I start my career as a sailor this summer of 2012. I will be gone for two months, then home for two months throughout the year. This means there will be lots of time when Alibot won’t have anyone to bother her, or leave messes around the house. Being as how we want a family sooner or later, we decided to move back to the Washington area to be closer to our families.
For Alibot and I, intentional communities are a great idea.
built in community. You live with or near people who share your common interests. Thinking of starting a weird project? Someone who you live with can probably start you on your way!
animal sharing. One family would have a hard time eating an entire cow, or drinking milk every day. But, with a community to share in the benefits and labor, you can have the benefits without the full amount of daily work required.
Access to more than you can afford. If you live in a place like this, you will probably get access to community resources like land, vehicles, wood shops, all kinds of stuff.
I got an email forward from this same friend who told me about a just starting place out in rural southern Washington. I spoke with that lady on the phone, real friendly, and she told me about Port Townsend Ecovillage. Alibot and I went there, loved it, and have put in a rental application. We’re going to spend a year or so doing research into different kinds of communities before we “buy in.”
There are many other eco villages. The clearinghouse for all of them is pretty much IC.org. You can browse by state (California, Washington). Keep a wary eye for those that say forming. It means it’s a group of people who intend to form a community but have yet to do so. Depending on where you want to get in, you can do what ever you want.
I feel the two main parts to consider when thinking about IC are the people, and the level of rural-ness. There are good and bad things about being in a city, near a city, or BFE. The people are the other most important part and are a deal breaker. You absolutely need to visit these places. Walk around, meet as many people as possible, see what kind of things you share in common.
The reasons I do not want to to the traditional thing is because I want more community than an American housing development. How well can you know your neighbors if you’ve all got your own little place? Your own little box, own washer/dryer, garage, tools trucks, etc. Some of it might be that you’re just a weird dude, and want all your own stuff. But I don’t think humans were meant to live this way. We to go work, we drive home, we buy stuff, we make babies who perpetuate those same things. There is a better way.
Some homework. The book with the unfortunate title of Building a Life Together. It has information geared mostly towards those starting an IC from scratch. It was very enlightening. There are chapters on all sorts of topics. It’s unassuming, easy to read, great layout. A must purchase for your research. After reading about all the stuff that goes into making an IC successful, I can tell you I really appreciate how far Port Townsend EV has come. The fact they have a small group of fantastic people there, got the city permits, and utilities ran out to each plot, is a huge and expensive accomplishment. So much work has already been done, so it’s a real plus for me.
I enjoy listening to KEXP’s sustainability podcast when I’m in the car. I’ve discovered some cool stuff there. The interviewer, Diane Horne is pretty horrible, but the topics are good and the guests are almost without exception engaging and eloquent.
Some of these descriptions/pictures are a little mis-matched. But I think you’ll get the idea.
Chickens have been pretty interesting. I think they are a gateway drug to animals. They are far easier than cats or dogs – if you can even imagine. They crap all over the yard, so get a big broom. They eat young grass. If you have them free-range, their range will not have grass or many other plants for that matter. There are books that talk about chicks with plants… this is it . I saw Alibot reading it the other day.
She really wanted chickens, so I had to oblige. Let me tell you, like all projects, they are more expensive than you’d think. I wanted to look back to see what the costs were, but my stupid online banking doesn’t go back that far. The two expensive parts were the corrugated fiberglass roof parts, and the rolls and rolls of hardware cloth. Here’s a thought on an area I could’ve saved money in. The chickens are in the coop portion at night. The run, the outer portion, doesn’t not need to be protected as much because night creatures, racoons, couldn’t reach in and get them in the coop anyways. That’s almost entirely enclosed in plywood.
Design we used. Suffice to say, these are chickens . Once you spend a little time with them (yes they do have personalities) but you can tell they are meant to be eaten. This one day I was digging a hole in the back yard. I was taking full swings on this pick axe that this chicken was standing two inches away from this thing coming down with a vengance. I swear I thought I could see her feathers blowing from the swing of the pick axe. Anyways, inches away from her head: doesn’t even phase her. These birds are food for everything. Don’t worry about making a perfect coop – they won’t notice. What you don’t want is sickness, death, and general irritation. Things you do want:
easy access to eggs
easy removal of turd
safety of poultry
Floor plan
4’x8′ piece of plywood. I put 2×4’s underneath to support the plywood. I cut small bits of 2×4 for the six feet that hold the coop above the ground.
