Today we went on a Solar Home tour in Blountsville, Alabama. Reminded me of the Ecovillage we WOOFed at in New Zealand. It was a beautiful day, the weather was a little on the warm side... The homes were amazing. And so were the people!
Jason and I talked a bunch, especially about our goals in creating our self-sufficient, low-energy-using home and life. We concluded that the best changes that we can make we are already making.
1. Transportation--Jason bikes to work, and I am beginning to bike more to the grocery store (we even bought a used bike trailer). We drive as little as possible in a Jetta diesel on our home-brewed BioDiesel. J says that in transportation we use 1/20 what the avg. American uses! This was the first big change we made in our lifestyle.
2. Food--Buy Local, less meat, less processed foods, and We have a Garden (getting better every year). I buy bulk grains and beans, and love to bake. This is the second biggest imporvement that we made.
3. Housing--We use 1/4 the avg. American in electricity (and half of that is from our hot tub--we're currently considering alternatives), almost 1/8 in gas, and about 1/4 in water (plus we put up 2 homemade rain barrels this summer, which helps a bit, esp. in a draught). We are continuing to try to reduce or energy usage.
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