Posted By FarmerJ on February 20, 2010

The Prairie Farmstead Pantry is officially complete!  I am beyond excited ~ and I just have to say I have the bestest Darling Husbie in the whole wide world…and a most awesome pantry!  It took us a little longer than we thought, mostly because of Husbie’s wacky work schedule, but we got it done last weekend and I put some finishing touches on and moved in on Tuesday.  What fun!

I’ll spare most of the gory details about installing the cellulose insulation.  We purchased the insulation and rented the blower Saturday afternoon.  Of course, Nebraska being Nebraska, the weather rapidly went from cold-but-bearable to downright-bitterly-nasty right in the middle of the insulation process.  Long, miserable story somewhat shortened, my beloved Darling Husbie ~ truly a man with the patience of Job ~ got half of the ceiling insulated by himself before I finally just pulled the plug Saturday night.  Dominic was home Sunday morning and helped feed the blower monster, so that really helped make the process go oodles faster.  That was a good thing, as the ambient temperature was -2 below and we were experiencing sustained 35 – 40 mph northwesterly winds ~ the pure joy of Nebraska winters ~ and, of course, that’s the side of the house we were working on.  The back door was open to feed the monster blower’s hose through to the pantry; it was now cold enough in the house downstairs to see your breath; Dominic was toughing out the cold and the wind in the bed of the truck, trying to feed the monster blower its insulation bales without most of it blowing away; Darling Husbie was ghostly gray from head to toe from the blow-back of insulation dust.  It just wasn’t pretty.  And, I think I’m safe to say, we will not be insulating any more of the house in that manner.

So, that was Sunday ~ Valentine’s Day.  How much more love could a girl receive from a husband and son than to endure all that for my sake, right?!  Darling Husbie and I had to rush to town to return the blower, and Dominic had to rush to town to pick up his friend of the female type [well, he didn't need to rush, but he felt like he did ~ you know, that young love thing].  We all arrived back at the Farmstead a little while later, my adorable Darling Husbie having departed the home improvement store with a huge box of Hershey’s Pot of Gold!  My true love, indeed!  [My Husbie, not the chocolate.]  We decided to take the rest of the day off and enjoy watching the Daytona 500.

We spent a somewhat leisurely Monday cleaning up the mess of sawdust, wood shavings and cellulose insulation particles, reorganizing the tools and moving in the two upright freezers.  I also washed off the empty shelves and moved them into place.  My OCD bone was really starting to itch, ~ remember the chaos? ~ but we had other things we needed to tend to, so it would have to wait another day.

Tuesday morning rolled around, and Darling Husbie had to leave for work extra early.  I immediately headed down with my bucket full of soap and water in one hand, Swiffer duster in the other, and full coffee cup in the other.  Wait a minute, that’s too many hands.  Anyway, I’d made it down there in one trip and started moving and sorting boxes to the shelving unit I wanted the items stored on ~ I won’t tell you how many times I moved things around until it felt ‘just so.’  I can’t tell you why the cans of peanuts had to be between the popcorn and the potato flakes, but they did.

I was pleased that it took me a mere 4-1/2 hours to get everything in its proper place, and some of that time was spent just gazing in awe and praising God for my many, many blessings.

So, here we are ~ please allow me to introduce you to the Prairie Farmstead Pantry!  The freezers are standing proudly and dutifully on the west end.  The north wall houses the wire shelving units, and the south wall (left side) is reserved for all of my home canning items.  I am still undecided on the type of shelving I want for my canning jars, so that still needs to be done, but my pressure canner, hot water bath canner and grain mill will live on the floor under the shelves holding the jars.  It will be Home Canning Central.  Heehee!

Here’s the view from the freezers looking to the east wall.  The first shelf (leftmost in photo) holds all of the paper products, foil, plastic bags, Glade candles [my weakness!], matches, and the laundry and cleaning supplies.

The next shelf holds the canned soups, the beloved green chile enchilada sauce, canned chicken and tuna, canned fruits, canned vegetables, canned tomatoes, and my most beloved diced green chiles!

The next shelf holds the spices and baking goods, shortening and oils, sauces, marinades, dressings, and the peanut butter and jelly.  It also holds the coffee, tea and lemonade mix.

The shelf on the east wall is the ‘junk food’ shelf, mostly.  It has the cereals, crackers, snack bars, trail mixes, popcorn, peanuts, potato flakes,  Velveeta cheese and the cake and brownie mixes.  But, it also holds the #10 cans of Morning Moo and refried beans ~ so it’s not entirely junk food!

Finally, the storage buckets contain the flour, sugar, pasta, rice, and the red wheat berries.  Hopefully, if the garden goes as planned this summer, we will be adding buckets of dried beans and peas to the stack!

So there you have it ~ a fast trip around the pantry!  If you ever find yourself in the area and need a cup of sugar or a can of peas, be sure to stop by!

Now, I’d better go see about pulling some ingredients for this evening’s dinner, eh?!  ♥

Categories: OSB Palace Projects
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