The front of the coop is about 7′ (you should now that this: ‘ means feet, and this ” means inches) tall. The back is about 5 1/2′ or 6’. The coop is just a plywood box.
But here are the side turd clean out doors. Re-purposed gates or something.The latch there is simply three eye bolts where the one in the middle is in the coop, and the outer two are on the doors. Then you jam a rod/stick through all three – and bang, you’re secure. The important thing about having big doors like this is that you can open them for full access to the coop and the turdy floor. Then you move a bucket over to the doors, and sift the turd out easy with a piece of hardware cloth that you’ve bent into a bucket shaped thing. For wood chips in there, we have a local wood working place called MacBeth lumber. They don’t care if I come by from time to time to get garbage bags full of sawdust. Who knew: they like to perch on a stick when the sleep. I’d lay on the ground. But they kinda drape their fatty bodies over a stick and sleep up there. You can also see the side of the three nesting boxes there on the right. That’s all there is in there! Simple.
The front side
For here we’ve got the main door. It’s a great idea to install a piece of string to pull the handle incase you lock yourself in. When the door is new, it shuts so easily! Both Alibot and I have locked ourselves into the coop. Whoops.
Referring to the front size picture above, you’ve got the door, and the coop. The coop has a little door that opens right to the nesting boxes. We’ve got four chickens and three nesting boxes. They all share the same nesting box, like how boys generally always use the same urinal. NEVER have I seen more than one of our birds in a nesting box at once. For this reason I think you could get away with four birds and one box. Or even six and one box.
Anyways, when you go to put the away in the evening, you grab the eggs out of the handy little door. They chickens have already put themselves to roost (when it gets dark), you sweep up the yard and Bob’s your uncle. The tree is starting to come in, but you can still see the run (4×8′ floor) where the door is going to go, and the front part of the coop without the egg door, and without the nesting boxes.
I’d like to stress here that this does not have to be a poultry palace. These creatures have been chosen for their egg laying capability and have been domesticated over generations and generations. They have no idea you’re swinging an axe by their heads, and make awesome eggs. They take care of them selves, and are a great way to start getting into some more exciting gardening!
A note on paint. When you put all your time and money into the coop, you’re going to want to start using it right away. Try to hold off just a little while longer. A little paint goes a long way for longevity of the coop. Paint everything that will have stuff on it. I have a couple of inches of fill sand all over the floor – it got painted. The floor of the coop, which is covered in sawdust and chicken turd also got painted. Any part of the wood that is directly exposed to the weather, especially end grain, gets painted too. Any paint is better than nothing.
I just got the neatest toy from the UK… So the only thing that has been a bummer with these little guys is the requirement to let them out, and put them in. If you let them out, you MUST put them back in. I’ve read about stories of people leaving the doors open and coming out the next morning to a massacre complete with bloody raccoon prints walking away – varmints!
So after all these shenanigans of trying to figure out some solar vs 120V house solution, I just ponyed up $150 and bought a battery powered one from the UK. I installed it today, and so far it works! I can’t speak for racoons getting to the chicken feed, but the coop door shuts and opens with the sunlight and that is great! I may try swapping out the AA batteries for some D batteries to see if they last longer.
You can see the battery powered door opener there at the top. The two wires leading off to the right are for the light sensor, and the timer. The entry level opener has a light sensor in the box itself. That means you’d need a pulley or two and have to mount the motor box outside the coop. I got the external light sensor so I could mount the motor box inside the coop. The thing runs off four double AA batteries. We’ll see how long it lasts. I’m curious what it would take to get a solar panel and some NiCad’s in there… another day.
Oh, and total costs. I estimate the total coop ran me about… $500. Like I’d said above, the most expensive parts were the hardware cloth (square galvanized chicken wire with 1/2″ holes). I’ve got four chickens. I bought a fifty pound bag of UN-organic chicken feed for $28 on 12/28/11, then again on 3/26/12. So food is about $10/month, plus all the kitchen scraps you can throw at them. During the summer we get about 3.5 eggs/day. Winter more like 1 egg/day. So average throughout the year I’d say 2 eggs/day. That’s 700 eggs/year, $120/year food, so that works out to 17 cents/egg. A good deal, if you don’t count the coop! I’ve had these girls since May 2011. They didn’t start laying until Sept 2011. Let’s say between then and now they averaged 2 eggs/day, that means about 500 eggs. 1 year $120 food, $500 coop, so far I get about $1.25/egg. You can get “grass fed” organic eggs for like $5 dozen, so I’m at $15 per dozen! But I’ve got a coop and four fat birds… mmmmmm.
