Low Impact Lifestyle Journal

January 13th, 2010

6:30 AM  Furnace comes on

6:45 Greg gets up for his shower, Barbara lingers in bed

7:15  I get up and raises the thermal curtains.  Then I call Byron for school.

7:20  Byron wants oatmeal for breakfast so I cook some in the microwave and give him a protein bar.  Greg lets the chickens out of the coop and gives them fresh water and organic feed.  Byron didn’t finish his oatmeal so the chickens are feeling extra lucky today.  Greg has some cereal with almond milk for breakfast and I work on packing Byron's lunch for school.  Today is grilled cheese day so it’s a vegetarian lunch for Byron.

8:00  The furnace goes off for the day. I start up the dishwasher.  Its very full.

8:15  We walk Byron to school.  After Greg and I walk home, I have some cereal and a small piece of left over chicken.  Byron and I are both hypoglycemic so protein is an important part of breakfast for us.

9:00  Greg has left for work by now and I am talking with the neighbor, planning the day, making phone calls, checking and composing emails etc.  I put my computer to sleep and turn off the lights in the house.

10:00  I open the dishwasher before it gets to the dry cycle and let the dishes air dry then I head out for a jog.  Brisbane is laid out in radiuses around San Bruno Mountain so there are lots of choices about how steep your exercise is.  Brisbane is lovely with its small houses, trees and well kept gardens.  I went up the mountain though the houses, past the school, down Quarry Road Trail.  Then I cut back though the Dog park, past the basket ball court and skate park.  Then up again past the Community park and around to home.

11:00  Time to take a shower.  The grey water is still on bypass because we have been having a little rain off and on all week long. 

11:30  I decided to calculate my carbon foot print with a new online utility.  It goes fairly fast but still takes me a half an hour.  http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/personal_footprint/

12:00  This is my treat to myself.  I head into the living room and plug in the tv so I can watch Perry Mason over my lunch.  Lunch is a goose pottage made from a little goose I froze off after Christmas.  I put in lots of beans, rice, quinoa and root vegetables.  I remember to unplug the tv when Perry Mason is over.

1:00  Looks like I have to take the car out today.  Yuck.  I need some things for our kitchen and bath remodel so I head to the salvage yard.  No luck with a kitchen sink or a toilet.  I did manage to get the new cabinets, a vinyl remnant for the floor second hand on pervious trips, but it looks like the countertop, bath tub and kitchen sink will all be new.  I buy a sink from a local family owned business.  I also got the countertop from another local business.  Im going to continue to look for a salvaged toilet.  I still have some time for that.

3:00  Now its time to start the yard work.  Our banana tree went down and there is just a general cutting back of things.  I could use the electric hedge trimmer, but between being too lazy to get an extension cord and not really wanting to use electricity to do my work I just end up cutting everything back by hand.  Even with out the aid of electric tool I manage to fill both 60 gallon bins by the time its dark.

5:30  I get the thermal curtains down before the furnace comes back on and I walk up to the school to pick Byron up.  On our way home we collect up the mail and sort it for recycling and empty the dishwasher.  Greg comes home and coops the chickens and we work on the computers a bit.  Greg installs a new Eco-hard drive in the main computer that takes only 5 watts or about 20% of what a normal drive takes.  We thought it was great since the main computer is on all the time because we have our own server.

7:30 We eat pottage and salad for dinner.  Then its time for home work, reading, bath time and bed time.

8:30  Time to chill out.  Do a little more work on the computers and update my food spreadsheet Im keeping for Riot4Austerity.  Greg still has to get internet working again after installing the new drive and updating the OS.

9:30  Sew some buttons on by hand.

10:00  The furnace is off again.  Soon it will be time to snuggle into bed before it gets too cold.

So I used some electricity for the lights, tv, the computer and the microwave.  I used some gas to cook the grilled cheese and to heat the house in the morning and evening.  I used some gasoline to drive to the salvage yard.  Not my best day.  I consider my best days those I don’t have to drive my car.  I also had meat in all 3 meals which is very unusal for me although the amount of meat in the pottage was really tiny.