Today we mixed adobe to make abobe blocks.
Being an all natural material, it is a great building material!

It is made with dirts and straw normally, and we did that, but we also tried using the cement mixer which sped things up!
And we also tried using long pine needles which I already have tons of on my land. I will test the blocks later, but since there is much resin in the needles and they are hard to compost, I suspect they are superior.

More photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianfey/tags/adobe/

This is good progress. I am going to do more experiments, but I suspect I will be using a lot of adobe to make some little hobbit homes. Yay!

If a people do not know how to store water (unless they have a surplus) then they will be weak.
Water should not be a centrally controlled thing. Central control of water makes people easy victims for oppression.

My attempts so far are weak. I trusted the wrong people. I have paid a lot for these mistakes.

Today we will empty the new cistern so that I can paint it with some noxious pool paint. I hate that.

I need to get someone here so I can be free to go to the coast and seek liquid storage containers. Big.

Here is info about the stove.
http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_mexico

More photos of the construction process:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianfey/tags/patsaristove/

I wanted to document it well in case I want to build more of them.

I took my first dump in the composting toilet! Yay! everything seemed to come out ok and I am now among the worlds elite smart guys who doesn’t combine shit with drinking water!
More info on composting toilets here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet#.27DIY.27_compost_toilet_systems

What a fine fine day this is…..
I am in the internet cabana… The Solar God is here working on hooking things up.
I am pleased with him. He is smart and nice and doing good work.

And I am learning the basics of wiring electric. With this example I will be able to wire more electric spokes.
We are 200 meters from the panels. The crew dug a 200 meter trench to get the cable here. We tested the length for 300 meters and it worked! So it should be fine for voltage drop at 200 meters.

Soon soon the final test!
And when you read this message…. it will have come not from fossil fuels but from the sun. If you read this… then the word here just changed. I have lived in the dark of night for two years. The first 7 months were dark with total isolation too. And now comes light. I will be able to see.. and use my computer to re-contact the many people I know but haven’t talked to much even on email.

I suspect I will double the size of the system within a year. Batteries and panels both. Assuming there are guests here to justify it. I bought the right central charger inverter to allow that. Room for expansion. Cost $990 bucks just for that one peice.

I think what I am doing now will be easily enough for me… especially since my experience has trained me to have minimal needs. All I really want is to not have to deal with cranky generators spilling oil and needing tune up attention. And I see no reason to continue burning fossil fuels. No more war tax for me.

The pond pump is working. Flow was low in the overcast day… but no matter. (I am re-using an old solar panel which is barely adequate for the task.) The carp babies do not need me to aerate the water, but I am thinking they will appreciate it. And the water will likely become less green and stinky. Now it is just a hose pouring water. But now I know a little copper soldering so I should be able to make a pretty (sortof) fountain.

The cables… will only have the tiny bit of power I am installing. But also I can install a Frankenstein switch and switch over to a generator… so when I have a festival here… I can run more electric out to make many pockets of light and life.
It is sortof like I am building little burning man camps here. I know where the locations are and am deciding what kinda of services should be where according to the flow of the invisible future people. Locations finding there identity… adjustable later.

By reducing the infrastructure difficulties.. providing basic electric and toilets. Providing basic shelter in various places… And drinking and cleaning water included… I can reduce the amount of work required for someone to make a theme camp. People here have less ability to transport things. The road will come in soon so people can actually get here in normal vehicles. Who knows the exact path? Not me and nobody else neither.

I seem to have changed. I could be happy here alone I think… missing a few things. But happy to write what I need to… but better to play and grow and see what can happen. I have become free of some traps and desires that I had. I have selected my prison to focus my mind and culture. Remove my life to find my optimal life. Perhaps. So as a hermit or a ____ I can go along and create. Survive and prosper.

Best of luck to us all. (Yes, you too.) We are going to need it.

……
And I am still waiting…. electrician solar guy still futzing… Screwing around screwing things into the wall. Something which takes 20 minutes usually takes an hour and a half. But all is fine.

I am very sleepy cause I was up all night studying. I want to sleep for days.

And…… FUCK YES! I AM ONLINE WITH NO GENERATOR! SENDING NOW!

-Brian Fey.

All is going well… perhaps better than it ever has here.

