User:Graham Robertson

Log

7.1.12

Worked on plaster for most of the day. Aidan and Chris chipped in for a bit. I am grateful for the help. I have finished plastering almost two rooms. Matt, our construction director and I discussed plans for finishing construction of these rooms. I am very excited to work with him. I appreciate his care of research and planning before acting. We also talked about safety and organization. The rooms I have been working in have tools, lumber and materials in the way of paths and work space. Tomorrow we will work on cleaning up the rooms and organizing tools and materials. I still have some plaster left over that needs to be applied.

I came up with an idea for cooling HabLab that works into a bigger, unofficial plan for Creating Microclimate and Gathering Places Around HabLab. When I first arrived, I noticed the need for many improvements (I realize we are still in the construction phase). 1. social gathering space. this could take the form of outdoor rooms with food plants and trees serving as privacy hedges, and shade. 2. erosion control. I see terraces as the main strategy for surrounding Hablab with fertile soil, good food, shade, and prevention of flooding and erosion. Terraces with low sitting walls also serve as the main structure for creating gathering places. 3. Cooling and shade. We HabLab dwellers have observed most heat coming into the building is caused by reflection from the ground into the southern living room windows. When the bedroom doors are closed, the rooms stay an average of 10 degrees cooler in the day. We have discussed options for low energy cooling. Ideas include cross draft/stack effect ventilation, and earth cooling tubes. I am envisioning an arbor that spans at least the south facing windows, extending 10-15 ft in front of the house. This arbor would provide structure for growing kiwi, grapes, berries, and other deciduous edible vines. In the winter they die back, letting the low winter sun into the living room. This could also extend into the solar arc concept of having trees planted on the north, west, and east sides of a house to cool the building.

We had an awesome soccer game today, thanks to Aidan's diligence in creating a small field for us to host our games. It ended abruptly when the ball was kicked into a thorny locust tree. Bri and I let the chicks out and watched them chase each other and fight over mulberries and bugs.

6.30.12

Had our first house meeting today. Gabi taught consensus methods for decision making. We passed a meeting agenda around for people to write ideas they wanted to speak about. I liked what everyone had to say. We chose a structure for organizing chores, and discussed shop safety, cooperative food buying, workshop organization, and options for cooling HabLab. Spent a few hours stuccoing. Got one wall done, then spent the day at the lake. Aidan got a rowboat and picked us up. We went on a voyage and they tried to maroon me on the other side of the lake. Nice try Aidan.

6.29.12

Spent most of the day plastering. Got two walls done.

6.28.12

I attempted a digging knife for Gabi today, which proved to be unnecessary since we have hand shovels whose edges can be sharpened. Still I got to practice my welding and grinding skills.

6.27.12

Today was a food extravaganza. I started on sauerkraut, made a lentil soup and rice dinner for everyone, and showed Yoonseo how to make bread. He loves to document. Check out our sourdough bread baking instructions. I spent a few hours addressing envelopes to be sent worldwide to our kickstarter supporters. During late afternoon I joined Gabi and Aidan in the workshop and welded some pieces of metal together and called them hand hoes. Gabi needs hand tools for weeding and digging in the garden. Today I am going to make a digging knife.

6.26.12

Aidan and I spent most of the afternoon running around Maysville and Cameron shopping for envelopes and stamps to mail the kickstarter rewards. We returned around 4 and I spent the rest of the day plastering the east rooms. Need to figure out how to control the quality of the plaster. Had a good bean lentil chili made by Gabi and then Yoonseo and I got straight to our breadboard temperature controller lesson. We worked from 9 til midnight. By the end of the night I knew how to solder, wire breadboards, differentiate between diodes, capacitors, and resistors. I liked the way Yoonseo teaches. We first went over basic principles of Ohm's theory of resistance, roles of diodes, capacitors, resistors, and general layout of the circuit. He had me solder a few practice wires and then we got right to building the board. By then end of the night I was exhausted.

6.24.12

12.15AM After Scrum, familiarized myself with the Flashy XM Control Panel. It was overwhelming at first, but now I see it as a helpful and innovative tool to organize research and development. Spent rest of today stuccoing the outer south wall. Had a good day working alone and getting back to mud plastering. I missed working with earthen plasters. It reminds me of working on the pallet house with Texas Natural Builders in Pine Ridge, SD. Yoonseo and I finally gave up trying to install Ubuntu from a USB Flash Drive containing a bootable .DMG file. He gave in to everyone's advice to use Virtual Machine. It was a fast and easy success. Documentation is here: http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Mac ^Needs peer review from Mac users interested in running Ubuntu^

Plan for tomorrow:

1. Help Yoonseo with peer review. (the ability to peer review his work using Ubuntu was the main reason for our research, plus I wanted to try it anyway).
2. Start filling out Industry Standards Analysis spreadsheet for Microtrac.
3. Plaster East rooms

