Like most people, I am looking forward to the back of this year. The impact of COVID continues. For Suz and I, it was mostly by way of no interstate or international travel or visitors. Again. What was new, of course, were the vaccines. Normally requiring years of development, vast sums of money and people were thrown at the problem and now we have dozens of vaccines. Susanna and I both lined up for AstraZeneca in May. Suz had little reaction but I was out for the rest of the day. While I went down quickly, I also recovered quickly. The second shot in August was, as expected, much less of an impact.
Social
For the Australia Day long weekend in January , Phil and Janice had booked some accommodation in the Stirling Ranges and we drove down to stay with them. The big deal was the climb up Toolbrunup Peak, (1052m). Hey, we're fit, let's go. The weather and views are awesome but yet again, cycling legs let you know that climbing up, and more importantly, climbing down is different, and they are sore for days afterwards.
At the top with Bluff Knoll clearly visible in the background.
Facing south with the Poroungups visble, above and facing west, the rest of the Stirling Ranges, below.
I continue my weekly German lessons, this time at Leeming School. We continue to celebrate the equinox and winter solstice with dinner around a fire under the big tree at number 9 with the neighbours. As usual, honey was extracted twice, though the November harvest was exceptionally poor. We put it down to heavy, spring rains and will try again at the end of January. We try and have dad over for dinner once a week where he catches a taxis over and I drive him back.
That cake was shared amongst the five of us - we had Phil and Janice over as well.
Actually, we did have a couple of interstate visitors, Maureen from Adelaide dropped by in September for her graduation then Odile and Andrew from Hobart. We had them over for lunch with dad, on the Thursday before Christmas. It was so good to see them and it was a great surprise for Dad.
Of the way too much TV we watch, the German drama "Wild Republic" and the Spanish legal/historical drama of the treasure of "La Fortuna" stand out. Of movies, the Danish Riders of Justice is an unexpected highlight.
SkyFarming
We continue to administer both the Mt Barker and Denmark projects. Mt Barker had it's 10 year anniversay in March and so is halfway through it's expected life. We had a blade inspection and on the basis of the reports, in situ blade repair including replacing the Leading Edge Strip (which was coming off), and general filling, sanding and painting along the leading edge of the blades. The Slip Ring Units in all the turbines were also replaced and quarter of a million dollars of spare parts purchased. Susanna spent a lot of time negotiating a new service agreement with Power Technics who have since proven to be very solid. There is a surprising amount of expertise in maintaining wind turbines in WA.
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On a sunny September day, after the final blade had been repaired, the lads took me up for a closer look.
It had been another windy year, and wet. Wettest in decades. July's generation was over 1000 MWh, almost four times as much as our worst ever month.
We drove down to Mt Barker for the AGM only to discover our single, most enthusiastic and local investor had died. Vale Tony Smith. I had spoken to him only a month earlier. He had sounded bad but it was still unexpected.
Susanna and Tony at a stall in the Coop in Mt Barker, 30/09/2006
In December, and just before Christmas (of course), mice were discovered in the the Denmark Switchroom FOBOT as there was an issue with the Enercon SCADA. The gentleman from optic fibre specialists Mikcomm who drove down to fix it, had actually installed it originally, nearly 9 years ago.
Sodar and Northam
In March, we moved the sodar from Northam to a site much closer to Kalgoorlie. The area is flat but quite high, and the windspeeds are substantially better than in Northam. Nevertheless, Northam is starting to take shape. we have had a number of studies on the network by Western Power and our Electrical Engineers (Jarrah of Fremantle) which suggest we have two 9.9MW connections with minimal curtailing. We made contact with a number of landowners and now have 3 that are keen and have sufficient room on high ground, far enough from homes. We look forward to significant progress in 2022.
Cycling
We continue our regular rides around the river, keeping an eye on the progress of various major civil works, like the new railway line to Claremont -part of the new line out to the airport. It has only just been sealed after being a construction site for 6 + plus months. The state government's response to the COVID shutdowns of last year was accelerate an infrastructure buildout which then had to be wound back due to shortages of workers.
Just as we ride back into Fremantle, this house on the corner has a beautiful, narrow garden of succulents. In spring, one overcast day, . . . the Aloe Vera was in full bloom.
To get some training in, I drove out to Kalamunda a couple of times to ride double laps of KC. In amongst this was a 96 km road ride out to Greenmount and back for coffee and scones with Toc and Matilda. In September, Graham and I drive down to Dwellingup, again, for the Dwellingup 100, 60km leg. This time we take the almost brand new Avan. Bridge and Graham had ordered it a year or so ago, COVID, and had already taken it on a number of trips. It is, of course, much more comfortable than a tent.
Resting after setting up the caravan and riding into Dwellingup and back for race registration.
At a time when NSW and Victoria are more or less locked down, here we are with 1300 other people . . . As usual it rained, but the extra vertical metres keep us warm enough. Recent heavy rain meant changes to the original route, bitumen and more climbing, some 1250m of ascent. As usual, I do not eat enough, so when coffee appeared out of nowhere with 5km to go, I stopped and indulged.
I manage a few rides with Tim, including a trip down to Collie to check out the new trails there. A huge effort has been put in on sculpturing the ground and it is all very impressive. As is the recent Wellington dam wall painting. In November, I ride with Tamatha from Kalamunda few times.
Tesla tales
Earlier in the year, I met David when I was riding by as he was packing his golf bag into his Tesla Model 3. He put me onto Jon who races, succesfully, his Tesla M3. His every day car is an electric Kona which he has developed into a portable charger for the Tesla during races. We arrange an excursion to the Mt Barker windfarm for November. A Supercharger had just been installed in Williams in August, only the second in the state outside Perth - the other, in Bunbury, had been the world's loneliest for a number of years. Further details here, Tesla.htm.
A final thing, the heatwave we had for Christmas, hottest Christmas ever;
We stayed indoors with the aircon in the office running constantly - bedroom still got upto 26 degrees. We rode to south beach for a swim everyday in the evening except for Boxing day. At 6:30pm, it was still over 38 degrees, so, no, just watch TV and read. Today was the first time in 5 days it got below 25 degrees. Though we did have Tim and Brittany from number 3 over for iced coffee on the Monday - they do not have any airconditioning . . .
And images for Sculptures by the Sea, 2021 here.
All the best for 2022
Andrew