!! In the quiet hours of the bootcamp grind, I found myself: Esteban's Bootcamp Experience

B.E.L. Post # 66

After the morning’s cleaning blitz, I shifted gears and processed more cardboard, topping off the bin over at the Fisher Price house. It felt good to clear out another stack and get it ready for its next life.

After that, I headed up to the Abbey and dug out another post hole, making steady progress one hole at a time. Nothing too rushed, just good, honest work in the soil.

I wrapped up my off-boot day by kicking back and watching a cool movie, letting my body and mind unwind. All in all, it was a really great off-boot day.

Mike Haasl wrote:A pro tip for burning the router grooves...  Use the oxy acetylene torch to put a tiny, focused flame in the groove. You get much less charring outside the lettering so the planer has an easier time cleaning up the surface.  That's how I did the sign you're not supposed to read in the classroom.  In lieu of the oxy torch, I'd use a small propane torch flame and try to just hit the grooves.

Thanks so much, Mike — I really appreciate the pro tip and you taking the time to share it. That makes a lot of sense, especially keeping the charring focused so cleanup is easier afterward. I’ll definitely give the small propane torch approach a try and keep that in mind for future signs. Grateful to learn from your experience.

Andy Ze wrote:It seems like you guys spend a lot of time on that fencing. Could you not run twine or something instead? At least it would keep the deer out.

That’s a fair question. Yeah, it does take a good bit of time — and at the moment it’s just me working on it, since the high commander is out for a couple months and the other boot has been away for a bit. That said, I’m not on fencing all day every boot day, just chipping away at it steadily.

The goal here is long-term durability. I’m rebuilding about 30 panels at the Abbey (roughly 300 feet, conservatively) using the current design I was taught: posts buried three feet deep, spaced nine feet apart, each set with a gravel sock. The horizontals are all notched into the vertical posts to increase contact surface, with five nails per notch (four toe-nailed).

The fencing that failed was from earlier versions — posts set directly in soil with no gravel sock, which led to dry rot, and horizontals that weren’t notched, so the hardware took most of the load and eventually failed.

Twine would definitely be faster, but out here it usually only lasts a year or two in the elements, especially with deer pressure. This approach takes longer up front, but it should hold up for many years with minimal maintenance.

There must be something wrong ... I didn't get e-mails anymore about boots (like you) posting in their threads. First I thought: maybe they're on holiday.
But it lasted too long. I went to look for new posts at the Wheaton Lab forum ... and indeed, you had new posts!

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:There must be something wrong ... I didn't get e-mails anymore about boots (like you) posting in their threads. First I thought: maybe they're on holiday.
But it lasted too long. I went to look for new posts at the Wheaton Lab forum ... and indeed, you had new posts!

That’s really kind of you — thank you for taking the time to check.
I’m glad you found the posts despite the email hiccup. Hopefully the notifications sort themselves out soon, but I appreciate you letting me know.