Big Tent Festival (and the Powerpod's little tent)

Friday brought crowds of schoolchildren from the Fife area, who dropped along to make solar-powered motors, wind turbines and to marvel at the trailer. All groups were keen to test their speed on the bike - attempting to pedal to create the power required for a lightbulb. Although very few were keen on the idea of pedalling continuously if they wanted a light in their classroom... Robyn, Lindsay, Lizzie, Catriona and Ron kept up a crazy pace when the sudden influxes of groups arrived, demonstrating the drop-in activities and taking tours round the trailer.

Even with an overcast day, the panels were charging up the trailer's batteries and were powering the laptop, fan and power tools for a building project next to the Powerpod. In the 4 days prior to the festival, an entire wood house had been built by Duncan Roberts and others from Reforesting Scotland using the power from the pod! (at the left of the piccie of Rosie and Mel)

A Ceilidh finished off the day (and spinning on the Strip the Willow may have finished off Lindsay...)

Saturday was an overcast and drizzly day, so the workshops were huddled into a marquee and 'fake suns' (ie lamps) were used to demonstrate the PV panels (let's pretend there's sunlight...)The number of visitors was therefore lower than expected, and there was a bit of a feeling that a few visitors had been dragged along unwillingly by parents... but Judith and Gill kept the enthusiasm up with those who did arrive and plenty of people trickled in and out by the end of the day. At least there was plenty time to sample delights from the rest of the festival.

The damp day cleared up after the workshops were packed up, for an evening of crazy music and dancing from la Boum! Music continued with folk songs and storytelling round a fire, back at our camp place at the Pillars of Hercules farm.

Sunday brought the sun (hurray!) along with Morag, Rosie, Melanie and Andrew, to join the Saturday trio of Judith, Gill and Emily. The blue skies definately drew more visitors - the solar, wind and hydrogen car activities were busy with children and adults dropping-in. The bike was again a major pull (especially when the battery became further discharged and it was a real challenge to get the ball up the tube...). In between demonstrating workshops and entertaining the visitors, there was a chance to check out the awesome Moishe's Bagel and Orkestra del Sol.

As well as powering the laptop and fans, the powerpod provided essential battery recharging for quite a few distressed camera-owners...

All in all a great fun weekend!

Woodcraft Annual Gathering

A beautiful weekend down in York for the Annual Gathering was the first trip out with the Powerpod for me, Sara. During the day, the mini solar panels and bike provided a distraction for those to whom the agenda of discussing motions wasn't so appealing... Even smoothies were blended up using the power from the trailer! The sunshine was appreciated by many (apart from my burnt nose), as well as fully charging the batteries during the day. The Powerpod was therefore able to provide lighting for the awesome 'Face your elephant' tent at night (picture), part to the Woodcraft C-change extravaganza. Additionally, power for the PA system for the evening entertainment (picture), allowed a lot of singing and dancing to get into full swing on the Saturday night.
The event marked the launch of the C-change tent and their eye-catching info leaflets, which will be available at future Powerpod events.

Bruntsfield Primary School Summer Fete

Edinburgh Woodcraft used the Powerpod for a little self-promotion at the Bruntsfield Primary School Fete on Saturday 2nd June. Although there are 3 groups meeting here (it was five only a couple of years ago) the organisation could do with a higher profile.

Placed in the corner next to the big red fire engine seemed to be a good location and although we did see a lot of pupils, the bulk of the attendees preferred to be down in the courtyards "beating the goalie" and eating the food. When the big red fire engine was called away to attend an emergency we were able to display our environmental snakes and ladders games which proved popular with the younger children. This has been proved to be an excellent activity put together by Liz Hall. Edinburgh Woodcraft wish her well on her five weeks global teacher expedition to Malawi. You can donate to the charity here.




As the fete was only on for three hours (and we did arrive a little late) the trailer was not fully displayed. The workshops on offer were the PV cells and wind, and of course the bike generator which was ably supervised by Bryn from the Siver Birch Pioneers - with the number of children sitting on this we need to get some means of measuring the power produced - it would be a good measure of how many people we interacted with!

At the end of the day there were several new names on the contact list and Edinburgh Woodcraft had, it was hoped made some impact with the families who came to see the Powerpod. We made enough noise anyway.

Many thanks to all the helpers Charles, Fiona, Liz, Ian, Bryn, and Sara.