Nine's Bootcamp Experience (BRK)

#131

Learned about temperate climates today. Perennial gardens. Food forests. And Thomas Elpel showed up and taught us about some plant families. Really enjoyable time so far. I enjoyed his teaching style. 😊

#132

Plant identification with Tom this morning. That was really fun and informative! I prefer the interactive teaching style.

Later, Energy systems and why they all suck. Brief intro on natural buildings. Roofs.

Got side tracked by an inaccuracy/flippant bias, searched the internet, and learned something new today. Scandinavians have been building living roofs for centuries. Birch bark and two layers of sod. Lasts for 30 years or so. Pretty incredible.

Also, walipini. The "warm place". I've seen these before, but was hoping for more insight. Ended up going back to the internet for that rabbit hole.

Permaculture kitchen. Stoves. Etc. I was pretty deep in walipinis during that lecture. Honestly didn't pay too much attention. Got bored with the tangents. Solar oven. Cob oven. Hay box cooker. Yada yada. He did touch on ferments briefly, which was cool, before launching into another tangent. It reminded me to talk to Austin to hear about the courses he's going to be teaching at the PTJ. I'm looking forward to that and can hopefully attend.

#133

Found strawberries at the plot today! Grow, babies!

Feeling very over socialized. Group project reminds me of high school. 😑 Crowded classroom and too much noise.

To squeeze some quiet time out of the day, I took some cuttings from a handful of mock orange shrubs to propagate. Then I planted some squash. Had some Lofthouse Medium who were healthy and ready to rock. Also had some eager sugar pie pumpkins who got to spread their roots as well. Fingers crossed they take off and produce well. 🤞🏻

#134

Didn't upload last night. 🙄

Alan said something during class that I felt a little too hard considering the struggle most of us have here on a regular basis. "If you can't keep your students healthy and sane, your methods are fundamentally wrong." I'm having a hard time shaking that from my thoughts.

#135

We did it. The PDC is over. A couple people are already on the road. Our big group disperses down to a smaller group for a slight moment before the circus music begins to churn back to life.