Thanks to Gene, I got a neat link to an urban farm, where the inhabitants are attempting to be self sufficient food and energy-wise on their urban 1/10th of an acre lot. They are doing amazing things, but what really struck me that we could all do is set eco goals. I set financial goals regularly, and it really helps me meet them. I haven't even thought of setting firm eco goals.
The folks at Urban Homestead's goal is to cut their monthly electricity use in half. They also set a food production goal for their garden. I am going to follow suit. I will post my goals and progress on the sidebar on this blog. It should be an interesting experiment.
"Urban Homestead"
I will post more concrete goals after more consideration, but
For starters, I want to reduce my electricity usage by at least 10-20 percent. I will likely accomplish this by zapping vampire electricity used by all of our appliances and computer gear. Beyond that, I may invest in LED lights where possible, to further reduce usage. I also plan to get an energy audit from the solar installer later this year, so I can seriously reduce usage to make the most out of any solar power system I buy. This may involve something like a ConServ refrigerator.
Also, I would like to triple my usable garden space. The current garden plan will likely accomplish this, but I may tweak it to see if I can get more sunny space to grow veggies. I also plan to build several growing boxes for the front porch, to house herbs and greens. I also purchased several small coldframes for seed starting and may make another out of salvaged wood and windows from the Habitat for Humanity restore.
My food growing goal for 2009 is 150 pounds of fruits and vegetables from the garden. Since I haven't been keeping track, I have no idea if this is easy or hard, but you have to start somewhere, right? I want to keep a garden journal as well, so I know what does and doesn't produce.
To reduce my water consumption, I want to add three more rain barrels to the garden area this spring. I may make these myself to save money. This should also reduce the need to use city water to irrigate my new larger garden beds. I may also investigate purchasing a front-loading washer, as these are supposedly more energy and water friendly.
I would like to add more square yards of laundry line in the backyard. This would help with electricity use.
Those are my initial thoughts.
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2 comments:
You've already set and been trying to achieve one eco-goal, your plastic bag count.
The Urban Homestead folks have one huge advantage: they're in southern California, where the mild climate allows growing things year-round. That's a little harder in the Midwest.
For some reason I still feel like I can do more! Yeah, I do have a shorter growing season in the Midwest, but at least Ohio has magic dirt. Everything grows well here. I will have to do the best with what I have.
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