Sea Sky?

Now is when it all changes.

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.

Brownwater RV filtration

Just finished recently creating a brownwater filtration unit for my new trailer. More pictures to come, but here are the basics! I reuse my wastewater from my bathroom sink to fill my toilet (urine only). It is then passed to a lava rock bio-filter and subsequently to a limestone and lava rock planter.
Greywater recycling system. All greywater from sink is used to fill toilet bowl. No fresh water is used to fill toilet. The handsoap and toothpaste also helps to clean the bowl each time you flush!



First stage of Brownwater filtration. Barrel filled 3/4 full of lava rock to an inch above maximum water line. Leads to stage two.

Interior view of first stage of Brownwater filtration. Lava rock for substrate and a downspout for efficiency.


Two shots of the Second Stage filter with Lava Rock Planter bed leading into the the Third Stage planter and evaporation tray.

Our Message to the Universe.

Had a friend introduce me to this. These are links to the Voyager Golden Record that was affixed to the satellite in case it ever encounters unknown life in that infinite universe of ours. The record contains a selection of mixed media including greetings in a bunch of languages, selections of Earth music and sounds of the Earth. Directions are encoded on the cover in basic symbols. I certainly would have trouble working out the meanings personally, how do you do?

I also love listening to the audio. How would "Johnny Be Good" and birds chirping sound in a different galaxy?

Actual sounds from the record: (http://goldenrecord.org/sounds.htm)
Wikipedia explanation: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record)

Blacklight Tattoo Sleeve Healed

Three months after the initial tattooing and it is completely healed and virtually invisible. In the picture below, some of the scarring is faintly visible in the top left hand corner as some circles. It is amazing how many places you will randomly find a blacklight and be able to show off your tattoo! If you have not seen my previous blog posts on tattooing myself with blacklight ink and the one week later photos, you should go see them!