Project Reliance

Project: Jedi Salad

2010-02-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

I'm in Lyons, Colorado at the moment; the front range, gateway to the Wilderness - Mountaintops and valleys, snow and sun. I will share some pictures when I have a moment. But first, the base recipe for the Jedi Salad; An essential phyto-nutrient-and-energy-packed addition to the diet of a travelling Jedi, or a sedentary New Yorker.

First get a bunch of greens - I suggest (in order of nutrient density) Kale, Watercress, Mustard Greens, Chard, Collards, Turnip Greens, Bok Choy, Spinach - and chop them finely. Consider this the first step of digestion where the knife does the chewing.

Arrange your ingredients -

Then For each bunch of Kale add a 'dollop' of hemp oil and virgin coconut oil (EVOO works too but not as much of a Jedi move) and enough spirulina so it looks like this -

You can also add some Ume Plum Vinegar to taste -

Now comes the fun part - Typically the dark greens can be a bit chewy, even when chopped into small bits. To improve upon this, we wash our hands and massage the greens. It works the oils and spirulina into the core of the salad and tenderizes the vegetation. You could consider this the second stage of digestion. Do not fear green hands or vigor - it is difficult to over-massage the greens - You will know you're close to done when a green liquid starts to build up in the bottom of the bowl and it might even look like this -

You're done! Enjoy. Eat a lot, it's good for you.

Note: This is the basic platform for the salad. You can go your own way from here - for example, we add a pinch of himalayan pink salt, avocado, cashews, raisins, tomatoes, nutritional yeast, etc. The genius is also working on a raw chocolate version. Do not be alarmed at the energy surge you get after eating - this is how you could feel all the time...

Ode to my trumpet teacher

2009-09-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

Nedo Pandolfi 9/21/09

I was fortunate to spend more than my fair share of time with Mr. Pandolfi in the piano room of his shaded house on Gene Allen road. There were times when I would look forward to our visits and, if I hadn’t practiced much that week, times when I didn’t. I remember Pauline relaying messages from the kitchen and the smile in his eyes belied his authoritative and serious-sounding retorts. I remember leaning on the pool table in the basement, putting a cold mouthpiece to my lips and pushing the first tentative notes of warm-up exercises through stiff valves and a frigid horn and hearing him yell over Dan Boucher absolutely kicking ass on the 3^rd movement of the Hummel Trumpet Concerto upstairs at what could only be called a discouraging tempo,”Jesse, that’s B flat!, B flat my boy!”. I remember playing, refining, and re-playing and re-refining countless scales, slurs and passages from the Arban method which to this day the three middle fingers of my right hand recall autonomously whenever they are put to a flat surface.

More importantly, however, I remember the quality of attention he committed to our time together. I think I remember this particularly because I’ve not encountered it in another since. This attention went beyond simply listening to the timbre, time, pitch and duration of the notes being played, and seemed to encompass his whole faculty and experience in a dedicated instant as if there was nothing outside that room, that space, that moment. He could see and hear things others couldn’t, things beyond words, things that we call music for want of vocabulary, and his genius was in communicating it to others, so they could see too, if only for a little while.

Despite my best attempts to foil him with extraordinary, adolescent ego, he managed to teach me to discover and cultivate the same attention; to attend totally to what is – with all of mind, heart, everything. And for this there are no words to thank him. It is beyond words. Or rather, before words become relevant.

Correspondence

2009-09-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hey bro,
I know you managed your way back to Prov to get the van but did you find a place of refuge sunday night? Also, could you do me a big favor if you have the time and drop by to give our lawn a trim. It'd be much appreciated. You know how to reach me comrade.

Good day

===

Hi,

I slept for some time on the deck of the fishing memorial in Galilee and some time on the lawn of Eric's grandmother's house after trekking there and failing to find the key to gain access and lacking the energy or presence of mind to find a more suitable place. I did see several shooting stars though and overall it was quite comfortable on the back, though I was shivering off the cold for the majority of the night and didn't get much chance to actually sleep. I also had two memorable dreams; In the first a group of people from a nearby house all came out on the lawn with blankets and we had a jolly good and warm time together gazing at the sky. In the second, two men, armed with black, short-barreled* revolver-fed pistols, kicked me awake and claimed to be defending their neighbors' territory as part of some community-action-watch-coalition program and as I remember there was a moment of actual danger and so fear between my waking and their realization of my inability to offer them threat for lack of arms and confusion as to what was actually going on.

I took the 6am bus in the morning to downtown.

I learned that the comfort that comes with dryness and warmth at night should never be underestimated, though it may be relatively unnecessary from an absolute survival perspective. As a result, I plan to buy some type of very light, inconspicuous and compactible tent w/ matching blanket to ensure absolute freedom with respect to where I choose to sleep in the future. In the affore-mentioned scenario, if I had these items, I could have made my way to the nearest beach and enjoyed a free sleep with wave sounds that the majority, being sub-consciously shackled to beds they feel must always be returned to, very rarely will experience. Any reasonable excuse for the importance of the latter could be considered a design parameter for the former in this experiment.

The discomfort of the evening, in hindsight, was worth the unique perspective gained. Which leads me to consider whether one is capable of enduring any hardship, however perilous - as the major components to be endured, it seems to me, are the expectation and memory of it anyway, and if one sees positivity in useful knowledge gained in memory then does not expectation eagerly look forward for want of such knowledge? Perhaps this is the sort of perspective a Navy Seal must acquire in order to not 'ring the bell' and do the things I've seen them do on countless discovery channel navy seal behind-the-scenes-training programs.

The idea to mow your lawn has set sail in my ocean of consideration, however the tidal wave of the moment is the arrival of my brother - which should happen in 3 hours. I think we should consider all getting together for a campfire and maybe even a boat trip across the bay to Prudence Island in the quahog skiff to test out the above comfort theory of free sleep.

- A handclasp for the miles until then,

*I believe these are also called stub-nosed pistols and maybe even Winchester .38 specials if Tom Clancy novels and Fisherman's Friend catalogs are any guide. In any event, certainly superior in wounding power to my DFW** novel, ipod headphones (which I guess I could have strangled one with if I could endure what would most likely be 6 bullet wounds from the other) and corduroy jacket.

**David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

9-6

2009-09-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

Stitch Chair

2009-08-18T12:11:00.001-07:00

I've been on a quest these last few months to discover a way of living differently - to essentially do more with less; which this past month has been more, dare-fully worded, philosophical than material. And to those who are inquiring about the sparse nature of what could be thought of as progress, I would like to say, in a non-cheeky, non-after-skool-special and rather serious (and hopefully self-evident) manner, that success and discovery is built on a foundation of failures. And so to fail is a great thing, it is a great way to gather information! And I shall take advantage of that glorious Vanity I've been blessed with to continue with a revised perspective on the nature of what it means to live differently.

So the house isn't built (as I am rethinking strategy after first attempt to cover in shrink wrap which literally ended in flames) and I have an idea to 'take this show on the road' in a PT Barnum-esque type of way. The winter is a-coming, the garden is woefully inadequate (the unusual weather has upstate NY declared a disaster area, there should be tomatoes by now I hear and I have barely any) - And so I am re-defining the PR van as a mobile dwelling. Perhaps you could think of this as an uber-revolutionary, efficient and intelligent way to carry on or maybe you think it unusual that I plan to live out of a van*. I will leave you with either thought as I roam the American landscape - learning for myself what the 'average american' really is these days - and perhaps I get one of these cheap netbook computer machines so I can keep everyone well-informed with what I learn. As for date of departure: uncertain.

In the meantime, I've also been investigating the nature of comfort - at work, at home, while reading or writing - and it has lead to the development of about a dozen chair prototypes and models (this is what I do when I'm stuck on PR design problems).

While I will spare the details of the generalized working principles I've come up with regarding chair design - here is my latest iteration. It is by far the most comfortable chair I've come up with so far (though admittedly it needs some type of a platform, be it legs or rocker) and I rather like the look (which came about solely through necessity as it is one continuous sheet of plywood and I could think of no other way w/ the materials I had available to get it into shape.) I'm interested in getting a general ich nicht or ach ya from my usually-astute-readership-community.

