Merry Christmas!

It seems to come faster every year, but a big merry Christmas from the Alviti household. 

We've enjoyed a very chilled out few days, I'm not great at stopping, but have managed to slow right down. 

Christmas day was spent with just the five of us, and boxing day was with my wife's family, we still have my family to go and a evening at the theatre to see the BFG.

I've been given lots of nice presents, a new mic for my camera (need to get back int he habit of more videos), lots of lovely books, nice dairy free chocolates, some hobby stuff (warhammer modelling stuff and a nice light for painting) and some nice clothes (and socks). 

Hope you've had a great break as well. I will try to blog a bit more in the new year, this year has been extra busy and I got put off social media a bit earlier in the year and left one platform completely, but I still think it's important to maintain my blog and document what we get up to for us all to look back on one day. 

So Merry Christmas one and all! I will do my usual yearly round up in the next few days plus a few goals for the new year. 

Now I Can Feel Christmassy

Having created a business that runs right up to Christmas to provide gifts for people to buy, certainly makes me see the Christmas build up in a different light - for me it's become a very busy time of year. I'm lucky that I can still swing things around and make it all fit around the children, but I have put in some late nights lately! 

She's not too big to lift up to put the angel on top of the tree!

 But the rush is over, no orders at all this weekend, which I'm thankful for (really, although I'd be happy to sell a bit more...) as I hate the idea of someone not getting something they've ordered by the time they want it. Everything gets delivered a bit slower now as they must have mountains of parcels to deal with.

I'm very thankful I can work from home (well workshop) like I do, and be around my children so much. It enables me to mess about here and still do lots of other things I enjoy. Having travelled for work for so many years, walking across to my workshop is still something I pinch myself about. I'm never going to be rich doing what I do, but I do enjoy it, and for now it's ideal for family life, maybe I should push to earn more money, but balance is always tricky to find.

I'm going to make a bit more stock now, to top back up, and have a few more products I'd like to design and make, as well as some magazine articles due in fairly soon. But I'm also going to take a bit of time for myself and try to do a few other things I enjoy. In the new year I really want to lay some hedges, and sort out chicken pens, and get the garden back in order! There's always a list as long as my arm! 

An Afternoon At My Wife's School

So it really doesn't feel like I've stepped out the workshop much over the last month. I have been having a good month of sales, and I have been putting in the hours to try and keep up! I'm looking forward to that say when the last posting date is done. 

Yesterday I did take a bit of time though. My wife was doing DT with the children in key stage 2 and asked if I would come and give her a hand.

I aways find something like this fascinating, how some children will listen and just get what they're being told, how others need to be shown and how some won't get it this time! I managed to have about 4 sawing at a time, and it was running pretty safely. 

 I did think her school needed a bit of an upgrade with some of the equipment, I'm going to make them some new bench hooks, as these were just too small and not up to the job. The grove in the top was to put the wood in, but it meant that you couldn't hold it very well. I think it was trying to be too clever, and I encourage the children to cut up the side of it. the bottom of the hook was also really small so it slipped off the table. 

An interesting afternoon and always interesting to see your partner at work (although I doubt my wife would say that as I work in a workshop 20 yards from the house!). 

A Patch On My Work Trousers

 Make do and mend. Something I try and live by, there's plenty of appliances and household items here that I've fixed, alerted and maintained.

I was really pleased the other day when our eldest said she was bored and wanted some crafting to do. I suggested she mend my work trousers and she jumped at the chance. Later I walked in and saw her sat stitching it by hand, listening to an audio book. 

The trousers were near new, but I caught them on a fence, be such a shame if they were to be wasted over that instead of repaired. 

She handed them back to me, she was worried it wouldn't last, but I was so happy she gave it a go, and so far so good. 

She's been going to a sewing club at school and looks forward to it all week, coming back really fired up about it. 

I often say that crafts and producing something (anything) is one of the keys to being happy, and she embodies that, always making (all three are to be honest). 

