From My Home to Yours: 9/11/26

  From My Home to Yours

9/11/26

~ Fall Gardening ~

Our daily high temps dropped 10 degrees this week giving us temps in the upper 80's and lower 90's!  It's still plenty warm outside but not near as bad as it has been!  We'll take it with thankful hearts!

Our cucumber vines are keeping us in plenty for us and some to share.  This arch is the best way we've ever grown cucumbers!  No bending over to harvest ... just reach and pull!  

(Those red tubs have potatoes planted in them.)

~ one morning's harvest of cucumbers ~

A second planting of fall cabbage went in the ground this week ... or I guess I should say, they went in a raised bed.  We grew these plants from seeds.  (Looking at this picture, the cabbage plants look like they are planted close together, in reality they are about a foot apart.)

Look at the size of that mushroom!  It's a good 5 inches across the top!  I don't know enough about mushrooms to know what kind it is, but wanted to share anyway!

We planted tomato seeds on Monday in 25 gallon tubs to get a head start on growing before they will need to be moved into the greenhouse and they are already coming up.  Can you see them in the picture?

I also planted more broccoli seeds as well as pepper seeds.  We will grow the broccoli in raised beds and the pepper in the greenhouse.

Speaking of our greenhouse, the renovation is coming along, we don't have it complete yet, but we're hanging in there and trying to work on it a little most everyday.  I've nicknamed it our 'Patchwork' greenhouse as we are utilizing scraps of lumber we have on hand and any other materials we already have that will work to keep the cost down.  Some things have had to be purchased, so everything we can save is a win!  (I'm taking pictures throughout the process and will do one post on our greenhouse renovation once it is complete.)

Now, that I've brought you up-to-date on our fall gardening let's turn our thoughts to preparing for winter.  

Winters for us are generally mild in the scheme of winter weather.  We do have bouts of cold temps and last year the 'unimaginable' happened in our area, we got a foot of snow!  We almost never ever get snow, so to say that this was big 'doings' for our area is an understatement!  It snowed over night one night, we enjoyed it all the next day, and the next day it was almost all gone!  I'm not kidding, it was a 'here today and gone tomorrow' kind of snow.   That's my kind of snow event!

Regardless, predictions and forecasts for winter weather this year seem to indicate that the lower half of the United States could, a high probability is being given, have colder temps and more participation (snow/ice) than is the norm.  Hmmmm, while I won't say that I'm not skeptical of such a forecast, meaning I have my doubts, I'm still going to prepare for a harsher winter than we're accustomed to having.  You  know I have a preparedness mindset that has served me well in my life time, so just in case the forecasters are right, we're swinging into winter preparedness mode.  That's what I want to chat a bit about ...

I'm making a plan and a list ...

What would I want/need to have on hand should we lose power due to a weather event in the middle of winter ... or, if it's just an unusually cold year and extra measures need to be taken:

a heating source 

a way to cook food

a source of light

a source of water if your water is tied to your electricity

paper plates, cups, utensils for eating purposes

plenty of quilts and or blankets

extra warm coats, head wear and gloves

winterizing for pipes and outside water spigots

winterizing for pumphouse

winterizing for vehicles

... help me out, what would you add to this list?  What does your winter prep list look like?

In the 'oh no' category of life, we had a upright freezer door that 'we think' didn't get closed properly and by the time we discovered it, about half of the items were thawed and warm (Items in the door and at the front of the freezer.)  We didn't make a big deal out of it, point fingers or play the blame game.  It happened, we joined forces and cleaned up the mess ... are you surprised that we are checking and rechecking the door every time one of us opens it now!!!  We're also checking it on a regular basis just in case it wasn't 'a door not properly closing' situation but the freezer malfunctioning.

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

left over 'buffet'

one evening I was on my own so I did leftovers again

hot dogs and fixings

steak, broccoli, fried pears, cucumber salad

I continued reading in book 7 of the Bregdan Chronicles, Glimmers of Change, by Ginny Dye (I actually got a chunk of time this week to sit down and read so I made some big progress on reading Glimmers of Change).  I finished listening to Rocky  Mountain Promise by Misty M. Beller and started listening to Rocky Mountain Journey by Misty M. Beller

No sewing this week!

No additional writing this week!

We've got two weeks left in our $5 Pantry Building Challenge and then we'll start a new pantry challenge.  A big 'thank you' to everyone participating in the $5 Pantry Building Challenge, the inspiration is inspiring!

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  

Mrs. Patsi on Instagram

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. 

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.

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting my work via one of the following ways. Your expressions of appreciation help me keep my pantry well-stocked and me motivated to keep on keeping on with my attempts to inspire and encourage you (Titus 2:3-5) through my writings!

Summer Series 2026: Building a Pantry with $5 a Week ... #10

 Summer Series 2026: Building a Pantry with $5 a week ... #10

I hope everyone is reading the comments; they are so inspiring.  Thank you to everyone who is sharing your selections!

            With each week's entry, we'll start out reviewing the rules ...

Total must be $5 or less each week not including taxes.

Must be a separate purchase ... in other words it cannot be hand-picked items from our weekly grocery haul that totals $5 or less.

All items must come from a grocery store, farmers market, etc.  In other words they must be purchased.  No running out to the garden and putting a grocery store price on items harvested or shared with us.  This challenge is meant to stretch us in utilizing a small amount of money to help build up and or restock our pantry.

Must be items we regularly use.  This will keep us from seeing a good deal on something 'we might like' and spending our 'challenge money' only to never get around to trying it or finding out we don't like it at all.  This challenge is for our tried and true pantry building basics.  Think mid - long term pantry stocking.

This challenge includes all things in our pantry:  food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.

One more guideline ... no rolling money over from week to week.  We have to spend it or lose it!

This challenge will end on September 21st, the last day of summer.  

Here's what I added to my pantry for the sum total of $5.00 before tax this week ...

The store bought canned goods section of our pantry is getting a boost with this challenge.  This week we added sliced beets to our pantry shelves ... 4 cans for $5!  We like serving these as a side seasoned with a little butter.  Yummy!

Okay, now it's your turn ... what did you spend your $5 on this week and if it's a food, how do you plan on using it?

Until the next time ...  

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry  

~ quietly holding the home front ~

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  

Mrs. Patsi on Instagram

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. 

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.

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting my work via one of the following ways. Your expressions of appreciation help me keep my pantry well-stocked and me motivated to keep on keeping on with my attempts to inspire and encourage you (Titus 2:3-5) through my writings!

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  

Mrs. Patsi on Instagram

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. 

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.

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting my work via one of the following ways. Your expressions of appreciation help me keep my pantry well-stocked and me motivated to keep on keeping on with my attempts to inspire and encourage you (Titus 2:3-5) through my writings!

Summer Series 2026: Building a Pantry with $5 a week ... #9

 

Summer Series 2026: Building a Pantry with $5 a week ... #9

I hope everyone is reading the comments; they are so inspiring.  Thank you to everyone who is sharing your selections!

            With each week's entry, we'll start out reviewing the rules ...

Total must be $5 or less each week not including taxes.

Must be a separate purchase ... in other words it cannot be hand-picked items from our weekly grocery haul that totals $5 or less.

All items must come from a grocery store, farmers market, etc.  In other words they must be purchased.  No running out to the garden and putting a grocery store price on items harvested or shared with us.  This challenge is meant to stretch us in utilizing a small amount of money to help build up and or restock our pantry.

Must be items we regularly use.  This will keep us from seeing a good deal on something 'we might like' and spending our 'challenge money' only to never get around to trying it or finding out we don't like it at all.  This challenge is for our tried and true pantry building basics.  Think mid - long term pantry stocking.

This challenge includes all things in our pantry:  food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.

One more guideline ... no rolling money over from week to week.  We have to spend it or lose it!

This challenge will end on September 21st, the last day of summer.  

Here's what I added to my pantry for the sum total of $5 before tax this week ...

For us, when we have hot dogs we also have mac-n-cheese or in this case shells & cheese.  We were out of mac-n-cheese and shells & cheese so when I saw this sale, I purchased 2 boxes.  We have hot dogs in the freezer and now we have shells & cheese on the pantry shelf.  We're all set to have one of our 'football' watching convenience meals.  Of course, this meal is not reserved just for 'football season,' it's a good one when time is of the essence and you're trying to stay out of the fast food lane at your closest fast food store too!

Okay, now it's your turn ... what did you spend your $5 on this week and if it's a food, how do you plan on using it?

Until the next time ...  

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry  

~ quietly holding the home front ~

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  

Mrs. Patsi on Instagram

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. 

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.

