need for change

Saving Now To be Able to Pay Later

      I think I will talk about some other thoughts that have come to me as I start to visualize how this addition will be after I get done. I plan on revising my original drawings and add a few more real soon. This is necessary for you to visualize just where I am headed and hopefully clarify any questions you may have.

    Some thoughts come to mind and will add more as i go along discussing how I feel the need to unload my thoughts. My biggest concern is to get off the grid and be able to have all the amenities that life has to offer, including water features, like a hot tub and waterfalls, a greenhouse for light therapy during winter months. I propose coming up with a hybrid system of producing natural electricity from a green source and use the local power only as an emergency backup to charge batteries or kick in when the natural power gets below 25 percent of battery level, and still have a backup generator to provide power to recharge battery pack.

      I would like to use bio gas from wood gas synthesis to power a dual fuel generator that would only run when power is needed to recharge batteries when wind or solar panels are unable to keep pace with demand. This system is not unlike American Electric Power Company’s practice of kicking in a dirty coal fired generator that will rain acid rain and other particulate matter down on a broad swath of Pennsylvania and New York causing trees to die, as they defend their right to keep the light on in the fridge. We don’t want to let the people get cold in rural peacefulness of Ohio, where by generation of power from these coal eating carbon dioxide spitting metal megaliths located on the Ohio River, will light up that security light, and keep everyone safer. Well maybe all except the residents of New York and Pennsylvania who have to breathe the air we pollute. 

 do we really need this?

    And if the light irritates when you think it burns all night long, and usually there hasn’t been one documented case where this old farmer actually really needed the light to protect him or his property from vandalism or theft. Instead it was used by the farmer so that when he walked to the barn at night the light paved his way. I plan on installing motion detectors on all lights so that when you enter a room it will light up , if it is necessary or when the light level is such that the light would help you negotiate your way through the room or even outside on your way to the barn. In fact I had entertained the thought of installing motion detectors on solar security lights along the lane coming in. We have a long lane and if I had these placed right they would light up section by section as you drive up the lane. It would be like that movie where Dustin Hoffman makes the mound of mash potatoes in the shape of Devil’s Tower in the movie ET. The sounds of the space craft tones and the light lighting up the top of the rock tower, making a landing pad for the aliens to take movie stars into space. Too bad they don’t stay there. This same method of lighting my drive if it works could be used by cities also to reduce power needs by enabling street lights to only come on when cars are using the roads. At 3 A.M.  in the early morning are we really needing all these lights on at taxpayers’ expense.

     Anyhow I will call it my ET lane with the letters ET standing for extra time instead of extraterrestrial, in fact it was always extra time when we were kids. This is the same lane I walked all the time as a kid Most kids would be home eating mac and cheese out of a box , while we were getting off the bus in the hot afternoon steam of summer and would have to walk a half mile lane in that heat . Day after day we did this and never ever seemed to get a ride after our neighbors Nancy and Kenny Capes moved out and abandoned the City Farm. They were the last people to live in that old farm house at the other end of the lane, now tore down and gone including the glorious barn that stood there. They don’t build either of those any more. So many farm houses and barns now replaced with 5 ac. lots called mini horse farms. Farms are being carved up with regularity around here and plastic coated laminated glued stick houses are being built to replace them with. These places have a life expectancy of 30 years before major facelifts are required to make them relive again. So much energy and manpower was used to make these places and the carbon dioxide generated by the house in the building process and the cost to heat these places  will hardly make up for the necessity of keeping up with the Jones’. Still this is what ‘Amerca’ wants and needs, at least for now.

     The size and cost of these houses along with the land, and one must also include the damage to our agricultural system as we carve up old farms to make way for these modern houses that contribute nothing to the environment  but use energy to heat and cool, is something I can hardly understand. You never get done paying for this privilege if you want to call it that. The only way you could afford one of these places is to work for a company that produces some of the energy that is used by these colossal palaces in the countryside. In the process of everyone owning their own little piece of paradise, we end up carving paradise into smaller and smaller pieces until one day we have paved over everything there is left and we have no place to plant something to eat.

     Being on social security I am on a fixed income. My paycheck will never get any bigger and I doubt if the cola or cost of living adjustments will keep pace with the cost of inflation and my dollars will buy less. I need to spend what time and energy I have to making sure I am able to save as much as I can. If I can’t put it in the bank then I need to make sure I am living as cheap as I can.  Electricity isn’t getting any cheaper, as well as food and other things I need to buy to keep myself going on. I can see a time when my income will hardly be sufficient to keep me when I can’t do nothing at all and depend on others, if I ever have to come to that point. I am trying to avoid that. I take care of myself and spend my time thinking how I can make my life easier as I go along. I also want to do it as cheap as I can. I will do quality work but will use earthy materials or repurpose stuff and in the process help the environment by reducing my need to live. It would always be much better if multiple people were living and sharing the responsibility of keeping up with things. I would like to have someone else to share things with, but still find myself without anyone. Build it and they will come. I will as I can.

      I need to set myself up for my future. There was a time when I never foresaw myself getting as old as I am, still I made it. it was more dumb luck than anything and at any point it could have all went south but it didn’t, and being a logical person I have come to the conclusion I might just grow to a ripe old age if I try to make my last years the best I can . I don’t want more than anyone else. Instead I want to live in comfort and have my house be my space vehicle that transports me through this world as best it can in comfort, never taking and hopefully giving. Not costing me fortune and providing me with all I need to get along with in case of an emergency. You never know when that next meteor is coming. This is all I want and I think I deserve that much, if not then I will hopefully deserve it when I need it most as that is the direction I am headed. By sharing my experiences I hope I inspire others to bloom where they are planted and take stock of what you have in your own little place, and then go about making plans and changes to make your life better. If everyone adopted this same principle we could all be moving in a direction of making our generation, one of change when humans started a renaissance of intelligence and showing how greed and come-uppance isn’t nearly as important as living a healthy life.

      No matter where you live whether it be in an apartment in the city or in a house in the country. If enough people make changes in the right direction we will eventually make a change overall. We do this without any real plan, the trend will force society to eventually follow as that will become the new thing to do. Let’s change for everyone’s good in the future, it’s up to you. Think green.