Digging the deep diamonds

Oh, hey. No I didn't lose my fingers in a circular saw accident. Nor will I, ever! But before you go saying "oh, he fell off", consider this: no, nevermind. No excuses. I just took some other work for a while is all. Had to. The money ran out.

The first girl I ever dated, my highschool sweetheart tore me away from playing my beloved guitar for pretty much a solid year. Not that I'd blame her. Its just a natural tendency to follow the shiniest object. Anyway this break was kind of like that. You come back with a newfound cynicism and contempt for all of your old ideas. This is in my opinion, the basis of all good creative endeavors. Good works just emerge from tension.

There are some very big ideas that I'm not ready to write right yet. Or maybe readers aren't ready to hear them. Things might get different and scary around here for a while. Hell, I might even begin editing my posts before I slap em up here. And stop using so many sentence frags and parenthetical (fat chance).

What I can show is a few things that have gotten me going. I think certain communities will have strong feelings one way or another and I hope they see this. What I won't say is how I think of what's going on here. It's more of a scopophilic consumer indulgence.

***Also as a caveat, I do not claim any of these photos as my own property, I'm just appropriating them here. Nor do I claim that they aren't 'shopped***

Sprinter

Shitty Lo-RES photo.
associated vehicle & floorplan

Volkner








CONTRAST



Watch out Sean Connor! T-1000 is pissed and he is trying to take a stylish vacation.

http://sealander.de/ 

Take it all on your back

Like a turtle, hermit crab or snail. This is a choice to have everything you need with you and mobile. There are those extreme minimalists who would tell you that you can 'outsource' what you need. Then there are homesteaders who send down deep roots into the DIY ethos. The concept behind the BodPod is to design around a lifestyle and find a way to take that on the road.

An extreme example: Take a whole city on the road

While it Bod is the acronym for bio-centric on-road dwelling, on-road could easily be replaced by off-grid. My design ethic is heavily influenced by ecological design and permaculture. So while most RV's or campers can plug into the umbilical cord of electric and sewage at a campsite, the goal of the BodPod is to close as many loops as possible. Water is a loop, energy is a loop, food for the inhabitant, etc. I'm considering what the inputs and outputs of this small home are and finding ways to close these loops. I'd argue that closing loops is one knight in the vanguard of the battle against climate change ecological destruction.

While it may be more convenient to outsource your energy, water, waste, and nutrient needs to a third party, it provides much less freedom. The idea of being on-road and off-grid is centered around the concept of freedom. While a minimalist could simply make sacrifice and shit in the woods, I believe that 'making it sexy' or even just comfortable and elegant is important if the idea is going to spread. That's what the BodPod is attempting to do. Provide mobile self sufficiency in a way that is beautiful and enjoyable.


It's a belief of mine that most emotions stem from the two most basic ones: fear and love. Hate and love are not opposites. It seems obvious that hate is just a result of fear. Something threatens our egoic boundaries and defies our beliefs which makes us afraid and we can respond with hate. Why would anyone bother to deny ecological destruction? The science is solid. People are afraid of what climate change, ocean acidification, habitat loss, growing economic inequality, or corporate hegemony can mean. So we deny. Fear 
causes people to build walls. 
 






On the other hand we can intentionally seek out beauty and love. As I remember Keith Morris saying once, "you give a person a choice between two tomato sandwiches; one is made with factory grown tomatoes, wonder-bread, miracle whip. The other is made with a juicy red heirloom tomato from your backyard and bread from your friend the miller." One is the obvious choice. The more authentic option. 


Going on the road is not running from something but moving towards something. It is motivated by love, not by fear. Move towards your bliss. 

Going mobile

BRINGGG. That's the peal of a bell smacking out the second round. So it turns out that BodPod is not a misnomer. Although the journey was stressful, the rig moved on-road! Basically I trussed it up simply on the inside with 2x4s. After last post, most of the framing studs were cut but not nailed together. I found that if I set up a piece of OSB (read: nasty) plywood on my sawhorses, I could cut blocking pieces to allow me to frame solo.

Speed square, screws, 1/8" drillbit to predrill for nails which makes it easier, drill, bright nails, hammer.  Pieces of blocking can be moved around for leverage.

