MEAN CHOLLA
JULY 31, 2006
BRINGING FUEL TO THE FIRE
Last week, Alma & Fritz and I escaped the heat and went camping on
the beach near Bodega Bay, and had a couple of days in San Francisco &
Berkeley. We came back with 8000 lbs of walnut. Near Sacramento,
they were clearing hundreds of acres of a mature walnut orchard to build
a giant levee to prevent the area from flooding. Weird to think that Central
California faces similar issues as New Orleans. The trip back was exciting.
We (stupidly) took the scenic route through Lake Tahoe and the Sierras
and discovered our truck brakes weren't quite up to the task. Alma pulled
over to let other cars pass and it was like that scene in a movie you've
seen a million times where we just kept going and going and going and
finally stopped in the bushes right before a cliff! The gravel pull-out
aggravated the condition. We managed to get down the mountain but spent
Saturday getting a brake job in Carson City. Fritz was a big hit in the
Les Schwab waiting area.
We were going to spend the night at the Mt. Whitney portal in Lone Pine but on the way back a friend in Joshua Tree called to tell us a new fire was on the ridge directly behind us. She wanted to know if we wanted her to grab any valuables! We rushed home and discovered it was actually a couple ridges back. It was surreal driving into town at 3AM with the hills glowing red. Planes and helicopters passed overhead constantly and the fire was under control in a couple of days. The big fire did not threaten us.
When we returned, the first rat that I am aware of entered the sanctuary of our trailer. It left piles of Fritz's dog food in various nooks of the trailer and it chewed our copy of Thoreau's Walden. The obvious symbolism was not lost on us. That smug rat thinks it can disillusion us, but it's wrong.
On
a walk with Fritz during the fires, July 12th, 2006.
PATRIOTISM - HIGH DESERT STYLE!
A vendor at the Yucca Valley flea market catering to those who refuse to buy their teepees from messy smokers without grandkids in other countries.
7/9/06
The problem with bringing horses to bars...
6/8/06
SNAKES IN A JACK
We had a flat tire on the truck, and when Alma went to put the repaired tire on, there was a rattlesnake under the truck! Wanting no more trouble from us than we wanted from it, the snake curled itself up inside the jack. This made it very hard to gently encourage the snake to find greener pastures.
We finally got the rattlesnake to leave. It was last seen in the pile of rocks to the right of the truck.
5/29/06
Alma has graded the building site and dug the footings, and is now building the forms for the footings in preparation for the big cement pour. Still need to lay-out the plumbing and electrical before the cement...
The building will have two parallel, 10 foot high, 120 foot long walls to create a thermal mass for passive solar.
Our water supply is a 400 foot hose from our neighbors. The temperature was below freezing several times last winter which caused the hose to freeze and cut off our water supply until it could thaw out the next day. For drinking water, we walk over to the neighbors to fill our water bottles directly from the outdoor faucet because: a) the hose water tastes and smells bad and b) "the State of California has determined that drinking water from a garden hose may cause cancer." Why must garden hoses cause cancer??!!
The weather is hot enough now that our faucets have switched. So whereas before we heated water with propane to make it hot, now the sun heats the water so hot, that we have to use the cold water stored in the water heater sparingly, (we leave the propane off), so we have enough cold water to cool down the water coming straight from the hose. Right now, there's barely enough cold water storage to be able to take a shower during the day, or even wash dishes. The water coming straight out of the hose is scalding hot. Needless to say, we plan on taking advantage of the solar water heating potential in the house design.
Our power supply is a long cord coming from the neighbors again.
We have started running a vegetable oil mix in our 1979 Mercedes SD, (the diesel version of the car J.R. Ewing drove!), and our diesel Dodge Cummins engine truck. We run a smaller percentage in the truck because it's a newer, more complicated engine. We're running a veggie oil/diesel mix without doing any conversion at all - 50/50 in the Mercedes and 40/60 in the truck. We just pour it straight in the tank. In the colder months, 50% might be too high a veggie oil mix, but we haven't had any problems so far. It's been 4-5 months.
