It’s not easy being Green.

Kermit the Frog was right. Really, it’s not easy being Green.

First of all, getting home insurance has been a huge hassle. It’s not like we have any expensive antiques or fancy jewelry, but if we lose what we’ve built so far, then we lose everything we have. So we need home insurance.

Here’s what we found out: innovation is not looked upon kindly by insurance companies. We keep hearing what a great thing it is that we’re doing – building our home ourselves, figuring out how to do things, recycling when we can – but we were turned down by several of the big companies because we weren’t using a general contractor or following a traditional plan for building.

So praise God for Germania! We are now insured as a homestead/small farm. The representative who came out to assess BaHa Ranch was very interested in our project and loved the idea of a container home. He said that we were paving the way for insurance companies to come up with some type of standard for insuring homes like ours, because more and more people will be building this way in the future.

Secondly, it’s not easy being green because of these little guys:

I don’t particularly want scorpions in the house, nor does BA. Outside, they’re fine. We moved into their territory, after all. However, cohabitation with these little creatures is just not going to work out. If anyone knows of a chemical-free way to keep them out of the house, please let me know! We found three scorpions inside Box 1 and launched an all-out chemical attack with some kind of pest spray inside and some kind of granules outside around the perimeter.

Third, it’s not easy being green because of the lack of information on how to do the projects that we need to do. We asked for advice once at the help desk at Home Depot – advice on how to combine two used windows into one space and mount them in wood on a metal box – and the Home Depot guy said “Oh, we’re not allowed to give advice on anything weird like that.” Now, to be fair, this was a Home Depot in Dallas that we went to prior to moving. The help we’ve received at the Home Depot in Dripping Springs has been absolutely wonderful, but the point is, everyone is just guessing with us because no one has any experience on how to build a container home.  But hey, at least in Hill Country, they try to help us out.  

Fourth (and here’s the biggest conundrum of all), we want to help the planet heal by cutting way down on the amount of natural resources that we consume, and moving to the country has been a big, big part of that, but now that we’re in the country, we have to use more gas to get anywhere!  In Dallas, we could walk to several places, and a short drive gave us plenty of choices for shopping, entertainment, etc. Now, we have to drive everywhere. We’re trying to conserve gas by combining errands, shopping at local farmers’ markets, and planning routes in advance, but I still feel guilty every time I start the car.

Peaches from local farm

So no, it’s not easy being green, but it’s worth the effort. Some things are getting easier as we get used to them, like conserving water to a fanatical degree, using the least amount of electricity possible (our electricity bill was $33 this month - and most of that was from tools we were using for construction), holding my nose when I empty the greywater tank, filling the solar water tank for our showers, taking all the lights outside daily to charge – it just becomes routine.

And we’ve settled into a routine now that is perfectly doable. We have everything we need, for the moment, and we’re done spending money for a while. The only other projects that we’d like to get done by the end of this summer are:

1.        A septic tank (because the RV toilet is a routine that we just can’t tolerate for much longer)

2.       A large water tank and pump (because right now we have to take our five-gallon water containers to town and fill them up about once a week)

3.       Paint for the ceiling (which is the only thing, cosmetically, that isn’t finished yet on the inside)

And hopefully that will be it for a while!

The New "To-Do" List

Well, about that wind turbine...it doesn't work yet. BA is still toying with it, but with summer coming up, we're going to need some air conditioning soon. So, we called Pedernales Electric Corp., and they sent out two great guys (Mike and Toker) to assess our build site for an electric pole. I know, we weren't planning to go on the grid, but sometimes you just have to compromise. There will come a time when BaHa Ranch runs strictly on wind and solar power, but that time is not now. If the powers that be had more sense, it would be cheaper to build a home that utilizes green energy. But as I said, the guys from the PEC were super-nice (Toker gave the doggie lots of love and referred to her as an "old hound dog," which I think made her very proud =) and the PEC seems like a good, honest company. 

So, here's some "To-Do"s:  

• Get electricity. Because it's already hot. And this is Texas - it won't be cool again until December.

• Blow in the insulation (we got dry cellulose insulation - you have to drywall completely first, then cut a little inconspicuous hole and blow the insulation in with a machine.)

• Install the glass windows into their metal frame.

• Hang curtains. Put down some throw rugs. Hang up a picture or two.

Free curtains, tablecloth, and throw from my mother-in-law, who is awesome =)
The little streak of electric blue in the top two pieces is what I want to bring out -
I might paint a whole room that color!



And I think the linens above will go great with orange.

• Hang some insulating curtains over the metal end doors.

• Install our big wooden door.

• Finish the bathroom:

My mother-in-law's garage is the best store ever. This shower curtain

will go nicely with the blue and tan tiles in the bathroom.

Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the blue tiles have several shades

 of blue, along with grey and orangey streaks and some yellow/gold splatters.

This creamy tan-yellow color will cover an accent wall in the bathroom. 

I might also paint the bathroom door with it.

After that, we'll have to tile the shower and install the plumbing (which is going to have to include a larger rain-catchment system). You may notice that the bathroom has no sink - for now, BaHa Ranch will have only one sink, which is located around the corner in the kitchen. You might also wonder about the toilet. Where the heck is it??? It's in a box, waiting to be opened - it's a chemical toilet like the ones used on boats and in RVs. "Chemical" and "Green living" might not seem like two words that go together, but honestly, pooping in clean water doesn't make much sense either. And the chemical toilet is not permanent - we will eventually move to a toilet that hooks up to a septic tank and flushes with greywater (our first preference) or a composting (sounds smelly) or incinerating (sounds scary) toilet. 

And that's probably more than you ever wanted to know, right?

Blowin' in the wind: The making of a wind turbine

The answer is indeed blowing in the wind. So what was the question?

The question was: "How can we provide electricity to Box 1 while staying within our budget and off the grid?"

Wind power! BA has been hard at work researching construction methods and needed components for a home-made wind turbine. It's not done yet, but here are some pictures of what we've done so far.

This is a fan motor. It will be the motor that runs the turbine, and it will be attached to a flywheel.
BA got it free at a scrapyard and rewired it himself. 

This is the PVC pipe that will become the blades for the turbine.

This is BA cutting out the turbine blades from the PVC pipe, using a circular saw.

These are the blades. You can't tell from the pic, but there are three of them.
They are slightly curved with notches on the ends.

We'll be doing more work on the windmill over the weekend, so check back for "Blowin' in the wind Part II." If this concept works well to provide electricity for Box 1, we'll repeat the process on the future structures of BaHa Ranch. Alternatives would include buying a manufactured windmill or windmill kit, or using solar power on a larger scale than what we are already using.

We got most of the information on how to do this from How To Build A Wind Turbine, so if you want to try this too, check them out!