Category: Energy

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Eco housing

I have been reading up on Eco housing and green energies. I have found that there are thousands of people building houses out of all manner of things. Some are using hay bales, some are using old tires and most are making use of old glass and glass bottles in some form or another. It’s not just here in the US either, it is happening in many western countries too, like the UK and Spain. The move towards green energy has also extended to building houses and I think that is amazing. People will come up with the darnedest things to not only save money but to save this planet.

This house is in Barcelona, Spain. Posted by Eco Village and shared on Facebook to let people see just what people can build with a little ingenuity and effort. It is a totally green house. I think it is beautiful and very artistically done. Who says an Eco house has to be ugly? No one. I have found that they look much better and are very unique, each with it’s own personality. So if you want to build a house that will last and build is cheap and green, you should definitely check out Eco housing.

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We’re putting in an ADT Alarm System

My wife decided that we needed to check on having an alarm system put in our house.  Unfortunately, just because you’re trying to help someone doesn’t mean they won’t do anything wrong to us like break in when we’re not home.  I can’t imagine anyone doing something like that but could be someone they know that has been over to visit or something too.  You just can’t be too careful and that’s why I called ADT.    In fact, I might even have an ADT Alarm put in each apartment too.  That way we don’t have to worry about anyone breaking into one of the apartments if it’s empty too.

ADT Alarm Systems have long been known as one of the best security systems there are.  Not only are they wireless but they monitor your home 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.  You can’t ask for anything any better now can you?  ADT Security gives you just that, security.  Get this, you also get a digital keypad, key chain remote access, a motion detector, 3 points of protection, high decibel alarm siren to scare off most people before they even get in. Plus you also get battery backup, yard sign and window decals to make sure they know you have an alarm system and best of all, free standard installation.

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Apartments coming right along

We have the floor down in the upstairs and all of the walls in except for the wiring and the drywall.  We decided to put registers in the floor for the heat to come upstairs from the downstairs and you can close them off in the summer and open the vents on the wall to let the cool air in the room.  I just hope the people will do that.  It will save a lot on the electricity.  One of the men from one of the churches is an electrician and he’s donating everything including materials and labor to wire everything.  What a great thing he is doing.

We also have the garage doors off and the walls and doors framed in.  We have already but up the outside walls and have the siding on them along with the front doors installed.   Of course everyone took the weekend off and will be back bright an early Monday morning.  I’m amazed at how fast everything is coming together.

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I have a wonderful wife

My wife and I were discussing the issue of so many homeless people around here and she came up with an idea that I thought was wonderful.  We have a three car garage that is separate from the house that we don’t even use in all honesty because there’s a two car garage attached to the house that we park our cars in.  The other was built for the kids cars.  It’s tall enough to make a room upstairs in too.

What my wife wants for us to do is to close in each bay of the garage and take down the garage doors, close that in and make three small apartments for people that have become homeless.  She said that we could give them the first month free to help them get back on their feet and then just charge $100 a month to cover the extra electricity that it will cost us.  It wouldn’t take very much to do just that.  The upstairs could be the bedroom easily.  Now all I have to do is check with the county and see if I can get a permit to do what we want.  I really hope we can.  I bet I can find a lot of help with it too from our neighbors.

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Here’s something to help our own

I received this in an email and I had no idea until I read it.  This is what I keep talking about when it comes to helping our own instead of everyone else in the world.  This makes sense!

In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else and perhaps even their job. So, after reading this email, I think this lady is on the right track… Let’s get behind her!!

My grandson likes Hershey’s candy. It is marked made in Mexico now. I do not buy it anymore. My favorite toothpaste, Colgate is made in Mexico now. I have switched to Crest. You have to read the labels on everything.

This past weekend I was at Kroger. I needed 60W light bulbs and Bounce dryer sheets. I was in the light bulb aisle and right next to the GE brand I normally buy was an off brand labeled, “Everyday Value”. I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats – they were the same except for the price. The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO and the Everyday Value brand was made in – get ready for this – the USA in a company in Cleveland, Ohio.

So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every day that are made right here. So on to another aisle – Bounce Dryer Sheets….yep, you guessed it, Bounce cost more money and is made in Canada. The Everyday Value brand was less money and MADE IN THE USA! I did laundry yesterday and the dryer sheets performed just like the Bounce Free I have been using for years and at almost half the price!

