april riot numbers

I can’t believe that we are starting the final month of the Riot.  We have made such changes in the past year.  Most of those changes are now habits.  I don’t have to think nearly as much to keep the numbers down.  I do still need to be aware and diligent, but it doesn’t take nearly as much brain power.

We have joined Sharon’s Food Independence Challenge for the next year.  It is a good next step in our simplifying and reducing.  We always do a lot of gardening, but this year our goal is much larger.   I’ll be taking down the 100 foot challenge banner since the two sort of overlap.  I feel Sharon’s is a better fit for our family.

Here are our numbers for April.  These are the percentages of the American average.   Our food numbers will continue to improve as the garden begins producing again and as we implement the Food Independence Challenge.

• Gasoline –  25%
• Electricity — 10%
• Heating and Cooking –  0%
• Garbage — 7%
• Water — 11%
• Consumer Goods — 10%
• Food — 25% local/homegrown, 50% bulk/organic, and 25%  supermarket.  Supermarket food is fruit, veggie, and some yogurt.

Kim

Another challenge

Mrs. Crunchy is at it again.  I really need this challenge.  We’ve gone through an intense period of purchasing and I need to step away from the “pay now” button.  April should be a good month to give this a go.   I hope to stay out of the Sunday Confessional!

Here are Crunchy’s rules:

This is like Buy Nothing Day. Except that it lasts all month long. Sort of a mini-Compact. A compact Compact. A sub Compact.

Anyway, this means none of the following:

• No new clothes
• No new gadgets
• No new furniture or housewares
• No salon services
• No makeup
• No tools
• No whatever the hell else people buy

If you must absolutely acquire something non-edible or not essential to growing your own food or for your survival, then you must borrow, barter, or buy it used. If you end up buying something new that is non-essential, I’ll be hosting a weekly Sunday Confessional for you to justify your purchase. So, just think about having to confess to the world what you couldn’t hold off on buying.

Goods 4 Girls

Go now, check it out, and donate!

Time and Temperature

My poor little weather bug icon is getting quite a workout this week. I’ve been tracking the outdoor temperatures and the house temperature.

6:30 Outdoor temps have been 32-37*. Brr!! I have been closing the curtains at night to help hold back the cold. It seems to be working. Our house temps in the morning are about 56*. Chilly, but not cold enough to fire up the wood stove.

At 9:30 the sun is high enough to warm the windows. Outdoor temp is 44*, indoor temp still at 56*. We go around the house and open the east and south curtains.

By 10:30 the house has warmed up to 62* (outdoor temp 54). All the curtains are pulled back now.

At 3:00 we are up to 67* (outdoor temp 60). Shortly after we reach “peak indoor temperature” I start closing the north facing curtains. By 5:00 the east window curtains are pulled shut.

At 8:00 we are down to 65* (outdoor temp 45*). Now it is time to start shutting all the south facing curtains again.

I think in another few weeks we’ll have to add the window quilts to the north windows. I hope to delay putting them in the east windows until the end of November. The south windows have pull back quilts to take advantage of the passive solar.

I’ve been wondering about getting ceramic tile and laying it in front of the south windows to collect more solar heat. I’m not sure how effective it would be. I might buy one box and try it in HM’s room. Her room is always cold in the winter. Has anyone tried this?

It’s comin’

Winter is coming.

Today’s low: 33* F (We even had a light frost.)

Today’s high: 57* F (Sunny with winds out of the north at 6 mph.)

Indoor temperature when I woke up 57*. The windows had frost on the outside and some condensation on the inside. The wood floor seems chilly so it is time for socks and slippers.

The last of the persimmons should start falling now. These will be sweeter than the early ones. All but the hardiest garden plants are looking wilted this morning. It’s time to finish cleaning out those garden beds. The goats spent the early morning standing in the barn door looking out. They’ll come out once the sun has warmed up the air a bit. Soon it will be time to start feeding hay.

