So it's only taken me a month since getting home to choose and edit photos and finally sit down to type what's been bouncing around in my head.
My name was drawn from the Low Tech Labs kickstarter for a week at Allerton Abbey...a +1 was added, but the dates that Allerton would be available for us didn't work, so we finally "settled" on Cooper Cabin the week of September 23...and we went for just under a week...with about a 17 hour drive to and from Wheaton Labs, if we set to arrive Sunday and depart Saturday, She Who Must Be Obeyed only needed to take a week off work. Since she's my sugar momma, I'm content she didn't book extra time off.
Anyway, this thread will describe our adventures, some comedy, some photos, and some insights we came away with from the experience.
We were quite excited for this adventure, but also a bit uncertain. The context of Wheaton Labs - in mountainous rocky terrain with lots of coniferous trees couldn't be much different from our Manitoba acreage - nearly flat, black soil, bald prairie except for trees that have been planted by humans. If it weren't for the raised driveway and house being built up higher, we'd have almost no slope to speak of on our 7+ acre property. So while I was looking forward to the adventure, I honestly didn't know how much we could apply back home.
I thought we were starting our trip well when I awoke around 5:00 a.m. to begin our journey. Then, the next time I looked at the clock it was just after 7:00...sigh...two hours lost. After getting underway, we'd driven a bit over an hour when I realized we didn't have our passports nor US cash...so we turned around...2.5 hours lost. Needless to say, while the rest of the day's drive was uneventful, we were way behind our intended schedule. It was after 11:00 p.m. when we got to my brother's place in Medicine Hat for the night. At least we got to spend some time with them before calling it a night - he was called into work before we got up in the morning. We went to Mass, then had brunch with my sister-in-law, their eldest son and family and got to meet their second child born earlier this year. Of course, being with family and getting caught up, we didn't get moving quite as early as hoped. Our initial plan had actually been to cross into the US on Saturday when all the crossings are open, but when my sister-in-law suggested we stay with them and cross at Coutts, AB (which is open Sundays), we took her up on the offer. I'm not sure whether I'd call that a mistake or not, but when we pulled up to US Customs, we think there were about 18 ahead of us (which was somewhat amusing as the road was pretty much empty) with one lane open so it took us about 50 minutes to make the crossing.
From there, we were Missoula-bound, although I was beginning to stress about time. Since we were limited in what we could bring across the border for food, we stopped at the Good Food Store in Missoula. She Who Must Be Obeyed noted that she wished we had one of those at home...they'd get all our grocery money. It really is quite nice to have a store where everything is organic and you don't feel limited for variety. After stocking up, and getting a couple slices of pizza (made in-store), we were heading out on the last leg of our journey into the dark.
We arrived at base camp (the directions given were good), but seeing as we arrived after dark and several hours after intended, we weren't sure where to go to find our bunks. Attempting to phone the High Commander didn't work for whatever reason (I should really reach out to my phone provider...), but a text elicited a response. Rather than heading up to Cooper for the night, Stephen set us up with a bunk at Fisher Price for the first night. He's a wise young fella. We met Boot Chris and Ringer Jennifer before turning in for the night.
In the morning, we met the giant hobbit himself. Paul introduced himself and when I responded with "Your Grace", he exclaimed "You pronounced it right!" We had a laugh, so I'd hoped we were off to a good start for the week.
After breakfast and the morning meeting, HC Stephen got Boots Ben and Chris started with their morning tasks and then proceeded to show us, along with Jennifer, Cooper Cabin and a bit of a tour of the Labs. Spending time here has me with a lot of bits and pieces of the infrastructure at Wheaton Labs, but actually being able to see the site in person, and the various parts of infrastructure, how they work, and their relative locations really helped me understand WL better. Of course, She Who Must Be Obeyed has only heard about some of these things from me, and listened to some of the podcasts on the drive down, so she was less prejudiced about the site and was just taking it all in. Back at Base Camp for lunch and the afternoon, HC Stephen continued showing us around some. The solar dehydrators fascinated us - since we have been dehydrating more food over the past couple of years, seeing a couple versions in person was extremely valuable.
For most of the week, since we were a relatively small group of humans on site, we pitched in with the Boots. Among other things (some of which are documented in
Stephen's BEL log - starting around page 209), we harvested from the GAMCOD hugel and weighed the produce, we gathered mulch and applied it, watered hugels, dehydrated food, worked on the fence for the Bark Park (we are dog people so this was rewarding...our standard poodle Phoenix approves), planted sunchokes, tied down the yurt walls, harassed Stephen and Paul, and probably a variety of other things.