Do keep in mind this is a mock-up and not final version - there are some cracks where I over-stressed the material and it doesn't line up as perfectly as I'd like. Other than that it's amazingly stiff even though it's only 1/4" plywood...

PS - this is why I needed a compass

*And yes, in my travels there will surely be times when I am parked near a river.

?

2009-08-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

When we say "It's raining"

What is the 'it'?

New Compass Design

2009-08-11T15:29:00.003-07:00

I needed a compass and thought this was a clever way to get one. It's adjustable from 10-15cm

Vegetal Progress / Best Spider / More Sand

2009-08-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos for enlarged, high quality version.

PS - I'm a 'Google' Page Rank 2! Kepp watching the blog to increase my algorithmic popularity!

On the Origin of the Non-Rhoticity and Nasal 'Broad A' of the Boston Accent

2009-08-05T08:06:00.001-07:00

To be clear, 'non-rhotic' is a pronounciation where the phonetic pronounciation of 'r' does not appear in the 'coda' position. This is essentially jargon for 'card' being pronounced 'cahd' (dropped r is non-rhotic I guess) which when spoken with the 'Broad A' sounds like 'caad' where the a is elongated with a slightly 'nasal' intonation and pronounced hard as if it were in words like 'at' - 'Soft A', the opposite in this sense, sounding like 'o' in hot.

I would like to introduce a theory as to its origination (or at least its reinforcement).

In the city of Boston some time around 1940, a police officer stopped traffic on a main thru street to let a family of ducks cross the road. This was popular in the press and inspired the 1941 publication of Robert McCloskey's 'Make Way For Ducklings'. It is a story about a family of ducks and their search for a home (including the afforementioned march across main street). The names of the ducks were Mrs. Mallard, Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack. This book was enormously popular and has since sold over 2 million copies and won a Caldecott Medal*.

Now put yourself in the position of a child in the 1940s where you've heard many ducks and say the names above out loud. Seriously, regardless of where you are and how embarrassed you might be, actually say these words right now -

Jack

Kack

Lack

Mack

Nack

Ouack

Pack

Quack

Do you notice an inescapable tendency to imitate a duck's quack? The 'Quack' sound synonymous with duck imitation is exactly the 'Broad A' above and as soon as you ignore a few 'r's you're in non-rhotic territory. Is it possible that this book was so widely popular and universally repeated (before bed, at school, during leisure hours) that a playful pronounciation of the characters' names made its way into general usage?

The popularity of the book is evident:

This is a christmas ornament at the white house celebrating the book. Listen to any of JFK's** speeches and you can hear the above-mentioned accent.

A commemmorative statue which I think is in Boston Common.

This popular adoption mechanism was highlighted in my favorite (and soon to be yours) 'Spectacular Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds' by Dr., Charles Mackay (written in the late 19th century). In the chapter 'Popular Follies of Great Cities', he traces the chronology of the mass adoption of popular phrases like 'Quoz', 'What a shocking bad hat!', 'Has your mother sold her mangle' and others. Malcolm Gladwell's 'Tipping Point' is also a fascinating account of similar mass-adoption anecdotes.

What do you think? Certainly there is a causality/chicken-and-the-egg issue with this theory that could only be resolved by a solid pre-1941 recording of this accent or at least a strong phonemological*** description of it. So I leave it to you dear readers, to go out on your tele-puter machines to find this evidence. Until then, I say Boston people talk like the ducks in the Charles River; and it's kind of endearing.

*This medal seemed to adorn all the best-selling books when I was a kid. The Chris Van Allsberg books, etc. that the librarians used to take time to read during library hour.

**Incidentally, regarding JFK's widely popular 'ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country' - I stumbled across in Henry David Thoreau's Walden which was published almost a century prior.

***That is PHONEME - ological, not phenomological.

Mycological Mystery

2009-07-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

What are these? Can I eat them? Will they change my whole perspective on shit?

2009-07-25T17:47:00.001-07:00

"This is that older world, that we're cutting the metabolical tradition cord from. And I now know, and as we go on more and more, as you stay with me, as we get to the right efficiencies which can be employed, we have the designing capability, I can say, by and large, I now know absolutely, incontrovertibly, the technique of how to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than anybody has ever known. We'll get into much more of that. I know how, and we've been through this project here with Meddy Gable and the last seminar in Pennsylvania this year on energy, we now know exactly, it's all spelled out, the engineering is there, the resources are there, the know-how is there, completely spelled out incontrovertibly that by l985 we can have all of humanity enjoying the same energy advantage enjoyed by the United States, absolutely exclusively in 1972 the whole of humanity enjoying that advantage, while completely phasing out all fossil fuels and all atomic energy. We now know how to do it. And I now know then it is highly feasible to take care of all humanity and all of its generations to come at a higher standard of living than anywhere ever known. So I know that politics are invalid, I know that war is invalid, I know that weapons are invalid, and I know the lying is invalid. It doesn't work there is nothing out there. I can understand how it got in all of those things, but they are now through. But the question is how quickly can we get all of humanity to know this is so." - Buckminster Fuller

Sculptures and Dog

2009-07-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

"What do you get when you cross an insomniac, an unwilling agnostic, and a dyslexic?

A guy who stays up all night mentally torturing himself over the question of whether or not there's a dog."

-DFW*

I've been working on models for a better frame for the structure and am weather pending on fitting the first cover. I've also been working exercising my sense of aesthetic and proportion by building scale models and even sand sculptures

Sand is a convenient way to render form

*David Foster Wallace

Falconer

2009-07-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

I came upon a bird who was curious enough to jump on a stick I put in front of him. And in so doing I join the ranks of falconers - that guild of royalty who have captured and trained raptors to extend their hunting faculties. Not quite an eagle, falcon or hawk, this little raptor is quite adept at finding worms and seeds. And so perhaps not enough to sustain the two of us -

Chapter 2 - The Empire Strikes Back

2009-06-24T15:52:00.001-07:00

The Marigold - Our national flag and pest control device.

In this allegory I just so happen to be the Empire and the cows an insufferable rebel force. The war between them and PR is at a standstill - does that mean we are at peace? no, I don't think so. More-so that it is in both our interests to maintain the equilibrium. However, if it came to either party's attention that their interests could be reasonably improved by another conflict, there would be no desire for peace (beyond the cost of war) to prevent it - Both sides are content enough with their realm not to start any trouble in the least it seems.

We are now both enmeshed in the domestic struggle to set up a sovereign equilibrium within our territories. I've opted for despotic rule - My loyal and severely unaware subjects only requiring water, sunlight and annual compost in exchange for a tireless effort to convert those ingredients into compounds I might derive energy from, thus enforcing my rule*. They seem to be a self-ruling band of gypsies and also quite dirty, as they pay no attention to where they shit or whether or not they step in it.

Unfortunately the barbaric bovine empire surrounds our borders, so we must appear strong so as not to encourage them to test the fences.

The decisive weapon was one of defense believe it or not - a 4-tiered barbed wire fence was successful.

Part of this strength will be in our foreign policy - We hope to trade promissory notes (denominated in our own currency of course) for their surplus manure - a product that we will need. Time is on our side in this trade, as the cows will be butchered (a prospect which they are delightfully unaware of) before the notes can be redeemed (of course there'll be an estate clause so ownership cannot be passed on to surviving offspring).

Our Kingdom

After Some Planting

And here's a bridge that I thought was nice -

Anyway - Have made some design progress while I was away so it will be a good week for content- Tomorrow will be an excruciating look at changing the throttle cable in a 1997 GMC Safari PR Van with a spare clutch cable the guy at the Brooklyn Vespa shop found 'in the back somewhere'.

