From the Archives: Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home

With the dream of home ownership becoming more difficult to realize, I thought I would bring back the series I did on our journey to a mortgage free home.

Here are the links to the first 5 entries, if you like what you see, I'll include the link to the whole series for your reading pleasure.

May you be inspired by what you read ...

Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home ...

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

Here's the link to the whole series ...

Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

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

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

A Journal of My Days: 5/26/23

The weather has turned cooler, in fact so much cooler that hubby and I needed to wear a jacket this morning while mowing the yard and doing yard work.  We were quite surprised!

In the Garden: I did more planting this week:  dill, zucchini, okra, and eggplant.

I harvested cabbage, spring green onions, radishes, swiss chard, and squash!  

We started digging our potatoes and were blessed with a good yield.  The rest will be dug sometime during the next couple of weeks.

In the Pantry:  Hubby was given several freshly caught bass fish late one evening. 

After he cleaned and dressed them, we had enough for a meal the next day and enough to freeze for two meals to have at a later date. They were added to the freezer part of our pantry.

I took all the discarded parts of the fish after hubby finished cleaning them and buried it all in a raised bed to turn into fertilizer!

Fish remains make an excellent fertilizer!

The fish itself was rolled in cornmeal and deep fried.  It was so good!

We were gifted more strawberries this week and I made strawberry freezer jam.  

Of course, we ate our fill of them too!

In the Kitchen:  I made two meatloaves, one for us and one to share.

Fitness: I wrote the following quote by journey2better.tera in my fitness journal:  "You absolutely have to work for the things you want!"  My thoughts:  you sure do, especially when it comes to one's fitness!

Sewing: I worked some more on the apron I'm making of the fabric I was gifted a couple of weeks ago. I'm almost finished and hope to have a completed apron to share with you next week.

The 25th day of the month fell this week and as is my goal, I did something towards Christmas preparation.  For this month I chose to do some additional planning and prep in my Christmas journal.  I got several pages ready to start making entries for things like food, gifts, activities, cards and more.

In my Bible study, I started a second Scripture writing endeavor, this time focusing on topics.  You can read more about it HERE along with the topic I chose to start with.

Bargain Hunting:  This week our bargain hunting took us to a local farmstand where I found these 2 eggplant plants on clearance for $.25 each.  You can see in the first picture that they are root bound but otherwise the plant looks healthy.  I 'unbound' the roots, snipped off the bottom leaves and planted them deep.  

I had every intention of planting eggplant seeds this week, but when I came across these plants at such a great price, I opted to go this route instead.  

I was asked by Annabel over at The Bluebirds are Nesting on the Farm to write a post for her Bluebirds on the Ground series.  You can read what I wrote HERE.

That's it for this week, I hope you've had a good week!

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

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

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

In the Kitchen: This Cake is Delicious!

I don't know where I got the recipe for this cake, but I'm glad I found it!  Both hubby and I enjoyed a slice of it before we packaged up the rest to share with another family.  Here's the recipe along with the changes I made to it:

Olivia Waltons Applesauce Cake
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used cake flour)
2 t. Ground cloves
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
pinch salt
2 cups raisins (soaked in water for 30 minutes to soften)
1 cup walnuts  (substituted home-canned pecans)
2 cups applesauce  (I used home-canned applesauce)

Additional change I made:  Instead of using the ground cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon, I used 4 teaspoons of apple pie spice mix.

Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees  (I needed to cook it for 75 minutes in my oven instead of the called for 50 minutes)

Frosting   (I did not make the frosting nor add any other frosting)
1/4 cup butter
1 T. heavy cream
2 cups Confectioners sugar
2 T. bourbon or Vanilla

The cake was delicious!

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

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

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

A Journal of My Days: 5/19/23

I gathered these roses from bushes in my yard one day.  Notice my 'vase' of choice ... at my house mason jars have many uses!  They are now sitting on my dining room table where I get to enjoy them continually!

