"What did you buy?" asked her husband Freddie.
"Absolutely nothing!" said Franny. "Last week, I told my friends at work to save me any household items they would like to recycle. Well, today they came through in a big way! Not only that, but a woman named who started working recently in the office next door to mine, approached me and asked me if I wanted to be her "Green Buddy." I didn't have the foggiest idea what she meant by that, so she explained that the "Green Buddy System" is something started in the town where she used to live. People who are interested in living a sustainable, off-grid, urban lifestyle pair up with one another, to make this easier to do. For example, a person (or family) living in an apartment that faces North would find it nearly impossible to raise plants as a source of food, nor would their landlord be likely to approve their raising Quail indoors. However, if they paired up with a Green Buddy who had a small back yard, the person with the yard could do more of the raising of food and collecting of solar energy, while the person living in the apartment could be in charge of processing recycled materials, for example."
Freddie was impressed. "What a good idea! I wonder if some of the guys at work would want to start this, too. We could even set up a cooperative group, so that the Buddy pairs could periodically meet other pairs and share goods and ideas."
"Let's start small," Franny cautioned. "I don't want to get overwhelmed with administrative tasks and not have time to do what we need to do. Let me show you what I brought home. Rose, who is my new Green Buddy, gave me some long strips of wool and cotton fabrics, so I can start making braided rugs. She also gave me a gadget that clamps the strips to the table while I work with them. Betty brought us a bunch of small solar collectors from broken solar walk-way lights. Her husband is a landscaping contractor and has been collecting them from customers who were otherwise going to throw them away. Christine gave us two sets of brackets for window boxes. I figured that, not only could we grow plants in them, but we could set up a small wind generator on one, and attach some solar collectors on the other."
Freddie was very encouraged and got out his plans for linking together multiple solar collectors. He figured that he could probably figure out a way to charge a computer battery, if he was creative. On his lunch hour at work, he had found an interesting article that answered the question "How many solar cells would I need in order to provide all of the electricity that my house needs?" http://www.howstuffworks.com/question418.htm This article explained that "A single solar cell produces a maximum of 0.45 volts and a varying amount of current depending on the size of the cell and the amount of light striking the surface. In a typical yard light, therefore, you need four cells wired in series.... In this yard light, the four cells will produce 1.8 volts and a maximum of about 100 milliamps in full, bright sunlight." The article also gave a lot of information on how the yard light works and how it is wired inside. He found another article, written for RV-ers, but very useful for what he and Franny were trying to do. It was about joining multiple solar panels: http://ezinearticles.com/?RV-Solar-Panels-How-To-Get-Started&id=470405. He hoped that they would soon be able to find an energy efficient computer and power it with solar battery chargers.
Crocheted bag, made from recycled plastic bags. The flower is made of recycled sweater material. (See below)
(Please see http://thequeenv.typepad.com/the_queen_v/recycled_sweater_projects/jects/ to see this project and more pictures of other recycling projects.)
