This is the forth post in my blog.
Yesterday's grid power use was 18 KWh. This was about normal for a day with a high temperature of 95 degrees. I also used about 0.35 gallons of gas going up to my friend Royce's house. Riding the Honda was the most efficient way I could go there because the round trip was 41 miles, and the electric scooter would not make it. We had fun swimming in his nice, cool pool. It was truely refreshing.
I bought some goodies for us to munch on while there: dried cranberries, yogurt-covered raisins, and some fruit punch. I am not sure of the origin of any of these items, and this will warrent further research. The packaging was plastic for the food (will go into the trash), and an aceptic container for the punch (which will be recycled). I enjoyed the swim, the company, and the ride despite the 7 pounds of carbon dioxide produced by the scooter (0.35 gallons x 20 pounds per gallon).
Later yesterday evening, I met with some friends, and had dinner. I had two slices of pizza, and used two plates, a knife and a fork which had to be washed. I also used a paper napkin and a paper towel from the bathroom. I must say that the electric hand driers (especially the new jet-air type) save a lot of paper without using too much electricity. The round trip of twenty miles to dinner was on the electric scooter. Most of the charging was included in the 18 KWh at home, but about 150 watt-hours was from an outside source.
Laundry Day
This morning, I washed my sheets. I do this every 7-10 days. This time it had been 10 days, and my sheets were still OK. I do make sure that I am clean when I go to bed, so there is not much stank ot build up. We have been blessed with a lot of rain lately, so the water in my rain barrels is plentiful and clean. This clean rain water makes for great wash water in the machine, but I still use municipal water for the rince. This means a savings of about 18 gallons in my 1986 model Kennmore.
This morning, I got up, walked Astro, had some OJ and cereal, and rode the e-scooter to Panera. Today, I got a bagel. The bagel came on a plastic plate (must be washed) with a plastic fork (which I will wash and reuse), a napkin (trash), and two butters (plastic containers, trash). I brought my own coffee mug, and I guess I will start bringing my own knife from now on. Get ready Panera servers, here comes the guy who just wants the bagel on a plate with no napkin or knofe; what a weird-o!
I have now become that guy who comes into the restaurant with his own utensils and to-go boxes! Look-out its the crazy green guy again! Don't let him catch you throwing away a perfectly good napkin!
What The Heck Made Me Start This Blog?
I am a mad scientist. Actually, I enjoy collecting data, and taking steps to improve the numbers. Years ago, I watched a program called "Thirty Days". This program was part of a series created by Morgan Spurlock. The premice of the series was to take a person (or people) from the comfort of their normal life, and insert them into a new environment. The particular episode I saw took two people from New York City, and placed them into an ecovillage called Dancing Rabbit.
Dancing Rabbit is a community of about fifty people who live their lives in the most sustainable way possible. The only connection to "the grid" is a phone line for DSL internet. They grow most all of their own food, they live in housed made of straw bales and clay (along with some other materials), and share three vehicles among themselves (which they use very sparingly). Any electricity they use comes from the sun or the wind, and they utilize locally-grown wood for heat in the cold Missouri winters. Water comes from the sky, and is stored in cisterns and their poop gets recycled into natural fertilizer (a process which is time-consuming and labor-intensive to remove harmful bacteria).
Three years ago, I had the privelige of visiting these champions of the environment, and I found them to be some of the nicest, down-to-earth people whom I have ever met. They also have great attitudes, even when the relentless rain turns their pathes into straems of mud! I almost considered trying to become part of their community, but Northeast Missouri is a little too much of a change from central Florida.
If you have a curiocity about this village, subscribe to their weekly newsletter. You can subscribe by visiting WWW.Dancingrabbit.ORG, and signing up. I always enjoy seeing a message from them in my indox, and I hope you do too.
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