SCULPTOR ALMA ALLEN'S

ANTI-PREFAB IN JOSHUA TREE

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's is melting metal in flip-flops...

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 - would be enough to keep things comfortable. 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 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).

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 a dumb "ie") is eat her food laying down... so cute! When have you ever seen a dog eat food laying down and not all aggro-style??

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

LET MY PEOPLE GO ROCK CLIMBING

Most of the guys who worked on the house were itinerant rock climbers, 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. We're doing our best to keep him around while also trying to adopt a Patagonia-like "Let my people go rock-climbing" philosphy. 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.

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

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.

DECEMBER 2007

WE HAD OUR FINAL INSPECTION AND ARE NOW SIGNED OFF!

Whereas things seemed to progress at an agonizingly slow pace before, now everything is happening very fast. Today we had a bank appraisal for our mortgage after only about two weeks of actually living in the house. When we go to the trailer on reconnaissance missions, Alma commented that it's like having a 'Nam flashback.

People always say we must feel fondly of our time in the Streamline trailer... I don't mean to be an ungrateful Complainerbot, but trailer life was very hard. Maybe if you associate the trailer with travel and adventure - sipping margaritas in Baja and sea kayacking off the San Juan Islands, you'd have fond memories of your trailer. Our trailer has been forced to serve as a 24/7, year-round, live-in construction trailer. Picture you've had a long day of picking up building materials in the Inland Empire and arrive home late on a very cold night... and what greets you is a frigid trailer with no hot water topped off with a construction site Porta-Potty.

The process is good though...  or so I keep telling myself... rocking back and forth...  but now things are marvellously transformed and I wish I could have maintained Alma's vision during the whole process. Hey, I'm only human. Not Alma Allen Human, normal human.

The old Mercedes is still outside and the cold temperatures made the biodiesel gel up so we have to mix in regular diesel now to keep it fluid. We didn't do anything to convert it for biodiesel so there's no pre-heater or 2nd tank as you'd need for straight veggie oil.

DECEMBER 2007

TURF WARS BETWEEN FRITZ & THE COYOTES

We realized today that there are some major turf wars going on between Fritz and the coyotes.

Just beyond this rock is the pile of poop marking the area in question. When we were based in the trailer, Fritz resided in a more easily defendable territory. Now it's more like the Gaza Strip or an episode of THE WIRE. Today while schnoozing on the South end of the house, Fritz suddenly bolted and ran off in a manner he normally reserves for coyotes or above - bobcats, mountain lions... his jack rabbit or lizard pursuits are far more reserved. As his barrel-chested body lumbered up the wash and tried to nimbly navigate the rocks, Fritz reminded me of Steve McQueen's Mustang in the 1968 film BULLIT, hitting the bumps hard on the steep streets of San Francisco/Joshua Tree.

With his quasi-vegetarian, holistic, alfalfa sprout blueberry diet, Fritz might not know what he's up against based on closer inspection of the combatant's poop which looks like it contains a few teeth and a claw.

DECEMBER 2007

SOLAR WATER HEATER

I'm almost more impressed with Alma's construction of the solar water heater than the whole house, if only because it's scale & single-minded purpose is something my brain can more easily comprehend. Make water hot. Keep water hot.

Although he was planning on using a 3 or 4 old electric water heater tanks, a local who responded to one of our flyers around town had this 220 gallon galvanized steel tank which we'll use instead. I'm excited that Alma was able to use the left-over pieces of rigid roofing insulation within the mirror-coated plywood frame he built to house the tank. He's also in the process of coating the galvanized steel in matte black paint to better absorb heat. (Try to say or write that repeatedly... matte black paint... matte black paint...)

NOVEMBER 2007
GREEN STICKER!

We had our final inspection and are signed off. We are now living full time in the house and have the following new amenities there:

a) power

b) hot water

c) an oven

d) radiant floor heating

e) no more building inspector visits

f) at night I no longer have to find shoes and a flashlight to navigate a construction site and desert full of sharp and painful things to use the facilites.

HIP, HIP, HOORAY! HIP, HIP, HOORAY!!! (I have no idea what that actually means but I'll do all caps and commas to try and cover my grammatical bases.)

It's also raining. It's been raining all day. The first time in a very long time.

