This is how it ends

It starts with an industry offering to help a community.
To provide jobs, money, lifestyle.

It ends with rank industrialization  blighting the landscape, poisoning the environment and sending what meager profits are left, off-shore.

Look to the Manawatu where Fontera are applying to continue to poison the river for a further 20 odd years. This at the end of a process that has already left the river trashed.

Sound familiar?

The New Dawn Chorus

By my count this would be the 4th time this spring that I've had my sleep disrupted by the thumping of the frost fans. By anyone's count this is a spectacularly low number. Although I understand that there are some parts of the country that have not been so lucky. I say lucky, but its kind of like saying "Wow, that was a bad mining disaster. We were lucky only 4 people were killed.".
Additionally, the spring isn't over yet, so I suppose there's still plenty of opportunity for more.

Isn't that lucky?

First Decent Frost of the Spring

That has been a long time coming.

And I suppose it provides the lead-in to the debate about how many frost fan events are too many?
There are no prizes for guessing what side of the fence I come down on.
I only have to wonder if it's possible for a person to be affected by  a single night without sleep.
Should your nurse be administering medication? Should your taxi driver be taking the no-doze? Should the World be a reasonable place?
When in doubt, take the day off. Call in sick. You aren't responsible for your actions when sleep deprived. The body isn't designed to cope with the stress and strain and confusion. Call your boss and explain. Send your bill to the NZ Winegrowers and Horticulture NZ. They think its ok to make as much noise as they want. Don't forget to write into the paper and remind them of the lost productivity and the hidden cost to the rest of the community. Don't risk your life or those of others by doing something that could result in harm if your concentration is impaired.

Something is better than nothing.

The recent article in the Marlborough Express which described the possibility of the MDC stepping in to help resolve the particularly heinous siting of frost fans just over 100m just next to a home in the lower Wairau Valley, is a step in the right direction.
To be perfectly frank the options were few.
The absentee owner of the vineyard Ross Low appears to have been reluctant to remove the fans because he believes he complied with the Council Requirements when installing.
The owners of the home shouldn't need to move because a neighbor has made their home unlivable.
The Council on the other hand have allowed the result of some sort of heinous clerical error when setting a rule in the District plan to stand (allowing fans within 100m of a home), when it was clear that this would produce unreasonable noise levels.
The group that has blood on it's hands most is the Council. Not the callous indifference of Mr Low or the Vineyard he supplies.
I can only hope that some common sense filters through and that whatever solution is enacted, it results in a reasonable nights sleep, because that's a pretty basic requirement for a human being.

Tentative Start to Spring Frosts

Well, hasn't the weather been a mixed bag?
Plenty of rain and cloud cover keeping the frosty temperatures at bay.
This morning was the first slim sign of a frost and I have heard reports that there was the occasional sound of a fan going off. Pretty quiet in general though. I suppose both sides of the frost fan debate can share the desire to minimize the number of frosts :-)