SCULPTOR ALMA ALLEN'S ANTI-PREFAB IN JOSHUA TREE
FREAK SNOW IN THE HIGH DESERT
In our time here we've had a couple of dustings of snow at home which quickly melted but this time it dumped and it stayed for days. (Which is not to say it doesn't freeze here. Last winter in the trailer we were often without water at sundown as well as for one solid two week stretch when our water supply hose from the neighbor's house froze.) It was fun hiking with the rocks and cactus stickers cushioned with a forgiving layer of fluffy snow.
Some of our friends in Pioneertown claim they got 50 inches of snow but I think they're counting the piled up drifts. Granted it was a heckuva lot of snow in Pioneertown (not pictured). Locals were worried about one friend who had been stranded at his house for five days. He lives off the grid miles out on a non-maintained dirt road and, with seemingly one snow plow servicing the Morongo Basin area, his road was a low priority. The main concern for many desert dwellers is he was reaching a non-survival level without booze or pot rations. He still had some cans of beans albeit he might have to eat them cold since his solar panel batteries were nearing depletion. There were thoughts of organizing booze bombers for the many stranded drinkers like the candy bombers of post-WWII who dropped candy bars and chewing gum for the children of Berlin.
TOXIC CUTENESS
I suffer from a debilitating case of Toxic Cuteness from these two bozos... if only I could become a noted scientist, acclaimed artist, or high paying executive in my appreciation of their canine cuteness. In the case of the latter, I would DESERVE an enormous bonus paid with tax payer dollars if the corporation needed a bail-out.
LESS THAN OPTIMAL CONDITIONS FOR THE SOLAR WATER HEATER
BRONZE CASTINGS! A FUN WEEKEND PROJECT
1) Create a sand mold of a desirable sculpture and carefully place every grain of sand in the proper position.
2) Heat your bronze ingots to melting point.
3) Use your crucible grabber and crucible pourer to deliver the melted bronze to the sand mold.
4) Then it's just a matter of letting the bronze cool down, saw off the excess pieces, and proceed to many, many hours of finishing work.
Viola!
The color of the molten bronze is perhaps the most amazing color I have ever seen. I think the combination of the intensely bright and shimmering orange with the thickness and shape-shifting qualities of the liquid metal are what make it completely captivating. I feel as if I could become a superhero (or villain... or at least a low-rent hypnotist) if I could harness the powers of the molten bronze. It would be really cool if you could create sculptures that remained in this state but they would require a lot or propane. Well not too much, we're going through about 3/4 of a little camping propane tank a day to heat the forge.
HIGH DESERT TEST SITE WEEKEND IN JOSHUA TREE
The weekend of November 7th was a particularly entertaining one in Joshua Tree due to the efforts of local wunderkind Andrea Zittel and her High Desert Test Sites.
We saw some art...
THE GRASS CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG
During the summer we planted grass in the courtyard and I figure I might as well fess up now. It's a new hybrid drought-resistant grass requiring much less water... and it's in a smallish contained area... and it has cut down on the dust level in the house enormously as these two bozos like to really go at it a couple hours a day with marathon wrastle sessions which involve tearing through-out the house. The grass in the courtyard also seemed to double the size of the house by connecting the studio and house with an area passable with bare feet. Not to mention Fanny is a tennis ball junkie...
Fritz and Fanny model for a photo shoot by Taro Hirano who has the exhibition POOL at the new Tortoise on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice until November 30th.
NOVEMBER 2008
LET MY PEOPLE GO ROCK CLIMBING
Most of the guys who have worked on the house are itinerant rock climbers living out of their cars, otherwise knows as dirtbags. We hit the jackpot when we heard about Loring, a very talented and meticulous worker, through the national park campground grapevine. Loring is even now working on the lathe. Alma has tried to train others to use the lathe but nobody else has really been able to become one with the lathe as is necessary. I'm sure his rock climbing skills have something to do with this - patience, understanding of the material your carving (or climbing), as well as brute arm strength. We're doing our best to keep him around while also trying to adopt a Patagonia-like "Let my people go rock-climbing" philosophy. Since we love him, we set him free. If he ends up planning a nine month trip to Nepal though, we might try our back-up plan for him to get a girl pregnant and buy a big truck so he can't leave to go rock climbing.