Definitely get chickens! It’s fun, and relatively easy. Like I said, easier than a cat or a dog. Check your city regulations for poultry. For instance, no roosters are allowed in Berkeley city limits. Also, check your local craigslist for people unloading coops, or people offering to build them. If you still want to do it, you could talk to the builder guy and see if he’d sell you the materials only – like a coop-kit or something. Doing it from nothing with just you and Home Depot can get spendy.
A number of years ago I stopped listening to FM radio stations, and disconnected my TV. A strange thing to do for sure. The first thing that comes to mind when someone says they’ve turned off their TV is that they sit around all day long drinking coffee, reading, writing, solving world hunger, and arguing with their intellectual friends. This image of me post radio and TV couldn’t be farther from the truth.
One moment that comes to mind when I think of when I came to be more of what I am today is some time that I spent in Hawaii. I lived in Hilo for five years from sometime around 2000. I remember driving around in my car, hearing, or seeing, an advertisement for a BigMac or something. I forgot about it, then realized I was standing in line for a BigMac not a half hour later. I like to think of myself as a pretty informed person, but I realized I’m just as susceptible to advertising as anyone else. It was a yucky feeling.
It got me thinking about where I run into advertisements. Pretty much everywhere, but I think the majority of them were any time I spent on TV or listening to radio. I decided to cut out all TV and radio. This hasn’t stopped any of my TV watching or radio listening habits. I had some experience with computers and the internet. I upgraded my internet connection and started getting 95% of all my media via the internet. I subscribe to pod-casts, and watch all the popular shows on the internet. If anything, my radio, TV, and movie intake increased.
Every time I would start to hear or watch commercials, I’d change my source for that media. It’s been a constant search, but a fun challenge. Alison thinks I have a short circuit in my hunter-gatherer Cro-Magnon brain that fuels my constant search for collect things.
Alibot said I should also look at this radio story about a dude “divorcing google.”
Things on cruise have been going pretty good. I’ve been busy standing
the 04×08 watch, and the 16×20. So it’s from 4-8AM and PM. We call ’em
mirror watches. I’ve spoken with Alison about watches, and she’s a fan
of the 04x08s as well. I sometimes find it a little hard to get much
sleep between these watches though! I would need to get into bed at 2000
(800PM) and be asleep right away so I can wake up at 0310 and get
dressed and assume watch at 0345. Early mornings for sure. But it’s nice
to catch the sun rise and sunset. Magically, by the time watches roll
around again, I’m fairly re-energized and ready to stand the four hour
watch.
Recently I’ve been standing as the cadet watch officer CWO. As the CWO I
run the bridge, radars, electronic charts, our vessels cross track
error XTE our left/right distance from our intended track line. I
maintain the ship’s logbook, do weather observations, and stand a look
out incase other vessels come near. We’re certainly out in the middle of
the ocean now though! I haven’t seen any vessel, or even caught an
electronic beacon from another vessel in about three days. And we can
sense stuff at around a 50 nautical mile radius! A lot of big blue out
here.
Celestial navigation has been a real challenge, and fun too. I’ve been
using my sextant everyday. Up until today, we’ve been overcast much of
the time. That has made shooting moon, stars, and even the sun
difficult. There are two main goals with celestial navigation. First to
fix your position in the ocean to a spot within 5 nautical miles of your
actual GPS reported position using nothing but your brains, a few
reference books, and your sextant. The other goal of c-nav is to figure
out how much error your gyro compass has. A regular compass uses Earth’s
magnetic field to point to (near) north. Our gyro compass simply point
in the same direction we point them in when we turned them on. When we
turn them on, we always point them at true north. As the voyage goes
one, eventually even the best of gyro compasses begins to wander off
true north, and we need to determine that by comparing the direction of a
celestial body appears to be (by the gyro compass) and the actual
direction to that body we calculate by our brains and books. While a
small part of celestial navigation is very romantic, 90% of it is number
crunching! Ah well.
