BURNING MAN 2009

I took no pictures....in hopes of finding what other people saw in theirs, here are a few that I love.
photocredit- Extramatic

"Build it and they will come"

Now that was FANTASTIC! What a turn out!! And what amazing music, shadow puppets and aerial artists! It was a surreal space working the Heron and watching performers interact with it in various daring poses. Truly dreamlike for me. Thank you Taos, for the support and the Love! (and Santa Fe too!) Pictures taken by Sadaf Rassoul, Alisa Ritchie, Beth Hill, Howie Roemer

Mesa Burning Man

Running the Heron

HERON DEBUT SUNDAY AUGUST 16th

Yes it's true!!! Come see the Heron in all its new paint and glory this Sunday from 5-9 at the "Steel Ranch" in Taos! There will be continuous performances on the Heron throughout the evening by Wise Fool NM, Anna Pardenik & the Vermont Paino Moving Co., The Circus of Tiny Invisibilty, The Flying desert Brigade, KFire, and Tea and Puppet Theatre-performed within a 12' mobile Hoop skirt!!! Dj's for the evening include Oliver, Jeremy Blike and Paul Feathericci. This will be a very unique "art opening" not to be missed! There will be Harlan's Green Chili and beverages available too. This is a benefit show for the Heron Project, and suggested donation is $10.
Sunday, August 16th 5-9PM
Directions: Drive across Gorge Bridge, Turn hard left onto West Rim Rd (less than a mile after Bridge) Go 1.5Miles- look to your Left! Carpool if you can- parking along side road. Entrance is by tall Ranch Gate- see you there! This is a Kid friendly event!

A Fresh Coat of Paint~

Well, painting is a BIG deal. The Heron painting got off to a slow start- waiting out a few days of turbulent weather, finding the right equipment and working with a diminished workforce- the Heron got primed and painted in three days after all. I chose to paint it white- a slightly off white/bone white-I wanted a neutral color that would also be inviting and not too hot to climb in the heat of the day. I also figure it can be accentuated with various colored lighting. The white added a surreal quality- also shadowing itself beautifully through the trussing. My amazing crew helped put it up today- one final time before it goes to the Playa. The build was still a seven hour ordeal- again facing the challenges of Christian's forklift, which makes this operation very delicate as we are lifting a 27' structure(in it's retracted position) with a mast that goes 19'-8". It's scary and it sure did not help to work around a massive hail storm including thunder and lightning! Now it is up...standing tall and looking regal, for a Taos debut, on August 16th, which I will impart more details about in a few days-but for now, the waxing moon and the Heron meet again.

2025LBS!

We load tested the Heron yesterday- a very hot, dry, dusty mesa day. First we started with Christian's first ever robot- his spider walking robot- weighing about 600Lbs. We rigged the bot from the nose of the beak and lifted it into the air several times, and swung it around to check for twisting, and balance. So far so good. Then we slung the Manipulatrix from the beak, a robot weighing 2025LBS and lifted it up a few inches. The Heron seemed fine, though it was tricky to dial in the ratio between the hydraulic winch and the hydraulic cylinders- so they would work together not in opposition. The winch cable got extremely tight, and semed to be taking more weight than it should. We added to two more flow control valves to the system and played with the flow- to various degrees of success. We concluded that the flow would have to be adjusted to each specific lift weight- each time. For Burning Man we will adjust it to lift max two people at the same time. That should be a happy medium for the winch and cylinders with and without a load. It has been so amazing to see it up- looks just like the miniature model...I could not resist to monkey around on it this morning- so Gregory and I played on Herald for the first time, before the wind kicked up. It was stupendously fun! Tomorrow it comes down for paint prep- and I will take as much help as I can get to get the grease and dirt of the metal so we can spray it soon! Let me know if you want to help paint prep!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words...

Yesterday-Epic! Today-movement and load test!

Fabrication Fancy

There are always a few more things that need to be done, then there are a few things that would just look too great, so they become things to do as well. We are so close... Today we fed the hydro lines inside the Heron walls- a great idea to keep the lines out of the way. The outriggers are done including the bracing for the actual outrigger. Loads of bolts needed here. It has been fun climbing the first section of the Heron with the outriggers attached- it sure does feel like it's anchored down-STURDY. The mid body is now attached to the head-and the cylinders are mounted. The sheaves are in place, as well as the winch- tomorrow we roll the cable on and get it ready for it's final assembly- on Tuesday! The power unit sounds OK, still need to do a bit of work on that- but test worthy it is. I'll leave this post with a view from when I closed up the shop this evening- the moon rise over the mesa...