2009 eco-goals

Hubby and I discussed it and if we are serious about getting solar and getting the most for our money, we need to seriously make the ranch much more energy efficient.

Electricity:
When we get our next bill, I will post our annual KWH usage. I know it's high. Our new geothermal furnace, while efficient, uses electricity. And, until last month, we hosted a back-up data system with multiple servers in our basement.

The goal is to reduce our electricity use by 10 percent by June and 20 percent overall by December. The long-term goal is to cut use by 30 percent.

We will go room by room making efficiency improvements. We may switch from compact fluorescent to LED lights where practical. This may mean a new refrigerator and a new washing machine. We'll see.

We will ask the solar installer to come out, do an energy audit, and assess our lot for solar appropriateness. I will call in January. I wouldn't want to get my hopes up only to be told solar wouldn't work for us. Plus, this may yield some handy tips on efficiency.

Insulation:
Our kitchen is not well insulated. We plan to replace the window over the sink with a double-paned Energy Star window, replace the door between the kitchen and the garage with a solid, insulated door. And, insulate the garage door itself to solve this problem. Replace both bathroom windows with Energy Star windows.

Garden Goals:
Produce 150 pounds of veggies and fruit. Plant dwarf sweet cherry or apple trees for future fruit production. Build planter boxes for the front porch, which will be used for a kitchen herb garden. My goals is also to preserve or freeze everything we grow this year. No waste. This will mean I have to learn some new skills, but it should be interesting.

Plant a row for the hungry. I will plant extra veggies and donate it to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. I also hope to get my neighbors involved, by asking everyone in my neighborhood to drop off excess produce at my house twice a week, and I will then drive it to the food bank. I don't know if they will be willing, but it can't hurt to ask.

Add three more rain barrels. If I can find food-grade barrels at low cost, I will attempt to make these myself. If not, I will buy them. Water rates are rising 10 percent next year, which is added incentive.

Make a second composter. One composter isn't enough. We have had to throw away compostable material while we have waited for our current batch to finish. I'm not sure if we did something wrong, but hey, it was our first try.

Foster habitats for native species. The only way I know to do this is a butterfly garden, and making a bat box. I will search the OSU extension office Web site for more tips.

Build a cold-frame greenhouse from salvaged materials. I'm not sure I have the skills to pull this off, but I plan to try anyway.

Other goals:

Further reduce plastic bag use. We need to be super vigilant and remember to take reusable bags with us everywhere. This may mean acquiring many more reusable bags and stashing them everywhere, so no matter where we are, we have a bag. My favorite so far are the DIMPA bags from IKEA. They are strong, cheap, pretty and hold TONS of stuff.

Reduce the amount of garbage we produce. Can we do better? Probably. This means thinking more about packaging, about reusing before we recycle, buying in bulk, etc.