DAY 7_FARM FAIL

21 August 2010


miles biked-46 (lost and confused)
water used- 7.8875 gallons (7.1125 surplus)

Today, Garden's of Eagan (an organic farm which supplies my co-op with a lot of their produce) put on an event of touring the farm and buying local (Farmington) foods.  The farm is about 35 miles from Uptown Minneapolis, and our plan was to leave at 10, leaving 3-4 hours to bike down, tour the farm and bike back in one day. We loaded up with a burley trailer (thanks Jim) and my solar-powered bike stereo (made for the bike across Iowa this year).  

 Well..... we didn't end up leaving till about 11:30, and (optimistic as we were) didn't write down very clear directions to get there.  About 12 miles into the trip we got lost the first time (around the airport and had to backtrack a few miles.  Another 7 or so miles later we (again) realized we had taken a wrong turn which had sent us 5 miles in the wrong direction :/  At this point, with another 15-20 miles to go, we realized we weren't going to make it to the farm before the event was over (especially hauling 40 extra pounds between the trailer and the stereo) and sadly, sat under a tree by this Lockheed Martin to contemplate our situation over dry bread and an apple.  While sitting there being sad about our situation we noticed a Granite City restaurant/brewery across the street.  Granite City advertises that their beer is locally brewed even though they are a Midwestern-wide chain restaurant. There are signs on the doors of "Support your local brewery".  We decided to check out this self-proclaimed local beer.  We ordered a few drinks and an excited waiter came over and (because we were really sweaty and bike-ish in general) told him we had biked here from Minneapolis.  He was really excited about this and it gave us the idea that restaurants should offer some kind of discount to people who arrive by bike.  This would help both the patrons of the restaurant (they would be healthier) and the restaurant itself (they wouldn't have to provide as much parking, and would probably sell more food and drinks because people would be more hungry and thirsty after biking :) )  We asked him about the beers we had just ordered (because the building wasn't nearly big enough to be brewing 5 different kinds of beer).  He explained that the beer was actually brewed in a central location and just fermented in each local Granite City location.  While this is better than some options, it certainly shouldn't be labeled as "local".  These labels can be very misleading and frustrating :/ 

Needless to say, we didn't stay for a second semi-local beer, and instead headed back to make a truly local meal. 

(Those of you who were thinking about going and couldn't, its really for the best, next time Garden's of Eagan! We will find you! Ha, sad.)

SOLAR POWERED STEREO:

 The design of the stereo is from an instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Bike-Stereo/ with some modifications to fit my bike and such. I haven't tested how long it last continuously playing, but on the week we biked across Iowa with it (at least 5 hours of riding every day it didn't need any extra charge). It is a 5 watt solar panel (about $50 on Amazon) which trickle charges a 7amp battery and that feeds the speakers/amp. The entire thing can be switched on with the black switch in front and has audio and usb cable holes on the front to plug and charge my Ipod which is attached to the top tube of my bike with industrial velcro. Its heavy (about 20 lbs) and fits in the milk crate on the back of my bike.

DAY 6_SOLAR POWER

20 August, 2010

miles biked-14
water used - 7.3875 gallons (7.6125 surplus)

While I got some initial calculations from Jamie Borell at Innovative Power Systems, I needed some specific information about  my hypothetical PV solar array to maximize my electricity budget.  While most solar arrays are sized to the need of the particular house, my solar system was sized in the opposite way-maximizing the amount of sun energy I can capture to determine what my electricity budget will be.

Here is how it was calculated:

There are 3 main factors to consider when sizing a solar array:

1_The square footage of your house
2_Options for solar panel orientation
(A) Solar panels can be angled at 45 degrees (for a MN climate) in which case they are maximized for the most energy captured per panel.  however, with this system there must be room left for shadows which will fall on panels located behind.  This reduces the sq footage of the roof available for sun capture by a factor of 2.5.  (The square footage of your house divided by 2.5)
(B) Solar panels can be placed flat on the roof.  This way, you are able to use the most roof area for solar energy capture, however, the angle is not ideal and the efficiency of the panels is reduced by 20%.
3_There are different "efficiencies" for solar panels, outputs range from 8watts/sq ft to 20w/sq ft (and probably more options exist).  Generally the most expensive the panel, the greater energy output in watts/sq ft you can achieve. 