Kim

Monday: Low 32, high 53. House temperature in the morning 58.

Tuesday: Low 32, high 67. House temperature in the morning 56.

Wednesday: Low 37, high 68. House temperature in the morning 57.

Thursday: low 34, high 64. House temperature in the morning 56.

Friday: low 32, high 62. House temperature in the morning 56.

Freeze Yer Buns!

Crunchy Chicken is at it again. This time with a long challenge. November 1 to April 1 she is challenging us to keep our thermostats set low.

Here at the Hedges Homestead we heat with wood. We have a nice little, very efficient, wood stove that keeps our 1600 square feet of home quite toasty. Now with this wood stove there is no thermostat. You get heat depending on the type of wood, how dry the wood is, and the air supply.

What we can do is wait as long as possible to fire it up. We can also delay using the oil filled radiators to warm up the bathroom before a shower.

HM and I are airing out the afghans, sweaters, robes, and winter blankets. The early mornings and late evenings are beginning to get chilly. We’ll be needing extra layers soon.

Tying Up Loose Ends

The bread machine has been in daily use since September 14. The conclusion: we like having homemade bread. I like not turning on the oven. It is a winner. At least, it is a short-term winner. It may not be our permanent bread solution, but it is good enough for now.

The end of the toilet cloth challenge has arrived. How did you all do? Me? I did fine, no problems — especially since I was 100% cloth before we started. The challenge and my post about our habits did spark several conversations with friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

September has come and gone. Time to report in with our numbers!

Gasoline: 5 gallons (total 25)

Electricity: average 9.75 kwh/day.

Heating and Cooking: Heating — 1.33 gallons gas (total 2.66 total equals 3 cords cut). Cooking — 0.5 therms (total 2 therms).

Garbage and Recycling: Garbage–5 pounds (37 pounds total). Recycling — 0 pounds (total 28 pounds).

Water: 45 gallons/person/day.

Consumer Goods: $180 (Dr. Bronner’s, washing soda, rabbit pellets, cat food, 2 school books (used), Thai Crystal x 2, sheets, shoes, socks, bird food, breadmachine, yarn, quilting needles and thread) Total $440.

Food: remains the same at 46% homegrown/local, 42% bulk, and 12% supermarket.

And Finally: Our electric coop is offering a green energy option. I checked with the 90% group and it qualifies for the reduction. I bought the 300 kwh/month option. What that means is that if we keep our actual usage at 10 kwh/day (or less) it’ll count as 2.5 kwh/day for the challenge. Yippee! That means that starting next month we’ll be under 10%.

Kim

Crunchy’s New Challenge

Here is Crunchy’s newest challenge! September 16-30 you choose to use cloth wipes for:

1. Only for #1
2. For both #1 and #2
3. Only at home
4. On the road

I have been using cloth wipes for many months now. I love it. It is so much gentler on sensitive areas and I don’t have to devote an entire closet to TP stock. It is liberating. The first month was awkward. I had to figure out what do with the clean ones, what to do with the used ones (soak or not-to-soak), and how often to wash (disinfect? bleach?).

They are stored next to the toilet (handy, hmm?). I keep a pail beside the toilet with soapy water for the dirty ones. If it is used for #2 then I rinse it first before putting it in the pail (and that water gets added to the bowl to be flushed). Every evening I throw them in the washer, turn on the spin cycle, then wash in warm/hot water with my home-made tea tree oil soap and washing soda. I hang them over a drying rack in the bathroom. Once a week I hang them on the clothes line for the sun to bleach and disinfect them.

I haven’t noticed any odor and believe me my nose works on overdrive so I would notice. I haven’t had any dreaded UTIs since starting with the cloth wipes. My biggest issue with the cloth wipes is that I haven’t told many people that I use them. Oops, I guess that isn’t an issue any more!

Our wipes are made of 100% cotton flannel. Cut 2 squares (4-5 inches square) and sew them together. That’s it. So easy. I have a stash of 21. That keeps them rotating pretty well. I have some stacked, some soaking, some drying, and some out in the sun.

