I have had so much fun being a part of The Riot for Austerity/ 90% reduction project. The project started last June 1st and our family joined in July. Sharon Astyk and her friend Miranda were discussing George Monbiot's book "Heat", where he discusses the need for industrialized nations to reduce their emissions by 94%. They wondered what a life would be like lived that way, since Chinese peasants seem to be the standard for low impact living. So they challenged each other to reduce there consumption and emissions by 90%, which makes accounting easier than 94%. They did this on their blogs and what do you know, other people decided to give it a try as well. So they ended up being amazed that over 1000 people were interested in joining them. Before March 2007, I had never read a blog. I'm not sure I even knew what one was. I started by reading No Impact Man by Colin Beavin. His blog linked to Sharon's and The Riot, and that is what got me where I am today.

So today I am revealing what a year of rioting figures look like in our household. When doing the numbers, we figure up how we compare to the rest of the country in terms of consumption of resources. We are a family of four, living in the USA,  so our numbers are compared to the average American or average American household. Figures can be represented as a reduction of average use or as a percent of average. I'll list both so as not to confuse anyone. There are seven categories for this project.

Gasoline:  The average American uses 500 gallons of gas per year. So  a typical family of four would use 2000 gallons a year. I break that down to 166.67 gallons a month. We used 230.72 gallons over a year. That is 19.2 gal/month and is 11.5% of average or an 88.5% reduction . And as reported previously, this does not include airline trips taken in November or any other time. So to be completely honest about the whole deal I am figuring up what these flights actually cost in terms of fuel use. I did a bit of research and found that according to one source a long haul flight gets 30mpg/person. Another site helped me figure out how many miles from home to Honolulu. 9,650 miles divided by 30mpg gives me 321gallons per person and with four of us equates to burning 1,287 gallons of gas for our vacation. A vacation I might add was planned and paid for 8 months before the riot began. Then in October my husband took my son to visit his Aunt and Grandmother. That adds another 198 gallons. Then in February our daughter flew to Indianapolis with my mother to go to a wedding and that adds another 73.4 gallons. So the grand total is really 1789.12 gallons. And that my friend brings us way down, or way up to 90% of average use or a 10% reduction.

Electric: The average household uses 900 kwh/month or close to 11,000/year. We used 4983kwh over a year. That is 415.25kwh/month so our usage is 46% of average or a 54% reduction. Many people doing the riot have the option of buying green energy. Wind and hydro give you an additional 75% reduction and solar gives you 50%. We pay for 750kwh of green energy each month, only ours is 5% wind and solar combined and the other 95% is landfill gas. I was never able to figure out what further reduction we should get. If in fact I could get a 50% reduction that would bring our electric use down to 23% of average or a 77% reduction. If it was more of a 25% reduction then it would look more like 35% of average or 65% reduction. 

Therms:  The average household uses 83.3 therms of natural gas per month or 1000 therms over the season,  much of it is used for heating. We have used no gas heat this past year, but did heat water and cook with gas. We used 112 therms over the year or 9.3/month. That equates to 11.2% of average or an 88.8% reduction. Having purchased a solar water heater, our future outlook is 4-6 therms per month or about 60 therms per year. This would be 6% of average or a 94% reduction.

Garbage:  The average person creates 4.5 pounds of garbage per day. A typical family of four would then produce 540 pounds of garbage per month or a staggering 6,480 pounds per year. We created 157.5 pounds of trash and 402 pounds of recyclables during the past 11 months that I have been weighing ALL our garbage. Recyclables count 80% of trash so the 402 pounds becomes 321.6 pounds. Adding the two together gives us a garbage total of 479.1 pounds for the time period or 43.5 pounds per month. That gives us 8% of average or a 92% reduction.

Water: The average person uses 100 gallons of water per day. That is 400 gallons per day for a family of four and 12 Kgallons a month. Over the past 12 months we have used 26 kgallons of water. According to the Riot rules, water for irrigation of food is not counted. We had a drought during our growing season and are estimating we used 6kgal to water the garden. That leaves us with 20kgal to account for. That would mean we used about 1.7 kgal/month which is 14% of average or an 86% reduction.

Consumer Goods. The average American household spends $10,000 a year or $833 a month. We easily spent the average amount of money since we purchased quite a few high ticket sustainability items such as a solar water heater, two low flow toilets, a pressure canner, a water filter, a new freezer oh yes and new windows. Having recently moved into a new/older house we have many things to upgrade and certainly not just for cosmetic reasons. A new roof is in our future as well as some new flooring. Not calculated.

Food: Food is a difficult thing to measure. Do you measure by weight, serving or by dollars spent. I never did any of these things because I could not keep track to that degree. So I can only say that our family went from eating a diet of mostly processed foods to one of few processed foods. We mostly buy fruits and veggies that are local and in season or pick directly from our garden. I have been buying much of our food from bulk bins and cooking dried beans and grains from scratch. The ideal that we have been shooting for according to Riot guidelines is to eat at least 70% of your diet from local and organic sources. Then 25% of your diet can come from bulk, dry goods like beans and grains, also loose tea or fair trade coffee. Then wet goods like conventionally grown meat, fruits and veggies, oils and milk should only make up about 5% of your diet. This last category is what makes up the larger portion of the average American diet. We started out at least at average and have ended up making it to 35% local/organic, 50% bulk, and 15% wet, conventional. This is the category we need the most work in. Getting enough local food is hard in a society that doesn't value it. 

I enjoy calculating our numbers, heck I even enjoyed weighing all the trash. It was just so satisfying to see the difference you could make. Why don't you try some of the easier things. To make things even easier, there is a calculator on the Riot site that will figure things up for you. You don’t have to join the Riot, just become aware of how much of our planet's finite resources you are using.   

The best advice I can give anyone in how to make a difference to our planet is USE LESS. Use less of EVERYTHING.              ]]> http://wasteweardaily.wordpress.com/?p=185 Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:29:23 +0000 wasteweardaily http://wasteweardaily.wordpress.com/?p=185 Riot for Austerity/ 90% reduction project started last June 1st and our family joined in July. For those who started when the project began, the year has come to maturity. I had not planned on keeping data for another month, but since I did, I figured I would post it. I am pretty sure this will be my last update.

We are a  family of four, living in the USA,  so our numbers are compared to the average American or average American household. There are seven categories as follows. 

Gasoline: We purchased 20.1 gallons in June. The average American uses 500 gallons of gas per year. So  a typical family of four would use 2000. I break that down to 166.67 gallons a month. Our use of 20.1 gal was 12% of average.  

Electric: We used 456 Kwh from  June 12 to July 14 . The average household uses 900 kwh/month so our usage is 50.6% of average. We have started using the air conditioner full time and even though it is not set as high as last year, we are using less energy because we bought new windows last October. Our usage one year ago however was 884 Kwh for the same month.

