New blog for the g(A)rden!

For the folks who looked at this blog to find out about the Tempe Autonomous Community G(A)rden, there is a new blog just for that.

Go check out riftempe.blogspot.com

Thanks!

<3

- N

UPDATE GARDEN DESTROYED

Pictures at the link. I'll fix this later, but right now, the fight is on.

http://tinyhouseandrevolution.blogspot.com/p/update-garden-destroyed.html

"I will build you a guarden, where your anarcho-feminist-syndicalist theory can bloom" OR "Hi Friends!" OR "A Day At The Park"

Part 1: The Introduction

A word about this post:

This will be a lengthy post about a lot of stuff that is not a tiny house. However, the name of the blog is Tiny Houses and Revolutions, so it's about time I start making good on that second part of the title. Secondly, this post will function as an extended “Hi, how're you doin?! This is what I've been up to” post for my friends and family scattered about the US and the globe,

Part 2: The Prologue

First, I moved out to Phoenix, into a cute little 1 bedroom cottage on a half lot in the Coronado district of PHX with my partner and best friend Alex! 

This is us (as we take a photo for the cover of our singer/songwriter album)...

 

This is our home

But what I really wanted to post about was today. There was a May Day celebration. The flyer looked like this: 

 

Part 3: The May Day Garden

I showed up there with the band I'm in, a radical social justice marching band called The Brass Lung. Despite looking a bit thin in ranks because half of the members were unable to make it, we played an awesome show for all the people who showed up ready to build a garden and park. 

We took people across the street where we would build a garden where there was only a desolate plot of “private property.”

We made sure to cross at the sidewalk like the law abiding citizens we are.

This was the general atmosphere of the day

A lot of the folks there really liked the music.

A few of the folks there were not fans of our music

They came over to tell us about it

We were totally prepared for that

They liked talking

And video taping

...from multiple angles!

So did we!!

They informed us that there would be no building on that property today.

We briefly considered what the police officers had to say

They called for reinforcements for the violent crowd

They made a line. We would have preferred a mosh pit, but you've got to give the audience what it wants. Also, how fucking hot did this have to be? Lots of them were there all day. More than one person wondered aloud how much of Tempe resident's tax dollars were going to paying the creepers overtime to babysit us without asking.

So we played them a song (it was Amarga Terra Mia. If anyone would like to post the lyrics in the comments, that would be excellent.)

 

 

Later, we walked away, having provided a distraction.

For no reason, here's me by a train.

Momo and I then bounced, and here's where the pictures turn to story again for a bit. We left and bought 9 2”x6”x96”, 1 4”x4”x96”, a box of exterior wood screws, 9 cubic feet of soil, 4 cubic feet of mulch, boca burgers, cheese, ketchup, and a slew of other fixin's and materials. We also brought from home otter pops, water, ice, and a ton of tools (circular saw, drill, square, driver and drill bits, and anything else we might need for the build.) We then came back and saw that people were building in the public space, a barren strip of land right across from the Farmer's Market. We called over 10 volunteers and got all the stuff unloaded, and set to building a raised bed.

The building included a 30-45 minute workshop on how to use a drill and how to build a raised bed. A couple really awesome kids took turns practicing drilling and driving screws.

Some adults too!

These two folks were the backbone of a lot of the build. They were with it from start to finish. The person in the back is Emily, Momo's friend from Ann Arbor who happened to be traveling in PHX. She got dropped off at the Home Depot and worked on the build the whole time. These two people built the shit out of that planter box. Or more like, built a planter box so we could fill it with shit and then plants. It was interesting to note that most of the men and kids helped for 45 minutes to an hour, but the four people on it all day were myself, Momo, and these two ladies. Is it alright to say fuck yeah there?

This is some of the mulch, a shovel, and one of the planters that got put up while I was getting supplies for the other box. It appears to be re-bar, a pallet, and some plastic. It's really fucking neat, and an especially neat idea for a wall. There's also a cooler buried and planted.

