We are far from where we wish to be, but so much farther than we were: the greening of Bedlam Farm continues, and quite literally.

We have a hybrid car that gets 41 mph and costs $10 to fill up with the gasoline we need.

We have a Composter filling up with garbage and scraps that would otherwise have been thrown away. Plastic water bottles are gone, replaced by recyclable aluminum cans.

And we have a new solar system that has brought in 686.03 kilowatts of electricity in a little over a month. We’ve saved the equivalent of 8 trees and 1,000 lbs of carbon.

The system is expected to provide 80 percent of the electricity we need. Any excess power created will be credited to our account now and in the winter months, and will be distributed among our neighbors.

From my calculations, the panels are drawing more than twice as much electricity as we were being billed for before the panel installation.

I’ll get the first bill shortly, it will reflect June, before we had full use of the panels, but should indicate how this has affected our payments and the environment.

In May, we were averaging 32 to 38 kilowatts a day.

Today, by noon, the solar panel had drawn 48 killowatts already. We have fans and air conditioning units on. I estimate we’ve drawn twice the power we are using. 685.3 killowatts of power.

We are conducting another experiment that I believe to be successful, so does Maria. There is a large square section of the lawn right in front of the farmhouse.

We decided not to mow this lawn, to let it grow like a meadow. We are surprised as to how beautiful it is. It is lovely to see the grass swaying in the wind.

Biologists say grass and the mowing of grass destroys habitats for birds and insects and frogs, along with small mammals.

In the morning, we see signs that animals have come and slept in the grass; some of it is flattened. Wildflowers are growing, and bees and butterflies are all over the yard.

Lawns have always looked artificial to me, especially in the country.

Rabbitts are happy there, so are butterflies and moles. We keep the other grass trimmed and moved, but next year, we’ll probably expand this natural growth.

It’s’ so much nicer to look at than grass.