Also - While I know there are no expectations with respect to the consistency of these posts - I have to apologize for the unannounced hiatus. Best to all -

*Some of you may think I've gone a bit crazy after reading this metaphor and say something like, "Man, he's been out in the woods too long, I mean he's talking about vegetal rule", and you'd be right, but I just got back from a week in New York City, so what then?

Raised Beds

2009-06-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

Where's my christmas truce?

When I've heard about World War I, more often than not I've heard about the trench warfare technique (A very efficient soldier massacring type of warfare where there were hundreds of miles of trenches with an average of 1 soldier every 4 inches. 300,000 died in the battle of Verdun with no change in either party's position). This has become such an ubiquitous part of not only institutional but pop culture education that its dynamics need not explanation but - Two opposing sides would face off and, due to the machine gun technology prevailing at the time, any attempt to advance would expose the soft essential parts of the soldiers to the comparatively hard and sharp hail of supersonic bits of metal lobbed from the opposing side. This resulted in a lot of holes in people on the battlefield. I was also told that after some successive waves of the afforementioned fighting, that medics were allowed to go out under a flag of peace to patch the holes. One of these types of events was the Christmas Truce.

Well, I went to salvage what I could from the previous garden and a peculiar thing happened. Although cows tend to be rather docile or at least submissive creatures, as I tapped the proverbial morphine drip for a wounded kale plant (trampled by the foul bovine), the leader of the cows confronted me. I wish I had my camera. The cow came up to me as if it had reached some type of Ayn Rand type individual enlightenment* and was staring me down (and not with the usual disinterested cow type of look). His 20-30 cronies stood behind with a similar stare. This was her garden now and I was meant to know. I picked up the shovel and made it look as if I was going to hit her in the face and she didn't blink. My now obvious bluff only strengthened her resolve. I was forced to flee.

I will try again.

After that, I made two raised beds using some very old half-rotted timbers and charcoal soil -

I'm considering a project reliance field day some Saturday in July - will keep you posted.

*As if she had become awakened to the fact that she has been led around by my kind her entire life and now realizes the totality of her potential existence - me being the first obstacle in her excersizing it.

Cuttlefish + Silver =

2009-06-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the dried out carcass of a cuttlefish can be used to cast molten silver?!*

After the murder of my garden and some prolonged bouts of rain I found myself with a friend and we decided to make a key-ring for the new chariot of PR - a GMC Safari Van which I finally got on the road after a 7-hour adventure with the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles. (pics to follow - as far as accounting goes, I decided not to count its $700 cost toward the PR dwelling, but I am thinking that it will most likely turn out to be PR $1000 hermit crab inspired mobile house). We started with a ring that she had made and given me -

Fitting for PR

And cut a cuttlefish in half, impressed a seashell in it and placed the key in the mold -

And cut a bowl and a hole out of the top half to pour the silver in -

And then melted it with fire -

Close-up-

I think this is called throwing good after bad - we melted these silver objects down to make a key handle.

And after some cutting and polishing - the most unnecessary key-ring in history -

Back to work this week -

*The afforementioned knowledge was relayed and, with much patience, taught to me by master jeweler and metal-smith Tamra Mottl of Mottl Industry (with umlaut over the O). Some examples of her work can be found here - Very talented custom jeweler. I know some of you are looking to get married soon, she makes beautiful and unique wedding rings - http://www.pawtucketopenstudios.com/dir_spring2007/artistpages/mottl.html

Murder!

2009-06-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

- O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest garden that ever was in the tide of times. Woe to the hoof that shed this costly blood! -

There was an attack on the garden last night. The tactics: surgical. The scale: comprehensive. The corn and other plants large enough to be appealing were nibbled to the earth, those too small to be seen by the dumb eye of that foul creature were trampled with an accuracy that made it seem intentional.

The Garden

2009-05-31T16:05:00.000-07:00

The first planting occurred this morning. The seedlings, who have been through so much, were removed from their containers, dipped in a secret concoction and thrust into the ground. As we were carrying water to the garden from a not-so-nearby creek, it started to rain.

Cayenne Pepper can keep away predators - like cows

Snow Pea - planted next to a stalk of corn

I love this thing - he dropped from a nearby tree and started munching awway on my squash plants as soon as I put them in, it was incredible, I wasn't even upset - a FOPR pointed out that the design on his back looks like a series of penguins. A fortune could probably be made from entomological bio-mime prints in clothing designs - actually - stand-by for Project Reliance t-shirts! who wants one?

Me*

Also Me

Love this guy

Does not bruise blue

*Thank you

Cow Defense

2009-05-30T17:21:00.000-07:00

These are the predators that will lay siege to the garden. I must make a fence. Putting the first plants in tomorrow.

I've also been thinking about how this whole covering scheme will work and I think I've figured it out.

Step 1: Mosquito screen around the whole wall section.

Step 2: Cover Entire Frame with heavy duty shrink wrap. While Covering, leave spiral flap around top third of wall to serve as water catchment system.

Step 3: Expand water catchment area while simultaneously shielding open windows by suspending 'flying shades' at strategic areas where there is natural tree support.

Here are some very rough digital sketches of what I have in mind.

Shades similar to the above will dramatically increase water catchment area for the house and also create an additional buffer from the elements. With these shades there should be little need for closing windows (other than screens) during the summertime. In addition, the upper tier shades shall be angled so as to allow the sun to pass underneath during the cool times of day but block most of the mid afternoon sun. Actual shape and frequency of flying shade(s) and windows to be determined on-site by available trees and relative sun position.

This was certainly easier to draw than it will be to build.

2009-05-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBMXaBkBZYw&NR=1

In Flight

2009-05-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

At one point in the last few days I found myself under the eaves of an old barn. and looked outside into the field at these birds that were diving at me and then retreating only to come around for another pass. I was apparently too close to their nests and they were probably trying to warn me away. I took several shots of them in flight but this was difficult as they were very fast. So I ended up having to set the camera's focus and aperture and then take the shot before the birds snapped around. Here they are -

The bird on the lower right above has his tail twisted in mid-turn. It's fascinating to think how these things actually fly, and what air must feel like to them as opposed to how we sense it. They probably think of it as we think of water. It's interesting to think how organisms of different size and sense perceive their environment and develop abilities within it.

When I was in college I wrote a paper called 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids is Bullshit'. Perhaps you remember that movie - It was Rick Moranis (whose best role, I think, was in a movie he did with Steve Martin about a mobster relocated to suburbia via the witness protection program [My Blue Heaven].) who shrunk his kids to about an inch tall (we will say for sake of argument, though they may have been much smaller).

In their tiny state, they were suddenly quite fearful of falling any small distance (from a tabletop for example). My paper stated, in no uncertain terms and holding back no polemic attack on my detractors, that those kids at an inch tall could easily have jumped off that table and landed with no different consequence than they would have experienced if they were their previous size. A simple argument - That gravity affects all beings the same, and that the speed at which they would have hit the ground would have been the same as it was before, and if their normal bones could have sustained such an impact then certainly their scaled down bones could too - was enough to begin a 3 hour long conversation with my physics professor (who still gave me a C in his class regardless of my ability to actually make him think). It turns out to be a more complicated problem [Factors including how mass scales down faster than bone strength does, muscle strength increases w/r/t mass as well, and even how not only would they have been able to jump off the table, but could easily have jumped back up to it - add in the wind resistance (so happily left out in high school, and most of college, physics) and you have some interesting stuff going on)], and leads to fascinating conclusions about how small and big things go about the world. At the end of it we agreed that you wouldn't get hurt, the convesation was how much of a little super-human you would actually be (Basically all the best parts of spiderman and superman). We may be advanced yet our textbooks have trouble explaining the flight of a bumblebee.

Anyway - Talking about winged insects - the pre-emptive defensive strike against mosquitoes continues. Not only am I cultivating bats (update later), but am reinforcing my house to repel their bloodthirsty onslaught -

It doesn't look like much, but that black ribbon was 2 days in the thinking and 2 in the making. It is not unlike the wrist seal of a drysuit and it takes the irregular surface where the lattice meets the floor and seals it completely from any invader. Now it's a simpler problem to seal the lower part of the wall to this and I should be pest-free*.

