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

BRK #466

Merry Christmas to you...! Weather was cold, but otherwise mild today.



I took a couple days off from posting, but wanted to post a couple photos of my sweet Xmas haul.

Paul was very generous this year, once again. Here was the first gift I'd opened: a Japanese wood planer. I'm eager to plane some wood and see some translucent ribbons of wood peeling off. I've seen nothing else quite like it.



Here's a large-bearded hatchet. From what I've been told, whittling with this kind of hatchet is much easier and quicker than were I to use a carving knife, so again I'm eager to try this out and see what can be done. I think the decorations on the head and handle are exquisite.



Here's some DIY turkey repellent, marbles included for ammunition.



Finally: There was even a Rocky Mountain Hirsute Dipshit sighting today...! Its tell-tale orange head covering seemed to be the only garb it chose to wear on a cold winter's day, beyond that shiny new gardener's apron it was wearing.



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

BRK #467

I spent most of the afternoon working on window quilts for the Red Cabin, and had a good time with it. There were some that were already made, but weren't large enough. So I am adding a "wider border" to add to these original window quilts.

Here's one of the blankets I originally sliced up. I pinned layers together and then used the sewing machine to keep them together.



The two larger border pieces are finished, and are sitting next to one another.



Window quilts are attached to the wall around the windows with magnets. Here's one of the "cabinet magnets" used for this process.



When the plastic housing is removed, it's revealed that there are two metal plates and a single magnet in there.



I opted to add a magnet to the corners and the middle of each of the sides of the quilt. So each window quilt will have eight magnets, and then there are going to be eight small metal plates attached around each of the windows. After sundown, you slap up the window quilts, and then after sunup you take them down. Collected condensation evaporates throughout the day (so don't forget to take down the quilts...).

Here I am attaching one of the magnets into a tiny corner pocket. When removing the extra thread when the sewing job was done, my scissors kept becoming fused to the magnet.



More about this job tomorrow, once I refine my workflow and finally attach a window quilt to the window frame.

Finally: here's Donkey. She's perfect in every way.



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

BRK #468

Continued work on the window quilts today. Some notes to self for future developments:
- The metal bits don't allow as strong a hold as required. Try magnet-to-magnet next.
- The south-facing window needs some modifications before a quilt will fit, as the edge of the upper bunk is built into the window frame (whaaaa...?!?!).

Here's what a magnet looks like on the inside of the quilt, prior to final assembly/attachment.



Also started another video project up at the Love Shack today, in an effort to test out the efficacy of the cabin's Cob Hat. It's a tiny 4-inch system, and I used tree branches as the primary fuel for the daytime burn.



There's a fair amount of video footage I'd captured. Here's a screenshot of me explaining something or other.



While I was in there, a rafter of turkeys passed by, just outside the cabin. I was so, so tempted to run out there and scare 'em, but I stayed put instead. Going soft...



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

BRK #469

Just a little vehicle maintenance prior to heading out to the Lab this morning. Had I driven this rig yesterday I might have caught this earlier.



While up at the Lab, I visited the Truly Passive Greenhouse and replaced all the faulty or soon-to-be-faulty temperature sensors with these handy dandy thermometers/hygrometers. They link up to an app I have on my newly-acquired smartphone, so I don't have to crawl down into the cold well to gather data from 36 feet underground. Ideally, I'd like to replace all the sensors with these same devices so that our data can be consolidated. That will happen in time, I expect.



Drilled out a couple larger ceramic bowls for use as planters. A few of our indoor ginger plants have really taken off, and need to be transplanted into something wider. These are our first attempt.





Finally: went up the mountain today to cut up a felled log from ages ago. The 20-inch sections will eventually be used as steps for the Basecamp hugel berms, allowing people to easily scale them for harvesting or magic-potion dispersal. I have video footage of this process, so it may appear in a permies video eventually.





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

Man, Stephen, you are being really productive up there and you are keeping us all updated. Thanks!

And that carving hatchet is gorgeous.