Kyle's Permie Bootcamp (BRK)

BRK Post 117

Today was the first day of the SKIP event. We started with earthworks and textiles. I built a dry stack retaining wall and made a basket from willow.

It was quite hot today, i had most of the wall built before being roasted but still had my fair share of sunshine. I chose to build with smaller rocks just to make it interesting. Using the big square stones is easy but doesn't take much skill. It sits behind an apple tree and serves to reinforce the path behind it. i like how it came out.

I got out of the sun and went down to the river to harvest willow and receive basketry knowledge from Cheryl. It took a few hours to weave a good size basket, these weren't harvested a the right time of year so they were difficult to work with but they made a serviceable basket.

BRK Post 118

Day 2 of SKIP, I racked up a few more BB's today.

I started by creating a trail along a berm and seeding it.

Did some tractor work and made a berm.

I darned a hole in a shirt. I've never darned before I thought it would be more work than it was.

Did some maintenance on the trails on the lab.

And learned how to make twine from plant fibers, I twisted up about 2 ft.

Tomorrow is slated to be all about animal care BB's.

BRK Post 119

Animal care day today, I was all ready to knock out a birdhouse, bee house, and a lizard and toad rock pile. But making the bee house took forever.

Let me explain. I started drilling out the holes on the drill press to start them all out straight. Then made them at least 6 inches deep with a regular drill. The holes are a mix of 8mm and 6mm sizes, some for leaf cutter bees and some for mason bees.

The time consuming part was make rolls of paper and sliding them into each hole. I rolled strips of paper around a drill bit and fed them in. The paper rolls give you the ability to pull out old larva, check for problems, clean out the holes. But it for the time it took, I think it would be better to make a different style.

After hanging up my bee house I quit the work day and went up to the kitchen to help Pierre make falafel, babaganoush, and pitas. I got to roast the eggplant for the babaganoush over a flame until they were blackened.

I've never had falafel before and Pierre's cooking was excellent.

Nine and I ended the day by picking the currants that have finally ripened.

BRK Post 120

For today's Skip activities, I went back to Animal Care and picked the bird house BB.

It took some time to chose the species I wanted to design for. We have a bunch of bluebird houses, I've seen swallows and robin's building nests on their own...

Paul asked to target birds who ate grasshoppers...

I looked up birds in this area and found a bird who eats grasshoppers and needs help sustaining their population.

Kestrels came up, they are small raptors who prey on insects and small rodents, sounds like a great fit.

I found some mill ends from the saw mill that were in good shape, made slabs of even thickness, made a box out of them, made a roof that can be removed, and bored the three inch hole for an entrance.

I'm going to scope out a place to hang it tomorrow.

BRK Post 121

Today was all about building hugelculture.

It is the first time I really got some time on the excavator, practicing building the muscle memory helped me get fairly comfortable by the end of the day I could get the machine to move smoothly and have it do what I wanted.

While the other Skip attendees worked on their hugels, I gathered a whole bunch of saskatoon berries. I'm going to process them tomorrow.

I scoped out some spots for my bird house and I think I'll have time tomorrow to hang it.

I'm having a good time here, getting the opportunity to practice all of these skills.