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

BEL #732

I spent some time today prepping for new Boots to arrive this coming weekend. Some of the straggling "loose end" projects are being tied-up, things are being straightened-up and reorganized, and I keep glancing at the hugel berms to see if anything else has popped up out of the ground when I wasn't looking.

I re-upped our sawdust supply today. This stuff is useful for a number of different projects and maintenance tasks. Our own sawmill isn't back up and running again just yet, so I stopped by a neighbour's and hauled out a few barrels full.





Over at the Lab, the cats had succeeded in opening one of the automatic feeders yet again, and time was used to pile chunks of wood up on that again. While over there, I noticed that one of the junkpole fence sections lost its middle horizontal support. I leaned the fallen vertical poles up against the other supports, and have resolved to repair this completely on Thursday.



Paul and Andres asked me to grab some more footage to round out the upcoming Willow Feeder movie project. I spent a bit of time on camera discussing the benefits of the air tube and its triangular cut-outs. Here's a still:



All the footage has been sent over to Andres, and I'm sure he'll turn it all into something wonderful.

And now the "Zappa Fridge" sign is finished and mounted, after a handful of mistakes and "opportunities for learning." I think it looks pretty good.



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

BEL #733

Plenty of snow flurries on this brisk Spring Equinox...! Hope you had a pleasant one. Personally, I moved forward on a number of projects today.

A highlight was completing the junkpole fence that needed repairs. Here's how things looked at the start. As noted yesterday, the middle support had disappeared. I realized later that it had actually been attached to the same side of the fence as the top and bottom supports. The result? The middle horizontal support wasn't connected to either of the vertical support posts at the ends of the fence section. It also turns out that the middle support - which I found on the ground - was attached with screws, which fail as soon as one of the pieces of wood it's attached to begins to rot away.

The green dotted line shows the path of the support I needed to attach.



Since all the vertical supports were effectively on the side of the fence opposite where they needed to be, I took them all down and set them aside. I then inspected the middle horizontal support beam. It only had a couple screws in it, so I removed those. I then shortened it a bit, and since the diameter was a bit too large for the nails to connect it to a vertical post, I cut a wedge out of one end of it. I didn't have the Log Wizard on hand, else I would have tried using that.



It was a small matter to re-attach the middle horizontal support: this time, on the proper side of the fence. This way, I could wedge or "weave" the vertical posts between two supports on one side, and the middle support on the other.



Finally, I returned all the vertical posts where they needed to be, snugly wedged between the three vertical supports. Fence section complete...!

The arrow and dotted line show where the middle support was added, and its support position. Notice that the space between this middle support on the one side, and the top and bottom supports on the other side, is maintained by the two main vertical support posts on the extreme ends of the section of fence. So it's actually the diameter of the main vertical support posts that provides the room used to weave the rest of the vertical supports in place.



There was also progress on the berm shed repairs today. I cut the "deadman" candidate down to a length of 9.5 feet, and between me dragging and flipping it, and our daily hauler rig Roy trucking it down the driveway, I was able to stage this in place next to the deadman ditch - which I ought to be able to complete tomorrow.

You can also see Black Spark, my site supervisor, in this photo.



I'll be spending a lot of time tomorrow prepping Basecamp for the arrival of two new Boots on Sunday, so we'll see how much I'll have to share by sundown.

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

BEL #734

More errand-running and tidy-up tasks today. For example, I've been running the Solarium's Rocket Mass Heater in an effort to prime it and keep it comfortable for one of the incoming Boots. The floor's been swept a couple times, and I'll be installing some curtains I picked up in town today to make the rolling shelves a bit more presentable.



Took a look over the berms today, and it looks like we'll have at least one splendid example of a red rhubarb plant...! This one looks like it has some promise.



Speaking of potential, well, these planks will serve as shelves for the tent. I'll do a bit of junkpole-hewing and cordage-wrapping to put a few shelf units in there, in an effort to keep plenty of items off the floor. More details as they develop... stay tuned!



Finally: Paul invested in a yogurt machine and the first batch will be ready Sunday morning. Here's the machine, next to the sauerkraut fermented cabbage I made, which will also be ready Sunday morning for a taste test.



New Boots scheduled to arrive tomorrow. That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BEL #735

Sunday, and a smooth start to the Boot week.

During today's cleaning blitz, I heard Paul commenting on the seeds starting over on the mass. "Looks like there's a bean popping up over here!" Sure enough, there was.



I hardly ever post pictures of the food I eat, but today is an exception that proves that rule. My first batch of sauerkraut fermented cabbage was due for a taste test this morning. Red and green cabbage, an onion, salt (of course), pepper, and dill. Complex and savory, with a lovely colour. This is a nice batch, for certain. It's the right foot to start off another year of worthwhile ferments.



Finally: I've been communicating with Rebekah regarding the SKIP Scouts project that's bubbling up, and she asked me to come up with a few designs for wooden, laser-cut badges. Here are today's prototypes. Apart from the stars, she's pleased with this design. What images ought to go on there? A couple ideas floated include fireworks, paw prints, dandelions, thistles, pairs of overalls... Lots of options, and I'm curious to see what is finally accepted.



That's all for now. Faith, a new Boot, starts tomorrow and will be here for about a week and a half. I'm excited to show her around the Lab...! Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!