Reduce - Energy and Fuel

We received our power bill yesterday and I have some great news to share. Below are the stats as I've received them:

July - Aug 07	July - Aug 08

Are they the lowest power usage amounts in the world? No. The thing I am proud of though is the fact that there is a consistent down trending there. Take a look at the usage on the left from last year. You can see that we used 2501 kWh throughout the billing period, but what's really important though is the Avg kWh per day use because the number of days billed can vary from year to year and that number is 69, down 4 kWh from the year before. That reduction was last year when we had just begun to pay attention to our habits, and our power footprint. This year (graph on the right), I'm proud to say that we were able to increase that reduction further, by dropping another 14 kWh from even last years totals.

That reduction means a lot of things. First, of course, is the fact that we are truly beginning to walk the walk more in our everyday lives and this is a sort of validation to ourselves. Secondly, it is realized in actual dollars. This savings translates to nearly $70.00 for this billing cycle alone. When you're able to make these types of changes, it translates into serious savings throughout the year. Which brings me to the last thing that this means to me. By reducing our use, we begin to put ourselves in a place to be less impacted in the future by rising costs. That, more that probably any other one thing, is the reason that we try to strive toward these changes.

On a related note, I had to put gas into my old Toyota last Friday. Big news huh? Well, actually it really is. You see, the last time I had had to put any fuel into that car was on June 9th. So that's two months of driving on a 10 gallon tank. Not too shabby huh? Mostly that's due to the fact that I've had a little over three weeks of bike commuting so far this summer. Not as much as I'd have liked to have had, but it makes a difference.

I guess the biggest point of all the efforts that we make is just that, "we're making an effort." It's about trying things out, seeing what fits your life, and what changes you can make. Everyone can't do everything, we're not saints and there are things that we just aren't willing to do without, but to make the effort at least gets us into the game.

Till tomorrow,

P~

Sometimes life is cruel

I've been making a concerted effort lately not to complain but I have to say that life is sometimes cruel. If you read this blog at all you know that we have been dealing with trying to put in hardwood floors to help with our sons asthma. This has in essence thrown our house into chaos because we have half our flooring torn up, and half the new flooring put down, only a portion of our stairs finished and none of it sealed yet. During this time, we had our cheap driving car die. So I begin driving the truck the few miles to work on the hot days when I just don't want to ride my bike. Then the Radiator hose of the Truck blows. OK I'll just ride the bike for a couple of days until I can get it fixed, no problem. I get the hose fixed, and the A/C quits working two days later. Again, oh well, I can deal with it. Another week goes by and our other cars maintenance required light goes on. Now this weekend I get news that my son from my first marriage is in a bad situation with his mom, and may need to come live with me. This is not bad news mind you, but it does bring with it it's own sets of issues.
I want to state for the record that I will not give in to life's cruel hand. This blog is about the possible and by golly it is possible to get through this too. Somehow these challenges are here to strengthen us. I don't know how, but they are. My wife and I are united and in that state we just can't be beaten. Believe me, life's tried before! When you have these moments or periods in life cling to those you love, ask for help when necessary, and above all believe and know that this too shall pass. We have all been given a wonderful gift to be able to make real that which we truly believe in, sometimes we just have to go on faith.
P~

Sunrise and torn up tee's

I ride along, golden light bleeding over the ridge.

Cold air passes like a cool spring breeze,

In my ears a melody, in my chest a fire.

a beautiful accident delivered me here; I'm glad.

~P

So in my fog that is waking up, I got ready, hopped on the bike and peddled off to work. As I'm riding along down the road I am struck by the gorgeous sunrise coming over the Wasatch Mountians. The sky was golden, and the clouds glowed. It was truely magical. Last week the bad weather that we had forced me back into my car and I have to say I hated it. Not the driving necessarily, as much as the waiting, and the impatient people. I saw at least twice people cutting one another off and cussing back and forth. I got stuck at three consecutive lights for two and three changes. Were I on my bike I could have leisurely blown right by. I may not get there any faster, but it will certainly would have been a more peaceful trip. But as I was saying, I head off to work this morning in my usual fog, and don't realize until I've gotten to work that I am an hour earlier than normal. I must've screwed up the alarm last night when I went to bed, and got up at 5:00 rather than 6:00 (No small miracle in and of itself I assure you.) So as a reward for my inept clock handling skills and foggy morning haze, I was shown a beautiful sunrise. I wish I could honestly say that I would try to continue getting up that early; I'd get to see all the sunrises and would get off work an hour earlier. But that just isn't going to happen. Really it's not. But it was a pleasant surprise.

