! In the quiet hours of the bootcamp grind, I found myself: Esteban's Bootcamp Experience

B.E.L. Post # 132

After the morning meeting, we gathered our tools and headed down to the lab. I dropped the crew off at Cooper Cabin, where they got to work sprucing things up in preparation for the sepper arriving tomorrow. While they handled that, I made my way out to the sawmill site.

Out there, I bucked four logs down to length and hauled them back to Cooper so they could be split and stacked for future use. Once that was squared away, I rejoined the crew.

After lunch, we shifted gears a bit. I had Caroline, Derrick, and Fatty working on debarking two junkpole trees for the tipi gate project—good steady progress there. Meanwhile, Seth and I took some time to perform maintenance on the chainsaws, making sure everything’s dialed in and ready for continued use.

To close out the day, we all headed back to the Abbey and put in work on the fences until the end of the boot.

B.E.L. Post # 133

Today kicked off with our morning meeting, then we all piled into Toots and headed down to the lab. I dropped off Melissa and Carol at Cooper Cabin so they could keep working their magic—getting the place dialed in, cozy, and ready for Jesse’s arrival. It’s been cool seeing that space slowly transform into something really welcoming.

The rest of us made our way to the Abbey to keep pushing forward on the leaning junkpole panels. During the morning boot shift, I focused on harvesting materials for the rebuild—cut down about 10 trees, each roughly 30 feet long, that’ll be used as horizontal pieces. Got them all delimbed and ready before switching gears.

After that, I moved over to the Tipi gate project and started digging out the footing. Kept at that until lunch, then after we ate, we got back out there and started on the holes for the vertical posts. We used the electric auger Paul picked up earlier this year—made a big difference and definitely sped things up.

We kept at it through the second half of the boot day and made some solid progress all around. Feeling good about how things are coming together.

B.E.L. Post # 134

Today was one of those steady, hands-on days where a little bit of everything got done.

During the first half of the day, Seth, Melissa, the wwoofer, and I were over at the Lab, rolling up our sleeves and debarking logs. There’s something oddly satisfying about peeling back that outer layer and watching the clean wood emerge underneath—good honest work, and plenty of it.

After lunch, Melissa and I shifted gears into fix-it mode. We tackled a wheelbarrow that had seen better days—the axle had popped out, but with a bit of tinkering and persistence, we got it back in working order. While we were at it, we also fixed up the air compressor hose, which felt like a small but meaningful win.

Later on, I dismantled a section of junkpole fencing out by the drive. One of the rock jack legs had given way, so it was time to take it down and reset things properly down the line. Always something to maintain out here.

We also got some potatoes planted, which felt especially good—putting something into the ground that’ll give back later. That kind of work never gets old.

I wrapped up the day by rehandling a rake, giving it a new handle and a second life. There’s a quiet satisfaction in repairing tools instead of replacing them—it just feels right.

B E.L. Post # 135

After the morning meeting, Seth, Rodger, and I rolled out to the Abbey with Seth leading the charge as point. The mission: tame those leaning junkpole panels once and for all.

We felled another live tree and carved out two more 10’ posts—bringing our total to five solid posts ready for duty. With the post holes already dug from yesterday (huge win) and gravel courtesy of the rock “beautiful” project, we moved like a well-oiled machine and got all five posts set in place. Watching those panels stand tall again… chef’s kiss.

From there, we switched gears and dug up soil from an approved section of the property and stacked it onto a berm—because no day is complete without moving a little earth around.

After lunch, we split into teams and headed back out. First stop: the Abbey greenhouse for some much-needed watering. Then it was off to the sawmill site where our team was supposed to relocate staged logs and swap them with fresh ones.

Plot twist… the tractor had a flat front tire 😅 so that plan got parked for the moment.

Meanwhile, Seth’s team didn’t skip a beat—they dropped a big tree. As soon as it hit the ground, I headed over to jump in on delimbing and bucking. Nothing like the sound of a chainsaw and teamwork to keep the momentum going.

We wrapped things up back at basecamp, and I finished out the day on a smaller but satisfying fix—repairing a metal rake. Enlarged the retaining hole with a 3/8” bit, set a bolt to lock it in, and topped it off with a protective coating on all the wooden parts. Good as new and ready for more work.

Every time I see examples of the rock and gravel at Wheaton Labs I just get jealous. All that beautiful, angular shattered material that interlocks and knits together when it's put in place. I'm on what used to be the riverbed and everything here is rounded. It's good hard rock, but it packs about as effectively as ball bearings :-(

B.E.L. Post # 136

Slept in a bit this morning… one of those slower starts that felt needed. Rolled out of bed, fed the cats, grabbed some breakfast, then took the dog out for a short walk to get moving. Nothing fancy—just easing into the day.

After that, Melissa and I took one of the work rigs—Toots—into town to fuel her up, then headed over to the lab to make sure the cats there were taken care of too. A couple small but important missions before diving into the main project.

Then it was straight to work.

Today’s focus: building shelving for the solarium using some scrap wood from the sawmill score a week or two back. Always feels good giving those pieces a second life. I measured everything out to 30” lengths and got clean cuts with the miter saw—nice and straightforward start.

Then came the “figure it out” part.

I wanted to remove the rounded edges so the shelves would sit flush against the future support pieces (which will also be roundwood). Took it over to the table saw, but the piece was just a bit too wide to get the full cut I needed.

Time to improvise.

I secured the piece in place by driving screws into the workbench on either side of it (not into the wood itself), keeping everything from shifting while I carefully ran the chainsaw through to finish the cut. It did the job—but left behind some rough ridges. Nothing a planer couldn’t fix. Ran it through and cleaned it up smooth again.

Before finishing, I went over all the live edges and corners with the orbital sander—softening everything down so there are no sharp edges. Gave it a much nicer feel in the hands and a cleaner look overall.

After that, I coated the shelving with raw linseed oil—always satisfying watching the grain come alive and knowing it’s protected.

Next step will be building the support pieces… and here’s the fun part:
no metal fasteners, no glue.

Everything will be joinery-based—from the supports, to attaching them to the shelves, to mounting the whole unit in its final spot. Keeping it simple, strong, and true to form.

One of those days where things didn’t go exactly as planned—but still came together through a bit of creativity and persistence. Honestly… those are usually the best ones.

Phil Stevens wrote:Every time I see examples of the rock and gravel at Wheaton Labs I just get jealous. All that beautiful, angular shattered material that interlocks and knits together when it's put in place. I'm on what used to be the riverbed and everything here is rounded. It's good hard rock, but it packs about as effectively as ball bearings

I feel this in my soul 😄 Rounded river rock really does act like it’s got somewhere better to be—just rolling around instead of settling in like a team player.

You’ve definitely got the durability going for you, though… it just takes a little more convincing to get it to behave. I’ve heard of folks sneaking in some fines or even a touch of clay to help everything lock together, or just working it in thinner layers so it knits up a bit better.

But yeah… I’d be a little jealous too. That angular Wheaton stuff looks like it practically high-fives itself into place, while yours is out there playing bumper cars.

Those are some nice finished boards!  Another option for next time is to peel the bark off (yes it might not be the barky aesthetic...) and then you can run the rounded board thru the planer to work your way down to the desired thickness.  That's probably a bit safer than running them thru the table saw.

Another bark-on option is to use the table saw to get a decent ways through them from both sides and then finish the cut on the band saw with the flat side against the saw's fence.  Or do the whole job on the band saw.