Day Four: No Air Conditioning!

I am quite pleased and proud to report that yesterday, day four of the current family project, we did not feel the need to turn on the air conditioning at all. The weather and the sun cooperated and left the house actually a bit on the cool side.

On another note, the only appliances to run for any lenght of time yesterday, aside from 20 minutes of stove usage for dinner and a few minutes with the Kitchen Aid mixer in order to make butter (you can check out that particular process and adventure on our other blog, Suburban Quest), were the washer and dryer. It took three loads through both to get all of the clothes and one sleeping bag (thanks to the aforementioned weekend camping trip) to keep the family clean for the next week. Never mind that two hours after I declared laundry day "over", the basket was full again. I'm not sure if we'll have to make a special exception and run the washer again one day this week to catch up.

Again, the stove was only on for 20 minutes, to cook up some chicken that was added to a cold caesar salad for dinner. That, however, will change today (Day 5), as canning is in order, both tomatoes and potatoes and possibly some pumpkins to be put up. Other than some off-and-on light usage (particularly during the evening hours yesterday as business had to be taken care of), and some more computer usage (trying to make an income while using the computer generally means that it has to be on), we've done quite well at conserving energy.

I'm also quite curious to see how much water has been saved by not running it constantly while doing the dishes. I've been very careful to set a maximum requirement of four gallons over the past two days - just as much as an EnergyStar rated dishwasher would use, but still less energy, as running the water for only 3 minutes or so as opposed to the dishwasher for an hour I'm sure saves something, if not much.

It still remains to be seen how this project will progress, though we've been very satisfied so far. We're not hurting from the heat (yet) and we're not really doing anything differently than we have done the last month, with the exception of the television and computer being on at the same time. Everyone has been very careful about unplugging or not using appliances, and we've all been quite enjoying ourselves. I have half a mind at some point in time to trip a circuit breaker and see how we can survive without electricity entirely...though, mind you, if I don't pay the bill soon, that's what will be happening anyways! :)

So onward we go...to canning, cleaning, cooking, and another day in the life of the current family project!