Here's a tree where the first Tree Structure will be built -

It's a big Beech tree and has the greenest, broadest leaves. I say structure because it will not be a house, but rather a place to sit or read while in the tree and have ample light and breeze. I would also think it to be a great place to sleep if the weather's right. I have a design in mind, basically a covered swing/wooden hammock, that will work perfectly here and will let the tree grow without harming it. More later...

THE GARDEN -

Basically 3 Big piles of dirt with weeds growing on them - Now to spread it all out, organize it in some way, protect it from deer, cow and the occasional horse, and transplant all the seedlings to their new domain. I will plant 5 times more than I will need so I don't have to sleep by the garden with a shotgun to protect the last vestige of veggies from animal mastication.

I'm stumped -

*While this now seems simple and obvious, I must say that when first faced with the problem it did not come to mind and when it did, it was so elegant it was obvious. It reminds me of my math professor in college who would always say 'Math is beautiful, if your answer is ugly, it's probably wrong.". It is folly to look for a beautiful solution however, but rather to come upon it through right process and perception. The beauty then is a confirmation, or even a reward.

Farmers Beware

2009-05-18T21:30:00.001-07:00

The ambitious folk who have sown gardens sleep warily tonight. When we wake up there will most likely be frost on the ground, and if so those who have already planted outside without cover will face seedlings frozen by cold settled air.

My whole crop of seedlings includes now:

10 varieties of Heirloom Tomatoes

Dino Kale

Yellow and Green Beans

3 Varieties of Basil

Tatsoi

Bok Choi

Fennel

Cayenne Pepper

Bell Pepper

Squash

Zucchini

Snow Peas

Mesclun Mix

Cardoon

Some red leafy thing I can't remember the name of

Pumpkins

Swiss Chard

Broccoli

and others...

I do not want these guys to die. So I put a woodstove in the PR hothouse I had prepared a month back just waiting for this late frost to arrive. I read my almanac.

I started a fire and warmed the space to 85 degrees, waited out there a bit for two fuel logs to catch and cut the oxygen -

For the seedlings that will be feeding me, hopefully it will be a -

We put the 'Cover' in Resource ReCovery

2009-05-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

A mountain of trash - The 'Resource Recovery Corporation' in RI

To raise one's awareness, I heard once that you must make the invisible visible; either for yourself or others. So I took a trip to the Resource Recovery Corporation in RI so I could see the trash we produce for myself (apparently they give tours so I will take one later to get some more info and inside-the-fence photos). This is a large (and growing steadily) mountain of trash. I don't have any facts with respect to what's recovered and not (though I heard that recycling is not being done as much since it is so expensive), but I'm interested in finding out.

The trash problem is not easily solved. In Vietnam, they throw their trash over the next hill; what they think is away. In Mexico, I've driven through trash 'fields' on the outskirts of the cities. In New England a century ago, farmers used to have small trash pits on the corner of the property and would even put old bottles in their stone walls (which you can still find if you're observant, or lucky).

New York City now generates 50,000+ tons of trash/day. 50,000 tons. I don't even know what that looks like, let alone the result of a long period of daily accumulation (I heard it is shipped to other 'mountains' in New Jersey and Pennsylvania). Imagine if NYC's trash 'outgo' were to stop? I wonder how many inches of trash on the street/day that would be (perhaps that's a good trash metric to think about in a society). 50,000 tons of trash/day would certainly be visible then. Maybe people would change their habits if that happened. I wonder if culture would absorb this new ever-present-trash paradigm and just accept it and do things like use it to build hip new nightclubs (derelicte!) or fish through it for shaggy-chic fashion accessories. There would be a windfall in the perfume industry.

Michigan is aggressively trying to build trash mountains as they import trash from Canada (getting paid something like $12/ton for it). Where that money goes I don't know.

After talking to an environmental engineer at Shaw Environmental, I learned that there is not really much bio-degrading going on in landfills. In order to prevent water leeching through and contaminating groundwater, landfills are capped with impervious (at least for a while) membranes, eliminating oxygen amongst the very dense collection of refuse. Without oxygen there is no degrading. It's more like preservation. So we are preserving trash. I even heard that it'll eventually be profitable (as technology advances and marginal mining costs rise around the world or maybe it could even be catalyzed by a domestic currency crash and the concomitant price surge of commodity imports from countries we may not have financial or military control over that goes with it*)) to mine landfills for valuable materials. Already they contain a higher percentage of some metals (like copper) than the richest mines on earth.

With the above in mind, I can think a little more clearly with respect to PR's potential trash mitigation strategies.

After my trash field trip, I went back to PR and began to build the floor to the outside bathroom -

That rock doesn't look heavy but it took me 2 hours to get it there (Triangles don't roll well, in fact, it tacked back and forth across the path). This will eventually be a natural granite deck to complete the waterfall shower.

There's something about building with rocks that's satisfying. Perhaps because it's a way to make a lasting impact on the world. I'm also building a bench underneath the beech trees (as soon as I devise a pulley system to lift this 300+lb perfectly smooth granite boulder I'm dead set on using) - It's no stonehenge, but I wonder if it will last 500 years. That's more of a legacy than I would have left otherwise I think. I wonder how many people will sit on it.

After wrestling with rocks I took another walk, this time starting off in a different direction. I found this amazing collection of big-leafed green plants -

And these yellow flowers began to bloom in the fields (I think they are called Goldenrod) -

And this tree was impressive -

I would like to thank everyone for their interest and encouragement. This was initially meant to be a personal account, and then as a way for friends to keep up with me, but then I was told by several people recently that they read this every day when they get into the office.

I'm happy to provide this small window to another world-

*That was a bit of a rant - and a run-on one no less.

Seeds Grow Fast with Mushrooms

2009-05-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

These have sprung up quickly - I'll need to transplant them tomorrow. I'm skeptical to plant anything before there is little chance of frost.

The covering of the house situation is close to being solved. There was a tarp donation and another hardware store is going out of business so I'll be able to pick up some insect separation equipment at attractive prices tomorrow.

The dwelling itself will most certainly be an ongoing project and will certainly be improved. The process of construction has offered not only problems to be solved but also interesting possibilities. For example, the spiral failure problem may have been a structural inconvenience, but it also pointed to a way in which I could design this to be collapsible (that, and a little creative origami w/r/t the covering).

I've also come across an old Singer sewing machine (which I may have to repair) so I will begin on the construction of the covering tomorrow. I have come across some ideas in ancient painting texts with respect to ideal lighting and will try incorporate them into the design of the openings. If anyone can tell me what a braccia is I would appreciate it...

In addition, if I may nominate a PR documentary of the week: 'The Century of the Self'

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=the+century+of+the+self&emb=0&aq=f#

If you get bored with my monologue, watch this in its entirety. It's fascinating.

a handclasp 'til the morrow -

What do you imagine is the difference between seeing a beautiful object and an ugly one?

2009-05-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

First of all, I would like to thank Erich for illuminating the charcoal soil phenomenon in awesome detail (check yesterday's comments section). I find this fascinating and will use some of this information in the upcoming experiments.

Having now finished (apart from the door) the general frame of the dwelling, I have come upon the need to think about the composition of the site (in addition to all the other design questions yet to be answered). So I took a walk to observe the natural composition of the area.

Leonardo Da Vinci used to has suggested staring at an oil-stained canvas in order to create a composition for a painting, as the mind can create any illusion in its process of imposing order upon something it does not understand. You can hear any name in the echo of a wind chime. So I set out to stare.

