SolarFest

When we moved up here, we decided we were going to go as green as possible. The first thing we did was get a small plastic container to start composting. I had read and heard lots of different ways (with and without meat products for example). We were pretty good about putting our table scraps, paper towels, egg shells, etc into the pail. We felt pretty good about it, until it began to smell. Badly. We had neglected to prepare for the next step - having an outside container to mix the leaves and grass and indoor stuff with. We abandoned te idea until we could get it together. Then I saw and advertisement for SolarFest. SolarFest boasted seminars, vendors, and general information about green living. We just had to go! It was over an hour away in the Green Mountains of Southern Vermont. The drive was beautiful through back roads and some highways. Some of the signs were obscure or downright missing. When we crossed the border into upstae New York we knew we were lost, but some nice folks gave us a map (mine was in the other car) and redirected us.

It stormed the night before, so we were glad we decided to go on Sunday.

It was alittle muddy but my Jeep handled it very well. :) Some people got stuck in the mud.

Although this festival was over 10 years old, this new locatio was only a couple of years old. Someone had donated their hundreds of acres for the festival to use. People had camped overnight. It was kind of wierd watching people (OK a bunch of white people) walking around barefoot. It wasn't the cleanest environment (muddy) and it wasn't the easiest terrain (very hilly) and there were branches and rocks all over the place. It was pretty odd, but we ran with it.

We were impressed with the effort to make this event as green as possible using solar energy. We attended one seminar and Mark was ready to go. But I dragged him around to the vendors so we would discuss possibilities for our home. Did you know that approximately 30% of heating costs are from heating water? We found a cool solar system with tubes that mounts to the roof and connects directly to your hot water heater. Very efficient, guaranteed to reduce your bills.

They had great food too. I even got Mark to try some vegeterian food. OK, I tricked him into trying it. But he grudgingly agreed that it was good.

This is a solar powered car. They also had the next generation of solar powered full sized cars as well

It was a beautiful venue.

Yeah, we had to use port a lets. At least they had hand sanitizer, which makes it alittle less gross.

Separately, I was filling up my water bottle at a faucet they had set up when a woman walks up, turns the faucet off, pulls my bottle up to the spout and turns the water back on. She says that I was wasting water by not holding my bottle way up to the faucet. I thought I was not getting other peoples germs by holding my bottle away...

We saw a representative from the State of Vermont who explained the different programs and incentives for converting to solar, wind or geothermal power. Apparently wind isn't an option unless you're in a very windy area. The poles have to be about sixty feet high which some communities consider unsightly. He gave us a list of approved vendors and schooled us on going green. He was cool.

They had events for families with kids. I think this guy was doing puppets.

The orange thing is a portable hot tub. You heat the water by burning wood which heats up the coils. Very cool, but very expensive. I think it looks like a giant tea cup.

Back home, we called a local name on the list of approved vendors. He was very nice. But, when he came by, he told us our roof needed to have southern exposure. The south facing part of our roof doesn't get sun since our front yard is FULL of trees!!! I did a little research just to make sure he wasn't shining us on and he is correct. So what do you do, cut down trees so you can have solar power? That doesn't make sense. What we can do for electricity is mount solar panels on poles in the back of our property (how ugly is that!) but tht doesn't work for the water. So we have to investigate other options. Does that suck or what!?!?