Our society had long been spoiled with all the gadgets that we took
for granted and used every day. Heaters,
televisions, lights, toasters, microwave ovens, stoves, tools, computers, VCRs,
if it could run on electricity, we used it.
Many of these items were readily available for the cost of just a little
trip and our time. All we had to do was
go pick them up. Videos and DVDs would
get us through the long winter nights.
We could still use computers, but there was no longer an internet. There were no operating phone lines to carry
the signals and in this isolated location there were no telephones anyway. These things required small amounts of
energy, but a stove, heater, toaster or microwave required much more. What we needed was a reliable and adequate
source of power.
We had considered putting woodstoves inside each cave and finding
some method to vent the smoke outside and bring fresh aid inside to feed the
fire. But burning wood, made smoke; smoke
meant visibility. When one is hiding
from one’s enemies, sending smoke signals is not an option. We might as well have put up a sign saying,
“Here we are!”
Our solution to this problem was quite simple, in theory. In practice, it took some engineering skill
that we developed as we went along. We
would produce our own electricity for all our needs, heating and the rest. At first, we thought we could use generators. Generators were quite common and available in
most hardware stores so getting them in large numbers was not a problem. Each small gas generator was large enough to
operate a single 1500 watt heater, and used a lot of gasoline. Each cave
required at least two in order to meet our combined winter needs of both heat
and entertainment. But as we soon
learned, although, mostly smoke free, they were noisy, especially the
commercial ones. Noise, was next to
smoke in terms of attracting attention. Little
did we know at the time, but we had shopped for generators at the wrong
store. There were other, more powerful
ones, that could have easily met most of our needs that ran much more efficiently
and quieter. But, live and learn.
Wind turbines were smokeless, and as far as we knew, were also
silent but for the noise of the wind passing through the blade as it spun
around. There were enough stores around
that sold them and occasionally as we passed a farmhouse on a country road, we
noticed them there, too. Since these
were already set up and running, they were the first ones that we acquired. But the power produced by a small wind turbine
was even less than a gas generator. We
would need a lot more of them to produce the same amount of power.
There was one aspect of all of this living like cave dwellers that
took me awhile to get over and it is important that the reader understand. The kids never really complained. I was sure that they had buried their
feelings over the loss of family and friends, but it seemed as if they were
putting the past behind them and seeing this country living as an
adventure. It was as if they were on an
extended camping trip or they were pioneers discovering a new land. Every difficulty they encountered they
accepted as a challenge and lent all their efforts to overcome it. Remarkably, they got along most of the time,
too. This had not always been the case
in the classroom where a disagreement could easily arise over some silly
comment and tempers flare. I supposed
that it had something to do with the concept of “we are all we have,” so we
need to make the best of it. It was this
attitude that drove them on, for example, to complete projects like this one.
There was little to no wind to speak of in the valley, beneath the
escarpment, so we placed the turbines at the top of the escarpment and ran the
power cables down over the cliff, directly to our site. Being acrophobic, I was not able to help out much. I couldn’t bring myself to stand or even
crawl close to the edge of the escarpment.
Neither could I help by placing attachments for the cables down the rock
face. This was left for the brave,
adventurous, younger folk. I just stood
at the bottom and sweated for them all, my heart stopped in mid beat until each
one was safely on the ground. And it
seemed like I had good reason to fear, as I watched Lise, who being a little
shorter than the rest, was not able to grab onto the same handholds as the taller
Bruce. At one point, it seemed as if she
was going to be stuck on the cliff, not able to go up, or climb down. Three, four, maybe five times, I stood in
horror as she swung her body from side to side while she attempted to reach the
hand hold that the others had clutched with little problem. At her height, she was sure to be badly hurt,
if not killed if she fell. I held my
breath as she again swung back hard, then seemed to push herself even harder in
the opposite direction. I let out the
breath I had been holding as she finally managed to find and grip the
ledge. Tammy, who was not into death
defying feats, had remained on the ground near me.
In spite of the thickness of the wire we used to transmit the power,
it didn't provide what we had hoped until we incorporated transformers. Why we didn’t kill ourselves in the process
is still a wonder, but we eventually overcame the challenges and were able to operate most appliances
safely. Initially, we ran separate wires
to each room from a single wind turbine, but later combined the four into one
circuit that snaked its way to its own room crowded with batteries from which
all of our rooms were serviced. Although
I didn't understand exactly how
direct current could be transformed into alternating current, I was aware of,
and actually had purchased such a device several years before to use in my
vehicle to allow me to use my computer or charge batteries for my camera from
the cigarette lighter. I supposed that this
system was similar to, though of a higher capacity and strength.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment