Dave Burton's Boot Adventures at Wheaton Labs and Basecamp

Good evening! Hello Kyle! The burned areas are not on Wheaton Labs; they are close to the Lab, at a place where we have been kindly granted permission by the owner to perform certain activities on their site.

Day 121

Today, Jen and I collected junkpoles this morning and afternoon. Josiah, Austin, and Ron worked on the Bermshed's final cell. As I understand it, the hope is that we might finish the Bermshed this week *crosses fingers*.



These are a couple views from this morning at the Lab.





These are a few pictures from a load of junkpoles being moved from by the road to being onto Judy, the firetruck.





These are some more junkpoles that I dragged off the mountain. It was kind of slippery, so being above freezing today, so dragging them is about what was working.



And this is a picture from working on loading Judy up with more junkpoles this afternoon.



This is our growing stash of junkpoles, in preparation for building a junkpole fence. Eventually, we will have to start collecting rocks from around Basecamp, so that we have supplies to build the rock jacks.

So this is Judy! Her full name is Judith Basin

Good evening! Hello Inge! Yep, that's Judy's full name!

Day 122

I went out and collected more junkpoles this morning. I ran out of the junkpoles I had already cut, so I was felling, limbing, and loading junkpoles.



This is a stand of good junkpoles that I took some trees from.



These are some of the trees that I limbed.



I setup a little station for myself to limb junkpoles.



These are some of the junkpoles after I limbed them.



And then, I loaded them onto Judy.



These are a couple of the views from where I got junkpoles from.



I planted living fence seeds this afternoon.

Good evening!

Day 123

This morning, I opened up the care package that Inge sent us! Thank you so much, Inge!



As per your instructions of the rest of the box being gifts for everyone else at Wheaton Labs, I have added the seeds you sent to our seed collection in the Library at Basecamp.



I also gave Bella and Jen some of the yarn that you made for us! I tried on the socks, and I love them! Thank you! They're very warm and fuzzy!



And that was a very sweet letter you sent to us, Inge! Thank you! I added the soap to the public bathroom of the Fisher Price House, so that other people can use it!




We did just a little bit of Bermshed work this morning, but after that, we moved onto junkpoles.




Today, was mostly junkpoles for me. Josiah and Ron went out to meet up with a guy to purchase firebricks from. Austin tagged along to help with junkpoles today, and Bella joined for the afternoon.



These are before and after pictures of some junkpoles I felled with a bowsaw.



This is Doug after I loaded some of my junkpoles onto it.



We had some pretty heavy fog rolling through that I thought was absolutely gorgeous!



These are a couple more scenic views that I enjoyed!





These are some more junkpoles that I felled and limbed this afternoon.

Dave, please do not let the  Allium Ursinum (ramsons) roots in the seed storage for too long, they need to be planted now, before the real winter starts.

Good evening! Hello Inge! Thank you, I will probably be planting them this weekend, then.

Day 124

Today was all working on the Bermshed.



These are views of the first under layer of tarps for the new cells on the Bermshed.



Then, we covered the first layer of tarps with a plastic membrane.



Then, we covered the plastic membrane with more tarps.



Then, we did lots of shoveling to cover to the tarps and to fill in the area behind the retaining walls.



We found some clay while shoveling sand.



Here is a bigger picture view of our work on the Bermshed.