Recycled Shipping Crate Home "Y"

I recently had a bunch of 8' by 5' by 6.5' shipping crates fall into my lap. so I decided to make an abode out of them. First I put them up on old soda crates and leveled them out. Actually very easy to do with a nice long lever.


I then bolted two of them together and cut a half-door in the front door. Who wouldn't want a half door? I pulled a third crate apart for parts at this point. You can see my nice patio was actually the floor of this third crate.


I cut one panel out between them to gain access to the second crate. You can see the small doorway in the right side of the main doorway. I laid tile on the floor temporarily and lined a few of the walls with 1/2" foam insulation. For central Texas, I have been surprised. It has been comfortable at night with a fan on low, holding at about 73 degrees. Keeping the door tightly closed in the daytime makes a large difference. It stayed below 85 like this, while shooting up to 95 with the door open all day. I sleep in the right crate and use the left as my living room. They are very small (two crates is 160 square feet), but I love it that way. Cozy, efficient and a tiny footprint!

First good set of rainstorms had water coming in the doorways, so I used the parts from the scrap crate to build a quick roof, only two hours! My next step is to cover the roof, but I have not been inspired as of yet to do this step! Sorry the picture is so dark, but I finished after sunset.

Soon the power for the crates will be off the grid as well once I get the solar panels installed. I will post more as it happens!

Burning Man "Evolution" 2009 Photos

Burning Man is a festival held in Black Rock City, Nevada. This city is only there for a week. Over 47,000 people this year.



The Man.


Prepped for the dust storm about 3 minutes away.

Liberation fire-hooping!

New Blacklight Hand Tattoo and Scarification

Roughly two hours of work to finish my UV hand tattoo. Used a larger needle cluster this time, up from 4 round to an 8 round. For those of you not familiar, an "8 round" is a cluster of 8 tattoo needles in a bundle. It is used to cover more surface area at once, so the lines are bigger.

Four days later. This was also an experiment with scarification. As the tattoo healed, I used various coarse materials to remove the healing skin and create vivid scars. The two best where a dishcloth and a pumice stone.


Eight days later. All the scabbing has been removed by the roughing up with coarse materials. Now I can show you the scars when you ask to see the blacklight tattoo in daylight at least.