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

 
pioneer
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Location: Inter Michigan-Superior Woodland Forest
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Stephen B. Thomas wrote:If you're unable to use caulk of some kind, then maybe increasing the drip edge/roof line would be a suitable alternative...?


I just bought silicone caulk to seal around the roof Jack. I'll use super wool (no sheep's wool around currently)  inside the caulk because it is in the roof, but just caulk around the door because the rest of the wall is simple canvas anyway.
 
pollinator
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Location: Wheaton Labs, Montana, USA
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BRK #449

The snow from this past weekend - which had me fretting about whether or not to bring out the tractor to do some plowing - is all melted by now. That was a quick change.



This little guy must have thought that Spring had already sprung.



It was warm enough weather to set out some caulk around the new door at the Red Cabin. Sweet and smooth... Well, for caulk, anyway.

Paul and I had a discussion about what to use for weather sealing around the door to prevent both moisture intrusion and air flow. Caulk? Cob? Plastic sheathing of some kind? Well, silicone caulk seemed to be a fair compromise with both our ethics and the fact that this isn't really a "natural building" kind of structure. Otherwise, we would have busted out some cob to take care of things like this (and hey, it's warm enough right now that nearly no one would dread working with cob in these temperatures...!).



Finally: this is Peaches. She's one of the tinier kitties here, born sometime in late Spring of this year. She's finally at the stage where she doesn't sprint away from gigantic monsters like me who just want to give her pets and scratches behind the ears.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!
 
Stephen B. Thomas
pollinator
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Location: Wheaton Labs, Montana, USA
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BRK #450

A few wins today, with environmental challenges thrown in the mix.

I successfully drilled drainage holes in the bottom of a ceramic container. The secret is apparently to not use the drill press. Seriously: being able to wiggle the drill bit in various angles seems to accelerate the drilling process - maybe by eating away at the sides as much as the center - and helps prevent compressing the ceramic dust beneath the drill bit. Using the drill press, I suspect, eventually just tries to crush the pulverised stone, and that causes it to shatter. I felt good about this process, and I am confident I can replicate it with much less shattering in the future.



Also successfully fit a doorknob and deadbolt at the Red Cabin. Several hours later, I even found the working keys.



Meanwhile: the Lab is a sopping wet, muddy mess. Wanted to fell a tree up there but neither Toots (the van) nor the RAV4 were up to the task. Very muddy.



In other news, cats are up for adoption...! If you are interested in taking in a barn cat or two, then we can offer some suggestions. My only hard-and-fast rule is that Donkey stays. The rest are up for grabs, in my opinion.

(Razz and Top G AKA Doorstop pictured here)



In the afternoon I mixed up some poly-dough, and earlier this evening I baked my first-ever bread bowls. They're intended for tomorrow's Half Assed Holiday: Wooden Spoon Day. Going to make some split pea soup and test them out.

Based on my taste-test, they seem more like dinner rolls. And the portions were way too large, and when they were baked the edges touched together so the structural integrity might not be the best. I'll try it out tomorrow and see how resilient they end up, maybe along with SEPPer Dez and SEPPer Julia. The good news, as Paul suggested later: if they didn't work out so well as bread bowls, PB&J is always a superb alternative.







That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!
 
Stephen B. Thomas
pollinator
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BRK #451

Happy Wooden Spoon Day to you...!

It's one of our Half Assed Holidays today, and I'm pleased with how it went down.

SEPPer Julia and I worked on a couple kitchen spoons today. We had a riveting discussion about what constitutes "that '70s sound," and I played some Elton John and BeeGees to help illustrate examples. Meanwhile, here are pictures of us at work.





And it was around this time last year where I nicked the tip of my left index finger with an angle grinder. This year, never to disappoint when developing a new routine, I managed to stab myself in the forearm with a spoon carving tool. Sometimes I even surprise myself.



Finally: last night's bread bowls and today's split pea soup made an astounding team. Wow.



There ought to be a video of this eventually, cobbled together from today's footage. We'll see.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your weekend...!
 
pollinator
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Hi Stephen.
Probably there are days when things go wrong. I think it was that day this year and last year when you had problems with sharp tools ... Better not use sharp tools on such days.
But how do you know it is such a day? Now (I'm 67 y.o.) I am beginning to understand; f.e. from the start of the day things seem to fall out of my hands, or I bump into hard things like door knobs.

I want to write too about 'seventies sound'. The seventies were my teenage years. For me it's Pink Floyd. Especially LPs with pieces of music that were too long to be played on radio ...
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