From My Home to Yours: 9/4/26

 From My Home to Yours

9/4/26

~  Fall Things ... ~

Even though the fall season doesn't officially kick off until September 21st, around the first of September I slide into what I call my 'fall mode.'  I start bringing out the fall decor and swapping it out with summer things.  Fall colored quilts replace the summer ones, fall themed mug rugs come out as does pillows, throws and such.  Let's not forget about the 'mums,' it's time to start searching for those as well.  I think the fall season is my favorite season of the year ... probably because our summers are so brutal with heat and humidity.

I am definitely ready for cooler days and nights, a slower pace, snuggly blankets and hot teas.  But alas, our temps are still in the 90's, upper 90's to be exact.  Several days this week we hit 98 degrees and above with index temps above 100!   Come on cooler temps, I'm ready for you!

In and around all this longing for fall like temps, like goes on and we are busy as bees 'putting up the harvest' and getting ready for winter.

Our greenhouse needs new covering so we're working hard on giving it a makeover.  We have the old cover removed and are in the process of re-securing the ribs, making repairs where needed and tightening everything up before putting the new cover on.  We've been playing the 'beat the heat' game in working on this project.  We're out there early, early in the morning before the day heats up, once the sun starts doing it's thing, we head inside.  It will take us longer to complete the project doing it this way, but it saves us lots of money being able to do it ourselves.

I had some really overripe bananas to do something with this week, so I made banana bread.  It is delicious and the perfect quick grab snack after spending the morning working outside on the greenhouse.

We've been enjoying fresh from the vine cucumbers for the last couple of weeks, we had so many the first part of this week, I decided to make a jar of refrigerator pickles.  This jar will last us through the end of the year.  We plan to do another planting and with a bit of luck should have another round of fresh cucumbers to enjoy later this year.

We were two 5-gallon buckets of canning pears this week, all we had to do was go harvest them.  We were delighted!  I'll be working on getting them canned up over the next few days.

We were also given about a peck of okra.  I dehydrated most of it leaving enough out for us to enjoy as a side in a couple of meals.  This is the first batch that came out of the dehydrator, in the end I had 3 quart jars.  Here are a few more of my 'okra' posts ...

Preserving okra

Okra Soup

Boiled Okra

Can You Fry Dehydrated Okra?

One more thing about okra and then we'll move on ... I've read from several sources that okra is a good addition for smoothies.  Hmmm, I don't want slimy smoothies (okra equals slime in my mind unless it is cooked properly), so I am going to give it a try by powdering some of the okra I dehydrated and add it that way.

Meals we've enjoyed from our pantry this week are:

succatash (ground beef, onions, whole kernel corn, lima beans, bacon pieces) ... all ingredients from our pantry

leftovers (we call it our 'buffet' meal ... we eat 'buffet' style at least once a week!)

meatballs (from the freezer) in mushroom soup, rice, boiled okra

hamburgers (patties from the freezer) and fried okra

steaks (from our freezer), boiled okra, corn on the cob

I continued reading in book 7 of the Bregdan Chronicles, Glimmers of Change, by Ginny Dye (I really am reading this book) and listened to Rocky  Mountain Promise by Misty M. Beller.  

Our $5 pantry challenge is going great and I'm getting lots of inspiration.  Look for the next post on Monday!  (Psst!  When this challenge ends, I have another pantry building related challenge for us to delve into!)

Check out my end of month sewing/creating post for the month of August over on my sewing blog, Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine.

I hope everyone has a great 'Labor Day' holiday, our plans are to really live up to the holiday name and labor on our greenhouse renovation!  We hope to be able to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and greens in it this winter.  I've already planted the tomato seeds in 25-gallon pots so they can get a head start on growing before we have to move them inside the greenhouse later this fall.  I plan to do the same with cucumbers and a little later, greens.

That's it for this week, I hope you've found something in my ramblings that will help and or encourage you in the upcoming week.

Until the next time ...  

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry  

~ quietly holding the home front ~

Sharing 46 years' experience of frugal living and pantry building (if you include my frugal childhood, well that would add several more years to my experience!)

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

Other Places You Can Find Me ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine  

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