Now that it's hotter, we're trying an even higher percentage of veggie oil in the Mercedes. We just put in about 80% veggie oil, 10% diesel, and 10% regular gas. It's running great! We'll keep you posted...
We buy the oil at Costco, (Soybean salad oil), or Smart & Final, and it's currently cheaper than regular diesel at the pump. If you're buying large quantities, be sure and use the pallet mover instead of a shopping cart or you might get scolded by staff. It's also hard to manuever 45 gallons of oil in a wobbly shopping cart. We're in the process of setting up a system to collect waste oil, and filter and clean it. Asian restaurants are supposed to be the best, but I haven't been able to talk any of the local Asian resturants out of their waste oil yet. It's an awkward conversation. A couple bottles of waste oil are pictured, which are from the local honkytonk and used for french fries and catfish. Not sure if it will work well since the fries have a high water content. We'd like to make biodiesel from the waste oil, which is supposed to better for the truck's more complicated engine. To make biodiesel, you have to add lye and methanol to the filtered oil, among other things...
We've also been re-using the waste motor oil after an oil change and running it in the Bobcat and truck.
We are by no means authorities on the subject, just looked things up online. We like this forum on veggie oil and biodiesel:
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/groupee
Coming at some point, a veggie oil video starring Fritz Carraldo!
All year round, you have to keep the hood up on your car or the desert pack rats will hang out in your engine and use your expensive wiring to beautify their nests. It's counter-intuitive, I know. You'd think they'd consider the open hood an invitation, but the rats are apparently very private, or are not properly medicated, and prefer breaking & entering, as well as dark seclusion. When we first moved here, I thought everyone in the neighborhood had car troubles because of the open hoods.
Listen to a message left on Nancy's cell phone, illustrated by some desert locals.
PLEASE NOTE:
STRONG LANGUAGE!
YOU LET YOUR MOM COME IN AND BURGLARIZE YOUR SITUATION
Quicktime, 2.9 MB
1 minute, 19 seconds
by Nancy Pearce
Read the transcript of the message here.
4/7/06
The rats in Joshua Tree have been preparing for an upcoming exhibition. They use whatever is available, so Alma's wood scraps or work gloves end up in their nests.
Preview the rat installation here.
3/12/06
It snowed! We are at about 3500 feet. The second photo with more snow was taken ataround 5000 feet.
12/13/05
ALMA ALLEN'S WORKSHOP
Alma Allen, Nancy Pearce, and Fritz Carraldo are still living on the land while in contact with San Bernadino County to finalize plans for the house and studio.
Alma Allen has set up an outdoor workshop to mill salvaged wood and work on sculpture and furniture.
We are extremely thankful to the Venice architect and structural engineer duo, Sophie Smits & Patrick Bambrough, (SMITS-BAMBROUGH, 310-306-5009), for creating the archtitectural plans and engineering.
PLANET OF SOUND (episode 2)
Quicktime, 5.4 MB
2 minutes, 30 seconds
by Nancy Pearce
(This film should have images - and sound. If you don't see images, please check your settings.)
10/1/05
FRITZ CARRALDO
Alma & Nancy have been abducted by a madman who dreams of building a Shangri-la in a barren desert. Whether the madman proves to be a genius, or just a tyrant, history will decide.
The building site borders a National Park and has major elevation changes, as well as coyotes, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, bobcats, and toe-biting ants. Alma's first assignment was to somehow carve out a steep road from a mass of granite in order to move two landships up to the future building site to serve as base of operations.
With the landships docked, Alma's attention is now focused on setting up a studio, so that he can continue makiing sculpture, stools, and furniture, as well as have a workshop for building the house. He'll need it, since he's doing everything himself. Now that Alma owns a Bobcat skidloader (as seen in FRITZ CARRALDO), to pick up giant rocks and logs, he will be able to do larger-scale sculpture and furniture pieces.
Watch the documentary here:
FRITZ CARRALDO (episode 1)
Quicktime, 6.1 MB
2 minutes, 54 seconds
by Nancy Pearce
(This is a sound film. If you don't hear sound, please turn up the volume on your computer, or check your settings.)