To calculate the amount of solar power you can capture on your own roof:

1_Find the square footage of your house (mine is 1790 sf)
2_Decide if you would like to go with 45 degree panels (cheaper) or flat panels (more panels required=more expensive)
    Divide the square footage of your house by 2.5 for 45 degree angle panels (this is your available sq footage)
3_Determine the watt/sq ft output of your panels (this information is found on manufacturer's websites) (I'm going with 8w/sq ft)
4_Calculate:

(Available square footage of your house for solar) x (Efficiency of panels in watts/sq ft) = Size of your system in watts

(Size of your system in watts) x Either (1.28 kWh/watt installed for 45 degree panels) or (1.043kWh/watt installed for flat panels)
=kWh/yr

Divide by 365 for kWh/day

Being that my goal is to maximize my solar power (regardless of cost) I am going with the flat solar panel arrangement. This system would be more expensive (because there are more solar panels involved, but would result in a higher energy output, see calculations below):

45 degree angle option(1790 sq ft/2.5) reduction in sq footage due to shadows:


1790 sq ft/2.5=716 sq ft x8w/sf =5728 w system (5.7kw system)
(5.7 kw) x1.28 kWh/watt installed =7331 kWh/yr =20.08 kWh/day (3.35 kWh/person/day)

vs.

Flat solar panels option covering all 1790 sq ft:

1790 sq ft x 8w/sf =14,320 watt system (14.3 kw system)
(14.3kw) x1.043 kWh/watt installed = 14,935 kWh/yr (14.9 kWh/yr) =40.9 kWh/day (6.82 kWh/person/day)

so my electricity budget per day is 6.82 kWh.

(Thanks to Pat Smith at CSBR! (numbers from previous Weidt Group calculations))

Other noteworthy things happening today was it was the first time I've eaten at a restaurant since the project began.  Common Roots http://www.commonrootscafe.com/ is only a block south of me and an excellent source of local foods.  As much as possible, their food and drinks are local.  While I have to ask about specific meals because the sourcing changes constantly, they are a great local restaurant option (they are gonna get really sick of me by the end of this project).  I had radish cakes / seared and topped with sunflower sprouts and toasted hazelnuts and a local Brau Bros (Lucan, MN) sheephead ale :)  I also got some great advice from friends about local food options and extras from gardens.  Thanks Dan, Nate, Sarah and Katy! Get me that garlic Dale :)

DAY 5_BUTTER and SUGAR

19 August, 2010

miles biked-18.5

gallons of water -8.0125 (6.985 surplus)

Today has been a big day for expanding food options.  Raw foods for at least part of my diet are going to become essential because of my limited electricity budget.  I began researching raw foods and what motivates people who have switch over to this diet;  one family, who's website is here (http://www.rawfamily.com/) has an interesting story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbK90gke20Q

they also have some wacky videos-if you've got some time to kill :):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN1X0zchLiw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3_wK92K9U&feature=player_embedded

This isn't the only story I came across about people reversing serious medical conditions through eating more raw, organic greens and vegetables.  The film "A Beautiful Truth" ( trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZmV8b1wr10 ) talks about Dr. Max Gerson, a physician in the early 1900's who came up with a cure for cancers and other serious diseases that centered around eating a raw, vegan diet full of nutritious organic foods.  Like many people who solved problems in radical and unconventional ways, he was perceived as a threat to conventional practice and was eventually poisoned with arsenic.  His family continued his legacy, healing people by teaching them about "Gerson Therapy"-a method that allows your body the ability to heal itself when fueled with powerful nutrients found in raw organic foods and continue to run a healing center in Mexico.  While I haven't done much research on raw foods yet, there does seem to be a significant evidence that eating raw foods can be a huge health benefit, and is a much easier way for our bodies to digest food (allowing more nutrients to be absorbed). 

