Gray Water -> Green Grass

photo by Matt McGee

My big Burning Man idea for this year is using a temporary lawn to recycle our camp gray water. This was an idea that was being tossed around between my sister, dad and I late last summer, but really didn't have the time to execute it last year, but this year I'm pretty sure it's going to happen.

The basic idea is to build modular nursery flats of sub-irrigated, nearly hydroponic tropical grass that is sturdy and able to aspirate plenty of nutrient-rich gray water. Then all the flats will be connected to main lines which will run from our gray water storage tank. The big unknown is how much water at 12' x 12' lawn will be able to soak up and how quickly will it use up water? Will we have extra grey water that the grass won't be able to use or will we be begging other camps for their gray water to keep it alive? Big questions. so we're starting some test flats this month.

This weekend we did some shopping for a growing medium. We got some excellent advice at SF Hydro who are used to providing supplies for other types of grass growing operations. We settled on clay pebbles, coconut husks and soil mixture, proportions yet to be determined. Then for irrigation we went out to Urban Farmer and explained our project and got set up with a drip system that we could place in the flats under the grass and get the water directly to root system. Looking forward to setting it all up and seeing what works.

Green themes

Last night I used my CityCarShare membership for the first time. It was amazingly easy and actually a lot of fun. I've got about three lots in walking distance from my place, and another across from my Buddhist center. I'm so glad to be living a care-less life right now. Hopefully I'll still be saying that when the rains come.

I used the car to drive over to my step-bro's house. While there, he showed me the plans for the 2007 Burning Man Manbase. In line with next year's green theme, most of the structure will be re-usable and only the Man will and his minimal supporting structure will be burned. The rest will this huge mountain of a shade structure and two auxiliary "foothill" shade structures. Should be sweet and a radical departure from recent Manbases. Looking forward to seeing it on the Playa.

This Year's Cubitron

Last year's cubitron was a simple 10' x 10' cube. But this year cubitron was back, bugger, rounder and with much more complex patterns.

Burnt Man

I'm still feeling fairly spent from this year's Burning Man and asociated events, but I finally upload my photos and some videos to share.

The fist is this amazing walking spider vehicle that was cruzing the Esplanade one afternoon. Enjoy.

House of Masks on the Esplanade!

This week theme camp addresses were announced and once again the House of Masks will be on the Esplanade! This time it's at 8:30 @ Esplanade, right next to the Kostume Kult. So after people costume up, they can come by and make a mask. This year we'll also be setting up some playa side kickball games.

For all your last minute Burning Man spending, check out the "Official" retailer of Black Rock City Playazon.com which now stock the indispensable "Hands-Free" Merkin Flashlight
and tons consumer goodness.

Last weekend I took up the Black Rock Desert. My camp-mate, Todd, had to go out to the Burning Man Ranch to check in with the crew that are constructing the Man Base structure. It's a rather complex structure this year that is designed to actually raise and lower the Man. Should be amazing to see it out on the Playa in a few weeks.



We also did an amazing drive through the High Rock Canyon along the Lassen-Applegate Wagon Train Trail. It's very hard to image people passing through those parts in the 1850's but they did.


More Photos

Lounge Unit #1

Lounge Unit #1
Originally uploaded by leef_smith.

Man, I'm exhausted. A few of my camp mates got together today to build a prototype of the units that are going to makes up our lounge this year. We knocked it together in a few hours and learned a lot for building the next one. Only eight more left to build!

Giant Robot Attack - DECOM 05

My step-brother posted his Burning Man/Decompression photos finally! Yay!

Burningman
Decompression Day
Decompression Night

Burning Man 2005 The Comic Book

Burning Man 2005 The Comic Book

Very, very cool Flash comic book review of this years Burning Man!

Burnt Man

So haven't blogged anything since Burning Man, cause, it's been busy days since then. But it was a great burn, maybe the best so far. Man, that's a special place.

Burning Man 2004 Temple of Stars - Fullscreen QuickTime VR Panoramic image

Burning Man 2004 Temple of Stars - Fullscreen QuickTime VR Panoramic image
Found this very cool panaramic of last years David Best temple. Can't wait to see this year's Tower of Memory

Gerlach Live Webcam

Burning Man: Preparation : Gerlach Live Webcam

Getting ready to head up to Black Rock City again this year. Should be a stupendous year. My brother is already up there supervising the building of the maze that will surround the Man Temple. My sister is going to come up as well this year, plus some friends from LA. Then last night I just found out an old friend from high school will be up there.

House of Masks Camp

So I'm joining up with the House of Mask Camp for Burning Man this year and we had a trial run/ BBQ this weekend. Some great masks were made and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it goes down on the Playa.