Conservation Works

In the summer of 2008 our electric bill went through the roof. It was double what we normally expect to pay during that time of year for several months. Our house, by most standards a tiny 1000 square feet, is cooled by three window air conditioners: a small unit in each bedroom and a large one in the living room / kitchen.

This year we were determined to cut our usage as much as possible so rather that depending on the built in thermostats on the air conditioners, we actively monitored our comfort and turned the window units off when we weren't in the the room and at night.

We also built a clothes line and utilized it as often weather permitted. The clothes line consists of a pulley attached to the house just off the front porch and another mounted fifty or sixty feet across the yard on a post, with a nylon rope looped between. It's very convenient and we can hang or retrieve the laundry without ever leaving the porch.

2008 was a very hot summer, but not the worst we've ever had by any stretch. Oil prices were up for an extended period last summer too, so we're aware that some of the money we've saved this year are not just due to our conservation efforts. We really worked at becoming more aware of our power consumption.

Our power bill contains a graph showing the last thirteen months of usage as well as exact usage for the current billing period and twelve months ago. I am pleased to report that for the past three or four months, our usage compared with the same period last year was drastically lower. On our most recent bill, covering the period from 9/11/09 to 10/12/09, our usage was 817 kW/h, a great improvement compared to the same period twelve months ago, when our usage was 1606 kW/h.

The point is that it's not that hard to conserve energy if you simply practice mindfulness. You don't have to sit around in the dark, or sweat through each night in discomfort to make a big difference in your power consumption. Keeping your awareness focused on eliminating waste, like turning the air conditioner down or off when you won't be home to enjoy it, or hanging your laundry instead of running the clothes dryer for an hour can really make a difference in your power bill and your bank account. More important, it makes a big difference in our dependence on dirty coal and foreign oil used to generate most of our electrical needs, thus reducing the need for more mountaintop destruction and global resource wars.

Many in the peak oil community doubt that renewable energy sources can ever provide all of our nation's power needs, and at current levels of usage, I would have to agree. But if we're mindful of our consumption I believe that in the long run we can reduce our electrical needs enough that renewable energy, especially point of use generation, will become viable means of replacing our current, unsustainable power grid.

Warm Season Wrap Up

I finally got off my butt and out from behind the desk this afternoon. Spent some time mowing the leaves and weeds - most of the grass long ago stopped growing for the season. I'd love to be able to compost my leaves and grass clippings, but with so much of that God forsaken Bermuda grass in the yard, there's no way I'm gonna risk getting any more of that crap in my garden. I've already got one brand new, never planted bed I built for next year just full of the stuff. Nothing works, not even Roundup, and I'm not willing to use anything stronger. I don't like chemicals.

I ended up pushing the mulched leaves and grass up into loose piles around my apple and peach trees. The apple trees are only one year transplants, so I don't look for anything from them anytime soon, but the remaining peach tree is now a couple years old and should start producing in the next year or two. Still waiting to see what kind of tree is growing from the rootstock of the one that died. I'm guessing that it's got to be a Prunus of some kind, but that covers a lot of ground. Patience, Grasshopper.

It looks like this year we're finally going to have a decent winter garden. A month or so ago I planted a few carrots, some cabbage, Chinese kale, bok choy, and lots of collards and mixed leaf lettuce. All seem to be doing well, although I think we lost a good bit of the cabbage. The walking onions that we planted last fall are still doing well. They make great scallions, but not so much for slicing - small bulbs and a very strong flavor. Note to self - next year, need plant regular onions too.

The asparagus bed suffered a setback when I decided to relocate it from its original location last fall, but most of the roots survived and are now doing well. I pretty much buried them under rabbit manure a month or two ago and they seem to really like that. Maybe next spring I'll finally get enough at one time for a meal or two. Perennial vegetables rock!

Speaking of perennials, this year's crop of sunchoke roots are looking much better than the first two years. Diane calls them fartichokes with good reason, but she's agreed to give them another shot after first frost since that's supposed to improve the flavor. I can't say they're my favorite food, but the whole idea was to plant a few things that would naturalize and provide us with a food source no matter what kind of train wreck the gurus on Wall Street create. Better to have it and not need it than the other way around.

Last year we planted our first crops of garlic and shallots. Both grew well, but many of the shallots rotted before we could use them. We've still got plenty of garlic left - some of them are whoppers. I think we'll plant a bit of extra when the time comes in about a month. Maybe we can take a few to one of the local farmer's markets next year and sell them or barter for something we don't grow. Garlic is something I can't recall seeing there, although we don't get to the markets often enough to really know.

So that's the plan: more garlic, more beans, and as always, more 'maters. One can never have too many tomatoes.

The Lasting Warmth Of Sunflowers

We heat our home exclusively with wood. It's a small house with a fairly open floor plan, so the wood stove does a pretty good job keeping us toasty on even the coldest nights. The bedrooms, at the opposite end of the house stay at least ten degrees cooler than the living room.

The first year we were here I literally destroyed a perfectly good Stihl chainsaw cutting firewood to get us through the winter. I had no idea how much fuel we would need, so I worked my butt off and cut a big pile of wood. The pay off was the second year when I had to cut very little firewood. I also learned a lot about seasoning the wood and efficient wood stove operation.

