Stephen B. Thomas

Update 4: Arizona

More gardening in the American Southwest, this time in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Dr. Jen hosted me a second time, and this was another case of being able to see the work we'd done the year previous and how it performed and persisted since then. Jen had also taken in more chickens, turkeys, and even goats since my last visit. I was able to assist not just with the garden, but with animal care as well. It's a massive understatement to mention that I enjoyed every moment out there in the sands.

A big development for Jen's land: fewer wild burros...! The Bureau of Land Management had captured somewhere around 1,000 rudderless donkeys since my last visit, and while damage was still evident, it was encouraging to see the desert greenery was slowly being restored. We might have heard them braying a night or two, but during my visit we only encountered one, and Willow - Jen's trusty dog - ensured it kept its distance from us.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos of new developments, along with quick report-backs regarding last year's desert-greening projects.

Amy Gardener had supplied me with a few goji berry starts from New Mexico, and a short time after arriving in Arizona I put them in the ground. The earth can be surprisingly rocky  beneath the sands and red dirt, but a pickaxe more or less makes short work of the task.



I dropped the gangly roots and stems in five separate spots on Jen's land. These starts might not look like much right now, but based on what I'd seen with the Orange Jubilee and other plants I'd either planted or transplanted last year, I have faith these will pick up soon.



The rocks taken out of the ground were used on the downward slope of the hill, preserving the mulch and contributed to preventing erosion of the landscape prior to the plants taking root. Amy testifies that, "Once they're established, you can't get rid of them!" Here's to hoping these little shrubs hang on and add more organic matter to the soil... and perhaps goji berries to someone's oatmeal breakfast.



Another highlight from my visit was a massive overhaul of Jen's tomato garden. Due to intense pressure from various animals, the entire enclosure, roughly 20' x 20' x 6', is surrounded by wire mesh and bird netting. This is great, but the real problem at this stage was that the tomato plants were growing so well that they had sprawled and tangled themselves throughout the interior. Jen wanted to provide support and some order to the arrangement, allowing fruits to grow and then be harvested at all levels of the plants. Here's a "before" picture:



We gathered scrap wood from a few different locations - including lumber from the old mining structures - and did some arbitrary framing and sectioning-off of the tomato plants. Jen also set to work in guiding the tomato plants through the new frame so that the understory was visible and accessible. I used scraps of twine and other cordage to repair snagged bird netting and further secure it to the wire mesh.



Once we settled on the work and time we'd invested in it, it was plain to see there was significant improvement and now more potential for healthy tomato shrubs.



An individual task I'd tackled while on-site was broadening and deepening these "tree moats" so that their roots can be strengthened and more established. This consisted of digging close to a foot deep around the plant, beyond the roots' reach, then filling it in with compost, soil, and finally mulch. Again, rocks dug out of the earth were used to shore-up the boundaries of the tree moats and contribute to erosion-prevention.



I had a chance to see last year's projects and how they might have been useful. Thankfully, it all seemed to be good news. For one, last year's fig trees still seemed to be healthy and growing.



The zuni bowl I dug out last year had persisted. Greenery was crowding near, including some native lupine and other unidentified plants that weren't visible on other areas of Jen's land.



I don't feel like I can call them swales, but the trenches and terrace-ing that Leo and I had dug last year seemed to be doing their job: catching water before it runs off the hillside and providing needed irrigation to the surrounding plantlife with captured rainwater.





I feel drawn to this landscape, and while it could be seen as formidable and desolate to some, to me it's a comfort. Jen was a gracious host who made me feel at home while I was so far away from home. Big THANKS to Jen for her generous hospitality and providing me with some excellent experience in desert gardening.





That's a wrap for 4S 2026...! Now I'm headed back to Montana, and home. I certainly hope to do this again next year, as it was an immensely rewarding experience. Two for two, and I hope to make it a third in 2027.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

Update 3: New Mexico

Permies staff member Amy Gardener invited me back again this year, and I was all too happy to stop by. I spent a few days assisting mostly with earthworks this time around. Amy wanted to build up a barrier between her yard and her neighbor's place, spurred on by an unsightly garage impeding her view of the nearby mountain range. What better natural solution could there be than a hefty berm, soon to be loaded with lovely desert plants?

