For Father’s Day this year we did something a little unconventional, toured a windmill farm with my dad’s family and learned about how they are manufacturing energy in the Columbia Basin. I liked it! I hope we do some similar things in the future.
I really liked this tour guide because she didn’t yell at us when we weren’t paying attention. I was able to take pictures and spend time with my family the way I wanted.
We learned that the solar panels aren’t as energy efficient as the windmills.
One of the blades was damaged in transit and they were unable to use it, which gave us the chance to look at it up close. You don’t really grasp how massive they are when they are launched so high up in the air.
We had to wear hard hats and safety glasses for the tour,
and if you weren’t careful they would blow off you head and down the mountain (as happened for my cousin Melissa).
The whole family, minus my mom who was watching T1 (if you can’t wear a hard hat, you can’t go on the tour).
A family picture was taken for my cousin on a mission.
We had fun posing like the wind was going to blow us over. It really felt like it might! Apparently the wind was strong enough that day that we almost didn’t get to go on the tour.
We entered the base of the windmill in groups of 5 or less and the nice guide shared a few interesting facts (they really were interesting). All of the components are held to the wall with magnets, a handful of the mills have elevators to take dignitaries up when they come visit, and climbing this ladder requires special certification.
After the tour we went inside to eat some lunch, and T1 tried to convince me that he could have worn a hat and gone on the tour after all!
July 5th, 2011 on 8:38 am
Ooooh, this looks so fun and interesting! We have a lot of wind farms in our state (as you can imagine; it’s flat, windy and sparsely populated so it’s perfect!) They manufacture blades for the windmills in my city, and they really are SO massive!! They usually move them out early in the morning, and it takes a giant double-length semi-truck to move just one blade. They have to stop traffic to allow it to turn corners..it’s just crazy! There is also a windmill graveyard…acres and acres of the damaged ones just lying in a field, decaying. I would LOVE to be able to get in there to take pictures. Thanks for sharing this! It looks fun!
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July 5th, 2011 on 9:42 am
I think it’s a fantastic idea to do something informative and educational as a family on the holiday rather than sitting around stuffing ones faces, so bravo to you and yours!
In my last job I had the pleasure of touring a wind farm and learning about the positives and challenges involved in the technology. It truly is quite fascinating.
Also, how incredibly adorable is T1 in the hat photos?! My cold black heart is melting. ?
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July 5th, 2011 on 12:16 pm
Wow, that looks like a lot of fun! What an interesting and unique thing to do on Father’s Day!
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July 5th, 2011 on 12:46 pm
That last picture of T1 in the hard hat is just precious!!
I’d love to do something like that. They considered putting in some windmills in my hometown, since there are hills that get a huge amount of wind, but it hasn’t happened. (I have no idea who “they” really were/are either.) There are bunch in other areas of NY though and I think they are awesome.
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July 6th, 2011 on 3:17 pm
My husband and I discovered an abandoned wind farm near South Point on the big island of Hawaii while on our honeymoon. Apparently, it was cheaper to build new windmills then repair the old! It seemed more like a windmill graveyard with many rusted and missing/broken blades, slowly moving in the wind.
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July 7th, 2011 on 3:33 pm
IT looks like you guys had a great time. I never knew that solar wasn’t as efficient as windmills.
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