Kyle's Permie Bootcamp (BRK)

BRk Post 53

Monday gardening this morning, spent the whole time cutting down grass sprouts with a sickle. I can see some peas getting  a few inches tall and a lot of little sprouts I'll need to thin soon.

Made a start on some latch pieces. Roughed out some little bow limbs, turned a little round into a block for the latch, and I might use this shorter round as a handle.

The wood is still solid even if there are some bore holes and weaker wood I'm working around. I'm enjoying working with black locust wish there was some fresh pieces around.

The springs are going to be much slimmer and narrower than I envisioned and I will probably use two shorter lengths instead of one single long one.

And I'm having trouble finding a piece of wood without any cracks or checking to carve into a gear. I think I'll need to use a smaller diameter round and pin little spokes into it instead. But I'll have to unstack a whole wood rack to get to some good pieces because they are buried at the bottom.

Hope to get some more done tomorrow.

BRK Post 54

More pieces roughed out for the latch. Slimmed down the spring limbs until they bend, I'll need to do a final tiller once I can test them in the door.

Cut two square pegs to make gear spokes but I need to think about spacing and placement between the latch and handles.

I have two dowels rounded out for the latch to ride on but they need to be turned down a bit thinner before they are ready. Before I got them sanded down completely our table sanded let out a cloud of magic smoke and melted plastic cooled around the motor windings, so I get to do the rest by hand. And find a fix for the sander.

Doesn't feel like I got a lot done. I did pick the hinges and they are on their way, 3-5 days. I'm going to start the door frame and core tomorrow. I'll have a better idea of how to enclose the latch once I've got the door in front of me.

BRK Post 55

Made a start on the door frame itself today. Cut the door frame to fit in the rough opening then fit the core of the door inside with an 1/8in gap on each side. It is difficult to tell in the picture but the latch side is angled to prevent the trailing edge of the door from catching on the door frame.

It looks like I need to reduce the diameter of the knob shaft because an 1/8th of a turn makes the latch travel too far. I am thinking up a way to spin the center of the shaft and cut it down or find a smaller piece again.

Seeing more signs of spring here. During lunch I walked around and took pictures of the little flowers coming up. They are all very aromatic and very small.

BRK Post 56

Did more grass elimination and watering on the gardens today. Erica and I hauled the water and watered almost everything. The sprouts are still small but there are more of them coming up.

There are dandelions everywhere and they are making me want to try me hand at dandelion wine. Maybe this weekend.

Hot day today. Temp was over 80. Had to change over to shorts after lunch.

No work on the door today. Got together with Josiah, Matt, Daniel, and Erica for some cob work. We got the wool insulation up and started applying the first cob layer. Josiah stepped us through the process and once I found a good consistency for the cob it went on quickly.

The wool went up easily by folding the sheared coats into the right shape and stapling them in place.

One mistake I made was cutting the wood slats near the air compressor and nicked the air hose with the saw... whoops. Going to have to repair that now in addition to the sander.

That was the day basically. Seems like I need more daylight to get things done. Up by Cooper Cabin now looking at the overview of the river running by while it gets dark.

BRK Post 57

Lots of cob put up today. We got all the main walls covered, thanks goes to Daniel for his help in the morning. Just some small spots left to do.

I spent a bunch of time tacking up slats to back the cob.

But

It was cloudy all day here so I got to find out what it is like for the solar leviathan to run out of power. Things just slow and stop. I was using the portable table saw and it just stopped as I was ripping a board.

So I got to try my hand at cobbing. I did two spots and got the hang of it.

I did a little work on the door too, figuring on where and how to bolt on the hinges. The core structure has to change a bit because I'm getting different hinges than what I designed. I'll get pictures of the door next week.

I was rasping away some saw marks on the black locust and took a picture of the grain close up. I really like the polished colors the wood shows off.