Life as a Spectator Sport

I decided that no matter what else I accomplished today, I was going to finish varnishing my spinning wheel so I could put it together and use it. After years of spinning only with a hand spindle, I am really anxious to have a wheel. I bought this just after Christmas, and then got so busy with work that I had no time to varnish or assemble it.


So here are the pieces, and everything accept the other side of the wheel itself is done. I should be able to finish that side tomorrow and then put it all together. And then of course I have another four or five days of out-of-town work to do, so I won't be using the wheel before next weekend at the earliest. But it will be nice to know it's there waiting for me.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

More pictures

I'm in a mood to post pictures today. Here is one I took while I was milling the aforementioned ten pounds of wheat. I noticed that the grains in the hopper gradually rearranged themselves to be roughly parallel as they moved toward the hole in the middle, moved both by the motion of the grains themselves and by the vibration of the motor. The result looks a bit like a wheat-colored sunflower.

And then there were two. Finally!

I didn't think I would ever get to the end of the second Chain Link sock. Anyone who knits knows this feeling. You do row after row, or round after round, and the piece never seems to get any larger. But I stopped yesterday evening and looked at it after a marathon uninterrupted period of knitting and realized that I really had completed more than I thought. I held it up to the finished sock, and if I had knit any farther, I would have had to rip some of it back before I began the toe shaping! So today I'm wearing them, and they sure are comfortable!


On the needles, a pair for my youngest daughter in red and white Opal Mosaic, my generic cuff-down five dpn pattern. This is an extremely busy yarn. It isn't variegated; it is checkered. The yarn changes color approximately every half inch. So the end result is going to be interesting. But it's what she wanted. Mosaic has been discontinued and the red/white was apparently one of the more popular colorways, because it took a long time to find someone who still had some of it, and I paid an outrageous price for it (outrageous to me anyway--I know people who think nothing of paying $25.00 a skein for sock yarn, but that's out of my comfort range).


Also OTN, the "Springtime in Paris" pattern from the Six Sox Knit-a-long, worked toe up. This is a new techniquie for me, so we'll see how it goes. I'm doing it in Plymouth Sockotta, a cotton, wool and nylon blend with subtle variations in color from light green to light blue, cream and tan. Haven't gotten far enough along to see how the color variation is going to work with the pattern, but I think they will go together all right.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Blowing like a banshee here

I glanced out the kitchen window to see one of the sheets on the line outside take off across the back yard like a great sail. I ran after it, expecting to find clothespins scattered everywhere, but the pins were all still on the line. The wind had sucked the sheet right out from under them.

A nice domestic day here. Laundry, bread-making, furniture-moving. Even some knitting. The sock is about six inches from being finished, which doesn't sound like much except that it's six inches of pure stockinette in fine fingering yarn on size 1 needles. Nothing to do but to slog away at it.

I ground about ten pounds of flour this morning and made six loaves of bread, all but one of which went into the freezer. Folded huge piles of laundry. Tossed out the ancient tv cart that had been in Clarence's room forever, and which was falling apart, and replaced it with a bookcase that had been in the way in my room. Varnished some more of the spinning wheel. Nothing dramatic, just lots of little odds and ends that have been hanging fire for weeks or even months. I need a few more of these days, for sure.

But tomorrow it's back to the grind, as the work keeps rolling in.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Hijinks in the yarn cupboard

I finally have proof of what we knew all along: your yarn stash multiplies when you aren't looking.

I was going through my huge old cedar chest this morning looking for a particular piece of fabric, when this tangled mess of navy blue fingering yarn fell out from between two folded pieces of cotton. I'm guessing that it's cotton, because of the hard finish and lack of fuzzing. Some of the little blue areas are bits of blue sewing thread and some of them are places where the yarn has actually faded to a lighter color, or been affected by some chemical.

I do not remember buying this yarn. I do not remember ever even seeing this yarn before. I have no idea how it got into this condition, nor into this place. If I had purchased it, I would certainly not have stored it with the quilting fabric, and I sure as heck wouldn't have allowed it to get into this kind of tangled mess. So where did it come from? It's a mystery.

Living the life, or two days without central heat

Everything seemed to be normal when we returned home Saturday night, but on Sunday I became aware that the fan on the heat pump compressor outside was not turning. In the very cold weather, the fan tends to get icicles on it, and makes a lot of noise as it turns, and I realized Sunday afternoon that I wasn't hearing it. The compressor was making a nice humming noise, which unfortunately often indicates that it is locked up. So I turned it all off at the breaker panel and we spent a cold Sunday night.

On Monday I called for service, and on Tuesday, the technician arrived. By then we were COLD. Clarence spent 48 hours huddled in bed and I spent most of it on my feet staying as active as possible. It's amazing how much housework you can get done when you don't want to sit down for more than a minute or two.

I realized later that I could have pulled the outside fuse on the compressor and just run the electric heat in the air handler, but I wasn't thinking of that when I first realized we had a problem--my mind was much more focused on the possibility that there had been a refrigerant leak, the compressor had burned up, and we were looking at an expensive replacement. As things turned out, it was the fan that had locked up because of ice inside the equipment housing. The compressor was fine, the freon was fine, the fan is now fine. The tech reset the defrost timer so the unit will check for icing more frequently than the it did on the factory default setting, and we have heat again.

No knitting. My fingers are still stiff. No knitting today, either, because I have inspections to do all over the western part of the state. Maybe one of these days I will actually get that blasted second chain link sock finished and be able to go on to something else.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

ENOUGH already!

Are you tired of Anna Nicole Smith? Well, don't despair, here comes Britney Spears. The only thing she could do to get more air time is to die. I heard a commentator say yesterday that on one network news broadcast, Smith had been given over three minutes of coverage, while the situation in Iraq deserved a mere 40 seconds. This morning on NBC, three grown, supposedly mature people spent an interminable time gravely discussing whether shaving her head was Britney's "call for help."

You know what, NBC, ABC, CBS and even CNN? Most of us don't care. Do you get that? WE DON'T CARE!! Most working Americans have other problems than what Britney Spears does with her hair, or how much methadone was in Anna Nicole Smith's refrigerator. I feel sorry for them both, but I suspect that they would both have been happier if the whole world wasn't watching over their shoulders 24 hours a day.

Instead of the interminable descriptions of Anna Nicole's life and death, why not an equal amount of air time for each of the military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan (not to mention all the civilians killed as a result of American actions)? The answer to that is obvious, of course. If the general public could see every one of those men, women and many, many children as an individual, the war would be over in a week. Corporate broadcasting, like the rest of corporate America, is so firmly tied to the administration's apron strings that the notion of independent journalism is a joke. When someone gets a bit of iron in his or her spine and asks a politician a hard question, everyone remarks on it as though amazed, when that should be the standard in journalism.

But as long as Dead, Kidnapped and Distressed White Women are available on every hand to fill the airwaves, we're unlikely to see much real news.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A long, long, long, long, week

Back home after six days on the road. The house was still here (I'm always convinced I'm going to come around that last curve in the driveway and find that it burned to the ground while I was gone). The pipes were not frozen, there were only three notices from UPS on the door and a couple of boxes left in the truck. And it doesn't appear that the mice were cavorting too badly while I was gone. So all I have to do now is finish up the rest of the paperwork from this trip, do six days worth of laundry, and get all the paperwork printed out for the next trip. I am so ready for a vacation.

This was the "Oh-oh, I forgot to [insert take a required picture, ask about empty coolers, note the presence of beer or wine or gas or lottery tickets or what have you], and I'll have to go back to that store" week. I'm trying to blame it on stress and sleep deprivation, because otherwise I'll have to accept the fact that my brain is turning to mush. It does not matter how many checklists I make or how painstaking I am. I have left half the stores I inspected this week convinced that I did everything I always do (and after eleven years it's not as though I don't know what to do), only to find as I'm processing the pictures and paperwork later on that I've forgotten something. Fortunately, none of the stores were more than fifty miles away by the time I discovered the problem, and only two of them actually required a return trip. It just made a six day trip out of what would have been only a five day trip otherwise.

I have to do one inspection tomorrow, and then I am going to take a couple of days off and do as close to nothing as possible. Maybe finish the second chain link sock. I have finally managed to turn the heel and knit most of the gusset.

And I did actually finish one side of the not-yet-felted tote bag. The picture doesn't show up well with my living room carpet for a background, since the border yarn is almost the same color, but I didn't have anywhere else big enough to spread it out flat. Now all I have to do is make another piece just like this one, then knit the long strip that forms the sides and bottom, and make 12 feet of i-cord that gets braided to make the handles. Oh yes, and then felt it. Considering that I've been working on this since just after Christmas, it may be sometime after next Christmas before it's finished. But it is a bit closer to useful reality than it was.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Living simply, continued

It has been pointed out to me that in the previous example of a loaf of bread, it should be more energy-efficient to grow the wheat, grind the flour and bake the bread on a large scale, than for each family to take on one or more of those steps individually.

Certainly there is an economy of scale involved here. Earlier cultures understood that. Farmers brought their grain by the wagon load to the nearest mill, usually sited where water power was available. There are numerous old mill sites in the county where I live, for example. In even earlier days, housewives brought their shaped dough to huge ovens owned by the village, or by a guild of bakers. There has always been a joint effort of some variety to take best advantage of resources.

The difference now is that cheap petroleum has allowed these processes to be separated at a distance and concentrated on a scale that could never have occurred otherwise. This can no longer be called an economy of anything, because it is no longer economical, if it ever was. There was an appearance of economy in the short term, no more.

In addition, by turning the creation of food into an industrial process, subject to the same demand for profit as other similar processes, the attention shifts from making the best loaf of bread to making the cheapest loaf of bread, or the cheapest can of beans, or the cheapest whole plastic-bagged chicken (and if the general public knew what went into getting that chicken to market, a lot fewer people would eat it).

When the day comes that the production of food is once again a family and community endeavor, then true economies of scale can once again come into play.

Living simply

My mother has mentioned her interest in living more simply, and several friends have brought up the subject as well. So I thought a discussion of what it means to live simply might be in order.

There isn't any one good answer, of course. It means something different to different people, and even at different times to the same person. People talk about clearing out clutter in their lives, and not buying things they don't really need, or moving to the country or to less stressful work. All of those can be part of living simply. What it means to me is to live as low as possible on the "embedded energy" scale.

People who work with alternative building materials speak of the embedded energy in different kinds of materials, the energy required to create that material and get it to the building site. The same is true of food and other manufactured items. Everything used by the typical consumer in the "developed countries" is the product of a long chain of other people's labor and of the burning of fossil fuels.

