Garlics tucked up cozy in their new home!

The garlic I started in module trays late last Autumn had outgrown their modules, so with enough of the raised beds now built, I have now hastily moved them and planted them in properly. As the top of the veg cage is not on over the winter, I have just put some netting up over bamboo poles to deter any birds that might take a fancy to my juicy little garlic shoots....

More path ideas

As anyone who has been following our veg patch progress will know, I have spent a significant part of my new year keepfit efforts by emptying dumpy bags of top soil into our newly built raised beds which involves scooping the waterlogged soil out of the dumpy bag into my wheelbarrow, and pushing that around the outside of the veg cage to the door through slippery, ankle-deep mud and then tipping it into the beg and raking it out. I have got some great abs as a result which is a good thing but I have had to begrudgingly admit, that despite the expense, we really need to actually build a gravel path around the outside of our veg cage which my brave hubby has started over the last couple of days for me....

As you can see the mud is pretty impressive...

And the new path is looking mighy fine!!!

New Quailemna

Busy building a path earlier today and noticed a soothing background melody coming from what seemed like the quail hut. Looks like we might have managed (yet again) to end up with a boy quail who will no doubt start irritating the ladies...

They are quite a difficult animal to sex but none-the-less it'll be irritating if we have one, we'll keep our ears tuned and update later!

Another two down... many more to go!

Well last week before going on our mini-break we were out and about in the rain and mud and boy was there lots of both of those!

I managed to empty another two dumpy bags of topsoil woopee! Sadly another few beds to go...

 

And the paths around them...

Compost Crazy

The previous owners had left a manure pile in the corner of the garden, fast forward a couple of years and three greenhouses and a vegetable cage have sprung up around the big pile of poo which we now throw our chicken and general waste onto.

While it has started to rot down nicely readily providing compost for the beds the pile has also grown, not so much in height, but has started to creep across the garden devouring everything in its path.

One of the jobs that we've been meaning to get around to is creating some sort of compost bin to contain the mess. We'd have loved to make smart looking boxes out of pallets but the ones that we've managed to find are earmarked for another project. We didn't fancy spending our hard earned cash on more decent wood to simply stick a structure in a far flung corner where it would act as a worm hotel so we turned to a pile of bits left over from making the chicken pen and removing an old post and rail fence.

One afternoon later and I dug out the current lump, flattened the earth and got busy banging in some posts, add two spare pallets, chicken wire and a few nails and we've now got a double bin composter with removeable fronts for easy access. We've stuck our current rot back in and are now looking for some carpet to slam on top in order to help keep the pile warm and cosy.

  

Poultry sitings abroad

We had a little family weekend break in Paris last weekend. We were excited to show the kids the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, the Louvres etc but in true tradition with our muddy roots we had a water fowl siting in an unexpected (but beautiful) place.

We have plans, we have wonderful plans...

So to the back garden - we've spent the last year and a bit primarily sorting out the front of the house but recently our thoughts have turned to the massive headache of the other side.

Prior to the people that we bought the house from a couple spent nearly twenty years refurbishing the house and gardens. They were obviously gifted and passionate gardeners who spent years cultivating the ground, improving drainage and planting an array of beautiful and exotic plants that were well researched and carefully placed. their efforts were so spectacular that the garden was opened each year as part of the coveted National Garden Scheme and seems to have become a source of community pride. When we took on the house we inherited a photo album which documented their progress.

Unfortunately when they left the couple that took over did very little with the outside and the once beautiful beds have become horrifically overgrown (although the thick miles of brambles do lead to amazing blackberries).

It is here that we have a dilema. While we seem to have got to grips with the veg and fruit growing on the other side of the house we are the first to admit that we have no real interest or ability with gardening proper, we have no understanding of flowers, shrubs or perennials and very little enthusiasm for learning. The problem is that we do feel a massive sense of duty to restore the garden to at least a respectable level of its former (and well deserved) glory.

After much conversation we decided that the current number of beds (we are still finding them buried under piles of offensive growth) are simply too much for us to tackle between the veg, chickens, bees, furniture, kids and our business - plus we wouldn't be good at it anyway.

So we came up with the solution of removing many of the beds and restoring them to lawn but to make things a bit more interesting we'd add a smattering of trees - parkland style (and maybe a herd of deer?). In keeping with our 'if we do it we want something out of it' policy that seemes to have evolved elsewhere we further decided that they should be fruit trees.