Home Depot update: So the Home Depot just opened a new store in the neighboring town of Yucca Valley (two weeks before our final). We thought it was hard to find people to help us build our house in the "Retire Now, Work Later" high desert, imagine staffing an entire Home Depot. Not that I feel bad for a big chain like Home Depot without even a cursory Google search of their specific corporate culpability, (is it Costco that's OK but Target is bad? Feed a cold and starve a fever?). It is pretty amusing to see them scramble for help. As far as we can tell, every employee had to be brought in from the low desert. There is only one person on staff at a given time to operate the getting-things-from-high-places machine. The gossip around town is that in the initial round of hiring, drug tests were administered to 65 people. Out of the the 65, 60 failed the drug test. 60 out of 65 failed the drug test! The insider only passed because his drug of choice is liquid acid and the screening didn't test for acid.

NOVEMBER 2007

GREEN BUILDING?

The majority of Alma Allen's work is made from locally salvaged materials. But let's face it, building a house, (or having a baby), is not particularly good for the environment. So you try to build a building (or a baby) that will leave the world a better place. (Buildings are easier because you don't run the risk of having a baby Dick Cheney.)

California building codes don't allow for rammed earth or strawbale construction without a redundant stick frame structure to help it in an earthquake. And sadly, time, money, availability, and building codes also precluded the exclusive use of locally salvaged lumber. I wish we could have found some cool old barracks from the local marine base to deconstruct, (as well as the rest of the marine base), to forge all our lumber needs and satisfy code requirements.

We did make every effort to build an energy efficient space, even if that meant sacrificing such things as large windows facing to the East and West, (our large windows all face to the North and South), which would have provided a lovely view, but also a tremendous solar gain to combat. Even without the geo-thermal loop and radiant floor piping in operation, (still waiting for final), this thermal-mass-advantaged passive solar house is thus far, comfortable on its own.

We are building a large capacity solar water heater out of old electric water heaters which will supplement the geo-thermal loop and save on the insane propane costs. The graywater system is working beautifully and the compost pile is utilizing some sawdust and doing its funky thang. We save everything possible to keep construction waste minimal. We also drive substantially less in our biodiesel-fueled vehicles than we did while living in LA where I commuted daily from Silverlake to our shop in Venice and Alma commuted to his studio in downtown LA. Fuel efficiency in a car is great, but so is driving fewer miles. We've also cancelled our order for a private jet.

For great eco-friendly advice - you can ask your own questions! - check out: Ask Woolly M.

NOVEMBER 2007

ANOTHER DSM DISORDER FOR THE BOOK

If you are fond of your relationship, or your mental health, I don't recommend undertaking a project like this. I heard a report on NPR that if a CEO of a company is remodeling his or her kitchen, the stock of the company goes down. I think a pharmaceutical company should develop a new anti-anxiety/depressant drug specifically formulated for construction. Pfizer?

There are so many tiny issues and problems to deal with, and large issues and problems to deal with, that it's hard to feel a sense of accomplishment from the daily toil. I am happy to report though that now our Efforts to Results ratio has vastly improved. Planting a mesquite tree in the courtyard was infinitely more rewarding than the Herculean effort that produced the slab. I suggest that Pfizer engineers House Construction Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (HCSSRIs) to allow for an increase in the body's natural production of serotonin once the project reaches the improved Efforts to Results stage. Doctors should be advised to add 6 months to a year onto the patient's stated construction completion dates as well as be prepared to accept Medicaid for patients who previously had private insurance.

That said, I am grateful to have such first world concerns, and don't the floors look pretty?

OCTOBER 2007

DESIGN LABORATORY

Alma wants the house to be a laboratory for product design. Frustrated with the tyranny of bad appliance design, he wanted to forge his own stovetop out of bronze or copper. That sounded hard, harder than installing a mortise lock, so I was relieved when he finally found an acceptable stove which we picked up in Pahrump, Nevada. The hand-forged stove project can wait on the back burner.

Alma has carved and hammered sinks and countertops out of copper and Claro Walnut. Loring is working on the cabinets.

Alma Allen has designed housewares for Esprit Europe including full lines of flatware produced by Wilkins/BSF in Germany (pictured).

