One big part of sustainability (to me) is food.  What you eat, how often you eat it, what your food eats, where it comes from, how it gets to your fridge and so on.  There are so many variables to how your food comes to your plate that affect all of my favorite topics: finances (cost), sustainability (transportation/”food miles”, growing practices/feeding, inputs/fertilizers/hormones/etc) and health (what you eat/how much/how often).  In an effort to lower my own impact, I’ve been focusing on getting my own food – mostly meat, but hopefully next summer I can try my hand at gardening.  When I do go out and get my own food, I like to do a bit of cost/benefit analysis.  Was it worth it for me to get it, or should I just save the time/money and buy it at the store?  If you’re curious you can find part one (halibut) and part two (duck) on the site.

This time, the hunt was for elk.  Here’s what it cost:

• Elk Tag: $52
• Conservation Stamp for 2011:  $12.50  - This is something anyone in wyoming who is hunting or fishing has to purchase.  Usually they use the money for land conservation.  The stamp is good for 1 calendar year.
• Conservation Stamp for 2012: $12.50 – Unfortunately, these stamps are good for a calendar year, not from year to date purchase.  Since I didnt get an elk in 2011, I had to buy a new one.  Feeling like I was buying these things all the time annoyed me (and I didnt want to forget), so I bought a lifetime conservation stamp for $180.50.  I just used the yearly cost here though.  If the price stays the same, I’ll be money ahead in 15 years, and sooner if the price goes up.
• Gun/Ammo: Borrowed/given to me – but this will be an expense in the future.  Obviously the gun will be a 1 time expense, but not the ammo.
• Gas: $200 – This area isn’t really close to my house at all and I’d guesstimate I used 3 tanks of gas I wouldn’t have used otherwise.  I went up a total of 5 times and I took my truck 2 of those times, using a full tank both times.  The third was for meeting the rest of my group.
• Foil/Saran Wrap: $8 – Yes, even though I bought some in Alaska, I needed more to process my elk meat.
• 750 mL of whiskey: $11 – Needed.
• Grinding: Free – Usually I pay to have the tougher cuts ground into burger meat, but a co-worker has a grinder that she is willing to let me use, which is a huge score!

Obviously, that’s quite a long list, and the total is $297, which is about what I spent on the halibut (go figure) but  is still a whole slew of money.

Before I went out last Saturday, I was pretty pessimistic about the whole thing, figuring that I’d thrown all that cash down the drain and not gotten anything from it (for the second year in a row)!  Even after I ate my lunch on Saturday, and we had finished our loop and were headed back to the truck, I was ready to go home and had made the decision to give it up for the season.  Thankfully, we stumbled upon some tracks and I was able to bring one down after some stalking.  So once I drug the thing back to the truck (2 miles!) and went home, I had to get to work processing and weighing. After everything was deboned, I had 58 lbs of meat.  This is meat of all different grades and qualities, from things that need to be slow cooked or ground because they aren’t tender to things that are very, very tender and tasty.  (Pictures: Pre deboned meat from 1 rear leg, and a de-boned rear leg [pic1, pic2]).  I basically spent most everyday from Saturday to Thursday trimming the silver off, and spent about 3 hours last this Saturday wrapping everything up.  Obviously, it doesn’t end once you’re out of the field.

I had to cut all of the silver off so the meat wouldnt taste gamey, and I’m guessing that was about 5 pounds, leaving me with about 53 pounds of useable meat.  This puts my total cost per pound at $5.12, which I think is pretty good.  While not all of what I got is “steak” quality, it is all organic, grass fed, pasture raised, etc.  Overall, that’s a pretty cheap price per pound for meat like that – I’ve done the math on buying a side of beef and it comes out somewhere between 6 and 7 bucks a pound (at least around here).  I figure this is a pretty good comparison, so I’m happy with the results.

I also don’t think I’ll need to do this again next year.  H is a vegetarian, so I’ve got all of this to eat myself or give away.  I’ve already given some away  and will probably give away more. I’ll save some for my bachelor party this summer and probably keep the rest (shockingly, I had enough freezer room after my quest to eat freezer stuff).  The unfortunate thing about this is that I could have spent all of that money and came up with nothing, but that is just how it all works.  Buying a tag isnt like buying the meat off the carcass – it does take a considerable amount of time and effort, but to me it’s worth it.

