Tag Archive for 'Jackpot'

The Fabulous Story of the Jackpot!

jackson published on August 15, 2009 in build, food, superforest journal, technology and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

picture-33
Gooooooood Morning SuperForest!

I realized yesterday that I’d never done a video explaining the Jackpot, what it is, and how it works.
So here we go!

The Jackpot is a super-cheap, DIY, hydroponic, indoor garden.

For the full story of the Jackpot, read the following:

Here’s the first post about the Jackpot: Jackson’s Journal (5/14/09) – Hydrodynamics Can Be Vexatious. Here I outline the basic design of the device, and the three main components: the air lift/drip system, the reservoir, and the air pump.

Next, I worked to get the air lift working. Warning: In this video I am pretty tired and keep repeating the word “so”: Jackson’s Journal (5/16/09) – Drinking Straw Water Air Lift Success!
The air lift is a simple device for lifting water. Is is a tube that you pump air into. Submerge the tube in a column of water and the air bubbles will lift the water a good height. That means for very little energy you can move something very heavy straight up, which perfect for drip irrigation. And drip irrigation is perfect for the home gardening enthusiast.

Here’s a quick video of the Jackpot’s bones in action: Jackpot’s Bones

Then the esteemed SuperForester Spoon came to visit me in NY, and his visit totally inspired me to get the prototype done as quickly as possible. So James Michael Spoonhour went out one night to watch a sports thing, and I stayed home to finish the Jackpot, which I did, at like 2:30 AM: The Jackpot: It’s Alive!

picture-42

The next day I did a recap of the previous nights build session, with some making-of photos:  Jackson’s Journal (5/25/09) – Aloha, Mr. Spoonhour! Aloha, Mr. Jackpot!

picture-51

SuperForester Spoon left and SuperForester Julius arrived a few days later. Later that week, Julius and I walked the Jackpot over to Eyebeam gallery in Chelsea to show it to Britta and Rebecca from Windowfarms. This was karmically appropriate for a number of reasons, including the fact that the Jackpot had been inspired by an exhibit I’d seen at Eyebeam in 2007 called drinkpee, which Britta and Rebecca had created. Here’s Julius’ wonderful post: Working On Window Farms – The Movie

Helping Out The Window Farmers @Eyebeam from SuperForest on Vimeo.

Man, wasn’t that fun, Julius and James Michael? I had so much fun. Creative collaborating is the best.

Then things got really sexy when I gave a demo at Eyebeam to the Windowfarmers group! Britta and Rebecca then came out with their own amazing version of the Jackpot! Once again the idea improves and can be built upon.

picture-65

It all began with a fever dream and it ended in a massive idea-sharing group win.

Man, I love the internet and I’m so grateful for this existence.
Thank you to Spoon, Julius, Rebecca, and Britta for all your help and support.

All my best to each and everyone.

-Jackson

Jackson’s Journal (8/4/09) – Ideas A’Plenty

jackson published on August 4, 2009 in superforest journal. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

picture-3

Gooooood Morning SuperForest!

It is early morning here in NYC. I can imagine everyone who reads this blog at the various stages of their days all over the planet. Some of us are waking up, some haven’t yet gone to bed.

Late nights like this get me to thinking. And I haven’t posted much in a while, so forgive me if I ramble.

Sometimes it is easy for me to take this blog for granted. I’m so much in the thick of it, I lose perspective sometimes on just how special what we have here actually is. For me, SuperForest is like this little oasis of goodness and stability in a wild and jungly terrain. I know that I can come on this blog and someone will have written a post about something I’ll find interesting, or uplifting, or that makes me smile.

SuperForest is a positivity blog. And the world needs positivity. I don’t know anywhere else that radiates so much positivity. If you read SuperForest, you begin to understand that all is well. That all will be well. There are amazing people of all ages all over the planet, all working together to keep our species and our planet alive. To try to tell you about all of them would be impossible. But they are there, working together, forming partnerships, and the newest and most exciting topic of conversation is: How are we all going to save the world?