Therms: We used 6 therms of natural gas from  June 12 to July 14. Our usage is 7% of average. We are only using natural gas to cook with currently. The average household uses 83.3 therms per month or 1000 therms over the season, much of it is used for heating. 

Garbage: We created 4 1/2 pounds of trash and 8 1/2 pounds of recyclables in June. We are at 2% of average.  The average person creates 4.5 pounds of garbage per day. A typical family of four would then produce 540 pounds of garbage per month. We have the smallest garbage can the city provides and we could go a whole month before our can was full. I put our trash out every two weeks. 

Water: We used 1 kilogallons from June 12 to July 14. It went down from 6!  I have not had to water our garden since it started raining June 1st.  The average person uses 100 gallons of water per day. That is 400 gallons per day for a family of four or 12 Kgal a month. Our 1 Kgal is 8% of average. Glad to be back to normal.

Consumer Goods-I dropped the ball on tracking this. I think I spent quite a bit less in this area, mostly because we did not need any more toilets. We did spend some money on chicken wire to build our chicken coop. I know we bought a  few more things, but no where near $833 the average family spends per month. 

Food: I think we did really well this month for food choices. I think our purchases ended up with local at 35%, bulk category at 50% and I think the wet, conventional, processed food is down to 15%. I have been to the farmers market almost every Saturday and am eating out of the garden as well.

Now that I have a years worth of information, I am going to do a year end summary, to show how our family fared over the course of a year. I said that last month, but have better numbers for this June than last, so will use this years. It isn't cheating since we didn't start the Riot till July anyway.

About a week ago I happened to look at my zucchini plant (while letting the dog run) and noticed a huge zucchini. I had pretty much given up on this plant, since most of the fruits develop some sort of disease and die just shortly after showing up. One survived, and it was big. I sliced it the long way, dabbed with olive oil and put it on the grill for dinner.

On Sunday a friend of mine and I raided another friend's basil patch. She was out of town, but asked me to cut all the stalks in half and take the top part before it went to seed. We divided the haul and I came home and (the next day) I made pesto sans pine nuts, which I didn't have, and with not quite enough cheese, because I had run out (and was too tired to run to the store) but it was still pretty good. Monday evening I fixed myself pasta with pesto - nummy!

Talking with folks who know about food, they explained to me that Pesto just means "paste" and I could create a pesto out of any green leafy thing and any type of nut. Something to think about.

I FINALLY planted basil seeds for myself. I just dumped what was left of the packet of seeds (after planting seeds for others several months ago) into an old wheelbarrow with leftover potting soil from last year. Three days later the new plants emerged from the soil

The second round of string beans are getting larger and I should be able to begin eating these soon. I have a few more cucumbers ready for slicing. I have two very large acorn squash growing, and I discovered one tiny butternut squash growing. The tomatoes are plentiful - but all still green.

I'm still not using my air conditioning - and with the ceiling fan in my home office - the temp is roughly 90 degrees inside, and had been for the last few days. The heat has had an enormous impact on my motivation and attentiveness, and I often find myself napping in the late afternoon. Last night there were some storms - FINALLY RAIN - and it feels a good 10 degrees cooler outside. Hopefully that will help the situation.

In the mean time, my tomatoes are getting bigger, and I'm eating lots of green beans off of my plants. The various squash are doing very well, but the peppers don't seem to be growing at all.

Yesterday I went to see if my zucchini was doing anything - and there was this HUGE veggie on the vine. I brought it in and had about a third of it for dinner. Not as tender as a smaller plant would have been - but mighty tasty none-the-less.

On Saturday evening I had dinner at a friend's house. This is one of the homes for which I planted lots of veggies and herbs. On Saturday I harvested basil for a wonderful pasta dish and watched as the chef of the house whipped up home-made dressing. Making pesto normally takes me hours, because I do it all at once. His pesto took just minutes because it was just enough for the evening's dinner. I think that even I could make the dressing he put together - balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, brown sugar and garlic olive oil. Yummy

Today I am going to FINALLY plant my basil seeds, and will plant a few more bean plants as well.

I've been helping a friend paint a the inside of an un-air conditioned house, and after about 3 hours I find myself exhausted by the heat. I worked with another individual building a platform for church, and after a few hours outside in the heat, I find myself almost sick. Even working in my home office with the ceiling fan going, I find myself sapped of energy.

In the last few weeks I've really not done much other than work and rest. I've picked and eaten a cucumber - it was just OK. I picked and ate a zucchini - also, just OK. I think I picked both of them before they were ready to be picked. I've eaten a bunch of green beans - wonderful! I planted a few more green bean seeds since they seem pretty easy and quick to get to the good stuff. I also picked 2 snap peas - also wonderful.

For now, I'm just going to take it easy in the heat and continue to drink lots of water.

• my chosen family
• my friends
• chocolate
• my house
• my car
• heat in the winter
• fans and air conditioning in the summer
• water
• food
• options
• my church community
• the color green
• lakes and ponds
• canoes and quiet boats
• birds
• my clients
• my cat and dog
• my memories
• peace in my backyard
• trees

Black Raspberries: For the last two weeks I have been gathering black raspberries from the bush in my back yard. I didn't plant it, and it wasn't here when I purchased my house - so I am thankful to the birds who pooped in my garden. This is the first year I have gotten more than 3 or 4 berries since the bushes appeared 5 years ago. Usually the birds will eat every ripe berry before I get to it. For some reason, this year I was spared. Was it because my neighbors put in several bird feeders? Or, perhaps it was because my dog loves to chase anything that moves in the yard - from squirrel, to rabbits to birds? Whatever the reason, I am already thinking about next year and how to increase production (and ease of getting to the berries). No, I didn't have enough to freeze, but I was able to forgo my daily purchased raisin consumption and instead had fresh berries on my cereal. Yum!

Tomatoes: I must have started 25 tomato plants back in February. I now have 6 left. The reason? I have passed them on to neighbors and friends for their yard. These are folks who would not have grown a plant had I not either given them the plant, planted the plant in a pot, or showed them how to plant a tomato plant in a larger pot. I guess at one point in time or another, we all needed to have someone show us how to do something for us to feel comfortable enough to actually do it ourselves. Well, up until a few weeks ago I was snipping the buds off the plant so that the stem could become stronger. Now, I have plants loaded with those little yellow buds, and one plant that has three small green tomatoes on it. Now I'm beginning to wonder if I should have kept more plants for myself. Next year, I will plant all the tomato seeds - now that I know when is a good time to start the plants and how easy they were to grow. Live and learn.

Zucchini: I have two zucchini growing right now. I had another one, but it ended up rotting on the vine while it was still small. I don't know why. I will pick the larger of the two in the next few days. It still seems a little small, but that may be because the plant is in a pot.