I decided to continue one of my practices from last week with a little help from a neighbor of mine. He gave me a "Box o' Rags" which is basically just a bunch of old recyled T-shirt scraps in a box. I grabbed a bunch last night and packed them to bring in so that I can always keep one in my pocket for hand drying and such. I liked using a hand towel last week, and now that I know how many paper towels we actually go through in a week since I kept them all in a separate bag for composting, they are ruined for me. Not to say that I won't grab one here or there, but I don't do it without looking for something else.

P~

Sunday was composting day around the house. I took a bunch of pics of my process and equipment. I'll be working on getting those imported later today so watch for that update.

Low Impact reflections

Well, Day two down and I have a few reflections to share with you.
As I said before, I had begun to ride to work a couple of days before the LIW began. Friday I took it to a new level. I needed to run some errands after work, stop by a junk yard to check on something I thought I saw while driving by and stop at the local farmers supply store to pick up some hardware to finish my composter with this weekend. Anyway, I decided that since I'm trying to conserve gas, and I could make these places be on the way home if I took a little bit longer path home so I did. I guess it turned my 5.5 mile trip home into more like 8 miles, but a lot of it was down hill and I felt great doing it. I've begun to notice a lot of different things while riding around. For instance, I see the same guy every morning standing at the bus stop out on main street; now he waves to me and I to him. Yesterday while taking the long way home, I crossed over one of our irrigation canals and watched 6 or 7 barely hatched ducklings cruising along behind momma, something that I would have blown by during my daily driving. I feel a little more connected to my community this way I guess. I see people, even the ones in cars because I make eye contact with them when they are getting ready to turn. I catch the smell of the farmers harvesting early hay, and share a wave with other bikers as we pass.
As for some of my other goals; I think I've done pretty well so far on most things. I brought a small hand towel to work to use rather than using the paper towels, but both times I went to the bathroom I forgot it so I had to walk back with wet hands and dry them back in my office. I didn't cave and cheat though. On a side note, for the last couple of weeks I have been using a separate bag at work for all of the paper towels that I use there. I bring them home periodically to throw in my compost pile since I don't really have any "browns" to add but am "green" rich. I have been doing the same with p. towels from home as well. This works great by the way, and I can't believe how much longer it takes to fill a trash bag without p. towels. I have also been collecting our used coffee filters in an old coffee can at work and toted them home on Fri. to add to the pile.
My family and I went out for a movie that we had had planned for a couple of weeks, (Can't pass up free tickets to Pirates of the Carribean) and I passed on lunch when everyone else grabbed a quik bite after the movie. I was hungry, don't be mistaken. But one of my goals was no restaurants, so I passed.
I've had some other things that I've noticed so far, but I think I'll let them develop a little more before I share them.
I hope everyone's having a good experience with this so far.
P~

It's all down hill from here.

And I mean that literally! I did the ride into work this morning, only 5.5 miles but that sucker was uphill all the way. Not big steep kind of uphill (other than going over a big bridge that is.) but the long slow never ending uphill slog kind of uphill. I know, I know, Whaa Whaa! Anyway, I am pretty proud of myself if I do say so. This was one of my goals for this year, to ride to work. I guess if I only do it once this year at least I'm 100% more than last year right? But I won't, I hope to ride to work for at least the majority of the Low Impact Week that's coming up end of next week. (You can see the rest of my goals for that week HERE.) I really have to say that I was pleased to see the kind of comments that I received on the last entry I put up about riding. It is actually the post with the greatest reader input surprisingly. It's good to see a lot of people are getting out to ride more often, although I still have to give the prize for total ambition to Cynthia for her nearly 20 mi. one way ride to see her boyfriend.
Happy pedaling!
P~

Addendum: Well I made it back home tonight. I had a headwind, and got caught up at two lights, but still made it home in just under 25 mins. It took me nearly 40 to get in this morning. I hope that as I ride more often It will get easier.
P~

