$5 Pantry Building Challenge: Week #1

I'm participating in the $5 Pantry Building Challenge hosted by Patsi at A Working Pantry. 

For this weeks challenge I am adding marshmallows to my pantry. My local grocery had their 10.5 oz store brand on sale for $1/bag.  

I picked up 5 bags. 

With tax my total was $5.35.

I imagine some of you might be thinking that's a lot of marshmallows, what can you do with all of those. On the dehydrator they went!

When complete I ended up with 4 half gallon jars. I was a little bit surprised! Generally, when I've dehydrated items they really shrink. The marshmallows did not! They stayed their original size. 

Besided the obvious use of adding to hot chocolate, there are so many uses for these! They are great in baking as they don't add additional moisture to your baked goods.  They can be added to brownies, cookies, or fudge. They are delicious added on chocolate ice cream to give it the Rocky Road effect. Or they can be added to your favorite granola or trail mix. They can even be used in makng Rice Crispy treats! I've never used them for that purpose, but I will be giving that a try.  Really, the uses are endless. 

I'll meet you here next week for Week #2 of this challenge!

Wendi 

A Little Gardening

The weatherman is saying rain is possible all weekend and then we are suppose to be very hot again next week. Armed with this information, I knew I needed to tackle some outside things. The tiger lilies were spent, so I started by removing the stems. 

That, my friends, is quite a job! They'll look limp for a couple of week then the foliage will bounce back and green and lushious again. 

There are two window boxes on the front of the house. The picture doesn't do them justice, they are simply gorgeous!

I use this sweet geranium to block the gas meter. 

As I moved around the house checking out my flowers, I dead headed and removed those pesky weeds!

A peek at my hanging baskets. I have two of these on the back porch. 

I made sure to fertilize everything well. I'm giving my flowers a little boost before the extreme heat hits next week. 

Next I ventured out to the vegetable garden. 

I had tomatoes to tie up, and some produce ready to harvest. 

Thankfully by this time it was late in the evening. The garden was shaded, there was a nice breeze and Chuck joined me to pick green beans. 

I have a shirt that says, "gardening is my therapy." That is a true statement.  It gives me joy to see the beauty.  I hope you enjoyed a peek into my garden space. 

Wendi 

Let's Catch Up

Well, Hello Friends! It's been just a little bit since I've visited my little space on the web. Let's catch up!

I've been spending most of my time painting. 

So far I've painted approximately 140 feet of post and 2x4's along with 115 pickets. We won't even discuss how much more I have to go. 

Megan turned twenty!!

We've had plenty of rain and it turned HOT! Which means the garden has been going crazy. 

Between my garden and my moms' we ended up with a little over three, five gallon buckets of SNAPPED green beans. That resulted 60 quarts canned. 

I don't know if I mentioned that my great-nephew, Ben, is going to be a big brother. His little brother will be here in about two months. We hosted a small sprinkle for my niece on the 4th. 

My oldest niece made the banner. We're encouraging her to start a side hustle. 

And if I don't have enough going on I'm working on some furniture flips. Let me tell you that removing black paint is the pits! It took a bit, but I got it done. 

Our annual 4th of July picture. 

Excuse my awful hair. I'm growing out a cut that I dislike.  Ugh. 

I hope everyone is doing well! 

Wendi 

Taking a Page from Patsy

Patsy from A Working Pantry Blog recently posted about her prepared ahead lunches.This idea has been in the back of my mind since I read the post. My days are currently busy and I haven't been the best at making sure I eat a good lunch. 

I grocery shop every two weeks, usually on Friday. This week I went today as Thursday and Friday I have a full schedule. Anyway, since I just went to the store I decided to prep my fresh foods and make some prepared ahead lunches.

First I prepped my lettuce and then gathered my other ingredients. The tomatoes and broccoli are fresh from the garden, the eggs are from our chickens, and the grilled chicken is leftover from a recent dinner.

Once things were prepped I put together salads in a jar. 

While this was all happening I had mini bow tie noodles cooking. Pasta Salad was requested by Megan. 

I hard boiled a couple extra eggs and made egg salad. This will be my lunch tomorrow. 

I purchased a package of wraps and made a couple jars of diced lunch meat (ham and turkey), shredded lettuce and freshly shredded cheese. Easy to open, dump and no slicing or dicing while in a time crunch. 

This is the finished product. 

