Kyle's Permie Bootcamp (BRK)

BRK Post 22

Today was a beautiful day here. 50 to 60 degrees all day, sunny, a little breeze.

Started the day with gardening our bootcamp plots. Josiah gave out hori hori knives for us to use as boots. I don't want to use mine to dig with but they are great for cutting grass short without disturbing the soil.

Dez surprised me by ceding gardening ground to me. Gave up about 20ft up to the berm ladder on his side. My Gardening Empire has grown! I've also occupied the shady area next to the house! Next we march on ... Ahem, excuse me... just getting a little carried away.

In reality more space just means more space I have to watch for grass rhizomes from spreading.

So I put in a heap of garlic cloves along the bottom half of the berm. Put sugar peas along the top where I have large sticks for peas to climb. Some kale and spinach around the garlic. And I topped the berm with clover and daikon radish. I'll have to watch for what comes up.

I want to spread wildflowers on top of the berm and sunflowers the peas can grab climb up.

I still need to adjust how my upper path runs, it is too skinny and sloped 'round the curve, almost lost my footing. I would like to getting the apple tree pruned and graft on my northern spy cuttings.

And of course pluck and mow down all the grass that is sprouting everywhere I look.

This is the first time I am growing on a slope like this. It has it's own fun and excitement. I have a little gardening mountain.

In the afternoon Dez and I got our firewood rack finished. I think the angle bracing we put on looks great and doesn't budge when rocked. We set five big stones level underneath the rack. The whole thing is pretty solid, just needs wood to weight it down.

We'll have to watch for any shifting or sinking but I think it will hold up.

BRK Post 23

Another sunny day here!

Did some ashy dusty work in the morning, gathering fire killed trees for junk pole fence. Remember my post from oh so long ago, were we piled up poles for later pick up. Dez, Erica, Chris, and me went to pick them up and add what ever else we could gather. I focused on cutting down more dead wood while everyone else limbed and stacked them onto the trailer. By 10:30 we wrapped up and slowly took our haul out and down to basecamp.

It was to be brought to the continuing fence building going on above the FP House. Dez got the load up the hillside and Chris had the dubious honor to put his trailer maneuvering skills on display by backing downhill on a narrow road through a blind S turn without slipping off the side of the hill. He loved it.

We unloaded after lunch and returned the trailer to it's home back at the boneyard. Then Josiah instructed me in trimming the passive greenhouse eves, making them straight and level. I did one side of the greenhouse roof and I think I did a good job on it. My experience with a concrete demo saw helped, they are fairly similar in handling.

Got to appear in the live greenhouse progress update for kickstarter supporters. Josiah walked through what he and Jen had made progress on, getting closer every week.

I got a start on the other side before we had to clean up and go grab the dump trailer for getting firewood this weekend.

Felt like a short day, I think it was all the shuttling around and driving. Still could use a good night's sleep.

More stuff later, Bye.

Kyle Noe wrote:
In reality more space just means more space I have to watch for grass rhizomes from spreading.

......

And of course pluck and mow down all the grass that is sprouting everywhere I look.

Oh man, the struggle is REAL. Grass and buttercups are my constant enemy. Keeping an eye on those boarders and pulling out anything before it has a chance to infringe really seems to help. But, still, the battle seems never ending.

BRK 24 Post

This morning was all about Tipi cleanup. Things can get dusting with splitting wood, tracking in dirt, cleaning out ash, and other outside influences. So I took the floor rug out and beat it off, swept off the cob mass, collected a bit of trash and recyclables, washed off dishes, and tidied up. All feels comfy again.

All while I was tidying, Bella was popping in and out and in to the Tipi. She is learning the area by taking straight runs away from the Tipi and coming back. She will even come when called, usually.

Eventually got down to basecamp, and got some gardening prep in. Before my seeds germinate I'm trying to get out the grass that is sprouting through the mulch. Only now am I seeing the true extent of the grass invasion. While trying to pluck off the growing ends I would also pull up runners growing between the mulch and soil that were many feet long. They run everywhere. This is going to be a war of attrition, I think moving the soil toward being fungal life dominant over bacterial and getting things to shade out the grass will help.

I got tired of grass and moved onto reestablishing the pathway on the berm. I flattened out the long run and covered it with bark from where the firewood is chopped. For the section where it drops down I set in a few stones making a short run of steps. I think they will settle in and stay or I'll lose my footing when one slips and take a tumble.

Dez treated all of us with a pizza party for lunch. He ordered 14 pizzas! And encouraged me to eat way too much. Got to chat with everyone while we gathered around. Thanks again Dez.

Later I went down to the shop and processed some more sinew. It takes forever and I'm wondering if it is really worth it. I would pay a pretty penny for processed and sorted sinew. Also got my knife and hatchet sharpened for tomorrow's firewood harvest work.

The day got darker sooner than I would like and I didn't get to graft on my apple cuttings. So I practiced on some pruned stems. Good thing I'm practicing, I'm going to need it.

Kyle Noe wrote:I want to make some cheap ollas with terracotta pots so I can keep the berm hydrated.

Klye, I was thinking about this too and was curious about what approach you were thinking of.  Ollas are lovely, but if you need a lot of them costs sure shoot up fast.
I've seen folks using silicone to seal two pots together like this:

or just using a lid (could be glazed) and some putty or a cork like this one:


I was thinking about using clay to seal the bottom as you would to seal a pond.  You could either use the clay as the bottom and seat the pot into it upside down and water through the hole (pro: don't need a lid, con: that's a small hole for watering and if it shifts it may loose the seal) or just put the pot upright and put clay in the hole and probably also across the bottom to sure it up....probably put clay in the hole, then a rock plug then more clay across the bottom to sure up the seal (pro: lift the lid and it's quick to fill, con: need a lid...use a large flat rock maybe?)