This is a spiral I imagine the kids made out of rocks that we all dug out of the ground. Before we left, we found some left over grass seed, so we seeded it, mulched it, and watered it. It looks pretty cool now, In back are the tents people brought for shade. Folks are grilling hella veggie burgers back there and playing music. There's plenty of video of it online and I'm sure more will role in (please post any media you find in the comments)

This is the Alto Sax player in the band, Jason, being very angry that he was unable to make the show. So angry, in fact, that he beat the shit out of the ground. It was really helpful. I'm kidding... Truth of the matter is, Jason found out that the ground was scabbin' for Old Man Whoever-Owns-The-Property-We-Couldn't-Go-On and he gave it the treatment that all scabs get... Okay, that's a lie too. He was being very calm and controlled and digging holes for the stakes of the raised bed to go in. I just like my stories...

Then, we filled it with dirt, realized we needed much more dirt and had no plants, went with two people I never met and bought a ton more dirt, two tomatoes, 4 basil plants, 4 peppers, 2 artichokes, and a rose. Angela, one of the people I just met, came along with another guy and I and must have thrown 35 dollars down on plants. We came back, threw in all the dirt, mixed it up, everybody gathering around to take part in the final steps. We laid out the plants, dug holes, squeezed their root balls, and welcomed them to their new home. We were all very busy during this time, so no pictures.

Late at night, we had an assembly and it was decided to build a makeshift structure for shade. We came up with this.

The finished product was there in the dark. When the dust settled, it looked a bit like this:

Then, like any political faction worth its salt, 
we had a party.

We sang lots of songs by The Mountain Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, Andrew Jackson Jihad, David Rovics, Radiohead, and a couple folks played a bunch of stuff I never heard before.

Part 4: The Epilogue

All in all, the day, Sunday, April 29^th, was a day when a small number of people took a direct action and all went to bed having collectively, without leadership or coercion, in the face of arrest and police presence, broke ground, sweatily labored in the sun and heat, and created a world that is just a little bit better than the one they woke up in. And maybe that can give people hope. An old friend I just recently started talking with again told me that they try to operate with the philosophy that we should live as if the revolution had already happened and we are building the world we want to live in instead of just acting against the old. Today I lived exactly as I would have if the revolution were over. There's a poster that says “If the world were to end tomorrow, I would plant a tree today.” I think that idea is rather foolish and fruitless, but I will say that if the revolution ended yesterday, I'd want to spend the day building a community garden around mothers and children and teachers and houseless folks and the cast aside and the nerds and the rejects and the occupiers and the sons and daughters and friends and lovers and comrades. Today was Anarchism in practice. Without hierarchy, without oppression or coercion, with the strength of laborers and the ingenuity of thinkers and the elbow grease of those who refuse to let go of their dreams.

Tomorrow, we will go back, and we will fix the shade, and we will hang the following sign:

You Don't Need Anyone's Permission To Create A Better World

DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS

ON THE JOB, AT THE SCHOOL, IN THE STREET

Happy May Day 2012 – Solidarity Forever

If anyone wants to ask me about my political beliefs, they are pretty much all crystallized within this day.

Have a good evening everyone.

(A) <3 :) - N

Part 5: The Gratitude

Many thanks to all the people who have supported me. I will be putting them in Alphabetical order so as to use a meaningless hierarchy as opposed to allowing anyone to think about who's name is higher up on the list. Also, it's Z-A... fucking Anarchists...

Zelda, Zahid, Zach, Woodie Guthrie, Uncle Steve and Aunt Elsa, The Tempe Farmer's Market, The Royal Family, The Preacher, The Phoenix and Mesa Libraries, The Olympia Leftist-Circular-Firing-Squad Scene (I respectfully request you take notes), The Evergreen State College, Stevie, Stacy, Sophia, Savvina, Ryobi and Ridgid Power Tools, Paul, Opa and Oma, Mom, Meghan in Tucson, Matt L., Matt D. (I miss you, sir. Let me know when it's okay to call), Aunt Marina and Uncle Sam, Lamise, Kurt, Kristen, Katy Clark! Kate, Joe Hill, Joe Beck, Joe B., Joe, Jefferson, Jeff, Jasun, Jason, Jakob, Haley, Halena, Garyn, Aunt Evenor, Erixa, Emily B, Emily, David Rovics, Dad, Aunt Betty, Austin, Ashlea, Angela, Andy S., Adam, Academic Advisor Jean, and my best friend, Momo.

