I wanted to write this diary when Meteor Blades originally proposed "Tell us what you're doing", but it was just too difficult at that time, so I'm glad that he asked again.
I live in Chico, CA, a city of about 87,000, and another 20,000 if you count the unincorporated sprawl. There is a lovely Cal State campus in the heart of town, and the city owes much to it. Chico is in the Sacramento River valley and is surrounded by agriculture, rice, almonds, and cattle to name some. We have the great misfortune of being represented in Congress by Wally Herger, (R) CA-2. This is a decidedly conservative area.
When we moved here 13 years ago, we bought a classic 60s ranch house with a large backyard, a pool and lots of grass. It's in town and across the street from Bidwell Park, one of the largest municipal parks in the country and a real gem. Perfect for our three young girls. Perfect except the house had a flat rock roof, single pane windows, was on septic, really poor insulation, and was generally a utility hog. A drastic change was in order.
My husband Michael, was a very bright man who was given an academic scholarship to Stanford, where he received his Bachelors in Earth Sciences and Masters in Environmental Engineering. He was a genuine environmentalist and the thought that our densely populated neighborhood was entirely on septic tanks with leech lines seeping into the groundwater was almost criminal to him. He began inquiring as to what we would need to do to bring city sewers to our block, there were sewer lines that were close enough to work. Obviously we had to pay quite a bit, but the city had a doable "installment" plan, so we went for it. The great news is that Michael convinced almost everyone on our block to also change to sewer, and now, years later, the lines are spreading around the block and through the entire neighborhood.
Next came the house itself. Michael figured the optimal roof pitch for a solar array, and we had our architect draw the remodel with that in mind. When the remodel was done, which along with an entirely new roof structure, included beefing up all of the insulation, new dual paned windows and all new wiring, the search began for a solar installer. At the time, there were no local electricians who handled solar, so we hired a guy from Manteca. Michael talked our next door neighbor into installing an array as well. We now sell electricity to PG&E every month. Here's the array:
We also refurbished our pool. Michael had read about a salt water pool system from Australia. Yup, he was on the phone with them, ordering the equipment he needed to change our pool over. It's been wonderful to not use chlorine and the other harsh chemicals that pools usually need to stay algae free. Happily, salt water pools are becoming more common! And once our girls grew out of the need for a lawn, out it came, replaced by native grasses and hardscape.
Michael was a great writer, and his letters to Wally Herger were things of beauty. I wished I had saved a few. Diane Feinstein was a regular recipient, as was the President during the health care debate. But Michael was more about changing things on a local level, getting his community to step forward and up. He rode around town on an electric scooter, "fueled" by our panels of course. He was getting involved in biochar when he became ill. I lost him in May.
Since Michael's passing and until now, the only involvement I had in, well, anything, was the occasional comment on a DKos diary, and those were mostly on Haole in Hawaii's, I needed that kind of beautiful distraction. But I'm ready to get back into it now.
So what am I doing? I'm going to follow Michael's lead. I'm going to work to get out the vote this Fall. The likes of Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina need to be defeated. But there are local races that need attention and support. I will work for those. I want to push friends, neighbors and the community in general, in a greener direction, even if it's one block at a time.
And near and dear to me, I am going to continue to support Midland School, and the teaching of real science and environmentalism in our schools in general, (again, I'm looking at you Texas).
It's only a start, but that's what I'm doing.