Pavarotti the Goat

About 4 years ago now, early one Sunday morning we went to take our dogs for their normal morning meander around the paddock, only to realise we were being watched by 3 faces from the verge on the side of the highway.

Three beautiful male goats, their ears still bleeding from where the tags had been removed had spent the night up against our fence, drawn we assume by the sounds of us feeding the alpacas, sheep and pigs the night before. Luckily they'd remained safe on the extremely busy highway, although how we've got no idea.

Then there was the problem (we thought) of how we were going to get them off the highway without incident, as my partner made it to the front gate only to find them standing in the middle of the road, at the bottom of the ridge that would mean any of the grain trucks that hurtle down the road wouldn't even see them until the very last minute.

But the boys took one look at him and ran towards him, following him straight down our drive to our house gate, following him and the cart of hay from there through to the paddock, and into the pigs holding yard.

Nobody claimed them. Some utter piece of shit had obviously just dumped them. They were tame, hand raised we'd guess, their dehorning had been botched and they were desperately thin with overgrown toenails and in need of some care.

They've been here ever since - last thing in the world we needed or wanted. They've been a joy and a source of constant amusement with only occasionally proving to be right pains in the arse. We named them the "Three Tenors" and now we've only got 2 of them.

Pav was always slightly different from the other two. He was quieter. More cuddly. More inclined to get himself into trouble. We've had to extract him from a few hazards, we've had problems with the botched horn, we've always had to trim his nails more than the other two, and he's always been a slightly different shape and perpetually hungry. Which made his sudden refusal to eat a couple of weeks ago a bit of a shock. After initially investigating if he might have urinary tract / stone problems, it then became apparent that his rumen had shut down. Long story short, we tried all the suggested methods of getting it to kick back into action, but there was something underlying going on, and within a week or so, he still couldn't eat and was starting to show signs of weakness. So we had to intervene and he's now buried with the elderly alpaca, Pascoe, and pig Billie, who we've also lost this year. 

It's going to be "one of those years" as everyone, including us, shows signs of age. It's been a hard hard year already and we're not looking forward to how it continues to play out, although, touch wood, so far, everyone else is upright and looking okay. And we're watching, oh boy are we watching.

Electricity Providers

We have a grid interactive system on the farm. Solar panels and a battery on the house and EV. Grid backup for that system in case of need (still got to work long hours in front of computer equipment), plus there are pumps, sheds and various setups around the place that are grid connected still. We have got standalone solar setups wherever possible, but with the lengths of electric fences and stuff that has to keep ticking over, the electricity bill is always there. And to get rid of bottled gas we've replaced the oven / cooktop with an electric / induction combo.

Mind you, the sheer gouge that has been the last couple of bills from a standard supplier were horrific. So we looked for alternatives.

Did all the comparison websites, nothing was looking at all interesting or providing that much in the way of opportunities to do something positive about the usage whilst not killing the world in the process.

Anyway, after a happenstance article came across this lot:

https://www.amber.com.au

Their claim to fame:

Save with Cheaper Wholesale Energy

Now I will admit there was a hell of a lot to like about this model.

1. It's disruptive technology. By knowing the wholesale price and being able to shapeshift your usage you can play the market at it's own game. Not for everyone (see below) but if there's something we love it's the possibility of screwing with "markets"
2. Full disclosure. You know the wholesale price in half-hourly increments - and you can see the predictions for 12 hours ahead.
3. Battery / usage optimisation. They work out the best times to pull energy in, to leave our solar generation alone, to use grid inputs when they are cheap, and to use the battery when it's not. They will also sell back to the grid at optimal rates. We can also do all that manually if we want to.
4. They tell you the "green" status of the grid along the way - but this game is mostly about the financials. Which works out to what we want anyway because RENEWABLES ARE CHEAPER (contrary to the utter lies and bullshit coming out of the LNP and their nuclear look at me look at me look at me game).

It's not for everyone. This system is only likely to work really well if you have:

1. Grid interactive system
2. Own solar generation
3. A Battery (they support a range of different types)
4. The ability to timeshift your actions (helps to work from home so you can be careful when you run dishwashers / washing machines / power hungry cooking devices etc)
5. If you aren't putting in some effort, it's highly likely you'll have a higher bill than from a standard provider.
6. It's going to be seasonal, we're going to take a bit of a hit at some times of the year and win at others. (This sort of levelling up is part of what the traditional suppliers do when they come up with their prices plus their premiums). 
7. You are prepared to pay a monthly subscription

We've been running on this system for only a short time now. The first few days were a test of nerves, but it's starting to learn our behaviour patterns and we're seeing real adjustments in our usage levels.  We can see EXACTLY what the next bill is going to be, what our usage is, when and if the battery has been charged, used, sold back and at what prices everything happens. We're aware that this is the worst time of the year - lots of sun but it's low in the sky / our solar system isn't the greatest right now because of tree coverage (although if this sodding years long "rainfall deficiency" doesn't end soon they'll all die out and that's one problem solved...).

The phone app shows you the projected pricing / usage in a really clear, easy to understand way.

Their ongoing "info" emails have been informative, useful and the language is clear enough for somebody like me to follow (he's the grid / electric / whatever understanding person - I'm the one that has to figure out when best to run everything).

The downside - there's a bit of a tendency to doom scroll the upcoming pricing, mildly panic about the WHAT PRICE AT 7.00AM FFS that's ridiculous, what can we turn off, oh hang on the battery....

We've had to adjust the EV charging schedule (bought a hub to help with that). And we've switched power boards around to get rid of the dreaded standby load. General tidy up in other words.

We're not getting rid of the industrial sized coolroom though. There's no way in hell we can afford to do little shopping runs for odds and ends - it's the big haul as much as possible home and use it / bulk buy model that means we're all still eating something...