From now on when I think of June, images of this morning will bring me back to our campsite in Harlowtown. I awoke amidst lush grass and scattered dandelions that mirrored the color of the beaming Montana sun as a light breeze tickled my bare feet, birds sang their morning songs, and Cory shouted in my face, fulfilling his duty as the Morning Czar.
Our lackadaisical morning saw us enjoying breakfast, patching tire tubes, writing blogs, or completing readings before our class started. The fact that we move at a comfortable pace while being productive and getting everything done on time has made this course easy to enjoy. I have never felt like we are being rushed; we get where we need to be and get our business done, but still have time for a basketball game, a Frisbee toss, or a good ol’ fashion chin wag. This can be accredited to Nicky and Dave’s scheduling, but also to their relaxed yet professional attitude.
After purchasing my future lunches of Cabot extra sharp cheddar cheese, French bread, Twizzlers, and sardines, I joined the cue of cyclists as we headed westward to the sheep farm of Randy and Jing Reinhart in Two Dot, to talk to them abut the local wind farm.
It was the first we heard of small scale wind farms. The owner, Dr. David Healow has been spending part of his time developing wind power in Montana since the late 80s. Despite the Two Dot wind farm’s minuscule output compared with that of Judith Gap, the energy produced is still renewable and profitable as it is sold to NorthWestern Energy. Manufactured in Denmark, the windmills operated in Iowa for a time, then were eventually grounded in big sky country in 2001 after David purchased and refurbished them.
The topic of small scale wind brought up questions of the feasibility of implementing wind energy systems in residencies like the one we saw at the Wallace’s or even at a community scale like in Two Dot. While the Wallace’s turbine aided their consumption needs with 1 kw, the seven in Two Dot were a bit larger at 65 kw each, which was being fed back to the grid for Montana consumers. At this point in the course I think that students are starting to think of what we can do to increase our home energy efficiency, especially after seeing what is required and the benefits gained. It was also inspiring to hear how an anesthesiologist in Billings turned his interest for renewable energy into a legitimate and rewarding hobby that did exactly what the Judith gap wind farm was doing, but on a smaller scale with 7-11 smaller turbines scattered over three properties along the Musselshell River.
The last week has been mostly visits to ranchers and residences in the area we bike to. Seeing the lifestyle that ranchers live is intriguing to me. It is always fun to hear about what they do and how they operate, especially while sipping some peppermint tea in their living room. The Reinharts shared everything with us and more, from sheltering our bikes to offering some home cooked burgers, once again making it hard to leave without many sincere goodbyes and thank yous.
-Phillip Fandel, University of Vermont
