Day 4

At the end of another eventful day, I'm taking a few minutes to sit and think about what I've heard and seen. We visited a couple of Adirondack museums earlier in the day. One addressed the natural history, plants and animals of the area. The other museum addressed the cultural history of the Adirondacks. I really enjoyed some of the exhibits at the cultural museum that showed some of the tools and equipment used by blacksmiths, wagon makers, and other workers of the time. It is unbelievable to look at the limited tools these men and women used and yet still accomplished the building that they did. It makes me eternally thankful for my electric saw and drill. I don't know if I would manage to build much of anything with only basic hand tools.

This evening Karl gave a talk about "green jobs" that included some pictures and discussion of different alternative energy sources and the jobs that these sources create. I am really interested in this field and would love to know more about it. I have been doing some reading online and I've found a couple of plans to build a small scale wind turbine at home. There are plans for vertical or horizontal shaft turbines. I'm particularly interested in the vertical shaft turbines because they will turn regardless of the direction of the wind. It seems like pretty cool stuff. I've been thinking more about my project for this week and I think I'm starting to get my ideas going. I'd like to put together a presentation about alternative energy sources to deliver to my residents and fellow students back at SUNY Cortland. Having seen some of these home made wind turbines, I'm thinking that it would be really cool to build a smaller (tabletop) version to use as a demo for this presentation. My dad has plenty of knowledge as far as the electrical and building aspects, and I'm pretty confident that we could construct something that would function. I think building a demo would be a great eye catching tool to draw people in and make them curious. That would give me the opportunity to talk to them, share information and raise interest in the topic of alternative energy sources. I need to do some more reading about these home made types, but from what I'm seeing there are a couple of possibilities that I think would be within my father's and my abilities.
It's raining here at Raquette Lake, but it sounds like there's a break in the storm. I think I'll venture outside to see what everyone else is doing and spend a little time by the fireplace.