Some thoughts on the cost: I try not to put a price on the time I spend outdoors in some gorgeous country (if you want to know what the area looks like, check my facebook picture) because that is subjective, and I could derive more value from it than others (or less).  I also don’t count the benefit of the workout I get, but I do count it towards my workout total for the month – it’s a lot of walking.

Readers: Do you hunt, or are you interested in it?  Are you lucky enough to have a friend that just gives you meat instead of you having to go get it yourself?  Have you ever considered hunting as a (long-term) strategy to save money and increase the quality of your food?

A while back, I wrote a post on the costs I incurred while going halibut fishing in Alaska.  When I wrote the post, I was relatively unsure of the street value of the fish, and was pretty sure that I was getting soaked in the deal.  Even though I used a pretty high price point, it looked like I came close to breaking even in the end, and I have some great memories from the trip to boot.

After I wrote that post, I figure it would be interesting to do this with all of my adventures getting my own food, so here’s the next chapter.

A while a go, my fiancee’s friend mentioned that he wanted to come up to Wyoming and hunt antelope and I offered to take him with my future father in law.  Unfortunately, the dates didnt work out and I was at fincon during the only weekend available, so I was unable to go.  After he got back (he was successful) he invited me to go duck hunting with him.  I’ll be the first to admit that I know nothing about ducks, duck hunting or anything like that.  Along with that, I’ve only even eaten duck once in my life.  Even so, I decided I’d go.

I already had a shotgun, so I didnt need to buy one of those.  What I did need was ammo, license, a state duck stamp and a federal duck stamp.  Most of the stuff I still have left and can be used again within a certain time frame.  I believe the federal duck stamp is good for the season, and the state duck stamp is good for 45 days.  Here was what I paid

• 2 boxes ammo ~$22.  I can use this again, because I think I shot 3/50 shells.
• Federal Duck Stamp/State Duck Stamp (State good for 45 days, federal for a year): $20
• 1 Day waterfowl hunting license , non resident. $11
• 1 Tank gas ~55

Unfortunately, this was a bit of a slow day out on the pond.  Of course, I’ve never been before so I didnt know, but the guy I went with said that usually he bags out and gets 6 ducks.  Unfortunately, we only shot two.  He was nice enough to let me take home both ducks as I assume his freezer is already full of them.  As I found out when I was processing the animal at home, there’s really not much to a duck.  You basically just want the breasts to eat, and some people save feathers if the make files for fly fishing (I don’t, and the guy I offered them to at work didn’t want them).  I didnt really know what to do with the rest, so I just got rid of them.  I’d like to find something to use what’s left of the animal for, but I dont know anything.  If you’ve got ideas, leave them in the comments

I havent mentioned much about our CSA since the Green Your Summer series, but I’ve decided to give some updates on the service every once in a while with my thoughts, etc.  This is the fourth update, and if you’re interested, the first update is here, and the second is here, the third is here.

I feel like I just wrote the last csa update because I’ve been gone so often.  In fact, last weeks was the first one I myself had picked up in quite a while.  H and I have been traveling a lot in october, so we had been having friends of ours pick up stuff for us, and unfortunately we were unable to find anyone for last week, so we had to abandon it.  I hate throwing away something I paid for, but I know that it got donated or taken home by one of the people who works at our drop off location – but it still feels like a waste of money.  Oh well – sometimes that happens.

Like the last one, this one has been mostly apples.  They are in season now and are great – we’ve been getting tons of different kinds of apples.  Along with the constant stream of apples, we’ve gotten another peck (for those unfamiliar, a peck is about 10 lbs) of pears and a tub of pitted pie cherries, similar to the one we got at the beginning of the program.

