POWER STRUGGLES.

I do the majority of my writing––for this blog, for my book, for the poetry I promise to never force you to read––on an iPad I received as an extremely generous gift a couple years ago. I'm not a gadget guy by any means, but this device, with its exceptional battery power, has been an incomparable tool here on the farm where we don't have electricity. I love my typewriter and notebooks, but with this device, I can write a post (like this one) at home, and upload it to the blog quickly, saving us on the (very valuable) amount of time we have to spend away from the farm. Though even with the respectable battery life, this device still needs charging.As I write this, our truck sits in the shop getting the battery checked (among other non-related fixes). Our car battery is starting to show signs of exhaustion as well. Essentially, we have worn our car batteries down charging our phones and this writing tool, using our vehicles as giant, gas-eating generators. Like it or not, if I want to continue powering this device, I have to face the fact that this device needs power.Since the building of our cabin, electricity has been extremely, perhaps even surprisingly, low on our list of amenities. But it is not within our holistic goals to rely upon, and ultimately waste, loads of batteries either––be they for flashlights, cars, radios or otherwise. For that matter, we truly love the blog and love keeping it up and have no intention of letting up any time soon, but––whether we're talking the wasted car batteries or the time and gas required to take us to town to keep it up every week––we've got to make it sustainable also.Ultimately, our issues with energy have got us thinking a lot more about alternative energy systems––thermal, wind, solar, human––and have perhaps moved electricity up the list a little. We have no intention of hooking into the grid, but we are definitely growing increasingly interested in the idea of employing the wind that hammers our house, the heat that we lose to the sky through our stovepipe, our bodies, the sun or some combination of the four to help us with our literal power struggles, and to utilize these renewable resources to their full potential. There's way too much free energy floating around out there for us, or anyone else, to be at a lack of it.- Jesse.