PEP1 Certification workshop/gathering/event May/June 2019

Beau Davidson wrote:You may have already considered this, but what about requiring photographic evidence of authenticity - either a selfie with the item, or some sort of unique totem that would be difficult to replicate?  It would make it a few degrees more difficult to rip off randar images from the web.

True.  Maybe we will need to add that requirement later.

I updated the Google spreadsheet!  

Hey there everyone,

I've read through all of the badges and made lists of things I've already done and hope to complete.

I've ranked the 16 I hope to work towards during the event.

PEP badges
1. Natural Building
2. Rocket
3. Tool Care
4. Round Woodworking
5. Gardening
6. Electricity
7. Commerce
8. Woodland Care
9. Textiles
10. Dimensional lumber
11. Earthworks
12. Food prep and preservation
13. Homsteading
14. Community
15. Grey water and willow feeders
16. Metal Working

I'm currently in Missoula doing Freecycles build a bike program. I've also completed other BB's and will work on documenting before the event.

Look forward to meeting you all

Hi Baylee, you'll have to let us know how the freecycles thing goes.  A number of us will probably be doing it next week.  Did you get an email from Coco with a link to a Google spreadsheet?  We're putting our Wants/Completed/Certified BBs on that list so the organizers can make sense of what we're all after.

Beau Davidson wrote:
I figure after I add all the Badges and BB's, I can add a column for each participant and let that participant use some sort of code, like "Want," "Complete," "Certified," and "Hard Pass" or something like that.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a9XVZ5ea4hleOa9FpbmcWz0lrm-ymdxw8qtPs5mqU_4/edit?usp=sharing.

It is view-only at present, but I can give editing privileges to anyone by email.

Beau, thanks for adding editing permission for me. I'm having fun picking BBs. I like how you bolded the first line of each badge category - it makes sense as a way to visually mark the sixteen we're aiming to do. I think as I go through the BBs, though, I'm only going to put "want" beside those that I'd benefit from doing at Wheaton Labs. Is that the idea?

Erica Colmenares wrote:

Beau Davidson wrote:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a9XVZ5ea4hleOa9FpbmcWz0lrm-ymdxw8qtPs5mqU_4/edit?usp=sharing.

Beau, thanks for adding editing permission for me. I'm having fun picking BBs. I like how you bolded the first line of each badge category - it makes sense as a way to visually mark the sixteen we're aiming to do. I think as I go through the BBs, though, I'm only going to put "want" beside those that I'd benefit from doing at Wheaton Labs. Is that the idea?

Good! Glad it’s working out for you, clear easy and fun. Could‘t hope for more than that.  Yeah, I reckon that’s the idea, though Mike mentioned marking “Later” on the ones you intend to accomplish, well, “later.”

I just left the ones blank that I want to do at home.  I put "want" on a few that would be fun but not critical so I hope I remember which ones I really want vs ones I just picked cuz they were neat sounding.

So, I'm really disappointed, but I am not going to be able to come. My husband was laid off this afternoon. He did get a severance, but we need to get the house ready to sell as soon as possible, since the only reason we're in this expensive area of the Pacific Northwest was his decent job. We'll be fine, it's just a bummer and super bad timing. I hope that there are all sorts of posts and photos from the event - have fun, and learn a lot!!

What a bummer!  We'll post a bunch and you can learn vicariously.  Maybe you can get some BBs while getting the house ready to sell

I am loathe to communicate this, but I have to back out as well.  We had a flood at home and there is a lot of remediation needed to avoid catastrophic water damage. Mold is no respecter of the plans of humans. I’ll be looking for opportunities (beyond continuing to pursue badges remotely) to contribute and stay involved, as well as future events to join.

Please make and do many amazing things and post a copious amount of pictures.

Erica Colmenares wrote:So, I'm really disappointed, but I am not going to be able to come. My husband was laid off this afternoon. He did get a severance, but we need to get the house ready to sell as soon as possible, since the only reason we're in this expensive area of the Pacific Northwest was his decent job. We'll be fine, it's just a bummer and super bad timing. I hope that there are all sorts of posts and photos from the event - have fun, and learn a lot!!

Hi Erica,

I'm bummed too! :(
I hope that it will be a smooth selling and moving for you all.

Beau Davidson wrote:I am loathe to communicate this, but I have to back out as well.  We had a flood at home and there is a lot of remediation needed to avoid catastrophic water damage. Mold is no respecter of the plans of humans. I’ll be looking for opportunities (beyond continuing to pursue badges remotely) to contribute and stay involved, as well as future events to join.

Please make and do many amazing things and post a copious amount of pictures.

Hi Beau,

I'm bummed to hear you can't make it as well. Sorry to hear you have a flood in your home.... not cool. :(
I hope you are able to get the water damage, all worked out.

Hope you two can make it up someday! :)

Beau Davidson wrote:We had a flood at home and there is a lot of remediation needed to avoid catastrophic water damage.

Oh no! That's so unfortunate. Good luck with remediation, Beau.

Dang it!  That's too bad Beau.  We'll miss you too!

