27

Another year of my life has flown by but I have to say I'm pretty happy with where I am.

At the weekend we had a bit of a birthday party and "shed warming" with about 25 friends turning up with much drinking and merriment, all was good. The home brew on the other hand wasn't, it tasted like Doctor Pepper and that was when we could get a bottle open without the foam hitting the ceiling (which it did quite a few times, along with the chairs, table, floor and anyone stood within a miles radius!).

To make matters worse, tonight we sat down for tea (and for the first time in ages we had it in the sitting room instead of round the table in the dinning room, luckily) when we heard a massive bang and glass go everywhere. One bottle had exploded, well I say exploded but I don't think that does it justice as there was no bottle left! I quickly moved the rest outside and opened them, each one producing a line of foam about 10ft long and then fizzing till empty.

Oh well made dinner quite entertaining!

On a happier note my peas have come up!

Busy times in the garden

It really felt like spring had come this weekend and I managed to get loads done.

I cleaned out the greenhouse and washed it down ready for the new season as well as replacing the plastic cover on my mini greenhouse that's on the patio.

I've also managed to plant peas (in the ground and in guttering for when I get my allotment) these are both sugar peas and normal, I also sowed some more broad beans into pot and a complete raised bed of red onion sets. As well as this I divided my rhubarb, planted a plum tree, made a present for my mum for mothers day, nearly finished off making the set of garden shelves, started to clear out the old garden shed, impregnated some more straw to make mushrooms, put my seed potatoes to chit, dug up, cooked and ate the last of my leeks and parsnips. So I'm feeling pretty productive at the moment!

Shave Horse

I've always had a keen interest in green woodwork (this is where wood is worked freshly cut or "green") and in the past I have done courses on it making a stool from ash and elm. so I've was pleased that my brother has started doing it without me even suggesting it. He's been making lots of spoons along with axe and hammer handles for the last few months so for his birthday I decided to make him something that should help him loads - a shave horse.

(Picture of the bench before the clamp is added)

This is a work bench that was used by bodgers (chair makers that lived in the woods), where you sit on the bench and then push your feet onto an arm that clamps the pieces of work at the top of the bench. The idea is simple but it enables you to clamp work really quickly and using a draw knife you can shape any item you want from a comfortable position.

(Turning the parts of the clamp on the lathe)

Like making any present it took longer than I though it would, some pieces being turned on the lathe and the rest being cut by hand but I was quite pleased with how it turned out and Dave's reaction was great when I gave it to him. He even asked if I'd brought it (not sure where you could buy one from if you wanted to!)!

(Picture of the finished shave horse)

I've told him that he's got to make me a new handle for my mattock as one of his first projects, as with a new prosepects of a new allotment coming up in April I might be using it quite a bit and the current handle is part plastic and cracked, much better to have a nice ash handle made by my brother I think.

Beer and Woodwork

I've spent the weekend in my shed making two things, one I can't say as its a present and the other is a set of shelves/cupboard for my garden shed. This is as well as putting up a shelf in one corner of my workshop for my radio, as everytime I walk past it the damn thing looses reception. The set of shelves are looking quite good but I now need to make the cupboard bit and oil all the wood.

I've also started to make 5 gallons of home brew beer, it shouldn't take long to brew and it'll be ready for our party at the end of March. The total cost is about £7 with the sugar so much cheper than store brought stuff- I just hope its drinkable!

Great week

This week has been great. I had a good couple of days plasterboarding with my brother, trying to get the little utility room ready to be skimmed. Then I worked for Dave on Wednesday in a little woodland in the middle of Ludlow. I grew up in Ludlow and I never knew that there was such a large wood and about 7 fields right near the middle, it was amazing! It was a hard days work but in the end we felled about 8 trees (having to use ropes to get them to fall the right way) and stacked the logs and the brash.

Thursday and Friday were spent (with my brother again) training and taking our trailer test. This is so we can tow a trailer on the road (if you took your driving test after 1997, a bit unfair that grandfather rights never seem to affect me!). We both passed but it was pretty nerve racking as its the same examination as if you did your HGV licence, lots of reversing around cones and trying not to drive with one hand around Gloucester.