Now with the fruit, im trying to get as much as I “can” (haha!) canned and put up for the winter.  That has been going well so far, and as of this morning, I’ve got 7 pints of applesauce, though 4 of those 7 pints weren’t the greatest applesauce as I got a little overzealous with the cloves.  In my own defense, it’s tough to tell when you’re working with 4 quarts how much is too much.  Along with that, I’ve got 3 quarts of pears and 1 pint of pears.  Last update, I had grand plans to go to a pick your own and unfortunately I got snowed out.  I did get 10 lbs of tomatoes from the store for pretty cheap that I plan to turn into tomato sauce and salsa tomorrow, and I’ve got a bag of chilies and some chili powder that I won from Mike and Molly’s Giveaway that I’ve got to get a plan for as well.

They are also doing a winter CSA that delivers monthly that H and I might do, though it will be only veggies and no fruits.  I think at this point after our first full season, I’d say it was worth it and we will probably do it again next year – and we may even expand our participation and get veggies next summer as well.  If we do, I promise to keep better cost records to see if its fiscally sound or if it would be cheaper buying it from the store.  At this point, I think it is, but there’s no way to be sure.

Readers – are you considering doing a csa next summer?  Why or why not?

Unfortunately, this is going to be the last post of my pictures from alaska.  Even though I took north of 375 pictures, I didnt want to spend weeks and weeks on this series, so I broke my events down into days and selected some of my favorite pictures from each activity.  Hopefully this made you want to go to alaska a just a little bit.  I enjoyed my time up there and will hopefully be going back soon!   If you missed the first three groups, you can find here and here and here.

This group of pictures was because of a bartender that  I was talking to over dinner.  I asked him for some nearby trails and he sent me over here.  It was about a mile walk out of town (I didnt have  a car) just to the trailhead, and I was on the trail for about 2 miles 1 way. It was quite a bit of walking that day and it was tiring, but it was a great hike.

The hike was mostly along the coast south of seward, so there were quite a few rivers and other bodies of water flowing into resurrection bay.   This was one of them.  One of the best parts about this hike was that I saw 2 other people and 2 dogs throughout my hike.  It’s nice when you can get out there and truly be by yourself.

I took this picture because I thought this was funny – this is supposed to be a bridge over this shallow creek.  It wasnt really sturdy or anything like that, and it didnt really work.

I thought this was a pretty nifty tree, it looks like it had been cut down at one point and is regrowing as a new tree.

This is a ghost forest.  I wrote about them last time, but I think they are really cool!

This bird scared the crap out of me.  All of the sudden something broke the silence that I had enjoyed for the past 2 or so hours and made all this noise as I was standing on the bridge.  I was taking pictures of the fish in the water, but I got an ok shot of this guy considering.  There was also an eagle flying around, but I was unable to get a good picture of it.

You can see a bit of seward and the mountains behind it in this picture, but my favorite thing is the very well defined snow line on the mountain.

This is one from the walk back to town on the road.  I thought the boats looked neat in front of the mountain.

This is a guest post from a close friend of mine.  After I mentioned doing something on the parks to him earlier in the year, wrote one up on one of the parks near him.  I have not been to this particular park, and I wanted to get some parks outside the western US for my east coast readers.  Enjoy!

Jeff has been badgering me for a couple months now to do a blog post for his National Parks series. While sitting at work on a Sunday afternoon, working on a proposal that’s due on Tuesday, I decided I need a bit of a break from the technical writing. (Authors note: It took an additional month and a half to finish this post, but we won the contract! Also, look for another blog post in the coming months on my trip to St. John National Park.)

Living just outside of Washington, D.C., there’s a number of directions to take for finding respite from the city. To the east and south, the beaches await. To the north, cooler temperatures in the Pennsylvania mountains of my youth. My favorite place for a quick (and relatively inexpensive) recreational experience, is located to the west in Shenandoah National Park.

Authorized in 1926 and in operation by 1935, SNP falls completely within the boundary of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Stretching from the town of Front Royal in the north, to I-64 on the south, the park encompasses the foothills and highest elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Running down the center of the park is the Park’s most popular attraction, Skyline Drive. From end-to-end, it provides 105 miles of access to side-trails that lead to waterfalls, meadows, and mountain summits. For the motorcyclist like me, its one of the finest roads in Virginia, if not the entire East Coast. You’re limited to 35 MPH, but that is fine for enjoying the twists and elevation changes as you seemingly leap from peak to peak, to be rewarded with fantastic views of the Virginia Piedmont to the east and the Shenandoah Valley to the West. South of Interstate 64, Skyline Drive becomes the Blue Ridge Parkway, which really seems to have been designed for motorcyles, with plenty of big, sweeping curves that let you put in a good lean while maintaing speed. For the bicyclists, it’s also a great road with plenty of grades of varying steepness. Definitely not for the faint of heart!

