Stone Baerm Adventures

It's been a nice and busy past two days. Yesterday I did some more shelf building, plus putting the door back on a shed. I played with Rocky too, Cindy's cute dog.  Other than that I mostly relaxed yesterday.

Kate has been working away at the rocket stoves. I decided I'm just going to do ingredient prep instead of the building, because time is getting tight (I'm out of here on the 30th of this month) and as I said I've never made mortar or laid brick before so I'm very slow. I am however very proficient at crushing brick and clay, as well as shovelling sand. So that's what I'm doing to help instead. I will get some up to date photos tomorrow.

Curtis didn't work today, so I helped him work on the new veranda. He tore the old one out this morning, and I helped pull nails out of some boards that served as the frame. Now he's got it all laid out with the first couple boards put on. Tomorrow I'm going to spend some time putting the rest of the boards on. I'm going to square the ends, then measure 62 1/4" and cut, making sure to take the bad end off. Then I'll lay the board down with a 1" overhang on each side and make sure the good side is facing up, then screw it down. It should be fun!

And poor Curragh got stung on her eye by something again today. She's roaming free on the property now, and for 3 of the last 4 days she's been stung. Today's looks the most painful. She is recovering though - she was tired for most of the day but her energy sass is returning. She just jumped in my lap as I wrote that last sentence.

I did some carpentry today! I took all the steps I said I would yesterday. It was all very smooth, except for the very beginning this morning. I was using a Dewalt DW716 miter saw. Curtis had the head locked down for safety, which is a good thing to do. The issue was I had no idea where the release pin was. I've used miter saws before so I'm not a complete noobie, but I spent about ten minutes searching that saw up and down to no avail. I asked Kate, and she didn't know. I googled the saw name and the manual popped right up, thankfully. I opened it up, and there was the diagram. It said the pin should be just below the motor housing . "Okay, great", I thought. I looked below the housing - no pin. Now I was seriously confused. I kept at it though. I just started poking all the objects that even remotely resembled a pin...and eventually I poked the pin! The saw popped up, and I was able to get to work. From there things were fairly smooth. I didn't have the speed sqaure we had yesterday, but I just made multiple marks to make sure I was making the cuts right. Now if you don't look closely things look perfect. It isn't quite though, some spots are off by about an 1/8". Curtis doesn't mind though, I think he knows I'm not quite a professional carpenter.

It sure was fun work though. I had my country station on, and I got into a groove: identify bad end, measure 62 1/4", cut, mark 1" from each edge, identify good side, and screw down. I just kept repeating that process until it was all finished up. Then I took a nice cold shower to clean up and get the sawdust off.

I asked Curtis about the pin when he got back from work, and he told me the handle end got sheared off when the saw got banged off a truck one time - so THAT'S why.

I put together a gif, as should be expected by now.

I forgot my cord down at the RV and it's raining and I am tired so this is a text only post.

I painted the ends on the boardwalk this morning, and things are looking good. If things dry up (it's raining pretty good right now) I can paint the other older boards so everything goes together better.

However my big task before I go is to crush brick. Kate was using ash as an inert substance for part of the fire proof mortar, but we're all out now. So old fire brick will be used instead. My forearms are going to grow even stronger!

We also gotta dig some clay up tomorrow because we're just about out of that too.

Finally, today I learned that the lead in a herd is the female. So even though the buck has by far the biggest horns, Missy is the one you feed first when feeding the herd all together. We got talking about this because Wishaw, Snoopy and Midnight all escaped the paddock today. Gavin was coming back to the house with a wheelbarrow of trimmings, and Wishaw came over to eat some. He was giving it to her, and he had the gate partially open to get him and the wheelbarrow through. He unfortunately left a gap that Wishaw strolled right through, followed by Snoopy and Midnight. Whoops! Fortunately with a bucket of oats they all got brought back in. All they wanted was to eat the tall green grass outside the paddock and I don't blame them. I mean I wouldn't eat it personally but I can see the appeal.

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So that was yesterday's entry. We lost internet just as I was finishing writing it, so I just saved it for later. Today I finally remembered to take some photos of what's been going on.

