Tag: conservation

America should have listened to Jimmy Carter on Energy in 1977.

With the news of a possible raise of oil prices to even $150 per barrel (see Meteor Blades’ diary), I thought it was worth going back 31 years to a televised speech by Jimmy Carter in early 1977.  

Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes.

snip

We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.

We did not listen, and now the “future” of energy shortages controls us.  More, after the fold.

Also on Daily Kos:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

One household at a time

The coming water shortage will call for conservation and low tech methods of collection.  I have learned a lot about how to do pretty well without “city” or well water.  We have relied on rain water collection for over twenty years.

Here are a few suggestions:

Gutter buildings to collect in a cistern.  Cisterns are sold at irrigation supplies and Tractor Supply Company.  We use the 1600 gallon by the house. City and home owner association regulations may have to be challenged to allow for this and other changes like rooftop wind chargers.

Cistern water should be filtered for drinking and cooking.

It is great garden water.  As food becomes more expensive and then less available, gardening, always a pleasant hobby, will be a valuable skill. Still playing in the dirt.

Always use a watering can.  It is too easy to lay down a hose and walk off. i speak from experience. A watering can is good for your muscles and gives you an accurate measure of how much water each plant requires to thrive and produce. This will be our first year to try the Chapin Bucket irrigation method, designed for use in third world countries, it will probably work well here in dry west Texas. Look for drought tolerant varities and explore which natives are edible for growing or collection.

Growing in the furrow will save more water than the raised bed method, but I’ve had good luck with winter greens in a bed.

Don’t use chemical fertilizers as they deplete the soil.  Compost everything from the kitchen.  I give the meat scraps to the chickens and the cat.

Where you can, chickens will give you eggs, meat, and manure to grow vegetables. They eat grasshoppers and some other vegie eating bugs. Not much eats a squash bug, just have to plant early and beat them to the draw.

Use dishpans and wash your dishes with one pan of wash water and one pan of rinse water. Do not rinse under the faucet.  Use a tablespoon of chlorine bleach in the rinse water.  Throw the used water on the garden or a favored outside plant. Spread it around to avoid a build up of phosphates.  I use leftover rinse water to rinse the food from pans and dishes from the next meal and throw it on the compost.  The wash water stays bubbly longer without all the trash in it.  My husband put a switch on the water heater. We turn it on an hour before we will need it.  I find it quicker and more efficient to heat the water on the stove for dishes.  

I would like to write a book about all the ways we can help ourselves that I have learned.I welcome any suggestions if this information seems valuable to any of you.    

Doing it for Ourselves 1.1

Last week I posted the first of this fledgling series here. This series is about the broad theme of self reliance and sustainable living. Each week’s post will have a different topic or focus, though I hope people will use the comments to talk about whatever their related interests and specialties might be or ask questions that others can answer. Today’s installment will focus on preservation, or how to make the things you have at home last.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson from Self Reliance

But lo! men have become the tools of their tools. ~Henry David Thoreau from Walden

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