Quick update for everybody!
Now I can’t remember if I posted this earlier or not.
If not here it is for the BB for the tool care badge for Freecycle
we are going to be going on 5/30 the last Thursday you all are here.
It will be all day in Missoula.
10-11 Volunteer
11-12  class
12-3 volunteer
3-5ish build your bikes

I know it will be a long day but it should be a fun one!

Erica and Beau, man, I’m sorry y’all can’t make it! I know how life gets in the way of what we want to do sometimes! I hope y’all will both be able to make it to the Labs one of these days when things get settled and y’all got some breathing room again!

Beau, at least you are fairly close to me... we’ll have to get together with families sometime this summer as schedules permit and do some projects! Was hoping we’d get a bunch of time to chat...

Been rain off and on all day, but gonna get some sleep even though I am still feeling okay. Made it from KC to Billings, Montana today, just over 1,000 miles. Pretty quiet drive other than the rain, some fog after hitting MT, and some detours in Iowa due to flooding.

Will try to be good about taking pictures to share while at the Labs. Gnite. 😉

I arrived last night and Coco picked me up (Thanks Coco!!!).  The Red Cabin is cute as a button.  I don't know where everyone is...  I'm just poking around with Gert and waiting for people to wake up or appear.  Tour at 9:30

Well, Gert did some hunting/foraging.  Watching her swish her bushy black tail in the green grass while eyeing up a chipmunk seemed rather silly.  How could it not see a fuzzy black cat waving its tail 10' away?  Then she snuck in closer and did a rather quick lunge and got breakfast.  Hopefully it's her breakfast.  I petted her a bit this morning so maybe she caught it for me

Thanks for the notes all.  Last night's heavy rain has introduced only minimal water into the foundation.  Taking a turn for the better, but not out of the woods yet.  

I know the tour is taking place presently, and I'm looking forward to updates.

I am finding the Google Sheet tremendously useful, in finding all PEP1 information and progress gathered in one place.  If anyone wants to utilize the Sheet to  intentionalize and track your progress, just click https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a9XVZ5ea4hleOa9FpbmcWz0lrm-ymdxw8qtPs5mqU_4/edit?usp=sharing, and request editing permission.  I will add you individually by email address.  You can see examples in my column, and Mike's column (thanks Mike!)

I plan to add a tally function, which will keep a running tab of how many bb's you've had certified, and how many badges you have completed.  I think this will be a handy gauge of progress.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, hit me up here on this thread, or use the comment function on the Google Sheet itself.  

Cheers to an awesome event!

Welcome Mike! That black cat is actually Worf (a 'tom cat'), not Gert. Gert has not been around lately. I think because Gert and Worf do not get along...

We had another cancellation this morning...

...and I just have to say that I ordered 17 boxes of produce on Wednesday, which I picked up Saturday/yesterday. Then, with something like four or five cancellations after placing that order on Wednesday....we now have far too much produce. Way too much romaine lettuce. Gah.

I tried to tell Fred and Paul that they need to start putting romaine lettuce on their PB&J sandwiches and they're not having it.

Sorry to contribute to the over abundance.

We have a lettuce over abundance here as well.  It is awesome braised in cast-iron with butter and mushrooms.  It also shrinks up by about 1000%, so you can cram a lot more into people and a nutrient dense way.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:Welcome Mike! That black cat is actually Worf (a 'tom cat'), not Gert. Gert has not been around lately. I think because Gert and Worf do not get along..

That’s my bad. I keep calling worf gert last night.)

Yeah, I discovered the cat mix-up after posting.  I was going to edit it quick but now the truth is out.  Worf then proceeded to kill a bird as well.  We hope that was lunch but we're not sure...

So, what I'm hearing is that we need people to come out to the lab for the PEP1 Certification Event.  It's not too late folks, there's plenty of food!!!

Beau Davidson wrote:Here is a quick mockup of a Google Sheets spreadsheet.  

Would the organizing humans (and anyone else involved) have a gander and tell me what else you'd like to see on such a document?

I figure after I add all the Badges and BB's, I can add a column for each participant and let that participant use some sort of code, like "Want," "Complete," "Certified," and "Hard Pass" or something like that.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a9XVZ5ea4hleOa9FpbmcWz0lrm-ymdxw8qtPs5mqU_4/edit?usp=sharing.

It is view-only at present, but I can give editing privileges to anyone by email.

Thanks again for this Beau - the participants here are thinking it will help to coordinate all of our BB priorities!

I think some folks are new to Google Drive documents and didn't know they could now edit this document. (I just edited the tab name so I know we have the ability to edit it.) We're asking that all the participants here for PEP1 get their list of wants noted in a column in this spreadsheet by tomorrow morning so we can get a schedule outlined a bit better. (A rough outline any way.)

I can't wait to see more badges in people's signatures. I'm the only one with one right now, and I'm lonely! Who will be the first to join me in having earned a badge?

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a9XVZ5ea4hleOa9FpbmcWz0lrm-ymdxw8qtPs5mqU_4/edit?usp=sharing.
We're asking that all the participants here for PEP1 get their list of wants noted in a column in this spreadsheet by tomorrow morning so we can get a schedule outlined a bit better. (A rough outline any way.)

