How are we doing? – Another perspective

An email out of the blue received this morning:

Hello Dearest Jim & Judy.... dont know if you would remember me. my husband and i visited your farm about 4 years ago. i just wanted to say that i think about you guys often and hope life is treating you kind. when matt and i visited you we had a clear dream of how and who we wanted to be but were struggling to find our selves like so many others. we only visited for a short time but your sweet simple lives have truly been an inspiration to us. thank you so much for taking the time to meet two complete strangers and providing the much needed boost in the direction we so badly needed. funny how strangers can have such an impact on our lives :) thanks you guys for being the amazing people you are and unknowingly changing my life. – Tiffany

How are we doing? – The larger picture

Photo (slide) is stolen from a presentation by Dr. Jeremy Jackson at the Naval War College back in January. McClanachan was a student of his he bragged on for finding the treasure trove of 50 years of trophy fish catch photos from Key West, prizes going to the person who caught the biggest fish. Jackson is director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity & Conservation at UCSD, among other prestigious appointments. (http://cmbc.ucsd.edu/People/Faculty_and_Researchers/jackson/) The presentation, titled Ocean Apocalypse, is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMN3dTvrwY&feature=player_embedded
It's appalling. I had thought I had some idea. No, it's far worse than that.

Judy has been with her daughter and five-year-old granddaughter at the beach (Gulf Shores) all the past week, coming home today. She's reporting all is well at the beach, they have been having a great time and she's so glad for the child to have "the beach experience" before this summer is gone. I'm glad too. But knowing what's ahead for that child makes me feel like crying. -- Jim

How are we doing?

I picked almost six pounds of pole beans this morning. Three small tomatoes. Most of the garden is weed jungle. Morning glories in full glory, etc. Quite a few green bells on six plants, waiting for them and waiting for them. To turn red. Basil blooming. A lone surviving squash plant making one squash, not quite big enough to pick today. Don't know what's wrong with the black turtle beans, they are taking a long long time. Sweet potato plants look pretty good. Figs are coming in, picked for breakfast this morning. Judy has already picked a bag of apples. We may have pears this year. Gosh, I haven't even looked at the Japanese persimmons!

The TREC utility bill shows we used 338 Kwh last month. Compared with 452 Kwh for the same period last year (but one more day in the current bill, makes it even better). That 114 Kwh drop is a rough approximation of what the solar system is producing. About one-fourth of our total electric bill. Is that good? Well, of course. Sort of. Maybe $15-$20 a month saving. For an investment of close to ten grand. Go figure.

But try to include in your calculations an adjustment factor that will include the true costs of electric power, not just what's on the utility bill. You know, the "indirect" but real costs, the costs of the wars and the costs of the environmental damage done by fossil fuel-generation (heck, nuclear is even worse, considering the real long-term factors), and the extra health care costs, especially from coal power, which is what most Alabama electricity is made of.

What should the adjustment factor be? I don't really know. My guess would be at least 10x.

And hey, remember, when the grid goes down, we have electric power.

I'll probably have more to say about all this in a future post, stay tuned.