Birgin Questions :)

[AntiM]

Thanks to everybody for the wonderful links and advice! I guess I won't be bringing my own burn barrel
Good advice getting rid of the MOOP before I even leave the house! Things like mac n' cheese and such can be put into zip lock baggies first I suppose.
Hope to see all of you on the playa!

love,
Bri<3

Just noticed... mac n cheese? The type where you must boil water? As in, do you have a good evaporation plan for that much greywater? I'm sure you already know you can't dump it out, experiment a bit and see how much excess water you create with that meal.

[lemur]

as AntiM points out, you need to consider everything...including the pasta water.. Also, your trash, food waste and how you cook.. what to do with the resulting messes youll make before you even begin to plan your meals... and camp.

Think about this stuff before getting there.. Have a plan B.. (read eplaya, survival guide, etc.. and ask questions to learn about stuff you might not have thought about)

one could boil it off and then clean the resulting goopy mess of starch that is in the bottom of the pan with a spray bottle with a bit of soapy water in it.. wipe up with a paper towel ... burn paper towel.. sanitize pan with a bit of bleach water.. let it air dry

of course this will cost fuel... but using less water than one might use at home should, in my mind, be a given out there.. so hopefully you dont have 6 cups of water to dump out for a box of mac and cheeze and more like 3 or 4 (half of what you probably should use.. just keep stirring!)

in the kitchen i work in, although we have a very well working method of gray water disposal,.. we commonly use our old pasta water for filling up our chafing dishes.. which then boils off and saves another 5+ gallons of water from going in to the gray water tank.


of course that suggestion probably wont work for everyone... and surely might not work for some camps with many people.. for the individual camper, or a couple.. it should be adequate as its unlikely that people are boiling huge pots of water every day..

I have always been wary of evap ponds.. I have seen way to many of them filled up with water on sunday.... and leaking.. Maybe more useful for a shower mess than a kitchen mess...

And theres always the fact that, unless you plan to leave burning man directly to the airport, youre likely have just as much space for water containers on the way out as you did on the way in (and more.. because you drank a whole bunch) and you will likely have access to a place to empty those water containers that you filled with gray water in a proper legal location after the event..

then recycle or trash the containers...



(pasta needs to be kept refrigerated after it has been cooked.. if you pre-cook it.. make sure to keep it just as safe as you would raw meat)

[AntiM]

Rant: Since we cook for only two or three people, we run a "dry" kitchen, with limited water use. We do have a small evap pan, mostly for dumping out minute bits of wash water or the dregs of cups. However, it fills up magically overnight now and then. Using someone else's evap pan or pond is a no-no unless you have been specifically invited to do so, and then by a camp leader who actually has to take care of the damn thing. Rant over and thank you.

+1000 on lemur's post

(chafing dishes? What the hell do you DO in that camp???)

[ygmir]

don't I remember, somewhere, that there is an approved method of sterilization via bleach, and, dispersion of grey water on the roadways? Sprinkling, as such.
I see it done here and there, in BRC.

[Dr. Pyro]

Yggy, you are referring to the age-old custom of "dust abatement". Some camps probably are better at de-MOOPing their excess water than others I would imagine.

[Drawingablank]

The enviro-nazi in me suggests that maybe cardboard would be best handled by packing it out and recycling it. There are alot of options for recycling in Reno (if you pass through there.)

You don't even have to haul it that far - there is a recycling place just north of Wadsworth on 447.

During exodus they even set up an express lane and Jots for burners. Metals and plastics are free to dump, not sure about paper / cardboard though. Everything else is 3.00 a cubic yard (as of 2011).

[VultureChow]

Rant: Since we cook for only two or three people, we run a "dry" kitchen, with limited water use. We do have a small evap pan, mostly for dumping out minute bits of wash water or the dregs of cups. However, it fills up magically overnight now and then. Using someone else's evap pan or pond is a no-no unless you have been specifically invited to do so, and then by a camp leader who actually has to take care of the damn thing. Rant over and thank you.

+1000 on lemur's post

(chafing dishes? What the hell do you DO in that camp???)

