Nine's Bootcamp Experience (BRK)

#71

Onward!

Today was get all the things done before the tour tomorrow. Well, we've been working on getting things done for the last two weeks for the tour, but today was finish up the last minute things that need to get done. Chris and I took Doug to the landfill and emptied it, then took a few things to the Boneyard. While up on the Lab, we stopped by the Abbey for some trash. Then we went through Ant Village and started cleaning up some of the left-behind trash out there. Oof. That could take a while. We got the big things handled, and stopped by our plot to fix the fence so it wasn't leaning into the road looking precarious.

While there, I checked on the garden to see if anyone was considering coming out to play. GUESS WHAT?! BRASSICA BABIES ARE UP! See the pics below for my dozens of sprouts. SO EXCITING. They're growing in the garden to the right of the front door, on the uncovered hillside across from the house.. gosh.. I'm so stoked. All this snow and rain has really been making all our plant friends pop up to say hello. A cinquefoil came up on the house berm, a bunch of yarrow is leafing out all over the place.. I can't wait to see everything leafed out and looking luscious. Such a proud plant mom right now. :D

I imagine the brassicas are one of at least four or five varieties of turnip or radish {radish 2017 (someone's saved seeds), 'Groundhog' daikon, 'Appin' turnip, 'Pasjah' turnip, 'Milanese May Rape', or purple top turnip}. I may harvest some then chop others for nutrients for other future friends. Pretty excited that they're peeking their cute little cotyledons out. Most of the turnips were forage varieties; if I harvest them before they're "ripe" can I eat them or will they still be tough?

Got the fence leaned mostly straight, moved a bag of sawdust (??) by the driveway entrance, cleaned up the 'gutter' outside the entrance, moved some of my mini greenhouses out of eyesight if people are driving by, and generally straightened up a few more things just in case people are really curious and want to peek in the entrance.

Considering the cleanup of the other plots generated another bed-full of trash, we drove back to the landfill to empty that. While we were gone, Fred and Lara had pulled up more old tarping from the Abbey, so we swung by there to pick up those buckets of trash. While there, we all decided to move the old well casing pipe out of the Abbey yard and onto Doug; it needed to go to the Boneyard. So, Chris strapped the front end of the pipe onto Doug's rack and I held up the back end of the pipe and walked behind Doug until we got to the Boneyard. We carried it a ways off Doug, but it's super heavy because it's full of mud and about 30' long. Matt showed up and helped us carry it a bit farther to its current resting place. Good luck, pipe.

Drove back down to Basecamp and Lara asked us to do what we could to fix the western garden gate. We were able to unscrew a few pieces, squeeze things together to gain about two inches, and screw them back together. Sawed off multiple ends of sticks and framework to make it all fit nicely in the doorway. Then took the old hinges off, turned them around so they were facing the correct way to open the gate into the garden, and reattached everything. Now it hangs slightly more level, opens and closes, latches, and I wove some sticks in to block some of the bigger holes that deer could pop through. Ended up sawing a bit off the fence top rail to allow the door to open without pressure - it was hitting the rail right as it started to open and then continued exerting pressure on it until it bumped into the rock jack at the base. Now it bumps the top rail and rock jack support brace at the same time. I forgot to take a picture of it all when we were done, but you get a gate-less picture and an in progress pic. I'll take a finished pic tomorrow. :)

Here at WL we have a Japanese pull-saw, which is a really nice handsaw to use. We ended up buying one for working on our plot since we didn't have a handsaw, and I ended up watching a Youtube video on some guy who very succinctly explained the differences between a push saw and a pull saw. Simple, concise, sold. If it takes you more than 30 seconds to start telling me about the topic of your video, I'm not gonna finish it. This guy was fantastic and informative. So nice. If you wanna learn a thing or two about handsaws, watch that video. :)

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I'm feeling better. I'm trying out this whole positivity thing and seeing how long I can keep it up. There are definite moments of struggle. Just gotta breath, change my mindset, and move forward. That middle part takes a while sometimes..

Seed pics and journal entries! Forgot to post yesterday+'s journal entries. Too many pics to keep track of..

Nothing too new going on with the seedlings. One pot has nothing growing out of it yet. Makes me wonder if I forgot to seed it.. lol. I also have a fish pepper in a different group that hasn't sprouted either and it's getting all the nice, warm conditions so I'm not sure what its problem is. These little guys are all out in the somewhat chilly Library, so it's understandable if they take a bit of extra time.

Any chance you could get close up pics of a pretty stick gate? I'm interested in how they are constructed. Are the"pictures" made with nails, screws holding the twig art in place? Or hole and ummm dowel method, like a chair construction?

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Any chance you could get close up pics of a pretty stick gate? I'm interested in how they are constructed. Are the"pictures" made with nails, screws holding the twig art in place? Or hole and ummm dowel method, like a chair construction?

The ones that I've seen made recently are held together by screws. The garden gate I posted yesterday is held together by screws for the frame and some of the support pieces, but the rest is woven around those. I think the ones on my plot have less fasteners. When I go there next I can see about getting some pics of one of them.



/time elapsed

Ran up to the garden and got some pics of the gate for you. You can see where there are some screws holding things together, then a pic where it's a web of sticks all holding themselves together. :)

#73

Went out to the plot today to test out some sweet new sickles that arrived Friday ( Thank you, Greg!!!) Holy cows. These are pretty fantastic. I used the red one the most today. I made a video of me using it and a comparison vlog afterward, but I continued to use it for odds and ends the rest of the day and kinda fell in love with it. I think Chris will like using the black and silver one better because the handle is thicker and may fit his hand better than mine. It fits in my hand if I'm gonna be hefting it at things, but I think it would tire me out if I were to use it all day. The red one is so lightweight and once I figured out how to use it best, it slices through most anything. In the vlog I mentioned it 'hesitated' when I hit tougher grass, but later in the day I was using it to limb small trees. Once I get those two sharpened, we'll be unstoppable! MUHAHAHA. Watch out, wild rose, I'm coming for you. Stop growing in all my paths!

Actually, prior to hacking away at grasses, I used the Fokin hoe to carve a little trench in the side of the hill opposite the house and was able to FINALLY stake in my bundles. Ideally that would have been done weeks ago when I actually made the bundles, but time..energy..yaddayadda.. Now they'll probably not root themselves but will at least slow some erosion. The hoe made that task so freakin' easy. It went from me having to use a trowel to struggle at a weird angle to reach up the hill to try to carve a little trench.. to dragging the hoe across the hillside while I stood comfortably at the base and bloooop done. Too easy. Hoe'ing the trench and putting in the bundles I had leftover took maaaybe 5 minutes. Having tools to get things done makes all the difference, y'all. No kidding.

After I finished hacking up a bunch of grass and mulching all the things, I sorted through some seeds to spread them over various areas around the house/path. Used the hoe again to carve little rows across a mound. So easy. Where has this thing been my whole gardening life?

Collected rocks to put outside our driveway because the mud/road makes it a mess most of the time. Brought some rocks in to Chris while he worked on leveling the floor/prepping for the bed, etc. Then he wandered around and gathered all the stray wood in the immediate vicinity and put it away or tossed it into a pond basin depending on the shape it was in. There are a lot of pieces of wood that look like somebody maybe started a project and left behind whatever they didn't need/finish. Slowly cleaning up the place while also trying to make it habitable and grow food. No biggie. ;)

I'll post the video as soon as my computer finishes uploading it. You'll be able to munch on popcorn and relax in your comfy chair while you watch me work. :)