Stephen B. Thomas

Coydon Wallham wrote:No orange hat = AI deep fake, nice try Skynet! What happened to the real Stephen?

You'll never believe this... But I think I lost the orange hat. I've been around, and I've not seen it since earlier this week.

Besides, would the deepfake RMHD actually admit to not knowing how to do draw-boring...? They probably would have just hallucinated something about the process, amirite...?

I'd suggest that outlook is still good. I think that during the "off season" microbes and bugs will still eat stuff and do their thing, and in particular with that organic matter you buried down there under the other layers. Having it below the surface will likely provide a more hospitable environment for soil-building activity.

We do "Ruth Stout composting" here at WL, and I'd propose that a mass of kitchen scraps will be essentially gone and turned into various bits of organic matter and soil within two months, easy. The only exception seems to be eggshells, woody stems (like walking onions), and maybe avocado rinds.

...And yes! Please report back with your findings!

Derek Thille wrote:Having never seen such an egg mass or babies, are you able to provide an idea of the size?

I'd say the egg mass was roughly 3.5 to 4cm long, and then maybe a bit over 1cm in width. The babies, from what I remember, seemed to be something like 1cm in length.

Yeah, when I recognized what I was seeing, my astonishment was plain to see. "Life, uh, finds a way."

BEL #846

Decent progress to report on this week, and I'm pleased. I don't think I will meet my arbitrary goal of finishing the structure by the end of the day this coming Thursday (I'm spending Thursday through Sunday in Missoula for spooky movies), but considering both interruptions I allowed into my schedule and a couple weather interruptions, I could have done much worse.

Meanwhile... We're making tenons by hand to fit the mortises made with the hole saw. Here's how they start. I'm using my late Uncle Bob's straight chisel in this photo.



Repeated checks and test-fits result in a tenon that looks pretty damn close to machined:



I also want to introduce a SEPPer currently in residence: welcome Emi, who's here for a couple weeks. When I rattled off this past Thursday afternoon's tasks, she opted to join Erik and me over at my stewardship acre. Big thanks to Emi for fearlessly jumping in with both feet and being another set of helping hands over at the acre.



Speaking of Erik, he also jumped into the fray, putting his Morakniv chisel to the task of cutting out more tenons. I appreciate his willingness to join me, apparently on the regular, in my quest. Paul has granted the "loan" of a fellow Boot for a shift a week, and Thursday afternoons seem like a good fit for both him and me.



These poles are to be fitted together in the main doorway of the willow feeder we're building out. Here's a rare photo of me (AKA "the Rocky Mountain Hirsute Dipshit") in another round of test fittings.



I haven't bothered to learn the proper way to properly offset the pieces connected in a true drawbore joint, and that means we're settling for "drawbore-lite." Holes are half an inch in diameter, and we pass sections of dowel rod through each joint. I hope there's enough roundwood-introduced tension to keep these dowels in place. We'll see down the road how things fare.



More photos of the RMHD test fitting the assembled pieces of the roundwood, no-metal-fasteners door frame.





I forecast that I will have the outer walls complete, along with the door, by the end of my allowed time this coming week. The inner box and seat will have to wait until November. So it goes.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

Allen Jackson wrote:What's required to get the sawmill up and running?

It's been behaving poorly after making a few cuts into the same log. Specifically, it begins to "bend" or cut a curve into the log, instead of cutting into a straight line, maybe after a half dozen panels are cut, and the curving begins half-way down the log (about the 5ft mark on a 10ft long log). Over the past year and a half, we've moved the sawmill frame to a permanent location on solid supports, we've leveled everything, we've done component replacements, we've lubricated and/or replaced all the necessary bearings... No luck just yet. We're still attempting to pinpoint the exact cause of the problem.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Okay, all from the acre you're stewarding...  If you plant some Willows now, and feed them your 'willow candy', in a few years you'll have the new willow branches you need to replace the Pine/Fir when you repair your roof.

There are a few poplars available that I could move up to the acre without much of a problem. Once they go dormant, I'll dig a couple of the "suckers" out from around a parent poplar down at Basecamp, and move them over to the plot with the hopes they'll be my first Poop Beasts. We'll see.

This current roof is a temporary solution. Once we have the sawmill up and running again, I'll be able to fell a few trees and turn them into shakes for a legit roof. I'll hang on to this tarp-and-canvas guy for a while, but I hope it's not so long that I end up having to repair or replace some of these bowed pieces. It would be nice to do a similar roof on a smaller structure, maybe one I could sleep under in the hot summer months. Re-using the materials from this current roof would be ideal. This is a bit further down the road, so to speak. So there's time to work it out (and to have the sawmill at 100%).

BEL #845

Significant progress to report today on the stewardship acre.

To sum it up: the roof frame is attached! Now I'll work on the door.

