Just Add Water

It's been exactly 1 year since we got help from 24 Ontario Junior Rangers painting the centre's exterior. The Eco Centre is a fairly big place, so painting it was a big job. That didn't stop the girls, though, who were done in 4 hours flat.
This weekend we had the pleasure of having a new group of Junior Rangers whom we asked to give the house another coat and patch up any bald areas. And again they exceeded our already high expectations.

The paint we used was a Milk Paint. Made from, yup: milk; with specific plants and/or berry elements added for a wide range of colours. It comes as a powder, just add water. It's absolutely environmentally safe, doesn't off-gas, leftovers can be safely dumped in the sink or in our field and is easy to work with. Just keep it away from your cats who may want to drink it (ours was constipated for about 2 days). And it's probably the only paint you'll have to put in the fridge at the end of a hot day :-)

Taking stock of how the first paint job had held up after being exposed to our harsh climate for a full year: pretty darn good. There are some minor spots where rain or melting water had been streaming lots, showing in somewhat paler colours and the occasional bald spot. But generally speaking, about 90% looked just fine - especially considering the first paint job was only 1 coat!

This time we added 2 more coats with slightly thinner paint (just add a bit more water) so it would absorb better into the straw bale house's plaster skin.          The girls were cheerful and hard-working and an absolute pleasure to have. They did an awesome job, making the Centre look its very finest ever; good vibes all around.

So here's to this positive group of Junior Rangers and their leaders; also a thank-you to the friendly folks of Homestead House Paint Co. in Toronto for taking the time to be as helpful as they could be and for making us this lovely (and perfectly matching!) colour - and for making a great product in general.

(Junior Rangers: click to download full-sized picture)

Maintenance Day

Saturday was Wind Turbine Maintenance day. Any wind turbine needs to be checked annually for any wear and tear, loose bolts, unbalanced or chipped blades, things like that; they have a lot of moving parts that get get worked hard year round - unlike maintenance-free solar panels that just sit there, quietly and efficiently making power.

For the past few years we've been combining it with servicing our friend Jane's smaller wind turbine. Frank the Solar Guy is in charge and does any repairs if necessary; he designed and installed both Jane's and our wind turbines as well as our solar arrays, so if there's anyone qualified for the job it's Frank.

As has become a good custom, we started the morning off at Jane's place with a sumptuous breakfast outside on the deck, enjoying the morning's sunshine and each other's company. It creates just the right mindset to start work on Jane's 70-feet tower, lowering it relatively painlessly using a manual winch (except it was a hot and sticky day).
We were glad to see that no repairs were necessary, just some loose-ish bolts in need of some fastening. Pulling the tower up was a bit tougher (hot!) but went just fine.

Next, it was off to the Eco Centre. Our tower is 100 feet tall with a bigger turbine, so here we needed the help of 2 trucks to do the pulling. Our own beat-up truck was one, and the other came with our neighbouring friends Larry and Liz in it who generously offered their help for the afternoon.

Once everything was hooked & cabled up, the tower came nicely controlled down. We were again happy to see that no repairs were necessary, except for the tail vane that showed some micro cracks from too much play between the vane and the tail rod. An extra rubber  washer would help, which Larry made from recycled parts of one of Jacomyn's old rubber boots. They're even green, eco all the way!

By the end of the afternoon the tower was back up again; the wind had picked up, so we spent a few satisfied minutes just watching the turbine spin and make power. Boy, does that ever feel good!

Beers, snacks and lots of good food shared with excellent company was the perfect finish of a great day. If only it was possible to do all our maintenance chores this way, the world would be a better place...

Spread the Word!

This week we received an email from the Green Party of Ontario about the province's spectacularly successful MicroFIT program which put Ontario at the top of the list of governments who take solar power seriously. Was it getting too successful? Please read...

"Last year, the Ontario government announced the MicroFIT program as a follow up to the Green Energy Act. Under the program, citizens who installed small solar energy projects (up to 10 kilowatts) were entitled to sell power to the grid under a 20-year contract at a rate of $0.802 per kilowatt hour. The government publicly said that this rate was to apply for both roof mounted and ground-mounted solar panels and would stay in place until a planned review in September 2011.

