Javelina Jundred Day of the Dead costume - Success!

I'm not really going to eleborate or blog on the event itself as my crew had a tragic incident happen due to some extremely negligent people, and we are still and will continue to deal with the aftermath for the months to come.

Rather here is just a quick recap of some pics and my test video of the El Wire costume.  I did run about 60 out of my 100 miles in this costume, and I think it looked really cool and was totally worth the $$ and endless hours put into the design.  Unfortunately I did not "win" the costume contest and have no idea or pictures of what or who DID win it, but that's ok because what I did was appreciated by those who saw it and that's all I ask for.  Besides, I'm sure that whomever won the contest probably had a pretty cool costume, just wish I could have seen it.

JJ 100 'Dirt Nap Gaucho'

Good Ole' Atomic Number 15.  For those who love science you have to appreciate an element that makes things glow; Phosphor.  Add some super basic electrical concepts to it and whala, you have ElWire in all it's fragile glory.

Ive used El before but in very small projects and always on something somewhat stationary.  Add to the confusion and problems of not just wearable electronics but stretchy fabric that you intend to be very active in over a consistently long period of time.  The intelligent short attention span person would smartly step away.. Uhmm, maybe run away from such a task.  At least you would if everything had to be done by hand and you had zero helper hands.  Somehow in my alternate reality state (think, Steve Jobs) I could only envision how super awesome it would be and what kind of reception it would get from others if I could pull it off.

In comes my vision of what you already saw in my first post, the painting of running tights and top to try and make a "Day of the Dead" themed costume.  The painting came out fine and to make it even cooler I layered all the bone structure with a glow in the dark textile paint.  The effect of that is way better than I had expected.  I just finished the running top with the wiring and what a pain in the ass it was to figure out how to make El work with stretchable fabrics.  After trying a couple of different things I finally landed on what I think is an excellent solution.  I sliced tiny 1/4" segments of a 3/8 clear pond pump vinyl tubing.  Let me back-up, sewing El straight to fabric was just fine until I tried to put on the tights and "stretched" all the stitches out and broke some El connections in the process.  I needed a free floating solution while still trying to outline the bones.  Originally I wanted to outline the full bone on each body part but later determined one line of El is plenty due to cost and time constraints.  For those who've used El before you can appreciate that I had to strip, find, solder, sand, and connect more than 85 segments of El for just a mere 29ft of wire.


Picture on right better explains my method.  Best part is it not only can account for the stretch of the fabric without putting strain on the delicate El Wire but as segments break I can just cut it out and re-insert a new piece without having to sew :) YAY because my fingers are trashed from all the needle threading and trying to strip and solder all those dam angel hair connectors around the copper wire.

Just the top of shirt took about 22 hours of labor and thankfully the pants will be so so much easier as they have only 1/8 of the connections.  To help keep the wires in place a bit I just used a dab of hot glue for a spot-weld, works GREAT.  Though most of the costume is still yet to be finished (and I only have about six hours to do it) I consider the short to be by far the most difficulty and pain staking, but it came out so well I'm confident the rest will come together with ease.. even if I just have to slap it all together with safety pins.

I have gone through running motions with wire attached and did have to make a change to where the joints are.  For those areas I used 26gauge stranded wire for it's very nice flexibility and to prevent any "breaks" in the phosphor coating.  I'm pretty confident everything will hold up relatively well and best case scenario is I'll try to wear this for 55 or more of my 100 consecutive miles being run.  I'll get some video posted to better show the "Tron" aspects my self proclaimed "Dirt Nap Gaucho" costume, but here's a couple pics with lights on and off.  BTW - get it.. Dirt Nap as in Dead, as in Muertos.  Gaucho because I should have some hand sewn accoutrement's to depict the old style of Spanish Cowboy.

Javelina Jundred and Day of the Dead

Coming up rather too quickly for me will be my second running of the JJ100 in Arizona.  This is a really terrific race with super support and and a fun vibe that represents what Trail Running should be.  I felt like everyone out their was just having fun and do the best they can.

It's also a bit of a costume contest being that it fall on Halloween weekend.  What's really cool are all the awards are in the "Dia de los muertos" theme.  It sounds crazy but last year I also decided to run the race for fun and participated in costume.  Seeing as I traditionally don't take the easy route I decided to make a costume to suit my tastes and creative freedom.  Several of my friends who were running also decided to costume-up.  We decided on the group theme of super heroes and villains, i went as the Riddler and gave my costume it's own flair with a touch of home made silkscreen and some remnants of el wire.  It was not only a thrill that the costume actually came out good but I also won the costume contest and brought home a slick hand made trophy.