Kim

Local Food Month: Days 4-7

Wednesday Breakfast: pancakes (bulk wheat, homegrown eggs, bulk baking soda, bulk oil) with strawberry syrup (homegrown last year and canned)

Wednesday Lunch: leftovers

Wednesday Dinner: Egg Salad (all homegrown except celery and mayo), bread (store)

Thursday Breakfast: Eggs (homegrown), tea (bulk)

Thursday Lunch: leftover stir fry

Thursday Dinner: leftover taco fixings

Friday Breakfast: scrambled eggs (homegrown), tea(bulk), and a chocolate donut ( a treat from my husband)

Friday Lunch: leftover taco fixings (yes, again)

Friday Dinner: “catch as you can” Also know as each man for himself. We open the fridge and everyone tries to find a meal.

KMH

Local Food Month: Days 2-3

Monday Breakfast: blueberry muffins (local blueberries, bulk wheat, local honey, bulk baking soda), eggs (homegrown), and tea (bulk)

Monday Lunch: Leftover Taco chips

Monday Dinner: Pizza (Don’t ask and I won’t tell.)

Tuesday Breakfast: French toast (bulk wheat, bulk yeast, local honey, homegrown eggs) with blueberries (local), tea (bulk)

Tuesday Lunch: leftover Quiche (all homegrown)

Tuesday Dinner: Stir fry (all homegrown vegetables) with couscous (bulk)

KMH

Local Food Month: Day One

Sunday Breakfast: toast, butter (not local), honey (local) and tea (bulk)

Sunday Lunch: beans (bulk), tortilla (last of the store bought), tomato (local), onion (our garden) and cheese (not local)

Sunday Dinner: Quiche (all from our land)

KMH

Local Food Month; Goals

Our goals for the Local Food Month challenge are going to be pretty simple.

We’ll strive to make sure all our produce is locally produced.

All meat and eggs will come from our property. Dairy will be organic (since our goats are not producing right now) and purchases will be limited to milk. I’ll turn the milk into yogurt and cheese here at home.

Grains are harder. I’ll try to only use what I have in stock. That will mean grinding wheat for pancakes, waffles, bread, muffins, and pasta.

HM and I will also give up our treat night. Once a week, while the guys are at TaeKwonDo class, we have a store made meal or treat. We’ll skip that in favor of homemade. However, we will still cling to our chocolate bars! After all, a girl can only give up so much all at once.

KMH

Local Food Month

Crunchy Chicken is at it again. This time the challenge is to eat locally for a month. Details are below. I’ll post our goals in a day or two.

KMH

From http://crunchychicken.blogspot.com/

During the month of July you’re going to increase your consumption of locally and sustainably grown food and decrease your consumption of imported and packaged food. You choose the level of participation you want to do.

Think of this as an a la carte menu - you can pick as many or as few items to focus on.

Eat local:

• produce (fruits and vegetables)
• dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)
• meats and seafood
• breads and grains

Limit:

• pre-packaged food
• frozen food
• fast food

Make your own:

• cereals
• pastas
• breads
• soymilk
• yogurt

Low Impact Week in Review

Well, Low Impact Week has come and gone. It was a great thing for our family. We saw that implementing even small steps can have a huge impact. It was also great because it drew our family’s attention to others trying to reduce their impact and led us to participate in the Riot for Austerity (aka — 90% Reduction challenge).

So let’s look at how we did.

1. Electricity: We started at 21 kwh per day and ended with an average of 18. That included 2 butchering days (which came in at 30/day). Our best day was 9 kwh! That was even a 90 degree day! Whoohoo!! This will be our area of focus from June-September.

2. Water: We dropped 700 gallons a week. There is still much room for improvement. This will be our area of focus from September-December.

3. Food Choice: I still say we did great! I found a few things on my grocery list that need to be purged, and we’ll work on alternatives to those from January to March.

