Is your Virginia Horse Farm Green? Today is Saint Patrick's Day and we are all "wearing the green". This is the perfect day to think about another kind of green. Today when we are celebrating all things Irish and green it is a great time to focus on green, ecofriendly living.
Many of us have either built Charlottesville green homes or have retrofitted our olderhomes to be more energy efficient. But how many of us have expanded that thinking to include the barn and horse facilities of our Virginia horse farms?
Some of the ways that we can make our barns greener involve the same practices that we have already instituted in our homes. If your barn includes a bathroom, it is a good idea to install low flow toilets, shower heads and faucets. Also adequate insulation and energy efficient windows should be installed in offices and tackrooms where you have heaters, furnances and even air conditioning.
How else can we conserve natural resources on a Virginia horse farm? One of the first things we all learn in stable management is that horses require a constant supply of clean fresh water. In order to insure this we are often dumping and refilling water buckets multiple times a day. If you have a 20 stall barn this translates into a lot of water. Several times a day there may be dirty water in the buckets that needs to be thrown out and replaced with fresh water. Instead of pouring that water down the drain it can be used to water flowers, shrubs, and trees.
As it gets warmer another large use of water in Charlottesville stables is bathing horses. Every horse will need a bath or at least sponging off after riding. If you fill several buckets before you ride and set them out in the sun, not only will you have warm water when you return, but you will use much less water than is used when you use a hose to spray the horses off. Adding an energy efficient hot water heater for those times when it isn't enough to heat water with the sun is another energy saver.
Another device that uses large amounts of water is an automatic sprinkler systems on an outdoor riding ring. I have seen sprinklers that are set on timers and are running even on a rainy day. Obviously this is a waste of water, but it also wastes water when the sprinklers run at 6:00 am and noone rides til afternoon, when the ring has already dried out and is dusty. If you have to have a sprinkler system for your arena, make sure that you can manually control it so that you only water the ring when it is necessary and at the optimum time of day.
Remember that it is not enough to have a green house; make sure that your entire Virginia horse farm goes green.
Thinsking of Selling Your Charlottesville Home - Going Green Will Bring You More Green
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Contact Pam Dent, e-PRO, SRES, NHD, REALTOR®, Real Estate III, Charlottesville, Virginia at 434 960-0161, pam@JumpintoGreenerPastures.com, to list your property for sale or to buy a property in the following areas in Central Virginia: Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Keswick, Glenmore, Ivy, Crozet, Earlysville, Free Union, Cismont, Scottsville, Fluvanna County, Troy, Palmyra, Lake Monticello, Louisa County, Louisa, Mineral, Spring Creek, Orange County, Gordonsville, Orange, Barboursville, Greene County, Ruckersville.
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Copyright © 2009 by Pam Dent, all rights reserved, "Is Your Virginia Horse Farm Green"?
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