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

B.E.L. Post # 165

Today was another good productive day.

This morning I led Shawn and Jesse through irrigating Apricot Alley, then Lightening Hill, and finally Raspberry Rock. While we were up at Raspberry Rock, we also got quite a bit of pruning done before heading back down.

Afterwards, I had Jesse continue trail work on the horseradish berm while Shawn worked on trail work over at the Optimus Prime berm. While they were focused on that, I went back to adding more hugel steps from where I had left off the previous day.

After lunch, Lorenzo joined onto my team and we all headed up to the Abbey. I had Shawn and Jesse work on installing another horizontal support piece onto a junkpole panel while Lorenzo and I felled two live trees for more vertical supports. That brought the total up to 11 posts, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Later on, I turned things into a bit of a teaching moment. I had Lorenzo teach Shawn and Jesse what he had learned from me about felling trees while I stood back and observed. Lorenzo did an excellent job.

After that, we all worked together felling 4"-5" trees for more horizontal support pieces, and by the end of the day we had more than enough ready to go.

Overall, it felt like one of those really solid days where a lot got accomplished and everyone kept building more confidence and experience along the way.

B.E.L. Post # 166

Today was one of those relaxing but productive days that felt good from start to finish.

I started the morning to the usual soundtrack of hungry cats and quickly quieted their demands before grabbing some breakfast. Afterward, I fueled up the work vehicle and headed straight to the lab, where I harvested 23 additional junkpoles for the upcoming front Abbey gate build. It's satisfying seeing the material pile continue to grow and knowing it’ll soon become part of something lasting.

Back at basecamp, I shifted gears and added a few more steps onto a berm to make reaching the top a bit easier and safer.

I wrapped up the day at a slower pace with some reading, journaling, and a little well-earned relaxing. Sometimes the quieter days are just as rewarding as the heavy-hitting ones.

B.E.L. Post # 167

Today's cleaning blitz really flew by. During the last 25 minutes of the blitz, Seth and I made our way over to the Solarium and continued organizing the free shelf, which is slowly but surely coming together.

Afterwards, knowing one of the projects Seth has been working on involves clearing trails and installing hugel steps at the Optimus Prime berm, I decided to lend a hand in my own way. Near the road but still within the fencing were two leftover logs from a tree that came down during last winter's windstorm. They had already been bucked to roughly 10-foot lengths, so with chainsaw in hand I further bucked them down into six 3-foot logs, with two 1-foot sections left over as well.

All six 3-foot logs and the two smaller pieces are now staged and ready for Seth to pick up and use for the project.

After that I spent some time doing a little chainsaw maintenance and also repaired the rubber jaw covers for the vice. Originally they were held on with magnets, but over time those had failed, so I used a few dabs of liquid nails to reattach them and give them some new life.

I spent the remainder of the day relaxing, slowing down a bit, and collecting my thoughts. Not every productive day has to be full throttle, and today had a nice balance to it.

B.E.L. Post # 168

This morning after our meeting, I led my team consisting of Lorenzo and Tracy through irrigation at Apricot Alley, Lightening Hill, and Raspberry Rock. With the warmer weather settling in, keeping things watered and happy continues to be an important part of the daily rhythm.

Once irrigation was wrapped up, Tracy went to lighten the fire at one of the dehydrators while Lorenzo and I continued adding more hugel steps. Not too long afterwards, Tracy joined us and we kept making steady progress together.

After lunch, the day shifted gears a bit. Lorenzo and Tracy joined JR and Shawn over at the lab for tree felling work, while I teamed up with Melissa and Jessee. I tasked them with watering the berms and trees while I focused on the junkpole panels near the Abbey entrance.

One particular panel had been catching my eye for a while since one of the vertical posts was leaning quite a bit, so I decided that would be the day's rebuild project. Behind the panel was some metal fencing stapled between the two vertical posts, which I removed before starting disassembly. Once the junkpoles and horizontal supports came off, the culprit became obvious — the leaning vertical post had rotted out at the bottom.

After removing the old post, I measured and set the new vertical post at about 9 feet from the existing upright. I dug out a roughly 3-foot-deep hole, added around 3 inches of gravel at the bottom, placed the new post in position, and backfilled it all the way up with a nice gravel sock for drainage and stability. Shortly afterwards, I got the new horizontal supports installed and the framework started coming back together.

It’s always satisfying seeing the reason behind a problem revealed and then putting in the work to rebuild it stronger than before.

B.E.L. Post # 169

Today was a pretty productive day.

This morning I led Jesse and Lorenzo with a chop-and-drop mulch run back at basecamp. We collected mulch and spread it around the trees at Apricot Alley, helping build soil and give the trees a little extra care.

Afterwards, I had Jesse continue trail work over at the horseradish berm while Lorenzo and I collected the six logs that I had bucked down to 3-foot lengths the other day. We staged them in the garden behind the Fisher Price house so they’ll be ready whenever Seth gets around to working with them.

Once we wrapped that up, Lorenzo and I did some gravel harvesting and managed to bring back six pails before lunch.

After lunch, Shawn and Jesse joined JR over at the root cellar while Lorenzo and I spent some time at the Abbey. We filled up the panel that I rebuilt yesterday, added two more vertical posts, and completely framed up another panel before eventually linking back up with JR and the crew.

Overall, it was a solid day with a good mix of projects and teamwork, and it felt good seeing progress happening in several places at once.