Virajita (who has been working on integrating raw foods into herself and her families diet for a few years now) explained to me that after starting to eat raw she began to look back into her own cultural foods in India and consider why almost ALL traditional Indian foods are cooked. Being an ancient culture it is unusual that so many foods are cooked. She found that because India is such a tropical, hot climate, these recipes evolved out of a need to kill bacteria in raw foods.  She began to look at the ingredients in each recipe and found that almost all recipes included some kind of digestive agent (such as cardamom) which would be necessary for people to properly digest these foods.  Evolutionarily, our bodies are designed to digest raw foods much more easily than cooked foods.  Many ancient recipes found in different cultures around the world contain digestive agents of some kind if they are cooked, and also often contain a balance of fats, acid and nutrients necessary for digesting and absorbing these nutrients. 

This brings us to processed foods.  If our bodies have a hard time digesting and processing even cooked foods, lets think for a minute about how hard of a time we would have digesting and using foods that have a huge amount of preservatives, and color and flavor additives.  hmmmm :) oil.

With all kinds of fresh, local vegetables available to us even in a climate like Minnesota, why aren't more people cooking and eating these foods instead of eating fast food or pre-made meals from boxes (both packed full of oil-based or oil-enabled additives).  The answer is probably convenience, and a general lack of education of what kinds of nutrients you can get from fresh produce that you can't find in a box. 

I had an idea that I that I ate a fairly healthy diet before starting this project a week ago, however I have been amazed at how much better I feel on even day 5 of this project only being able to eat local, organic vegetables, dairy and meats.  The other thing I've noticed is that I ate the same vegetables/fruits all the time (zucchini, bell peppers, onions, strawberries and bananas).  I'm now realizing now how much variety of local foods there are, and the need to eat a variety of vegetables to get the range of nutrients we need.  A lot of foods that I never really ate have become staple foods while in season. The only problem with this new diet; the only sugars and fats I have eaten are in the sunflower oil I cook with, and sugars found in fruits and honey.  I never quite feel full eating this kind of diet, and I'm constantly craving something with more substance, bread, fat and sugar.  

I can't buy bread from the co-op because even though its made locally, the ingredients may not be local. I got on craigslist to look for bread makers and found a lot, but when I started looking at them many were in surrounding suburbs.  This normally wouldn't be an issue, but now that I can only get around by bike, even a 20 mile one-way trip becomes an all-afternoon or all day event.  Finally I found a bread maker for $10 in St. Anthony (8 miles away).  While at the co-op looking for bulk flour I came across two amazing finds: Local, bulk maple sugar and Hope Creamery Butter packaged in a vegetable wax paper which can be composted!!! YES!!! Butter and sugar!  I also got local, organic maple syrup for sugar and flavoring.  There is bulk maple syrup at the Wedge as well, so when my container runs out I can use it to fill again. 

A last note, I'm watering a friend's garden while she is in Belgium and get to reap the benefits of everything being ripe in August.  Fresh picked cherry tomatoes and mint.  I made mint tea today which was excellent (iced and hot).  Thanks Arlene!

DAY 4_PLANTS ARE SPROUTING!

18 August 2010

miles biked- 12
water used- 5.95 gallons (9.05 surplus)

day 4 seed flat

This morning I woke up to find my seeds are already sprouting!  After only 4 days!  So far, I see basil, tomatillo, edamame and cucumber sprouts.  Throughout the day, the spouts were literally growing before my eyes!  There is hope.

basil babies!

On the topic of food, I am fairly certain I live in the PERFECT location to be doing this project. I live within yelling distance of two great food resources: three blocks from the Wedge Grocery Co-op http://www.wedge.coop/ and 1 block away from Eco-Politan http://www.ecopolitan.com//  (raw foods).  I was able to meet with Marcos Lopez-Carlson at the Wedge before starting this project and he helped me outline what foods would be available and meet my criteria.  Marcos explained that I was lucky to be doing this project in August because almost everything which grows locally can be found in August at farmer's markets and at the Wedge.  I made a list today of what I saw at the Wedge, it became clear that I need to find out when the END of the growing season for many of these foods is, to avoid a total and unexpected dry out of food supply. 

cucumber baby!

baby tomotillos!