Thanks, everyone.

Part 6: The Bonus Material

The following is a letter that Comrade Stace-drum sent out to the Brass Lung listserv. I think it bears reposting here since it's important to get a fair and balanced view. I have not edited or altered the content in any way (even for any spelling, syntax, grammatical or diction errors; all logical and rational fallacies have been left entirely in tact, all cognitive dissonance is as it was when received). I only cleaned up the format so it is more legible. You're welcome, Derek Pittnam of the Tempe Police Department and Shauna.... you're not further clarified so I will give you the option of being referred to in future posts as Shauna of the Dead, Shaunaunauna, or Thanks Shauna. Please post your preference in the comments:

Hello,

Derek Pittam with the Tempe Police Department asked that I share the following information with you as your neighborhoods are closest in proximity to the area. Please contact Derek at Derek_pittam@tempe.gov or I with any questions.
Thanks,
Shauna

I write this to you because as you know my career has led me to have a close relationship with the residents and businesses in and about the downtown Tempe area. In fact, several years ago, the Maple Ash community honored me with a “Friend of Community” award. Community members have always known that I am aggressively proactive on issues of crime prevention. This is no different, and I am very concerned that the planners of this event have not disclosed important information in their quest to gain the support of local residents and businesses.

I know the flyer (above) looks and sounds harmless right? Well anarchists looked like this (photo below) the last time they planned an event surrounding “May Day” in downtown Tempe.

Now I know that some may see the photo and then look at the flyer above to find no correlation. One might think that law enforcement is even taking a “cheap shot” because after all this event will be garden building…right?…it’s green…it’s local…it’s hip…it’s taking a vacant brown field and making it beautiful…why would the police be concerned?

Well despite the nice flyers and excellent planning to get local residents and businesses to show support and even commit to participation, the planners of this event forgot to do something… or maybe they did not forget.

At the time of writing this email, no planner for this event has contacted a private property owner or management group of vacant land within the downtown Tempe area to ask permission to conduct such an event. No planner of this event has contacted the appropriate city staff to inquire about proper permitting or permissions needed to do this event. That’s a problem and that is why I now have concern as it relates to community members and businesses who would like to participate.

Basically, this activity is known is “guerilla gardening” and is not new. It has picked up steam with the Occupy movement and is usually done by seizing and occupying “privately owned” property.

Upon public safety learning that no property owner/management company within the downtown Tempe community has approved of this planned activity, subsequently many downtown property responsible persons have signed “Authority to Arrest” letters. This allows police to arrest for trespassing without the property’s responsible person having to be present. As a part of our duty to protect the rights and privileges of *all persons*, the Tempe Police Department is prepared to enforce certain laws against those who believe their own personal liberties supersede the liberties of others.

Why do I think the anarchist organizers are planning to knowingly engage in criminal activity? Well despite pointing out the above obvious issue, there are other indicators. On 4/23/12, Modern Times Magazine reported the location for this event in an online article.

http://www. moderntimesmagazine.com/ page16/Arizona_May_Day_120423/ Arizona_May_Day_120423.php

Ironically, police had already been working with the local property management for this specific location outlined in the above article several weeks prior. The property management confirmed that this planned activity received no permissions from the owners to take place on this property. In response, property management subsequently posted “no trespassing” signs on the property after the signing an “Authority to Arrest” letter. Not long after, this post appeared of the event’s Facebook page:

In response to your no trespassing signs, we say “if it’s vacant, take it!"*

The signs on this lot, as of today, have been knocked down and destroyed by unknown persons.

Not to be overtly accusatory toward the planners of this event as responsible for this criminal damage, but it is coincidental and only raises my concerns that anarchist planners for this event could be anticipating conflict. After all, staging events that force the police to take enforcement action police is how anarchists hope to erode community support for local police departments. Anarchists want to place police in a position so they can say in a clever sound bite, “See we told you so… the cops are here to protect the interests of the wealthy!”

In actuality, police would provide the exact same enforcement action to assist any person exercising lawful standing regardless of their of socio-economic status. These are well known anarchist tactics that I am all too familiar with.

