25,000 miles in a new (2023) Chevy Bolt

[Flakbadger]

Hey everyone, been ages since I posted here. I traded in the Leaf for a brand new Chevy Bolt. About $21,000 after trade-in and incentives. My wife and I drive it everywhere, commuting, the coast, to my parents' house (about 70 miles away). In about a year and a half we've put 25,000 miles on it.

Holy cow I'm glad we bought it.

I keep it 75% charged except for those longer trips, following advice I've seen online to keep the battery between 80% and 50% instead of fully charging for more charge cycles with less battery degredation.

So far it only averages 3.7 mi/kWh, but that includes abysmal winter performance with heaters blasting, and a 17-mile-each-way daily commute that is 65 mph on the interstate.

Anyway this seemed like a good sort of place to post. With the cheap electricity here, it's about $0.03/mi, so about 750 bucks in electricity. Versus gas for my wife's Honda Fit, which would have been ~$1,900 for the same mileage driven, according to my calculations.

I don't have time to ecomod any more. I bought a house, and now I'm all in on native gardening, and growing a lot of my own food.

Side note, plant some natives in your yard. Nature needs our help

~Matt

[redpoint5]

Great car, congratulations. What utility do you have? Curious because PGE has nearly doubled rates in about 5 years.

I didn't know new Bolts could be had still. That's a great price.

I can't manage to keep birch trees alive in Oregon, so I'm probably going to need to plant something more native/adapted.

[Flakbadger]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Great car, congratulations. What utility do you have? Curious because PGE has nearly doubled rates in about 5 years.

I didn't know new Bolts could be had still. That's a great price.

I can't manage to keep birch trees alive in Oregon, so I'm probably going to need to plant something more native/adapted.

Badly written original post, we bought it new in August of 2023. We live in a service area for Pacific Power, and it's like $0.14/kWh. [EDIT: Apparently 12.9 cents]

Depending on what your growing situation is like, there are some really spectacular native plants for Oregon. I planted my yard in 2023, last year I had 4 species of butterfly, about a dozen species of native bee (including two different bumblebee species), frogs, crickets, and more. Everything just showed up out of nowhere. A build it and they will come situation.

[freebeard]

The math was hurting my head (0.03 over 3.7?) until I saw your second post.

Which native plants? Ferns and rhododendrons?

What volunteers around here is Winter wheat.

[Flakbadger]

Originally Posted by freebeard

The math was hurting my head (0.03 over 3.7?) until I saw your second post.

Which native plants? Ferns and rhododendrons?

What volunteers around here is Winter wheat.

Nothing volunteer-y, everything was picked out by me. There are a few non-natives in the yard because I didn't really learn about it until I was part-way through. Here's a pic of it in full bloom.

For a non-exhaustive list, I have around 30 Willamette Valley native meadow species, including 5 native grasses, California Poppy, Douglas Aster, Pearly Everlasting, Camas, Yarrow, Canada Goldenrod, Globe Gilia and a bunch of others.

Here's some of the friends I made last year.


Gray Hairstreak butterfly


Metallic Green sweat bee


Mellissodes "longhorn" bee

I got really passionate about it, because lawns are basically deserts where nothing can live. By planting things that grow here, you attract what minimal vestiges of nature are left. And holy hell do they show up in force. It's like, the ONE THING I have power over in the world, and it has immediate and incredible results.

[redpoint5]

Your front yard is similar to mine, so I can get some ideas from you. Right now it's mostly bark dust with some grasses, flowers, and lavender.

I need to replace 3 birch trees and possibly a willow tree with something else.

[Flakbadger]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Your front yard is similar to mine, so I can get some ideas from you. Right now it's mostly bark dust with some grasses, flowers, and lavender.

I need to replace 3 birch trees and possibly a willow tree with something else.

Birch and Willow usually grow in either the edges of riparian areas, or in places with mild seasonal flooding. If you're not regularly irrigating your yard, that is probably why they're struggling.

For the record, a big part of the reason why I switched to native plants was to avoid irrigation as much as possible. Last year I watered once a week, this year I'm hoping for 2/3 times a month at most.

My recommendation would be to look at your local soil and water conservation district's website, they often sell native plants. For me that's Marion: https://www.marionswcd.net/little-ha...oject/#species

OSU has an excellent extension service to read up a bit. Depends on what your goals are and how much effort you want to put in really. The very easiest thing you could do is throw down three or four inches of good topsoil over the top of your bark dust and get yourself a couple native plant seed mixes from one of the Soil and Water Conservation District sales or some company like Northwest meadowscapes, and then just give them regular water while they establish.

Stay FAR AWAY from 'wildflower mixes' that aren't from a native plant specialist, as they usually contain a bunch of nonsense in them.

If you live somewhat near the Willamette valley, Oregon White Oak does absolutely incredible with no water during the summer. Though with the changing climate they are starting to need some supplemental water during the summer, but vastly less than most other trees.

Anyway I could ramble all day so let me know if you have specific questions and I will try to keep it brief when I reply