Sweet Chestnut Laptop Stand

 As you know, I'm always making something! This was a project for a magazine article (in Woodworking Crafts soon), but also was something we needed. 

I managed to find a nice piece of sweet chestnut for the project and thought it would work well for what was in my head for a simple stand for my wife. 

I'm quite pleased with it. Looks modern and fits in nice with other stuff we have in the house. 

Wheelbarrow Soil/Compost Sieve

So another product added to my range. This one is another that has come about due to wanting the product myself. 

Store bought compost seems to be getting worse and worse, so I'm either making more of my own or I'm having to sieve out big chunks of wood from the compost I buy. This sieve goes on the wheelbarrow and lets me sieve it easily. 

Wooden Compost Sieves

I'm always looking for new products to make and sell. One that people have asked about is sieves. I wanted to make some that were quite chunky and would last a long time. 

I made them so the bottom is completely rebated in and held with a bead. This should make them strong and durable. 

Carved Wooden Axe Cover Video

 I've put together a short video on the axe cover I made. 

It's tricky to get the shots when you're carving on your own, so this is a mixture of pictures and videos, with instructions on what I did to get the results I got. Hopefully easy to follow. It will be in woodcarving magazine soon with step by step instructions as well. 

Thanks for watching! 

They Keep Getting Older

 So Middlest turned 12 last month.

When you have children you always get a lot of people who love to tell you how hard it is, how it's going to get harder. Lots of "Oh, you wait."

Got a two year old, "You wait until they're three - woohee!" they'll tell you with glee. Got a five year old "Ohh Seven is harder." 

I sometimes wonder if these people enjoy moaning about their children more than having them. 

Each step has it's challenges, but each step is completely amazing and brings different joy. I love the people my children are turning into, I love spending time with them, and I know I'm very lucky with the sheer amount of time I get to spend with them. 

You can't help missing some bits, when they're small and scrunch up on you, or when they run into your arms after a day at school, but also the later bit are just as good. When you sit round the table and they tell you something funny that happened, or when they're together and they all get the giggles and won't stop laughing at something that's just with the three of them. 

We now have a nine, twelve and thirteen year old in the house. The last decade or so has gone in a blur, but what amazing people to share it with. 

Middle daughter is smart, clever, cuttingly funny, good at everything she turns her hand to. Life is better for having her in it, and I know those that know her think the same. 

Chicken Coop from 20 Years Ago & Old Photos of Me!

 I was looking through some old photos the other day. Before I left mum and dads I did a lot of jobs around the place and built quite a few things. One was this chicken coop as I was always keeping chickens. It wasn't the first one I built, as that was for my GSCE woodwork project when I was 15 (well it was a duck house but near enough). 

I'd been hatching chickens out in an incubator mum and I bought, we got some different eggs and moved away from our hybrid layers for a little while. This coop would for the basic shape of my next few ones before I moved away from building them with wood cladding. 

Invincible Pear

It's called invincible as it flowers twice, meaning if the first gets hit by frost you'll get a later crop. Apparently sometimes you'll get two crops on the tree ripening at different times. 

These are my first pears from our tree here (I think I have three trees in fact) . Quite sharp at first bite, but enjoyable to eat. Lovely to have at the very tail end of October fresh from the tree. 

 The pears were good this year, but I'm really looking forward to when my dwarf trees start to produce. This was the first one really from what I planted a few years ago. That said I did have some tiny Asian pears, but they were too small to eat, I should have thinned the fruit! 

Other than Conference, what's your favourite pear?

Another Simple Wooden Axe cover

Talking with John in the comments on my last post, I thought I'd share another wooden axe cover on the course from a young carpenter, Ethan, who had this one in oak. 

 Very simple design that makes the axe easy to recognise in an instant, protects the edge and has a nice decorative element to it. 

 I think in the days before phones, TV and social media doing something like this around the fire would have been a nice way to spend an evening while chatting with friends. 

Do you prefer a more simple design like this? Or more complicated one like the previous post? I may have to make another one yet. 