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting my work via one of the following ways. Your expressions of appreciation help me keep my pantry well-stocked and me motivated to keep on keeping on with my attempts to inspire and encourage you (Titus 2:3-5) through my writings!

From My Home to Yours: 8/28/26

   From My Home to Yours

8/28/26

~  We finally got a good rain! ~

We've needed rain badly in our area for a while.  It has rained all around us, even 10 miles down the road, but nothing for us ... until one day this week.  The cloud shelf shown in the picture dumped quite a bit of rain on us and we were delighted!  It will help our fall garden tremendously!

Speaking of fall garden, I did a bit more planting this week ... more broccoli, cabbage and collard plants that we grew from seed.  I also replanted brussels sprout seeds as the first planting didn't germinate, not one of them ... probably due to the excessive heat.  The newly planted seeds are already sprouting and breaking through the ground.

Take a look at our butternut squash!  They are doing really well and should be ready in about another 6 weeks.  When ready, these will be harvested and stored in crates in a cool, dry place out of the weather.  We'll enjoy them in our meals throughout the fall and winter.  My favorite way to eat butternut squash is seasoned and oven-roasted!  Yum!

We harvested two 5-gallon buckets of apples from our apple tree and I started preserving them.  I made unsweetened applesauce.  (I threw in a couple of large pineapple pears from our pear trees so I guess technically, you would call it 'pear applesauce.')  We had enough left from the canning to have with our supper meal and it was quite good!

Still to do is to make apple pie filling for the freezer.  When we're ready for an apple pie, we'll thaw the filling and place it in a pie shell, bake and enjoy.  We can also use the filling to make apple crisp which is quite delicious served with a dollop of ice cream on top ... just like hot apple pie!

I had an abundance of cherry tomatoes, way more than we would eat before they went bad so I made plain unseasoned sauce. (The sky is the limit as to what I can use it for since it has no seasoning.)

pictured from left to right:  

harvest ...

washed, de-stemmed and placed on baking pans ...

Roasted for 1 hour (this step brings out the flavor) ...

drain off water ...

run tomatoes through food grinder ...

process the sauce in water bath canner ...

waste not, want not!

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

meatloaf (premade and ready to cook from the freezer), roasted potatoes, pickled asparagus

pan fried gizzards (home-canned - they were so tender they almost melted in our mouths), collard greens (home-canned), navy beans (home canned)

Spaghetti, all items from our pantry.

Leftovers!!!   We always cook enough so we can have a buffet style meal of leftovers!

The only items we purchased from the grocery store this week was kombucha and a package of low-carb flour tortilla wraps.  I haven't done my $5 pantry challenge shopping this week yet, that will be done over the weekend.  I estimate that we will have spent a total of about $25 at the grocery store this week.  This is only possible because of the skill of building and maintaining a well-stocked pantry.  Yes, it is a skill, a job, a side-hustle if you will.  One that pays big dividends in peace of mind and healthy nourishing food for your family.  It also pays big dividends when you are able to bypass the more expensive food pricing and still feed your family while waiting for the sale prices.

My sister and I embarked on another sewing project this week (we live 12 hours apart so it's all done via pictures, texts and sometimes, by video chat.).  We made drawstring bags ... I made 4, all using materials I had on hand.  Two (pictured) are completed and two others are almost finished.  The unfinished ones are made from recycled fabric that used to be clothing ...  (waste not, want not applies to fabric too!)

I continued reading in book 7 of the Bregdan Chronicles, Glimmers of Change, by Ginny Dye and listened to Rocky Mountain Rendezvous by Misty M. Beller.  

In closing, here's a little more pantry building wisdom I want to share with everyone ... the goal is not to have the biggest and best pantry.  Sometimes I fear that some may be building a pantry for bragging rights instead of meeting their families needs.  The goal is to have a well stocked pantry that meets your family's needs for the specified amount of time that is right for your family ... that you will use!  I also want to remind ourselves of this ... as we journey through this life, our pantry needs are going to change.  The kind of foods, the amount of food as well as the longevity of our pantry, it's all going to change.  Our pantries should be one of several tools we employ to take care of our households, not an idol that consumes our lives.

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 ~

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  

Mrs. Patsi on Instagram

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. 

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.

If you are encouraged by what you read here, please consider supporting my work via one of the following ways. Your expressions of appreciation help me keep my pantry well-stocked and me motivated to keep on keeping on with my attempts to inspire and encourage you (Titus 2:3-5) through my writings!