Hi yall, all the reading on sustainable energy really aroused the curiosity in me to consider these things more open mindedly, not to mention there is financial incentives. Of course the three main things I put on the table was the fuel for my vehicle which has risen to over $4. A gallon,
natural gas for heating/water heating and electricity which also has gone up with the cost of natural gas. Increased use of our basic fireplace this winter helped, along with some basic conservation of electricity and cutback on unnecessary driving.Now to address these one at a time my family petrol is basically my driving to/from work and to/from New Orleans which will decrease drastically after my reconstruction is complete in January and my oldest daughter driving to/from school and work. I drive a little Mazda pup aprox 24mpg but my daughter drives a ford explorer with a V8 and it only gets about 16 mpg.
I bought it as a vehicle for her to safely learn to drive in until she gains enough experience to safely drive an economy car. I plan on getting her a Toyota Corolla next March aprox. 40 mpg. I won’t be getting rid of the explorer until my youngest daughter has her turn wrecking it a couple of times. Then she will get and economy car for college. The other part of this solution requires alternative fuel. I am pretty good at making homemade wine 
so distilled alcohol is the logical next step.To address the electrical area, conservation is the first order of business. Controlling the thermostat and turning off stuff when it’s not in use helps a lot. But as for sustainability I need to generate electricity. I looked at solar and wind systems. Both are very expensive.
Then I found some people on the net who found ways of greatly reducing those initial costs. And there is also state and Federal tax incentives for residential use of renewable energy. It looks like the state incentives are up to 50% of the initial cost (but it is based on your individual tax burden/income) 
but they expire Dec. 08.To address the heating/water heating I think both can be easily addressed. The water heater can be Solar with a much smaller electric water heater backup the tax incentive for this expired Dec. 07; energy savings is still a good incentive
A fire place upgrade is in order to make use of the large amount of wasted heat that is going up the flue.
I hope I can get some good input on these things. I plan on posting all my progress and or learning’s as I go. Wish me luck.
I tried a few forums only to find they are owned and moderated and controlled by a solar or wind company or distributorship. I will try sustainability forums as a search word next thanks. I work with a fellow that just dove head first into the bio diesel. He drives a 1 ton Ford dually, for moving horse trailers cattle etc. and he just put out 3 IBC’s at different restraunts. He built a metal building to run his little mfg in. I am thinking about a little diesel vehicle and pay him a fair price for his bio diesel. His raw materials is cheap/free with the exception of the methanol that is used which = 20% of the final product of bio diesel. But he still expects his final cost to be about $0.60 per gallon.