The Final Challenge

Friday started week four of the Extreme Eco Throwdown, which, for our family, means no driving. It hasn't been too bad so far. Jon did drive for work on Friday, because he had some problems that weren't yet resolved with his electric bike. (It's all fixed now, and he says he's never driving again.) If I remember right, the kids and I had a pleasant day at home. Saturday we walked to the Farmer's Market, as usual. I was meeting some friends for breakfast, but luckily, the restaurant we decided to try was in the same area. (I bike to our usual restaurant.) Jon took the kids out on a couple of bike rides in the afternoon.

Sunday we biked to a city pool which is about a mile away. It was a great pool- zero depth entry, water slide, sprinklers, shaded areas. But yow-za was the water cold! Jubilee fell asleep at the pool, but somehow she managed to stay asleep even as we transferred her to her bikeseat, snapped her into a bike helmet, rode all the way home, took her helmet off, and took her out of the bikeseat. The only thing we didn't do was change her out of her floatsuit and swim diaper, so it's difficult to imagine how she stayed comfortable for that three hour nap. If you are ever looking for a way to totally exhaust a child, may I suggest going swimming?

Maybe a three-day weekend wasn't the best time to not drive anywhere, but we didn't end up stir-crazy, even after staying home all day today. Jon talked about biking or busing to the hardware store, but ended up napping instead, which is an extremely rare, much-deserved treat for him. What did we do all day? Baked bread in the solar oven, watched old home movies, danced to mix CD's my sister makes, paid lots of attention to the kids, puttered around the greenhouse. Just as we were wondering what we'd eat for dinner, Char showed up with a delicious pasta salad. It was a great day, and it was nice to put off the "Sunday Night Blues" one extra day.

Another happy success of the week is that our solar water heater went live on Wednesday! We named it Helios, and he's doing a fantastic job heating water for dishes, diapers, and bathing. It's fun to listen to his robotic sounds as he tracks the sun. Jon still climbs up on the roof just about every day to make tracking adjustments. In this way, Helios reminds me of our old (late) dog, Bobby. In his old age, he'd miss the obvious. We'd try to give him a piece of cheese, but he'd just keep looking at the wrong hand and barking. Even without spot-on aim, our showers have never been hotter.

Jon's dad, Cecil, with Helios. See the clampy thing that's holding the pole to our house? Jon's brother made that. We're both pretty lucky, as far as siblings go.

So, the sun is now drying our clothes, cooking our food, and heating our water. What's next? Jon is talking about a small photovoltaic system that will take care of the modest electrical needs of the greenhouse (water pump and fan) and solar water heater. I had a brief fantasy of another solar oven so we could have hot soup and fresh bread at the same time, but that seems excessive. We'll just eat soup first, and stuff ourselves with bread when it comes out 45 minutes later. Or eat today's bread with tomorrow's soup. Life is full of compromise.