A Rural Renaissance

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The first spring, standing water covered the garden fields, which had compacted, predominantly clay soils. Over time, we've added lots of organic matter — our own compost and our free-range chickens" "inputs" — and mulched heavily to create the raised bed rows.

As we've gardened, we've slowly come to understand that every living thing in nature is someone else's lunch: Natural ecosystems are self-regenerating, with nutrients that are continually recycled. Instead of growing in ways that work against these natural cycles, we have chosen to build the natural fertility of the soil and to foster ecological diversity there. We do most of the gardening ourselves, but sometimes B&B guests and personal friends will join us for planting, harvesting and, on occasion, even weeding.

Energy Independence

We also are pursuing a long-term goal of completely powering our home with renewable energy. Already, we have accomplished our short-term energy goal — to live in a house not powered by fossil fuels; to accomplish that, we simply shifted to an all-electric home and selected the 100-percent renewable "green energy" option from our local electric utility.

We've learned the first step in moving towards renewable energy for power isn't taking on big projects, like installing a solar hot water system or wind turbine. Rather, it's focusing on conservation, and figuring out how to use less energy and use it more wisely so that, down the road, renewable systems can be adopted more easily and cost effectively.

Initially, to cut down on our energy use, we replaced just about every incandescent light bulb in the house with compact fluorescent bulbs. We also switched to Energy Star appliances and began line drying our laundry. And we plugged all our appliances into power strips so it's easier to control "ghost loads," the small amounts of electricity used by automatic functions on appliances whenever the appliances are plugged in.

In time, we started installing renewable energy systems, which together with our conservation efforts have cut our electricity use today to 40 percent of the previous owner's use.

Among our installations is a three-collector solar thermal system for domestic hot water, used by us and our B&B guests. Then came our EPA-certified Lopi Endeavor woodstove, to meet our heating needs with wood, which in this area is a readily available fuel.

We made numerous visits to the Midwest Renewable Energy Association's Sustainable Living Fair (www.the-mrea.org) and talked often with our neighbors "Uncle Phil and Aunt Judy," who live a mile away and, in the 1970s, ran a solar energy business. After much study, we added a 480-watt photovoltaic (PV) system, cantilevered off the south wall of an equipment shed, and a 10-collector solar thermal system to heat our straw bale greenhouse.

Our most significant renewable-energy effort to date is the addition of a 10-kilowatt Bergey wind turbine. This system, placed atop a 120-foot guyed lattice tower, generates an estimated 12,000 kilowatt-hours a year — more than our annual electricity needs. Surplus electricity from this wind-PV hybrid, grid-connected system automatically flows into the grid, further helping offset our neighbors" use of electricity, which in Wisconsin, mostly comes from coal-fired electricity plants.

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