The reason

There's much good and much bad on the internet.

This is a good one: Hugh McLeod's gaping void.

Among various interesting items Hugh has a good post on social objects: the focus for human interactions.

At the same time check the referral to Mark Earls' thoughts on the subject. "Things change because of people interacting with other people, rather than technology or design really doing things to people."

The vineyard, vines, earth, weather, winery, wine, food and music are all just social objects. Nice ones but simply a focus around which people with similar interests can interact.

For us, it starts with the family. That "social object" has worked well and we expect it to continue to be successful in this endeavor.

The answer my friend .....

How's that for a trite introduction?

Anyhow it got your attention.

This may sound like everyone else who is jumping on the GREEN bandwagon but as an architect who has passed through a number of energy crises, I recognize the value for the vineyard to be as self sufficient as possible. The house I designed more than 30 years ago employed as much 'green' as I could muster at the time. But that's a whole other story.

One really interesting element is wind power. In researching the newest technologies this little contraption popped up (helixwind). The largest made is produces 5kw. That should put a dent in the utility bill. And of course the design is very interesting compared to the standard propeller blade design.

I look forward to further investigation and at some point implementation on the vineyard of a renewable energy source like wind power. There will certainly a lot more innovation in this growing technology.

Here's a few more interesting designs.