Happy Planet...

Happy Planet...

If you believe the world is going to hell in a handbasket, you're probably right. But you should watch this:



Makes me want to move to Costa Rica.

Best stuff out there...

Best stuff out there...

Right now I think some of the best stuff that is being published is by Krista Tippet on Speaking of Faith. Every week I download the podcast, and every week I'm inspired and moved by the content.

This week was Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, talking about Moral Math. Everyone should listen to it...

And then go back and listen to:
A Voice for the Animals, a conversation with Alan Rabinowitz about the Human - Animal bond.
The Ethics of Eating, Barbara Kingsolver on eating.
A Monastic Revolution, talking with Shane Claiborn about the new evangelicals.

How could I forget: Land, Life and the Poetry of Creatures with Ellen Davis and Wendell Berry.

So much good stuff.

Something more positive...

Something more positive...

I've been doing some interviews for Business as an Agent of World Benefit as part of a course I'm taking. Here is the official purpose of the interview process:

The goal is to gather information on businesses that have recognized a social or environmental issue and have solved it by turning it into a business opportunity. By bringing to foreground stories of such innovative enterprises, Business as an Agent of World Benefit at Case Western Reserve University hopes to generate a conversation amongst like-minded individuals about ways businesses can form a synergistic relationship with society, environment and the world.

Business is a powerful institution that has potential for resolving the problems plaguing the world. By designing innovative business models, businesses can ensure profits for its shareholders as well as stakeholders by contributing to world benefit. Going beyond philanthropy, business ethics and corporate social responsibility, when business acts as an agent of world benefit both sides of the equation- society and environment as well as the business entity- emerge with more self-sufficiency and prosperity.

Here is my write up from the first Interview:

A new source for green energy…

INTERVIEW 1 – Tim Braun, CEO, Lucid Energy

Story of Business Innovation: Write at least 300 words about the innovation itself. Please answer the following questions:

• WHAT is the innovation?
• HOW did the innovation emerge?
• WHO was involved in the creation of the innovation? What did they do?
• WHAT quotations from the interview best describe the innovation?

Once in a while, a new idea comes along that holds the promise of addressing a number of important and seemingly disparate problems. A new product under development by a 14 person start-up company in Goshen, Indiana, holds that promise. The disparate problems are the need for clean energy generation and water distribution. The new product is Northwest PowerPipeTM (NWPP).

NWPP is an innovative new product – perhaps a whole new industry – that captures and commercializes the energy of moving water in situations where traditional turbine technologies cannot work. The new product is the brainchild of Lucid Energy Technologies’ management and engineering team with cooperation from Northwest Pipe Company, and will be the first commercial application based on the innovative Gorlov Helical Turbine in a pressurized water system.

The Gorlov Helical Turbine (GHT) was invented by Alexander Gorlov in 1996. Gorlov, Professor Emeritus of mechanical engineering and director of the Hydro-Pneumatic Power Laboratory at Northeastern University, was awarded the prestigious ASME Thomas A. Edison Patent Award for his invention in May of 2001. The turbine design, a combination of a wing foil and a DNA spiral, is highly efficient in low flow fluid environments making it a game-changing technology for distributed power generation.

Lucid’s innovation was to modify the GHT into a spherical shape for installation in gravity fed water conveyance pipeline and wastewater systems to generate electricity. In many communities, especially in California, water is stored for municipal water systems in reservoirs upstream of the community. These reservoirs sometimes have traditional hydroelectric (or hydropower) dams on them, and those dams, such as the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, incorporate traditional (or conventional) hydroelectric turbines. Water from these dams is also delivered for public consumption via large diameter pipes to downstream communities. The water in these pipes contains a great deal of energy, and NWPP will extract some of that energy to generate electricity.

While one system alone captures any where from 5 to 100 kW, multiple systems can be installed in series, still with minimal disruption in flow or pressure. Ultimately, the combined generating capacity may rival larger, capital intensive projects.

According to Braun, NWPP stands at the nexus of two pressing problems: energy and water.

“The more I learn about what we’re doing, the more I realize it’s as much of a water use issue as it is an energy issue. The water problem is as big as the energy problem. They’re inextricably linked.”

