200!

Hard to believe this is the 200th post.
To celebrate, this post will be a rundown of the hippy causes, celebrations and events that I'm looking forward to this year.

I'm excited to report that Sharon is reviving the Riot for Austerity. Older readers will perhaps remember my posts with monthly updates on our family's austerity measures. (A search of the tag "Riot 4 Austerity" will bring them up if you're curious.) Here's Sharon on the start of the movement and a bit of the why behind it.

Almost exactly four years ago, my friend Miranda Edel and I were discussing the recent IPCC report on Climate Change and George Monbiot's book _Heat_ and the reactions that we got when we talked about about the sheer depth of the reductions in climate emissions that would be needed to stabilize the climate. Whenever we began to discuss emissions reductions on the order of 80 or 90% the universal reaction we got was that it was impossible - impossible to imagine living in the developed world on so much less. So impossible there was no point in even discussing or imagining it.

Miranda and I disagreed. We felt that this critical inability to conceive of what was necessary was something that we had to - and have to - overcome. Both of us were aware of material limits on a renewable energy build out, and the time frame for such a transition, and we knew that the evidence at the time increasingly suggested that we had to make our changes sooner than we could possibly imagine such an energy transition. Moreover, both of us looked at this through the lens of energy and resource depletion as well as climate change, recognizing that there were forces driving us towards a life with less whether we like it or not.

Someone, we agreed, had to take the very first steps to conquering the underlying doubt that we can change. Someone had to do the basic work of establishing a vision of a life in the Global North that doesn't include conspicuous consumption of energy. More importantly even, as long as we felt that our response to climate change and energy depletion had to wait on policy measures - to wait for the high speed rail lines and superinsulated new homes, to wait for carbon credits or whatever, we would not act. We needed to find a way to show that you can act right now - and make not a little tiny difference by carrying your cloth bag, but a big and measurable one - a change that nobody else thought was possible.

We stole from George Monbiot the wonderful line "Nobody ever rioted for austerity!" He was right - no population in human history has marched and demonstrated to have less. We figured we'd be the first.

Miranda and I set out to document our project and spend a year reducing our energy consumption by 90% over the average American's. What we didn't expect was that first dozens, then hundreds, and by the end, several thousand people joined us. We had expected to struggle. We hadn't expected to find community, and most of all, to have fun.

It's not yet up and running, there's talk of moving the group from the original Yahoo-group to something like a Facebook group. And of course, I'm still talking with my darling husband about how far we'd like to participate and what our personal goals will be. Watch for more updates, I'm excited!

World Naked Gardening Day is once again happening. This is year 6! May 14th, 2011.

Why garden naked? First of all, it's fun! Second only to swimming, gardening is at the top of the list of family-friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude. Moreover, our culture needs to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment. Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us--even if only for those few sunkissed minutes--that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet.

I'll be participating, but sadly not in my own garden. My garden is in the front lawn, on a semi-busy corner quite close to a catholic church and school. :-D :-D So, I'm sure I'd get a visit from the sheriff if i tried. Very unfortunate, but there's reality for you. So, I'll be participating, while at one of my other favorite celebrations, Interfuse!

Interfuse will be happening from May 12-14th, with Dave and I volunteering to help with the setup before hand, making it a really loong weekend of burner fun. 800+ burners, hippies and circus folk. With principles such as Leave No Trace, Radical Inclusion, Radical Self-Reliance, Radical Self Expression, Decommodification and Gifting it is a welcome retreat for this hippy. Leave no trace means when we're gone we don't leave behind trash, cigarette butts, damage to the environment, etc. Radical inclusion and self reliance means everyone is welcome, no matter how weird, but all are responsible for their own happiness and well being. There is no party planner, the fun is what we make on our own. Which ties into the radical self expression; art, costumes, shows are all encouraged and are given free reign. Nudity, burnable art, dancing, music, food, you name it, you'll see it at Interfuse. Decommodification means no money exchanges hands during the event, instead gifting is practiced, true gifts that have no requirements for equal exchange, or reciprocation.
In many ways Interfuse, (and other burner events) are like the Riot in that they strive to be an example, to prove that there are alternatives to the consumerist patterns that we live every day in the global north. To prove that there are other ways to organize and live peacefully.
Ticket sales are closed for Interfuse this year, but all are welcome to join the group and next year will be here soon. There are also other regional burns, if you don't happen to live in the Midwest.