OCTOBER 2007

SISYPHEAN FLOORS - THE NEVER-ENDING FLOOR GRINDING PROJECT

We are grinding down the cement floors to expose the aggregate and create a Terrazzo effect. Just as we learned why large custom sliding doors cost so much money after Alma built ours, we now understand why cement grinding costs so much money and why professional equipment is useful. The old janitor's floor polisher doesn't have the weight to do a good job on its own so Alma developed a technique where he sits on the polisher as he runs it. All the edges by the wall have to be done with a hand grinder.

Using the floor polisher and the hand grinder, Alma starts out with a 50 diamond grit pad, then goes to 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000 and a final buff. Three weeks after beginning this project, the $15,000 estimates aren't sounding so bad. Nathan has been helping and is now making plans to leave town.

SEPTEMBER 2007

GETTING THERE

The doors & windows are almost finished despite an agonizing number of little steps: taping, spackling, painting, weatherstripping... and that's after you thought you were done. Alma selected mortise locks whose installation instructions contain the warning: "In order to successfully install a mortise lock and trim, a minimum of average skill level is required with use of the above listed tools." There are 16 above listed tools. (Okay, one was a pencil.)

SEPTEMBER 2007

WHERE ARE FRITZ & FIDO?

Keiko and Taku from Tortoise as well as their dog Fido visited along with several guests from Japan. Here a group including Fritz and Fido are pictured standing on the Southern end of our property on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park. Fido blends in with the rocks where he sits farther down on the path but the coyotes, bobcats and owls most likely know exactly where he is.

SEPTEMBER 2007

DOH!

While Alma was installing the threshold for the bedroom doors, the thing we REALLY did not want to have happen happened. Alma accidentally drilled through the radiant floor heating. Although it took him a day to repair it, requiring a trip to the Home Depot outside Palm Springs, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. Sure we had a gusher, the whole system is pressurized, but he didn't have to jackhammer out the whole bedroom or anything.

Ironically, a Home Depot is being built in the neighboring town of Yucca Valley. It will be done just about the same time we are done with the major construction on the house. The local hardware store, also a chain, has done little to engender support with its exploitative prices, cranky employees and terrible selection, but we are not happy to have the big box giant replacing hundreds of joshua trees. Although you don't feel great about driving an hour just to go to the same big box store in the low desert either.

SEPTEMBER 2007

PATIOS

Loring returned from his summer heat exodus (yay!) and he and Nathan are creating rock patios in the courtyard with our cement mixer. We became familiar with a fair number of DSM psychiatric disorders with some helpers we briefly had over the deserted Joshua Tree summer, including some old-fashioned drunks drinking tall boys at 8am, (happy drunks luckily).

SEPTEMBER 2007

TRAILER LIFE CONTINUES

The house remains a construction zone so we still reside in what my brother called the "crematorium tube." It's quickly changing back into the cryogenic freezing tube. This week the weather suddenly turned cold. Our water supply is like an Abbot & Costello "Who's on First" routine because it still comes from an above ground hose. During the day you must carefully dole out the cold water, which comes from the hot water tap, so you have enough cold water to rinse your vegetables at lunchtime. The cold water tap contains scalding hot water direct from the hose. So judiciously use your cold water over the day BUT make sure you do use it all so that you can fill the hot water tank with the warm hose water which can last you through the evening. Often you need to heat up more with propane for showers. But again you have to be careful to use all the propane heated water during the evening so that the next morning you're not stuck with two hots. That make sense? For the house we are using three old water heaters to create a solar water heater. With the currently high price of propane, we are especially motivated to create a large system.

