Hey, all:

I live off-the-grid with Wind (turbine) and Sun (photovoltaic), solar domestic water heater, rooftop rainwater collection system), dry composting toilet, and a very basic greywater system. I also have free-range chickens, and I do organic gardening for produce. The wildflowers grow on their own, for the most part, but I am also restoring the Coastal Prairie on the South Texas property where I live, and I seed a variety of native wildflowers and native grasses to benefit the area.

I am currently installing a new battery-powered electric motor system into a pickup (early stages), requiring removal of practically all the conventional powertrain, which will ultimately provide commuter transportation (projected ~100 mile range between charges), and I will be able to recharge the truck's drive batteries at home with a plug-in system, meaning I will have virtually all sustainable energy for my home and for local transportation. Since the only initial cost is the conversion pieces (US$2500), (not counting the truck purchased 6 years ago for US$800), and the only continuing cost is basically tires, the "fuel mileage" is essentially infinite. I will probably have to find some sort of equivalent means of measuring its costs, emergy, and energy use, since there is a constant drive demand to know these things.

I am a wildlife biologist, which is my ultimate reason for my behavior and actions. If we do not achieve sustainability in all aspects of human activity, including human population, the global biological resources I love will continue to disappear, and at an accelerating rate--for eternity.

I embrace Mohandas Gandhi's philosophy of "...be the change...", so I try to practice and perhaps achieve the change myself. "...be the change..." has a history worthy of spreading. Wikipedia has a very good treatment on Henry David Thoreau, who is the start of a chain of global royalty of ideas that have lead to profound global improvements, a chain including Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela--a pretty good list of people to emulate. Such is the power of "...be the change...".

Good success!

David Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!