Solar Power = Good. Bamboo = Bad.

So I was up on the mountain last week to take a delivery of lumber and a couple of cool things happened. First I noticed that there was a bunch of six inch bamboo shoots coming up in the parking lot where I had just brushed them all down. That stuff is terrible - I'm going to have to go back in there and take that all out and then push it back another couple of yards.

Next thing was I met the delivery guy from RP Williams. I'd had a load of plywood, 2x4's and shingles delivered for some of the building projects I noted in an earlier post. After he'd dropped the wood he took a look at the yurt and remarked, "I tried to get my wife to live in one of those back in the 70's!" Turns out he was also quite a solar advocate - he told me all about his home while we were checking the lumber. He bought a $3500 solar set up and has been running a tv, computer, lights etc off that for going on 8 years. He reports that every month but November he's got more power than he needs.

This got me thinking about the feasability of a solar powered classroom on the mountian - time seems to be the big problem here though. Time for students to get up the hill, get started, complete something and return.

Imagine if everyone had more power than they needed 11 months of the year? For $3500? Andrew talks about global sustainability - here it is in practice!