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

BRK #55

Another shop-talk post. I did a solo run to the creek today to load up Judy (our fire truck) with water. There seems to be an optimal setup for the pump and its hoses to draw water without delay. I have a couple notes below each relevant photo.



- Use rocks to hold down the end of the intake pipe.
- Should not be abutting any rocks or soil with the intake end.
- Begin the straighter path of the pipe across the mini-dam/diverter by keeping the tube in the path of the creek.



- A nice-straight path for the tube is most-effective.
- Before hooking it up to the pump, pre-prime the entire tube by running it through the path of the creek. Water should flow out of the "silver" end that connects to the pump. Then it's ready.
- The pump will have an easier time the further the pump is below the level of the pipe, in particular it's intake.



- Keep the pump near the water's edge, again attempting to keep the level of the pump below the intake pipe as much as possible.
- The battery does -not- go in the water!
- Prime the pump with the ball valve on the top. Open it -very- slightly and wait until water trickles or squirts out the opening.

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Meanwhile, Cory and I spent the afternoon cleaning up and then rebuilding the downed junkpole fences. Here's one that we roughed-out by replacing the cross-beams and stacking stones back on the rock jacks.



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

BRK #56

Thunderous Thursday today... Rain once again, dampening a week that was already steady in the mid- to upper-80s F. It was so warm that this little fun guy popped up at Basecamp Too to hang out for a while.



Still plenty of work to be done, though! For example, Hao and I worked this afternoon on repairing the downed junkpole fencing. While they're still rough, things are looking up...



Hao and I picked up where Cory and Grey left off yesterday, filling-in one of their framed-out junkpole sections, and completing our own. We also lifted a large concurrent section after removing most of its junkpoles, and then rebuilt one of the rock jacks to our satisfaction. Here's Hao pleased as punch in front of our roughed-out junkpole section.



We had our weekly Board Game Night, as well. Dixit seems to be a big hit...  Thanks, Fred! We also tried out a couple recent acquisitions: Tacocat Spelled Backwards, Exploding Kittens, and Pass The Pigs ("worth every cent... of the $2 I paid at Goodwill"). And it seems like SKIP: Space Kitties In Peril! will be our go-to starter game for the evenings.

I was about to grab my backpack and head back up to the tent but then... Dawwww! I suppose I can leave it there for a little while longer.



Tomorrow night is our inaugural 4-F Club (Final Fridays Fancy Films), and I'm stoked!

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

There's a BB for repairing a junkpole fence ;)

BRK #57

What a great way to end the work week! Gardening, watering in the rain, digging ditches, then a chance to see one of my Top 5 Films. It was a nice Friday.

Friday mornings are spent at the Lab, and today we watered the hugels at Allerton Abbey. It also happened to start pouring down raining for about 7.5 minutes a short time before our lunch break. Here's Dez holdin' it down at the sun scoop for all of us.



This afternoon, we had two projects going on, and I worked along with Cory and Grey at Fred's plot. Cory and I were in charge of digging a shallow trench for a water line. We finished about 75 feet or so, at Fred's estimation, and it was good, hard work. Here's a before and after photo, which helps me appreciate how much we can do in just a few hours. I would have been satisfied had we made it to the water station under the tree, but you can see we made it well past that in the after-photo.



While digging, there just so happened to be an aged tree stump in the way of the trench (um... Thanks, Fred!!!). Kind of a pain to deal with, but at least the shovel did a fantastic job and it uncovered this gorgeous shade of wood.



Wrapped-up our Friday evening with a viewing of one of my Top 5 Favourite Films: Donnie Darko. It was a treat to be re-acquainted with it, and I was reminded of all the things I enjoy about it so much.

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