So today an expedition up to Dingles Nursery near Welshpool resulted in eight new trees and a pile of fruit bushes (blueberry, blackcurrant and cranberry) to add to those we currently have elsewhere.

The trees are now in, mulched and placed where we hope they will flourish one or two are placed in areas a little wetter than is ideal but we've stuck apple and plum in such places as they apparently tend to do better than most in those conditions.

We now have a total of:

Two pear trees,

Four cherry trees

Seven Apple trees

Two plum trees

So in a year or two we'll hopefully need a new freezer to contain all the fruit crumbles!



Trials and tribulations of housing Quail

We first decided to keep some quail on a bit of a whim nearly three years ago. We'd actually popped down to a poultry supplier that we were using in order to pick up some new chickens when out of the corner of our eye we spotted some tiny little birdies that looked pretty cute...

We did a bit of research and was surpised at how small a space people seemed to provide for Quail, they might not need a zoo style aviary for all the swooping but to us half a square foot per bird just seemed cruel. Even some breeders were keeping twenty birds in a standard rabbit hutch. Given the sudden arrival of our little gang we jumped into action and using some old fence posts and left over chicken wire we created a decent sized area for the six little buddies - but couldn't decide what to house them in.

We thought about making a small shed but until we could arrange that we spotted an old cold frame abandoned in the garden by the previous owners, I know birds and glass aren't supposed to mix but being that they weren't going to fly into it at speed and given its location we didn't think that reflection would stress them out. Anyway with some sawdust on the floor and plenty of outdoor space inside their pen we decided to give it a go, it was essentially the style of a miniture greenhouse.

Over the next few days we tried several different options but the quails always seemed to stick to their little greenhouse and far from being stressed by it would seek it out - we were surprised that they seemed to spend so much more time inside than out, even in good weather.

Of course Quails are pretty low down in the food chain and they know it so like to keep themselves tucked away in foilage but they opted to stay inside so much that the large outer area of their pen was being mostly unused and they had effectively reduced their living space substantially - thinking time...

Partly in order to give them a bigger indoor space and partly because we wanted to relocate our chickens to a site where the quails lived we decided to make from scratch a large quail pen.  

We opted to make an enclosure that was fifty/fifty indoor and out, it is set on short legs with an outer area covered in sand with tons of branch cut offs (and even some plastic aquarium plants) for them to scurry in. They then had a large sawdust covered indoor area about double the size of the little greenhouse which has a completely removable back wall for easy cleaning.

We were a little concerned that by using the indoor area they would be out of natural light (and we really love the eggs) so we opted to make the dividing panel between out and in from a piece of thick glass - they were so un-phased by glass in their last house that we went ahead and never looked back - all problems solved.

From what we can tell they seem really happy in the new place, they spend much more time outdoors (the roof is wiggly plastic transparent enough to let in light but milky enough they probably feel a bit less on show) and continued to lay well. They are extremely healthy, clean and well protected.

While we initially loved the idea of having a huge outdoor, walk in pen the reality is that our quail didn't make use of the large outdoor space that we initially gave them and in comparison love the new digs. At around 40 square foot of purpose built space for a few quail they are in comparative luxury.

On your marks, Get set....

In our slow but on-going efforts to be ready for the new growing season, we put today's good weather to use to repair the veg-cage and finish building the raised beds. I say "we" but I should really say "my hubby" as I can't really say I contributed much to the effort. I did scrape some soil away and do a bit of fetch and carrying...

So now all I need is the earth fairy to transfer the contents of say 6 dumpy bags of toil soil into the beds and 2 dumpy bags of gravel to finish the paths in between... piece of cake (well it may take many slices of cake to fuel my efforts anyway!)

On the down-side, we have now decided that we should lay weed-liner and gravel the path leading from the driveway to the entrance of greenhouses and veg cage... man I am going to get FIT!!!

Chicken Eggs

As during last year our chickens are still laying well throughout the winter so far. In fairness we cheat a bit by giving them a light to increase their 'daytime' hours and help to improve their egg production over the darker months.

