The Serendipitous Pioneer

Poor Viola!  To be honest she has been working hard about once a week as I find new things for her to try and can.  As I try them and do them again I will post the sort of recipes and pics.  "Sort of recipes?" you ask.  Well yes, sort of.  I will sort of tell you what I did and I may even sort of measure for you. Lol. Today Viola and I canned some pork roast I had gotten at the butcher shop on sale and some black beans as I had given my last few jars away over the weekend. I processed everything at once because I only had three quarts of roast and ten pints of beans to do.  I am lazy, sue me. First let's go through the pork roast.  It is beyond simple and I did kind of like my pot roast that you will see in later posts, I am sure. I like my pork with apples. I think the sweetness adds something so used applesauce, chipotle powder, chopped dried onions, garlic powder and salt. Why the yes, that applesauce is my own creation.  Now as I said b...

In my head a dalek was saying the title as I typed, so now you know how my mind works.  There is a reason for the warning.  If you are eating, drinking or have a small child sleeping near you you probably ought to just hold off on this post.  No really I am not kidding and you probably should go to the bathroom first because you in danger of laughing yourself right in to a puddle in the next few moments. As you know once again my new me resolutions included becoming more fit.  I started doing cross fit about four months ago.  I do not even want to know how long anyone was betting I would last but I am sure I had less time on me than any of you.  Which makes all of this even more ridiculous. You might be wondering what on earth you might be looking at people but I am here to tell you those are actually my clothes.  The shoes are now broken in for me by me.  This is what those crazy enough to be up to see the runners at this year's midnight sun ...

Remember a while back when I said I was knitting bags and would open an etsy shop at some point????? Well some point is nearly here.  :D  I just need  springy weather to take real pictures of them.  The weather is starting to cooperate so it is getting closer. Here are some of the market bags that will be going up on the site.  I haven't quite finished the felted bags as they all still need their linings made but I imagine in the next couple of weeks...... Those are a few of my babies.  Hey, it was a long winter and I wasn't sure what else I wanted to knit.  Besides so long as I was knitting, canning, baking or something productive nobody asked me how the dress was coming along.  Clever, aren't I?  I plan on selling on etsy and then maybe here in the community at a craft fair or two.  I would really like to get about ten more felted bags ( I will post pics later) done.  If I could do that, then I could see about renting a space ...

Well really I meant to but........... life kind of hit me.  There is the wedding dress and wedding that need to be done.  And there was this .............. Basically all April long. And by long I mean neverending long.  Like the fear of spring never coming again, long. First snows are awesome.  So is a white Christmas.  Even in to February I am willing to play along with the snow fall.  But ding dang it when April comes I do not wish to be preparing for what turns out to be 17 inches of snow overnight.  That is just wrong. And now just as terrible as it was two weeks later here we are at spring as in now I can see green grass.  Woo hoo! Then, of course what is the never ending winter without the never ending house problems??? Burst pipes, anyone?  Don't feel sorry for me.  I spent plenty of time doing just that for myself.  But now I am a girl on a mission. Drum roll, please ********** I get to fix up this house to move out t...

Came a shameless brag. This my new bootie people.  Three weeks of cross fit and for the first time in my life I can see a behind in my jeans, while I am the one in them.  WOO HOO!  I know everyone is sharing my joy right now. And you were dying to see my butt.  So yes, even though the last few weeks have been rough I have kept up with the getting fit resolution and the no store bought bread goal.  Next week since that is going so very well I will begin...................Menu planning goal. I am a huge proponent of the meal planning.  It really does help me stay on budget and it also frees up my time.  Not to mention the food just tastes better when I am not winging it every single night. On my sweet needles at the moment are still my second sock and bags.  Bags and bags of bags.  I am trying to build up an inventory so I can open an etsy shop.  I figure this will feed my need for creativity and hopefully in a small way pay for i...

Yep that has pretty much been as productive as I have been since the last post.  Sad isn't it.  You really can't see the colors but the thicker wool is a wonderful skunky strip with black, whites, and greys.  The sock yarn is red.  We are focussing on this lovely sock because.......well most of the week was a disaster. Let me explain.  First there were electrical issues.  By that I mean it was like half the house was in brown out conditions.  And of course that half wasn't divide in half or even floors so it knocked out my fridge on one side and floor of the house and the boiler on the other side in the basement. So the heat had to be turned off, in winter in Minnesota.  Good thing it was before the clipper.  That was resolved after a very cold night.  So it seemed well and good but then the next morning I am happy to have power and go down to wash clothes.  I realize my socks are suddenly wet and look down over the clothes. the...

Go on admit it, you didn't think I would finish by them did ya?  That's ok.  I was on that boat, too!  Especially after that little virus made me more susceptible to my allergens.  I do a great impression of a white rabbit who has been punched.  So very unattractive and annoying.  But in spite of it all the second sock got done in record time.  Twenty four hours.  Yeah, I am bragging which is also unattractive but I am so chuffed. On a sad note, I killed the sourdough starter.  While I was sick it was too neglected.  I will start it again today.  Depending on how much yeast I have I may also make another batch of bread.  Today feels like a make something day.  I should probably channel that into something like say a wedding dress.  No really.  It is daunting at best but I need to get a mock up made so that the girlie can see if the pattern modifications meet her expectations.  I think making your daugh...