At this point, I'm not boiling anything. I plan to grill everything on a small propane tabletop weber grill. Steaks, chicken and pork chops for dinner with grilled veggies. Frozen breakfast burritos to be heated in tin foil in the morning. No cooking for lunch.

I'm on my fourth version of my list so far. Once you see it all written down, you realize how much more you can cut out from the precess.

[Brianna_Beauty413]

Thanks to everybody for the wonderful links and advice! I guess I won't be bringing my own burn barrel
Good advice getting rid of the MOOP before I even leave the house! Things like mac n' cheese and such can be put into zip lock baggies first I suppose.
Hope to see all of you on the playa!

love,
Bri<3

Just noticed... mac n cheese? The type where you must boil water? As in, do you have a good evaporation plan for that much greywater? I'm sure you already know you can't dump it out, experiment a bit and see how much excess water you create with that meal.

I have thought about that. But after cooking you can always continue boiling the water until it is almost all evaporated. Plus, I'm pretty sure we found a camper to take. So we will have a holding tank for access grey water.
thanks for the concern!

[Brianna_Beauty413]

as AntiM points out, you need to consider everything...including the pasta water.. Also, your trash, food waste and how you cook.. what to do with the resulting messes youll make before you even begin to plan your meals... and camp.

Think about this stuff before getting there.. Have a plan B.. (read eplaya, survival guide, etc.. and ask questions to learn about stuff you might not have thought about)

one could boil it off and then clean the resulting goopy mess of starch that is in the bottom of the pan with a spray bottle with a bit of soapy water in it.. wipe up with a paper towel ... burn paper towel.. sanitize pan with a bit of bleach water.. let it air dry

of course this will cost fuel... but using less water than one might use at home should, in my mind, be a given out there.. so hopefully you dont have 6 cups of water to dump out for a box of mac and cheeze and more like 3 or 4 (half of what you probably should use.. just keep stirring!)

in the kitchen i work in, although we have a very well working method of gray water disposal,.. we commonly use our old pasta water for filling up our chafing dishes.. which then boils off and saves another 5+ gallons of water from going in to the gray water tank.


of course that suggestion probably wont work for everyone... and surely might not work for some camps with many people.. for the individual camper, or a couple.. it should be adequate as its unlikely that people are boiling huge pots of water every day..

I have always been wary of evap ponds.. I have seen way to many of them filled up with water on sunday.... and leaking.. Maybe more useful for a shower mess than a kitchen mess...

And theres always the fact that, unless you plan to leave burning man directly to the airport, youre likely have just as much space for water containers on the way out as you did on the way in (and more.. because you drank a whole bunch) and you will likely have access to a place to empty those water containers that you filled with gray water in a proper legal location after the event..

then recycle or trash the containers...



(pasta needs to be kept refrigerated after it has been cooked.. if you pre-cook it.. make sure to keep it just as safe as you would raw meat)

Pre-cooking pastas seems like a good idea! Especially if you just use Velveeta cheese since it doesn't have to be refrigerated...cheap, easy meal.

How do you make sure raw meat does stay fresh by the way? That seems like a lot of ice to be used on keeping meat cool. But then again, ice turns into good drinking water when kept in water-tight bags!

[lemur]

(chafing dishes? What the hell do you DO in that camp???)

we eat like kings, clearly...

(joking aside... we feed well over 100 hard workin volunteers and try to do it without killing them)




you havn't lived until you have had a thanksgiving dinner with all the fixins on the playa..

in the past i have experienced it and it is quite wonderful!

17 deep fried turkeys? check!
60 pounds of real mashed potatoes? check!
5 gallon pot of made from scratch mac n cheese? CHECK!
turkey gravy!? check!
dinner rolls and stuffing? check!
apple cinnamon crisp desert thing? check!
(cranberry sauce, corn, tofurkey, vegan mashed potatoes, other stuff.. check,check,check,check,check...)

of course all of this is a gigantic expensive pain in the ass and we will probably never ever do it again..

but man, those were the days!!


Just because you have no plumbing and have to leave no trace doesn't mean that you cannot eat well out there..

