→ 2010-03-09 06:21:32 (6 Comments)
February 6, 2009
Back in 2003, we self installed 12 solar panels on our garage roof. The City of Pasadena solar rebating us 2/3rds of the cost. This was something that we couldn’t pass up! They made solar affordable to common resident. By producing our own green power, it was one more step in making the urban homestead more [...]
October 4, 2008
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Correction: Justin meant to say our energy bill is $15 for per billing cycle which is every TWO months.
September 21, 2008
by Anais in Cooking & Baking, Cooling, Energy, Homestead, Kitchen, Posts by Anais, Solar Oven, Solar Power
FACT: every day the sun shines, an equivalent of 4.25 TRILLION barrels of oil falls on the US alone in the form of solar energy
I have a confession, I been addicted to solar ovens ever since we built our first cardboard, aluminum oven back in the days — 1990 to be exact. Yep, we were [...]
February 20, 2008
12 self installed solar panels sit ontop of the urban homestead’s garage
We were shocked to see that last months power bill was double that of last January. Actually we were downright dumbfounded, how on earth could that be? I mean we hadn’t gotten “power hungry” and purchased any new plug in devices or appliances. I know [...]
September 5, 2006
by Anais in DIY Projects, Energy, Homestead, Kitchen, Pickling & Preservation, Posts by Anais, Solar Power
Late summer garden
Labor Day
Monday was just like a typical day here on the urban homestead – “labor” in the garden, in the kitchen, on the computer, and on the roof. Well, except for taking a break for a few hours when a LA Times staff writer was here doing a story for an upcoming issue [...]
May 28, 2006
by Anais in Community, Energy, Homestead, Kitchen, News, Outdoor Shower, Posts by Anais, Powering Down, Solar Oven, Solar Power, Water
Solar shower & sun oven
Sorry for the lack of postings this week. It’s been just too nice outside and too many things to do around the urban homestead.
The guys are working on the last phase in the expansion of the animal enclosure. Now that the sun is out, we re-foiled the solar oven panels so [...]
May 2, 2006
by Anais in Barnyard, Bicycle, Energy, Homebrew Biodiesel, Homestead, Pets, Posts by Anais, Solar Power, Transportation
Cat in the bunny’s home, Ringo sleeping on a carpet of thyme, & Cassidy being
naughty
Cat Stevens (the tabby) loves to go into the animal enclosure to hang out with the ducks, chickens and rabbit. Now, for some reason, he loves to climb into Sierra’s (our rabbit) hutch and sit in her bed. Silly cat in [...]
March 29, 2006
by Anais in Compost, Composting, DIY Projects, Energy, Greywater Reclamation, Homestead, News, Outdoor Shower, Posts by Anais, Solar Power, Water
GASP! Our fave, natural toothpaste (“family”) company sells out to a mega company, corporation ! I guess that means we’ll have to find another toothpaste brand or perhaps this should propel us to make our own. It’s not that hard to make your own using simple ingredients you can find in your kitchen cupboard. Making [...]
January 4, 2006
by Anais in Barnyard, Chickens, Compost Toilet, Earthen (Cob) Oven, Energy, Homestead, Journey Reflections, Kitchen, Posts by Anais, Simple Living, Solar Power, Water, Weather
We hear so much these days for us to “think outside the box.” But then what? Jules has for years come to a conclusion that it’s time for us to “act outside the box.” Thinking outside the box is one step, but now it’s time for our to put our thoughts into action. It’s [...]
May 6, 2004
Tasty treats are ripening in the garden — plump black blackberries and luscious red
strawberries. JM & I plan to whip up some tasty treats over the weekend.
REPRIEVE
Thankfully, we’ve got a teensy break from the heat – one expects it in summer, but this early?
Should continue to be cooler for the next few days.
SOLAR DISARRAY
The guys [...]
April 13, 2004
by Anais in Barnyard, Bees, Beneficials & Pests, Community, Energy, Garden, Homebrew Biodiesel, Homestead, Posts by Anais, Solar Power, Transportation
Waterfall in local foothills
SOLAR BANKED
We received our electric bill last week and were pleased to see the amount was only a couple bucks (for distribution charges). For JAN-MAR we used 200KWH and made 209 KWH (banking 9 kwh!)