We lucked out again and found Wells via the Palm Springs Craigslist of all places. Wells grew up on a Maoist commune in Minnesota and splits his time between The Netherlands and the Joshua Tree house he's building. Working with us he's supplementing his main work creating custom leather accordion straps for punk rock accordion players - a bit of a niche market.
Wells had some voting issues because he lives at the far reaches of unincorporated Joshua Tree adjacent to the Marine base. Although properly registered, he fell into a Brazil-like category of residents unassigned to a voting district due to his remote location and was only allowed mail-in voting - a fact which was never made clear to a person who is extremely up on issues including frequent visits to the local public library and the latest Democracy Now podcast. Thank goodness Obama won by an unstealable margin so that we must not rely only on crossed fingers for Wells' provisionally cast ballot to be counted.
There are plans to expand the 29 Palms military base adjacent to where Wells lives. He is fearful that eminent domain laws may seize his home from which he can see the "fake Bagdad" city built for military excercises. One can only hope that the new Obama administration will put the brakes on this plan to devastate more of the high desert with the assistance of the odd alliance of environmentalists and ATV enthusiasts who also oppose the expansion.
NOVEMBER 2008
FRITZ & FANNY CAM
SEPTEMBER 2008
CASTINGS
Pictured are Alma's first forays into castings. It's scenes from the Bronze Age here in the high desert except Alma is melting metal in flip-flops. He is preparing for a sculpture show in Boston and needs to hold back work for that - therefore the lack of updates of new sculptures. He also injured his arm and is having a hard time carving. (He refuses to go to the doctor like some stubborn old-timey guy.) The injury and upcoming show provided the impteus to finally try metal castings of favorite sculptures which is something he's always wanted to do. The sculptures pictured are in brass because it has a lower meliting point. Now comfortable with the process, he's going to try bronze next.
SEPTEMBER 2008
STILL WORKING ON THE SOLAR CHILLING PROJECT
We played a game of catch-up to get the house comfortable through weeks and weeks of 100 degree weather. Although the passive solar construction of the house is very effective, we learned that the Joshua Tree summer requires some back-up... or a strong willingness to suffer. We hoped that the geo-thermal earth loop system - hundreds of feet of Pex buried in our wash which would theoretically then circulate 68 degree cooled water through the floors cooling the house to a comfortable temperature - would be enough. The water has to travel quite a distance from the loop to the house in dark granite soil and we think it heats up too much in the process. So then Alma got a swamp cooler and attached it to a garbage can filled with copper pipe and tried cooling the floor-circulating water down that way while also pumping the swamp cooler into the house. It was still hot. Perhaps it would work if the system were much, much bigger. But of course the swamp cooler doesn't help much though on muggy hot days in thunderstorm season.
We'd love it if we could get one of these small-scale solar powered air-conditoners developed by the Rotartica company in Spain.
We made some awnings out of some cool UV protected simple canvas we finally hunted down. So I can't say I accomplished nothing this summer because I did push through 80 feet of cable one inch at a time on both sides of our awning. By the time we got this up the angle of the sun was low enough that the sun was still coming in - which we want it to do in the winter.
We finally decided to get some LG mini-split air-conditioning/heating systems for the bedroom and office which you find more in Europe and Japan. They are very energy efficient and super quiet with the compressor outside but it's disappointing we haven't yet been able to get the geo-thermal loop really working. We'll keep at it. Admittedly I do love the little quiet futuristic-looking LGs and their weird plasma air filtration system. You feel like you're in a summer comfort sleep pod.
But as far as using the sun to heat water? The solar water heater works GREAT! Bizarre that these are not in widespread use is such climates. That puppy heats the water up to 160 degrees. The on-demand Takagi doesn't have to do anything for the dishwasher, washing machine, showers etc.. We've gone months on a camping-size tank of propane. It's only used for cooking.
Needless to say we don't have a clothes dryer. The clothes you first put on the line are pretty much dry by the time you're done hanging the last from the batch.
