But sadly this post is not about dead leaves and how to intricately rake them into small piles [I know, you're just heart broken]. This post does have to do with the outdoors and more importantly the Sun!
Josh and I have really been focused on being more Green and helping to do our part in saving the environment. We recycle everything from 1-5. I bring all of our paper/newspapers... etc to work where they have paper recycling and last year was my first attempt at a vegetable garden, however I lacked experience and it showed and sadly, my poor little plants paid the price. R.I.P ol' little tomato plants.
This Spring/Summer we are focusing on finishing our rain barrels [we scored 4 large barrels off craigslist for $50.00!]. Making a 2nd attempt at the Garden and Josh is trying his hand at solar energy.
Our long term goal is to equip our home with Solar panels. Not only will they lower our energy bills, but they are also safe for the environment by reusing the suns energy. How cool is it to be able to use what Mother Nature is basically giving us, for free? I, for one, think it's completely awesome.
We're really excited to see what we can do with these little cells once he completes the entire kit.
For now he has taken up a corner of my craft room to lay out his soldered panels. He sat them in the sun and than tested them to see the voltage and just from being in the sun a minute or two, these few little cells already were producing 5volts!
We hope to complete a panel to power the pool pump, and maybe to charge the battery to our weed-eater. I can't wait for when we can put some panels on the roof of our house! -So that's what we've been up to. Enjoying the sunshine and making solar panels. How romantic ;)
Do you have solar panels on your home? Are you 'Green' or trying to become more 'Greener'?
We try our best to recycle as much as we can and be as green as possible. Actually, my husbands company is working on wind and solar energy development. It's pretty exciting to see where the future is going to go with this.
ReplyDeleteThe part of your post about the leaf raking sounded just like how my weekend went...lol! In addition to the neighbor's oak tree, we also have neighbors with pine trees! All of the leaves and pine needles from those trees (in addition to our own trees) end up in our yard so I had *a lot* of raking to do this weekend. It was 75 degrees here so it felt good to be outside clearing the yard for spring. We also have a leaf blower/vacuum, but I gave up on it and just raked "the old fashioned way" too!
ReplyDeleteWe recycle everything that we can too. I also recently switched to Shaklee (green) products and became a distributor because I loved them so much! Our next project is a vegetable garden, but I am nervous because I don't have a great history with plants! Yikes! The solar panels sound fun...my husband has been looking into them as well.
We recycle but that's about it. I do not have a green thumb and everytime I've tried a garden it has been a miserable failure. I admire your ambition with the solar panels. I wish my husband cared enough to try something like that for our house.
ReplyDeleteHope you had a great day off!
Happy Tuesday to you as well! Thank you for your comment!
ReplyDeleteThese solar panels are really neat - I am currently majoring in Environmental Studies & writing a paper on green roofs, you should check them out, they're really interesting. Hurray for GREENING!! It's the best!
Yay for going green. I definitely didn't buy into it until my sustainability class this quarter! If we all do something little to contribute, it doesn't seem so overwhelming!
ReplyDeleteFound your blog while stumbling through other home decor blogs (in the process of reading my way through y our history) Where did you order the solar panel kits?
ReplyDelete@Sarah
ReplyDeleteThey came from 'Everbright Solar', it's a shop on Ebay :)