Home Grown!

Arguably the toughest part of being green is living locally.  If you live on a farm, you can probably provide most of what you eat but farms around here have seasons so even that option is limited.

I try to get food produced locally as much as possible and one of the items that is a  huge green house producer is beef.  I get my grass-fed beef from a farm in Tenino which is about 15 miles from my home and pretty proud of that.  It is expensive but the meat is lower in fat, cholesterol so its about as healthy as one can get in the red meat department.

The other big challenge is working locally. And we have taken a big step in that direction as well. My SO works at Providence Centrailia Hospital in ER admitting.  If you watched "ER" the TV show you know "Jerry Markovic" the guy at the counter who knew just about everything that was going on in the hospital and checked people in? Well, that is what she does.

The problem is that its a 64 mile round trip commute. Right now, the LEAF makes it in Winter ok if driving a bit slower and colder but that will change.  The first signs of degradation are now showing up. Not a lot yet. Much less than I had expected at this point when I took delivery of my LEAF 22+ months ago. But it has caused her concern despite the SOC meter telling her she has plenty of range.

Now that commute was not something that was planned. In fact, she was working in the oncology dept in Lacey. (10 mile RT commute) They were  reorganized and sent to Centrailia. After about a year, the department was reorganized again and the remaining jobs were bid on and assigned by seniority and she lost her position in oncology and became the ER admitting Rep.  This she liked. The job was much more exciting, interesting and it was 4 10 hour shifts.  Her hours were not as nice (9:30 AM to 8 PM) but she loved the 3 days off every week.

But this reduced the time she had with Ryland, so when the very same job she had (the oncology dept was reorganized again) previously worked came back up again (also back in Lacey) she applied and was accepted and will start back in Lacey in 2 weeks!

She is back to the "9 to 5" five day a week work schedule which is good for our Son but its also a desk job primarily dealing with insurance companies processing the paperwork on PET Scans for cancer patients.

This changes the transportation picture for us. The C-Max Energi gives us plenty of EV range, a decent price and the gas range should we need it.  Our Prius only has 45,000 miles on it so not really worn out by any means but we could move our current 60/40 electric/gas to a much better percentage.

Now, some might think that counting on this job assignment long term might not be the best idea especially considering how often these reorganizations are happening. Well, all I can say is that everytime these moves happen, people get left behind. They either quit, retire or get put into a job they dont like and move on.
My SO does very well at her job (I read her performance evaluations) and I think she will be there in one capacity or another for a long time and she thinks so as well.  Now, to get a job as an ER Admitting Rep in Lacey!