September: 1) get finances in better order by consolidating retirement accounts and canceling extraneous credit cards. 2) organize books, videos, CDs and games
October: 1) learn to make hard cider. 2) work on sewing skills
November: 1) put in vegetable garden
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Update on goals from earlier this summer
Goal #1: reduce electric usage
Pretty pitiful actually. I suspect the pet sitter may have turned up the a.c. way more than the damned cat needed. We were gone most of July and yet we used the same amount of electricity as the year before, when we were gone only half of July. Hmph.
The kids still don't turn out lights. I haven't been cooking... er, preparing cold foods for meals often. We leave our computers on a lot. Hubby leaves the phone charger plugged in all the time. And we still haven't installed a programmable thermostat.
Must be nice still living in the pre-Peak Oil world. Ahhhhhhh.
Goal #2: improve food storage
This is going well. I cleared out three large shelves in the laundry room for food storage. We are getting things rearranged in the garage to even more improve storage out there, so more non-perishable things can get out of the laundry room, and we can acquire more if we feel necessary.
Working on actually using some of this food -- like the giant bags of rice my husband bought. I still need to get some extra-large containers to keep that in after I open a bag.
Goal #3: Acquire some stuff
We've bought a few things. Need to get more. I have a list for Home Depot for after I get a gift card from there I am expecting as a rebate.
Goal #4: Start a compost bin
Still a work in progress. I did get a rain barrel. And I have a small bin in the kitchen that we can put scraps in during the day to later take out to the compost bin, once we have that. And we bagged up 2 large garbage bags of pine needles that will start up the compost bin. They are probably already decomposing in those black bags sitting out there in the sun...
I also labeled a large food container with "Soup Dump Bowl" and put that in the freezer. Now when we have leftover veggies or boneless meat, we can throw it in there, and every once in awhile make a big pot of soup.
If Hurricane Gustav hits us, we'll be seeing how well we did on goals 2 and 3.
Pretty pitiful actually. I suspect the pet sitter may have turned up the a.c. way more than the damned cat needed. We were gone most of July and yet we used the same amount of electricity as the year before, when we were gone only half of July. Hmph.
The kids still don't turn out lights. I haven't been cooking... er, preparing cold foods for meals often. We leave our computers on a lot. Hubby leaves the phone charger plugged in all the time. And we still haven't installed a programmable thermostat.
Must be nice still living in the pre-Peak Oil world. Ahhhhhhh.
Goal #2: improve food storage
This is going well. I cleared out three large shelves in the laundry room for food storage. We are getting things rearranged in the garage to even more improve storage out there, so more non-perishable things can get out of the laundry room, and we can acquire more if we feel necessary.
Working on actually using some of this food -- like the giant bags of rice my husband bought. I still need to get some extra-large containers to keep that in after I open a bag.
Goal #3: Acquire some stuff
We've bought a few things. Need to get more. I have a list for Home Depot for after I get a gift card from there I am expecting as a rebate.
Goal #4: Start a compost bin
Still a work in progress. I did get a rain barrel. And I have a small bin in the kitchen that we can put scraps in during the day to later take out to the compost bin, once we have that. And we bagged up 2 large garbage bags of pine needles that will start up the compost bin. They are probably already decomposing in those black bags sitting out there in the sun...
I also labeled a large food container with "Soup Dump Bowl" and put that in the freezer. Now when we have leftover veggies or boneless meat, we can throw it in there, and every once in awhile make a big pot of soup.
If Hurricane Gustav hits us, we'll be seeing how well we did on goals 2 and 3.
Research on how to make hard cider
Homemade Hard Cider
Mother Earth News of course comes through too:
Make Your Own Hard Cider
From a site called Brewplus
Well, that's a good start. We'll get the ingredients and invite over some friends who regularly brew beer, and have a little party making hard cider. Wooo.