We try to live as though we were already doing it. We try to live sustainably, and lessen our impact on the Earth. Most importantly we try to be aware of our impact on each other, how our words and actions have power, escpecially the power to inspire and make glad. We live as though the whole world was interconnected in a global web of positivity and idea-sharing. We live as though all wars were over, all fighting ceased.

If it is possible for us to live in this reality, one where we cleverly utilize every available human technology to provide and care for the greatest number of human beings, where we share ideas freely for the good of ideas themselves, and where racism and hatred and thoughts of revenge are a dimming concept, then it is possible for everyone to share that reality with us. One by one we try to uplift and inspire.

SuperForest recently passed its quarter million views mark, and we let it slide by with nary a whimper. I’ve been working so hard on getting Eco-Tech School to shimmer into reality, that I’ve missed out on some great SuperForesting…

Or have I?

In my mind all of the work I have been doing lately is part of the same project. Eco-Tech School’s mission is to spread the joy of nature, technology and human interaction with those that need it. SuperForest the blog is meant to do the same exact thing. If we work together and flip scarcity into abundance, we all succeed. I feel like my work is to tell everyone that a grand life is possible for all humans. Whatever form that takes is the adventure.

SuperForester Carla, (who has been doing a darn fine job of running the blog as of late) said something the other day that I thought quite poetic. She said (I paraphrase) that SuperForest is the document of the journey. I love that. That works perfectly.

I myself am trying to live like Jackson SuperForest. I try to live a life that is in alignment with what I believe. And it can be challenging and difficult, but in the end it is for me the most fun I could possibly have.

I believe in water recycling, so I spent a week half-assedly showering while standing in a bucket and then using the leftover shower water to flush my toilet. It was hilariousness in its utmost. It totally worked, but shower water is gross looking, so your bowl never looks totally clean.
Excercises like this make me think: “Hrrmmm. I bet I could design a system that collected and filtered used shower water and I could make it all white and clean and gleamy and easy to use.”

I find so much inspiration in how difficult it is trying to live a normal life and still lessen my impact on the planet. This is such a thrilling time to be alive and experimenting with all the new technology. I write these words on my cool, Minority Report-like tablet screen computer. I just downloaded Google SketchUp and I can’t wait to get to know it.

It is amazing, free software like google SketchUp that will make it much easier for all of us to experiment with eco-tech living, to plot out ones dreams and desires in silicon, and then use the net to spread the ideas around to see if they grow.

I was recently thrilled to see that Britta and Rebecca of Windowfarms have put up a swank new site with 2 downloadable pdfs for windowfarms you can build on your own. The easier of the two projects is Britta and Rebecca’s own version of the Jackpot! They use a one gallon jug for the main bucket, which makes for a lighter and easier to use system. This is exactly what I hoped would happen. I had an idea. I put it online. Rebecca and Britta saw it and refined it. I can now refine their refinements. Everybody wins.

picture-2

Isn’t this rad?! Idea win!

Pay a visit to windowfarms.org
They are radical people.

We SuperForesters have a ton of projects heading down the pipeline. Henners the Sea Lion! Upcoming interviews! New comics!

I’m sorry if my SuperForesting has lessened of late. It is all in preparation for Eco-Tech School which will be so much fun and really entertaining. And soon enough Bee and I will be back in Brooklyn at P.S. 58 for the further adventures with the 4fives. Yessir, 4fives Season 2 is bound to be a doozy.

As things progress and various projects reach completion and are brought to light, I shall try to post more. There is so much good stuff going on. Everywhere I look these days I see growth and interest and a renewed sense of mission to change the world and remake it into something brighter and better. Something built to last longer.

A better, more exciting world is poking its nose out of the ground like a little shoot.

Here we will share the stories of the climb.

I am so grateful to this blog, all the members of Team SuperForest for all of their hard work, all of my friends and family, and everyone reading this around the world.