The solar guy is nice and smart. He is installing things.
I got a 1500 watt fancy ass inverter which will allow my system to expand later.
Two nice panels (130 watt each?), and one of my old panels can add another 50 watts to the system.
We testing the 300 meter run and it has a low voltage drop only. Yay! Tommorrow we will run the cables

It is a small system, but when you live in total darkness in the night… as small light is a big thing Music can happen.
I am very excited. This is the most major advancement!
And it apears that from my reading I understand a good bit… though still I am ignorent of much electical stuff.

Everyone is alive… A friend wasn’t one of the new puppies. (Then they are old enought.)

I bought tons of fruits and veggies at the market…
I bought supplies to make

The old guy I hired to do some reedweaving for wooden chair seats is teaching on of my young workers how to do this dying art. Very cool. I can pay people to continue a tradition and I get cooler comfier chairs.

Tired out. But happy.

I found a fresh dead turkey vulture. I am pulling the best feathers off it to use for something. Will try to figure out how to best keep its skeleton.

The day has gone very well.
Up early and insane.
Off to do things right and… all went right. No injuries. It was a simple thing.
I am thinking more and more about the genetics for the last two years. And combining all the thoughts I have read.

I am making a genetic liferaft. And perhaps a genetic boat.
Near natives are the current project…. meaning… they don’t grow right here… but there near native plants are from down the road 10 miles in some microclimate….
In other words…. these plants represent the genetic diverse points of this region in general. Climate chance will alter the topography of the factors which allow native plants to live where they do… Plants will die.. plants will slowly blend over into the new similar climate zone, if any… if not… they will die out in that region.

The idea is to get more tiny pockets….. and microsclimate should be filled with diversity. Nearby diversity that wanted to be there anyway..
Changes of invasiveness are very very low since the plants are genetic friends over the climate changes of the last several climate changes.
I am force planting some of that diversity… into nearby neighborhoods. Infecting compatible life into spots where it will be happy.

Also… domesticaing plants…
I am also evaluating which plants are pretty or useful in pots. Mostly just randomly collecting plants here which are common and seeing how they do in pots. Generally I am against potted plants… but perhaps I can find some which need no care and are human compatible or inspiring.

There is a danger that if a plant is domesticated and valuable, then locals will rob it from the wild and sell it too people who do not replicate it.
Anyone who takes plants from the wild must be replicating the heck out of them….
If you are going to take from a place… you should help it. Duh.
You should reproduce the plant for the home market so that you can undercut the effort it takes to collect it, and if you sell to the home market… then you should teach you customers how to propogate.
Any nursery which sells native plants should teach people how to propogate their native plants.

Blah blah…
The guys are all out planting the collected plants. I am inside writing this.
Back outside.
Yay!

Boring to most folks.. here are my plans for a solar system…. note sent to solar guy.
Total cost will likely be about
$5,000 or so.

The system here is old. I would rather pay for a whole new system than try
to use the old panels for a main system. I want to use the old ones for
water pumping if possible.

You are welcome to stay here while intalling the systems and for a few extra
days if you want to visit folks in the area.
I have plenty of space. Jenny and Sergios place is about a 3 km walk away.
The road to get to my house is kinda bad though.

I can call you using skype on my internet connection if you like.

Some responses to your items:
2C. The old box. Lets not use it at all. Perhaps I will find a future use
for it when I understand solar better. I don’t want to use old junk.

———————-
Charger Items I have available:
-True Charge 10 amp microprossor controlled battery charger. by Statpower.
It has a switch for flooded or gel (battery type) And it has a switch for
Battery temperature. It appears to plug into a 120 volt regular plug.
-Charge Pro Model 2611 battery charger.
Perhaps these would be useful for charging off the generator? (Shouldn’t be
needed… but could be a backup.)
————————-

My situation is perhaps a little confusing… Let me break it out into
locations.

—————————
THE BLACK ROCK LODGE:
Primary residence. Currently I use and appear to need nearly no electric,
but there could be greater desire in the future.
I would like to buy 1 120 watt panel for this location and two batteries.
And two batteries and the fancy inverter thing. (if fancy inverter thing is
needed for internet it would go there and the lodge would just get 300 watt
inverter.)

I have little electricity needs….
But I would like to be able to have LED or compact flourescents at night.
For reading. And I would like to charge batteries.
Maybe a car stereo. (More efficient than running though inverter yah?)
-I would like 12 volt cigarette lighter and 120 volt hookups in the black
rock lodge.