SEPTEMBER 2008
SUMMER HIBERNATION (AT LEAST FOR ME, NOT ALMA)
I'm not one of those inspirational people you read about in Parade Magazine - the accomplished square dancers born without legs or blind painters with work at the Whitney. The adversity of a hot high desert summer does not kick into gear my can-do spirit. Contemplating a hike when the sun mercifully falls behind the hills (but the temperature is still pushing 100), my boot straps seem to be broken and I can't find or make any lemonade, or lemons for that matter. I take solace in hoping that I give kindred spirits a sense of accomplishment in being able to catch up on three years worth of Joshua Tree updates in a few minutes. No lurking archives with months & years worth of postings to make anyone feel overwhelmed!
Then there's Alma. (The fallen down Joshua Tree image only represents me.) As I consider buying a lawn chair on which to sit back and have a cocktail, Alma dismisses all lawn chairs in existence - even cool vintage rope loungers - and insists that I should design my own chair as part of his "build a better mousetrap" ethos, or as I like to call it, "reinventing the wheel!" I hope I don't have to also milk the local juniper tress and distill the gin for my cocktail...
SEPTEMBER 2008
ATTACK OF THE GREEN MOHAVE!
HIGH DESERT KARMIC JUSTICE???
A friend of ours was recently bitten by the dreaded Mohave Green Rattlesnake! It has the most potent venom of any rattlesnake in North America in addition to being notoriously aggressive and fast. This snake is a legend around here - everyone seems to have a story of some passing, terrifying moment in its path... but this was the real deal - a full fledged attack. Our friend was struck in the ankle and was able to get rid of most of the venom. He was taken to the Joshua Tree hospital where they miraculously actually had the needed super-duper Green Mohave anti-venom on hand, unlike the time our neighbor was bit by a rattlesnake and had to be flown to Palm Springs just for the regular old anti-venom. As he lay in the hospital bed that night on morphine, he wondered what he could have done to deserve the attack. He figured it had something to do with his recent firebombing of the ants which have been invading his property in paths over a foot wide. The situation seemed to be getting out of hand and on top of that his wife is allergic to ant bites so he poured gasoline, as well as diesel to keep it burning, into the underground homes of the ants and set them on fire! It made perfect sense to him that the Green Mohave was simply avenging the death of his ant comrades. He also now has a $57,000 hospital bill for his one night in care. The anti-venom itself cost 10 grand.
If our friend was bitten by the Green Mohave as karmic justice for killing ants, then I can't IMAGINE what's in store for moose hunter Sarah Palin and her "predator control" policy of shooting wolves in the back from airplanes. Will she be cocooned by black widows and slowly fed to polar bears while being forced to single-handedly fund the 700 billion dollar Bush / Wall Street bail out?
The karmic ethics of killing critters brings up a sore subject for me because I seem to always encounter people who I consider hypocrites on the matter. Last summer when we were still living in the trailer, we had a series of little kangaroo rats which kept getting in. They opened up sealed bags of quinoa, pooped on my contact lens case, chewed holes in my t-shirts... utterly bad manners for a house guest. As a longtime vegetarian, it was very difficult to kill the little guys. Actually I was fine with setting the traps out but was very troubled by the reality of a successful trapping and meanly forced Alma to deal with it. I discussed the problem with a friend and she encouraged me to talk to the "overlighting deva" (nature spirit) of the kangaroo rats and let them know that the situation was just not ok and they really needed to pack up and leave the trailer. (This was actually a hilarious discussion as she earnestly described the conversation I should have with the kangraroo rat overlighting deva in her thick Austrian accent.) I was confused to learn that this person who abhorred the act of killing a rodent living in my underwear drawer herself ate large mammals on a regular basis (blaming a wheat allergy). Sure the meat is providing her with food, but the rat was eating my food! By bringing the subject up with her, what I was really after was to learn of a better mousetrap, which I eventually found! Right here in downtown Joshua Tree! (Not too surprising really - a problem faced by many here.) I got a Rat Zapper which is sold at the local video rental, (yes videos still), faxing and Rat Zapper-selling center called Eagle One Video. It's located right next to the Indian food, pizza and sub sandwich establishment. The neighboring Indian owned mini-market gives you a discount on your D batteries to run the Rat Zapper in a deal with Eagle One Video. The Rat Zapper is great and allows you to avoid really confronting your killing because you're able to dispose of the rat contained in his silver re-usable coffin (I have the deluxe version). But I'm not really an omnivore so it's not much of a dilemma.
