I always revel in the first snow of the year. Probably a holdover from getting days off school when I was a kid but the truth is I’m really good at getting snowed in. My pantry is deep and my catalogue of books and videos is vast. I’m easily entertained and fed. Of course with the power infrastructure being neglected so long by the local overstuffed electric monopoly, it’s a bit harder when the power goes out. Like it did most of the day today.
They’ve not invested in upgrades and it’s an aging ship that goes out with every average storm. Band-aid solutions only it seems for the sake of profitability. Same story you hear everywhere these days about corporate greed. It just reinforces my desire to get out to the farm and start making my own kilowatts with sun, wind, or water. The big energy lobby has shouted about the doom of distributed energy production for a long while now but that’s just their version of “don’t look behind the curtain”. More and more people are proving just how easy it is to go leave the grid and there’s finally an industry lobby just as vocal about the benefits of ditching traditional centralized power production in favour of localized battery banks and on-site generation.
It’s not as convenient as flipping a switch and paying an (inflated) bill but with just a bit of knowledge and patience, anyone can understand and maintain an off-grid system. Perhaps more importantly, it makes people more aware of their power consumption consequences. If not tossing $300 or more a month to the wind wasn’t enough motivation, it causes people to stop and think about how they use energy. If your parents were always on about you turning off unused lights when you were a kid, I’m talking about you here. People have needed to get a handle on energy conservation for ages and as the saying goes in the off-grid community, “A watt saved is as good as a watt generated.”
Of course it’s not free to install your own system and I’ve got to try to finance the house itself before I worry about the battery bank but the price of off-grid components continues to drop even in the face of insanely cheap oil. And these systems do require some planning permission but in my rural setting they’ve got nothing to complain about or any niggling regulations to really use to stop me. Yet still I’ve recently found out that in this blasted province, you have to get your power generation system approved. By a government agency? Nope. By an independent oversight body? No. The people that approve your system work for… the existing power monopoly! That’s right. The people that stand to profit from you most are the ones that can make your life hell for trying to leave them behind. If I get even a hint of hassle from the bastards when I go to install solar panels expect a public relations media nightmare to erupt at them from this side of Canada.
Much like this woman earlier in the year who wanted to live without electricity at all. Of course in my case I do want power, just not their power, but I still think they should leave the poor woman to make her own choices and let her use a battery operated smoke detector if they’re so hellbent on “protecting” her from making her own choices under the guise of safety. I don’t see them stopping a lot of stupid activities other people engage in so why single out a woman building a reasonable house her way? Because, pure and simple, they don’t want to lose control. The whole stink gives you a sense of the meddling powers of the locals.
But I’m staying in my calm place today. It’s the first snow of the season. The car is uncovered from the 20cm we got overnight and the snow plows are back in their stride. My planned baking will have to wait but I’ve got the last Terry Pratchett book to read, a stack of candles, and my trusty camp stove has just yielded a perfect cup of tea. After all those years on the mountainside I’m nothing if not prepared.