He went on, “Water conveyance is the single largest consumer of electricity in California. Water transmission and water treatment consumes 8 to 10 percent of all the electricity in the state of California. Water conveyance uses one third of the State of California’s electricity budget. So this is an immense energy issue. Most energy generation requires a lot of water. It also requires a lot of energy to supply water. Reducing the embedded energy in water is a major objective in the water scarce, population and agriculturally dense Pacific states. The fact that we have a zero water consumption electricity-producing device is a big deal. The fact that the device reduces the embedded energy in water is at a very interesting nexus of two problems.”

Impact of innovation: Write at least 250 words about the impact of the innovation:

• WHAT was the impact of the innovation? What people or organizations were affected?
• WHAT were the short-term effects? What were the long-term effects?
• WHAT observable evidence suggests that this impact has occurred?
• WHAT quotations from the interview best describe the impact?

Given that the product is still in development, it is too early to measure the contribution of NWPP to the energy grid. The company has installed a single prototype in one water delivery system (Riverside, CA). Though the output is relatively small, that prototype generates electricity at the expected rate, given the rate of water flow through the pipe. Furthermore, the NWPP system has an undetectable impact on the water flow. This is important because it means NWPP is able to extract energy from the water without degrading the water utility’s ability to deliver water to their customers.

In the meantime, perhaps the most important impact of the innovation is the creation of green energy jobs in Goshen, Indiana. Goshen is the county seat for Elkhart County, and the closest city to Goshen is Elkhart, just 10 miles away. During the economic collapse of 2008 – 2009, Elkhart has earned the dubious honor of being the “white hot center of the economic melt down Visited multiple times by President Obama during and after the 2008 presidential campaign, Elkhart County ranked near the top of nation in jobs lost during this period. The area has been heavily dependent on the recreational vehicle (RV) industry for jobs, and that industry was one of the first to collapse during the credit crisis.

According to Braun, the workers he “rescued” from the RV industry are exactly the people his company needs. They have the pragmatic, “can do” ability to solve mechanical and technical problems. He explained: “Most of our staff are former RV industry people. And they’re so much happier. They’d much rather work for a crazy, roller-coaster of a startup, and doing what we’re doing. Just working at the issue that we’re working at, employing people in jobs that they’re passionate about, in clean technology, in renewable energy, in downtown Goshen, in the heart of Elkhart County – the ‘white-hot center of the economic meltdown’ like the New York Times said – is an important success.”

The company’s invention has also attracted the attention of the U. S. Department of Energy. Lucid was awarded an SBIR grant in 2010, and Dr. Kristina Johnson, Under Secretary of Energy, cited the company in a presentation in April, 2010, with a CAD image of NWPP. She commented that NWPP is an emerging technology that the department is supporting. This is important validation of the company’s efforts.

Motivation and Purpose: Write at least 250 words about the motivation, purpose or inspiration behind the innovation.

• HOW did the original idea come about?
• WHAT was the motivation or purpose for doing the innovation?
• Does the innovation relate to a sense of mission, purpose or meaning? If so, HOW?
• WHAT quotations from the interview best illustrate the motivation behind the innovation?

Prior to joining Lucid, Braun had built a career in the socially responsible investment community. As an investment advisor with MMA Trust Company (a Socially Responsible Investment firm run by Mennonite Mutual Aid (MMA), and through involvement in the First Affirmative Financial Network, Braun had been exposed to businesses that were focused on sustainability in general, and renewable energy in particular. He had heard dozens of stories of entrepreneurs who had successfully built businesses designed to support a more sustainable world. For Braun, there came a point when he wanted to be closer to the solution, rather than being a middle man who was telling other people’s stories.

“I learned that the world has so many social and environmental problems that if you can figure out how to do this well, you can build a very successful business while pursuing your passions for a sustainable planet. I spent 10 years in the social investment industry, helping people get in touch with those stories of companies that are being very innovative in terms of social, environmental and economic objectives. And I got very tired of being the middle man and hearing all these stories, and conveying those to other people. I had a very viable role as the person helping leverage other people’s capital to bring things to the market who are doing good works. But at the same time, I wanted to write one of these stories. I wanted to get involved. I wanted to get my hands dirty, at the ground level. I wanted to be the story that somebody else is writing about, or telling their clients about.”

Headline: If your story were published on a front page of a local newspaper, what headline, or title, would you give it?
“Creative application of innovative turbine creates green jobs in the white hot center of the economic melt down”

Interviewers Story: Tell us your story. Write at least 200 words about your experience:

• Why were you interested in interviewing this person?
• What did you learn or how were you inspired from the interview?
• What was the best quote you heard during the interview?
• What did you find most interesting about the story?

