! Orin's Boot Camp Pictorials

BRK Day 20

uuuuummmmmm,...trying to rid myself of early morning cobwebs in my head......rocket mass heater going from 71 to 75, at 74 F now for those feeling under the weather. It's 23F right now at 6:40am...looking like we'll get a rain or snow today ...after tonight, we shouldn't freeze again for the foreseeable spring

ah here I am! Yesterday I counted the number of poles we had planted and we have two MORE than we thought we had! oh yeah, I like under reporting of that type..

On the positive side of things, we've got  a total of 64 holes drilled and 63 poles planted. That's right, we are going to get our food systems on line with a fence around the Abbey (sorry deer, no more free seedlings to munch on)!!!  

after getting a good count on the poles planted, I tamped the pole Josiah and I didn't the day before. Then I drilled two new holes, both of them the south gate poles -that's right, we are now around the Chateau de Poop! Being attracted to the heat of the sun, I love the south south gate by the Chateau de Poo!

I chopped down a tree for the other south gate pole and planted poles number 62 and 63. I went down for lunch thereafter; work tends to warm me up and make me hungry....atleast I got the hungry part, it didn't warm up as much as the day before.

After lunch, Josiah piloted a broken drone with the camera tapped in the downwards position; I shot a video of the flight and you can see why he had so much trouble -one of the props wasn't spinning properly.

[youtube] https://youtu.be/3Vsy4ilgs8o [/youtube]

The cats didn't get eaten by the drone -neither did I or Josiah!

Then I drilled a third hole for the day, chopped down another tree for pole #64, put it in the hole but didn't tamp it in.....I had a bunch of branches to put on Alterton Abbey before I called it a day (more than a bunch actually).

BRK Day 21

Are you tired of seeing pictures of poles and holes??? but wait, there's more! 10 more poles need to go into ten more holes before all the uprights are in

according to  my calculations anyways, Josiah's calculation was 80 poles
...I waited until I could measure the last bit left easily before I did my calculation..
...and I calculated 76 poles!


okay, for those of you that don't want to see more poles and holes...how about this?

Magic Confetti!!!  pretty sure anyways.

BRK Day 22

Yesterday was a good day for poles and holes!  Tamped in poles # 66, 67, 68 and 69! .,.for accuracy's sake, pole 66 was in its hole but not tamped...

you could say it was a three pole/hole day!  not bad for a guy in the mountains from 8am till 1:30pm

...the other part of the day?  Josiah and I planted strawberries.

Which reminds me!  Eight (8) more days until Paul lets me tinker with my own plot! hah! I'll be asking all permies.com forum's gardeners to send me seedlings, root stocks, and seeds if they have the inclination to do so on the Boot Love link.

Two items I want are the honey locust tree and the paw paw tree....but wait, I have to last atleast 8 more days!

Any seedling/roots/seeds you send me, I'll photograph its arrival, its planting, and its growth on this thread.

BRK Day 23  ...and 7 more days before I can tinker on an acre!

Yesterday was Friday as in last day of the week of 8 to 5pm boot camp work!  Oh yeah, enter the weekend!  What happened Friday? oh, yesterday, yesterday is all I ever post it seems....

We put in pole #70 and 71. Who is "we"? ...that'd be Jennifer and Josiah. You may think Jennifer is a cute thing that just does crochet and you'd be half right yet really wrong!

She laughed at the fence and said it was nothing compared to the 18 miles of T post she had to put in after the hurricane. I said, "oh, so you think this is a picket fence?"  She said, "Yep. like a picket fence to me."  

So there it is, the Alterton Abbey is getting a picket fence.          oh.   my.



As those with the COVID 19 virus know, the virus makes you think you're getting better or entirely gone and then it hits you again....again and again (me, I wouldn't know a thing about how it feels to have COVID 19).
These two are feeling better for the moment and gave me a hand.

Then we planted strawberries. That'd be Josiah and me. I was afraid to hear how she replanted 500 acres the day after the hurricane so somebody distracted her with hemp fiber.

BRK Day 24  (and 6 days before I get let loose on a tinkering acre)

About to head out today for my own purposes....but things took a twist with the truck known as Doug (troubleshoot him tomorrow).
....and a few disjointed pics I haven't shown as of yet.

Orin Raichart wrote:...
Which reminds me!  Eight (8) more days until Paul lets me tinker with my own plot! hah! I'll be asking all permies.com forum's gardeners to send me seedlings, root stocks, and seeds if they have the inclination to do so on the Boot Love link.

Two items I want are the honey locust tree and the paw paw tree....but wait, I have to last atleast 8 more days!
Any seedling/roots/seeds you send me, I'll photograph its arrival, its planting, and its growth on this thread.