In conclusion, researching other “guerilla gardening” actions planned by anarchists in other cities, the goal is to engage in civil disobedience (as seen in Santa Cruz, CA in December of 2011) . In other words, due to the liability concerns of property owners surrounding these “un-insured” actions, the property owners do not have the chance to be supportive of such an event without certain guarantees from the organizers, therefore with property owner participation exclusion from the event planning, conflict is evitable with police and/or property holder.

Where this tactic meets the goals of the anarchist, it may not be in the best interests of the local law abiding citizen who thought they were merely showing up for a community building event where a garden or park was being built.

Again, I send this to you Shauna for informational purposes to forward to anyone within the community that you feel may be affected by this planned event. This way, public safety has expressed its concern with the community and therefore allows each community member or business to make a decision based on “free agency” as to whether they will participate or support such an event.

Derek Pittam #14555
Detective
Homeland Defense Unit
Tempe Police Department

Part 7: The Translated Version of the Bonus Material

Hi everybody! I'm Shauna-banana. Look down. Look up. Back to me. Now I'm Derek Pittnam, all-around really nice guy who hates crime. I think these Anarchists are being too sneaky, perhaps criminally so. Anarchists seem nice, but like to wear bandannas and give parked luxury automobiles the finger.

Now, I know planting shit is hip with all the kids now-adays, but these particular kids are forgetful, or maybe they aren't... They forgot to ask permission from the wealthy gentleman who owns the property. OUTRAGE!

Again, let me reiterate how much I know about how “groovy” these people think planting shit is, but they didn't tell us and so businesses want them arrested. These people think the property owner's decision or indecision to allow a prime piece of real estate lay fallow is UNDERNEATH their liberty to build an open public garden that beautifies the area and brings communities together and THAT CAN NOT BE ALLOWED FOR I AM THE LAW AND I AM JUST!

Then the owner put up a sign but everyone was really mean about it and they were all super cereal about it on Facebook and I was like nuh uh and they were like YEAH HUH! And then someone wrecked the sign that the wealthy property owner worked so hard to invest in the right stocks to acquire a large enough capital gain to pay a crew of minimum wage workers to erect a fence around a vacant lot AND put a super duper serious NO TRESPASSING sign on. How rude, amirite?

Not to be unfair, I just worry that these Anarchists will force us to use any means necessary, including intimidation, selective enforcement, physical restraint, physical violence, chemical weapons, and really really shinny bicycles, to stop them from being big meanies and planting a rose bush and some tomatoes on that poor person's rocky wasteland to which he has rightful claim. We don't want to beat protesters, but they trick us into police brutality with their gotcha sound bites.

Look, fact of the matter is, the law protects rich and poor alike. So if a wealthy person, like a multi-national conglomerate bank, wanted to foreclose on your property, we would totes defend you... Yup, you can trust the police. In conclusion, judging from one other event in a different state that we won't investigate here and absolutely nothing else, I think there are only two reasons anyone would show up tomorrow: Because they are a terrorist, or be cause they are a sweet, law-abiding, church-going family who have been hoodwinked into terrorist actions by the aforementioned terrorists.

So Shauna-banauna, at least the truth is out there. At least finally, the people with all the money, socio-economic power, and military-grade weapons and armor, will be heard. Then, the people can decide for themselves.

Derek Pittam #14555
Detective
Homeland Defense Unit
Tempe Police Department

Part 8: Allow Me To Play You Out

Quarterly Check In.

So, here we go, another three months have gone by and the time has come for me to update this blog again.

When we left off, I was still working on attaching the angle iron to the trailer frame. It took over $150 to buy all the right drills and drill bits to get this job done. I got some help from my very good friend and we were able to bolt up the angle iron and move the 5 hurricane ties inside the walls of the house.

I sealed up the holes by cutting a dowel rod of the same diameter as the hole to the proper length, rubbing a wood glue on it, and hammering it into the place where the bolt and tension tie formerly were. After I get the whole thing welded, the job of attaching the house to the trailer will be finished.

Another thing my friend and I did was seal up the walls and the ceiling. There were a lot of places that nails and screws did not go into a stud (especially on the ceiling). In order to make sure those places would not leak, I used Killz paint and white washed pretty much everything. 