I have one more watch as CWO this evening at 16×20, then we’re off to
“professional training” next week. I’m looking forward to switching it
up a little bit, getting regular sleep, and doing stuff that isn’t quite
as difficult as running a bridge of the TSGB.
I recently read the book Born To Run. It was a great book. Only a few books that I’ve read have ever actually changed my behavior, this was one of them.
After reading the book, I began running again, and in some very different shoes than I’d ever ran in before.
These shoes are called Vibram Five Fingers. The most obvious thing about them is they look like gloves for your feet. I’m into these because they have a little foot support as possible.
A few points that Born to Run makes is that humans evolved without shoes. For thousands of years we got on fine without Nike Air. Our feet have arches. Our feet are very sensitive. Our feet have as many bones as the entire rest of our body. After thousands and thousands of years of evolving the human body, and our feet, how is that putting on shoes can help? Have running and walking injuries increased, or decreased with the advent of shoes?
Born to Run points out that people with the most expensive shoes suffer the most injuries, where the opposite is true of cheap shoes. The author guessed that people ran more carefully in beat up cheapo shoes than brand news Asics.
Thankfully, I’ve never had any major running injuries. I did, however, begin to find it real boring. I wasn’t getting too much out of running, and what a neat way to spice it up than a new weird shoe.
I’ve been running in these off and on. Besides my calf and shin break in period, it’s been a real breath of fresh air.
It’s been a great trip! I got to see some really neat stuff, and I wanted to leave you guys with a few pictures
I’ve recently been initiated into the secret tradition of shellback. It was a disgusting ceremony, and I can say with certainty, that I’ve earned my shellback-dome. No more polywogg initiation for me! Ever!
The tortoises on Galapagos were terrific!
This shot was taken by Eric when he was ashore on Wolf Island. That is a very small island right here. I’m pretty sure that’s a baby boobie bird.
There I am waving “hello” but in this case goodbye,
and it wouldn’t be complete without the perfunctory sunset picture.
So, when ships go to the shore, the sailors get dressed up in civvies (civilian clothing, but we’re not military, they just call it civvies) and go ashore for liberty, or leave. Liberty is just time where you can do what you want! Usually this frosty adult beverages. What will generally happen is the crew piles into a small boat for a ride ashore. As soon as that little boat hits shore, it’s like a small explosive under the pants of each gussied up sailor goes off, and they all explode onto shore in almost perfectly opposite directions from each other. It’s totally weird.
This time, as we only had two days in Galapagos port, the chief scientist was nice enough to organize a guided tour of The Highlands. Our guide was terrific, and took us to the Darwin Foundation visitors center. It was great to see the tortoise breeding program that they have there. One of the more harmful invasive species on the islands are rats. They clearly came over from ships, and those rats will kill and eat just about anything their size. As a result, baby tortoises were being decimated, and the population was quickly declining. The Darwin Foundation started a breeding program where they take the fertile eggs from the nest, and let them hatch and grow in their protected cages until they reach the “rat proof” size. At that point, depending on the colors of the numbers on their shells, they’re returned to their respective islands to live their lives.
As each of the islands is pretty separate from one another, there are different sorts of species of tortoises on each island, and sometimes even in different valleys. Until the advent of dna testing, the definition of species had been pretty vague. One part of a specific species is that one is not capable of reproducing with another. There are many exceptions to this rule (mules, and more) but that was one guideline as to weather this creature was it’s own species or not. Now with dna, it’s something easy like any less than 95% similarities = new species. But I think humans are something like 98% the same as pigs… there’s a possibility I screwed up my numbers 😉
This is Lonesome George who is the last remaining of his species. The guide was excited to see how happy George was that his keeper was in the pen with him cleaning stuff out.
More interesting facts on the Galapagos: all the species that ended up here had to get there on their own. Because of the long distance they had to go, this usually meant they had some close connection with the sea, and were genetically simpletons. I remembered that with humans, we need a certain number of people to form a critical mass where we get enough genetic diversity that we can begin to reproduce and make future generations that are different enough from each other so they don’t get inbred. Genetic simplicity means that one male, and one female, or one pregnant female can show up, and even her offspring can make more of them to sustain a population.