Let's use a loaf of bread as an example. Surely the simplest way to acquire a loaf of bread is to drive to the store and purchase it. But consider what went into putting that loaf of bread on the grocery store shelf. Land on which to grow the wheat, tractors to plow the fields, combines to cut the wheat, other energy-consuming equipment to thresh, clean and store the wheat, an energy-consuming mill to grind the wheat into flour, an energy-consuming bakery to create the bread, plus packaging for the loaf and energy for the retail store in which it sat until it was purchased and taken home. That list doesn't even begin to address the fuel burned for transportation of the grain, the flour and the additional ingredients of the loaf, and to move the loaf to its final destination. Or the cost of the pesticides used on the fields and the creation and transportation of their ingredients. Or the water needed for irrigation. Or the labor of all the people involved in each step along the way. Every one of these steps adds embedded energy to that no-longer-simple loaf of bread.

Now lets look at how one can move down the ladder of embedded energy. If I buy flour and make the bread myself, I've cut out the bakery and the trucks to move the bread from the bakery to the grocery store. If I buy grain, grind it myself and then make the bread, I've cut out another large group of energy consuming steps. If I could grow the grain myself, I could eliminate even more of them. So far, where bread is concerned, I have managed to move down the energy ladder to the point of buying the grain.

The same is true no matter what kind of manufactured item you talk about. The closer you can get to the raw materials of manufacture, the less energy is used in the creation of the item.

Some manufactured items obviously can't be made from scratch, including the computer I'm using right now. But the more things that get removed from the chain of factory-manufacture and large scale transportation, the more energy is available for things that are simply impossible for individuals to create for themselves.

Cutting down on the raw cost of the materials is one aspect of living simply. Labor is another aspect, and that discussion will have to wait until I'm not hours behind on work deadlines.

Home invasion

The mice have gotten so brazen lately that they're running through the house in the middle of the day. I tried the so-called humane catch-and-release traps. Waste of time and money--the mice just ignored them. So it was back to the good old wood and steel spring traps baited with cheese and peanut butter. I've caught six mice in the last ten days, and would probably have gotten more than that if we hadn't been gone twice over night. I didn't want to leave traps set and come home to find the house smelling of dead mice.

This morning is the first time I have found a trap undisturbed. So perhaps we're over the worst of it. The cold temperatures have eased a bit as well, so the mice aren't so determined to get inside. But we have to be on the road the whole week, and the thermometer is going to bottom out again while we're gone, so I expect to find my kitchen contaminated with mouse droppings again when I get back. If I weren't gone so much, I would be so ready for another cat.

Not much knitting going on. I've worked half the heel on the second Chain Link sock, and maybe two rows on the felted bag. Up to my neck in work, and this week's weather isn't going to help that situation. I have 30 inspections to complete by next Friday, not just complete the field work but get all the paperwork done as well, and all the images uploaded. And it's supposed to snow Tuesday and Wednesday in the area where I need to work. Yet more fun on the road.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Ten ways to conserve energy and help the planet

Some of these are simple obvious things anyone can do. Others may require a small investment of time and/or money, but it will repay you many times over. Some aren't feasible if you don't live in your own house, but you may be able to suggest them to a landlord or property manager.

1. Turn off unused lights. Come on, is this not a no-brainer? If you don't need the light, turn it off! And "need" doesn't mean "I might need to go into the room later," or any of the other excuses people use for not turning lights off.

It has been claimed that a light bulb uses more energy when it is first turned on, so it is better, allegedly, to leave the light on if you might need it again soon (the figure I've seen most often was within four hours). This notion has been disproved once and for all, I hope, by an experiment carried out by the Mythbusters Crew on the Discovery Channel. The breakeven point for compact flash lights bulbs in terms of initial energy usage was a fraction of a second. They also did a longevity test to see whether repeatedly turning different kinds of bulbs on and off would shorten their life span. It did, but they calculated that with ordinary usage, a typical light bulb should last about five years. I have CF bulbs that have been working here for over seven years. So turn lights off yourself, teach your kids to turn lights off, encourage your co-workers to turn lights off.

One simple way to do this in your company is to suggest to management that restroom and storage room lights be controlled with a motion detector. These are not expensive to install, and they insure that the light goes off when the room is empty.

2. Eliminate "phantom" loads. These are the devices that use electricity even when they are supposedly turned off. The television comes on instantly when you press the power button on the remote because it has an internal circuit that watches for the signal. If yours is a typical television with a picture tube instead of a flat LCD panel, it also keeps current running through the picture tube filament to keep it warm. This is like running a light bulb continuously, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, adding to your electric bill and making the utility company consume more oil or coal.

Other phantom loads are things like the clock on your stove, your microwave, your coffee pot, even one brand of toaster. How many clocks does one kitchen need? Put a battery operated clock on the wall and you don't need any of the others. You may not be able to easily disconnect the clock on your stove, but you can put the other devices on an outlet strip that gets turned off when nothing is being used.

The ubiquitous indicator lights on almost all electronic devices are another major consumer of electricity. Each one uses only a tiny amount, but add them up and even in a single household the total can be surprising over time. Multiply that household by the millions around the country, and indicator lights (most of which aren't necessary anyway) eat up huge amounts of our natural resources. Walk around your house at night and see how many little red, green and yellow lights there are. Every one of those is making your electric bill go up. Whatever the device is, disconnect it from the electric outlet and plug it into an outlet strip that can be turned completely off.

