Walk a kilometer in Wesley's boots (BRK)

Hi I'm Wesley. I'm the newest boot: I arrived about a week ago.
I came to Wheaton Labs to work trade for the PDC, and I am considering staying in Ant Village for about a year: to live at low cost so I can focus on learning, self-development, and humane technology engineering. (I'm an indie game developer/AI researcher)
I try to live at the intersection of futurism and intentional community. I want to reach a point where I can sustain a high standard of living via open source hardware, and help others to do this as well. High rent/food/healthcare costs in cities have always been major obstacles to me pursing the paths of my boundless creativity. So I am trying to learn how to meet these needs on my own as much as possible. While I'm here, I'll be studying chemistry, biology, and system design. My current project is a machine reading comprehension interface for fiction. I hope you enjoy reading about my journey.

Blender render of the pulley rack

Today, in the morning I worked with Caleb to design and prepare materials for a Solarium ceiling hanging laundry rack that we'll build for for Pulley Day tomorrow. It was a great opportunity to use OpenSCAD to create a parametric design, I especially appreciated being able to do some reading on pulley configurations with the pratical task of building one looming soon.  In the afternoon, I worked with Stephen to cut more panels, I also wandered around the sawmill a bit to see what was nearby.

Here's my .scad file for the rack, I may make some improvements. It's designed to be hung by two tension triangles below a double tackle configuration with separated pulleys.
$fn = 50; // Parameters n = 8;                      // number of rods rod_diameter = 3/8;        // diameter of rods in inches rod_length = 46.25; edge_rod_spacing = .5; rod_spacing = 3;            // spacing between the center of each rod in inches angle_degrees = 30; pi = 3.14159265358979323846; // Calculate rod positions and z-spacing rod_positions = [for (i = [0:n-1]) i * rod_spacing]; z_spacing = [for (i = [0:n-1]) i * sin(angle_degrees * pi / 180) * rod_spacing]; edge_board_height = 1; edge_board_width = 13/16; hole_depth_percent = 0.5; difference() {    union() {        // Generate the rack        for (i = [0:n-1]) {          pos = rod_positions[i];          //z_pos = z_spacing[i];            z_pos = edge_board_height/2;          translate([edge_rod_spacing + pos, 0, z_pos]) rotate([90,0,0]) cylinder(d = rod_diameter, h = rod_length);        }        for (i = [0:1]) {            translate([0, -i * rod_length, 0]) cube(size = [(n-1) * rod_spacing + (edge_rod_spacing * 2),edge_board_width,edge_board_height]);        }    }    // figure 8 stopper knot    cord_diameter = 1/4;    for (i = [0:1]) {        translate([edge_rod_spacing/2 + rod_spacing/2 - (i*rod_spacing*1.5) + (i * (rod_spacing * n-1 - (edge_rod_spacing/2 * i))), edge_board_width/2, -1]) rotate([0,0,0]) cylinder(d = cord_diameter, h = edge_board_height*3);    }    for (i = [0:1]) {        translate([edge_rod_spacing/2 + rod_spacing/2 - (i*rod_spacing*1.5) + (i * (rod_spacing * n-1 - (edge_rod_spacing/2 * i))), -rod_length + edge_board_width/2, -1]) rotate([0,0,0]) cylinder(d = cord_diameter, h = edge_board_height*3);    } }

I will post my images later, I need to setup a quantizer locally to compress them significantly...

I have NO IDEA what any of this means…. With that being said! Welcome. And good luck out there! I have seriously been considering coming myself.

Wesley Barlow wrote:Today, in the morning I worked with Caleb to design and prepare materials for a Solarium ceiling hanging laundry rack that we'll build for for Pulley Day tomorrow. It was a great opportunity to use OpenSCAD to create a parametric design, I especially appreciated being able to do some reading on pulley configurations with the pratical task of building one looming soon.  In the afternoon, I worked with Stephen to cut more panels, I also wandered around the sawmill a bit to see what was nearby.

Here's my .scad file for the rack, I may make some improvements. It's designed to be hung by two tension triangles below a double tackle configuration with separated pulleys.
$fn = 50; // Parameters n = 8;                      // number of rods rod_diameter = 3/8;        // diameter of rods in inches rod_length = 46.25; edge_rod_spacing = .5; rod_spacing = 3;            // spacing between the center of each rod in inches angle_degrees = 30; pi = 3.14159265358979323846; // Calculate rod positions and z-spacing rod_positions = [for (i = [0:n-1]) i * rod_spacing]; z_spacing = [for (i = [0:n-1]) i * sin(angle_degrees * pi / 180) * rod_spacing]; edge_board_height = 1; edge_board_width = 13/16; hole_depth_percent = 0.5; difference() {    union() {        // Generate the rack        for (i = [0:n-1]) {          pos = rod_positions[i];          //z_pos = z_spacing[i];            z_pos = edge_board_height/2;          translate([edge_rod_spacing + pos, 0, z_pos]) rotate([90,0,0]) cylinder(d = rod_diameter, h = rod_length);        }        for (i = [0:1]) {            translate([0, -i * rod_length, 0]) cube(size = [(n-1) * rod_spacing + (edge_rod_spacing * 2),edge_board_width,edge_board_height]);        }    }    // figure 8 stopper knot    cord_diameter = 1/4;    for (i = [0:1]) {        translate([edge_rod_spacing/2 + rod_spacing/2 - (i*rod_spacing*1.5) + (i * (rod_spacing * n-1 - (edge_rod_spacing/2 * i))), edge_board_width/2, -1]) rotate([0,0,0]) cylinder(d = cord_diameter, h = edge_board_height*3);    }    for (i = [0:1]) {        translate([edge_rod_spacing/2 + rod_spacing/2 - (i*rod_spacing*1.5) + (i * (rod_spacing * n-1 - (edge_rod_spacing/2 * i))), -rod_length + edge_board_width/2, -1]) rotate([0,0,0]) cylinder(d = cord_diameter, h = edge_board_height*3);    } }