I feel like I’ve been away too long. It’s time to get to posting again.

Love to All,

Jackson

Jackson’s Journal (6/9/09) – Working on Window Farms!

jackson published on June 9, 2009 in food, superforest journal, technology and zeitgeist. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

photo32

Good Morning SuperForest!

Today was a very exciting day!
Last month, I posted about meeting Rebecca and Britta, the heads of the Window Farm project. Today, Julius and I walked the Jackpot through the pouring rain over to Eyebeam gallery, where Miss Rebecca and Miss Britta are setting up an exhibition of their hydroponic DIY food growing machines.

3611844202_30015c71e4_oWe made our own pants!

Once we got there, Julius and I got to show off the Jackpot, and then we were lucky enough to be able to help out by dipping old water bottles in paint to use as plant containers. The paint will protect the roots of the plants from sunlight, as sunlight makes plant roots turn into leaves.

3611844516_9fa12a9515_oJulius hard at work.

Now we’re back home for a brief rest before heading back over to Eyebeam for a meeting of the Window Farm pioneers group. The pioneers group are a gang of folks who are all independently working on their own Window Farm designs. By crowd-sourcing the prototype process and sharing our results, we will all be able to collectively create the cheapest, most efficient food system much quicker than if we all worked alone. Isn’t that wonderful!

photo10

Imagine all of humanity collectively working on problem solving and idea-sharing and you have a basic idea if what SuperForest is aiming to achieve. Whether SuperForest aggregates other positivity/idea-sharing blogs, or is itself incorporated into a larger site, (or a combination of the two…) EVERYBODY WINS!

The end result of a group of people prototyping DIY food systems is a cheap, DIY food growing system for anyone who wants one. Booyah.

Now imagine if everything were handled this way? Imagine if every problem humanity faces were attacked by a collaborative group of humans.

In my opinion, the problems we face don’t stand a chance.

Now this is just a humble food-growing machine…

Imagine a hundred million humans all working on defusing racism, negativity, and intolerance.

A hundred million humans working out ways to best use the Earth’s resources. To provide and care for all humans.

A hundred million humans decoding the genome and finding new therapies and vaccines for every disease and affliction imaginable.

Imagine if everything we did, made, and knew, were re-examined and updated by everyone at once.

That is the present we are working to create. And it is happening.

All around us, the seedlings and shoots of the new millennium are poking their heads above ground, and soon all of humanity will be able to join hands at the table of abundance and give thanks for the generosity of the natural world and the boundless nature of human creativity.

The TV news is wrong. The entire news media is wrong. If you’re only looking at the back end of the horse, you’ll miss seeing where it’s galloping.

Everything is going to be just fine.

Let’s take a nice deep breath, roll up our sleeves, and get to work. The present needs us.

Love to all,

-Jackson

p.s. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Jackpot Update: In Which We Meet Britta and Rebecca from WindowFarms.org, and Seedlings Get Sewn

jackson published on June 1, 2009 in build, celebrity, food, technology and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

picture-9(Britta and Rebecca and their most excellent Window Farm prototype)

Hello Sexies!

Last month I posted about the Jackpot, which is a DIY home hydroponics food machine, and I wanted to update you as to the status of the project.

Just before I left for Texas last week, two fun things happened:

I met with Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray from Submersible Design and got to chat with them about their own rad window farm project. (Britta and Rebecca also came out with DrinkPee, a clever home kit that let you turn your pee into plant food, via the miracle of chemistry. Swoon!) Check it, check it out:

These talented ladies have an exhibit up of their window farm design at Eyebeam here in NYC, for those who wish to see in person.

picture-10

We met up at Eyebeam, and Miss Rebecca was kind enough to show me their design, which uses a high-powered water pump to move the water from a bottom tank to reservoir up top, where it trickles down through a cascade of growing chambers. Super smart.

