Is Massive, Centralized Clean-Energy the Future?

I have written for a long time about our individual responsibilities to generate the energy we use. Many people translate this to “living off grid” but fail to define “the grid”. Perhaps “the grid” is simply defined as the greedy, profit seeking power companies.

Transmission is an overrated issue in energy policy. The hurdles are not technical, they are political. Dozens of agencies are typically involved in the permitting process. There are state authorities, plus hordes of independent grid-owners, plus landowners who would need to allow new transmission lines through their property, plus environmentalists worried that tramping new lines through places like the Mojave Desert will wreak havoc on endangered habitats. What’s more, many state governments aren’t thrilled with spending money on grid upgrades that would primarily benefit wind farms in neighboring states. [more]

All the Children Are Above Average

If you didn’t perform as expected in your job, wouldn’t you expect, at the least, to be passed over when raises came around, or fired at the most? Ok, you may be laughing at the raises part. I know very few people who have seen a raise in the last five years. The point is that most of us know that to survive or advance in our jobs, we need to meet or exceed employer’s expectations.

Not so for most CEOs. This became obvious with the Wall Street debacle when we all learned about the salaries of the CEOs of the companies that failed; the ones that we bailed out due to their failures. These guys are still getting raises and perks! WTF! ... [more]

State Panel Backs Skamania Wind Project

 Article by Kathie Durbin of The Columbian

Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council recommended Thursday that Gov. Chris Gregoire approve a proposed wind project on private forest land in Skamania County, but with 15 of the project’s 50 turbines eliminated to protect views in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

The council met in Stevenson, and neither its members nor its staff were available for comment after the meeting adjourned at about 7 p.m. The vote to approve the project with modifications was 6-0, with one member absent... more

Utilities Giving Away Power

That’s right, utilities are giving away power. No, not here in the U.S., we’re too far behind the curve thanks to our politicians. This is happening in Europe, Germany to be exact. But many other Euro countries are not far behind.

As it turns out, on July 24^th, Germany’s 21,600 windmills generated so much power that the utility companies paid people to take energy off the grid. Go figure! By the way, this isn’t an anomaly. This is the 31^st hour this year that customers were paid to use electricity.

“Germany’s same-day electricity price was below zero for nine hours on that windy day on July 24, with negative prices for a total of 31 hours so far in 2011, according to Epex data. France had 9 negative hours this year.” This is according to the Bloomberg reports.

Pickling a Jar at a Time

I found this recipe a while back and I have used it so much, I thought I might pass it on to the readers.

The recipe is actually pretty simple. It simply reduces a pickling recipe to one quart at a time. I find this great for when I pick half a dozen cucumbers, or beets, or beans from the garden and want to pickle them while they are fresh.

Anybody who has pickled vegetables from their garden knows that if you wait until you get enough to do a batch of six quarts, you will have some vegetables that are on the edge of going bad.

 Achieving Something Better

A friend of mine who moderates an off grid forum said to me the other day, “Suddenly it seems like people have lost interest in alternatives and going off grid. It’s almost like people have given up trying to achieve something better. All we hear in the news is the doom and gloom reports of how bad the global economy is doing or going to be.

I get the impression people are simply hunkering down waiting for the worst to hit. Even my boating [yachting] friends have gone silent.  There are virtually no discussions going on.”

This comment gave me pause and while writing a reply, I could see an article forming. I kept focusing on “It’s almost like people have given up trying to achieve something better.”

A Turkey’s Gift

If you have followed the posts, you will remember that we had a goal of raising and slaughtering 12 turkeys (one for each month). The average length of time to raise turkeys is 20 to 28 weeks; we slaughtered ours at almost 14 weeks. This is because they were fat and healthy and weighed in at around 23 lbs. each. Remember, these turkeys were Heritage Bronze turkeys and they are pretty good size gobblers. That’s big enough for us. Any bigger than that, and we would have problems finding a roasting pan big enough.

We ended up slaughtering nine birds because we decided to keep two for breeders, giving us a total of 11 birds. We started with 15 and lost two babies (probably just too weak to survive the bunch. We lost one juvenile to predators (an owl I think). One juvinile was being picked on by the group, so we slaughtered her early. It seemed cheaper than group therapy. Turkeys are known for cannibalism (usually a result of stress) so I really wanted to nip that in the bud by removing the injured bird and figuring out what was stressing them. I opened their pen up to the outside and let them see the big world. This is when the owl got the other juvenile so I started ranging them in at night for a while.

It’s Called Espalier

A while back I looked at a piece of property and I noticed it had a unique fence line that had fruit tree branches woven into the fence. This was unique to me to say the least. It looked like the person who used to live there was a bonsai master with way too much time on his hands.

Several months later I ran into a Irish web site that had a photo of the same type of fence. Further research uncovered that the technique was called espalier (es-PAL-yay). The technique was developed in the 16th century, out of the practical need for growing fruit in such marginal climates as northern France and southern England. The early French and English discovered that if they bent apple-tree branches horizontally, they could direct energy away from vigorous vertical growth and into producing spurs (those stubby lateral branches that eventually flower and produce fruit). In addition, by growing the tree flat against a wall or fence, they could create a favorable microclimate in which the wall radiated heat and provided shelter. It is a way of cultivating dwarf fruit trees – one that yields more fruit, more quickly, and with a longer growing season.

Keeping Crows Out of Your Garden

Growing a vegetable garden in the mountains has its challenges. Deer, Raccoons, Squirrels, slugs, insects and Crows are among the garden pests I deal with.

I can deal with most of them, but this year the Crows pushed me too far so I turned to the most powerful weapon I possess, my brain. After some research I realized that the Raven is in the Crow family, but they are not the same. Many Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest tell of the Crow being a trickster, and the Raven as the creator. Crows are considered one of the most intelligent animals.

The Right Tool

How many times have you heard, “Use the right tool for the job?” This not only means don’t use a screw driver to chisel wood, or pliers to loosen a nut, but I was reminded that it also means don’t use a lawn care weed eater for farm use.

I want to talk about weed eaters. Yup. “Use the right weed eater for the job.” My example is weed eaters, but this could also apply to many tools.

We moved up here with our Toro electric weed eater which worked fine for lawn trimming in Southern California. It broke within a year up here. I then purchased a Black and Decker electric “muscle weed eater”, a big bad electric weed eater. This lasted two years before the bearing burned out.