Quote Originally Posted by Grog View Post
Now of course Emily please don't stop heating your house for this reason!!!!!!
Not to worry, we only use wood from dead trees, trees that fall in wind or ice storms or hurricanes, etc. On eleven acres of large hardwoods, we have plenty to go around. We originally burned wood from trees that fell in Hurricane Fran (lots, sadly) in 1996, but since then, natural attrition of the trees here and there all over our property has given us more wood than we could ever even burn, so some that die we just leave as snags for the woodpeckers to live in or lying on the ground out in the woods. Other than the trees we cut to build our house, we never cut live trees for firewood. Of course, because of that, we don't have enough sun around our house for much of a vegetable garden, but we do grow a few tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. And in the summer we bike to the farmer's market to buy most of the rest of our veggies -- organic or pesticide-free about 95% of the time. Locally grown, of course. We also belong to a food co-op so we can buy as much local and sustainable produce and other groceries as possible. DH bakes all our bread (with wheat berries he's ground!), etc. We didn't get credit for many of these habits in the footprint quiz, which is my beef with it....I'm not trying to say that we're perfect -- far from it -- but I do think we're better than the quiz results show.

Emily