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

Looks nice, Stephen.  I've thought of a bell tent for extra hospitality around here.  I'll be interested to see how you fare this winter.

I've never used a jackhammer to put up a tent before.

BRK #86

Back to work on a Monday. Since it's the first Monday of the month, we tackled battery maintenance today. Here's a photo of Caleb as he teaches me about persistent voltage in the different rigs, and what to look out for that might be trouble down the road (sometimes, literally). This is the electric lift on the two-ton trailer.



We also worked on the Pump House project today, and it's pleasing to see that all the log-peeling is done, and we're moving on to the next phase: assembly of the building frame.

In the afternoon, we did a bit of gardening prior to event preparation tasks. While in the garden, I was pleased to see that the nasturtium that made it all the way through the summer on the Basecamp Too hugel actually sprouted some gorgeous flowers over the weekend:



The volunteer squash, also on Basecamp Too, is still going strong:



Finally: as part of event prep, Grey and I hiked up to the caldera, and added a coat of linseed oil to all the wood with exposed grain. It's definitely a fantastic-looking, well-crafted piece of furniture and we'd like to keep it around as long as we can. This ought to help.



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

Beau Davidson wrote:Looks nice, Stephen.  I've thought of a bell tent for extra hospitality around here.  I'll be interested to see how you fare this winter.

I've never used a jackhammer to put up a tent before.

Phase one was pitching this tent and moving in. Phase two is a rain fly. Phase three - reserved for after the RMH workshop - is to invest in a tent stove. I hope to bend the ear of a few of the attendees and see what sort of advice on tent heating I can garner before purchasing a stove. I figure that out of anyone I could ask, those folks would know.

Regarding jackhammers to pitch tents... Hey, there's a first time for everything.

BRK #87

Taco Tuesday was a bittersweet affair this evening. Fare thee well, Cory! Hope to see you back again soon.

Meanwhile, the day was filled with worthwhile work. The Pump House project is heavy on our radar, as is event prep for the upcoming Rocket Mass Heater workshop.

Here's a picture of Grey fine-tuning one of the roundwood cross-brace supports for the pump house. Sometimes you just have to re-notch a notch...



Once the notches were all done and the dry-fitting of the cross-braces was complete, the next step was to auger paths for lengths of rebar to hold them together. Here's Caleb doing his best impression as Spider-Man.



In the afternoon, we made a quick stop over at the Abbey for some gardening on the Lab. The two sunflowers over at the Swamp Castle hugel are bowing low these days. Here I am cradling the larger of the two in the palm of my hand. I'm hoping the deer don't make their way in again so I can harvest these seeds for some towering specimens next year.



Finally: I've also been impressed with the plants over at the new hugels in the Abbey. This picture shows one of the two hugels built (?) during this past summer's SKIP event. The plants are healthy, and I hope to see them eventually building soil for a 2023 planting season.



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

Wow! That looks like a great tent! Amazing the effort it took to “install”. Good luck!