SPCC A Casa Amarela

Kat and Shaun (CA) stayed with us about a month ago. i just found her account of the trip, including this little bit about their stay here:

The next day we hitched again waiting for about an hour we decided to go further up the highway where we discovered the turn off for the highway leading directly into Lisbon , we were hitching from the wrong spot that entire time, Ten minute wait and we were picked up by a trucker from Brazil who would drop us off in Lisbon.Communication was difficult so it mainly happened through drawing pictures.He was a very sweet man though , giving us water and food.He couldn't drop us off directly inside Lisbon so he left us at a train station where he forced us to take money he offered us because he felt bad that he couldn't take us all the way.Another angel.We took a train and after about 2 hours walking around Lisbon in the blistering heat with giant bags we finally found the place we were to stay .It was one of many abandon buildings on the street a big yellow building with graffiti, It was the squat.

The place was six floors with Anarchy designs everywhere and some really cool punks that lived there as well as their dogs.They have great plans for the place and it seemed when they looked at it they already saw what it will one day be.They planned to make a few bars , a huge garden on the roof , a lecture room , a giant free shop and generally a very cultural place where everyone can live together and build something truly amazing.We spent a few days there , eating great food in great company , talking about nomad bases and how to make everything work, playing with puppies ,drinking wine and jam sessions that lasted hours, laughing, sleeping on the roof and swimming, and even talking about having the hitch gathering there, the only issue was that they didn't really want any legal problems if there were that many people.The place has everything it needs to be amazing even a private swimming pool up the street! The city center of Lisbon was beautiful , every building was a work of art , the churches were beautiful and also cool on those 40 degree days , old street cars with children hanging off the sides, we ran into a parade going down the street loud drums and music people dressed in beautiful colourful costumes, some as monsters who were scaring people in the crowd, a man with a scary mask and a big hairy costume grabbed me from the crowd and gave Shaun a thumbs up , whatever that means.A really neat thing to see though .The only thing about Lisbon is if your a vegetarian and want to eat out , you really have no choices because EVERYTHING is meat .Our last day at the squat as we were leaving we were saying our next stop was Sines , they asked if we had anywhere to stay and we didn't , so Cervario (not sure if that's how its spelt) A Brazilian punk gave us a phone number of an old women he stayed with there , he called and asked her if it was OK and she said of course.He said he thought she won the lottery because she lives alone in a big house over looking the ocean with four floors.

http://casarobino.org/2010/06/living-and-dieing-portugalspain

again, more on nomad bases here: http://nomadbase.org/

it's been 4 months since we moved in. a lot has went on, but one of my personal contributions was to give this community an on-line presence for several reasons. the main was to sample the multiple realities phenomenon, but since only two bloggers are left, it remains more a desire than a reality. but another main aspect of it was to share our experiences with YOU, our readers. but i never expected we would be growing 120% a week, that we'd end up by having on-line visitors from all over the world, interested in our little project.

so thank you for visiting our website, for sharing our links, for discussing our actions or just being interested in different ways of living and acting. and visit, whenever you want, our house is your house!

thank you! i love you!

<3

so O really is back, he spent a night in jail (convicted ward). he had really cool stories to tell, but luckily nothing wrong happened. he came back as positive and happy as always.

tori and S went out and partied (too) hard. S ended up fucking up his recommended rest and is in the hospital again. tori ended up leaving sooner, which i suppose is connected to the heavy partying and following day regrets.

right now, thanks to her, we have the knowledge for the dry toilet and the frame built. we just need to find some place with sawdust. I has given us some addresses, we just need to visit.

we are now planning a small festival for our three birthdays (T, J and R). we expect it to be a punk day and an electronics day. Andrea will DJ hopefully, he's a fucking good one. we're just unsure when it's going to be, because there's a big psy trance fest coming up around that time.

other than that, i'm mostly done with my tutoring, which has been taking most of my time. i also fucked up T's laptop by fixing the charger one-too-many times. the puppies have been chewing on the cables, and so far i had been able to fix it. i just ended up fucking it up by not adapting the cable load. different resistances meant more current into the laptop and with it a burned power source.

solar power has been great, we've been able to use our cellphones, lights and music as we wanted. more batteries and panels, obviously, if we want a fridge going. tori also taught us how to make a desert fridge (or zeer pot). a really cool technology considering all it takes is water to cool stuff to about 7ºC. so far it's been difficult to find pots like these available, but the power gain is so high me might just do it by purchasing. getting cool beer without having to power a fridge is a plus, considering our low power availability.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

O should be back today, they let him go free until trial. other than that, nothing new.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

O had a call from his mom about the police being there. he has a long standing fine and skipped community service. today, we learned that O has been arrested until his hearing in court. we have no idea of what's going to happen. probably community service again. O doesn't hurt a fly, putting him in jail would be ridiculous.

the blue is starting (on the stairs that is), courtesy of Tori. soon the staircase will lose the gray.

