Dave Burton's Boot Adventures at Wheaton Labs and Basecamp

Good morning!

Day 75



Last night, I worked some more on my knitting project.



These are a couple signs inside of the Fisher Price House.



And this is a fridge magnet that I think is neat!



I liked the morning view at Basecamp today.



We built a new shelf for charged batteries in the The Shop, so that it hopefully stays more organized.





The charged batteries are now supposed to go above their chargers.



I made some signs to help keep things organized in The Shop. This me working on the charged batteries sign.



This is the oiled charged batteries sign. This does not qualify for the Make a Sign BB, because this sign does not meet the five inches by 18 inches requirement.



I also made a sign for battery chargers.





I hanged both of these signs up in The Shop!



I made a chainsaws sign and hanged that up, too!



We moved and organized lumber that we moved out of the way, so that the tractor with a gin pole can get in for Bermshed repairs.



This is one of the beams getting moved into place on the Bermshed at Basecamp. This was done with our new gin pole design, that is a slightly shorter gin pole, about 16 feet instead of 21 feet, and it uses just one pole instead of two.









Here's some more photos of the gin pole at work!







We disconnected the manifold of the RMH Bun Warmer, so that the Bun Warmer part could be moved out.



Here's the RMH Bun Warmer's bun warmer barrels being moved out with our new single gin pole on a tractor design!



The tractor with the gin pole is moving in to take out the bun warmer.





Here's the bun warmer getting taken out! And it's in the air now!



The bun warmer is now being laid down, so that it's safely out of the way!



Here are some pictures of RMH Bun Warmer without the bun warmer.

Good morning/afternoon!

Day 76

I went on a hike up Volcano Road at Basecamp today.







I swept the kitchen floor, and I submit the BB for sweeping a floor. This is the floor after I finished sweeping.



Last night, I bottled up some of my sweet potato soda that I made, so that it can age a bit.



Last night, I also made a second life revival batch of sweet potato soda by adding back in more seasonings



I put the soaked beans into a crock pot, and I'm going to let them cook on low for 48 hours, since this crockpot doesn't work on high.



I will eventually be copying the below stuff over to the hugelkultur sand badge BB page, when I eventually (hopefully finish it- barring things like running out of diesel or daylight).

=======================

The main sand badge that I really want to get in the PEP curriculum right now is the Gardening Sand Badge, and for that, I need to build a hugelkultur. This is my Ruth Stout composting BB certified and my chop and drop BB certified. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish building my hugelkultur today, because I ran out of sunlight.

I am trying to build a hugelkultur on Plum Plateau at Basecamp. These are my two beginning pictures of the area I have staked out that is at least 7 feet long and at least 6 feet wide.





These are some progress pictures of my work on my hugelkultur.





These are a couple progress pictures of what I was able to complete at the end of today. I got the hugelkultur to be six feet tall, but I still need one more foot higher, loads more dirt (to cover all the woody bits), to plant seeds, and to mulch my hugelkultur.





These are the seeds and tubers/roots that I will be eventually planting.



I will be planting my hugelkultur, once its to height and all woody bits are covered, with the following:
-Crimson Clover
-Sweet Clover
-Daikon Seeds
-False Indigo Bush
-Red Cowpeas
-Common Vetch
-Rhubarb
-Wheaton Lab Sunflowers
-Winter Dormant Alfalfa
-Black Locust
-Sepp Holzer Grain
-8 Sunchoke Tubers
-7 Comfrey Roots/tubers

I got the wood, twigs, branches, and woody matter from the surrounding area at Plum Plateau. Most of the wood that I used came from already felled trees. The soil and dirt that I got for my hugelkultur mostly came from Arrakis (the sandy area of Basecamp) with some soil that I tried to get from the nearby area on Plum Plateau. Considering how much smaller the buckets of dirt I got from Plum Plateau were compared to the mostly full buckets from Arrakis, I think I will be getting more sand from Arrakis.

Good afternoon!

Day 77

I fed Gert and the kittens this morning, and they came out of the cat houses!





We had a pretty misty morning today!



I finished building my hugelkultur bed, and I submitted my BB for building a hugelkultur!

These are a couple porgress pictures!





This is my finished hugelkultur!



This is a video look at my finished hugelkultur on Plum Plateau at Basecamp!

Good morning!

Day 78



The hot water urn was empty, so I filled it up this morning.



Last night, I worked some on my knitting project.



I submitted my BB for felling a live tree with a chainsaw! This was the first tree that I felled!



I felled and limbed a couple of trees. I need to fell two more to get my BB in limbing trees.

This is tree 1 of 4 before and after limbing.



I took some moss/lichen off of the tree I felled for Jocelyn to use as a possible leaving agent.



This is tree 2 of 4 before and after limbing.



I worked on peeling this tree as tree 1 of 2 for my BB in peeling trees. Since its autumn and this is a very large tree, I almost got 50% of the tree peeled. I still need to roll it over to finish peeling and get the rest of the bits on the far end.



Josiah, Ron, and Austin worked on the Bermshed today.

Good Morning!

Day 79

Here's a look inside the Fisher Price House's living room.







I did the stovetop oats BB and the stovetop rice portion of the rice cooking BB.



We shoveled out some sand from the behind the wall of the Bermshed this morning, so that a section of the wall that is sagging can be pushed back into place.





We visited Allerton Abbey, and Cloud, Jeremy's fluffy cat, came to visit us!





This is a look at the inside of Allerton Abbey; Jen has done a wonderful job of making Allerton Abbey look cozy!





We closed some Willow Candy buckets today. This is a look at the collection side of Chateau de Poo.



I finally finished peeling my first of two trees for the peeling a tree BB.



I limbed two more trees, so I have limbed 4 trees total to submit my limb 4 trees BB.





I cooked rice with a rice cooker.



It became Tiki Tuesday, instead of Taco Tuesday, and Jocelyn made some wonderful tasty dishes!

Awesome, the berm shed roof work has made it most of the way! I hated leaving it barely started after the roundwood timber framing week last October, and only having time for one more cell at the ATC, so seeing the progress being more than double that is really satisfying!