Agriculture

Mail from National Grid, my electric utility provider, is never the first letter I open. I don’t look forward to reading it. This week’s communication, however, made me smile. It was an “energy report” which advised me that, as compared with the same period last year, my energy consumption had gone down 34%. Instead of wildly outstripping my neighbors in energy usage, I am now using 1% less energy than comparably sized houses in the vicinity. I loved this energy report. I realize I shouldn’t go too wild patting myself on the back. Paring back to just average in our energy guzzling country is surely nothing to brag about. Also, in the comparable period last year, when we were still in COVID induced semi-lockdown, there were four full time residents of this house. This year there was just me. It would have been outrageous had I not saved energy. But then, I’ve had a constant stream of house guests this summer, so maybe the head count has not been so different. And I’d like to think that my own efforts con