other than that, i heard some people from the anti-NATO group visited. they are looking for a place to host all the protesters for the next NATO summit. we also had a visit from a photographer that wants to stay a couple of days and do a set there (check out his page). he's part of the same artist group that visited a couple of months ago, illegal creation (also on vimeo).

the crew wants to summon another meeting, to get a generator and a proper PA. i told them it is a lot of money, but i guess the meeting is happening anyway.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

our new guest is a diy-eco expert, and she got us to do a composting toilet in 15 minutes. it's almost done, once it is, we'll post a story about it. for now, it's pretty nice to see excitement to build things again. right now we're looking for places where to get bags of sawdust. we're also considering closing our paper loop by shredding it and using it for the composting toilet. we closed the glass loop recently by using it as bricks (a la earthship), but a lot of our stuff is still being trashed instead of being recycled.

we are aware that even though we're planting trees and composting and etc, we will not benefit from any of it. the building is either going to be torn down or we're getting evicted way before we stabilize the humanure/permaculture/recycling cycles. but not doing it would be ideologically incoherent with the kind of house we're building. we want to make a public statement on how we can live in sustainable way in the middle of a big city. here are the waste cycles and the loop we're closing.

images from the humanure handbook

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

the rave was awesome! obviously there was punk music at first ('cause there were a lot of punks there) but then Andrea (one of our guests) pulled out his electronics. fuck. darkstep, hardcore, trance. i had work the next day but i hear the party lasted until 4 or something. it's a nice rehearsal for our future parties. the power seems adequate, and the sound echoes all the way out, so we might need to soundproof the other side of the building. personally i also think level 1 needs more warming up (color and decoration wise).

currently the power output from the solar bank is not enough for a party like this, but we're considering getting cheap recycled batteries to up our power. also, i got two old car alternators from destroyed cars (cheap, like 20€ each). they will be used for the bike generator and the wind generator. i think that at some point we might fill the roof with wind generators, 'cause we get so much wind.

also, using the car as a generator, we got to do the whole power thing for less than 10€ worth of gas. add to this cheap beer for everyone (about 20€ for about 32 litres of beer) and meat/fish barbecue (totaling about 10€), we had a plentiful party for next to nothing.

our sound system is being designed with sustainability in mind, so power is abstracted and can be obtained in any way (including hamster wheel power). the speakers are mayan heads with the speaker in their mouth. i hope to get some pictures of this soon. we're also (slowly) adding more audio parts. there's always some guetto kid that is giving up his sound system for a new one.

guests have been coming and going, few are inspired, most are creeped out. but the few that stay are genuinely helpful and interested. i'm still looking forward to some helpxers, though i think it might be harder, since most people helpx for farmstays.

overall, i think life is blossoming at the house. my personal priorities are getting (at least) one dry toilet working and finishing the level 0 venue. there is also constant pressure for getting the electricity working (from the post), but personally i prefer the sustainable way, since all that's missing is some refrigeration. we can do that with some more batteries easily. most people don't understand the difference between sustainable and "dirty" electricity, between leeching off a system and being independent. i think that independence is key for this place. it is what makes us different.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

our tree is sick, dogs have been digging it out, let's hope it bounces back. downstairs hose is fixed. andreas (one of our guests) has been working like crazy: our bathroom is SPOTLESS. i mean was. also, yesterday our solar lighting worked for as long as we needed it, so i guess when we don't use speakers and laptops it lasts long enough for night light.

on the 10th there's a nazi protest (it's portugal day). so to avoid conflict (again) we'll be having a barbecue and music. most of our residents are tired of violence, be it police violence or just general violence on the streets. it'll be a good opportunity to test out our kawak kay (mayan for storm music).

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

part of our sustainable project was a PA system that would work off our sustainable off the grid system. for now, it has about 300W peak power (good enough for a small room). our plans are to keep adding modules and increase total power. it is based on ghetto car amplifiers and speakers. here's a diagram on how it works.

12V batteries provide the abstraction, the car amps provide the audio power. to power mixers and gear inverters can be used. as for power generation, old car alternators + solar panels provide some power. other alternatives include running your car for a bit to charge the battery. if your car is a diesel one, running on biodiesel, the whole system might be sustainable. anyway, the "cleanliness" of the power is now dependent on your choices, not the market.
the only issue is the quality of the bass. our low cut off is at about 29Hz. hopefully we'll find a good subwoofer to fix this and give that "kick".

we got to test it out and it's pretty good. we're currently designing the look of the speakers, and plan to go full ghetto on bunker "cargas terrestres 7" and start mini raves in our backyard + use the vineyard bar. fuck yeah. music does bring people together.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆

so we finally set up solar power. it doesn't last long, has about 150W total output, but together with the car thing we might have electricity all day now. the total setup cost us only about 80€ including controller, cables and inverter. both the battery and the panel are freecycled stuff.

also, here's a pic of our new tree.