Galapagos famous swimming lizards. They can stay underwater for long periods of time, but as the water is too cold for them, they have to spend a lot of time sunning themselves on the rocks (also hence the black color) to bring their body temperature back up
A boring picture with out an explanation:
ever heard the word “polywogg?” Well, it’s a term for someone who has never crossed the equator before. Or if they have, they have not been through the equator crossing ceremony. Luckily for me, we’re going to have an equator crossing ceremony, so I will loose my polywogg status before the end of the trip. The ceremony can be many different things, but it’s basically hazing as I understand it. I’m sure there will be many follow up hilarious pictures to add!
Oh so the picture: see the gps how it says: 0degrees 00.0001’S? Well that means I’m very very close to the equator by that gps’s estimation. Exactly 1/1000 of a nautical mile (6 feet). As one get’s closer to the north pole and Santa Clause, the S or N (latitude) will get closer and closer to 90 degrees. Each degree is divided into 60 minutes. Each minute of latitude is equal to 1 nautical mile (=1.15 statute miles you’d measure in your car), then from there we got to 10ths, 100ths and 1000ths of a minute.
So there’s this really small island north of the regular Galapagos – well there’s two: Darwin, and Wolff. Today, we sent a few scientists ashore to put some sort of GPS tracking device on the island. Apparently, it had never been accurately pin pointed on maps/charts so that’s what they’re off to do. I’ll see if I can get some pictures of the thing, sounds interesting.
The reason they went to Wolf island was to do a geology survey using some nifty gps technology. As I understood gps, the us government didn’t want people using their signals for super accurate tracking which could be used for guided missiles – so they embedded a mistake in all the tracking codes which is the main reason why, when you’re standing in one spot with your gps, it sometimes says you’re moving around. Apparently, now there is a second signal the is broadcast out that can be accurate to millimeters, but to get a fix of that accuracy, it takes about 10 minutes of not moving. Useless for guided missiles, but perfect for measuring small movements on slow moving things, like Wolf Island. Movements like this used to be measure with lasers, but even lasers had some built in errors, as the temperature of the air would change and distort the light. Some of which scientists could get around by shooting a red, and green laser. But even then, only accurate to a few millimeters. Now, with this new fangled gps technology, that sort of movement measuring is going away.
Wolf Island looks very white from a distance off. It’s all the bird shit. Amazing.
these two pictures are both from galapagos-expedition.blogspot.com
Did a bit of a picture tour of the ship. I took many pictures, but I’ll just put the real interesting ones up here.
This shot is of a swath of the bottom of the sea. It looks colorful: but the colors simply represent the different depths of parts of the ocean floor. We’re going to be driving back and forth along the bottom (“mowing the lawn”) until they have a full topographical map of the bottom out here: one very expensive map!
Here’s a shot of me with the third mate (3/M) on board. Funny that his hair looks wet, it’s because he’s in the HOT TUB.
a sample chart of the approximate routes that we’re going to be following while driving around out here making the map of the bottom.
here’s me on the bridge of R/V Melville. See! I get to wear what ever I want here, and I haven’t shaved for two days. Amazing research vessels…
Ship’s library. Turns out I didn’t need to bring ANY books, there are thousands here already.
Here’s my room. You can see that there is double storage, as the room is supposed to have two people per room, but I’ve got the whole thing to myself. There to the left of the laptop is my “cruise assignment.” It’s a big assignment, so I made a summary of the project, and printed it out so I could stare at it whenever I feel lost. I do a lot of staring at it. To the right of the dresser on the bulkhead (wall) you can see my whiteboard for daily stuff I need to take care of, and below that a little calendar that I made counting down the days. I’m not in any rush to get off, but I like to know how much time I have left!
The ship has 3 large Caterpillar and 1 small(er) Caterpillar engine. All four engines make electricity which is piped (I say piped because the cables are really big) to the “motor” room in the aft of the ship. Interesting point here: an engine has internal combustion, makes locomotion from fuel on it’s own, whereas a motor changes external power into motion. So these diesel engines make electricity for the big electric propulsion motors.
