Oh Poop!

So there is a motorcycle in Japan that runs on poop.. Ok I not sure about this? I mean when would you use this? I mean where can you pull over to fuel up? Or are you going to just drive along and fuel the bike? Oh I am cringing as I type this... I could hear the middle school student (or younger) screaming out the window at a red light to the motorcycle rider "hey are you pooping??" And the mother turning red..

 General Electric is using cow manure for combined heat and power (CHP) plant. It can produces 625 kW of electricity and 686 kW of thermal output.  And then what is left over from the  manure process is used as fertilizer.

Pacific Gas and Electric and BioEnergy Solutions has biogas-to-pipeline injection project in Fresno County that uses animal poop! It basically uses the the methane gas produced as the manure decomposes.


 So there even is a plant that is producing a coal like substance that is used as coal would... and it is made from poop. It equals taking a million cars off the road..

This was a very interesting morning as I kept running into poop stories....

Something to think about during the heat wave...

You can save money by buying CFL bulbs....





Check out more money saving ideas at energysavers.gov

OMG it is hot!!

So ya the mid west is getting hit by a heat wave. The humility is high and it is sticky!  I really hate running the air conditioner but I forgot to turn it on the one day and the poor cats threw up everywhere, including my bed  Yuck and of course it was one of those late nights that I was crawling in to bed almost dead on my feet just to have to change the sheets....


I have it set at 77 degrees   So most of the time I turn it off after I get home from work and get the fans in the windows and get fresh air in the house!

But when I come home this little window unit doesn't cool off the whole house, just the living room.  so all the fur babies are in the room.... Most of the time it is the little guy by the air conditioner, with Miss pet me pet me on the couch and psycho on the love seat to the right..... I get home to lazy kitties laying all over the living room.... I leave the back door open and the one pictured Miss pet me pet me loves to go out in the mud room and watch everything outside... Psycho girl loves the kitchen window open.

So now it's in the nineties and it's storming nice for a quiet evening off... Oh well laundry can hang up in the  other room..,

Turn Down for Weight Loss??

Cold house can help in weight loss yahoo report... Basically they believe if we turn our thermostats down to lower 60's, we will lose more weight.  That we stay  inside and just vegging out on our couches.  But if we turn down the thermostat we will not get the rush of OMG it is cold outside, not wanting to go out into the cold... that we will get use to being warm.....


hummm so why did I find this map showing the states of the north and the south about the same.... Colorado being the healthiest state and Mississippi being the most obese.  humm really looking at the map seems the "middle" of the country is the part that needs to work on their diets  The middle like the middle of our bodies where the belly fat is most dangerous place to have fat, for it can cause problems for all your organs!! 

It isn't just diet that causes obesity.  Then again we know that; don't we. That diet and exercise is what we need.  Yet the school system still feeds out kids junk and cuts down on gym classes and recess...
We keep the thermostat about 67 degrees because if I turn it down any more the girls would just hind under blankets and complain about it being freezing in here... At 67 it is cool enough to have a sweatshirt on and make you move a little to keep warm.... Now for their friends.... they like to show up in t-shirts and bitch how cold it is in my house... Well, they really have to learn that I conserve energy and they need to wear something heavier than a t-shirt here.... Or look in the living room closet there are large and ex=large sweatshirt for them to use while here... Oh yea we got them just for you... PS Tech wears t-shirt and it doesn't really bother him.... it like the man doesn't feel cold or warmth... he doesn't complain about the air not being up on high in the summer time either.......

You see I also goggled poverty in the USA... Guess what state is the number 1? It is Mississippi... the state with the large percent of obese people......It the prepackage foods that are higher in saturated fat, sodium and sugar... the cheap stuff in cardboard boxes, the fast food lane with the dollar menus... the fact that many of these states are the climate for fresh foods mostly all year long, but they have the highest poverty........ BUT I think from shows like Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution it shows that many Americans don't have the knowledge of how to cook tasty foods for themselves with time limits and

I did get off on the tangent..Did I? ... but I think that what you eat and how much you exercise not how cold you are......