When I say things like this in public, I hear protests of, "But so-and-so has to stay on all the time." Yes, some very few things do need to stay on. My housemate's Rescue Alert base station has to stay on all the time. Some other kinds of medical equipment obviously have to stay on all the time. Most things don't. Plug them into outlet strips and turn them completely off when they aren't in use.

By the way, some outlet strips have indicator lights to show when they are turned off. I can't quite fathom why that would be necessary, but if you find that you have bought one of those, take it back.

And turn your computer off when it's not being used. Plug everything into an outlet strip and turn it completely off. You may have been told that your computer doesn't use much electricity when it goes into "hibernation." That's true. One computer in hibernation mode, all by itself, doesn't use much electricity. Millions and millions of them all hibernating at once do. Talk to your employer about whether it's necessary for all the office computers to be left on. Your company's network servers may need to stay on, but very few desktop computers should need to be left running after business hours. Even some small networks can be turned off when the business closes for the day. I always turned my company network completely off at night and on weekends. That adds a measure of security, as well, for computers with an "always-on" internet connection. No one can get access to your computer if it's turned off.

Be aware that some inkjet printers suck up ink from the tank into the printhead every time they power up. Considering how little ink there is in many inkjet tanks nowadays, turning the printer on and off every time you turn the computer on and off could make the ink run out much faster than it should. The obvious answer is to turn the printer on only when you're going to use it and leave it completely off all the rest of the time. Unfortunately, many of the newer printers don't have a power switch. I put mine on a separate small power strip that I can turn off when I don't need the printer.

Laser printers have a heater in the drum that keeps it at the proper temperature all the time. But since most printers aren't used continuously, there is no reason to leave your laser printer on all the time. It won't use up the toner to turn the printer off whenever the computer is turned off, so you can put it on the same outlet strip as your computer. Then it will be on and available while you're using the computer, and turned completely off when your computer is off.

3. Manage the heating wisely. If your heat is controlled with a thermostat, turn it down. Many American homes are heated to a higher temperature in the winter than where the air conditioning is set in the summer. Not only is that wasteful of energy, but the overly dry air can aggravate respiratory problems, make static electricity worse and damage furniture.

Turn the heat down more at night. Wear warm pajamas to bed, or a long nightgown. Bundle the children up in blanket sleepers if they are still small enough to wear them, and too young to keep the covers over themselves at night.

Go back to traditional methods. Put a hot water bottle at the foot of the bed so your feet aren't cold when you first climb in. Drink something warm just before going to bed. Wear bed socks. Add a blanket or a quilt (or two).

I'm not crazy about electric blankets because of the low-level alternating current fields your body is subjected to. I'm aware that the risk has not been proven, and that every manufacturer of electric blankets claims it doesn't exist. I prefer not to find out the hard way that they were wrong. But if you have no qualms about using them, it's certainly better to heat the bed than to heat the whole house.

Close off unused rooms. Why heat space that doesn't need it?

Install a programmable thermostat if that would be appropriate for your home's occupation patterns. If someone is home all day, then it probably won't work for you. But if your home is empty during the day and you don't think you can remember to turn the thermostat down when you go to bed and when you leave in the morning, a programmable thermostat will take care of it for you. Many of them do not require professional installation, but even if yours does, the savings in electricity or gas will pay for it quickly.

Keep the heating and a/c system in good repair, and clean. Change filters monthly, or as soon as they begin to look dirty. I have to change mine more often because I live next to a large plowed field, and the prevailing winds constantly blow dust into the house. Choose reusable filters that can be cleaned in the sink or tub and don't have to be thrown out. If you live in an apartment with individual heating or a/c units, you can still change the filters. When I managed an apartment complex, we gave the tenants free filters. All they had to do was come into the office and ask for them. Keeping the filters changed saved them money on their electric bill and saved us money on equipment maintenance. A clean system doesn't have to work as hard, and lasts longer before breaking down.

Have the whole system checked at least once a year. Yes, it's an extra expense, but if your refrigerant is low or there is some other problem, the cost of operating the system is likely to be more than the cost of the maintenance visit. Many heating and a/c companies offer annual contracts for maintenance inspections that will save money over a regular service call.

Check for air leaks. There has to be some fresh air influx in a house. But many older houses are virtual sieves. Look at the obvious places first: doors and windows. Many products are available to renew the seals around windows and doors, and you can also buy plastic sheeting to put over windows. This doesn't provide any insulation but it does stop drafts. Most newer exterior doors have a gasket in the door frame that prevents air flow around the door itself, and this gasket material can be purchased in larger hardware stores if it needs to be renewed. Check for air leaks with a candle (carefully!) on a breezy day, with the heating or a/c system off (so your own air blower won't interfere).

If your house has a crawl space, you can cover the vents in the winter to keep cold air from flowing under the house.

If you have storm windows that can be taken off in the summer, make sure you put them back on in the winter. If you have the kind where the exterior set stays in the window frame all the time but can be raised and lowered independently of the interior set, make sure both sets of windows are down. The dead air space between the windows prevents air circulation and the heat loss that goes with it.

