evan's ant village log

Y2, Summer (50)

Jason had a big turkey feather hanging from a string at his site. Observing it, one was able to clearly see which direction the wind was blowing from at any given time, and how strongly it was blowing, and I imagine someone could learn a lot from observing several of these wind-feathers spread around one's site over time.

During the first real rainstorm since excavating Avalon, we made a massive mix of seeds, over 100 different species, diluted about 5 gallons of seeds with almost twice that of moist sand, then flung them all over Avalon. Good luck seeds!

Y2, Summer (51)

Jason built a sweet multi-sided triple-fireplace out of stones and cob at his site. One of the fires was a rocket-ish cook stove with a secondary air intake below the burn chamber. The second fire was a simple rumford-ish open stone-lined firepit. And the third fire was a whimsically arched rumford-ish sheltered firepit. Jason was happy to let us help with the cobbing and rocking, and Kai added a little cob goblin sculpture between the second and third fireplaces.

Y2, Summer (52)

Remember that little prickly pear that Sharla brought out here with her? It's putting on new growth!

And that nectarine tree that Kelly gave us? It's got a nectarine on it!

The solar dehydrator has been working alright, but it still needs to be sealed up better I think. The apricots we dried out in there turned out great, but it didn't happen as quickly as just a screen out in the sun. The slower speed and the limited space made it insufficient to meet all our drying needs. A really giant dehydrator in the same style would totally work, but be a bit expensive to build for now. I think with the quantity of produce that we intend to dehydrate, we'll want to do a combination of direct and indirect methods.

Y2, Summer (53)

Some sights from Ava.

Y2, Summer (54)

My dad and fellow ant Steve's house is coming right along. I think he and Gabe did a real nice job on the notching.

Steve had me run the excavator for him, and I dug out a little driveway and some drainage ditches, made the pad for his future larger house, and piled up a giant berm along the road. Putting terraces about midway along the sides of giant berms helps with being able to actually use all that extra surface area, plus it's fun to walk along and peer over the ramparts of the earth fortifications along one's borders.

You're getting to be quite proficient with the whole earth moving thing, Evan.  Nice job!

Thanks Gary! I feel extremely fortunate to have so many opportunities to practice and build my skills and just have fun moving tons of earth around.

Y2, Summer (55)

Giant berms can help to obscure the view of one's house or other structures from the road, helping to create and preserve the aesthetic of uninterrupted natural gardens.

Janet had me run the excavator for her too, and I dug some drainage ditches, made a bunch of terraced hugel berms, and roughed out her driveway and house site.

Janet's been making awesome progress accumulating her house materials and getting her logs peeled and charred. She'll have a house up in no time!

Hi Evan,
Thanks for the Anarcadeah update pic! And the Avalon seed photo is amazing.  5-gal of seed is an amazing amount.  Hope it grows like mad.  I love lush!

I sent you and Kai a (small) box of (not very many) seeds, trying to respect the list in your sig, sorta.  UPS delivery estimate to Missoula is Friday.  I hope you have enough water there to grow some of the species you named.  Maybe a pond edge?  You have a duck pond, right?  There was that picture "Igneous, Gneiss, and Tourmaline out for a swim with moms".  Maybe they need the pot-and-greenhouse treatment for the winter.  (Will the Siesta-integrated greenhouse be functional by this winter?)

It must be like the home stretch before winter, there.

Kerry! The seeds you sent are amazing! Such diversity! Kai and I are super excited to get these seeds in the ground! Thank you thank you!

To answer your questions, I don't think I will have the Siesta-integrated greenhouse fully functional by the beginning of this winter, but I might be able to finish it during winter.

There are several crater-gardens/ponds on Ava, but currently all of them go dry seasonally, (still muddy and wet at the bottom, but not even a puddle in the driest part of the year.) Over time I hope to increase their ability to hold water longer by running pigs and ducks in them, adding more organic matter, and adding more shade. For now, hopefully between these crater gardens and the wetter sides of the hugels the moisture-loving seeds you sent will find a place to grow. We'll do our best, Kerry, thanks again for your outstanding generosity and support!

Y2, Fall-ish (?)

So far I've been trying to keep this log mostly in chronological order, but the backlog is getting pretty big and at the same time I would like to have my posts, when I actually find the time to make them, be somewhat more timely. I have about a month's worth of pictures and updates to post, but as Kerry pointed out, it's the homestretch before winter, and there's still a pile of projects to get done. At the same time, I feel the need to keep y'all somewhat up-to-date, so I'm thinking that I will break with chronology for now and try to skip ahead towards the present.

As many good things as there are about this forum as a format for my log, (especially the dialogue and feedback from all you awesome permies,) the way I've been doing it thus far is fairly time-consuming, and so I'm hoping to find some way to streamline/automate the update process and simultaneously display all my old content in a way that's more navigable and aesthetically appealing to me. I've looked into a few options for blogging websites but haven't yet found one that meets all my specifications. Surely the technology is out there that will display all my content in the way I have in mind, but for now I'll keep posting here occasionally and hopefully y'all will keep finding it useful/entertaining.

Josh, Ben, and I just went on a nearly 7000 mile road trip out to the east coast and back, gathering as many seeds as possible along the way and visiting loads of friends and permaculture sites. I'll get around to telling the longer story of our adventure some day, but for now here's a couple pictures from the trip.

The first picture is of the seeds Kerry sent, what a wonderful gift to return to!

The second and third pictures are of the incomplete wofati-inspired structure I built in new hampshire in 2014, which I checked up on and tidied up a bit when we were in the area a few days ago. It's similar in shape and design to Allerton Abbey, but even less completed. Maybe not the most sensible design for the wet environment in which it was built, but it was an interesting and educational project anyway.

Sorry for this post being all over the place, but I'm kind of all over the place at the moment and I just wanted to get one post out that somewhat summarizes where I'm at/have-been before I need to seriously buckle down and get ready for winter. This post probably doesn't do that. Oh well. Here's hoping that I can get my stove built and Siesta buttoned up before winter, and then my blogging situation figured out eventually. Don't expect much activity from me on here until then.

Meanwhile, check out what all the other ants have been doing here in the village:

Jesse: https://permies.com/t/47811/labs/Jesse-Ant-Village-Videos

Josh: https://permies.com/t/48594/labs/Josh-anty-updates

Jim: https://permies.com/t/50566/labs/Jim-Ant-log

Sean: https://permies.com/t/58522/labs/Lab-rat-diaries

Steve: https://permies.com/t/58791/labs/Sticks-Stones-Steve-Words-Ant

Janet: https://permies.com/t/58356/labs/Janet-Antics