Warming up the Car

It's cold outside and the windows are frosted, do you let your car warm up to clear the windows or do you scrape and go? Which is better for the car?

I set out to find the answer.  I remember the sites on hypermiling, that said anything over 10 minutes idle is wasting gas.  (No I don't turn off my engine at a traffic light- that's over kill in my book)  So I thought no, it must be no.... I googled and read some sites about this.  I even saw a segment on the local news about it....

The truth is that newer cars have a fuel injection that they don't need to warm up.  Where many years ago it was a good idea to warm the car for a few minutes in the cold to help the engine.  that why many of the warm up the car engine people are older.  (Sorry DAD.... but he did see the piece on the local news and said ok..... I don't need a warm up- and then had to tell me that!!)

Most cars don't need that extra couple of minutes to warm up to help the engine. We are talking cars that are 20 years or younger. the older, carbureted cars,a extended warm-up can damage the engine by diluting the oil with excess fuel. That is just wasting gas and Co2.........causing more air population! About the only time you need to warm up is when the weather is in the teens, you can wait a minute or two before driving......... 

But many people believe that warming up the car is faster than driving the car to warm it up... Not really the car get "warmer" faster driving.

But  yea we all have had that kinda night where the inside glass was frosted and you let it run a few minutes while you get the snow off your car......  come to think about it it was those nights it dropped in to the teens... the joy of working second shift!!  I do however watch people that don't want to have to scrap off their cars just sit in their cars to wait for the snow to get melted off by the window defogger...... that is wasting gas and can be damaging to the engine......

There is a switch

On our ceiling fans there are switches that switch the directions of the blades.  I believe it is clockwise for summer and counter clockwise for winter. But of course we switched the blades to do the other direction the other night when it got down into the 40's.... sigh today it was in the 70's..... Guess it is lucky that we just have to switch this switch on the fan to change the blade direction, not turn the blades or anything major like that...

Ways to help keep your home warm in the cold weather and cool in the warm weather...........

PS....
Miss Animals right learned the hard way to clean your blades first... cough cough, dust bunnies aren't something she likes to save...... That and it doesn't help with her mom standing there laughing and saying dust bunnies be free... Be free........

What Cooking?

So you want to lower your utilities bills by finding the lowest possible energy using appliances. But the fact is we use 50 percent of our energy for cooking. This includes the hot water heater for cooking and cleaning. So where can you cut back? A table of energy use of kitchen cooking can be found on
Micheal Bluejay site.
   Well the microwave is the cheapest most efficient way of cooking. With it fast cooking times. Now many people don't believe that a microwave is safe. I mean the nickname we call striking in a microwave is nuked? The truth is microwaves are targeting the water and fat molecules. It heats them up not nuking the food with radio active waste. You can warm up food in the microwave.  Only cook somethings nicely.  Where somethings are just better cooked the old fashion way.

The a crock-pot that works on the almost the same amount of energy that a microwave works on for 6.75 hours longer!  Have your crock-pot plugged in and cooking while you are working could cost only around a dime (maybe a little more)!! Not bad for a time saver. Plus during the heat wave- you don't need to heat up the house while cooking... This type of cooking does work best for stews and soups.

Crank on the toaster oven for that quick pizza snack! You don't have to wait for a pre-heating time and it is not too bad on the pocket book with 4 cents for a hour for cooking. Pizza snacks take what a  half a hour at the most... cha-ching...

However if you are cooking a big meal and cook many things at once the oven can be energy saving. If you count the times and what you have cook all together. For around 7 cents for a hour the stove top cooks your food but if you have all 4 burners going that can add up where in the oven it is twice that. However if the oven is full and I have more than 2 items, I am saving energy.  I like to try to cook things together.  I have been know to say since we have the oven on lets cook this too. Or pick the vegetable that can be baked........