If there's one thing I know how to to, it's how to take dirt from over there, and bring it over here. So that's what I did in this spot.



I would bring the wheelbarrow loads of dirt, while Amy would add them to the berm. There's a wire support fence-type thing that she wanted to cover with the earth. She was satisfied when those small fence bits were completely covered.



The berms were built up, as well as the path in front of the retaining wall. We both agreed that things turned out pretty great.





Here's Amy's excellent garlic raised bed:



I paid a brief visit to last year's adobe structure project. No major renovations this year. Instead, I hopped up to the roof and did a bit of tamping of the soil on top, plucked out a few grasses that happened to move in, and in general just keep it tidy up there.



Amy had found a surprising bit of rocket-stove technology while visiting her local thrift store. Turns out people were using this as a trash can...!



I brought it out to the front porch for a closer look. Amy mentioned that it worked all right, so that evening I gave it a test-firing. All systems go.

It may not look too pretty, but it certainly is functional. Just like at Wheaton Labs, all rockety contraptions have their own little quirks and it was an interesting puzzle to make this one burst into flames.



Amy also offered to give me a tutorial and demo on how to parge a rock wall. There's a location she wanted to transplant a tree to her yard for some friends of hers who are moving house soon. We picked up a bunch of river rock they'd collected over the years to decorate the location.



The easiest way to describe parging in terms that I understand well is, "It's like a dry-stack wall, while using adobe as mortar and foundation instead of gravel." It seems most useful for locations that won't have much rain. Amy explained that one of its major advantages is that since you're using mud, it all fuses together into one solid mass, holding things together with impressive stability, over time. And like most cob structures, you can easily add to it with more natural materials from the surrounding area, and a little bit of water.







Amy took care to work the mud into the nooks and crannies behind the river rocks. This would remove air bubbles and discourage burrowing by rodents.





On the back-side of the wall, scooping up the mud and slathering it against the rocks removes more air pockets and encourages the fusing of mud to rock.



The next day, after most of the mud had dried and I took a second look. Initially, I was skeptical, but I think Amy's work is admirable and it will provide a handsome wall to both support the garden path and decorate the tree's new home. It's still in process, but even one afternoon hour seemed to make a lot of progress on that project.



BIG thanks once again to Amy Gardener and family for allowing me to stay! It was a blast.

...Currently snowed-in at Flagstaff, AZ, but I ought to be able to make it to the Sonoran Desert tomorrow for my fourth stop.

I decorate the covers of my pocket day planners. Here's the one for January:



Here's February's. I didn't want to feel cold.



Here's March's calendar, in process. I'm currently in New Mexico and I look at cactus every day. I think I will be doing some line-work with green ink pens on this one.

So Paul and I can't see eye to eye on a number of things. One topic that consistently comes up (as in, on at least a weekly basis) is that of movies. For example, I seem to recall that he is of the opinion that I have an absolutely wretched taste in films. I prefer to say that I find it hard (though not impossible) to like any film that's been made in the past 25 or so years. I also don't watch superhero films, don't like Star Wars, and don't like anything made by Disney since like 1959.

Anyhow, I mention all this because you might be curious about what goes on in my head when it comes to films I've seen, and about those that I actually like. And it just so happens that I write mini-reviews of every film I watch, no matter how bad or how tremendously wonderful it might be. Between 2020 and 2025, I happened to watch 245 films, and I wrote and collected reviews of them all.

This review collection is available for download here. It's a no-cost PDF file and might keep you entertained as you avoid doom-scrolling on your phone while contemplating a willow feeder, for instance.

Here's a sample, for one of my current Top Five Films:

DONNIE DARKO, 2001
Sci-Fi / Fantasy, Drama / Thriller, Top Five
What if god was an angsty teen? Ideas about parallel universes/alternative realities come to mind with this film. If nothing else, it's a persuasive argument that there is no alternate reality - which is almost funny, since the film features multiple situations where these alternate realities are intersecting and interfering with one another, even up until the last moment.

It also reminds me of a book I first crossed-paths with in my first year of college, "Ways of Worldmaking." The general idea there was that each individual is capable of shaping their own reality by either forcing their perception of it or in some way modifying their perception of the stimuli around them.