Cucumber: I have several plants that have vined out nicely and I have one large cucumber ready for harvest. The plant itself is turning a little yellow, so I hope it is not dying on me. I probably won't grow these again as I recently read that they have no nutritional value. I enjoy them, but next year I will be more careful with my water and space and grow something with nutrition.

Acorn and Butternut Squash: I get the feeling that these were something I could have waited to plant. Both of these plants (I have several of each) are so large and healthy looking!

Bush Beans: Mmmm... I've been eating (snacking, really) off of these plants for about a week now. I only planted about 6 of these - next year I will have to plant more, because they seem pretty easy. Perhaps the least problematic of anything I have grown this year.

Snap Peas: I'm not sure how these will turn out. They are viney and the vines don't seem very sturdy. So far I have seen one bloom... we'll see what happens.

All the rest... well, some have made it this far and some haven't. This was a real learning year for me - the first time I have tried to grow more than two or three different types of food.

This is all common sense stuff but here's the rest -

Petrol - My husband car pools to work with 3 other people. It is a 65km round trip, most week days. We walk to almost all local (in our town) stuff and if I do drive to work (1 or 2 days a week which is about 15kms away) I do our grocery shopping on the way. We would drive to Sydney ( 100kms away) about once a month and usually do errands along the way. I prefer to catch the train to Sydney but it's not always practical. Along the way, when I was studying, I switched to correspondence/distance education to cut down on both fuel use and time spent travelling.

The only thing to add is that out car is small 4-cylinder hatchback that uses between 4-5 litres per 100kms (same as a Prius though not as comfortable) on the open road. The car is ten years old. We use the highest octane petrol available because it is more efficient, gives you more kms for your money and prolongs the life of your car. This is all better for the atmosphere too. I should add that my husband does the maintenance services for the vehicle himself. He changes the oil every 5,000kms not 10, 000 kms because more frequent oil changes also prolong the life of your car engine and promote better fuel efficiency. We take the oil for recycling to our mechanic. Since we are travelling much less now than when we worked (and commuted) in Sydney, the need to change the oil etc. has also been reduced.

Gas - Heating is our major area of reduction problem as our efforts still do not make the deep cuts necessary. To minimise gas heating use, we have insulated our wooden floor with concertina foil batts (this has reduced temperature loss by 20%) and I am in the process of making calico ( part of my stash) window quilts to put up over the blinds at night to minimise heat loss. We have alot of glass for a small house; 80 sqm including the front deck/verandah and according to our postman live in one of the two coldest streets in our town.

With regard to the central heating, it is used for about 2-3 hours per day and turned on/off manually and only the rooms in use have their radiators turned on. We don't heat the house at night and really have no need to - it's not that cold. Blankets and hot water bottles are very useful.

For cold feet, when you feel particularly chilled to the bone, a ginger foot bath will warm you up. Place either a few drops of oil or some grated ginger into a small tub filled with warm/hot water. Soak away. Take care, if the water is too hot, the combination of the warming ginger and hot water will be unbearable.

Food - Accept seasonality but also preserve foods when they are plentiful, so that they get you through the lean period. For example, between August and October, is a lean time for local fruits; apples/pears have ended and summer fruits haven't started.....so to avoid buying fruit from elsewhere, we will be preserving more fruit this year. Bottling and drying are my only options as I don't have much freezer space.

We eat a diet based primarily on vegetables, grains, fruits, eggs/dairy with small amounts of red meat and chicken that is local and pasture raised. We grow some food here (herbs, potatoes, garlic and root vegetables do well)- summer being much better than winter. My sister's garden is nearby - I've got some sweat equity there and my mother's Sydney garden provide a lot of seasonal, perishable vegetables like greens, beans etc. are covered. The productivity of these gardens is increasing. My mother's garden also provides citrus, figs and papaya. We are very, very fortunate that her garden is already highly productive and that she is generous!

Other sources for local food includes our food co-op (for bulk items and spices too) and local markets. I will buy locally grown produce over organic that has travelled, milk being the only exception. We cut things like maple syrup from our diet because local honey is just as good (better?)- different but just as good. Like the TV, I don't miss it.

Finding local sources for food, has at times been frustrating especially on the dairy front. Discovering the growers, the networks and so on, intially takes time but has been a great thing to do and it's been surprising how much food is in your local area. The other thing you discover is that there used to more food production in most areas but land speculation and development has killed it off.

These are the details of what we did in our attempts to achieve the reduction targets. It is the first part of a what is a long post. It seems like a strange thing to tabulate but with the use/price/availability/cost of energy an ever escalating issue, it may amount to more than a fringe experiment or some middle-class, bleeding heart hand wringing.

Electricity - If an item is not in use it is switched off. The exception to this is the fridge and the cordless phone answering machine. I was turning the phone off too and using an ordinary phone but there were complaints from interstate relatives not being able to leave messages and so on. Everything else is switched off - heating controller and gas hot water units when I remember, modem, the electric gas igniter on the kitchen stove...all of it. All lights that we use are CFL's.

We stopped watching the TV (have given it to one of my sisters) and also sold the dryer which we hardly used anyway.

So what can you run on 2.2kWhs?

An energy efficient fridge which is about 2 years old. Also to improve its power efficiency, it sits about 15 - 20cm away from the wall to allow for better air circulation. I bought a fridge thermometer at a garage sale which sits in the fridge and has enabled me to turn up the thermostat but still maintain the food at a safe handling temperature. I did also did this to the freezer. Most people have their fridge thermostats set at unnecessarily low levels which does little to prolong food shelf life but uses more energy.

4 loads of a small (5kg) capacity front loading washing machine which is about 10 years old and quite energy efficient but not as water efficient as more recent models.

The vacuum cleaner once a week. We use a broom at other times and we take our shoes off at the front door to minimise dirt. This has been very necessary with all the rain we've had - sections of our yard that were hard, you now sink into.

Answering machine phone thing, stereo - amplifier and cd player whenever we feel like listening to music, modem, wireless/airport and laptops....I would use the computer for about 2 hours a day. When I was studying this could be up to 6 hours or more but that is not the case now. My husband uses his laptop irregularly but can have spurts of increased use which are work related. All the computer equipment is switched off when not in use. We were doing this anyway, as we have power blackouts in storms and the like.

In the kitchen, we use a toaster daily and about once or twice a week I will use an electric mixer to knead the sourdough until I can handle it and to also to make butter. We would use the food processor and juicer infrequently. We use the dishwasher infrequently as it uses a lot of power ( compared to our other use) although it is water efficient. I would guess that we've used it about once every 3 weeks over the last year mainly if we've had guests and needed to clear space in the kitchen.