AUGUST 2007

BITTER SWEET PROGRESS

Given that dealing with the local Edison company has prepared us for doing construction work in Haiti, we were relieved to finally have our Edison pole installed today. Except we never wanted this ugly pole, we always wanted to trench the power underground but Edison cryptically refused to discuss the possibility or offer an honest explanation why we could not. This was especially troubling given that the subcontractors, who actually install the poles, didn't see any problem with doing it the way we wanted it; in fact, it would have been easier for Edison. The pole was so difficult to install that a giant backhoe had to be brought in to dig into solid rock for the tie-down. I called Edison in a last ditch effort to save our skyline next to gorgeous Joshua Tree National Park. Edison refused to return my phone call but clearly they received the message since they did manage to scream at the sub-contractor for truthfully answering a customer's question. Now the sub-contractor has vowed to keep his mouth shut. If I pursue it, I risk getting the nice, honest guy in more trouble. I guess this is how the Bush Administration works. Granted the one overhead line and pole is a vast improvement over Edison's original requirement that we install THREE poles parallel to existing poles. Total Brazil. Don't get me started on that one. It took three back and forths just to get them to add the width of our property correctly which doesn't instill a lot of confidence. Only when a supervisor from another office filled in and visited our project did we finally convince the local office that we didn't need the load for a Las Vegas casino. They sent the refund check to the wrong address. At this point we just want to keep nice guys from getting fired and get our final on the electrical inspection so we can get the meter hooked up and get off the generator.

Fortunately, there's the Larry Craig, (R-Estroom), wide-stance scandal to turn that frown upside down, which seems oddly related to the Edison fiasco...

AUGUST 2007

EARTH LOOP

Alma just got the earth loop trenched and buried in the wash to the North of our house. This is the main heating & cooling system for our house. There is about 1200 feet of pipe buried five feet deep where the ground is a constant temperature of 68 degrees. Water flowing through this pipe then circulates throught the red Pex pipe underneath our concrete slab floors.

Alma inititally used the backhoe attachment and dug the smaller hole pictured in the foreground. Then he realized he had way too much earth to move & pipe to bury so he got the entire skid loader into the ground using the big bucket.

JULY 2007

POOR HAWK

You think of hawks as smooth operators who keep their cool. If this hawk looks surprisingly frazzled, he has good reason to be. He just spent the previous half hour desperately trying to stop being our house guest. He finally got so exhausted Alma was able to grab his talons and gently escort him on his way.

JUNE 2007

WINDOWS & DOORS

Alma designed and built the giant sliding doors. It's great because the whole wall can open up and they slide in either direction. Alma opted for some aluminum tracks after nixing wood options and had to haul his 18 foot trailer three hours away to pick up four pounds of aluminum. The tracks would bend if strapped to the truck. Buying custom doors was prohibitively expensive, but given the amount of time these have taken, that option is seeming more and more attractive and reasonable.

MAY 2007

CEDAR SHAKES

The cedar shakes are pretty much all up. I know what you're thinking but they are special fire-retardant shakes. We've tried to burn one and can't. With the metal roof, big stone walls and fire sprinklers, we should be pretty prepared for a fire.

MAY 2007

PASSIVE SOLAR

The passive solar construction of the house really seems to be working though and it is very pleasant to be in the building even on a hot day. Fritz prefers to snooze on the cool cement even with the loud machinery operating around him.

MAY 2007

WINDOWS & DOORS

Although the house is close to being done, we can't move in without the windows and doors. They are big so without them you're very exposed. Fritz doesn't want to wake up in the arms of a coyote. Alma is in the process of building the windows & doors with Dan The Mormon (see 2006 update) and built another Rube Goldberg creation - this time a jig.

MAY 2007

ALMA'S NEW SCULPTURE IN COPPER AND PEX

And I thought the graywater system was complicated. My comprehension of the contraption pictured is so dim that I can barely offer a rudimentary explanation of it. Alma has tried to talk it through with me several times and my eyes just glaze over. It reminds me of listening to lecture I once heard by the philosopher Jurgen Habermas at a University in Berlin. Not known for my German language skills despite wasting several years of my life learning it, (why not Spanish instead?!!!), his concepts of subjectivity were also beyond my subjectivity. On top of that, Habermas had a strong regional dialect and a speech impediment caused by a cleft palette. I was like that cartoon of what you say to the dog versus what they hear. I think I picked up on "I" and "It." This is what it was like listening to Alma explain the function of the manifolds and pipes pictured. I think I picked up on "heating" and "cooling" and that this runs all our hot and cold water needs, the radiant floor heating, geo-thermal loop, and solar water heater. It was too hard to try and explain to a plumber so Alma figured it all out as well as taught himself how to solder plumbing pipe.