Some people like to do this and some don't - there are all sorts of arguements (we'll do a specific blog on this soon) however our chickens are very well, seem really happy and lay without issue so we are happy with the situation. We are averaging eight eggs a day even with poor light from seventeen chickens although earlier this week we got thirteen!

We've also got a couple of the younger chickens who now seem to be laying with the big boys (or girls). Usually the eggs start off tiny and then get bigger, frequently laying a double yolker around this time, one of which we picked up today.

Two for the price of one. For those who don't keep chickens this is the actual colour of egg yolk!

On the down side we've noticed that they have taken to laying in places other than the warm, tidy nesting boxes that we have provided for them. While this isn't a massive problem it can be frustrating when, as now, the ground is really muddy and you have to comando crawl through the undergrowth in order to obtain breakfast - at least it builds the appetite.

 

Earth moving

Today dawned cold and frosty - good news for my parsnips, brussels and garlic! And the sunny morning was also good news for my raised beds as it meant I got out there and emptied another dumpy bag of top soil into one of the raised beds that needs filling. That means a total of 2 dumpy bags down and only another 10 or so to go followed by gravel moving and then mulch moving...

Still until the weeds poke through my efforts do look worthwhile!...

Busy Bee day

Have had a busy day today.

I made a chocolate cake from the Green&Black's recipe book last night and got my daugher to decorate it today for a friend's Birthday and then we took it over to surprise him along with my Cat-Puzzle I made on the scroll saw.

When we got back and the kids were napping, I decided to get some exercise moving earth rather than going for a run. I emptied one of the dumpy bags of topsoil into one of the raised beds. Disappointingly it hasn't even half filled it. Half way through as a disguised rest break, I pruned the raspberries.

Finally I started a new scrollsaw project. I have actually got about 4 projects all needing doing but was good to get going on another one. This one is my daughter's nickname, each letter a puzzle piece - she learnt the letters of the alphabet so quickly with the alphabet puzzle I made her, I am hoping she will learn to write her name from this one!

Meet Ed

During the summer we started to get to grips with the garden, well, just scratching the surface really. We had made two important decisions about our strategy prior to this, firstly, we realised that we would never have the skill, time or passion to return it to its former glory as a National Garden Scheme open garden. Secondly we decided that while we want a nice space outside if we are going to spend lots of time and effort doing the garden we want it to give us back as much as we can (you porbably guessed this from our massive veg cage).

Part of our plan (to be revealed later) is to reduce the number of overgrown flower beds that are currently in the garden, along with this we wanted to have a large spruce removed to let in a bit more light - enter Barry the local tree man.

On a whim we asked him to retain about five foot of the trunk when he took the tree down with some whimsical idea about carving a throne style seat from it at some point in the future. Unfortunately and despite the trees large size once the trunk was exposed we realised it would be too narrow for that purpose.

Undaunted we rang a friend who is an excellent amateur carver and told him we wanted an Ed.

He used a small electric chainsaw to remove some of the larger bits of waste wood from our proposed design which had been rather professionally drafted onto the trunk with a lot of wonky marker pen lines.

Removing the waste

 Dave then showed me how to rough out the shapes with a chisel and for the most part left me to tap away for days on end.

Starting to take shape

With an hour or so here and there over a week or two I got to the point where the shaping was done. We dumped some oil on it to protect the wood and by rights should have spent time sanding out all the tool marks - that hasn't happened yet and I actually quite like the rough finish so maybe it never will. The wood has really darkened up now but the features are still easily visible - here's a photo of it whilst it was light coloured just after the shaping.

Ed.

The Monkey House

When we moved here our daughter was only 6 months and our eldest was 6 years old so the first summer we used to put her in a playpen outside and let her older brother roam around freely but the following summer we felt it was time to think of a playspace for her that would be safe and prevent her from wandering off. We considered building her a playhouse but the timber was more expensive than buying the house already built off the internet.

So Ebay it was again and we got a lovely playhouse shortly followed by special offer set of swings. We then bought the picket fencing which was a nightmare to paint and hey presto she had a play area with her own raised bed, first class view of the chickens and overlooked by the Man Cave (woodwork shop) so Daddy can keep an eye on her! Daddy even build her some little walkways out of off-cuts.

One small oversight though... in creating her play space, we actually moved the chickens off that site into a big tree area. All that chicken-poo-rich soil made the grass seed we threw down spring up and even now 12 months later, the grass grows at twice the rate of the rest of the garden!

