Home & Heart Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze There are misconceptions about country living with renewable energy. This prompted me to start this forum for questions and answers about the homemaker's role. My own introduction to living with renewable energy was abrupt and complete. In the last six years, I have lived on micro-hydro and solar power. Each system has its own characteristics. Introductions I am a mail-order bride. Of course, this is a simplistic statement. Although my husband-to-be and I had never met, we began writing to each other at the urging of a mutual friend. After a whirlwind literary courtship I ventured to the mountains to meet Bob-O. I never left. A year later we were married. Until then I was a city girl. I was born in San Francisco and spent my life in the Bay Area. Marginally Mountain At first, living out in the woods, with no phone, no indoor toilet, but with hydro-powered electricity, was like camping out. When I walked outside in the morning I was surrounded by the forest. The smoke from the wood stove, the smell of the trees, brought back memories of childhood camping trips. As the practicalities of country living became a day to day awareness, Bob- O began to tell me that I was marginally mountain. I had a good grounding in the common sense basics of renewable energy living from my father, although he didn't know it. He taught us to turn off lights when we left a room. If you aren't using an electrical device, don't leave it turned on. Long before recycling was popular he taught us to separate our garbage. I guess that's why Bob-O granted me a margin. Realities Because Bob-O's work then kept him away from the cabin for lengths of time, I had a crash course in micro-hydro. I learned how to clean the intake of forest debris, how to reset the alternator, and how to check the batteries. Most importantly, I learned how to check the nozzle for plugging at the wheel BEFORE climbing the mountain to check the head. Walking along our water ditch, with a Macleod (a super rake/hoe used for digging fire lines), cleaning the length up and then down, there was a large madrone with bear claw marks on it at about my eye level (I'm 5'10"). At first this made me very nervous to go up there alone, but I never did see a bear there. There was wild life everywhere. Deer eating my garden, ringtails raiding the porch, raccoons and squirrels getting into the chicken feed, bears in the apple trees in fall, civit cats and skunks, and once a cougar came into the yard and snatched one of my free ranging chickens. I came to have a special fondness for a garter snake that roamed our cabin freely, looking for mice. Washing Machines The first washing machine I used there was a wringer with a Briggs and Stratton gas engine on it. I learned to check the oil and gas before I did the laundry. My stepdaughter was always better at pulling the starter cord than I was though. It sat outside under some oak trees. It was a pleasant place to be in the summer. The winter, however, was a different matter. I told Bob-O that the water was just too damn cold to put my hands into in the winter. He sympathized. A couple of weeks later he surprised me with elbow-length, flannel-lined, rubber gloves. A couple of weeks later, I bought an automatic washer. It was a used, rebuilt Whirlpool. I loved it. We had to run the generator to use it but I didn't care. Later when we sold our Tripplite inverter and got a Trace 2012 I could use the washer off that. From talking to other people on renewables the only washer that doesn't work well on inverter power is the Maytag. Whirlpools do have a rinse cycle that needs a certain amount of water pressure, but I never had a problem with that. After moving to our PV powered home, I learned to time my wash to one load per sunny day, when the panels' input was at their highest. Living with renewables is a matter of timing to nature, wind, water, and sun. When I lived on micro-hydro I could vacuum pretty much anytime. Now that I live on solar, when the sun shines all morning, I open the doors and windows, shake out the rugs and cushions, and vacuum the carpet. T and A Living on renewables is a matter of Timing and Awareness. You choose your own degree of sophistication. I use my food processor almost every day. The microwave gets used about every two or three days. Bob-O and I are both on our computers for hours every day. We watch TV almost every night. I don't feel as if I am missing out on any comfort I might want. Bob-O says now that I am 'more or less mountain'. Wow, am I impressed. Vacuum Cleaners I have a small Hoover PortaPower QS vacuum now. In the old cabin that was enough. Now I am faced with a large expanse of wall-to-wall carpet and I want to upgrade. My neighbor has a Contractors Shop Vac (wet/dry), but he also has wood floors. I want to hear from some homemakers out there, living on renewables about their vacuums, good and bad. Let's share this information. Housekeeping is a thankless job. No one notices if you do it, only if you do not. Anything that makes it easier or faster is a blessing. Consider this column the Heloise of Home Power. Access Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze, C/O Home Power, POB 130, Hornbrook, CA 96044 ù 916-475-3401.