4. Garbage and Recycling: We are at about 2% of the American Average. We’ll just keep on doing what we are doing. No changes anticipated, except as we eliminate a few things from our grocery list there should be less recycling.

5. Paper Products: 5 catalogs canceled, 1 newspaper canceled, 4 bills arriving on-line now, opted out of junk mail, and didn’t print a single piece of computer paper, and only re-used envelopes for scratch paper. We’ll continue to work on this throughout the year.

6. Transportation: CK’s commute is still long, but we now have a plan for watching tire inflation, planning errands on his route home, and possibly even shortening some of the commute by parking and bike riding the last few miles. (We’ll see. . .don’t hold your breathe on the last part.) MA used 2 gallons to deliver the chickens he slaughtered for a friend. Household gas use was 1 gallon for the week. And even that gallon was with 3 people in the truck. Yippee! (This obviously will also be worked on throughout the year.

7. Do More: This week prepared us for the year long Riot for Austerity. We feel very encouraged and ready to go.

I can’t wait to see what challenge Crunchy Chicken has in store for us.

KMH

Low Impact Week; Update 1

Today is the third day of Low Impact Week. It seems like a good time to report on our progress and failures.

1. Energy: We started at 21 kwh/day. We have lowered that to 13! I am so excited. We have been keeping the hot water heater off except for a few hours a day. We also turned to electric range and oven at the breaker. This seems to have made the biggest difference. The outdoor grill is working very well. We have made all sorts of interesting things on it. The solar dehydrator is almost finished. The earth oven is still in the planning stages. I have been using a propane camp stove for boiling water and cooking pancakes for breakfast.

2. Water: Since my initial shock over how much water we use, we have already cut back 2000 gallons a month. (Nothing like knowing how much you use to force you into saving!) This was mostly from saving water while waiting for it to heat up. We have used that water for pets, cleaning, and some laundry. I have also stopped flushing when the water is clear. I learned the expression “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” It goes against everything I grew up knowing, and everything I taught my children, but we’re trying. I wasn’t able to install rain barrels for drinking — wrong kind of roof!

3. Food Choices: We’re doing great! Except for the Newman’s Mint O’s. Boy, I love those. I’m trying to ration those and my chocolate.

4. Garbage and Recycling: Great! No problems expected, no problems reported!

5. Paper Products: I have canceled 3 catalogs, one local newspaper, and 2 bills (well, they are done paperless now. I still have the bill.)

6. Transportation: Well, I knew this one was going to be hard. Good news, we have made no unexpected trips. Bad news, Kelly’s commute won’t be changing.

7. Do more. We decided to use Low Impact Week as launching point for the 90% reduction challenge. It is all about trying, not necessarily succeeding. We’re trying . . .

KMH

Low Impact Week Begins

I cannot believe it is already June 1. I swear someone has been messing with my calendar. I’m not ready.

This morning we took a meter reading, cooked on the camp stove, planned meals around the wood burning grill, and turned off the hot water heater. We’ll turn it on at 6 am and back off by 7:30.

How’s everyone else feeling about turning the page on the calendar?

KMH

Low Impact Week; Transportation

Transportation.

This is an area where I fear we will fail. CK drives 35 miles to work each way; MA will soon be driving 17 miles each way. HM and I already consolidate all our trips into one circle route, but still need to go out every other week. We having been working towards once a month shopping and are discussing the logistics of once a quarter shopping.

According to Casaubon’s Book (www.casaubonsbook.blogspot.com) the average American uses 500 gallons of gas per person per year. That would give our house 2000 gallons of the stuff a year. I figure MA will need 600 gallons (driving the truck); HM and I will need 300 (driving the Broco and family trips to church); CK need will need 700 gallons (driving the Cavalier). That totals 1600 gallons of gas.

Oh my goodness! I feel like Chicken Little. “The sky is falling . . . ” I know there must be a way to lower those numbers, but I don’t know where to start.