Garbage - To reduce garbage and recycling, I have tried to stop all mailed catalogues and advertisments. We have a no junk mail sticker on our letter box and this stops almost all unsolicited catalogues. However, most paper that does make it into the house, is re-used if it can be, or feed to the worms or composted. All vegetable scraps are also feed to the worms or composted. We plan to add chickens this year, which will give us eggs and manure for the garden.

We buy what we can in bulk or take our own containers/cloth bags to the food co-op. We buy very few food stuffs that are processed elsewhere. This means that I have started making mustards, vinegars, butter,some cheese, more syrups/jams than I used to. I already baked bread ( cakes and biscuits) and we have always cooked from scratch (as the Americans like to say). There are health and financial benefits to this as well and a certain freedom from the supermarket.

I wash any plastic bags that make it into the house (except the ones that had meat in them) and re-use them. We have used rechargeable batteries for years and repair items when needed including shoes, bags and clothes.

Also, I use a keeper and cloth pads when I'm menstruating. TMI, maybe but it's not gross (that's for the benefit of my sisters should they be reading!)

Water - We have rainwater tanks for the garden. Since it has rained almost constantly since November 2007, we haven't really had to water the garden much.

Showers are short and we have a low flow shower head fitted. We had already put a brick in our lowish flush toilet cistern and adopted the "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." mantra.

While we wait for our water to heat up (for a shower), we collect it in a bucket and use it for washing laundry, cleaning, to flush the toilet or before it started to rain I used to water the garden.

I'm still working on ways to cut the water used in the laundry. This is ongoing. I have been re-using the last rinse water to wash the next load. This has reduced the water use in the laundry by 30%. Interfering with the wash cycle of a front loader is not an easy task. A combination of soaking and agitation in the tub and a rinse spin in the machine is more water and power efficient, produces better results but does take more time.

The remaining categories will be detailed in the next post.

We had quite an assembly line going (actually more of a circle.) Some of us with more "limited" textile abilities traced the patters out on flannel, terry cloth and baby dry (the moisture barrier) or cut the fabric. One person ironed seams, another attached the terry cloth to the moisture barrier, I attached all the pieces once done, then sewers sewed and sewed and sewed. More ironing was done, and here we have them:

We had someone as young as 10 helping with this project, and a woman who is in her 80's and home-bound asked if she could help with this project as well, and will cut the Velcro pieces for the sewers on Saturday. Three men were there, also - two with sewing machines and one with coffee cake. The Rector of the church even brought her sewing machine and worked with the group.

Many in this group asked if we could do this again it was so much fun! I will see if we can get a little PR about this project in town (no papers showed up on Saturday) and see if we can get folks in other churches or in the community to contribute money for more fabric so we can do this again. The cost per unit with all the discounts and sale table items I got was just under $2 per pad and extra terry cloth insert.

I started in June of 2007 with the goal of a 90% reduction. THAT didn't happen, but I am still happy to report that I DID have a significant decrease - both from the Average American Household (or Average Individual Usage), as well as from my own usage a year ago (when I had those numbers.)

My ONE YEAR:

Electric Usage (for July-June) was 3,876 kwh. This is…
…down 64.78% (7,128 kwh) from the national average.
…down 44.36% (1,765 kwh) from my own usage during the same months 12 months prior.

I just have to realize that, since I run a business out of my home with all the required equipment for this purpose, I won't be able to decrease my electric usage the full 90%, and will just have to be happy with the progress I made for the year.

Natural Gas Usage (for July-June) was 419 therms. This is…
…down 58.08% (580.80 therms) from the national average.

I have some caulking and insulating to do this summer. That should, hopefully, help the numbers for next year.

Water Usage (for June-May) was 21,750 gallons. This is…
…down 43.65% (16,850 gallons) from the national average.

I get water bills quarterly. Since the numbers listed include months when I wasn't participating in the Riot for Austerity, my next quarterly statement and the previous three will give me a better look at what I was able to do. Every quarter my numbers look better. However, this is not a bad start.

Consumer Goods (for July-June) was $302.90. This is…
…down 96.90% ($9,697.10) from the national average.

First off, I hate to shop - so this was not too tough for me. This dollar figure includes things like paper towels, garbage bags, $78 for clothes and shoes, $35 for storage units, and $42 for items like toothpaste, tooth brushes, deodorant, shampoo, soap, laundry and dish washing soap, etc., the rest was for things from places like Home Depot for household repair and lawn care. I rescued many items (clothes included) destined for the trash.

Auto Gas (for July-June) was 217.30* gallons. This is…
…down 54.56% (282.74 gallons) from the national average.

* I had the July and August of 2007 numbers, and the oil tag that gave the mileage of the last oil change in mid-August of '07. When I subtracted the mileage from August of '07 from my current mileage, I had 3,943 miles (yeah, it's past time to get my oil changed.) Back when I kept better track of mileage, etc. I got roughly 23 miles to the gallon. If I assume that is correct still, and add in the full July and August numbers from last year, I end up with 217.30 gallons of gas used.

I realize this isn't exact - but it should be pretty close.

Well, there you have it. Not a 90% reduction, but still a decent reduction in these areas. Now, can I beat these numbers for the next 12 months?

zucchini

cucumber

ain't they cute! And my previous question about cucumbers dropping the flowers with nothing to show... it turns out it was the squash doing that. I forgot to label them when I planted them. I imagine I will have a few more surprises with my other vining plants: acorn squash, butternut squash and cantelop.

I had hoped to show you all the local compost and mulch area near my house, but I got side-tracked first thing this morning and didn't get over there... perhaps another day soon.

It goes like this - we gave it a go and didn't make the targets in all areas but we made significant reductions in most areas. And to reprise what my dear father said to me when I came home with a 99% test score and topped my class, "Great result but there is still room for improvement." And so in honour of my dad, we will keep trying.

One of my fellow rioters put together this post as a guide. I really think and agree with him that whilst you may not succeed in or be able to do all things, do what you can. Not much of an ask really! I will (separately) post what we did to achieve the reductions in each category and perhaps a final R4A post on what I really learned by doing this.

And so to the numbers:

Electricity- Our average use is 2.2kWh per day (it will rise in winter to about 2.8kWh - I think) Without the Green power, this represents a 90% (88% on the winter figure) reduction on average use. We do buy green power so if that is factored in we are carbon neutral....what ever that really means?

Gas - Average Summer use is 25mjs per day, average winter use is 140mjs per day. This is for cooking, heating and hot water. The summer daily average is 76% below average, winter use is 30% above average.

Let me just say, I regret swapping to gas powered hydronic heating....I love the radiators but we could have had this system with a wood stove (that you could cook on too!) Our decision was made when we were still commuting to Sydney for work and a gas-powered, press a button system seemed more convenient. How do you account for a shift in thinking?

Water - 90 litres per person per day. This is a 49% reduction from starting point of 175 litres per person and 75% reduction on the state average.

