Ok, let's get back into this.

The last couple months have been kind of crazy, at least in terms of physical relocation. This partly explains the lack of updates here, the rest being a combination of internet inaccessibility and traditional procrastination.

After leaving Malaga (what an interesting day that was), I stayed a few weeks with a friend in Madrid before heading south again to a farm in the Sierra Nevada where there was no electricity, running water, tools, workspace or shelter, but potentially at least sun.
The sun lasted a week before being replaced by the worst snow and rain in Andalusian history. Roads subsided, buildings collapsed, people died. I went back to Madrid to wait it out. That ended up taking a month.
I don't know if you've noticed, but in terms of precipitation, the whole world's gone freaking nuts.

While there I tried to get a light pipe going, as a means of transporting the energy collected by the device. It worked, but not well enough, so I started looking instead at heat pipes. More on this later.

Returned to Sierra Nevada, found out about a skill sharing camp in Germany so popped up there for three weeks, returned to Sierra Nevada, discovered that the complete lack of resources there was just not going to be ok, returned to Germany which is where I am now.

The Traumschule is an ex military barracks, currently stocked with materials, workspace and tools, and is a little bit of heaven when you're trying to actually get something done. If you've seen the episode of Red Dwarf where Lister is infected with the Luck virus, and rather than look for things simply takes two steps and literally trips over precisely what he wanted; that's exactly what it's like here. There's a whole room full of nuts bolts and screws, and five rooms of bike parts.
Plus the crew are real nice, and even the weather isn't bad and getting better.

Makergasm.

Two things I've been incessantly repeating for the last eight months to the point that they literally have no meaning any more:
I'm nearly finished.
I'm not leaving here until this thing is done.

However, I am, now, nearly finished, and I'm not leaving here until this thing is done.