Living green - before it was fashionable

By Tim Woodward
Idaho Statesman

Monday, July 30, 2007

I was feeling pretty proud of myself for selling my old car and buying a more fuel-efficient one last week.

Then I went to Ken and Ethel Farnsworth's house.

The Farnsworths were green long before it was fashionable. I wrote a story about them back when gas was selling for a little more than a buck a gallon. They were driving a plug-in electric car even then.

Ken and Ethel Farnsworth harness the energy of the sun to do their baking for them. The retired Boise couple own several sun ovens that reflect sun rays into a focused oven that can reach up to 400 degrees. On a sunny day, they enjoy baking a variety of rolls, breads and biscuits and will even cook a roast for dinner. Photo by Darin Oswald

Now, with green cars and even green houses going mainstream, I decided to revisit the energy-saving Farnsworths to see what they've been up to lately.

Quite a lot, actually. The first thing I noticed was that their 1985 Toyota station wagon , which they'd paid $16,000 to have converted from gas to electric power, was gone. In its place was a hybrid Toyota Prius . Somehow, I wasn't surprised.

Their new car, however, was old news. Since buying it two years ago, they've done a lot more to conserve.

"The most recent thing we've done is take out half of our lawn and replace it with Soil-Aid to save water," Ethel said. "We also took out our willow trees because they needed a lot of water."

The trees also had gotten big enough to block the sun on the south side of their home, where they have a passive solar heating system.

"We're going to replace it with solar panels," Ken said. "We've been passive. Now, we're getting active."

With that, he disappeared into a back room, emerging seconds later with a copy of a recent gas bill. It was roughly one-eighth of what it was a year ago, due largely to the new solar heating system for their swimming pool.

"We keep it at 84 degrees," Ken said. "Last week, I had to turn the system off because the water was getting too hot."

The Farnsworths do most of their cooking in a solar oven. It's the size of a small suitcase, works even in the winter and reaches temperatures of up to 400 degrees without using any fuel other than the sun's heat. Ken thinks so highly of the solar ovens that he became a dealer and sells them to other people who want to save energy.

"I sell them almost at cost," he said. "I don't do it to make money. I just want to get more people to use them instead of gas or electricity."

They also have a backpacking version of a solar oven. It folds up and weighs almost nothing. Ethel, a 4-H volunteer, has written an "outdoor fun" manual that includes instructions for kids on how to make one.

"We should have our hot water on solar, too," she said. "We're going to do that when we put a new roof on the house next year. We're also going to put a sun tube in the living room for lighting."

The Farnsworths have an Australian-made dishwasher that uses half as much soap and water as most dishwashers do. They have Green Plugs , which help their appliances use less electricity. They even have a toilet lid with a built-in basin and spigot for hand-washing. It uses perfectly clean toilet-tank water, saving other water.

Their passion for conserving resources began with their daughter Karen . When she was 16 , they said, she began going to dumps and picking up things that could have been recycled. She collected tons of glass and talked the Coors Brewing Co., into hauling it to San Francisco to recycle into road-building material -- used to re-pave several miles of Interstate 84 between Boise and Mountain Home.

"A lot of kids that age are going to save the world," Ethel said. "She didn't, but she did plant the seed that got us started."

"We use wheelbarrows to recycle now," Ken added.

A lot of us could learn from the Farnsworths. We may think we're doing what we can to make the world a better place. We do a modest amount of recycling, walk or ride bicycles to work when we can and drive the most fuel-efficient cars we can afford. But compared with the Farnsworths, we're dabblers. They truly are doing what they can. If everyone were as committed as they are, we wouldn't have some of the problems we do.

"I think everybody should be doing more, but I'm not in a position to tell anyone what to do," Ken said. "We don't push or preach. We try to do it by example. It's something you have to decide to do for yourself."

That seemed like a good time to ask what made them decide to do what they're doing. Why is it so important to them that they're willing to cook outside in the winter and wash their hands in toilet-tank water?

"We have a lot of children and grandchildren," Ethel replied. "In the past, every generation has had the promise of a better world. Today's young people are the first not to have that. We can't look for them to have a better world unless we do something about it."