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

BRK #593

Everyone's in garden mode these days. This week we're also hoping to wrap the Bobra Line project and start hanging sunshades. Meanwhile...

We've had the toughest time growing carrots around here. I was pleasantly surprised to see this healthy frond of carrot stem sticking up out of the ground over at Allerton Abbey.



Speaking of the Abbey, we've been caring for a pair of sweet potato plants in the Truly Passive Greenhouse. They are starting to sprawl, and seem very healthy right now. We're all very pleased with their progress...!



Earlier in the year, I found out how to truly enjoy stinging nettle plants. This healthy bunch has started to seed, so it's not very good for eating right now. However, now we can see how well the stems perform at weaving and braiding. At the end of the season we'll harvest these plants and see what kind of fiber work we can do with them.



Our GAMCOD hugel berm is still going strong. Plenty of things are sprouting now, though I think the sunchokes had an excellent head-start.



Another plant we're hoping to see a lot more of this season would be beans. We've planted several patches of bush beans and pole beans, and we're keeping a close eye on them.



Finally: summer event preparations continue. We chipped away a number of items today.



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

BRK #594

Tonight was Board Game Night, and things ran late...! Just enough time to post a few photos before crashing.

Here's one of our enormous rhubarb plants. The team harvested rhubarb today, then canned plenty of rhubarb jam for the future. Looking forward to tasting the results. Thanks for the diligent jamming and canning, Brian and Nan!



Ben, Carissa, and I went searching for young mullein so we could harvest the leaves and start drying them. Mullein is a plant that's so prevalent around here, yet I occupied myself with questions about optimizing harvest, tea made with the inner versus the outer leaves, and so on. Seems like it's not worth worrying about, really.



In the afternoon, we tried to complete the entirety of the Bobra Line project, and haven't succeeded just yet. Here's Ben notching out the deadman log for the "knee brace" support. We were able to put this in the ground and have started applying its "gravel sock."



Speaking of gravel, here's our current gravel-sifting station, with Brian, Carissa, and Ben.



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

BRK #595

A fitting close to the Boot week. We bid farewell to Nan tomorrow morning. Thanks for spending so much of your time and energy with us, Nan!

Ben, Carissa, and I completed another major component of the Bobra Line project today...! Here's Ben working on the angled notch on the top end, which abuts the vertical post. We used the Log Wizard a fair amount today in an effort to maximize the surface area between the "knee brace" and the vertical post.



We were fortunate that the sun was working with us at the time, as it helped determine if we'd finished an even carve job on the end of the knee brace log.



We were able to slide the knee brace post into the channel we dug out, then ease it into general position, leaning it up against the vertical post. Here are Ben and Carissa persuading it into position.



After some trial-and-error finishing work with the Log Wizard, the knee brace post was nailed into place against the vertical post, and we began filling in the trench in earnest. Here's the deadman log at the bottom of it, being covered by its "gravel sock."



The team sifted a tremendous amount of gravel this week in an effort to generate enough useful gravel for the tasks. This past autumn, we had a few cubic yards of "dirty" gravel delivered to us, sight unseen. It was full of a lot of rock dust that would cause problems had we left it in the gravel sock mix. The good news is that we now have sifted out a large quantity of "pea gravel" from the shipment as well, and we'll use that for pathways and other areas with foot traffic.

Once we had the deadman in place and affixed the knee brace to the vertical post, the remainder of the task was relatively quick going. Carissa applied cardboard round the knee brace post at various spots, making a sturdy form for the gravel sock to travel upward at an angle. Here's the finished knee brace, with its hole nearly filled.



It's another crucial step in finishing this essential project. Well done, team...!

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

BRK #596

Hold on to your hats - and maybe reload the web page a few times... It's time for a Big Fat Animated GIF Entry, Saturday Edition...!

Are they sunchokes, or are they sunflowers?!?!? Guess we'll find out in a month or so.



Nan, Carissa, and I test the stability and integrity of the hammock chairs we set up for the summer events. More testing is needed, but I assure you we're up to the task.



Finally: a rare moment captured... The Rocky Mountain Hirsute Dipshit emerges from his tomb-like burrow after a long winter's nap.



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

BRK #597

Two developments this Sunday that I find interesting.

First, we moved two cats up to Cooper Cabin, in preparation for the summer events. Both Batman AKA Puff and Razzberry are now up there. SEPPer Rio, SEPPer Roger, and I helped them feel at home, and we even brought up one of the outdoor portable cat houses to give them a place to crash in at night.



Speaking of cats, here's one of the currently-unnamed kitties over at Allerton Abbey. They all look a lot like their likely dad, Pearl.



And I've recently graduated from YouTube University...! The pump house up at the Lab was experiencing a constant-motor-running issue, and I wanted to fix it before the end of the weekend. So after a bit of research (with one video being a step-by-step troubleshooting from a well drilling company), I performed my own checks.



First off, there seemed to be no issue with the air bladder found in the pressure tank. You can check the pressure of your tank with any old conventional tire gauge. Here's the one I used. It reads 48PSI.



That number is right on target. How do I know this? By looking under the cap of the well pump controller. This is like the "thermostat" for the pressurized water in the well system. If pressure is too low, then it "cuts on" or activates the pump. If pressure is too high, then it "cuts out," or shuts it off. Thankfully this Overton Window (a term I stole from somewhere else, but still applies here) of water pressure is adjustable.

Anyhow, according to the cap of the well pump controller switch, the cut-out number is 50PSI, and my YouTube instructions state that your tank's pressure ought to be 2 to 3PSI lower than the cut-out number. So I referred to the instructions under the cap on how to make adjustments.



There are two adjustable posts with nuts on them. The first adjusts the PSI "window," which is the range between cut-on and cut-out. The second, which is the one I tinkered with, adjusts only the cut-out. By turning the second one counter-clockwise, you reduce the PSI required for the cut-out to occur.



I turned on all the power again, then monitored the cut-out pressure rating. The motor actually cut out, which was great. At that point, I made sure to check that the PSI gauge on the pump motor matched the PSI of the pressure tank. Everything was consistent, so I bled out the tank with a relief valve until the cut-on PSI was reached, then jumped out of my skin as the motor activated and started pumping water. I closed the relief valve, then waited for the cut-off to occur.

Everything is working now, and the rest of the Lab ought to have pressurized hydrants again. Next up will be to address the constant high-pitched beeping noise coming from the solar charge controller. But that's for another day...

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