!! Harry the boot (BEL)

BEL Post #6

Happy Friday, Permies! Today included a number of varied tasks as we prepared for a visitor coming to WL today. First, Esteban and I made our way up to the Labs and got Cooper Cabin's RMH running. After Stephen's instruction yesterday, the start-up and operation went smoothly, and after about 45 minutes of burning wood, we covered it up and moved on. Next, we went to Allerton Abbey to feed the cats and work on preparing the WOFATI Greenhouse soil further by adding some additional dirt (we noticed the level was quite low during our work yesterday) and covering with a light layer of mulch from last season's dried plants in the Greenhouse. Esteban and I headed back to Basecamp and placed & loaded our stand for the plant labeling poles in the library. We met Stephen's requirements and the size was just right for the number of poles that were originally "unbound" in that space. We felt pretty good to have worked together to complete that task. The morning concluded with some work gathering junkpoles along the Basecamp paddock fencing that suffered from the wind that came through the labs recently. Getting this all cleaned up with not only prepare us for the repairs or rebuilding up the fence, but it will also expose the Complexity Trail, which is currently covered by some of the fallen fence.

In the afternoon, we cleaned about around Basecamp and took care of a few other efforts in preparation for our visitor. One task I was proud of was improving the efficacy of the curtains that are on the bunks in the Solarium. The cordage holding up these curtains was undertensioned, so the curtains drooped to varying degrees impacting their effectiveness. I learned and used a tauntline hitch knot to fix all of the impacted bunk privacy curtains, coming up with a final approach that would allow for knot/line maintenance easily in the future (note that the hardest part of this effort was getting all of the old knots untied).

With all things ready for the weekend, Stephen, Esteban, and I are all settled in for the evening and ready for the weekend.

Thanks for everyone keeping up with my posts! As I close out this first full Boot working week, I would like to express my appreciation for my family, again, for affording me this time. I miss your immensely and look forward to heading home to see you, but even more so, I look forward to having us all here together .

BEL Post #7

Hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend. While weekends are for relaxing and recharging, they are also for working on passion (and necessity ) projects.

Yesterday, I started off the weekend offering to show Esteban how to use the MIG welder. I walked him through the various tools and safety equipment, their use and setup, how the MIG welder works and its settings, and then I demonstrated welding techniques for lap, butt, and t-joints. It is kind of fun not only teaching to see someone realize something isn't unattainable and "hard", but also, it is fun to see the crazy welded shapes that you end up with after a welding teaching/practices session (see below). I finished out with welding up a setup to continue some forging experiments. More to come on that as I work out the approach...

In the afternoon, I was looked around the shop and scrap wood piles, and a scrap slab cutoff caught my eye. Given that my wife is shorter than me and I have kiddos running around the house, they almost always need a step stool to reach high up things (if I am not around to help). This slab immediately got me thinking that it would be great to make a step stool for the cabins up at the Lab. So I cut the slab to length for the stool, planed the top surface (keeping some of the bark that was well adhered to the slab on -- it looked cool!), cut the mortises in the slab for the legs, cut tenons into the legs and notched the tenons, installed the legs and wedged the notches to hold them firmly in the slab, cut the legs to length to level them and then fine tuned the bottom of the legs with a rasp to get the level just right. Lastly, I stood on the stool to weight test it and linseed oiled it to provide some protection against potential wet feet in the future. This was a fun solo weekend project that will bring some utility to the family when they arrive, so I was really proud to be productive and make something that looks great too!

Finally, last night it occurred to me that it would have been really helpful if I had a handkerchief (hanky for short ). With Opalyn's lessons from earlier in the week, I decided to take on the endeavor. I picked a fabric, cut it to size, and then worked the mitered hem around perimeter as Opalyn had me do earlier in the week for the path I put in my shirt. I finished up the hanky today and between the fabric selection and sewing work, I am proud of it!

I also mixed in some forging experiments, but there wasn't enough time today to tinker around between bouts of rain, so I will report on that effort when I get more experimentation done.

Good night and thanks for reading!

handkerchief

Congratulations!  It’s exciting to see what happens when I open the Textile Repair Cafe. Those metered corners look great.

Harry, you seem pretty handy with all the work you have already accomplished at Wheaton Labs! I can't wait to see all the projects you get into.

If you think of it, is there anything you Boots could use that supporters could send in? The Boot Love thread just appeared in my recent threads list and got me wondering.