Getting their hands dirty

Anyone who knows me has probably heard me at some point moaning about  being tired, stressed, no money etc but to be frank all those things are worth it when I get to see my children growing up and share things like gardening with them. My daughter was 2 in spring and it has been great involving her likewise, our 8 year old has been out and about in the garden too. 

Amusingly our daughter got given 4 sets of toddler gardening tools from various friends and family for her birthday. I also saw a wheelbarrow very cheap in the supermarket which was the perfect size for her. So armed with her wellies, watering cans, wheelbarrow and assorted gardening tools (she has more than me) she has been out and about in the garden digging with me. In her play area we have put a raised bed and she could be found most summer days digging in her bed and watering plants!

Both children were heavily involved in our harvest - helping to point out, pull up and then pile up the produce in our wheelbarrows, and then helping to wash off the dirt and put them in piles as we prepared to sort them. As the runner bean crop and the soft fruit came in, my daughter and I also made daily trips around the garden picking (and eating) as we went. One of her favourite phrases in the autumn was "One for me, one for Mummy, and save one for Daddy" and "Daddy likes blackberries!"

As for our youngest - well he may not be old enough to get very involved yet but he is a good measuring stick for some of our root veg...

My egg is bigger than your egg

Check this out! Some of our young point of lay chickens have just started laying. They start out quail-sized and gradually increase in size to a normal chicken egg. These tiny eggs are usually just egg white though so let's fast forward a month or two to some proper eggs! There is often a fun stage as well when those eggs reach full-size where we often get double-yokers!

An up-and-coming chicken egg next to a quail egg

 Our chicken eggs with a double yolker nestled amongts them

A spicey jewellery box

One of the things that I always assumed I'd make once the whole woodwork thing got up and running was a present for my wife. For over a year I've played with the notion of making a jewellery box for her but wanted to avoid the typical small box with hinge lid design. I fancied having a go at something a bit more elaborate and larger to sit on our wide bedroom windowsill.

I put of making one for Christmas 2012 because I couldn't decide what to make deciding I'd organise something for her birthday in May. Come May and I still hadn't worked it out so put things off until the following Christmas.

At some point in the autumn while the thought reared its ugly head again I saw on YouTube a thing called a Pennsylvania Spice Cabinet, as expected they are a traditional (often very large) cabinet that people could lock up their expensive spices in however these days cabinet makers tend to produce smaller versions that are mainly used as jewellery boxes. They usually follow a standard concept and it is traditional for them to have some hidden drawers inside - perfect.

I got my hands on some walnut (not cheap!) boards and started to prep the wood. Unfortunately whilst building a spate of christmas presents for family in amongst work during the run up to Christmas I didn't have as much time as I'd hoped. After a long five days (and one night) I'd got it sorted.

I'm reasonably pleased with the outcome, I got to practise many (very many) hand cut dovetails which are improving and learnt how to fit a lock. As expected at this early stage I made a few errors, one in particular with a couple of the drawers which is irritating but the dodgy bits are hidden from view and they work well so not much harm done.

My wife loved it and even though she got frustrated trying to find the three secret compartments I got her to look for she was pacified by the few bits of jewellery that some hunky, impressive man had left there. All good in the end.

  

I've had a present...

So I got home from work today and found that the builders merchants had left me a present. Strictly speaking the wooden planking, two tons of gravel and two tons of earth are for making the remaining raised beds in the veg patch  - which is really supposed to be my wife's domain however I remember how that arguement faired last time (my back still aches) so I'll probably just get a spade.

It is going to be a long weekend for one man and his wheelbarrow....

Uses for Eco-board

When we moved in we dismantled our 6x4 chicken shed (which coped well with the move) I decided to upgrade their homemade nesting boxes. I'd used plywood previously with various wood scraps but it was hard to keep clean and I wanted something better.

A trip to the builders merchants revealed Eco-Board, essentially a dark (but spattered with multicolour flecks) sheet of plastic that is sold like plywood but is actually made from recycled bottles.

It can be cut with a saw and screwed/glued as you would with ply but it is wipe clean. Perfect - its going well.

A lady in the Man Cave

For Christmas this year my generous husband gave to me a scroll saw which he lets me use in his Man Cave! I might have to introduce a female influence sometime, you know, a few candles, some pillows etc! But for now I simply tidy everything away to sensible places when I go in there.

