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

Yes, sunchoke plants keep coming were they once grew. Even years later. And they look like sunflower seedlings ...

BRK #566

The team did a major hauling task today. We're making the Bobra Line, which is a counterpart to the Bob Line. The goal is to have sunshades that cover the entire Classroom building and some of the area beyond it, so that the summer events are cooler, inside and out. To do this, we need a tall post put into the ground. Last week, we felled the tree we're going to use, and peeled it. Today, the team sectioned the tree into logs. We hauled all of them down to the lower part of Basecamp, including a massive 30-foot post. Here's how we did it.

First, we attached a snatch block around a nearby tree with a stout chain.



Next, we threaded a heavy-duty climbing rope through the snatch block.



Next, the end of the post was lifted (by Ben in this photo) with the use of the LogOx, a very useful logging utility tool.



While the log was lifted off the ground, Brian skillfully lashed the end of the stout rope to the log, nice and tight.



Not to be outdone in the least, Ben secured the other end of the rope to the back of Toots, the star hauler rig of the day.



Finally, I drove Toots down the mountain to the switchback near the Love Shack. We'll move the log down to the Classroom next week, when we're putting everything together.



Lots of forward progress on an important event prep task... Not a bad Wednesday.

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

BRK #567

The Team had another Demo Day today. We went back to the Skeleton 1 site and began digging out the foundation, in an effort to remove the plastic liner that's buried partially in the ground. Lots of rocks and gravel down there, besides.



Here's a wooly caterpillar that's been spooked. It squirted green gunk out onto my hand. Three guesses as to what that stuff was.



Kitty cat Early supervises the Boot Team over at Allerton Abbey. I think she would have given us two thumbs up were she able to, based on how much she's purring when we're around.



Finally: for reference, here's a potato sprout. It has rich green to blue-green leaves and a thick, translucent stalk. Later it will grow to almost like a shrub, sometimes with green "potato berries" that are dangerous to eat. Harvest after the above-ground stalks begin to die back and/or are completely dead.



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

BRK #568

The day began with rain, and precipitation came and went throughout our Boot tasks. Still, it was a fun day and upon reflection we realized that there was a lot to be proud of this week.

Here are Brian and Ben at the Wheaton Labs GAMCOD site, planting onions, squash, and beets.



We did a lot of work at the Lab pump house today (in the rain). Definitely the muddiest job we've done this year, to date. The good news is that we brought the electric auger with us, and it proved invaluable to our excavation efforts. Here's Brian working with it in this photo.



Here's the current state of the pump house trench. We're definitely nearing completion, and have to be on the lookout for the water line being uncovered any moment now.



I neglected to take a photo of this yesterday, so I caught up with it today. At the DogStar Dog Pen site, we dropped off a number of roundwood timbers that we'd rescued from the Skeleton 1 site. Instead of needing to cut down several more trees, we're going to re-use these timbers for the pen's perimeter fence.



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

BRK #569

Took it easy today while doing errands in town. At one of the cafes I visited, a patch of rosemary is taking over one of their under-tree beds.



Earlier this week, a book I ordered arrived: How to Draw Anything. Note that the book is not called How to Draw Anything Well. That's not the point of the book, and there's a difference.

When I was younger (way younger), I had considered pursuing visual art in college. Based on the following sketches, it's likely obvious to even the casual observer that I didn't follow-up with that idea very far. However, these made today more fun, which is what I think I needed.

Here's a decorative shrub outside Bernice's Bakery.



I did a quick self-potrait from memory. Here I am, wearing my DEVO hat.



Here's a lady walking her dog.



And at the Pie Hole - one of my afternoon stops, for vegan pizza - I drew the bottle of kombucha I drank.



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