rss
90 Percent Project - Weeks 22 and 23
My Weekly Values for the 90 Percent Project...
Electricity
Week 22: 24 kWh
Week 23: 23 kWh
__________________
Gasoline purchased (for 1 person)
Week 22: 0
Week 23: 0
My three gallons have lasted quite nicely. 
__________________
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.
__________________
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)
___________________
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.
__________________
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!
_________________
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.
I am just itching to go to the farmers market! I grew up with my parents buying produce from them. We even gave them one of our dogs so she would have a farm to run around on lol. (I think I have told you that before?)
Oh and um (hesitating, fingers don’t want to type the words) I finally got a new car, plus keeping the cadi. Ummmmmm its a suburban. Oh, sit back down woman and stop swearing at me! It was to good of a deal to pass up lol. And you know I wanted/needed some kind of SUV. And just think, when you need or want to purchase anything big, (like those shelves for your room?) No Worries lol. Love you 
I should hook you up with my brother, he now lives in your town or near it I think (yeah, we are real close. lol) as he is a hunter and hunts all over the country and could keep you supplied with venison and elk and moose and god knows what else. I grew up with all (or most of that) but somewhere along the line, I lost my taste for it and turn down his offers of meat.
I was thinking about you and your project the other day and then jumped to thoughts of a second cousin (a very eccentric--as it turns out--cousin of mine) that lived near us while I was growing up. He lived alone in a teeney tiny little house and you never ever saw lights on in it. A flickering now and again, but that was all.He heated pretty much with a wood stove, he was a college educated man and had held a good job at a local bank for many years, but we all assumed that he had NO money (his father and my grandfather were brothers and both once were very wealthy, but lost all their money in the stock market crash). So everyone felt sorry for him that he had to live in such a small house and that he drove an old car and never used electricity EXCEPT at Christmas when you would actually go by and see Christmas lights etc.
Anyway, time went by and the only person who ever visited him was my dad and periodically my mother would ask him for dinner or send something to him. Then he died...........and left well over a million dollars to the Salvation Army!! It has to be 30 years ago, and my mother still brings it up now and again!! So, see if the lad thinks you have gone round the bend and taking this a tad too far, tell him that story and that there might be other reasons you are doing all this!!~ LOL
Oh J. Oh, oh, oh. Break my heart will ya? ;)
Cyn, the word eccentric has arisen in conversations with the lad of late. He actually thinks what I’m doing is cool and he’s all for it. But he is also living amongst a very wealthy subset of society for whom the word conservation doesn’t even exist. Excess is the order of their day and for whom $700 bar tabs on Saturday night are the rule rather than the exception. So he gets to see both ends of the scale from up close. And by the other end of the scale’s estimation, I would be way eccentric.
We talked the other night and he is scared about the state of the world, no question, as his future options look more constrained as the months pass. He jokingly (more or less) suggested that when we move into our new digs under the bridge someday, he’ll take the left box bedroom and I can take the right. He’s worried about what shape the world will take by the time he graduates. I don’t blame him. I’m worried, too. The words Argentina and collapse came up in conversation more than once. I’m not, by nature, a pessimistic person, but I’m not seeing a whole load of joy in the world recently. It scares me to the marrow.
And, in my opinion, my little house is still too large for what’s to come. I would very much like to have a tiny house or a cobb house or a tiny straw bale house, but, at this point, I can’t even entertain the idea of selling my house so that I could move forward with any of those ideas, because no one is buying. There is another house in the neighborhood for sale and has been since the first of October. So far, it has been shown ONCE. No one is house shopping, but many are trying to unload their houses around here at bargain basement prices. I don’t anticipate that improving any time soon. So, I’m stuck and not feeling very good about it. Your cousin was a wise man and I imagine he was happy. He had what he needed and it was enough. I wish I’d come to that point in my thinking several years ago.
In the meantime, I can learn to live with less and realize that I have more than enough. My lifestyle is comfortable despite what others might see as eccentric little quirks. It really doesn’t take a shatload of energy to live comfortably. It’s good practice to learn how to live with less.
I really don’t see a good way around where we’re headed. The greedheads in the financial industry have created a monstrous disaster for which the worst effects haven’t even been felt yet. And who knows where the ripple effects will lead? And the dollar just keeps sinking like a widdle rock.