I had been talking about making advent calendars and puzzles for my puzzle-mad daughter so I was really excited when I unwrapped the box for my scroll saw (saw already installed in Man Cave) and two project books from Ebay. Here is my first project which I am currently oiling up with Tung Oil (or actually maybe Russ has had to do some of that) and will be giving to a friend as a birthday present tomorrow!

Cat puzzle

Poultry Food Shelter

The benefit to having lots of shed building is the stuff you can make with the offcuts.

We had been storing the chicken and quail food in a shed by way of plastic boxes but we noticed a determined little mouse had managed to nibble through and end up in a rodent paradise of 20kg sacks of sunflower seeds. We were also getting fed up with it taking up space and having to unlock and relock the shed every feeding time.

So in an hour or so we managed to shove some wood together with a bit of old corregated iron we spotted in the shrubbery - jetisoned by the last owners?

Add some solid metal bins and we know have a poutlry feeding station with space for unused feeders.

The Bee Shed

As is our nature - we like to have certain things dedicated to specific purposes so when we started the bee keeping the truly terrible realisation that we needed another shed for the bee-keeping equipment dawned up on us. Bearing in mind we seem to have spent half our lives since moving here knocking down and re-building sheds! So when a friend offered us an unwanted shed from his garden, who were we to turn up the offer?

We drove over, dismantled it and brought it home. We had decided where we wanted to put it next to a path against a fence but were disappointed to find it would not fit. Russ being practially-minded as he is though, he simply grabbed his circular saw and literally cut it in half length-wise. Still plenty of room for his supers, suits and other bee paraphanalia and now fit in nicely along the path!

 

The now-halved Bee Shed

Kitchen Island

The problem with declaring that you will become a cabinet maker and furnish your own home with (dubious) quality furniture is that your wife then starts to list the things she wants, when she'll give you to have them done by.

While I'm contemplating the artistic creation of a chippendale style bedroom chair, or gothic writing desk she wants a wardrobe, a bathroom cabinet and a kitchen island. When we viewed this house the current owners had already put in a modern kitchen with a large, inviting space in the middle - they'd filled it with a glass table but we wanted extra storage and a good sized work surface. 

So I made the cabinet and got it on the wall then focused on the island. We wanted a double cupboard, shelving and some veg storage baskets all incorporated in a rustic style. I chose to build the carcass out of builders yard pine as it would be stained and varnished but I wanted a decent hardwood top. Shropshire Hardwood who I use quite a bit suggested some sycamore and with a bit of planer use I bought home sufficient to make a surface about 1m x 1.8m

After a bit of edge planing, glueing and sanding it looked really good - I'd kept the wainey edge down the long sides for a bit of character and after some oiling which really bought out the golden colour it was done.

In finishing the base I tried a technique that I read online to age the pine a bit. I loved the effect it gave using:

- A couple of strong black tea washes to add tanins to the wood

- Once the tea washes had dried I painted on some vinegar that had had some wire wool laying in it for 24 hours, I decided to do two coats.

Nothing happened at first but after a couple of hours the reaction had kicked in causing the pine to grey up and look less new - even after colouring the wood the effect adds something to the look.

The final bit of character consisted of adding about thirty old fashioned black door studs to hid my dowel filled screw holes and imply some age, they look good (got them from Ebay as always!)

It's surprising just how large the thing is but it fits the space nicely and the huge double door cupboard has really helped us to organise our kitchen, no more packed storage filled with stuff that you can't see.



Checking the layout of the top before glueing up - note the clean and tidy workspace



Shelving at this end, big double doors

I made a knife holder and oil holder sunk into the top, they can be removed for cleaning and the knife holder is made from hundreds (about 1100) kebab sticks on end in a box - this means any type and size of knife can be pushed in as needed

The nicer end, baskets were purchased to fit the shelving



Some in between projects...

A few little projects that I've been fitting in between thinking about the big stuff.

Left over Cedar from the dining room set, whittled pegs glued onto a board - outside our front door

A necessary monstrosity, this covers a drop to the basement window, ugly but important with roaming toddlers!

A little cupboard so the locals can still pick up eggs when we are out and about.

