Maria planted her seventh garden at Bedlam Farm this afternoon, this one is a Lavender garden, filling the spot where the electric company installed a new meter for our Solar Energy System.

We’re calling it the Solar Garden. We put one lavender plant in the garden, we got it at the Bennington, Vt. Farmer’s Market yesterday.

I ordered a second plan online and some more seeds on Amazon this afternoon. Lavender likes dry, sandy soil, which we had there. We will fertilize it later on with compost from our new Composter, which we are calling Oscar, after Oscar on Sesame Street.

He lives in a garbage can.

Our solar system is soaking up some rays and bringing us electric power. So far today (it’s 1.39 p.m.) we’ve drawn 37.17 kilowatts.

We are currently using 6.29 kilowatts of power.

So far in July, we’ve drawn 228.78 kilowatts. Since the system was turned on a few weeks ago, we’ve collected 457.32 kilowatts.

I’m sorry we waited so long to do this, it feels wonderful.

FYI, a kilowatt (kW), is a globally recognized standard for measuring electricity. One kilowatt is equal to 1,000 watts.

Electricity costs are measure by the number of kilowatts used over time.

To give you an example of what we are saving right now, our daily kilowatt usage in May (the last bill I have) was between 32.6 kW and 38.9kW.

The bill for the month was $194.67, this includes Maria’s Studio as well as the farmhouse and the light out in the barn.

By 1 p.m. today, we’d already collected 37.7 kW of electricity – our daily average for May, and 457 kW for the month of July, which is less than one week old.

On July 4th, the system collected 63.79 kilowatts. On July 5, a mostly cloudy day, the system collected 43.77 kW.

I’m assuming our May power usage will be lower than the daily average in the winter. The power collection should be strong at least until November and even in winter, the panels will draw from the sun.

It just won’t be out as long.

We can’t project the energy collection for the year since the winter will draw less power. But I’ll keep you posted as we know more.

At this rate, we’ll the Solar System will draw thousands of kilowatts more than we need by the end of the year.

We’ll use approximately 1,140 kilowatts in the month of July, according to the bill.

We are credited for what don’t use by the electric company and that power will be distributed to our neighbors.

The electric company estimates that our power savings are equivalent to the planting of 5.35 trees. We’ve saved 708.13 lbs of carbon emission.

I am surprised at how excited I am to be doing something to help the earth, our sister. Maria is also.