I used sheet metal screws to fasten the old aluminum skin and frame to the new frame. It cinched up with a satisfying pull. Each structural member had the rig tighter and less bouncy. Eventually I took a deep breath and lowered the hitch.. The wheels had submersed themselves in the earth and after they got out of their holes, it was alive. It is indeed possible to hold your breath for an hour. Stopping off in the hardware store parking lot for some lock nuts, I got (or rather the BodPod) a constant stream of stares and "some project"s. So thats good. It passes the funk test. I even got a notice from a golden years chap driving a nice expensive Super Duty. He asked Blair if she had built it. "Yes I did", I thought from inside.

 The day of moving was a tactical decision, as well. I think a Sunday morning was the best day. I only passed one demure law officer and no-one was in a rush to get to work. Still, I caught myself gripping the wheel too hard and holding my breath. It was such a test for an amateur builder, taking such a funkwagon on the road.

There was one notable experience with vigilante justice. About a quarter of a way through the trip a rusty black Explorer whose license plate no. I won't share here flew by me doing 65 or so. The older bald man leaned his head and shoulder out the window, screaming "get off the road". While I wasn't going more than 5 under the speed limit, a long line of cars was forming behind me. I was frustrated and already worried about the towing job, why wouldn't he just let me be? Blair kept me reasonably calm by telling me to chill out. About 3 miles up the road he was there stopped in the middle of the road waving me to pass. Isn't this crazy? I thought. Why would I pass? I figured he was mocking me in a road rage. If he had a problem, he should just call the authorities, not try and take it into his own hands. Well of course I slowed way down not wanting to pass him, and he kept going. Not a mile later, he was stopped again, and this time he wouldn't budge. So I came to a halt too. The long line of cars passed and the road rager drove on. It occurred to me then that what I had mistaken for pissed off was a confused sort of benevolence. He may just have been trying to pilot car a whacked-out tow job down route 15.

And the destination, you ask? None other than Willow Crossing Farm. Great vibes and amazing people for this year's Permaculture design course. What an inspiring place to be working and designing.

Next Step:
At this point I am more or less satisfied with the structural elements of the trailer. While they need some adjustments, it rides, and I trust it to bear stresses. I think in retrospect, the best part of the design was the posts. Through the 2 point bolt-on connection system it is possible to adjust the position on many different axes. While this can be frustrating for getting the whole roof to sit level, it provides so much flexibility that the design in effect becomes modular. I could add a different roof by simply unscrewing the clamps and popping a new one one. I could even remove the roof and post structures altogether.

Still, the nose cone is not installed, which is the next step. I will probably do a mini-post about the construction of a round-frame wall and using a wire spool as a 'giant lazy susan' The plan is to have the whole front nose cone open up like a combination between beetle wings and an observatory. Can't wait to show this graphically, but it will have to wait until I get my own computer.

BodPod

You may be noticing a subtle shift in the blog as of this post. First, the egregious abandonment of the 'tiny house on the prairie' moniker.What in the hells is a BodPod? Freak not, dear readers for things are only heating up. I'll explain the difference soon after I tell why I am not the 'Tiny House on the Prarie' any longer. Firstly, I think the reference to the pastoral image of a remote little cabin is selling this project short, with all due respect to Laura Ingells-Wilder. This is something more sci-fi than fantasy. As Orson Scott Card put it, fantasy has wagon wheels and sci-fi has rivets. This project is turning out covered in rivets.

What I mean to say is that I am intentionally making things from scratch where I could be modifying. After a lot of back and forth over what it really is I'm doing, I've found what seems to be the best description. This isn't a renovation. I started by thinking that I could renew from the inside out and make a substantial difference in the space. What really got me going, however, was the idea of starting new. It is now more like I am re-building. Further, the project and design isn't constrained by demands of a client. There is no end client. There are demands, but they are simply those collective demands which all design takes into consideration: clean air, a beautifully conditioned living space, being surrounded by 'growies', comfort, ergonomics, efficiency. The list may continue.

Which brings me to the Bod-Pod. I was trying to stab at re-defining campers in the earlier post. While I still think this is relevant, I have decided to focus on a concept. Bod is bio-centric on-road dwelling.

Bio-centric is emphasizing the role of the pod as a kind of life support system. There is a senseless glut of drawers, cabinets, and boxy forms in campers, trailers and RVs. This is 'dead-space' and not essential to fulfilling biological needs. It is accessory space. Bio-centric means devoting design features to needs. Streamlining gadgetry. Sacrificing clutter. Suppressing the hoarder within (starve it).  This is a change of priorities away from status quo to a home which supports a healthy lifestyle. Other forms of life are to be welcomed as well (still thinking moss shower).

