The project, in all, was a huge success.  We received great responses from everyone; burners, friends and family, strangers, the press and Burning Man, Thank you all!
Let me briefly recap our adventure for you:

Saturday, August 21st marked the departure of Mr. Majestic (our old school bus) transporting all of Mant Farm (minus the scaffolding of course) and all of the sober Free society theme camp infrastructure and 5 of the crew, which I was not one of.  I left with 3 others in the “chase vehicle” the following morning.  Our rendezvous was planned for Alturas, CA.  Mr. Majestic arrived before us with only 2 flat tires and no casualties, a welcome surprise, to say the least.  After spending the better part of the next day we were off on our final leg to the playa via Gerlach.

Arrived on playa and to our camp location without further holdups in the late evening, just before dusk, Monday.  With 100′ x 100′ of camp to set up, we quickly got to work.  When we awoke the next day we had a complete camp built and ready to support our long pre-burn work week – home base – the sober Free society.

Tuesday – our first Mant Farm work day.  After waiting for the scaffolding truck (full semi trailer – 35,000+ lbs) to arrive, DPW began swiftly unloading for us.  Hottest week on record, so I heard, 105 – 111 degrees F, made for tough going on the scaffolding erection.  Damn dangerous stuff, that scaffolding, no tie-offs, 10 feet up, 20 feet up, 30 feet up – no hand rail until you put it there.  No injuries, thank the maker – good playa Karma.  Finished the scaffolding on Friday if I remember correctly, but by then, days and time had fallen out of my peripheral along with the cell phone and showers…  The next couple of days consisted of hanging the facades and DPW anchoring the structure with steal cable.  All went more smoothly than we had anticipated, even in 60 mph winds.  When I finally stepped back and looked at this thing for the first time (nearly visually complete), it kinda blew me away.  Actually it totally blew me away.  It looked exactly like it was supposed to.  It looked fake.  We were elated.  (pic below)

Finished up the remaining components – electrical, lighting, signage, safety checks, generator, etc.  Mant Farm opened to the playa early Sunday night, ahead of schedule – before the event officially opened!  Congrats everyone for working so hard to make this happen successfully, completely, safely and ahead of schedule!  Thank you!

Filed under: Updates by Lazlo
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