Here is what I found today that was local and organic:

_Bell Peppers
_Cucumbers
_Broccoli
_Cabbage
_Gypsy peppers
_Chard
_Yellow squash
_Zucchini
_Portabella Mush
_Edamame
_Maybe Syrup
_lots of greens
_Apples
_really expensive blueberries

BULK ITEMS:
_lots of variety of bread flours
_sunflower seeds
_rye grain
_hulled spelt kernels
_hard wheat berries
_cornmeal
_flour
_rolled rye
_oats

Basically the only bulk items which are local are grains and oats.  To be honest, I don't even know where to start with most of the grains. I guess I should start making bread. The company which supplies most of the grains is Whole Grain Milling.

http://www.wholegrainmilling.net/index.html

While this company grows some of their products locally: Oats, Hi Lysine Corn, Buckwheat, Yellow and White Popcorn, Spelt and Soybeans, the rest arrives as raw ingredients which are processed locally and distributed.  Because the concern for most people who are motivated to buy local products is to support the local economy, the Wedge's definition of 'local' reflects that.  Any company which receives raw ingredients and processes them locally can be called 'local'.  This means that even companies like Peace Coffee are defined as local.  Peace Coffee is likely the most environmentally responsible choice for coffee's in the Twin CIties because they receive green beans and do all the processing and packaging locally, meaning the product does not have to be shipped around the country to various processing and packaging plants. However, in the context of my project (in which local means minimizing transportation as much as possible) the definition doesn't necessarily apply.  This means that I need to look into each company and find out where they are sourcing their product from.  Fortunately, this is made really easy with the Wedge's website, it is amazing and totally great how transparent they have made the information about where food comes from.  

WASTE:
My compost bin is molding, I'm going to guess this is a normal thing to be happening?  Because the food is rotting to turn into compost?  I shake the container up everyday and add some newspaper shreds, any advice on this?

ELECTRICITY:
Still working out my electricity budget, mostly because I got an answer that I can't accept haha.  I spoke with Jamie Borell at Innovative Power System's in St.Paul and based on my 1790 sq ft roof he had the following advice:

"Ballpark, cocktail napkin-drawn numbers:


You can fit 6kW on the roof or (30) 200-watt solar modules, producing 600kWh/ month or 7,200kWh/ year. This solar electricity offsets 900 pounds of CO2 per month or 10,800 pounds of CO2/ year and is the equivalent of planting 720 trees"

If I'm doing the math right, it sounds like 20 kWh a day total, divided by 6 residents is 3.33 kWh/day as an energy budget.

To give you an idea of what the breakdown of electrical use I have recorded so far is:

Daily these items use:
Grow Light - 175 watts/hr (8 hours a day) = 1400 watts or 1.4 kWh
Refrigerator - 68 watts/hr (24 hours a day) = 1634.4 watts or 1.634 kWh
Computer - 27 watts/hr (8 hours a day) = 216 watts or .216 kWh

As you can see, I already log a total of 3.25 kWh/day using only the essential things.  I haven't turned on a light in four days (except for the occasional forgetful light switching) and haven't been using my stereo or TV.  I have yet to calculate the energy used from my electric stove (which is a lot), and heating is obviously not accounted for yet.  So...um... uh oh.

me in the dark :/

I haven't quite adapted to the darkness thing yet, and I have to admit that I have been using my headlamp to find things.  I wonder how hard it would be to make an solar powered LED headlamp.... Candles are difficult and annoying to carry around.  I can waste A LOT of time trying to do things without ample lighting.  Luckily, when using my computer I don't need any extra light, so my schedule has shifted somewhat to doing all the tasks I need light for during the day and working more on my computer at night.  A friend had a suggestion that I change my schedule to wake up earlier when the sun comes up to maximize the amount of daylight I have.  I am surprised every morning how much easier it is to do everything with LIGHT.  Note to self: do the dishes before it gets dark.  Oh my gosh, the things we don't appreciate.  I am looking around for any place locally that sells soy wax (suggestions?)  I can't make regular candles (paraffin wax) because paraffin is a by-product of crude oil.  Soy wax candles are supposed to burn cleaner (clearly) and last longer, we shall see...