On-road is a bastardization of On The Road. While I'm changing the title of the blog, I'll leave the url. After all, the Merry Pranksters (or at least Kerouac) are a huge formative influence for me. I think that it is important for our generation to reclaim this sense of freedom. We're the generation of indentured cubicle-college debt-slavery and there has to be a better way. Travel isn't something that should be set aside for one week of the year. Especially when it comes to seeing this beautiful country on one of the most impressive trans-national highways in the world. True to the ethos of On The Road, there are too many experiences to be had, to many paths to cross for one week of the year. We shouldn't have to sell our lives in order to live our lives. And I'm not trying to eschew work (completely), just advocating for working with intention.

Normally, if I had to design a home or any building that was fixed to the ground, the natural way to go about it would be to design based on its bio-region. But this concept project is different. It isn't made for a specific bio-region. In fact, it is made to be nomadic. So what could be the substitute for bio-region? Instead of place, I think this project is as much based on time. Our time in history and space in culture.

Dwelling means that the construction and detailing will be grounded in a tradition of dwellings. This means applying craft to the interior to ensure a sense of familiarity. The warm fuzziness created by well executed woodwork will balance out more novel design features that might chafe the habits.

So there you have it. This is the concept statement. This is a concept project to draft up a new kind of mobile dwelling.

Sky blue sky.

I know, I know, the suspense must be unbearable. I'm going to let it ride for a while so stay hungry. Well the seriousness of last post's proposition to re-roof was on my mind, too. Actually the whole gravity of this whole endeavor was staring me straight in the face. I do recognize failure as a constant option. After all, in terms of building and design skills I am a babe in the woods. A novice. I own this fully and that reality. After acceptance, there can be persistent effort. Chopping wood and carrying water. The best I can do is pour my heart and soul into  the effort. I've had to constantly remind myself to forget about the 'pot of good' at the end of the rainbow and just immerse fully in the process.

Thursday's roof raising was a manic success. Where to start? I have to say first and foremost to everyone who lent a hand, it absolutely would not have happened without your generosity and adroitness. First we put the kabosh on deconstruction, essentially leaving only the floor and outer studs and aluminum. Many wires were accidentally severed in the process, which I'll have to set straight later. It finally came time to evict the hornets from their home in the fridge but the bastards really hadn't paid rent the whole time anyway.

Then the roof started to come off.. This process was nerve wracking to say the least. Or more like nervous racking (the term used to refer to off-axis movement of structural elements). Once that roof started coming off, even the floor was less stable as the box keeps the walls tied to each other. Even though the craftmanship was slipshod, every inch of stapled studs and aluminum sheet makes a big difference. I was being inefficiently methodical, and luckily the intrepid gents who were helping me had the ganas to rip the roof off like a band-aid. That method worked like a charm.

Next was the installation of the new posts. I cut their respective holes into the floor from above (made me appreciate the value of a Versacut). We went around and hand tightened all the bolts to the point where I could see the 1/4" steel flex a bit. Rounding the corner and coming into the last attachments, I realized that I was short on bolts! I drove frantically to the Lowe's to grab some more. While hurtling down the road doing 70, passing cars in the double lines and leaving tar and feathers behind me, I had the impression of racing the sun, which was setting as surely as ever. The burning sunset sky had the effect of making the final countdown even more dramatic. Finally made it back to see Westford at ripe dusk. Everything was good to go. Box locked, lights on, roof raisin' time.

I believe it was Zach who thought to jury rig a pulley onto the frame up and over my companion pine's lowest branch. There wasn't even a one-two-three as we hucked the steel up and over our heads. I ran around inside the box and started clutching at the tube and lifting with all kinds of unknown muscles. There was no way this thing was gonna fall. Then we were all inside setting it on the posts. And wouldn't ya know in the fog of urgency we'd put the damn thing on backwards. That was set straight easily enough.

And there it sat.

I was almost surprised that it went. I'll go ahead and count this as a level up. Of course I knew what the dimensions were going to be from my renderings, but its hard to tell in advance what the changes are going to feel like.