Anyone who heats with wood can tell you, it takes a good bit of kindling to get through a winter. Some people cut a large amount all at one time and get it over with, but not me. I'm lazy, so it's not unusual to find me out splintering logs in near total darkness after work when the snow has just begun to fly.

Last year I decided that instead of killing myself, finding, cutting, hauling, and eventually splitting several trees, I would buy my firewood. For $125 I got what would have taken me at least three or four weeks of evenings and weekends of hard labor delivered. It was already split too, all I had to do was stack it into the wood shed. Even if we use two loads that's still a lot cheaper than fossil fuels. I'll be ordering the second load soon just to be certain we've got all we need.

We grew an abundance of sunflowers all over the place this summer. Some for decoration, some for edible seeds, and several that pulled trellis duty in the bean patch. After they were done and the stalks began to dry, it seemed a shame to just let them to rot in place or put them in the compost pile.

We tried an experiment with no till, rabbit manure gardening this year, with resounding success, and a few of the sunflowers that grew in that plot were better than four inches across at the base and topped out at over twelve feet tall. In fact everything in that bed did very well and we'll be getting bunnies of our own next spring

Part of the point of no till gardening includes letting plant roots decompose in place thus not disrupting the delicate microbial ecosystem that forms in healthy topsoil. So rather than pulling up the sunflower stalks I lopped them off near ground level and found myself with a pile of rather long brittle stringy poles.

What useful purpose, I wondered, could these be put to? Kindling, of course!

After being cut into workable short sections and allowed to fully dry in the shed for a couple months, sunflower stalks make a good addition to the fire starting arsenal. It would take several pieces to start a fire using just stalks, but as part of the overall mixture fires start easily and consistently, and all the materials last a bit longer, leaving more time for me to sit on my tail in front of the computer telling you about all this stuff.

Rainy Days & Rusty Trucks

I'd planned to buy a load of mulch Friday, to cover the muddy path that develops each winter between our front door and the wood shed, and another that forms between the back door and the collection of sheds behind the house.

I found a good source of cheap mulch at a local lumber processing plant (I can't bring myself to call it a sawmill, it's too big), $30 per scoop. One scoop would easily fill the back of my truck.

Old Blue, the aforementioned truck, is what remains of a 1981 F-100 which is somehow still functional most of the time. It's mostly Bondo and rust at this point, and the electrical system is full of erratic gremlins caused by said rust, etc. The old girl runs great, but I prefer to leave her parked during all but the brightest sunny days.

The mulch supplier is only open until 10:30 on Friday's, my only day off during the week, so the plan was to get up and over there early, then work on spreading the chipped tree remains at my leisure over the weekend. Rain was in the forecast, but wasn't supposed to start until after noon.

You can see it coming?

You know what happens next.

Friday morning I woke up, not to the pitter-patter of little feet in the house, but of rain drops on the window.

I got up and prepared for the day anyway. I had a back log of writing and reading I wanted to accomplish too, but I really wanted to get that load of mulch.

After breakfast I sat down at the keyboard and started preparing to write and that's when I noticed that it wasn't raining anymore. I pulled up the local weather radar online and it showed the rain was breaking up. Maybe I could get my mulch after all.

So I stopped what I was doing and went to get my boots.

By the time I managed to get the boots on and tied it was raining again.

Don't get me wrong, I probably could have gone, but after being stranded more that a few times in that beat up old heap and having to walk or beg for jump starts from total strangers, I simply won't take that chance short of life and death situations.

Anyway, the scenario played out back and forth, like that old song by The Clash, for couple of hours until in frustration I said to hell with the whole plan.

Around 10:35 the sun came out and stayed for the rest of the day.

So much for planning.

Top Goat

Goats are odd critters. Dangerous too.

Our visiting goat has begun trying to establish dominance over us, not something we take lightly, being humans and all.

Yesterday, Freddie started butting Diane and our son while they were in the pen. A bit of research confirmed our suspicions. This was indeed a dominance thing we needed to nip in the bud.

According to several experts, the way to establish dominance over a goat is to wrestle him to the ground and hold him there for several minutes. When you let him up, if he understands the lesson, he will walk away and presumably order will be restored to the universe.

Last night Diane and I re-entered the pen and promptly pinned said goat to the ground. Diane held him down and I was essentially there only for backup if she needed it. After a few minutes the goat was released and promptly wandered away, looking over his shoulder in a surly manner.

Problem solved, right? Not quite.

Tonight, I had to go into the pen for something, and Fred decided to challenge me. No problem, I thought, I'll just throw him on the ground and let him know I'm in charge. But tonight Fred was ready and anticipated every lunge and grab I made. After several attempts I finally caught a leg and while trying to get my other hand under him to topple his balance, Fred put the move on me: horn to the chest.

Ouch, that's definitely going to leave a mark.

Now I remember. It took both of us to get that goat on the ground last night. Once down he was easily restrained by one of us alone.

So tonight, Freddie the goat won a battle, but tomorrow's coming, and I will be back.