April 21, 2008

Community

Thanks, Magic Jack and the Garden

First I want to thank everyone who joined the PTC sites from my links below, this will not only make money for you, it will help me tremendously, the money earned goes toward my internet expenses, it helps to keep me on line and posting here. :) If you have any questions about how to use the PTC sites, or want to know some tricks that I use to make more money (all LEGAL, I don’t do anything that would jeopardize my membership), just drop me a note via email

wretha @ gmail . com (remove the spaces)

and I’ll be more than happy to help. :)

Phone

I went ahead and ordered the Magic Jack, I figured it would be the best thing to do, if it works for me (and I hope it does), I can drop my cell phone and will not have that expense every month, I will have only one yearly charge for the phone service. The only problem with it so far is they do not have a local phone number for me, so I’ll just get a phone number that is local for my friends and family back in the DFW area, that will not be any different from what I have now with my cell phone. The startup cost on it was about $50.00, that paid for the unit, the shipping and the first year’s service. I did pay a bit extra to get the expedited shipping, I normally don’t do that, but it gave me a tracking number so I will know when it gets to my mail box, we don’t check our mail box very often, it’s a 12+ mile round trip to the mailbox, on twisty, winding, up and down rocky dirt roads. MJ is giving a 30 day free trial, they don’t charge your credit card until about day 31, I’m not sure if that is from the date ordered or the date delivered, either way I should know within a day or so when it shows up in my mail box so I can start using it as soon as possible. When we were in town the other day, I picked up a cheap corded phone, we left all of our phones in Irving when we moved, we didn’t figure we would need them out here, my how things can change… :)

The Garden

We have been working hard on the garden to get it ready to plant, I wish I could have planted before now, but we didn’t have the fencing complete, and I can’t run the risk that something would get in and tear things up.

We just got back in from working on the fencing for the last couple of hours, we were putting up the chicken wire over the top to keep the birds out. We got most of it covered, we …

April 21, 2008 6 Comments

Singing in the Rain

This years Green Apple Festival celebrating Earth Day still went on despite the rain. At least for a few hours anyway. When the lightening started it was time to start shutting down. Now we can’t say for sure if it over or hoping to wait out the rain as we left when the downpour turned torrential and lightening was regular.

Though it was nice and even the children enjoyed the 3 plus hours we had down there. The speakers were varied and from around the world. Showing that the Earth is not just important to us here in the United States. We were able to visit about half of the exhibitors that were included in the Earth Day Celebration, the other half was a combination of weather and not seeing the rest of the booths across the street. If we hadn’t been huddling under the tents to keep out of the rain we probably would have noticed the second section. Of course we noticed after the heavy rain appeared and had to call the rest of the day a bust.

Also happenig at the Mall was an expo on sustainable living with exhibits put on by colleges. It was very interesting to walk through and see what ideas were being tried out to improve not only our environment but also awareness of the general public. That one we visited on the way in, meaning we were to early for all the booths to be manned and/or ready so not as much information from it was gotten. Though we did find some interesting things that will also be in upcoming posts.

We need to do some more research so we’re not just rehashing the spiel we got from the spokespeople at these great events. We found great ideas such as purifying water with a simple handheld device to running sport cars on solar panels, to playing games to raise awareness, to home improvement and construction companies who make green their only business. So much was available that we hope that others were able to join in on celebrations in their local areas.

Don’t forget that today is a day of noise! Let your elected officials (and hopefuls too!) know that not only do we care about the world we live in but that being able to live in a home that is healthy, self-sufficient is just as important to us. If we don’t tell them they’re not going to be knocking on your door to ask. It’s our responsibility to keep and demand programs that help the average joe to be informed and even give a helping hand so that legislation doesn’t disappear now that people are trying to improve their homes.…

April 21, 2008 No Comments

Off-Grid 101

Questions from a reader

One of the very nice ladies who reads my blog, asked me several very good questions, I thought I would copy the message here and answer them, I think they are the sorts of questions that other people might ask, they are certainly the kind of questions I would ask if I didn’t live like this and had the opportunity to ask…

Hi Wretha, this is Marty.

I enjoy reading your b-log but I don’t know where the guestbook is to sign it. You had asked if we would sign it so that you would know others are reading.

I wanted to ask you some questions about going off-grid.

1. How do you get water? We have a well and though there’s an electric pump on it I heard that we could get a solar well but the whole well has to be redone. I would also like to add a hand pump.

We do not have a well, it’s way too expensive for us to even consider right now, so I get my water from my neighbor, he has a well and is extremely generous to us, we do things for him as well. We have a 300 gallon container, it used to hold fruit punch concentrate so it is food/water safe. We also have a 55 gallon drum inside the cabin, next to the sink, we have a 12 volt pump attached to it and the water faucet, when I turn on the faucet the pump comes on and I have running water, it lasts me about a week, maybe a week and a half if I’m careful. I use that water (inside the cabin) for washing dishes, hands and such, not for drinking. I go to my neighbor’s house pretty much every day for drinking water, I carry it back in one gallon containers.

If we have to, we can get water from the community well, it’s free to the residence out here, we can get as much as we want, but we have to get it back to our property, that was the original plan to get water from there, but since our neighbor turned out to be such a great guy, we get it from him for now.

2. How do you keep cool in the heat? I think I could go without a lot of things but not being able to keep cool I just can’t. (also going through menopause!)

That’s easy, it does get hot here, but the humidity is low, it’s high desert on a mountain range, it is hot during the day, especially in the sun, but if you have any shade, it’s comfortable, there is almost always a breeze too. The nights are cool year round, even in the hottest part of summer, as soon as the sun goes down, you start looking for something to cover your arms with.…

April 21, 2008 2 Comments

All you need to go off-grid

Thanks, Magic Jack and the Garden

Singing in the Rain

Questions from a reader

OFF-GRID.NET

PUBLICATIONS

CODE OF CONDUCT

REGISTER AND MANAGE ACCOUNT

ORDERING

PRIVACY POLICY

LINKS DIRECTORY

LANGUAGES

ADVERTISERS

POWER MANAGEMENT

POWER MANAGEMENT LANGUAGES

WORK FOR US

Sign-up to our newsletter