Winston's Bootcamp Experience

Greetings permies, Winston here.

We just wrapped up the 2022 Garden Master course at Wheaton Labs and it exceeded my expectations.

Helen is such a wonderful instructor! Her presence was welcoming and bright, and her presentation was rich and filled with 40+ years of hands-on experience backed by academic research. What I'll be taking home with me is how to garden using ecological thinking.

Another plus of attending the winter event is that I'm more acquainted with Wheaton Labs, its people and how things work around here. Staying the night at Cooper Cabin was a new experience getting used to the cold & rocket-mass heater, and generally being off-grid. I'm a newbie still, but it was wonderful meeting past boots, PDC attendees, Alan Booker, and new folks to permaculture. A little upsetting to say goodbyes as the course ended, but life goes on and I'm positive I'll be seeing familiar faces in the future Onwards to the bootcamp!

Day 1: Sunday is a light day for boots.

Chores done in the morning. The afternoon spent on assigning tasks and mini-project for the upcoming week.

Afterwards, I spent my evening in the library, rummaging the bookshelves. I'm a nosy person and you can tell a lot about people by the books they keep around.

Tomorrow (Monday) is the start of the work week. Curious to what this week entails. The Tarot suggests the week will be a mix of hard work, diligence, and enjoyment of doing potentially many things for the first time.

Hi Winston, I hope you have a great time and learn a bunch! Be sure to pace yourself if you haven't been physically active recently, last time or two I was out there I dove in and my back reminded me I'm in my late 40s and not my late 20s!

Thanks Mark, I haven't felt too strained physically yet. Considering it's winter, most activities are indoors and not too much heavy lifting

Day 2 (01/17/2022 Monday):

We spent the morning cleaning up after the Garden Master event and spent the afternoon taking care of house plants as a boot holiday (to be explained). I forget how much time can be spent on taking care of plants: potting, pruning, watering, dusting.

Day 3, Tuesday:

More event cleaning in the morning and changing tires. The afternoon was spent taking out the wall and rebuilding it in the Red Cabin to insulate better.