Since I started living here almost twelve years ago, we have been living what is referred to as "green." It is not something I did intentionally at the time. Seems it has evolved to that status. At that time I just wanted to live off-the-grid and be a modern homesteader. But what has happened is that as time goes by, the things that have made this easy and independent is the same things that make it "green" or "living gently" on our earth.
As I wrote about in my post last year, Earth Day At Peaceful Forest, we have been composting ever since we came here. Especially since we got our horses. They generate a lot of compost that has blessed our garden beyond my expectations. Our garden is always bountiful with fresh, organic food every year.
Generating our own electricity has forced me to use things that are not what I call "energy hogs". I have lived for over three years now with no refrigeration. It has not been easy, especially in the summer. But we have done it and are still doing it. So all electric appliances I will be adding to our homestead will be as energy efficient as possible. If they are costly, then we will wait till we can afford them.
So what are my goals for changing my household over to even more earth saving tactics for the future? This is my list:
- Rid our house of plastic dishes and containers.
- Really, study packaging on items when you purchase them.
- Make as much food from scratch as possible so I do not accumulate lots of plastic containers from them. (condiment bottles comes to mind!)
- Do all my cooking in cast iron pans that never wear out or have a man made coating on the cooking surface.
- Replace those plastic dishes with dishes made of organic materials such as bamboo and hemp.
- Use rechargeable batteries in the mouse on our laptops and buy a solar battery charger for that purpose.
- Buy energy efficient electric appliances to use with our alternative energy system (solar & wind) to help us cut out the use of our propane cooking range.
- I am ridding my house of all excess stuff. In the future I want all my music, photographs, important papers to be on an external hard drive that I can use on my computer at any time. None of that stuff.........Recycle & sell.
- In the future I do want to have an electric car that we can charge with our own alternative energy system. Like we do with our lawn mower and garden cart.
- Every trip to town must be an errand run. Try to limit our trips to about two a week.
So I hope everyone will make Earth Day a day of really making changes in their lives for real. Not just one day of turning off their lights or televisions. But for real. Really giving up those things they don't really need but use just for conveniences. Remember the earth that you leave behind will be affected by what each and every one of us do while we are here. It will affect future generations. Care about and protect our earth............it's the only one we've got.
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| Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole |
8 comments:
Hi! Long-time reader, 1st time commenting. I love reading your blog! This is so the direction in which we are attempting to go and it is very exciting to be able to look around the net and find great information such as you have here to help us further our goals!
Happy Easter!
Oh my gosh, congratulations on all you have accomplished! I can't imagine having that much commitment to go green. It must be difficult at times. Looks beautiful, though! I came by from blog frog, and am following you on google, facebook, and blog frog. Have a good day!
Intentionalfamily, thank you for your comment and visiting my blog! I find living this way always an adventure. It is like a game with me, trying to find new ways of doing things.
Melissa, Thank you so much for your comment! I didn't intend on going green so much, as this lifestyle just blended into that over time. Going green wasn't a big thing in 1999 when we started. Now it is the thing to do! And we are doing it.
I would be very interested in hearing details on what system(s) you use in place of refrigeration. Refrigerators are huge energy hos on a small pv array, and buying fuel is not an option for us either. So we're headed down the same road you have been following! There isn't much info available though, so we look forward to hearing back from you! Thank you- Krystal twohunnyz @ hotmail.com
Krsytal,
The refrigerator we are planning on buying is the Sundanzer units. They use about as much power as a laptop and are DC powered so your inverter does not have to run to operate them. They are like the chest freezers as they are really the most efficient design. They are separate units so you have one as refrigeration and the other is the freezer. We have designed our kitchen around them. But for the time being we are not using anything.
That's good to know! But what do you use in the meantime? It will be a while before we can afford a Sundanzer. ;)
What a beautiful farm! we used to live about 20 miles from town on acreage and I loved it. But in 2007 we sold and moved back into town. We have 1/2 an acre in town and now with a chronic illness the 1/2 acre is plenty and keeps me busy. It is just the two of us now and we are really conscious of how we live. We recycle, we eat out less and less, I make my own soap and other household cleaners. It may not be much but we are doing what we can. At one time we had thought about doing strawbale or rammed earth home and all offgrid. It was something we should have done years ago when younger, but then we had kids at home, perhaps in the future we can realize that dream. I love your blog, you have lots of great info, and thankfully through the internet I can watch your dream come true! thanks so much for sharing! Marla
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