Remember I told you a film crew came out to our farm/ranch a year ago? If you want to see the portion of the PBS special, with David Biello of Scientific American, that was filmed at our farm, here it is!
It starts on Cape Cod (for context), and the second half is in Oregon at our house. Just for fun!
The whole two-hour special is worth seeing. I bought the video at BeyondtheLightSwitch.com. It takes 30 seconds or so to load. It will open in a separate window so you can read/do something else!
The windtowers closest to our house are Vestas towers. Vestas is a Danish corporation.
http://www.vestas.com/en/wind-power-plants/towards-20-years-in-offshore.aspx
What a funny week. We got the Century Farm sign. http://www.oregonfb.org/programs/century_farm_ranch.shtml
It says Van Patten 1885 on the bottom.
Then a Dutch film crew came the next day to do a piece on the wind towers. Kevin asked me who the talent was, a term we heard when the Detroit Public Television came out to film “Beyond the Light Switch”. Genevieve kept calling David Biello “the talent”. http://www.beyondthelightswitch.com/
I was taking pictures of my nephew's daughter the day the news crew showed up from Detroit PBS.
So, when we got out of the pickup, I asked the guys which one of them was the talent. Erik laughed and said he guessed he was, but they don’t use that term in the Netherlands. https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135639477940
Dennis (or Tyce?) thought Patten may have been Putten, after a town in the Netherlands. He said “Van” means of or from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_(Dutch)
A beautiful day, but sad because we learned that our cousin Mark had a massive stroke two days before. He passed away two days after the reunion. What a nice man, and only 49 years old. We will miss him so much.
But two days later, at the Macnab family reunion at Highland Hills Ranch http://www.highlandhillsranch.com/, I learned that Kevin’s ancestors on his great grandparent’s other side were actually from Petten, on the west coast of Holland.
Highland Hills Ranch
I started Googling all the places I went on my Amsterdam layovers: Hoorn, Edam, Gouda, Zaanstad,etc. The last time I was there it was summer and hot. A pilot friend of mine was going to be there too, and he wanted to go to the beach. So, I agreed, but my flight was late due to weather and I ended up meeting him for dinner instead. It turns out he goes to a nude beach! (Zandvoort) I told him there is no way anyone needs to see me nude at almost fifty years old! Thank goodness my flight was delayed.
So, this morning I was writing about Netherlands on my other blog, Getting There is Half the Fun. I was trying to find the nude beach to remember how to spell it for this blog, and it is just north of Petten. Then I got a popup of gay porn. That was thrilling. Not. And one for Viagra. And it just kept coming. So “Mac Defend” popped up, saying I had 73 viruses. Yikes. Like an idiot I used it to clean up my computer. It was a Trojan, and boy did it get into my system. Then I tried to My phone rang and it was Credit Card Services reporting unusual activity on my Visa. After canceling my card, they suggested I call Apple.
I got a great guy named Lawrence who helped me straighten out my computer. We searched my computer and threw away all kinds of downloads, but I was still getting popups. He said I should be using Safari as my search engine, not Firefox. Firefox is fine for PCs, but Safari is better at warning you when you shouldn’t be somewhere using a Mac. Good to know. I had to trash my Firefox to get rid of the trojans, change all my information, etc. What a hassle.
I asked him about Macs versus PCs, because I thought Macs didn’t get viruses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_(computing)
He said PCs can get infected just by opening an email or something innocuous. But you actually have to download something on a Mac to get a trojan, and that only approved download sites should be used, like Apple and Amazon.
Then he sent me an email saying to stay away from trojans and nude beaches!! Yeah, good idea. And stay away from MacDefend and MacShield – at least the versions I was trying to download from unapproved sites were malware.
Remembering my French, Mal means BAD!!!!!!
Go to my other blog for more on Amsterdam and adventures!
Detail from The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy byDomenico Tiepolo (1773), inspired by Virgil’s Aeneid
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War, as told in Virgil‘s Latin epic poem The Aeneid, also by Dionysius, Apollodorus and Quintus of Smyrna. The events in this story from the Bronze Age took place after Homer‘s Iliad, and before his Odyssey. It was the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict.
In one version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of 30 men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greek army entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.
In the Greek tradition, the horse is called Δούρειος Ἵππος, Doúreios Híppos, the “Wooden Horse”, in the Homeric Ionic dialect. Metaphorically a “Trojan Horse” has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or space. It is also associated with“malware” computer programmes presented as useful or harmless to induce the user to install and run them.
Looking up toward the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuU0KVJwJNY
A few years ago, in March of 2007, construction began on Portland General Electric’s (PGE) BIGLOW wind project. By Thanksgiving, Phase one was up and running: 78 Vestas towers were complete.
It took only eight months to build roads, dig holes for the bases, fill them with concrete and rebar, bring the towers and generators in, put them together with a huge crane, and wire them all up to the new PGE substation.
Living in the middle of all the construction was fun. Every night we would walk north or south to see the progress – north to the wind towers being built behind our house and south to the new substation. Sure there were cranes, trucks, pickups and helicopters everywhere – it was like a freeway out here. But it was so interesting that Kevin and I would find ourselves outside, at night, in the snow watching them go up.
The first wind tower on the project...I wasn't here for this one!
First the new BPA transmission line had to be built.
Now these guys can fly!
Easy does it...
Imagine all this in our own backyard! 
The size of these were incredible lying on the ground.
Inside the nacelle.
These blades were about 130 feet long!
Another view inside the nacelle.
Of course they had to wait for non-windy days...
All the ladders are attached with magnets so the structure isn't weakened by bolting them on.
My only chance to "climb" the ladder...
The BPA had to string all new lines, and their flying was impressive!
