Esteban Ademovski

Yesterday 2026/11/13

Started the morning paired with Daniel, along with Samuel and Jonathan. With Daniel running point, we headed over to the lab, making our first stop at the boneyard. Daniel wanted to look through some of the scrap materials for a few other projects he had in mind.

Once we finished up at the boneyard, we headed over to the Abbey. Daniel and Samuel got to work on the wing walls while Jonathan and I continued cleaning up along the Abbey fencing. There were still plenty of woody bits scattered around, including cutoff junk poles, horizontal pieces, and other odds and ends that were no longer usable for the fencing. We gathered everything up and processed it into kindling and firewood, making good use of what would otherwise just be left lying around.

After lunch, I paired up with Jules, who was running point for the afternoon. We spent the next few hours picking grass until around 3 o'clock. After that, we headed back over to the Abbey. Jules worked on harvesting walking onions while I continued gathering up the scattered woody bits along the fencing.

Little by little, we're getting that area cleaned up and putting the leftover materials to good use. Another day of keeping busy and making progress around the lab.

B.E L. Post # 307

After the morning meeting, the whole boot crew headed over to the Abbey, with Daniel running point.

Once we got there, Jesse fed the cats while Daniel and Sam got set up to work on fixing the wing walls at the back of the Abbey. Meanwhile, Jules was working along the fence line near the Cooper Cabin gate, cutting up all the leftover woody bits from the fence rebuilds. He was cutting them down to about 15½–16 inches so they could be staged and loaded onto the back of Roy.

I was working inside the paddock, starting at the front entrance and making my way toward the Cooper Cabin gate. I made it through 13 panels, cleaning up all the leftover woody bits, junk poles, and other pieces from the fence rebuilds. Anything we could salvage was being set aside to turn into kindling or firewood.

It's nice to get all that leftover wood put to use, but it also makes a big difference in how the place looks and, more importantly, keeps things clear of tripping hazards.

Jesse was doing the same thing around the Abbey's willow feeder, working her way toward the greenhouse.

We kept at it until lunchtime, then put away our tools and grabbed some lunch.

After lunch, we split off into multiple teams again. This time I was running point, with Samuel as my assistant.

We took the same approach and set up outside the house paddock, gathering all the cutoffs, shorter junk poles, and anything else that wasn't suitable for the fence work. Samuel and I brought everything over outside the solarium, cut it all down to length, and started processing it.

I had Samuel work on making kindling from the junk wood, cutting everything down to 15½–16 inches and filling up the little wooden cubbies just inside the entrance to the Fisher Price house, on the left-hand side. One of my priorities was making sure all those cubbies were packed full.

While Samuel was working on the kindling, I was splitting and stacking the buck logs Daniel had been cutting over at the house paddock. I went through quite a bit of wood, and we kept at it until the end of the shift.

Another day of cleaning up, processing wood, and putting all those leftover materials to good use. It's nice seeing the wood piles grow while the leftover mess slowly disappears.

B.E.L. Post # 306

This morning I was running point, with Jules as my assistant.

We started the morning by filling up the cistern by the library. After attaching the blue hose to the hydrant, we gave some of the growies on a nearby berm a quick drink for about two minutes before repositioning the hose to fill the cistern.

While that was going on, Jules took whatever recyclables were left at the Fisher Price House down to the recycling area at the berm shed. Afterwards, she added some goodies to the recently erected book library along the Complexity Trail.

Meanwhile, I was debarking some woody bits that I'll be using for my boot sit spot, all the while keeping an eye on the cistern to make sure it didn't overflow.

Once the cistern was full and the hose was put away, we gathered up all the recyclables ♻️ at the berm shed and made a recycling run. After returning, we put all the bins away and spent the last half hour of the morning at the shop. Jules continued working on the Lizard Leap sign while I focused on processing some more woody bits.

After lunch, I was paired up with Daniel, who was running point.

We were getting a little low on usable junkpoles by the house paddock for the new framing, so we headed over to the lab to gather up a good number of the older junkpoles that had been stacked over there.

This served two purposes. First, the material was readily available, and second, by putting those older junkpoles to use, we were also helping clean up the appearance of the Abbey grounds. Rather than having woody bits scattered around in various places, we were able to put them to use where they're needed.

Once we had gathered as much as we could, we headed back to basecamp and staged everything by the house paddock worksite, ready for the next round of framing.

B.E.L. Post # 305

This morning I was paired up with Jesse, who was running point, working on the house paddock fencing. We were filling in two panels with junk poles, and I was able to complete one full panel on my own. Got all the junk poles slipped in nice and tight, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's looking nicer and nicer as we go.

After lunch, I switched things up and ran point, with Daniel as my assistant. We continued debarking the 3-foot buck logs I brought over this past weekend. Once they were debarked, I planed the tops to flatten them out a bit and drilled three holes in each one, one on either side and one in the middle.

I'll be making wooden stakes out of some leftover woody bits by whittling them down to size. They'll be driven through those holes and into the ground to anchor the logs in place. These will eventually serve as steps leading up to the boot sit spot. Slowly but surely, that little project is coming together.

After that, Daniel moved on to splitting firewood while I went back to filling the black pails with gravel and laying it down along the Turtle Path. Happy to say I got that completed!

I then did a little trail maintenance within the house paddock before switching gears again and debarking some more woody bits that I'll be using for another project.

And with that, another day wrapped up. Nothing like finishing things off with a little Taco Tuesday! 🌮

B.E.L. Post # 304

After this morning's meeting, I was paired with Jesse and I was running point.

