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

B.E L. Post # 307

After the morning meeting, the whole boot crew headed over to the Abbey, with Daniel running point.

Once we got there, Jesse fed the cats while Daniel and Sam got set up to work on fixing the wing walls at the back of the Abbey. Meanwhile, Jules was working along the fence line near the Cooper Cabin gate, cutting up all the leftover woody bits from the fence rebuilds. He was cutting them down to about 15½–16 inches so they could be staged and loaded onto the back of Roy.

I was working inside the paddock, starting at the front entrance and making my way toward the Cooper Cabin gate. I made it through 13 panels, cleaning up all the leftover woody bits, junk poles, and other pieces from the fence rebuilds. Anything we could salvage was being set aside to turn into kindling or firewood.

It's nice to get all that leftover wood put to use, but it also makes a big difference in how the place looks and, more importantly, keeps things clear of tripping hazards.

Jesse was doing the same thing around the Abbey's willow feeder, working her way toward the greenhouse.

We kept at it until lunchtime, then put away our tools and grabbed some lunch.

After lunch, we split off into multiple teams again. This time I was running point, with Samuel as my assistant.

We took the same approach and set up outside the house paddock, gathering all the cutoffs, shorter junk poles, and anything else that wasn't suitable for the fence work. Samuel and I brought everything over outside the solarium, cut it all down to length, and started processing it.

I had Samuel work on making kindling from the junk wood, cutting everything down to 15½–16 inches and filling up the little wooden cubbies just inside the entrance to the Fisher Price house, on the left-hand side. One of my priorities was making sure all those cubbies were packed full.

While Samuel was working on the kindling, I was splitting and stacking the buck logs Daniel had been cutting over at the house paddock. I went through quite a bit of wood, and we kept at it until the end of the shift.

Another day of cleaning up, processing wood, and putting all those leftover materials to good use. It's nice seeing the wood piles grow while the leftover mess slowly disappears.