a fantastic explanation, in entertaining cartoon form, of why and how the fertilizer is in the fan

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

running the numbers, and liking the math!

Further to my last post, regarding electricity consumption, I crunched up these numbers last night.

Just to recap, starting in September this year, I made the decision to use my bike and the public buses here much more extensively than I have before. Formerly it would have been VERY difficult, what with children going to preschool, for which there is no bus. But since all four of mine are now taking the bus to elementary school, and I was going to be attending classes on two different campuses about 15 miles apart, it was time to be thrifty, green, and fit.

September 2007: 1284 miles
October 2007: 1616 miles
November 2007: 1252 miles
December 2007: 992 miles

September 2008: 920 miles (down 364)
October 2008: 697 miles (down 919)
November 2008: 801* (down 451)
December 2008: 801* (down 191) {hey, it was getting freaking COLD!}
*this division is approximated; I am missing a gas receipt entry between the end of November and the beginning of December, but the total for both months is correct

That makes a total for the 2007 period of 5144 miles and for 2008, 3219 - a decrease of 37%!

I am extremely satisfied with these numbers.

my electricity usage

So I started at Mother Earth News and the article "Where does your electricity come from?"

Then I clicked on nifty feature to go to the EPA website.

I crunched data from my bills at the electric company to find these figures.

Now I need to work on reducing all these numbers! Interestingly, the site indicated that I use about half the electricity of an average household....

Read Date (Click to View Bill)	Usage (kWh)	Number of Days	Usage Per Day	Charge	Read Type	Average Temp (°F)
12/03/2008	457	35	13.06	$65.09	00	38.3	12/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
10/29/2008	714	30	23.80	$101.72	00	48.4	10/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
09/29/2008	1025	31	33.06	$150.80	00	62.5	9/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
08/29/2008	785	29	27.07	$116.79	00	66.9	8/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
07/31/2008	863	31	27.84	$127.48	00	72.4	7/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
06/30/2008	735	31	23.71	$100.15	00	67.4	6/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
05/30/2008	401	30	13.37	$57.15	00	54	5/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
04/30/2008	408	30	13.60	$58.06	00	47.8	4/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
03/31/2008	439	27	16.26	$62.04	00	33.3	3/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
03/04/2008	617	34	18.15	$84.96	00	25.3	3/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
01/30/2008	506	28	18.07	$70.67	00	24.2	1/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
01/02/2008	682	30	22.73	$90.59	00	26.2	1/2/2008 12:00:00 AM
12/03/2007	659	33	19.97	$87.63	00	35.8	12/3/2007 12:00:00 AM
10/31/2007	732	28	26.14	$96.73	00	55.2	10/31/2007 12:00:00 AM
10/03/2007	793	28	28.32	$104.32	00	62.4	10/3/2007 12:00:00 AM
09/05/2007	1162	33	35.21	$150.29	00	67.7	9/5/2007 12:00:00 AM
08/03/2007	1255	35	35.86	$162.80	00	71.2	8/3/2007 12:00:00 AM
06/29/2007	841	28	30.04	$121.14	00	66.4	6/29/2007 12:00:00 AM

YOUR ANNUAL EMISSIONS
What Are My Annual Emissions? This is an estimate of the pounds of air pollutants caused by the electricity you use in your home or business during one year.	7 pounds of nitrogen oxides 19 pounds of sulfur dioxide 6,732 pounds of carbon dioxide

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Blue for Brrrrrrrr!

It started snowing here about 1 PM on Friday, and has finally stopped. We've had somewhere between 10 1/2 and 12" of snow, depending on where in my yard I measure. We haven't been out the driveway since 2 PM on Friday, though lots of fun has been had in the back yard. And, of course, the rabbits needed feeding and watering! The children were off from school on Friday and are hoping to be off tomorrow, but I think the crews will have enough time overnight to get the roads passable. Thank goodness I have a very good snowblower; I would NOT want to shovel this.

so, it's pathological to want to preserve the planet for our children, is it?

