> >Just planting a garden is a good way to start.
> >http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/gardens.htm
> >http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/garden/fencehouse.htm
> >
> 
> Yeah, just dandy.  We probably even made the equivalent of $1 
> per hour on our garden this summer.

We plant things that are expensive to buy organic or that we like to have
fresh. Peppers (my wife is a wiz with peppers), spinach, tomatoes (bad crop
this year), herbs. Potatoes and corn are great, but you are right: They can
be purchased for a lot less at the store or local farmers market and the
organics are not much more. We don't grow them for that reason.

We also have trees that require less labor.

> >Chickens are just wonderful if done right:
> >http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/chickens.htm
> >  
> No more layers for me.   Not when I can buy a dozen factory farm eggs 
> for $0.89.

Eating something that was produced that way turns my stomach. Cost isn't the
issue.

> My woodburner:
> http://www.bright.net/~agarb/woodburner.jpg
> 
> $8000 'till it was all said and done with circulating pumps, 
> insulated & buried pipes, heat exchangers, etc.  That's with 
> no hired labor.  This will be my 4th heating season with it.  
> Should finish paying for itself this winter.  

The extra cost and inefficiency of those external units kept me away. We
paid $4000 for our stove including all labor and installation. It sits dead
center of the house and heats us up nicely. In SoCal wel do less heating,
but it will pay for itself in about the same time.

I do miss having hot water from the stove in the winter. One of these days I
need to look into an add-on or just wind some copper pipe around the stack.
The trick there is to prevent steam forming, but I think a layer of
insulation will keep the maximum temperature down.

> Now if my 2 & 4 
> year old boys would just grow up, I could get rid of my 
> gas-powered chainsaw and woodsplitter, go back to ax and 
> maul, and stop being so dependent on foreign oil.  I guess 
> I'd have to trade in my 1952 model woodgathering rig for a 
> few wheelbarrows, too.
> http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m168/agarb6/misc/h.jpg

Or you could convert it to electric:
http://www.flyingbeet.com/electricg/

Mine is a trailer behind our minivan. I get all the wood I can use from
people around the area who have trees cut down and don't have a use for the
wood. Most of them have already had it cut and let it lay around long enough
to be seasoned. I just got a full trailer load (7'x10'x4') of ready to burn
avocado.

Splitting the green pine and oak from our house and the neighbors has about
killed me, but it is a good workout.

> An AVR project in the works to measure/log some temperatures 
> and control a circulating pump for the boiler:
> http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m168/agarb6/misc/avr.jpg

Humm... That LCD panel looks familure.

> >Ah, I could talk about this stuff all day.
> 
> Perhaps, but sometimes, I think life would be easier if I was 
> born a city boy.
> 
> Maybe I should sell my 5 acre property, tiller, tractor, 
> trailer, log splitter, chainsaw, and 3 deep freezers, so I 
> could buy a Hummer and move to town?

Want to trade? :D

---
James.
 

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