sept 26 2022

As the topsfield fair begins to put itself together I am fascinated with the number of triangles used to hold a roller coaster together but just because I am me,   I wonder what the percentage is of bolts that can be not properly tightened before there is something catastrophic collapse.. I have never gotten on one of those portable roller coasters..  I think maybe I've only ridden one roller coaster in my life.. I can see no point in paying good money to be terrified.. I'm terrified enough just getting out of bed every morning..

 

Bud--- the person not the horse---was front and center yesterday.. because what started to be an idea of using all that white fencing from Meredith farm to a donate till the dog park project... I went over to kind of look at that fencing again---- it is plastic ---it is on 8 foot centers--- it is  Three rail  ---4 foot high .. In the process I ran into a birdcage project...... which got donated to Elizabeth.. she's the one with several complete kitchens in her garage in pieces that she found somewhere—and got put in her garage ----- at any rate the problem was to donate this birdcage to her house from Meredith farm.  it is a museum piece probably 5 foot diameter more than 8 feet tall unless you take the top off which we did so that it would fit in my horse trailer--so driving this thing to her house and sitting there just making conversation I asked if she just happened to have an overstuffed chair for bud..

. Elizabeth is not what you'd call an official used anything dealer.. but at one point she did have the equivalent of five complete kitchens in her garage which she found somewhere and grabbed.. one of which is now in our house donated to service dog project.. so I happened to ask her... as they remove this mammoth birdcage from the. horse trailer. if she happened to have a chair for bud and she said yes she had two matching chairs which she didn't need.. so I sent Janine off to go sit in the chairs and see if they were comfortable she didn't even bother to tell me the results of her sitting in them but around the corner she came with Elizabeth's  husband carrying a wonderful stuffed chair... it is nearly identical to what I had intended to buy so that bud would have a place to sit next to the fireplace ----which he always builds in the winter..----- so you can talk all you want to about the relationship between currencies of countries.. but yesterday my currency went from fencing the birdcage to chair and I'm happy to report the chair is lovely. and very shortly after we got it in front of the fireplace Bud sat  in it with his feet high in the air discussing the fact that he always tries to get his feet higher than his heart at least once a day. we are all set there...

 

Now the bad part....

Bud reads things—odd bits of information not readily accessible to the general public... I don't know where he read this but he reported to me that the National Grid had plans on increasing the cost of electricity by 64%..  and furthermore in New Hampshire it was going to be twice that...  I don't know how that slipped by me or the general public but that would be a tremendous effect  on service dog projects basic activity like cleanliness and electric dryers..   64% increase in our electric bill which is already several $1000 a month, would have a catastrophic effect.. so in and effort to make the change less catastrophic, I started thinking let's go a day 24 hour day not using electricity anymore than necessary.. which is going to involve  redefining "what the hell is necessary? "and I started a list.

Critical.... refrigeration—I would leave that running... however... we have a total of 6 frigerators On the property. so cutting down to 1 would be a big step forward. If we allowed one light bulb per building that would be fine because when we lose electricity entirely we're always thrilled to have one light bulb and we manage at that time with one light bulb.. ---about.  cooking? Not that I am doing much, but warmed baked beans is better than cold baked beans... and I have- many time cooked on. That old iron stove...... which also kept us warm on occasion...( at least in. th e kitchen)...would you get down to critical things like the coffee kirig  or whatever it is.. -----.

 our heat and air conditioning is also electric... but we could change the range from pleasant to livable.... I hate to say it but we probably should leave one computer running.. and allow for recharging only overnight... That leaves a lot of things we do not need starting with electric dryers... we have been tremendously lax and gathering up everything and washing it when really all we need is to shake it and hang it outside in the fresh air.. granted there are times.. but what happens if we cut those times down to running the washer three times a week.. 

I shudder to think about hot water and wonder how clean everyone would be if they had to take cold showers..  .  In the old days people heated a pot of water on the wood stove and had a sponge bath in the yard....but we certainly could get by with a very quick warm shower every other day which is what ipswitch is suggesting when they were concerned with just  water consumption....

 

So along with all the earth shattering news of oncoming changes climate or otherwise... you can put that 64% problem very high on your list... we are all terribly guilty of abusing the energy system.. so before limited consumption becomes mandatory... it is not a ridiculous idea try practicing ahead of time because there are ways we could all make it not happen .

an interesting sideline might be what effect with 64% have on the production of electric cars---or would that make everybody run back to the gas pump... at $5 a gallon.

 

good morning.