So my challenge to you is to start reading the labels when you shop for everyday things and see what you can find that is made in t he USA – the job you save may be your own or your neighbors! If you accept the challenge, pass this on to others in your address book so we can all start buying American, one light bulb at a time!

Stop buying from China. . . . . (We should have awakened a decade ago……)  Let’s get with the program….Help our fellow Americans keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the U.S.A. !!!

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Lego League update

Well I am having a blast working with the kids on the First Lego League team.  Our competition is on December 3rd so we are running out of time.  It’s going great so far.  We have come up with a name for the team.  It’s I Bots.  I standing for Intelligent, Bots for the robotic Lego of course.  The logo is going to be a large eye with the eyeball being the earth instead of just a regular eyeball.  That is to symbolize us having an eye on our planet.  Pretty cool huh?  The kids came up with that.

I must admit, I am quite impressed with not only the ability of these kids but also with their ideas for the challenge.  It’s supposed to be about helping global warming.  We’re focusing on the use of Sorgum to make Ethanol to help with emissions to keep down global warming.  Pretty smart kids and something that I can see myself working with for many years.  I can’t wait for the competition.  I hope we do well, well I hope the kids do well because they have worked so hard.

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And now down come the leaves

Fall is living up to it’s name.  Leaves are falling like snow.  All it takes is a little puff of wind and the skies are full of yellow, red, orange, and brown leaves.  It’s quite pretty but someone has to get them up.  That someone is ME!!

Thank goodness I have one of those attachments that goes on my riding mower that sucks the leaves up.  The thought of raking and raking and raking just gives me a backache simply thinking of it.  These things are great but one things for sure, you get dirtier than you ever did as a kid playing in the dirt.

Another good thing about them is the mower actually chops the leaves up some and I then put them on my garden before I turn it under.  That helps to feed the soil, keep it moist in the summer and is a great way to compost the leaves when you have as many as we do.  I would guess there are about 25 trees in my yard so that’s a lot of leaves.

I’m so glad we had 4 cut down and 16 topped so they aren’t producing as many leaves as they did before we had that done.  I donated the wood from the trees to a local man that didn’t have any heat besides a wood stove and was quite poor.  He came and picked up the wood and split it himself so all we had to do was pay someone to cut the trees down and top the rest.  Between the tree guys and the guy we gave the wood to, we didn’t have to clean up anything.  In fact, I bet the guy got enough wood to heat his house for 2 winters.  I hope so anyway.

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Lego League

I have been volunteering with a local Lego League.  Have you heard about them?  They use the Lego Mindstorm NXT which is robotic Lego’s.  You can go to their web site at usfirst.org and check them out if you are interested in what they’re all about.  Each year they have a challenge that has to do with the environment.  Last year it was alternative sources of fuel.  This year the challenge is on global warming and what you can do in your community to help.

There is a state competition in December and the team that wins there, goes on to Atlanta to participate in the World competition.  There will be teams from China, Germany and many other countries.  I absolutely love working with these kids.  These are our future engineers.  Not only do they win trophies, but they also can get schlorships to some pretty impressive colleges just because of their involvement with this so I feel very blessed to be a part of it.

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No Comments are coming

I often wonder if anyone is even reading this blog that I have taken to writing every now and then, I’m not even receiving any Spam, amazing as that sounds.

I know  I haven’t spent as much time as I intended to, but life does have a way of keeping one busier than they would like at times. I guess I need to get off my duff and start doing a bit more here and there. The weather is changing, the Holidays are approaching faster than I would like to see, but is inevitable, and with it comes all the nasty cold that will require a nice warm fireplace going full blast in the house.

The collecting of firewood seems to be the next major concern and chore that needs tending to it seems.

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Conserving energy is the right thing to do

I have always been an avid advocate on recycling and doing anything that I possibly can to conserve our earth’s precious energy sources. Almost everyday I do try to do something more to help the world around me, and I think that the time is right for me to go buy some CFL light bulbs to use as replacement bulbs when my incandescent bulbs burn out.

This attempt of saving energy is good for lowering the monthly electric bill, and good for preserving our earth’s environment.  We all need to do our part to help!