Wind, wind and more wind

What a long hiatus but amazing. We just got back from a fabulous vacation and are now hitting the "to do " list that seems to have grown while we were away both with fixes that cropped up to be done but also all those new ideas we generated during those long brainstorming hours in the truck.

The biggest thing that came out of the vacation was WIND! It was everywhere and it was so exciting to go to a part of the country where localized wind production was
so prevalent and relied upon. I am not talking those fabulous wind farms that run through Texas and the midwest but through Arizona and Southern Utah where you see small

Sky Stream and

Bergy wind turbines pumping away from the constant warm winds that flow. Whether it was a gas station at the side of the highway, a small farm or a remote rancher pumping water for

cattle, you couldn't drive more than a few miles without seeing a windmill working away generating much needed power.

We spent half of our vacation on the property that my mom bought in Eastern AZ just north of the White Mountains. The property sits on the old King's Ranch that is thousands of acres. It is split up into privately owned lots and BLM land. My mom's piece is 80 acres and is bordered on 2 sides by BLM. Its very remote being 20 miles from the nearest paved road and 30 miles from any kind of town. You sit on her property and cannot see a sole, house, building, road or anything. Its absolutely amazing. It also has no water or power. So its exciting to start to settle onto the land and figure out ways to generate power and store water, its amazing the options that are available.

The biggest thing that stuck out was the constant breeze/winds that crossed the land. At 6,500 feet elevation and up on a knoll with views for over 100 miles, the winds just roll in and for the first time we all got excited about the viability of a windmill. There are few people that live out in this area and fewer that live all year round so most of our ideas are a test at what will work best. We took stock of all the variables of the property and are going back to research the best infrastructure to implement over the next year or so.

With all this wind racing around you, you start to look for other areas where turbines could be working away with minimal work - top of street lights, power lines, on every house, the possibilities are endless. So I was excited to see Burger King embrace this idea, post courtesy of Inhabitat. We see great solar applications on many businesses but its exciting to see wind integrated in big energy consumers to offset energy use using localized power.

The area of AZ where our land is, is also home to quite a few coal fire power plants which is sad to see. There was a large scale wind farm on the books in 2002 and for some reason it was canned. I have called and tried to find out why but never got an answer. Its sad to see so much valuable natural resources just blow smoke stacks instead of wind turbines. Maybe one day if T. Boone Pickens gets his way or, God forbid, there are anymore mining tragedies.