Personal consumption, Do you help produce some of what you use? Options

[Denise]

We all know how much we consume daily, especially when it comes to food and power.
What I want to know is how many of us produce some of the things we consume.

We use solor panels for our power and have a garden with many edible goodies. Every bit helps!
Do you hunt or raise your own meat, have a garden or fruit trees, use solor panels or a wind turbine, etc.?
We would love to hear about it!

[Arbo]

My intent this year was to add a bunch of barrels to collect rainwater, to use to water a planned raised bed garden. Money being what it is, haven't been able to buy the barrels, and transporting 'good' soil costs more than the soil. So I am going to make the boxes for the beds, and this summer work on filling it with dirt that I have dug and brought home and run through my recirc setup at home. Add some organic stuff to mix in, and should have some good growing soil for next year.

[Kevin In Centenn...]

We have solar panels too...what a good deal! We also mine more gold than we use...does that count?

We grow peaches and tomatoes, some lettuce,etc but nowhere near as much as we use.

Fun question btw

[Caveman]

We have our cabin in Westcliffe powered by solar only - 1KW 24V system, with a generator back-up. The 12 6V batteries last about a week w/o running the generator when we are down there full time for a couple of weeks a year.

Up here in Broomfield, we have cherries, blackberries, raspberries and hazelnuts, plus a large vegetable garden - corn is the main planting, but we also have peas, beets, carrots, squash and cucumbers going in this year, and maybe a tomato and pepper plant or two.

[CP]

Very cool everyone, even if we don't produce all of what our families consume, every little bit helps. Especially in years like we've had lately with the poor economy on it's supposed recovery.

Now we have a drought which they say will effect our food prices even through the meats/dairy products not just produce over the next year.

This year is only our second year for the garden at this local and we are having much better luck this year than last. Our soils here are very dense heavy sandy soils so it's been some trial and error. We've had several isolated hail/t-storms one of which actually did some damage to the garden early on but lucky for us the only thing that really got damaged was the corn and it was all under stage V-6 so we should still get full yeild from them.
We also have some carrots, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, lettuce, tomatoes, habenaro and mixed bell peppers and some onions all of which are doing great thus far....barring anymore of the isolated storms.
Gonna' be some good salads!!

We also use solar power plus a wind turbine with 12v battery set up/inverters for power as well as a generator for days the battery bank (small) recieves no sun or we use more than is collected. But we produce 100% of our electricity used including running/up keep of this website.

Keep up the great work everyone and keep posting your production!

Get-R-Done'!

[Denise]

We have been almost overwhelmed with garden goodies, and it's not even harvest time yet.
The corn and peppers are going to produce ALOT come harvest time. Getting lots of huge cucumbers already and lots more to come. Here is a peek at our garden with Timmy looking over the corn.

[swizz]

Wow! You guys have a great looking garden this year! It looks a lot greener there too than I pictured.... definitely greener than it is here right now. Looks like Timmy has gotten taller too!
Very nice!!!!

[jim]

Nice garden Denise!! And that little boy we met a few years back ain't so little any more. lol Ya might say he's growing like a weed.

[russau]

Timmy heck! thats Mr.Tim! man-o-man he has grown! .....

[Denise]

Thanks guys, we work hard on the garden. Yes, Timmy has grown! He is almost as tall as I am (5.8) and he has bigger feet...size 11 and still growing since he's only 12. He was 4 the last time you saw him Russ. I have asked him if he would rather me call him Tim or Timothy, but he prefers Timmy still.

We are sharing some of the garden goodies with some of our neighbors. It is really hard to keep a good garden growing here with the extreme hot dry temps in the summer and the high winds....one neighbor even lost her garden to the loose running horses. We will definately share some of our garden goodies with her and her husband.

[Denise]

Pumpkins on the vine......



One of the larger pumpkins......




Bell peppers. Hard to see, but there are at least 10 peppers on this one plant. Hard to believe it can hold up so many peppers!.....

[Woody]

Ok I got to ask,

You sure there is not a snake in the woodpile somewhere? Those Pumpkins look simular to young Watermellons. Wouldn't that be funny.

[Denise]

I'm sure Woody. I have thought that thay do look alot like watermelons when they are young. These were seeds from our pumpkins last year so no mistaken seeds here. I love being able to use our own seeds also.

It will look alot different as they mature. I will give pic updates later.

[russau]

shareing is a good thing to do! when times are tuff, like it has been with most of the people, it sure helps and you will be rewarded in time! and i say thankyou for your kindness!

[Denise]

Thanks Russ, I agree! I think it is reward enough just seeing them smile though.

I don't think anyone will want any of my Habaneros though.......