Kyle's Permie Bootcamp (BRK)

BRK Post 39

Woke up to a few inches of snow covering the tipi, had to tap the canvas from the inside to get the flap open. But I had some leftover quiche for breakfast so that made a good start to the day.

And I recieved a reprieve from stacking rocks today. A bunch of trees were delivered and had to be planted. I planted 5 apples at basecamp then later after lunch 2 maples, 3 apples, and 1 bamboo at Allerton Abby.

But I got to some gardening too. Lots more grass cut back, divided a clump of garlic into 15 garlic plants, an onion clump into 3 plants. And checked on the ollas, they've only dropped about an inch.

One perk of the bootcamp that was never advertised was all the peach jam. Jars and jars of delicious peach jam. Once the peach is gone there is saskatoon berry and rhubarb. These really need to be on the brochure.

We finished up the day with some Willow Wonka maintenance. Still needs a little more work tomorrow.

Kyle Noe wrote:Hi Inge. I'm trying these out to see if they could be an option when our other watering methods are not available. Some times the fire truck is broken or the well low on water. I hoping these can provide the hugels enough water while not having a lot evaporate.

Hi Kyle. It is good to try things out.
When you are one or two days without other ways to water, an olla of ordinary size (1 or 2 liters) will help. For more days without watering you'll need a larger olla. But of course that's only when the plants are young, without a deep root to find their own water.

BRK Post 40

Worked through lunch to get the steps done today. The fifth step gave me a lot of trouble, couldn't get the pieces to fit the way I wanted them to. I think I tried fitting a different set of stones three times before I was happy with them. If you look at the top view, he leftmost stone on step five slots right against the border stone and I really like how well it fit. But choosing the right stone that would fit together to follow the line I needed, not get in the way of where the sixth step needed to go, and tie into the retaining wall took forever.

The rest was much easier, finished the last course of the retaining wall, laid down plastic below the gravel past the fifth step, built step six, and built a short wall between the front of the greenhouse and the last step. Josiah helped me set the big stone for the last step, glad we got that one done without too much trouble.

Now we just have to backfill and grade the slope away towards the road. I'm going to set some stones for a walkway down the slope and I think I have most of the pieces I'll need. Tomorrow it should have everything in its place.

BRK Post 41

Update on greenhouse work. Josiah and I have most of the grading done. I back filled the steps and started the walkway. Had to go search for more stepping stones. Looks like chance of rain tomorrow so we might not get to work on it.

Anyway, I've got a little story about how my cat punked me last night.

I've been teaching her to follow me around and she was zooming around while I was chopping wood. I took a walk over to Willow Wonka and on my way back saw she had come halfway so I started to jog and called her to follow me.

She started to follow but slowly, so I slowed a bit and called her more. She slowed down again so I started to walk. As soon as I walked she put on speed and came up fast. Before I could accelerate much she hit top speed and blew by.

I was laughing too hard to catch up.

BRK Post (The Answer to Everything)

Rainy here today, got some gardening done this morning. Seems like there is always more little tasks to get to.

I checked on the beds I seeded last week, only saw two little sprouts, going to give it another week before I call them a lost cause and seed again. Spent time nipping out more grass and cutting back snowberry.

Then planted the eastern side of the berm with potatoes. That particular berm is mostly low attention gardening so those can spread as much as they want.

I found some dragon tongue and scarlet runner beans so I planted a handful of them in the upper part of my berm. I've seen a few peas coming up but I want more peas and beans there.

The whole morning it was cold and raining on us. We all got a lot done then spent a bit of time warming up in the library before parting ways for lunch.

For the afternoon I put up another shelf in the kitchen to help organize and keep the counters clear. I used more long carriage bolts going through the shelf and secured to the shelf above. I made this shelf adjustable, it has about an inch of travel to fit extra tall stuff in the future if needed.

So long and thanks for all the pie!