Solar Baby

posted by katlupe on Apr 22

Horses’ Paddock

Everybody is all excited about Earth Day 2010 today. That is a good thing. People posting on Face Book telling others to shut off extra electrical gadgets among other things. It is good if people can get others to be concerned about our earth and the extreme waste of the human race. Though I fear, it is our country that is the worst culprit. Other countries seem to be aware of the impact of daily living on the earth. Just learning some new ways of doing things can be beneficial. Remember what you do is not just impacting your life and generation but the generations coming up. Native Americans always took that into consideration and they walked softly upon the earth.

Living off the grid with a small system makes it so you have to learn to do things differently anyway. You can’t  just hook up a dryer and use a microwave without studying your system and how it would handle those excess energy hogs. You learn to give up items to be able to have other things. It may seem to be inconvenient, but today when people were posting things to do for Earth Day………….I realized I already live that way. Those things are routine for me. We are very frugal with water, with our power, with food, with driving anywhere. I use a clothesline for drying my laundry. I do many things manually and I guess many people do not like to do that. I don’t mind. Some of those jobs are my favorites.

Pitcher Pump runs on human power!

We use a pitcher pump for our water, though that will be changing this summer, we have used it for 11 years already. In the winter our pipes are never froze! I can pour a cup of warm water down the pump and it thaws it and I can use it almost instantly. It makes a difference to have that fresh water all winter. We get all the water inside for the day in the morning. Then we usually have to bring the horses more water some time during the day. And again at their supper time. That is when we refill water in the house again. So hauling it by hand makes us very frugal with it. I will stay that way, I hope, once it is in the house and running through our pipes.

Neuton Electric Lawnmower

We use an electric lawn mower and garden cart that is charged on our own solar system. Ever since we bought this Neuton electric lawnmower in 2008, my husband has loved his job of mowing the lawn. He has four batteries and the easy process of changing the batteries while he works has made his job so much easier. He can just snap the battery out and exchange it with one that is already charged. Then he puts that one on the charger. It is charging while he is mowing and the sun is shining. No gas. No fumes. No breaking down. He loves it! My garden cart is just about the same except you have to leave the battery in so it has to be charged sitting in a spot for awhile. But it goes a long time on a charge. I can use it for days without needing a new charge. I use it for working in my garden and for hauling compost. I even used it last year for hauling firewood. It was worth every penny. The reason is that I have very bad legs and can hardly walk on some days. But this little garden cart has given me back my freedom. I can work holding onto the cart. I wish I could take it to the grocery store!

Hauling Wood with my Neuton Garden Cart

We use a wheel hoe for plowing our garden instead of a gas powered rototiller. Our plan is to replace our chainsaw with a crosscut saw. Soon.  Those things take time. We do things in  little steps. I have been doing many things to automate our household and business. I am also switching from store bought foods that cost too much money for what they are such as condiments and salad dressings, breads, etc. Foods that would be better for us without so much processing done by the manufacturer. So if I make them here at home at least the condiments and salad dressings will be in glass and not plastic. I hate plastic for any food item. I am working on that. So what are you changing in your life in honor of Earth Day? It is not as hard as it sounds. For me, it is my way of life.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

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posted by katlupe on Jun 2

Yes, you read that correct! We are now mowing our lawn with our solar power. Sure beats gas! As I have told you before our solar system is pretty small.  Yet it is large enough to mow our lawn. Now our lawn is not one of those small squares of grass that some homes have. We have a very large lawn and my husband also mows the strip along our horses’ paddock where the grass can touch our solar fence line. So he mows quite a bit. What is so great about the Neuton Electric Lawn Mower though is that we are charging it with our electrical system which as you know, is a off the grid solar system! We are charging it from the solar panels and the sun! Can’t beat that can you?

My husband really thought ahead when he ordered the lawn mower and purchased four extra batteries so he could be charging a battery while he was out mowing with a fresh one. The Neuton is so easy to use that changing the batteries takes him just the time it takes to walk in the house and take a fresh one out and put the used one on the charger. Maybe a minute…..he’s a fast walker!

Many of the other electric mowers have to be plugged in and if that is the case then you can’t be using it while it gets charged! Not a good idea. Another hinderance with those are that the cord can get in your way and maybe even get mowed over….connected to the electric plug.

Since the price of gas has gone up again it has become very important to save every penny you can and using our solar array to mow our lawn has become very handy for us. Plus the fact that my poor husband was inhaling all those gasoline fumes all the time he was mowing. We have never used a rototiller in our garden for that very reason. So why should he be using it on the lawn?

Our horses get so excited when he gets the Neuton out because he gives them the grass that accummulates in the bag catcher. Now he has always given them the grass clippings before…….but he raked it up for them instead of having the bag catcher. So that is pretty handy. But the big change is that the clippings now are not polluted with the gasoline fumes and must be much better for them. They seem to agree.

Looks like something from the future, doesn’t it? Well the truth is that the future has arrived! And we are trying to do our part with using less and simple living. Our lawn mower does a really good job and our lawn looks beautiful. It looks like a park. I highly recommend this lawn mower and even if you have to hook up to your utility grid, I suppose it would still be cheaper than using gasoline. Nothing beats living with your own solar system though…..unless you are using hydro power and wind power also! Now that would be a blessing to be getting power from all three power sources!

Copyright © 2009 Kathleen G. Lupole

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