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January 2008

Land

Return of the Grim Repo

As more homes are repossessed, the off-grid alternative becomes ever more attractive

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We love outdoor gas heaters

Outdoor heaters are useful but the EU is considering a ban. The top ten things we want to see banned before even thinking about Patio Heaters: first class check-in at airports, plasma TV screens, Standby power…..

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Pizza night!

Tonight we had pizza, it’s great to have something that does not come out of a can! It was different and it was good. I made and cooked the pizza dough on our wood burning stove, I made about a dozen 6 inch pizza’s, I took the blank pizza’s to our neighbor and finished assembling the pizza’s, I used tomato soup for the sauce, I used dry italian seasoning, dried beef and cheese. We ate pizza until we thought we would pop. It’s also nice to get to watch some TV, though I really don’t miss it much, I do wish I could keep up with more national and local news, it’s OK that I don’t know everything that is going on, probably keeps me sane! :)

The last couple of days were windy, last night, we were sleeping and a gust of wind blew through, sounded like a freight train! We both came awake from a sound sleep, fortunately it didn’t get any worse than that, it was a while before we went back to sleep. The next morning, things were in pretty good shape, a few things got blown over, but nothing major. The wind blew pretty hard most of the day. but the sun was shining so the batteries were able to charge up, that is a pretty important thing for us, one cloudy day is not bad, but 2 or more cloudy days in a row can make it hard to have movie night! The next few days are supposed to be windy, but clear, so we will be just fine.

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Intro to solar power

You can get started with a basic system that will power your phone charger, computer and car stereo most of the year for around �550 (add 25% for dollar price). As you add more or bigger panels, and more batteries, the price rises accordingly. A typical small domestic set-up for solar panels might be 4 � 85W panels costing �1,544.80, plus the extras – batteries, inverter, cabling, surge protector.

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AVA Makes it’s Television Debut

By: Kelly Mead

We were pleasantly surprised that while watching “Invention Nation” tonight we we able to see the $1 solar panel production. The guys headed out to Colorado to see the new type of solar panels that should be mass produced by next year. AVA Solar is still planning on entering it’s large scale mass production by 2009.

Seeing the production of these panels showed how these panels will use less materials and energy to produce. Which will be passed on to us as consumers. These panels are produced by layering the components and then scoring to make the individual cells, instead of making a large cell then cutting and wiring together. This means less places for lose connections and lose connections means less energy efficiency. Also as these panels will be produced completely in an automated process less energy and materials will be lost or wasted in the production. Less waste is always better for our environment.

We just had to get the information out so that you can watch the production and find out more on AVA Solar panels. It will be re-aired in the morning of January 29th if anyone is lucky enough to catch it. The episode to catch is #10 “Self-Sustaining” you can check “Invention Nation” schedule here. We of course found more to write about in this episode such as EarthHaven and Enertia, but wish to do more research on those.

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Tony Juniper “my highs and lows”

As he prepares to hand over control of the UK’s top eco-campaigning group, TONY JUNIPER, DIRECTOR OF FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, reflects on the green movement, in conversation with NICK ROSEN

Thom Yorke and Tony Juniper
Yorke, Juniper (right) and other star stories

“I used to dismiss pop star involvement in Green campaigns as celebrities picking up on fashionable causes to get themselves some good PR. But I changed my mind when I found myself leaning on the bar of a nightclub with Thom Yorke from Radiohead, along with Tory leader David Cameron and Labour�s David Miliband. It was 2006 and Miliband was still Tony Blair�s Environment Secretary. Thom had written them each personal invites to a very select little gig organised by Friends of the Earth at the Coco Club in Camden Town. Thom was performing, along with Johnny Greenwood from Razorlight.

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Community

Pix Fixed

OK, sorry about the pix thing, I had a lot of pix uploaded but apparently they weren’t showing up, I could see them but they weren’t visible to anyone else, I fixed the problem, now the pix will be visible to everyone.

Here are the entries with pix:
https://wretha.blogspot.com/2008/01/big-accomplishments.html

https://wretha.blogspot.com/2008/01/solar-stuff-mice-and-smoke.html

I believe the other entries with pix were visible.

2 Comments

openid16-rounded-6652096 nanabird2000 said…
Pictures came through great great stove bet it puts out the heat. Been meaning to ask how the bug likes the roads out there. Handle like you want it to ?
Nancy

January 23, 2008 9:33 PM

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b16-rounded-4008479 Wretha said…
Hi Nancy, the stove keeps us toasty warm, in fact a lot of the time, we have to crack a window to cool things off.

The bug takes the roads great! It’s rough, but these bugs were designed for this, on Christmas, we took the bug to go to a friend’s house for dinner, one of the wheels on the bug was loose and fell off! We walked back to our property, it wasn’t far, we got a few tools, found the lug nuts on the road, and put everything back together, nothing was damaged, this was the one tire that we didn’t change before we left, Bob hadn’t checked it, I’m glad it didn’t happen when we were traveling out here! Anyhoo, it didn’t hurt anything, we put it back on, tightened it back up and went on to dinner. :)

January 25, 2008 9:22 PM

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Community

Big Accomplishments

01-20-08

Big accomplishments, we now have a metal roof, our big wood burning stove and the sink drain has been plumbed.

First, the metal roof, we were gifted with the material for the metal roof, it was left over material from other projects, it was given to us by our good friends out here, it’s about 3 different colors, but no one can see it unless you are standing on the roof, and we are now water proof and much more wind proof. A few days ago, the weather report said we might get some rain, thunderstorms and possible snow, we had one day’s notice! So Bob went to work in the morning and didn’t stop until it was complete, in fact got sick from doing it, breathing all the dust (the panels were coated in dust and dirt, like everything out here) and the wind was relentless that day, sunny but cold, he had gotten a bit run down and having to cover the entire roof in one day just about finished him off… (he’s getting better now).

I didn’t get to help him, I wished I could have, that was the day I watched my neighbor’s dog Sam, and Sam couldn’t be left alone. Bob did a really good job, as usual :)

The next day, it drizzled, for about 10 minutes, just enough to make the tiniest layer of moist dirt, couldn’t even call it mud, but it was enough to make water run off the roof, nothing dripped inside, it’s also more quiet, when the wind blows it’s a lot quieter. We never got the rain, thunderstorms or snow.

Bob also plumbed the sink, no running water yet, but I can do the dishes inside at the sink now, and I can pour liquids down the sink, it runs through the floor, outside to the ground, we dug a pit and will fill it with gravel, basically gray water disposal.

Yesterday, I made a water run to my neighbor’s house, as I was leaving, Bob was hauling the big wood stove from the side of the house to the back of the house, this thing is big, it weighs around 300 pounds, Bob designed and made this wood stove, it works great, we used it to heat our whole house where we used to live, so it should have no problem heating our little one room cabin! :) I told Bob that I would help him with it when I got back, he smiled and said he would see me when I got back. Well, when I got back, he was on the roof, finishing the chimney cap and spark arrestor. He had, all by himself, removed the small wood stove, and put in the big wood stove, please understand, our cabin sits about 7 feet in the air, there is a 4 step tall wooden …

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Community

Day-Lewis is one of us

Daniel Day-Lewis lived in a tent during filming of There Will Be Blood, and built himself a shack during filming of The Ballad Of Jack And Rose.

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