If you have a fireplace, you're losing heated air up the chimney even if the damper is closed. There is a product that fits into the lowest part of the chimney under the damper to completely seal it off (obviously this has to be removed before using the fireplace!). I should add that I have no affiliation with this company and have not used the product myself. But it looks as though it should work.

5. Improve insulation. This can be a major project involving more insulation in attic, walls and floor, or it can be as simple as hanging insulated liners behind your existing curtains. Or it can be even more imaginative. A German friend tells me that they hang "wall quilts" on pegs on their walls every winter, and quilted drapes at the windows, to provide more insulation. After reading that, I began buying second hand queen size comforters from thrift shops, and cut them down to make winter window coverings. I double the panels, and bind the cut edges with wide bias binding. I hang them from the existing rods with curtain rings that clip onto the top edge. During the day I pull them back with simple tiebacks, and at night I let them lie flat against the window. My desk is right next to a window, and before hanging the padded drapes, that window was like a black hole sucking the heat away, even with the curtains closed. Now I don't notice it at all.

To improve insulation in the summer, consider planting something tall and viny on a trellis outside each window. It will grow up over the spring and summer and shade the window, then die back in the winter to let the sun in.

For a more high-tech solution, you can now buy fabric that hangs inside your windows and absorbs heat from the sun shining through the glass. The fabric releases the heat into the room and lessens your need for supplemental heat. As with the fireplace product, I am not in any way affiliated with this company and haven't tried the product myself. But I plan to do so.

6. Manage your hot water usage. This is true whether you have electric or gas heated water, but it's somewhat easier with electric. Go to one of the big box hardware stores and buy a hot water heater timer, and an insulating jacket. If you don't know how to safely install the timer, pay someone who does. I think it's unlikely to cost more than about $200 total even if you have to pay a licensed electrician. You'll save more than that in a couple of months of reduced usage.

The timer I bought has screw on terminals that contact a metal hand rotating around a dial. You set the terminals at the hour when you want the water heater to come on, and when you want it to go off. When the hand comes in contact with the terminal, it turns the heater on if it's off, and off if it's on. Very simple. All you have to do is set the time, screw the terminals in where you want them, and it works. You can also over-ride the timer by sliding the front panel switch to "On."

Doesn't the timer itself use energy to run its clock? Yes, but the usage is a small fraction compared to what is used to repeatedly heat the same water.

The insulating jacket keeps the water hot after the heater goes off, and ours works even better than expected. It will keep a 30-gallon tank of water hot all the way to the next morning if none is used. I normally turn the hot water heater off at the circuit breaker when we're going to be away overnight. Sometimes I forget to turn the breaker back on when we get home, and have been pleasantly surprised to find that the water in the tank was still hot the next morning. If you live in a rental property and can't add a timer to the hot water heater, you may be still be able to insulate it and save yourself some money.

The timer is not an option with a gas heater, but the insulating jacket can still be used. Look at the label when you buy one--some say not to use with a gas heater and others just specify to be cautious that the air vents are not covered.

Of course, turning the thermostat down on the hot water heater also saves money, and lessens the chance of someone being scalded.

7. Use task lighting instead of overall room lighting, and move the task to the light. These go hand in hand. Why turn on an overhead light if a lamp by your armchair would be sufficient? Why turn on additional lights if another room is already lit and could be used for the task? Obviously there are times when it isn't possible to move the work to the light, but that shouldn't be an excuse for never doing it. Sit in a sunny window if that's available, and you don't need to turn on a light at all.

8. Reduce water usage. There are many ways to do that, but one of the best ones is to just use some common sense. Turn the water off if it isn't actively being used. Don't leave the water running if the phone rings while it's turned on. Can't believe anyone would do that? I've seen it. Don't leave water running while you wash your face, brush your teeth, put your contacts in, etc. Don't run water continuously while you wash and rinse dishes. Don't turn the water on full blast if a slower stream would be sufficient. The amount of water that runs down the drain in the average household without ever being used is astonishing. Americans have come to think of running water as something infinitely available just by turning a faucet. As many of them are finding out now, water is a fast disappearing commodity. Use it wisely.

If you want to go beyond the most obvious ways to save water, replace older faucets with low-flow models, and older toilets with newer ones that need less water. Or use the time-honored method of a brick or a jug of water in the toilet tank to take up some of the volume. Don't do that if it results in flushing the toilet twice every time you use it, though.

Consider giving up the dishwasher. Unless you have one of the new super-expensive super-efficient models, you'll use far less water washing the dishes by hand. Even the energy and water-efficient dishwashers put harsh chemicals into your septic tank or sewage system. And it won't kill children to learn to wash and dry dishes by hand.

9. Save money on the laundry. When my kids were little and it seemed as though I was doing multiple loads of laundry every day, I asked my mother how she could have managed with one laundry day a week. She said, "I guess we just didn't wash things as frequently as people do now." That's true. One of the unfortunate consequences of having automatic laundry appliances is that people don't make as much effort to keep things clean as they did in Grandma's day.

This is an area that is guaranteed to create family rebellion and outcries if it isn't handled judiciously. But there are things anyone can do as a beginning. Take off the clothes you wore to the office and shake them out. After airing them, put them back in the closet to wear another day, if possible. Put an apron on over your casual clothing. When the family asks why you're wearing an apron, tell them it's to keep your clothes from getting dirty so they won't have to be washed after one wearing. Tell them that the more money you save on laundry, the more you'll have to spend for family outings, or the next family vacation. Substitute whatever reason would work with your family. Put bibs on the smaller children--they're less likely to object anyway. Suggest to the older ones that they could help by wearing aprons or bibs at dinner, and when they're doing anything messy. Some children will be helpful right away and others will take some time. Some of them won't ever cooperate, I know. But every little bit helps.