Carved Wooden Axe Cover

So back on the Medieval Carpentry course in September, one of the carpenters, Gavin, had an axe with a wooden carved cover. I saw it and thought this was such a great idea. 

I asked him if it was okay to copy it and make one for a magazine article. He was fine with it. 

It Was tomato Leaves!

I think tomato leaves are the herb I never knew I was growing! 

 Can't wait to experiment more with them next year!

An Incredible Pesto - What's the Secret Ingredient?

I made an incredible pest the other night. It used an ingredient I've grown for 20 years and have never used. 

 What do you think I used?

A Perfect Autumn Day

 I love every season of the year.

They all give something to me. Autumn rolling it removes a bit of guilt in the evenings when I think I should be doing something outside. And a Sunday like this was just perfect for spending a day together at home. 

This morning we got some apples in the dehydrator, then picked our first proper harvest of quinces in the 14 years of having a tree here. We wanted to see what we could do with them, so cooked them three ways. I'm looking forward to trying the results. 

Mum turned 70!

 Milestones in life keep passing by. This last week my mum turned 70. 

She's always been there for me over the years, to chat to and advise me, I don't see her as this old as she's just so sharp and active. It's almost a shock to see my parents turn this age! I think many of my loves in life come from her, my love of crafts especially, my love of growing things and probably my love of cooking and food.

I can remember, clear as day, mum and dad's 40th, it honestly doesn't seem that long ago. I always think looking back and knowing my parents at the age I am now is really eye opening, I often think about what the children will remember of me, and all the silly things I do. 

And I often think about the brilliant upbringing I had from mum and dad, and I think this weekend, surround by my siblings and their families, it's lovely how well we all get on, and that's a testament to our parents. 

Hopefully many more years yet from my parents, I'm so lucky to have them in my life. 

Medieval Carpentry Workshop - Centring The Past 2025

 A bit of a photo dump from the weekend before last. There's some great ones in here!

The weekend was run by Adam Lynch and Pete Eyles, recreating some formwork for medieval vaults using traditional techniques. I'm really kicking myself that I didn't go for the whole week. 

Adam has been a good friend over the years and we've frequently spoken to each other about our trade and he's even lent me a few tools when I've been experimenting with hewing and cleaving timbers. 

Centring The Past 2025

This is just a short post, as I will do a proper one later in the week. But I wanted to share with you that I have just had an incredible weekend.

I was lucky enough to be invited along to an event run by Whitacre Bespoke Carpentry, which was called Centring The Past, reconstructing formwork for medieval vaults. The idea was that I was going to come along and do some carving tuition, focusing on carving on a beam that had been hewn. I ended up going for the whole weekend and I wish I could have gone all week, it was incredible. 

 I can't wait to share with you the two days we spent there. I'm so fired up about my trade right now! 

Overstood Hedge 8 months on

Below is a video looking at the hedge I laid back in the winter. It's come on well. not all the new trees have survived the dry summer, but most of them have - pretty good as I didn't water them! 

 This video shows why I cut the elder back int he hedge really well, I'm tempted to cut it back again this winter as it's already 6ft high and I've like the new trees to get established before it shades them out completely. 

Cakes For The Scout Jumble Sale

So last weekend was our annual Scout jumble sale. It gets a little mad (although less mad than it has been in previous years as the numbers got too much), but it does all our fundraising for the year. 

My girls are young bakers who are really getting the hours in these days. I feel their practicing is really important and I hope this skill will last them a lifetime. 

They both baked for the sale. And helped all afternoon in the tea and cake area, apparently they were super helpful which is always nice to hear. 

 I was really pleased with their efforts, but only got to try one cake! 

They keep asking me for new cakes to try and bake - any suggestions?

Canning Damsons

There's so much fruit about at the moment it seems a crime to not use as much as possible. I wanted to can some more produce as I haven't done any in a while. 

 The damson trees are heavy with their fruit this year, and none heavier than the Merryweather. I know I've talked about this amazing fruit on the blog before, but it really is great, the fact that it's free-stone (the stone doesn't cling to the fruit) makes it incredible for all sorts of preserving. 

