So we joined a cult… we bought a diesel car. a vw jetta TDI to be exact. why? well this one gets up to 50 mpg when driven properly. you should be able to run this on bio-diesel which is renewable even with all its byproducts and problems. as joel salatin says, farming is the process of moving materials from point A to B.
our project was starting to slow down without a car. this is an exercise in transition, not wholesale immediate change. we are straddling two economies – that of a farmer and that of city yuppies. while we were making do without a car, there are many places we can go to learn, people with whom to speak and things
to see – to say nothing of visiting friends, and maintaining life off the farm without being bound only to the city and public transit. so we took the plunge and bought a volkswagen station wagon to be used for year 1 CSA runs, shopping, fun, and of course runs to the station. the hope is that even with the poorer maintenance records of VW we may make out ahead in fuel savings. as our old family mechanic said, “we might get lucky.”
it sure is fun to drive even though you can feel that it is a completely different beast than a gas machine. hopefully driving for efficiency will keep the points off my license. driving up from the city last friday amber and i were sure glad we live near the train – fighting traffic every week would just not be cool.