I had met Tim several years ago. He was my neighbor and a passing acquaintance for a number of years and then I had run into him at a distant airport. We ended up getting bumped from the same flight and shared a round-about journey home together. That is when we first had conversations with him about sustainability. In the intervening years I had heard that he had joined this start up, and had been looking for an opportunity to reconnect and hear more of his story. The technology sounded amazing and creative and I wanted to learn more.

I was especially inspired by Tim’s passion to create something truly innovative and new in the green energy field. And he is facing huge hurdles to realize his dream. He has a great product idea, but due to the nature of water pipeline infrastructure his team has to design it to function with minimal maintenance for 25 years or more. So the technical challenges are enormous. And then the sales challenges are enormous. He has to find a perfect storm of circumstances of individual motivation, public readiness, and government support to get this product into use. And in the midst of that, he has to always remember that cash is king!

My favorite quote came near the end of the interview. We had been talking about theories of sustainable economics, and he said that he is very interested in questions of no-growth economics, and measuring the true costs of our current economic models. And then he said “However right now I’m just really focused on what do I have to do right now to be successful. I’m grateful that we’re working on a product that enables all these greater theoretical things that we’re talking about, but in reality, I just want to get the damn thing to work.”

Math and oil...

Math and oil...

Years ago I heard the guy on these videos. It took me a while to track them down because I didn't remember his name.

Thanks to http://fishsnorkel.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/dr-albert-a-bartlett-on-the-sustainability-of-population-growth/ for the links.

If it was my home...

If it was my home...

I ran across this site the other day and wanted to book mark it for future reference. It makes the gulf catastrophe a little more personal.

And then I ran into this post, which expresses some of my sentiment about the whole thing.

Sustainable...

Sustainable...

Tonight Ben and I drove up to Valpo to hear this man give a speech.



I was impressed.

I bought his book. He signed it.

I think I'll be loaning it out.

We the people...

We the people...

Thomas Friedman has a column today on the Clean Energy Bill that just passed House. He includes this great line:

Attention all young Americans: your climate future is being decided right now in the cloakrooms of the Capitol, where the coal lobby holds huge sway. You want to make a difference? Then get out of Facebook and into somebody’s face. Get a million people on the Washington Mall calling for a price on carbon. That will get the Senate’s attention. Play hardball or don’t play at all.

And speaking of civil disobedience - the New Yorker had a great piece recently on James Hansen. In addition to being the top climate scientist in NASA, he is a grandfather who wants a livable world for his grand kids. He was arrested recently for protesting at a coal mining field.

Favorite - er Favourite - new blog...

Favorite - er Favourite - new blog...

This morning I dusted off George Monbiot's Heat - How to stop the planet from burning. Ben gave it to me before he left for PC, and I think Leena gave it to him before that. I started to read it maybe a year ago and found it too depressing, shelved it, and think I might be able to pick it up again now.

Today I stumbled on Monbiot's blog today and I'm really, really impressed. This guy writes well, and documents every claim he makes. He is British (hence the lame joke about British spelling).

I urge you to set up your RSS reader so you can keep up with him. I really appreciate the way he cuts through the crap. Take this post about the real problem with plastic bags, or this one that calculates the (non-existent) carbon benefit behind schemes to stimulate the economy by paying drivers to scrap old cars. Or for a real downer, read this one that makes a compelling case that its already too late, but we have to still try.

2.91 Earths...

2.91 Earths...

Today I took another one of those carbon footprint calculator tests and it told me that if everyone on the planet lived as I live we would need 2.91 earths to support all of us.


I suppose I should take heart that I'm significantly below the national average, which is 6.53 earths. This graph shows how many acres I need to support me (112.9), compared to the national average (246.4). But that is slim consolation, because where are those other 1.91 earths going to come from?
Many of their suggestions for ways to lower my impact are things I already do. But I could do more. Like improve the insulation in my house. Like get a hybrid car. Like replace all my light bulbs with CFL bulbs. Like eat completely vegetarian. But I wonder if we can get there from here. At least voluntarily.

What is your score?

Snow berries...

Snow berries...

Yesterday was so beautiful - sunny, cold. About 3pm I put on my ski boots and walked down to the park and spent nearly an hour and a half down along the river.