Use cold water for the laundry wherever possible. Use powdered detergent. Why pay the detergent company to put water in their product when you can do it yourself? You pay not only for the water but for the additional cost of shipping a heavier product. If you have a problem with detergent streaks on your laundered items, dissolve the detergent in a cupful of warm water and then pour it into the washer tub.

Hang your clothes out to dry, if possible. I know this isn't possible for everyone. But most people living in their own houses could do it if they were willing to. Some expensive subdivisions and gated communities have restrictions on laundry lines. If you live in one of those places, you aren't likely to be reading this anyway. But if you do, and you want to hang your laundry to dry, court cases have been brought in some states to force homeowner associations to allow laundry lines. Project Laundry List has an extensive website that includes information on energy-efficient washing and drying, states that prohibit restrictions on laundry lines, and other laundry-related items.

Another energy efficient idea is to use a highly concentrated product so you don't have to purchase it as often. Charlie's Soap is one such product. I have no affiliation with the company, but I do use their products and have been exceptionally happy with them. A box of their powdered detergent will wash 80 loads of laundry. Their prices include shipping to the continental US, and if you live anywhere near their plant in Mayodan, North Carolina, you can buy the product from several different retail outlets.

10. Finally, think creatively. If you're determined to reduce your energy usage, you'll think of ways to do it. What about night lights? You get a better night's rest if the room is completely dark, but I know that many children are apprehensive about not having a light. Try substituting a battery-operated LED light with a motion detector. If you locate it carefully, it won't come on every time the child turns over in bed, but will come on if the child gets up. Lowe's Home Improvement has them for about $10.00 each. They can be set to come on when the room is dark, or to come on only when motion is sensed, or to be on all the time. Use rechargeable batteries and you can save on the batteries too. I've had one of these in a dark hallway for over a year now. Because it uses very low current LED's instead of a light bulb, it lasts for a couple of months before the batteries need to be recharged.

If you do have to use a night light that stays on all the time, choose one with an LED array rather than a light bulb. They use far less energy.

Use battery operated wall clocks, and put rechargeable batteries in them.

If you commute to work in your own car, charge your rechargeable electronics and batteries in the car during your commute. Decent quality battery chargers are available almost anywhere now, and most will accept both AA and AAA cells. I charge my TomTom GPS, my cell phone, my Palm Pilot PDA, and the batteries for all my battery operated devices in the car. I bought an inexpensive 12v. adaptor that lets me plug in three things at once, so I can listen to the satellite radio and still have two things charging.

Look around you and ask yourself whether a particular procedure could be handled differently. Don't do things just because you've always done them that way. Think about your habits. Look on the internet for ways to save energy. The list I've given is just what came to me as I was writing it. It is hardly exhaustive, and doesn't address things outside the home.

A word of caution: one reason that people attempt to save energy and fail to keep doing it is that they try too much at one time. Pick one area at a time and work on it until it becomes habitual for you and your family. Then try something else. Most people still have time to do that. But start now. Don't wait until you're forced to cut back or to live differently.

Ten ways to stay warm without running up the fuel bill

1. Put on a hat. Why do you think people used to wear nightcaps? A large percentage of body heat is lost through the scalp, even if you have a full head of hair.

2. Add a layer of clothing. As Brenda Dayne of Cast On would say, "If you're cold, put on a sweater. That's what they're for." If sweaters aren't your thing, add a sweatshirt. Or a light jacket. Or get some long underwear. Walmart has microfiber camisoles and long pants that are very thin and light, and very inexpensive, and do a very good job of insulating. In a pinch, women could put on a pair of pantyhose under whatever else they're wearing. (Guys can too, for that matter.)

3. Drink a cup of hot tea. This does wonders for cold hands too.

4. Be active. If you're too cold sitting down, then get up off your backside and do something. Guaranteed to make you warmer.

5. If you must sit down, put a blanket or a throw over your lap. That little bit of dead air trapped between the blanket and your body does a great job of insulation.

6. Eat or drink something spicy. Your increased metabolism will make you warmer. In fact, eating anything will speed up your metabolism while it is being digested. The usual recommendation for cold campers and backpackers is to eat something, even if the food itself isn't particularly hot.

7. If your feet are cold, put on a pair of heavy socks. Or two pairs, if needed.

8. If your hands are cold, but you still need to use them, get a pair of fingerless mitts. These are available in many specialty catalogs, or--if you don't knit--you might sweet talk a knitting friend into making you a pair. Barter some appropriate service like baby-sitting or house-cleaning. There are patterns for them all over the net. For an immediate pair of mitts, take an old pair of cloth gloves and cut the fingertips off.

9. Get someone else involved in a mutual activity. If your mind is occupied with something interesting, especially if you're doing it with someone else, you're less likely to notice being cold.

10. And finally, go to bed. I'm not being facetious. If the house is really cold and you don't have anything to do to stay active (you don't? you can come clean my house then!) and no need to be somewhere else, burrow down into your bed and pull the covers up. Put on a knit cap and get out the book you were going to read or the knitting or crochet project you need to finish. Watch tv, if you don't have anything better to do.