There is already a rack made for the existing panels.
I don’t know if it would fit the new ones.

WATER PUMPING at black rock lodge: I would like to to pump water from a
large lower cistern up
to a small raised one. About a 20 foot rise.Water only need to pump when the
sun is out.
Ideally it would have a switch on a float so that when the float got low,
then the pump would send up some water. Would you know how to do that? I
believe they sell those kind of float switches locally.
I would like a switch to turn off water pumping if I am not around as I
don’t trust float switches and if it fails I don’t want water pouring
everywhere.

——————————-
THE INTERNET CABANA:
This is my most important need. Most all of my generator use is here.
I would like to buy 1 120 watt panel for this location and two batteries.
I would like to go with the 300 watt inverter solution in this location for
now. If that can’t run the internet well, then I will switch the fancy
inverter over to the internet location. That work?

-I would like 12 volt cigarette lighter and 120 volt hookups in the internet
cabana.

———————
THE CASITA:
Possible small system. Not most important priority.
I need the minimum needed to run a pump up. No battery needed yah? Small
pump to raise water 20 feet. Doesn’t need to be fast.
The roof is very easy to put a panel on. It is nearly flat. We could just
put in on something to keep it above the rain.
Perhaps one of my old panels would work for this?
If the panel and pump costs too much I might bail on this one. Perhaps one
of the old panels would serve for this?
It is also possible to have a cigarette lighter socket hook up to the panel
and not need a battery and other devices?. So then people could charge
computer or cell phone.
——————————-
THE POND:
I would like to use one of the existing solar panels to run water up a pipe
so that it comes out the top and falls back to the water. Like a fountain.
This will airate the water so I can raise healthier fish in it. I asssume no
battery would be needed and it would only run when there was sunshine.
Perhaps one of my old panels would work for this? A 10 foot water rise
would do the trick. Doesn’t have to be a lot of flow.

Living with rainwater:

I did some calculating…

My new cistern will be able to hold a whopping 98,000 liters. Way more that I personally need… with saunas and composting toilets that amount of water should be able to handle a lot of people!

And it would only be able to hold about a third of what my main house and terrace can collect.
Therefore during 4 months of the year I would have plenty of water for solar heated showers and hot tub.
And the rest of the year I should be able to supply water for dozens of people with moderate conservation. Super good!

The math:
Rainfall: For ease of figuring, I will only count the 6 months of most rainfall. (Using Morelia data cause that is what I have.)
May 1.70 43.2
June 5.40 137.2
July 6.90 175.3
August 6.40 162.6
September 4.70 119.4
Oct 2.10 53.3
TOTAL: 27″ 690.4
That second number is metric? But what? Perhaps 0.69 meters. Yah. That must be it.

FORMULA: Rainfall X roofarea X 0.62 gallons/in captured per/sq foot. x .85 efficiency.
Roof area is 529 sq/meters = 5694 sq/ft.
Assume efficiency of capture at 85%

27 * 5694 * .62 *.85 = 81019 gallons.
Which is: 306,690 liters.

New cistern is 4x7x3.5 meters. = 98 cubic meters.
There are 1000 liters in a cubic meter so it can hold 98,000 liters plus the 10,000 liters in big black tank.
(Not counting the two 7,000 liter cisterns and the two 3,000 liters ones since they are on different systems.)

Therefore much more rain will be captured than can be stored.
Solution: Build another cistern high up on the land. Solar pump water up to it.

In the meantime… during the rainy season we should be able to use lots of water and even have solar hot tub. Super insulated.

COSTS: I have paying for stuff.
But essentially this will be around $1000 in materials and it will take three guys a month to build. Ouch. Oh well… gotta pay to play.)

New cistern to be built of stone:
-4mx7mx3.5m=98 cubic meters. at 1000 liters per cubic meter that is 98,000 cubic meters. (25889 gallons!) Pretty big!
Cost is estimated at $6400 pesos for materials.
Labor: $7500 pesos maybe.
Total: $13900 pesos… or about USD $1400. A much better deal for a better product than the large plastic cisterns.
Plus it will have a deck on top to hang out on.

And it costs my attention… which I don’t like giving to construction. But… I gotta capture more water.

I guess I should figure out how much is the max rain I can capture off that given a certain amount of rainfall… gotta figure some other formulas.

For today for the art studio I ordered a truck of sand, a truck of gravel, and 30 peices of transluscent laminate for the ceiling.