Reducing needs is the first task when reducing energy consumption. It also has been the first place funds are spent to to save us from providing that energy in the future. We're farmers so we either get time or money, but we hardly seem to have both . . . at the same time.

We found out years ago we can access solar gains in winter for some heat, build an ice house (room to hold ice from the long cold winters) and a root cellar. More recently, we found technology like Rocket Mass Heaters to reduce our wood burning and heat water. We use Hy-Tech insulating paint additive to insulate our old farm house (inside and out) because we found it worked to insulate our other house.

We also have all our power needs on timed plug-ins so things don't all run at once. We actually only want continuous power (24 hr power) on entertainment and communications - the rest of the power is optional or timed. Laundry water demand was reduced from 30 gallons a load to 5 with a new washer and now we're left to figure in how to provide power to the new unit which looks like it can only happen at night when nothing else is running.

We are in process of reducing all other water needs so a rain collection system will eventually fill all our water needs. To do this we needed composting toilets and water filtration/purification. Rain water collection and under-ground tiles collect water for animals and gardens. I've actually re-designed the rain water system 8 times before I realized I could double envelope the rainwater into a double insulated wall system and store summer heat in the mass of sand and rain water (reverse storing the winter cold to storing the summer heat). The "summer heat" is siphoned out of the attic roofs into the mass and can be released over early to mid-winter (by my estimates will have given off 60% of its heat by then). In this manner, a simple solar fan can be utilize to add 20% - 40% of our heat - which is a pretty good return on a solar panel.

Instead of just generating power - we co-generate, meaning we take the heat off the generator exhaust and have (in theory) decided to do this with more than a home electric generator and want to try this on a bike motor for heat when traveling in winter (run the tail-pipe somewhere to heat my butt!). . like I said - "in theory". In the end, the power for all needs - house, barn, tool room, running the tractor and vehicles will come from wood, ethanol, small solar & wind and a small hydro-system when the creek isn't frozen (about 9 months out of the year). What gaps result in energy needed will come from a generator but we haven't seen a system that runs on ethanol.

We re-designed the landscape of the farm site so we have gardens away from the house and NoMowGrass planted around areas we want greenery but not problems with rodents- short grasses help reduce rodent infestation which is a main reason we choose that particular grass. We also use it on paths. We found this a better grass than fescues that contain endophytes for our animals. We also added micro-clovers to the lawn.

When we build, we want to use EarthShip designs but tires are a lot of work. The up-side to using tires is people will pay you to take them.

Enjoy the journey!