I had three talks this week, so by Friday I was feeling a bit wiped out. I decided to do a bit of a kitchen day, with a nice tea planned for my family (I had a talk to go give), bake some sourdough and can some produce. 

I still need to do more though as the 9 jars haven't made a dent, and they haven't filled up the pantry enough! 

What's your favourite fruit to can (or bottle)?

New Chickens

To make sure we get plenty of eggs we have to update the chickens every now and again. 

Our breeding flock is for meat really, so when we want some more egg layers we tend to get hybrids. Some we buy in, sometimes we get given ex commercial birds. This lot we had to buy! 

Dehydrating Apples & Damsons

There's so much fruit this year I need to make a start on getting stuff stored away for the winter. 

A great use of early apples (which won't store) is to dehydrate them. 

Custom Wooden Potting Tray With Metal Bottom

A few weeks back I had an email from a potential customer who wanted to have a potting tray made with a metal bottom. I talk to them about how I could change my design slightly to make it fit. 

They also wanted it stained darker. This isn't normally something I offer as storage space is my main issue with these trays and I like to keep a good stock of them and get them shipped next day. They offered to pay for stain so I agreed. 

I think the finished tray looks pretty good, it's 1mm galvanised steel on the bottom (supported by 9mm plywood) and treated with Osmo oil. It was a pair of trays but I had the first already packaged when I saw the message from the customer about a picture! 

 Hopefully I'll get a picture of them in their new home as well!

Carved Dice Tower

Not homestead related, but I did make this as a magazine article which helps me earn my living from home. 

I love playing games, and for a long time have loved things like blood bowl and necromunda, which involve a lot of dice. As my son has got older, he's got into these games as well. A dice tower seemed like the perfect project to make. 

 

I filmed the whole process. It's a dead easy project to make, and an easy one to carve, only using 2 carving chisels really, make sure they're sharp though!

What games do you like to play?

Beehive Inspection At Hartpury College

 Last week we were really fortunate to be invited to have a look at the apiary at Hartpury college. 

It was part of the children's beekeeping course I'd expressing interest in for the girls, but the first time we'd been able to come along, far too late in the season now, but it makes for a good start for the course next year. 

Potting Bench Fitted For A Customer

 Today I delivered a potting bench I made for a magazine article a while back. Originally it had been for me, but I'd nver got round to building anywhere to keep it, so instead I thought it was best to sell it rather than keep moving it around in storage.

It went to a customer with a beautiful garden in a beautiful shed.

Back From A Week In Holland! Eurocamp with A Twist!

 We'e got back form our weeks holiday. A bit different this year - no Wales for us for our full holiday (although we did have a weekend there a few weeks back), this time we went to the Netherlands. 

This meant getting the ferry - the first time for the youngest two children (eldest had a school trip to France earlier in the year). 

Bee Inspection from few weeks back

I filmed a whole hive inspection with my daughters the other day. It's probably more for myself than anyone else, but I enjoyed it. 

 

Wasp traps

I know they're part of the ecosystem, but around here everything is out of balance. We're surrounded by big fields of single crops, The wasps seem to love it here, and there is just too many. 

They stripped a whole tree of fruit, so I took action. 

Some wasp traps. 

 How are your wasps this year?

Blackcurrant Pie

 In last months newsletter I posted a recipe for blackcurrant pie that my daughter made. I had a few people last weekend ask me to put the recipe on the blog. 