However, over the July long weekend, Minister of Environment and Infrastructure Brad Duguid decided to make a sudden change without warning. He announced that the feed in tariff for power from ground-mounted projects would be reduced by 27% to $0.588 per kilowatt hour. At the time of his announcement, there was a backlog of nearly 10,000 applications from citizens awaiting approval for ground mounted projects.

This cut is being imposed by the Liberal government and will potentially set back community based solar power in the province by years. Not surprisingly, demand for solar projects collapsed following the unexpected announcement, leaving solar installers and distributors to lose millions in inventory and training costs. The cuts also penalize thousands of Ontarians, mainly farmers, who took the government’s word and applied for MicroFIT contracts. In many cases, they invested tens of thousands of dollars based on the price advertised by the government. The present government's deception will be remembered for years and undermine the credibility of the efforts of any future government to support community renewable energy.

The MicroFIT program is administered by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) which closed its period for comments on the rate cut yesterday. Ultimately, the rate cut will be a cabinet-level political decision which is likely to be finalized over this next week.

Given the short amount of time before the proposed cuts are finalized, we are asking for five minutes of your time to (...) send an email to your MPP to advise them/her of your opposition to these destructive cuts. The text of a model email is available at the GPO MicroFIT campaign web site."

'Nuff said; please follow up, no matter how you vote. Thanks!

Winds of Change

We get hundreds of visitors through the Eco Centre for house tours, and we always enjoy having them; some even become friends. We're in our third summer now, long enough to notice some shifts in the questions that get asked. Some questions will always be the same, but other questions emerge or disappear depending on what's in the news or is talked about.

This summer I noticed a new recurring question: "How come your wind turbine is so small?" At first it surprised me (after all, the tower is a solid 106 feet/33 metres tall), but then I realized these visitors were expecting a wind turbine big enough to power an entire village; you know, the type you see on the news and in glossy magazines. Those 250 feet tall monoliths dotting entire mountain ranges, their massive white wings gently wooshing along.

Small...?

So understandably, when see see our "little" turbine with its measly 6-feet wing span, well, some visitors may not be too impressed. Of course they understand when I explain that this turbine is only designed to help power 1 super-energy-efficient house, not an entire village or subdivision of power hogging homes.

But it made me realize how even over these past 3 years some conceptions have begun to change. When our Eco Centre just opened and our wind turbine went up, it made the regional media. It was something new, an inkling of green things to come. Since then, wind farms have gone up all over this part of the province, some highly successful, some hotly debated. And all of them much in the public eye.

That wasn't the case only 3 years back. And it makes me happy. Sure, there may be some misunderstandings about wind energy's different applications, but  I'm sure that'll change, too. Point is, things are a-changing.
Wind energy has become a household word; most of us now know what a wind turbine does and why. Most of us now "get it". And that's a good thing. Let's hope things keep changing in this direction, and who knows where we'll be 3 years from now!

Singing' in the Rain (Barrel?)

Never thought I'd say this, but we love our rain barrels. We picked them up in Thunder Bay at Eco Superior a few weeks ago: two sturdy 220-litre barrels. We paid $60.00 each for them, but if you're a  Thunder Bay resident you get 'em even cheaper if you bring your water bill with you.

Because that's the whole idea behind these rain barrels: to save on tap water when watering your garden, and use free rain water instead. And with the summer heating up it's safe to say our veggie garden is very happy with them. Without this free, clean water our veggies wouldn't be looking as healthy as they do now.

And in cities, rain barrels also help reduce the load on storm sewers and waste water treatment facilities.

The other very cool thing about these barrel is they're a recycled product. In a previous life they were used to store and transport Greek olives. They were slated to go to the landfill, destined to become part of the growing garbage problem our society is experiencing.

Well, not if it's up to the non-profit organization Rainbarrel.ca! They obtained tens of thousands of barrels and retrofitted them with a spigot at the bottom, a 6" hole and a filter basket at the top and a simple yet effective overflow hose which also doubles as a connector in case you're hooking up multiple barrels (as we will).

