Energy Self-Sufficiency

[Niri Te]

I looked around a little, and didn't see a thread named this way, so I figured it was "fair game".
How many of us here carry out activism on in our back yards? My sweetie pie and I are building our home while we live in it, and we use rescued lumber from houses, barns, ans mobile homes that we carefully disassemble, rather than tear down, so that we can get the most use out of the old structure, What we CAN'T use, goes to the recyclers.
We also run our entire house on Wind and solar power, that we have spent less that a thousand dollars on.
fortunately, I am an ace mechanic, and do all the maintainance and repairs on all of our vehicles, the parts coming from the local "Mega-U-Pull.
So, what are you guys doing? Let's see if we can brainstorm a little here.
Eywa ngahu