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

BRK #59

Currently digesting our Taco Tuesday dinner. Here are a couple photos from today.

Tuesday mornings are spent at Allerton Abbey and the Lab for gardening. We realized today that the reason that someone was able to come in and eat all my potato plants was likely due to the fact that the junkpole fencing had fallen...! Caleb (welcome back, man!) and Hao busied themselves with patching the many gaps in the Abbey fence, while the rest of us watered our still-uneaten plants.

This photo was originally supposed to be of a grasshopper hiding on a Lamb's Quarters plant (can you find it?), but personally I'm more impressed with the junkpole fence and tipi trellis in the background.



Later in the afternoon, Caleb and I did some yellow-jacket-proofing of the Fisher Price House. After capping off an unused exhaust vent on the roof, we biked over to the Lab again, this time to the Rocket Sauna. In preparation for a video shoot and some testing, we installed a solar-powered lamp that hangs from the ceiling. Here's a shot of a preliminary placement of the lamp in the sauna room.



It was powered by a miniscule solar panel (which surprisingly also had the batteries in the same tiny assembly). We wrestled with the best place for the solar panel so that it could maximize its solar gain in this thickly-wooded area. Hopefully this will do the trick, at least for the video shoot, which is planned for the weekend. After a discussion with Jeff, we all acknowledged that if needed we could eventually come up with both a bigger solar array and a bigger battery. But here's the diminutive original equipment.



Tomorrow is Wednesday, better known as Project Day, and I'm looking forward to what we do.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:BRK #59

It's been a Monday, and one that was kind of all over the place. We've welcomed a new boot-for-a-week, Candace, and even with just a short time here it's been enjoyable to have her around. So, welcome! Hope you dig the time you spend with us.

Gardening at Basecamp, while usually fun anyway, was punctuated with some serious growth and surprises. A massive sunflower stalk on one of the plots managed by Dez finally decided to flower. Here it is, surrounded by bees.



Another bizarre find was this obscene daikon radish, out of one of the hugels I'm responsible for.



Snacked on it after dinner today, and it was most definitely spicier than usual. I'm accustomed to mild-tasting daikons, but this one in particular was over-the-top! I suspect I just waited too long to harvest it, though this couldn't be helped as I'd been wanting to grow foliage for chop-and-drop and it was only during that task where I noticed any daikons were ready to harvest at all.

Let me rein it in with a typical, routine task: water harvesting. We're currently picking up water from a nearby creek, and while waiting for the water pump to do its thing, this is the view I have of the majestic Judy: one of our farm working vehicles.



Judy holds over 550 gallons of water when totally full, and makes the trip back to Basecamp interesting, without fail, every time.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon the biggest team of boots and I went out to Bartell's Bunkhouse, one of the structures in Ant Village. Our goal was to make it and its immediate surroundings "tour ready," as there's a rocket mass heater inside. We made significant progress on it today, and while not a strict WOFATI - according to Paul's standards - I was impressed with the structure. I remember mentioning that if it had a loft it would be the kind of structure I'd be interested in building and then living in for a while. Here's a shot of the RMH in Bartell's Bunkhouse.



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

Thank you very much for the update, Stephen. It all looks and sounds wonderful. Yes, organically grown radishes are peppery hot! So flavoursome. Organic tomatoes are my favourite; a sheer delight. Best wishes, Gemma P.S. Here’s a snapshot of one of my allotments in Essex, England from the other day…

Sounds and looks fab, Stephen. Thank you for, and I appreciate your updates. Gemma

BRK #60

Looks like the temperature outside reached triple digits F today, so I suppose the summer was just taking a nap. Just a matter of time though before the first frost hits us.

A task we've been hoping to complete prior to that fateful first frost is a shelter for the water pump equipment up on the Lab. Caleb, Grey, and I were up there today doing our best to frame out the Pump House. Here's the layout of the structure. It will be partially-submerged to protect the equipment from the cold Montana winters.



We had a chance to use a lot of power tools today to take care of this stage of the project. Here's a nice photo of myself and Caleb. He's in the back with the Log Wizard, flattening one side of a log, while I'm in the foreground cutting a notch into the bottom of the vertical post.



Grey is the most-experienced of the three of us when it comes to round-wood timber framing, and here he's showing us how to cut out smaller notches using a chisel instead of a chainsaw. It may take longer, though it's much more precise. If you want a snug fit, a chisel is recommended.



At the end of the shift, we had notched out one vertical post, as well as its two lower-horizontal supports. It was pretty cool to see that the post stood up on its own with no person holding it up, just the supports on the ground. We were pleased.



Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #61

Thursday, with a flipped schedule to accommodate potential sweltering temperatures in the afternoon. So the handiwork and project portion of the day was in the morning. Dez and I were assigned to work at the Pump House project, and progress is steady. Here's a photo with two of the four vertical posts braced in place, and three of the base support timbers. We hope to have this finished ASAP, as the summer is definitely wrapping up and we want to have the pump active -and- sheltered prior to first frost.



I had a moment this afternoon to see an audience of sunflowers glaring down at me, expressions of disappointment on their faces. (or maybe that was just the bees)



Finally, we wrapped-up the day's work with a little tool maintenance. You ought to sit down before you read this thrilling news... It was shovel cleaning-and-sharpening day!!! Seriously though, the tools needed it if we expect them to last long. Besides, here's one excellent example that now positively glimmers in the workshop lights. I mean, just look at that beveled edge...! Nice work, Candace!



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