The first in our series of sustainability workshops took place yesterday, and despite strong thunderstorms that caused us to start a little late it was a great success. We built a raised lasagna garden bed on a section of ground where the limited amount of soil was compacted, and talked about a few related skills to help the plants grow. This morning I’ll plant potatoes in the new bed and make a second one next to it. The people who came brought their kids, and they all had a great time.

This week I’ll be taking apart the wooden platform our wall tent has lived on for several years and we’ll be recycling the wood into a small cook shack. I’ve thought about upgrading our outdoor kitchen for a while now, and this week it will become a reality. I picked up a wood cookstove and want to use it as our main camp kitchen appliance, but have wanted a roof over it to keep it dry and avoid rust. We’ll still have the propane stove, but this will be a step toward minimizing our propane use and moving toward using wood for all our cooking.