My Chicago Garden

I couldn't wait for our pressure canner to arrive so I went and purchased about 5 pounds of cucumbers to make into bread and butter pickles. After canning they are suppose to sit for 7 weeks before eating. Argh!!  I actually wanted to figure out how much 5 pounds (about 12 medium size) would make and how much it would cost per jar.

Here's the cost break down:

$7.68 : 12 medium cucumbers

$1.67 : sweet and sour mix (I should have made my own but I'm lazy at the moment)

$1.06 : 4 cups of 5% vinegar

$0.25 : 3 cups of sugar

$0.15 : water and heat

$7.50 : 8 - 1 pint regular canning jars

Total: $18.31 ($2.29 a jar)

Compare to $3.49  for Vlasic brand and $2.85 for generic

 Awsome! I can actually save money. Not that $1 a jar really is much but the fact that I made it faster, better, cheaper is even better! I think I can bring the cost down even more when I grow my own cucumbers. I'll basically be replacing the $7.68 I paid for the cucumbers for my own labor and then saving a bunch when I reuse the jars.

Only 7 weeks to go and I'll know if they are any good! Yummm!

For the last week my wife and I have been watching a particularly large spider (in our mind) build his web and eat his catch right before our eyes. About a week ago my wife noticed that a spider was building a web below the light above the sliding glass door to our deck/backyard.  At first the web was about the size of a frizbie and we watch for probably 2 hours (9pm-11pm) as he built the web and caught things in it. He wasn't more than an inch from the glass and as far as we could tell he couldn't see us with the light above him and the inside lights turned off. We could point at things and get real close and he would continue his work without care.

Each night he has returned to take down and rebuild the web, always slightly bigger.

Well tonight…oh my….my wife and I commented on either the spider is different or the sucker is getting bigger every night.  His web has now taken up nearly HALF of the sliding glass door!! It really is amazing how nature works. I found myself a few nights ago sitting on the kitchen table chearing on the spider. "oooh he almost got him!"…"Oh the moth busted out a piece of his web."…"FIGHT! FIGHT! He's taking on a green bug his own size!!"  How he knows to build exactly the right size web with exactly the right size spacing so the bugs are not too small and not too big is beyond me. I wish I could get a good picture but he just wont sit still or the reflection of the glass makes it impossible.  I'll keep trying.

Oooh man! My garden got trashed last night during a storm. Well part of it anyway.

I lost my big beautiful bell pepper plant that I had not even had a harvest from, my mostly harvested bush beans, the onion crop is in jeopardy, one of the pole been plants was hit and the pumpkin and squash plants got smushed. Add in the wind (presume) damage to the corn crop and it's been a pretty cruddy harvest this year. And think..just a few weeks ago it was looking so GOOD! Argh!!!

Sierra and I had been out in the tree house/fort during the storm watching the rain and wind. We got completely soaked but it was fun! At one point I thought I heard some cracking and popping but I did not see the trees fall. Well one good thing to come of it is now our garden has more sun!

Just got back from vacation out in California and the garden has taken off like crazy.  Corn is growing great, beans are ready for harvest and tomatoes are showing promise.  I even had to cut back my basil plant by 50% so the other herbs would have room to grow.

In 2006 I plan on pulling up at least 500 square feet of grass and nearly doubling the size of the garden to 1000 square feet. We may also pull up another 920 feet of grass for a non-food garden. All depends how much it costs to rent a grass stripper and how much we can afford in mulch. In 2005 we used approximately 90 bags of mulch for the entire yard. Plans also call for a compost bin this year or the next.