In one of Wendell Berry's essays he talks about the wonder of exploring a locale in detail, over the seasons and over the years. I'm finding that in the little park across the mill race. I had intended to get across Plymouth and head for the dam, but there was so much to see and do in this little space that I never made it.

Being able to walk to the park instead of driving to it is part of the experience. Arriving on foot gives me a wholly different sense of the place and my relationship to it. I've also been surprised that the park itself is big enough and varied enough I don't tire of it.

On the way back I captured this photo.


These plump, juicy berries frozen in the woods reminded me of L's story of the ice wine grapes that they grow at the winery on Pelee Island. She says that the grapes ferment on the vine during repeated freezings and thawings in late fall. The biggest hazard to the crop at that point are the birds that come, strip the vines of fruit and get completely inebriated in the process. The idea of crows debauching themselves in a vineyard is almost too much to handle.

The only birds I saw were ducks and geese on the river, and they didn't act drunk - at least to my eye.

Food event you shouldn't miss...

Food event you shouldn't miss...

I first heard of Joel Salatin when I read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. This book radically changed my thinking about what I eat, and Salatin was a central character in the book. I'm going to be hard pressed to make it to this, but I urge everyone in the area to get there. Here is the announcement that was in the local CoC newsletter today:

Local Food to the Rescue: an Evening with Joel Salatin - Internationally renowned “local/sustainable food” advocate Joel Salatin presents “Local Food to the Rescue!” at the old Goshen Theater (216 S. Main St.) on Tuesday, at 6:30 pm. Salatin is a terrific speaker in the sustainable/local ag movement. His presentation will highlight "buy local" economic principles and is geared toward the food consumer, as well as the producer.www.millrace.org/Calendar

Follow up to Breaking News...

Follow up to Breaking News...

Trust Google to know when something is being written about them. By late Sunday night they posted this rebuttal to the research reported in the Sunday Times (London). By 4pm today they had added a link to a new story where the original researcher rebutted the Times story.

Update - Originally I wrote a long post here that described how I used the web to make at least a 100x reduction in my CO2 generation tonight. The Internet provided information so I could walk instead of drive to run an errand.

But that post missed the main point: North Americans have a moral responsibility to the rest of the world to curb our disproportionate consumption of resources and our environmental impact. My little exercise comparing walking versus driving is fine but in reality we all need to do a lot more. For example, I could lay another 10 inches of insulation in my attic and insulate my basement. The list goes on and on. How much am I really willing to change?

Breaking news...

Breaking news...

Check out this story on Google, Twitter and CO2 emissions. And by extension blogging.

Lost and found...

Lost and found...

Look what I found when I downloaded a bunch of photos today:
I took this late last fall and left it neglected in my camera. That's my crop of raspberries just before the killer frost. Yum... can't wait until next season.

This is in contrast to the snow storm we Friday and Saturday. Today it cleared up and late in the afternoon I dug out my (x-country) skis, carried them across the street to the park and spent an hour or so breaking trails. We have six or eight inches of beautiful powder. Gorgeous conditions. Lots to see, like this ice sculpture down at the river.

This is the first time I've been out in years (took me a while to remember where I had left my boots and the wax.) Maybe three or four years ago I went out in very icy conditions and I thought "I hate this game." Today was different. I actually got some rhythm going: kick - glide - kick - glide... It felt great.

Except when I fell on my right knee - the same on I dented last Tuesday. Ouch.

Yesterday during the storm I made up a batch of homemade hand lotion. Sometimes in winter I get painful cracks in my thumbs, and my skin seems to react to most of the commercial lotions I've tried. Once upon a time I had some lanolin lotion that I liked, and I can't find anything like it now. When I found this recipe online for a lanolin and beeswax based cream I remembered that I had a chunk of beeswax sitting with my wood finishing supplies. I had purchased it years ago from a bee keeper at the Kitchener Farmer's Market to make furniture polish. I found the rest of the ingredients I needed locally. Here is the recipe.

3 Tbsp. lanolin
3 Tbsp. distilled water
3 Tbsp. grated beeswax
1/2 cup almond oil
3 Tbsp. witch hazel
1/8 tsp. borax powder

Mix the beeswax, lanolin and almond oil in an oven-safe dish and set the dish in a pan containing about an inch and a half of water. Place them in the oven and heat until the beeswax and lanolin have melted.