The ceiling clearance is now over 8 feet at it's highest and I am seriously considering a lofted rope bed. Of course it is strong enough. Even though the frame hasn't been fastened yet, I've still been busting pull-ups from the top bar. That represents compressive strength which is there in spades. The rig still wiggles back and forth when the frame shakes however, and now I need to install a truss system which doesn't cut down on interior space.

The feel is definitely impressive. It's unusual to be in a space this small with a ceiling this large. The narrow/tall/wider at the sides design almost seems like a tuna fish with a large dorsal fin. Also, there are structural advantages to adding a 'tail' so that might be something that comes along soon. Woody Giveen, who painted the initial exterior has agreed to come back on the job, and I'm very excited about being able to use his work to unify some design elements.

I'm considering different ways to make this thing into a roof rather than a frame. The list mostly includes light weight materials that can take on high curvatures. The materials have to also be both damp-resistant as well as insulative. Right now I'm really considering polyeurethane spray foam insulation. I need to do more research to see if it will meet moisture demands.

Speaking of moisture, you might be wondering what is happening with the space between the walls and the posts. I think I mentioned before that one of the biggest design changes that absolutely NEEDED to happen was some kind of pitch to the roof. It's obvious why a flat roof would lead to the rotting joists and headers that I saw when deconstructing. Not only that but my desire is to make this rig as self-sufficient as possible. That means not necessarily needing water hookups. Those two challenges when considered together suggest one obvious thing: rainwater catchment and storage. I'm hoping to use the space between the wall and roof for this purpose. There is also another opportunity here to use water for thermal mass and climate regulation to further decrease the rig's dependence on outside inputs.. More on that later.

Right now I've gotta jet. I'm pretty sure that the project will be relocated soon. There may even be some more interesting developments along the lines of possible collaboration and a KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN! So watch out! Also going to the Tiny House Summer Camp with Deek and other tiny house enthusiasts on the weekend. So big things popping off, and plenty of inspiration to be had. Plenty more to say but at risk of overblogging I'm going to leave it there.

much love
-F

re: Definition

Soundtrack: Play while reading!

A frenzy of activity this week. I'm relocating soon, and I've decided to put the new roof on before I do. This is going to involve a bit of structural tweaking. So big changes both to the rig itself and to the nature of the project. I want to engage the community in this project and so I'm looking for a way to involve others in the process. There is a message that I am campaigning for here: a comfortable and beautiful space can come in many forms, and is accessible to those who seek it. Obviously I identify completely with the tiny house movement in that living in small spaces is a way to simplify life and live debt free. This is why I have been making such big changes to this trailer instead of 'fixing it up'.

This project is about redefining campers. But Forrest, you might be saying, if you're going to start fresh, it could be anything on wheels. Which is true. Maybe what I should do is list what defines campers to me and talk about what I can change about it. I'll present some conceptions and then counter with my own transconception. I'm making this word up. the prefix trans- means across, beyond or into a different state. I don't really want to respond in the negative to all conceptions of trailers and campers but rather pass through them and mutate them. After all, the reason I bought this moneypit in the first place was that the idea is already a good one. 

*(Also I keep throwing around the words camper, trailer, etc. and there seems to be a distinction in the market. What I believe I have is a travel trailer, but it could also be known as a camper.)

Conception 1: Campers are shoeboxes. They are rectilinear and shorter than they are long. To me this is quite boring and a simplistic design choice. Especially since a flat roof has other problems that we'll dissect later. One exception is the Airstream, which is obviously an iconic American design. Coincidentally, Hawley Bowlus who designed the Airstream also designed the Spirit of St. Louis, the craft that took Charles Lindberg across the Atlantic. But the Airstreams didn't become an icon by trying their hardest to play dead and be boxes. 

Transconception:  Mutation is an absolute in the evolutionary process. A major mutation involves a change of form. Change the form and the whole starts to change.

Conception 2: Campers are for vacations. They have all the comforts of home but not in an authentic way. It's okay for your vacation shack to be plasticked over and laminated and veneered because you don't live there full time. They have what you need for dwelling but don't harbor authenticity for long. They have plenty of drawers and cupboards for things but what things do you need in the vacation life?

Transconception: Elegant habitation usually involves stripping things away to allow for the craft of the space to shine. Like Le Corbusier said "Space light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep" I want to create clean lines and well defined spaces rather than a clutter of generic 'storage'. I'll also bring light in intentional ways. 


Conception 3: Campers let you go into nature and keep nature out. 


