evan's ant village log

Day 46

Cassie emailed me a couple weeks ago asking if I wanted to try this "predator scare tape" stuff to discourage deer and other critters from my gardens. And anyway it arrived a few days back but I didn't get around to putting any up until today. It's quite shiny, and it does make an annoying crinkly sound in the wind, so maybe it will deter deer and whatnot. My fence is definitely not deer-proof yet, so I'm willing to try this stuff out for now, but I'm not sure I like the aesthetic long-term, and I don't want to stress out my ducks when I start keeping ducks. I hung two strips like pennants at opposite corners of my garden, so a deer would have to stand between them to eat my growies. We'll see how it goes. Thanks Cassie and whomever it was who sent this stuff: http://www.amazon.com/Predator-Guard%C2%AE-Scare-Tape-Installation/dp/B00MTN6J4M/

I made some progress on the fence today, wiring 8'+ wood poles to the calf panels. It is time-consuming, to be sure, but it's meditative and low-intensity work, and I really like the way it's turning out.

Also, Fred arrived today! He's a gapper here for the free PDC, and he's also considering antville. He brought some plants, and he seems pretty rad so far. I'm looking forward to working with him over the next few weeks.

Day 47

I helped Fred get a bunch of plants in the ground down at basecamp, and we put a few in up here on Ava too. Besides a variety of seeds, Fred brought horseradish, day lily, walking onion, garlic chives, oregano, comfrey, and black raspberry. We found a little spot on Ava where it seemed unlikely that the excavator would disturb them, and planted them. There's still a few more waiting patiently in shaded pots for me to build hugel beds to plant them in.

Made some progress on the fence this evening, in a spot where I'm having the garden beds run right up next to the fence, so I wanted to make sure I got that section of fencing finished so I wouldn't have to disturb the bed later.

Fred also made a thread here on permies where he's sharing his pictures too! Check it out: https://permies.com/t/47311/labs/Fred-photos-Wheaton-Labs

Day 48

Built some little hugels by hand along and near the new section of fence, and put in some of those plants Fred gave me. It's starting to rain a bit now, so they should be happier soon. Thanks Fred!

Found a spot where it looked like maybe the cows used to be bedded down, and gathered up lots of good old cowpie-rich mulch and put it around the new plants.

I was having some trouble uploading pics the last few days, but with the help of the fantastic staff here at permies, I think we got the bugs ironed out.

Hurray, the photos are back!

The other day, I was on a hike up some mountains with a group, and we came across an old homestead, with one building still standing but no roof. One of the group members suddenly remembered that they had been there in the 1950's as a child, to collect rhubarb. They said that at the time, the place was obviously abandoned, but the building still had some roofing.

There was still rhubarb, and we were able to collect some for baking.

I am amazed - at least 60 but more likely 70 or 80 years after someone last cared for those rhubarb plants, they were still providing for passerby. So, who knows, even if for some reason your anting has to be abandoned soon, maybe you'd be able to come back in 8 decades and still find some of your plantings!

Your fence looks very nice with the added poles!

Day 49

Fred and I helped Michael with fixing the rocket mass heater in the tipi. We were rerouting the exhaust to go under the floor across the entrance and then up and out right next to the barrel, the idea being to get a second heat pumping effect. If camping in the tipi is glamping, then digging in the tipi is gligging, right? Did some gligging today, and then we found some rocks and had to break out the glickaxe.

Also, the bees swarmed today! We were working in the tipi, which is pretty close to the skiddable bee hut, when we heard a buzzy commotion. We went out and saw a huge swarm of bees heading southwest from the bee hut. Fred followed them and found where they stopped and were hanging out in a dead tree. Later we went back to get pictures and Fred might even have gotten some video.

Also also, a couple nice people, Sarah and Pat, sent a little money via paypal a while back. Thanks Sarah and thanks Pat! And thanks for handling the transaction, Nick! At the time, Nick was thinking he might be here longer-term, so I asked folks who wanted to send ant love via paypal to send it to Nick. But now Nick is off on a grand adventure and it doesn't make sense to send ant love to him anymore, though I'm sure he would appreciate Nick love. If you want to send me ant love via paypal, sorry, but you can't, because I don't have a paypal account, mainly because it's tied into systems that are tied into systems that I generally try to avoid. You can mail me ant love though:

evan c/o paul wheaton
2120 s reserve #351
missoula, mt 59801

And I also accept bitcoin, if anyone happens to want to send ant love that way:

1PYMdBWGnadwsTdQq5hczyRx6UAbu19Ug5

I just want to say again how grateful I am to have received so much support and love from my friends, family, and the permies community. I'll do my best to keep pumping out pictures and posting about my projects. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

You should have tried to catch that swarm!

Day 50

Brian and Michael set a trap hive for the swarm and baited it with honey. It's just a few yards away from the big dead tree the bees are all clumped up in, but as of this evening they haven't colonized the trap hive yet.

Brian, Michael, Fred, and I all worked together this morning to get the excavator track back on, and after much prying and sledging and levering and lifting, we did it! Thanks guys! Tomorrow Brian and I will run through a complete checklist on the machine, greasing up all the joints and checking all the bolts and whatnot, and then it'll be ready to get back to digging.

Today I got some human-scale earthworks done, shoveling out paths and building little hugelkultur keyhole beds. I want to do a bit more touching up, but soon I'll be ready to put lots more seeds in the ground.

evan l pierce wrote:
Brian and Michael set a trap hive for the swarm and baited it with honey. It's just a few yards away from the big dead tree the bees are all clumped up in, but as of this evening they haven't colonized the trap hive yet.

To bait hives you need to use lemongrass extract. It is similar to the bees own pheromones and works well to attract swarms. Old brood comb is also good... the older, darker and nastier the better.