Dave Burton's Boot Adventures at Wheaton Labs and Basecamp

Good morning! I stirred the Haymaker’s Oat Water that I’m making. Once the twenty-four hours has passed, I’m going to put it in the fridge as a nice refreshing drink! I also checked up on the polydough I’m making.

Day 29





And the polydough seems to have risen some!



The result of my experiment with raw linseed oil to test whether a lot or little oil is needed returned unexpected results: raw linseed oil seems to be tasty. It looks like a critter can by and ate the raw linseed oil and dirt mixtures.



We mostly worked on building a dirt and raw linseed oil floor by hauling dirt into the room, sprinkling it with raw linseed oil, and then tamping it down to compact it.

Good morning! We tried the Haymaker’s Oat Water last night, and it was delicious! I steamed some soft-boiled eggs this morning!

Day 30



Steaming them instead of boiling them makes the soft-boiled eggs easier to peel. To stop the cooking process, I put them into cold water.



These are a couple pictures of the morning at Basecamp!



We sharpened bark scrapers for use on logs that we're going to peel at Fred's plot. But first, we need to move the logs to his plot!





We limbed a four trees for use at Fred's plot! This is one of the trees that I worked on!





Jaqi did a wonderful job on the tractor moving the logs onto the trailer!







Jaqi positioned the logs onto the trailer!





We drove by the Tipi that has a rocket mass heater!



We peeled logs for Fred's plot!





The Noma Guide to Fermentation arrived!!! Thank you so much Kerry! I'm going to start with making lacto-fermented tomato water, because we had some tomatoes that need to be used!







The lacto-fermenetd tomato water had been made!



And we had a lot of beans, so I'm making fermented bean paste!

Good morning! I think the morning views at Basecamp are pretty nice!

Day 31



Here’s some signs at Basecamp: Turtle Lot, Recycling, and a couple bathroom signs.





A critter decided to eat up some of the dirt in our raw linseed oil and dirt floor! They left quite a lot of holes in the floor!



Here are some progress pictures of Allerton Abbey!







This is some of the work we did on Allerton Abbery today.









And some pretty Nature pictures!





I split off some polydough that I made to make two loaves of bread- one plain and one gingerbread. I based the Gingerbread addition of seasonings off of the recipe in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.





Both of the doughs are ready to be put into loaf tins! I then sprinkled sugar ontop of the gingerbread uncooked load and sea salt ontop of the plain uncooked loaf.



I made a first attempt at making loaves of bread for a BB, but unfortunately the bread crumbles. So, I don't think  meets the requirements of the BB. However, I still want to show that I tried to make vegan and gluten-free bread!

GOOD morning! I made some slow cook soup this morning and set it to cook!

Day 32







One of the big accomplishments today, while staying late, was that we laid down plastic on Allerton Abbey for the rest of the umbrella and covered most of it with dirt.

Jaqi scooped some dirt for us to spread around on the roof of Allerton Abbey.





Paul Wheaton came to Allerton Abbey and drove the excavator! He worked a lot on the umbrella, shaping the dirt below the umbrella and adding dirt ontop of the umbrella.





Before we worked above Allerton Abbey, we did a lot of work inside Allerton Abbey.



I worked on mixing cob for between the logs steps and for the floor. Then, I added cob between the steps inside of Allerton Abbey.





Austin and Jaqi worked on leveling these two pretty floors!



The soup I set out to cook this morning turned out well, even with the extra unexpected extension of cooking time! The soup had Idli balls in it, potatoes from Jeremy that he grew, bell peppers, hot peppers, onion, celery, carrots, a few radishes, sea salt, mustard, cumin, pepper, and garlic.



I used my remaining polydough to make a pizza crust. I topped the crust with olive oil, sea salt, and balsamic vinegar. I'm letting this sit before I add more toppings to it and then cook it.



With the oats from the Haymaker's Oat Water, I have put those into a container with coconut milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg to let those soak overnight before cooking them on "warm" setting on the slow cooker. I found that soaked oats don't need much heat to cook and gel up.

Good morning! It looks like the rain has arrived!

Day 33



We had a half day today, since we stayed late yesterday. I worked on trying to move dirt from the pond near Allerton Abbey up out of the pond. That did not quite go so well for me. I got dirt closer to the edge of the pond, but I managed to get myself stuck, and while trying to get unstuck, I got one of the tracks of the excavator off of the wheel. So, I'll be working on fixing that on Monday.



I think the inside of ALlerton Abbey is looking spiffy!



We also picked up plastic tarp scraps that were in the dirt around Allerton Abbey.



I am loving how the sunflower at Mike Jay's hugelkultur are starting to flower!





I walked to the Volcano this afternoon and took a mighty long nap afterwards. I was pretty tired and stressed. There's a lot to think about.



I put the toppings on the vegan and gluten-free pizza I'm making with the polydough. I put olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, tomatoes, onions, and garlic on it.



Being at 3000 feet above sea level, I am baking the pizza at 375 Fahrenheit for 50 minutes.



Kind of like the bread that I tried making, the pizza crust ended up being dense and crumbly. It came out more of like shortbread or cornbread with pizza toppings on it. This is my BB submission for making pizza. I think that this one qualifies, because the requirements for the crust are not burnt and fully cooked (not about whether the crust is fluffy, or crumbly, or whatever).



I was inspired by the cookies that Jen brought back from Mary's Mountain Cookies in Missoula. So, I'm going to make unfermented and fermented sweet potato cookies. I'm going to make these vegan and gluten-free.





I oversimplified the recipe by making the sweet potato cookies just sweet potatoes, coconut milk, coconut oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg. They became sweet potato blobs, but they're still pretty yummy and sweet (also vegan and gluten-free)!





I saved the other half of the sweet potato cookie batter I made to add APC vinegar and pickle brine to it to make a fermented batter. I might add some sort of binder and leavening agent to it. I'm not sure yet what to use to make those things happen to the batter.



I also started some sweet potato soda, as well, that is vegan and gluten-free. It's sweet potatoes, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, APC vinegar, sea salt, and water. I altered the recipe from Nourishign Traditions.

Good afternoon! I think that today's a pretty nice sunny day!

Day 34

Here is a naturescape video of the "Volcano" at Basecamp!



I checked the fermented bean pastes I made, and they seem to be fermenting a lot, which I find to be rather nice! The tops of the jars resist being pushed down.



Earlier this week, a sample copy of Paul and Shawn's book Building a Better World in Your Backyard arrived!



The sweet potato soda turned out great! I made two bottles of it to let age for at least a month or longer, and I made one bottle to drink right away. The sweet potato soda is mildly sour, slightly bubbly, and a little lemony. I didn't add extra sugar or Rapadura, like the actual recipe calls for, but I think it still turned out nice!





I made Latin American Sauerkraut (Curtido), following this recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon:



These are my ingredients before and after chopping.



I then mixed everything to start the brining process; then, I pounded down the mixture to let out more of the juices.



And these are my filled jars of Latin American Sauerkraut! I'm going to let the first jar on the left go 1 month, the middle go 3 months, and the right jar go 6 months. I have submitted this as my BB for salt brine pickle/ferment something



And I've been looking more through The Noma Guide to Fermentation, and I'm thinking I might want to try making the Yellow Peaso.



I started the process of making peaso by soakign split green peas.



And the lacto-fermented tomato water is looking nice!



With the oats from the Haymaker's Oat Water that I let soak for an extra couple of days, I am making overnight oats with some coconut milk, coconut oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and bananas.