So there are ten ways to turn up the heat without turning up the thermostat.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Two things I never thought would happen . . .

The mainstream media actually ran a segment on global warming without qualifiers such as some scientists believe that so-called greenhouse gases might be causing global warming, which in turn might cause adverse climate change.

NBC's Saturday Today show featured a guest who spoke knowledgeably about some of the causes of global warming. I'm baffled, though, at how twitterpated everyone was over the power used by cell phone and PDA chargers, when no one mentioned a much more significant waster of electricity, the millions of always-on televisions and computer monitors. Even the LCD tv's use some electricity when they are allegedly turned off, in the little circuit that waits for a signal from the remote. Miniscule by itself, significant in quantity. And the older tv's with their picture tube filament heaters (which eliminates the warm-up time of the much older tv's) use as much electricity when they are supposedly turned off as a typical night light.

But it was a hopeful sign, nonetheless, to see the subject discussed at all. In my normal suspicious fashion, I imagine someone higher up (higher up in network management, I wonder, or even higher than that?) saying, "All right, guys, it's okay to talk about global warming now." Is it a bit too coincidental that all the major networks are jumping on the bandwagon at once?

The other thing I never thought I'd see is that Clarence allowed me to turn the thermostat down on the heat pump. I showed him last month's electric bill, which is not as bad as this month's is going to be, and he agreed finally that we would have to use less electricity. His television is also going off at night--completely off, since I plugged it into an outlet strip which I turn off when I go to bed. Before now, he would run the tv 24 hours a day.

Getting rid of the clothes dryer, and putting a timer and an insulating jacket on the hot water heater, have reduced our electric bill to about half of what it was during a similar cold period last year. Think of what the nation as a whole could save if everyone did just a few similar things.

There is a website somewhere that shows the savings for a typical household if a few easy steps are taken: substitute compact fluorescent light bulbs for the incandescants throughout the house, turn down the thermostat on the hot water heater, turn lights off when a room is empty, etc. I'm too tired right now to search for it, but I'll post it when I find it.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Practicing what I preach

About a year and a half ago, I began to rid my household of things that required electricity. I belong to several alternative energy mailing lists, and one thing that occurs regularly on them is a post similar to the following:

I have a four bedroom house with central air and a heat pump, electric stove, refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, three computers and two tv sets. How much solar would I have to install to power all of those? Would it be very expensive?

These new members often disappear from the list after being told that it just isn't possible for the average homeowner to power that kind of energy demand with solar. Cut down on your energy usage first, they are told, and most people don't want to do that. Or they blame the spouse and the kids: I'd be happy to use less electricity, but my wife/husband/kids won't turn the lights off, or won't turn the a/c up, or "we can't get the kids to help with the dishes unless they use the dishwasher."

It became obvious to me that the problem was not just too much energy usage, but too much emotional dependence on electricity. The problem, in my opinion, is not how to power the American lifestyle with alternative sources of electricity, but how to get along just fine without needing the electricity at all.

[UPDATE--I decided I'd better edit this, because I don't want to give the impression that I think electricity is somehow "bad." Not at all. It's the dependence on electrical gadgets and appliances that is the problem. I use electric appliances and electric lights. But I've learned how to get along without being completely dependent on them.]

The clothes dryer was the first to go, easy to give up because I didn't grow up with automatic laundry appliances. By the time I was a teen, we had a Maytag wringer washer and two galvanized tubs that sat in the carport on laundry day, and the standard set of laundry lines behind the house. Before that, we used the laundromat in whatever trailer park we happened to be living in, but we always hung the laundry to dry. So I already preferred hanging my laundry outside.

Miscellaneous other small appliances went next--the electric coffeepot, the microwave that I wasn't using anyway, a toaster oven. I replaced the coffeepot with a stainless steel French press pot that does require me to heat water on the electric stove. But I could heat water in several other ways if I needed to, so I'm not tied to electricity to make coffee. There is a dishwasher here but it hasn't been used in years, and will go to the dump when I finally manage to do the kitchen renovation. I make our breakfast cereal by pouring oatmeal or cracked wheat into a thermos the night before, and filling it up with boiling water. These are all little things, but they save money in the aggregate, and more importantly, if the power did go off for an extended period, life could go on more or less as usual.

There are only two areas I hadn't yet addressed, and I've just taken care of one of those. Two weekends ago, my helpers and I tore out the vanity in one bathroom and installed a double laundry sink instead. I had already bought a little non-electric washer and a manual wringer from Lehmans. But I wasn't using them all the time. It was just too easy to throw a load into the automatic washer. So today I unplugged it, and offered it on our local freecycle list. I'll use the space for more pantry shelving.

I can't get our electrical usage down to zero without major expenditures and renovations, but I am removing the dependence on electricity as fast as I can.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

"Did you want to return those?"

One of the more successful things I've done lately is to almost completely eliminate the use of throw-away plastic bags. I've always hated them, to the point where I had begun taking a fold-down plastic crate with me into the grocery store to hold my purchases. But it wasn't always large enough for everything, and I often had to convince the cashier that I already owned the crate. So I went back to using plastic bags, and saved them for re-use in the car. That at least reduced the number of bags to be disposed of, but did nothing to keep the ones I did use out of landfills, waterways and oceans.

