Year around Community in Slab City

[katbastard]

Gardening can be done anywhere but since the soil is both poor quality and toxic out there, it would probably be best to bring in your own soil and create raised beds. As for humanure, it really doesn't require that much research at all. Basically, you just want to compost the waste with either sawdust, sifted wood ash(just use a screen and don't burn particle board which contains synthetic, non-compostable materials) or lye, which are placed directly on top every time the outhouse is used. Periodically, the outhouse is emptied and then the material is allowed to sit covered by plastic for 6 months because this is the amount of time necessary to kill any harmful bacteria that could infest the garden. I participated in an outhouse excavation and was expecting the worst. However, it really didn't smell like anything besides regular soil so it wasn't too bad. As long as there is a bucket of sawdust in the outhouse there shouldn't be a problem. Here is a link to the Humanure Handbook website but keep in mind that the author makes it way more complicated than it needs to be since he's mostly writing for people with money. http://humanurehandbook.com/instructions.html

thank you for the info, but the soil is not toxic here, maybe at the bombing range, but i know lots of people here who mix the soil with potting soil here. you have to take in mind those magazine write up you read are mostly crap

 

[katbastard]

Some fact-checking is missing up there. "Apocalyptic dustbowl?" I beg to differ. "Remnants of the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range"???? The range is as active as it ever was. What our young reporters found were the remnants of Marine Camp Dunlap, aka Slab City. The two border one another, but are not the same. There is more disinformation out there in print about Slab City than fact, and I think that's good, but sometimes it's a cause for irritation as well.

f.y.i. chasterus died a few weeks ago at the age of 45, he was a good friend of mine and i met him his first day in the slabs for new years 2005 digihitch gathering. he was doing the east jesus project out here, you can find the website here

 

[venusinpisces]

You could be right about that and I would definitely agree about the disinformation in most articles, as was mentioned above. I was mostly going on the advice of somebody from the Slabs who has set up a website saying that there is a lot of toxic dumping going on out there by residents. Of course, that person could just be referring to isolated areas, but it's not a bad idea to err on the side of caution if you aren't 100% familiar with the area where you're planting. You may know more about it than I do, though, since you've been living there. Even so, the existing soil does not look too fertile so you will definitely get better results with growing vegetables if you can afford to use pure potting soil.

 

[katbastard]

the plan is for potting soil, the soil here is sandy and rocky. people do dump shit here but it is isolated

 

[katbastard]

View attachment 24611 View attachment 24612

 

[katbastard]

View attachment 24613
this was every one at camp earlier this year

 

[thisisme]

things to bring, first most is non douche bag attitude. after that. if you smoke bring your own smokes, if you drink, i ask that you do not get super wasted and have to be asked to leave. if your staying more then a few days, or use tons of drinking water please being pitch on that. i am paying 8 bucks to have filtered water delivered. 8 bucks = 55 gal. of drinking water. i have some extra tents around here, dont know what kind of shape they are in. .

alright, maybe i will wait til a little more towards fall to head out there? im not sure yet. alli know is i definitely am going to make it a point to check it out and help out at least for a minute. Just for the record i dont smoke, dont drink, and am easy to get along wtih. i dislike drama and prefer to keep things honest and simple. i have no problem pitching for water and food. i get foodstamps and a wingnut check every month so that shouldnt be a problem. im all about sharing what you got. however i am currently on a pretty restricted diet at the moment due to certain health issues so may need to have my own stash of certain items. i dont want that to be misinterpreted as being douchey. Oh and didnt yous say there was a spring there? is that drinkable too?

 

[katbastard]

keeping Private food is not douchy, my diet is kinda fucked also, i had my gallbladder removed last nov. working on getting a wing nut check myself. the canal is only used for dog water and cleaning so far. i will be looking in to getting a filter system some time in the future. people do drink it, i just have not got to that point yet. and i dont know about drinking water from the hot spring. i smoke, but i dont drink, well some times might have a cold beer is its the only thing cold around. and i am hella easy going as long as there is no drama. look forward to working with you.

