It was a good year for the Karma Chickens...

Most of you probably opened this thread expecting to hear about somebody losing their underpants (de-brief-ing)... maybe I should change topics now and go into that... but I think you all saw enough of my ass after the ass-less chaps party as I drunkenly crawled from the big dome to the kitchen dome...

So... my briefs back in place ... Here's my take on the burn this year ... I thought about making a MVC (most valuable chicken) award... but I couldn't identify a single person for the title, and it's not a competition anyway - so instead of discussing all the people individually, this is how we did as a group on each of the camp centric features we brought...


Dome - The new thicker dome was great - looked good. The tall ladder and Brad's pre-printed dome construction instructions helped tremendously... we had the dome up and down in record time.

Shade Cloth - I don't think we got the pattern correct on the shade cloth so it was delayed getting up - was very nice once we got it finished. I'm glad we brought 2 new bags of bungee balls, we used them all.

Kitchen - The kitchen dome worked great! I have to admit I was a bit nervous in the high winds, but it held its own and was a very useful place to cook, clean and be happy.

Sink - I liked the sink and the construction / filter was cool but I was sad that it was used poorly. For future reference, a sink on a playa is a great place to clean dishes, but a very poor place to store dirty dishes... I conceived of the idea last year when I saw 3 people washing dishes in nasty plastic buckets... Amy cut the wood to size and pushed the initiative, Brian helped with assembly and paint, Brad put a good filter on it. Next year (drink!!) we'll consider pump pedal water, better counter space, and such... the survival of the sink initiative depends upon Chicken feedback and usefulness...

Power - Grade A++ Organic Large Eggs!! Worked great - Brad's solar panels and the power station were fantastic. With only minor wiring and placement changes for next year (drink!) we'll be able to improve and have room for growth. Next Year (drink!) I suspect we'll have more invertors available for regular power plugs around the camp.

Sound - Between Jill's great music lists and Chips excellent amp, we had great music for days... Loved the tunes! A high efficiency pure sine wave inverter would be nicer on Chip's power conditioner... and next year (drink!) If we bring a subwoofer, then John is planning to spin some music for us... so we'll want a better table and platform for him to work... maybe a DJ booth attached to the side of the dome (easy to do with a bit of PVC, some flashy lights, some knots, and a tarp...)

Battery Box - Worked Great but took too much setup time on the playa. It'll be better next year (drink!)... more of a drop off the trailer and be done with it all thing. I've got good solutions already on order for rapid hookup and teardown of the box... no more sitting in the sun for 2 hours. Better Generator section needed, it helped the sound but did not allow enough ventilation for the running engine to work properly, stalled out the generator several times.

Location - Caz raced in and got us a sweet spot at 4:20 and K... loved the location. Next year (drink!!) maybe we'll keep it for the good parts or maybe we'll move around to try something new... hard to tell until then... more foot traffic and people watching the closer we go... more quiet and less dust the further out... hard to balance.

Layout - Special thanks again to Dr. Dave for giving us a good starting layout... we adapted it dramatically due to only having 1 dome, but just having the general idea already in our head helped immensely. Dave did a lot of prep work for us and helped a lot... even though he wasn't able to get to the playa himself this year... it made for a more enjoyable time for the rest of us.

Shower - The shower was nice... calm, cool, refreshing. A slightly larger plastic area around the pallet would be good for spillage, but the PVC system Amy developed worked very well. (Of course, if we keep throwing Costo Barns at the shower, it's going to keep breaking... but aside from that expected failure mode it is a good shower system.)

Evap Pool - Chip's evap pool was awesome!! The bilge pump was quiet, the dripping water was calming... we had a few gallons of grey water / sludge at the end, but that took up less room than the huge folded up black plastic from the previous year... Kudos to Chip and Linda for excellent design and implementation. The Sink strainer and the 2nd filter at the evap pond helped keep the tub from getting skanky food smells.

Carpet - Caz donated some great carpet to the dome... I carried it home for use next year (drink!!)... comfy, effective, nice stuff... Ironically even after the burn it's cleaner than my carpet at home...

Food - Oh my word it's hard to describe. Mark we missed you, but since we had warning I think we all prepared very well. This was my best food year ever on the playa... by far... Much thanks to the chefs and group sharing...

Structures - Except for one unfortunate pair of Costo Barns, all the structures in camp fared very well. Brad's unique custom designed shade structure was very clever and I liked it a lot. Amy decorated our barn so well I might just redecorate my bedroom at home to match it (possibly including the alcohol table!!!) The new costco barns pop up much faster than the older ones, but it still took a fair bit of work to set them all up.



Much thanks to all ...
See you Soon....
Jack