Can’t resist a few notes from the garden, it’s my favorite time of the year! The strawberries and raspberries are coming! I love them…. Picked my first handful of sugar snap peas. Love them…. Noticed that the potatoes in my hugelkultur are twice the size of the other potatoes I planted at the same time. I am so curious to see what type of productivity I’ll have. If it turns out as I think it will, I’m planning on building more hugelkultur’s next year. I haven’t had to water the garden yet, but then again I usually don’t until July. One of my neighbors was kind and said that it wasn’t a jungle I had, but a meadow garden. Well, the bees like it.
Here's my breakdown for the week(goals in parentheses):
Transportation (goal 50 gallons per year): My A+ category. Looked at three wheel bikes. Would make grocery shopping much easier and they make me smile, but I suspect a trailer would be more practical. Broke things down more, I figure 1 gallon a month for bus gas mileage.
Electricity (90 KWH per month): Looked at some more of the figures, did some math. I’m down 30 KWH from last year during this month. Last month was 70 KWH less than the year before. So at least I’m using less than last year. I’m guessing it’s light bulbs, less cooking in the evening, a different printer, and one appliance I’ve been able to replace that uses less electricity. Over last two months have consistently used 10 KWH a day. So what uses 7 KWH a day that I can unplug?
Heating energy (100 Therms a mth): Sweet! Looked at this again and figured out that during the coldest month of the year I used 86 Therms of gas. In better shape here than I thought, good thing I wasn’t a math major! Still need to look at keeping my pipes from freezing.
Garbage (.45 a day): Cancelled the two catalogues I still get on a regular basis. Discovered I could do it via email. Took reusable containers to the grocery store for my bulk items, rather than use the plastic/paper bags they provide. Still researching and thinking about the dog waste issue.
Got to thinking about my practice of buying compost and potting soil in bags. I have really rocky soil and have tended to build raised beds and then filled them in. I’ve been trying to move away from this, but it’s challenging.
Water (11.5 gallons a day, extra 1.5 for dogs): Did a good job of thinking what water I could use as grey water (such as rinsing lettuce over a bowl to catch the water). Got the information for switching from a flat meter for my water usage to a measured meter.
Consumer goods ($1000 a year): Purchased photo paper and CD’s to back up photos, still well within allowance.
Food (goal of 70% local 25% bulk, 5% not local): Grand totals for last two weeks are 72% local, 17% bulk, 11% non local. I’ve been refining my food goals.
I don’t have a problem with buying foods that are processed locally at the moment and am including them in the bulk or local (local bread made with locally ground flour, local sausage, locally roasted coffee). Also I will consider any peaches or cherries from the eastern edge of Washington as local if they are being sold at the Farmer’s market, or items from the south end of British Columbia-basically if I could drive there and back in a day. First choice is always organic, but if I can’t find local and organic, I will pick local over organic for most foods.
I’m going to do some research on making dog food. It’s only practical if I can make a week’s worth at a time.
My non-local purchases were: salmon from Alaska, an organic avocado, butter and organic cottage cheese from Oregon. I can get local cottage cheese (only available at the coop though so requires planning ahead). Checked at the coop and there is no organic butter to be found yet, so I’ll have to make my own for it to be local. Organic butter is important to me. No local salmon yet. That leaves the avocado. I’m going to savor every single bite….