I spent a good amount of time doing some more serious crushing. First I did some charcoal and mashed it all up into a fine powder. See the pic of my hand. I love how sparkly it is - I don't think you can really see in the photo but it's real neat to look at. Then some more brick. My oh my can I feel my forearms. I know, I know I need to stop mentioning my forearms. But they are getting stronger! After that I checked on Hugh and Gill, and gave the tomatoes further in the garden some water because they were drooping ever so slightly.

Kate kept on working on the stove. I'll post a pic and she can elaborate on it if she wants - she really knows what she's talking about and well, I don't.

Curtis worked on getting a new arbor over the board walk. I helped him grab a few posts, and he started measuring and cutting. He has two posts up now.

Finally, I remembered to take a photo of the garden! Check out how lush it is.

I had a rough day today. I had to deal with a lot of shit. Horse shit that is.

Curtis and I worked together on clearing out the horse area, and we made some serious progress. I learned that horse poop is actually much easier to fork when it's soaked through. It breaks into manageable chunks, and slides off the fork real easy too. I actually got so used to it sliding right off that I started 'tossing' it into the wheelbarrow instead of dropping it. That worked great until I picked up some slightly drier stuff. It stuck to the fork instead of flying off, and I nearly fell over from its momentum. It ended up RIGHT on top of the left wheelbarrow handle - ewww. I wiped the handle with some hay to clear it off as best I could - but still. I gave my hands a thorough washing after that, lol.

Kate kept on going on the stove. I helped her out by crushing up some more brick. As usual I put on some music and thumped away for about an hour.

Other than that today has been fairly relaxed. I've been reading about Hinduism for the past little while. There are some very neat ideas there to explore. The most interesting thing to me is that it's really not possible for us to be separate from the universe itself. We don't come IN to the the universe and then disappear when we die. The atoms that make me up were here well before "I" was, and they will be here long after "I" am gone. My body will die, but it doesn't disappear into nothingness - it'll most likely become ash or soil, and will eventually take another form. It's the idea of the divine play, or Lila where god (or the All Knowing or the Universe or whatever name you want to give) plays all the parts of every single thing in the universe. So it goes against the idea that we are lonely little creatures in a vast, empty and uncaring universe. Instead we are manifestations of the entire universe, and we cannot possibly be separated from it or anything else within it. I apologize if I'm not explaining this well, or if anyone more familiar with Hinduism is reading this and cringing at my attempts to talk about it. It's all new to me, but it's a refreshing way to see the world.

In gardening news, I am going to take some comfrey home! I think I might take some walking onions too, my mom asked about them tonight. Our garden is gonna get a nice little boost.

Oh and yesterday I got some ice cream! Wolf paws. Vanilla, chocolate, and peanut butter all together. Mmm.  

It's my second last night here. But how was today? Well I did a shit ton of lifting! Sorry I am going to milk the shit puns as much as possible. Curtis and I got it all finished up today and the barn is looking spiffy. I'm looking forward to seeing how short the horses look when they come for oats tonight or tomorrow morning. We also dug out 19 buckets of clay for Kate to use building the rocket stove. The clay was damp so the digging was much easier than last year, so that's good. The rain makes stuff heavier but easier to break up and lift too, so it's kind of a trade off.

Tomorrow is going to be spent packing, tidying up the RV and and collecting up some plants to take home. It should be a nice relaxed day. Enjoy the photos!

It is my last day! And I've got a bit of a buzz on. I've been hearing, "We gotta bottle that cider" for the past three months, and tonight we found the time and had the energy! And one bottle needed to be sacrificed to the hydrometer to find out what the alcohol percentage was. It's the Covid 2020 special batch. What percentage do you think it is? My hint is that it is almost apple wine. Did that help? It's 10%. Even from my sample taste at the start of bottling I could feel the effects of it. We are going to finish the sacrificed bottle tonight after chores to make sure it doesn't go bad (lol).

The rest of today was relaxed. I packed my stuff and cleaned up the RV. I hungout with Peaches for a while when she got left behind my the herd - she was either sleeping or distracted when they left. She chewed her cud, and I gave her a good scratch. Her little burps are cute but they smell horrific.

