Riot 4 Austerity

Gasoline

If we want to get to a 90% reduction from the impact of the average American we need to know where we started. For the past six months I have been actively tracking our gasoline, electric, natural gas, and water usage.  Today I am going to cover our current gasoline usage.

Amount […]

Energy

Awhile back on the Riot for Austerity on-line, support site, I saw a link to a refrigerator that claimed it only used 0.1Kwh/day. I was really intrigued by this and anxious to give it a try. Although it has not lived up to its extremely low energy use, it is quite a bit lower than the […]

Water

Things are getting crazy in the world of finance, aren’t they?
Well, taking steps to be more self-reliant are always good. We’re doing fine here but just talking with friends and family, it hasn’t been that rosy. Found out a friend was in foreclosure but managed to cut a deal. My sister and her husband lost […]

Food

Posted in food      

Waste

When mother nature gives you free food, why waste it! Now how to preserve all those pears. If you have like I do, a tree in your yard that bears fruit, find a way to put it to good use. Give it away. Eat it or preserve it. In times of plenty gather what you […]

Cooking/Heating

Inspired by my experience with the Dark Days Eat Local challenge, I am now participating in the far easier One Local Summer — participants agree to cook at least one meal per week entirely out of local ingredients, excluding salt, spices, and cooking oil. For the purposes of this, I’m defining “local” as “from within […]

Consumer Goods

In my palm pilot (Yes I use a palm pilot. I know it’s sooo turn of the century.) I keep a list of “things to get”. The list includes things such as floor puzzles for Thomas” and “half-pint canning jars”. Although we try to limit our consumerism, there are things that we […]