I will post my images later, I need to setup a quantizer locally to compress them significantly...

I decided to claim a plot and start planning for Ant Village immediately rather than work-trading the PDC... I realized my learning has been limited by access to land and time more than anything. I've begun to design and engineer for this summer. I'll be constructing 'Robot Dojo' an artisan suite where I can develop open source permaculture technology. My project ideas currently revolve around developing the civilization infrastructure I need to meet my own immediate needs, providing fabrication for others as an enterprise.
1. Remote controllable hexapod robots for permaculture
(inspired by https://permies.com/t/56552/robotics-work-permaculture) I'm hoping to grow everything for my vegan diet except nuts, small grains, and some foreign fruits (coconuts, mangos, etc).
2. Showerloop (https://showerloop.cc/)
3. Laundry rack + robot arm (also interested in bicycle powered washer)
4. Vacuum Insulated Panels manufactured with biomaterials

Currently I'm studying my Anki cards diligently at Basecamp to prototype a manufacturing workflow for #4 with natural materials, and then test the insulation.
Over the weekend, I started prepping lumber for the dojo

A few photos

I am now a sawmill mechanic ✌️

In the last couple days, I experienced two events of visceral connection with nature, which I would consider 'off baseline' or distinct from what my consciousness is usually like. I'd like to share one of my experiences. Somewhere between listening to Lao Tzu at basecamp in the dark, the roller coaster of swirling stasis/change, and reviewing Anki cards/Wikipedia pages with every free joule my body can generate. Somewhere I felt my senses fully present, observing nature.
I think it was after I read through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel_ecosystem#Technosphere and started to realize how technology can be viewed as an ecosystem interfacing with nature, and how important it is to be intentional about this stuff: about the artifacts we create and leave behind that become soil, become the Earth.
I tend to see nature as neutral chemicals flowing through systems. When I held the soil at Allerton Abbey, I began to imagine and analyze what could be the most effective action I could take next to create a flourishing garden, how could I know? The implications of any action would be partially unknown, unobserved, unquantifiable because they are the future.
I watched dirt, rocks, spiders, plants (alive and dead).
What is the action I could take with the lowest energy to yield the best outcome? How do I evaluate the opportunity costs of thinking vs action. There is too much complexity. So I thought about moving a rock: what effects it would have on the web of life surrounding it. I started thinking of the rock's effect in terms of the thermal conductivity equation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_conductivity), particularly the line from my Anki card: directly proportional to the temperature difference and inversely proportional to the separation distance. I think that considering the ecology in terms of space between systems is a good place to start. I haven't yet memorized https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation_(chemistry)#Precipitate_colors, so I felt like I would be clueless about any chemicals inside of an arbitrary sedimentary rock, and how those would affect nearby plants. I like to think that in a zen state, permaculture would be as effortless as shuffling a few pebbles around to change the path of the future. I lack the foresight.

Another day, another cup of stinging nettle tea

I'm making progress on my vacuum insulated panel design. I'm planning to cure a chitosan solution into a tiny thin film over the weekend to see what happens. My initial experiments with calcium hydroxide and perlite for the inner rigid core were unsuccessful for a couple reasons.
1. Not mixing sufficiently (caused perlite chunks to be not fully interspersed)
2. Uncertainty around perlite-pozzolanic aspects of the chemical reaction involved
3. The initial wooden mold I created being too large (50cm^2 x 2.5cm), which means more material used/higher cost for fewer speculative experiments

I will make another attempt on the inner rigid core with lime putty and a smaller mold — after I do the analytics/sim on this reaction.
Currently, I am trying to evaluate how to fabricate a vacuum chamber from natural materials in order to test the membrane 😅
The cheapest and highest performance option is probably polycarbonate, but I don't think this material is permaculture-approved as it can leach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A as an environmental pollutant.

I will probably use porcelain or aluminum. I still have a long path ahead of me to understand vacuum physics, material science, and chemistry involved here. I will walk it as I can. One benefit of researching how to build a VIP is that learning about thermodynamics, physics, and biochemistry will make me better at gardening!

I purchased a bunch of seeds during the week and I am planning to take up the open challenge to grow one million calories on my Ant Village plot. I will start planting in early May. My main concerns for failure are related to not having devices for chemical analysis of the soil, as well as animals consuming seeds and young plants. I don't really believe in fences.

