! Orin's Boot Camp Pictorials

BRK Day 14

Woke up yesterday to an inch of snow  -melted by end of the day.

Josiah designed and put together a seedling starter rack to put on top of the RMH. Having a warm bottom, 60 degree F or warmer, yields a better root ball. I sorta helped.

Then I put in pole # 49 and drilled hole #50 for the junk pole fence surrounding Alterton Abbey.

May you stay healthy, failing that, may you regain your health. I hope all would remain in a calm place in your being no matter your body's condition for atleast the duration of this pandemic.

BRK Day 15

Six poles!!! yes! hah! we are almost around to the Chateau de Poo. Total count: 55 poles 3' in the ground (each that is).

Mended a chair for Jocelyn after boot work

...and here's a grainy pic of the planted starters on the RMH's bench.  -dang that rocket mass heater gets so many different uses!

BRK Day 16

mmmmmmm....Saturday morning today....{stretch, yawn, snuffle}

-but yesterday, wow, beautiful day...sunshine warm on the body  oooh, and the fresh crisp mountain air in the lungs.....uh?  what did I do?  oh. well now.

Put in pole #56, ran out of poles, debarked a pole, put in pole #57 (three poles away from the south person gate which is west of the Chateau de Poo mind you -very close to the end of the line!).

...then cut a few poles out of the tree I cut down and put some ground cover on the south side of Alerton Abbey.

Enjoy the pics while I return to my hot coca and rocket mass heater cooked cereal!

btw, sez it's going to rain to day but I hope it's a lie

BRK Day 17

Wow. Sunday almost afternoon. Learning about video editing abit right now. Here's a complete video with times, temperatures, and a little surprise at the end.




But what happened Saturday?

Found a hardtail, cleaned its rear sprocket, oiled its chain, and took it for a simple dirt road ride. A little COVID 19 R&R!!! notice the complete lack of other traffic -hehe- sorta skewing the data on that one since no one uses these roads most winter days anyways
For those with sick loved ones or who might be currently sick, COVID 19 is no laughing matter, so stick to remote activities if you can.    ...I didn't have a helmet on so there isn't any cool jumps or dangerous paths -hey, when I engage in risky behavior, I'm careful!



Then I came back (after a short 6 mile jaunt), and did some info tech yesterday, upgraded a Void Linux kernel (a non-systemd distro), partitioned a 4TB drive, and moved data from 1TB to the 4TB.
btw: Void Linux is not for beginners; the crew there will help you out but not if you ask "what's a runit file?".  you're expected to RTFM, experiment, then ask.

Today is more info tech so I can start showing and selling my new energy devices. Paul approved my use of the Wheaton Labs shop to build kits of a through the wall solar oven! Yep. Coming to you soon after I get the electronic infrastructure up and running.

Oh yeah!  the starter plants started!!!

Orin,
I certainly don't understand why urine is separated from the solids. For nearly two decades I've been keeping a sawdust bucket toilet (Jenkins, Joseph. The Humanure Handbook, 2nd edition, 1999) with excellent results. Urine is integral to the composting process.

_Found_ a hardtail?

Those woods really grow some interesting stuff! <g>


Rufus

Rufus Laggren wrote:_Found_ a hardtail?

Those woods really grow some interesting stuff! <g>


Rufus

if you come out and give us a hand on the junk pole fence, I promise to show you where the wild mountain bikes grow (but only if you keep it a secret)..

...gotta warn you tho, you might run into a few mad scientist and other creatures in _these_ woods.

'Course we're almost done with the hard part so it would be a good time to show up anyways.

Paul Kurtz wrote:Orin,
I certainly don't understand why urine is separated from the solids. For nearly two decades I've been keeping a sawdust bucket toilet (Jenkins, Joseph. The Humanure Handbook, 2nd edition, 1999) with excellent results. Urine is integral to the composting process.

The toilets here are not the composting type as Jenkins described. There are many ways to deal with humanure safely: contained black fly larva; a human manufactured process to provide clear water, pure water with bio-systems(fish&snail tanks,then reed beds and other plants); and the willow bank version.

I will admit by using the word "compost" in my post, I confused the fact that our toilets are a willow bank method and not composting toilets. You will notice I also show how to compost kitchen scraps; since we have no chickens and we don't want squirrels, composting is what I do with the kitchen scraps here.  Wheaton Labs is about pushing the envelope on techniques on what we do know and trying things no one has tried before.

Also at Wheaton Labs, we are trying to come up with methods that are as fool proof as possible; a willow bank which sucks up all the surface fluid instead of putting it in the ground water is one solution we are promoting. Paul believes this method is superior to the composting method and is always looking for ways to better solutions to humanure handling.

Urine makes our willow feeder carts too heavy for a human to move.  Urine can also carry black water and makes large batches very sloppy (this could be addressed by more sawdust but new people don't know what is the correct quantity and  might not care to really learn).  When you have the general public showing up in large quantities, then concern about black water going places you'd rather not have it is clearly important (especially when people unfamiliar with the processes are also showing up in large quantities).

I've always thought the only thing integral to composting is the correct mixture of nitrogen and carbon; urine can be a part of that process.  Urine separation is one approach to humanure composting, Jenkins way is the  most popular but not the only method in existence (albeit thanks to him, you and I can actually have this conversation).  For instance, urine is a great liquid fertilizer and can be diluted with 8 to 10 parts water to one part urine and spread on trees and bushes: great for an area which is very dry.

This is by no means a simple answer topic. Paul's book lists 10 different methods to deal with poop on page 19. Here are some links for you to explore and comment there if you'd like others to respond in more detail:
sewer treatment podcast
humanure
willow bank

Please direct further questions and comments here:
https://permies.com/t/47814/permaculture-projects/willow-feeder-wheelie-bin-pooper

BRK Day 18

probably will be filling the holes with poles today.....gotta debark two and chainsaw another.... Yesterday was all info tech day so this morning I'll post a few pics I took around Wheaton Labs.

BRK Day 19

oh my, Montana Mountains in the Morning! RMH cooked oatmeal with banana, quinoa and raisins (could have a bunch of other things too but the fat is already beginning to collect on me), in my tummy....now about yesterday.

We debarked four new poles, drilled two holes, planted one pole, found the next 8 places to plant the next poles......we have 13 more poles to go!!!   ...that reminds me, I need to get another bucket of ash from base camp.

Then Josiah showed me how to plant asparagus and I planted about 7 of those. He also planted some of the grass rhizsomes he got while planting the asparagus -we planted those on the edge of the berm shed.