When I visited the site yesterday, I disconnected the tarp from the frame, and then re-strung everything. I went from corner-to-corner for both the tarp and the canvas.

I realized the canvas didn't have any grommets, so instead I grabbed a rock...



...and tied it into a bundle at each corner, like this:



I'll eventually do the rest of the grommets on the tarp, tying them to rock bundles on the opposite edge. For now, the roof cover looks like this from the underside:



The frame requires that the roundwood roof frame is somehow connected securely to the dimensional lumber building frame. So I started by chiseling-in deep notches on the underside of each of the roundwood supports that would attach to the building.



A drawknife was used to smooth the roundwood to a flat surface, allowing maximum purchase and a flush fit between the roof frame and the building frame.



At this point I most definitely want to send thanks and kudos to fellow Boot, Erik, who joined me up at the stewardship acre today. I also appreciate Paul allowing Boots to join me for some time each week to help with tasks on the stewardship acre.

Here's Erik draw-knifing one of the roundwood roof supports.



If Erik wasn't here with me, then the next photo wouldn't have been possible. Between me standing on the building frame, and Erik standing on the ladder, we both managed to lift and maneuver the roof frame into place and secure it. The construction screws we used helped pull the pieces together and ensure a snug fit.





In general, this is a major step forward in terms of building-construction progress. It's been a long day, but this was a fitting end that put me in good spirits and helped me feel accomplished.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

Coydon Wallham wrote:Are you using pine saplings for your rafters? Have any willow around that is big enough?

Phil Stevens wrote:Willow is a good idea. What about alder? I think that's pretty bendy and it grows in the PNW.

Sorry, y'all. Using baby white pine and Douglas Fir for these. All the stuff I've felled for this project is found on the acre I'm stewarding.

BEL #844

I'm pleased with today's progress. I finished the bowed roof frame, thanks to Coydon's suggestion (thanks, man!!!). Things look good right now.

I admit that, prior to the pieces being lashed together, seeing the two sticks just pointing out there paints a rather uninspiring picture. But a few pieces of paracord judiciously applied put these two sticks together, hopefully for as long as I need this 'temporary' roof.



Since I am now using screws to hold things together, I don't need to drill all the way through to fit a bolt in there. But the 1/2" paddle bit (the one drill bit I've been using for everything up here) still does a good job at piloting a hole for a screw. The heads also fit perfectly inside the now-countersunk hole. I hadn't even expected that little bonus.



I felled (or snipped down?) a couple more smaller-sized junk poles, de-limbed them, and peeled their bark. Working with two instead of one pieces for a single bow is much smoother, and I think actually took less time than had I been using a single (much more rigid) piece to do the job. Lots of paracord to the rescue...!

Oh, I also flipped all the bolts so they wouldn't poke the tarp or canvas that will overlap the frame. Now everything potentially hole-making points down towards the ground, and away from the fabric.



With the sunlight fading, I'd initially felt I'd be able to add at least the tarp in a quick manner. Well, this first version sucks.

I think I'm going to un-string everything the next time I'm over there, then start by going corner-to-corner, and then opposite grommets. The canvas will be treated much the same (both the tarp and canvas have grommets, if I recall correctly).  Maybe once one is strung, I can re-string the canvas on top of the tarp. They're different sizes (the canvas company must have missed the memo, clearly), so some additional lashing will be needed, regardless.

The only thing I need to leave unobstructed with the cordage would be the two supports that will connect to the building frame, but I think this can be easily managed.



I think the next time I'm over there, installing the two layers of roof will be the main project. Any time left will be used to inventory any remaining usable support wood (framing-out the doorway and shoring-up the window), and then sort out the entrance door (which won't have any metal fasteners...! Wait and see...!). I kinda sorta wanna install a "dutch door," just for the helluvit. Maybe I'll save that for a storage shed or something. It would be fun.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

I'd kicked myself repeatedly this year, as I had aspirations of detailing the succession of plants and animals that passed through Wheaton Labs throughout the year. I want it to be a kind of reference for the Boots:
- First plants blooming in the spring.
- Types of insects and when they arrive on the scene.
- When to harvest annual vegetables.
- Aggressive yellow jackets.
- Periods of 0 precipitation, hottest temps in the summer, and plant "dormancy" due to high temps.
- Last flowers for pollinators to feed from.
- Procession of perennial forage greens on the property.

I think that kind of information will be useful, even just as a foundation, for long-term residents/residence and future planning. "There's always next year..."

As for sit spots, fellow boot Esteban is chipping away at a "Boot Sit Spot" location here at Basecamp. Alongside a footpath, there's a small raised garden bed there so far. He intends to install a three-log-bench there and do a series of plantings so that Boots and other guests will have a quiet place to sit and observe nature.

Thanks for the inspiration (and reminder), Nicole...!