I tried string shopping bags, which were fine for vegetables and fruit and other soft items, but not good for schlepping cans and other heavy things. So it was back, very reluctantly this time, to the plastic bags. I already knew that paper bags weren't any better, as far as environmental impact is concerned.

Recently I came across the website of Reusable Bags.com, a company that sells all kinds of fabric or recycled plastic bags and containers, stainless steel drink bottles, and other environmentally friendly containers. Among other things, I bought three "cart helpers," canvas bags with rigid handles that fit over the sides of a shopping cart. Fill them up as you walk through the store, and at checkout, the cashier puts the items right back into the bags. Roll them out to your car, and lift them right out of the cart into the trunk, or wherever. In my car,the bags go on the back seat, because Clarence's wheelchair occupies the trunk.

I suspected it was going to be an adventure to use them, and I was right. The first time was at a Walmart in the next county. "Uh, ma'am," the greeter called after me as I walked into the store. "Did you want to return those?"

I assured her that I did not, and she watched with a puzzled look on her face as I fitted them into the cart. No one else in the store made any comment at all, but the cashier kept trying to put my purchases in the plastic bags on her carousel. I had to tell her multiple times to just hand each item to me after she rang it up, so I could put it back into one of the bags.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked finally. "Won't it be hard to carry them into your house?"

I showed her how the handles allowed you to carry the bags even when they were full to the brim, and she shrugged. "Looks like they'd be too heavy," she said. "I'd rather have more bags and fewer things in each one."

"But then you have to throw them out," I pointed out.

She shrugged again. Not her problem, it implied. I decided that a busy Walmart at rush hour was probably not the best time to try to educate anyone about plastic bags. My adventure wasn't over, however, as a different greeter at the grocery exit insisted on seeing my register receipt. When he couldn't find my "tote bags" on the receipt, he wanted to know where I had gotten them. I told him the truth, and was finally allowed to leave.

The next time I used them was at the supermarket in my town. What a difference. Several customers wanted to know where I had gotten them, and the whole checkout process came to a screeching halt when one of the cashiers called all the others over to look at the bags. For as many customers as I probably sent them, Reusable Bags ought to be paying me a commission.

I should add that I also bought six of their reusable sandwich wraps. We've used them for our lunch sandwiches all this past week, and they are great for wrapping anything solid that you would normally put in a disposable bag, such as cheese. I don't think they would work as well for soft vegetables, but for anything with a definite structure, that can be easily wrapped up, they are perfect.

Now if I can just figure out how to eliminate plastic garbage bags, I'll be happy. When I'm home all the time, food scraps go into the compost and paper scraps go first into the shredder and then into the compost. I avoid plastic scraps by doing my best to avoid buying anything that comes wrapped in plastic. But when I'm leaving the house early in the morning and not getting home until late at night, it's just about impossible to manage all the tasks involved with composting. Even so, I suspect we throw out far less garbage than most households. But I still feel a guilty pang every time I haul a car load of plastic garbage bags to the dump. So the next step is to work out how to reduce garbage even more than I've done so far.

I meet another knitter

I've been rather ostentatiously knitting in public at the local coffee shop, hoping someone would announce that he or she too was a knitter (and preferably a sock knitter), but without success. But today I met another knitter there, though what attracted his attention to me was not what I was knitting. I hadn't even gotten the current sock out of its ziplock bag yet. What he noticed was the rainbow striped scarf and hat I was wearing, which are indeed hand-knitted, though not by me. They caught his eye from across the room, and he came over to ask if I had made them. I showed him instead the Chain Link socks I'm still working on, a day past the deadline for having them finished.

We talked for a long time, mostly about the things he had made over the years--large numbers of scarves and sweaters for his wife and daughters, and one year, 53 Christmas stockings to sell at a craft fair, better than one a week. I was feeling very much out of my league, with my paltry record of hats, socks, a few sweaters and a couple of baby afghans. But then he glanced down at the cuff of my sock and said wistfully, "But I've never made socks." Nor, it turned out, had he ever done any felting. So I did have something to contribute to the conversation.

He said he'd bring his current knitting project with him the next time he visited the coffee shop, so perhaps we'll run into each other again and have a chance to knit together. And just maybe, some others will join us and there will be a real local knitting group. I know there are many other knitters here, but there hasn't seemed to be any kind of socializing among them. I'd love to organize a regular Saturday morning "stitch 'n' bitch" session.

I'm down to the heel on the second Chain Link sock, so perhaps it will eventually be finished. This particular pair of socks has been more of a chore than I anticipated, but I'm really looking forward to wearing them.

Next pair, or rather the next two pairs, will be the next Six Sox Knitalong pair, and the red and white variegated Opal I'm knitting up for my youngest. I haven't decided whether to try any kind of pattern for Kay's socks. The yarn is more checkered than variegated, with about an inch of red alternating with an inch of white. But I think Grumperina's Jaywalkers might work.

The Six SOx pattern is called Springtime in Paris, and is a neat reversible pattern with a vaguely Eiffel Tower-shaped design on one side, and a vaguely flower-shaped design if you turn them inside out. I have some navy wool I want to use up, but with a name like "Springtime in Paris," one hates to make them in such a dark color. On the other hand, my sock yarn stash is already multiplying behind my back, so I'm reluctant to add to it. I plan to visit another Local Yarn Store next week, so perhaps my arm will be twisted to acquire something more springlike.

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