Transconception: I've realized the potency of the camper concept while living in Westford. Essentially you have a platform and shelter and are sitting lightly on a piece of land. It is a different way to live surrounded by  nature. I want to create the biophilic camper which invites nature in and is filled with growing plants, moving water, and glowing light. Don't expect me to get rid of the screens and let the mosquitoes in, however. I understand the value of living with living things we find pleasurable. Still, I think that the space can be alive and working and almost breathing. 


Since I have to go materials hunting, I'll leave these three for now. This feels like a good way to re-define the project so I'll be back with more. 


Roof goes on tomorrow!

minipost: Posts

The element in question is leaning against that hemisphere.

These mini-posts will be a place to dump pics and share construction and design details. This one just happens to be about posts. 

As I mentioned I'm reframing and adding structure to throw on the new roof. The new roof just happens to be irregular and funky. Not only that but it has to join to the frame of the trailer (1.5 x 4 channel steel). All the connections have to be strong enough to travel on the road but flexible enough to go over a bridge

From the ground up, first connection is on to the steel frame. I decided a straight up weld would be rigid and that there isn't much support provided by the frame. In a simple box frame, any damage to the integrity could be very bad. Plus I didn't have resources to weld where I was. I decided to go with bolting it on, using the sway bar towing connection as a model.  

Bolting around the frame seemed like a solid option, plus if I or the next owner ever wants to make any structural changes, deconstruction will be easier. So I decided to have the post footed by this setup. 

For the post itself, I went with a combination of steel 1 x 2 x 1/8 U-channel acting as the spine for a 2x10 power laminated timber. That way I got the rigidity and true angles of the steel and the compressive strength of the power lam. 

The challenge was joining those awkward 22 & 12.75 degree angles on the roof frame to upright posts. The frame is really an awning off a restaurant (Tex-Mex of course) and came with this rod and clamp which I believe is where the canvas was fastened on. Those clamps seemed like a good way to join to the steel tube without a weld, but they were still coming down at awkward angles. 

For the metal work, I went to Ethan Clew at Clew's Machining  in South Burlington, VT. We cut angle iron to match the angle of the tube (relative to the ground plane) and welded that rod onto its axis. that way the clamps still form the connection and are even adjustable. 

The angle iron bolts on to the top plate of the post and is thus adjustable on 2 axes (to change the angle a shim could be inserted and the clamps are adjustable. 

The final result of the steel work looks like this: 

The 2 x 10 will be inserted into the channel and screwed on with drill screws on the vertical and top. 

Westford days

What is Duration, but the persevering of a thing in its existence?

                                                         Gale Crt. Gentiles IV. 287(1677)

Things are going to start moving fast soon. I spent the last couple of weeks carefully ripping out particleboard and fiberglass bats. What I found underneath was sometimes  living and breathing. Mold and spiders had taken up residence and I had to evict them. But after all of the gutting, I'm now down to the unfortunately cheap studs and aluminum skin. I feel a bit like I'm peeling back the facade and left with the dwarf behind the curtain instead of the Wizard. But then I remembered why I got into this, and I kept ripping away. 

It does bring up the notion of the Ship of Theseus paradox, and whether replacing all the components of a system makes it a new system or if it retains its thingness. Although I'm really not much for high-mindedness these days, and as I mentioned before, this is really about the process for me. So yes the concept and even the thing retains meaning so I'm going to treat it as the same Wilderness 3000 I started out with. Some parts of it need a little help, however. One of the things that did in the de-con process was to cut pieces out in their biggest possible form so maybe I can re-use them. This probably made this step take 2x as long, but hopefully it will have some payback.

A word on materials. Since my budget is so limited, I've made a conscious decision to use almost exclusively recycled materials. This either means free, scrap, or making use of places like re-build (http://www.rebuildvt.org/rebuild/Building_Materials). This means that what I am able to find defines the project in a big way. I made my biggest materials acquisition recently in the way of an old awning off a Burlington tex-mex joint. I'd been looking for something to make for a new arched roof structure, and it just kind of showed up in such a fortuitous way when I was scanning the scrap yard. 

Quite the ask and ye shall receive moment. Steel and aluminum frames. I know just from the quality of the welds and embedded material costs that these things weren't cheap. I snatched the pair up for $100. 

Now I've been working on integrating them into the design.

Its been a great creative challenge to merge two existing objects into a new mutation. Its a bit like playing at matchmaker, looking for the two to have a pretty baby. Note, the 'clamshell' awnings are split down the middle and aren't actually attached to the angled awning. This image below is the current offspring which uses the angled awning as a sort of warped Conestoga wagon or broken greenhouse roof. The clamshells almost suggest half of an observatory. 

On the home front, I am still sleeping on the floor. The rig is 5 miles from town and 15 miles from the big town. The lack of facilities is draining, so I'm looking forward to getting to somewhere more domestic, as it will be a while before I get to plumbing in the trailer. 

Speaking of facilities, I've been having ideas about the bathroom and kitchen that I will incorporate into the design. I want to combine the shower and toilet functions in away that is usable and not gross. This ingenious Japanese design comes from the Paco 3x3x3 cube house where the toilet and shower are tucked into the floor and revealed by lifting up a panel.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/plant-furniture-from-moss-rugs-79463 Having noticed these pages pop up on design blogs around the web, I decided that I would take it a step further and corporate moss into the shower. 

That's probably enough for now, but I'll post again soon with more big concept renderings.

The Why

Last summer, I bought a camper. I went to the bank, withdrew 1600 dollars in cash, and with the money in my sweaty palm, went off to follow the craigslist trail. Like the Oregon Trail only with fewer snakebites and cholera outbreaks, this particular one took me to an old Vermont  boy, Lucien who takes up time and makes a slender buck fixing up RV's and campers. Exhibit A for the defense is a 18 foot Fleetwood Wilderness 3000 from a year which remains TBD.

Maybe I had  become a little fed up with paying the coffer-busting Burlington rent. Maybe I was inspired by the tiny house movement and people who were setting an intention to live with less. Certainly I had always dreamed about a little cabin in the woods to call my own. Really, the thought of having a 'project' gives me a warm nauseous glow in the bottom of my gut that I associate with excitement. The Fleetwood didn't really care about  my reasons. It just sat there with all its frilly curtains and stinking water tanks and linoleum.

So I tore up to Burlington to finish my schooling. Tearing up isn't at all accurate, when the rig led by my Ford Ranger takes hills at a blistering 45 clicks and the brakes squeal to a halt going down the Burlington hill. Still it moves, and that's something. I thought about the Tropical Storm which had destroyed so many homes in Vermont the day before and couldn't help but think there might really be something to having a house on wheels.

I posted up at a park with the Quebecois campers by Lake Champlain. When I went down to the lake to bathe I saw that the party wagon had already unloaded all it's passengers at the beach. I ran into my old neighbor from the dorms and of course the conversation goes to where we're living. I tell the truth. "Right here at the park for now." He looks incredulous or at least amused.

For a while I lived in a friends driveway on a busy street in the bad part of town. She was nice enough to let me use her shower and bathroom. But eventually I felt like my valuables weren't entirely safe behind the small lock.

Eventually I found the spot out 15 miles north of town. Found that a guy I knew as a former student in a class I TA'ed would let me set up shop on his land. It took me out of things a little bit but then I had the little house on the prairie. No running water. No hookups or facilities. The camper just sitting proudly with its electric umbilical cord. All-in-all it worked well. Went to classes and surfed on couches and generally did a lot of running back and forth. Sometimes though I would just ride my bike back to the camper and find something golden there: solitude. Now although I left to get a room in town for a semester, I am back and remembering what peace of mind this lifestyle can afford.

There is a certain type of joy known only to those who create things. The satisfaction of making lies less in the outcome than the process. Not to say there isn't a certain joy from cutting angles and seeing them come together just right, or the pleasure you get from sinking a single screw. But look at the longer timeline and it becomes really apparent why work is so important to happiness. Some intrepid rodent experimenters once raised a beaver completely in captivity. Eventually when it came of age they put some sticks in the room and played a cassette tape with the sound of water rushing. Even with no experience of rivers or trees it instinctively started to stack. Damn, man, beavers dam.

People design. It's really what we're good at. We're like beavers, constantly changing the environment to work for us. Even agriculture is more or less about keeping the bugs and disease and other plants out and the nutrients in. It's just another design. Design is the process that connects means and ends. We want to bypass the unnecessary process of getting up to turn on the lights (ends) so we make the clap-on-clap-off the clapper (means). This is the dynamic of how we live in the world. Evidence is everywhere. People need to work and do to satisfy that desire for making. And its really a joyful, useful thing..