Ingredients – Pastry – 225g plain flour 100g cold butter (supposed to be unsalted but we just use salted) 25g caster sugar 1 egg yoke Pinch of salt (no need if using salted butter) Splash of water if needed   Filling – 400g of blackcurrants 100g caster sugar 1 tbsp of cornflour 1 tbsp of lemon juice

1.       In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour until it’s like bread crumbs. 2.      Stir in the sugar, then add the egg yolk and water. 3.      Don’t work it too hard, shape it into a ball then wrap in cling film and rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. 4.      For the filling, heat up the blackcurrants, caster sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over a low heat. 5.      Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, then roll out two thirds of the pastry on a floured surface, enough to cover a pie dish around 20cm in diameter. 6.      Prick the base with a fork and trim any excess. Line the pastry with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. 7.      Blind bake for 12 minutes, remove the beans and parchment paper, then bake for another 5 minutes until golden. 8.      Pour the filling into the pie, roll out the rest of the pastry and cover, sealing the edges. Cut a slit in the top to let the steam out. 9.      Brush with beat egg and sprinkle with sugar 10.    Bake for 30 minutes 11.     Cool for about 15 minutes, then slice and enjoy with fresh cream.

Entering The Village Show

So we decided to come across all River Cottage and Enter the local horticultural show. We all looked through the program and decided to enter a few different things. 

I entered just two categories, Stoned fruit (5 in a dish) and soft fruit. I picked some plums from the tree trained on the back of the container, but they all had a few bits of damage on them. Instead I went for the beautiful little gages.

And the soft fruit was Japanese wineberries. 
  

The youngest entered a picture of his favourite flower (snap dragon). 

Eldest entered scones, a Victoria sponge and a trio of tomatoes (I said I wouldn't feel right if I entered them as she's done all the work. 

Middlest entered a Sunset photo and a Victoria sponge - a bit of competition between my girls. 

I got second on the soft fruit and third with my gages (out of three lol!).

Youngest got first for his picture, Middlest got for her Victoria sponge, Eldest got first for her Victoria sponge and second for her scones and First for her tomatoes. 

The Horticultural society were lovely as well as they invited me to have a stall there for the afternoon. It was great fun and loads of people I knew were there, Middlest helped with the stall all afternoon as well. 

Good fun and a proper bit of village life. We'll have to enter more next year! 

Scythe Over Strimmer

 It's been a few years now, and I still prefer the scythe over the strimmer. But I must say there are a few things to consider that could make it harder. 

When you damage your scythe edge, you need to deal with it straight away. this can be very annoying when you just want to knock down a few weeds. I'm tempted to have a spare blade ready to go. 

Sharpening has to be right - if it's not then it just doesn't cut very well. You need all the tools to get this right, from peening to the stones

Setting has to be right, this can be annoying. I probably don't use it enough to be able to tell at a stroke of the scythe if it's set right or not, I end up messing with it quite a bit. 

Storage - you need to keep it in good condition. The blade's shape makes it hard to protect without making something yourself. 

But being able to use this in the cool of the evening or early morning is still glorious as it doesn't make the noise a strimmer does. You're far more likely to come across and notice wildlife this way as well. 

A harder tool to learn, but one that will make you feel like you're doing the right thing.  

Shaker Style Wardrobe doors

 My sister's partner has been making an alcove into a wardrobe/cupboard. He needed some doors to cover the space. 

So I made him up a set of four shaker style doors, with simple clean lines, to cover the hole! 

A Simple Carved Gift

My wife had a friend and work colleague leave her school a few days ago. She wanted to give her a personal gift and knew that the lady in question was building a library as she was obsessed by books. she asked me to make a simple sign for the door.

 the set up takes just as much time as carving it in all honesty. Luckily I had a few scraps of planned oak left from an urn I'd made and carved for my best mate's dad a few weeks back. This piece took the letters brilliantly. 

Part of me thinks it would be nice to sell more carved items, but I know I'm competing against machines that can do in seconds what takes me hours. 

Wasps Are Bad This Year

 I like to think I'm normally live and let live in my attitude to most things. But this year the wasps have been so bad I've had to do something about them. 

I had a plum tree come ready , and they were delicious but the last few days we can't get near the tree for the sheer number of wasps on them. 

I've already removed one nest from the roof of my shed, but I've decided to put up some wasp traps around the small holding, especially near the bees where I've witnessed them going in and robbing them. We've made the entrances smaller, but it does feel like we should help them out more. 

