Well, we are back from the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair. Whew, long drive, about 7 hours each way. The move from Amherst to Madison this year shaved about 2 hours (one way) off the trip for us, so thats one good thing about the change in location. It was pouring rain when we left home at 7pm Friday, (Deb just could not get off work early) but we finally drove out from under it somewhere around Bloomington (Illinois that is, we live down south, not far from Carbondale). By the time we hit Wisconsin the sky was clear though pretty dark. We finally pulled in at the Hampton Inn in Janesville about 2:00 Saturday morning. That was as close as we could get, all the places in Madison we called were booked up early in the week, and who wants to set up a tent at 2:00am? Janesville was just about a 20 - 30 minute drive to the convention center, so that wasnt too bad. By the way, when we got back home we learned that it had rained about 7 inches over the weekend. Quite a gully washer! The convention center was easy to find, there was plenty of parking, and the facility was very nice. Of course the whole thing was indoors, which took away a lot of the atmosphere (no pun intended). I shouldnt say EVERYTHING was indoors, the food venders were outside. Thank goodness we found them, the convention center vendors inside were offering the usual $3.00 hot dogs and other incredibly high priced stuff found in such places. You could just about tell the onlookers from the fair regulars by what they were eating. Too bad Skippy wasnt there; you could count the number of hippies visible at any one time without taking your shoes off. He would have loved it. I kind of missed them. I asked several vendors how they were doing, and they all said it was going great. Then later I overheard a few talking amongst themselves, and the upshot of that was that they were very disappointed in their sales so far. This was late Saturday afternoon. There was no lack of folks walking around, plenty large crowd. But, I didnt see many folks carrying stuff they had bought. I got the idea that a lot of the folks I saw were just curious walk ins. Well, lets go see whats going on at the center today type folks. Which is fine I guess. Maybe some of those folks got the message, which was in fact the whole idea. It seemed to me that the vendor area was rather small, many of the folks that usually set up at the fair in Amherst were not there. Dont get me wrong, the place was packed with vendors, there just was not room for more. Did some get turned away due to lack of floor space? I dont know, but wouldnt be surprised. And of course there was no way to demonstrate the solar panels or solar ovens, so that was a loss. A shame actually, because its one thing to see a pv panel or solar cooker just sitting on the floor, and quite another thing to see it actually powering in a water pump, or cooking a loaf of bread or something. Oh well. I did have some nice chats with the folks from my favorite magazines: BHM, Countryside, Back Home, and Home Power (of course TMEN was conspicuously absent, as usual). All were offering some darn good discounts on subscriptions and back issues. I took advantage of the opportunity to fill in some of the holes in my collections. Picked up some nice tee shirts too. I also had a very nice chat with one of my favorite folks; Jackie Roy, wife of Rob Roy of cordwood fame. Jackie remembered my wife and myself from our visit to their building school last summer. Great folks. Very interesting to talk to, very friendly. Helping Jackie was a fellow named Geoff who I believe has written an article or two on home built composting toilets. We had a good talk too; comparing notes on home built verses store bought, odor and fly control, etc. Real nice fellow. Best attended of the workshops that we went to was the one on Biodiesel. Very clear presentation, very nice demonstration. Good question and answer session, with a book signing afterward. Thats one of the best things about MREAF, you get to talk to the authors, get answers to your questions, and get your books signed. That personal touch is very nice. And by the way, I did stop by the Davis Caves booth, planning to pick up some info for Elizabeth. The only thing they were giving out was a small flyer. Kind of disappointing, but I did pick one up. I didnt go to his workshop cause there was something else I wanted to go to at the same time, and I had seen his already anyway a couple of years ago. All in all we had a good time. I wasnt all that crazy about the change in location, but I understand the reasoning behind it. Next year it will be back in Amherst, and well all be outdoors amongst the hippies again. Cant wait! It is always hard to leave MREAF. The neat stuff, the friendly folks, the shared information, thats very hard to give up. I miss it. I always hang around the parking lot for a while looking back, trying to think of a reason to go back in, because I know that once we start home thats it. There is nothing like this back home. At home its work, cornfields, farmers, people who think a solar panel is a group of folks who get together and talk about the sun for some reason. Renewable energy? Permaculture? Biodiesel? What language you talkin boy? Another year must pass before I can return. I guess thats why I like these forums so much. Here are folks who actually know what Im talking about, and might even be interested, might know something I need to know. Here are kindred spirits. Thats worth a lot. My 2 cents.

-- Les (lvaughn@suntransformer.com), June 19, 2000

Answers

We drove down to Madison Thursday night, a 4 hour drive from north-western Wisconsin. We camped in our VW bus, which involved parking at the edge of an asphalt lot. The kids camped in the tent area with perhaps hundreds of other campers. Most of the vendors that I know and talked to said it was slow compared to previous years. I noticed that most workshops had few people compared to the full tents at Amherst. I suspect that those "hippies" that didn't show up at Madison are the folks that buy another solar panel or 2 every year, and their purchases add up to quite a bit for the dealers.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), June 19, 2000.

I attend the fair nearly every year. I live in Madison, but go up for the whole weekend. I know what you mean about not wanting to leave, Les -- I don't seem to be "done" even when the fair is done!

I surely did NOT miss the long lines for the ladies facilities nor the wretchedly uncomfortable folding chairs (hit me wrong in the back)! The convenience and lack of expense of travel were nice, as well as being able to park much closer.

All that said, it just didn't "feel" the same. Several of the workshops I attended were packed, but I don't think there were as many people walking around either. I'm glad it will be back in Amherst next year, even though once again I will have to guess whether I will freeze, roast, drown, or some combination of the three. Ironically, the weather this weekend would have been WONDERFUL for an outdoors event! :-(

-- J.E.Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), June 20, 2000.

Les, your mention of biodiesel caught my eye. Does anyone have info on its use in cold-weather climates? Is there a web site or othr source of information? I'm curious about it as a substitute for petro-fuels in farm machinery, esp. how many gallons of biofuel does it take to raise how many gallons of feedstock, etc.

A related question: Can anyone tell me how much land you need to feed the horses required to operate a fully horse-powered farm? I've heard estimates of up to a third of the farm's productive land goes to support the horses that farm it.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), June 26, 2000.