From My Home to Yours: 2/14/25

 From My Home to Yours

...  these beauties are growing in my yard!

2/14/25

(Really, it's 2/16 when I'm actually getting this posted!)

~  Do 'not good' things really come in threes? ~

Our dishwasher died (I'm handwashing our dishes, it's not the end of the world but I will be glad when finances allow us to replace it!)

Hubby spent 7 days in the hospital in a specialty unit (Whatever it winds up costing us will be worth every cent.  I'd rather be in debt with my hubby by my side, then the other option.)  (Yes, we do have health insurance.)

Our oven went out (We're using our air fryer until hubby gets well enough to make the repairs.  Yes, we know what the problem is, but hubby needs to recover a bit more before he tackles repairing it.)

If 'not good' things come in sets of three, we've had our three!

We're certainly aware that in the big picture, these three things wouldn't even stack up against some of the thing's others are going through or have gone through, However, we are ready for things to settle down and behave themselves, if you know what I mean!

Since all three of these events involve money let's talk about finances this week and about how we're going to approach these new items in our budget.

First off, we can do this ... 'hunkering down' financially last year to the extent that we did prepared us to be able to handle these additional expenses.

It's not the financial plan we envisioned for this year, but we will redo our budget and make room for these expenses.  Absolutely no pity parties here!

We know how to 'hunker down' financially, we know how to make do for a time for a specific purpose, and we're willing to make the sacrifices to get this unexpected debt paid off and out of our lives.

Sometimes, life throws us a curve ball that we have no control over.  Sometimes financial things happen that blindside us and when it does, our attitude is one of our most important assets.

With that thought in mind, we've chosen to turn this debt into a challenge and maybe even a contest with ourselves to see how well we can meet our needs and wants while slaying the debt.  Even though the debt occurred through no fault of our own, it's still our debt and we are responsible for it, so it's time to come up with a game plan and play the game! 

What did 'playing the game' look like this week ...

Just call me a 'jill-of-all-trades!'  I can now add stove repair to the lists of things I've done!  We determined that the problem with our stove was the bottom element, so we purchased a new one and hubby walked me through replacing the old one with the new one.  It really was a funny site, me with half my body in the oven and hubby giving me step by step instructions standing beside me outside the oven.  Did I mention that my knees were 'killing me' while I was halfway in the oven doing the repairs! Sometimes, I think we would make good candidates for old people commercials, you know, the ones that make you laugh and smile all at the same time, we do get up to some shenanigans in some of our DIY projects!  Regardless, we got it done and now, our oven is working again!  The part costs us $45, if we had called the repair man to come out and repair it, there is no telling what we would have had to pay for parts, service call and labor combined!  We played the game ... the money saving game!

The cabbage seeds I planted last week in one of our salad barrels have sprouted, take a look ...

Can you see all those baby cabbage plants coming up!  This will save us quite a bit of money not having to purchase cabbage plants for planting when the time comes to put them in the garden!  We're playing the 'saving money' game!

I also planted 'little marvel green peas' in one of our raised beds.  

Pea seeds like to be crowded when planted and as you can see these should be some happy pea seeds!!!    The 'little marvel' variety does well in our climate, and we can grow enough in this one bed to last us for a year.  No, we don't use them every week, but we do like them in soups, stews, casseroles, etc.  It's one more thing we don't have to buy at the store.  Did I mention that this variety is an heirloom and that we save seeds from year to year for the following year's planting?  We're playing the 'saving money' game!

The first load of next year's winter wood was delivered over the weekend.  We put our order in back in the fall ...

We have more coming!  We are playing the 'money saving' game!  This wood will save us heaps on next winter's power bills as well as keep us much warmer!

I had some milk that needed to be used so I made yogurt ...

Here's the method I use to make yogurt.  Playing the 'money saving' game means nothing goes to waste!

Each week I am on a schedule to plant seeds for plants to go in the garden.  This week I planted calendula and sage ...

This is the first year that I've tried the milk jug method of growing seeds.  Our greenhouse is in need of some repairs right now, but alas, hubby has not recovered enough to tackle anything that will require that much exertion ... so, the challenge before me is to grow our garden plants without our greenhouse!  Again, we are playing the 'money saving' game by growing our own plants from seeds, the best way we can!

