Working between Meals

Street Action!

Photos from the 31 October 2009 Halloween March / Dia de los Muertos Marcha on City Hall in Santa Rosa. These are various people wearing the California Driver License Mask. The march was aimed at supporting Sonoma County as a County of Refuge that can stop law enforcement from racial profiling. We marched in support of keeping families united and to prevent the deportation of our youth by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.).

Learn more about the local Committee for Immigrant Rights, Sonoma County.

Waking Up At Work

Yes, I cannot forget that the interior walls are unfinished when they're the first thing I see in the morning...

Thinking about Boats

Helps me wrap my head around the system.

Though this isn't the system I'm imagining, I probably just wanted an excuse to share this diagram, I admit.

A lot of Figuring

1) Opening roof stuff

2) Water pressure stuff

These two things bring on the challenges. First the second. I had a dreamy vision of 4 feet of head working with a small on-demand propane system, thereby keeping the whole plumbing gravity fed. Basically I'm bummed to learn that to meet the 15 psi requirement for the on-demand propane water heater I was given I would need 35 feet of head. Not gonna happen. At least not in my next location. This makes me consider a small water pump. Or some other kind of small on-demand propane water heater. If I want to use this water heater, I need to learn about pressurized water systems. Hmm... hot water... that luxury... how / when / why / hmm...

OK, I NEED TO THINK MORE IF I CARE. "Tankless heaters are limited to a choice between expensive and CO₂ problematic energy sources: gas and electricity. This makes it impossible to include other heat sources, including renewable energy. Tank-type systems have a much wider choice of heat sources available, such as district heating, central heating, solar heating, geothermal heating, micro CHP and ground-coupled heat exchangers." (source) I need to have some conversations with some local visionaries.

Second the first. Which directions to put the hinges? Use a 2" x 2" angle iron as a frame to fend off warping problems in the future? Some kind of pinion gear (used to convert rotation into linear motion)? How to fully waterproof? As my dad said, you want strength, precision, and waterproofness. Thus the challenge.

Fenders, Subfloor & Siding

Another huge thank you to the Maach-Rambo's for the other piece of scavenged fridge wall. I cut and installed it today, still needs some pounding, but it's good. Also got the fenders dealt with. Then continued on exterior siding.

Somehow

I'm so tired, but somehow I'm doing a bunch of things I had been putting off. Cutting big pieces of metal to fit under the storage area, etc. Nothing too photogenic, but important steps on the road to the road.

And the day has ending with a ceremonial moving of the sewing machines. My mom took the charger regular hauler and I took the four-needled surger. They're tucked away in the storage area (the subfloor all finished as of this afternoon) along with my kitchen stuff. Getting ready for the move. I've got a long way to go though. I will make a list of the things I can comprehend that still need doing tonight.

Another Siding Day and . . .

Photo shows the southern wall I worked on today.

Also, it's seeming like I have found a place to move, and I may move as early as January. This gave me new energy to get-out-there and move ahead with the trim, flashing, and siding.

I have great appreciation for the people condensed in Copenhagen who are boldly stating the reality of the climate crisis and that western lifestyles cannot go on as before. There is undoubtedly a global movement, and if your news source isn't covering it, look wider. There is so much to learn.

Looking around I often think about how destructive the status quo in this land is, and wonder what impact I can have on encouraging myself and others to have less of an impact.

The Maldives and so many other islands will be submerged by rising ocean waters. Are the actions you take to minimize your impact radical enough? How destructive is the status quo to which you compare your actions?

A Place to Sleep

I had my first night's sleep up in the loft. Above me (and the cloud cover) was a major meteor shower. I awoke well-rested and as you can imagine, quite happy.

It's not time to move in yet though.

Flooring

Inspect & Clean

Prepare by Sweeping

Cut & Install (workshop level, storage underneath)

Cut & Install (upper level, loft space)

Sit & Look Around

Nothing's nailed in yet, but this salvaged wood is in great shape, by my standards. Old fir. I was happy how smoothly it went in. It has it's share of dents, but I'll sure I'll add a few of my own in no time. It was uninstalled so carefully by Trulious, who posted some free 4"x6" lumber on Craigslist, and then offered this as well once I was at his home. Much thanks to Ken Sawyer for storing it at his home until yesterday. And I apologize to my neighbors for using a power tool on Sunday, I tried to keep it minimal, I couldn't resist.

Electricity - Cold Days

Getting my sh-t together, long overdue, in regards to the electrical layout. Got some great ceramic pull chain fixtures, some with receptacle plugs built in. Cut the rigid insulation where need be, drilled the holes so the wire can run through. I still need to get a circuit breaker box. A lot more to do.

Scrapping Together

Loose ends and testers propped up visible. Got to find long enough pieces for trim. Cut that and install. Got to get the right screws for the aluminum. Got to finish cutting and nailing up siding. Coming inside at 4pm today. Hands frozen.

