Nothing hidden here, just a tour around our place, warts and all.
If you're feeling a bit behind what you're doing this will probably make you feel better. That said I have some things that are doing great. The soft fruit in particular has been awesome for a number of years now, and I'm looking forward to future harvests.
Another Video! This time it's a simple video walking around our homestead.
I try to show what we've been up to in the garden, orchard, coppice and other areas. Also show the growth on the hedge we planted a couple of years ago.
Let me know if you watch it and if you like this style of video.
It's 10 years since we planted the orchard. When we moved here I was digging holes by head torch to get them in and our eldest was just a few weeks old. It's beautiful to walk round it now and see the sheer abundance it provides us with now.
This video is only short (about 10 minutes), doesn't have me talking and just shows our little orchard in all it's Autumn glory.
Yesterday I did a online talk for a group of homesteaders and smallholders about woodworking and how is best to start. I had a great time and really enjoyed it!
To accompany this talk I decided to put together a video for what I think is one of the most essential things you can have to make woodworking easier - a way to hold and work wood - a sawhorse.
A sawhorse is a great way to work wood. It's the ideal height to use your knee and body weight to clamp the wood your working on. A pair of them supports wood easy and can make a useful work bench or hop up.
This design is the one I built as an apprentice, it's what Andy (the carpenter that trained me) said was the best design. You can carry it on your shoulder up a ladder, set it tight up against a wall and balance all your weight on the very edge without it tipping.
The best bit is to make it uses no fancy geometry to make it. There's a simple set of rules to set it out, using imperial measurements. It's 2'6" long, set it 6" in and 1/2" all round. I explain all in the video below!
It's a simple project, uses very few tools and once you have built it all other woodworking projects (where you're using hand tools) become easier. I love them, take at least one on pretty much every job I go on. the old ones I use have been on so many jobs, up roofs, laid floors, helped make kitchens, helped me saw thousands of pieces of wood over the last 20 years.
Watch the video and let me know what you think.
Do you have and use a sawhorse? What style of one do you have?
Thought I'd share a short video I made on the varieties of plum I've settled on this year.
Hopefully by having all these different varieties it should mean that we spread the season out as much as we can where we live. I'm looking for them to crop the whole time from mid July right through to the start of October, but I know this will all depend on frosts and other factors!
Let me know what you think of the video.
What other fruit do you try to have a large selection of to make sure you get a harvest?
I've decided to upgrade the door to this storage room. What I want to make sure is that the kitchen stays warm and the pantry stays cool. Having a door with insulation in it and having it well sealed will help me do this.
This video is quite carpentry based but shows how I went about making a new door. Not traditional construction but hopefully a few will find it interesting!
Lots fo high lights from the last few weeks and a walk around the homestead. Make sure you watch the end as there is the cuties video of my daughter trying to say "Peas if you please!", makes me chuckle every time I watch it!
Thanks for watching and let me know what you think!
The garden is constantly producing lots of produce now, I've just set to harvesting my big batch of soup peas and trying to make sure I keep on top of everything else.
Here's another video showing what's happening in the garden.
Join me on a walk round the sheep and a look at my very productive veg gardens! Everything is growing like crazy and we're harvesting so much at the moment!
The garden and the sheep (and the children) take up most of my time around here, but I have got a few other areas growing on quietly in the background.
The coppice is one of those, it's quiet happy being neglected but it's looking better every year. I did make some extra plantings this year and I plan to plant even more this next winter/spring - I'll clear an area of grass by leaving plastic on it and then plant it up with self seeding annuals or perennial herbs and bushes.
Here's a little walk around of what it's looking like at the moment.
In this episode I walk you round the extension and show you what's been going on with the lambs and the chickens, as well as a quick look in the garden.