KMH

Low Impact Week; Paper & Garbage

Landfills are nasty places. I hate to think how much bulk I have contributed over the years to such places. Way out here, in the country, we don’t have government garbage service. It has made me quite aware of how much we throw away since I have to load it in the truck, drive over, unload, and then pay for the privilege of being a consumer.

I used to print out everything I thought I might ever need to re-read. I have since learned to “cut and paste” or “bookmark.” Those are wonderful computer tools that I pray I will always have access to. My new laptop is a veritable library of green, gardening, and homeschooling information.

My home library is quite ecelctic too. After 14 years of homeschooling we have books on many different subjects. I also tend to gather books about my latest passion. I’d like to say I feel badly for collecting so many books, but I don’t. I went through The Great Book Purge a few months ago. The books ended up donated to a local church school and some to Goodwill. Now I’m building a generational library. Who knows when books might become luxury items again.

We have been keeping track of our garbage lately. In the last 3 months, we filled 4 large rubbermaid totes with recyclables, 1 large tote with non-recyclable garbage, and 1 large tote with paper. We put the newspaper in the garden for mulch, magazines became bird cage liners, and then we were left with 1/3 of a tote for starting fires.

My goals for Low Impact Week will be to see if I can eliminate even more of the non-recyclables, and purchase more in bulk so that we don’t have as much to recycle. I also want to get us on the no junk mail list.

Low Impact Week; Food Choices

Low Impact Week comes at a perfect time for me. My garden will be nearly in full production. Soon we’ll be overrun by the bounty, but early June finds me thankful. The chickens have ramped up the egg production, turkeys too. No goat babies this year, so no milk, no cheese (other than cheating on taco and pizza night).

For L.I.W. I want to keep a log of all the non-homegrown food we eat. I hope to find those last lurking badies and then find alternatives for them. I don’t know of any alternative for my Green & Black chocolate bars, so those don’t count! Besides, chocolate should be a treat, not a source of guilt.

Low Impact Week; Water

I admit we have the hardest time with water conservation. Our water bill continues to rise despite our best efforts. I really want to cut our water usage in half over the next year and then half again the six months after that.

We have a rainwater cistern (that collects water from a drainage trench we installed), but it gets really muddy and so we use the water for little other than the garden. This summer I would like to redig the cistern, put concrete in the bottom and up the walls, and put a top on. With a small pump we might be able to use it for the garden and the goats. The water saved from just the goats would be 150 gallons a month.

This year when we build a permanent chicken coop we plan to incorporate rain water collection into the design. Basically the roof and gutters will divert water into a series of rain barrels. The barrels will have a hose that feeds directly into the chicken waterer. The water saved from the chickens would be another 150 gallons a month.

Now for the hard part: household water use.

1. I want to install gutters and rain barrels. I will use that water for laundry. We have a Wonderclean Pressure Washing Machine. It uses an average of 5 gallons per load to wash. We rinse using another 5 gallons.

2. We are beginning to collect water from the shower to fill dog bowls, bird bowls, and water indoor plants. We already turn off the water when we brush our teeth, shave, and clean. I admit we don’t take short showers. After a day of gardening, I want to feel it glide off my body and down the drain. I suppose an attitude adjustment is in order.

3. I need to monitor kitchen usage. I collect dish water for the herb garden and we don’t waste much there. We do wash a lot of fruits and veggies, and we usually leave the tap on for that. I will look into soaking vs rinsing for that.

4. Butchering takes a lot of water as well. 5 gallons to pluck chicken feathers, 5 gallons to rinse and clean the chicken, and another 5 gallons to clean the butchering table, sink, doorknobs, and floor. Thankfully, MA butchers several birds at once so the cleanup water is minimized, but it still takes 10 gallons to do a chicken or a turkey. A rabbit takes 5; a goat takes 5.

I am sure there are other areas where I could cut back; I’m just not sure what they are.

KMH