I'm a 43 year old Engineering student who has lived off the grid in the Stanislaus Forest, capturing energy and water for my family. I worked as a wildland firefighter doing fuels, helitack and Hotshot crews for the Forest and Park services for 12 years. I hitchhiked to Alaska to backpack on the slopes of Denali. I've also hitchhiked and chicken-bused around Guatemala and Belize to see the Mayan ruins, and driven through Baja twice. I've seen dolphins and rays and some large "unknowns" from a kayak in Humboldt Bay. I have three awesome kids.
Interests in Engineering
- INTEREST #1 Clean energy. Living off the grid makes one obsessed with energy and efficiency. I see wind.
- INTEREST #2 Clean water. The planet is getting hotter and dryer. It's making me thirsty just thinking about it.
- INTEREST #3 Resource conservation. It's not right for preceding generations to use up the planet for short term comforts and leave a trashed out wasteland for the children to muck around in.
Experience in Engineering
- EXPERIENCE #1 I helped to build a 30 foot bridge for vehicles with my father as a teenager. Also did an environmental impact report for a rock quarry that I worked at.
- EXPERIENCE #2 Collected data on weather, fuels and available resources in order to make strategic and tactical decisions regarding fire behavior and suppression goals, and avoid premature death. I constructed firebreaks and hose lay water delivery systems, which sometimes included check-dams and erosion controls..
- EXPERIENCE #3 Building energy and water systems for an off-grid cabin in the Stanislaus National Forest.
- EXPERIENCE #4 Designed and built a 500 gallon rain catchment system at Zane Middle School in Eureka, Ca.