back from burning man

burning man is fantabulous….of course…..but it’s so wasteful. so much stuff accessible to those fortunate enough to go. waste waste waste. from the food, packaging, to massive amounts of alcohol consumed, to the accessories/clothing/trinkets…..our RVs are stuffed to the gills with junk. I’m not complaining [i hope] just questioning whether it’s necessary. creativity explodes out there ~ it teaches and expands. we explore and learn and it feeds our souls….but could it be done with more respect to the planet? i wonder.

Planting flowers in the yard.

before and afters

Community Garden

Funny how when you volunteer for something…..all of a sudden….you have responsibilities. It’s not like last week, I was sitting around wondering what to do with all this extra time on my hands.

Cool thing, I’m helping start a community garden where there isn’t one. We’re building the beds, adding the irrigation, and planning to plant AFTER the winter. No pressure. I love that. Photos to come. Oh….Walter Cronkite [sp?] died today. Just heard. I’ll build one of the planters in his name. WTF not?

What the?

Do you SEE that?

How Does My Garden Grow?

No really……how the hell do I do this?

Bought flowers, will plant. If they live it will be miracle #1 at the little Tahoe green house.

Growing Herbs in Worm Poop

No more plastic bags, sugar, salt, and fat

Taking a cue from David Kessler’s book The End Of Overeating, Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, and my own desire to quit using plastic bags, I’m venturing into a new experiment.

No more plastic bags: meaning I cannot buy anything at the grocery store that is packaged in the non-recyclable plastic polyethylene.

No more processed foods.

Organic and locally grown foods, in season if possible.

And, after moving into what was a vacation home I’m allowed to become a Freegan in my own home. That means, I can eat all the food left here by former vacationers. Let’s see…..there’s 2 huge boxes of corn flakes, about 10 large bags of sugar, several tubes of breadcrumbs, jello, cans of mushrooms, 5 bags of assorted flour, shake-&-bake, rice noodles, 2 10lb bags of rice, oatmeal, and on and on. If this crap doesn’t kill me nothing will. I’m going to donate a lot of the stuff that has not been opened to the local food bank.

The goal is to reduce waste and eat healthier. The Skinny Bitch girls say that it takes about 2 months to get the toxic addictions out of your body. It should take me about 4 months considering the edible food that is here…..and the “additional” toxins I have in my body.

Garbage Homes

This past weekend was spent at a seminar learning how to build sustainable, off-the-grid homes at the Earthship headquarters just outside of Taos, New Mexico.

The homes are not the run of the mill green homes that we are getting used to. Architect Mike Reynolds has been building these structures for about 40 years and they are, in large part, made out of trash – specifically used tires, cans, and bottles.

Since he started back in the 1970s, the homes have been refined to allow for recycling all waste [grey and black water], organic greenhouses, water collection and purification, power generation, and temperature regulation….even in extreme weather locations.

We got hands on experience learning how to pack tires into the load bearing and thermal mass foundation for the homes, can and bottle walls, and how to plaster interior walls with a mixture of mud, sand, and hay. In addition, we got to tour many of the homes on the site in Taos. Mike has developed several models over the years and we were able to get inside and explore the size and benefits of each option.

I recommend anyone interested in green build to visit them and take the seminar. You can find more information here. A good article here. And the trailer for the Michael Reynold’s documentary, Garbage Warrior is here.

Many more photos here.

“Looks like a cyclone hit.”

When I was a kid my mom used to say that my bedroom looked like a cyclone had hit. I deduced that to mean that the Tour de France had blasted off course and through my room…..which, btw, is not even close to being a “dumbest thing i’ve ever said” candidate.

I was thinking about that today while sitting in the middle of piles of boxes and junk. I can’t really unpack because I’m working. Typically I’ll unpack a couple of boxes each evening but that’s about all I can handle. It’s been 6am days since I got here and I’m exhausted by Jon Stewart o’clock.

So…..what better then to treat this as an experiment. Since I was a teenager [probably around the time my son was born] I was a pretty messy person. After that my grandmother genes kicked in and I became a bit obsessed with the house being spotless. It’s probably a borderline disorder but will have to get in line after the myriad of other personal “foibles” that should be attended to. Anyway, this experience of being uncomfortable and living in a mess that, for the most part, can’t be avoided is kinda interesting. To be able to look at something and NOT clean it up has gone from impossible, to improbably, to likely, to certain over the past week or so and it’s kinda fun. I’m really fuking up something in my head and it feels…….cathartic is the only word i can think of but that’s too powerful.

It’s just a matter of time, when everything is in place and all the garage sales are done and blah blah blah that I’ll be back to my old self, but having to accept and deal with this mess has been an unexpected challenge that is eye opening.

Oh, and the toilet bowls have rings around them. YEP. Not kidding…..really. And I don’t care……fuk em.

Roadrunner Shower Head

installed this shower head today.

$246 yearly utility savings.
8218 gallons yearly water savings.
2 months payback time.
nuf said.

from evolve.