I'm similarly confounded by my meat-eating friends who are upset and yell "think of Buddha!" when you swat a scorpion or black widow which is burrowing into your bedding. This is where I draw the line. We try to be fair to our desert neighbors. We've relocated several rattlesnakes this summer. I wouldn't think of killing the tarantula that wandered into my office the other night... tonight there was even a tarantula with me in the bathroom when I was feeling kind of vulnerable. Truth be told, it would probably be grosser to kill the tarantulas if you were so inclined than relocate them. I guess you just set the rules that you can live by. This doesn't turn out well for America or the world when Bush and Cheney are making those rules (or lack thereof).
RECLAIMING FANNY
LESSONS IN BEING RELAXED
Poor Fanny Fan-Fan Fannenstein, named partly in honor of the 1920s vaudeville funny girl Fanny Brice, she now has a big cross to bare with the mortgage crisis and the prevalence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the news as well as the constant derision of the names. Fanny was trying to reclaim Fanny from the British and just celebrate her cute butt when she decided to also take on a world where a Dick can be Vice President but a super cute wooferino can't be a Fanny. So on top of the whole gender politics, (which tends to greatly annoy even closest friends and family), she's now got the whole economic meltdown on her back.
One thing Fanny does to reclaim Fanny (other than spelling her name with a "y" and not "ie") is eat her food laying down... so cute! Not often you see a dog eat laying down and not all aggro-protective style.
JUNE 2008
COPPER COUNTERS - AS EASY AS ONE... TWO... THREE!
1) Simply glue a thin sheet of copper onto a piece of plywood.
2) Weight it down with Joshua Tree rocks or whatever is available.
3) Cut out a sink hole!
MAY 2008
THE EVAPORATIVE WATER CHILLING PROJECT BEGINS
It's been so long since my last update that the solar water heating project has turned into an evaporative water chilling project. First step was to hook up the geo-thermal loop - 1200 feet of Pex pipe which we have buried in the wash.
MAY 2008
THE CRITTERS ARE OUT IN FULL FORCE
My grandma used to sing me a little song when I went to bed: "Ins Bett, ins Bett, ins Bett. Es gibt nicht so herrlich so nett. Hier fähft kein automobil, ins Bett, ins Bett, ins Bett" which basically means it's wonderful and nice to be in bed because no aumobiles drive there... except recently in our bed a freaking SCORPIAN fährt there! Alma and I both were stung - IN BED - by a scorpian. We didn't die. It did hurt quite a bit. I think it's less common to die by a scorpian bite than from a terrorist attack or to get married as a universty educated woman over 40. (Catch the 1980s Newsweek reference?)
We have seen several snakes in the last couple of weeks, including this cutie outside the studio who wanted to let us know that it found our music and talking a bit too loud. The week before I walked into the living room and a gopher snake, who just pretends to look like a rattlesnake, was within inches of Fritz. There he is pictured on the way out of our house. We have been avoiding hikes on brushy trails but there are even rattlers in the middle of road on walks in the neighborhood. We decided to get Fritz and Fanny rattlesnake vaccinations to help minimize the effects if they do get bit. I guess the anti-venom is also hard to come by and is currently limited to humans. Our neighbor lady was bit by a rattlesnake last summer and the local hospital didn't have any anti-venom which kind of seems like something the Joshua Tree hospital should have... but then there's a lot of things a lot of hospitals should have in Bush America...
MAY 2008
ANISOPHYLLIS DILLERUS
A rare sighting of the Anisophyllis Dillerus more commonly known as the Phyllis Diller beetle for its crazy eyelashes. While I was taking the garbage out, the always self-depracating beetle joked "Am I too late?" to which I of course replied "No, jump right in!" then cackled that famous laugh...
MAY 2008
WELCOME GUESTS
Mr. Ancient also walked into the house the other day but with his vegan diet we all felt much more relaxed knowing he had little interest in our bodily fluids.
MAY 2008
INTRODUCING.... FANNY: THE DOG WHO FELL TO EARTH
Fritz's new girlfriend is a Twenties film star with David Bowie in the Seventies style and Fritz loves, loves, LOVES her! We kind of feel bad now that we always assumed he liked being a single bachelor guy. They enjoy hiking, biting each other's face, biting George Bush's face (especially cathartic for the rest of us), and taking a snooze. They are just as comfortable in a tuxedo as a pair of jeans and a t-shirt...
