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

BRK #509

Happy Taco Tuesday to you...!

Also wanted to mention that I learned Dez is on the road again. See you soon, brother...!

Ava and I took care of various maintenance tasks this morning. Several chainsaws are now the cleanest they've been in months. Tomorrow we pick two of them to head out and do some logging and firewood harvesting.



Before we wrapped for the day, Ava and I planted some pecans on the southern side of Basecamp. The plan is to do with these the same thing we did with the other trees this past November's Appleseed Day. We'll plant a long line of them in the same area, mark where they are, then transplant the ones that took to our desired spot for future growth. With this particular batch, we scored the seed shells with a hacksaw. I'll be doing more research tonight and see if there are other effective methods of encouraging their germination.



Finally: there's been a Choco sighting! ...He's always available for the ladies who are looking for love. It's that time of the season, I suppose.



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

BRK #510

What a lovely Wednesday morning.



I did a bit more research on planting pecan trees. We have several dozen to plant, and I wanted to:
- make sure we were maximizing our chances of germination and growth
- find an alternative to scoring the seed hulls (which was a total pain in the butt)

For this next batch, we'll opt for soaking the pecans for 24 hours, and then first thing tomorrow morning we'll plant them in shallow holes with a bit of alfalfa pellets. Here's the batch in the bath this morning:



There's one "sinker" in there... I wonder if that indicates anything.

Ava and I sorted out more of the firewood earlier today. For the longest time, Paul has wanted 12+ cords of wood put up "before Easter." Well, I have no idea what day Easter is this year, but I'll see how close we can make it. I'd like to prioritize setting all the firewood aside prior to the summer so it all has plenty of time to dry. There are a number of new Boots scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks, so I think the team can pull it off. Ava didn't seem intimidated with the chainsaw today, for one.



Finally: After today, I don't think of these so much as grubs as I do "cat snacks." Wow... there were three kitties hanging out with us this afternoon while we processed firewood and they couldn't gobble these down fast enough.



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

BRK #511

First off... I stand corrected! Fred contacted me after yesterday's BRK post and let me know that what we were soaking were Black Walnuts, not Pecans in the shell. So I adjusted the labels out on the edge of Basecamp where we planted them.



We now have actual, honest-to-goodness pecans soaking overnight, so that we can plant them tomorrow.



Secondly: rhubarb is out...!



Meanwhile, Ava and I hiked up to the caldera at Basecamp today to scout out our next dead-standing wood for firewood harvest. The roundwood picnic table version 1.0 is still going strong.



After finding our target, we set to work.



Did an extra slice with my wedge cut, but it was serviceable.



With some proper planning, and judicious use of the Timber Tool AKA Tree Jack, I "split the uprights" and landed this tree just where we wanted it.



I always want to review my work, and one close look at the stump made me feel secure that I did a decent job of it.



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

BRK #512

First week back at Booting, and I am dog tired. Five packed days and lots of catching-up.

One of our apricot trees suffered some damage over the cold months. Here's the "before" and "after" of the pruning job I'd done.



And after:



I later divided the cut branches into stakes to provide a foothold at the top of one of the berms. Hopefully they'll help keep the new soil in place until the plants up there root and take hold.

Ava spent time today preparing for our gardening efforts by making more "pop can signs" for us to label our different seeds when out in the garden.



This was the third firing of the Season Extender this week, and I think it's finicky, though dialed-in.



Finally: earlier in the week, Ava and I worked-out a plan and diagram for a possible dog run. This has been long requested, but never able to come to fruition. It's still on the back burner, but at least now it has a vision.



Wrapped up Friday night with a viewing of "Planet of the Humans." What a doozy.

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

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:BRK #511

First off... I stand corrected! Fred contacted me after yesterday's BRK post and let me know that what we were soaking were Black Walnuts, not Pecans in the shell. So I adjusted the labels out on the edge of Basecamp where we planted them.

No concerns about allelopathy, or is that why they're going at the edge?