DAY 3_WATER + BREAKING OLD HABITS

17 August 2010

miles biked - 26
water - 7.5125 gallons used (7.4875 surplus)

So....I've been taking some pretty primitive showers lately and needed some water conservation advice, luckily, I had some excellent resources for conserving water yesterday in Graceville.  The couple who was the driving force behind initiating the greenhouse project (Bill and Carol Sutkus) lived for 21 years on a farm in NY without running water.  They wanted to raise their children 'off the land' connecting them to where our resources come from.  Living this long off the water grid eliminated any "need" they had for running water, and their family found ways to maintain their quality of life with the water they could carry from their well.  They told me they would carry a 10 gallon bucket about 3 times a day from the well and pour it into a large open cistern inside the house.  Whenever water was needed, it was scooped out with a cup or large ladle into whatever container was needed. 

Another resource was one of my committee members, Virajita Singh.  She grew up in Mumbai where water conservation was a part of almost everyone's culture.  The tradition, and the way she grew up was to bucket shower, and she has raised her two boys to bucket shower as well.  Virajita and her son Madhav explained to me that even though they have a shower in their house they still bucket shower because that is their habit.  They use about a 5 gallon bucket (which stays in the bathtub) and fill it with tap water which they then use a cup to dump over their heads to shower.  I asked them how you shower with one hand, and Madhav says "Its very easy!" 

However, its tough to break habits. Every morning a fill my rain barrel up with my 15 gallon "water quota".  Every time I need water for something I fill a certain container with the amount of water needed (record it) and carry it to wherever I am using it.  However, I have found myself turning on the tap ALL THE TIME without realizing it.  Usually, at some point using the water I notice that I have the tap on instead of using water from the rain barrel.  Like everywhere in the world, our spaces reflect our use of resources, for water-its in the bathroom. A typical American bathroom evolved out of having running tap water; we have a space for the toilet, a tap for the sink and two taps for the shower and tub faucets.  As soon as I have stopped using running water I've realize how inefficient the space really is to bring in water in different containers.  I have to carry my gallon bucket into the shower, bring another bucket and place it near the sink to wash my hands.  I've gotten in the habit of doing all my washing in the tub because it is the biggest space to put a bucket.  I stand in the tub with clothes on and wash my face at night, I stand in the tub to wash my hands.  Ideally, I think the whole bathroom would be tiled with a drain near the center, allowing containers of water to be placed in certain places and then dumped on the floor. 

Another interesting thing to consider is that 3.25 billion people in the world live without running water.  Water vessels and containers for carrying, drinking and storing are part of thousands of different cultures around the world.  A container that the Eames studied was the Indian "lota".

Charles Eames was fascinated by the Lota and considered it significant because it has become, over its evolution, exactly right. The design of the lota addresses the need of retrieving, carrying, storing, and pouring water. In his The India Report, he expressed a great admiration for the Lota and had the following to say about its design:


“ Of all the objects we have seen and admired during our visit to India, the Lota, that simple vessel of everyday use, stands out as perhaps the greatest, the most beautiful. The village women have a process which, with the use of tamarind and ash, each day turns this brass into gold. But how would one go about designing a Lota? First one would have to shut out all preconceived ideas on the subject and then begin to consider factor after factor:

The optimum amount of liquid to be fetched, carried, poured and stored in a prescribed set of circumstances.

The size and strength and gender of the hands (if hands) that would manipulate it.

The way it is to be transported – head, hip, hand, basket or cart.

The balance, the center of gravity, when empty, when full, its balance when rotated for pouring.

The fluid dynamics of the problem not only when pouring but when filling and cleaning, and under the complicated motions of head carrying – slow and fast.

Its sculpture as it fits the palm of the hand, the curve of the hip.

Its sculpture as compliment to the rhythmic motion of walking or a static post at the well.

The relation of opening to volume in terms of storage uses – and objects other than liquid.

The size of the opening and inner contour in terms of cleaning.

The texture inside and out in terms of cleaning and feeling.