PROMOTING
We’ve been busy trying to promote some of the events here at PTF. JM and I have been [...]
March 28, 2004
by Anais in Community, Energy, Garden, Homebrew Biodiesel, Homestead, Market Gardening, News, Outreach, Pedal Power, Posts by Anais, Solar Power, Transportation, Updates
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
~ Sigmund Freud ~
WE ARE BACK
Did ya miss us???????
What happened? Well, last Saturday our computer crashed and it was feared we had lost all our files. Fortunately, we were lucky and JM, found them two days later. I had to [...]
March 3, 2004
More rain showers yesterday left us with a lovely sunset to enjoy.
The tomatoes are slow growing this year compared to last season, probably as a result of the cool weather. We have a good idea of the weather and plant growth of prior years since JD religiously keeps a daily garden/homestead log. It comes in [...]
February 12, 2004
by Anais in Community, Compost, Energy, Garden, Homebrew Biodiesel, Homestead, Kitchen, News, Posts by Anais, Skills & Crafts, Solar Power, Transportation, Updates, Waste
7.7 kwh was produced from the sun yesterday! Still is amazing to us to “produce” our own electricity from the sun and we are like little kids! Checking the meter often during the day and taking friendly bets on how much the pv panels will produce. As it is, from now on, we will be [...]
February 9, 2004
by Anais in Energy, Garden, Homebrew Biodiesel, Homestead, Methods & Principles, Posts by Anais, Skills & Crafts, Solar Power, Transportation
“Don’t let it get away!”
The past couple of days have been beautiful and the weather promises even more glorious sunshine this week. Yesterday, I spent the day sitting in the warm sun, making soil blocks and planting pepper and basil seeds. Today, JC and I will plant another round of tomatoes as already the first [...]
February 2, 2004
by Anais in Community, Energy, Highlights, Homebrew Biodiesel, Homestead, News, Posts by Anais, Solar Power, Transportation
Watching FAT OF THE LAND Biofuel enthusiasts Demolishing the snack table
BIO-DIESEL LA
Friday night’s Mixin’ Mixer was a surprising success! Over 50 people visited the event It was an impressive turn-out beyond our expectations, especially for LA as you never know if anyone’s gonna show up.
Many of the “who’s who” in the the [...]
January 26, 2004
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A NETMETER MAKES
Yesterday, the PV panels made almost 6 kwh! 5 times more than it had been making on a sunny day! No more having the inverter start blinking around noon, not being able to send the power. Whoohoo!
BATCHES OF BIO
Nicole, George and Kalib showed up again on Sunday along with two [...]
January 25, 2004
ON THE MEND
Plants are starting to recover from the cold spell we had a few weeks back. What’s unusual is that the apple trees are blossoming due to the warm weather we’ve been having. It’s been dry–we need rain desperately. We hope that now that the plants are starting to grow, we won’t have a [...]
January 14, 2004
by Anais in Barnyard, Energy, Homebrew Biodiesel, Homestead, Outdoor Shower, Posts by Anais, Rabbits, Solar Power, Transportation, Water
While parts of thenation are in a deep freeze, we’ve had a warm spell this whole week – so warm, in fact, that in the evenings and mornings one can walk around in short sleeves and barefoot!
BIO FUEL UPDATE
I put up a preliminarybiodiesel page, will have to work on it a bit later and load [...]
December 12, 2003
A PWP official came yesterday to give us our rebate for the solar and had JD sign the net metering agreement. We had expected it to take a few weeks or more as they had told us that the paperwork and work overload would mean that it’d be a few weeks until we received our [...]
December 8, 2003
SOLAR FAQ
We’ve received a few emails regarding solar energy.
Off grid vs net metered?
Producing our power means having the potential to be more energy independent while still being able to use the grid for backup. With utility “net metering” we get a bill from the power company only once a year. This allows us to “run [...]
December 2, 2003
The average amount of time that the averageAmerican spends looking for misplaced things over the course of a lifetime is one year. ~ Harper’s Index ~
Hard to believe we are already in December and that ‘04 is just around the corner. How time flies!
The weather has been perfect with brilliant blue skies, puffy clouds, warm [...]