 

[thisisme]

awesome! i look forward to it as well. ill be seeing ya

 

[venusinpisces]

Hmm. I just looked further into this and there is basically no way the soil out there isn't contaminated. Apparently, the only sources of water for the Salton Sea are urban drainage, agricultural runoff and the New River from Mexico, which dumps up to 25 million gallons of raw sewage in the water every day. That's why there were millions of dead fish washing up on Salton Sea beaches awhile back. Those contaminants are bound to seep into the soil of surrounding areas and also come back to the ground through precipitation. I'm not trying to be a hard ass about it but it's something to keep in mind for establishing a garden. I would also get a really good filter since the canal is going to have a lot of pesticides in it from surrounding farms.
This is reminding me of the time I went swimming in the Mississippi right off the river walk in New Orleans and came out with green film on my skin. :/

 

[katbastard]

word, well the canal is fresh water, no farm run off at all. it goes to the aquifer for l.a. all 122 miles of the canal is cemented it. we get maybe 3" of rain here a year, if we are lucky. and the salton sea is 3 or 4 miles away from slab city. read up on the canal, its called the coachella canal here
i swim in the canal every day, my dog drinks the water every day, i cook and clean with the water every day. how about this. stop reading what ever you are reading, get off of your chair get take a visit to slab city. then you will be able to tie in the facts and non facts of every thing you are reading.

 

[venusinpisces]

The source about agricultural runoff I found was a SLab City local who wouldn't swim in the canal due to pesticide runoff. It was probably a bit premature to post that information since the canal has recently been lined and the complaint was likely made before that happened. However, contaminants from the Salton Sea will travel through the groundwater(a lesser amount will still end up in the canal) and I would not trust any regulatory agencies to tell the truth about that. Just about anywhere you go these days that isn't remote wilderness is going to have some kind of industrial contaminants. I would have suggested using pure potting soil to anyone in an urban/agricultural area so that comment is not exclusive to the Slabs although the region does have some unique problems due to the proximity of the Salton Sea which is one of the most toxic bodies of water in this entire country. There is definitely a lot of disinformation floating around but, at the same time, the presence of millions of dead fish sends a pretty clear message. It doesn't hurt to take precautions, after all.

 

[katbastard]

very true, today i will be watching plagues of salton sea, i will let you know what they say. also there are a few kind of canals around here, close to the hot springs is a farm canal that runs pretty far, it could be that water he was talking about also. i might look in to buying some test strips to check the big canal out my self, do you know what kind of test strips i would need?

 

[venusinpisces]

The quality of test strips depends on how much money you want to spend, unfortunately. Basic ones are cheap and they will only pick up a few contaminants but a full lab analysis will run into the triple digits. Personally, I would rather spend that money on a water filter since at least it can give you something back for the investment. Anyways, I hope you keep up with the updates because the community you're setting up has the possibility to turn into something great. I do intend to get out of my chair to make a visit eventually.

 

[katbastard]

word, look forward to meeting you

 

[dprogram]

So hows it going out there in this heat man?

 

[katbastard]

its hot, yesterday 108 today 104. but after chillin in the canal for a few hours we where good to go

 

[katbastard]

Slab City @ The Bastard (A)state Update


by Kat N Dharma on Monday, June 27, 2011 at 7:50pm


After getting moved to the new camp site with he help of Neda and Connor, Matt Pist dropped by with some awesome people, Magpie, Graig, and Lauren. Magpie is this awesome guy who writes some pretty rad books and zine and started Steampunk Magazine, Matt and Magpie will be back in the slabs in july filming an indie movie of Magpies writing. Graig and Lauren are swiss anarcho kids traveling in the u.s. for 3 months. After every one left the temps got as high as they have been all year, its been 110 and above for over two weeks now. With it just being me and Dharma the dog here, we are not doing much work besides maintaining shade tarps and keeping to the solar panels up and making power. Between getting more face tats and trying to stay out of the sun, I have became an admin of Squattheplanet.com helping Matt with every day website shit, its been keeping me busy and its awesome to be apart of something i believe in with all of my heart. Next week i will be getting a new deep cycle battery which will bring the amper hours to 350, and i will also be buying 3 more 51 watt solar panels, to boost the power making to 15 or 16 amps, my goal is to make more power then i am using, working on getting a mobile swamp cooler that works and waiting for this guy to remove the motor and tranny out of this r.v., he is selling the rest of the r.v. for 400 bucks, with an a.c. and propane fridge in it. Come this fall alot of things will be going on out here, some people coming out and helping with the project, Michelle is coming out to help build some garden space, got some kids coming to help with a humanure system. and i am going to get together a show maybe after i come back from the dharma punx retreat in Oct. and if i dont see ABU aka Michael Abouzelof getting his ass together to come down here to either play or sit and talk with me all night then i will punch babies! I also hope to see Ben and mychelle out here this fall also. Bonnie is talking about spending the fall and winter out here doing art and chillin with me. so lots of shit to look forward to and get me through the long hot summer. the next thing up is getting this r.v. out here. more to come soon!

 

[dprogram]

Awesome. So you're getting the camper?

 

[katbastard]

hopefully soon, waiting for the guy to take out the motor and then he will tow it over here