Hi Orin,
Some time ago, when another boot was there, named Dave, I did send a 'care package'.  There were some seeds (nuts) in there too. He told he put them with the other seeds. I don't know where tose seeds are, but maybe you do ... It was the same box with the home spun wool, Jennifer knows about it.

BRK 25 (...and five more days before I start tinkering with an acre)

Thank you Inge, I'll inquire about the seeds you sent. If they haven't been planted already and I am allowed to plant them on "my" acre, I'll post photographs of their planting and care if they grow!

Wow! Josiah and Jennifer brought back organic hay for mulch!!! We reeealllly needed it! Alterton Abbey's soil is really just dirt at this moment.

I'm collecting pictures and video on what it's really like to live with a Rocket Mass Heater.  Here's a video of yam cooking in a RMH!



And here's what is done with the ash. Yep we sift it to remove nails and glass. We also separate the black charcoal from the ash in the sifting, giving us two materials to use.

Whoa. it's snowing outside. I'm still pretty certain spring is here tho. must be Montana spring snows.

BRK Day 26  ( four more days until a tinker acre I get to experiment on!)

Hi Inge, Wheaton Labs has a shelf of seeds...I'm not sure if yours have been planted and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to plant the Wheaton Lab seed store on the tinker acre I get to use in four more days. I'll get a picture of the seed shelf and ask Paul if I'm allowed to use the seeds there specifically on "my" acre.

No poles planted yesterday. Why? 'cause somebody (that'd be me) failed to bring the battery to the Labs land. So Josiah cut down a three pole tree, we got three poles debarked, carried the poles to their soon to be holes, and went to base camp to plant strawberries, two grape vines, peas and brassicas.

BRK Day 27 (...and three more days before an unsuspecting acre starts getting my visits!)

Somebody stole all my apples and turned 'em into cows, dang it!  Then demoted me from pollinator to ranch foreman.....musta been that dere fed-deraal goberment  -what's I'mma gonna do with a bunch of cows me being  vegan and all???  Teach 'em how to eat grass???  Yoga??? Who's gonna pay the class fee???  Cow chips???  What's dose?  Sumpin smells a little funky in here!

Yesterday I dug three more holes for three more poles and dropped the poles into them Josiah cut the day before  -bringing the count to 74!  The uprights are finished for now, we are now planning where to put the gate to avoid the ditch along side the south of the road.

Besides planting 10 strawberry plants on Alerton Abbey's hugelkulture beds along with 4 asparagus roots, finishing off the peas, and planting more brassicas in the base camp Zone 2,  we had a very cool planning session!  That'd be Paul, Fred, Jennifer, Josiah, and me of course!

Alots of things to consider before earthworks: where is the water flow now and where might it go?  where's the greywater going to go? where's the willow bank going to go? How many access vehicle gates and human gates do you want and where (how are you going to move that 2 ton piece of art you made to your client -won't fit through your human gate)? Where are the cool winter winters blowing from generally?  Where are you going to park, how many spots, can you turn around with a trailer? where's the pond(s)? Where's your drinking water cistern(s)? How can you arrange your hugelkulture berms to avoid frost pockets? Where's your shop/wood/shed/garage? where's your greenhouse? How deep does the soil freeze for pipe placement?  How can you get everything to flow using gravity including your land's cool air?

Hi Inge, here's the picture I said I would get for you....do you recognize anything here?  I'm not sure if all of these seeds are viable and I haven't gotten permission to plant them on the acre I don't yet have planting access to yet (3 more days)!
 

BRK Day 28 (...and two more days before an acre becomes mine to have my way with as a boot!)

We had two new boots for today: Dustin and Mateo. Welcome you guys! Dustin gave me a great chainsaw sharpening lesson which I will share later!

Dustin cut down trees for the junk pole fence, Josiah delimbed them, I found the ones large enough for horizontals, cut 'em to length, and walked 'em over to each set of uprights.......REALLY nice to have three people on the fence! ....and today, hopefully four people  to work on our East Texas size picket fence!

And we had another planning session on the permaculture design of Alterton Abbey  -the best-     we got commentary on how the hugelbeds can direct cool air and frost pockets

A walk on a fine Montana Spring Day.



Hi Inge, Paul made a decision on the seeds. The seed shelf are seeds for Wheaton Labs but any seeds sent to the boots, that'd be me, would be for the boot to plant as they choose, ( like on the acre I'm about to obtain here in two more days)!  

I'll post a request on the boot love thread and here of course for the seedlings and seeds I'm looking forward to planting!  Again, I will photograph the planting, the care, and the harvest of all seedlings and seeds sent to me!