What does going *Green* mean?
If you ask me, going “Green” is all about saving money — the good old green-back dollar, while living as frugally as possible. Yes, I love the earth God created but, I worship the Almighty God, our Savior and Creator. We are charged with being good stewards in all we do.
When we moved in January we found a larger house, which would seem to most people to be anti-green but just like in the real world there are trade-offs. Prior to our move we had discovered Dr. Heaters, which have help us to save money on our electric bill. They are very efficient and they do not create static in the air, nor do they absorb moisture from the air — a problem with most types of heat, such as that from a wood-burning fireplace.
We were concerned that a larger house would mean it would consume significantly more energy and that would result in paying more to heat it and with the rising cost of propane and electric… We kept this in the back of our mind as we made changes in our lifestyle. The additional space allowed us to clean out our storage unit at Mr. Stor All, in Sonora. (At a savings of $107.00 per month.) They really treated us well and we appreciate the great service and smiling faces.
It’s wonderful having all of our belongings under one roof again. I’ve been trying to organize everything and toss out the excess. It’s a slow process but groups like Freecycle help make it easy to dispose of unwanted items as painlessly as possible. It can be very time-consuming dealing with the accumulation of stuff. The move really gave me renewed determination to deal with it. Now I’m simply waiting for better weather.
The first thing we did before we moved into the new place, was to investigate and purchase a new energy efficient refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher. We had not planned to buy a new washer and dryer for a few months but when we found a high-efficiency set marked half-off, we charged them to our card, hoping the savings would help us pay for them. The gamble paid off. Not only is our new house larger, our utility bills are actually a little lower than they were at our old house.
This new place also provides excellent access to nature and all the wildlife that call Twain Harte, CA home. The new place has a wrap-around deck and a couple of nice spots, which will enable us to grow vegetables, spices, flowers and we provide comforts to the local wildlife, especially in bad weather. I plan to grow some flowers to help attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and the deer of course. I’ll enjoy them as I can and allow the animals to make full use of them. I’d love to plant some blackberry bushes and a strawberry patch.
I don’t really agree with feeding wild animals and having close contact with them. It just makes me cringe when I see photos and video’s online of people hand-feeding hummingbirds and petting the deer. I justify feeding the deer because they need to survive and they are competing with people for food and we humans have the upper-hand. I try to provide fresh foods that they would eat in the wild and in the winter I buy molasses oats to help them put on some weight and survive a rough winter.
These are wild animals and need to remain that way. Making friends with the deer will inevitably cause them to get shot by some hunter providing food for his family. While I don’t begrudge the hunter his right to take a deer, providing for his families needs, I think the deer deserve a sporting chance.
I am sure if we each look around, we could implement changes to our lifestyles that would not only be energy efficient but save the family time and money. Our new dishwasher uses just 3.9 gallons of water and costs just $25.00 to use for an entire year. The new washer and dryer are amazing. My clothes have never been so clean and the drying time has been cut to 1/3 or less. My clothes dry faster than the washer can wash them.
If you can scrape together the money for a high efficiency washer and dryer, do so, as soon as you can. The savings are incredible and as far as I can tell they are “earth friendly” as well. We can’t always tell because the process used to recycle many of the things we are recycling is actually worse for the environment than just dumping them. The problem is the landfills can’t hold all of the garbage we create. So, it ends up to be to our advantage to recycle, instead of tossing stuff, even if it’s not an environmentally sound practice.
I recommend trading for services and bartering for the things you need as often as possible. With the rising inflation, it can preserve the value of tangible items.
We can sit on our thumbs and do nothing, or we can be pro-active. Consumers have learned all too well that rising gas prices (for whatever the reason) means higher prices for everything. Our food supply is being deliberately sabotaged, we need to bring things closer to home. Grow as much of your own food at home, eat out less, have guests over more. Know where your food is coming from and stock up on whatever you can afford to. We love to barter whenever we can. The more you can prepare now, the less of a hardship you will suffer when a natural or man-made disaster cripples our governments ability to provide services.
I’ve even been toying with the idea of buying foreign currency. Since the dollar is so weak, I’m just not certain how easy it will be to convert foreign currency back into dollars but at our current rate of inflation, it’s the only way I can see to protect your equity, unless you invest in gold or silver, as both continue to increase in value. If you have close neighbors, now is the time to get to know them. Talk with the neighbors you feel you can trust and plan for possible power outages, earthquakes, or other disasters. Many hands make light work and your investment will go further if you can combine your efforts.
If you can start your own garden, do so — even if you have to grow tomato plants in a planter. If you like tomatoes, it will provide needed food in case of catastrophe.