Garbage - 95% reduction. We started at about 86% of the national average - I had hoped that we'd be have no waste but alas escaping small amounts of plastic seems to be my continuing nemesis.

Food - This is the area I loved the most. It was difficult, at first, to try to source local food (in the Southern Hemisphere June 1 2007 was autumn/winter) but it got easier. During the summer and autumn, we did make or better the targets of 70% local food, 25% bulk and 5% wet/transported.

Trying to improve my own food growing efforts is what I will be focusing on and if I can grow food ( however modest ) in my steep, semi-shaded back garden then so can others. Some neighours have made noises about removing the radiata pines that partly shade us and others....fingers crossed.

Petrol - We used about 60 litres (total) of petrol per month. This includes public transport. This is a 70% reduction on our state average and a 50% reduction on our starting point. If I include the air -travel to see my husband's family (Did I try to get out of it? Oh yeah! Air travel/flying is not my forte!) our total reduction in fuel is 57% of the state average.

Consumer - We achieved an 87% reduction on the national average of $15,000 in this category.

If I include some infrastructure expenditure (water pump, floor insulation, re-wiring) and not to be repeated expenses (sewing machine shared with my sister) and tuition ( however my studies went on hold whilst I grapple with what to do with my life!!!!!) then our total reduction is at the 75% below average which was our starting point.

I have been busy working on various projects (along with working on that job that pays the bills.)

First, a question. I have two cucumber plant that keep dropping their flowers without growing any fruit - why? and what can I do to fix this?

The Goods 4 Girls sewing circle will be this Sunday at Trinity Episcopal Church; 600 North Euclid from 9am to 1pm in St. Louis, MO. If you live in the area, please join us. I selected and purchased the materials yesterday (a total of over 60 yards.) I am very fortunate that the wife of one of the members of my church works at a fabric store, and she was able to grab a large amount of fabric at a sale price and also get us a very nice discount on materials on top of that. She also cut patterns for our group and wrote out step-by-step instructions, which I gave to one of the folks who actually knows how to sew. I think my job will be the tracing and cutting and maybe pinning. This woman also said she would pre-wash and dry the fabric and deliver to the church on Thursday - which is good, because (as I told her), I'm not sure how I would dry 12 yards of fabric (the longest piece) on my clothes line. :)

Yesterday I worked on the press release to send out to the papers for the G4G event, hopefully this will get more people involved in the project. No guarantees, we are competing with the Race for the Cure in town, and about 1,000 other activities that day, including, (shameless plug coming...) the Gay Street Fair in Belleville, IL where I will have a booth of my art from 6-10pm.

Yesterday morning I opened the church hall (the parish administrator is on vacation this week) so members of the Arts Committee could hang the new exhibit - "Heavenly Beings." Below is my entry - made from an old fan belt, soda tabs, bottle caps, Mardi Gras beads, dried beans and stones. It is called "At God's Command."

"At God’s command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home." (From the BCP Eucharistic Prayer C - I really like that imagery.)

If anyone is in the area on Sunday the 22nd (yes, it will be another very busy weekend!) stop by Trinity (address under G4G,) from roughly noon to 1pm, have a glass of wine or soda and some goodies, and see the exhibit. The exhibit will be hanging for the next few months and available to be seen during the work week as well. Our next exhibit will be "The Environment" and will open in September to coincide with the 7-week Creation Series put together by our Environment Group. More on this later.

It looks to be another beautiful but hot day in St. Louis and I hope to be able to take a bit of time to enjoy the day. I hope you enjoy yours as well.

A week ago she said she wasn't going to be blogging anymore. I was shocked! What would a work day be like without a dose of Crunchy's humor and her environmental challenges?

Thankfully, like many of us, Crunchy is addicted to blogging, and hasn't really left us - at least not for the moment.

But, it must have been the fear of Crunchy's departure that must have gotten a few other eco-bloggers thinking about all that her blog had done for the rest of us, and they started a tribute site for Crunchy Chicken. You can click on the picture below for more info.

Deanna, aka Crunchy Chicken, is one who started the Goods 4 Girls project a number of months ago. This is a project I can really get behind! Having organized an art exhibit at my church last year on the Millennium Development Goals, I can tell you that the Goods 4 Girls project works toward both #2 and #3:

MDG #2, Achieve Universal Primary Education
MDG #3, Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

That is why, after several months of organizing folks from my church, on the 21st of this month I have sewers and non-sewers alike (like yours truly, who hasn't sewn since 8th grade home ed almost 30 years ago) who will get together to cut fabric (the non-sewers) and sew pads for the Goods 4 Girls project. I'm happy to report that we have almost as many men who will be sewing as women. I am working with Jackman's Fabrics in St. Louis who has, not only offered us a nice discount on their fabric for this project, but also agreed to sew some of these pads themselves at one of they monthly employee sewing gatherings. In addition, I have solicited donations for funds to purchase the materials from the fabric store - enough for roughly 50-60 pads. I will let you know how many we actually get sewn on the 21st.

I'm hoping the local St. Louis newspaper will show up and write something about this project as well - Goods 4 Girls is really a very special project.

I'll let you know how well we do after the 21st.

It is always so much fun when you teach someone how easy it is to grow veggie plants. How and why you plant tomatoes deep, how to loosen the roots, why you can't put plants so close together because they will have to compete with nutrients, and why it is important to make sure they are watered well - especially since they are in pots. It will be fun to see that small patio covered in cucumber and cantaloupe vines and see the two tomato plants grow taller and produce goodies, the pea and bean plants get bigger and the herbs grow tall. I even had him plant basil seed (they're so small!) It will be great for them to have all these goodies, especially since the friend who was not able to plant with us is an incredible cook (people pay his to do this for them when he isn't working his day job.)

Just love sharing the fun and joy of plant growing!

BEFORE

Yes, this ivy-be-gone process has been a long, long one, and I am still not at completion, but am feeling much better about the progress. So much so, that I actually took plants out of pot and planted them in the fairly amended soil after painstakingly going through all the soil for ivy roots. I planted six snow pea plants that had finally sprouted, six green bean plants that had just sprouted, two tomato plants from larger pots, an acorn squash plant and a large cucumber plant also from pots.

CURRENTLY - there is still ivy to the right and a little ivy under the large piece of tree on the left.

I still have quite a bit left to pull, and I have started loosening the soil on the ground level and have actually put another squash plant there. I need to amend a little more before I plant more, and am toying with getting some RR ties this year and put in amended soil before planting any more.

I started a new book, mowed a section of my yard (there are five sections and I generally do just one at a time), grilled a little, took several naps, and decided to pray in the church of my backyard instead of at the old stone one I normally attend.

Last evening a neighbor came over and I gave her the plants I had grown from seeds for her to take to her house now that they are large enough - and this chef brought me a delicious meal. Tomorrow I will be heading to good friends with lots of plants to be potted into larger pots and be grown on their patio - and I'm guessing they will feed me as well. Ah, life is good!

