PEP Badge: Oddball

A while back, I bought this retro chair secondhand at an op shop. It had a spring which had sprung, puncturing the seat and cushion. As its original metal sheath was damaged and could not be reattached to the chair frame (nor could I muscle the spring all that distance with the tools I had), I got a piece of wood, and used it to attach the spring to the back of the chair with several screws. The mend has held for two years now, so it definitely worked!

This doesn't seem to be in any of the PEP badges (though perhaps it could do in future), so I'm submitting this here--making charcoal for biochar.

A South African flatmate convinced us to make a braai for wood cooking. We use it often for having a nice barbecue or just doing some fire cooking (frying, tortillas, roasted peppers, ect), and having learned a small-batch method for biochar, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to get some added benefit from the fire (and make use of the tiny scrappy bits of wood, shells, and, in this case, queen palm seeds that are less suitable for cooking fires)

The burn chamber is made out of a coffee tin--worked a treat! All the charcoal was light and glassy sounding, and easily crushed up for use in garden beds.

I have a vise but it wasn't doing me a lot of good loose on the workbench. I bolted it down and used it immediately.

I checked the Animal Care section and saw the badge bits for mason bees and for catching wild swarms of honeybees. Are there any oddball points available for traditional beekeeping with an existing hive?

We planted some milkweed a while back and last year started raising (seems like a strong word, but I guess that's what's happening) monarch caterpillars until they become butterflies. We released 35 last year (before our biggest milkweed plant died off) and are on track for 25 this year so far.

Jon Lawlor wrote:I checked the Animal Care section and saw the badge bits for mason bees and for catching wild swarms of honeybees. Are there any oddball points available for traditional beekeeping with an existing hive?

That's at a higher level in Animal Care.

Hey Mike,

Thanks; I think I see it now under the first 6 species list of the Iron Badge for Animal Care.

I think we could probably award some oddball points for building the hive box from scratch yourself. Not from a kit, etc.

That makes sense. If/when I evolve into a multi-hive household, I'll try a Holzer hive and see how it compares.

I looked in the Natural Building aspect, but could not find any BB for sealing wood naturally. So I figured I'd post this in Oddball!

My dad used pallet wood to build me this awesome stand for their old laundry sink


I don't want it to rot away in our ever-present rain, so I mixed up linseed oil and apple cider vinegar to make a natural sealent. It's 1/2 apple cider vinegar, and 1/2 linseed oil.


Pouring in the linseed oil did cool things!



Here's the top, half sealed. What a difference!



I had to ask my son to take further pictures, because my hands were far too oily!



And here it is, all finished! So pretty! It took a bit over an hour to mix and then apply the sealant. I can't imagine doing it any faster than that.



I've used a similar mixture in the past to seal my kids swingset (that my dad also made out of pallet wood). When I sealed that one, I used canola oil and white vinegar, and it has aged to this lovely black. There doesn't seem to be any sign of rot, and it's 4 years old (in a very damp microclimate in the rainy pacific northwest.)