!!! SEPP to Boot: Stephen's Experience (BEL)

BRK #73

A Thursday like no other... Dez has finished his two years as a boot. You know the old saying: "A three-legged dog can still walk." So here we go.

Meanwhile: no, this is not a face-hugger from Alien. It's some kind of orb-spinning spider, wrapping up a cricket or something for its next meal. Saw this just outside the door to the workshop earlier today.



A little more on the serious side: we were garlicking today! Samantha gifted the boot camp a very large braid of garlic from the Missoula Farmer's Market, and we planted half of it today at Basecamp. We intend to plant the second half of it tomorrow, over at the Lab. Here we are breaking down the bulbs to cloves for planting.



Earlier today, I wrapped-up the yard-work that Hao and I started yesterday over at the Tipi. It will be rented starting in October, and won't be unoccupied for several months (provided the winter isn't too harsh for the guests!), so we want to make things as welcoming as possible before our first guest arrives in a couple weeks.



Finally: at today's board game night, we had two first-plays at the table. I ended up winning our inaugural game of SCREE-E-EECH! (another for the, "Worth every penny... of the $2 spent at the thrift store" category). If you're really curious: it's like the classic maze game Labyrinth, re-themed to be about cars and "success." Our second game of the evening was the much more interesting Corsairs: a pirate-themed euro-style game about bidding and a bit of dice-throwing in there. Congrats to Fred on his victory.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #74

Happy Friday...!

I spent the first part of the day working with Fred on his plot. We were planting a bunch of walking onions over the berms surrounding his plot. While doing so, I had a chance to slow down a bit and closely observe things I'd usually miss while doing things like felling dead standing trees or even watering hugels from a distance. For example, the morning dew was instrumental in me noticing a few spiders. Here's the first I worked around (highlighted in red):



This one chose to forego a typical orb, and instead had a tangled mass of webbing about the size of a typical cup saucer. The dew made it conspicuous, though the tiny spider is also highlighted.



Here's a napping hard-shell snail. The tip of my hori hori knife is included to show scale.



Here's an empty snail shell. I wonder where it went off to? It was very interesting to see that the shell was thin and delicate enough to be translucent.



Hidden Picture Time!!! Can you find the snail shell hidden in this picture. Challenge Level: NOVICE.



Finally: as scheduled, we did more garlicking today, and I followed Paul's recommendation for planting garlic for next season in a diagonal-line pattern. For my own reference to help in 2023, here's Swamp Castle's garlic pattern, highlighted in orange. There's more on the back (east side) but it's too difficult to catch pictures back there (and actually, difficult to grow stuff back there) due to proximity to the fence. Hopefully this garlic will thrive, and will add a bit of diversity for next year.

Caleb remarked that, should even half of the garlic we planted in the past two days take hold, we won't have to buy garlic in 2023 after the first harvest... Here's to hoping!



Paul also suggested that we start looking into harvesting a potato plant or two next week, since we have so many in the ground at the moment - particularly at Basecamp. We'll likely start on one of the hugels I've been caretaking. More details on that starting Monday, I think.

That's all for now. Make the most of your weekend...!

BRK #75

I kinda fell off the BRK wagon for a few days. My apologies. It's a combination of not carrying my camera with me, and not having time to go back up and fetch it from my tent before we're off on whatever adventure happens next (oh, and I don't want to do photos of my food...and I spent a lot of time over the weekend eating). So here we go.

Here's the sunrise from Saturday. I knew before I rolled out of my sleeping bag that it was going to be a fantastic weekend. This view certainly didn't disabuse me of that notion.



It was Hao's final weekend as a boot, then he went back to the Carolinas. He'll be missed, and the team has another hole in it so soon after a high commander's retirement (both occasions were recognized with a fancy dinner in town over the weekend). So it goes. The good news is that Sunday afternoon I just so happened to pass by the vegan donut shop during their "happy hour," and I was able to eat my sorrows away.

And yet, we must move forward, so... Fast forward to today. Here's a look from my point of view while removing the under-skirt of the tipi, which needed a good cleaning prior to our several-months-straight of rentals.



By the end of the day, they were suspended from the "Bob Line" out in front of the classroom. They'll be hosed-down, lightly-scrubbed, and left to dry most of tomorrow, then returned to the tipi, ready for our guests.



While over at the cistern on the Lab today, I was checking the water levels. Again, here's my point of view, and things look great in there.



As Judy - our fire-truck - filled with water from the cistern, I was visited by a pair of these birds. They seemed comfortable enough around me, and as they were going about their business Judy and I must have just been in their path.

I think this is a Canada Jay, but I can't confirm it. Anyone out there with a clearer or more-confident ID on this bird?



We watered the hugels over at Allerton Abbey today. Things are slowing-down on the irrigation front, and now our minds are always distracted by thoughts of harvesting. Here's a close-up view of some comfrey growing on the east side of Swamp Castle.



Finally: did a minor band-aid on a chain step on the rear of Judy while at the cistern. This will need a legit welding job, but until then I will resist the urge to tailgate-ride down the road on this little guy.



Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #76

Wednesday is Project Day, as per usual. I took on the Tipi project, for which the goal is to ensure that the tipi is in its best condition prior to rentals, beginning in October and not ending for a few months. So the first part of my day was filled with crawling between the rocket mass heater and the tipi wall, reinstalling the tent skirts. Here's the behind-the-scenes view:



Today we also touched on a few other projects. Cory and I were tasked with some planting of Sepp Holzer grain in a protected area just behind the Fisher Price House (it's called the Gulag: no one goes in, no one goes out). I couldn't think of a more appropriate tool to help break up the ground for planting the grain than - of course - a... Fokin Hoe!

For the record, I enjoy using this tool. The long, narrow end works kind of like a pick, and helps you move out any rocks you've extracted. The curved section is a nice earth-gouging tool, allowing you to easily dig deeper into the soil where you need it. It's also light-weight, as you might expect, without sacrificing utility or strength. It earns two [green?] thumbs up from me.



We all teamed-up and dropped off the large detachable water tanks, plus the hauling trailer, up at the Lab for long-term storage. Then it was back down to Basecamp for more logging, bucking, splitting, and stacking.

After the close of the work day, we spent some time this evening at the Bun Warmer. Here's Grey, stoking things up:



And finally: here's a gigantic crab spider hanging out at the Bun Warmer. It was likely half-an-inch in diameter... Though I confess I didn't move near enough to catch an accurate measurement.



Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #77

It was a rainy Thursday, all day today. We spent most of it doing indoor tasks. Event prep is currently high on the priority list, so we went over to the Classroom and started up the Rocket Mass Heater in there to keep us comfortable.



Among the tasks the team completed today included new lids for our sand barrels. Grey suggested a pyramid design back when we first took on the project close to the end of the summer, and today he and Caleb finished them. I took them outside and made the replacements on all three sand barrels, and now they all look suitably exotic. We're hoping the cats take a shine to them as occasional perches, as the flat capstone seems purrfect for them.



I suppose it would be weird to find a "favourite ratchet-strap," but here it is. I had to do some chain-sawing work today and ran out of rain-free room, until I found this little striped number. I locked-down the logs and the rest is history.

Seriously though: it has a very elegant, non-fussy mechanism for strapping-down loads (there are no springs or even ratchets, so I suppose you could call it a tension-strap or something like that), and it was a pleasant surprise to work with it.



Finally: Thursday night also happens to be our tabletop game nights. Our newest game hit the table tonight: The Quest for El Dorado, a unique combination of racing game and deck-building game, where the players lead a team of explorers through the jungle to find the fabled City of Gold. Congrats to Grey on his win.



Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!