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

B.E.L. Post # 238

Today was another pleasant, delightful day at Wheaton Labs.

We started off with the cleaning blitz with my fellow boots, which was actually a lot of fun and a good way to get moving in the morning.

After that, Daniel held a workshop on rebuilding battery packs. It was really interesting getting to see how the packs are put together and learning more about the process.

Later on, I did some journaling and reading, and spent quite a bit of time working on putting Linux on my old tablet. It's been a fun little project, and I like the idea of taking an older piece of technology and giving it a new life instead of just letting it sit around unused.

I also got to spend a lot of quality time with my little dog, which is always one of my favorite parts of the day.

All in all, it was a really nice day—some work, some learning, some tinkering, some quiet time, and plenty of good dog time. Not a bad combination at all.

Yesterday 2026/08/10

With the anticipation of the new 32-ton CAT excavator arriving this week, we already had a bunch of projects lined up for it.

We started the morning up around the Love Shack area, laying out all the woody bits I had collected over the winter. We were getting the foundation started for the future hugel berms—woody bits, then soil, then woody bits, then soil. Basically building up the berms layer by layer.

Stevie and I also headed down to Far Arrakis in the Maverick, chainsaws in hand, and started bucking up the remaining pieces of the tree that the new boots and Steven had felled the week before. We hauled the wood back up to the job site, and while they were unloading it, I took the rav4 over to the Abbey to feed the cats.

When I got back, we started irrigation. Jesse and I irrigated Apricot Alley, giving each of the baby trees a full pail of water.

And then... the excavator arrived!

Paul got in it first down at Far Arrakis, knocking down and moving soil, then headed up to the job site. He was moving that big machine around like a pro.

After lunch, I spent some time training Leo and Andrew on the tractor, going over the controls and how to operate it safely. We were loading bucket after bucket of soil from Far Arrakis into the dump trailer for Steven to haul away. I got a solid hour of tractor time in myself.

Then, from 3:30 to 5:30, I finally got my turn in the new 32-ton excavator.

This was a pretty big step up for me. My previous excavator experience totaled about 37 minutes, and most of that was learning the controls and operating the bucket. This time I was actually moving the whole machine—forward, backward, and positioning it around the job site.

I was widening the road from the Love Shack in the direction of Stephen's tent. I didn't make it all the way there, though. The rocky incline was a new experience for me, and the road felt pretty narrow with an excavator that's about 10 feet 6 inches wide from track to track.

With my limited experience, I definitely felt a little uneasy about the combination of the incline, rocks, narrow road, and a machine that is, well... HUGE. So I went as far as I felt comfortable going and took my time figuring out how the machine wanted to move over that kind of terrain.

It was definitely a very different experience from operating at the Lab, where the ground is mostly flat.

But I had fun.

And I came away with a much better feel for operating the whole unit and a much better sense of how it moves and handles. I'm looking forward to getting more seat time and seeing what I can do with it as I get more comfortable.

Another good day of moving dirt, building things, learning new equipment, and getting a little more experience under my belt.

B.E.L. Post# 239

We started the day at base camp with Leo and Andrew pairing up on the excavator, working on maintaining and widening the road.

While they were doing that, the rest of us gathered our supplies — chainsaws, pruners, and everything else we needed — and walked them up to the Hanging Tree site.

Once we got up there, we started laying down the first layer of woody bits and marking out where the new hugel berms will go.

After that was finished, we headed back down.

Stevie and Michelle set up the sprinklers and got irrigation going, including over at Far Arrakis. Jessie was irrigating up on Lightning Hill, while I worked on irrigating the Turtle Lot berm and the berm outside of Red Cabin. I also got some chop and drop done.

After lunch, Stephen took Andrew to get him dropped off since Andrew is heading back to Arizona. While that was happening, Stevie paired up with Leo to continue operating the excavator.

I took the remaining crew over to the Abbey, where we did more irrigation and chop and drop. I also loaded the back of the Maverick with woody bits.

We eventually headed back to base camp, unloaded everything, and staged the woody bits.

Jessie was getting too hot, so I had her switch over to chainsaw maintenance and some other tasks where she could work out of the heat. Meanwhile, I set Daniel and Michelle up at the plum site to start laying woody bits for the new berms.

Then I got some more tractor time in.

I spent about an hour and a half independently operating the tractor with the grader box, smoothing out the roads and cleaning up the mess left behind from the excavator. The excavator had left deep tracks and ruts in the road, so the goal was to smooth things back out and make the road more manageable.

This was my first time operating a tractor with a grader box, and the conditions definitely made it an interesting learning experience. These weren't flat, easy roads. I was working on rocky, steep inclines, with drop-offs along parts of the road, so I had to stay very aware of my positioning and what the tractor was doing.

