A View From The Garden

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I am currently driving a Toyota Highlander, which I love, but it’s a gas hog. It needs to be either converted to alternate fuel or traded in for a more suitable vehicle for some one who owns a net-zero inn.  The more I learn about alternate fueled vehicles, the more I understand why hybrid vehicles really are the best eco-aware choice for people right now. The conversion process to electric will be very expensive, if I can even find someone who has converted a Highlander. Ford has a cute little truck called a Transit Connect that can be purchased as an all-electric, but the range – especially while transporting a large payload, is not very good. For example, I could get to Madison from Lake Geneva, but I better be able to recharge somewhere for the trip back – especially if I was hauling stone, or other construction material back for the Inn. Our community is getting there, and we are planning charging stations for all electric vehicles to the Inn, but  as a whole, this area isn’t quite there yet.

Now I’m investigating propane power and I will be attending the “Powered by Propane” workshop in Milwaukee this April www.wicleancities.org to learn more about it. When we were in Vegas two years ago for the International Green Building Show, we saw a propane Ford F150. Wow it was exciting – the problem was, I think it was created for the show as a give-away only. The other problem was I didn’t win it. When I ask dealers in our area about this truck, they look at me like I have two heads, so I guess I need to do more research.

So, Propane would be cheaper than gas, pollute less and give the same power as gasolene. But what exactly is it and where does it come from? I went to Wikipedia and found some answers:

Propane is produced as a by-product of two other processes, natural gas processing and petroleum refining. The processing of natural gas involves removal of butane, propane and large amounts of ethane from the raw gas, in order to prevent condensation of these volatiles in natural gas pipelines. Additionally, oil refineries produce some propane as a by-product of cracking petroleum into gasoline or heating oil. OK, so the first source is pretty good. Where do we get this natural gas though? 90% of it comes from production in the United States. Here’s some more facts I learned:

The advantage of propane in cars is its liquid state at a moderate pressure. This allows fast refill times, affordable fuel tank construction, and ranges comparable to (though still less than) gasoline. Meanwhile it is noticeably cleaner (both in handling, and in combustion), results in less engine wear (due to carbon deposits) without diluting engine oil (often extending oil-change intervals), and until recently was a relative bargain in North America.  In the United States the propane fueling infrastructure is the most developed of all alternative vehicle fuels. Many converted vehicles have provisions for topping off from “barbecue bottles”. Purpose-built vehicles are often in commercially owned fleets, and have private fueling facilities. Propane is bought and stored in a liquid form (LPG), and thus fuel energy can be stored in a relatively small space.

I will keep researching. My goal is to have an alternative feuled vehicle to show people in time for Ecofair360 2011.^]

Filed under: Uncategorized | on March 28th, 2011 | No Comments »

3 possible coffee tables for the Welcome Center

Filed under: Uncategorized | on September 15th, 2009 | No Comments »

OK – I know this is a bit premature since we havn’t even broken ground yet, but we were talking about it, since petfriendly hotels are very hot right now, and someone asked me “would The Green leaf Inn be pro-pet?” I thought about this a long time – especially since I have three dogs of my own, and two cats, who are as close to actual human children as I’m going to get and I do miss them terribly when I travel.  I researched the heck out of this, looking at web sites of hotels who allow pets, their contracts and descriptions, fees and rules.                                                                                                                                                         Bottom line, The Green Leaf Inn is pro-pet, but they will not be allowed on campus or in the suites. There are so many good reason why they should not be allowed, damage and insurance being some of the most important – but also consider room air quality. The rooms will be as allergy free as possible, with quarterly allergen tests to keep the rooms that way – and everyone by now knows about pet dander and how difficult it is to remove from a room once it is there. That being said, we will help our clients who are traveling with their pets as much as possible. My personal vet who does boarding is close by and I am going to set up an agreement with them to house our client’s pets during their stay. Even better, our neighbor – as in right next store - wants to start a kennel, and we have already spoken about an arrangement and possible discount for our guests’ pets. She has lots of land and wants to set up visiting hours and a dog walking area on her property too – something that we have no room for at our location. I want to have lots of dog-friendly information at the front desk too – places to visit that welcome dogs, parks in the area for walking and directions, etc. So, even if we are saying no to the pets presence, we will try to help out as much as we can.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on April 21st, 2009 | 1 Comment »

