Virtual-livestock fence

Building and maintaining fences for controlling livestock places a huge financial burden on agricultural producers worldwide, but is there really any need for all those posts and wires? This is the question posed by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO) which has come up with a virtual fencing solution applicable to cattle and sheep farming. Using a GPS system to define fence boundaries and a specially designed collar that alerts the animal to the fact that it has reached the “fence”, a prototype of the system has now been successfully demonstrated on a herd of cattle. (more)

Boy this would sure be nice except for fitting all those pesky collars!

More Pics from last week in Fernie, BC

Unfortunately it rained off and on during the week.How on earth might one drill a well in that terrain?

Black gold.

Spring run off.
Some fool by his posters.

CTV video of last week in Fernie

Here is what was picked up by CTV last week. It was a fabulous learning experience to go through a public open-house like that.

Out in Fernie Again

The last week was an interesting one for me at work. I was part of a project team running public open houses for a new CBM (coalbed methane) project we are starting in the Fernie, B.C. area near the Alberta/B.C./U.S. border. I was definitely out of my "comfort zone" fielding questions from locals as well as cross-border opponents. There were people from Montana there who are apparently going to fight our project but there were also several local supporters. It will be a challenge for us to do this project given the geopolitical and environmental concerns but it sure is interesting work. The map above is from google earth showing the project area (crowsnest coal field) and the two towns we ran open-houses in last week (Fernie and Sparwood).

Edit: Apparently a friend of a friend saw me on the news last night on CFCN Calgary. There were cameras around last week but I didn't expect it to make the news. I'll post the vid if I can get my hands on a copy.

God (Lightning) During Debate

Visit Home

I decided it was about time I went home to see the farm while things were still green. Patricia and I spent Saturday with Grandpa and Grandma and had a great time getting the tour of the place. Mom and Dad came home for Sunday and we had a nice BBQ with Kevin, Angie, Jaren and Ron. Jaren sure is a live one although he wasn't quite ready for a ride on my wheelchair.