Fun and Food

Sunday was the continuation of fun planning.  We have the hall and band booked for our big 20th Anniversary party.  We are working on food now.  Our honeymoon has already been planned and we are very excited.  It will be simple - loud music, food, friends and family, and of course drinks.

We are making other vacation plans and fun happenings too.  Garden plans and more.  The year is starting out pretty good.

Although we had a tough garden year last year, the garden still provides, along with the chickens and my ability to prepare freezer foods.  I still have a small amount of garden sweet potatoes, jalapenos in the freezer as well as dandelion greens, and some pickled garlic.  Oh, and I found one more container of frozen green onions from the garden, and tossed in herbs I dried from the garden.  It was delicious.

Plum jam.  There is always a good supply of jams and jellies to enjoy too.

Meals have been planned for the next few days too, including a crock pot veggie glazed medley that includes turnips and parsnips.

I pulled a pint of frozen pumpkin puree from the freezer for pumpkin-sage macaroni, which was our dinner last night for our guests.  I also made a crock pot of homemade sloppy joes.

But....guests didn't come over.  Sigh.  Via a group family text, a cook out was being planned at someone else's house last minute.  The weather warmed up to 54 by 2pm and 56°F by 4pm.  Was I mad or glad?  Both.

Guess what we did?  We got the Harley out and got our ride in to their place, minus the crock pot and other dishes I baked.  No worries on the dinner tonight - lots of leftovers.

March is still "flu" season, and with the temps going up and down, I am on germ patrol daily.  Anti-ill sprayed everywhere, homemade "lysol" wipes etc. and of course daily dose of probiotics, greens, nuts/seeds and healthy food.  One restaurant closed Sunday due to flu, and many schools have been closing.  Keep washing those hands!

Exhausted Husband

Our weekend started out with a very exhausted husband.  Thursday he worked 1st shift, leaving at 6:20am and returning 4:20pm-ish.  We had to drive the 33 minute drive to the school for the talent show, and then home, where he barely got a nap.  He returned to work (forced overtime) for the night shift, followed back to back with the day shift on Friday.  Yeah, I didn't expect much to get done over the weekend.

We returned to cold weather on Friday.  It rained and snowed - windy, cloudy and a low of 22°F.  Brrr.  I think we've learned that in our state, you won't know the weather until you wake and and check it.  It changes that often anymore.

Saturday we had a high of 48° and sunny.  Hubby announced he was also working Sunday.

Today it will be a high of 54° but Hubby also announced we were hosting a dinner when he got home.  Hmpf.  

Random Tidbits

A rainy day didn't keep me down.  I had lots of indoor chores to do.  I was a bit sore from outdoor work too, so a break was a bit nice.  I puttered around, refilled the chili pepper, refilled homemade foaming hand soap, etc.  

I made Einkorn chocolate chip cookies.  Although I only had their "all-purpose" flour, and not the Whole Grain whole wheat flour, they turned out delicious.  Just not as thick, but so good.

Here's what our menu has been for the week so far:
Sweet potato chili
Tacos
Breakfast for dinner - blueberry pancakes, eggs, sausage
Lima bean soup
Leftovers

The weather forecast for the weekend changed.  We were so pumped to have a 60-70° day, but that has now lowered to a high of 53° and cloudy.  Time will tell if we get our ride or not.

The bathroom remodel is still on hold until next week or later.  The truck shopping continues.  Hubby joked that he'd have a massaging seat installed for me, after giving me a shoulder rub after two days in the herb garden.

A friend has told me about a local shop that rents out space for consignment.  I am a bit hesitant.  The cost is a bit high, plus they take 10% commission, and 2% for credit card sales.  The garden work has started, so I have less time to do handiwork, so this is on the back table for now.

Our Youngest was the MC for the school's talent show, so we went and watched that in the evening.  She was hilarious too.  She announced one student like a boxing match announcer would announce the boxer entering, so funny!