Heat transfer – can it be grasped if the liquid is hot?

How pleasant does it feel, eyes closed, eyes open?

How pleasant does it sound, when it strikes another vessel, is set down on ground or stone, empty or full – or being poured into?

What is the possible material?

What is its cost in terms of working?

What is its cost in terms of ultimate service?

What kind of an investment does the material provide as product, as salvage?

How will the material affect the contents, etc., etc.?

How will it look as the sun reflects off its surface?

How does it feel to possess it, to sell it, to give it ? "

(Eames' India Report. National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.)


I tried to think of what container in American culture most resembles the lota:

This illustration shows what my "water infrastructure" is currently made up of:

Lastly I'd like to address I comment made to a friend that my project was "too extreme".  Maybe I need to clarify the intention of the project a little bit better.  I'm not jumping to the conclusion that people need to live this way or that people would live this way without oil.  It is fairly difficult to imagine how our world, and the intricate framework of connections that creates our way of life, would be affected and disrupted by the loss of our primary source of energy-oil.  Local sources will appear to help with many of the things that I will be doing on my own during this project, making things much easier.  There will be benefits and sacrifices in the course of the project, influencing my life positively and negatively.  The intention of the project is to explore and identify everywhere oil exists in our society, modify my life to avoid oil use as much as possible and create a hypothesis of what a post-cheap oil world might look like in my specific location of the country.   As the elimination of cheap oil is a crisis that I will face in my lifetime, I believe that its extremely important to identify what parts of our lives will be affected and begin redesigning the way we live to accommodate a dramatic shift in our lifestyles.

 

Over and out.

DAY 2_EXCEPTIONS and WITHDRAWLS

16 August 2010

miles biked - 0
miles drove - 190 :/

Trip to Graceville, MN to present High School Greenhouse proposal:

This summer I am a research assistant at the Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR).  One of the projects I've been working on is a proposed greenhouse attached to a high school in a small agricultural community in western MN-Graceville.  Today we were scheduled to present our final proposal to the school board and, consequently, had to travel the 190 miles out there.  After considering my options (driving-3.5 hours, biking-15 hrs 43 min, walking-2 days 9 hrs) we decided it was best to travel by car only the few times it was necessary for work :)  This brought up an interesting consideration, however, which was how the project will affect the lives of those surrounding me, especially my roommates.  I live with 2 roommates in a house.  While both of these fabulous ladies have expressed their interest in incorporating some of the things I'll be doing into their lives such as composting, I certainly can't expect them to be living exactly the way I am (creating no waste, using water from a rain barrel and never turning on the lights).  After talking to my committee about this issue we decided it was best to focus on the spaces in the house which I am personally occupying, meaning: If I walk into the kitchen which has someone in it, I won't be turning off the light, however, if I was in the space alone, I wouldn't have the light on.  In the same way, it is unrealistic (and not the point of the project) to refuse to eat food that doesn't meet my criteria at another person's house, and so on.  When making meals for other people at my house, I will be following all of my 'rules'.  Whenever possible I will be following the criteria I have outlined.  In a world without cheap oil, it is likely that telecommunications will be greatly improved and utilized much more frequently than now.  We've already begun to see a shift in telecommuting options, and it is a recognized step for businesses and universities to facilitate this type of communication to save energy/dollars their employees would otherwise use traveling. 

I want to share a little bit about the greenhouse project because the process of learning about the possibility of growing food year-round in Minnesota has inspired a lot of the food-related items of this thesis.  The Graceville community initiated the project after creating a community garden run by students a few years ago.  The need for fresh and inexpensive produce in these small rural communities is HUGE.  There is only one grocery store in Graceville and, ironically, even though it is an agricultural community, the store doesn't stock hardly any fresh produce.  Small grocers in these communities cannot compete with the supermarkets at Walmarts and other large, nationwide stores even though these stores are located hours away.  Because most residents need to travel the distance to the a larger town anyway at least once a week to get other supplies, they do their grocery shopping outside the community.  The small, community grocery store in Graceville, consequently, has a lot of trouble staying in business.  They actually refer customers (with permission of the school) to pick fresh herbs out of the community garden in an effort to supply their residents with healthy, fresh vegetables.  With this issue in mind, Graceville's vision is to build a greenhouse on the high school which can supplement the school's lunch program with fresh, local produce, while educating students (who are often quite disconnected from growing food to EAT rather than sell) where food comes from and what goes into a healthy diet. 

