Getting Charged Up

This Saturday, I went to Fort Atkinson, WI to show off my electric motorcycle at a small Alternative Vehicles event, hosted by Heart of the City.

While it was a small event, not held in conjunction with any other event, such as Earth Day, or even a Farmer's Market, it still had some great exibitors.

Attending were representatives from the Milwaukee Hybrid group, bio-fuels, electric bikes, and two different Neighborhood Electric Vehicle dealers.

There was something odd about this event, and it didn't dawn on me until one of the Milwaukee Hybrid Group commented on it. "Looks like we're the gas-guzzlers here."

He was right. The only gasoline powered vehicles were the Prius and Escape Hybrid.

Even the diesel being shown off was 100% bio-diesel. No petroleum there.

As strange as it seems, EVs (electric vehicles) are becoming mainstream in their own small way, at least in some sub-cultures of our society.

Just recently (last Tuesday!) my city has passed ordinance allowing Neighborhood Electric Vehicles to use the public roads. The publicly-owned power utility is going to purchase one or two NEVs for staff to travel between the Utility building and the City Hall. That trip happens several times a day. The two buildings are within two miles of each other. That's not enough time for a gasoline engine to EVER warm up, KILLING fuel economy - but a perfect use for an Electric Vehicle.

Since the Utility had to replace an aging vehicle anyways, going with an electric vehicle is a great way to not only help the enviroment, but also just plain save tax-payer dollars.

With the City owning an electric vehicle, it helps "pave the way" (pun intended) for private EV ownership, and public and private EV charging stations.

One of the NEV dealers, Green Autos, (https://www.greenautos.com/) was kind enough to provide me with an EV Charging Station sign. I am hoping to be able to use it as a sample to help spark the imagination of local officials in how we could build an EV-Friendly community.

And this isn't all about Battery Electric Vehicles either. As commercially manufactured Plug-In Hybrids become the norm, we will already have the charging infrastructure available for them.

Imagine a city in an Economic Boom because it attracts the best customers and employees, who know that employers and retail establishments support clean transportation. Employees could drive to and from work all week without using gasoline. How's that for an attractive work-place?

Through electric charging stations and other programs, along with our lakes and parks, our city could become an Eco-Tourism destination.

It's all possible, and it's all happening right now.

Not long ago, I got an odd comment on one of my web videos. This was one of several videos showing me building an electric car. The posted comment was "Great for you, but what about us who can't afford electric cars, and don't have all those great skills you have!?!"

Skills?! When did I get those?
I built my electric motorcycle with pretty much just a socket wrench, hacksaw, and wire stripper!
The electric car cost even less to build than the motorcycle did!

One of my personal heros, Thomas Edison, once said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

I didn't have lots of money, nor plenty of mechanical/electrical experience.

What I do have is a library card and a dream, that we can do things better than we have in the past.

That's all any of us really needs, just motivation, and a plan for the future.

So, what is it that you can do? Work at it. Dream big. Make things happen.

If every one of use just uses what they have to improve on how we have been doing things, just think how bright our future will be.

NEV Ordinance Passes!

Yea! We now officially have NEV ordinance in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin!

Feel free to now drive about in your friendly Neighborhood Electric Vehicle!

Your canned goods come from WHERE?!

I am now looking at ingredients in a whole new light.

Since starting No More Corn Syrup, I have been reading every ingredient list on every grocery item I get my hands on. I now have a pretty good idea of what things do and don't have corn syrup in them.

What gets really confusing is WHERE things come from.

I was feeling pretty good about myself today as I made a snack of natural vanilla yogurt topped with mandarin oranges.....until I read the back of the can.

No, it did not contain Corn Syrup - rather, it was a PRODUCT OF CHINA.*

OK - so maybe the term MANDARIN oranges should have tipped me off, but I am starting to notice that more American canned goods come from China than most people think.

Last week, I used some canned mushrooms to top a pizza. After opening and using them, I saw that those too were Chinese food.

