Family Stuff
It's getting harder to coordinate our schedules
for joint trips and activities, but we still managed to get in
some great times together this year.
Three of us (Lisa decided the ground was just
fine, thank you) went skydiving in July thanks to Grandma Schmidt.
Below are the three of us with Eric's tandem skydiving instructor
post-dive, and Justine just coming in for a landing. What a blast!
And winning the prize for most extreme camping:
Nan, Don, Justine, and Lisa in a primitive cabin in Fairbanks in
January, when the temperature got down to -38 degrees F!
We got to spend lots of time with family and
friends. All four of us (and all the rest of the East Coast
Schmidt clan) met up in South Carolina in June.
Lisa and Steve coped with their semi-empty nest by
hosting some fun dinner parties.
Lisa and Justine visited the northern Hamptons in
Fairbanks.
We have now all become avid bikers but Steve and
Eric strive to use of the widest variety of vehicles.
Below are Eric and Steve's motorcycles on a ride up in the coastal
range;
At right, Steve takes Eric's handcycle for a spin.
Lisa and Justine and Liz canoeing during the visit to South Carolina.
But most important, perhaps, was the 1,500 mile Biofuel-powered
Bus RV Trip at the end of the year!
Below are a few pictures from the trip and the conversion process;
click here
for the full set.
Empty bus before renovation, at
left.
Finished Bus RV, at right.
We also achieved record low family carbon emissions in all but one
category in 2014.
(Limiting air travel remains our biggest challenge.)
With urging from our kids, we've now added the impact of meat
consumption to our footprint calculations.
Conversion
factors used:
1 kWh of PG&E electricity = 0.5 lbs
CO2e
1 therm of natural gas = 13.5 lbs CO2e
1 gallon of gasoline = 20 lbs
CO2e
1 passenger mile of air travel = 0.49 lbs CO2e
1 unit of water in Bay Area = 2 lbs CO2e
1 serving of Beef or Lamb = 12 lbs eCO2 (and 1 unit of water);
Pork = 4.8 lbs eCO2; Poultry = 2.8 lbs.