So Sharon Astyk was interviewed for the New York Times with regard to her blogs and books regarding how we might want to try to live in a post Peak Oil, climate changed world. Apparently, those who take their environmental and social responsibilities seriously are so threatening to The Establishment that mud must needs be slung at them, and labels affixed to them. Loony tune? Energy anorexic? I think not. Here's Peak Oil Blues's response to the subtly nasty and marginalizing article from the NYT. I particularly liked this sentence in the summarizing paragraphs:

"Articles like Kaufman’s are not merely dumb and sensational; they are carefully crafted not only to avoid the opportunity to educate one of the most consumptive nations on Earth, but, more importantly, to pathologize those who won’t spend."

Here, btw, is Sharon's response to the article.

Me? I'm working on it all. I have been bicycling a lot this fall, and as the weather has grown colder, I've added in more bus time as well. I've had the heat on exactly once so far, to bring the house up to 62 in the morning so the children can dress in something approximating comfort. I'd really like to have a bank of solar panels on my roof, so that I can run such luxuries as my downstairs freezer and dehumidifiers (though those need run only in summer). My needs are fairly simple, overall, and that's good, because my means are modest, too. And I, like Sharon, let my children play ball in the yard, while I work in the garden or hang out the wash or feed the rabbits. Reminds me a lot of when my brothers and I were little, actually - and we never felt deprived because of it.

Further from Peak Oil Blues - really, go read the whole thing -

This article is part of a new media genre that takes the serious worries of almost two-thirds of Americans, and creates a special brand of pathology designed to stigmatize, pathologize, trivialize, and marginalize their concerns.

What, are we a nation of ostriches now?

(cross-posted to http://gardengirl6.livejournal.com/)

feels like summer here!

Hurray, I made it through to the end of my semester! I even did respectably on my final papers. I felt that one could have been better, but I think it was due in part to my inexperience and in part to my exhaustion - I could definitely have presented my ideas more effectively. But the professor had lots and LOTS of constructive criticism (thank you!) and I feel confident that next time I'll be better prepared for this kind of work.

The children will be out of school by the middle of next week! There's the usual flurry of picnics and parties and plays until then, which is always fun and even more fun for me now that I can breathe and enjoy it all. I confess that the last day of preschool (after seven years/four children there) will be very bittersweet for me. Kleenex and chocolate, please?

The weather has turned HOT here. It was about 92 this afternoon... which for here is hot even for mid-August! The pool next door was 70 degrees 48 hours ago and was 82 degrees this afternoon. Thank goodness for fantastic neighbors and standing invitations!

My vegetable seedlings are all in the garden now. I had trouble with a mouse in the basement which snacked on my first planting of flowers, broccoli and tomatoes, so my seedlings this year are smaller than usual as they had to be replanted. I do have some flower seedlings yet to plant, but they are SO far down the list of priorities right now. I direct sowed zucchini, cucumbers, and pumpkins so far. I have yet to sow corn, beans, and more flowers. I will hold off on sowing peas at this point until August, for a fall crop. It's just too late for spring peas now. *sigh* I spent more time than usual (actually, 'usual' is none, so that wasn't hard) on perennial beds this year. I transplanted several dozen columbines that I had direct sown in the front yard a few years back... they had grown there but never flourished. I hope they'll be happier where I moved them. I also moved the rest of the bulbs I thought I'd moved last fall but missed. I have yet to dig out what I want from the overgrown-with-violets back bed, before I cook it with plastic to kill off said violets. I want to rescue the Easter lilies, tulips, daffodils and hyacinths first.

I have spent the past few days preparing and posting for sale on Ebay listings for the Motherwear nursing clothes I've been accumulating over the years. (http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZgardengirlgarden) Time was, these sold like mad, but the market even on Ebay seems to be in a slump. I am trying to figure out how to pull together financially for school next year, and freeing up capital is always a good first step. Finding a decent part-time job is on my list as well... NOT easy in this area and in this economy! Even if I weren't planning to take classes, I still couldn't work full-time, since I need to be here to meet the bus seven afternoons out of ten. Still, every little bit helps, and I'll figure it out eventually.

I can haz rough drafts!

I finished the first draft of my second final paper this evening. Both papers are presently 14 pages long. May I just say that I'm really looking forward to turning them in, and being finished with my semester? The classes were great, it was just difficult because all five of us kept getting strep, and boy howdy, it kicked my posterior. But I'm almost finished! And then I can start in on my page-long list of things that I've either been putting off, or have forbidden myself to start because I'd be too distracted. Like transplanting my bulbs... if I get started digging in my gardens, the rest of the world loses importance for me.