There are 360 days a year of sunshine here on the Rez. On the Rocky Mountain Plateau, over 6000' above sea level, there's also plenty of wind.
Sun and wind could provide all the electrical power the Rez needs. Solar and wind installation here could provide a surfeit of power sufficiently large for the Navajo Nation to get into the business of selling power to its neighbors.
Is that happening? No, it is not.
Is that going to happen? 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished; but rez politics is as imponderable as politics anywhere. People get constricted by what they don't know just as they get constricted by what they do know.
You'd think or at least hope, given the wisdom of the elders (think Sitting Bull, Black Elk, Dan George, Chief Joseph, Geronimo - there have been many; and one hopes, many more to come) that today's First People would be quick to take advantage of the power available from a readily available "natural" source like the sun. But I'm residing in a house in a housing project that was constructed for Navajo displaced by the land dispute with the Hopi over on the western side of the rez. It's an ideal situation for solar and wind power, 'cause there's enough habitation density to make for easy feeding of excess power back into the grid.
There's not a single house with a solar panel, nor even the smallest of wind generators in anyone's yard.
When in doubt, garden.
I'm planting, I'm planting. I put in wild rose along the chain link fence at the property perimeter, black bamboo at the back corner to create a wind barrier so my Navajo family and I may have some luck with a vegetable garden in the spring. Drought-tolerant plants - this has to be a water-wide project. Rosemary. Desert sage. I'm composting, of course. (That's not commonplace, here, not at all.)
I'm also looking for a new job here so I can stay. Live in hope, right? Meanwhile, since it's just before the USA Thanksgiving, I'm going to Prescott Valley to see friends in the area. It'll be the first time, ever in my life, that I will travel close to Arcosanti and not actually go there to visit. It feels a little odd, but somehow necessary to maintain my distance.
Having pitched a legion of development ideas to the Board of Trustees with the only response, "Not now;" it doesn't feel right to go. If I won't be able to water the roses I planted on Colly's grave, I will do without doing as I would like to do. Resquiat.
Sun and wind could provide all the electrical power the Rez needs. Solar and wind installation here could provide a surfeit of power sufficiently large for the Navajo Nation to get into the business of selling power to its neighbors.
Is that happening? No, it is not.
Is that going to happen? 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished; but rez politics is as imponderable as politics anywhere. People get constricted by what they don't know just as they get constricted by what they do know.
You'd think or at least hope, given the wisdom of the elders (think Sitting Bull, Black Elk, Dan George, Chief Joseph, Geronimo - there have been many; and one hopes, many more to come) that today's First People would be quick to take advantage of the power available from a readily available "natural" source like the sun. But I'm residing in a house in a housing project that was constructed for Navajo displaced by the land dispute with the Hopi over on the western side of the rez. It's an ideal situation for solar and wind power, 'cause there's enough habitation density to make for easy feeding of excess power back into the grid.
There's not a single house with a solar panel, nor even the smallest of wind generators in anyone's yard.
When in doubt, garden.
I'm planting, I'm planting. I put in wild rose along the chain link fence at the property perimeter, black bamboo at the back corner to create a wind barrier so my Navajo family and I may have some luck with a vegetable garden in the spring. Drought-tolerant plants - this has to be a water-wide project. Rosemary. Desert sage. I'm composting, of course. (That's not commonplace, here, not at all.)
I'm also looking for a new job here so I can stay. Live in hope, right? Meanwhile, since it's just before the USA Thanksgiving, I'm going to Prescott Valley to see friends in the area. It'll be the first time, ever in my life, that I will travel close to Arcosanti and not actually go there to visit. It feels a little odd, but somehow necessary to maintain my distance.
Having pitched a legion of development ideas to the Board of Trustees with the only response, "Not now;" it doesn't feel right to go. If I won't be able to water the roses I planted on Colly's grave, I will do without doing as I would like to do. Resquiat.
