Day Eleven of Our Quest

Meeting Day!
Today's meeting was quite interesting. Butch had scheduled overtime today so the kids and I watched : 30 Days: Off the Grid , this episode of 30 Days by Morgan Spurlock was really fascinating to not only myself but the kids as well. I had to pause it several times so that we could discuss different things about the show. The one that sparked repeated conversation was solar power. Now i have to be honest, this fascinated me at a young age as well. My 7th grade science project was a solar powered food dehydrator (which I got an A on!). My kids did not realize how much we already use solar energy. We talked about the way we let the sun in the windows in the winter and block it out in the summer, also all about the only heat used for the greenhouse in our backyard. I told them that Dakota and I had discussed building a solar heater for his room to help with the heat upstairs this winter since his window gets the most direct sunlight in the winter. Dakota is doing the math and research for solar panels on our home. And we discussed the sunroom that we are planning to build on to the house in the future and its potential for solar heat to assist the furnace. I explained that the tile floors catching the light from the windows will warm not only the tile but the concrete beneath it then retain that heat, releasing it at night. They were all really captivated.

After we finally made it through the episode, we decided to research the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage online since it is really not that far from us we can get ideas from them to use right here in Iowa! We signed up for their weekly column and are very excited about discussing this at weekly meetings!

Next we talked about coupons and rebates. I told the kids about the rebate I found from Kraft for Tombstone Pizzas. If we buy the pizzas we can get a rebate on one of our utility bills up to $15! So Holden is in charge of watching the sale ads for them to go on sale and Mickey is in charge of looking for coupons. Sundays, on the way to or from church, we get gas in one of the vehicles at Kum N Go (even if it is only for $5-$7) and get a free Sunday Des Moines Register that has coupon inserts. I figure that if we use any of the coupons out of that paper on items we use, we are saving on our gas each week! Some weeks that may make the gas free! Click here to get a rebate for yourself!