November 23, 2003
by Anais in Barnyard, Compost, Energy, Homestead, Posts by Anais, Rabbits, Solar Power, Vermicomposting, Weather
The guys built a nice worm box underneath the rabbit hutch out of scrap wood. They used a light row cover material for the top to deter pesky flies. The bin will accommodate our expanding red worm population.
In the past two days the solar panels have produced over 4.6 KW of power. Pretty impressive for [...]
November 20, 2003
Sunny Boy 1800 Inverter
With a flip of the switch we are now producing some of our own electricity!!! It’s dreary today and the panels aren’t producing up to their optimum wattage capacity so we are still pulling a part of our electricity from the city. But, eventually, with a few sunny days the panels should [...]
November 17, 2003
The guy at the city said that we have qualified for the rebate! What a blessing! We celebrated last night with popcorn popped on our hand-crankedWhirly Pop.
Oh, yeah – got a bit excited over the successful solar panel installation in my post yesterday that I forgot to mention that there is a bit of electrical [...]
November 16, 2003
DOWN THE STRETCH WE COME….
They’re Uuuuuup!!!!! All we need to do is connect the wires and VOILA!!!! We’ll be “off the grid!” or so to speak. It was sure a stressful couple of months, but in the end it has worked out. It certainly was a very good learning experience that might only come around [...]
November 12, 2003
Another gorgeous day here in So. Cal!
Thankfully, even though the temps do get a bit cold, we are able to fend off the chill with a space heater (but it’s not really needed until sometime in January). Unfortunately, it only warms our tootsies in the room that it’s in. So, to keep warm in other [...]
November 10, 2003
by Anais in Barnyard, Beneficials & Pests, Chickens, Energy, Garden, Homestead, Posts by Anais, Solar Power
Volunteer Papaya
It’s going to be a nice, sunny day today! A great day to work in the garden. They guys are moving the plants around the date palm tree to a temporary location. We hope to have the tree removed before the Santa Winds blow. Unfortunately, now part of the front yard looks quite [...]
October 12, 2003
The solar panels arrived on Friday, but, unfortunately not the brackets. They are delayed and should arrive sometime next week. Wish it were the panels instead as we can do nothing till we get those brackets up! Chock up another week’s delay…
Shouldn’t be so stressed out over it, we have the luxury to worry and [...]
October 10, 2003
The plywood has been hammered to the roof and so we are now awaiting the solar panels and brackets (from California Green Designs of Encino Calif) that should arrive sometime today. Once the brackets are screwed onto the rafters, the next step will be to put on the tarpaper/singles, install the solar panels and then [...]
August 28, 2003
by Anais in Community, Energy, Garden, Homestead, Outdoor Shower, Posts by Anais, Solar Power, Waste, Water
Blushing heirloom rose
From a WSJ article,“The Leafy Green Road to Good Mental Health: New Science Points to Benefits of Weeding, Watering Gardens“ by Michael Waldholz.
Common sense and experience tell us that hiking in the wild or working in a garden can be emotionally restorative. Now, scientists are beginning to understand why: Gardening — or simply [...]
June 15, 2003
by Anais in Energy, Homestead, Kitchen, Posts by Anais, Recipe Box, Solar Oven, Solar Power, Weather
Corn almost as high as an elephant’s eye? Tomato jungle … machete anyone?
What’s this!?! Could it be? There’s something bright and yellow in the sky…. Yes, the sun finally has come out and decided to stay! Hmmmm, I wonder if this sudden occurrence had anything to do with Melissa’s (akaPioneer Woman) sun dance?
Now [...]
May 19, 2003
The ducklings continue to grow before our very eyes. I cannot believe two weeks have passed already.
We finally got our solar permits from the city and also received the official reservation of funds notification. This means that the city will be paying 2/3rds of the solar panel kit. And now the guys are going to [...]
May 9, 2003
We have some sad news to report, the extra duckling, (the little runt) died yesterday afternoon. When the ducks arrived, we could tell she wasn’t well and was far smaller than the others… That’s what happens in the world of nature, only the strong survive… Anyhow, it still was very sad to experience such a [...]
April 13, 2003
Heirloom corn and cornfield beans
The garden is a metaphor for life, and gardening is a symbol of the spiritual path. ~ Larry Dossey ~
A rarecold Spring storm may bring some much needed rain and snow to our area!!! The cool weather and showers will be a welcomed respite from the unseasonably hot temps that we [...]