We started by splitting and stacking the bucked wood that was staged in front of the classroom and library. I wasn't able to get all of it finished yesterday, so we got the rest of it taken care of and put away in the firewood racks. Once that was wrapped up, we did some chainsaw maintenance.

After that, we grabbed the auger, extension cord and shovel and headed over to the house paddock. With Sam's assistance, I installed another hugel step on the other side of the plum tree.

Once that was taken care of, I put everything away and switched over to working on the turtle lot path. I grabbed four buckets of gravel and hauled them down to continue building up the path. That pretty much wrapped up my first half of the day.

For the second half, Jules selected me to be part of his team and took the lead on the boot sit spot.

We spent some time debarking the three-foot logs I had brought over yesterday. After that, we planed the tops to create a flat surface and bored holes through them so I can spike them into the ground within a gravel sock, with the intention of using them as steps leading up behind the little garden bed.

During the last hour, I switched tasks while Jules was harvesting sunchokes and bringing in some more delicious goodies from the berms. I briefly assisted Sam and John with their work, then checked in with Daniel and Jesse before calling it a day.

Another good day at base camp, getting a little bit of everything done.

B.E.L. Post # 303

Started off my morning by processing two wooden crates of woody bits for the Fisher Price House.

After that, I joined everyone for the cleaning blitz, which, as usual, was absolutely delightful and pleasant. 😂

I vacuumed, beat the dust out of the rugs, took care of the compost, processed some cardboard, and then headed into the solarium to sweep out the floor.

From there, I went straight to the classroom and debarked three pieces of wood that Daniel will be using for the kitchen island ceiling fixture .

Once those were taken care of, I planted a peach tree pit in my little garden bed project, also known as the boot sit spot. I'm slowly piecing that little area together, and it's nice to get another seed planted along the way.

Next, I gathered six black pails of gravel and hauled them over to the Turtle Lot path, laying it down along the stretch leading up to the hydrant near the library.

Switching gears, I split and stacked ten logs that were staged outside the classroom/shop doors.

Afterward, I headed over to the library and split the remaining cat food between Basecamp and the Abbey before making my way up to feed the cats.

While I was at the Abbey, I harvested approximately six 3-foot logs for the boot sit spot. These will eventually get debarked and used to make steps, basically a little staircase leading up behind the garden bed. I also brought in some additional woody bits that I'll be debarking for the project.

This evening, I debarked four more of those woody-bit pieces for the boot sit spot.

I also cleaned out the ashes from the solarium's rmh and got it fired up. Starting at 62 degrees, I managed to bring the temperature up to 80 degrees within an hour and twenty minutes.

Not bad for a little warm-up!

All in all, another full day of keeping busy, moving projects along, and sneaking in a little gardening along the way. Between the wood processing, gravel, firewood, cats, and boot sit spot, there certainly wasn't much sitting around happening today. 😂

Beau M. Davidson wrote:Haven't read through everything, but thumbing through pictures - do y'all have a proper post driver out there?  I see a lot of pics of boots pounding a t-post with a hammer.

@Beau

Yes, I've heard we have a proper post driver somewhere around here. Funny thing is, in all my time here, I've never actually seen it. Could be anywhere at this point lol.

@Mike

Thank you for sharing the image!

@Coydon

You're absolutely right. With the equipment and materials we have out here, we could certainly fashion one ourselves. What a great little side project that would be!

And thank you for bringing it up because it reminded me of something I've been wanting to do. I've been planning to order a compact stick welder online and start getting some practice in. I recently hit my 300th post and rang the bel, so I'm just waiting on that well-earned coin to come through. Maybe a little welding project will be in the cards soon! 😂

B.E.L. Post # 302

Morning started with processing woody bits. Got one crate filled and brought it over to the Fisher-Price house.

After that, I took out the kitchen compost and got that taken care of. Then I irrigated the little garden bed by the boot sit spot. It's been nice watching the yellow clover spread and fill in. It's one of those little things that makes you appreciate the progress happening around you, even when it's happening slowly.

Later, I headed over to the classroom and debarked two pieces of wood using my Victorinox Harvester. Decided to put my little pocketknife to work today, just because, and it did the job just fine.

The rest of the day was a little more relaxed. Spent some quality time with Chapito, did a bit of reading and journaling, and hung out with my fellow boots. Sometimes it's nice to slow things down a bit, enjoy the company, and not feel like every minute needs to be filled with a project.

I also spent some time writing down a list of things I'd like to tackle after tomorrow's cleaning blitz. A few things I'm hoping to get done:

- Split and stack approximately 20 buck logs sitting outside the classroom bay doors.
- Lay gravel on the remaining 4 feet of the Turtle Lot path lead.ing nearby the hydrant
- Work on the steps along my boot sit spot trail, which runs behind the boot sit spot garden bed.
- Put up two more vertical pieces at the house paddock.

It's nice having a few tasks lined up and looking forward to getting back out there. But first, we'll get tomorrow's cleaning blitz out of the way!

B.E.L. Post # 301

Started the day paired up with Jesse, and I was running point. We headed over to the shop and processed four crates of woody bits for the Fisher-Price house. Once we finished up there, we joined Dan's team and helped out with the fencing.

After lunch, I paired up with Jonathan, who was running point, and we got back to work on the house paddock junk pole fencing. We managed to get three horizontals and two vertical posts up, with one panel completely framed and ready to be filled in with junk poles.

Around 4 o'clock, we switched gears and headed over to the classroom, where we started bringing in logs for another project.

And that was the end of the boot day.

Ding dong ..  I'm  ringing the bel for my 300th post

https://permies.com/t/505/361444/quiet-hours-bootcamp-grind-Esteban

And email has already been sent with the included links showing my 200th, 250th and 300th posts ...