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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

We heat entirely with wood almost all of it gathered dead standing or downed 
in the forest.  We have a wood fired steam engine for emergency electricity, 
with two provisos:  currently the boiler leaks and we haven't found we 
actually 
*have* to have electricity so it's nearly a moot point.

Clothes are always solar dried.  

But isn't it so that even when thinking of alternate energy, we are still 
somewhat thinking in a box?  Two alternates for us are human power and animal 
power.  The above mentioned wood is brought onto the place with a horse and 
it is 
cut entirely with hand tools.  The horse moves everything here that is too 
heavy for human power such as (ironcally) stones with which to repair the 
road.

Human power grinds the grain, churns the butter, grinds meat, scythes the hay 
(which is then raked with the horse), cuts the firewood.

Wood is also about 75% of our cooking and water heating fuel.

The woodworking shop is 90% coverted to handtools (drawknives, spokeshaves, 
planes, douzuki and ryoba saws) including scrapers to replace sanders.  Still 
use a thickness planer, bandsaw, and drill press on the grid.

Much that formerly was frozen now of days is salted, pickled, fermented, or 
dried.

We maintain a stock of beeswax candles for occasional lighting, kerosene 
lamps doen't really count, do they?

It seems that a lot of the discussion (on other fora especially) about 
alternative energy centers around alternate ways to fuel IC engines or keep 
electric 
motors running.  All that's good.  But another big slice of energey 
dependence could be taked out of the equation if we simply did some things 
without the 
cursed motors to begin with.