In the Garden:  We did more planting this week ... watermelon, tomatoes, basket gourds, butternut squash ...

We continued eating broccoli, cabbage, spring onions, swiss chard, radishes and potatoes from the garden and are anxiously awaiting our first squash of the season.

Here's an update on the 'stump' that I planted last week ... all the seeds came up!

From our herb garden I harvested:  yarrow, rosemary and St John's wort.  The yarrow will be air dried, sealed in a jar and added to the medicinal part of my pantry as will the St John's Wort.  I plan to air dry the rosemary and use it to make a rubbing alcohol infusion for cleaning purposes.  

I also snipped some young moringa branches and replanted them in a second and third pot.  Because of the prolonged and deep freeze, we had this past winter I was afraid I had lost my moringa plant.  I was delighted when it started popping up through the soil about a month ago.  I'm determined to not have all my moringa in one pot anymore!!!

I started harvesting garlic.  There's more to harvest, but it needs a bit more time in the ground.  The plants I harvested this week were ready!

In the Pantry:  we are busy eating out of our pantry making room for preserving season which will start in the not-too-distant future for us.

In the Kitchen:  I have enough fresh veggie scraps that I've been saving in the freezer to make a pot of vegetable broth.  I plan to get that started today.  If I have enough, I just might bring out the canner and can some up for the pantry!

Fitness:  I did my balance exercises every day this week and my weights every other day.  

Sometimes I get tired of 'maintaining' my current fitness level and then I'm reminded that I was even more tired of being at the level I was before I started the journey.  Both levels were and are hard and with every choice I make each day, I'm choosing which hard I want to maintain.  Hmmmm, I think I'll stick with maintaining my current fitness level!

Sewing:  I brought out my crocheting, turned on this Youtube Video and taught myself how to crochet roses.  I have wanted to learn how to make these for a long time and this week I decided it was time.  This is a great project for working on while riding in a vehicle and for using up leftover yarn from other crochet projects.  

I started working on making the apron from the beautiful fabric I was gifted last week.  I got it cut out and am ready to start stitching on it.

Bible Study:  I chose a new memory verse to work on committing to memory:  Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Psalm 141:3. I chose this verse as a reminder to myself!  Anybody else ever feel like they need to post a guard over their mouth!

Bargain Hunting:  This week my bargain hunting happened at a local Hobby Lobby.  I had a purpose!  They were running a sale on their thread for $.99/spool, (the regular price of each spool could not exceed $3.49).  They also had their zippers on sale for $.99 (I chose longer lengths in basic colors with the intention of cutting the zipper down to the size I would need for specific projects.).  I did a stock up on both thread and zippers using my personal allowance money!

For my continuing education, I watched this video on companion planting.  Along the same lines, I've been reading The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery. I first read it through Libby, (online library app) and after sharing some of the info with my hubby we decided this would be a good book to have on hand as a go to for info on caring for our small flock.

That's it for this week, I hope you've had a good week!

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

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

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

A Journal of My Days: 5/12/23

This rose bush is still showing off so I thought I would share another picture of it for your enjoyment while the flowers are so beautiful!

In the Garden:  I harvested more cabbage and broccoli.  The broccoli got frozen, and the cabbage got turned into cabbage steaks as a side for a meal.  I also harvested radishes ... they will be used in a salad!

We've harvested almost all of the first planting of broccoli, so those pots/containers are ready to be amended and replanted with something else!  As I've mentioned before, we're really focusing on succession planting this year.

I harvested several herbs this week:  oregano, tarragon, lemon balm, and sage.  All of these will be used individually and in making blends/mixes for spices in addition to teas.

Hubby and I were both outside working on our individual projects one day when he called out to me, wanting to know where I was.  I told him and he came to me and popped the most delicious strawberry in my mouth he had picked from one of our strawberry barrels.  It tasted so good that I went straight to said strawberry barrels and popped several more, fresh from the plant strawberries into my mouth.  They were juicy, fresh and so very tasty, from the plant straight to my mouth is one of my favorite ways to enjoy strawberries!

