Snow Flurries!

Well, I put the Franklin garden to bed today. It's nice and cozy under 2 inches of manure and an inch of hay and leaves. The collard greens I planted this summer are knee high and beautiful, but everything else is gone. I've got seeds in from all the tomatoes and herbs and lettuces. And while all the fencing and tools aren't exactly in the shed, they are gathering near the shed. :-D

So, I thought I would take a moment to update my blog. Write down some of the numbers before I lose them. :-)

First things first, my Riot 4 Austerity totals for September that I figured out a couple of weeks ago and never got into the blog. :-D Remember, there are 7 categories and the experiment goal is to try and get to 10% of the American average for that category.

Transportation:
Hubby and I are down to one car, and we've moved to the same town where we work. So instead of the 30 gallons per person per week (300%) that we started the challenge with, we are down to about 10 gallons per person per week which is right at 100% of the American average.
We'll need to figure out the bus system to get it down further.

Electricity:
We are down to 419 kwH per household per month. That puts us at 46% of the average. Still going down as we replace lightbulbs. Although, my darling husband is horrible about turning off lights. It might go up a little bit this winter just due to less sunlight. We'll see.

Heating and Cooking fuel:
Our best category right now. We used 4 therms for the month of Sept. putting us at 5% of the American average. Our heater is gas, so I expect this to rise, hopefully not too much.

Garbage:
We just got a scale, and yes, I weighed our trash output for a couple of weeks, we throw out an average of 10lbs a week. We recycle everything, and I split the organic waste between the compost and the worm bin. That puts us at 16% of the American average.

Water:
The water bill cycles in the middle of the month, but for the 32 day period between 8/17 and 9/17 we used 1870 gallons per person. That's 62% of the American average. There's canning in that period, and a handful of baths, both of which will be no more as winter moves in. It's possible we could install a low flow shower head and get it down some, but our shower is jury-rigged in the basement, and I'm not really sure how they got the shower head on there to begin with. :-P

Consumer goods:
Mainly clothes this last month. Dave started a new job and needed nice new pants and I needed maternity clothes. I guesstimated 50$ a week on all of that. The rest of the baby gear has all been used and I've probably spent about 20$ a week on that stuff. All told we ran around 27% of the American average.

Food:
Our food breakdown is still really good since I'm still fixing some of the last of the veggies from the garden. We still have a half dozen braids of onions and garlic in the cellar. The farmers market supplies our fruit and other veggies. We'll eat garden food all winter with everything I've canned/dried/frozen. :-)

And, using the food category as a segue, here is the garden booty for the last bit of Sept.
Yellow Summer Squash: 1.766 kg
Eggplant 463g
Black from Tula 1.09 kg (these really started pumping out big ones.)
Green Zebra 1.613 kg
Striped Roma 188g Finally! The first and only 3 fruits from this vine. Usually doesn't take until Oct.
Stupice 530g
Moonglow 682g Some really pretty ones.
Amish Paste 1.309kg Definitely planting this one every year!
Green Zucchini 1.878kg These just get way out of hand with all the rain. This was only 2 zucchinis.
Buran Pepper 41 g A lonely little pepper. I am just not a pepper grower. :-P

I got my cold frame moved and put back together half way through Oct. I had to find 12 more bricks to add a third layer to the walls. It was originally built on soil, but it's now on concrete and I needed to build it higher so I can put soil in it. I got seeds put in it on Oct 30th. hee hee.. yea I know. REALLY late. But, better late than never right? I'll just call it an experiment. My "2008 Hardiness Trials." I have beets, spinach and kale in there. The kale and the beets and one of the spinaches are up already. :-) I'm not sure how everything will do, but I'm excited to see what does happen. The frame works, it keeps things warmer in there.. who knows if it's warm enough.
Hmm.. oh and the bermed house construction has started! I'll need to do a full post on that particular project, but it's nice to see things actually going in the ground.

Well, this post was long and full of numbers. :-) No more today. Something more interesting soon, I promise.