Personal Note
I wanted to keep a count of the number of days that I ride to work this year, just for posterity. I will update this as I go.
todays count: 7 (Last Update 6-12-07)

rode today

Well we'll see how sore I end up being tomorrow. I got out today for about a 4-5 mile ride in order to see where I stand before doing the ride to work this week. I did learn that my rear wheel needed a little tuning though. When I got back I found that it was a little out of shape and was rubbing against the brake. I think I was able to get that issue resolved though so we'll see I guess. If I'm not too terribly sore tomorrow, I'll go for a little longer one.
Did anyone else out there get out for a ride. How'd it go?
P~

Mothers Day, garden update and relaxation

Being Mothers Day today, I first want to say Happy Mothers Day, I realize this is probably pandering to my audience, since for some reason it seems like the majority of comments come from the ladies that visit here. Guys you really need to speak up. Anthony, notice I said the majority of comments, not all. Since it was Mothers Day, we of course pandered to the most important mom in our house, my wife. What she wanted, and we were more than happy to accomodate, was to spend the day outside and enjoy all the work we've been doing lately. What a great idea! Today will no doubt go down as one of the best weather days of 2007 so far. Not too hot, probably in the low 80's, with just the right amount of a breeze to cool it off. While I was out there I thought it'd be a good idea to snap a couple of photos to update this years progress. First we got a picture from the house side of the garden with the really nice firepit we just put in. This was a steel manhole cover with great rustic, well, rust that we were able to get for nothing from a contractor that was going to junk it. Coincidentally an old bar-b-que grill fit perfectly on the inside. The next one is a picture from the other end of the length of beds facing the house. Those in the front are the peas, I finally
got a trellis thingie in place so they can climb. I noticed a couple of small pods forming this weekend. Speaking of which, I was shocked to already find a little cluster of yellow pear tomatoes shaping up. After the cold weather of last week, I guess I can safely say that the plastic sheeting pup tent method I used to keep them warm worked!
That next photo, is not too pretty, but is a lot better than the ugly pile that I had last year. This is the wood hutch that I mentioned a month ago that I had started. All the concrete work we've been doing took precedance so it hasn't been completely finished yet, but it is holding the firewood pretty well I'd say. Everything you see is salvage from all of the construction going on around us. We were lucky enough to find some roofing that matched ours, and siding that was close enough not to tell the difference. As soon as I find some decent corner peices or straight wood I'll finish it off.
The next two pics are in homage to Mothers Day. The first is obviously Dad cooking. Yes I do cook, but I have been banned for the most part from the kitchen (jeez, I misplace a pan or two, and they never forget.) but I do OK on the grill! This is my famous beer can chicken. Todays recipe was dubbed Tecate Chicken; Mmm Mmm good! Finally what Mothers day post during the National Bike Month would be complete without Mom and her "little" boys out on a ride. For that matter I can't think of a better way to end the day; we took a leisurely ride around the neighborhood, that way I could still breath (I'm trying to get over a cold so I can ride to work this week). All in all this was a great day. We spent the day together, played bocci and egyptian golf, shared a great dinner together and rode it off. I can only hope that you all were able to have as relaxing and happy a day and that you took the time to call your moms. Which reminds me, I love you Mom!! (don't worry, I called her this morning, but more than one shout out never hurt!)
P~

Bike to work week.

I learned yesterday that next week is National Bike to work week, and that Friday the 18th is National Bike to work Day; in fact I learned that May is Nat’l bike month for that matter. With the upcoming Low Impact Week activities and with one of my main goals being to bike to work and significantly reduce my driving for the week, I think that this is a fine opportunity to get in shape, or probably more realistically to learn how out of shape I am so that I know what I have coming in June!
If I can get over the blasted spring cold that I have had for the last three days, I am going to try to bike it to work at least a couple of days next week. I invite you to do the same if it is possible for you. Many of us live a great distance from our places of business, in this case, I would encourage you to at least try to make a few of your local trips by bike; perhaps a run to the store, library, or even riding to school and back with the kids if you have them. Anyone who had the opportunity to watch the GMA or Nightline interviews with Colin from “No Impact Man” saw he and his wife making the trips to work and daycare on a push scooter, with a toddler no less. I don’t think it would be such a stretch to think we could try to at least supplement our driving with pedal power to some degree. Even for those of you out there that aren’t worried about the environment or reducing our impact on it per se, I’m sure you’d agree that the $$ savings at the pump would be worth it! So get up, pump up those tires, and get on the bike!
P~