Saturday is nearly upon us. It's time, once again for the
Ceremonial Banishment Of The Snows
An ancient prairie tradition dating back to the discovery of kerosene, in which Canadians dressed in Hawaiian shirts gather together, raise girly umbrella drinks toward Snowhenge....
... and at the moment the clock turns to 8:30 pm...
we light the propane torches and space heaters!
You don't need forcibly meltible snow in your backyard to experience the cultural enrichment. You can also participate by "placing a couple of electric space heaters inside an old fridge, plugging them all in, and seeing which one wins."
Why?
Because we're diverse and inclusive, that's why!
Remember! March 28th is a special day. Check out these other events in your area;
There are so many ways for you to make a difference!
Related - South of the border? Don't be left out.
Include your kids by making the space heater and fridge thing into a science experiment. Think of the educational opportunities!
The tim horton's link is missing a ':'
Lots of great ideas. Everybody can make a difference.
BBQ's . . . don't forget the potential of having a BBQ :)
Bonus points for a BBQ with charcoal and kerosene tiki torches!
With the amount of snow we've received in the last two days, I just might make a pilgrimage to Princess Auto and pick up that Tiger Torch and 50 lb propane tank I'd been eyeing up, just so I can find the barbeque on the deck. If I can melt enough snow, maybe we'll even break out the smoker for the first ribs of the season. Candian Tire has been putting out their summer merchandise, do you think they'd have kerosene Tiki Torches? They'd make a nice touch.
" ... do you think they'd have kerosene Tiki Torches?"
Don't know. There's gotta to be a way of converting those solar lights to kerosene.
"You can be part of the program"
Our tax dollars at the fhjundg ***.
Douse. Their. Lights.
Fire. Them. All.
...-
There you go. Just break out the lights and stick a rag into it.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/stainless-steel-solar-lights/34384
I have some old roofing shingles...
Or does that pollute too much?
SHAW asks, “What can you do to help?”
How about canceling my digital TV service, as I’ve found Fox News Channel live online.
I'm sticking my soldering iron into my glacier driveway.
Maybe I'll build a bonfire and shoot my guns off and random intervals.
Now where can I find some old tires?
I miss leaded gas.
Damn those really lucky greenhouse operators.
They have real CO2 GENERATORS that run on propane.
Think about those toys boys and girls for Earth Hour.
I'm envious.
Oh well , burnt shingles it is, because I have some on hand.
Sylia, you get bonus points for a torch bought at Princess Auto, because it was made with nassssty coal-fired electricity in China.
Edward Teach, you can make leaded gas yourself by firing the guns into it.
From a safe distance, of course.
I love turning on all the lights in the house on. The my kids are horrified at my rebelion. Their school even sent house intructions for Earth Day. The sign outside the school tells us to turn off the lights. I think secretly the kids like it, a little defiance to authority.
I'm going to light up two 1000 watt halogens outside over my deck. Then, once I get the attention of my neighbours sitting in their dark windows, I plan to burn both Fat Albert Gore and Fruitfly Suzuki in effigy.
Not sure if this has been posted in one of these threads yet...
This week CEI announced the creation of Human Achievement Hour (HAH) to be celebrated at 8:30pm on March 28th 2009 (the same time and date of Earth Hour).
Our press release described ways people might celebrate the achievements of humanity such as eating diner, seeing a film, driving around, keeping the heat on in your home—all things that Earth Hour celebrators, presumably, should be refraining from. In the cheekiest manner, we claimed that anyone not foregoing the use of electricity in that hour is, by default, celebrating the achievements of human beings. Needless to say, the enviros in the blogosphere didn’t take to kindly to our announcement.
Matthew Wheeland, an environmental journalist called the holiday “mind-blowingly strange” and pondered if Earth hour folks are including in their numbers people in countries that don’t have enough electricity to make the choice to turn out their lights. Of course, they don’t have the choice to acquire electricity whereas anyone can choose to stop using human technology if they wish. [more]
This is great idea. In malaysia, We will switch off light for one hour.
We have a 600 Amp service to our house, and I plan to make sure every Amp is being used.
My firepit will be loaded with accumulated remnants from a cold Ohio winter...lots of cardboard, pallets and just to make The Goracle really happy, lots of styrofoam and plastic packaging. Maybe they'll see my fire from the Space Station...I can only hope!
Please warm up Saskatchewan! I have already delayed my summer return date by 2 weeks due to the late spring thaw (5 feet of snow needs to melt in my S/E Sask drive-way)
Crank up all the tractors & compete in a farm diesel pub-crawl of the country villages & towns.
I plan a cosy fire in the fireplace -- maybe one in the upstairs fireplace as well. If anyone calls me on it, I'll just point out that we'll need more of these if reliable electric and natural gas supplies get compromised.
I still have a garburator in my kitchen sink (much to the consternation of the Gaians in my building). I plan to accumulate as much compostable waste as I can until Saturday and then run the garburator for an hour, feeding the stuff in slowly. The benefit is that the garburator can be heard throughout the building and it will drive the enviros crazy. By the time half an hour has passed they will be gathering outside my door with pitchforks and pitch coated torches.
I'm going to try starting a 10HP 3 phase motor on a single phase service.
Well, ahem, I have a wood burning fireplace that will be burning, 80's self cleaning oven that will be cleaning and a bbq rotisserie that will be rotissering. sucks up tons of power but we all gotta do our bit.
I am reminded of chevy chase in Christmas vaction when he gets the lights to work for the first time... I have my outside lights still up and they are the old 5 watt type. I will turn them on for the whole day.
And I'll leave them on so long that the neighbours will come over to tell me that they're on. And then I can tell them about the celebration.