World wide marijuana marches take place this month too.

The Global Marijuana March is an annual rally held at different locations across the planet. It refers to cannabis legalization related events that occur on the first Saturday in May, or thereabouts, and may include marches, meetings, rallies, raves, concerts, festivals and information tables.

A lot of them happened last Saturday, the 7th, but there are a few happening this weekend yet. As well as follow up events. Check it out!

This year will be another big push for the Friends of Iowa Midwives, we'll be trying once again to get legislation through the state legislature to certify midwives in our state. It's still too early to list events, but I'm looking forward to spending some time on it this year.

I'm excited to see how NW Iowa local foods expand this year. There seems to be a lot of energy bubbling around and I'm really hoping it coalesces into something meaningful. There's a school in the county north of us that's exploring local foods for kids lunches. And I'm still working (slowly) on getting a community garden in my own town. Expect to see updates on some of that.

Well, 200 posts seems like a small milestone, but I'm excited to share it with y'all.
Big shout out to my family, both near and far. And to my friends, I wouldn't be who I am without you guys. I love you all.
To my readers and followers, I don't know what to say. I hope you get as much pleasure and information from this blog as I do. I can't believe other people are willing to read my babbling, but I'm not going to stop, so hopefully it keeps on being interesting.

Some more Riot numbers

For those of you who have missed it, we are Rioting for Austerity. A little explanation in case you are still confused as to what we are trying to accomplish.
In his book _Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning_ George Monbiot observes that we lack the political will to make change happen, and says, "no one has ever rioted for austerity." So, there exists a group of people, connected through online blogs like this one who are attempting to do just that. We are attempting to do what the politicians tell us is impossible and unwanted. Our thinking is if we can get a thousand people to 10% of the American average for resource consumption without any help from the government, imagine what we can do with a little help. And as front runners we can help answer the questions that are going to crop up. So, in a sense we are the guinea pigs for the most important question my generation will ever face, "Can we live and be happy with less?" I think the doing with less is going to happen whether we want it or not; the being happy part is a bit more tricky. The great thing about being one of the guinea pigs is I can take my time about it and do some trial and error. I hope to find out that we are still decreasing in all the categories, but I'm guessing it won't be that easy. So, here's the progress report.

Since I'm in my third trimester I'm starting to count the baby as part of the household. Is this cheating? *shrug* I don't know. :-) I feel like there are so many things right now that he is already influencing, that the numbers would be inaccurate without counting him. So, there's the full disclosure for this Riot update.
If you are new to this Riot thing and curious about where I'm getting my percentages, I recommend you check out the calculator that I'm using.

Transportation:
My goal to figure out the bus system did happen. I even get a free ride on the bus since I'm a state employee right now. Bonus! Dave and I still car pool most days, but sometimes I'll bus home if I get off early. We try and combine errands so we rarely go out driving just to go to one place. We pick up groceries at the store once a week on our way home from work. I am also trying to teach Dave how to hypermile with our manual transmission Civic.
So, we are down a tiny bit to 8 gallons per person per week. It's still pretty high at 83% of the American average, but we are still going down.

Electricity:
We used 541 kWh in November, which puts us at 60% of the American average. As I suspected, the darkness of winter caused an increase in our electricity usage. We have to turn on more lights in the morning and more lights in the evening to get the meals cooked and to quietly entertain ourselves. I've also got my grow light hooked up in the basement, and we run an electric heater for 20 minutes a day during our showers. *shrug* I know it'll go down again in the summer when there's more light. I'm just a little stumped as to how I can get it any lower at this point. I have a few friends who are interested in a group purchase of a Kill-a-Watt meter. Maybe that will shed some light on the issue. I have thought about shutting off the fridge, it's old and huge and ridiculously inefficient. Sadly though, we live in a rental house and I have no way to modify a space into a cold room. The food would have to go outside, and while it might save us some money, we'd lose money to heat costs because I'd have to unseal the back door. We'd also run the chance of losing food to the dog-sized raccoons that patrol the neighborhood. I'll try and find solutions to these problems this summer and talk the husband into turning off the fridge next winter. Maybe I can find some of the 2L bottles I was using for heat sinks in the garden, freeze them at night by the front door, and toss them in the fridge for the day. That might be an easy way to offset the magnitude of inefficiency I have to deal with.

