The posture I see in the young guinea hens tells me they were not expecting winter. They are hunched when they are standing still, and when they are running I can pick them out from the rest of the flock because they look skinny and strung out. We are not so different—hunching, grumbling, half terrified by the prevailing west-northwesterly. Thirty-, 40-mph gales bring snow squalls but no gentle flurries. “What are you going to do when winter comes?” say the burly to the meek.
I used to think of weather two-dimensionally: sun, or not; warm, or not. Scientists say global warming will make it windier. My profession and my habitat put me in close proximity to the wind, its force and its frequency. Each year, as my acreage grows, so too does the wind. I would like to ignore it, but instead I find myself waiting, listening for it as it slowly builds into another set of fury. As the ground begins to freeze, thank God for cover crop.
I would probably feel differently about the wind if it all didn’t literally escape me. I do not know why they call wind power “alternative” energy; indeed, there should be no alternative.
My father and I went to a seminar about windmills, wind harvesters, on a nasty, rainy, windy day last week, which made viewing the 120-foot tower and its prop humming around in the gale especially exciting. To quell fears about noise levels, the device made no more noise than a load of laundry hung to dry in similar wind conditions. And from a visual standpoint, the windmills are minimal. For crying out loud, compared to oil and coal, this system of energy is practically free and harmless—must it be silent and invisible too?
On a handout I note that the Village of Sagaponack has a tower height limit of 20 feet—no other town or village is so restrictive. Clearly, Sagg’s forefathers were trying to limit the use of parapets as a way of avoiding square footage laws and not trying to squelch an environmentally responsible revolution (pun intended), which is the case regardless of your assumed position on global warming.
We left the seminar wanting and needing a windmill for our farm. These windmills are grid-connected, so when the property owner isn’t using the power, juice flows out for the neighborhood to use. Windmills, as opposed to drills, mines and refineries, are a concept that goes hand in hand with the agricultural ethic of good husbandry and self-sufficiency.
on Dec 7, 2010