Anyway, enough with Skyline Drive. How about the places you can stop and get off the beaten path?

Old Rag

Old Rag, at 3,284 feet above sea level, isn’t the biggest mountain on the East Coast, but it is one of the most scenic and challenging mountains that I’ve encountered. An exposed granite batholith, Old Rag is approximately 400 million years in the making, and time has done wonders. The standard circuit trail up the mountain and back down the Weakley Hollow Fire Road is 7.1 miles and takes about 6 hours. Along the way, you’ll encounter some awesome bouldering, akin to what you might find in various locations throughout the West. A very fun climb with great views, it leads to plenty of wide open areas on which to sit and enjoy a picnic lunch. The return by Weakley Hollow is good for letting your muscles unwind and enjoying a nice walk alongside a small stream. Expect to pay usage fees of around $5 per person, depending upon your entrance point into the park.

View of the Blue Ridge from the shoulder of Old Rag.

A view of the boulder-strewn terrain that must be navigated to reach the peak, upper center right.

Now, listen, almost EVERYONE who has lived in the DC area has been to Old Rag. If you’re into nice secluded hikes where there’s nary a soul on the mountain, this hike’s really not for you. This place is crawling with folks most weekends. Alternatively, go during the weekdays for a better experience, especially a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Whiteoak Canyon

I recently went with my fiance (at the time) and other friend to visit Whiteoak Canyon. Located between MP 45 and 46 on Skyline Drive, you hike down the mountain stopping to play in the natural waterslides and swimming holes along Whiteoak Canyon. Additionally, access is available from the eastern park boundary via Etlan, VA along Virginia Highway 231. There’s two options for hiking, either an out-and-back up or down Whiteoak, or a full circuit hike using the neabry Cedar Run trail. We did the circuit tail starting from the eastern boundary and it was quite strenuous. The swimming holes were very refreshing though and made for a great day.

A friend launching into a swimming hole on Cedar Run on a beautiful May afternoon. Yes, it was still cold.

For the last few years, I’ve made it a point to try and obtain some of my own food.  For a lot of people this means a garden.  Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to do that quite yet because I’m afraid the dog will tear it up, and along with that, I dont want to do anything to the back yard (I rent).  So this leaves me to trying other ways to get my own food.  I’ve done some of this (though I’m not sure if it would count) by canning apples, and I’ve also done some elk hunting and antelope hunting.  Unfortunately I havent gotten an elk yet, but antelope are plentiful here to the point of becoming a huge nuisance, so I’ve gotten one of those two years in a row.  One thing that I’ve been wanting to do more of is fish.  Usually it’s pretty cheap, and there’s good fishing close to where I live (mostly trout).  So I decided to book a charter fishing trip when I was in Alaska - it was one of two “big” (read: spendy) things that I decided to do while there.  Here’s what it cost – and I’ll leave out the flight and the room and food, I would have needed those anyway.

• Charter trip (Late season) $220
• Out of State fishing license $20 (1 day)
•  Safeway $15 – Ziplock bags, foil and saran wrap.  There were no processors of fish left open in town ( I probably wouldnt have used one anyway) so that I could portion, pack and freeze my catch.
• Cooler $23 I needed something to take the fish home with me so that they wouldn’t de-thaw on the plane.  This worked really, really well, but it was because the cooler was packed very, very full.  It also didnt fit everything in it – 1 serving had to be packed alone.  I’ll have to see how this one fared.
• Check bag fee $20 – to check the cooler to take home.

Fish Caught by Everyone in the Boat – We each got 2.

