Green and less dependent on "grid" corporations ...

Some people do not consider a wood stove "green". But as I have 20 acres and my wife's family has 320+ acres adjoining ours wood is plentiful and free. All it takes is the physical activity to cut, split and stack. Much better than a gym membership.At my last house burning wood lowered my propane use by over 70%. Since this new house has a "mother-in-law" addition, that my mother-in-law and her son live in(at 51 I have a 7 year old brother in law), I probably won't get near that savings.Yesterday I had a new stove installed. It is a Lopi Liberty. We had a Lopi at our old house and I was very satisfied with it. It is keeping our side at 70F quite easily on a fairly low burn. Since it is going to be close to -30F next two nights I think I got it just in time.Here it is in action.

No one is allowed to run water mindlessly at my house. The only septic system we can have is a holding tank. It is 4000 gals and in a home with 2 women, two boys 8 and 5, and me we have to have it pumped a little more than once a month. At $200/pump it irks me when people run water purposely down the drain.The reason we can only have a holding tank is that we live in what we call "clay country". The soil around here is heavy red clay. As a matter of fact the city of Superior, WI bought land around the corner to mine clay for their landfill. Because of the clay we can not have a conventional septic system. We could not even get approved for a mound system. People I kn ow a couple miles away were able to put in a mound. At $20,000, I can do a lot of pumping and it won't be approved for here anyway.

Can not do that legally here. Gray water lines are not allowed by code. Also do not want the chemicals from washing in my lawn. Have though about letting it go out into woods behind house but it wont absorb quick enough because of the clay.Composting and incinerating toilets are not practical alternatives with 3 adults, 2 boys and 2 bathrooms.