MAY 2007 - GRAYWATER SYSTEM

Graywater, gray water, greywater, grey water, whatever you call it. It is yet another complicated thing Alma figured out. There will be two chambers operating on gravity. He's using some heavy-duty corn syrup containers from the feed store. The bottom is filled with rocks, then sand, then wood chips on the top which do the initial filtering. Both containers pictured will be covered back up in dirt but are located where they can be accessed so that we can periodically replace the top layer of wood chips. It eventually gets gunked up with soap scum. Of course we will continue to use bio-degradable soap and cleaning products. All the sinks, shower and washing machine will go through the graywater system but it's designed so that we can divert the graywater into the regular septic system if necessary. The bottom container will have a small electrical pump to pump the water back up to the house for watering. There's also a small leach field in case the pump fails.

MAY 2007 - WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS

Not only were we fortunate enough to have this family of bighorn sheep visit our property, we have also seen a mountain lion, bobcat, chuckwalla and some gargantuan tarantula moths recently. The wildlife we don't like to see so much, or at least cohabitate with, the rats, have mercifully not been visiting us with their past frequency. Maybe because it's been so dry there are fewer of them around.

Pictured left is Fritter's lizard-watching face. He is not an adept hunter so there is little concern that the lizard will be caught. Case in point, the lizard is actually behind him and to the right in this picture. Fritz has a code of ethics regarding the wildlife which is hard to fathom. Any type of bird is totally okay with him. They literally can walk on him and he doesn't care. They've become very brazen and hop into the trailer frequently looking for snacks. (Something I despise because I have a bird phobia resulting from having been attacked by birds several times.) He also had no desire to disrupt his sleep despite a large rat rummaging through the trailer and eating his dog food one night. But if Fritz happens to hear the squeak of a chipmunk or the howl of a coyote within the normal cacophony of bird sounds and whistles, he goes nuts. Jackrabbits, coyotes, squirrels and chipmunks are like Al-Qaeda to Fritz. (Similarly, he's all bluster with little effect on them, only making them stronger...) On the hike when we saw the mountain lion, I was able to convince him through visceral cries for his return that the mountain lion was like Kim Jong-il and better not mess with him.

MARCH 2007

Fidel, I mean Alma, is busy putting up the tar paper with his cool hand stapler. After he's done he'll have the tools to paper the lamp posts with posters for the revolution.

I love it that the tar paper says it's "Asphalt Saturated Organic Felt." Maybe we could make baby blankets out of it!

MARCH 2007

Our new Takagi tankless hot water heater is so efficient it's off the chart! It's also one of the few Alma found that is designed to work with solar pre-heated water. Now Alma is trying to construct the system which has required many Rube Goldberg-like drawings as well as many manifolds, mixing valves, pumps, and expansion tanks to deal with the solar water heater, radiant floor heating and cooling, and geo-thermal loop.

FEBRUARY 2007

WHO'S MOONING WHO?

The insulation arrived and Alma and Loring are putting the roof on. We are using two layers of R13 rigid insulation with an airspace and then plywood, tar paper and metal. I feel bad covering up that beautiful tongue groove but we still get to see it from the inside.

FEBRUARY 2007

Fritz communes with the rocks for inspiration on how best to clad the walls.

FEBRUARY 2007

View from inside the courtyard.

FEBRUARY 2007

Now we're cooking with gas. Things are really taking shape with the walls framed, the beams up, and the tongue & groove ceiling almost finished. It's very exciting to see all the head & leg room we'll have.

In other good news, the weather has also warmed and we have consistently had running water for weeks which has vastly improved our outlook on things. Sadly, a lot of cactus did not survive the cold weather. All in all, I think it's a very valuable experience to take nothing for granted and to appreciate the water that flows through your tap and the fuel that heats it. I never would have thought I'd enjoy washing dishes so much. And with gray water systems, you also become keenly aware of everything you put down the drain since it doesn't magically disappear. But of course nothing does magically disappear even in a suburban tract house but I'll stop before I start talking about the "Earth, man" and sound like a pedantic environmentalist. I know I'm preaching to the choir, (except with my one good friend who is currently having a love affair with Soft Scrub Foaming Cleanser and the Clorox Bleach Pen.) Although after a year and a half of living in the trailer, I feel I couldn't possibly appreciate and respect the wonders of indoor plumbing any more than I currently do.

The concrete block walls still need to be clad in rocks from the land but we are waiting for the weather to warm up more so the mortar will set properly.