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

BRK #474

Happy Soupy Tuesday to you...!

Today was sunny and cool. Distant trees were covered with persistent frost.



Trying to make Judy wake up on some cold mornings is a challenge. Maybe it's time for that new alternator...



As I'd been doing so much drilling through ceramic lately, I wanted to see if my attempts at sharpening the masonry bits would be helpful. A few careful swipes across the grindstone, and the drill bit was hungry (and effective) again.



Paul and I had a discussion today about ordering seeds for the upcoming growing season. To prepare for this, I did a seed inventory, and checked in on the potatoes found in our pump houses. Things are still looking good in there, and we have a few dozen potatoes. So long as we resist eating any more (and this evening's soup was a sorely tempting potato dish!), we ought to have enough for our next season. Ideally, we would plant potatoes in different locations from last year, and hope that some volunteers take hold in those old areas.



For next season, we'll have kale as our brassica at Basecamp, cabbages and daikon up at the Lab in discrete areas. Three Sisters will be relegated to a single hugel, but we'll most definitely cover it with corn, with pumpkins coming in later. Lots of other specific vegetable plans, as well as even more trees and several berry bushes. Personally, I'm pleased to see that we're spreading more gardens across the Lab.

Finally: Proenneke Day, one of my personal favourite Half Assed Holidays, comes up this Thursday. Scribbled down plans to modify our original conception of roundwood sawbucks. Here's my pen-on-paper sketch. After our discussion today, the design on the lower-half of the page is what we'll stick with this time round:



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

Shouldn't the "green" and "dry" logs be swapped in the lower picture?  The green would shrink as it dries to hold onto the dry tenon?

Gravity and leverage holds the assembly together with a log in the sawbuck. I think it'd be handy to be able to pull them apart for shipping and storage. Not sure it matters if green or dry unless the green tenon is expected to be more resilient when taking the weight on a smaller section...

Mike Haasl wrote:Shouldn't the "green" and "dry" logs be swapped in the lower picture?  The green would shrink as it dries to hold onto the dry tenon?

We want to disassemble the sawbucks, so the piece with the long dowel on it should be snug when we first fit it, but shrink over time for easy removal.

The tiny "kickstand" at the bottom of the dry log will be a dry piece as well, as we want that to stay put.

Ahhh, gotcha.  All good then :)  If you make them all from dry wood, the joint won't shrink more/less than you hope and possibly be more consistent over time....