In closing, to the reader who has requested my hubby do a tutorial on our container garden watering system.  He has agreed and will get onto it as soon as the weather cooperates, and he can get outside to build another one for a somewhat new container garden grouping we have.  He wants to include pictures with the instructions so it will make it easier to understand.

One more thing ... We had several medical appointments to keep and medical stuff to do this week, hence the reason this post is late!  While I want to be as consistent as I can in sharing and writing each week, right now we are adjusting to a new normal and things might look different for a little while in regard to how often I post and my ability to respond to comments.  Please, just bear with me, I'll get back to my regular schedule as soon as possible!

One more, one more thing ... for the ladies that are following along with our Bible study on Rahab, the final lesson has been posted HERE!

That's it for this week!  What did your week look like in your home?

  How are you playing the 'saving money' game?

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You might be interested in my other blogs ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine 

From My Home to Yours: 2/8/24

 From My Home to Yours

2/8/25

~ Let's talk gardening ~

This week has been filled with doctor appointments, trips to pharmacies for prescription fills and refills and just trying to get settled in back at home after hubby spent 7 days in the hospital.  You can read more about that HERE.

On Thursday, I crashed and simply could not go any further without some substantial rest, so I don't have much to report this week in the form of getting things done.  I can, however, talk about gardening and share some of my plans for the year.

I break my gardening down by months and what needs to be done in each.   This year I've added little tips and notes of extra things I want to incorporate into my garden to better utilize the space I have.  Here's what February and March look like ...

Note:  Our gardening zone is 8b with excessively hot, humid and dry summers!  Winters are somewhat mild with spring and fall being our prime growing times.

Spring Planting  (February and March)

Potatoes

Cabbage

Lettuce

Radishes (2/1 – plant small row; 2 weeks later, plant another small row, plant last planting 3/15)

Onions (Dixon Dale – Texas Sweet) – snap off seed heads as soon as they form – don’t let them grow at all!

Curly kale

Green Artichoke – grows tall – 8 – 10 feet

Chard

Kale

Carrots

Marvel peas (January and February)

Beets (plant again in February)

Leeks – tall thin varieties (King Richard)

Scallion - plant along edges of raised bed

Arugula – flowers are edible (save seeds from flowers after mature and dried)

These are the basics and doesn't take into consideration any new items I/we want to try.  I have a few new to me herbs I want to plant and some need to be started in February and March. 

In addition, and this is new for us this year, around each tree, including fruit trees, fertilize/compost well and place landscaping fabric or black fabric about 3 feet out from tree base.  Make holes in landscaping fabric where I want to plant and do so.  Plant shade loving plants.

As you can see, I'm getting excited about this year's gardening season.  Last year we weren't able to do much gardening due to health issues and I'm eager to get back to it this year!  I have BIG plans for this year's garden!

If you've made it this far, you will have realized that there have been no pictures, well that just won't do so take a peek at this one ...

On Friday, I managed to get cabbage seeds planted!!!  It only took me about 10 minutes, and it felt good to be outside and do something I enjoy ...

The variety I planted is called 'All Season' and I planted the seeds in one of two salad barrels my hubby made several years ago.  Here's a tutorial on how the salad barrels were made.

In about another month, I will plant more seeds so I will have plants to do succession planting.

The following information is what I look for and add to my gardening journal for everything I plant ...

‘All Season’ Cabbage

Heirloom

Produces 11 – 15-inch heads weighing 10 – 15 pounds each

Withstands hot, dry weather conditions, heat tolerant

Good for eating, cooking and making sauerkraut

85 days to maturity

Armed with this info I can determine when I need to plant, how much I need to plant and where to plant.

That's it for this week!  What did your week look like in your home?  How did you look well to the ways of your household?  Have you started making gardening plans yet?

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You might be interested in my other blogs ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine 

Brief Announcement!

Due to a family member medical emergency, I am unable to do any blogging for the time being. I'll be back as soon as the family member is out of the hospital and settled back in at home.

Thank you for understanding.

Update: 2/3/25 ... for an explanation of what has transpired, go here.  I hope to be back to blogging on Friday of this week.

Patsi @ a working pantry

From My Home to Yours: 1/24/25

 From My Home to Yours

1/24/25

~ we got snow (a really rare event for our area) ... 

and really, really cold temps! ~

I'm so glad we stacked all this wood on our porch ... it really was a blessing not to have to trek out to the wood pile to bring in wood for our woodstove risking 'life and limb' trying to stay upright on the snow!  

