I recently read a post in The Green List USA about the sustainability about electric cars. There were some good points, they are cleaner, less noise pollution etc. When I think about transition ans sustainability I start thinking about reviving the old ways and starting to appreciate the sustainability of them. For instance what happened in Cuba when the Soviet Union fell. The people of Cuba found themselves without any oil, no imports of food, the island was abandoned and the people had to make a way. One of the things that they did among many others is tackle transportation many of its citizens were use to traveling 10-20 miles to work before the fall of the Soviet Union then they woke up one day and there was no more gas. They got on their bikes and started riding their bikes to work. Now you can imagine what a pain in the ass "literally" that was. As they became more sustainable and independent their lifestyles yet took another transition they began creating community in which people lived and worked. Shortening the commute. You guys say what are the benefits to this? Well let me tell ya. Physical health, cleaner air, increase levels of energy and most importantly mental clarity. I have read that the statistics for the average Human on Earth walks ten miles a day. The average human in the western world is 3 miles per day. It is said the 5 miles will bring you optimum health. So with that being said I am going to show you some pictures that I took while I walked.

As we enter into this new age, My daughter and I have been making transitions along the way. We are constantly learning new ways to cut our consumption and free up money for our passions. We are studying as much as possible, and one amazing resource of our study has been the book "Food Not Lawns" by H.C. Flores.
Our major concern was water, and how much it cost. In the past our water bill would sky rocket during gardening season. Now we have converted over 40% of our property to edibles and were concerned with the cost of our water bill. You see, we put the horse before the cart and do not exchange our time for money anymore and $ needs to be used as smartly as possible.

Ms Flores started her transition with a very simple method. Hey, ya gotta start somewhere. She undid the elbow to her bathroom sink and used her hand wash water and tooth brushing water to flush the toilet. So we started, we took off the elbow to the bathroom sink. Then low and behold, the universe steps in and gives me a small plumbing problem and forces me to snake the kitchen sink. During this learning experience, we still had dishes to do. That is when we discovered that it took over 13 gallons of water to wash dinner dishes! So we never put the elbow back to the kitchen sink. We now do our dishes just a little slower ( because we must stop to empty the grey water in the garden :).
So all of that aside, I was eagerly waiting for the bill to come, I thought I would see a small drop. But Low and Behold! I saw something I was not expecting. Consider this, we are still watering our garden with the hose....
Last months bill was $38.14
This month it is $14.32!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$23.82 difference!!!!!!!!!!
I encourage you to make some small transitions as you go, eventually you will be very happy that you did!
Now I need to convert my washing machine to store grey water for the garden, and utilize a rain catchment system for showering ( I already have the shower stall made :)

I also cut my electric bill down dramatically by selling my clothes dryer and using my clothes hanger, no AC till we cant take it any more, and unplugging appliances and lights instead of just flipping the switch from a normal May electric bill of $150.00 to $200.00 to $75.00!
Learn how Cube dealt with their Peak Oil Problem, This is an AMAZING video!
Watch All parts It is INSPIRING!

Original Post at:
http://nanasgarden71.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-we-cut-our-water-bill-in-more-then.html

Published May 14, 2011