With the days getting shorter, I went around the house and redid some of the lighting in the rooms I use the most. instead of using 3 13 watt cfls in a ceiling light here in the office, I now just use a small table lamp with 1 13 watt cfl. In the master bathroom, I took out 3 of the 4 13 watt cfls there. The kitchen is now lit with 1 13 watt cfl instead of 4 40 watt incadensents. The master bedroom now has 2 13 watt cfls instead of 8 13 watt cfls.
The heat pump water heater is set to vacation mode which provides warm, not hot, water and that's fine for me taking showers. I wash clothes in cold water only. When washing dishes in the sink, I get a gallon or so of warm water up to boiling on the gas stove and add that to the wash water.
Been keeping track of electicity use by reading the meter every week on Tuesday and it looks like I'll be using less then 200 kWhs of juice for the month. Looking at past bills at my other place, my estimate is the electric bill will be in the $50-$60 dollar range when all the extra fees and charges are added in.
The furnace is still off and will remain that way till about the middle of November. Depending on how cold it gets or how realitvely warm it stays. The lowest it's been in the house so far is 53 during a cold snap in September. It's 64 in the house right now as I write this.
Garbage here is minimal to say the least. A couple of days ago I went with the father-in-law to the landfill to help him unload his pickup full of garbage. My addition to the load was a small plastic bag that contained 2 empty cans of hair spray and 2 glass bottles plus a coffee can of broken glass. With metal cans, I'm doing the same thing here as at the other place and that's putting them soaking in the dish wash water after washing the dishes for about an hour. That way the paper peels right off. Then I wash them a bit and rinse them. After they dry, I bring them down to the basement where I crush them flat using a cement block.There's a lady in town who told me she brings her cans to a recycling place in another town. When I get bunch of flattened cans here, I'll give her a call and she can come and pick them up to bring to the recyclcing place. Non-glossy paper and cardboard I cut up into small pieces and put them in the compost bin. Glossy paper and plastic I burn in the burn barrel.
Been buying clothes at a second hand thrift store located in another town and I use my scooter for transportation. Might go there today or tomorrow to get a couple pair of blue jeans, heavy shirts for winter and maybe a pair of shoes if they have a set in my size. Altough I do have an appointment at a VA clinic in another town next Tuesday where there is a Goodwill store and a Salvation Army thrift store and the selection is much better then the little store here. So I may just hold off on clothes shopping till then. I do check out what's in the local store but finding anything my size and what I need is very much hit or miss.
The scooter has been great for transportation and I'll keep on using it as long as the weather holds up. Sure is nice spending just under $4 a week for premium gas. And that's if I drive it alot. The gas tank holds 1.3 gallons and I've been getting about 75 miles to the gallon. This allows me to make 3 round trips to town and back before having to gas up. My ex wife's SUV burned a gallon just to get to town.
The electric drip coffee maker is getting slow again so I'll clean it with white distilled vinegar, rinse it out good and then put it away. I'm making 2 quarts of cowboy coffee on the stove now for the first time here. When I was a kid, most everyone made their coffee that way. As I prefer my coffee room temp or cold, I'll let the cowboy coffee cool down to room temp before pouring it thru a fine mesh sieve into a 2 quart container to keep in the fridge. The coffee grounds will go into the compost bin.
Never was much of an ice tea man till this summer. A box of Lipton tea bags (100) doesn't cost much and store brands are even cheaper. I use 4 bags for 2 quarts so a box of tea bags lasts me for some time. The used tea bags go in the compost pile and the empty box I cut up into small pieces and put that in the compost bin also.
I've been keeping up on raking the yard of leaves which I've been putting in a pile in the fenced in garden. However, the trees still have most of their leaves yet so the major raking is yet to come!
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