!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seth's Lazer-Focused, Long-Winded, Lively List of Lab Lessons (BEL)

BEL #19 Thursday May 8, 2025

Thursday morning brought about more junkpole labor, but it was well worth it. Together we finished the junk pole fence at the bark park. All that’s left is to install the gate that Stephen and Jared started yesterday. Junkple is just great once it’s done, so at this moment it’s just great. The bone sauce that was started ended up being a failure, all dry no sauce. So we started a new batch, and hopefully this one will work better with more bones, and more water. The rest of the afternoon brought irrigation and chop and drop. Worked a little more on my GAMCOD and then finished the night at the sauna. See ya! -Seth

BEL #20 Friday May 9, 2025

Friday was warmly welcomed by the boots, maybe it’s the heat starting to come on, or the extra busy schedule, but this week was tiring. We chopped ‘til we dropped at Allerton abbey all morning and irrigated the trees. The afternoon brought the revelation of another failed bone sauce attempt. I have some theories as to why it hasn't been working. It hurts my pride and the trees by not having the bone sauce. I ended up being able to scrape up enough from the jar of the previous batch to cover the new trees planted this week. I am hopeful that the lack of bone sauce will be figured out. In other news, lunch was a morel, rhubarb blossom stir fry with an egg. And I’m looking forward to checking out the farmers market tomorrow. -Seth

BEL #21 Saturday May 10, 2025

Saturday is always nice when you wake up at 6 or 7 and have all day to do stuff. I don’t remember what I had for breakfast, but I made my usual latte. It was nice chatting with Catherine before heading our separate ways. When you play latin opera music loudly on the may to Missoula it creates a really cool audio visual effect that I can only describe as captivating. I really do love to support small businesses at the farmer market, but sometimes the prices hit me right the scarcity mindset. I paid $18 for half a piece of toast with hummus and sprouts on it, and a glass of carrot ginger juice. Don’t get me wrong, it was excellently delicious and organic, “living” food, but what a price.
After setting some yogurt to incubate, I spent the afternoon sunning at the lab, and catching a bike ride. I then baked the pita bread I had waiting, and panned up the two sourdough loaves I plan to bake for a BB. I tend to do more of my cooking/ kitchen work later in the day and always end up running into quiet hours at 9:30, I’m going to try and wake up early tomorrow to get the loaves baked and a Sunday surprise meal prepped before the blitz. You’ll read about how it goes if you come back tomorrow.-Seth

BEL #22 Sunday May 11, 2025

Falafel, braised lamb, humus, tahini sauce, pita, all homemade organic ingredients. It was delicious, I was satisfied, nobody gagged, really an all around success and I took enough pictures to probably get some BBs. And the lamb was permaculture raised by a rather interesting friend of Paul’s, who we will eventually get to meet. I went for a light run at the lab then hit the sauna with the newly installed cold plunge adjacent. I also did some work on my GAMCOD, and lost track of time just long enough to miss the popcorn social.  . The yogurt turned out to have an excellent 50% yield plus the strained liquid which probably has a name and a good use that I am currently unaware of. I used an instant pot, and I made bulgarian yogurt started from store bought. Sun dried tomato and olive hummus up next. Two woofers from the East coast. Last frost May 10, much planting to come. -Seth

BEL #23 12 May 2025 Monday

Monday was chill and chilly. We started off up at Allerton Abbey planting all the rest of the GAMCOD sprouts. I also planted seeds for a salsa garden in the greenhouse. Giant morels were discovered along with oyster mushrooms while going goat mode at the abbey. That last sentence sounds crazy even in context. More seeds got planted(AND LABELED!). I took exceptional care to ensure a bountiful harvest of cilantro all over a few places, as well as at base camp. If I can’t yet cover 100% of my food, then I can at least cover 100% of my cilantro, which is at least .02% of my diet. The snowball begins. Spinach also made the shortlist today, I think the cold influenced that. You may have been noticing a trend with the chop and drop that I’m now going to mention, but I think it should be emphasized as a critical step in the staircase to no more/ way fewer steps. It is also quite enjoyable to turn around after an afternoon of chop and drop to find that you've made a fairly large patch of mowed lawn, and a prettier patch of mulched area all by hand. Finally finished off the day with news of the tires for leviathan arriving at the lab. Then dragged logs from raspberry rock to the yard to be scraped. Tomorrow: In an unlikely turn of mythology, Leviathan rises from the ashes, and a sawmill is rescued from its slumber by five prince charmings and a charmette. -Seth