The soundtrack to this film is also fantastic. I remember first seeing this film at a late-night showing, and by chance I met up with a friend of mine with whom I'd later collaborate on video game projects for several years.

///

Does anyone else do this? Anyone with their own film reviews or recommendations to share? Please do so here...!

Update: Site #2, Arkansas

Judith Browning and family invited me out to their home in the north-central part of the state. This was my first time I'd spent a significant length of time there, and I still thought it was too short...! I really enjoyed the vibe of their town, and my morning walks along the quiet streets to start my day were a special treat and put my head in the right place. It was an exceedingly pleasant stay, and they put me to work assisting with their garden prep. They also provided me with some excellent sight-seeing opportunities and visits to the extended family.

When I arrived, a dominant feature of the yard was a massive mulch pile, which I was all too happy to push around for them.



The main target was this area where several fruit trees were in place. Unfortunately, I neglected to snag a photo of the "after" but Judith did request that at least a foot of mulch be placed over the entire bed.



I did remember to grab a photo of the remainder of the mulch after I had put a bit of a dent in it. I love this stuff, really. A pitchfork can do wonders with moving it.



Across the street, there was a kind of "community bamboo patch." The best stalks were found deep in its interior, but the path had been overgrown since the last time they harvested any canes.



By the end of the day, not only had we cleared a wide-enough path for adequate harvesting, but most of the snow had melted as well.



We cleaned the foliage off the canes we had removed when we cleared the path, and they looked more like the bamboo to which I was accustomed to seeing.



Judith demonstrated how to weave the canes together across a garden bed so that no fasteners were needed to keep it upright. It'll serve as a trellis for a wide variety of plants. I'll be sure to use this same technique back in Montana with our junk-pole trellises.



Oh, and Judith's husband has a fantastic woodshop! He's made a wide variety of wood items, and was happy to show me his current collection of spoons-in-process.



One of the things I learned was that if you keep a "nose" on your wooden spoons, then you can do all sorts of handy things with them, like secure them in the shop vise so you can use draw-knives and other two-handed tools to shape them. Again, this is another useful tip I'll be bringing back with me to Wheaton Labs.



This hand saw was a real treasure: an authentic late-1800s tool, including a monogram on the hand-carved handle, secured by rivets.



The room I stayed in had one of the loveliest home libraries I'd ever seen. A bookshelf stretched from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Here's a sample of what I saw each morning when I opened my eyes after a night's rest.



Massive THANKS to Judith Browning for a wonderful stay, and likely the best introduction to small-town Arkansas a guy could have.

Next stop: New Mexico...!

Update: Site #1, North Carolina

James invited me back again, asking me for help with projects at his homestead west of Asheville, North Carolina. I have a few photos of our projects, here.

Day One was pretty much snowed-out...! There was snow and ice all over everything, so we decided to visit several Little Free Libraries in the area and drop off some of Paul's books and DVDs. Later that afternoon however, things were sorted-out enough that we scouted around the property and picked some trees for felling the following day.

Day Two was much warmer, and by the afternoon, most of the ice and all of the snow was gone. We set to work felling a few poplar trees, stacking three-foot sections of the logs in the back of James' truck.

Pictured here are James in his winter gear, along with faithful four-legged companion Leroy.





James then coached me through the process of using a relatively-unknown method of inoculating logs with shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Instead of the typical "drill and fill" method, he has opted for an end-capping method that cuts down on the time required to complete inoculation. To sum it up: instead of creating sawdust plugs that are stuffed into holes drilled into a log, you create pucks or "patties" of mycelium substrate, and press them into the ends of the log, covering them for a year with aluminum foil to hold them in place.





The end result was a stack of logs of several different diameters that we set in piles in the shade. It'll take anywhere from a couple months (for the oyster mushrooms) to about a year (for the shiitake) to permeate the logs, then they'll be stacked in much the same way as a "normal" mushroom growing operation.



Here's a photo of one of James' previous mushroom harvesting log stacks:



James had also seen some success with the "totem" style of mushroom cultivation, and we set up a few of the larger-diameter logs in this method. For this, you slice a log at a few different heights, then add mycelium patties in-between the layers. James was experimenting with a few Sepp Holzer-inspired variations to the process, including these totem logs set on the ground, with mycelium patties underneath them.





