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Place is often something you don’t see because you’re so familiar with it…

But in fact it is the information your reader most wants to know.

~~~ Dorothy Allison



Note: Photo by David J. Deane

Sealing Your Home to Save Money and Energy

I came across this article written by Dan Chiras of the Evergreen Institute discussing a way to help yourself decrease your heating and cooling bills and make your home more energy efficient.

He says: "the most important thing you should do is to seal up the building. Most existing homes are like Swiss cheese. If you could add up all the tiny leaks in the building envelope – the walls, foundation, and roof – they’d be equivalent to a 3-foot wide by 3-foot high window left open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

I think that is an amazing statement and yet, I am completely aware of how this can be true. One day an energy consultant came to my house and put small pieces of insulation material in all the plugs and light switches. This service was provided either by the state or the electric company, I don't remember which. I'm sure it helped in a small way because he missed one and I can still feel the breeze coming through that one. Got to get out there myself and seal it off because it goes right out to the outside wall of the house where cable was once connected.

But what Dan recommends makes a lot more lasting improvement in my mind. He says sealing the spaces in our homes that have leaks to the outdoors "could easily cut your annual heating and cooling costs by 10 to 30 percent, perhaps more. It all depends on how leaky your home is."

He recommends ways to discover the air leaks in your home, either by hiring a professional or doing it yourself. I am aware that one way to do it is by having an infrared photo taken of your home.

Usually the areas that need sealing are around the edges of windows and where the floors and walls. I just recently discovered where the air space came through the house completely along the baseboards in the kitchen, and I'm now guessing in the rest of the house. My kitchen floor tiles were just replaced and when the baseboard was removed I could literally see light coming in from outside. I often have an influx of ants that come through that way. Now I know why it's been so easy for them.

Dan recommends that clear or paintable silicone caulking to be used in those open places. And don't forget to check doors and put weather stripping on them.

He has written a book: Green Home Improvement.

Poem - Fog

fog haunts mountain

drivers peer anxious

red lights glow

in snake formation

some too close

wheels sing with pavement

their own secret wish

rain storm any minute

home

home

just get home

Elizabeth Munroz

January 2010

Blizzard Moving

The blizzard had blinded us for so many miles, I felt, that night, as though I were in a dark frozen dream. We were all exhausted from the stress and strain of moving. Everyone in the family had helped load furniture and boxes onto the borrowed farm truck and our old run-down Studebaker.

My face was raw and chapped from sticking it out the window. This way I could yell at my mother when she drove too close to the edge of the raod. No heater, no defrost. I propped my numb feet on a box of pots and pans that rattled loudly whenever we hit a pothole. Each time the noise jolted me into alert wakefulness.

It was impossible to judge the conditions of these narrow country roads. Not daring to stop anywhere, we just kept going. My mother sat hunched, with fingers tightly clutched, over the steering wheel, peering vainly through the frosted windshield. She stuck her head out the window as often as I did to make sure she didn’t drive into a ditch.

Roger sat upright between us on the front seat drowsing lightly. At the age of eight he was no longer little enough to curl up to sleep. His long legs were splayed over the driveshaft-hump on the floor. Wendy, still a little butterball at six and a half was asleep on the floor, between the pots and pans and the bump. Her face rested on Roger’s knees. They reminded me of two played out puppies curled together, oblivious to the cold.

When we finally arrived at our new house, I wasn’t disappointed. My excitement grew when I saw, what appeared to me, a mansion rising out of the wild countryside. Adrenaline pumped my curiosity to explore. The snow had stopped blowing. It was just lightly floating down in clumps.

“We made it!” my mother breathed triumphantly. I could clearly see relief erasing the tension from her face.

“Hurray!” the kids yelled.

“I thought you guys were asleep.” I moaned.

“They should be!” admonished my mother. Then, turning to me, she said, “Take them upstairs and get them to bed. And...” she added, “you, go to bed, yourself.”

“Aww, Mom!” I whined. “Can’t I just look around a little bit, first?”

“It’s past midnight; please do what I asked.” She grabbed up the noise making box to haul off to the kitchen. “Besides, if you have so much energy, you can stay up and help unload!”

I didn’t need a second warning. “Okay, I’ll go to bed.” I conceded. “Come on, you two, let’s go find someplace to sleep.”

“I can put my own self to bed.” Roger muttered.

Entering a large hall leading to the staircase, the three of us “oohed and aahhed” at the beautiful woodwork of stairs and banister.

“This is rich people’s house’” my awestricken little sister cooed.

“Yeah.” Echoed Roger as we climbed the two flights to the next floor. We wanted so badly to explore our new home, but exhaustion overtook us. My father and old brother had leaned the mattresses against the wall, and had already left to go get another load. Roger claimed the room the mattresses were in and pushed the first one to the floor, grabbed a blanket from the box nearby. Wendy and I struggled with another mattress yanking, pulling, pushing and sliding it down the large hall to another room. Little did we know how cold that room would be. We slept in our winter coats with a blanket pulled tightly around us,

I laid awake staring at the bare windows as the frost turned to ice. It wasn't until the next day when my father pointed out that the radiator was turned off. If only we had known!