today i was part of a tour of the 5th regiment armory in baltimore. carl, the man who gave us the tour of the basements and hidden corridors (they felt like old stables, they were built in 1901), has an office just out of this frame. on the job carl wears safety goggles and a jumpsuit, he has a shiny gold wedding band & long gray nose hairs, and he's the guy who knows how to shut the valve for the fire sprinkler system and how to turn on the emergency generator (which, by the way, can keep the 6 meager governmental offices in this building running for 2 weeks). the door to carl's office is coming off its hinges, there's an old list of things to do posted on the bulletin board next to a sign that says "i'm not a dirty old man, i'm a sexy senior citizen." everything is covered in one or more of a handful of kinds of sediment: rust, paint, dead mouse, lichen (!), fiberglass insulation.... essentially, it's a dirty place. wish i photographed carl, but my battery died.

It doesn't get much easier than thins folks. I went and bought a 4 dollar valve housing. This is the same thing you would buy if you wanted to put a valve for your in ground sprinkler system. It is attached to an extra garbage can that was laying around the house. A little dremmel work and I had the bottom cut out. The cover is attached to the garbage can by four zip ties. While I was drilling holes for the zip tiles I went ahead and put extra drainage holes in the sides. I really don' think those do anything and will be leaving them off next time. Not shown, is that I wrapped the whole thing in landscaping fabric to keep the soil from coming in.