Another variation had totems stored in "lawn & leaf" bags, which will be sealed once the totems are stacked inside. The hope is that the bags will help the totems stay moist and further encourage the mycelium to colonize the entirety of the log.





One of the final interesting projects we completed on Day Three was to apply a natural finish to pine boards intended for use on an exterior wall. James demonstrated how he created a "chimney" with the pine boards, arranging them into a prism shape and securing them together with wire. Then, we leaned the board-chimney against a step ladder, and then James blasted the inside of the chimney with a blowtorch. This was wild...! I thought the entire thing would burst into flames.









It certainly was a spectacle, though it turned out to be a rather brief pyrotechnics display. In fact, this is why James had opted to use this process: charring the planks one at a time would have used more fuel and would have taken much more time to complete. This way, he would be able to complete three boards in less time than it would take to char even a single board when using conventional methods.



We then worked-over the charred wood with a wire brush until we cleared-off the most fragile charred bits.



The result was a truly beautiful, high contrast finish to the boards that was as weather-resistant as it was beautiful. James mentioned that the final step would be to apply some linseed oil finish, then affix it to the wall as part of a board-and-batten style exterior wall. I think this is a much nicer look than the plain pine boards...!



That's all for my trip to North Carolina...! BIG THANKS to James for hosting my first stop of this year's 4S. I hope to see him again next year. Next stop: Arkansas!

I've received confirmations on sites and dates for this year's 4S.

Western North Carolina with James. North-central Arkansas with Judith Browning. Central New Mexico with Amy Gardener. Central Arizona with Dr. Jen.

Currently visiting relatives in Pennsylvania, and I hit the road tomorrow. This is exciting...!!!

The 4S '26 is underway... Big thanks to Uncle Mud & Family for allowing me to stay in a lovely hand-built cottage while being snowed-in for a bit longer than expected. They even relented to my constant pleas to play one of my original tabletop game designs..!

For the next few weeks, I'll be visiting old friends and relatives on the east coast, then the February work tour begins.

Congrats to everyone, and especially my fellow Boot, Esteban...!

Hello all! Below is information I'd collected regarding the results of our GAMCOD plot here at Wheaton Labs.

All calorie data was supplied by the USDA's Food Search Database.

To Sum It Up:
We harvested 14,654 calories, from 6 different crops. If we replicated this to plant the same plot over an entire acre, we would have harvested 3,033,378 calories of food.

The Details:
I worked along with a large number of different Boots this season. I started building a hugelkultur inside a 200sq.ft. area over at the Lab in March 2025. The dirt used to build the hugel berm was from a nearby pit (I hope it will be a natural swimming pool in there someday...) and various nearby logs. We started planting seeds in early May 2025, and our final harvest was on 22 December 2025.

I've extensively documented the progress of the GAMCOD project here through the season, and most of it is available via YouTube under Wheaton Labs Boots Adventures.

Our final, harvested crops this season include:
Sunchokes: 15,374 grams = 11,223 calories
Mustard Greens: 20 grams = 5 calories
Turnips: 522 grams = 146 calories
Turnip Greens: 120 grams = 38 calories
Potatoes: 3,190 grams = 2,456 calories
Yellow/Crookneck Squash: 786 grams = 149 calories

TOTAL CALORIES ON THIS PLOT = 14,654
TOTAL GAMCOD CALORIES = 3,033,378
(multiply the plot calories by 207, since the GAMCOD plot is 1/207 of an acre)

If I have the calculation numbers incorrect above, please someone correct this for me and I'll update our totals ASAP.

While this resulted in fewer calories overall compared to last year, we increased the diversity of the harvest yield. Diversity was my main focus, since I knew that meeting the calorie goal would be easier, thanks to the sunchokes. I feel we would have done even better with more discipline and structure, and I know I did the best I could at that sort of thing. Next year, I want to try some other gardening experiments, take care of seeds and baby plants much better, and continue to build a diverse assortment of vegetables grown to harvest time.

Thanks for reading here, and thanks to all the Permies regulars who provided comments on the YT videos and in my BEL thread throughout the season to provide suggestions and encouragement. And of course, thanks to Paul for providing this excellent learning project.