KidWind, Students and Maple Syrup

 OK this post is going to be about some serious fun.

Darlington Quilt Block KidWind team making their presentation to the Manage and staff at EDP Renewables Quilt Block wind farm in Darlington. These three juniors, Zach, Laura and Pedro went on to place second at this years Wisconsin KW Challenge. Now they will begin preparing to compete in San Antino, TX for the 2022 National KW Challenge. They hope to improve their turbine design and exceed the 500 Joules their 40 watt generator produced this year in Madison.

First year KidWind team freshman Ben and Josue also gave a presentation on their wind turbine design to the Quilt Block wind farm people. Eleven teams from across Wisconsin spent the day at the UW Madison Discovery Center on Saturday Feb. 26th. They tested their turbine designs for electrical energy output and durability in the wind tunnel. They gave presentations on their designs and answered judges questions. They also went on to complete two Instant Challenges. These were a surprise test to correctly rig a gin pole and make a guyed tower raising in 30 minutes. Then they had to design a wind farm layout for highest production and lowest cost. They also got to listen to presentations from people in the wind industry and visit displays set up by local utility companies and vocational schools. Pretty intense but some serious fun!

Former Darlington KidWind coach, Mark Acherman brings his 6th grade classes over every year to round out his units on electricity and magnetism. The weather was great and they had a lot of questions. Like, "How many different forms of energy were used to get this generator to light the light bulb?" Is there a better way? When shown the solar panel connected directly to the LED they got the idea.

The tables in the workshop were set out and different examples of how electricity was produced. How magnets were involved and how motors and generators worked was demonstrated. 

After they made some electricity by cranking a home built generator and realizing "first hand" just how hard it was to make electricity we took a look at things they could do to conserve electricity. Here  using a WattsUP meter they saw the different amounts of energy used by incandescent, compact florscent and LED light bulbs.

That brings us to spring is here and the sap season is on!

So this year I decided to down size my boiling operation from the cooker I used in 2020 (look back in the blog if you want to see it) to boil 350 gallons of sap and make 9 gallons of syrup. This boiler will hold one gallon of sap and the feeding system hooked up to the 30 gallon sap supply will keep that level as the boiling takes place. I tested out the system today using only two gallons of sap! Look closely and you can see the 4 ounces of finished maple syrup in the pint fruit jar sitting on the white cloth. The orange hydrometer box is pointing to it. It took two hours of boiling and consumed about 3/4 pounds of propane.

But just look at it. Pouring on the liquid gold on my Lego waffles. Trust me the taste is out of this world. Natures best.