Rancho Cappuccino Case Study: The Initiatives

Reader Contribution by Staff
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How have the queries shaped our lives and our aspirations for Rancho Cappuccino? Mostly, the queries raise new questions that we ask ourselves each day. Should we keep fewer animals, for the sake of the pastures? Are we risking the long-term sustainability of our pastures? Or would it be more efficient and abundant to have a few more sheep and fewer cattle? Do we need to start the tractor today? Can we raise our own chicken feed?

Eventually, the queries lead to calls for action. When we ask ourselves these questions, the answers call for action. Our queries have placed a number of items on our agenda:

Generate more power for ourselves. Consume less from the grid. It will, initially, take some money out of savings, but we can generate electricity photovoltaically and, possibly, with wind turbines. During the writing of this we installed a solar system to heat our household water. We can enhance the efficiency of our heating and air conditioning with geothermal heat exchangers. We can agitate for net metering, so we don’t have to equip our system with expensive, toxic batteries.

Goals: Abundance, fairness and contagiousness.

Build a greenhouse for year-round vegetables. It’s not especially expensive. It’ll take a little elbow grease. Time to get busy.

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