December 16, 2006
Thank you to the freechickens how responded to my request for 5 electrical critical elements in your life. I've received many responses and will be putting together a compendium of what we think as a group is NECESSARY for survival.
I've put links up this morning on the preparation page, and I've got some good pictures of Scott from Dustyfoot in the camera. They will be up later. We're expecting strong winds this afternoon and I'm going to bicycle (I feel guilty calling it bicycling if there is a motor on the bike assisting: maybe mobiking or bikemoting?) to Q to coffee at Tom's Bus Cafe and on the way back pick up more anchor bolts. TJ wrote and suggested I take the tarps off, but I'm going to see what happens. I'll do some rope bracing and add external ropes and anchors. Also I'll put jacks under the trailer so that it doesn't rock (which I like) but it would pull on the staked feet of the canopy and loosen it. Anyway of much more interest, reader Rick wrote an excellent comment about the power outage in Bellevue WA and what he learned from it - read it by clicking here on the preparation page!
December 16, 2006 supper time! Here are the pictures from yesterday and todayl Scott finally makes it into the blog. It was a day of up early and then lots of preparation for the wind storm developing (not too bad yet - 6:33pm). I've got all the windows closed tight, and as you'll see, la casa blanca is roped up, staked and going nowhere (I hope!).

I missed showing you the stew and beans coming out of the solar oven yesterday at 4:30pm. I know the suspense was killing you. Right - that's what it looks like when it is half gone at 6pm. The stove is clean again - uggh dirty stove.
Scott from Dustyfoot satellite and all around wireless guru. Where in the back of his lot testing signal strengths and experiencing the Quartzsite problem of TOO BRIGHT outside. That laptop is ON and the screen full bright. One of the first things I built when I came down here and met Scott three years ago was a card board box painted flat black on the inside for using my laptop at his cybercafe.	The sun hasn't burnt through the has at 8:50am when I showed up for coffee at the closed - not running - City Bus Cafe that we so dearly loved and hung out at almost all last winter in Q. Tom has invited me and other lot vendors over for coffee when they wake up. Well I'm here, where's everyone else?
I crawled around the Pepsi machine and the freezer in the isle, over some power cables and found Tom, true to his word, making coffee! Yea. Boy does this look like home to me! We sat and talked for a while and waited for people to show up - especially looking for my friend Ed Foster who I know is in town. RIGHT: next to show up was Jesaka a vendor from the front of the lot who is an artist with displays of crystals, painting, and spiritual objects.
Little time for chit chat as it turns out that pepsi machine (which has to weigh 400 lbs.) and the freezer needed to be unloaded to make room for the coffee crowd. Whoa, I'm wrong, its a Coke machine. We got it out of the bus and now the winners of this mornings drawing get to drive it around the lot on the soft gravel. It was a privelege to photograph and not do this particular part - though I did help get it out the door of the bus. Yeow. I took a second cup of free coffee just out of spite.
Hurrying home to tie down my la casa blanca before the storm arrived I did what to stop and show you bunny heaven, or bunny row. They come down from the little plateaus on each side and I always surprise them here. This is one of the tributaries just off the main Tyson's wash. It feeds in the the LTVA (Long Term Visitor's Area). What's that box on the trailer? Could it be more tie down stakes and rope?	This is the finished project. I tried to darken it up, but white poly rope on white tarps is not a photo opportunity. I put 5 large rebar stakes into the ground and tied two of the diagonals you see here, and X both sides and for right now, I even X supported the front. When the storm is gone in a day or two I'll open up the front again.
	Phil stopped by around 4pm and I took this terrible picture of a 15" obsidian Danish Dagger. When I create his page tomorrow morning, I link you to some smaller pieces I have scanned. You're probably tired of hearing it, but there are less than 10 people in the US who can make a danish dagger, and few have the audacity to try for more than 12 or 13 inches. Obsidian has a tendency to break during knapping above that size. You are looking at a 15" dagger bound for England. In handling it I was clumsy and stuck the tip right into the side of casa la blanca. Sharp.
	This is from yesterday. I do laundry by hand, and this is the soak cycle. I'm also cooking supper. My mind never rests. My body, well, it's hard to not soak up the sun and get rid of that Oregon rust. Mother made me put the shorts on. She passed away long ago but lives on in my head and heart and I talk to her often, and she to me. "put your pants on for the picture." "OK mom." I have no neighbors to speak off and the wash is still peaceful, or will be until the first week of January.That is Tyson Wash behind me, and during the summer it is sometimes a raging river.

December 15, 2006
Here are some pictures for the day.

Left - I prepared tough stew meat by trying to brown the whole package, added peppers and onions, a little salt and popped it in the solar oven. It is this bright at 9:00am here. I ate 1/3 of the result tonight and it was delicious! The solar oven acts like a slow cooke r without the water so that everything cooks to tender and in it's own juice!

One of the freechicken readers asked to see the solar panels. I see them all the time, so I was surprised that you didn't know what mine looked like. Left: this is the 1972 retired ARCO panel from California. They had a huge area of these with collectors - magnifiers - fresnel lenses - in front of them. The magnifiers were too much for the technology and fried the glue the cells sit in turning them brown. The were sold off as scrape. It puts out almost exactly as much power as the day it was made. I love solar panels. This is a good shot of the Datastorm internet satellite. It hears and sends to a satellite 22,000 miles in orbit above the earth. Cool. This older panel is a 35 watt panel meaning that it supplied almost 3 amps new in bright sun. It still produces over 2.7 amps 24 years later. Compare it size to any of the 4 Photowatt panels below. They each produce 90 watts, and are just a couple inches wider. Actually the technology despite all the noise is stagnant in panels you can actually buy.

The newer panels - 6 years old are on the trailer. Most people think they're a roof rack. Only from up here on the ladder can you see how pretty they are. There are 4 photowatt 90 watt panels and the front one is a Kyocera 80 watt panel. They are the heart of my power system and supply all the power I use each year (except for November in Oregon when I plug into TJ's house because it rains allllll fuckinng November in Oregon.

The water is 5 miles round trip from my trailer. The bicycle is the perfect tool if I'm after 6-10 gallons. When I want to fill the 55 gallon drum in the truck, well then it's time to run the truck!

Left I'm on the way to get water, which is included with my LTVA fee of $140 for the 5 months. I was dumping garbage when cssjenkins stopped to look at the bike. She and her husband are in the trailer behind my head (I think). She said very nice things about my trailer!

I was in a good mood, there was no line at water, people at the ranger check-in guard house waved at me like they knew me, and I didn't tip the bike over while filling my container (like last time). I had gone down I-95 towards Yuma 2 miles to the next LTVA entrance - water is on the opposite side of the highway. I chose that route because it is smoother for the trailer. Several class A motor homes came awfully close so I cut through the back of the west side of the LTVA to get back to the trailer. This is much more rugged and took me past where I was camped last year when the coyote's got Barsik. I parked and walked parts of my old search grid, and let myself feel some of that again. More subdued I went home. My camera is fritzing so I hope to have some interesting new faces here tomorrow. Tom is serving coffee at the City Bus Cafe (even though it's not open for the public). So who will show up?