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

BEL #806

Some garden tasks, some building tasks, some tractor tasks. Those were the main things for today.

Paul asked if an area in the back yard of the main House could have its extra rocks cleaned out, so we can have a nice sit-spot out there. When I visited the area myself, I noticed that a rock jack was actually busted. The platform on which the rocks would sit had failed.



I went back down to the Woodshop, grabbed the requisite tools, then set to work. A relatively short time later, I'd repaired the rock jack and sorted the extra, smaller rocks in a pile for us to use later.



Fellow Boot JP and I teamed-up to affix this PTO-powered auger on the back of the Tractor. We started drilling into the rocky earth near the Sawmill Site in an effort to set those supports in the ground for the long term. More details on this process in a future (video) update.



My nemesis this year: "stabby fern." Looks to me like some sort of thistle, with the added benefit (?) that it rarely sports flowers. If I were to ever hate a plant, this would be the one. I'm always on the lookout to pluck this stuff out of our hugels and toss them away with my punctured, bloodied hands. They infest the area where the GAMCOD project hugel berms are found.



Finally: we added a few more grape vines into the mix earlier this week. Hans: one of your grape vines pulled through the winter and is still growing...! Meanwhile, we added this Himrod grape to the backyard of the Classroom. It's apparently a cold-hardy white grape variety. It's in one of our "hundred-dollar holes" now. We'll see how well it does this season and - hopefully - more to come.



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

'Stabby fern'? Looks like an thistle to me. Here they grow too and they are a pain (literally)

I was told once at WL that that's prickly lettuce

Does it have milky sap? Then it's some sort of lettuce or perhaps sow thistle (puha). I've found that the more prickly the leaves, the less bitter they tend to be. Worth a taste?

BEL #807

Today I snapped some photos of our continued work over at the Sawmill Site.

Have I mentioned this auger is big? I mean, really big. A can of diesel is included here, for scale.



The auger does a good job at this task, breaking up soil and kicking out large rocks. One curious thing we observed is that smaller rocks are basically tumbled round in the hole being drilled. This is the view after a prolonged drilling session. That's some of the cleanest gravel I've seen come out of the ground here at the Lab. In this run, there was probably a good seven or so inches of gravel remaining at the bottom.



Seriously though, we have two holes drilled quite close to one another. The result is the soil between the two holes broke away, leaving essentially a large trench. We would sit in one, then drag the gravel out of the other, depositing all the material in a bucket to haul out. Here's fellow Boot JP doing the dirty deed.



Meanwhile, the rest of the team arrived, and I coached fellow Boot Caroline on how to use the chainsaw. She cut the remaining posts we need for this project down to size.



The other Boots joined Caroline in setting the post into the holes we dug last week. From left to right: Catherine, Caroline, Stephanie (at center).



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