BEL #834
Here are a few additional pictures from Boots' adventures the (snowy, rainy) week of 9th - 13th March.
Earlier in the week, I'd assigned both
Esteban and
Harry to repair the floor inside
Allerton Abbey. Here they are mixing some cob in preparation to complete the first layer of cob fill as part of the repairs. I remember asking them to re-integrate the previous flooring - cob with several layers of linseed oil applied to it - but it seems like the chips held their shape, even after soaking overnight. The floor is quite water-resistant...!
Speaking of the Abbey, the rocket cooktop in there can become blazing warm...! It's a marvel to watch the path of the flames as they snake their way out of the firebox and into a U-shape underneath the cooktop, only to disappear again as they flow backwards and even upside-down towards the exhaust.
We visited Cooper Cabin a number of times this week, in preparation for guests to arrive over the weekend. Here's the rocket cooktop in there, which also has a heavily-modified exhaust pathway, passing underneath a lovely cast-iron cooktop before it exits.
While driving up at the
Lab between clouds that would alternatively spit down rain and snow, a tree had fallen (and I wonder if anyone had heard it...).
Esteban dropped me off at this site, and after an hour or so, the road was clear and it was difficult to convince anyone that a tree had been there at all. We took the loggy bits and stowed them over at the
Gregorian Woodshed for future processing as firewood.
Heavy snow fell on Friday this week, and it caught me by surprise. As we had such a mild winter, I had already removed the tire chains from the tractor, and wasn't expecting to have to use it again to plow snow until maybe November. Fortunately, the tractor still works okay in the snow, and it wasn't at such a depth that I'd be slipping and sliding all over the place. The roads were plowed up at the Lab, and both guests and Boots could move around from place to place a little easier.
And I wonder if this marks the end of an era... The tent has collapsed
yet again. This is the third out of the past four winters when I'd need to replace the central pole of the tent. I contemplate that this may be the final year for this tent, and it's just the Universe giving me the opportunity to finally start building a cabin up at the Lab like I'd been meaning to for like, the past two years anyway. I'll miss living in this bad-ass canvas tent, but it's lasted four years and I think I was already pushing its construction (and my good luck) to its limit. Will I finish a shed by the end of 2026? Maybe temporarily reside in
Bartell's Bunkhouse? The magic 8-ball reads,
"shake again and ask later."
That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!