Mother Earth News of course comes through too:
Make Your Own Hard Cider
From a site called Brewplus
Well, that's a good start. We'll get the ingredients and invite over some friends who regularly brew beer, and have a little party making hard cider. Wooo.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
a couple more links...
I have a few more links. I have been saving stuff all summer... just not taking the time to post it here, since we don't have any regular readers and it's just for us so far.
More food storage info
A clever gardening use for scrap tubes -- makes me think of those large tubs of ice cream
More food storage info
A clever gardening use for scrap tubes -- makes me think of those large tubs of ice cream
time to re-start this blog...
OK, vacations are over. Back to thinking about sustainability and politics and coping with a changing world.
We made it through Tropical Storm Fay without losing power, so no test of our newly learned skills. I did have the foresight to put battery-operated lanterns by the bed in case the power went out, and we needed to get around in the middle of the night.... but no need after all.
Here are three posts from Causabon that I want to keep for my future reference.
Triaging Your Adapting In Place Strategy
Toileting, Bathing, Laundry in a low Power Situation
How Not To Fry: Keeping Cool without Air Conditioning (or not much)
We made it through Tropical Storm Fay without losing power, so no test of our newly learned skills. I did have the foresight to put battery-operated lanterns by the bed in case the power went out, and we needed to get around in the middle of the night.... but no need after all.
Here are three posts from Causabon that I want to keep for my future reference.
Triaging Your Adapting In Place Strategy
Toileting, Bathing, Laundry in a low Power Situation
How Not To Fry: Keeping Cool without Air Conditioning (or not much)
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Re-Inventing Vacations
Is there a reason to actually buy an RV in the days of sky-high gas prices? One author compared an RV trip to flying a family to Montreal and putting them up in hotels. The RV won. Of course, this trip doesn't include the cost of buying/renting an RV. So I think RVs have a ways to go yet.
An excerpt from the story ...
So why travel in a fuel-thirsty RV when gas is at record prices? Because it’s still cheaper than flying and staying in hotels. Our family of five stayed one night in a New York state park for $20 and four nights in the Kampgrounds of America Montreal South campground for $50 on each of four nights.
An excerpt from the story ...
So why travel in a fuel-thirsty RV when gas is at record prices? Because it’s still cheaper than flying and staying in hotels. Our family of five stayed one night in a New York state park for $20 and four nights in the Kampgrounds of America Montreal South campground for $50 on each of four nights.
Online travel agency Travelocity.com says that it can send me to Montreal in the air and put me in a Knights Inn for the $550 we spent on gas, but that’s per person. And you have stay in a Knights Inn. Nicer hotels brought the travel tab to around $800 — again, per person.
Unlike most hotels, our RV had a refrigerator, a freezer, a stove and microwave/convection oven, so we were able to prepare most of our meals ourselves, making for huge savings. Considering the $125 tab at a creperie in Old Montreal, I didn’t want to eat out very much.
Update: How about an electric RV? Maybe this is what we need.Car Shopping
We're car-shopping today. Maybe we should wait for this new cheap hybrid from Honda? Then again, news that this is coming out should put regular Civics at firesale prices.
The new five-door car will only be available with a hybrid powertrain. It will be smaller than Honda’s Civic and also will be priced less than a hybrid gas-electric version of the Civic, said Richard Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co.
The new five-door car will only be available with a hybrid powertrain. It will be smaller than Honda’s Civic and also will be priced less than a hybrid gas-electric version of the Civic, said Richard Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co.
Electric Bikes
Electric bikes sell briskly as gas prices climb
Price largely determines weight, quality and battery type. A few hundred dollars gets you an IZIP mountain bike from Amazon with a heavy lead-acid battery. For $1,400, you can buy a 250-watt folding bike powered by a more-powerful, longer-lasting nickel-metal hydride battery like those in a camera or a Toyota Prius. At the high end, $2,525 buys an extra-light 350-watt model sporting a lightweight lithium-ion battery similar to a laptop’s. Most models can go at least 20 miles before plugging in to recharge.
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