Stacking wood on the porch is just one thing we did to prepare for this kind of weather.  We have a list of things we do to make events like this one easier to get through ...

make sure back up lighting is ready to go into play if needed ...

make sure electronics are fully charged ...

cook meals ahead ...

and make sure back-up water supply is ready to use if needed.

Having these basics in place and ready to use, should they be needed, makes getting through major weather events easier.

I measured the depth of the snow in 4 different areas and got readings from 6 inches deep to 7 1/2 inches deep ... so we're calling it 6 inches of snow!

Hubby got in the kitchen and made a buttermilk pie ... every good 'rare' snow fall deserves to be celebrated ... and that's what we did!

I made up 3 quarts of milk kefir.  Here's how I make kefir milk ...  

Put about a heaping tablespoon of kefir grains into a quart jar ...

fill the jar with 2% milk up to the shoulder of the jar ...

stir well ...

cover the jar with double coffee filters held on by a rubber band ...

let sit out on the kitchen table or a counter at room temperature for 24 hours ...

move jar to refrigerator until ready to strain and repeat the process.

This process for me makes a creamy kefir that is delicious in a smoothie!

I also started another jar of kombucha!  With this jar I will try my hand at flavoring when it gets to that stage.  I am enjoying learning how to master this skill.

One of the meals I cooked ahead in case we lost power due to the snowstorm was this stir fry.  I don't have a recipe; it's more of a method.  

I cooked the thinly sliced beef strips in a skillet.

While they were cooking, I sliced peppers and onions.

When the beef was done cooking, I removed it from the skillet, added the peppers and onions and cooked them to desired doneness.

While the peppers and onions were cooking, I mixed up the sauce using chicken broth, seasonings, a little honey and cornstarch in a quart jar, put a lid on it and shook it until it was all mixed well.

When the peppers and onions were done, I added the beef back in and poured the liquid mixture into the skillet, stirring until it reached the consistency I wanted.

We served it over a bed of basmati rice.

I cooked enough for us to have it for a meal the day I prepared it and for later in the week.  If we had lost power, this would have been an easy meal to heat up on our woodstove.

I posted lesson 4 in our ladies Bible class on Rahab over on my other blog, From This Heart of Mine.  Click HERE to be taken to it!

Being 'snowed in' the biggest part of the week gave me some extra time to do some sewing, and I took advantage of it.  I have about 10 items in various forms of being completed that I hope to finish in the next few days, but I did get these notebook pen holders done.  You can read more about how I made them over on Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine HERE.

I also gathered materials for a gardening project that I'll share more about next week.  Our weather is supposed to get back up into the 60's and that will feel so good after the frigid temperatures we've had this week!  Gardening season is quickly approaching, it seems hard to believe that we'll be planting potatoes next month as well as things like spring peas, onions, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, radishes and more!

That's it for this week!  What did your week look like in your home?  How did you look well to the ways of your household?

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You might be interested in my other blogs ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine 

From My Home to Yours: 1/17/25

 From My Home to Yours

1/17/25

~ it's been another cold, cold week & I may or may not be a little bit chatty in this week's post ... just saying! ~

The Christmas tree is put away along with the ambiance that it created each evening as we settled in the room it was set up in for a relaxing end to the day.  However, we still enjoy a peacefulness that comes by gathering in that same room in the evenings where our woodstove stays busy keeping us warm.  Watching the flames flicker through the glass door while enjoying the warmth it puts out is a nice combination for relaxing and while it might not be the same Christmas ambiance, it's a close second!

Reading is another way of relaxing for me and this week I started reading book one in the Bregdan Chronicles series by Ginny Dye.  This series has been highly recommended to me, and I have looked at our local library as well as on Libby the library app several times, but neither have it.  I gave in and purchased the first book, used, over the holidays.  I also finished book one in the Little House on the Prairie series and started book 2, The Farmer Boy.

Remember the two 'robe' style garments given to me by a dear friend I was telling you about in this post.  I repurposed one into a skirt and then styled it.  You can read about and see the end results in this post.  I still had the remaining 'robe' to repurpose and this week I was able to get it done.  Look at that cute ruffle at the bottom!  You can read about what I did with it and how I styled it in this post.