Natural Gas:
We used 62 therms in November. O_O eek! That's 75% of the American Average. I was really hoping we were doing better than that. We keep the back entryway and basement closed off and unheated. The windows are double paned and pretty new, The house thermostat is set at 63. Sadly, we don't have a programmable thermostat, but again it's the problem of renting. The landlady said they had recently re-insulated the attic space, but maybe I should get Dave to stick his head up there and do a quick measure. I don't think I'll be able to talk him into turning down the thermostat any more, he already complains it's too cold. This one I'm totally stumped on.

Trash:
Not much change here. We send our veggie scraps through the worm bin since the compost outside is frozen. We recycle everything. We throw away kitty litter, a small bit of plastic packaging and food that goes bad before we get to it. I'm getting better about that last one, but it's just something that takes practice. Plus, I'm a young cook. There are still occasional meals that are not to my husband's taste. (That's his nice way of saying something was a disaster) For instance the meatloaf saga of two weeks ago. :-D :-D This category went down a tiny bit, the weight of output was about the same, but since we are 3 now instead of 2 our percentage is better. 4 pounds per person per week. 13% of the average American.

Water:
*Sigh* Our usage for the past two months has been consistent at 600CF per month. That works out to 1496 gallons per person. Which is lower than at my last check in. But, it still puts us at 50% of the American average. I'm almost positive our slow progress in this area is my showers. I would bet money on it. I take boiling hot showers every morning and they last at least 10 minutes, some 15. My excuse is it's the only reason I'm able to move since it feels like every joint in my body is expanding. (They probably are.) Hopefully, after baby comes I can use stretching exercises instead of hot water to relax my muscles and cut my showers down to 3-5 minutes. But, right now I can't even see my toes, much less touch them and my hot showers are the only thing I got. Perhaps a more modest goal is in order. I'll time my showers for a few days and try and reduce them 25%.

Goods:
Surprisingly I think we are down in this category. Although if you look at the numbers for 4th quarter retail sales, we are clearly not the only people spending less. Unless I'm forgetting something, we spent 200$ last month between presents for nieces/nephews and spending some of our received money on things like shoes. And I spent 200$ this month on cloth for the cloth diapers. That puts us down at 24%, a very modest 3% drop from the last check in. Hopefully we can get the car seat and stroller used next month and drop a little more.

Food:
This one has suffered from our current reliance on WIC checks. WIC checks require me to buy milk, eggs and cheese with "no special claims" i.e. no Rbgh free milk, no local brown egges, no organic cheeses. And I get to buy juice on the WIC check, but not fruit. *roll eyes* We are still eating off the onions and garlic in the basement and the preserved veggies in the freezer and cabinet. But we are eating way too much meat, and it's definitely not local. Our diet has changed so drastically with these checks I'm not even sure I can do a good estimate. So lets just call it bad.

So an overview:
Progress made in the categories of goods, water, trash and transportation.
Problems with food,natural gas and electricity.
Goals are to cut my showers down 25%, try freezing bottles to help the fridge, reduce our meat intake, check attic insulation and do a household evaluation with a Kill-a-watt meter.

Freezin our bunz off

Well, I don't think the thermometer outside got above zero all day yesterday. With the wind chills approaching -30 in some parts of the state, it was just plain cold.

Dave and I have been participating in Crunchy Chicken's Freeze Your Bunz Off challenge this winter. To that end we (I) vowed not to set the thermostat higher than 65. Since we don't have a programmable thermostat, I'm not setting a different temp for nighttime, it's just staying around 63 all the time. Now, the thing is, the thermostat is in THE warmest part of the house. It's in the dining room, which only has one external wall, and one window, both of which are covered by one of my wall hangings. So, I'm pretty sure our living room, which has the tv/computer in it, is at least 5 degrees cooler, and the basement where we shower is probably somewhere between 50-60. I should find a thermometer so I can accurately document the differences, but I haven't got around to it.

Now, even I find this a bit chilly, in spite of being in my third trimester with baby. But, it's not intolerable, and really I think it has it's plus sides. When we are lounging in the living room in the evenings, we keep our layers on; for me it's a sweater, for Dave it's his long johns. We both have house slippers that stay on until bed time and we both have lap blankets that we cuddle with. And Rienne is a fine lap warmer when you can get her to sit where you'd like. Three simple steps (4 if you count the cat) and we're both toasty warm.