And I'll leave them on so long that the neighbours will come over to tell me that they're on. And then I can tell them about the celebration.
gentlemen, start your engines and anything else that you have.
Get the Harley's out under the flood lights and get them tuned up for the season. Nothing cuts through a quiet evening like a Harley Davidson at full throttle. Let alone 2. Surprisingly enough people tend to not complain about bike noises. Sometimes real self preservation overrides phony self preservation.
Apparently here in Calgary we were the only city in Canada where electricity usage rose during the last Earth Hour (by some 3.6%). One of our local ecos called this "very embarrassing."
Get ready to be embarrassed some more, lass. I'm making it my personal mission to help raise Calgary's usage by 5% this year if possible. (10% might be pushing it — I'd probably have to set the house on fire...). ;-)
Garth
I'm going to try starting a 10HP 3 phase motor on a single phase service.
Better have a fire extinguisher handy.
(Scotty): She canna take the strain nae more... !!
mhb23re
I think I'll send my neighbours kids over to the nearest wall socket with a couple of screwdrivers.
That oughta be good for a few kilowatt hours...not to mention the shear entertainment value!!!
One of the whiners and moaners today in the Calgary Herald said that last year was very disappointing. Calgary showed a 3.8% increase in electric usage during Earth Hour.
Let's focus on electricity and see if we can break the 5% barrier this year. Turn on all the lights, clean your oven, open your fridge door and plug in every vehicle you can get your hands on.
I will be comemmorating Earth Hour after all.
I intend to disconnect the wasteful incandescent bulbs
which unnecessarily illuminate the licence plate of my 4x4.
Once that's out of the way, I'll be doing donuts on the exquisitely manicured lawns of the Suzuki estate.
It's the least I can do to raise awareness.
Last year after the data was crunched the pointy heads were perplexed that the usage went up. They just refuse to get the message. The message that they refuse to hear is that their greenie agenda, not so hidden agenda, population controlling, big brother, what else... busy body, smug, nose in the air,(mental note here-See Micheal Ignatia) fake global warming, cooling, anything in between scam will not be tolerated by the General public. They actually thought they had not properly conveyed the message to the public. Yes you did.
Yeah, in the same Herald article, it suggests that rather than people staying at home watching the hockey game on many TV sets, they should join their friends to watch the game. Right. What's worse in their addled minds - a TV powered on or driving your SUV around town for the night? Do they even think before spewing this garbage?
Oh well, I still have my Xmas lights up! Merry Belated Christmas everyone!
It is a bloody shame that being 'green' has been hijacked by the loony left. Conserving energy is the economical and responsible thing to do, I would even say, the conservative thing to do. Fossil fuels won't be here forever, the more we conserve them, the more time we'll have to come up with viable alternatives in the future.
However, I can see where you guys are coming from, so have fun tomorrow night :) BTW to those of you planning to burn wood: this is a green fuel! Use tires instead.
As to myself, every hour is earth hour. I am not connected to the grid.
Is Earth Hour a really futile and stupid gesture? Yup.
Even if a billion people turn off their lights this Saturday, the entire event will be equivalent to switching off China's emissions for six short seconds. - Bjorn Lomberg
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25247677-7583,00.html
So if everyone outside of China (and North Korea where they have none) turned off the lights, it would make up for 30 seconds of China's emissions. Big whoop, but I already said it was stupid and futile.
I'll be sitting around watching my "old" CRT TV set watching the CBC while eating cheese and corn with a little Labatt's Lucky. Can you say awful ozone depleting gas... I knew you could...LOL! :-p
will have to start early to get all 112 bulbs lit.
added another , the one in the oven. and just thought of the two inside the fridge so makes 114 with the fridge open. kikass!!!!
Guess what happens when you shut off all the lights in your home?? Besides tripping on the coffee table and breaking your neck, your furnace will kick in to make up the extra BTUs that the lights aren't generating. As a matter of fact, the University of Manitoba recently aired a report on that topic. Replacing the good old Edison light bulb for the corkscrews only makes your furnace work harder from Oct-May.
And for those that say; Yabut, in the summer the heating bulbs fight the A/C - the lights are on for a very short time in summer.
They still make Lucky Lager? Last time I had that I don't think Labatt was on the label but then again my eyesight was a little blurred.
I basically told the Cap'n that the plan was to celebrate the fact that the U. S. is indeed a great country as well as unEarth day by firing up the red rocket [a symbolically jingoistic domestic], lighting the Goodyears on fire from every standing start, and performing a burnout display in front of my yoga ashram downtown. The many obamites resident in that neighborhood will have something to think about as the roar of a pushrod V8 and the acrid smoke of burning rubber enters their condos on the gentle breeze.
rg, hope you have some nitrous on that rig, then you'll never get caught. heh.
Bigger ruts, stronger whiskey......
"Your light switch is your vote"
Right. My vote will definately be in the ON position.
Many years ago I worked aboard a Mississippi tug. The owner of the boat had purchased a detroit two stroke diesel 4-71 engine connected to a 50Kw generator. He was the most tight fisted bugger I have ever known and he had picked these generators up cheap. The problem was the boat didn't make anywhere near the demand needed to load up the generator. This resulted in the engine getting coked up with carbon. His "solution" was to connect a 25Kw electric heater on the upper deck thereby heating the local environment! Sadly he is no longer with us but I suspect he would be more than happy to crank up the generator and pump some heat out. Though you would have to pay for the diesel!
Dug out the ol 2stroke lawnmower and will have to test it around 8 on Sat. night. Never know, spring is here and although we are still up to our ass in snow, reliability is important.
You can see the current supply and demand for Alberta Power hear.
http://ets.aeso.ca/