Mike Haasl

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Hello, skip team! I have another question for yall. Can dry beans count towards my 1 million calories of preservation?

Yes, that's my understanding

I was seeing them splash against the sky all the way overhead a half hour ago

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEM curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Animal Care.

For this Badge Bit, you will arrange a mob grazing system for a ruminant herd!


(site: Pinterest.com)

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
  - Dedicate land to a mob grazing system for at least 8 large ruminants
  - Flexible movement of the herd every 3 days or less during the growing season
  - Clean water available in the occupied paddock

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 mins):
  - Show and describe your mob grazing system
  - Show abundant plants and healthy happy ruminants throughout the growing seasons
  - Video of a move

Wood heat
Instruction, regulation, insurance, safety, etc

Operate, build and maintain wood burning contraptions that cut energy and wood use.  Heat is one of the largest personal impacts we have on the environment, let's get it from a renewable, personally harvestable, source.

Sand badge

Make a rocket j-tube
Start and operate a wood stove or rocket mass heater for 1 hour
Build a dakota stove and cook some food

Do one of the following:
  - Do the annual ash cleanout of a rocket mass heater
  - Sweep a wood stove chimney

Straw badge
Get 35 points

Build a j-tube rocket engine - 12 points
Build a j-tube style rocket mass heater - 24 points
Build a batch box rocket mass heater - 35 points
Build a batch box massless heater - 24 points
Build a j-tube rocket oven - 12 points
Build a convertible j-tube rocket oven - 24 points
Build an unpressurized wood fired water heater - 8 points
Build an unpressurized rocket fired water heater - 16 points
Syrup evaporator - 3 points
Build a charcoal producing wood stove - 24 points

No Wood or Iron badge at this time

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEM curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the straw badge in Woodland Care.

By now you have cut down a number of trees and feel fairly comfortable with a chain saw.  The bigger the tree, the more that can go wrong.  Let's work up to some larger timber!

 
 

Here's an excellent guide:


Minimum requirements:
  - Cut down a 24"+ diameter tree
  - Clean notch cut
  - No overcutting of the notch cuts
  - Notch is at least 45 degrees (unless you have a very good reason otherwise)
  - Notch doesn't extend more than 1/3 of the way into the tree
  - At least a 1" hinge

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
  - Tree before you begin
  - Explain why you need to cut this particular tree
  - Notch imagery:
      - View showing size of notch relative to tree
      - Each corner of the notch showing no overcutting
  - Fallen tree
  - Stump imagery:
      - Tape measure showing diameter
      - Hinge clearly over 1"

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEM curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Woodland Care.

I hear fences make good neighbors.  No wonder my neighbors keep putting up more fences...  Let's get in on the action by building a split rail fence!

 
 

Here's Mr. Chickadee building a split rail fence:


Minimum requirements:
  - Make a split rail fence
  - At least 36' long (not counting zigs and zags)
  - Sturdy enough for uncle Frank to sit on (250 lbs)
  - Starting with the logs (you don't have to cut them down)
  - At least 80% of the pieces are split
  - Can be any historical split rail fence design, possibly like the pictures above
  - Rot resistant wood

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
  - The logs you're starting with
  - Where the fence will go
  - Splitting a log
  - Fence midway through construction
  - Finished fence with measurement if length isn't obviously 36'

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEM curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Woodland Care.

Now that you're starting to turn trees into building materials, let's pay attention to the waste stream of sawmills.  One source is slabs of wood with bark on one side and random tapering widths and thicknesses.  One great use is as economical siding for buildings.  Let's make some slab siding boards!

 
 

Here's a BB where a fine gentleman did exactly what we're talking about:  Sugar shack slab wood siding project

Here's one way to do it, shown on a shorter slab that has two flat surfaces (no barky side).  Same idea though:


Minimum requirements:
  - Make 100 square feet of slab wood siding
  - Starting with two "live edges"
  - Ending with two parallel edges
  - Select up to 4 widths to maximize slab usage
         - For example: 6", 8", 9" and 10"
  - Square ends on the boards

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
  - The slabs you're starting with
  - Cutting the first edge on a board
  - Cutting the second (parallel) edge on that board
  - Finished siding
  - Explain/show how it is at least 100 square feet

Hi Maggie, you're not alone! I was watching a garden influencer and greenhouse grower about 5 years ago doing a video series on her different greenhouse methods (wish I could remember her name) and in a video she was doing something and got scared by a worm. So she mentioned her phobia as she kept talking about her gardens.  I don't know how she managed it, but you aren't alone.

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEM curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the Straw badge in Foraging.

Foraging is like gardening but without all the planting, weeding, nibbler protection or watering.  If you live in the country there are lots of road sides and trails to search.  This must be wild foods - not gleaning or harvesting from an actively cultivated space.

Plant identification is the most important part of foraging.  Get one or two good books on the edibles of your region.  Be sure you know what you're picking!

 
 

Minimum requirements:
  - Forage 20 lbs of edible or medicinal large berries (fresh weight)
  - Dry them for long term storage
  - "Large berries" means over 5/16" in diameter. That's the size of a standard wooden pencil.  Could include:
      - Strawberries
      - Mulberries
      - Black berries
  - This needs to be a culinary berry, not a botanical technicality like a watermelon.
  - Need to be untended plants, for instance:
      - Growing in the wild
      - From an abandoned homestead, now in the wild
      - Guerilla gardened plants
  - Not allowed:
       - Plants in yards/parks/businesses

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
  - One of the plants the foraged food came from
  - The bounty on a scale showing the weight (or you have so much, there is no need to weigh it)
  - Food drying
  - Dry berries stored with a label on the container

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEM curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the Straw badge in Foraging.

Foraging is like gardening but without all the planting, weeding, nibbler protection or watering.  If you live in the country there are lots of road sides and trails to search.  This must be wild foods - not gleaning or harvesting from an actively cultivated space.

Plant identification is the most important part of foraging.  Get one or two good books on the edibles of your region.  Be sure you know what you're picking!

 
 

Minimum requirements:
  - Forage 10 lbs of edible or medicinal small berries (fresh weight)
  - Dry them for long term storage
  - "Small berries" means under 5/16" in diameter. That's the size of a standard wooden pencil.  Could include:
      - Elderberries
      - Wild blueberries
      - Pin cherries
      - Choke cherries
  - Need to be untended plants, for instance:
      - Growing in the wild
      - From an abandoned homestead, now in the wild
      - Guerilla gardened plants
  - Not allowed:
       - Plants in yards/parks/businesses

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
  - One of the plants the foraged food came from
  - The bounty on a scale showing the weight (or you have so much, there is no need to weigh it)
  - Prove the berries are "small" using a pencil or ruler for size comparison
  - Food drying
  - Dry berries stored with a label on the container