Happy Thanksgiving to All: A Pardon or Gift?

Here we are the official turkey day. My daughter stated yesterday that she wanted to print out a turkey to pin to your shirt. Hubby said he would go into work early today and she said "No we need to watch the parade". We usually watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade and cook the turkey.
Oh I saw President Obama Pardon the turkey. It will now live at Disney World...What a great life to be with Mickey and all his friends. But, watch out....

They celebrate Thanksgiving also!

Living Healthy Through the Hoildays

Will it be a hard time to stay healthy through the Holidays? In today's Lifestyle that will be the main theme on all the Networks Shows. Every Year about this time people can't wait to have all the comfort Holiday foods.



You know the types;

• Turkey and Moms Stuffing
• Ham deck out with pineapple, brown sugar and cloves
• Lamb for some
  
• Cranberry sauce
• Sweet potatoes with Marshmallow topping
• Mash potatoes with Gravy
• Potato cakes with apples sauce and sour cream
  
• Green bean casserole
• Pumpkin Pie
• Pecan Pie
• Apple cranberry Pie
• Mincemeat Pie
• chocolate- Any kind
• Nuts
• Gingerbread houses
  
• Eggnog
  

All these are high in Fat and Carbs. So what are we to do? You know we will be eating these things. Holidays dictate it and what kind would it be if we did not eat these foods?
I love the holidays and it traditions, just could not enjoy it without them. Sure we can modify them, as seen on some Network shows, but it would not be the same. Let's Face it, this time only come along once a year. If we can manage a little control and not over doing it, we will be fine.
We can exercise a little more in the yard or in the house. Clean out the closets, get rid of the coats (the coat drives are out), do a Winter cleaning verses a spring cleaning of the whole house, Get those decorations up and start to bring in the Holidays with a healthier energy. Yes we can enjoy this seasons Holidays and still keep a Healthy Lifestyle.

Our Solar Project- We are up and running.

The meter has been switched out and the monitoring system installed. Panel array looking good, Mr Sun is shinning and we are helping the environment. Wanted to share the last of the project and the company we used during this process.

We started our project in October. Deciding on what company and product to use. There was a post "We are Going Solar" and "Our Solar Panel Decision" about that process. Next "Why Solar?" was the topic. Once the decision was made we need to find a company that would give us what we wanted and the service we expected. We decided on 21st Century Power Solutions.Then we waited on the Government to update their incentives ("A solar family is about to be Born"). On Friday October the 30th Our Project begin "Our solar project has started". It went smoothly with no problems you can read about it at these links; The Electric Part, The Solar Inverter and Our New Solar Panels. All these links are to previous post on this blog by me, just in case you weren't following or missed one.

On the 12th of November the power company switched out the box. We now have a Digital one. So to see the meter go backwards I will show you the old one in test mode.

Hear is the new Net Meter Box. The numbers can go backwards.

Our days are short now so the Sun power is lower. I will up date you monthly in my "It's in the Bag- Monthly updates". Usually posted around the first of each month.

On Monday this week, the Monitoring system came in. 21st Century Power Solutions Installed it.

It is connected to the Inverter

Then to our Router

This monitoring system will allow us to check the system on line. We also have a read out unit (shown below) that will let us see how our solar system is working anywhere in the house. Of course I have it in the Kitchen, since most of my time is spent there.

So the project took a total of 18 days from the start of 21st Century Power Solutions first home invasion til completed. I have to say here, that I really loved those workers. We had so much fun with them. There was some jokes played on Jack , the director of sales. Knowing how hubby loves to do that kind of things and so did some of the workers. At times I felt bad for Jack... being one who gets the jokes played on me from Hubby. Now that he had others edging him on, you can just imagine and I will let you here. Just to make things clear....
We did not have any problems with the installation. everything went smoothly.
I was very impressed with the way they did their work. Any thing that needed our attention they explained and took care of. Very informative on the work being done. Did whatever we wanted as far as appearances. I was even surprised when they drywall and repainted the den walls. The Master Electrician even came and stayed the whole day waiting on the inspectors. Being sure he would be able to answer or fix any problem on the spot. So not to hold up the passing of the building and electrical inspections. This was a very pleasant experience and I am sure we will have a long relationship with 21st Century Power Solutions.**.

**I have not received any compensation from 21st Century Power Solutions for this post. I am only giving my personal opinion of the company's work and work ethics as I experienced.
This statement is in compliance with the new FTC Blogging regulations put in place on November 1st.

Time to Update to Greener Appliances

Now that we are up and running on the Solar Energy plain, we needed to look at the appliances in our home. Could we be more energy conversing in some areas. Most Refrigerators use a lot of the energy provided to the home. If you have a dishwasher it too can suck up the watts. Maryland has a program running that will pay you for replacing your appliances.

Refrigerators are the most costly appliance in a home. Therefore it was the first thing we looked at. Decided to update to a more efficient one. The one we will get rid of is about 15 years old, not an energy saver at all. It takes 700 to 1600kilowatts-hours to operate it. Therefore by replacing it with an energy star one, we will save half the kilowatts hours saving Money.
What to do with old one? Did you know that 120 pounds of recyclable steel is in the average ten years or older refrigerator? By recycling our refrigerator, we save enough energy to run our new energy star refrigerator for 8 months. Our Power company will give us fifty dollar for the old one and take it off our hands to be recycled.

Next the dishwasher. We have a good one, however because our family is small, we tend to run at half full. Not a wise move, yes I could wash by hand but with the flu and viruses we feel we need the sanitizing of the dishwasher. Also most dishwasher heat their own water saving on the water heaters energy consumption. One more thing, Believe it or not it takes less water to use the dishwasher than to wash by hand. So a dishwasher is a good choice. We decided to get a two drawer one it will save energy and water.

This Going Green is costing us in money however in the long run it will make us better stewards of it. You see when retirement comes we hope to be self sufficient enough to be able to keep our home and pay our daily expenses. I know not many of you younger guys think about that. You should, time goes by so fast and before you know it you will be wondering how you will ever make it without working on Retirement income. We do not want to live on credit cards, like some seniors are today. They never thought the cost would be so high that their retirement income would not be sufficient to live on.

So here we are just starting to figure out how to save the environment as well as ourselves. there are many Incentive's to assist in the paying for some of these upgrades and energy solutions. I will write about those later. For now we are taking every opportunity out there.

Aloha Friday- Home Heating

Kailani over at An Island life likes to take it easy on this day. We ask a question for our visitor to give their two cents. For more followers click on the Aloha Friday banner.

There are all kinds of Home heating in the market today. We are a very diversified world. Some heat with Oil, Gas, Wood , Hot water or Heat Pumps. A newer one on the market, for some years, is GeoThermal. Of course there are some who still use Electric heaters.

Here's Your Question of the Day:

What type of Heat source do you use in your home?

We use a Heat Pump however we are thinking about going GeoThermal. Looking into it now. It is suppose to be a more Greener choice. My parents have had it for some years and their Heating bill has gone down. They use to use Oil. I have lived in homes that have used all the above listed. I really think Gas heat is Warmer. We also have a pellet stove. We use that all winter long. It is also a much warmer heat source. Even though we do have a fireplace,our use of it is limited. I feel too much heat is lost, but it is nice to cozy up by it on a snow blowing day with a cup of Hot chocolate....Oh I must stop now.