I love how their design can fit in any window, and is easy to make and set up, as it uses recycled 1.5 liter bottles. I mentioned to them that my design uses an airlift and only requires a low energy air pump to lift the water. So, a hybrid system, where one uses a window hanging cascade instead of one central pillar AND an airlift instead of a water pump, would be a big winner.

The problem with a water pump is that one: it has to be really powerful to lift the water from bottom to top. And two: because it’s so powerful, it does its job rather quickly, and thus sits idly unused for the majority of its life.

And the problem with my central pillar idea, while being visually appealing, is that you have to rotate it every week, so that one side doesn’t get more sun than the other.

So by pooling our ideas and sharing freely, we’ve already begun a refinement process that helps not only the three of us, but anyone who later stumbles upon (ahem) these blog posts.

The internet has allowed for huge multiple wins. Thank you internet.

And secondly: Although I’ve already grown past the first design for the Jackpot, I still want to try it out, because it’s cute and makes my heart glad. So I’ve sewn a bunch of seedlings to later transfer to the Jackpot. Here are a few of them:

photo5

Melon in the foreground, and assorted yumyums behind
(including a lovely little sculpture by my friend CEO, which makes an excellent jalapeno drying rack. <3)

photo2A milk carton, split lengthwise, makes two very nice growing beds.
Here we can see marigolds, tomatoes, salad greens and nasturtiums poking their wee little heads out.

photo3Mean Mr. Cilantro and his pals Jackson and the Kitra the rosemary sprigs. You’ll notice that J & K are alive and well.
From garnish to growing plant! It makes the heart smile.

photoHere we behold Jeremiah Salad Greens and Edward Cullen the vampire-basil.
Both are looking well and spry.
The salad greens are a mesclun mix and will go in the top chamber of the Jackpot.

Britta and Rebecca have been kind enough to invite me to join their Window Farm project and I’m thrilled to take part!

Check out the Window Farms site.
And definitely check out Submersible Design.

Thank you Britta and Rebecca! Thank you lovely growing plants. And thank you to all the makers and dreamers and doers out there.

Love to All,

-Jackson

Jackson’s Journal (5/25/09) – Aloha, Mr. Spoonhour! Aloha, Mr. Jackpot!

jackson published on May 25, 2009 in build, food, superforest journal and technology. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

photo31

The Jackpot demands blood!

Goooooooooood Morning SuperForest!

Loveable, huggable Jackson here, smiling, soaking in New York’s Springtime sunshine like a saguaro cactus, storing it for the Wintertimes.

Last night I finished the Jackpot prototype and I’m happy to report that it works beautifully. Here are some pics I took during the making process:

photo62

Here I am working on the airlift. The airlift is just a length of pvc pipe with a length of vinyl tubing ziptied inside of it. I’m drilling holes up and down the length of it in this photo to make the holes for the zipties. (I’m going to write this all up as a proper post with big pictures and everything. Don’t you fret.)

photo52

Here is the airlift, (sans center air/water pipe) standing in its reservoir bucket. You can see  that I added some right-angle brackets to help it stand upright. For future Jackpots I think it would be better to just have a collar on the bottom of the reservoir that the airlift could slide into, because then it would be easier to take apart and service.

photo43

Here is like the fourth time I cut myself, and I thought it made for a cool photo. I like that my blood has pooled into a little dotless question mark. I cut my hands all the time when I’m making stuff, but this time I also cut my foot by walking into the point of my drill.

OMG! My new drill! Check it out:

JackkissDeWalt
It even has a cord! I had to ask special for it… Man, I’m loving these gifs. They make pictures look all alivey!

