PerpetualPlanet

What are you doing on Triple-Seven? Our family will be in Canada. Perhaps you’ll be on vacation too. On this particular day we’ll be checking out the LiveEarth music and activities in Quebec City and talking about what we’re doing about climate change.

If you haven’t checked out LiveEarth, get the details here at http://www.liveearth.org/event.php. The gist is a 24-hour concert series around the globe that many hope will be the tipping point for winning hearts and minds in the war on warming. Three hours of prime-time TV and round-the-clock radio and web broadcasts are planned along with live attendance at the 100 concerts.

If the estimates of 2 billion viewers prove accurate, I wonder if the concert might be the largest common experience in the history of humanity. I know it’s hype and Hollywood but I’m for anything that unites the planet on this issue.

I remember 7/20/69, at the McKenzie River with my family, listening to the radio — the day Armstrong set foot on the moon. Do you remember that day? It seemed that focused as we were then there was nothing we could not accomplish. I want my kid to have a memory like that as the challenges to come unfold.

The refrigerator in the house we will remodel is starting to whine and make other noises. It seems like a possible opportunity to get a head start on appliances for the new place, assuming we can predict the proper size and color we will want.

I found a good buyer’s guide in Home Power.

It seems you can save a big chunk of kwh/day with a well-made unit. Sun Frost leads the brands in efficiency. Super insulation and putting the compressor and coils on the top are the big reasons. The RF-16 looks like the best fit for our needs. But ouch, the cost delivered is about $3000! The most efficient conventional models are about $1000 for similar capacity. The Sun Frost uses about .48 kwh/day and the conventional uses about 1.25 kwh/day.

Sun Frost needs some competition!

What’s needed according to our architect is topographical survey of our house site. The result should show one-foot countours 150 from each edge of the house and well as the driveway and existing septic field. Large trees locations and the relationship of the survey area to the lot location should be noted.

One big question remains that affects the area to be surveyed and that is whether the existing drive to the home site will accomodate fire department trucks. The lane needs to be 20 feet wide and have adequate turning radius. I’m trying to schedule a visit by a fire department building inspector to evaluate options.

A search of the local providers yielded these links:

Alpha - Community Development - They have done work for the City of Portland and for Orenco Village.

Andy Paris & Associates - Recommended on Angie’s List.

Heritage Surveying - Angie’s List. No web site. (503) 255-6558.

Tetsuka - Helped at Max and Hildy’s Nursery.

Olson Engineering

Weddell Surveying - Angie’s List. No web site. (503) 292-8083

ZTEC Engineers - Recommended by architect. No web site. 3737 Se 8th Ave, Portland, OR 97202 - (503) 235-8795

It turns out that LIDAR imaging, if available, might satisfy the requirement for having 1 foot contour mapping. LIDAR mapping is performed from aircraft over large metro areas for the purpose of mapping flood plains, fault zones etc. The USGS pays for much of it and the data are then available to other government bodies. The GIS experts at Oregon’s Department of Geology and Minerals (DOGAMI) told me that data from recent flights over our area would be available in August 2007 from METRO, our regional government.