Hey from GA..
 

Hi guys,

My wife and I have been interested in various ways to save energy and be more self-sufficient while doing it for around 8 years now. We are interested in pretty much anything DIY, that's practical and efficient.

Most of the newer technology is far to expensive for us due to some health setbacks and some are too expensive, just because they're too expensive. I'm sure someone can relate. For those reasons, It'll be evident with my posts that if it can easily be built rather than bought, I'll be leaning in that direction.

We are both 39 years old and live in GA in the U.S.. We wish you all well in your energy saving endeavors.

Welcome from SD
 

I just recently joined as well. I've already found quite a few ideas that I have found helpful. Dig around a little bit and read all of the current posts (there aren't a lot right now) and please share your knowledge with us as we are all looking to learn something here.

Good luck and enjoy!

Welcome to the site! As cmittle said, there are a lot of ideas floating around. Some are near zero cost, and others are definitly expensive. Find what works for you and go for it.

Welcome to ecorenovator! What kind of place are you living in?

I'm not sure whether you're asking about housing or the area so I'll be forthcoming with both. lol. We live in a mobile home on 21.5 acres that belongs to my dad. We're trying to make the place as efficient as we can and do something with the land that will be non-invasive but semi-lucrative. Growing passion flower was one idea I had.

The area is just outside of a small town of 6600 people about an hour SE of macon. Very rural. Most of the people I meet really don't take too well to any other ideas than what they were raised with. Due to the size of the town, many, if not most, drive out of town to work so I'm sure fuel prices are causing them to stop and look around a little but alternative construction methods haven't caught on much at all. I did hear of one man starting a cordwood home but I don't know him. I'm not sure if it was for aesthetics or efficiency.

I hope to get my porch roof on and start planning the strawbale enclosure (46'x15') for it because I want to see how many I can interest in the idea but kinda need a working "model" if you know what I mean. There may be a niche market there if I can interest some folks. Creating income by saving people some of their own income seems like a beneficial idea to me. Good for everyone. I only know of a small handful of strawbale houses in Georgia currently and none of them are in this county or any of the surrounding counties.

Most of the homes in this area are wood framed and brick (still wood framed).

Haha, good point, I can be very unspecific at times, but I think I meant to ask about your personal abode, though since I know nothing about GA other than the fact that my mother used to live there, I guess it makes sense to have some background.

That sounds like a good-sized plot of land though, do you do any gardening?

We didn't this last year but we will resume next year. For the last 5 years, we used a homemade hydroponic system to grow cucumbers, tomatoes and cantaloupe. Before that we had small plots in different areas. Most of the property is wooded and I don't want to cut the trees so spreading them out in areas that are already cleared was the best choice.

We also have a relative who has a mobile home on the property who lives there basically using resources and not contributing... Their yard is going to make a fine garden one day. lol

I have walking onion and garlic patches that I just let go and they're still here. We also have thornless blackberries, regular blackberries, peaches, pears, muscodine and plum trees. Most everything except the muscodines, blackberries and pears is eaten by bugs before we can use it but I refuse to spray them. If we're vigilant, we have the BB's in the spring, the muscodines in mid-summer and the pears just went out of season. We canned some, dehydrated even more and fed the rest to the goats because they were starting to go bad.

Here's a couple pics of the hydroponic systems crops:

Cantaloupe:
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1970/0001558oi1.jpg

Cantaloupe and cucumbers:
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/8246/0001560yl5.jpg

I can't find the pic of the tomatoes. Oh well.

Welcome, and nice job on the hydroponics. I love gardening and that is a sweet setup.

That looks like a very nice setup.

They are actually pretty easy to build. Anyone who can drive a nail and use a shovel can build the one I did. In total, it cost less than $500 to build but $350 of that went for a 250gal polyethylene tank I use for the nutrient reservoir, so if you have access to stuff like that it would be much, much cheaper. You don't really "need" a 250gal tank. Here is a picture of the system before it :evolved":

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/3594/897tj3.jpg

Same troughs but the reservoir was a 55gal food grade drum. The solution eventually ate the food grade coating off the sides and metal wont work as a container so I had to upgrade. A plastic drum can be used, even a garbage can. The only reason I switched to a larger container was so I didn't have to check the solution and add water every day.

The troughs are made of three, 16ft 1"x6" each and are covered with black polyethylene plastic to make them water tight. Another piece of white 2ft wide plastic is on top with slits in it for the plants to grow through. It's to stop sunlight from promoting algae growth. The troughs have a drain which gravity feeds the solution back into the tank. In the tank, there is a $60 magnetic drive pond pump. 1400 gal an hour I think. It uses very little energy. The pump pumps the water to a high end of a trough and it flows down the trough bottom over the plant roots and drains. It's very simple.

There is a little more to it to maintain the system but it's not rocket science. Anyone could do it.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I appreciate it.