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

B.E.L. Post # 190

Today started after the morning meeting with Jesse continuing work on the horseradish berm trails while I focused on improvements within the garden paddock. I spent the morning doing some chop-and-drop, fully prepping the second hugel step hole, widening sections of trail throughout the garden paddock, and processing more scrap metal fencing into metal twist ties for future projects.

After lunch, Jesse, Melissa, Leo, and I headed out to do some chop-and-drop along the pathway connecting the Library to the Fischer Price House wooden porch. Once that was completed, we made our way to the Abbey.

At the Abbey, I had Jesse continue working on the junkpole panel near the front entrance while I demonstrated and directed Melissa and Leo through the repair of another junkpole panel that had failed between Cooper Cabin and the Ant Village gate. It was a good opportunity for some hands-on learning while making progress on maintaining the fencing infrastructure around the property.

Another productive day of trail work, garden improvements, chop-and-drop, and junkpole fence repairs!

B.E.L. Post # 191

This morning Leo headed out with Stephen to the Abbey while Melissa and I stayed back at basecamp focusing on chop-and-drop work and continued trail building within the garden paddock.

In the afternoon boot shift, I led Leo and Melissa on finishing work on the junkpole panels. They made strong progress and were very close to completing the section we were working on.

While they were on panels, I also spent time bucking up a large fallen tree. I loaded several buck logs onto the back of Roy and hauled them back to basecamp. Once returned, I staged the logs neatly by the shop door for future use.

Overall a productive day with steady progress on multiple fronts—vegetation management, infrastructure, and materials prep all moving forward.

B.E.L. Post # 192

Today started off at Basecamp with some chop-and-drop work within the garden paddock. I spent the morning cutting and laying down biomass to help build soil and suppress unwanted vegetation.

After that, I headed over to the Lab where I harvested several junkpoles and cleaned up the area by cutting the remaining stumps from recently harvested poles. The stumps and usable material were then staged at the Love Shack for Jesse to eventually process.

Later in the day, I continued processing and sorting scrap metal fencing, helping reclaim materials and organize resources for future projects.

To wrap up the day, I spent some time journaling and reflecting on the day's work before relaxing with my dog. A simple but productive day filled with land stewardship, resource recovery, and a little downtime at the end.

B.E.L. Post # 193

This morning right after I woke up, I went out and did some chop and drop over at Samantha’s berm. I stayed on that until the cleaning blitz started, which was a nice reset for the day as usual.

After the blitz, I went back to more chop and drop work in the same area.

Later on, I processed more scrap metal fencing and hauled out about four pails of gravel to stage for future use.

After that, I headed over to the Abbey and took a look at 12 junkpole panels that have been leaning since last winter’s windstorm. I noticed the posts on those panels don’t have gravel socks, and I suspect some of them may be starting to rot at the base.

After talking with Paul yesterday, I’m going to prioritize rebuilding those panels while deer pressure is still low.

I finished up the day by cutting back more stumps from earlier tree felling work to help clean up the area and make everything look a bit more tidy and open.

B.E.L. Post # 194

After the morning meeting, Melissa, Jesse, and I got started with irrigation, making sure trees and plants were getting the water they needed. Once that was wrapped up, we moved on to some chop-and-drop work and spent time improving trails around basecamp. Before lunch, we also did some chainsaw maintenance to keep the saws in good working order.

After lunch, Melissa, Jesse, Leo, and I focused on bucking, splitting, and stacking firewood. It felt good to see the woodpile continue to grow and get ready for future use.

Later in the afternoon, we headed out to the Abbey. Melissa and Leo worked on irrigation and chop-and-drop while Jesse and I tackled a section of junkpole fencing that had started leaning. We disassembled two fence panels to investigate the problem and discovered that one of the support posts had rotted off at the bottom. After removing the failed post, I set two new posts using a gravel sock method to give the fence a solid foundation for rebuilding the panels. It was satisfying to uncover the cause of the issue and start putting the fence back on solid footing.