evan's ant village log

Wyatt Barnes wrote:For smaller amounts of food and liquids you could consider a zeer pot fridge, very old tech. http://practicalaction.org/zeer-pots A fellow in India also invented a small fridge made of clay that uses the same evaporative cooling technique.

An Australian solution is the Coolgardie Safe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe. They are simple to make and you could repurpose an old cupboard or set of draws

How to make http://forest.mtu.edu/pcforestry/resources/studentprojects/BryanJames/BuildCoolgardie.htm

Day 27

Started eating into some of my tractor time today. I loaded up a trailer with logs in preparation for moving them to my building site. I'm not sure how much the trailer can handle, so I stopped short of loading my entire pile on. Between the trailer, the pile, and the logs that have already been moved over, I think I might almost have enough for the posts, the beams, the walls that border on earth, and maybe even a good bit of the roof.

I'm expecting some rain tomorrow, so it should be a good time to get lots of work done on my garden.

Day 28

No rain today after all. I think it rained for about 2 minutes last night, and that was it. But it was nice and cloudy today, and I was able to work well into the afternoon without overheating. My garden beds are coming together. I think I'll be ready to plant some seeds tomorrow morning.

I also biked down to basecamp and helped chop up tomatoes and whatnot for some Cinco De Mayo Pico De Gallo. Mmmhmm!

Jocelyn informs me that all these big gorgeous yellow flowers that are popping up all over basecamp are arrowleaf balsamroot, a native edible. Cool!

Hey there Evan. Love all the wonderful photos and ideas being spread on this thread.

I have recently discovered a very interesting video series available on Youtube. It's a BBC documentary on a project in progress to build a 13th century castle using only 13th century techniques and materials. I thought that maybe it might contain some useful ideas and construction concepts for you and your amazing journey. It's called "Secrets of the Castle with Ruth, Peter, and Tom."

Keep up the good work and much luck to ya.

https://youtu.be/L5IMeODLND8

Day 29

I planted more seeds today! Marianne Cicala sent a whole bunch to the gappers a while back, and since there's currently no gappers here that want to plant them, I asked if I could take some and Marianne said yes. I planted these more carefully than that last batch I just threw out. This latest round actually got covered with dirt, imagine that. I also went around and gathered lots of dandelion seed pod heads and blew them all over my garden.

When I was digging around, I came across a fair number of juicy looking earthworms. I was quite pleased to see these little dudes hard at work enriching the soil.

The sun is setting behind the western mountains now and the sky is every shade of indigo, violet, pink, and orange as I write this.

Loving this thread. Go Evan!

Evan the ant you are inspirational, I love your thread. keep on sharing your achievements. I would love so much to be a gapper on your place, don't worry I can't i write from Italy, but just to let you know I would if I could. can you tell us the address to send you some care packages sorry I don't remember if you already have.

Lorenzo Costa wrote: can you tell us the address to send you some care packages

evan c/o paul wheaton
2120 s reserve #351
missoula, mt 59801

Day 30

I felt like gourds were underrepresented in my planting, so I took some of those seeds Charles sent and stuck them in towards the bottoms of my garden beds. There's a little puddle of standing water about 30 feet away from my garden spot, so I figured I'd go ahead and start using it to let my seeds know I want them to get to germinating. I cut off the top and poked some holes in a bottom corner of a gallon water jug, and along with a 5 gallon bucket, had myself a little makeshift watering can. I ended up drizzling about 25 gallons on my raised beds this morning, and then another 25 this evening. Not much, but maybe it'll wake those seeds up a bit. That puddle will be dry soon though, so hopefully it'll rain before long.

Also got the trailer unloaded and the second round of logs for my octawofati cut up and loaded onto it. Cutting through a hundred or so dry logs wasn't as bad as it sounds, but I reckon my bowsaw will need some sharpening soon.

After a hearty meal of eggs and veggies scrambled in butter, I took stock of my food supply and noted that I'm pretty much out of animal products, aside from a little bear of honey that I haven't opened yet. I thought, hey, I've got lots of rice and beans and coconut oil and avocados, I could experiment with being a vegan for thirty days and see how it makes me feel. So I guess I'm gonna try to do that and maybe after thirty days I'll experiment with paleo or raw or something and eventually maybe eating exclusively off the land.

evan l pierce wrote:

After a hearty meal of eggs and veggies scrambled in butter, I took stock of my food supply and noted that I'm pretty much out of animal products, aside from a little bear of honey that I haven't opened yet. I thought, hey, I've got lots of rice and beans and coconut oil and avocados, I could experiment with being a vegan for thirty days and see how it makes me feel. So I guess I'm gonna try to do that and maybe after thirty days I'll experiment with paleo or raw or something and eventually maybe eating exclusively off the land.

Are there many wild green edibles around? I seem to be surrounded by lamb's quarters and mallow and wild mustard at the moment but my location and climate are somewhat different. Rice and beans is much better when there's a load of green stuff to throw in with it.