quicklink | feasibility report, oak tables and mailing list

looks fantastic right? - that's the kind of size the ark will be - the table and chairs next too it are going to be a gift from livingARK.  we are super pleased and chuffed by this offer as it gives me and bella somewhere to sit and play, talk and eat and just enjoy each others company.  i'm actually thinking of taking up lessons for an instrument (guitar or something maybe) - yes yes, i know it sounds uber hippy but i do need the polar opposite of my super fast existance balanced somehow! :)

it's been a bit quite on the ark front over the last four weeks.

a waiting game, sitting waiting for someone to tell us if we have the signoff for the ark project or not.  behind the scenes livingARKs are gearing up for the go and they are scrabbling around making the process as sustainable as possible for it to happen. that sort of planning i find out costs additional admin (seems most things in the world have costs that don't get factored in i guess) so we are trying to resolve those small hiccups with offsetting of products, services and ramping up our output and services here in the fibrecamp studios - slowly things seem to be aiming in the right direction.  with a few clients under our belts for pcmprojects with me working as a volenteer in the space it's time i sorta had a job position again.  that's looking like it might be a possibility after getting the studio to this position.

i'm not actually sure how i would have coped if the ark was built now adapting to the proposition of a partner in fibrecamp and being true to the ark so i'm starting to the think the timing of things is actually better.  i have two crucial stages right now and that's a regular income and transport.  the transport more than anything in at least i can be visiting conkers twice a week and at the same time picking up my daughter and getting her familiar with the site.  she's been before but we need to be going very regular.  i'm still super excited about what this project can bring and i'm hoping that unofficial cradlepoint group will pull a lot of my thoughts together about people on the move, on the grid and in the clouds but actually disconnected from other things.  i'm hoping cradlepoint see it and get behind it.

gerry from conkers (the ranger - go follow him on twitter he's awesome) put together a fantastic detailed feasibility study for the area/land/space where we want to locate the ark - i still have to re-read it but give it a blast it's brilliant.  i do hope very much that i'll be able to work with gerry on his bushcraft skills work that he does at conkers - that guy has so much passion, he's the next web tv celebrity when we up the quality and output.  very keen to get started and tell gerry's story.

Click here to download:

feasibility-report-livingark.pdf (1.41 MB)

another thing i quickly wanted to talk to you about was these oak table sets i've included in this post.  they are normally a tablet set that goes along with every ark that is sold but at the moment as they are building a variety of prototypes they really need the space and they have about thirty sets of tables to sell.  we have managed to get an agreement sorted with livingarks where 15% of every sale of a oak set will go towards the arks admin fund i was discussing at the top of this email.  i'll have more details about this soon but if your interested they normally retail at £1500 (pure oak remember) but we can get a much better price than that on them.

Picnic Oak Set 1.7m price: 540.00;  RRP (recommended retail price: 999.00+)
Picnic Oak Set 1.5m price: 490.00;  RRP (recommended retail price: 999.00+)
Delivery & Assembly price: 150.00

Crafted with passion and the utmost respect for nature, this truly individual furniture is made using seasonal oak - rustic, natural and gloriously unadorned, it looks almost as much a part of the landscape as when still a tree. Custom-made to order exclusively at livingARKs LTD.

drop me a line if interested - remember 15% of your purchase will go towards helping our admin costs for the ark project.

lace market house is big, it's spread over a few numbers (54/56) and has a lot of rooms. it also has a lot of usable roof space for energy production in the shape of pv panels.

given that i have limited knowledge of all things solar (but i'm keen to learn) it appears that the section alone that i took a photo off will be able to possibly product 6kw (a normal sized home uses 3.5kw i'm told)

i'm learning all sorts of things about chp boilers, lead-in tariffs and about why storing the power in batteries might not be the done thing in this project.

finding out what grants are left, pitching for these things or using crowd funding to raise the money for a project like this give me all the constant skills i need to be able to adjust better to the ark life (when it happens) - just being able to say that the webtv studio computers that run 24/7 are powered by the sun is neat.

it's not like a normal studio in that you have everything ready to go, in fact it's organic. it's organic because it was grown from a seed of an idea to provide a space without getting any kind of funding to start it.

just love and passion and some existing hardware and that was well over seven months ago now. pressure is on to bring in regular clients and grants are in to help with the running and the expansion of the mobile/product side of the space right now. i do love having a space at lace market house.

we had a bunch of chaps in for a meeting the other day to advise about solar (pv) panels and how much power could be created - could we be one of a very few solar power webtv streaming studios?

that's the hope. i love learning about something new. looking to get them all together again in the next few weeks to see what the costs are.

good morning.  fantastic morning for it! :)

so solar, it's been floating around my head for a time ever since we started thinking about the ark project.  last week i managed to sit in a session which detailed a local guy that had been installing PV equipment on a variety of buildings across the country.

i had recently had a conversation with nik about the south facing large roof spacing on lace market house and the other properties that are in the portfolio in terms of a green roof and solar power production.  how awesome would it be to have one of the first web tv streaming studios that runs on solar power? - after all the mac mini that is on 24/7 only runs at 14w at full tilt i believe.  the most eco computer desktop footprint commercial available on scale/mass - i'm sure you can get a linux box that's probably a lot less than that but at 14w that's nothing.

imagine if we got the rest of the studio running on solar.  so, meeting at 12 today about what is required and needed for something like that to happen.  interested in grants and costings for this stuff - might make a good kickstarter project as well.

will update you more when i know it! :)

Click here to download:

Celebrate a brand new LivingARK with us!.pdf (406 KB)

i'll not be around to see it because i'll still be in boston but all being well laura will be heading out to record some video of the ceremony and opening.  i just want to see the new glass front on it.  looks amazing.