I'll plant something just about anywhere I think it might stand a chance of growing and that's what I did this week.  This burned-out stump is from a tree we had cut down and then tried to burn the stump.  It did burn some but didn't burn completely up, so I filled it with soil and planted mashed potato acorn squash seeds in it!  There is a nice clearing in the front of the stump for the plants to run and when I read the conditions needed for the squash seeds to grow, I knew this old stump should be a perfect fit.  We'll see, all I've got to lose is a few seeds (I did save some of the seeds to plant elsewhere as a backup just in case these don't/won't grow in this stump)!

I did more planting this week ... mashed potato acorn squash (just mentioned); Kings Lima beans; second planting of cucumbers; more yellow squash, malabar spinach and Hawthorne (herb).  I've been wanting to grow Hawthorne for several years and am taking the plunge this year ... wish me luck!

In the Pantry:  We were given all these strawberries!  I Know!!!! I'm in the process of crushing them, putting them in cartons and adding them to the freezer.

In the Kitchen:  Since we were blessed with all these strawberries, we made a pound cake, added some crushed strawberries along with a little bit of sugar and topped it all off with a dollop of whip topping!  It was quite delicious!

Fitness:  As you might guess the above-mentioned treat came with a lot of extra calories (I may have had more than one serving!).  I got right back on plan the next morning starting with a bottle of water to begin the process of flushing all the sugar out of my system.  The plan I've developed for me is a lifestyle and yes, on occasion I cut loose and overindulge ... an occasional overindulgence is part of my plan.

Sewing:  I received a package in the mail filled with this beautiful fabric from a reader and online friend with a note saying she thought of me and the aprons I make when she saw this fabric. Aren't those roses beautiful, and that coordinating fabric is a perfect match! I ran the fabric through the washing machine today and plan to get started making an apron asap.  Wasn't that a sweet thing to do!  Thank you again, Paula!

Bible Study:  I finished writing the book of I Timothy this week and started on II Timothy.  Writing out scripture helps me to slow down and meditate on what I'm writing and reading.  It's one of my favorite ways to study scripture when I need something light, easy and quick for Bible study (I only write 3- 5 verses per day.)

Bargain Hunting: we had success with bargain shopping this week!  Look at what we found ...

3 packages of beef hot dogs for $1.99 each ...

2 packages of thick cut bacon for $.99 each (I didn't notice until I posted this picture that the 'clearance' price was

upside down) ...

3 packages of chicken legs that ranged around $2.45 each.  I had a $1.50 coupon off for each making them less than $1 each ...

a container of cole slaw for $.99 ... we plan to have hot dogs and all the dressings that go with them tomorrow and slaw is one of the dressings that my hubby likes ...

2 packages of pork loin for $1.99 each.  We couldn't believe the price ... 

3 packages of ground beef (73/27) on mark down ...

We also stopped in at Dollar General since they were having a 50% off clearance sale on select discontinued items.  I found boxes of Cascade dishwasher powder for $2.25 a box, regular price $4.50 per box.  I also found some $20 Lego sets for $5.85 each.  I was excited to find them and got some to put away for Christmas gifts.

The hen we've had 'setting' for the past 3 weeks hatched out her babies this week.  

She is now the proud mama of 3 baby chicks.  

This brings our total to 27 baby chicks, now if half of them are hens, we'll be happy!

Isn't this just the cutest picture!  It looks like they're having a conversation.

We needed a place to separate mama hen and her babies from the other chickens for a couple of weeks, so hubby made this cage.

When not in use, we'll store it with the rest of our baby chick raising items.

Happy Mother's Day to all our mothers.  I pray that it's a good one for all of you and a special prayer for those who will find this Mother's Day difficult.  

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

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

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.