My brother is starting a new job tomorrow, so that's going to feel pretty weird as I've been working with him so much over the past couple of months and he's going to be lodging away during the week. It sounds like a good experience for him as it combines tree work and building.

The weekend was lovely and warm so I did a little gardening, planting some broad beans (more than normal as I'll have more space when I get my allotment, the dibber in the picture I made myself at wood turning classes but I'll talk about that on another post) and pruning my apple trees and fruit bushes. I was quite pleased as I seem to have two new gooseberry bushes that rooted themselves from branches of my main bush, so they'll be moving to the new allotment soon!

I also finished the shed, as well as making and hanging the door to make it nice and secure. I'm determined to keep it clean and well organised, so I made a tool rack for my main gardening tools today, every tool now had a space and I'll make sure they go back there! I also plan to make some shelves and a cupboard to store all my nets, cleaners, chicken medicines, glue bands, string, saws, knives, fertilisers, etc.

Anyone else got any storage ideas?

Allotment news!

In the past couple of weeks since my last post I’ve been quite busy.Work wise I’m still working for mum and dad on the farm but I’m starting to look a bit more for other work (although I’m still not sure what I want to do!). I’ve been working with my little brother loads so that’s been really good and he even came round the weekend before last so we had a mess around in the garden trying to light a fire by friction. I think if it hadn’t got so dark so quickly then we would have succeeded but unfortunately we didn’t and we’ll have to try harder next time!

I’ve also started work on the baby shed for all my gardening tools, as the one we inherited when we moved here leaks like a sieve and is a complete mess. I’ve built the shed flat-pack-able so if we move house I can bring it along, but it weighs a stupid amount because I can never build anything small enough!

I managed to get it erected this weekend and most of the roof on so I’m feeling quite good about it, although I’ve run out of cedar and I’ve still haven’t got a door to put on it!

The exciting news is that I’ve been told I can have an allotment! Its about 5 miles away but it will mean I can grow loads more veg and I’m really looking forward to the social side of it. It’s not until April as at the moment it’s just a green field and this is a new site. I'm not sure what to grow but its time to have another look in the seed catalogues, I feel like a kid at christmas!

Dave’s Climbing hole

This is a bit random.
I’ve been putting the floor in the barn/wood shed joined to the house at the farm this week with my brother. The only trouble was when the floor goes in it ruins Dave’s climbing gym where he trains most nights.

Mum and Dad are both big softies so when I suggested we make him an area in the floor to carry on training they agreed, but it did involve quite a bit of extra work.

Once we'd framed out the loft hatch and the cimbing hole with the carcassing timber we completed putting all the floor boards down (this made it easier to complete the frame around the hole as well).
We lined the hole with fair faced WBP ply so it looked better than bare timber. The hole is over twice the depth of the floor and allows plenty of space for his head.

Dave then added his climbing holds and started to show off.

My spoilt little brother, playing in his climbing hole. Maybe I should copyright it!

Weird week

Last week was an odd one. Couldn’t go to the farm for a couple of days because of the snow, I had a rubbish weekend and some really bad news, but I wont go into that here. The days I managed to go to work was the best bit for a change, I’ve got to admit its quite fun working for dad – the drive isn’t though (its not in a tractor!) I managed to do lots of little jobs, like putting tin up the side of some of the barns and sealing them up, also feeding the sheep (which aren’t ours) hay as they can’t get to the grass. On Firday I went to a farm sale to have a look and to try and take some photos for an article I’ve written, but it was far too wet and rainy. decided that my boots aren't waterproof as my socks looked like they had just come out of the wash.
Today has been good fun as I’ve been working with my brother putting a floor above the wood shed, I really enjoy working with him and I love getting my hands dirty again – the more time I spend away from management the more I keep thinking I can’t go back to it!I do wish some divine inspiration would hit me on what job I should do next!
Any ideas?