Here’s James Michael Spoonhour making sure that the duct tape stays securely and firmly affixed to the floor. You’ll notice he’s using the classic head first method. Good thinking, Spoon! SuperForester Baloo is keeping a sharp eye on him to ensure that he keeps the tape on the floor safely and has a good time doing it.

photo9

And finally, here’s the prototype of the Jackpot sitting in my bathtub. I can’t believe it actually exists… It was just a thought, and now here it is.

photo22

Now that I’ve seen it run with my own eyes and have seen what works and what doesn’t I’m going to plan a much more comprehensive post on the simplicity and ease of the Jackpot. I haven’t yet tallied my costs for the whole unit, but just to approximate, I’d say that it cost less than $50.00, though I was helped keep the costs down by finding most of the materials on the bountiful streets of New York city.

Seriously, New York is like a giant art supply store where everything is free.

James Michael Spoonhour ran out to catch the last few minutes of the Magic game last night, and when he returned, I had the Jackpot up and running and was standing in the shower with it, doing some fine tuning. I’m ever so pleased that SuperForester Spoon could be on-hand to witness such a cool event.

Spoon is flying home to Orlando as we speak. It has been a great week hanging with you, dearest Spoonio! I had a blast and I hope you enjoyed New York as much as I enjoyed seeing it afresh through your eyes. Thank you for the visit.

Much love to each and everyone reading this, and to those that haven’t read this yet.

Do you have something itching in your mind that you’d like to make, but are unsure how to make it a reality? Email us and let’s work on it together.

Yours,

Jackson

The Jackpot: It’s Alive!

jackson published on May 25, 2009 in build, food, technology and zeitgeist. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Yesterday and today I really bore down and tried to finish the Jackpot prototype. I learned so much about my own design. I cannot stress how fun and valuable prototyping can be.

So, now it’s 2:30-ish on Monday morning and here’s a picture of the Jackpot just before its first successful trial run, standing looking silly in my bathtub…

photo19

Me sooooooooo tired!
To sleeping we will go!

-Jackson

The Jackpot’s Bones

jackson published on May 24, 2009 in build, food, technology and zeitgeist. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

The Jackpot’s Bones from SuperForest on Vimeo.

It totally works. I’m totally stoked.
More to come!!!

Missed the first Jackpot post?
Missed the second one too?

Jackson’s Journal (5/16/09) – Drinking Straw Water Air Lift Success!

jackson published on May 16, 2009 in build, technology and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

picture-21(image via flickr user Bench artwork)

Hip Hop hooray, SuperForest!

Over the past few days I’ve learned a lot about what water will and won’t do when you pump air through it. In trying to get the Jackpot up and running, I’ve been experimenting with sending a stream of bubbles up through a variety of diameter and length pvc pipes.

But nothing was working. The water would bubble around inside the pipes, but it wouldn’t flow to the top. There were a variety of factors that I was trouble-shooting: pipe-diameter, was the upflow pipe to wide, not wide enough? Too many bubbles? Too few bubbles? Too much air? Not enough?

I was trying everything and nothing was working.

Last night at around midnight, I took Baloo for a walk and had a flash of inspiration. There in the street lay a nice wide-mouthed drinking straw. I quickly gathered a handful of straws from the street, shuffled back up to my apartment and made an extremely simple version of the air lift.

I simply jammed one straw inside another until I had a decent length of “pipe” then I snipped a wee hole in the side of the bottom straw to allow air in, then hot-glued an air adapter in place. The whole set up took less than ten minutes. And you know what?…

It totally works!

Drinking Straw Water Air Lift from SuperForest on Vimeo.

Raising a column of water from a standing position to 31 and a half inches higher using only an air pump! Rad! So the Multiple Air Lift design will totally work, it’s just not even necessary! With a pipe thin enough in diameter and a better thought out air coupling, I’m confident that the water can be raised at least 40 inches, which is more than enough for our purposes. This makes everything much simpler.

Drinking straws! Is there anything they cannot do?

Learning is fun!

Jackson’s Journal (5/14/09) – Hydrodynamics Can Be Vexatious

jackson published on May 14, 2009 in build, food, superforest journal, technology and zeitgeist. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

picture-141

Gooooooood Morning SuperForest!