This weekend was nice, I cycled up to the lab on the Rad Rider electric bike a few times. I went on a hike to explore the creek with Grey. I prepared more lumber with help at the sawmill by Grey on Saturday and Brian on Sunday (thanks!)

I haven't poured a first test membrane—yet! I ended up sidetracked gathering materials to build a film surface. Distilled water, isopropyl, glass shards... I'm still thinking about how to make the 'sides' of the container (because I'm not sure if placing the glass a the bottom of a wooden box would work, honestly I should just try it). it's held me up.

In order to test the VIP I will have to build thermal conductivity and gas permeability testing rigs. Thermal is easy enough, just a hot plate and a timer with some temperature sensors... I already happen to have everything I need on hand from a previous kombucha bioreactor build. The permeability will require a custom vacuum chamber apparatus.
I am eyeing that tire rim creatively.

Tensions were a bit elevated today on the Allerton Abbey repair team as we approach removal and replacement of the final logs on the wing wall. There are concerns about safety, precision, coordination... Well, it's frustrating, but I'm glad I get the opportunity to learn about ways in which the wofati design ages, what are the concerns with using natural materials for future inhabitants.

As for my dojo design, I think I will use peeled log footers ~30cm diameter as a foundation: peeking above the surface at one meter depth, hugged tightly by gravel mounds, with a well-leveled earth floor splotched between the logs. I think designing a structure to be placed on top of modest log depths would be more maintainable and accessible to humans than the monolith molars that form the Abbey.

In the afternoon, we cooled off with some gardening... in the hot sun 😅. I planted the largest hugel in the backyard with corn. Digging in, there's really a prolific ecosystem of roly polies, beetles, and earthworms.

I did some breathing to manage my energy levels, and then pushed for some progress on the VIP prototyping. I mixed up another test for the core, prepared some film substrates with glass/cans, and mixed up my first membrane recipe to evaluate flexibility and strength.

I've been visiting my plot the last couple mornings to prep my plot for gardening.

Yesterday Max and I planted flowers (Lupine, Blanket, Nasturtium, Primrose) and Red Clover in dirt/sawdust we mixed with humus generated from four Willow feeders. We also gathered some topsoil and a couple buckets of 'nitrogen' near the pond to make a homebrew potting soil for tomatoes. The pond has some really nice clay where the water flows in (the same clay from the clay pit I think)
The beeswax gasket worked! (albeit messy) The chitosan membrane I created is sticky, high viscosity, but ultimately falls apart when I try to scrape it off. That's okay.
I need to add a plasticizer and cross-linking agent.
First for the cross-linking agent, my next iterations will revolve around integrating tannic acid I extracted by mixing Ponderosa Pine bark with wood ash, filtering the liquid, and boiling it for an hour.

It has been rainy and overcast over the weekend, so I've been inside focused on planning and dreaming.

I worked on prompt engineering some permaculture robot concepts/styles. I also started to consider how virtual characters could be integrated into my actionable information logistics permaculture software workflow.

In hindsight, I should have prioritized purchasing seeds which could germinate at 40F, as the soil temperature lags air temperature substantially. That's what everyone means when they talk about thermal mass I guess.

I purchased five textbooks to help me wrap my head around what it will take to build a DIY biopolymer VIP...
Chemistry has always been a boring subject to me, but I am motivated to learn it well in order to meet my needs for thermal comfort and 'economically scalable' gardening. I would like to see a permaculture system in Montana that can outcompete sugar beets in terms of revenue/value creation with fewer human inputs, that would be my standard for good permaculture. The duration of time it takes to bootstrap a system like that is very relevant to the economics of land use because of time value of money.

A User's Guide to Vacuum Technology
Vacuum Sealing Techniques
Vacuum Science and Technology
Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer, 6th Edition International Student Version
Essentials of Computational Chemistry: Theories and Models

The biological matrix is active.
Even using AI and deep learning as I can, I may be working on this VIP for a long long time. The Vacuum Science and Technology book is a heavy hitter.

Boot days are hard work as we prep utility/trenches for the well and setup a tree post near the workshop. I feel like a soldier.

I camped up at the lab on my plot last night to garden and relax. I planted corn and chickpeas. The algorithmic high chirps of birds in the morning makes me imagine I am on an alien planet.

Hey all, I'm officially an Ant now!
It's been a lot of work, but I'm living up on the lab now!
Many of my plants didn't make it through a couple super late frosts in June.
I've had a couple weeks to read and I'm wrapping up a little structure to live in during the summer.
My chickpeas are doing splendid. I'll provide a few more updates as I get my permaculture systems setup.
Hope you're doing well

some photos from foraging

Hi. That tree looks like a Prunus (cherry) and the black berries (the last of the unknown berries) I think they are black currants

Do the round red berries have a crown on the bottom, just like the huckleberries? If they do, they are red huckleberries.

If that is from the patch SW of the labs, those look like the same red ones I sampled. They weren't bitter, but were a bit mealy and didn't taste great, so I spit them out.