Re: Wind energy a boon for farmers - tenfold returns !

From: Jim Greenfield (greenfield_7_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 11/29/04 

Date: 28 Nov 2004 16:39:13 -0800

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote in message news:<OJednbbtXZa0IzTcRVn-1Q@rcn.net>...
> In article <3c4afb26.0411280057.76cb7b4a@posting.google.com>,
> greenfield_7@hotmail.com (Jim Greenfield) wrote:
> >jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote in message
> news:<w4Gdnbth__X2BTXcRVn-jA@rcn.net>...
> >> In article <3c4afb26.0411231519.6919b620@posting.google.com>,
> >> greenfield_7@hotmail.com (Jim Greenfield) wrote:
> <snip>
>
> >> My neighborhood has acquired problems since the City Fathers
> >> decided it was a Good Idea to allow a gazillion new houses to
> >> be built on the old farm land. They put up 75 houses which
> >> max'ed the grid here. So a bandaid happened. Then they
> >> started to put up 75 more houses and every time a power tool
> >> was engaged, boom went the power grid.
> >
> >We are currently in an earlier than usual heat wave- 4th day over
> >35deg C.
>
> It's cold here. I've been trying to get a project of mine done
> before it's too cold on the porch and outside. I keep the mess
> making and stinky activities out there so I don't have clean
> inside.
>
> >No power failure yet, touch wood, but one truck taking out a stobie
> >pole :-(
>
> Stobie pole? I've never seen that noun.

Named for a bloke called Stobie who came up with the idea; two H
section steel giders with concrete between to form a pole. Ugliest
things in the landscape! They are ubiquitous and unyielding. New urban
developments are increasingly putting the lines underground,
thankfully. That is far too expensive for long distance transmission.
>
>
> >>
> >> Water pressure also is a problem because one of the 50 house
> >> tracts has to push it all uphill. I'm down hill and get higher
> >> pressure.
> >
> >Keeps the plumbers on their toes.
>
> What plumbers? Mine retired and getting anybody to call
> back, let alone fix anything, is a problem.

A general shortage of tradesmen here to! Trades became "uncool" with
the boys when they discovered computers :-(
>
> > ... Ours used to be artesian, but now
> >has to be pumped out of the ground to a header tank. Water quality is
> >pretty average (so I stick to beer)
>
> Drain it through sand.

lol The aquifer it comes from is known as the Knight Sand, and the
water has been filtering through from The Grampians, a mountain range
200 kms east, for tens of millions of years!
>
> <snip>
>
> >> It took me a while, but I don't have turn on my A/C until 17:00..
> >> unless it's extremely humid; humidity gets to me now.
> >
> >I could get by without A/C, but my women folk suffer too much to be
> >without.
>
> Really?! It's the opposite in my family.
> <snip>
>
> >Presumably the power producers still turn a nice profit,
>
> I don't know. The company (where I owned stock) was bought
> out so I don't get any yearly reports.
>
> > ..so if our
> >generators are using oil bought at world parity, and charge 3x as
> >much?????????
>
> How can they do that if their charges are frozen to rates set
> when oil was $.89US/gal.?

Thats roughly 25cents/litre. we presently pay about 85cents US for
diesel
> <snip>
>
> >> You should take a look at a thread in another newsgroup where we're
> >> talking about telemarketers, their negative impact on economies
> >> and how two people are starting a ripple that will become a
> >> world-wide tsunami soon. :-). [emoticon looks at sudden head
> >> attachment with label Naif Hat]
> >
> >I only had to tell em to F*Off a couple of times, and now the phone
> >very seldom rings other than for a few charities which we have invited
> >to call each year. We must be on some "don't bother" file, which is
> >fine with me!
>
> That doesn't work here. What does work is turning the ringer of
> the phone off completely. After some time (I never tested to see
> how long it took), the telemarketing programming marks the phone
> number as unowned. One of these days, I'll measure how long this
> marking takes to permeate throughout the telemarketing biz phone
> lists.
>
> >>
> >> >The latest plan here, is to get the customers to do their OWN
> >> >scanning, and pay on the honour system by card. Won't that be a hoot!!
> >> >I can just see mum (92).......
> >>
> >> You Mum would probably take to the gear very well. I like those
> >> things. I've been using them whenever I can just find out the
> >> bugs with the whole mechanism. Besides, it's a dirty pleasure
> >> to be able to thumb the screen and make it shutup.
> >
> >What's to stop you walking out with stuff in the trolley for which you
> >haven't paid? Have they just swapped the checkout chicks for heavies
> >at the exits?
>
> There's a checkout chick who watches the stations. Now one person
> can "man" five rather than one checkout line.
>
> >Any shoplifter worth his salt will quickly find a dozen ways to rort
> >it. Will the stores just up the price of everytning, to maintain the
> >bottom line?
>
> Most people are honest.
???????????????????????????

Cheers
Jim G