Nine's Bootcamp Experience (BRK)

#41

I soldered connectors onto the lights for the Love Shack. I rearranged the toolbox drawers with all the electrical tools and baubles. Fred and I planned out the changes for lighting in the shop so the classroom is better lit. I removed the strands of lights from the beams in the shop and repurposed them over the tools hanging on the wall to light that area when you walk in from the woodshop side. I removed the plug from a beam a strand of lights was plugged into and rewired that line to a different plug. Now when you walk in the shop, the first light switch you reach for will light up the tool wall. It should provide enough light to see the tool you need or walk through the room. Tomorrow I'll try to get more fixtures installed up on the beams to begin illuminating the space better.

I went up to the Love Shack today and was blown away. Kyle did some amazing trim work on the windows and exterior. Fixed a trim piece that's been bothering me, but no longer! Daniel and Matt knocked out the rest of the interior siding today!! Holy cows. 🎊 I heaved a great sigh of relief. It's done and now they can move on to installing the bunk beds and begin building the electrical components box. I'm excited with how well this project is moving forward. 🎉

A Testo flue analyzer was ordered today and I'm really stoked. I want to learn more about how the RMH systems work, how to optimize them, and see real time results as we fiddle. I also really want to be able to put the results out for all of you to see so we can start pointing at the data when people have related questions. How well do these things actually perform? 🤔 Lemme show you! 😊 I want to be able to have a running log of how each system is doing so we can check the results over time. Already geeking out over the data analysis possibilities.

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I've been binge reading permie related things lately, but also just started a book called Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. I'm not the best communicator at times, and I know I need to improve. The title says nonviolent, which refers to having compassionate communication. One of the topics he discusses at length is about empathy. The passage in the picture below resounded with me because I occasionally find myself looping on something that has bothered me. It struck me that I loop because I haven't found the empathetic ear that I'm searching for to relieve myself of these troubles. I get placated, commiseration, or worse yet shut down, but the root still exists. Gotta figure out how to ask for what I need. 🤔

Jen, I think you were talking about peeling logs with a drawknife earlier. TA Outdoors on YouTube made a quick jig that let's him peel logs while standing. It is made of two poles driven into the ground, one with a V notch cut into it's top, and the other with a pocket cut into it's top. They are connected with two diagonal braces. He just lays the pole to be peeled with one end in the pocket and the other end of the pole resting in the V notch. He says this was a common jig built by bodgers wherever they were working.

Ooh, Jeremy, what a great video! Thank you for sharing that. Makes me want to build a similar jig out on the plot. We're in need of some furniture in our little hobbit hole. Need to go find some small trees to harvest, then a jig like that would be perfect for me. 🤔😁👌 Fantastic! Thanks again!

Not many pictures today. Started working on the shop lights and ended up helping the guys with the Love Shack. After lunch I ran to town to drop off some recycling, pick up new batteries for the Voltzwagen (why don't battery stores know wtf they have in stock when you call? It's on the shelf. Read the label. 🙄), then tour the hardware stores looking for junction boxes and other lighting bits. Apparently there's a pvc shortage (), so none of them had much of what I needed. 😔

At least I got to eat some incredibly flavourful Indian food while I was in town. So many flavors in my mouth at the same time. So delicious. 🤤

My hand ached all night and into the morning. New barometer? Turning all sorts of fun colors still. Hurts to even try to put it in my pants pocket or tuck my sweater into my overalls. Really anytime I brush anything against the back of my hand it feels like a knife slicing through it. Never realized how much I put my hands in my pockets until now. Doesn't help that we've got a cold snap. Today felt kinda bitterly cold. Kept trying to hide my hands from the cold. Pulling my favorite leather gloves over my hand is a tender process right now, so I've been wearing my insulated mechanics gloves since they're a little roomier. The fingertips don't fit as well though, so I haven't been as happy about doing the detail work in them as I might be in my leathers. Need to sew up one of the fingertips in my right leather glove because that's becoming too big to stay useful for much longer.

Stay well and warm, folks.

Might it be worth getting an x ray?