Hal Schibel

New submission with no plastic anywhere to be found.

First one is creamy kefir gorgonzola dressing for salad, blended in a glass blender.
Ingredients: kefir, lemon juice, green onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, gorgonzola cheese.

Second one is salsa simmered in a pot and lightly blended with an immersion blender.
Ingredients: tomatoes, chilis, garlic, red onion, red wine vinegar, paprika, coriander, cilantro.

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 mins):
  - give the recipes for each thing you are preparing
  - ingredients to make the condiments or salad dressings
  - making the condiments or salad dressings
  - finished condiments or salad dressings

Minimum requirements:
 - Green (fresh) head
 - Dry handle passes all the way through the head
 - Big enough to be useful.  At least as big and heavy as a common hammer
 - Handle that you can comfortably hold
 - No wedge
 - Made with hand tools only

To get certified for this BB, post three pics.  
 - Your chunks of wood that you are starting with (one is clearly green and the other dry)
 - Progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
 - Final product held in your hand showing that your thumb and first finger can touch (any fatter than that and your hand will get very tired using it)


I pulled this very old stick out of the brush pile. It's a little wet because it just started raining but it has had plenty of time to dry and shrink. I stuck it by the fire for a bit to dry it off more. The bigger piece was from a freshly cut branch - I sawed off a chunk.


I peeled the bark off of the head. This is willow.


I found some sort of auger laying around when we moved in and I used it with a ratchet. At a certain point it was spinning but wasn't going in so I started hitting it with a mallet then turning it with the auger a couple times and then hitting it with the mallet and so on...


Complete.

Requirements for this BB:
 - Flat mounting surface
 - Round off sharp edges
 - Hand tools only

To get certified for this BB, post three pics.  
 - Your chunks of wood that you are starting with
 - Progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
 - Final product

Chunks of wood. I was also gathering chunks of wood to make door handles in the barn.


Progress.





Here are the flattened mounting surfaces.


Here they are all mounted! I used my new mallet to hammer in the nails.

Thanks, Judith! Being unfamiliar to the world of weaving, I am still a bit confused about what that is but I will have to go and investigate. I knew it had to do with weaving because it had string on it and the previous owner had a giant loom and ran a craft shop out of her house. I did not find anything else having to do with weaving in the barn, although I did find some skiis and an antique scythe that looked pretty neat.

Does anyone know what this is? I found it in the barn and I'm guessing it has something to do with weaving.

Thanks all!

Update: It seems like it is starting to seal!

So after researching gleying I tried a bunch of things. I dug out the sides to make it shallower (the steep sides made it difficult to tamp and the clay I was trying to spread on kept slumping). I then covered all sides with dirty chicken brooder bedding and a bit of limestone powder (not sure if this did anything) and then covered in cardboard. I put more water in but it still kept draining pretty quickly.

Over the last few months I've been dumping the dirty chicken/duck water into the pond to get some gunk in there and this last week the water has not been disappearing. I think part of that is the colder weather reducing evaporation but the other part is the water is not percolating down into the ground nearly as fast. I also got a couple more ducks last week and they've been hanging out in there (even though I just filled up their tub with nice clean, fresh water they want to go down into the yucky half-finished pond).

I have several other ponds to experiment on as well. I have one that has a bunch of the chicken brooder bedding in it but no cardboard and another that is just a hole in the ground. I'm curious to see what they will do after the winter when that area floods and I set the ducks loose to have fun.

I believe I have everything I need for this Sand Badge.
Badge #5! Thanks all!

Harvest, dry, and store one of the following for a tea, infusion, or decoction:
 Alfalfa leaf or blossom

Create an infusion (hot or cold) of one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Alfalfa leaf or flower

Create a decoction of one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Willow bark

Create a tincture of one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Yarrow leaf or blossom

Create a vinegar infusion of one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Culinary sage leaf

Create an oil infusion of one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Yarrow leaf or blossom

Create syrup or gummies from one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Burdock

Create a salve from one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Yarrow leaf or blossom

Create a poultice of one of the following (fresh or dried):
 Yarrow leaf or blossom

This was very difficult. It was my first time using a scythe and it was custom fit to my husband and thankfully we are pretty similar in size but not exactly. Also a lot of the plants in our field did not want to be cut while others did. So I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the spots that would actually let me cut just so I could figure out the motion and get some practice in. Eventually I started getting it but it took several sessions and several blisters to figure out how to move right to use the scythe. It's hard to figure out if you're doing the motion right if nothing wants to cut.

Check out my baler here!

This is where we got our scythe. This is not an affiliate link, I just want to let you know where we got it in case anyone is interested: https://www.scythesupply.com/. At first we started with a grass blade but once we got to the thick stuff in the middle of the field we had to upgrade to a ditch blade (which we only got a couple weeks ago) and it's still not cutting everything. I'm curious if cutting at a different time of year will make it easier and if starting to regularly cut our field instead of leaving it to do whatever it wants will in time make it easier to mow. But it was clumpy and thick and resistant to cutting. I've cataloged at least a couple dozen species of plants in the field so it's definitely not a monoculture.

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- you must scythe or gather dry straw
- you must make at least one bale of straw

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, post pictures or a short video depicting:
- your straw source
- an action shot of harvesting/gathering the straw
- your straw pile next to where the straw came from
- the straw going into the manual baler
- your one bale of straw

I did two different patches because the first patch was super hard to cut. I had a lot more success with the second patch.

This is the first patch:


You can't tell that I cut anything!


The pile.


Loading it up in the wheelbarrow. You can see the much larger pile that my husband cut right behind it.


Bringing it over to the baler.


It filled the baler but didn't have enough to be compressed.


The ditch blade.


Action shot. It's cutting something!


Patch two, next to the pumpkin experiment. I buried a pumpkin to see if it would grow.


If you look closely, you can tell that I cut some of it.


Here's the pile.


Loading it up in the wheelbarrow.


Bringing it over to the baler.


All packed, crushed, and tied.


My bale that I cut all by myself!


Here's me finally getting the scythe to cut. Hopefully the video embed works.


If not, here is the URL:
https://youtube.com/shorts/P87RKnJZqdw

I hope my sage growing in the windowsill is alright for this BB. I have not yet been successful with growing herbs outside.

I picked some sage and let it sit in some homemade apple cider vinegar for two weeks. It smells amazing!

Picking the sage.


Putting it in a jar.

https://permies.com/t/283212/a/274668/thumb-IMG_20250905_190048_969.jpg

Homemade apple cider vinegar.


Let it sit for two weeks.


Strained it out into a vinegar bottle. I made too much for the bottle so the rest is still infusing on my counter.

The chickens are molting so I walked around and collected some of the larger feathers I found. I tied the feathers together to a stick with some jute twine. I carved down the stick a bit to get the bark off and it's pretty smooth (no splinters). I did not oil it.

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
  - if using wood it must be untreated and sanded down to prevent splinters
  - if oiled you must use a nontoxic oil (e.g. linseed oil)
  - must use natural feathers on the feather duster

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide proof of the following with pictures (or a video < 2 mins long):
  - before, during, and after of making a feather duster
  - demonstrate it meets the above stated requirements

Gathering the feathers.


Finding a stick.


Trying to get the stick and the feathers together to tie without everything falling apart.


All wrapped up. Ta-da!


It's not the best duster for surfaces but it works well with cobwebs.