This year I've decided to try and notch one up on the costume.  Again I could not find a costume or pieces of what I wanted to suit my themed goal... so once again, I'm making it from scratch.  After a couple of visits to the fabric stores and a few of my favorite online Maker sites I've got all the pieces.  The critical part and lesson learned (the hard way) last year was NOT to make the costume one piece, as it was a real pain in the ass to disrobe every time I had to pee.  This year, 2 pieces!  I picked up a cheap running top and using some old running tights that have been sitting around for years I have the basis for a skeletal print.  You would be surprised that nobody sells a front and back print of a skeleton outfit.  Not to worry as a little research and proper fabric paint will yield exactly what I'm looking for.  I may not be the best artist in this medium but I'm proud of it being home made, and not only that, once it's all put together it will certainly have some 'Wow' factor... 'course that's assuming the vision in my head can be physically reproduced even part way.  We'll know in a couple of weeks.

My biggest concern is that I want to keep as authentic as I can since this particular outfit I'm creating could be construed slightly controversial amongst cultural beliefs.  True celebrations of Day of the Dead are held passionately with the people that take part in the tradition.  It's a celebration of the lives that were lived by ancestors.  Since the race actually begins on the first day (of the two day) celebration I wanted to honor the day in my own way.  It's with hope that it does not offend as I'm not trying to take away from the heritage of this day, nor poke fun at it.  Personally I think it's a wonderful way to deal with lost ones and revisit and honor the great lives they hopefully lived.  My twist is to take a sort of Caballero style and give it some modern day electronics seeing as I'll be using it mostly at night in the middle of the dessert while I'm all alone.

Here is a bit of progress so far:

Painting is completed and now begins the testing of the el wire and lots of fragile soldering and sewing.

Weber Genesis Grill restore is Done!

After a few weekends and lots of scrubbing, drilling out rusted bolts and sanding, etc.. I'm really pleased with the final result.

This may not seem like much to most people but it's the first time (on something non electronic) that I tore down to the bare nuts and bolts, literally.  I learned a lot and had a blast seeing my "new" grill take shape.  My 1985 Weber grill is like new and I'm anxious for my first real cookout on it.

Enjoy the before and after:

Refurbishing an "Ol' Redhead" - Weber Genesis that is

The much older Weber grills featuring a Red Hood or lid are affectionately known amongst grilling\bbq enthusiasts as the Redhead.  I've learned a tremendous amount about grilling\bbqing in the last month or so.

Our 9 year old Charbroil, which should have only been kept or used for a few years finally gave its last flare up!  The burners have long since burned up (likely as metal mercury flavoring in my steaks, yummy) and for the last several weeks I've been "molding" burners from aluminum foil for each cookout, what a pain and waste.  So the search began for used grill to just get us by.  In my searching, researching and ad perusal I'd like to think I became educated on being a better grill consumer.  My research quickly surfaced the Weber brand to be the default must have grill.

Price points seemed high but then again so is a stove\oven, which likely gets used just as much, at least for those of us lucky enough to live in California.  Over several weeks I started searching exclusively for a used Weber and yet still they are not cheap nor easily found.  Seems just like car makers and such Weber has a strong fan-base.  Due to their similar model creation since they started back in the 70's (I think) and high availabilty of parts regardless of model year, people love to hang on to their Webers and fix them up.  For me this was a great sign and confimed my decision to attempt for a Weber purchase.   A few Craig List ads got away from me as when one does show up, it does not last and was always sold before I got a return call.  I continued to scour and crawl listings and to my delight was the first to respond on a pretty "Redhead" Weber Grill still available.  Even luckier is that it was actually still in working condition and was covered much of the time... though clearly still needs work!  We gladly gave the guy his requested $60 for this beauty and hauled it away.  Included he gave us a full propane tank along with genuine grill cover, what a deal!

Seeing as I've been without a grill now for over a week I'm really anxious to get this one cleaned up and fired up.  Thus begins the rehab.

