Gone Local!

The hill across the river from our place hosts a ski area (just around the corner from our view of the mountain) and, as of late, a wind turbine!

I think it’s pretty cool, having home-grown power rather than busing it in through countless miles of powerline clearings, and without creating pollutants.

I know, “They kill birds!”

Nukes kill fish, and by the tens of thousands.

“They make noise!!”

So does mountaintop removal mining, while it “removes” the entire mountain and fills in the surrounding valleys with toxic tailings.

I went up the back of the mountain the other day to see how close  I could get – I’d heard they had closed the gate on the access road at one point, and didn’t have time for a long walk, so I was hoping to get close enough to at least see the thing up close.

Turned out they’d opened the road again but hadn’t plowed it – it was being used as a snowmobile track!  But there were truck tire marks all the way, so I followed them until…

There!  The road was clear all the way.

I got out and set up my tripod, making myself narrow to let a gaggle of sledders pass, then took this long-ish shot to get the motion of the majestically spinning blades.

These things are big…

That left-hand green electrical cabinet was taller than me (alright, no wise cracks!  😉 )

The view to the east was nice, and might make for a good sunrise shot:

If you knew where to look you could see our house in the valley bottom, just between the rocks.

Damn,  that’s big!

…And by the way, it was all but silent, though I understand they can get louder when the wind picks up.

All of these shots are basically straight out of the box – I didn’t feel like staying up tonight, as 5 o’clock is going to come early tomorrow!

G’night now.