!!! SEPP to Boot: Stephen's Experience (BEL)

BRK #443

At night, it's nice to sit down to dinner and admire how well the sweet potatoes are growing.



It's legitimately cold outside these days. There are massive ice crystals forming on everything that sits still.





The view is still lovely, of course.



Speaking of which... Today I was outdoors quite a bit with cleaning-up our sawmill site. There's a large pile of wood off-cuts: triangular, longitudinal slices of a tiny bit of wood and mostly bark, in most cases. I want to clean those up, buck the usable wood to firewood size, then do some sawmill site overhaul. But first, many, many piles that look like this will be moved to various cabins around the Lab.



Came back to Basecamp with enough time to perform a kind of patch-up job on this mattox, whose head is falling off. I'll consult with Paul tomorrow morning to see just how bad of an idea this is.



Oh, and I almost forgot! I dug through a frozen hugel berm with the electric auger today, in order to bury some compost. How did Ruth Stout deal with frozen ground...? Part of me says I overdid it, while another part of me says it's perfect just the way it is.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

PS: I hope you enjoyed the Metallica references that Coydon and I had going there for a while...

BRK #444

A busy, varied day today.

In the first half of the day, I captured video footage for Paul and the upcoming Freaky Cheap Heat video. We documented the change in temperature over an hour inside the Woodshop. Prep work required that I split several bits of wood into smaller pieces. This helps ensure that the temperature climbs quickly.



The process was extremely satisfying. Not only was the test wildly successful, I had a chance to scratch that "I used to be a teacher" itch while narrating the videos and documenting the process. Here's a photo of the burn chamber of the batch box, which became immensely hot as the hour proceeded.



In the second half of the day, I bought a door!



The plan is to install it in the Red Cabin, providing more insulation (as the current door is an uninsulated metal one, leaking heat out all over the place). Installation will happen next week.

That's all for now. Make the most of your weekend...!

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:In the second half of the day, I bought a door!



The plan is to install it in the Red Cabin, providing more insulation (as the current door is an uninsulated metal one, leaking heat out all over the place). Installation will happen next week.

Good to see the new door has a window, some natural light at that end of the cabin will be most pleasant...

BRK #445

Wandering around Missoula today until the weather became worse. It started off quite lovely, with pink edges on the eastward clouds.



Walking across the bridge on Higgins Avenue, I kept looking down at the Clark Fork River to see all sorts of interesting patterns. Though the entire thing isn't frozen, large patches of it are covered with ice.





I noticed this sign in a business window. Remember that previous post where I lamented not being a sportsball local fan? Well, perhaps it's best I'm not one after all...



I'm always curious about what they're building over at Hellgate High School. This bench was out front.



It also appears that they're doing a major shed-building project. There are several similar building frames in their construction lot at the moment.



An interesting note about their solar panels is on a nearby plaque.



Early afternoon, the snow began falling in earnest, and the town was gearing up for some kind of parade or street event of some kind. These folks were enjoying a horse-drawn jaunt past the post office.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your weekend...!

BRK #446

I've become convinced that watching the sunrise over the mountains is a fine way to start one's day, particularly in the colder season.



Personally, I feel like I had a hard time keepin' things moving today. Kind of in a "wait and see" mood regarding the snow that's fallen. We had three inches or so overnight, and it was cloudy and congested all day, spitting down sprinkles of snow in the late afternoon. I stayed inside for most of it, though I think I might have some plowing to do tomorrow unless the rain that's forecast comes along for a late-night surprise.

Here's Black Spark, guiding me up the driveway through the snow. She's one of the (now two and sometimes three) cats that stays overnight with me in the tent.



While indoors, thinking about going outside, I tinkered a little with another wood-burned sign project. This one is larger than either of the other two I recently made for the kitchen. I'll be mounting it to the kitchen island along with those, so I wanted to make the font style match what I'd already created. I've not done the full, "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," yet, but I reckon between these three signs I have most of the alphabet sketched out.





That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!