$200 at the grocery store!!!

So, I went to the grocery store today, with a list mind you, and ended up leaving with a $206.17 bill. What? Over $200!!! And I am buying for a family of three which includes a 15 year old daughter who barely weighs 100 pounds.


How can I possibly spend $200 and only buy products for three people? It stumps me, and aggravates me so I went through the list to make sure I didn’t buy something that was wasteful. Here are the most expensive items that I purchased:

Olive Oil, 25.5 oz, $8.45

Paper Towels, 8 rolls, on sale for $6.99

“Real” Maple Syrup, 12 oz, $8.63

3 bags bread flour, 5 lb each, on sale for $2.79 each

16 pack Steakum, Buy 1 get 1 free, so I got 2 packs for $8.99

2 lbs ground beef, 85/15, $7.97 for both

Yeast, 4 packs for $6.00 total



And that’s what I found that really stood out on the list. So, my final take on this is that this is becoming insane. Spending $200 a week is ridiculous. Now, this bothers me but what really scares me are the politicians trying to pass Cap & Trade which will dramatically increase ALL energy prices which in turn will dramatically increase ALL food prices due to the massive amounts of transportation and storage needed for most types of food products.



Food prices will most likely increase on average about 30 to 50 percent. That will be unsustainable for my family which is why I have been working hard to become self-sufficient. I just hope I can do it fast enough.



In future posts I am going to take each item from the grocery store that I purchase on a regular basis and really break down how I can save money either by growing or making it myself. Stay tuned. My goal is to make the posts as informative as possible so everyone can share the information and save money themselves. I recently purchased a bread machine which I will cover in my next post, I want to take some time to research how much each loaf is costing, does it taste any better, etc. Check back soon!

Chicken Housing

In preparation for next year's chickens, I have been thinking (and reading) a lot about how to house these chickens. Keep in mind that there are four families, 12 people in all that will need to be supplied with eggs and meat for an entire year. We figured about five dozen eggs per week and about 40 to 50 whole chickens per year for meat. Exactly, we'll need a whole pile of chickens.

Since we don't have thousands of dollars to blow on chicken housing we needed to be resourceful so I've been watching the papers and different classified ad sites looking for used sheds.

We hit the jackpot last week. A neighbor is moving and they had a nice size shed so we asked if they would be interested in selling. Sure enough, a 12 x 24 shed, only two years old was ours for $600 as long as we do the moving. Check out the pictures below:

My brother-in-law on one of the two forklifts used to move the behemoth.

This should give you an idea of the size of this thing!

Here we are manuevering the shed to it's temporary resting place until we find something more permanant. It has two double doors in front so I'll probably partition off the inside to make the chicken housing area about 12 x 15 and use the rest for storage or possibly turkeys. It needs nest boxes, roosts, feeders, water, maybe electric, etc., etc. So, I have a great winter project ahead. I'll post periodic updates. Stay tuned.

Greenhouse Update

OK. I got my greenhouse plastic in from Northern Greenhouse and have it installed. Check out the pictures:

One word: AWESOME!!!!

Of course it needs more work, we tacked the plastic temporary and still need a door, heat, vents, etc. Sort of a work in progress. It will be done though before the end of October. Check out my previouse post Building a Greenhouse to check this out from the beginning building process. I will add updates as I progress.

One more thing, the plastic from Northern Greenhouse was WELL worth the extra money. We stretched it, pulled it, nailed it, etc. Plastic from Home Depot or Lowe's, even doubled up would never have held up. A worthwhile investment if you are planning a greenhouse.

Bug Vacation

Here's a pic of my pumpkin, while it was growing, with what looks like a big bug family sunning themselves.

I've looked all over the internet to try and find out what kind of bugs they are but have yet to figure that one out. They weren't destroying anything so I just left them be. Looks like they're having a good time. If anyone knows what kind of bugs they are let me know.

**Make sure you click on the picture to enlarge it to really check out the bugs**

My Coldframe Experiment

I've read about coldframes and decided this was the year to construct my own. I had some old skylights laying around, not sure where they even came from so building it should be pretty cheap. I built the base from 2x6's and 2x10's to make the total height about 22". I filled it with screened topsoil from a local nursery and mixed in a lot of mushroom soil from the same nursery. Below are some pics:

You can see the start of the coldframe laying on the ground. I used 2x3's as the corner posts and you can see the skylight in the background as well. If you enlarge the picture you will notice the frame of my greenhouse in the far back and my cousin/helper, taking a break.

Here is the completed coldframe. Notice I left some of the 2x3 sticking out the bottom for support when it is placed into the ground. The size of the skylight is 51" x 51", plenty of room for all my cold weather plants.

My coldframe in its final resting spot. You can notice the sod has been dug up for next years expansion of my garden.

The finished product! From left to right: Radish/Cherriette, Carrots/Napoli (barely visible), Spinach & looseleaf lettuce. Seeds from Johnny's and Seed Savers Exchange. I tried Johnny's pelleted carrot seeds and they were great to work with. I'll never use non-pelleted again.