One just needs to plan carefully and make sure there is a Plan B and well.. being able to improvise when you find out all of the bran muffins are moldy... or a whole bag of potatoes turned into what looks and smells like vomit... yeah that helps!

having a plan is job #1 whether youre feeding just yourself or you are serving 1600+ meals out of your playa kitchen in one week.

[theCryptofishist]

(chafing dishes? What the hell do you DO in that camp???)

Unknown, but it's rumored to be hard on the skin.

[phil]

We do the same for the DPW parade, but we also throw cigarettes.

Lighted, I hope.

[AntiM]

Raw meat... we never take it, I am far too paranoid about keeping it fresh. When we do take meat or chicken, it is precooked, then vac-packed and deep frozen. I had trouble keeping fools out of the meat locker as it was. I'm not big on steaks, but if you are, you'll find a way to make it work safely.

We use tuna pouches and canned chicken (a good premium brand) and maybe pre-cooked but high quality sausages for protein. Our campmate lives on tinned sardines, which I find pukalicious.

[Brianna_Beauty413]

Raw meat... we never take it, I am far too paranoid about keeping it fresh. When we do take meat or chicken, it is precooked, then vac-packed and deep frozen. I had trouble keeping fools out of the meat locker as it was. I'm not big on steaks, but if you are, you'll find a way to make it work safely.

We use tuna pouches and canned chicken (a good premium brand) and maybe pre-cooked but high quality sausages for protein. Our campmate lives on tinned sardines, which I find pukalicious.

Yeah I'm pretty sure the only meat we will be taking is probably beef jerky and canned chicken...

My husband on the other hand will be in heaven with how much tuna and oysters he'll have on hand. yuck lol

[illy dilly]

Raw meat... we never take it, I am far too paranoid about keeping it fresh. When we do take meat or chicken, it is precooked, then vac-packed and deep frozen. I had trouble keeping fools out of the meat locker as it was. I'm not big on steaks, but if you are, you'll find a way to make it work safely.

We use tuna pouches and canned chicken (a good premium brand) and maybe pre-cooked but high quality sausages for protein. Our campmate lives on tinned sardines, which I find pukalicious.

Yeah I'm pretty sure the only meat we will be taking is probably beef jerky and canned chicken...

My husband on the other hand will be in heaven with how much tuna and oysters he'll have on hand. yuck lol

I was going to suggest using a vacuum sealer, then washing off the out side of the sealed pouch to get rid of any meat juice/bacteria that might be lurking on the container.....
But then I remembered you're flying in.

I'd recommend good canned chili, with lots of meat. Maybe not the cheap Hormel stuff but a brand with better and/or more meat?
Another idea is pre-cooked brats that come in factory sealed bags. Also, hot dogs... if you consider hot dogs meat.

it is a lot easier to get rid of burnables if you put them in a burnable bagcontainer

Hell YES!!!
For that, we use one of our 12 pack or case beer boxes... well actually most of the beer boxes get burned.

[Fizzy]

I'm sure this has been covered, but there are a lot of topics and a lot to look over.

I will have a small tub for washing my hair and such. It will only be used by me and one other most likely. Is it acceptable to simply let that water evaporate, or does that also defy the rules of gray water disposal? Please let me know, if it's not okay I can always put a plastic bag over it, and it will most likely dry up anyway with how hot it's supposed to be. Thoughts?

[Savannah]

You may let the water evaporate. If there is more than very little, it will not evaporate in anything of depth (a kiddie pool, for example) but black plastic, spread out and weighted down, works. Here's one recipe:

http://www.burningman.com/environment/r ... water.html

You can also collect water, funnel it back into something, haul it out and dispose of properly.

WHERE TO DUMP RV & GREY WATER
http://survival.burningman.com/leave-no ... DAMJOU8hJE

[gaminwench]

Take an extra towel.
After 'showering', soak up the water in your tub with the towel.
Hang towel to air dry.

[Savannah]

Good one, Gaminwench. Grey-water towel!

And don't forget clothespins. Or clamping the towel to itself over a clothesline-like item; that would be more secure than clothespins . . .

[gaminwench]

ooooh! score!

A tip that Savannah (thrifty, awesome 'Heloise' of the eplaya) likes!