I thought it might make sense to type up my thoughts on the SKIP 2022 event so that we could remember the details for 2023.
Attendees: Around 12. Two folks brought partners thinking they could both share the same ticket (they couldn't). One person stayed over from the
PTJ and paid for a ticket on the spot. We had 1.75 instructors (me full time, Opalyn 1/2 time and Penny 1/4 time) so Paul arranged a
boot (Stephen) to bring us up over 2 full time equivalents (Yay!)
Ratio: With 12 people we tended to have 8-10 participating at any given time. That's similar to last year. Especially later in the event the numbers seemed to drop as people got tired, hot or had unfinished projects to complete. I think we rarely had more than 5 people in one of the two tracks. Hugels along with getting 3 scoops with the excavator was the exception. So we generally hit our intended participant:instructor ratio of 4:1.
Schedule: We used the schedule listed in the
Event thread. On week two there were some jigglings made in track 2 due to a lack of veggies to can. Next time it would
be nice to:
- Have
gardening in the morning, at least the first half day. Hauling
wood is harder work, using the excavator isn't too hard in the heat
- Spread out week 1 track 1 a tiny bit. Perhaps moving junkpole to week two would balance things.
- Woodland care went well but very few people wanted to do all the BBs. If 4 people wanted to do them, it would have taken all the time allotted
-
Kindling crackers were probably a 1.5 day job but the last 1/2 day was kinda for finishing up any
project
- Having a two day butterfly period was great to recover and catch up on projects
- Evening presentations and movies were a bit forced. Some folks would watch or participate but a max of half the group. It seemed that people just wanted some time to hang out and do whatever they wanted.
- Need to have a Welcome Dinner and Orientation the night before. Then we can cover all Paul's logistics, get people oriented and ready to hit the ground running Monday morning
- If we double the size of the event, I think we could just have 4 tracks and duplicate the activities. So the current Track 1 week 1 would be running at the same time as Track 1 week 2. Then the second week they'd flip places. We might be able to add some tracks for things like Natural Medicine, Foraging, Community and Greywater. Electrical and plumbing might be possible but would probably be pretty contrived...
Preparation: Opalyn, Penny and I made a list of things we needed sorted out prior to the event. They were undertaken around the first day of the event. Knocking some of them out sooner would have been easier on the boots. Since we never know how many people want to do junkpole,
berm scaffolds, hugels, etc, it's hard to prepare the right amount of stuff. But having those things ready just enables that work to be done later or at another event so it's probably worth doing in advance anyway. For instance, if 6 berm scaffold uprights were placed now, we'd always be ready for some horizontals. Or if 6 extra rock jacks were built, we could use them for junk pole and then build more rock jacks during the event. The schedule wouldn't HAVE to do rock jacks to enable junkpole. We'd just finish the event with more rockjacks for the following year.
Boot help: Having Steven available to do some prep during the event was a big help. It was great to have someone to just delegate or dump tasks on. "Hey Stephen, could you round up a bunch of rocks for dry stack walls?" "You bet" :) During tree cutting it was also extremely helpful to have a second person on the hillside. With two instructors and two timber tools, we could keep up with the cutters and keep an eye on things.
Part time instructors: That system worked great! About half the attendees said they'd come back next year, likely the majority in an instruction capacity.
Participant survey: Need to make it totally clear if they're bringing pets, kids or a big trailer. Need to mention that soy, smoking, pot, vaping and inorganic food isn't allowed up front.
Instructor survey: Ask which badges they can half-ass it through. If they can do most of one, hopefully someone else (or the lead instructor) can cover the gaps. Might want to consider if 1 week stints fit our schedule/flexibility needs.
Heat: Bob and the other shade canopies were great! Replacing the white pop up tents with more shade cloths would be even better (lots of legs to work around and not
enough headroom). Slushies were nice but seemed a pain in the ass for the boots. Frozen icy pops or popcicles seem like they might be easier. Less stevia and more sugar please. The kiddie pool was great but since it was in the sun it wasn't as popular. Yes it was under a
canopy but the spot of shade it produced moved around and never lined up with the pool. Swimming from 5:10-5:30 was very popular.
Woodland care: With two timber tools, cutting with the chainsaws first was more efficient. Then when people were done with that round, the faster ones could start with the hand tools while the others did limbing. Working up by the meadow was delightful. It's hard to move more than two people's
firewood in a truck so if more people are doing that
BB, logistics get a bit trickier. Splitting/stacking also is hard to do for more than 2 people in one place.
Gardening: Have the excavator greased before we start. We lost 2 hours the first day on that task. We had a hugel too close to our work so we couldn't back up far enough away. That made the "near side scoops" trickier to accomplish. Pick a different spot for the "3 scoops" people who don't want to do a hugel such that the hugel builders aren't within range of the scoopers. Aim to do the 3 scoops on the second or third hugel half day so the hugelers don't need the machine. Have the gardeners display their seeds on a table so it's very obvious which are N fixers and how there are more than 75%.
Roundwood: Having a couple outside work tables is very helpful for mallet day. Splitting cedar shakes radially works better if the logs are big enough. Making coat hooks is a pain if the log has twist in it. Sawing it lengthwise works better than splitting in that case. Using a "stick of truth" for the berm scaffold helps folks get their angles and dangles right. Use a straight piece of 1/2" by 4" wood for an indicator of the tenons as your "stick of truth". People always make the tenons too dinky and don't sink the mortises deeply enough. Following behind with the log wizard to flatten the tops is nice for those who have to actually use the scaffold later. Making 3 log benches under Bob's tarp was delightful and can be done in the afternoon. Moved them to their final location with the
tractor.
Dimensional: Burning with the soldering iron sucks, magnifying glass is very precise, router and propane torch followed by a pass through the planer is good, router and oxy acetylene and planer is best ever (use a tiny flame).
Metalworking: Made a tarped off welding area outside to protect eyeballs and that was very helpful. It was hard to keep the chop saw's stink out of the classroom. Would be nice to have a distant place to use angle grinders and that cut off saw...
Homesteading: Intended to have people pair off and hold one another's posts as they hammered rockjacks. Opalyn ended up holding things for people :(
Natural building: Put white wash on the W side of the library and it worked well. Might be a good place to just keep white washing in the future...
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