Over the past two years, I’ve been watching the weekly figures for crude oil, world wide, and those figures are resolutely going down. There is less being produced and even less being exported/imported. Worldwide, our demand for crude oil products now outstrips supply. Nothing much new is coming online to replace the shrinking production. Other poorer countries are already experiencing serious energy shortages and blackouts and food shortages. The price of crude keeps setting new benchmarks and Saudi Arabia appears to no longer be a swing producer. There is nothing out there that can replace the amount of oil we use and are losing to production declines while our use keeps increasing. Unless we come up with magical replacements in the next two or three years (bloodly freakin’ unlikely), we are, in a word, screwed. Which is to say...we’re screwed.
I am an extremely unhappy camper because this sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen in my happy little world. But guess what? It’s happening. Sort of like a slow motion train wreck—except it’s not that slow motion anymore. It’s happening a lot faster than anyone thought it would.
And, of course, the billion dollar question....how the hell do we raise the capital for the needed alternative energy R&D if the stupid greedheads actually have managed to collapse our financial system and economy?
Oh no, I hope you did not think I was calling you eccentric cause I wasn’t. I envy you your ability to hone in on this and do what needs to be done. Of course, as you well know, it is much easier when you are one person to do these things than it is when there are others involved.
But you are not wrong, we all need to do our part....maybe not as drastically as you are right now, but if everyone just chose to pick one thing and work at eliminating or cutting back, in time we would be buying ourselves and others some time.
Shock Doctrine is sitting right here next to me and I suspect I need to read it sooner rather than later.
It is scary and when I read what you write and talk to people who, like you, have made it a point to become knowledgeable, it is frightening. So how do you educate others? let’s face it, not many will take the measures you have--some because they just don’t care and cannot imagine it is necessary, others like me out of sheer laziness, but as I said above, if all of us just did a little, then a little more pretty soon.............
As for my relative, no, sadly I do not think he was a happy man, I think he truly was eccentric, and weird and a few other things..........certainly his lifestyle back then was strange when you consider no one--at least no one I knew--over indulged in anything ever. My parents were thrifty and careful and I don’t remember anyone --relatives or friends--being any different. Certainly you only bought what you needed, no one had credit cards, if you could not pay for it, you just plain did not have it. All of that, of course, forced you to conserve and watch your pennies. Something to be said for that. No one bought new cars every couple of years. You bought one, paid cash for it and ran it into the ground. No one thought anything about it.
I do find myself--and it is solely because of reading your blog--being much more conscious of what I am doing, I am turning off lights more--or not turning them on--and that is one of my worst habits. I HATE dark houses and rooms and tend to like lots of light, but am getting better. I am fooling with the thermostat more rather than just leaving it alone, so no, I am not embracing this 90% project, but I am trying, little by little, to break some of the habits I have gotten into. And really, when you think about it, those habits are not that old...it wasn’t all that long ago we were all doing our part to conserve everything.........
I am curious though--I realize you do not have to answer to anyone and if you decided to chuck the whole thing, no one would know except yourself...but what happens when your son comes home for the holidays..it has to throw everything off kilter. And what happens when his friends come to stay? Obviously they might get a kick out of it for a day or so, but then it might wear off...how do you blow your food budget, your lights, heat, etc? Are those kinds of situations built in? Or do you just do what you need to do and say, next month I get back on track? Or can you bank a month...say this month you do even better than you need to, so next month you can stretch it?
And now that I have written a small book. I have to stop!!
OH, Justme, I don’t envy you at the gas tank...my friend had a Suburban years ago, I had to borrow it for some strange reason and like a good friend, even though I only drove it about 20 miles, I filled up her gas tank for her.........and filled it and filled it and........took a half hour I swear and that was when gas was cheap!!
LOL, No Cyn, I didn’t think you were calling me eccentric. Some people sure think I am, though. But then, there are also a few others who have been awfully interested in getting their electric and gas bills as low as mine because they’re getting killed every month and a few of the little simple things I’ve done have struck them as very doable. Nothing succeeds quite like success. That’s fun, too.
I think the word is getting out now in more main stream venues. I understand that T. Boone Pickens was on Saturday Night Football last night talking about Peak Oil with Brent Musberger. Saturday Night Football for goodness sake! T Boone has been banging on the Peak Oil drum for quite a while now and people are finally starting to listen to him, among others.
