I made a quick weekend trip to Oklahoma to visit the parents. It was hotter and more meh than Texas, somewhere I have a photo of my thermometer reading 42 C (107 F). While I was up there I took advantage of the welder and built my brackets for the jerry cans.
Finally got my map update DVD for my Garmin, I’m anxious to see if fixes a lot of new streets in Austin and Virginia.
Burning Man is rapidly approaching and I’m working away on preperations. It’ll be ‘ha ha funny’ if it turns out to be cooler there than here. I think I’ve bought enough PVC pipe to run a pipeline to Gerlach. This is sort of where I’m at:
Shelter – I scrapped my original design for a shade to cover my tent, now working to construct something larger to provide for some common area. This is what the copious amounts of PVC are for. Originally I was going to build it so that I could take it apart and store it under my bed, but PVC is so cheap I’ll probably toss it afterwards. Sadly I didn’t build a yurt, it seemed like a lot of investment in materials to not have a place to store it.
Water – solved. I have my five gallon tank from last time and bought a twenty liter jerry can to supplement it. I’ve bought black plastic to build a evaporation pond for grey water.
Electrical/lighting – I need to finalize what solar gear I’m going to buy. I need panels, batteries, charge controller, and probably an larger inverter. The goal is to run everything DC to avoid losses to inefficiencies. I picked up some 12 volt fans at a truck stop on the cheap that should work nicely. Electroluminescent wire is a must have as well. I am really hoping I can use this setup afterwards to power things in my apartment.
Food – I’ve got two coolers that I’ve lined with Reflectix insulation. I’m going to try using one to store dry ice to freeze gel packs, and then rotate those out with the perishables in another cooler. I need to go buy dry ice, set them outside and see how it takes for it to subliminate. Last time I only took freeze-dried foods, this time I’m going to try more “real” food to cook. It’s going to be so awesome to have french toast in the desert.
I shake my fist at not being able to design a mechanical 6 food Rubik’s cube that can be manipulated along all axes. That’d be fun to take with me. Sure, all there’s a ridiculous amount of planning to go into living in the desert for a wee, but they’re all fun projects to build in and of themselves! If I had my way I’d try to build a wind turbine or a ammonia absorption A/C, but I’ve got enough life-risking things to deal with.