6.23.12

Woke up, heard the rain and was so grateful that the cardboard and hay got a nice soaking. Gabi covered the paths in the garden with cardboard just before the storm. There were 30 mph winds heading straight north. I hope the Hablab will be able to handle 60 mph, because we were all scared watching the overhangs rattle. Today I plan to work on the new scrum board, get kickstarter magnets punched and counted. We need 380. ...1 AM: Scrum board is up and magnets are punched. Aidan is testing the magnets to see if they can be glued to the punches. I made a sweet potato stew for the group, conversed with a Polish family from Chicago about systemic change, helped Aidan clean up the kitchen. Today is my sixth day here, and I feel comfortable, empowered, and free. I love everyone I have met here and I am looking forward to starting production runs of the Liberator. The workshop is getting close to optimal efficiency and organization! Soon we will be able to cut sheet metal with the torch table instead of by hand. I want to do an update video with Gabi on the garden progress tomorrow, make some shower curtain rods, and go to the lake and drink beer and swim. I have learned to keep my intentions focused on my desires and needs, but to relinquish expectations and assumptions. I dont know if I will be able to do what I want, only the goal.

6.22.12

Today was workshop organization. We started by finalizing our shop layout in Sketchup with Chris, Aidan and Aaron. I am amazed to see all we did today. Update vid from tonight on shop organization.

I periodically glanced at the work Gabi and Aidan were doing in the field, plowing and fence building. There are many lessons to be learned from the Lifetrac that will benefit Microtrac prototype II.

1. Width must be narrow to be able to spin in place.

2. Needs rear attachment for plows and other towed implements

3. Loader arm shaft must be placed farther back to prevent tipping.

More to come later. Feel free to add to this list.

From 5-9PM Gabi and I finished up working in the garden. We tweaked the beds' height and width, covered with soaked cardboard and hay. Tomorrow we will fill in the paths with either carpet or cardboard. We will be planting corn, beans, and squash on the north side and sorghum and millet on the south. I have enjoyed the freedom to choose how I spend my time. I spent a few hours organizing in the shop and a few in the garden. And I am glad to work longer hours rather than appeasing a boss's demands. I look forward to be able to direct my own work AND carve out a locally sufficient enterprise based on GVCS. Vann arrived today. He will be working on gathering a remote team to develop the power inverter. When Gabi and I finished we returned to Hablab and yum pasta and soup made by Aidan and Yoonseo.

6.19.12

15 Chicks went outside today for the first time. Started the day by repairing wires and extending the welding power to the southeast corner of the shop. We rearranged and cleaned the scrum board to accommodate for general/daily house tasks on one board and specific shop/agriculture tasks on the other. Aidan and I worked on building another welding table. I spent about an hour machining four small squares with holes for the legs, my first time using the mag drill and abrasive saw. Aidan and I were both frustrated when we discovered none of the power cubes were working, so we were not able to use the iron worker. I was amazed by how fast the ironworker is compared with the abrasive saw. We just have a little more to do tomorrow and we will have a new table! I am really grateful to have Aidan guiding and helping me develop my skills. Yoonseo hosted a great class on Solidworks. I am trying to download Windows 7 so I can dualboot and use Solidworks on Mac.

6.18.12

To Do this week

Clean up of shop and Hablab, familiarize myself with organization of shop

refine short/long term work plan,

Solidworks class with Yoonseo, Microtrac Mob?

Plaster "hotel rooms"

...ended up killing the chick with the splayed leg. I am relieved she didnt suffer any longer.. Heavy breathing, somewhat immobile. I am glad to have the support of everyone here as this was my first time killing an animal. Gabi helped me with some words of gratitude towards the thing...

Participated in my first Scrum meeting and helped organize tools, shelves, and tables. Rewired the welding cables overhead, learned about wiring. Learned how the power inverter works. Practiced my first ever weld. Helped Aidan grind down some newly built welding tables. Tomorrow I will help make another welding table and practice more welding and grinding. We set up the new welding area at the end of the day. After dark we saw the first ever cutting of metal with the CNC Torch table Prototype 2. Very exciting! The neighbor and local gardener Walt brought over a cake, and it just so happens it is Yoonseo's birthday. I made lentil soup and then we celebrated with cake and presents for Yoonseo.

6.17.12

Jose left today, along with Creation Flame who brought Bri along for a week. My Dad got up at dawn to go back to Dallas. I wish he had been able to stay with us on Father's Day. Aaron and Gabi went to pay for the new resident cow, while Yoonseo, Chris, Darren and I went to Pony Express lake and enjoyed swimming, eating, drinking, napping. Aaron met us after returning from the trip to pay for the cow. I enjoyed the constructive discussions had while at the lake. We grilled some meat on the campfire behind Hablab when we got back.

grilling on Darren's last night at FeF

6.16.12

My dad and I spent all day today driving, arrived around 7. First thing we saw was the tricked out LifeTrac. We were welcomed Chris DeAngelis, and Aaron from Creation Flame. Witnessed some torch table testing. Learned a bit about stepper motors. Met the rest of the crew over at Hablab as they finished a day of stuccoing. The plaster is looking really smooth and strong for being just sand/clay. I am guessing this is because of the sand used, with its irregular, sharp grains. We were also introduced to the new flock of chicks in the incubator. A couple were having a hard time hatching, and Aaron assured me it will damage their muscles and bones to pick the shell away. It was eventually ignored and helped out of the shell and we now have a chick with a splayed leg. Not sure what to do, but it was a very direct learning experience. Trust the gentle voice in your heart!