Wind tower base with rebar
All the parts were from different places around the world...China, Vietnam, Denmark, Spain, etc.
Progress!!
The crane operators were impressive, too.
This Siemen nacelle is the size of a small motor home. They don't look that large at 300 feet in the air.
The old....
I can’t believe how many people hate wind towers. And hate does not begin to describe the strong feelings against them.
I don’t like the way electrical poles look either…but having electricity sure is nice.
Lovely power lines...necessary to get the energy out, though! Some of them are buried, but BPA was saving money and this field took the hit, making it much harder to farm. But wasting energy hating how things "are" cannot be good for anyone.
Mitch Swecker, Oregon Department of Aviation, claims wind towers are “pincushions for pilots” and that too many have already been built. (Mitch “manages” the Wasco ‘cropduster’ strip from Salem, OR. I wonder if he even knows where we are?) After four towers were approved and in the process of being built, the FAA (Washington D.C.) decided they were too close to our little Wasco airport pattern. So the FAA revoked the permits and suspended building on the Portland General Electric (PGE) Biglow project, costing Portland General Electric customers $1.3 million for bases and roads so far. (It will cost even more to eventually remove them) Mind you, we have no services at this airport – no fuel, no Fixed Base Operation.
For an airport with minimal traffic that was over-improved with millions of taxpayer dollars to begin with that mainly crop dusters use, this decision is equivalent to the joke about a Masters and Doctorate degrees: more shit piled higher and deeper.
Wasco International (Just kidding...)
And lead-in lights, please???
We need a control tower now...oh, and don't forget to give the controllers and extra hour off according to new FAA regulations. Really? How about 16 hours off for some real sleep. Pilots and controllers don't make good robots.
A survivor! Seriously, I love birds.
The Audubon Society claims the towers kill birds, and the joke around here is “only the stupid ones.”
But, seriously, the environmentalists are walking the fields all the time looking for dead birds…without results. Unless we have fast coyotes that eat them before they are found, there are less dead birds from wind towers than from them hitting pane glass in houses or cars or airplane engines.
I hate killing an animal…or seeing one killed. The pickup in front of me hit a squirrel the other day, and the poor little thing was dead before he hit the ground. But I also know that death is part of life, and the towers are no longer designed as ideal nesting spots. I think the birds used to mistake them for trees, and the baby birds never had a chance.
We have had the Oregon-California Trail Association stopping two of our towers within sight of the trail, a trail that was miles wide in spots and ran right through our county. The agenda of a few people in OCTA is to map and privatize a walking trail, through private ground, all the way from St. Louis. So, I went to Eugene with John DeMoss to voice my opinion at one of their meetings. I learned that most members present believe both towers and the trail can co-exist. But the men who have a private agenda wrote this in their newsletter:
The 2008 State Historic Preservation Office Heritage Conference was in May. Glenn Harrison and Stafford Hazelett attempted to give reports on the condition of the Oregon Trail in Oregon but were interrupted by representatives of wind energy proponents from Sherman County who deny the existence of the Oregon Trail across Sherman County. Five new sites for inclusion on the National Park Service’s list of High Potential Historic Sites along the Oregon Trail were described.
Oregon Trail: Lets pave the whole trail, from St. Louis to the Willamette Valley - the federal government can use their power of eminent domain to appropriate private ground, taking it off the tax base. Oh, wait, who pays for the that?
The next newsletter seemed more balanced:
In the Northwest we face significant challenges resulting from the emphasis on renewable energy in the form of wind farms. The challenge is great: the eastern portions of Oregon and Washington are the location of extensive energy projects (wind turbines and transmission lines) which often coincide with important trail resources. While trail protection is our priority, we must acknowledge the need for energy from these sources. (David Welch) NW Trails_Fall 2009
We were there for this reenactment of the crossing of the John Day River on the Oregon Trail.
If we had these Indian remains in our fields instead of arrowheads and wagon wheel tracks, I would be protesting!! All I am asking...is give common sense a try.
Archaeological remains of native Americans (arrowheads and cook pots) have stopped other sights, along with people who claim to dislike how the towers look and make them ‘feel’. We have become a society that reacts to the squeaky wheel with too much grease and no common sense.
People complain of health problems: anxiety due to low-frequency noise and toddlers waking up screaming in the middle of the night (Don’t people who are not living near wind projects have these issues, too?)
I think toddlers have always screamed. I am just saying...
People claim wind power is too expensive. That it is subsidized by the federal government. Yet, realistically, what kinds of power are not subsidized? Hydropower was subsidized too, when the dams were built. Coal, natural gas, nuclear…. The hope and dream is that, someday, wind and solar will be efficient and clean and viable. We have to start somewhere, and I am excited to be in the middle of a project.
John Day Dam, Columbia River, Oregon
There’s a special on PBS this month called Beyond The Light Switch. I am hopeful that Scientific American’s David Biello will present a balanced view of where we are and where we should go with our energy needs.
Celilo Falls. I wish there were some way to build dams and powerplants without hurting anything or anyone. Someday.
BPA and wind developers are arguing over the “looming problem of too much power from renewables” according to the Oregonian, and they are planning on shutting off the wind power in June and July to use the dams more.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/04/bpa_wind_developers_argue_over.html
Controversy over wind towers...an ever present storm and certainty.
Our whole grid needs to be updated, so that we can use wind when it is available. Shutting down an entire region of wind farms during the windiest time of the year is ludicrous.
Change is a certainty, not an option.
A storm may be brewing (actually this was a fire!)
Actual wind costs could be closer to 8 - 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to Jeff Davis, Wasco Electric COOP. This graph is from their Ruralite magazine.
The new.
