Sunday, January 18, 2026

Blog Index

Gardening

Strawberry Secrets
Growing Giant Peruvian Corn
Cardboard as Weed Barrier
Tips for Growing Peas

Recipes

Stuffed Peppers
Potatoes, Broccoli, and Bacon
Beef with Onions, Pineapple, and BBQ Sauce

Animals

Meet the Cats
Meet the Sheep
Wildlife - Game cam pictures
Bears

Nature

Giant Mountain
Flowers
Snow Sculpting
A Day in January

Frugality Tips

Saving on the Grocery Bill
Grocery prices comparison
Grocery Prices

Good Vibes

educared store

Miscellaneous

Snake Rescue
Contemplations about time

A Day in January.

 The year is 2026 and it's been a long winter so far here in Upstate New York. Ice, snow, the usual.

With still two months to go until springtime I had to remove some snow from the sides of the greenhouse. The snow had piled up to such a level that it would have been impossible for any snow coming off the dome to go anywhere so it had to be done. I started by lowering the long snowbanks by several feet. After that I started to clear the snow down to ground level. I was able to do 4 feet a day which took me about 3 hours each day.

Here is a picture. As seen in the picture, I use two shovels. The snow shovel is for the loose stuff at the top and the dirt shovel is to break the ice, literally. This is not snow you see there, it's mostly ice.


Here is a closer picture:


This is the right side, it is almost done in the picture. It's nice to have the daily exercise. As I get a bit older, the trick is to keep moving in order to stay in shape.

While I've been removing snow, Mark made another sculpture so that drivers of vehicles passing through will have something to look at. 
It's amazing how many people look forward to the sculptures. Interestingly it's rare to see a sculpture around here even though there are piles of snow all over the place.


The pictures were taken at sunset last night. The sculpture will be around for a while because there is no warmup in the 10-day forecast. Every day and every night will be below the freezing point. By the way, we have gained 28.8 minutes of daylight so far. It's starting to count.




Thursday, December 4, 2025

My search for Goblin Egg Gourds.

 Since I don't have goblin egg gourds yet I cannot post a picture at this time but watch this space for pictures by the end of next summer.
Goblin egg gourds are small gourds, usually yellow and green, and they are so small that they fit in an egg carton.

My Amish friends sell the goblin egg gourds in their vegetable stand in summer, but their supplier no longer sells the seeds and thus started my long internet search for goblin egg gourd seeds.
The seeds are not cheap. They can be up to a dollar per seed depending on where you get them.

I stumbled upon a few online stores that sold the seeds for 25 cents per seed but a quick google search told me that they weren't legitimate stores. When it's too good to be true then it probably is too good to be true. Remember this when shopping online. 
I also found a store based in Canada that's legitimate but after contacting them I found out that they don't ship to the US.

My search eventually ended at educared and oh am I ever glad I landed there.
In a world where profit wins over kindness it has become rare to find sellers who will go the extra mile but they're still among us and I found one!

The seller worked with me to get me the best possible price, and he gave me an extra package of seeds for free. The seeds were shipped within hours even though it was a Holiday week. They arrived today in neat packages and it's one thing less to search for.

Given that I plant a few vegetables that cannot be found in the average garden around here, as well as the fact that I help my Amish friends finding seeds, the yearly seed hunt can actually be stressful at times.
Thank you Sam at https://educared.net/ for working with me to make at least one part of this yearly seed hunt a bit less stressful. And to whomever reads this, check out this store. They have some unique seeds that can be difficult to find elsewhere.

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Grocery Prices

 The frugal one in me always compares prices when grocery shopping. It's rare to find all the least expensive things in one store. Somethings are cheaper in one store and other things are cheaper in other stores. But, considering how far the stores are apart, it's cheaper in the end to buy everything at one store.

My plan is to note the prices of some items here. Those are items I buy often, so whenever I buy them, I will edit this post and add the price. I'll be looking at the same items, same brand, same store.


Sugar - Store brand - 10 pounds 
01/19/2025 - $8.17
12/05/2025 - $8.46

All Purpose Flour - store brand - 10 pounds
01/19/2025 - $4.57
12/05/2025 - $4.57

Whipped Topping - store brand - 8 ounces
01/19/2025 - $1.07
12/05/2025 - $1.12

Whole milk - Store brand - 1 Gallon
01/19/2025 - $2.84
12/05/2025 - $3.06

Angel hair half length - Store Brand - 1 pound (Half is the same price as full)
01/19/2025 - $0.98 
12/05/2025 - $0.98

To be continued :)


Thursday, December 12, 2024

Life and Death of a Snow Sculpture

 When it comes to snow sculpting, timing is everything.

First, the temperature has to be right. Too cold and the snow won't stick, it'll be powdery. Too warm and we know what that means. The sculpture will melt.

The best time to make a sculpture is just before a cold snap but up here we rarely have temperatures warm enough for the snow to stick.
Even in the best of circumstances, a snow sculpture usually has a short lifespan. Just a week ago we had a brief warm-up and the freshly made snow sculpture started to suffer on the second day.

So let's take a look at the life and death of a snow sculpture.

Day 1:


Day 2:


Day 3:


Day 4:





RIP!








Sunday, November 3, 2024

Bears Caught on the Trail Cam

 It's been an interesting summer. My neighbor and I have been setting our trail cams here and there to see what's all out there.

I honestly didn't expect to see so many animals around here.

Between the two of us, this is what we have seen so far:

- Bears - many
- Deer - many
- Bobcats - 3
- Coyotes - 2
- Racoons - 4
- Skunks - 2
- Fisher - 1
- Bunnies - 3
- Turkeys - many
- Grouse - 1

I might have forgotten some, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Here are some bear pictures. We had damage to 2 trail cams due to bears.





Got some big ones around!



Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Wildlife - Game Cam Pictures

 It is such a privilege to live close to nature. It's difficult to imagine the sun setting behind a skyscraper, out of sight just like it's difficult to imagine living life without smelling freshly cut grass in summer. The passion is real.
I wanted to share some pictures captured by my game cam this week. Enjoy!

Deer munching on apples under our apple tree.


A raccoon, also in search of apples. I've seen it on the cam a couple of times this past week.


A young buck roaming the fields.


Judging by the rack, this buck is a few years older. He might want to hide during the upcoming hunting season!


A turkey family. The young ones are growing!