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

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.

B.E.L. Post # 170

Today was another full and productive day around the lab.

This morning I led Jesse and Lorenzo with watering at Apricot Alley before heading up to Lightening Hill for some chop and drop work. We used the fresh mulch around the baby trees, giving them a little extra care and protection.

Afterwards, Jesse continued making progress on the trail work at the horseradish berm while Lorenzo assisted me with laying some larger hugel steps. Throughout the morning I also had sprinklers running on Lightening Hill, the horseradish berm, and the Optimus Prime berm section outside the fenced gate to keep things soaking in while we worked. Meanwhile, Melissa was sharpening chainsaws and processing aluminum cans, helping keep both tools and systems running smoothly.

After lunch, the same crew plus JR joined up at the Abbey. I had Jesse and Melissa working on watering the trees and berms while Lorenzo, JR, and I focused on the Abbey’s back door area. Later on I switched over to the Abbey entrance, where Melissa joined me in bucking my stack of harvested junkpoles down to 10-foot lengths and filling in junkpole panels.

Lots of different moving parts today, but it felt good keeping the crew moving and seeing steady progress across several projects.

Yesterday 05/21/2026, was a productive day with Melissa on my team. During the first half of the day we spent our time at the Abbey harvesting junkpoles so we can keep moving forward on the next junkpole fencing panel build. It was steady work, but good seeing more materials gathered and ready for the next stage of the project.

After lunch we switched gears and set more hugel steps at the Optimus Prime berm, sifted for additional gravel, and continued processing aluminum cans. Along the way we also jumped in to assist Seth’s team with a few of their tasks wherever an extra hand was needed.

Overall it was a solid day with a good mix of material harvesting, berm work, and teamwork around the lab.

B.E.L. Post # 171

Today had a bittersweet start. During this morning’s meeting, Lorenzo and Michelle sadly walked in and announced that they would be leaving and said their goodbyes. I hope the power of the sunchoke be with them wherever their next adventures lead.

After the meeting, Tracy joined my team and it was a very delightful day working together. For the first half of the day, we focused on irrigating the usual spots — Apricot Alley, Lightning Hill, and Raspberry Rock — keeping things happy and hydrated. Afterward, we planted some tomato and pepper seeds before heading off to our beautiful rock face where we shoveled and hauled 20 pails of dirt up onto the turtle berm.

After lunch, we made our way to the Abbey and focused on harvesting and stockpiling junkpoles in advance for future projects. We kept at that through the second half of the day while also jumping in to assist JR and Sean whenever needed.

A productive day mixed with some heartfelt goodbyes and good teamwork.

B.E.L. Post # 172

Today was a very delightful and productive day here at Wheaton Labs. I started the morning as usual tending to the hungry felines before heading over to the exposed rock face by the delivery sign. There I collected another bucket’s worth of dirt and followed it up with some pressure washing to help clean and expose more of the rock face.

Afterwards I processed some aluminum cans before making my way out to the Abbey. The afternoon was dedicated to harvesting junkpoles for the fencing project, and I managed to bring in 10 more poles to keep the momentum rolling. To cap things off, I set another vertical post in place, bringing us one step closer to the next fencing panel build.

B.E.L. Post # 173

Started the morning off by feeding the cats, then went over to clean out the ashes from the Solarium RMH. Nice simple reset to get things ready for the day.

After that I jumped into the cleaning blitz with the boots crew. It turned into a really productive flow, and we ended up rolling that momentum into organizing the free shelf in the Solarium with Seth and Melissa. We sorted through everything and got it looking a lot more functional and easy to use.

Once that was done I headed out to the Abbey and kept working on the front entrance until JR arrived. When he got there I switched over and helped him with the backdoor work instead, just pushing that area forward and getting things more dialed in.

Finished the day off with a pizza party, which was a really nice way to wrap everything up.

And big thanks again to Paul for his generosity—definitely appreciated and helps keep everything moving along.