All in all, I got less than $90 dollars worth of fish from the fishing trip, bringing my cost per pound of halibut to a level that I dont even care to calculate.  However, the trip wasnt just about taking home enough fish to feel me and H for the winter.  I wanted to experience something new (I’d never been halibut fishing, or on a boat that small in the open ocean), and I wanted to have fun.  Both of those things I accomplished, and like I’ve been learning quite a bit lately, it’s not always going to be about the money.

Readers: Do you ever get your own meat, or do you stick to gardening?  If you do get your own meat, have you thought about cost effectiveness, or are you just interested in where you food comes from and going out and having some fun?

Barbara Friedberg, MBA, MS is editor-in-chief of Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance.com where she writes to educate, inspire, and motivate for wealth in money and life. Learn about personal finance from a real life Portfolio Manager & MBA professor! Stop by the website and download a valuable free eBook, 20 Minute Guide to Investing.

What is one thing every home needs, can cost a lot, and cuts energy costs? Of course, window coverings. Although not the most exciting topic, a necessity nevertheless.

We just moved into a new home, hated the existing window coverings and elected to replace them all! In our prior home, we went custom on every window and spent a bundle. This time I decided to try a combination of custom and off the rack options.

The look I was going for in the bedroom was cozy elegance and I wanted an entire wall of drapes. This option had the potential to cost a lot, but I was determined to go for an “elegant look on a budget.”

Drapery panels run from $10.00 a piece on up to hundreds. Here’s how I did an entire wall of draperies for under $100.00, including the rod.

Although I am not an interior designer, I love design and watch enough HGTV to be considered an addict. One trick I learned is that yards of inexpensive fabric can look quite elegant. I used that trick!

Step by Step Details

1. Visit Ikea, the bargain basement of high style-low cost decorating. Purchased 3 packets of white cotton drape panel sets (two panels per pack), on sale for $19.99 each. 6 panels for a total of $60.00.
2. Purchase 1 long silver-like rod with modern finials for $24.00.
3. I had the required extra mollies, screws, and drill at home. No cost.
4. In one morning, I measured, (at least twice), put up 3 brackets to hold the 13 foot rod, and hung the drapes across one entire wall. It took me awhile because I didn’t want to mess it up, and I had to put the screws in by hand (I don’t have an electric screw driver or screw bit for my drill).
5. Total financial cost: $84.00. If I counted my time to hang them it would have been quite a bit more expensive, but the psychic reward of completing the entire project was well worth the time spent.

A do-it-yourselfer at heart, I loved this project. The window coverings do a terrific job blocking the light and obviate the need for the air conditioner. How’s that for saving money and the environment? I got a designer look on a tight budget. And I am so proud of myself for buying the drapes and getting them hung within a few days. In sum, the benefits were huge; environmental, financial, and psychological.

What projects have you undertaken to save money and the environment?

One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do is go spend a few days (at least 4) in glacier national park near kalispell, Montana.  I’ve always found glaciers really, really fascinating, and I figure that park is one of my best shots at seeing one up close, despite it being around 15 hours from where I currently live.  I know a few friends who have been there, and so have a few members of my family, but I never have, and have had it on my list for about 6 years.  Though this list is unpublished and unwritten down, so many things get added then subtracted (or forgotten) before they are actually checked off.  Every year when I’m thinking about vacations and where I should go (or where I’m required to go) I always think about going to glacier and the logistics of the trip just seem too far out of reach.

• The car trip is too long and I wont be in the mood to make the drive
• I cant get/dont have time off of work to do this (not always true)
• Some other excuse, possibly half-baked
• Cost too much

I havent mentioned much about our CSA since the Green Your Summer series, but I’ve decided to give some updates on the service every once in a while with my thoughts, etc.  This is the second update, and if you’re interested, the first update is here.

At the time of the first update, I was slightly annoyed with the CSA, as we had not gotten any real edible fruit.  Though H turned the rhubarb I  mentioned in the last one into a great pie/crisp type thing.  I probably ate half of it myself.

So, after the rhubarb and pie cherries, it has been nothing but peaches.  Though I did get a jug of cider once with one of the peaces, that’s the only diversity we have had.  There has been a peck of peaches every week for the last month or so.  Normally I would be complaining about this lack of diversity and would have thought about canning some of them, but they are just too damn good.  I have a handful of readers in Colorado who probably know this, but peaches from the palisade area are some of the best in the world, apparently.  They even have a festival every year!

