Irritatingly*, I’ve managed to catch another cold just in time for another holiday. Last time I was so thoroughly ill I actually claimed back my holiday, this time it is, so far, just a tedious cold; but it kept me up half of last night (and by extension kept Kathryn awake) as I hacked and coughed and sneezed and woke-up repeatedly with my head filled with sinus-cement.
TMI?
Anyhow, whilst I have pretty much just dinked on the internet all day (interspersed with more episodes of A Chef’s Life**) I have also spent some time pondering the massive concept of ‘our house in the US lands’. See, whilst we don’t intend to rock up in our chosen town and go “Hey, I’m buyinig that”, instead opting for the more sensible rent for a bit, see if we like it, and see if we can survive running our business, and then buy plan.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t toy with ideas or try and fathom how things might work.
So I’ve found a US company that makes biodigestors, I’m quite fond of the idea of having a biodigestor having seen Kevin McCloud’s . Not for the purpose of making electricity, but for the purpose of making gas to cook on. Which is, interestingly, exactly what this biodigestor is for.
Mainly because I don’t like the idea of using fossil-fuel gas.
Secondly I’ve found a Washington based COOP that hopefully will reduce the cost of getting Solar panels…if we can get a few others on board at the same time. And there is an equivalent for what I call a Feed In tariff, and it turns out we can sell the carbon credits, too.
All of this is good stuff.
I’ve found books on building straw bale homes, at least one of which I will have to obtain (although I might leave that until we’re a bit further along)…
…and I’m really interested in the polystyrene / rebar / cement foundations system – although Kathryn’s not so fond, so we may be doing something else there.
Anyhow. It’s kept me from going insane with my cold.
* to put it mildly.
** So we were at Mockingbird cafe who were very nice, although we both agree that they’ve slightly overstated their southernness, and the experience of service from people who are clearly proper hipsters was interesting. But yes, it’s very nice food and we definitely enjoyed it and intend to go back. Anyhow, they mentioned A Chef’s Life, which it turns out is a pleasantly entertaining and interesting PBS show (particularly if you’re a food/cooking geek as we both are), and it also turns out (on the turning front) that there’s a blugin (which is how I’m saying ‘plugin’ at the moment. I actually typed that typo without thinking, which is a bit concerning) for XBMC (Kodi) that allows you to watch PBS’s archives. Ace.
