Cedar is a single mom and an elementary school teacher. While running
an organic farm in the Midwest, she attended many workshops and
gatherings around sustainable, renewable, alternative energy and
biodiesel fuels, establishing her belief and inspiration that she
could do this.When she moved west and sold her farm, she worked very hard to bring this lifelong dream into fruition. Here you see Cedar at her recently completed, off the grid, adobe home, powered by a state of the art solar system built by Arrowhead Solar. |
 Cedar,
a self-proclaimed computer geek, had a special inverter included
in the solar system, to safely operate her Mac G4 Titanium laptop,
as well as run kitchen appliances, and provide enough hot water
and operate blowdryers of visiting nieces without a glitch! |
 Yes,
that's her diesel truck, and it runs on (you guessed it!) veggie
oil. Pretty amazing! Go Cedar! Although it may seem a little daunting,
Cedar has quickly become proficient at collecting and filtering
veggie oil, learning what is useable and what to avoid. She initially
had a kit installed that allows her truck to use the alternative
fuel winter and summer (winter requires warming the oil to a liquid
state); the mechanically inclined may install their own conversion
kit.Once a truck has been converted, there is still the option to run it on veggie oil, biodiesel or even conventional diesel. Happily there is plenty of information out there on how to get started with a veggie oil/biodiesel vehicle; and as Cedar has demonstrated, with a little education and persistence, anyone can do it! |
 The
design includes Cedar's plan for retirement and elder years. Rather
than choosing hard-core "green" that might have required
more effort on her part, she chose to make her home as "green"
as possible, yet with ease of caring for herself later on. Cedar's home is a fine example for those desiring an environmentally friendly conventional lifestyle. |