FEBRUARY 2008
THE SOLAR WATER HEATER PROJECT CONTINUES -
LESSONS IN THERMAL SIPHONING
Alma is determined to take full advantage of the sun to supplement - or ideally almost replace - our propane needs for hot water and the radiant floor heating. We're using the trailer's small tanks still before we commit to a larger tank. It was kind of funny, the day he completed the insulated glass box to house the large tank during the cold spell, the glass was coated in ice. Not encouraging. The large tank heats water up to about 85 degrees now and Alma just added a auxiliary system of painted black copper pipes to bring the temperature up even more. He hoped that thermal siphoning would circulate the water through the system on its own but it looks like it will require a small pump.
FEBRUARY 2008
IT'S 2008. NOT ONLY CAN WE NOT TELEPORT,
WE NEED TO INSTALL A LAND LINE
You'd think in the modern cell phone, satellite, Skype, voice over internet protocol, Vonage, digital world we live in, we could get by without installing a land line to our property. Nope. But we tried. It probably took a couple years off my life from the stress and aggravation but we tried. I am so tired of the "we just got cut off and I am calling back conversation..." Somehow I have yet to establish a pattern with my most frequent caller - my mom - so that I can simply call her back and we can resume the conversation knowing full well that the technology sucks and there is no longer any need to remark on it. Even though I have requested a routine that I will call her back if we get cut off - and we WILL get cut off - her line is nevertheless busy on my repeated tries. Oddly if I abstain, she doesn't call me. (For the record, she's instigating these calls.) I reached a new low last week when I was on the phone to the bank for 47 minutes to clear up a bureacratic error, finally got through to a reasonable-sounding supervisor, and the call dropped. Strange that nobody in the PHONE center has access to a phone to call me back as requested. (This incident somehow reminded me of my LA rock bottom when it took me three full hours to drive home from Venice to Silverlake.)
The cell phone service was lousy in the trailer and is almost non-existent in the house (a cruel irony) since we have a big rock pile in front of us. Our radio internet connection, although fast, is incompatible with any of the internet phone services. We have been loathe to order up the landline because we were originally advised that we would have to install ~200 feet of 2 inch conduit 18 inches underground - in mostly solid rock. This was after the phone company installed 680 feet of phone line in (relatively easy to dig) sand to our property line. After a human being surveyed our situation, (and endured a couple of highly aggravating cell phone calls regarding the matter), the phone company agreed to bring the phone line to our property line and they don't care what we do after that as long as we take responsibility for it - we can string it above ground if we want - which is what we did! Unlike water and power, telephone lines are not potentially dangerous.
I'm not exactly sure why but it gives me enormous pleasure to see a phone line simply strewn above ground. I think it demystifies the workings of the world for me in a powerful way, much as the solar water heater did. (We do plan on burying it.)
UPDATE: The land line worked for one glorious day of, at least accoustically, easy communication... then it stopped. Seems there is good reason to bury your phone line - as we do plan on doing! Some dang critter ate through that appealing shiny ne phone line in hope of bedding? water? who knows what. Alma found the weak link and spliced ins ome new cord and we plan on buryingit very soon. But the working land line rocks! (Heh-heh) Our number is 760-366-1801.
JANUARY 2008
FRITZ AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMPOOP
It's indeed a good thing Fritz is not competing in the turf wars (see below) on the exoticness of his poop as the coyotes have outdone him again. No gratuitous shock-value teeth and claws in this specimen though. This poop is willing to compete on its incredible palette - which aggravates Fritz even more because he is such a sophisticate. Did the coyote travel to the same remote abandoned turquoise mine where Alma finds material to feast on the regional plants and create this intense color? Touché Monsieur Coyote. Touché. (Thank you Andrew Garn for capturing the grandeur.)
I always wonder, are the coytoes somewhat impressed by Fritz because he casually cavorts with humans who do his bidding? Or do they think he's a big baby and taunt him - "Oh, did the humans get your din-din for you precious???"
After spending some time out here, one thng I'm very grateful for is that I'm not hunted from above by birds. That's a stress in my life I could not handle.