In the recent past, we have had some scares with Chinese products, mostly toys, that have concerned the public. Now I am not saying that my pizza mushrooms or oranges are laced with lead. But it does seem pretty crazy to ship some little tiny oranges in a can half-way around the world to top my yogurt. I'm not sure how much fossil fuel is used to move my oranges, but it's got to add up.

You know what they say about if "Your're not part of the solution..."

Last time I checked, both oranges and mushrooms grow in the good ole' USA.

So next time you are grocery shopping, don't just check the ingredient list. See where it came from too.

Or better yet, start a garden. Then you know what it is AND where it came from.

-Ben


*Nothing personal against China. I try not to buy too much from New Zealand or other distant lands either.

69 EV3 solid coupler

Norm ponders the solid coupler and more.

(68) EV3 motors pulled

Norm pulls out the Samurai engine and explains the concept of how the solid coupler will work.

VEGAN by mistake!?

So today, I was eating lunch.

I had from scratch black bean soup with garlic, carrot, and celery, which was leftover from last nights dinner.

With it, I also had a big chunk-o-bread. Which was test trial # two of me actually making bread from scratch. This one was a mix of wheat flour and corn meal with a 10-grain crust rub.

While eating it, I was talking to my wife and commenting how there was no butter or oil in the bread, or cheese on the soup.

I had to pause mid-spoon-ful. Wait a minute....
No butter, no cheese, no meat, no honey.

Holy crap! I just cooked VEGAN! (and didn't even realize it at the time!)

Amazingly the bread did NOT require any butter or honey. The soup really didn't need any meat or cheese or sour cream.

They both got some really good flavor from (gasp!) their INGREDIENTS!

The better part of the ingredients were Organic. My wife has been buying more and more organics. Besides the lack of pesticides, they actually TASTE better too. My wife seems to notice it more than I do, though.

I have noticed that the food I have been eating lately tends to have a more subtle flavor to it. It doesn't have to be SOOO sweet or salty, or whatever flavor the commercial food industry is bashing you over the head with.

It simply is what it is.

And that's a good thing.

No More Corn Syrup: Day 10

Today is garbage day. The first garbage day since doing a full week of No More Corn Syrup.

In my kitchen, I have a slide-out built into one of my cabinets. Inside, is two, 13-gallon garbage cans. The front one is for trash, and the rear is for recycling.

When either is full, I take the trash bag out to a large garbage can in my garage. Recycling gets dumped into a big blue bin. On garbage day, I take the trash and recycling outside, add it to the garbage can and blue bin in the garage, and haul those to the curb.

This morning, I grabbed the trash. The bag was only really half-full, but I take it out anyways, so it doesn't just sit around and get smelly. I pulled out the recycling container and went out to the garage.

Now here's the weird part. The garbage can in the garage was EMPTY. I had never taken out the trash EVEN ONCE earlier in the week!

The recycling blue bin had some cans and bottles in it, but just a few.

What's going on here? Did I somehow misplace my trash and recycling? I looked around. Nope. Didn't find any.

The one trash bag wasn't even full. What's going on here?

Here's my idea. Corn Syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup are usually in more processed food. More processed food usually has more packaging. Therefore, less corn syrup equals less garbage!

Is it that simple? By getting rid of Junk Food, I'm creating less junk?

In the recycling bin, aluminum soda cans and 2-liter plastic bottles were distinctly missing.

Another thing I have noticed is that some of the Organic products have slightly less packaging than their NON-Organic counterparts.

What have I been eating all week?

Oh - look at the compost bucket. Er, that IS sort of overflowing, isn't it... Well, guess I gotta take that out. However, that just gets turned into compost, and eventually recycled into tomatoes and cucumbers - all free of corn syrup AND packaging. Plus, I can measure those in Food-Feet, NOT Food-MILES. (See! I knew we would save some gas on this project!)