The pluses include easier humidity. Heating the air in our home involves flame, which produces a dry heat, it would take a huge humidifier to counterbalance all that drying if we kept the house at a warmer temp. We get by with just a small room humidifier in the bedroom. The higher humidity is easier on our mucous membranes. Couple that with the benefits of minimizing the temp swings as we go from indoor to outdoor and I think we stay healthier. We've both weathered illnesses this winter that brought our co-workers to a screeching halt.

The other major plus is we are still ahead on our heating bill. I had us paying a hundred dollars over on the gas bill this summer and fall as part of the "budget billing" option offered by our gas company. Now we are only paying for a fraction of what we are using and halfway through the winter we still have a surplus to draw on.

I've been rather pleased with the experiment. In fact, if we stay in this house another year I will probably petition my landlady for a programmable thermostat so I can decrease the house temp during the night.

The only downside has been my grow nook. I have it down in the basement, and I have seeds I want to start, but I know they need 70 degrees to germinate. I do have a seed warming mat, but it's only big enough for one tray. I'm not sure if I can time everything so I'm only starting one tray at a time. Seed warming mats are 30$, not sure if I have the resources to invest in a second one this year. Maybe I can work out something with a space heater on a timer...

Anyway, I was reading blogs today about others trying to lower their heating oil consumption and I ran across this posting that really spoke to me. It was written by an American who moved to Japan, where they routinely don't have heat in their houses.


http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/how-to-cut-out.html
I especially liked this paragraph:

There's another reason I appreciate this new experience, too. It is what the Japanese call "Gaman." It means "endure," or "tolerate" but there's more to it than that. It ascribes value to enduring something difficult. To Gaman is a principle, its a virtue. It's a cross between hanging in there and fighting the good fight.There are times when gaman is a pain. Sometimes enduring hardship as a virtue when the situation could just as easily be made more comfortable seems nuts. But as a cultural value, doing your best and enduring hardship is refreshing. I won't speak for other Americans, but my experience has often leaned too far the other way when it comes to putting up with difficulty without complaint.

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.

Winterizing!

The name of the game this week is winterizing at my place. My place.. should I say our place? hee hee.. still getting used to the whole married thing.
I thought I'd never get around to it. But, finally, I'm down to the last plastic bag of tomatoes, and the only thing I want to add to the freezer is possibly a few bags of bell peppers. Seed collecting/cleaning/storing is well in hand, but that's an all winter project so I'm not worried about it.
So, with the mornings getting chillier, time to turn my attentions to winterizing. I did battle with the heater this weekend. Managed not to blow myself up, but it's definitely an old gas heater, so anything I can do to minimize the work it'll have to do will be all to the good. We're doing all the usual things, plastic sheets on the windows, space heater by the shower and checking attic insulation. We're also hanging fabric drapes on the windows in our bedroom and in the north facing windows of the dining room. My goal is to keep our thermostat at 65 or lower this winter. Eventually I'd like to send it down to 55 at night, but we'll see how that goes. I stocked up on wool blankets, and wool socks. I'm thinking about making Dave and me night stockings. hee hee.. if anyone knows of a good pattern for such a thing, let me know. I've joined up with Crunchy Chicken's Freeze Your Bunz challenge. Just to help with the challenges of keeping warm. Community support is always essential for these things. Chime in on her site if you want to join up with the challenge.

Two goals with one stone!

I accomplished two goals this last week.
Goal #1: We are moved! I am now 6.75 miles away from work and Dave is living in the city where 75% of his work happens. That is an improvement. I was working out my fuel budget last night and I had to run the numbers 3 times because I couldn't believe that the numbers I was getting were right. I should use less than 10 gallons of gas a MONTH to get to work and back, and that's assuming I never ride my bike or the bus. Before I was using 10 gallons every 4 or 5 days to get to work and back. :-) We have a nice, clean, cool basement that I'm turning into a root cellar as fast as I can. I already have my kitty on search and destroy missions down there, but so far no mice. :-) I have a clean space to can food in. And a nice kitchen in which to cook from scratch. I couldn't be happier.

Before and after pics. We're not done yet of course, but the space is starting to look like ours.

