A Page from my Garden Book, and Pruning the House

I’ve pruned our house, that is, pulled all the suckers!

That is, I unplugged all the appliances that suck electricity even though they’re not in use. Like

  1. battery chargers of all kinds (they don’t need to be charging anything to be drawing electricity
  2. anything that has little lights or clocks, like the microwave
  3. anything on standby, like the computer screen or tv
  4. anything with a black box

I was alerted to these “phantom charges” by the Hrens. Their book, The Carbon-Free Home, is a real eye-opener, and most importantly it offers solutions, with blueprints and cost-estimates too!

I just put most of these suckers on powerstrips, so I can easily switch them off en masse (like our entire computer system and the stereo equipment). I also found the switch to the dishwasher (hidden in the sink cabinet): I really don’t need those little green lights telling me it’s there:

This is the state of the seeds/seedlings in our basement (click for larger):

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Seed/lings 23 march 2009

I still have room left and will make some more soon. Today I hope to transplant some of the bigger lettuces into hotcaps (gallon size milk or juice jugs cut in half, fill the bottom with soil, put in transplant, put top on as cover). Then we’ll start hardening them off so they can go into the cold frame next week.

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