Mix the witch hazel, borax powder and distilled water in a saucepan. Heat the solution until just boiling and then slowly pour it into the melted beeswax/lanolin/almond oil mixture. Stir thoroughly and leave to cool.

When the mixture is completely cooled, you'll have a thick white cream to soften your skin.

Extra notes: I have everything I need now for several batches of this stuff. Actually I had to buy a 4 lb box of Borax (20 Mule Team), so I have enough of it for about a thousand batches. I made mine in a double boiler instead of the oven. The biggest trick is to stir it vigorously while it cools so that it doesn't separate out. I had to reheat mine because it didn't blend well the first time. This makes a great lotion, but it does feel oily when you apply it. Use it very sparingly.

Book recommendation...

Book recommendation...

I just finished Wendell Berry's "Life is a Miracle". Here are my notes from my post in GoodReads:

Berry continues to astonish me. This is not a fast and easy read; you have to work and pay attention. But Berry writes as a prophet of our times and has put his finger on a core - maybe the root - cause of dis-ease in our century.

He writes a critique of rationalism and scientific thought that we need to pay attention to.

A few memorable passages:

"For a while I proposed to myself that the only things really explainable are explanations. That is not quite true, but it is near enough to the truth that I am unwilling to forget it.

"What can be explained? Experiments, ideas, patterns, cause-effect relationships and connections within defined limits, anything that can be calculated, graphed or diagrammed. And yet the explanation changes whatever is explained into something explainable. Explanation is reductive, not comprehensive; most of the time, when you have explained something, you discover leftovers. An explanation is a bucket, not a well.

"What can't be explained? I don't think creatures can be explained. I don't think lives can be explained. What we know about creatures and lives must be pictured or told or sung or danced. And I don't think pictures or stories or songs or dances can be explained. The arts are indispensable precisely because they are so nearly antithetical to explanation." (p113)

"The time is past, if ever there was such a time, when you can just discover knowledge and turn it loose in the wold and assume that you have done good.

"This, to me, is a sign of the incompleteness of science in itself - which is the sign of the need for a strenuous conversation among all the branches of learning."

"In our present economic predicament, ethics, ecology, environmental law, etc. won't as specialties have much corrective force. They will be used to rationalize what is wrong." (p145)

I'd really enjoy a conversation about his book with Lew and Irregular Reflections.

CO2...

CO₂...

Since sometime last summer I've been working on a project at work that I'm very excited about. In 1992 we moved our business to the industrial park. At the time we signed a five year lease and put up an office building on a 2 acre plot. Our building and parking lot took up the front half and we figured maybe someday we'd do something with the back acre. (It is the brown square in the upper right corner of the picture. That picture is taken in early spring from Steve's 'copter.) We talked about mowing and seeding it for a soccer field, but that was mostly in jest, and for the last sixteen years that field has grown weeds and scrub brush. Pretty ugly, as you can see below.

That space has bugged me for years, and many days this summer I took my lunch out to the picnic table we have in the back of the building and I'd look at this space. It just seemed to be calling out for some trees.

I thought of going to the local tree nursery and buying a handful of good sized trees and plopping them in. But taking care of them - making sure they were kept watered and didn't get overrun with weeds - was intimidating. And I thought of getting a handful of seedlings from the Arbor Day foundation, but the same issues were there.

At some point I got to wondering if there were any state government resources that could help me figure out what to do. A few minutes in Google turned up the forestry department at Purdue. I picked a name at random from the list of professors / foresters and sent an email explaining my situation. Amazingly I heard back from him in a day or two, but he said he couldn't help me. But maybe the person he copied on his reply could... And in a day or two she wrote me back and said she couldn't help, but maybe the person she copied could help... This went on for a couple iterations until someone wrote and said "Did you know that your town has a city forester and a tree board, and they'd be delighted to help?"

Of course I didn't know that, but when I found out the forester's name, I knew him. (If you didn't know this, let me be the first to inform you that I live in a small town.) So I called Aaron up and he was out that afternoon to talk over my plan.

His advice was to mow it and plant seedlings. Seedlings require less water than big trees, and the idea is to over plant and let the best ones survive. For a while I considered planting them myself, but I found a local tree planter who will do them for me and the price is right.

