The Journey continued…….

        To any and all who might be reading, I plan to add to this blog weekly.   Barring a crisis or unexpected  schedule changes, I will try to write something of interest each week.   Wednesdays or Thursdays  are probably the best days/evenings for me especially during the summer months, so stay posted and follow along if you are interested in our “Journey”  and;      Thanks for reading……   

         Regarding our energy use and inefficiencies, we find ourselves in the same quandary as many others who are “land-rich” but “cash poor”.   Increasing the efficiency of these older buildings and equipment is expensive, but housing people and running the farm/ranch is also expensive; so how do we save enough money to make the improvements and modifications while still operating?!     It is one of those paradoxes that life in any rural setting is much more energy consumptive that it is in urban areas.  It is much more energy-efficient to house people en mass than it is singly and always will be.  The hope is that we can offset the higher consumption with production of “real goods” of the edible kind so that those people in urban settings will have healthy food to eat while they consume less!    We need each other, they, us; to provide healthy, ethical consumable goods; and us, them; to provide a market for what we can produce. 

          I said in my last post that I would describe our current energy and resource consumption. I hope the following  will give a clear picture of our present usages.  It’s time to have a look at our rates of consumption of all the various energies and resources; renewable and non-renewables.  I think it is also important to look at the human energy consumption factor.   I look at this source of energy as a” limited renewable”; especially my own!   I am always looking for ways to save this kind of energy too.  We need to be much more labor efficient. 

         We currently use propane as the major heating fuel for the occupied houses, they both have electric/propane furnaces.  Our electric service is provided by the local Electric Co-op:  we did opt to pay extra for renewable energy from them when it came available a couple of years ago.  Our water from the spring is all gravity flow and does not require pumping, just storage tanks which provide the pressure for household use.   The vehicle situation is:  three pick-up trucks and a suburban, all of ripe vintage (but paid for!),  that use gasoline.  One of those is a light duty four cylinder that is used on the ranch only.  There are two 4×4’s that are used for hauling “stuff” (animals and equipment and tools and feed, etc.)  and for getting around when there is lots of snow or rain.  The suburban is our “town trip” vehicle and is used as the farmer’s market vehicle.   The skid-steer and swather are gasoline, the backhoe and tractor are diesel.  All the wells have submersible electric pumps and they all have their own dedicated meters.  We have 7 electric meters on the place, each of which carry a monthly meter charge whether or not they are being used ( $16.00 ): three of them are dedicated irrigation well meters and are not currently in use, but we do pay the monthly meter charge for those.   The others are: one for each of the houses, one for the barn and quonset shop and one for the well which serves the barn and shop area, all of which are currently in use.  The electric rates have recently gone up and  usage has increased since we have added three more people ( the bunk house renter and my daughter and her boyfriend).    My mother spends the coldest of the winter months in another location.  . She has been doing this now for the last two winters.  The reasons for this are several.  As she ages, she needs her surroundings to be warmer and her house if very difficult and expensive to heat; even though there is a wood-buring heat stove, it still requires a lot of electricity and propane to keep it comfortable enough for her.  During the winter months it is sometimes impossible to get out of the ranch to medical and other services, If she had a fall, or urgent health care need, we would not be able to get her immediate medical attention.     She has just returned for this year (away from Nov. through March).

 In order to keep enough food supplies for ourselves, interns, renters, and guests; and to store meats, produce, flowers, and the other products that we make for sale,  we run several refrigerators and freezers continually (5 or 6 refrigerators and 4 large freezers).    There are three washing machines and one electric clothes dryer.  The cooking stoves are all propane.  My house has a swamp cooler for market prep days, but there isn’t a need for airconditioning for general comfort.  Even in July and August, it cools off as soon as the sun goes down!   Ok, so that’s basically it; now down to the numbers.  Electric use has increased and is now about 2764 KWH which costs $497.50.  ($50.00 of that is unused meter charges). That averages out to approximately $75.00 per person per month.   The propane usage changes dramatically from winter to summer, but the average usage for  a year is about $8000.00, or $667.00 per month; or $111.00 per person per month.  Gasoline for all the vehicles and equipment runs about $400.00 a month (we pay a premium for that as well averaging at least $ .20 higher a gallon in our area….at the local gas station [15 miles from here] a gallon of gas is currently $3.09 for regular!).  Diesel is negligible right now but will increase a lot during the summer season with use of the tractor and backhoe.  It should average about $100.00 to $15o.00 per month for the next 5 months.   I have no idea what our water usage is since we don’t have a way to track it, but my guess is that it is fairly high as well.  It takes a lot of water for cleaning to process milk, cheese garden produce, and all the other “value added” food products we make for ourselves and for sale.  The houses both have septic systems and there is only a gray-water system for one of the bathrooms at my mother’s house.  We do not now have any rainwater catchment systems in place except for buckets under the gutters at my house!   

I will continue this post a bit later, the computer has begun to slow down and it’s time to do the evening chores anyway………..until later,

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