I happened upon a hidden opening -

I came upon several natural hideaways artfully crafted with the cooperation of chance and the native species. I spent some time here (the view from which is the image above) -

A pine tree, some fallen wood, a rock and a blackberry bush

The place is alive. There was a bumblebee by my foot, he did not find what he was looking for in the grass while I was there -

Then I found a natural bower-

Two pine trees, a rock, and a needled path

Is there a better architect than nature itself? It dawned on me how utterly stupid it was of me to begin without first observing. Even the night in the cave now seems superflous with respect to what could have come about by first observing what was there. Looking at what I've built, it seems like I carved a circle to separate myself from that which was around me. A discrete this-is-where-I-live box and not another question. Now that I'm aware of this folly, I think a more continuous integration with the site will result.

Consider this dandelion -

The individual seeds around the dark spherical center I think serve to prevent the movement of the air in and out, through friction. So there's a captive fluid, As the center naturally heats up in the sun, the air around is heated and it takes on a natural buoyancy, perhaps it is lifted for just long enough for the paratroopers to be deployed. I wonder what triggers their release?

In addition to natural dwellings, I also found some interesting patterns and textures:

Some seeds on a stalk -

A decaying branch -

From this old tree -

Some vines crawled up on a rock and there was no water -

Look at the space this interaction between tree and understory creates -

Here's a sculpture; A joint effort between time, neglect, and a farmer -

With a new understanding, I will continue.

20th Post special! B+W Edition

2009-05-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

In honor of our 20th post special and our common atomic friend, carbon, This episode is in black and white.

While tying up my walls and rafters I followed sailor rule #1-

If you can't tie a knot, tie a lot.

The charcoal making experiment was a 50% success -

As in 50% Carbon yield and 50% ash. Is all the energy embodied in wood and other organic matter just stored up solar energy? A tree takes 100 years to grow and about 30 minutes to burn, releasing heat that it's stored for years. Trees are, among other things, a bunch of energy capacitors...For the next experiment I will need a welder and welding practice in order to make a proper charcoal-making device. What can we use charcoal for?

1. - Grilling on an open flame without the taste or carcinogenic injection of petroleum accelerants

2. - Terra Preta! This is the mythical Amazonian 'Black Earth'. I've been doing some side experiments with this... Basically, strange black soil was discovered 40 years ago in the middle of the rainforest (most of the soil there is an 'oxisol' which is orange). - (here's a good pic that gets around the B+W decree)

This soil amazes scientists because plants absolutely love it (and the microorganism count is off the charts (if there are any pedological microorganism charts)) and it increases in thickness every year - it grows; like the blob. The supposed secret to the soil? Charcoal. And lots of it.

Charcoal has this amazing ability to link up with lots of other atoms. Which is why it is the backbone of what we're made of I guess... It is said that an ounce of carbon (in the form of charcoal) has a surface area of 3 football fields (more nooks and crannies than a Thomas' English Muffin).

Among other things, 2 factors that make an excellent soil are porosity and nutrient retention. Soil is a living thing. A collection of uncountable species of bacteria and fungi, symbiotically related and not...Charcoal not only creates the porosity for mushroom mycelium and bacteria to hang out in, but also attracts and holds onto water, nutrients and other stuff, which the afforementioned little bugs make available to plant roots; Super Soil! I'm making some. I already have good soil so I might not notice much of a difference. But Haiti doesn't have soil; and the people are starving. maybe we can find a way to rebuild their soil using stuff they already have...reliance.

The soil used in agribusiness is typically tilled to death and dusty and the water will either run off or through it and leech the nutrients out - This is one reason why they require constant and increasing petroleum-based fertilizer inputs to maintain crop yields. This is how 95% of food is grown now. This is a liquidation of a natural resource. And I'm told that if we didn't do this, we wouldn't be able to feed the number of people that are being fed now. I call bullshit.

Anyway - I also had the problem of the roof to solve. I had a 1/2" piece of plywood which I had used for a couch I made back in 2003. The couch was a bomb so I ripped it into little strips* -

Many ideas were sketched out to try and solve the mysterious spiral failure. In the end, I reasoned that in order to prevent it from failing spirally, I needed to strengthen it spirally. Seemed simple. So I did. First put up some supports -

Then added the spiral strips -

Can you see them around the edges? I am realizing that this is a cool pic, but not very explanatory. Anyway this was an absolute success! I was able to swing from the circle without a problem now. I might even hook my rings up to it.

Here's a closing shot of the last round of germinations -

Open Questions:

1.) What will my floor be made out of?

2.) What will my walls and ceiling be made out of?

3.) How will I insulate?

Creativity and budget-mindedness are encouraged.

Sunday Plant Progress

2009-05-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Plant Progress Report -

Kale -

Tomato -

Today, after spending some time with Mum, I tried to make some charcoal out of the scraps of wood from kindling house. Basically you start a fire in a barrel -

And you wait for a while until it's going really good -

And then cover it up and wait. It's outside covered right now. Not sure what's going to happen. We will all soon see.

I also painted the bat house - couldn't resist -

Back to work tomorrow! Beautiful day in RI...

Nana na na na na nana na na na na Batman!

2009-05-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

Andrew Bird's Mysterious production of eggs is now the official soundtrack of PR. I have probably listened to that album over 100 times during the course of this. The thing is, it's still good. amazing.

I finished the bat house -

This is looking at it straight on - tomorrow it will be covered with black rubber for heat and mounted on a 15' pole. I drew a bat on there with a Sharpie so the bats know it's for them. Hopefully. The black along the edges is a roofing tar to seal it all up. It's important that this thing retain heat for the little guys. They like heat. That's why they're always hiding underneath the eaves of people's attics - constant warm air source. Here's a shot looking up from the bottom -

The grey stuff is an insect screen. The plywood is too smooth for them to climb up or hang from so I stapled that on there so they can get a grip.

A colony should be able to populate this and roost (according to the pennsylvania wildlife dept.) This wasn't my design so we'll see...

Bathouse: $27

Material List

2009-05-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Today I sowed more seeds. Over 400 plants-to-be. Will have pictures when they've germinated.

Several have requested a materials and price list up to this point.

Wood:

12' Furring strips - $55 (at auction including buyer's premium)

Asst. 2x4, 2x6 - $34.92 (obtained half from dumpster)

Plywood 7 sheets - $37.21 (bought on clearance sale)

Hardware:

Box of 3" deck screws - $25.69

Box of 1.25" deck screws - $0 (donation)

Carriage bolts, washers, nuts - $41.22

Misc.

Wood Glue - $4.89

15 cinder blocks - $0 (donation)

57' length 5/16" nylon cord - $0 (donation)

37 custom metal brackets - $0 (donated material and relentless ambition)

Grand total thus far: - $198.93

That leaves $801.07 still in the budget.

Up to this point, I've been spending time on my house. However, my winged brethren, compatriots in the fight against mosquitoes and flies, demonized by suburban homeowners, flit about with no sense of security at all (emotion anthropomorphized*) of where they might land, and so today I am gathering materials for a bat house -

This is a little brown bat. The types of bats in my area. They eat 50% of their body weight in insects every day (also perhaps this will increase the chances of the fox nabbing a couple for himself) if they can find them. The bat house should be able to house a colony of 250. Each adult weighs 1/4 ounce (wow, can't believe so light). So that's 1/8 oz per bat * 250 = approximately 2 pounds of mosquitoes every day slowly turning into fertilizer for every inhabited bat-house. The alternatives are bug-zappers (which, if you look around a bugzapper, are nowhere near as effective; 2lb of mosquito carcasses would be quite a pile.) or some type of insecticide (the negative consequences of which surely outweigh a few mosquitoes.)

I still need some time to figure out how to strengthen my roof. Excellent point not to hang from the rafters, and surely I will no longer. But the snow might not be so thoughtful.

*I couldn't remember what the word was for when you assign human emotions to animals. This is it. I looked this up. My very good friend, now living in Brazil, goes overboard with this with her devilish little dog (guilty). He wears clothes and once I think his name was Santa Paws. It has been claimed that he is omniscient.

Great Success!