So back in August we ordered 300 white pine, 100 oak, 100 black cherry and 100 tulip tree seedlings. They cost only about $38 per hundred (from the state nursery). We had the field mowed - actually bush-hogged - and the planter came in a week later and sprayed a herbicide where he will plant. The state will deliver the seedlings in March and they'll go in the ground as soon after that as we can get them in.

The whole project is costing less than $2K, plus a couple hundred for the first 5 or 10 years to keep it mowed every summer. It seems like a pretty good price for a one acre woods.

Of course part of the goal here is to do something about CO₂. It turns out that according to this article, I'm planting almost exactly the right amount of trees to offset my lifetime CO₂ generating activities.

That feels pretty good. According to this story, there are 61 trees for every human on the planet. I'm doing something to up that ratio, but we need to plant lots more.

If you know anyone with a vacant lot, talk to them about putting trees on it.

Incidentally - there seem to be no tax breaks or incentives for a small project like this on private land. I think that is a mistake.

I'll sleep better tonight...

I'll sleep better tonight...

It is such a relief to know that global warming is a sham and that once america starts extracting oil from the continental shelf, all our problems will be solved.

I know this because my barber told me.

Sigh.

He learned it from Fox News.

It is also such a relief to know that there is still one remaining bastion of truth in the news media.

Catch that knee!

Drat - I couldn't stop it.

So now I have no one to blame but myself if I have a streak of bad hair days for the next few weeks. Never argue with your barber until you're out of the chair.

He conceded that there are gas guzzling cars out there and that we could do more to conserve what we have. I told him that I'd agree to off-shore drilling when the new car standard was 40 mpg. He couldn't go there: "We'll just have to agree to disagree because I'm not going to change my mind."

Which is, I guess, the same thing I said.

What I don't get is his theology. He says "He" won't let us destroy the earth.

What happened to man's free will? Isn't that the cornerstone of the religious right ...er wrong? (I saw a button on a liberal's hat tonight that read 'The religious right is neither'.) Aren't we free to choose sin or morality? Life or Death? Salvation or Damnation? Isn't it possible ....

S#*$ - don't get me started.

Offshore...

Offshore...

I spent most of the day in my car today, driving #1 daughter to the train station in Windsor. As I write this she should be arriving in Montreal soon. She is looking forward to a week of visiting friends (and a music festival) before her intensive yoga teacher training class. I don't think I posted any thing about my experience with 2 other old guys as her yoga students this summer. We had a great time and I really appreciated a chance to experience that part of her life with her. Someday I'd like to take more yoga instruction. I have the feeling that I know just enough to be dangerous right now.

Are goodbyes are always bittersweet with one's children? Yes, I found a lump in my throat when I said the last farewell. I'm excited for her and proud of her, but I'll miss her dropping in with a leftover loaf of bread, or to steal a carrot out of my garden.

Last night L and some of her friends gave a demonstration on the courthouse lawn as part of First Friday. L had asked me to take some photos. My friends who saw me snapping photos told me they wondered if I had become a leacherous old man until they saw who was in the demo. Which echoed what some of the other students said they thought until introductions were (more or less) made. Anyhow, I thought a couple of the pictures deserved posting.

Warning - environmentalist rant ahead... (And no, S, I'm not going to lighten up.)

Somewhere on my drive today I saw a sign posted on a lawn advocating off-shore oil drilling. The whole idea makes my blood boil. Moments later I got stuck behind a Class A motor home pulling a Honda CRV with 2 bikes on top. You've seen the Class A things - they're essentially the size of a greyhound bus but usually only occupied by two people. This particular unit had Georgia plates on it.

There is something obscene about drilling for oil in the ocean floor while these kinds of vehicles are still on the road.

But I can never win this one. We will, despite the stupidity of it, foul the waters in our oceans from off-shore drilling, ruin the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and continue to wage wars over oil. All so we can continue to drive our class A homes across the country.

And of course I'm part of the problem. I drove carefully and eeked out 31mpg (probably 0.10x the rate of the guy in the Class A rig) but I still burned about 15 gallons of the stuff. Maybe the guy in the Class A home didn't see any other options either.

And in other news...

The bat was back the other night. I had my br door closed, but there was a small space open under the door so he could have slipped in underneath that. I don't see any other way in, and so it is under door or I have to accept the teleporting theory. I have a new theory of entry points involving the downstairs bathroom fan. I need to get some grating to cover up a vent entrance and give it some time to see if it works.