I've joined several challenges recently -- some that last a year, some that last a month, and one that will last 3 months (Diva Cup Challenge).  I've explained in earlier posts, at least a little bit, the Riot for Austerity and the Growing Challenge and the Independence Days Challenge.  I realized I better explain the others.  Michelle at Green Bean Dreams came up with the "Be A Bookworm" Challenge for May.  We participants each read one or more books in May that were ecologically oriented, or about learning to live simply or be more self-reliant.  This challenge has now continued on into June -- maybe it will just be an ongoing thing -- lots of us are always reading a book or two!  Crunchy Chicken has been trying to encourage women to stop using disposable menstrual products for a long time now.  She's a particular supporter of the Diva Cup.  Recently she held a drawing where the winners would get free Diva Cups.  But the catch was, anyone who entered the contest had to agree to use the Diva Cup for the next three months, whether they won the drawing or not!  Now Chile has offered the Quit Now Challenge to give up an addiction for a month, in the name of increasing self-reliance and with the idea that eventually, lots of the things we are addicted to won't be available any more, and it will be a lot less stressful to quit those addictions now, than to do it in a time of turmoil.

Each of these challenges has a "button" I've posted over on the right-hand side of the page.  (However, some of them seem to disappear regularly and only sometimes can I figure out how to get them back, so if you can't see them all, that's why).

Anyway, here are my updates for the challenges I haven't been otherwise reporting on:

Diva Cup challenge:  I bought one, but it arrived too late for me to use it in May.  Once the time comes in June and I get a chance to try it, I'll report how it goes!

Be A Bookworm Challenge:  In May I finished reading The Forager's Harvest, which I started in April, and then I read two other books:  Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, and Plenty.  Here are my reviews of these books:

The Forager's Harvest, by Samuel Thayer. I didn't read all the plant descriptions, only the ones I was familiar with or that I thought would be found in my area. However, the introduction is so powerful that it's worth getting the book (at least from the library) just to read those few pages. He describes foraging for food in terms of its history – that is, the cultural path that has gone from foraging as the only option (originally) to the current time where not only do most people not forage for food, but it's actually acquired a negative reputation: “only poor people forage” is the implication now. He also describes in rather blunt language what he thinks is wrong with other edible plant books, and which ones he thinks are worth having as references. He's pretty persuasive in that area as well.  Definitely worth a peruse!

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. They are talking about shifting manufacturing to be sustainable, ecologically. They emphasize the importance of manufactured items being designed to be deconstructable at the end of their lives, and the resulting pieces being used again and again, indefinitely. They divide all components of manufactured items into two categories: biological nutrients and technological nutrients. Biological nutrients are organic materials (animal, vegetable, mineral, water, etc). When they are not contaminated with technological nutrients, biological nutrients can be safely composted (ie discarded), returning their nutrients to the soil and becoming food for some other species in the ecosystem. Technological nutrients are processed metals or chemicals, toxins, fossil fuels, etc.  When not contaminated with biological nutrients, technological nutrients can be retrieved at the end of a manufactured item's life and re-used at an equally “high” level in another manufacturing process. In order to be able to 100% safely compost biological nutrients and 100% re-use technological nutrients, manufactured items must be made with this cyclical future in mind, and designed so that the biological and the technological can be completely separated. They also talk a bit, favorably, about shifting to a service economy, where the manufacturer maintains ownership of an item, and contracts with the customer for the service only. This is an idea that's been tossed around for a few years now -- for example, instead of buying a refrigerator (which you then have to discard at the end of its life, putting not only volume and toxins into the landfill, but "discarding" valuable materials that the fridge was made of, that now need to be mined/processed again to make more for the next fridge), you might instead buy “refrigeration services”. The company selling you this service will install a refrigerator in your home, but they maintain ownership of the machine. You are paying for the service the machine is providing. When the machine dies, the manufacturer will remove/replace the fridge, and it will be in their economic interest to retrieve and re-use the components of the fridge (metal, plastic, coolant, insulation, etc), instead of just taking it to the dump. I can see the benefits of this approach, but it's not without its problems too. What they are describing in Cradle to Cradle makes complete sense to me in concept, but I did feel a sense of sadness as I read, in that I think it's too late for the paths they are suggesting. I just don't think we have the economic robustness or the resources available to shift/rebuild the infrastructure in the way that would be necessary to follow their route.  One last note: the book is printed using the principles they espouse – the 'paper' it's printed on is actually a form of plastic, that can be fully re-used at the end of its life as a book. A side benefit is that it's waterproof! As someone who does much of her reading in the bathtub, I can tell you that I felt reassured by that, in case I dropped the book in the water (which I didn't). :)  On the downside, though, the book was heavy for its size, and bound in a way that made it hard to hold open with one hand. I suppose in the long run that's a minor detail. This book was not a fast read, it's a bit dense, but not overwhelmingly so. I heartily recommend it.

Plenty, by Alisa Smith and JB MacKinnon: Finished it tonight. Thanks again to Michelle at Green Bean Dreams and Katrina at Kale for Sale for their generous drawing in which I won this book! I won't review this book since others have (posted on GreenBean's site), but I really enjoyed it! I'll be offering it directly to a few friends, then when they are done with it, I'll be donating it to my local library so others can enjoy it.

For June, I'm hoping to read "Farewell, My Subaru" if I can get it from the library in time.  Whatever book I choose, I'll mention it here.  I'm also still in the middle of Michael Pollan's "Second Nature" and I will for sure finish that in June.

Quit Now Addiction Challenge:  Okay, for the month of June, I have three areas where I will alter my behavior to quit an addiction.  First, I will limit my internet usage to four hours a day.  I know that probably sounds like a lot, but I've been spending well more than that online recently, so that would be a healthy step back.  The exception, of course, is when I'm using the internet to do paid work.  I also have to remember that I don't watch tv, I don't generally use the phone -- internet is where I get my news and entertainment, where I stay in touch with friends and even family.  I think four hours should be enough to continue the things I think are actually valuable, but it will limit the mindless part of my online time and force me to plan my time better.  Second, I will not drink anything carbonated.  I don't drink regular soda, but I do have a fondness for Crystal Geyser juice squeeze (grapefruit flavor), and instead of having it occasionally as a treat like I used to, I've gotten into the habit of drinking it more often lately.  Third, I will not have any snack chips in June.  Again, I used to eat none of those, but over the past year or two I've started eating rice chips, tortilla chips, even potato chips now and then.  They're not all horrible nutrition-wise (in particular rice chips aren't so bad), but I've let my consumption go from occasional to frequent, and I want to get away from that.  I'll start by not having any in June.

So, if you're in the mood for a challenge, follow the links to some of these sites and sign up!  Or, offer your own challenge!

