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

BEL #810

I'd like to say that those pesky insects are back again. But it's rather more accurate to say that I never completely rid the tree of them in the first place. We had rains the day after I had applied the DE the first time, and to sum it up it appeared to be no change (except for the impression I had that the tree was suffering from the infestation, with floppy branches and pale foliage being Exhibits A and B, respectively).



I had been applying "mulch donuts" to the younger trees in the area, and kept being distracted by the condition of this willow. So I finally resolved to manually remove all the bugs from the tree, and have it done before lunch.

It seemed pretty clear to me that those insects (aphids of some kind, and/or whatever they are) were literally sucking the life out of the tree. I squashed them, and smeared a sticky, reddish-brown gunk on the ground to clean off my gloves after every mass was cleared.



After lunch, I returned with some DE. I think I was much more thorough this time around.

I'm hoping that tree pulls through.



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

BEL #811

We have a considerable number of foot pumps to supply water to outdoor sinks. Well now, a pump has a foot...

Our portable draw pump lost its welded-on tube rack, and I didn't want it rolling around when we were trying to suck water out of the Kiddie Pool for irrigation. So I used the remaining metal bracket and a couple lag bolts to attach a thick, tip-resistant block of wood to the bottom. Lightweight, yet still substantial enough to keep everything upright.



Thanks once again to Nick "From Spokane" Thomas (no relation), who provided us with a dozen new tomato plants. Today, I "trenched" the last few in the hugel berms here at Basecamp. More than half the plant is underground, and the top portion is left to grow. The result is - hopefully - the buried stem of the tomato will grow additional roots, providing much more nutrition to the plant, ultimately resulting in a greater yield.



Finally: I coached fellow Boots Catherine and Caroline on how to check our trail cameras today. Catherine in particular is interested in gaining a BB for her efforts.



First 100* Fahrenheit day of the year. We'll see how many more we can rack up.

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

BEL #812

Another hot one today. I tried to have the hardest, heaviest work done in the first half of the day. ...Then somehow we were outside building junkpole fences in 95* Fahrenheit weather.

At the start of the day, we went up the mountain at Basecamp and gathered some junkpoles. Here's fellow Boot Catherine, working on her junkpole BB collection.



Not only did she cut and clean her own junkpoles, she hunted them down and hauled them out of the thickets herself.



In the afternoon, I felt like this couldn't be ignored anymore. We have guests arriving this weekend and a new Boot scheduled for arrival on Sunday. So we can make this look better.



Things started off innocently enough. Here, Catherine threads pickets into a section of the fence we'd rebuilt.



One of the more interesting things we did today involved that same section of fencing. We were planning to move down the line, so to speak, when Catherine questioned the strength of the main post of the rock jack on the uphill side of the fence we just fixed. The quick answer was that it had to go.

So JP, Catherine and I rebuilt a rock jack without taking down the fence sections it was connected to. Here's a photo of the two posts: the original, and next to it the replacement. A little creative switcheroo, and things worked out all right. And I feel better about the rock jack.

(the new one is on the left)



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

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:*shakes fist and scowls at Derek in a generally northern direction*

I'm a lot more east than I am north of Wheaton Labs

BEL #813

Back again after another hiatus from updates. Thanks for your patience.

To sum up recent developments: I'm currently Booting solo. That's the long and the short of it.

Meanwhile... Monday morning, I noticed that a large section of Allerton Abbey's fence had fallen overnight.



There were three contiguous panels that had fallen over, and I knew this was going to be a significant undertaking.



Points of failure included horizontal supports, like this one, that had been unable to support the weight of the fence during heavy winds.



Previous repair attempts, like this novel "tripod" assembly, were also inefficient, due to the fact that the vertical posts had rotted.



I resolved to replace everything, including the vertical posts. This starts with using the hand-held electric auger to drill large holes where new posts will go, surrounded with a "gravel sock."



The holes were just a bit over 2 feet deep. The auger is 1 foot in diameter.



I had more gardens to tend before the end of the day, so I had to leave the task undone. Today was much, much cooler (I think we had a high temp of 64* F today!) and after straightening up the area, things looked like this:



I have some video footage of the work I did today, and I hope to post that as a "master cut" of the project. But here are a couple highlights from today's efforts.

I felled a couple nearby trees to use as horizontal supports. To provide a better fit for the horizontal supports where they meet the vertical posts, I "notched" them. There are a few ways to do this, and two of them are pictured here.

First is a notch made with a chainsaw. I ought to demonstrate this in a video sometime soon. But to summarize the process: you cut several parallel slots into the log where you want your notch to be, smack the wood "wafers" in-between the slots so they break, then finish with the chainsaw or another tool. Here's an example of the end product:



Another method is to use a hatchet. Imagine lightly-hacking into the log several times in the same direction, then facing the opposite direction and doing the same thing. With the change of direction, wood chips are flung out a little at a time, so you can fine-tune the depth and smoothness of the notch to your satisfaction. To me, it seems to take a bit longer but you have much more control when compared to using the chainsaw or the tool we call the "Log Wizard," which I haven't pictured here.



All three methods have their uses and benefits. I'm still undecided, but due to the fact that it's quick and it's "good enough," I think I prefer the chainsaw.

Maybe when I was cutting these notches, I heard a --CRACK!-- from across the Abbey yard. I looked to the north, and there was another three-panel section of fence: slumping, and then finally falling to the ground.



This week will be a long one: combining major fence repairs with irrigation, during the hottest time of the year.

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