Updates on Previous Posts

Thought it was time to update some of our previous posts. Since we started this journey back in October we have run across some amazing movements, events, products, and people and we wanted to check in on them and see how things have gone.

Make It Right 9 of New Orleans has raised funds to build 81 of their proposed 150 homes. We are still waiting on word whether we can sponsor our own home. So check back or if you can’t wait please visit them and donate to a worthy cause. You can also visit them to find out more about the amazing people and organizations that are involved in this opportunity to not only give someone a helping hand but to help show that being self-sufficient in our resource needs can be done in today’s world community wide.

Our Hollywood Going Green? post back in November was about a convention being held in December. I know I said I would wait for the movie so guess what they have posted their presentations. Now to find the time watch them! If you do or attended let us know what you think. We will be starting a thread at the forum about them.

We Love It’s Not easy Being Green was about the BBC show on a family transforming an old farmhouse to their off-grid utopia. We haven’t seen anything about another season but the charity they started The Big Green Idea has continued on. Starting in summer 2008 they plan to have a green double decker bus touring the UK to let people have hands on experiences of products used to get off-grid, while also offering movie and documentary viewings. Even though these sites are geared for the UK they are a great source of ideas to bring across the “pond”.

Ava Solar from our $1 per watt of Soalr Energy post has been moving froward on mass production of their new panels. “ We are very happy with our initial pre-production runs and have decided to move up production plans on our existing manufacturing line,” said Pascal Noronha, President and CEO of AVA Solar. “Although this will be relatively limited production, we intend to accelerate our production learning curve and get our products into the market faster than we thought possible last year.” They have also announced that instead of building a new manufacturing plant in Fort Collins they will be using an existing physicality in Northern Colorado which helped speed up the production time-line.

In December we wanted you to Help Focus The Nation. The online web-cast had problems as many more than anticipated people, groups, and institutions logged on to be part of it. Though they then made it available to watch anytime. We admit that we were part of the unfortunate ones that had problems and were kicked out of the live cast. If you had problems or missed it you can catch it here. Also the results are in on Choose Your Future and the top ten changes Americans would like to see are:

1. Invest in the Clean Energy Revolution
2. Create Green Jobs, Save Energy
3. No New Coal Plants without “Capture and Sequestration”
4. Cap CO2 Emissions, Share the Auction Revenues
5. Build Green: Carbon Neutral by 2030
6. Jumpstart Low Polluting Biofuel
7. Support Stronger Forests
8. Tax Global Warming Pollution
9. Cleaner Cars, California-style
10. Get Efficient- Cut Energy, Save Money

We United in Kindness in December also and would love to see other bloggers do so again with an emphasis on kindness to the Earth in April. So if you blog or have a voice in either the virtual or physical world we encourage you to promote or be kind to our environment on Earth Day, April 22, 2008. Or you can join with us and others on April 21 and Make Noise for your politicians and let them know how important you as voters find environmental concerns.

So that should bring you up to current posts and happenings. We will be continuing to bring you news and information to encourage and help you to go off the grid and green. Our journey has taken turns we didn’t expect already and are excited to keep going. We have learned valuable information, got to be part of historic events, met wonderful people both online and in person, and gotten even more excited about choosing this lifestyle (if that was possible) in such a short time. We will continue to grow and inform and have great plans, such as newsletters. We hope that you will continue this journey with us. As always we welcome comments, emails (offhome@theoffgridhome.com) , information, and even criticism.