My hubby's mother made the best potato flake sourdough bread, I mean it literally would just melt in your mouth.  I have her recipe and looking at it, it seems to be the basic sourdough potato flake bread recipe that can be found anywhere.  It must have been her personal touch and the love she put into making each loaf that made it so delicious.  I have shared the recipe with my children in the past, but this week our son sent me a message asking for it again.  He had misplaced it and couldn't find it, so I sent it to him again.  Here it is, in case you're interested, (Yes, we renamed it in her honor!) ...

Grandmother’s Sourdough Bread

To 1 cup reserved starter, add (in a non-metal container): (See Sourdough Starter recipe below.)

1 cup warm water (110 degrees)

3 tablespoons instant potato flakes

 ¾ cup sugar

1 cup plain flour

Mix well with wooden spoon (no metal)

Let stand 8 – 10 hours covered with a cloth until very bubbly

Remove 1 cup starter and reserve the rest in the refrigerator covered for next baking. Make bread or feed refrigerated starter weekly.

To remainder of starter (in a large non-metal bowl) add:

1/2 cup sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

1 ½ cups warm water (110 degrees)

Stir well.

Stir in 6 cups plain flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each cup.

The dough will be stiff.  Cover and let rise until doubled in size.

Sprinkle flour on a working surface (counter or table) and pour out dough.

Fold over and over until dough is manageable.

Divide into thirds.

Fold and knead each briefly.  Shape into loaves.

Place each into greased loaf pan and let rise to top of pans (cover with light cloth while rising)

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

To Make Sourdough starter:

In a clean wide mouth quart jar, add …

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1 package dry yeast, (2 1/4 teaspoons)

3 tablespoons instant potato flake

Stir everything together.

Cover with a small towel or coffee filter held on with a rubber band.

Leave it at room temperature for 4 days, stirring daily.

On the 5th day, feed the starter with 1 cup warm water, 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons of instant potato flakes. Stir it well and allow it to sit at room temperature for 8 hours.

Remove 1 cup of the starter to make your bread. Place the remaining starter in the refrigerator.

I spent some time this week working with some herbs in the herbal part of my apothecary.  The goal is to grow as many of the herbs that we use right here in our own garden, but alas, we still need to purchase some.  My herb garden and apothecary are a work in progress. 

January and February are my months to really focus on learning new skills.  The weather is cold and there's not much I can do outside right now.  (Look out March, though!  We are in full blown gardening in the month of March!)  I mentioned last week that I was learning how to brew Kombucha and flavor it.   I've been sick this week and didn't add another skill to work on as was my intention, but now that I'm feeling better, I'll get back to my goal of learning or improving upon a skill I already have or one that I want to learn.

On the spiritual front (we must never neglect the kind of spiritual growth that comes from studying God's Word), I'm taking a class on the book of Acts.  In fact, I just completed part 1 and will shortly start part 2.  Both parts of the class are about 5 weeks long each.  I'm learning so much and am being reminded of things I hadn't thought about in this book for a long time.  God's Word is so very rich and full of helps for His children and or those who wish to be His children!

For the ladies who are following our Thursday Ladies Bible Class and our current study on Rahab, lesson 3 has been posted HERE.

On the financial front, and in keeping with our 'hunkering down' mindset of 2024, I took a look at our budget for the year and pared down some of our expenses.  I found one area that had gotten a little too 'fluffy,' if you know what I mean!   Saying 'no' to things we want is not for the faint of heart!  It takes determination to make a plan and take the necessary steps to make that plan become a reality.

We can't forget 'garden planning' in January and February, either.  These are the months that I get my graph paper out, sketch out my garden layout and start deciding what we want to plant, how much and where!  I really think I want to play with my container garden this year and do some rearranging, not a lot, but for ease of convenience a few containers would better serve our purpose in a new location!  I made out my January/February gardening 'to-do' list and now it's time to watch and wait for windows of opportunity weather-wise, to get outside and start working!

Speaking of weather, we have a chance of significant snow for our area next week!  If this happens, it will indeed be a rare event as we just don't get snow ... ice, yes, snow, no!

As you can see, January and February are busy months in a different kind of way.  I'm still busy, but the things I'm doing are not as strenuous on the body ... my body appreciates the rest while my mind stays engaged!

That's it for this week!  What did your week look like in your home this week?  How did you look well to the ways of your household?

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You might be interested in my other blogs ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine