ilultham

 A while back I wrote an article for an online friend, Rosie who has a brilliant website for preserving. While we were chatting she asked if I'd be willing to make some items for her to sell as it can be hard finding people to make specific things.  The item in question was some jelly bag stands, made from wood that could be easily assembled.  I really like it when small businesses can work together so it was really nice to be able to make these things for Rosie and I hope they sell well for her. you can find the listing on her website here and the rather fetching picture of me! It's always nice to tie two of my passions together and this certainly does that! 

It's been a while since sheep have featured on the blog and I should say that these aren't mine!    Some smallholder friends were struggling to get anyone to shear their sheep. The trouble is they only have 5 pet sheep. I lent them some hand sheers but I think a mixture of worry and lack of experience put them off.  Rather than ask them if they wanted a hand I just told them I was coming to get the job started. I'm no expert, I've only ever had to hand clip a whole sheep when maggots have been involved! But it's better to get that fleece off than leave it on in the summer time (fly strike becomes a very real risk). I think part of the trouble was getting the sheep rolled over, Simon isn't a big guy and this are some seriously heavy (fat) sheep.  Rolling sheep over isn't really about strength, technique wins out in the end - but often you need brute  strength to control the ewe while you learn it.  At the end of the day it's not the nicest of jobs and I d...

Yesterday we visited my brother and sister-in-laws place for the first time in ages. It was to meet their new baby (A tiny baby girl) and was lovely to chat and catch up.  It was great to see the kitchen I built from scratch in use and full of produce! It was a monster of a unit with huge doors and drawers. The can rotators inside the unit are available via my Esty store or you can email me if you'd like any! I think they picked a great colour and the whole kitchen really seems to work with the central island. I've asked them to send me some pictures of the whole thing when they get chance so I can share it on here.  

 We look forward to this weekend every year since we first went in 2016 . They asked me to do a talk again this year and luckily for me it was at 12 O'clock which meant that it was out of the way early on and I could then just relax and enjoy my day once it was over. When I'm doing lots of garden club talks I don't get nervous, but it's been well over a year since my last one.  I was so pleased as my talk on "Preserving The Harvest" was really well received and well attended - in fact I was really surprised by how many turned up! I always have a fear of speaking to no one! I was flattered as a number of people told me afterwards how I should write a book (something I'd love to do) and it made me look forward to getting back out to garden clubs and start doing my talks again.  The day itself was just lovely, as always. The children are big enough now so they don't have to be at our sides the whole time (and could find shade while we queued for food) and...

 So for a long time now I've been thinking about upgrading my scythe.  This owes me nothing, but its not the easiest to use I have an old English one, and although it's great for knocking down a few nettles it is quite heavy to use for a long period of time and I've never managed to cut grass in a tidy way with it. Probably as I'm a good six inches taller than whoever had it before me!  Time to buy a different one.   I'd heard good things about Austrian Scythes and last year, while writing an article for Country Smallholding about hand tools around the smallholding, I made contact with a man from the same county who was an expert in the subject. At the time he offered to sell me one, but I held out, not sure what lockdown would bring, but I kept thinking about it.   The other day I contacted him and asked if he was still willing to sell me one and show me how to use it.  I ended up spending the day there, sharing his loaf of bread and having him s...