Griff Wigley's blog

The turbine rotor was put in place about 45 minutes ago.

St. Olaf's Pete Sandburg says site preparation for their wind turbine should begin this fall, with construction set for May, 2005.

12:30pm update: Hi-res versions of these and dozens more photos are being uploaded now in the wind turbine construction album. Upload should be finished by 12:45 pm.
12:55 pm update: DONE.

The 2nd and 3rd tower sections were installed this afternoon, and the nacelle unit this evening. The rotor will be installed on Wed. morning.

L to R: Brian Peterson farms the land where the turbine is being constructed; Jay Gislason, president of Diversified Energy Solutions in Gary, SD, is the construction site manager; Carolyn McKay, pediatrician in the Twin Cities, owns the farm land where the turbine is being constructed and is leasing it to Carleton.

See dozens more photos in the wind turbine construction album.

I heard the rumor late this afternoon at Carleton's wind turbine construction site that Pete Sandburg, St. Olaf's Director of Facilities, was ready to announce that the college had reached an agreement to build a wind turbine on campus, same size as Carleton's 1.65 megawatt turbine. Maybe this news is related:

Xcel Energy announces proposed renewable energy project selections
"Twenty-five proposed renewable energy projects featuring hydroelectric, biomass, wind, solar and biofuel technologies have been selected to receive more than $22 million from the Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) Renewable Development Fund... St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., to install a wind turbine on campus and use the energy for the college

Stars & Stripes
Iraq firefight shows difficulty of fighting enemy while protecting the innocent
The Marines were patrolling a highway east of Fallujah when they began taking fire. They doubled back and were shot at again. The platoon pulled up along the highway and pointed its guns toward a truck stop and some men, who were dressed as civilians. "They looked like regular Iraqi citizens," said Lance Cpl. Brad Swenson of Northfield, Minn. "It was hard to distinguish where the enemy personnel were. They

The City has removed all the graffiti that I photoblogged last week.

Yesterday I took ten more photos of new and old graffiti on downtown buildings on the east side of River Walk.

I've posted the photos in the growing graffiti photo album.

According to my sources, the operators who work for Truck Crane Service, Russ Raaf, Rudy Maurer, and Matt Busse (who's favorite T-shirt reads "I love the smell of diesel in the morning"), the schedule of events for assembling the pieces of the wind turbine was changed today to accommodate the media blitz expected tomorrow.

So today, the blades were attached to the rotor hub on the ground. Tomorrow will be busy: two tower sections, nacelle, and the grand finale, the rotor assembly will all be put together.

See the hi-res versions of these & 18 more photos that I added to the wind turbine construction album today.

School starts in two days. The four-way stop sign at Hwy 246/Division & Jefferson Parkway was installed today.

The tower sections, nacelle & generator unit, and rotor hub arrived on Friday and Saturday. The base of the tower is up, with the remaining two tower sections and nacelle to be put in place on Monday. On Tuesday, the blades will be attached to the rotor hub while on the ground and then, assuming favorable weather, the entire rotor assembly will be lifted to the top of the tower.

See the hi-res version of these and 3 dozen more photos in the wind turbine photo album.

See Windpower.org's wind turbine educational section for an explanation of the parts of the turbine... suitable for kids and turbine-clueless adults like me.

The turbine blades are off the trucks, the crane is up, and Xcel Energy is installing new power transmission poles along Wall St. Road.

Last night, vandals slashed a tire on the smaller crane, broke into the cab of the larger crane, and did miscellaneous other damage.

See the hi-res version of these and 8 more photos in the wind turbine photo album.

Three 132 ft. blades for Carleton's wind turbine arrived earlier this evening. B & K Trucking (Bruce & Kim Lang & employees) from Marathon, Wisconsin hauled them from Houston, Texas.

Tower assembly begins asap and continues through Tuesday. Dedication ceremony is set for Sep. 25.

See hi-res versions of these and several more photos in the wind turbine construction album. I should have more photos to add each day over the remainder of the construction.

I attended a demo class on metal spinning on Aug. 18, one of a series of classes offered by ArtOrg.

Tim Alberg was the class instructor, assisted by Dave Machacek and Eric Johnson.

See a dozen high-res photos in the ArtOrg metal spinning album.

Heidi Hamilton, Director of Public Works/City Engineer, got this email at noon today from MNDOT:

A four-way stop will be installed at the intersection of T.H. 246 and Jefferson Parkway. The tentative plan is to have this installation up some time Monday, August 30. Because we need to install pavement markings to go with the signage, rain could delay the installation.

MnDOT will prepare a Press Release for this and get that out as soon as possible. Heidi, it would be appreciated if you could spread the word with local officials and community or neighborhood groups.

Mike Schweyen
MnDOT Traffic

For background on the issue, see Saturday's Nfld News article titled School traffic at new school causing concerns.

The Northfield Chamber of Commerce hosted a forum this morning, featuring the candidates for mayor and city council.

L to R: Victor Summar, Jon Denison, Kris Vohs, Lee Lansing, Galen Malecha, Betsey Buckheit, Phil Anderson.

See all the candidate and post-forum schmoozing photos in the Chamber Candidates forum album.

Los Angeles Times (reprinted in Star Trib)
College students study 'abroad' in California
To make his crash course on California culture as realistic as possible, Prof. Michael Kowalewski requires his Carleton College students... It's quite a departure from Carleton's pastoral setting (Northfield's motto: "Cows, colleges and contentment").

Star Tribune
List of mandated classes grows
About 80 percent of Northfield High students now take a year or more of arts classes, such as band or choir; the school might look at increasing arts offerings, by adding a dance class, for example.

GOP, DFL leaders plan to debate
... the two leaders would first meet during the State Fair, which will open Thursday, then again in Bemidji, Duluth, East Grand Forks, Mankato, Moorhead, Northfield, Rochester, St. Cloud and Worthington.

Minnesota colleges get high marks
Carleton College in Northfield was fifth among liberal arts colleges and was noted for its senior project, undergraduate research and study-abroad programs.

Today was "brush burning day" at the compost site.

Warren Ringlein took the top 4 photos. I took the bottom one at about 3:45 PM after it was pretty much finished. (Click the photos for large, hi-res versions.)

Join the panel discussion and forum on the ISSUES list, now through Aug. 27. Details in a previous blog post.