!! Harry the boot (BEL)

BEL Post #3

Well, today had a lot going on but firstly, I wanted to share a picture from yesterday evening. Since my wife, Alex, is usually the Rocket Heater (RH) expert at home, I am usually watching her start and run RHs. Since I am here at WL and wanted to warm the Solarium tonight, I got a chance to start up and run the Rocket Mass Heater and get the Solarium up to 70 deg F before bed!

This morning started with a tour at Basecamp to discuss a number of hugel and land whale sites along the road up to the Caldera. Following the tour, we took the time to clean up some of the junkpoles for fences needing rebuilding around the FP house. Lastly, we finished the morning cleaning up the workshop.

The afternoon was back up at the lab at Allerton Abbey. Specifically, we started the Abbey front door threshold repair. First, we used a 2x4 cut to replace the part of the threshold we had to remove yesterday. This piece was snugly wedged between both door jambs and will become the base of the new threshold which will ultimately be finished with a top set of planks that seamlessly transition to the earthen floor (the remainder of this fix will be completed later). Next, we noticed that the bottom door jamb was lower than the door, therefore, not providing an air seal along the door's lower edge. To fix this, a new bottom door jamb would need to be made that was taller than the previous one. Esteban and I went back to Basecamp to look for suitable wood scrap to make the new 2x2x39.25" jamb. We found piece of lumber mill scrap that had just enough material on one end to make the new jamb. We cut it to length and then I showed Esteban how to use a table saw to "mill" our 2x2 cross section (always important to mark the end of the wood to know what material you need to cut away). We took it back up to the Abbey and installed it. Next, we will need to staple on new felted wool to act as the seal material along the bottom of the door.

When we returned to Basecamp, we got an early start of preparing for Taco Tuesday (my first!) dinner. I didn't take any pictures (but check out Esteban's post as he may have some), but we had contributions from Opalyn (a brussel sprout dish), from Alex (black bean dip that she made for me for my trip to WL), and then beef tacos on Stephen's favorite tortillas. Ending with ice cream due to Paul snagging some during his last trip to town was a great way to end Taco Tuesday dinner.

To end the night, Opalyn was gracious enough to help us with some sewing projects, teaching Paul darning, patching (for my fix -- including how to make a mitered path) or how to replace a button on Esteban's utility tool case. I was particularly fascinated by some of the tips for tying knots on the thread as well as stitches that helped to further hold the stitches snuggly in place. Thanks again to Opalyn for teaching us all this evening!

BEL Post#4

After a rainy day here at WL, it was great to end it with a pasta dinner Stephen made and shared with us. There is nothing better than having something to fill up on after a long, cloudy, wet day.

We started the morning off completing some cleaning before we have some new visitors to the lab over the next few days. The Solarium and Library were both looking great after some much needed TLC. While cleaning the Library, Stephen identified an old stool that was on its last leg (ba-da-ching ) and needed to be disassembled into resusables, burnables, and disposables. Interestingly enough, while I deconstructed the stool, Stephen identified a need in the Library that could potentially use brackets I had salvaged from the stool (always great when there is that kind of serendipity). The project for the need in the Library was a "rack" for standing bamboo poles (see Stephen's concept posted below). Esteban and I looked through available materials around the shop and came up with a design using the materials gathered in the photo below. Our design will require us to use various skills and techniques that both of us were eager to exercise while here at WL, so win-win . We got materials cut and poles debarked and ready but were not able to finish the project before heading up to the Labs for afternoon tasks (so more on this build will come tomorrow/later this week). We gathered tools and materials and headed to the Allerton Abbey. There, Esteban and I continued the fix to the threshold for the front door. Starting with WL milled scrap lumber of a similar thickness (~3/8 inch), we worked to make a stable and aesthetically pleasing "veneer" over the fix I shared from earlier this week. Today we got planks cut, fit, leveled, and ready to be linseed oiled and then final installed tomorrow. Lastly, Stephen, Esteban, and I worked on parts of the hugels at the Abbey to begin casting cover crop seeds to continue to promote an active soil (and considering some earlier than usual growth all over WL and basecamp, it is worth getting ahead on the grasses and starting to get other helpful plants growing). The cover crop included wild peas, sunflowers, lupine, dandelion, daikon radish, alfalfa, and a couple of others (I would need to verify those with Stephen). I think I did a good job worthy of the teaching I have received from my wife . During  our time working on the hugels at the Abbey, Stephen made a surprise discovery of a Rhubarb emerging for the year. I am pretty sure Stephen was the giddiest of each of us about the find, but I was a close second .

Although we all ended the day a bit wet, we were all really happy about our accomplishments. Looking forward to tomorrow (which is a special day -- more to come ).

BEL Post #5

Lots went on today, but more importantly, it is my wife, Alex's birthday. I would like to start by saying that me and my family wouldn't be on this journey if it wasn't for her interest and drive towards us making this change. She is my "stream" (she knows what I am talking about ), and I can't wait to continue our path!