So, the last month has been nothing but peaches, but things are starting to shift.  This week along with peaches, we’ll be getting a cantaloupe and a bag of pears.  I’m pretty excited to get some diversity, but I kinda just want one of these to come with about 3 bags of peaches so that I can preserve some of this bounty.

As far as the CSA goes as a whole, this one has probably cut our fruit bill down for the summer, but on occasion, I feel like the veggie share would be a better deal.  I see the fruit mostly as snacks and side dishes for meals or for desserts, but it’s difficult to plan a meal around fruit.  I dont think the same problems would be there if I had vegetable share – and even less so given that H is vegetarian.  So sometimes, I wonder how my meal planning would work if I got the veggie share – and I am pretty satisfied with the fruit share so far, so maybe I’ll look into that for next year.

Readers: Do you have CSA’s in your area?  Have you ever considered joining one?  Do you enjoy hearing about how mine is going? 

About 2 years ago when I started to clean up my finances, I moved into a new city and moved in with H.  After thinking about it for a while and talking with H, we both decided that we wanted to use as few harsh chemicals in the house as possible.  This meant changing cleaners, soaps and the whole nine yards.  For the first year and a half or so, we simply bought all the “green” labeled cleaners from whatever store we happened to be at if we needed something.  Given my extensive (enough) knowledge of the environment (it was a major in undergrad) I was pretty sure that even though we were buying all of these things, they probably were no better – they were simply labeled “green” and the price was much higher than normal.  Don’t get me wrong, Im sure they did some to alleviate the things that we were looking to remove, but they didnt do it all.

For a while, this was good enough for me.  I didnt worry about it, as I was driving a lot, working a lot and when I got around to cleaning, it was one of those things I didnt want to jack with.  Whatever cleaning solution I had in my hand to clean whatever I was cleaning needed to work – no other criteria necessary.  If it didnt work, I’d simply get pissed about it then go out and (most likely) buy the harshest stuff that I could find, just to ensure effectiveness.

After I got some more time on my hands switching jobs,  I started to chafe when buying that “green” cleaner – that crap was expensive.  Not only that, we were going through it fast enough to make me wonder if some addict was sneaking in at night and drinking the stuff.  After that, I finally decided that I’d try my hand at making my own, and searched the internet for the recipe for the homemade cleaner.  I wrote it up for a fellow blogger of mine Matt Jabs over at DIY Natural (Side note: matt was probably the first non-family comment on this blog, way back in like 09!).  Before I posted over on Matt’s site, I didnt read it that often (in my defense, it was inactive for a very long time), but matt started ramping up the content over there and I ended up subscribing right away.  I cant tell you how great the site is to read and how good his recipes work.

As he kept posting, I kept trying the recipes that he put up.  After my first foray into liquid laundry soap failed (still dont know why), I was in search for a new recipe and decided to give matt’s a try.  I had to work to find fels naptha but I had everything else on hand.  Im about 1/3rd of the way through the carton that I put my soap in, and I haven’t found any problems.  With that success, I decided to try more of his recipes!  I’ve made the mouthwash from diynatural, as well as the homemade deodorant (my first use was monday, I had to use up what I had first).  All have been working great so far.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited when Matt told me that him and betsy (his wife) were working on a guide for household cleaners.  I’ve had such great luck with all of the natural recipes shared on his website, that I was itching to try and do more. For only $37 dollars, you can get recipes for more than 60 cleaners for your every room in your house, that are all homemade and chemical free — So far in my experience, they work just as good (if not better) than the stuff you can buy at the store.  I estimate that by cutting out store bought cleaners and using homemade and natural ones, I’ve saved approximately $50+ in the last 6 months.

Note to readers:  I’ve been approached to be an affiliate for quite a few ebooks/guides/web products, but after looking them over, I elected not to be a part of the program.  Most of the things were either something that wouldn’t provide value equal to what I paid, or something that I was highly unlikely to use – so why should I encourage others to use it?  This is different – I’ll happily buy this, and hopefully start slowly replacing store bought things with homemade things as they run out.