So you heard we had weather at Burning Man?

Yep. Seventy-nine miles per hour winds - hurricane force winds. And dust, and rain!

But here's the thing - we never expected this Rusty Iris project to be easy - none of it. Not the welding, not the grinding, not the events, not the fundraising, not the cross-country (and back) drive in a school bus converted to a sculpture. We expected it to be a challenge. We like being challenged.

One of the ten principles of Burning Man is Radical Self-reliance: "Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on their inner resources." By the time we got to Burning Man, we knew we could survive -- and in fact thrive -- in challenging circumstances.

Another of the ten principals is Communal Effort: "Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction." The Rusty Iris project is all about communal effort and, it turns out, so is keeping a campsite from blowing away in hurricane force winds. We worked together.

So we got challenged by weather at Burning Man. The wind tried to blow down our camp, but due to the expert camp-building by Kirk, Wendy, and Ayden, our camp began strong. Due to the amazing teamwork of the entire crew -- who hung onto poles with all our body weight, strapped everything to everything (including to vehicle axels), righted the turned-over porto-potty, gathered all the blowing away stuff (including DJ's hat - thanks Wendy), and blew dust out of the now impossibly dirty kitchen -- our camp survived. Afterward there were hugs, toasts, and dances in the dust. We know how to turn communal effort into communal gratitude.

Then it rained. It was muddy for a while. The roads were washboards. So we hung together in the kitchen until it dried out, then threw ourselves at the City and had a blast! Rusty was a champ. Wind - ha! Rain - so? Rough roads - she'd already crossed the whole freakin' country. She was nonplussed.

Hopefully these pictures give you a taste (a dusty taste) of what it's like to brave a hurricane-force dust storm at Burning Man, and how to come out the other side as even better friends than you were before.