Bathroom cabinet

Wine bottle rack - no sanding or finish due to rustic asthetic and laziness





These salt and pepper mills were and early project kit made for a christmas present to Karen. These have to be the biggest nightmare I've undertaken so far. The kit is really designed for a full lathe set up which I didn't have so I hand drilled the large central  (wonky) holes with much sweat and swearing. Then due to the poorly worded (in my opinion) instructions the mortice joint didn't fit together as intended - hence the over long, exposed tenon. To cap it all I'd under estimated the weight and size of the top so they fell over whenever an earwig sneezed in the garden. I recently made her a holder to help with stability and vowed never to attempt these again.

A year later and my mum wanted a set so I got another kit and prepared for nightmare number two :-( fortunately the new pillar drill, and the previous experience of observing the instructions helped a lot and not only was it considerably easier (though still unpleasant) but they worked out much better too. 

How it all started...

Having moved in and decided I was going to build a lot of our furniture I needed a starting project. Given my zero knowledge, tools, or skill some might suggest that kicking my woodworking career off with a ten seater dining room set was a bit optimistic, they were right but I had a go anyway.

For a week or two our dining room became my shed (I didn't have anywhere else to work at that point) and I got my hands on some Cedar - it sounded more exotic than pine - and off I went.

Sadly I was only able to get my hands on some fairly wet Cedar, it certainly wasn't the fully kiln/air dried wood that I aim for know and even back then with no clue what I was doing I realised it would probably move quite a bit as it dired and aged.

Still, our house is a fairly rustic, full of wood character home so I decided to plough on anyway and if the table cracks a bit or the joins eek apart then it would kind of suit the room anyway.

I decided to use dowel joints on the table top because they were the only ones I'd heard of and mortice tenon joints (or my hand chisled, looks like the wood has been chewed version) for the chairs and table framework.

This photo has the dubious privilege of displaying the first thing I built and every tool I owned at that point, I'd literally just been out to buy the clamps needed for the glue up.

I was really pleased with the finished version, everything was reasonably square despite making the benches (I'd just read about lap joints via google) and chairs mostly on our uneven gravel driveway.

This photo makes it look particularly good prior to colouring and finishing. We stuck some medium oak dye on it and several layers of danish oil - it is really heavy, Karen and I nearly broke ourselves lifting the table top in place.

Fast forward nearly two years and I'm dissappointed with the massive movement that the wood has produced - I know know about breadboard ends and other techniques to cope with this but with the amount of moisture in the wood I think even these methods would have struggled. It is still going strong and actually looks pretty good in the room - very rustic but when (when?!) I get time and all the other projects are done I'll be tempted to relegate this to a garden set and build something with (hopefully) a bit more skill.

Here is the finished effort, you can just see the joins have widened - the chairs are still unmoved however and having been given a set of second hand luxurious curtains for this room we decided to chop up the spare material and got someone local to sew them into matching cushions for the benches and chairs. 

 



Hallway Table

Having spent about a year putting together a decent little workshop the time had come (and been long overdue) to actually start making stuff.

One of the many, many projects I had always intended to do was creat some sort of hallway table to fit a fairly large gap that resides outside our living room. I like the idea of learning to build furniture with a bit of traditional understanding, I'm nowhere near good enough with handtools (yet?) to mill wood down and knock together cabinets like Thomas Sheraton but I want to try to understand how wood moves and behaves so that I can choose the right joins in the right places.

So I looked around for some oak and picked up a load of offcuts from a local timber flooring guy, he was good enough to plane some of the wood down for me as this was before I got my hands on a mechanical planer.

The biggest challenge for me was the turning, by know my efforts on a lathe were reasonable for basic items and I reckoned that making a table leg wasn't beyond me, however making four identical table legs would be tricky...

Thank God for the Axminster lathe that I'd upgraded to, with a bit of effort and going slow I managed to produce four relatively accurate legs - I have the habbit of not planning in detail so after location the main features I let my mind wander as I make the first then have to concentrate of getting three others the same.

All in all I found the table enjoyable to make, it was the first thing I'd produced that felt like 'proper' woodwork - no nails or knotty, painted wood and enough hand tooling to make me feel like achieved something. The half-blind dovetail joints on the drawer fronts worked out about fifty/fifty for quality but after staining and varnishing they don't look too bad for a first effort.

Here it is in situ.