I made a homemade trap, which filled in a few days (from an old pop bottle), but I've also bought 8 plastic traps which you fill with an attractant, I'm looking forward to seeing how these do. 

I know they're essential to the ecosystem, but there is just too many this year! 

Have you found wasps bad this year? What do you do to combat them?

Middlest Leaves Primary School

 I must be getting old, that's what I keep thinking! Now I have two children at secondary school and I can very much remember all of these parts from my own childhood. 

As our Middlest takes to the front of church to read out her leavers speech and I can only think of how proud I am of the young lady she's becoming. She's very, much my go-to, my partner in crime in a lot of things, ask her to do a job and it's done, most of the time I don't even have to ask. Funny and witty, smart, sporty and popular, she was very much the person I wish I was at school! 

And her time at primary school has been amazing, she's loved every minute. She's really lucky and built such a tight group of friends. Her (excellent) year six teacher was telling me how capable she was, but also how she's learnt she can rely on her friends and how some of us never get that. 

The last few weeks have been mad with everything going on, and that's the main reason I haven't posted. With three children in school and my wife being a teacher it's always going to be full on. I've done a lot of running around, ferrying children to different things. With a class party, play performances, dance performances (not school related), and a few other things! 

The best part, for me, was being invited to their end of year trip. I checked with Middlest first though, but she was happy for her dad to come. I had a message on Saturday asking if I would be able to go to the safrai park with them on Monday - I'm DBS for the school ( I run a club on a Wednesday and was in school a lot when my eldest got type one diabetes) and have been on a lot of school trips over the years, so I jumped at the chance. The head teacher was going to go but had to drop out. 

It was honestly such a perfect day, I've joked that if you've ever seen the film "About Time" where the guy jumps back in time to relive certain days, this is one of the ones I'd pick (the whole weekend in fact). They are a lovely class and many had been to nursery with her, or been to the playgroup I used to run, so I knew every child. This whole class seems to care about each other deeply, I didn't see anyone get left out the whole day, and that's really unusual.

They weren't that interested in the animals if I'm honest, but were very interested in the rides! The safari park is very much perfectly pitched to 11 year olds (there were a lot of school there) and it was small enough that with three adults we could look after them all as we went from ride to ride. I went on everything and Middlest did as well, showing no fear (well maybe a bit when we got asked to step off one ride so they could test it as it wasn't working right, then got back on it). 

We got home shattered, but happy, I then had to drag us to scouts, which was also perfect. We went to the park on what was a perfect summers evening, played rounders and ordered some pizza as an end of term treat. Chilled out and lovely, I crawled into bed early and didn't even wake when my wife came up. 

Her last day was lovely, she had such a great time with her friends, and the school did such a lovely leavers service for them. It's a shame the whole class can't stay together as they go on to their secondary schools. I feel guilty for splitting up her friendship group, but I've no doubt she going to make lots of new friends and keep the ones she's already got. 

She is a wonderful person and I love spending time with her. I feel so lucky to have been able to do some much with her over the years and the school has been great (although I moan sometimes) with asking me to help and be around my children even more. 

She's going to do exactly what she wants in this world, and I'm going to support her every step of the way. 

Dissatisfied At Work?

 I have a friend who I think is dissatisfied with his work.

The other day he asked me if I found what I did boring. It's not the first time he's asked me this question. It must play on his mind. Mine isn't a normal job, but then having been a carpenter all my life I'm not sure what a normal job looks like. He was mainly talking about my making items to sell online. 

The answer is the same every time. Yes it can be boring, I make a lot of the same thing many times over, but also I've had far worse jobs and I'd say this is the best I've every had. Not money wise (not by a long shot), but for quality of life. 

Part of me enjoys a repetitive task. I like making items as efficiently as possible, with the best templates and jigs I can make, making my small workshop work in the best way possible, 

I don't enjoy sanding, which is a bit part of what I do. I try to have the best tools to make this job as painless as possible. 