Today's Tom Sawyer whitewashes ceilings instead of fences. And, yes, I missed a spot.

We also sealed the floor with Killz, though I may use a different, specific sealer for floors when we get closer to putting the flooring in, I wanted to do preventative maintenance because I don't want the sub-floor getting wet and weakening.

In late December, I bought a truck. I had been searching for a truck that would be able to haul this monstrosity without costing me a fortune for at least 8 months. After checking out a number of real shitboxes, I found a 2003 F350 diesel dually crew cab with an 8' bed for $3,300. I took a look and saw that, while it had a bunch of problems (passenger side door doesn't open from the inside, power locks don't work, power windows will probably go soon, turn signals didn't work, missing tailgate, etc.), none of them were really bad problems. The engine is solid as a rock, the transmission runs smoothly, and the body is straight as an arrow. It also has a tow package including electronic trailer brakes. So, after talking the guy down with all the other problems, I walked away with a diesel truck that will probably run another 100,000-150,000 miles for $2,900. For reference, a 2012 version of what I have retails starting at $35,000 So, woo hoo for that!

Andy fixed the turn signals (by connecting a wire that fell loose. Cost $0) and I will be hopefully sometime soon working with him to fix all of the other problems. We ran the numbers and it's looking like parts will end up somewhere between $700 and $1000, so we'll see how that goes.

Back to the house: I started installing the electrical wiring. I figured out where it was going to go by drawing lines on the walls. I made a few mistakes, but I believe everything is hammered out now. The main lights in the house are controlled by a three-way switch located inside the door and right next to the skylight in the loft. I did this so I could have lights on as I climbed into the loft and didn't have to fumble around in the dark or have to lean way off the edge to flip the switch.

This was the best picture I had. Shameful, right?

I also installed two other switches. One is for the porch light, which is fully operational and looks really pretty. The other will be for an office light when I eventually find a fixture that I like. I also installed light lines all around the house near the loft line in case I need to add more illumination under the loft. For receptacles, I installed 7 receptacles for a total of 14 plugs in the house. I installed one in the loft, one in the bathroom, two in the kitchen, one in the storage area above the door, and two in the office. I will be installing at least one more outlet under the counter to hook up the refrigerator (oh, I got a refrigerator. Andy found one for free!) and an exterior outlet at the rear of the house which will have both the house's input (for when I want to plug into the grid) as well as output for powering things outside. I also hope to have a way to plug the house into my solar panel instead of running a direct wired line outside, but I don't know how to do that just yet...

My next project after that was insulation. I think that it's a really good idea to get the loft and ceiling insulated before summer starts cranking, so I got to work on that. DO NOT use a table saw to cut foam. It will work really well, about 3 times. Then not so well about 3 more times, then the blade will be so gummed up with foam that it will grab the board you're cutting and throw it right back at you. I went through two blades before admitting defeat and just cutting the foamboard with a utility blade (which works just fine, but is a slow process). I have insulated over half of the loft at this point...

...but that's going to be put on hold because of another long process: sanding the underside of the loft.

The wood that makes up the loft is salvaged wood, that much is obvious. I would like to keep this look, but lose a lot of the pencil marks, dirt, and staining that is on the wood, as well as lighten it up to help with illumination in the small space. This process involves full protective gear (respiratory, eye, and ear protection) and I can only do about 5 minutes at a stretch before my arms get tired and it gets difficult to breathe, so this is now my project every night when I get home from work. I hope to work on my truck while the tiny house is tied up in the sanding project. We'll see.

Alright, that's it for now. See you in May. I promise you nicer looking pictures. :P

Boo!

    Heyyyy, long time no see... again... How have things been? How are the kids? Is Timmy in grade school yet? He just graduated college? ...well this is awkward...

     I'm not going to pretend like I didn't see this coming. I work slowly, constantly shifting around between designer, engineer, researcher, laborer, and resources manager, so it takes a long time for me to produce enough to merit a blog post. This will probably not stop happening, and I'll probably post again in another couple of months. I'm sorry, that's just the way it's going to be.

     Moving on, I believe I have plenty of things to show for this blog post. First off, during this time, we built a tiny garage for the tiny house...