"Danish Text"

Sculpture by Jens Galschiot

Ocean Acidity Levels, projected animation

A friend, Danielle Liu, in Copenhagen sent this link which I will include part of here. It's one man's witnessing of an ad-hoc meeting in which Lumumba Di-Aping of Sudan, chief negotiator of the G77 bloc.

Requests were made by organisers to turn off all microphones so as not to record what was going to be said, although Di-Aping made a point of turning his on, saying half-jokingly “they are probably listening anyway".

He did not start his speech immediately. Instead he sat silently, tears rolling down his face. He put his head in his hands and said “We have been asked to sign a suicide pact.” The room was frozen into silence, shocked by the sight of a powerful negotiator, an African elder if you like, exhibiting such strong emotion. He apologised to the audience, but said that in his part of Sudan it was “better to stand and cry than to walk away.”

Once he had composed himself, Di-Aping launched into an eloquent and direct attack on the apparent subversion of the climate negotiation process by certain developing countries, the leaked so-called “Danish” agreement that has become the talk of the conference. ...

Speaking in measured tones, Di-Aping first attacked the 2 degrees C warming maximum that most rich countries currently consider acceptable. Referring continuously to science, in particular parts of the latest IPCC report (which he referenced by page and section) he said that 2 degrees C globally meant 3.5 degrees C for much of Africa. He called global warming of 2 degrees C “certain death for Africa”, a type of “climate fascism” imposed on Africa by high carbon emitters. He said Africa was being asked to sign on to an agreement that would allow this warming in exchange for $10 billion, and that Africa was also being asked to “celebrate” this deal. ...

This was nothing less than a colonisation of the sky, he said. “$10 billion is not enough to buy us coffins”.

Obama, he said, would probably be brought to Copenhagen to ’sanctify’ this deal. “What is Obama going to tell his daughters? That their [Kenyan] relatives’ lives are not worth anything? It is unfortunate that after 500 years-plus of interaction with the West we [Africans] are still considered ‘disposables’ “. “My good friends… we’ve got to get together and fight the fight.”

Climate Summit & Kilmaforum

INTERCONNECTIVITY.

Note:

Mohamed Nasheed, the president of the island nation of Maldives: “We want to ask you to consider carbon neutrality yourselves. In my mind, a bloc of carbon neutral developing nations could change the outcome of Copenhagen. At the moment, every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible and never to make commitments unless someone else does first. This is the logic of a madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide.” (more)

Agreed.

FAB

Fair

Ambitious

Binding

More Siding, Less Du Pont, More Rock

I've built up to where the windows that aren't in yet will go. I need to deal with those windows.

Using z bar as a drip edge above each row of siding.

Frigid outside. I'm nailing in beautiful old & wide redwood siding next to the covered citrus trees. Just sort of well yea forging ahead.

The day is coming to a close. It's cold. A long day alone. That's not true. The redwood told me stories all day.

Harvey!

Big thanks to Harvey and his unwanted old redwood fencing and barn lumber. I made a collection today and will perhaps return another day with Greg to cover his project needs for the next tiny/huge house.

Got sick of looking at it...

How did my house become an advertisement for Du Pont? What have I created?! Much to learn...

Yesterday I did a series of material collections. Big thanks to the Burg's for the bender board I will use as exterior siding and extra butcher block pieces. Big thanks to the Maach-Rambos for the extra fridge wall rigid foam insulation piece I will add to finish my floor insulation. Big thanks to Todd Barricklow for the old-ish model on-demand propane water heater I will experiment with in the coming weeks. And big thanks to the guy from Craigslist who called saying he had a space he rented in Sonoma with some old fence wood he used to use to make picture frames with but will no longer and so has redwood to pass on.

So I really am sick of seeing my house in such a Tyvek state, and though it's been a puzzle to figure out how I want to do the exterior siding (due to a combination of limited blocking and limited materials), I began putting siding up this afternoon. It went quickly and I nearly finished the rear side (west wall) with no windows or doors. The other sides will be more demanding, cutting pieces to butt up into the fenders and windows and doors and all. And I still need to put the Z bar flashing up above the windows and doors and decide how I want the window and door trim to look before hammering ahead. I also am considering future awnings and if I might come up with a system now to avoid modifications/remodels in the future.

Did some patching of the used corrugated aluminum I had, different materials, but just like patching a bike innertube...

Cracking on something somesiding

It's a funny thing working with salvaged materials sometimes. At this point, I'm not sure my visual critic is even on the board anymore. I'm just trying to meet each need with what I have available.

A Day to Study Taxes

Sorry, but I can't help but post this paragraph:

Puerto Rico has authority over its internal affairs. United States controls: interstate trade, foreign relations and commerce, customs administration, control of air, land and sea, immigration and emigration, nationality and citizenship, currency, maritime laws, military service, military bases, army, navy and air force, declaration of war, constitutionality of laws, jurisdictions and legal procedures, treaties, radio and television--communications, agriculture, mining and minerals, highways, postal system; Social Security, and other areas generally controlled by the federal government in the United States. (http://welcome.topuertorico.org/government.shtml)

What a world.