I do enjoy developing different products, although I have less time for that these days, but the magazine works helps to break the cycle every month. 

I do enjoy not having a "boss" or a direct customer who I'm working for. When I was a jobbing carpenter I was very aware that you're always being judged, and a lot of what you did, if it was in the workshop, or going to collect materials, was often forgotten. 

I do enjoy being self motivated. Sometimes I make a batch of items or a one off that I know will take many months to sell to see a return in my labour, but I also know if I'm not making something then I won't be earning anything. 

I love the flexibility it gives me, having three children to run around after it means I can do all that for them, make sure tea is on the table and attend anything else that life throws at us. I can also support my wife in her career. Having one child who is type one diabetic also means we have a lot of extra visits to do and sometimes have to drop everything to be there for her should she need it. 

I love that my children can see me working, can look at what I sell. I love that them seeing me "create" my own job my inspire them to look outside the box when it comes time for them to think about work. 

I don't enjoy how hard this type of work is on my body, my hands have ganglion cysts in where I've probably worked them too hard over the years and can be painful, not to mention lifting and bad posture working at a bench all day.  

I always disliked having to rely on other trade when I was a jobbing carpenter, making the items like I do means I'm mainly reliant on myself and my suppliers (who still cause me plenty of stress). 

I sometimes miss working with others, but still do days doing carpentry for one customer, so I get my fix this way. I also do plenty in the village and see lots of people in my week, so I'm never alone for long. 

I would like to earn more money, this doesn't earn as much as normal carpentry. But then we earn enough and I've also worked some rubbish jobs for more money and it was never worth it. 

I love the time my job gives me to think, or if I want to be entertained I can listen to a book or podcast. 

SO, I'd say that I do enjoy my job, yes it can be boring and hard on my body, but I think it's far better than any other job I'm qualified or experienced enough to do. So for now I'm happy, who knows what the future will bring, I may go back to being a "normal" carpenter in the future, especially if one of the children decided to take the same route, I love that my trade has given me so many options and such variety over the years. 

I can always remember a "friend" telling me I'd failed by not going to university, but I was lucky and my trade has brought me many opportunities (I'd still like to go to uni one day maybe, but only for my own enjoyment and then I think it's too expensive to justify it). 

Sorry this is a rambling post, more writing down my thoughts on being asked the same question many times over. 

Are you happy in what you do? 

Wooden Scoops Handmade by Me

 I've blogged about it before but I'm really proud of my wooden scoops. 

I make them in small batches (this is the biggest batch I've made in one go), and they're designed to use up the offcuts I have left over from some of my other products. I try to be as near to zero waste as I possibly can be. I've also tried to make them as affordable as possible, although with postage having gone up again I may have to increase the price slightly soon. 

Ledged And Braced Door

 Last week I made a few doors for my mum & dad and filmed the process. 

Just simple ledge and braced doors, I've made dozens of these over the years. 

Scout Weekend - My Hammer Challenge

This weekend has been lots of scouts. 

Our son was at a camp all weekend with cubs, he loved it and has come back with many stories. I popped over and helped put a few tents up Friday night and did call round on Saturday with ice creams for everyone. As a scout leader I think it aids transition if all the cubs know me for when they move up to scouts. 

Then with my middle daughter (eldest is on a school trip), we went to an activity day with our district. I was asked to run a base and to have it as a challenge base. I was unsure what to do, but then my mate suggested a hammer base. Take some logs, nails and hammers and teach them how to drive a nail in. So some racing to see who could knock a nail in. 

 

Help Needed - Always

A tail as old as time - I need help in the garden. 

The eldest has been amazing, she goes out most nights and does a bit. She waters stuff for me and does weeding and planting. 

Youngest needs a bit of persuasion, but will come out and do a few jobs when asked.  

 Middlest is keen to help, but needs to be a set task, clear this area, plant this, etc, or she gets bored quickly. 

I'm lucky to have a bit of help, although the garden is getting swamped. Just too much time in the workshop trying to keep up!