 Things are looking up for 10302 1/2 Brown Rd.

     Okay, it's a shed, but it's nice to have dry tools and a place to think. 

     The first thing I undertook on the house this time was the porch. Both the ceiling over the porch and the deck itself are common redwood. I insulated the ceiling using rigid foam and sealed it with T&G redwood. I really like redwood for these purposes because not only is it stronger and lighter than pine, but it has very distinct and interesting color variations in the wood. I tried to match those up to create a nice effect. Finally, I put in a porch light that I think is really pretty sweet. This was an item that took a lot of looking around to find. Roll film:

 

 

     Eventually I will hook that light up to 12v DC and I'll get to have a really nice picture of the porch. Then, after building a tiny rocking chair, I can squeeze some lemonade into a tiny glass and rock back and forth on the porch on a warm summer night. Or I could sit on my stoop...

Stoop Kid's afraid to leave his stoop!

     Andy brought home a demolished gazebo and I salvaged some of the wood to make this remarkably sturdy set of stairs. 

     Now we come to the axle... I knew I had to buy a new axle because the previous one wouldn't handle the new weight I was putting on. So I went to a parts distributer in East Phoenix (45 minutes, one way, easily) and grabbed myself a 7000K 4" drop axle. I get home, Andy shows me how to put it together, we slide it under the frame and... it's too short. 

     Turns out the guy there measured it wrong. There and back again. Get correctly measured new axle, run it home, assemble it, slide it under the frame aaaaaannnnnd... it's too short.

     Take three: Well, this time we all find out, including the people at the parts store, that going from 3,500 and 7,000 decreases the amount of space available to attach the axle to the frame... but only in 4" drop models. Discovering that basically meant these were my options: Get a straight axle, which raises the house up and potentially makes it too tall to legally drive OR get a longer drop axle and be definitely be too wide to legally drive OR choose option C (the nuclear option of these choices) and change the pitch of the roof to make the house shorter. I chose the first option, got home, assembled the axle...

 

By the way, "assembled the axle" includes hand packing bearings with grease that smells as if McDonalds made a dirty gym sock sandwich.

      ...slid it under the house AND...... it fit perfectly and only raised the house to 13'1", almost half a foot under the legal limit.

     

     *Ah shit...*

      Folks, that sound means we're about to talk about that one time that Nick thought it would be a good idea to replace the window in the back of his house.

"Oh boy! Installing a window! This is going to be a breeze!" - Me before spending two weeks making the window work. "I am not a smart man." - Me afterwards

     So that window I was talking about in the previous post? I ended up seeing it again, in the clearance rack at Lowes for nearly $200 less than what I had paid for it. Sweet deal. So, a month later it's take two on the octagon window. To make that window fit in the rough opening, I had to block out an octagon from a square, reflash it, mount the window, change the hinges from casement to a MacGuyvered chest hinge, paint it, create and install trim, fur out the walls, cut and install T&G wood, install louvers, and caulk it all up. For the most part, it sucked and was a very exacting process of being repeatedly inhibited by the tiniest problems. But, I did it. I have no pictures of the process at all because I was too busy figuring out how the hell to make the window work. After screwing up each part multiple times and not being confident if I would go through the process at all again, and using the fact that it is the window in the back of the house, I have channeled Lame Pun Raccoon and have dubbed it "The Window of Hindsight." Here are pictures of the finished product.

 

 Detail

 

 View from up in the loft.

     Finally, the last and most recent occurrence with the house has been needing to attach new angle iron to the frame so that we can move the bolts and hurricane ties that hold the house to the frame into the walls. I bought a 13' piece of 3"x5" angle iron and we used a cutoff wheel to chop it into four 3' sections. One of those has to be bolted and welded into each corner of the frame. This requires drilling through the angle iron (I have to put the drill in the freezer 3 to 4 times for each hole so that it doesn't overheat) and grinding of globs of weld from when the trailer was assembled.

 

 Doing so looks like this.

 In the end, it should look all nice and bolted up like this.

     After I finish that, I have to take it to a welder to get it professionally welded on (as well as welding the new axle together) and I should have a permanent attachment for the house set up and ready to go.

      Well, that's it for this season's edition. I'll see you all in February. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.