Yesterday we spent four hours in the morning falling and delimbing trees at the lab for junk pole fence. We returned to base camp for lunch (pizza baked the night before in the rocket oven) before a quick garden tour at the tab. After that Josiah, Scott, and I went and started repairs on the shower stalls while the other boots stayed and worked on planting the garden
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Loading the junk poles on the trailor
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I quickly learned that by cutting the upward facing branches first, I could minimize how much I get slapped in the face by branches
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Got a little soot on my face from trees that had burned in a fire
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Scott and Josiah preparing the rocket oven for pizza
Yesterday we spent the morning at Allerton Abby cutting notches in the logs that will become the horizontal logs on the junk pole fence. I forgot to take pictures of the process, but will try to next time we return.
The afternoon was spent planting tree seeds on Fred's plot with a hand seeder.
The seeder had some serious clogging issues. It worked fine in dry ground but any soil that had even a bit of moisture would clog the seeder almost every hole. This got even worse in high clay areas. I'm currently working on a design that will hopefully solve this clogging issue.
Tips and Tricks:
Holding the seeder at 90 degree angle hugely increases the odds of the seed actually landing in the hole
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Using the hand planter
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A yogurt container hung on string makes a convenient seed holder
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The seeder constantlly clogged (see above), but I'm working on a design to fix that
Sounds like a neat little challenge. Might take a few tries. Gonna be easy to make?
Cheers,
Rufus
Shouldn't be too difficult once I figure out how to use the welder haha. I suspect you're right about taking a couple tries, I'm planning to build my first prototype tomorrow night.
Yesterday we spent the morning harvesting logs from slash piles use in hugelkultur beds to use at the Abby.
I spent the afternoon working on the Shower Shack with Josiah
Tips and Tricks:
If you think your log might roll when you cut it, stand on the uphill side while cutting
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Orin on the slash pile
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Difficult to see, but the outline of the future hugel is outlined with sticks
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First layer
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A layer of brush on top
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This is the back of the shower. We are routing the plumbing through the wall to protect it from uv light
Yesterday morning we split into teams then carved the brackets and hung the horizontals for the junk pole fence around the Abby.
In other news, after another full afternoon of work, the shower shack is finally functional! We had to combine two faucets to get one that didn't leak. The carpentry to enclose the pipes in the wall is yet to be completed
Tips and Tricks:
Melted pine sap makes pretty good glue (for non critical applications)
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Orin attaching horizontals on the fence
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This is the hugel from yesterday, now covered in dirt
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Same hugel, different angle
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We needed a touch of glue so we melted on some pine sap (right) instead of using melted plastic like the last person who fixed the faucet (left)
I finally remembered to take pictures of the junk pole fence joints, which was our morning project. I am happy to report the vertical junk poles are starting to go in near the South gate! (there are still more horizontals to be done as well though)
I again spent the afternoon working on the Shower Shack, and we made some snazzy pull out panels to make the plumbing accessible
Tips and Tricks:
Mark a square on each side of the junk pole where you will cut the notch so you can line up the two notches and fit them on the fence. This works much better than just two vertical lines
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The top horizontal sits on top of the bottom, giving it support and making it easier to hang
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Flat spots are cut at an angle to allow the notches in the pole to sit flat
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A notch cut out of a horizontal
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Josiah posing with our new doors
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The seam isn't exactly invisible, but it's not glaringly obvious
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