Ash Jackson

Thanks, Nicole! I used the window like a light table when I was tracing the tricky bits, too. I'll try to get a picture of that next time.

Definitely no additional electricity. ❤️

I humbly request 1/2 point for: "Make a hand-burned roundwood name badge, with hand-made PEP Badges, on braided cotton floss to wear around your neck"

My worked time for this definitely exceeded one hour, with each of the three tasks going over half an hour each. But I could maybe see getting under an hour total with skill and luck. Not by much, though. Maybe it's a skill issue.

I've always liked the idea of Paul's wood burned name badges, for plastic-free nametags. I also love the idea of physical badges for PEP.

So, I took a bit of christmas tree trunk cut I've been saving for years for this very purpose, drilled a big hole and burned in my name. Wood burner this time was 'the big flathead screwdriver bit I never use' and a candle flame for heat. I drove the hot bit into the wood to get some indentation, too.

Then I made physical PEP badges, by tracing in pencil Nicole's lovely badge art, which I scaled up and printed at 1"x2". I feel like sand badges made of paper is about the right level of permanence. I have thoughts for the higher level badges. I didn't make a BB100, because PEP1 is the 'big badge' I care about.

I created a QR code on the back of each badge that goes to permies.com/skip so that I can more easily explain 'WTF is PEP' to anyone who asks.
...and Yes, that's a 'Paul jar' for Food Prep.

Lastly, I braided floss just long enough to get it over my head. I dislike when my name badge hangs too low. I tied a square knot just right so I can undo it to add/upgrade my PEP badges.

A good reminder to take (and post!) good cleaning pictures.

I humbly submit these for an additional 1/2 point to the above BB.

More details on cleaning: I used a battery powered hand-vac, specifically because using my vinegar spray and a rag meant the rag got caught on little nicks in the wood, leaving behind tiny rag fibers (dirtier than it started). The closet floor I cleaned with a stiff bristle scrubber and vinegar spray.

Coydon Wallham wrote:How about we declare that when the sun is directly overhead, that is 12 noon, the exact middle of the 24 hour clock cycle? That is Common Sense by the most simple and clear definition- anyone anywhere can observe and agree on this as a basic principle.

Yes! I agree that local solar noon is the thing to be observed, and I wish more folks were of a like mind.

Here to grumble that we're still doing (or rather, that I'm still subject to) capricious clock changes.

I humbly request 1-1/2 points for: "Fix Trim issue at Bifold Door, where it's messing up the door, also add a handle to the door and then put the door back also yikes"

My my rationale for requesting this number of points is the BB is an expansion of a 1pt Nest-Sand BB: https://permies.com/wiki/157694/pep-nest/Fix-Basebaord-Trim-PEP-BB

A bifold door frame had rotted away, causing the bottom door thingy to be screwed into air. Pretty sure that's not how air works!

So I chisled out the rotted bit where the thingy attaches, filled the capacious hole first with wood putty (to create a workable substrate) and then with wood filler. I let the combo dry for 24-hours, and then successfully screwed the thingy back in.

Yikes! I also gave the door and floor in the closet a thorough cleaning. Turns out the only way to get the dust off every single slat was to give attention to... You guessed it, every single slat.

I decided part of this issue is that the bifold door doesn't have a handle, so I bought a handle in keeping with my landlord's silver/white aesthetic, and I drilled a now hole (and countersunk the back a bit) in the door stile to add the handle.

Now the door and thingy stay put when I open and close the door. Hurray! (Maybe this means the air filter will get changed more frequently?) Pics below.

We're flying in, but are getting a boot-ride from Missoula up to Wheaton Labs, and (boots-willing) I'm happy to share our ride.

Good call, thank you Stephen.

Anything else you'd like to see there, as bootcamp high commander?

Mention pee-pitchers!

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Hello, Permies Staff!

This HUGE BB is finally finished! Here is the thread which documents all the foods preserved.

Here are the totals:

Canned goods

Including Syrups, Juice, Sauces, Salsa, Pasta Sauce, Jams, Jellies, and Pie Fillings of many, many species of fruits and veggies, for 405,594 calories, a big chunk of the 1 million (40.5%)
Of these, there were 22.8 lbs of stews/broth,
118.25 lbs of syrups/juices,
186.3 lbs of sauces,
68 lbs. Of pie filling,
12.7 lbs. Of fish that were canned,
31.1 lbs. Of fire cider bottled,
506 lbs. Of jams or jellies canned,
31.1 lbs. Of fruits canned whole or sliced,
And 40lbs. 10oz. Of pickled foods bottled.
*all these weights are minus the bottles weights, and since there were over 350 of those, this alp represents a sturdy set of shelves in my basement holding it all up!!

