Saturday, December 26, 2009

Friday Update (on a Saturday)

ELECTRICITY: The average American uses 900kwh per household per month. Being an all electric house, we often use more than that. While I can try to justify our usage with the fact that we don’t have natural gas, etc, we still use a LOT of electricity. More in the winter than the rest of the year. I read my meter weekly and report here how much we use and how it compares to the rest of society. The calculator I use is here.
http://calculator.riot4austerity.org/
Some of the other categories come from here: http://www.riot4austerity.org/blog/7-categories/
~This week’s reading: 85915
~Usage: 1495
~Average Daily: 187kwh making us at 620% of the average American.
Holy cow, that’s a lot! It makes me wonder about the dishwasher. I’ll pick up dish soap this week and do some dishes by hand. That should help cut down. I also turned the thermostat back down to 65*. I will try to inch it down more as the days go on.

IDC:
Plant: Nothing has been planted this week. It is on my to-do list to get some seeds planted for my indoor garden.
Harvest: Obviously if nothing has been planted, nothing can be harvested. However, we are still getting eggs on a daily basis.
Preserve: I have done no canning or drying.
Reduce waste/manage preserves: All food scraps go out to the animals.
Preparation/storage: I went through the children’s clothes this week and I have clothes that need to be donated. I also need to pick up some pants for Charlie. With snow here, I have the purple bin cleaned out and will put emergency supplies including a couple of blankets and a change of clothes each to keep in the truck. (I should also set one up for the van.)
Build community food system: While I am no longer active in Terre Foods, I still spread the word about it. Meanwhile, I am still doing bartering for various items.
Eat the food (Try new recipes): I love to try new recipes and play with old ones. While I have not done any new recipes this week, we do eat what we have.

GARBAGE: I have done no recycling this week. Shame on me. I go into town twice a week. I even drive by the recycling place. There is no excuse except pure laziness. This must change.

GASOLINE: The truck (diesel) got filled up this week. 25.722 gallons. We are down to below half a tank on it already. We made an emergency trip to the VA emergency room last night.

MONEY: On Wednesday, we went out for breakfast and saw a vet (Korean era judging by the age) who was sitting by himself. Where we went for breakfast used to be an American Legion post, so seeing vets is not all that unusual. Every once in a while, when we see a vet or active duty sitting by himself, we will anonymously pick up the tab. We’ll tell the waitress to tell them it is our way of saying “Thank you for serving” but keep it anonymous. When we told the waitress this, she had said this was perfect timing. He had finished his last chemo treatment for colon cancer. Anyway, our accounting of money spent beyond monthly bills:
~Breakfast (including the vet and the tip): $45
~Hardee’s (Really, really, really bad day at work.) $16 (This includes my husband.)
~Gasoline: $20 and $72
~Dinner: $30
~Grocery Store: $4
~Water machine: $1 (VA)
~McDonald’s (twice) $32
~Rural King: $35
The $48 for the drive-thru trips were not necessary and I don’t think the dinner was necessary. There were things we could have done in the middle of the night last night on the way home and for breakfast this morning to prevent the McDonald’s trips. As for Hardee’s, I need to handle my emotions better. It was weigh-in night and after that, I hit the drive-thru, came home, had that and a bunch of cookies. (Yes, I am most likely going to gain.)

HOMESTEAD: We picked up three hens already laying earlier today. They are going to be for a friend of ours who wants to get started on the self-sufficiency path, but has no safe place for the birds. So, we will be caring for them while they get set up. These hens were free.
We have snow (after Christmas) and the donkeys are looking a bit distressed by it. The rest of the critters are staying in. (The barn is needing serious cleaning.) Amazingly enough, our hens are still laying. They haven’t done the winter drop off yet and I am not going to remind them.
We picked up a new water tank heater so I no longer have to take a sledge-hammer to the water trough so the animals can drink. I am sure I make quite the site going out there in below freezing temps in my skirt and pink crocs swinging a sledge-hammer.

HOMESCHOOL: Charlie has had a light week. He is still reading from his Bible daily and even reads to the girls. The other night, he took Frankenstein upstairs to read and read it cover to cover in just over an hour. And yes, he did read it. Ho told me all about it in detail. I was floored.

OLD GOALS:
~Lose four pounds by Tuesday weigh-in. Close. I lost 3.4.
~Get the yard cleaned up. NOT!
~Get cookies made for work. They were enjoyed by all. And, I got my bowl back.
~Cut my coffee consumption in half. While not cut in half, it has been reduced.

NEW GOALS:
~Do the Friday Update on Friday
~Get emergency supplies together and in the vehicles.
~Get some seeds planted.
~Do some shooting.

2 comments:

Lisa A. Goff, writer, stained glass, homeschooler said...

Emergency trip to VA? Is George Okay?

Mrs. Hoppes said...

We were bored so he decided to knock himself out and get a major concussion.