I did my last bike ride here too. The usual route along the lake, and it was beautiful as ever. Lots of folks out walking today.

I got reading about near death experiences. It's something I read about as a teenager but never really thought about until now. Now I'm getting back into it. Wow is it ever neat stuff.

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So Kate has asked me a few times over the course of the summer what I've learned while I'm here. That's one of those open ended questions that I'm really bad at answering off the top of my head, but if I have time to think I can come up with stuff.

- How to work with hydrated lime, not only to reinforce fence posts but to make fireproof mortar for a rocket stove
- How to milk and strip a goat (I am going to miss Lucy my milking buddy)
- Chickens make some seriously strange noises
- Chicken lovemaking is not really that romantic
- The real leader of a herd of goats is the head female and not the buck
- Wine and cider can be made without additives, you just gotta be patient
- How to make a tool with my welder (bone/brick/egg crusher)
- Some goats thoroughly enjoy a good scratch while other goats want nothing to do with you
- How to make a great organic matter sandwich (Hugh and Gill) and grow some great squash in the first year!
- How to tie up comfrey using a slipknot so it doesn't fall out of the knot as it shrinks
- How to build wood structures by wiring them together
- Geoff Lawton REALLY does not like lawns. I watched the soil special in the PDC and he spent a solid 3 minutes just hammering lawns. I loved it.
- How to bottle homemade cider
- Horses communicate a lot through their ears
- Horse shit is much easier to fork when it's nice and damp
- Some dogs eat and drink in a very messy way - Curragh I am looking directly at you
- Lots of stuff can be done in a natural, additive free way. It just takes longer. Thinking of wine/cider, and soil building too.

That is what I can come up after a bit of thinking. This is by no means an exhaustive list but it gives you a good enough idea.  It has been a whole lot of fun here. This is definitely a great place for anyone who wants to learn about permaculture in a very hands-on way.

To Kate, thanks for having me!

Cam it was a pleasure having you.  

Your enthusiasm, positive attitude, and relaxed demeanour have been energizing.   I have to say, that you have been the only "visitor" to this Homestead who persevered in learning how to milk and care for goats, and very well at that.  The livestock will surely miss you, and will require some extra attention on my part to make up for the void left in the wake of your return home.  But such is life.  I hope your experience here will serve you in some way in future.  

I've packed you off with some Permie essentials; comfrey plants, grape vine, jostaberry cuttings, good King Henry, walking onions, goat cream and yogourt, and of course some Homestead Hard Cider.  I hope you will keep us updated with progress in your "Permie Garden".   When ever you should be this way, please do stop in for some goat yogourt and a cream topped coffee.  If ever you should get the notion of doing all this again, I'm all for it, our door is always open.  Thanks again for all your help this growing season, it has been much appreciated.

Wishing you all the very best in your endeavours and adventures, as I have no doubt that you will succeed at whatever you put your mind and energies to.

Cheers!  K

I'm glad I was fun to be around! I am going to miss Peaches and Lucy the most, they were my two good buddies by the end. I liked all the goats though because they each had their own little quirk. The Buck as he was always on time. He was the first in and out of his stall and he was very responsible about it. Paul always pushing the boundaries figuratively and literally. Missy being the matriarch and a badass yet making the most whiny bleat she could. How Pearl was having nothing with the triplets trying to drink off her when they were too old. Daisy being very friendly and sweet but not the sharpest tool in the shed. They're a real fun group that's for sure.

The plants will be going in the ground today! We will see how they all do. By the looks of the other plants around here I think they'll do quite well. I'll have everyone try all the goat dairu too.

Kate Michaud wrote:
If ever you should get the notion of doing all this again, I'm all for it, our door is always open.

Thank you I appreciate it.  You've got a real nice place!

Kate Michaud wrote:
Wishing you all the very best in your endeavours and adventures, as I have no doubt that you will succeed at whatever you put your mind and energies to.

Same to you! I'm looking forward to your rocket stove updates.

All the best!