2009-05-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

The sky's the limit if you have a roof over your head - Sol Hurok *

After a long yesterday of hammering, shaping, screwing, etc. I was able to start the day with a circle full of bent metal thingys. In my mind it seemed everything would go together. Before I started putting up the rafters, I realized I had to finish the walls. And then when I was trapped inside, realized I needed to make a door. It was actually quite simple. I had a saw and literally cut my way out of my circular cage -

Of course, there will eventually need to be a frame there, and a hobbit door. But at least I can get in and out now. Once that was done I started hanging rafters on the custom circle thing (ruining my anarchy symbol) -

And a Close-up -

And after another couple hours teetering on an aged-and-not-so-well-maintained stepladder I took a break and laid down in the center. I looked up and snapped this shot -

Architects in ancient Rome, after completion of a large arch, were forced to stand under them as the scaffolding was removed. If the architect or his team of builders did poorly, he would never build another. If he was successful, he could. Some arches have been standing for a long time. I think we need to hold the architects of our social order to a similar standard. In that spirit, I grabbed onto the circle and hung from it for a bit and at this point I need to mention something.

First, if you're out in the middle of the woods 11' off the ground hanging from a structure you built out of kindling and roof flashing, you might not want to kick the ladder out from underneath you for added effect. (this is only necessary in an 'as-seen-on-TV' info-mercial). Luckily I was not harmed but some structural concerns were revealed.

When there is a load on this roof, the roof goes initially deflects in its 'path of least resistance' failure mode. I guess I'll call it spiral failure. If you were to look closely at the photo above, you can see that the rafters don't meet the circle perfectly, and there is no 'virtual center'. As I loaded it it further, I could see that failure would first occur in the metal things which would simply twist off, and then the whole thing would be unstable. I need to triangulate the structure simply. Please, dear audience, help with any ideas on how to do this simply and, perhaps, with some elegance. I know there's a clever jewelry maker out there who is very good at these types of problems.

Anyway, here's what I left with -

What induces you, oh man, to depart from your home in town, to leave parents and friends, and go to the countryside over mountains and valleys, if it is not the beauty of the world of nature which, if you consider well, you can only experience through the sense of sight -

Leonardo Da Vinci

*I don't know who Sol Hurok is. And, though his quote was the best in a google search for 'roof quotes', I didn't have integrity enough to google him. And, even after writing this, I probably still won't. If anyone out there does, please jot down the top 5 facts about Hal in the comments below.

PR's First Failure

2009-05-07T14:39:00.001-07:00

(mE+mOTH)

Today was trying. First, it was raining, which makes things slippery. Also, mosquitoes tend to stay away from the sun but love an overcast wet day. So I had a mosquito problem. But then I thought about it and it's not a mosquito problem, it's a bat deficiency. So I will try my darndest to cultivate a bat colony within 1/4 mile of PR. Bats are spectacular. The night I slept under the rock they were broadcasting supsersonic lullabies as they ate their fill of bugs (or maybe they were screaming at me to get out from under their rock). A bat-house is in the works, check back soon and help me name them all...

Anyway, I mostly finished the walls and set up all the rafters in position -

And then I ran a piece of nylon line through a hole I cut in each and also set up some scaffolding to hold the center ring in place so I could start installing the rafters -

Resemble anything? -

I thought that was pretty awesome. (For an excellent paper on the content of the word 'anarchy' see: 'Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology', David Graeber)

As I began to install rafters I saw that things were not working. I almost slipped off the ladder and I did not have enough hands to hold everything in place and affix it simultaneously. Slowly and silently (When you're in the middle of the woods you start to realize there's no logical reason to express frustration, either audibly or mentally. Certainly the chemical sensation that is frustration or anger comes up, but when there is only silence around it is quite easily observed and dispensed with as it is utterly irrelevant and most likely degenerative.) I stepped off the ladder, packed my things and headed back, thinking there was nothing left to do - I snapped some pictures before I left as the Beech trees just got leaves and even on a dark day lit up the forest a bright green -

Here are the leaves in bud form -

I got back to the farm and began to brainstorm about how to fix my situation. I found some thin metal lying around and formed a bunch of 'u brackets' (for lack of a better word) with a hammer and a square piece of iron that I found in a junk pile amongst a pile of leaf springs from a 1940s Ford pickup truck. Here's an impromptu self portrait mid-hammering -

After a few hours I had a solution -

The idea here is that the rafters will slip into the 'u' bits and I can cross-screw them. They might not line up perfectly but as a very good architect friend of mine who lost most of his left brain in a bicycle-meets-truck-type accident and who now arranges odd items in eerie harmony once told me,

-Nothing is perfect. Nothing has to be perfect. You're just living.-*

We'll see if this works tomorrow - any ideas on how to attract what can only be called a significant quantity of bats (and also a nearby fox) do let me know.

*I've come to see this two ways: Whereas the state of nothing is perfect, and, as a result, any material thing cannot be. It figures that someone who only has a right brain would say this. I have learned much from him and two short conversations have led me to question the relevance of thought in certain areas (The tricky thing about questioning thought is that to come up with an answer, thought must get involved, and then you get caught in that circle and thought runs around trying to define itself. So for this to have any significance, I've observed that it helps to not attempt to conclude, but rather remain in a state of question, perception, and examination - and you can then go beyond the structure of knowledge and thought, which is limited, and dare to come upon something completely different. (If thought is a cow, then the limits of knowledge are the fence of its pasture) -

Uneventful Events

2009-05-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Spent today cutting and drilling rafters and trying for the life of me how I'm going to get it all attached.

Also I began the process of becoming a LEEDS accredited professional. I've been wondering what the current standards are for green building and thought that the only way to really know is to become a professional in the field. Turns out it's about 30 hours of studying and a test; and it gives me something to do on a rainy day.

I was just thinking that housing hasn't really changed since WW2 and the Sears catalog pre-fab craze and so we know nothing else; No other way to live.

There is little alternative for the first-time homebuyer but to buy the same house w/ the same mortgage that everyone else has (or pay absurd rents set by the prospects of the local job market).

Anyway, Innovative architecture doesn't seem to address pressing issues (some of which I think include economy, environment, and equality) - Which does this building address?

Easy to poke fun at that one - I think it might be possible to come up with an affordable, ecological living solution that doesn't require constant maintenance, a specialized contractor and building team, a huge upfront payment and a mountain of debt (while not only abiding by current building codes but also attaining high LEED status). An order of magnitude improvement!

Here is a general example -

The majority of this house is made out of trash and earth (tires, plastic bottle, etc.) and it passively heats and cools itself, requiring no external energy. It even has some personality and if you lived in it you might get a visit from a travelling band of Jawas.

Enough of the rant - more close-ups of animals, insects and construction photos tomorrow. I see my follower list has increased - The entertainment ante has been upped.

Back In Action

2009-05-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

While spending some time on a distant island with some friends I discovered a new type of architecture - Tropical Spartan? -

While this works in a tropical climate, I had a feeling this might leave much to be desired in a New England climate - so I'm sticking with the original design, for now. However, I was inspired a bit by this guy's house -

He always has a place to stay, wherever he goes. He never has to worry about returning to where he woke up. He can just walk...and who knows where he'll end up. I wonder what a human version of this would look like. I drew out some sketches and ended up with a bent plywood piece of furniture I would like to build - more on this when the house and shower situation is sorted. I did invent and implement a new type of clothes rack technology -

I thought this looked like a commercial for a product claiming to smell like this so I had to add it. The clothes did not smell like the meadow when dry.

I was surprised how many new things there were after being gone for only 3 days. Leaves are coming out of their buds and with the help of a friend discovered some new PR species I was unaware of. A cherry tree, in bloom-

A wild strawberry -

A toad (not frog) -

Violet-

And some moss (which looks amazing up close). I'm going to try to cultivate this moss into a type of 'lawn'. And blanket a whole area with it. This will take time-

Also, getting closer to a water/shower solution. Now the plan is to keep a large reservoir of water perched on Reliance Rock. It will supply needed pressure, collection and filtration and also add a waterfall shower feature. Check it out -

This is the northern wall of the rock. It is a sheer face, and the surface on the top is such that it channels water over this face like a showerhead. It took an observant FOPR to notice this feature. Another benefit is that the water catchment will double as a shelter around the fire if it were to rain.