At 6 PM, Fritz and I will be sitting in the town hall of Delavan, WI waiting for the vote to approve our request for a zoning change on our property. The Green Leaf Inn needs to be on commercial land, and so we are asking to change our 5 acre’s agriculture zoning and residential zoning to B4 zoning. The town planning commission approved our request two weeks ago, and the next step is to seek final approval from the Town Board. The new president will be there, but she is familiar with our story as we see her every week at church. So…we are hoping for a speedy, positive vote tonight. Of course, as soon as the land becomes commercial, Fritz and I will need a special “manager’s permit” to continue to live in our house! That will have to be requested along with the other conditional use permits (including the wind turbine) and that will need a separate approval process – and I’m sure a bit more debate. One step at a time…we have excellent representation in the persons of our architect team, and our attourney team – who have become experts in the re-zone process, so we are in good hands.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on April 21st, 2009 | No Comments »

I received a Sun Oven from my husband as a gift this year. www.sunoven.com He had actually owned one years ago when he was a teacher in Illinois – he has been tuned in to this green stuff far longer than I. I look forward to some of WI first sunny days this spring so that I can “play” with it. The instructions say that after a few times, I should feel like an expert! The oven does not burn anything, and if you are cooking anything besides baked goods, you will not need as much moisture, because the oven also doesn’t dry things out. the trickiest thing to learn is focusing it so that it is in sun, not shadow for the entire cooking period – so you need to think ahead and plan for the shade progress across the cooking area. On a sunny day, the oven will reach 300 degrees in 20 minutes. The sun oven web site has recipes too, which I will check out – but here’s my goal – I want to be able to make muffins and breads for The Green Leaf Inn’s breakfasts and add them to the menu so that our guests will be able to experience solar baking. On sunny days, they may also see me using the oven to bake some muffins for the next day’s breakfast. I will be selling them too, so they can purchase one to take home. Each purchase of a Solar Oven helps support Sun Oven’s outreach projects in deforested countries on 5 continents. As the population grows, this way of cooking will help to save the forests we have left. I’ll be back to let you know how my first cooking lessons go!

Filed under: Uncategorized | on April 21st, 2009 | No Comments »

Last night was the second open town meeting at the Elkhorn Courthouse. The ordinance that the land use committee has created is for all intents and purposes anti green energy. The seats were full, but I was disappointed first of all by the lack of attention this issue is getting from the county. I recognised the same faces that were at the first public meeting last month. I was also disappointed by the growing feeling that no one on the committee was really listening.The townspeople who spoke were all very polite and each made good points, but it felt like decisions had already been made – and not what any of the audience had in mind. What is causing this fear of green energy here in this county? Why is there this “not in my back yard” ignorance about something that has to do with saving our country and our planet – something we must accomplish or face extinction?

Filed under: Uncategorized | on March 20th, 2009 | No Comments »

I didn’t start off wanting to learn all about the ever-changing technology of pond building. As it turns out, unless you have more than enough money to burn, owners must learn about the technology and the up-keep of this rather time consuming seasonal hobby themselves.

And if they do employ a vendor and there are problems – any problems – it gets set squarely back in the owner’s lap anyway. Unless you have money to burn, that is.

Problems can range from: the realization that the vendor they have selected to guide them through this hobby (or rather, a labor intensive add -on to the work day) is not the responsible, quality vendor they thought they were. Or, the problem “why is there a leak in my pond and who is responsible?”. Or: why does the money I am throwing at this thing not equal to the value I am seeing – and that I had been promised I’d see?

Do I sound a bit jaded? Perhaps.

I have learned a lot about ornamental ponds, and looking back over the past seven years, there has been more pain than pleasure associated with the experience. If I could have chosen instead the new technology of the pondless waterfall – especially for the Green Leaf Inn, I would have. But of course, that technology has only been created in the past few years.

Bottom Line, if you want a pond in your back yard, find some property that has a real one. It’s a lot less trouble.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on September 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

No, really, where DO I begin…each day I see the immense amount of things needed to be done for our project to become reality and I wish I had begun the preparation and research years ago…but years ago we didn’t know we were going to build a bed and breakfast on our property – and a green, sustainable one at that. I know that there are people who have experienced this adventure and have even survived and succeeded in creating their own bed and breakfast – your feed back would be very welcome. I probably have some of your books on our table in the study – just no time to read them yet. I will, eventually – I hope in time to avoid the most basic mistakes. My husband and I are what I refer to as “leapers”  – we leap into something and ask questions later. Most of the time – through sheer luck- we have accomplished what we set out to do with a range of moderate to great success. Other times, we have spent a lot of time and money and grief getting educated about what we did wrong and how it should have been done right. True to form, I have leapt into some landscaping decisions that I felt were necessary in order to spruce up our curb appeal for investors , potential vendors and future guests. Some are working out  fine, others not so much…

Filed under: Uncategorized | on May 29th, 2008 | No Comments »