How do you educate others? I don’t know, frankly. Talking about it endlessly and showing by example only go so far. I suspect it’s going to take an oil shock to really get people’s attention...whether that’s $5 gasoline or massive fuel shortages or half freezing to death in the winter, I’m not sure. (I hate to be a Gloomy Gus, but we’re looking at peak natural gas, too. There are days when I have to work pretty hard to not be overcome by the bleakness of it all.) We really are looking at a fairly near future of severely constrained energy sources. And it IS scary. We just don’t have enough alternatives to replace what’s running out NOW.
Back in the 70s when we had the oil embargo, people didn’t have a choice and they learned to conserve aggressively. Afterwards, it took this country nearly twenty years to rise above pre-embargo energy consumption levels. People can learn new habits in a hurry if they have to. It would at least buy us some time if everyone would do that now.
It would also help a lot if the government took a little interest in taking some aggressive steps in promoting hard conservation and subsidized alternative energy development in a BIG way. (That’s not the free market way, but it would do a lot for survival!) They are as well aware of the situation as anyone. President Bush even admitted it openly a couple of days ago in a press conference. He knows. Remember that he and Cheney both have homes that are run on solar and other alternative energy sources. I have no idea what his or their agenda is, in terms of energy issues. It must be to their benefit to pretend it doesn’t exist. I’m not sure that I even want to know why because the possible explanations get ugly fast.
When the lad comes home (and brings friends), they adapt a little more than they’d probably like, but they’re agreeable. We end up using a couple more kilowatt hours per day, but it’s a conservative amount...probably in the range of 5-6 kWh per day TOTAL. Every light bulb in my house is a CFL, so not much extra gets burned in lighting. Most of the additional use comes from his television and video games. His Dad bought him a flat screen LCD TV this year, so I hope to pack that in the car and drag it home at Christmas. It uses WAY less electricity than the one currently sitting in his room. That would cut electricity use down to near what I’m using now.
I’m not sure if the gas use will go up this holiday season because I don’t intend to turn the water heater up any more than I do now and I intend to get my shower first.
Obviously, if there are more than two people in the house in need of a shower and laundry, I will have to fire up the hot water heater a second time.
I’m not sure how the heating will go. I have truly become so accustomed to keeping the house cooler now that I am really uncomfortable when the house temp gets above 70°. I can always throw a couple more logs in the wood stove if people get too cold, but I will obviously be encouraging more layers. The lad is okay with that. Actually, he’s fine with cooler temps, but a couple of his friends shiver if the temps fall below 72°. I gave them blankets to wrap around themselves last year. Yes, I’m sure they think I’m nuts, but not enough to discourage them from coming over or staying. This, of course, is where the lad says, “Yeah, Mom’s a little eccentric that way, but don’t try to talk her out of it.” I don’t know why, but that seems to make me more fun to be around. Go figure. The lad gets a real kick out of that.
As for food, there’s no particular budget to adhere to. Just have to make most of the food locally grown or produced. I’ve gotten pretty good at that so no one will go hungry or suffer from a lack of variety. No problems there. And there’s often something simmering on the back of the wood stove which encourages the kids to come down and take a peek under the pot’s lid to see what’s cooking. Seems to make the food taste better for some reason.
I am VERY curious to hear what your thoughts are after you’ve started reading The Shock Doctrine. I thought that I was pretty aware of history, but that book sure shocked the heck out of me. And it makes me question whether anything I read or hear in the press/media is the truth.
No Cyn, I don’t envy me either LOL. I didn’t intend on getting a suburban. I wanted a smaller suv really. I had a jeep in CA and loved it. It really wasn’t bad on gas either. But we needed a second car (almost three years now with one). I am working longer hours now and the running back and forth was getting ridiculous. We probably will even out in the gas lol.
Kate, the fernace broke yesterday (a Sunday of course) one part was fixed but one has to be ordered! So no heat for us yesterday and last night. Berrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. My fingers are a bit cold typing this morning! My brother is going to call some favors in today so hopefully we will have heat tonight or tomorrow at the latest, I hope.
Talk about conserving fuel! Yeash. Berrrrrrrr.
Oh my word, you must be freezing, J. It had to pick the coldest night of the year so far to break down. We were down in the low 20s last night. If it doesn’t get fixed today, you’re more than welcome to come over here.
I had a nice fire in the stove last night, but let it go out overnight. It’s now about 58° in here and falling. I’ll start a fire a little later. You must be quite a lot colder than that by now. Really, if it doesn’t get fixed, come over.