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

Hey Stephen! The kids often talk about you in their wonderings of the game you played with them. Coincidentally, little house on the prairie is also their favorite book and recently we’ve been watching the little house on the prairie tv series. So wholesome and delightful. Emmett even got himself a pair of suspenders and Lucy has a bonnet that they like to fashion. Bummer about June being rough but I hope it gets more lovely for you. Cheers!

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:BEL #822

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Finally: not necessarily related to Boot happenings... However, I wanted to give a shout-out to the Little House series of books. Here's a couple pages from Little House in the Big Woods, which I finished reading for the first time. I find this book, and its sequel Little House on the Prairie, absolutely fascinating and some of the most wholesome, fun (not to mention quick) reading I've ever experienced. A discussion here at Permies about horse-powered equipment made me think to snap this photo a while back.



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

It's a long time ago (around 1970 I think), but as a child I read all books of that Little House series. Of course the Dutch translations. From the local library.
Later there was a television series, but I did not see all of that.

BEL #823

Matthew and I have been busy, completing various Boot-ish tasks and keeping the plants alive.

Here's some dried mint that's been hanging in the kitchen and I finally set time aside to pack. We have likely the best mint tea I've ever tasted.



Late last week, I taught Matthew how to use a chainsaw to fell a tree. Here he is strapping the timber tool to Roy prior to our expedition.



While demonstrating, I think I cut out a perfect wedge. In the background, you'll see the most-perfect "Pac-Man's Mouth" I've ever made.



Matthew takes a knee as I coach him through chainsaw use.



Eventually, we needed to bring the logs down the mountain. Due to some mountain road accessibility issues, this time around we opted to use the RAV to do the hauling. I practiced some creative ratchet-strapping on the smallest-diameter log we brought down.



When they became too big for the RAV, we chained them to the back and dragged them down (had we a hitch, I reckon we would have used the Log Arch). Most of the time a single chain was sufficient. However, when in doubt, use more chains.



The log on the far right will be used for my "Best Season to Peel Logs" video entry for August/Summer. The rest will be peeled eventually, and then the lot of them will be used for construction projects.



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

My mom grew up on a farm not too far from where Little House on the Prairie took place. We watched it in TV every Monday night and read all of the books 🤗🤗

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:the log on the far right will be used for my "Best Season to Peel Logs" video entry for August/Summer.

Have you been able to maintain consistency of species and size of the logs?