The team working on the greenhouse was made up of; Virajita Singh (Senior Research Fellow at CSBR), Jess Roberts (Energy Consultant-Designed Solutions LLC), and myself.  Our proposal was a 44'x16 ft greenhouse on the south facade of the building.  316 sq ft of growing space was created in 2' raised beds (beds allow for maximum production as opposed to pots), and an additional 116 sq ft of growing space in 1'x4' hanging planters above the beds.  Jess Roberts came up with three scenarios for heating options.  They included a combination of the following: (1) Solar Thermal,  (2) Diverting hot air which is currently being exhausted out of the building into the greenhouse (this air is rich in carbon which is good for plant growth), (3) geothermal system, and (4) a biomass gasification system which could be a possible collaboration with the University of Minnesota-Morris.  The profile of the greenhouse is maximized to receive the most solar heat and light gain at the shortest and coldest time of the year-the winter solstice (Dec 21).  The angle on the front is 68 degrees which is perpendicular to the sun angle at noon on Dec 21st allowing for the least loss of light and heat due to the reflection of the surface. 

Below are images and drawings of the proposed greenhouse: (clicking images opens a new larger window)

revised profile to maximize solar heat and light gain during the winter solstice

On another note, I woke up feel really drained this morning, and, of course, couldn't have coffee either.  Virajita, who has read quite a bit about the transition into a raw-foods diet (which is similar to what I'm doing), mentioned that when you go from eating processed foods and lots of sugars (a typical American diet :( ) to one which is only organic vegetables your body goes through a week or so of a kind of detoxing.  Because I don't drink coffee everyday and already was eating only a limited the amount of 'boxed' foods, I was surprised to be feeling so drained.  While the next few days without caffeine and processed food will probably be tough, I am fueling my body with much more direct nutrients now than before (I'll expand on this later), and hopefully will be feeling totally awesome in a week or so, time will tell!

DAY 1

DAY 1

15 AUGUST 2010

miles biked - 12
water used -  12.2625 gallons (2.7375 surplus)
3.25 kWh used (without electric stove included)

“We must face the prospect of changing of basic ways of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative in a planned way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature.”

(Jimmy Carter)

FOOD:

First day without oil and I've already googled "where does chocolate grow".  oh man.
 

While I have a few good ideas of meals to make for myself, after only one day I'm already starting to see how limiting buying only locally is.  That is, compared to the HUGELY VAST array of foods available for our consumption from all over the world.  I have come to take advantage and be dependant on foods that 100 years ago were not even a distant thought for native Minnesotans.  Coffee, spices, teas, chocolates, tropical fruits, olive oil, avocados, citrus, the list goes on. 

For breakfast this morning I made oatmeal with the last bunch of blueberries of the season.  Oatmeal is locally grown, bought in bulk at my grocery co-op.  Luckily, I live 3 blocks away from this grocery store, which is my only resource for food besides the farmer's markets and some scattered local/organic produce found at other high-end grocery stores.  I also came to realize that possibly my only option for sugar (besides sugar found in fruit) is honey.  I made the oatmeal with milk in a returnable glass jar (Cedar Summit), and added blueberries.  I'm going to need to research how long local grains are stocked in bulk at the co-op and maybe stock-up accordingly so I don't run out of all local grains.  A also made a meal of vegetables I found at the St. Paul farmer's market yesterday.  The St. Paul market is all local vendors, though not everyone is organic so I have to ask.  I mixed together yukon gold potatoes, green bush beans, garlic, cilantro and sauteed it all in a local/organic sunflower oil.  Sunflower oil is my replacement for olive oil as most of that is imported, and, sadly, none grown locally. 

