getting low

I constantly need to review the things I have learned.   So today I am reviewing all the practices we use to keep our impact numbers low.

Garbage is an easy category for us.  I try to buy foods with as little packaging as possible.  Paper bags for bulk foods, cardboard boxes, newspaper, and mail all get added to the compost heap.  I use cotton bags for all my errands and mesh bags for produce.   The only containers that can’t be composted or re-used are tin cans.  We have 4-5 of those a month.  We get two magazines a month that come in plastic sleeves.  Those go into the garbage along with all the “slick” newspaper pages.

Water is a category where we are comfortable with our level of usage even though it is above the 10% threshold.  I base our acceptable water usage on our rainfall average and how much we could collect from our roof and the animal enclosure roofs.  The bunny barn roof is large enough to supply all the water the rabbits can drink year round.  The chicken coop roof is large enough to supply the chickens, sheep, goats,  and dogs with plenty of water.  Right now the barn roof run-off isn’t collected.   We don’t have a cistern for back there.  In an emergency we could use plastic totes, 5 gallon buckets, and new trashcans.  Right now we don’t need to do so.

To keep our water usage within the acceptable range we don’t let the water run while doing dishes, washing faces, brushing teeth, or washing hands.  I handwash dishes using the basin method (takes less than 2 gallons per meal).  We have a small hot water heater so that naturally shortens showers to 4 minutes (and we use a low-flow shower head).

Natural gas isn’t used in our home.  We do have a camp stove that uses propane.  We use that during power outages.

We also have a wood burning fire pit that we can use for heating large amounts of water, cooking and even baking.  All the wood we use in it is from our woods.  It is all storm downed wood, fallen limbs, or dead trees that we have to remove.   We use that same wood (in larger chunks) to heat our home.  We’re also getting wood from a friend’s woods that were logged summer before last.

Electricity coming up on Friday!

Kim

riot–year 2

Three more months have passed in our second year of the Riot.   Most of the habits we established in year 1 are still serving us.  We’ve relaxed a bit in the water and consumer goods categories.

Gasoline: We continue to use 25-30% of the American average each month.  Nearly all of the gas usage is for the men to commute to work.

Electricity: Our electric use is down to 12 kwh/day.   With our green energy credit that is 3 kwh/day or 10% of the American monthly average.  This will continue to go down as the weather cools, the harvest ends, and we all gather in the living room to keep warm.

Natural Gas & Wood Energy: Still at 0.  Our firewood continues to be supplied by storm damaged trees and other already downed wood.  We haven’t fired up the wood stove yet.  The cool nights are just now starting.

Garbage: Still hanging in there at 5% of the American average.  We just don”t buy stuff that comes in a package anymore.   It sure helps!

Water: Our number has crept up to 14 gallons/person/day.  Longer showers are mostly to blame.

Consumer Goods: Movies for the family, clothes for everyone, shelving for the pantry room, and a few new books.  I also bought a few more hanging oil lanterns.  We love the one over our kitchen table and it was so handy after hurricane Ike blew through.   The two news one are going to go in the living room.  Over budget, but not regretting it a bit!

garden tally

I forgot to keep my tab at the top updated with our garden tally.  So here are our relatively final numbers.  We have a bit of horseradish, luffa sponges, kale, lettuce, and kohlrabi left to pick.  They will probably add 15 pounds.

Compost:  100 wheelbarrow loads

Animals:  20 pounds of wool, 3 ewe lambs born, 15 rabbit babies, and a hen sitting on some eggs

Foraged/Herbs:  35 pounds

Fruit:  300 pounds

Veggies:  1200 pounds

Eggs:  220

first frost

The first frost hit our garden a few nights ago.   I woke up to a feathery white world.  It was beautiful.  Beautiful for its appearance and beautiful because it marks the end of a garden year.

This has been an odd year for us.  I had a health “thing” right in the middle of the gardening year.  We still managed to get a lot planted, a lot harvested, and a lot put back.  I just didn’t feel excited about it.  I was too tired to take joy in the plants.  Normally I feel such a sense of peace and joy while in my gardens.  To be sure, I also feel the aches and pains of gardening, but normally it fills me with wonder.

The garden is mostly put to bed now.  There is still kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, leeks, and brussel’s sprouts, and horseradish to harvest.  I’ll see about getting those done later this week.  Soon it will be time to cut the asparagus and pile on the manure and straw.

Kim

Finally a glimmer of internet connection.  We still aren’t back up to normal, but today for the first time I have been able to get a signaland have a moment to sit at the same time.

Lots to tell . . .

1.  Sabrina is setting on 3 eggs.  She’s been there almost 2 weeks.  She’ll get up and eat a bit, grab a drink and then right back to the nest.  With any luck at all we’ll have home-grown chicks in a week to ten days.

2.  We have rabbit babies too.  Six of the healthiest, fattest, cutest little kits I’ve seen.  They are just now 2 weeks old.

3.  My pantry room is almost full.  We’ve been busy dealing with produce.  Lately it has been apples.  Tons of apples getting dehydrated.  Pumpkins are in now too.   It is very comforting to see the fruit of our labor piling up in all the corners.

I’m going to keep this short, just in case the connection goes down again.

Hopefully I’ll be posting again tomorrow!

Kim