Cath Chirgwin

r ranson wrote:

A pair won't eat that much, but if you have a gaggle, that's another matter.  They can decimate (reduce by one-tenth) a grain crop in a matter of days.  But these are usually the migratory flocks, not the year-round ones.

 

Someone who actually knows what "decimate" means! I'm deeply impressed. I could go on a very long rant about the misuse of this word!

How about miscanthus?

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Miscanthus+x+giganteus

Fast growing, perennial. Can be used for fuel, fodder or bedding. There's a non-invasive hybrid.  

Sorry, what's an "RV"?

If you want a long term solution you could look into geothermal heat. A ground source heat pump is a significant up front investment but you'll not be relying on fossil fuels once it's up and running and the ongoing cost is minimal.

Oil and gas - including propane - are only going to get more expensive and compound the damage to the planet.If you're planning tostay put it might be worth investing.

Also check out this thread

https://permies.com/t/160287/Direct-heat-wind-turbine

Added to the idea above of heating a well insulated tank with solar maybe use a wind brake at the same time. Even if you're just raising the temperature a few degrees by these methods it will all add up.

Steven Rodenberg - The set up costs of a system like you describe are way, way higher. A small water brake with a vertical axis turbine could be set up very cheaply. There's no storage cost because you use the water in the brake as the heat reservoir, no batteries needed, and even if all you achieve is to raise the temperature through the house by a few degrees it will vastly reduce the number of days you need to use other forms of heating.

That might be less of a point in your climate where perhaps you have more extremes of cold and hot days but here in the temperate UK we have more marginal days when an extra 5C would make all the difference. And we have a lot of days when it's the wind that makes the difference between needing to heat or not so capturing that would be a big win.

Check out this awesome thread

https://permies.com/t/160287/Direct-heat-wind-turbine

It uses heat from the wind, produced by friction, to heat your home. It’s genius. Every energy conversion process is inefficient because of losing energy in the form of heat along the way. This captures that and uses it.

The biggest change for me was getting milk delivered in glass instead of buying it in plastic. That easily halved what I was throwing away regularly.

The next challenge is plastic animal feed sacks that the pigs and chickens use. I'm moving over to more fodder crops, planted clover and alfalfa for this coming spring, planning to add comfrey and other perennials if they'll take on my soil. like birdsfoot trefoil, sainfoin. I've got broad beans in for later in the season. Planning Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) Perennial kale and sunflowers. I don't know if I can eliminate buying in feed butit's worth a try, and will vastly reduce the feed bills too.

The pandemichas been a big help. I'm now working from home and saving sooo much on fuel by limiting my travelling. In no rush to go back to the old normal!