Derek and Sandy live in the Puget Sound region with their two children, one dog, one fish (who has defied all attempts by Sandy to neglect him to death) and two goats. Derek is the handy one while Sandy is the practical planner. Luckily, they both know when to call professionals. They live in a 2500 square foot house on an acre of land and the overall electrical usage in 2007 was approximately 13,500KWH – obviously there is a lot of room for improvement.
Derek has been wanting to do solar for several years, but evidently he isn’t as cool as Al Gore.
Sandy and Derek can be reached at 10yearchallenge@live.com.
3 responses so far ↓
Nancy // August 24, 2008 at 4:32 pm |
Wow, I’m impressed…we’re trying, and do pretty well on no packaging and limited disposal. We got our chichis last year and they have really done their part with their wonderful emissions. Our septic system is a Hoot…REALLY…It is great for reuse of water and the only sprinkler system we have…*: ) We also have the first two of hopefully many rain barrels to come…I suppose in your area the water is not so big a problem. We live on an acre with mostly trees and we NEVER water grass just the garden… The septic waters the grass in the front yard. I will definite mark your site and if you stop by it may just be in my blogs I read list. Thanks for sharing.
10yearchallenge // August 24, 2008 at 4:57 pm |
Water isn’t as big an issue here in the NW as it is in other areas of the country, but we do have pretty dry summers. We’re actually setting up a good number of rain barrels for watering our garden. We never water our lawn (it’s half grass/half weeds anyway) and I’ve decided not to water our ornamental plants either.
We have a septic system too, but I’ve never thought of tapping into that. I’ve been reading a bit about grey water usage lately, so maybe we’ll get more water creative in the future.
Thanks for stopping by and I’ll definitely check out your page.
Sandy
sinfonian2 // September 1, 2008 at 9:04 am |
2,500 SF on an acre… beats the heck out of my 2,100 SF on a quarter acre. Now I see how you have room for goats, chickens, a big greenhouse and a garden. Very impressive!
I hear you on the electricity usage. The bigger the house the more you use it seems. We’re up over 29 a month, compared to PTF’s 6 and dropping. As close as those numbers sound they’re not. Tough to get a 4 and 2 year old to turn off lights though. hehe.
Great to find you on Freedomgardens and your blog. Great work!