Also, the birds weren't around the feeders and I noticed they ate all the black seed until the corn clogged the feeder, and then gave up. No more corn in bird feed.

Back to work tomorrow - roof rafters and gardening...

Hiatus

2009-04-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

Project Reliance will continue on Monday, May 4th. I did hope to get something done today but instead decided to help out others in their endeavors. Tomorrow I'm traveling to visit some good friends for the weekend. Tom the Tomato will be bigger then if not dead and perhaps the birds will have found the feeders.

Also, Project Reliance is making friends. We may have a guest gardener on-site Monday!

Walls of Change 2

2009-04-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Ok it works now - After tilling the secret tomato garden with a fresh load of cow poo, I headed to the woods to continue with Kindling House -

Here is a picture with the walls up - I came up 8 pieces of kindling short so I need to make some more tomorrow. Here is a close up -

Not bad for firewood. The symmetry in this picture is very Leigh Freidlander-esque.

Also, after my fox experience, I decided to make a concerted effort to attract more wildlife. So I went to Benny's and in aisle 4 next to the Pez dispensers and paint scrapers I found some wild bird seed. I got some birdfeeders from an attic and hung 'em up -

Bird's eye view... I think it looks delicious but the birds have yet to notice my ornitho-culinary creation. Rest assured I will be alert with camera cocked.

That's it for today - tired and dirrrrty...

Walls of Change

2009-04-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

Check this out -

This is a Tomato seedling of some heirloom variety (I meant to label all of the seeds from the 10 different varieties I'm growing, but they got messed up in the mix so now I will have a grab-bag tomato garden.) This guy, in his rush to reach the sky in a sun-fueled blitz, decided to bring a piece of soil with him. No doubt it will be discarded when the leaves split.

While watching him, I wondered where the line is where things are no longer a chain of chemical events and when they begin to be life. Or if my assumption of a division at all is false and it's all just a continuous movement. It all just is. In any event, it's living enough for me, I named him Tom.

For some reason the image uploader is broken. Boo Blogspot. I will try to finish this later -

Water water everywhere nor any drop to drink

2009-04-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

As this blog is also kind of a personal notebook, I am posting some midnight ideas.

Water - while working I sometimes become thirsty. This is because humans need water and I am constantly hauling it out there. However, if I am to be not only hydrated but clean, I'll need lots of it - I think I will design a large rain catchment system. I could use the roof of the kindling house, but I want something with a little more area. Lucky for me I came across a 50' by 100' tarpaulin used to cover a slope failure on a capped landfill. With that area, 1" of rain will yield over 3000 gallons. Filtration can be achieved through a slow bio-sand filter (like they use in Madagascar - this is overkill as it kills viruses, etc. which to the best of my knowledge don't fall from the sky - but hey, nothing wrong with overkill if it's cheap!) and storage through tanks conveniently placed up and among the trees (to create pressure).

I am envisioning pulleys and lines, a large steel tank (which farmers are always trying to get rid of for some reason...), and a dramatic rain-dance as the clouds begin to form and I'm hopping around checking all the rigging.

Shower Area - With heated water, I see little downside to a year-round New England outdoor shower; if it's done well. And I intend to do it well...

The Kindling House is taking shape

2009-04-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

I bought a battery powered jigsaw for $30 today at a local 'everything' store called Benny's. There was a running joke we had in high school about this place; Whenever there was a car-ful of guys one would always start, "Aisle 13: Fishing poles, Air filters and women's hair nets." and the next, "Aisle 6: candy bars, wigs and swiffer sweepers." and so on ad nauseum. The loser of the game I guess was the guy whose aisle inventory was lacking sufficient unique contrast to be funny. There was also a musical-chairs-esque race against what I would call the 'laughter bell curve', that is, how a hilarious joke might spark uncontrollable laughter among a group of guys that soon turns painful as the source of the laughter begins to include the fact that everyone is laughing so hard, which begins the positive feedback loop. The afforementioned un-funny guy's unusual product list would do best if told during the climax of this phenomenon and even start a descent that might leave a legitimately funny offering dead on arrival. This joke occurred often enough to warrant this depth of analysis.

In any event, the jigsaw was a POS. I cut 3 of 14 boards when the battery ran out and ended up using the cordless sawzall of a neighboring farmer who happened discovered me mid-build. I exchanged information I had about a certain wayward cow he was looking for, including possible search vectors, for the use of this tool. Unfortunately I realized I got a bad deal when he began to comment on my construction efforts from the context of the bible. I realize there are few contexts in which what I'm doing might make sense to collective civilization but I think I could at least communicate with someone. I was unprepared to rebut biblically. As he went on I mentioned that Jesus probably lived in a similar hut at one time and he changed the subject.

The new subject was how I would 'go mad' if alone for too long. I told him that so far I'm going happy, but I'd let him know and good luck finding the cow. I wonder if Jesus spent time alone.

I finished the deck -

And after some more time, got some of the walls up -

At this juncture I'm not too happy with some decisions I've made and am unsure about how the rafters will fit, how I'll do windows and doors and so on. Also the floor sucks. I used OSB sheathing as a sub-floor material so I'm not too concerned, but I don't know what I'm going to put over it that will fit in the budget. This is not acceptable flooring (and probably not acceptable sub-flooring given the smell) so please some genius out there recommend a solution, or some philanthropist donate some salvaged hardwood floors. I considered sod briefly as I can get it out of the field for free - but the prospect of all of it dying and living in a mudpit changed my mind.

I also came up with the idea of one 360 degree window. I figure that and a spinny chair would lead to hours of entertainment. I can't talk myself out of that one, and it'll make the covering easy. Just not sure how to 'close' such a window. Or how to block anything but rain the travels exactly downward.

One thing I do like is the stonehenge-esque configuration of the cinder blocks.

A friend of PR came by yesterday to check it out and brought up the bathroom question. It will certainly be outdoors and I have some ideas floating around that might end up being an improvement on current bathroom configurations (at least in terms of character).

Enough from me - here is the secret entrance to PR that only me and the cows know about -

PS I wish I could tell if you're all reading this - blogspot doesnt offer such a feature so leave some inspirational commentary for me please if you feel so...um ... inspired.

Spider Man

2009-04-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

Seedlings are still green - go PR -

After a few days of being an ant - carrying my house piece by piece out to the woods - scored a tractor ride out to PR and discovered an old logging trail (though almost indistinguishable as a trail) to within 30 ft of the site. We almost flipped the tractor, a big green one, and I would have had a photo of that if I wasn't riding in the bucket.

So I began to assemble all the pieces I had cut off-site, and much to my surprise -

It fit together! (Please ignore the stud on the left that seems out of place, it is the result of a rounding error and is a consequence of having all the others be an exact 'half-a-sheet-of-plywood apart.) As for assembly, I got all this together in two very hot and water-deprived hours -

At About 5:30 bugs start to get me. This certainly highlights the need for screens 100% of the time. Which brings me to the next point. After a meeting with a friend who owns a sail loft - we've ditched the canvas idea. First of all, it takes me way over $1000 budget and second it's not totally waterproof. The current plan is....shrink wrap. Believe it or not, it's made out of recycled material and is thermoplastic and completely recyclable. In addition, I can COMPLETELY enclose the structure first (including underneath) in one piece and then cut outand fininsh windows and doors (How I'm going to do this with some semblance of style and grace is another matter altogether as it's the kind of material that could be elegant if done well and white-trash if done any other way). It is very heavy duty and super cheap. 2 layers with reflective insulation between is the current plan (it's so cheap it's almost worth trying just to play with the blow torch.)

Last bit - while I was creating the frame, I heard a crashing behind me - I swung around and I was being eerily stalked by a slow-moving cow. Who quickly lost interest -

Floor and walls tomorrow

First Night

2009-04-26T04:18:00.000-07:00

I planted the germinations in a secret soil mix and am hoping for the best. I read things about how essential it is to not touch the budding root system or stem as you plant theses guys. I found this difficult. Time will tell if the seedlings survive.

