The year began with a visit from a friend from the UK, Paul, and grapes appearing on the vine.
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In March we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversay with dinner at the place we got married, Point Heathcote on the Swan River. We rode again in the Freeway Bikehike to Joondalup. Starting this time from Kwinana and leaving home in the dark to get there in time. As with last year, lots of people, lots of energy and lots of riding at high speeds.
Andrew began German lessons with the Goethe Society at UWA, alot of grammer and kilometres on the bike but didn't miss a lesson.
Tom stays over for a week in July. Tom and I at the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition on Perth foreshore.
The trickle of friends leaving Perth continues with Maureen off to Africa, Marianne to Spain, Toc up north most of the time, Tom and Mags & Chris to Melbourne and even my sister and her family to Hobart.
We spent Easter with Phil and Ester at Kokerbin Rock in the wheatfields east of Perth. Suprisingly windy for such an inland area.
Phil and I setting up a belay.
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A snap state election in early September backfired on the incumbent government, the ALP snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The Greens lost MLC (and former SkyFarmer) Paul Llewellyn but gained 3 other seats. Vote 1 Greens! Booth caption at the ultra deep blue (conversative) electorate of Afred Cove In October, while Susanna was in China, Andrew rode in the inaugural 4 day Cape to Cape Mountain Bike ride on a dual suspended mountain bike bought for the job. We finally started playing Badminton at Murdoch Uni in December. Susanna had been wanting to do this since she came to Australia. She plays a game or two most times she visits China. In the final trip down south, we took the road bikes and rode around the hills at the back of Denmark and also out to Ocean Beach, close to the site of the proposed Denmark windfarm. On the way back, we drove out to the Stirling Ranges and climbed Bluff Knoll. |
Susanna drinks from a waterfall halfway up Bluff Knoll, and rests at the top, below.
House
This was the year of the water systems, first the water recycling system. After initial exploratory diggings by Susanna, we built a concrete wall around the hole and installed a grey water recycling system that now automatically pumps water from the shower and the laundry to the highest point in the garden to fill buckets.
Over winter, we got serious about the rainwater side. After finding the biggest tank (4,000 litres) that could fit between the back wall and the outdoor toilet, the neighbours fence and sizable gum tree, Toc built the foundation using pieces of the Denmark Windfarm monitoring mast for reinforcing. We removed the old guttering from the back of the house, replacing it with Smart flo guttering more suited for rainwater harvesting. The tank was installed rather quickly with the help of some friends by just picking it up and putting it down on the foundations. The plumbing to the tank was installed the next day, with rainfall the follwing day, filling it by half already. It was another couple of weeks before we installed the outflow plumbing and the pump,
On August the 12th, it was plumbed into the mains and we having been living off rainwater ever since. Given Perth's dry hot summer, we figure we will be back on mains by end of January. Still, a saving in water consumption of some 75% is expected. See here for details.
Peter when we installed the outlet pipe.
We do not have a solar hot water system or given the very generous solar rebate currently on offer, PV system simply because of the trees surrounding the house, particularly those in front - to the north.
SkyFarming
The Mt Barker project continues to progress slowly, being at the mercy of state and federal government bueacracies as it is. Of about 1000MW of wind plant which applied, only our 2MW project got Reserve Capacity Credit certification. In gaining this, we also received an offer for access by the network provider, mid year. The dramatic drop in the Aussie dollar compared to the Euro and corresponding drops in spot prices of copper and steel, mean we are trying to hit a moving target. In mid December, we were told that the Minister had approved the grant increase required by a price increase and corresponding change in configuration (from 48m diameter machines on 65m towers to 53m diameter machines on 73m towers (same max rating, 800kW).
We have had interest from three other parties to become involved in other projects using our expertise and experience. While none of this borne fruit in 2008, there is lots of potential for future work. Details in next year's annual newsletter!
Andrew
31/12/2008