Hello again, and welcome back to Ridin Out the Recession! Man, it’s sure nice of you guys to drop back in and visit with Deb and I a little while this mornin! You guys are great!
Well, Deb and I have been busy in the greenhouse. This is so much fun. Yes, it is work, but it’s also something both of us really enjoy. There are some major pluses for us both in regards to putting the greenhouse up as well.
The first is health. Good, fresh nutritious vegetables…year round. You all know Deb has Stage 4 breast cancer, and that after taking one chemo treatment she opted to take the alternative route. She chose quality of life versus being knocked down through the effects of the chemo.
Today, 11 months later she looks great, feels great, and is one busy woman. She works outside with us, does her housework, keeps me fed, which in itself is quite a feat, and helps me in the greenhouse. Never misses a beat!
One thing though that we consider the very most important is…faith! Faith in our Lord, faith in herself, and faith in that the treatment she chose is working. She’s told me numerous times that her chosen treatment she’s involved in…God showed to her!
To be honest, he is smiling on her daily, and we are two blessed people. So far, so good!
So, as I said, nutrition is our first benefit from our greenhouse. We juice a ton of fruits and vegetables daily, 20 to 25 different varieties each morning. This will supply us with most of these year round. What a blessing.
Secondly, we eat a lot of vegetables too. This is hand in hand with our juicing. On top of that, we know exactly what they’ve been grown in, what we may or may not have sprayed or fertilized with, and we’re able to walk outside, pick what we need, then right back into the house and prepare them…how could you possibly have product any fresher than that?
Juicing this many varieties each day comes with a monetary cost. I’m sure you guys all know firsthand the rising costs at the grocery store. Deb and I have advocated since the inception of our website the importance of putting up some food supply. Today, we’re glad we did.
So from a product standpoint, the greenhouse, along with our garden, will save us “mucho dinero!” Plus once more put this produce on our table in its freshest sense!
Look at your own situation in regards to saving a dollar when and where, you can. It doesn’t take very much room at all to grow actually, quite a bit of your own vegetables.
Google up square foot gardening, raised bed gardening, lasagna gardening, or container gardening. These all will supply you with good fresh vegetables…at little cost. Again, you’ll be able to walk outside to your garden spot, pick some vegetables, and right back inside you go.
What’s amazing to Deb and I is the fact you can germinate seeds so cheaply, with not a whole lot of work. Get a few seed trays, some potting mix, drop in your seeds…and you’re in business. It’s that simple.
Tomatoes, 25 seeds, 2 to 2-1/2 bucks?? Onion seed, 300 seeds, 2-1/2 bucks. I mean…how can you possibly get more bang from your buck? Again, a week or so back, Deb and I went to the grocery store for a few tomatoes to juice…$7.38 for SIX tomatoes??
Seed wise you’d get almost 75 seeds. We’ve been getting almost 90% germination, if you average ALL our seed products. Some have been 100%. So factor that in. If you average 90%, that’s about 67 plants. Say you lose 6 plants for some other reasons.
So the end result is 61 plants, right? We have 9 plants in the greenhouse that just volunteered up out of our compost pile, so we set them. Those 9 plants have 90 plus tomatoes on them as we speak. If you used the pricing of our cost at the grocery store that we paid for those dern 6 tomatoes…the monetary compensation is incredible.
6 tomatoes go into 90 tomatoes 15 times. $7.38 times 15 equals…$110.70! Plus these plants will produce many more tomatoes than what’s out there on them now. Pretty good investment, wouldn’t you say?
Our greenhouse will help us in other ways too. Exercise, fresh air, bending and stooping, basically, staying busy outside, in the fresh air.
It’ll give us the enjoyment and the rewards of watching those little fellers grow off, come into their own, and start supplying us with their fresh bounty. We’ll nurture and care for them, and in return they’ll nurture and care for us through the nutrition they provide us with!
Also, in a small way, they’ll provide us with a little monetary return as well. Deb wants to set-up a little spot at our gate, and peddle some of our vegetables, and even some of our plants. This too will give her things to do with herself while I…count the money! LOL!
Anyway, these are the things that Deb and I are looking forward to with our little grow house set-up. Fun, exercise, nutrition, cost savings, and enjoyment of all combined. Once more…we are two very blessed people. Not from a monetary standpoint…but our lifestyle.
We’ve been working out there till about 6 or after the last few days, and we’re in the midst of transplantin a lot of our seedlings.
I believe yesterday, we put 79 Beefmaster tomatoes, 37 Green Pineapple tomatoes, 32 Homestead tomatoes, and 27 Mini-Orange Cherry tomatoes into 4 inch pots. We also put 35 Japanese cucumbers into pots too.
Today we’ll be potting Rutgers, and also a few more varieties of Cherry tomatoes…Fox Cherry, Black Cherry, and Riesentraube Cherry.
Before we leave today, let’s check out a couple of our friends videos!
The first video comes from a friend of ours in Thailand. Paul, I believe is Canadian by birth, but moved to Thailand. He works in the oil business and travels extensively. Recently he was working of the coast of Israel.
What Deb and I love about Paul’s videos is that through Paul, we can experience a life we’d only heard of. Thanks Paul!
Different world, huh?
Our next video comes from Paula. What a great person. She seems to be as nice as the day is long, and always is willing to share any knowledge she has. That’s what it’s all about, huh? Sharin knowledge! Paula I’m almost positive, lives in Illinois.
Our next video comes from California…it’s by Shadow of Juniper Hill. She always has good info and gives us many looks at her gardening! You can tell by just listening to her that her gardening brings her great joy!
Our last video today comes from that ole pair out Mobile way…Bill and Sandi, the Gator fans! LOL!!
Check this out. We LOVED it! What a way of life to just get away a while, and…enjoy! These fellers here have it all “figgered out!” I’d love to load up and go with em!
How bout them apples?? You’re sittin there just wishin you could get out there with em, huh? Yeah, you know ya are!
You guys have a great day and God Bless! Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!
Dub and Deb