Goal #2 Hypermiling of my car reached 40mpg!
My last tank of gas got an average of 40.44 miles to the gallon! :-) I've been hovering at 39.5 for awhile, and I guess the wind was on my side this past week or something. I don't have numbers yet for in town driving, that will take another month to trend, but I was really excited to finally get over that 40mpg mark. Honda Civic power! I like to think I don't drive so much as I creatively glide. :-P


Post Apocalyptic Book club reading #1: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
As some of you may know, I've started reading for a book club. Not a normal book club, this one focuses on literature both popular and classic to explore the ramifications of peak oil and climate change on our society. Each month will have a different theme with 3 different books to discuss. This month the theme is "Classic Guy Doom." With the 3 books being The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Lucifer's Hammer, and the Wasteland. For a full run down on each month, see here. Join us for a month or two if something catches your eye. :-) Whether you believe all the premises or not, the discussion should at least be captivating. It's all online and open invitation.
I haven't quite finished tMiaHM, but I'll say a few words about it here.
At first I didn't quite get why this book was included. It's more of a text book on how to stage a revolution. Then I realized the limits the "Loonies" face on Luna, in terms of water, air and food, can be correlated to the limits we are facing with peak oil and climate change. Their solution to the abuse of those limits, namely the revolution, wouldn't work out as well for us here on Earth. We can't really revolt against the Mid-East, we've paid them good money to put ourselves in this position. We can't revolt against ourselves for buying into the SUV/suburbia dream. We are not a small colony revolting against a well-armed oppressor, if anything, we're the ones doing a lot of the well-armed oppressing.
Our solutions are not going to come from a few national leaders. There are too many variables and too many distractions at that level. Local solutions work better, local leaders will too. Just as the solutions for Luna won’t work for us on Earth, the solutions for Colorado won’t work for New York.
Local leaders, and local solutions to the problem will result in less violence. A series of local community gardens implemented in the next couple of years will do more to change this country than the entire Congress can in the same amount of time. The question Sharon put forward, “Why are we so blase about this?” is one I have asked myself numerous times over the past couple of years. Mannie’s perspective of odds helped me see it a little better though. I think most people run the odds in their heads and figure it isn’t even worth fighting. I think the problems are just so entrenched and so huge that people don’t know where to start, so most of them just don’t.
So, in conclusion, the book was an interesting look at the very real consequences of ignoring limits, but not terribly useful as a blueprint to the way out from here.

Baselines

So, it has come to my attention this morning that my goals are hazy at best. Admirable, but hazy. To remedy that situation I have joined Riot 4 Austerity. Their goals are to document the successes and failures of individuals and families attempting to reduce their consumption to a mere 10% of what the average American consumes. In order to track my progress I will attempt to calculate out my baseline consumption, (what I consumed from June 1st 2007 to June 1st 2008) so I'll have something to compare it to next June. I'll be using the Riot calculator available on their site. They skew some of the numbers on consumer goods, letting you use a reduction on your numbers if you buy used or locally made, but most of the calculating is just straight numbers.
Fuel: I use about 25 gallons a week. That's 261% of the Average American. Eek. Good thing I'm moving at the end of this month. The only thing saving my budget is my nice little car getting 38 mpg.
Electricity I just can't calculate right now. Between my place and Dave's place, my roommates running computers constantly, my grow lights this spring for seedlings, food in both refrigerators at one point... I have no clue. I'm up on the CFL's and lights don't stay on for no reason... I'll just assume I run about average. And go from there.
Heating and cooking fuel I'm probably way over average, between Dave's house having a giant hole in the roof and the farmhouse leaking like a sieve I probably used my fair share. Neither house was kept balmy, but figuring out my portion of it would again be a nightmare.
Garbage I'm a little light on. I'm putting a high estimate of 20lbs per week in the calculator and it's telling me I'm at 63% of an Average American. Between the worm bin and the compost pile, all my organic trash gets eaten. I've been avoiding heavily packaged food for years now, and Dave and I recycle what we can and try to cook from scratch.
Water I think I'm a little light on too, I put in an estimate of 50 gallons per day. I take a 10-15 minute shower which is 20-30 gallons of water, add in 5 flushes a day at 3 gallons per... some light hand washing of dishes... I don't wash my car, or my cat. I don't water a lawn. I hand water my garden, so in the peak of summer, maybe another 30 gallons a week. Again, between me at Dave's house and the plants at the farmhouse, that's too many roomates and too many variables to figure out my share. I think I'm a little light of the average currently. :-) We'll go from there.
Food wise, I'm a bit heavy on the wet/processed/non-local goods still, but my bulk unprocessed is at the right level. And my local isn't too far off. If I can eat out of my garden this summer that should get really close to the goal levels.

I'm excited to see how far I get in a year. If I can get down to 10% on a few categories I'll be happy. If nothing else it should be an interesting experiment.