The other obstacle I will run into is although there are a wide variety of locally grown vegetables in Minnesota, our growing season is less than 5 months.  This means that unless I can, dry or freeze foods there will come a point where nothing local is available.  It is too humid to dry many foods in Minnesota, especially meats, canning takes a huge amount of energy and freezing may also be out of my "electricity budget". 

To remedy this possible dry-out of available foods I've started seeds to grow vegetables in my living room.  I have a grow table 3'x8' which sits in front of a south-facing window.  The light coming in from the window is not significant so it has to be supplemented with grow lights .  I have a fluorescent grow light which is 20,000 lumens (about 1800 foot candles).  While this may seem like a lot, the comparative light that vegetables get outside is 50,000 foot candles.  The most efficient grow lights are metal halide and high pressure sodium (HPS), however, they use an ENORMOUS amount of energy, and would overtake my electricity quota.  With advising from Interior Gardens (an excellent interior growing store in NE) I was pointed towards fluorescent lights.  It is questionable whether these lights will be bright enough to grow certain vegetables, but the greens and herbs should get sufficient light. 

I spent last night starting my seeds.  To avoid using lots of plastic seed trays I am making soil blocks from a "soil blocker" mold.  I started 50 seedlings, an assortment of the following:

_Basil

_Cilantro

_Lemon Balm

_Romaine Lettuce

_Arugula

_Rosemary

_Green Beans

_Tomatoes

_Cucumbers

_Jalapenos

_Collard Greens

_Spinach

_Tomatillos

_Soybeans

_Onion

The germination period on the vegetables and herbs is 5-8 days and the greens take 10-14 days.  Hopefully in a week or so I'll see some sprouts!

WASTE:

On another note, I've been composting for 2 days now, a last oil-world meal cooked last night resulted in almost a gallon of compost, which means I may end up with a lot.  My homemade composter is two rubber tubs stacked on top of each other, the top tub is shorter than the bottom one and has small holes drilled in the bottom to allow for drainage into the "catchment" tub beneath it.  The tub is covered with a lid. I'm mixing in newspaper with the compost and debating getting worms.  It sounds like worms create better quality compost for use in soil and compost faster...advice is welcome.

ELECTRICITY:

I've spent a part of the day calculating energy usage for various appliances around the house.  I'm using a "Kill-A-Watt" meter to count up kWh over time, which I can then calculate watts/hr.  In a spreadsheet I'm keeping, I'll be keeping track of all electrical use to make sure I don't go beyond my hypothetical solar array limit (still to be determined).

_laptop computer 27 watts/hr of use

_large fridge 68 watts/hr (continuous)

_grow light 175 watts/hr (8 hrs a day)

The grow light is a huge energy suck, I'll also be calculating energy used by my electric stove, radio and lights around the house. I avoided using lights all day because I'm unsure what my quota is at this point.

HEALTH + HYGIENE

Everything today has taken about 4 times as long as it typically does.  Everything I did I had to think about how I was going to go about it.  We confirmed the square footage of my house last night as 1791 sq ft, thus harvesting 120 gallons a day (average rainfall) (see calculation on first post).  This leaves me with exactly 15 gallons a day to use.  I filled a 15 gallon rain barrel this morning which has a pump.  This is a good way to store all my day's water but makes it difficult to use for various purposes (hand washing in bathroom, showering)  This morning I took my first 1 gallon bucket shower and had plenty to spare.  I imagine most day's I will be able to use 1 gallon for showering and at least once or twice a week use about 5.  Water was cold.  Below is a quick illustration of my current and post showering situations.  Most conventional bath products are made with at least one of the following: Petroleum based: fragrances, colors, preservatives.  They are all packaged in plastic.  Even my washing tool (loofah) itself is plastic.  My new showering method includes locally made soap (with no petroleum additives) I can buy this soap (Bryn Mawr) without any packaging at my co-op (The Wedge).  Today I had to use my old loofah but eventually I'll have a natural sponge (pictured is my roommate karli's -don't worry, I didn't really use it)

I'll end this post with a tribute to a fabulous beverage.  One which has been there to support me in times of need, but, at least for the next 100 days, will no longer be a part of my life. 

Iced Latte, you will be missed.