I’ve been home a great deal lately, with moving my office here, and getting sick (again!) I’ve had plenty of time to really get to know my apartment and to develop a game plan for its growth as an organism.

That means I’ve been doing a lot of planting and thinking about plants. Last year, I bought a Prepara power plant, which is basically a little desktop hydroponic garden. Now I’ve got five healthy cherry tomato plants growing in it. I’ve also got an aloe, a comfrey plant that SuperForester Severine gave me that refuses to die, a flower box with an wild assortment of green beasties growing in it. And I’ve been rescuing plants off of the street whenever I can, so I’ve got a few things that I haven’t identified.

But it isn’t enough…

I won’t be happy until I’ve got basil up to my eyeballs. Enough basil to make pesto for an army. And green onions, chives, rosemary, jalapenos, lettuces. I want it all, ladies and gentleman, and I want it cheap and easy… I want a living space that truly is a living space. I want to live in a machine that gobbles up carbon, filters the air, and make food for me to eat. Later on we can working on making the whole thing run on poo. Ha!

How to achieve this indoor, urban Eden is something I’ve been giving considerable thought to. Many waking (and dreaming) hours are spent daydreaming about DIY hydroponic gardens, water pumps, filter systems and creative uses for the two liter bottle.

I found my way into the vertical garden/hydroponics section of youtube, and there I feasted like a wild wildebeast.
I gorged on gallons per minute tables, pvc piping comparisons, and silicone sealant. I learned about pump volume ratios and outflow units and bleeder valves and plastic tubing.

And in the end I thought: I could design a system for growing food and flowers just like these but much, much simpler.

And so I went to the drawing board and tried out some ideas…

And here we are now.

My idea, which I happily share with you all, is to use a six-gallon bucket, a few lengths of pvc, an air pump, a short section of tubing, some zip ties, and one-gallon milk containers to create a personal, scalable, hydroponic (soil-free) drip-irrigation food machine.

I call it: The Jackpot.

picture-131

The Problem: Moving water upwards is both energy intensive and usually quite noisy. Water pumps are loud and expensive.

How then do we move a column of water from a standing position to a position approximately three feet higher, using only the pvc, a cheap and quiet air pump, some sealant, an a tin can?

I believe I’ve found an answer: An air lift. Or rather, a series of air lifts, working in parallel.

picture-91

An air lift is a wonderful and simple device. It’s just a length of pipe, open at both ends. You feed an air line into the bottom of the pipe and submerge it under water. The air bubbles within the pipe form an upward current and water is carried up to the top of the pipe. Simple, cheap, effective. Here’s a viddy to help explain.

The problem with a single air lift is they can only lift water a short height. Conceivably, combining multiple air lifts within a larger pipe would allow one to lift any amount of water to any height required, provided you had sufficient air flow. This idea probably originated in ancient Persia, I’m not making any claims to it.

So, a hanging garden set up, where water is pumped to the top and there trickles down through multiple growing containers before eventually feeding back into the main reservoir, all built around a central multiple air lift is the problem that’s been bugging me for the past few weeks.

picture-121

Please forgive all this technical jargon, my basic point is this: For very little money, we all should have fresh, growing foods within arms reach all year long. And this system, properly de-kinked, should help us achieve that.

The Jackpot idea, like all things on SF is free. Yours. Share-ware. Take it, refine, package it, sell it. That’s the whole point of the internet. We can all copy each other so easily, it’s really a wonderful time for both openness and communication.

I’m home, nursing my zillionth cold, and working out the kinks on the Jackpot. I’ll get this thing built and running and then post a how-to so y’alls can build your very own! Cha-chang! Then we can all work to improve and refine the design! Double win!
And to the 4fives: When next I come in I want you all to know the definitions of “hydrodynamics” and “vexatious.”

Love to All,

Jackson

P.S. I awoke from a fever dream and drew this schematic! Cool, no?

photo6

8.21 gigawatts!