Here's the update on what I did and how it turned out:

1. Gasoline. Average American usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR. A 90 percent reduction would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.

Our use: With our family of three, we would be allowed 150 gallons per year or 12.5 gallons per month. HA! We live in a city where it would be very difficult to do things like see our families (who live about 15+ miles away) without using cars. They have complex calculations for using public transportation, and no mention of how to figure things like air travel (which, I'm sure, must simply be disallowed). Our average usage was 53 gallons per month in 2007 and 44 gallons per month so far in 2008 (although in May, we have used just 19 gallons so far). Composite average: 49.78 gallons per month or 40 percent of average.

2. Electricity. Average US usage is 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH. A 90% reduction would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH. Hydro and Wind are deemed to have a 4 to 1 payback over other methods - you get 4 times as many.

Our use: We pay a supplement to use all wind-powered electricity, so we get 360 kwh per month for our household with the challenge. Since the challenge began, we've averaged 486 kwh per month, or 54 percent of average. I don't know how they account for working at home, which in my case requires that our household use include two computers, a laser printer, fax, etc., as well as someone working in my office all day.

3. Heating and Cooking Energy - this is divided into 3 categories, gas, wood and oil. [We use natural gas.] US Average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR. A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR, or 8.3 therms per month.

Our use: Since the challenge started, we used 77.3 therms per month or 773 total for 10 months. We are close to average on this. We have a gas hot water heater, a gas furnace, a gas stove, and we live in Colorado. Again, I work at home so I am here all day. I also tend to be cold, so much so that my fingers turn blue even when the thermostat is set to 68 (which means the actual house temperature is 62 to 64 degrees), as it was this winter. I don't see a lot we can do here, although we turn the furnace way down at night, and I have tried to divert cooking from the gas stove to electric appliances. 93 percent of average.

4. Garbage - the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY. For our family of three, we are allowed 1.35 lbs per day.

Our use: We have generated about 455 lbs of garbage in the last 10 months, or around 1.5 lbs per day. This doesn't include recycling (I'm not sure of the weight, but we've filled our big cart 16.5 times during the past 10 months; if a full cart averages 30 lbs, that's 495 lbs) or things we've donated, given away or sold (another 582 lbs). 11 percent of average (or 23 percent of average including recycling). (Note: I saw a comment on that post suggested 2.5 lbs per person per day is average excluding recycling/compost -- I have not measured our compost weight. But we'd be at 20 percent of average for garbage using that figure.)

5. Water. The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY. For our family of three, that's 30 gallons a day.

Our use: We used 62,000 gallons during the past 10 months. That's about 206 gallons a day. We use a high-efficiency washing machine, an EnergyStar dishwasher that we run on the lightest cycle every time, I save water in the shower to re-use, and we avoid unnecessary toilet flushing. We water our lawn sparingly, but we do water it; we are converting part of our yard to xeriscape. The catch with this one? We grow a bunch of our own food, and that takes water. Imperfect science. 69 percent of average.

6. Consumer Goods. The best metric I could find for this is using money. A Professor at Syracuse University calculates that as an average, every consumer dollar we spend puts .5 lbs of carbon into the atmosphere. This isn’t perfect, of course, but it averages out pretty well. The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods, not including things like mortgage, health care, debt service, car payments, etc… Obviously, we recommend you minimize those things to the extent you can, but what we’re mostly talking about is things like gifts, toys, music, books, tools, household goods, cosmetics, toiletries, paper goods, etc… A 90% cut would be 1,000 dollars PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR

Our use: Suffice it to say that I spent $3,500 in the past year in the "household" category of my budget alone, which includes some new furnishings, painting our house, and investments in things like CFL bulbs and water-saving aerators, as well as garden supplies, cleaning products, etc. There's simply no way. And I must admit, I don't have a very big interest in not spending money to this extent. But I do work to buy used items a lot, and I am making a conscious effort to try to purchase things made locally or fairly as much as possible (my Target budget is nothing like it was a couple of years ago).

7. Food. This was by far the hardest thing to come up with a simple metric for. Using food miles, or price gives what I believe is a radically inaccurate way of thinking about this. So here’s the best I can do. Food is divided into 3 categories. ... #1 is food you grow, or which is produced *LOCALLY AND ORGANICALLY* (or mostly - it doesn’t have to be certified, but should be low input, because chemical fertilizers produce nitrous oxide which is a major greenhouse contributor). Local means within 100 miles to me. ... #2 is is *DRY, BULK* goods, transported from longer distances. That is, *whole, unprocessed* beans, grains, and small light things like tea, coffee, spices (fair trade and sustainably grown *ONLY*), or locally produced animal products partly raised on unprocessed but non-local grains, and locally produced wet products like oils. ... This should be no more than 25% of your total purchases. # 3 is Wet goods - conventionally grown meat, fruits, vegetables, juices, oils, milk etc… transported long distances, and processed foods like chips, soda, potatoes. Also regular shampoo, dish soap, etc… And that no one should buy more than 5% of their food in this form. Right now, the above makes up more than 50% of everyone’s diet.

I didn't even go there. All this tracking takes up tons of time. Maybe some day ...

How did I do?

Not that great. But it's really hard. One thing I've taken from this type of challenge is that these changes take an enormous time investment. To do them to perfection, one would have to return to off the grid, do it yourself. Like the pioneers. Only the pioneers were not holding down a full-time job, going to graduate school and transporting children to school and activities. We are, and I know from my two months of processing fruits and vegetables in most of my spare time last fall, there's only so much we can fit into a day.

Some argue that we should give up, for instance, soccer if soccer uses so many resources (gas to drive, uniform, ball, snack, game fees). But I have a hard time with depriving my kid or myself of normal life experiences when we are working hard in many ways to reduce our footprint. Likewise, our household suffers from high aesthetic standards. So I'm willing to make it myself, buy used, etc., but I don't want to be completely out of style or not maintain a certain level of comfort and attractiveness in my home, where I spend nearly all my time.

And some categories -- like using more organics or growing our own food -- reflect badly on other categories -- like spending money or using water.

What can I do?

We do have a few more goals in mind to help with our consumption:

• Gas: I want to look into carpooling my daughter to school next year. It is only 2.5 miles away, but the drive adds up. Carpooling might cut it in half. Mr. Cheap plans to take public transportation to his job, too.
• Water: We want to install rain barrels -- which, as I understand it, are on their way to legality in Denver.
• Food: Last year, I was not that impressed with our local farmers markets, but I did work hard to buy locally produced food or organic food at our grocery store. I will try the farmers markets again this year, or maybe join a CSA (I think I just found another local option that still has openings!). And we want to add more to our home food production, hopefully including chickens when we have a chance to get it together.

What do you think about these challenges? Are you determined to reduce in any particular area? Or do the challenges discourage you by showing just how hard it is?

