How Not to Pay Through the Nose for Fuel

This is a picture we took in May. We loaded up the trunk with "vegetable oil" for our trip from Alabama to Massachusetts. We ended up returning with enough fuel for 3 more weeks of driving around home. Wow!

With the price of fuel being high, we probably saved, excuse the rough numbers,

about 58 gallons at $4/gal equaling around $232.

So, actually, in order to have $232 to spend, we would have had to earn $331 gross.

...and if we had driven a regular car that gets 25 miles to the gallon instead of 50 (our old Nissan which we sold at our garage sale) instead of the salvaged Jetta, it would have cost twice that!

Buy a fuel efficient car!
and then,
Run it on sustainable fuels.

Passive Solar Designed Window Shading

Jason wants to set up a Solar Home Tour in our town, BUT the only thing that we have "solar" is our sun tea maker...
We do have plans for a solar hot water sytem, and are strongly considering a solar electric system (grid-linked).

It occurred to Jason not long ago (a month before the Summer Solstice) that the windows on the south side of our house were letting in alot of heat, basically acting like passive solar heaters So by adding a little roof, you could put them in the shade and "turn off" the heat.
"Brilliant! Do it!" I encouraged.
And he did... in a day!
His design provides complete shade for 2 months of Summer, when sun in highest in the sky, and provides complete sun for the 2 coldest months of Winter.
So thanks to my geeky solar husband, we are finally on the solar powered road!

Time to Plant Some Greens and Jot Down Ideas

I planted Arugala a few days ago. Sprouts are coming up.

I was tentative to plant greens earlier because of the hot weather and draught conditions.

This will be my second year of having a Fall Garden. Last year I grew simply a 4x4 of mesclun. This year I plan to expand.

I can't wait to get my mesclun seeds in. I ordered them from HarrisSeeds.com. because I was having a hard time finding them locally.

I will be planting other greens and veggies later than recommended, so I will have to see what will happen. Last year I place a window pane over the mesclun to hold in the warmth. I may need to plan for more covers (glass, straw bales, etc...)

I will be collecting my neighborhood fall leaves soon for compost/mulch around my yard. I am planning to begin a front yard herb and flower garden for the Spring. I can't wait to utilise this space.

Jason and I set up a couple rain barrels this summer. I am wondering how they will hold up in the winter. Out Winter is about 3-4 months long, and not extremely cold. Zone 7b.

I had to kill 5 big Black Widow spiders and 2 egg sacs the other day in my garden. Yikes!

I went ahead and mowed over the pumpkin vines to prepare for the fall planting.

Today I pressure canned 8 quarts of pumpkins and still had some leftover to make pumpkin butter. It's been a long day.

I will need to write a post on my summer garden. It did well, and I want to make an overview so I can more clearly improve upon it. I also should do a post on the Fall Garden plan.

Ideas
small pond
honeysuckle perfum
dried herbs (stevia, sage)
blueberries
milk paint living room
start herbs in house.