So, my coldframe material list looked something like this:

1. 4 - 2 x 6 x 10 @ $4.15 ea
2. 2 - 2 x 10 x 10 @ $7.59 ea
3. 51" x 51" commercial skylight - FREE
4. Misc hardware (12D nails, 2 1/2" drywall screws) @ $4.00???

Total Bill: $35.78

Not too bad for a decent sized coldframe. And if it works I have one more skylight for next year.

Thanks for stopping by and as always feel free to email me with questions or advice.

Building a Greenhouse

OK. Here is my attempt at building my very own greenhouse. It isn't completed yet but will be well before winter. I will post updates as I get further along.

Here's the start. My brother-in-law had some left over pipe so he offered to weld the greenhouse frame from pipe. I was going to make it out of wood because I'm a terrible fabricator. Hey, free pipe, free labor, I said go for it!

My dad on the left and brother-in-law on the right measuring for the center pole. Let me just say this too about my b.i.l., he is freakish when it comes to fabricating. Everything is leveled, square and perfect. Probably why I'm no good at it, I typically just slap stuff together.

Here is a picture after the center post has been welded in and the sides are done. The roof trusses were also welded in from pipe. See below.

This is the finished frame, setting in place in my garden. In the background you can see my beans and sunflowers.

This is a picture of the beds being built in the greenhouse. I added dirt and compost to fill the beds which are made from 2x6's and 2x10's to make the beds about 22" high. I also dug out in the center and added 2B stone later so I wouldn't be walking in mud since I'm going to remove the plastic every summer.

OK, here it is after the front has been installed and this is where I ran into a pretty big snag. The side you are looking at is the South facing side so, after I added the plywood almost the entire inside was shaded. I thought about what to do and came up with the idea to just install the wood front and back and cut plexiglass windows in later. This is as far as I've gotton so far but will keep adding posts as I progress. You can see my cold frame in the background which is working great! I'll add a post about that later too.

Squirrels!!

Recently I've noticed some red squirrels running around my yard and climbing my trees when I come out of the house in the morning. Well....I figured out where their nest is.

Yeah!! You are looking at the top of my chimney, that is where they are nesting!! The chimney is no longer being used for anything, well, except for the obvious.

This is how they got to the chimney, count them, seven total. I'm doing some research on these critters to see if I can just live and let live or if I'm going to have to evict them. Stay tuned!

Oh yeah, I've been busy so I haven't really been updating the site regularly but I will, once garden season is completely over. Thanks for checking in.

Fresh Green Beans for Winter

OK. Here is my attempt at preserving green beans. I didn't invest in canning equipment this year so I just froze them.

First you need an armload of freshly picked green beans. Notice my ice water on the right which I just threw in an ice pack for now because I was low on ice cubes.

Cut the beans into whatever size you prefer and throw them in a collander and rinse. Make sure you use a very sharp knife, it makes the job go much easier.

Blanch/boil/steam beans for 3 minutes. This stops the action of enzymes which make the vegetables grow. If you don't blanch, the enzymes continue to work and your vegetables become nasty during preservation because the enzymes are still active.

Throw beans in a waiting bowl of ice water for the same amount of time: 3 min. This stops the blanching process so the beans are not mushy. Let them dry, I use paper towels to speed up the process, then bag or vacuum seal and freeze. That's it! Oh, one more step:

Feed some beans to your waiting companions. Then you're done. Simple and you have the fresh taste of garden vegetables throughout the winter. Check out this helpful website for loads of information on freezing beans. Thanks for checking in!

Welcome to My Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my Pine Grove garden. This is a first year garden, (not my first year) but the first year at this location. Anyone in the Northeast knows that this year was unseasonably wet and I planted this garden smack in the middle of a swamp. Well, not really a swamp but the ground really held the water to the extent that after a rain I was left with big puddles in the middle of my garden. I know, plan ahead right.

Anyway, most everything I planted early on became stunted and didn't really do too well including potatoes, onions, beans, some peppers, etc., etc. Subsequent plantings went into raised beds to combat the water problem. There again my first raised beds weren't great but they're getting better thanks to Ed Smith's "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible". Well worth the investment for any gardener.

Anyway, some pictures:

Big weekend coming up. I'm ready with my compost & more dirt.

Labor Day weekend on the way. Five day weekend for me. The garden is being expanded for next year and I'm  ready with more dirt (I need to buy dirt because mine is so bad) and my mushroom compost. The dirt is 70% topsoil, 20% compost and 10% sand purchased from Pine Creek in Freidensburg.

My compost bin made from skids. To the immediate right is a raised bed planted with broccoli for fall.

Also take notice to the two skylights behind the bin, they're for coldframes being built over labor day. They were also free.

In these two pictures you can see the raised bed with my homemade trellis full of morning glories, cucumbers and freshly planted sugar snap peas for fall. In the background is my raised bed ready for garlic planting in Oct.

One last picture. I thought this was neat. Closeup of my sunflower being attacked by bees.

So, that's my garden and the start of my garden blog. Please feel free to comment and give me advice, I'm not a master gardener. Stay tuned for more as I plan to build a greenhouse, more raised beds and next year raise chickens. I will be canning and preserving next year as well.

 Email anytime to: pggardener@comcast.net

Thanks for checking out my blog!