Sounds glad, glad it’ll be useful! I’ll have a look at my email throughout the night and before bed to add permissions for anyone. Sounds like it was a great 1st couple days!

Day 1 & 2

Good times were had today.  Trees were cut and peeled, damaged clothes were mended, spoons were whittled, logs were sawn, rocket mass heaters were ignited, owl bird houses were assembled and much more transpired that I wasn't aware of.  I made some pasta sauce and boiled a weird kind of noodle shaped like an "s".  Baylee made garlic flat bread.  Robbie made roasted veggies.  Others made other things but I was preoccupied with my sauce so I'll fail to give proper credit.  Dinner was great and we finished the night with movie night watching "The man who planted trees".  The subtitles were inaccurate and very funny.  I don't have any good group pics but hopefully I'll do better in the future.

3 pictures getting more BBs

Fun day today.  Trees and clothes and bird houses and bowls and benches were worked on in the morning.  In the afternoon we headed up to the lab to cut dead trees (woodland care badge), make junk poles and forage for morels and greens.  No morels but plenty of greens.  After a wonderful curry dinner there was time spent chatting with Paul and learning the musical scales.

Mike Jay wrote:Fun day today.  Trees and clothes and bird houses and bowls and benches were worked on in the morning.  In the afternoon we headed up to the lab to cut dead trees (woodland care badge), make junk poles and forage for morels and greens.  No morels but plenty of greens.  After a wonderful curry dinner there was time spent chatting with Paul and learning the musical scales.

Looks like everything I hoped it would be, thanks for the updates Mike.

I’m knocking out a bb here and there. We are still out of our home with the flood and i’m bailing water every time it rains. Add to that my 5 year old ran high fevers yesterday and suffered a very scary febrile seizure. He is fine now and all seems well. But all this to say, I'm very grateful to be home and not in Montana.

But i’m Still trekking with you all in spirit, and more and more convinced that this PEX concept will be a hugely useful thing in the world. I’m planning on doing some of the bb’s with my son this summer as a form of woodland summer camp. He’s so excited!

Today it started raining a little just before lunch, up on the Lab. After a morning of prepping junk poles, cutting down dead trees, limbing trees, and whittling spoons and one bowl, we came to Cooper Cottage for lunch out of the rain.

A couple pics here, after lunch... Jeremy showing Mike and Coco how to use a hook knife to work on the bowls of their spoons. Robbie decided to climb the ladder and said the heat was pretty comfy coming off the RMHs that Daryl and I fired up to complete BBS.

About time to get started on afternoon tasks, but I felt like posting an update.

I failed to take non-BB photos today.  But we spent the whole day up at the lab except for Nancy who worked on projects at base camp.  We dropped more trees, cut/moved/stored junkpoles, bucked up logs, split wood, carved spoons, hung out at Cooper Cabin and got sprinkled on.  We had a huge dinner with veggies, butternut squash, flat bread, spaghetti, morel mushrooms and rhubarb crisp.  And we finished it off with the best movie ever, The Man Who Knew Too Little.

Hey this was a great idea ! Looks like a ton of fun

Another great day at Wheaton Lab!  Slept in and skipped breakfast.  After last night's dinner, none of us needed much food.  Cleaned up some things and a few folks ran to town for the day.  Justin, Jeremy, Robbie and myself headed up to the lab for the afternoon.  We moved some long tamarack half logs for Jeremy's house and got a deer fence started for his garden.  Then we headed over to Robbie's plot and repaired some junkpole fence.  

Baylee spent the afternoon preparing a community meal for a BB and boy was it a meal.  Personal pizzas that were bigger than a dinner plate cooked in the rocket oven.  Then we watched a compilation video she put together and discussed community living.  How many of you knew that Paul lived in community before and was an advisor to fledgling communities in the past?  Finished well after dark.

Man, time flies when you're having fun.  Between work and play it's hard to get time to post.  Everyone's been working on various BBs, especially in the roundwood and woodland management arenas.  Today we go down to Freecycles to make bikes for a toolcare BB.

On Taco Tuesday Jocelyn made the prettiest cake I've seen in a very long time.

Nicole Alderman wrote:I can't wait to see more badges in people's signatures. I'm the only one with one right now, and I'm lonely! Who will be the first to join me in having earned a badge?

It looks like Mike Jay now has a Round Wood badge! I'm not alone anymore in having a badge. Congratulations, Mike!!!

Thursday 23, 2019


A tree was in the middle of the road. Baylee cutting a tree so we can drive on.


ant Jeremy and Robbie moving the tree


Great job 2019 PEP1 team!


Mike cutting down a tree with a bow saw


Baylee cutting down a tree with a bow saw


Fred and Robbie


Baylee’s tree is down


Robbie’s tree is down


Baylee and Robbie foraging for miner's lettuce


miner's lettuce

Here is Photos from Baylee's community meal for a BBs: Personal pizzas cooked in the rocket oven.  After we watched a compilation video she put together and discussed community living.















Great time with great people.