Dehydrated

Including Berries, Pears, Herbs, Beans, Noodles, and Jerky 74,375 calories, only 7.4%.
Including: 49.2lbs. Of meat turned into jerky,
43.7 lbs. Of dried fruit,
7.7 lbs of herbs,
61lbs 14.3 Oz of beans dried and stored,
1.85 lbs. Of noodles,
95 lbs. Of fruit leather,
16.9 lbs. Of stored grains

Freeze Dried

I freeze dried apricots, apples, tomatoes, corn, pumpkin, yogurt, and pie filling for 43,649 calories. (4.3 %) I have freeze dried many more calories and saved them in mylar bags which didn't count (dang!) Nearly 40lbs.

Live Storage

Including potatoes, parsnips, sunchokes all stored in a root cellar, two different seasons. 136,821 calories (13%) 390lbs!

Seeds

Including sunflower, pumpkin and primrose seeds: 25,120 calories.  Plus 6,000 cal of flaxcrackers (3.1%) 8.15lbs.

Freezer

including chicken and deer to make up the 100,000 calorie limit! (10%) 210lbs.

There were far more than 24 species of foods preserved for this BB, including Deer, Chicken, Elk, Primrose, Pumpkin, Sunflower, Duck eggs, Cucumbers, Cabbage, Wheat, Beans, Herbs of many varieties, Pears, Strawberries, Elderberries, Autumn Olives, American black nightshade, Tomatoes, Sunchokes, Parsnips, Potatoes, Little barley, Apple, Corn, Apricots, Flaxseeds, Peaches, Carrots, Crabapple, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries.
Each post documents where the foods came from. I raised a large chunk of them. My family also hunted or were given hunted animals from the local area, I stored foods from neighbors and foraged areas within two miles of my home. I bought foods from the local greenhouse, a better-than-organic farm, from which I often biked or walked. Finally, I picked fruit and tomatoes and gleaned potatoes from neighbors in my hometown.

First, let me say it's a truly impressive amount of food you've preserved! It really is. That said, I have some questions I'm not able to answer after reading the preservation thread and the above post.

"- Their food values need to be “organic or better”

I can't determine the food values at:
- Rebekah's place (much of the food)
- Debra's (hippopotomas plums)
- Ellie's (apricots)
- School dropoff (first potatoes post)
- "Local farms" (second potatoes post)
- Other potato locations
- Farmer's market honey (just because it's a farmer's market doesn't mean it's organic)
- Tara's place (local greenhouse)
- Wherever the corn came from
- etc.

- 75% of the food comes from homesteading, preferably from your own homestead

By my count, food not from homestead (or unclear) was:
- Local farms potatoes, 18,000 cal
- Farmer's market honey, 12,800 cal
- Local organic spud farm, 19,000 cal
- Sweetener for fruit leather ??? cal (acquired how?)
- Agrarian harvest, 90,000 cal beans
- Flour for noodles ??? cal (acquired how?)

The amount of non-homestead food appears fine; but this work of tallying is for the BB requestor to do, not the reviewer. I'd like to see in one post, at a glance, what your percentage of 'not homestead' food wound up being.

"- detail the weights of each type of food being stored and how many calories it represents  (meeting the above stated requirements)"

I'm not seeing this written out in your response to this BB thread.
- How many calories in total were Deer jerky?
- Or Apricots?
- Or Cherries?
I would prefer to be able to tell by reading one line in this BB thread that you reached 100,000 calories of potatoes, as opposed to tracking it down in the thread.

The running total of calories is extremely difficult for me to follow in the thread (ex: I can't track where the 30,000 calories for the frozen turkeys was removed from the running total, just mentioned).

It's clear you've put in a lot of work to preserve food.

In a new post: Take a go at writing a really clear summary log in this BB thread of each the food types and total pounds and calories (ex, Deer Jerky, ### lbs, ### cal, Pear Fruit Leather, ### lbs, ### cal), including the values both at your homestead and other sources, and please post in a way that makes it very easy for the reviewer (you're now stuck with me), to track what you've done and total it up alongside you. This is a proud BB, and is deserving of proudly presented documentation. Let this be your dissertation on food preservation!