These recycled barrels are environmentally friendly (in several ways), durable, cost-effective, and people all over Canada just love 'em. Oh, and did  mention they'll save you money in the long run? So give Eco Superior a call (at 624-2140) to arrange a time to pick one up. Or more than one!

The Babees Are Safe

The last 4 weeks have seen little blog action, but we're back again! Not that there was nothing to blog about, but life has just been too darn busy for any weekly updates; and being on an intensive 2-week film shoot followed by a week out of town didn't help much, either.

Still, much has happened and is happening. We'll be offering our "Intro to Solar Energy" and "Living off the Grid" evening classes through Confederation College this fall again, dates will be posted shortly. We're also mulling a full-day "Advanced Wind Power" workshop, and will announce more as soon we have made a final decision.

Our House Tours also prove to be very popular, with a steady stream of folks visiting our place. Word on our Eco B&B is getting around, pulling more and more guests, all of them lovely people we thoroughly enjoy having.

In the mean time, our previous blog about the bee hives that beekeeper Tom placed on our property drew a lot of response, many expressing concerns about the fact that there was nothing in place to scare the bears off. Of course they were correct in this, and of course Tom was aware of this issue as well. So 3 weeks ago he installed an electric fence around the hives, specifically designed to keep bears at bay.

So call us solar geeks, but what we like about it it's a solar-powered electric fence; and I can tell you first hand that it works. In case you're wondering why the hives are sitting on those cement blocks, that's to keep them out of reach of another predator: skunks, of all animals. Skunks love burrowing into those hives with their long sharp claws and aren't deterred by any stinging.

So far we've had a pretty good, almost average summer, making happy bees (and people). Our fields are filled nectar-filled wildflowers and clover is growing abundantly; I can't think of any better excuse to go easy on cutting the grass...

Our New Babees

It's nice to have a lot of land that hasn't been sprayed for decades. Especially if you're a beekeeper and are looking for just that to place your bee hives.

Tom is just such a beekeeper who placed 2 hives not too far from our house today. It's a great spot with lots of southern exposure, mature trees providing shelter from the elements, and surrounded by lots of clover and wild flowers that the bees are so fond of. More hives may follow if this works out as hoped.

Northwestern Ontario holds a unique position in the Western hemisphere; it's the last remaining enclave that is free of bee mites and other diseases that currently kill honey bee colonies on a massive scale pretty much everywhere else. Mono cultures, widespread use of pesticides and large-scale intensive bee keeping practices are just a few of the reasons for it.

So far our bee-healthy pocket has been able to keep it that way, thanks mostly to the ever-vigilant regional beekeeper's association and its inspectors. Bees are an essential component in this fragile house of cards called the environment. No bees means not only no honey, but also no pollination of flowers, trees, vegetables, fruits. You know, the stuff we humans need to live.

We're looking forward to see how these colonies will do, the first official honey bee population on our property. Of course it's not an entirely selfless act, as I'm sure there is some great honey in it for us - from our own wild flowers!
Here's hopin' our resident bear won't find out about it...

Save The Planet: Pee In The Shower!

Okay guys, fess up: we've all peed in the shower from time to time. We all do it, yet nobody will ever mention it. It's almost as if by not talking about it it's not happening. There's a stigma attached to it; for some reason in our overly puritanical North America, peeing in the shower is, well, not done (technically).

But why? Is it filthy? Not really. Impolite? Oh come on. Unsanitary? Nope, urine contains no bacteria. So why are we so self-conscious about it?

The Brazilians asked themselves the same question and not only realized there's nothing wrong with it - it's even beneficial for the environment! The logic is simple and undeniable: each time you pee in the shower, you don't have to flush the toilet: tadah, some serious water savings.

So the federal government of Brazil commissioned several PSA's (Public Service Announcements) to encourage this aquatic activity. And what better way than to have kids make the call (kids love a good pee joke, plus they're not self-conscious - yet), and what better medium than animation?



Hey! Wasn't that Mahatma Gandhi peeing in the shower...?!