Riot for Austerity – Month 16

Last year’s averages (calculated here) are mentioned as a baseline. I use this calculator. Gasoline. I can’t wait for the temperatures to go up and the rains to stop so I can bike Amie to school. 9.96 gallons per person (pp) in cars + 10 miles pp on public transport =  24 % of the …

Power Down

Do you think about the future? Do you wonder what it will be like? Or do you live like it’s always going to be the way it has been? ~ I found at least 5 entries like this one, all in drafts, abandoned. As I prepare for the growing season with more resolve and urgency …

Riot for Austerity – Month 15

Last year’s averages (calculated here) are mentioned as a baseline. I use this calculator. Gasoline. This is the usual: still too high. When the temperatures go up I’m really going to work on biking Amie to school and back. 9.52 gallons per person (pp) in cars + 10 miles pp on public transport =  23 …

Honey Garlic, Finally, Almost

Back in October I peeled about 50 garlic cloves, which I put in apple cider vinegar in a ball jar, and then plain forgot. You’re supposed to wait for only 6 weeks for the next part, but so we waited a bit longer. Tansy’s recipe is here. I finally got around to the second part …

Riot for Austerity – Month 14

We’re back and Rioting again. I’ll again keep last year’s averages (calculated here) visible as a baseline. I use this calculator. Gasoline. Well, there’s no way around it: Amie and I flew to Belgium – our first visit in 3 years – and I’m counting it as driving there, and back. I’m using our own …

Riot for Austerity – Month 12

We finished our 12th month, we made it around the year! I’ll list this month’s consumption first and then I’ll discuss the yearly average. Gasoline. 7.4 gallons pp =18 % of the US National Average Yearly average: 24.8% I just saw that I never calculated DH’s miles on public transportation (shuttle). I’ll start adding those …

Independence Days, Week 7

Plant. Due to a miscalculation of the weather on my part – or the weatherman’s part? – I didn’t get to transplant the seedlings and sow more winter veggies today. Tomorrow, I hope. I did get to clean up the garden beds. Moved the pepper plants inside – but I will not call them houseplants, …

Apple Peel Jelly and Wood Fire

We lit our wood stove for the first time yesterday. The temperature inside was 62 F, so quite bearable, but we wanted to cure the stove while we could still open the windows, and get the hang of lighting a fire before the cold really kicks in. Going by this evening’s attempts, we’ll have to …

Lifestyle Changes

Wow, Sharon has another great blog entry up: Dreaming a Life, about radical lifestyle changes – “whether they come from adapting to a deeply damaged climate or from addressing the crisis, whether they come from adapting to depletion or from enduring it.” Sharon points out that much of the political unrest we are seeing comes …

Independence Days, Week 3

Plant: Still waiting for the “Fall planting” seedlings (lettuce, spinach, chard, etc.) to graduate to planting-out size. “Unplanted” most of the tomato plants (one chilly day and night and they succumbed fully to the blight). Also planted sustainable lawn seed on our erosion-prone slope: curious about the result! Harvest: Finally harvested the first carrots (which …