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To: maine-iac7
I've got quite a few light bulbs, but I keep them turned off except when I need them, all except for the kitchen and lr table lamp which has one of those new curlie que bulbs. Those new houses must have a lot of lightbulbs though. I do have 2 chandeliers which take several 40 watters apiece. I keep those turned off as much as possible.

if you are going to condemn wind farms for death of birds

No, it's no worse than anything else they fly into. We probably lose more to getting sucked through jet engines. Birds aren't totally stupid and try to fly around stuff, but sometimes they seem to get confused by glass windows, etc. They've got a stuffed eagle at a local museum who met its end getting fried on a hot wire. It didn't seem to damage much of the bird though as I doubt they would have wasted time with massive reconstruction.

I was just mentioning it as I do like birds. I didn't know what the overall toll was. Probably lose more flying into skyscrapers. I wouldn't condemn anything on account of it; I mean those old farm windmills probably were almost as bad you'd think when we had more of those scattered around the country. We've got some of those left around here, probably working ones, too, pumping water, storing power in smaller generators. I never did know exactly how they worked to my dismay.

I used to read Mother Earth News because I wanted to get new ideas on how people were being innovative by living off the grid in some places. It's not for the faint of heart, takes a lot of effort and work. Some people who live in remote areas have no choice though.

63 posted on 04/30/2006 3:14:01 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: Aliska
Where I lived as a child - on my grandparents farm - EVERYone was "off the grid" LOL Before electricity was brought to our rural area/

Lights were kerosene lamps; cooking, heating, hot water from the cook stove; heating the house via the other wood stoves; water from the pump at the end of the soapstone sink - water from hand dug well.

It wasn't easy, but really, the much larger portion of independence than people have today was a plus...believe it or not, just as much free time. Also the security of an average of a years food on hand, (jars and barrels in the cellar, eggs and chickens in the hen house, milk, butter and beef & pork in the barn, wild game & fish in the woods and waters - the gardens and berry bushes -

It was a good life.

65 posted on 05/01/2006 3:37:49 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time," Lincoln)
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