90 Percent Project - Weeks 22 and 23

Friday, 9:20 pm

By Kate

Nov

09

2007

My Weekly Values for the 90 Percent Project...

Electricity
Week 22: 24 kWh
Week 23: 23 kWh

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Gasoline purchased (for 1 person)
Week 22: 0
Week 23: 0

My three gallons have lasted quite nicely.

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Water (for 1 person)
Week 22: 97.253 gallons
Week 23: 104.734 gallons

My handyman used my water hose to clean out my gutters last week. I don’t know how much water he used, but I presume it was a great plenty. Just think what my water use was before he turned on the faucet! It was probably my lowest week yet.

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Natural Gas
Week 22: 3 CCF
Week 23: 3 CCF

That’s two weeks in a row of 3 CCF, which is a definite improvement, but not enough. Incidentally, each CCF is one hundred cubic feet of gas, not one cubic foot. My error. One hundred cubic feet of gas doesn’t seem to do much more than keep a couple of pilot lights burning for one week. How depressing (and wasteful). My pilot light count increased by one—I’d forgotten about the pilot light in my oven. I can’t even reach it to see if there is a screw on that one to shut the gas off. So, I’m back up to three pilot lights, for now. I turned the hot water heater down another notch. For all intents and purposes, it’s off. When I need hot water, I turn it up and as soon as the water is heated, I turn it back down. One tank manages to provide a warm shower and enough to do a small load of laundry or other cleaning details. When it’s gone, it’s gone for the day. Fortunately, now that I’m burning the wood stove every other day or so, I have plenty of steaming hot water. It’s enough to spoil a person rotten.

Two days ago, I also purchased a 4 quart enameled cast iron Dutch Oven to use atop the wood stove. Winter stews, soups, and roasts are about to commence cooking. My wood stove has a cooking shelf on it which provides a more moderated amount of heat that will slow cook foods in the Dutch Oven. My little wood stove earns its keep. There will likely be very little gas oven use this winter.

And, since wood stove heating season has arrived, I want to keep a weekly tally of how much wood I’ve used.

For week 23: 28 pieces (16” length, one quarter splits of 10-12” diameter logs)

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Trash (for 1 person)
Week 22: 2.2 lbs
Week 23: 6.0 lbs

Junk mail is becoming a real problem. I have entered my name in a couple of places to stop it, but I suppose that will take some time to go into effect. The Christmas catalog marathon is on. Lands’ End sent me four catalogs this week alone!! LL Bean came in a close second with three. Since they are printed on glossy paper, the town recycling center refuses them. If I ever want anything from either of those two places, I shop online purposely to avoid catalogs. But they use my address and send them anyway. I have to admit that I’ve enjoyed browsing through them, but, if I want anything, I’ll still look for it and buy it online.

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Consumer Goods
Week 22: $0
Week 23: $60.48 (tarp, steel stakes, rope, lamp oil, enameled cast iron Dutch Oven)

I have now spent slightly more than half the project’s yearly allowance on physical stuff. I had some concerns about adding Christmas gifts to that balance, but I received the news last night that my primary gift target (the lad) wants nothing but crisp bills of whatever denomination I can find it in my heart to part with. I can get with that program!

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Food
Farmer’s market - fresh local apples, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, cabbage, baby spinach, local organic pasteurized milk, locally made butter, and freshly made French bread (the best I have ever tasted). Plus a cut of locally raised beef, a cut of locally raised pork, and also a cut of locally raised elk (may be an acquired taste?). Interestingly, almost everything at the farmer’s market is now locally grown/produced. Early in the spring, almost nothing was, but this was their first year in operation. They have done a fantastic job of acquiring local producers beyond what they produce themselves.

Grocery store - USDA organic eggs from New Hampshire grown (cage free) chickens, New Hampshire cheddar cheese, bulk pasta and rice. And cat food.