evan's ant village log

Day 122

All the ants and all the gappers that are currently at the lab were part of a podcast with Paul today. We talked a lot about ant village, the challenge, ideas and dreams for the future, among other things. I think it went well and we covered a lot of good material.

Last night I found Sir Chops walking down one of the roads on the lab, and so I followed him for a couple hours. He went to the tipi, then way out to the western border, and all the way back before losing me. So this morning I borrowed a net from a neighbor with the intention of using it to capture Sir Chops when next I saw him. But this evening when I was walking towards Allerton Abbey from Ava, net in hand, Sir Chops comes trotting down Saskatoon Trail towards me. I dropped the net, headed back to Hamelot, and opened up his grain barrel. Before I knew it he was back in Hogwarts waiting for his dinner. Apparently the loose calf panel from which he escaped yesterday wad not the only insecure part of the fence, as he went through the junkpoles on his way back in. The spot he went through was right where I had pulled the junkpoles up to let him through the first time, so even though they'd been replaced he remembered it as an entrance. I gave him lots of food and water, and then spent the rest of the remaining daylight on checking, double checking, and reinforcing the fence. I stuffed junkpoles into the junkpole section until they were crazy tight, and I put a ton of rocks around the bottoms of the calf panels, especially where there were elevation changes. Hopefully it'll hold now.

I'm so glad that he decided to come back. Henceforth, today shall be known as Sir Chops Day!

Hi Evan. So glad to hear that Sir Chops is back. All the best with keeping him contained.

Day 123

Fred, my dad, and I went into Missoula to run some errands and see the sights. Everything seemed to take twice as long as it should have, and even though we spent all day in town we still didn't knock out everything on our lists. We did pick up some free nails and screws from a craigslist free ad, picked some free fruit, got a barrel for my rocket stove, did some grocery shopping, and ate some huckleberry pie.

When we got back, Sir Chops was still contained, fortunately.

Day 124

Got some work done on Siesta. The ground below the sidewalls has been levelled, some small rocks added for drainage and to try to keep the wood from rotting, and the bottoms of the sidewalls are getting notched and put into place. Quite a few more notches to go, but most will be flat instead of rounded.

It threatened to rain, so we put up some tarps and got everything covered in anticipation of a downpour. As it turned out, it didn't rain much, but what little rain did fall was all redirected far away from the walls of Siesta, and my dehydrating fruit was kept dry as well.

That fly looks like something from a Miyazaki film!

Are you sure that's a gooseberry? Gooseberry is generally a green or reddish fruit with translucent skin and small bristly hairs on the surface, and thorns on the branches of the bush.

Of course, you Americans may have named some other fruit the same name, I guess.

Roger, there are indeed both North American and European gooseberries, which are a little different in some ways, but interfertile. There are definitely some very dark-fruiting ones out there. Leaves look right to me.

Day 125

We got more work done on Siesta. The frame for the southern sidewall is almost ready to be fastened. Next step is to run a string to make sure the shoring will sit flush, then fasten the frame, and then the wall should just start flying together.

It rained a bit. Then it hailed a bit. Pea-sized chunks of ice falling from the sky. Fun.

Day 126 (part 1 of 3)

Fred, Jesse, Carol-Anne, Chris, Curtis, Davin, my Dad and I all went up near Bonner's Ferry to visit Mike Oehler and tour his underground and earth-integrated structures. It was a beautiful and inspiring trip and Mike Oehler is awesome! Paul let us borrow his van and Fred drove. Thanks Paul and Fred!

First Mike showed us the 15 dollar house, (a tiny library,) an even tinier root cellar, (that bears used to raid for goodies,) and an abandoned, unfinished, dilapidated earth-sheltered structure. It was very interesting to see how the structure failed and how it was decomposing. There was a bat living there! So cool!

Day 126 (part 2 of 3)

There were lots of birch trees on Mike's land, and many had fungi growing on them. I spotted some chaga, and there were some other mushrooms too, (I'll throw them in to a later post.)

Mike showed us his original 50 dollar house (with 500 dollar addition,) and his earth-sheltered solar greenhouse next. I had read about and seen pictures of them many times, but it was surreal to see these structures in person. The greenhouse was quite warm inside, and the 550 dollar house was nice and cool. Mike sat in his comfy chair inside and told us how important it is to make sure that every room has windows on at least two sides, (for balance of light, air, and views, and for the psychological health of the room's occupants.)

Neither structure had been inhabited for many years, and while the greenhouse looked like it had seen better days, the 550 dollar house still seemed pretty sturdy.