On our last afternoon, we spent time with Boot Chris in WL's first attempt at making pitch glue -
see this thread for description and photos.
Late Friday afternoon, when I was putting away tools, Ringer Jennifer was excited (quite likely too strong a word) to see me in the workshop as she hoped I could be of assistance. A big part of what she'd been working on with Boot Ben for the week was getting things sorted out at the pump house. In various discussions, she'd learned I have a background in electrical engineering, so she thought I'd be able to do some soldering. It had been a long time since I'd done any, but the basics don't change...as we were preparing to get this dealt with, HC Stephen came through announcing it was quitting time...he may or may not have been threatened with a hot soldering iron as while he's in charge of the Boots, the Ringer and a SEPPer weren't entirely under his control, especially since the SEPPer was leaving the next morning and the Ringer was hoping to get this next step done. In the time available, I was only able to impart a small bit of wisdom to Boot Ben - don't let out the magic smoke. Anyway, we got the soldering done and applied the shrink tubing over the junction. I only hope I did a sufficient job.
We did come away with some physical stuff - I bought a bunch of DVDs, permaculture playing cards, and a dozen Better World books from Paul. It was amusing the first night away She Who Must Be Obeyed started reading the book and she noted that she could hear it in Paul's voice. I think Paul's co-author may just have been there to clean up the language
Actually, while I'd known he was Canadian, I didn't realize he was in our area - our acreage is about halfway between him and our home in Winnipeg.
I have too many photos to attach to one post, so the ones here are more about some of the buildings / infrastructure. I'll post a reply with photos of a more scenic nature.
For much of the drive home, we didn't have any entertainment going...we were effectively debriefing our time at the Lab. Ultimately, we learned, we laughed, we lost (at games night Thursday after supper). While the context of Wheaton Labs is very different from our prairie permaculture projects, we were able to take away a lot of principles and rethink how we want to do things. Paul had suggested privacy berms could be of value - while I don't wholeheartedly embrace the base camp berms that you need climbing gear (Boot Chris and I used hori hori knives as pitons to plant sunchokes) for, we did agree that smaller berms around a portion of the perimeter of our property would be a valid way to prevent overspray from the industrial agriculture field around our property. She Who Must Be Obeyed thought that it would be good to set up some small scale purpose built solar systems. We could set one up to pump water from the existing dugout to water our copse and the 2025 GAMCOD hugel project (
see thread here). On another portion of the property, near our annual gardens, she'd like to see us dig a pond (I can see Paul's face cheering for earthworks) and set up another small solar pump project to lift water from that to support the gardens. Digging a pond will yield some clay which could be used for cob and/or for berms at the agricultural spray sector. Since we have some animal pressure, we'd like to install a fence around the garden space. Since we don't have junk poles in abundance, we would have to set up a deer fence with metal fencing, but would like to set up gravel socks for the posts. For relatively low cost, we can get cordwood in 8' lengths which could be the posts for this fence. Since our return, I have purchased plans for solar dehydrators. We will likely build a passive one. The rocket-assist is very valuable late in the season when nights get cooler, but since we don't live on site, it would be harder to fire that up every evening. An idea bouncing around my brain would be a skiddable structure that would effectively be a portable prep station. Ideally, we'd have some water storage, possibly a rocket hot water tank to heat it, a laundry tub or two for washing / prepping vegetables after harvest, a counter for cutting / chopping / prep as needed, and possibly solar dehydrator as part of the same structure so we can harvest, clean, prep, and get into the dehydrator in as little time as possible. We've always had the idea of an outdoor kitchen near our gardens with some sort of outdoor oven...with clay dug from the pond, perhaps cob can work. I have a source for free chimney brick as well. As the pond progresses, and the willows that are part of our existing copse (planted, but very young) grow, I'd like to create some living structures. She Who Must Be Obeyed likes the idea of a gazebo...near the pond where there is moisture, a hexagonal or octagonal living willow gazebo is the vision now.
I'm sure I'm missing some stuff, but I think that's most of it. It's incredible to me how I moved from uncertainty over the value of the trip owing to the very different context to being able to apply concepts we saw modified to suit our context. Based on our time at Wheaton Labs, I'd highly recommend spending some time there as a SEPPer or Boot to advance your permaculture thinking and skills.
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