Oh and I got some bad news from James Burgett at Alameda County Computer Resource Center. It turns out he won’t be able to help me out. I’m not too bummed about about the stuff, more bummed out he won’t be able to contribute his ideas. One of them was to figure out a way using free stuff to provide power. He described making a wind mill out an old discarded power drill, a bike wheel, and milk jugs. I can’t really go into why James won’t be able to help, but my best to him. Rock on James!

The pallet on the left is the heavy duty pallet and will be dismantled and probably remade into cabinets and shelves. You can see it’s a 2-way pallet and lacks the fork lift fork notches like most standard pallets. This is great for me because I’ll be able to make good use of the solid 2×4s. The pallet on the right is a standard 48″ by 40″ 4-way pallet which will probably become part of the roof. It’s fairly light weight and should be strait enough. It’s got a little bow to it but that shouldn’t be too big of a problem.

His most common method of moving stuff along is to give the stuff away to people who need it. For example he takes old computers and monitors, refurbishes them, and turns around and gives them to people that need them. He invited me down to his football sized warehouse for a tour, lunch, crazy talk, and as much free stuff as I can fit in my truck for the tiny free house.

It also seems James is just as crazy as I am, maybe even crazier. No no that’s a compliment. If we hit it off and pool some of our madness we might actually be able to do some really great things. I’m very hopeful to say the least.

For example, we were talking about cheap and free alternative energy generation ideas and I told him about a crazy solar powered kiln idea I had back when I was a starving artist. The idea was simple, put mirrors on solar trackers and aim them at a hard brick kiln that slowly turned. The brick would super heat and the turning would heat the walls evenly.

He trumped my idea by adding the use of several 5 foot fresnel lenses from old rear projection televisions. It seems that those old big screen TVs had giant fresnel lenses in them and when you hold them up to the sun they act like giant magnifying glasses. He said he can burn a hole in concrete with one. Yikes!

Anyway he had lots of other, less destructive but equally fun, ideas for generating electricity from discarded trash. Maybe the tiny free house will get that renewable energy system after all. I had decided early on to not add that to my list of requirements because photovoltaic systems are expensive. But James has now opened my eyes to an array of possibilities I had never considered.

King, the dog, kept me company the whole time. Unfortunately this time of year (right after harverst) the nearby fields tend to breed lots of flies, especially the tomato fields, so King and I were constantly shaking off flies… yeah yuck. The shower at the end of the day felt really good.

Katie did come out and help a bit though. I’m not sure exactly what she thinks of the tiny house yet but she seems to be warming up to it. This was the first time she actually wanted to get inside and help her dad.

Here’s one more photo at the end of the day. We needed to move it so I piled up all the pallet wood and pallets inside.

I’m also posting updates on Tiny House Forum too.

• Weekend 1 Pre-work: Prepare pallets and build steps.
• Weekend 1: Finish putting up the the pallet walls, three window bucks.
• Weekend 2 Pre-work: Prepare roof pallets. Scavenge metal for roof.
• Weekend 2: Put on the pallet roof and sheet in metal.
• Weekend 3 Pre-work: Scavenge steel for straps.
• Weekend 3: Anchor everything down with bolts and metal strapping, anchors, and tie-downs (example).
• Weekend 4 Pre-work: Continue to scavenge plywood
• Weekend 4: Cover roof with found plywood.
• Weekend 5 Pre-work: Mill pallet slats with lap joints. Make hundreds of them
• Weekend 5: Cover walls with milled pallet slats.
• Weekend 6 Pre-Work: Mill more pallet slats for the walls. I’ll need enough for the exterior walls, interior walls, ceiling, and floor. Yikes!
• Weekend 6: Finish covering exterior walls.
• Weekend 7 Pre-work: Scavenge paint and/or exterior sealers (like urethane).
• Weekend 7: Paint the house with something to protect the wood and make it look cute.

This should get the exterior closed in. Then as winter rolls in I can move to the interior and finish the interior walls, insulate, plumb, and wire it up. I already have house wrap, roofing felt, some plywood, a good lead on some metal roofing from a nearby farm (in trade for pallets no less), and some other stuff so I should have a good jump on scavenging.

I think planning like this will help keep me on track too, especially with the weather changing. It really is starting to feel like fall, still warm here in the Sacramento Valley but definitely starting to cool off.

Don’t worry the correct initial response is “WTF IS HUMANURE!!!”. But after a little investigation I believe you might be overcome by the the idea… no no not the smell. You see there is an ebook you can download right now (yes for free) that explains exactly how to build yourself a $25 sawdust toilet.

The book is by a very funny guy by the name of Joseph Jenkins. I actually have never spoken to him but I have to say his book, The Humanure Handbook is actually a pretty funny read filled with great cartoons so I have to assume the guy behind it has a good sense of humor. I mean… what guy that writes poo books wouldn’t be funny… but I digress.

I haven’t told my wife yet but I think I may want to consider this for the tiny free house. I bet I can even build one of these little jobs for free. I mean its just a 5 gallon bucket, a wood box, a toilet seat, sawdust, and some poo right? There’s always a free toilet on craigslist but the idea of having a free composting toilet that is also great for the environment just seems like a great win-win (and you get to keep the poo!)

Well at least it’s worth some serious investigation as long as I wash my hands with warm soapy water right? Photo credit to Joseph Jenkins and Tom Griffin.

Photo credit New York Times

Below is an example of a very usable pallet from the same load. It’s a standard 40′ by 48′ pallet, sturdy, unstained, not too weathered, and fairly light weight. I suspect the wood is fir. This is the kind of pallet that makes building easy. Soft wood is much easier to work with and when the pallets are in good condition and a standard size they need very little preparation before they can become part of a wall, floor, or roof.

I’ll just screw 2×4s onto the open ends of this one and it will be good to go. I plan to do a lot of this kind of work this week so I can arrive at the farm the next time with a full load of prepared pallets. It will make the construction go much faster.