Last year in July, we were excited to purchase a plug-in hybrid. I was a truly great car. It rarely needed gas. It was fun to drive. It helped us use more of our surplus solar electric generation. It even hauled a few goats.

But it spent a lot of time at the bottom of the driveway last winter. And as a 2 wheel drive vehicle, it was doing quite a bit of damage to our steep gravel driveway the rest of the year. The savings in gas were just going into a fund to maintain the driveway.

It wasn’t easy, but we finally decided to trade in the Prius for an all wheel drive car last month. We already miss the gas savings, and that pious feeling you get driving a Prius. But the driveway is doing much better and Jill won’t have to leave it at the bottom of the hill quite so often this winter.

Started a new category, ‘Lessons Learned’.