One of the biggest challenges was dealing with the deep ruts. When the tractor's large tires dropped into some of those ruts, the machine reacted quite differently than what I was accustomed to from my previous tractor experience at the lab. I had to get a feel for how the tractor moved and responded in those conditions.

The good thing was that I was able to work independently, and as I spent more time on it, I started getting more comfortable with the machine and the grader box. By the end of the hour and a half, I could definitely feel my confidence improving.

It was another good day of getting hands-on experience with a little bit of everything — excavator work, road maintenance, hugel berm construction, irrigation, chop and drop, chainsaw maintenance, hauling woody material, and some challenging tractor work.

Definitely a productive day and another step forward in building practical equipment and land-management experience.

Yesterday 2026/08/12

Started at base camp. Daniel and I headed up near the switchback where the tractor is staged because Paul had mentioned that the seat was feeling weird. When we checked it out, we found that the tractor seat was missing a bolt, which allowed it to sway side to side pretty loosely. Once we addressed that, I operated the tractor for the rest of the day.

I started by loading soil material onto the dump trailer multiple times. For the remainder of the day, I operated the tractor to work on the road leading from the switchback up toward the Stephen's teepee site.

This was a completely different operating environment than what I was used to at the laboratory. The road was on an incline and was rocky, uneven, and had several ruts. At times, the tractor tires would spin when going through the ruts. There was also a ledge on one side of the road, so I had to pay close attention to how I positioned and operated the tractor.

I also used the grader with the hooks to start smoothing out the road in those rocky, inclined conditions.

Overall, it was a good day of hands-on tractor operation. I got more experience learning how the tractor moves and handles on rough, uneven, sloped terrain, which was quite different from the mostly flat ground I had been operating on at the laboratory.

B.E.L. Post # 240

Today started with the team collectively delimbing and bucking the tree that Paul had felled the previous day at the Turtle Lot.

After that, we started irrigation at Base Camp. At a certain point, I broke off and headed over to Far Raccas with a watering can to hand-water the area. Leo and Daniel also split off and watered Apricot Alley and Lightning Hill with watering cans.

After lunch, we headed over to the Abbey to continue irrigation. Jesse and I continued working on the fencing while the irrigation work was being completed.

Once the irrigation was finished, we headed back to Base Camp. Stephen already had the dump trailer at the Turtle Lot, so we loaded the remaining wood that he hadn't been able to get to onto the trailer. He then hauled it up to one of the job sites, where we added the woody material into the newly formed berms.

To finish the day, we headed over to the Fisher-Price House, where we harvested apples, sliced them, and placed them into the dehydrator.

It was another productive day involving forestry work, irrigation, fencing, hauling woody material, berm building, and food preservation.

B.E.L. Post # 241

We started the morning collecting woody bits from Far Arrakis and loading them onto Roy. We brought them up to the new berms being built by the Love Shack and laid out the material.

Jesse, Stevie, and Leo then switched tasks and went to buck up a fallen tree from yesterday to bring back to the site. I took the tractor and hauled soil material from Far Arrakis, staging it for Paul to scoop up with the excavator.

After lunch, we all headed over to the Abbey. Jesse and I worked on the framework for the fencing, while Stevie, Dan and Leo continued assessing the pump house and working on irrigation.

Another productive day getting things moved, built, and progressing around the Lab.

B.E.L .  Post # 242

The crew and I started out at Base Camp. We loaded up the woody bits from by the Turtle Lot onto Roy and hauled them up to the site by the Love Shack. We spread the woody bits over the berms being built there, getting another layer of woody material in place for Paul to add more soil with the excavator.

From there, we headed up to the Hangar Tree site and the Plum site, where we added more woody bits on top of the berms there as well. We also charged up the tractor’s dead battery and got it back up and running.

We also worked on irrigation, including the berms around Apricot Alley, Lightning Hill, and Far Arrakis.

Another solid day of moving material, building berms, getting equipment back in action, and knocking out more irrigation work. Little by little, the sites are taking shape. 🌱🌲

B.E.L. Post # 243

We started our day heading to the Abbey, where Leo and I were cutting junk-pole-sized trees that will be used for supports for another section that needs to be rebuilt.

I noticed a couple of the existing posts had rotted from the bottom, so this gives us a good opportunity to bring that section of panels up to the new standard while we're rebuilding it.

Meanwhile, everyone else was working on irrigation, chop-and-drop mulching, and other tasks as assigned.

After lunch, Stevie and I cleaned out the work rigs and planted some seeds. I then filled one of the work rigs with gas and came back to do some chainsaw maintenance.

To finish out the day, I did some trail widening by the turtle lot.

Another good, productive day getting things done and continuing to improve the place.