After a couple of days or finding parts and talking to Weber I learned this grill was originally purchased between 1985-1988 and is a Weber Genesis 3 (though a manual I found declares it as a Genesis 3000 Platinum C), what excellent years those were to start with so I how can I go wrong on this one.  I've never done this kind of rebuild but it seemed like a cool thing to do, and hopefully not easy to screw up.  Since they don't make this color or wood slat style anymore, I thought it'd be a cool classic look in the yard.  After researching the current year model it looks like really small differences except for the exteriors.

Ahh a beautiful way to start my Sunday, a cold beer (or three), great sunny day and a few hand tools.


Another beer and some power washing later I'm really happy with how well this one is cleaning up.  Still some work to do with sanding, scraping more layers of 2,000 heat resistant paint, and perhaps another beer!
I completely gutted this thing down and did my best to maintain what I could to keep some costs down.  Even though these are older parts are expensive but U.S made (before Weber started facilitating production out of China) and durable.  With the new Stainless Steel parts on order I can see this grill getting another easy 10-15 years of use with proper maintenance.  Hope to be done in another week or so once the new grates and bars get here.  For now enjoy my redhead fully undressed :P

She's getting some new make-up,  ain't she puuurrty Jethro?

Brief Update on Hydro Garden

The Hydrponic garden met and then exceeded any expecations I had.  The production and quick growth of these plants was almost too much for to handle on an after work basis.  I found myself spending entire weekend afternoons gardening and prepping.

What really surprised me is how much nutrients those plants ate once they started getting fruit.  My reservoir of 22Gallons was getting depleted every 3-5 days, it was crazy.  This is a full recirculating system so no water is being wasted, and all of it is being used and consumed by these very hungry plants.

It's a little late in the season for smoe new plants and such, but I'm so enamored by the success that I am certainly going to maintain this garden through the year and likely double the production next year by adding some new varities.  This year we did and are still getting; Cucumbers, Orange Red & Green bellpeppers, about four different tomatoe varieties, Hot Chili peppers similar to a serrano but more on scovilles along a Habanero, butterleaf varieties of lettuce, Canteloupes and Basil.  We have more garden items but these were the only things in Hydro nutrient solution! Wow did they go crazy.

Gardening - My basic small footprint of a garden

We've fenced in a small portion of our yard to dedicate to what hopefully will be a very productive garden in the next few summers.  Initially the garden was all in ground planting and worked fairly well.  Now we are hoping to increase our yield many times over while not extending the footprint at all.

This area is about a 10' x 10' plot.  Lot of experimenting going on right now but by the end of the summer I hope to have it much more efficient and organized with a whole lot more actual square footage of plants.

Gardening - First Drip Hydroponic setup

I figured using a drip system is nothing new to anyone.  The only difference here is that all my plants are sitting in a mix of Perlite and Vermiculite just so the roots have something to grow on and through, No Soil.
All my buckets have a drip tube feeding from a reservoir that I buired in the ground (to help maintain water temp).  Each bucket as it fills up over about 1" it self drains back to the main reservoir.

Inside my reservoir I'm using a standard small aquarium or pond pump that feeds all the overflow back up into the drippers to each bucket.  The reservoir is a mix of the water soluble nutrients (which can vary depending on what you are growing).

Here's a few pics with the buckets and a comparison of how the growing is going over about three weeks.

This of all the different things I'm trying has so far been the best results.  I filled the reservoir once and the only thing I'm maintaining is the pruning of the plants growing.  Clearly their is still a whole lot to learn and improve on, but for not spending a lot or building some complex system this is already showing to have potential.  The other major benefit of not using soil are the lack of bugs.  I've had many problems with bugs in most my other gardening attempts.

To the left is a buried 25Gal bin feeding the 1/2" drip tube above.  It's on the backside of these buckets but the overflow pipe feeds back to the reservoir.  These plantings were put in at the same time and are same variety of plants in the self watering (grow box) container.  These ones are kicking butt!

After about three weeks of getting a liquid nutrient, very visual growth... Imagine if I knew what I was doing how much better this would be.

3 Weeks Later

I used leftover catlitter and paint buckets for my system

On the far right is my first Kratkey method, we'll see how it goes.

3 Weeks Later

Overall this setup has been really great and I will absolutely be adding to it and cleaning things up a little bit.  Something else I forgot to mention is that cost was a concern for me, but the nutrient powders I bought are really cheap.  They come in 1lb and 5lb sizes but you are only mixing about 5 grams of solution for 5gallon increments.  The 5lbs I have will last me the entire summer and comes out to literally pennies per gallon... sure beats paying $1.50 for a single pepper in the store.