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

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:we're removing any chance of pine trees poisoning the soil (or, to put it another way: creating soil conditions that only another pine tree would love), and secondly we want deciduous trees in that area, and no pine trees. And the soil really is rocky (I mean, you already know this, man!).

I know there's lots of rocks at base camp, but the soil I've seen there is sandy. Those pines must have found something besides rocks with their roots. I don't know about Ponderosas and whatever else is growing there specifically, but I'm evaluating my Red Pines here as these things that reach down to find hard to reach stuff underground and turn them into pine straw which they dispense as mulch all over my raspberry farm for free...

The name for raspberries in French translates to berries in the woods.  So it is a symbiotic relationship; trees bring up water from deep down and then feed sugar water to the soil organisms under the pine needles. the soil needs shade frum the sun and interconnecting roots to hold it in place so berry plants fill that niche.    

BEL #776

First off, welcome to WWOOF Week guests, brothers Matt and Shawn...! Thanks for being here, guys.

Here's the latest GAMCOD update for the Boot Team. We'll be doing some more direct seeding this week.



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

BEL #777

(I was in Boy Scout troop 777 as a kid. )

Today was a fun one.

Here are fellow Boots Jared and Shawn. Those log sections are destined to be turned into steps on Hugel Prime, a "showcase" section of the hugel berms inside the fence of Basecamp.

Good work today, guys.



The ground around the Pump House at the Lab - which had undergone some heavy construction and earthworks last year - is finally showing signs of recovery. Various types of ground cover are appearing of their own accord.



Catherine and I built several trellises for use with climbing vines and ground-cover plants that might need a leg up. Here's one next to a seasoned grape vine, inside the back yard paddock of Basecamp.



Finally: we completed the transport of all the log sections cut from a tree we felled up by Raspberry Rock last week. Now all that's left is to peel the bark and set them to dry. Thanks to Seth and Matt for their assistance in bringing the logs down the mountain. Plus, they showed me that multiple wraps of the chain isn't always the best strategy. See here, where a single loop of chain was sufficient to grip this log snugly and keep it under the log arch for the entirety of the trip.



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

What did you season the grape vine with?  (I'll show myself out....)

That reminds me...grape leaves are edible and are used for wrapping food...Greek dolmades (I've seen other similar spellings if one is attempting to search) are a stuffed grape leaf dish.