The word stuffed is used to denote when we've had enough or are sated (think festive, celebratory lunch) and colloquially in Australia we use it to say we have reached the limit; we are really tired - with some regularity I say after gardening and limping back to the house, "God, I'm stuffed" - or that something has reached a point of no return - "That motor is stuffed" - but a "stuff up' also says, that a mistake has been made.

So what I'm wondering is, if we've reached the limit, does that mean we've had enough?

Here in St. Louis we have had well over a foot more rain than normal, and according to the weather channel online, the following nine days will have eight days of rain and one mostly cloudy day. Flooding has been a big issue around here. Not near me, thankfully.

My tomato plants are loving all the rain, and most of them are getting a pretty good size. My small cucumber plants, however, are looking pretty yellow - I think they are just waterlogged... even in the pots. My larger cucumber plants - the ones I started earlier - have gotten huge in the last week or two! It took a while, but the acorn and butternut squash have finally poked through the earth and I will put those into larger pots next week. Likewise, the beans and peas (only about half of which seem to have gotten a decent size) will need to be put into larger pots soon as well. The summer squash is looking a little pathetic, but the cantaloupe looks like it will do just fine. The scallions are coming up (they are so cute!) and cilantro is doing ok. The bell peppers took their own sweet time popping up from the dirt, but I am happy to say that they have emerged. Of course, there is mint - because you just can't make a mojeto without mint!

I was on overload for the past few weeks and took an extra long weekend (over and above the Memorial Day observance) and am now feeling much more serene. Now, if the sun would just come out I'd be a happy little camper!

I have had so much fun being a part of The Riot for Austerity/ 90% reduction project. The project started last June 1st and our family joined in July. There are a growing number of people all over the world, still joining this movement to help halt climate change. What are you willing to do to help save the world as we know it?

I finally have all my numbers for the month of April. As I stated last month, as part of The Riot For Austerity we usually figure up how we compare to the rest of the country in terms of consumption of resources. We are a family of four, living in the USA,  so our numbers are compared to the average American or average American household. There are seven categories. For two weeks we had my husbands mother staying with us so I will adjust the figures that are per person. 

Gasoline: We purchased 13.11 gallons in April. The average American uses 500 gallons of gas per year. So  a typical family of four would use 2000. I break that down to 166.67 gallons a month. Our use of 13.11 gallons was 7.9% of average.  Our 11 month cumulative total is 223.02 gallons or 12.2 % of average. And as reported previously, this does not include airline trips taken in November. If I add in two weeks of gas allotment for an extra adult, we come down to an even 7% of average, woo hoo!

Electric: We used 315 Kwh from  April 11 to May13 . The average household uses 900 kwh/month so our usage is 35% of average. Our lowest usage was in January and the numbers have been slowly climbing. We jumped from 25% last month to 35% this time. The warmer weather makes the fridge and freezer work harder. And one week before the meter was read we had our water heater switched from gas to electric to have a solar water heater installed. Electric is per household, but we did have an extra member for two weeks.

Therms: We used 9 therms of natural gas from  April 11 to May 13. Our usage is 11% of average. More hot water was used with an extra adult.  The average household uses 83.3 therms per month or 1000 therms over the season, since much of it is used for heating. We have used no gas heat this past year, but do heat water and cook with gas..

Garbage: We created 14.75 pounds of trash and 20.75 pounds of recyclables in April. Recyclables count 80% of trash so we are at 5.8% of average. If I figure in two weeks of an extra person it brings us down to 5.2%. The average person creates 4.5 pounds of garbage per day. A typical family of four would then produce 540 pounds of garbage per month. We have the smallest garbage can the city provides and we could go a whole month before our can was full. I put our trash out every two weeks.

Water: We used 4 kilogallons from April 11 to May 13. It went up from 2. We have been watering our garden since about April 11th. We went five weeks with no rain! The average person uses 100 gallons of water per day. That is 400 gallons per day for a family of four and 12 Kg a month. Our 4 Kg is 33% of average. The creators of The Riot say that water used to water your vegetable garden or crops does not count the same as household water use. We cannot separate the two. But I can guess that we used 2 Kg for household and 2Kg for watering. That would take us down to 16% of average. And if I add in the allotment for another adult for 2 weeks we come down to 14.9%.

Consumer Goods. Well during April I was participating in the buy nothing challenge with Crunchy Chicken.  I was not able to truly buy nothing. I bought 24 books from our friends of the library book sale. $16 but counts as $1.60 because they are used. We spent money on a camping trip for spring break, but didn't buy anything tangible. I did really need to buy my daughter some new tennis shoes for $21.85. Then our big expense/purchase for the month was a new toilet. $347.00.  It counts as half under riot rules since it is infrastructure to reduce usage. The average American household spends $10,000 a year or $833 a month. We spent adjusted $326.98 or 39% of average.

Food: This category is always hard for me. I just guess what I think we eat and spend money on and then I double check what my husband thinks. I think we did better than last month with local at 30%, bulk category at 45% and I think the wet, conventional, processed food is down to 25%. 

In summary our gasoline use decreased by 2 percentage points, Electric went up 10 percentage points, Nat gas use went up a percentage point.  Garbage had been dropping but went up 2 percentage points. Water use increased by 50% again, increasing 16 percentage points, but really staying the same for household use. Consumer goods is higher since we bought a big ticket item and will be next month since we plan to buy another toilet. And the food category is pretty much the same but with a definite move in the right direction….towards local!    

I have to say that my mother in law was a great sport the entire two weeks she stayed with us. She turned the water off while soaping up and shampooing, she sat outside and read books using natural light and enjoying the warmth(she is from Wisconsin). She gave us money for the farmers market and ate quite a bit of local vegetarian food. She even discovered some new foods she liked. It was a great visit all around!

If my mother in law can have a great time doing this, you can too. So why don’t you take some time to look at your utility and gasoline bills, and see where you fall on the percentage chart. To make things even easier, there is a calculator on the Riot site that will figure things up for you. You don’t have to join the Riot, just become aware of how much of our planet's finite resources you are using.                

In the past I have been frustrated when the water bill arrived, since I didn't think it adequately represented my use - in fact I was almost sure they were just guessing... no meter reading... just making up a number. After all, how many people actually scan their utility bills like all of us seem to do these days? A handful, maybe?

However, I received the most recent bill from the water company a few days ago, and am happy to report that my reduction efforts are finally showing up as a reduction on their love notice. This bill was for 88 days, and listed my usage for the period as 3,000 gallons, or 34.09 gallons per day. This is 5,800 gallons or 65.91% less than the average individual uses at 90 gallons per day. Finally my reduction efforts are starting to show!

I'm a far cry from the 90% reduction that was the goal, but I have reduced my usage from approximately 74 gallons per day (from the beginning of this challenge) to approximately 34 gallons per day.