Hey, glowinglassrose, I remember following your earlier thread elsewhere. I'm sorry to hear your friends turned out to be as flaky as it sounded like they were going to be! :( It looks like you're getting good advice here, and I think you'll have things well in hand... All this logistical "fun" is w...

Coming from the east, it would be challenging to boycott Fernley entirely (although I usually do the last of my significant shopping -- water, juice, last-minute food items, etc. -- in Winnemucca) but I wonder if we can constructively reallocate our resources. Are there any Paiute-owned gas stations...

I finally got brave last year and took my D40 out on the playa with the 18-105VR lens attached. I had it in Camera Armor ( http://www.amazon.com/Products-CA-1115-BLK-Camera-Armor-Digital/dp/B000NZKX4K ) and in a Zip-Loc bag like so: http://www.instructables.com/id/Camera-Zip-lock/ OK, maybe I wasn't...

I've always used tarps and not cloth, but I've had 1-1/4" X connectors snap before, even in relatively modest dust-storm-free experimentation off-playa. (Learning experience: Bring spare X connectors to the desert.) I wouldn't go smaller for structural joints. You could use the 3/4" pipe for reinfor...

You might be able to insulate a water cooler semi-effectively with blankets and/or mylar and a judicious application of duct tape. I've brought my water to Burning Man in boxes of gallon jugs from the grocery store in Winnemucca usually, and if it sits on the cool playa at night and stays in the sha...

I'm not an engineer, but I've played with various forms of the Monkey Hut, and what I've observed is that most of the strength and sturdiness comes from the tension of the curved PVC pipes coupled with the tension of the tarp tightly secured to the PVC pipes (and ideally the ground) and holding the ...

The past two years I've been hauling all my stuff to the burn from New York in a compact Chevy Prizm. The first year was a little overpacked, so for the second year I put a rooftop cargo carrier on top and proceeded to overpack that as well. It seems one aspect of Burning Man is stuff-you-bring-to-t...

A gap between the tarp and the ground is probably fine, as long as you're somehow still securing the tarp to the ground (not just to the ribs) using rebar and rope or some kind of bungees. That said, if you're cutting the rib pieces to nonstandard sizes (and not compensating by introducing some kind...

Here it is mid-November and I'm already thinking about shade structures again. Anyway, I just wanted to report in that the sleeved segments held up fine again this year, Tuesday morning through Monday morning -- although of course there really wasn't that much wind during that period this year. Adde...

Skinnay, I used an adapted Monkey Hut design last year with all the pipes cut down to 4'8" lengths so I could shove them into the trunk of my compact car. I joined the shorter pipes on the ribs with 1-1/4" pipe sleeves cut to 15" (as I recall) with some high-temperature duct tape holding them in pla...

I went solo my second year (2009) and will be doing so again this year. It was a great experience, and camping a bit out in the boonies, I made friends with everyone on my block, so there was plenty of companionship. The flip side is, when you're going alone you need to take care of everything invol...

It seems to vary by year for me, which makes it hard to plan for. First year craving was V8 juice. Second year craving was IHOP pancakes and omelettes. Can't wait to see what this year brings...

Last year, I cut 1" thick PVC pipes down to lengths of about 4'8" so they would fit in the trunk of my car, and joined them together with lengths of 1-1/4" PVC pipe held in place by tension from the curvature of the pipe and duct-tape for good measure (the sleeves did move a bit over the course of t...