I ended up with three salads, seven servings of pasta salad, two jars ready for wraps, and and one meal of egg salad. 

It makes me so happy to all of this lined up in my fridge ready to go. Thanks for the inspiration, Patsy!

Wendi 

Back At It

As I'm typing this post the house is quiet. Megan is still asleep and Chuck has returned to work after three weeks off. He was asked to apply for a different position before we left for vacation. He will now be part of the management team. He had declined taking a higher position for years. I guess they caught him on a good day as he agreed to apply. *smile* Honestly, the applying was only a formality for HR. He starts his new position today. 

When we returned home it has hot and nasty. A storm rolled through the other night and has cooled things down. There were confirmed tormados not far from us, thankfully we only had high winds and rain. Our only issue was a downed tree branch. It did hit the fence, but caused no damage. 

Chuck made a couple of steel runs. He did well, and we were able to reach another financial goal. Yeah!

I think that I mentioned that our beloved neighbors are planning to move. Well, we came back to the news that they have an offer and the home inspection will be this week. That spurred us to do and unplanned project. 

The fence between our property is partially picket with some panels of privacy fencing. We knew we wanted to add a few more panels of privacy to block our back porch and pool. 

As you can tell from the picture most of the pickets have seen better days. So, the decision was made to go ahead and repair the fence on this side before we have new neighbors. You just never know what new neighbors will be like. It's better to, hopefully, get this taken care of before they move in. 

I removed all of the pickets on the front portion of the fence and then pressure washed the post and 2x4's, along with the privacy fence.

There is nothng as satifying as watching the dirt get stripped away! Pickets have been picked up for the first section. 

We could not find the correct width which means Chuck will have to cut down all of the pickets. Yuck! 

 This time the fence is going to be white. I really wanted a white fence to begin with. Someone talked us out of it saying it would be hard to maintain. We went with a suggested "cedar" stain that ended up looking more orange and I have hated it for the past 15 years! Now if only we could get a dry stretch I will be able to start painting. 

Since I've been spending so much time outside, today will be a day of housework. I'm planning to do a little reset and clean out a few areas. It feels good to be back at it!

Wendi 

Scenes from the Beach

Saturday morning we left Hatteras, NC sun kissed, sand dusted, and happily exhausted!

The view from our top deck. 

The area we stay in is sandwiched between the ocean and the sound. We love to go down to the dock on the sound side and watch the fishing vessels. 

You are able to walk to the end of island. Once there you can see the ocean and then scan right and see it meet the sound. It's amazing to see the island circled by water. I tried hard to get a picture, but it's one of those things that must be seen in person. In all the years we have been coming we've never walked all the way to the end. 

The closer we came to the end of the island the harded the sand was packed.  The landscape also changed with areas of trees and driftwood. It was quite different from anything I've experienced. 

As neat as it was we all agreed we probably won't make the walk to the end of island again. It was a five mile walk and wasn't alway easy. We'll call it a one in a lifetime experience. 

Megan loves to fish and had to opportunity to drop a line almost every where we went. That made her a happy girl. 

On Wednesday the island was under a Gale Warning. There were 30 mile an hour winds, and waves 6-11 feet tall. It stunk to lose a day of sun and fun, but it was something to experience. The waves seemed angry and we could feel the house sway slightly. I can't imagine being here during a hurricane!

Thankfully the next day was beautiful and we were back to fun in the sun!

The moon was incredible almost every night. I woke up one night and this was the view out of our window. I went out on the deck to snap this picture. Simply beautiful!

It's was a great trip! As always, the Outer Banks doesn't disappoint. I'm thankful for the memories made. 

Wendi

The Story of my Hoe

Every year when we start working in the garden, Chuck says I need a new handle for my hoe. It might be a little wobbly, but it's not happening. 

 You see, it belonged to my grandfather.  Pop grew up in a make-do generation. 

Every time I see the electrical tape and the bent nails it reminds me of him. Pop grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. He was a newly married man, farming his own piece of land during World War II. 

He and my grandmother never talked about living a frugal life. It was ingrained in the way they had always lived. Growing up I never realized how much I was learning from Mom and Pop. It's a great reminder that it's not about what we say, it's about what we do that makes the biggest impact.

I imagine Chuck will still comment on my hoe each year and I will smile, and keep using my hoe as is as I cherish my memories of Pop. 

Wendi