I started to clear the site for the hermitage...Yes, I was cutting down trees...however, an arborist evaluated the property and came to the conclusion that 23% of the existing trees need to be taken out in order to free up resources for the remainder. I didn't cut anything too big, and chainsaws are fun -

I observed this 'tree feature' several times throughout the forest, I wonder what causes this; if it's natural, or if some type of animal creates it -

While I was clearing the site, I realized that I may be moving a bit too fast. If this is a fundamental re-examination of a way of living, then shouldn't I be questioning all assumptions? To come upon something fundamentally different or to think outside the box, mustn't one fist question its walls? The design of the hermitage was done on a computer and in my head, while offsite. I realized that if I am to transform the immediate environment, I must first understand it.

To examine what is absolutely necessary, I put down my tools and set up a small camp. I excercised the most ancient of architecture, perhaps that which could be found most years of homo-sapien existence; a fire outside a cave. I gathered large rocks and rolled them up the hill to create a reflective surface for the heat, and hoped that they might have the capacity to store some. I took a guess how far away the fire should be from the cave, keeping in mind smoke and proximity to warmth (Since this was an instantaneous decision, apart from a book of matches, I was ill-prepared for the 'traditional' Coleman-accessory-equipped camping experience.) I spent another hour or so collecting dead wood from around the area for the night. When the pile looked big enough, I started the fire and slept in a small cave created by an overhang in a large piece of granite -

I had never done this before, but it all seemed to make sense as I went along. As darkness fell, I became acutely aware of the sounds around me. A flock(?) of bats passed overhead, screeching like a dog whistle, and frogs were singing and there was zzzzzzs coming from some other insect. I wasn't sure if something would try to eat me so sleep became this half-state of rest and concerted attention. One convenient thing: When the fire died down, I would automatically wake up from the cold so I could restart it.

I was woken by the sound of a red and white fox trotting by. I whistled at him and he pretended not to hear me. The sun was coming up so I decided to get started - today will be a day of construction.

First Night at Project Reliance

2009-04-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ghostwriter: I am spending my first night at Project Reliance. Details to follow.

Design and Fabrication

2009-04-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

First of all, I would like to say thank you for everyone's compliments. I must say I was quite surprised by the response. I've never blogged before, but it is turning into a motivational tool

I took a stroll around the field this morning and contemplated the details of the design.

I have lived in New York City for the last 5 years or so and, though I've visited remote islands and beaches, have come to realize I've spent little time alone in tranquility (in my whole life even). I've been surrounded by various noises or people, and even though I had become conditioned to accept the drone of the traffic in the city, or the television in the other room, or the people down the hall, the silence I came upon was no less profound, interrupted only by birds.

I spent the previous evening finalizing some drawings for what will be the floor. To absolutely minimize the use of lumber, I decided to frame it much like a spider would. I was able to salvage some used 2X4s out of the dumpster of a local contractor (and bought what I couldn't find) and after about an hour of pulling nails they seemed just as good. I cut all the wood to the length specified in the drawings and to my utter surprise it actually fit together!

Just 12 more of these and we have a circle!

Leonardo Da Vinci said, "Small dwellings focus the mind and large ones distract it" so I decided upon a diameter of 16'. This also leads to convenient math and lumber usage as the least expensive lumber comes in 8' lengths, perfect radial supports. (Note to aspiring woodworkers: I think the reason why the majority of buildings in the world are square, is because of the odd dimensions and measuring tricks necessary for radial construction. As simple as this design was, I would have been overwhelmed with 'back of the envelope' calculations without a CAD program and an engineering degree!)

Here is the circle, all glued together. I'll need to trim the outside smooth and figure out a way for rafters to travel from the outside edge of this, to the top of the lattice wall. Any suggestions from talented readers are welcome.

Here is about half of the lumber necessary in the back of the truck. Now that I have the flooring and wall materials cut and ready for assembly, I thought it time to finalize the site -

I've been thinking about this for a couple years and chose a spot very close to this large boulder (Though the closest I could get to it by vehicle is about 300 paces off an old logging trail. If one of my paces is about 3 feet, and I can carry about 1/100th of requisite materials every trip, that's 18,000 feet of walking. Half of it burdened with Cargo; about 3 1/2 miles. I've been meaning to get in shape...)

The boulder sits among a small forest of young beech trees. Over time, I intend to pleach some of them and create a bower -

Or a mysterious tunnel -

As for gardening 'schools', there are several (among them French and English). It seems the French have developed a style in which they attempt to control a plot of land in a constant battle between the perceived order of human labor and the chaos of nature. The English seem to go with the flow more, using native species and placement concurrent with little toil and great beauty. Over time, I hope to cultivate a small area surrounding the dwelling with some interesting native specimens and perhaps some artful placement of local stones and moss. The Boulder above is perched in such a way that has created a small cave on its eastern side which will be an ideal hearth.

That's it for today - I'm tired.

What is Project Reliance?

2009-04-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

I've had several inquiries into what I may be doing and how I might be doing it. I've started this blog to attempt to outline exactly that.

This is me -

One unsuccessful attempt to define Project Reliance is to assume I'm 'going back to the land'. As if I ever left. Don't we all live on the land? Perhaps the simpler one lives, the more immediately his or her effects are felt. To support a more extravagant 'lifestyle' (an interesting word in itself), one must spread his impact to more land, some of it far away. In any event, we're all on the land. If consciousness of this fact were ever-present, Perhaps we would live differently.

I will soon be inhabiting 15 acres of pure Rhode Island wilderness (this would be a spectacular cue for a photo-op but, sadly, no photos quite yet). There are a bunch of trees and some fields. I think it would be interesting to see if, one day, I could 'close-the-loop', that is, make the place completely self-sufficient, or sustainable, or green, or environmentally conscious or whatever it is people are calling the idea of living reasonably this month. What would it take?

Well first, I need shelter. So I'm going to see what kind of a house I can build for $1000USD. Luckily I picked up some wood at an auction held by a bankrupt lumberyard for $50 -

(My dad called this a worthless pile of kindling. And, upon further inspection, it is. However, I'm sticking to it - If I can build a house out of this stuff...I'll call it...The Kindling House!)

and borrowed some design tips from ancient mongolian sheepherders -

All that and a CAD program I pirated might just lead to a solid place to hang my hat. For the last two days I have been cutting, drilling, sawing, planing, etc. I drilled 600 holes this morning I think. Here are some pieces of wood that will eventually be a very strong circle -

How? Well here is it being glued. (This took patience) -

The toolbox is very important here. Aspiring woodworkers please take note.

In addition to habitation, one needs food and water. We'll get to the water part later, but as for food I will be taking part in the ancient tradition of gardening. In the gospel of Thomas, Jesus said:

"Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure. Anyone with two good ears had better listen!"

Whoa! Thanks Jesus! I'll keep that in mind. Here are some seeds I've recently germinated -

Now, these are fuzzy seeds. That's because instead of scattering them, I germinated them in conjunction with the spores of a mycorrhizal fungus. The mushroom mycelium (fuzzy white stuff) has formed a symbiotic relationship with the seedling and will be with its root system for life, protecting it from bacterial intruders and acting like a nutritional superhighway importing resources from beyond the plant's reach. All else equal, more resources means more vegetables. These particular seeds are an heirloom Dino-Kale variety from our good friends at the NY seed library. Kale is packed with phyto-nutrients.

I'm also teaching myself calligraphy. Just in case there IS a revolution from the collapse of the financial system, the ornery working class electing a populist uberlord, a large-scale environmental crisis or, better yet, a radical psychological evolution of mankind, I like to think I might be called in to help draft a new Declaration. Here is a sample for the resume -

For now, that's about it.

Project Reliance question of the day - Can anyone identify the language I'm writing in?