Nerve compression plus a total inability to tackle hills without getting off to push mean I never mount a bicycle unless I have to. Exercise in general is not a favourite pastime of mine. Laundry? Eh. It’s just one of those things you’ve gotta do.
Combine all three, though, and we have a multitasking device I could get behind.
Behold, the bike-powered laundry unit!
http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2012/01/green-power-bike-washing-machines.html
The beauty of the Internet: I can go from total ignorance of biogas generation to a YouTube video of some guy making one at home in but a few clicks.
I’ll need more steps in a how-to than Lord Vaader here provides, but it’s an excellent start.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LordVaader#p/search/3/aju_kNKNtXw
Mother Earth News always gets the gears turning in my head. Here’s a detailed essay from 1974 about their creation of a methane-producing anaerobic digester. One load of cow manure kept a gas-powered farm going for a few months, and even its waste provide useful to feed back into the soil. I’ll have to look at something like this if I ever own a homestead.