For the reason above, I am late on posting this evening and want to give a brief breakdown followed by pictures for the day:

- Linseed oiled and installed the new "veneer" planks for the Abbey front door threshold fix.

- Completed the stand for bamboo posts based on Stephen's concept, combining scrap round wood and dimensional lumber.

- Retrieved some Willow Candy from WilloWonka that was ready to store up at the Willow Candy Warehouse.

- Ran the Cooper Cabin RMH - prepared cardboard for future visitors.

- Gave the WOFATI Greenhouse soil some love.

More details on later posts! Good night!

We decided to freeze the rest of the cake that the kids made so that you can have some too; L also mixed, proofed, and baked 2lbs of sourdough bread (having to blend two different recipes because of ...complications) all on her own! We've created two little bakers! Sorry, there's no bread leftover to freeze...

The Abbey threshold looks fantastic! Aside from a major overhaul of the Abbey's wingwalls, are you able to share the list of tasks needed to be done for the Abbey to be occupied/finished? I have to admit that I'd love to see drawings to explain the wingwall issue because it's not clear to me (or I just don't recall) what went wrong with the original build. Is it that the angle of the wingwalls from the front wall is too shallow? What would you estimate would be the number of hours required for each task (including the junkpole fencing repairs)? Not being able to protect the gardens from deer would be a huge loss for the 2026 growing season.

I'm happy to see the coffee table (that you built!! you're silly!) living in cooper cabin, I was concerned that it would need to be stored under a tarp in the boneyard. Speaking of, I still have a little heartburn about my scythe being stored under a tarp and am having second thoughts about leaving my tool out there to get damaged. Can you check on my scythe before you go and bring it back home if there's any concern? Back to the coffee table, I have to admit that I'm a little confused because we were told that we can't store anything in the cabins if we're not occupying them... so the coffee table is satisfactory or will it be relocated to the boneyard under our tarp before you leave?

I forgot to tell you but I put a few jars of the hot pepper seeds that I saved in your luggage... don't eat them! lol... but seeing the abbey greenhouse reminded me: can you find out if it's ok to plant some of those seeds in the greenhouse or are the growing spaces already accounted for?

Alexandra Malecki wrote:
The Abbey threshold looks fantastic! Aside from a major overhaul of the Abbey's wingwalls, are you able to share the list of tasks needed to be done for the Abbey to be occupied/finished? I have to admit that I'd love to see drawings to explain the wingwall issue because it's not clear to me (or I just don't recall) what went wrong with the original build. Is it that the angle of the wingwalls from the front wall is too shallow? What would you estimate would be the number of hours required for each task (including the junkpole fencing repairs)? Not being able to protect the gardens from deer would be a huge loss for the 2026 growing season.

In order for the Abbey to be "finished" (besides the wingwall repairs - which needs a response focused just on that effort), the running list (in the form of a run- on sentence ) would be: repairing cob on the front wall that is a result of setting in the structure, repair/replace cracked front window, place wood in the cracked portion of the earthen floor to bring to the same level and finish the cob floors to that fix and the fix to the threshold, fix a crack in the rear wall cobbed/plastered wall, unbind and repair the hinges to prevent further binding of the back door, run simple electrical circuit/wiring to a couple of outlets convenient spots in the Abbey and get reattached to the solar panels on the "roof" and update/include charge controller/inverter/battery setup, consider plumbing for water and include/complete grey water system integrating with the greenhouse/collection for winter months, replace some rotting planks on the front porch, get new wool felt sealing material on the front door and new lower jamb, adjust the current retention approach for the "cover" of the rocket stove to ensure that the cover stays on without additional "support" (logs used to help hold the cast iron "cover" on). That is the list I can recall tonight, but I can think through if there is anything else after visiting again this weekend.

Alexandra Malecki wrote:
I still have a little heartburn about my scythe being stored under a tarp and am having second thoughts about leaving my tool out there to get damaged. Can you check on my scythe before you go and bring it back home if there's any concern?

I will grab it this weekend just to be safe .

Alexandra Malecki wrote:
Back to the coffee table, I have to admit that I'm a little confused because we were told that we can't store anything in the cabins if we're not occupying them... so the coffee table is satisfactory or will it be relocated to the boneyard under our tarp before you leave?

I think the coffee tab fits well in the space and matches the "decor" so no one has felt a need for it to be (re)moved from Cooper Cabin.

Alexandra Malecki wrote:
I forgot to tell you but I put a few jars of the hot pepper seeds that I saved in your luggage... don't eat them! lol... but seeing the abbey greenhouse reminded me: can you find out if it's ok to plant some of those seeds in the greenhouse or are the growing spaces already accounted for?

I shared the desire to plant some of the peppers in the Greenhouse with Stephen, and he was OK with adding it to the refreshed soil we worked on this week. I will bring the seeds up tomorrow.