So Melville is a research vessel. Two of the main things they do are: tow some sort of instrument behind them, and lower instruments down to the bottom of the water. Currently we’re towing an MR1 from the University of Hawaii (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HMRG/MR1/), and when we’re finished with that project, we’re going to be doing some dredging of rocks and dirt from the sea floor. These two very large spools of cable have a Safe Working Load of about 30,000lbs and will have the dredge (old picture of a very similar dredge we’re using) jaws/net lowered to the ocean floor, then drug along to pick up rock and sediment samples.
Here is the engine control room. They don’t really have any windows – I’m glad I don’t have to work down there!
The funny thing about the control room is that it’s facing the stern of the ship. I was told that this wasn’t normal, but the engineers here seem to think it is normal! Just so everyone is clear: STBD=starboard=right, PORT=left. Ass-backwards!
our messdeck where we eat all our meals
a shot of the galley. You can see the fryer, the grill and a few ovens. This galley wraps around to the back with more stuff on both the island and around all the walls. There are two cooks June and Richard: they’re fantastic!
if I’m not hanging out in the library, or my rack, I’ll probably be trying to find some brainless, interesting dvd in the lounge between meals or something.
Me with one of the Galapagos islands in the background. I think this one is called Pinta, like one of the three Columbus boats. No idea if there’s any connection there…
Well, that’s all for now my friends. More to come later,
drew
It’s now three days into my commercial cruise with Scripps research vessel: Melville. As I’d hoped, there are some truly friendly people that I get the pleasure of working with, both on the deck side of the operation, engine side, and the science crew. This vessel, R/V Melville is certainly one of the more laid back commercial vessels I’ve ever worked aboard. We’re allowed to stand watch in shorts and t-shirts:even more laid back than the law office in Hawaii (on days when clients came in anyways… I doubt I could get away with board shorts, and NO shirt on watch!).The captain, and a few of the mates even listen to music while they’re on watch. We do have an honest to god hot tub aboard. It’s made of plywood, but it’s got jets, and hot water and the whole thing. I haven’t seen it in use yet, but I’m sure someone will get it going soon enough. There is a mysterious pipe coming up from the engine room where they dump warm water into the tub, then just drain the thing right over board when the soakers are finished.
Everyone has been really helpful and interested in my commercial cruise project. Unfortunately I have not been sent out here with the easy task of: learn a lot, ask questions, and have a great time. I have to document everything, and go through an entire 43 page assignment from school. There are different aspects of this assignment, but primarily they cover: drawings of the ship and her systems, 16 short essays explaining different operational aspects of daily life, and loads of check offs for skills. Now that I’ve started to really get my head into this project, I’m realizing it probably will take the entire 60 days! I’ve got pieced printed out, and taped to the bulkheads (walls) of my cabin so it’s literally looming around me all the time. I’m already taking great pleasure in crossing things out!
Costa Rica has been a very warm climate. Many of the crew have been on board for months already, so they’re always itching to get off the ship and go zip lining or hiking, or simply drinking. I’ve been pining for this trip ever since I got here, so I was disappointed that they forced me to take some time off and go ashore. It turned out just as well, I’d forgotten my wrist watch and needed to purchase one at a store.
The other part of this commercial cruise is beginning to get a taste of what it’s like to work professionally aboard a ship. Because I’m “cadet Kerlee” it’s okay for me to privately ask the crew what they’re making in their positions. I rare opportunity for sure – but information that I think is important when deciding on where I want to set my sights for after graduation. There are four positions in each engine and deck departments that are below a third mate. For the deck side, they are AB/OS, for the engine side WIPER/OILER. Many of those positions have been filled by recent academy graduates who weren’t able, or willing, to take work aboard a different vessel on their actual third mate license. The two main reasons I chose a research vessel for my commercial cruise are:
1. they have a mission that is based in science
2. diverse friendly small crowd of people to work with
Other ships’ mission may be simply money. Other ships often operate with as small of crews as possible, which usually means the same 12-15 crazy old men day in and day out. Working for a university (University of California, San Diego SCRIPPS) with science as the primary goal is a terrific way to get a start in the maritime field. The way the US Coast Guard licensing works out, once I get my 3d mate license, then 2nd mate and so on, it’s easy to work aboard one ship, then another, and to move around. That gets back to one of the reasons I chose boats in the first place: itchy feet! The world is a staggeringly large place – the ideal job will take me to cool places.
Ah, some of the undergrad scientists have put together a blog chronically their science adventures on our trip. Probably will make for interesting reading as well:
