comment to: santos137@yahoo.com
A PDA EPIC in 3rd draft
Paradise Rising
BIOSQUATTER: I sing to enjoy life
and recoop Earth;
sing of art, activism, and nomadics
on village networks based.
Welcome to BioSquat, in Austin,
a radical ecovillage on a forested hill
where prototype natural life-support is
created to repair broken worlds.
Come bathe in solar warmed rain,
in a setting sunlit garden forest.
See bathwater trickle to plants,
then gather dinner in that Garden
of tight little soul loops of Earth.
Enchanted Lands-
If we go cyclo-nomadic ,
on some activist lark,
and it does not rain, then
the herbs will want water.
Irrigation lacks grace by
sensors, timers, and solenoids.
Of Biosquat is born the
Permaculture "Transistor";
DIY automat techne to
switch water and other magic.
How? A pilot plant dries to tip
a balance scale of bike handlebars,
dips a spout to water a garden bed.
Concurrent trickling wets pilot soil,
thus heavier, stems the bigger flow.
Water clocks without plants
perform other timing cycles, but.
a pilot plant is subtler for gardening,
sensitive to transpiration, humidity,
and other bio-factors. Devices to
process flood or drought to
constant water for treatment into
potable, cook/wash, and garden/cob.
Every raindrop finds its life,
All 'round the old biome drinks free
Each little patio and path tips
into deep planted beds
Rain washes "mothership" roof,
a gutter screen sifts leaves and sticks,
a permaculture transistor switches
the cleared flow to a sand filter
draining into a plastic barrel.
The water for washing,
further filtered for cooking and
solar pasteurized for drinking.
A bike-part Calder mobile,
permaculturally transistorized,
puppet guised as Goddess,
processes rain for drinking, cooking,
washing, and gardening.
Wetland and sand filters, well tended,
carbon filtered or RO, duly rotated.
Solar pasteurization is DIY biosafety.
The landscape is mythic folklore,
built of magic plants and animals with
tiny hut puppet robot homunculi control.
Water flies uphill by solar electricity.
to upper ponds and tanks, gravity then
draws water anywhere below.
low press muddy water clogs nozzles.
Porous clay pots buried to the neck
filled by a pulse of irrigation, then
seep water for days to thirsty roots.
A solar stream is a sci-fi water paradise,
Polycrystalline ultramarine solar panels
animate streams of tumbling aquamarine.
Watery networks; tiny ponds,
elfin waterfalls, and creeks.
a solar electric pump lifting water uphill.
Splashing aerates, toxivolatiles evanesce,
sediments settle, wetland biofilters,
the garden watered by artful springs,
upwind evaporation cools air. Dip
in sparkling blue music, baby gurgling.
The sun drives the pump directly, or
a battery charged moon party
The garden beds are alive,
The garden beds are mesocosms,
tiny Gaias born in a little hole,
topsoil saved, clay lined,
a rodent proof kitchen composter
there resides a season, growing up;
like Saturn ringed, but of salvage mesh,
inner ring a vent, middle mulched scrap,
outer ring loose mulch, soon builds
a cubic meter of humus, the bed is born,
topsoil returned and manures added,
red tile mulch and deep injectors
made from plastic bottles. At first
the bed rises of staked logs, then,
by mushrooms eaten, become stone
over time, upward grow, land fat.
Bike wheels merrily mark
the off bound of rabbit or chicken.
Nooks, cracks, caves, a paradise
for spiders, predatory wasps, five
different lizards, toads and snakes
more friendly than deadly.
Grasshoppers, cutworms,
the myriad plagues canna' thrive.
A few insects live in peace
on their own salad plants,
no bother, just more conviviality.
The north side of the beds all
have an apse of tasty prickly pear,
perennial, drought proof, abundant,
protects the tender shoot from
winter wind and summer sun.
Climbing bottle gourds, estropajo,
twine up on bike wheel arbors,
extra shade for tender herbs,
the fiery sun as killing as frost.
In a sterile field, from construction fill
reclaimed, a layer of salvaged logs
is covered by wood chips, new land,
eager colonies of mushroom or melon,
Tierra Prieta, life itself.
Back to Earth-
A slow roving puppetecture privy
trailing garden and forest in its wake
continuous overflowing fertility.
Warm communal technology,
a group gut by nature fused,
a creature itself. New
Chernobyl composting toilet online
at Biosquat back in '01. First year
it lurched, nay roamed, 2 m
while growing a 5 m tail.
Spring '02- first tail garden planting.
Realtime mulch-flush covers poop
(liter scoop in barrel by toilet)
No smell, the secret told.
Roof rain supplies wash water,
resulting grey water saved to
drive fuel rods (turds) of the
grown thermopile to "go critical",
alchemic thermophilic bacilli,
then fungi, a world fully bioactivated.
Critter barriers of pallets, mesh; best
is brush bristling out, and thick mulch
Pee runs apart from solids
by hose to main bioreactor outlet.
A female pissoir in the throne top.
Standing male urinal to the side.
made of a large plastic bottle
scavenged from a laundromat.
Leachate (as if) by clay pan contained,
wired pallet and spoked bike rim wall,
plastic liner all 'round, and tall vent.
rear flap within moving pest barrier.
Sufficient flush mulch is the secret
to vanquish flies and odor. Any
such as rotted leaves, pine duff,
wood chips, or even any soil or sand,
only that it be natural inoculant
In front there are steps to a
deck, seat, and ground-zero, the
main bioreactor, then aging chamber,
hot bed, cool bed, garden, forest, The
future is closed-loop, self-mulching ,
venturi vacuum seat and stack top,
all natural versions made simply
of poles, brush, and leaves,
thermopile cold frames and greenhouses,
nomadic versions on carts,
domestic versions with scanning seat
or attached to house by articulated tunnel.
Primal sun, that same fire light
made old nature, gardens, and us.
Rely on solar cooking, heating,
drying, and electricity. Else kindle the
Paleotron, (cyclopium?) a fire pit
to explore tribal-family consciousness
an ampi-communal hearth whose
wood fire on a cold wet night is
a blessing. It still throws some
greenhouse gases and particulates.
The best fire is sacral modest,
small and efficient, as many
people possible enjoying
the glow, warmth, and cooking.
A social fire is light and warmth,
while baking and grilling
want heat and maybe smoke.
Here is the key to vegan BBQ-
Artfully slice everything the
garden offers as for a stir fry.
On a mesh grill slowly roast the veggies
over a bed of coals, no flame, while
drizzling virgin oils, soy, honey and spice.
Good eaten with fingers. Other tricks,
such as roasting entire broccoli stems,
unshucked corn, bulb garlic, etc., abound.
Rare Earth-
Biosquat 1 is perched
on a hill of red clay gravel,
shot with wondrous cobbles,
ready-mixed for rock-like daub,
a mountain of red gold
set with emeralds and diamonds.
A noble building material more eternal
than their extinct mountain mothers.
When a mutant jacal is begun, party.
All topsoil is scraped to near gardening.
The clay-gravel is, by rain, reanimated
and the walls rise, bottles in the core
fused sand to earth returned. A frame
of bikes and rims tied with
cable, wire, rebar; cemented ribs,
a steel cage against neglect or failure,
reviewable and sealable by engineers,
faced with hammered stone.
Decondition from air-conditioning,
open south east to warm breezes
and fine aromas of natural air.
A tall scoop to pull in southerly zephyrs,
A rounded NW prow to buck arctic gale.
A short course of openable windows all
round at body level and the odd breeze
to suffice if the prevailing wind wanders.
Live by good water, swim forever,
know heat a joy, a scared solar sauna.
Sleep cool under stars, Live w/ moon
on hills, mounds, or rooftops;
most especially in trees. Respect
grandmother trees, choose a
modest one and be gentle, let it go,
the tree lives on its surface.
Urban wilderness marbled with earthen
Human Reefs of high population density.
Guerilla shelter of unexpected perfection,
of lost truth found and future glory.
A rebirth of tribal consciousness seated
in habitable earthen idols.
Post-apocalyptic microcyclopean
baroque human scaled architecture of
smithereens of demolished buildings
with mud, bottles, natural stone, tree
trunks and sexy bike parts to make mutant
earth-filled megalith-framed home-temples.
Violent storms delivered oak timber
as needed for a bike jacal.
Tangled nature, braided branching.
wind-downed trees form arched columns,
with limbs for solar panels, water drums,
eaves, and lighting fixtures; a tree of life
haunted by wild carvings, trunk sunk
in rubble, sand, and lime,
someday solar thermal "burnt".
Towering Life-
Wind turbine gen. at top,
odd antennas; wi-fi, ham, pirate
elsewhere mobile, crow's nest, bat
and bird houses, bee hive,
water tank, solar panels.
Lower, habitat for spiders,
At bottom lizard caves and toad cellars.
Bat and bird guano rain washes as
compost tea to a garden bed.
Our little friends, or Unpesting-
Learn love, keep an insect guide.
Know which bugs are friends and help them.
Trap mosquitoes round the house with
double bug nets concaved cones outside,
just like fish traps, the bugs fly in
but not out. Spiders live there.
For bait, fragrant humans lounging within.
So no mosquitoes build-up outdoors
awaiting humans, but just decrease.
The traps go NW, downwind side
where summers mosquitoes,
sensing CO2 and funk, arrive from.
Upwind side single screens
allow more breeze and light.
Plantings round homes are
craggy little towers for spiders to web.
Clever grooves around doors turn
most
wandering bugs right around.
Support habitat for fierce ants
several meters around a home,
but no refuge in human space.
The ants will still visit and contribute
scavenging and pest control,
without strong territorial aggression.
Hang larders with an oil moat made from
the double cap of a spray paint can.
Use the same moat on table legs.
Provide flight paths and perches for birds.
Tiny birds love brush piles.
Lizards thrive on the sunny rocks
someday to become cob
toads party in wetter places
provided under garden beds,
insectivorous plants, beneficial
predator insects and pollinators
eating insects plaguing humans and veggies,
such creatures magical jewelry on the land.
Clothing with fringe, ribbons, and tassels,
helps shoo mosquitoes and flies.
Bell tassels waving and tinkling ultrasound
slightly inhibit wee creatures.
Oil herb repellents work, liberally 'plied.
Pine turp and cook oil, our cheapest,
but not best, natural bug goop;
Effective more by mixture with
citronella, peppermint, and such oils.
Emulsified aromatics can last longer.
Clay helps, plus a fun savage look
In extremis try an incense smudge fire.
Cayenne in vegetable oil, a few drops
where the larva must rise, sooner, not later
they hit the hot, go insane and existeth not.
Put it on your taco as salsa,
lo! Edible pesticide.
Lure mosquitoes
to brood with predators,
From little pond to little pond,
aquaculture Minnow Spaceship carts
harvesting skeeter larvae before they fly off.
Best of all is still the net.
The cumulative effect of all these methods
is the Great Bug Peace.
Our chickens run free but safer
with a mobile bikeship shelter,
a chicken tractor with a rotary coupling
that makes it like a giant scanning head
where the young weed, de-pest, till, and
fertilize from a sort of mega puppetic
space ship, raccoons and such proofed
as they move over strange land.
Kitchen compost goes
wherever soil is wanted, into
a triple ring of mesh, improving on
the one ring compost bin.
The wide outer ring is a buffer
of mulch, leaves and green manure
such as weeds or grass clippings.
The middle ring digests the ripest stuff
The small inner ring ventilates
the moldering heart of the pile,
a bike rim w/ mesh lid across mid ring
Rodent, fly, and odor, constrained;
As they fill, the outer rings rise as rockets,
finished compost plumes out below.
ease and health esthetically enhanced.
At-hand litter and recycling bins for
odd litter that bring compostables.
Rain washes compost tea gardenward
around and below the composter.
Compost volunteers such as
melons or tomatoes garland the mesh.
A kitchen garden crowds with herbs, and
The dish washing station drains
into the composter or garden as desired.
All washing water recycles to plants.
Natural dishwashing's secret is a tiny drip
of rainwater. To remove residue
scrubbing and rubbings the trick,
and a bit of natural soap.
Breeze and sun dry dishes, store overnight.
Mechanical action strips biofilms down to
where the natural background of
oxygen/ozone/UV/aerobic microbals
and dehydration tame pathogens.
The process slows in cool wet, we slow too.
Natural sanitation agents include
Hydrogen peroxide, eucalypt oil,
grapefruit seed extract, pickling vinegar,
iodine, salt, baking soda.
Its easy to thrive without food refrigeration.
Eat right from the garden
Keep fresh vegetables and fruits happy,
in light and air, on display, and
large communal stew pots in play,
like the tripods Old Greece ate from,
always adding fresh ingredients,
pasteurized morning and evening,
no stirring, keep closed after heating.
Prefer naturally preserving,
self-packaged foods
like nuts in shells and cabbage
peeled a leaf at a time.
Corn shucks clean, rinseless ready;
the shucks are green towelettes;
a tea is made with the silk.
Solar dry, pickle, and smoke harvests.
Hand-pick for freshest JIT food,
stale excess back to compost.
Radical Bathing- live well on very little.
Hybrid Mexican 2 liter Bucket Bath-
use shower sandals, dipper, little soap,
scrub and squeegee hard with hands.
work top down, save most water to rinse,
squeegee off, no towel, enjoy the breeze
dry face and crotch with shirt back,
dry toes with sock top and just dress.
Done right one is just as clean as
a "normal" bath of 80 liters or more.
For waterless toothbrushing, don't rinse
Spit-brush-spit-brush thoroughly,
wipe your lips.
Solar Pasteurize diapers
and sanitary napkins.
Treetops Regained-
A bike handlebar ladder
to a nylon rope dream catcher,
under a string hammock,
below a lashed alloy bike rim dome,
doubles as orgone antenna-capacitor
roofed with extruded polypropyl signs
salvaged from politics with ironic eye.
Whizzy lentoid home in the sky
bird, squirrel, ape nest,
caterpillar tent or spider web.
All flexy stretchy creaky
softly of the tree, nigh weightless.
Basking in panoramic Chi radiation
Spend the night
serenaded by mockingbirds
under whirling heavens, dreamt love,
in rockin' celestoptic cradle.
Let us perfect organic nests
of interlocked forked poles,
branches, grass and leaves.
Mil Mulches-
Fresh Wood Chips, Aged Wood Chips,
Long and Short Chips, uncounted species
Leaves, Straw, Compost, Green Manure,
Stones, tikes, one last use for poly salvage.
Collect mulch in the fall and
spend the winter in it, under plastic.
Come Spring the mulch goes to planting.
Cellulose decomposition gobbles nitrogen,
a prime N source is urine, best managed.
Plastic bottle urinals drain by tube into
aging wood chips, souping the compost.
By hoarding compost, adding water
activating smoothly in the cold season,
heat of decomposition can help
warm a cold frame or greenhouse and the
CO2 gassed stimulates enclosed plants.
We make beds from rope or mesh, yet
the hammock rules the night hereabouts, yet
finest straw is fragrant and soft to sleep in.
Juice from a medium sized solar panel
suffices a family low power music,
video, light, computing, and telecom.
Wind is intenser spookier power
Long windy nights balance weak sun.
Hydrogen cooking, water heating, and
steam power is a modest start.
Resacralized in Glory-
Biosquats forest was strewn w/
junk, tires, and trash.
By '03 the mess is halved.
Cleaning nature cleanses souls.
Unloved masonry smithereens
a great ravine filled in, of
old carved stone, antique bricks
the urban flesh torn out for
an interstate forty years ago
reborn as brave new post-apocalyptic
cobb architecture.
Each problem, on reflection, bears
glowing treasure, alive and growing.
direct drive blender added to Biosquat's generator bike (Aug.'04).
comment to: santos137@yahoo.com