July 27, 2024

20-26 July 2024

Over the weekend I decided to agree with the offer the seller’s land agent suggested. Negotiating hasn’t got me very far and I do just want the piece of land.

One can be quite sure of a decision when it’s just prospective and new and exciting, then when you finally have to pull the trigger I did get some cold feet. The reality of the commitment sinks in. This is a long term lifestyle commitment. But in the end the main reasons for doing this are: i’ve wanted to be a ‘farmer’ all my life, that’s never gone away, its not a phase. I want to homestead. With my current life set up, this solution makes the most sense. I’ve always wanted a big piece of land to grow stuff on. No more constraints on size. So here we go! 

The weekend I also had my niece and nephew sleep over. Which means not much sleep myself. They’re at their cutest age so it is nice to have them. But then it’s also really nice to see them off! A nice relaxing work week to follow…

I finished my wood working classes this week. Had one on Monday and Wednesday. Having cut my side pieces with 22.5 degree bevelled edges on the track saw the previous week, I used a domino tool to make holes in the wood to join the pieces together. The holes are like elongated dowel shapes, with matching dowel pieces to stick in. That got glued in on Monday. Then Wednesday I cut out the base, an octagon – I used the band saw for the first time. What a nice machine. I screwed it in the bottom of the pot and used wood filler on some gaps in the joins. That was all I had time for in the lesson. I managed to strap on the wood onto my bike and cycle it home. 

I finished the pot off at home the same day. Well, I sanded the whole thing down. I still need to stain the wood and apply varnish. I wanted to try a natural wood stainer. I don’t like buying the usual wood stain; it just seems like a mix of really potent chemicals and I just don’t like having it. I did find a more eco friendly stain online, so that’ll be my back up if my DIY stain doesn’t work. I already tried with tea and coffee, it’s not nearly strong enough, just does a light colouring. I’ve heard the trick is steel wool dissolved in vinegar. So that’s the next test. I’m going to do that when I’m back from holidays, as the stain needs to sit a few days. So no finished product to show yet! 

Upgrading indoor plants

I now have lots of inspiration for additional wood work pots. I upgraded a lot of my indoor plant pots this week, the roots were becoming stuck in their pots. This now means I need decorative pots of larger sizes. So I’ve decided to keep making wooden ones. NOT octagonal, that’s a headache, and I’d like to try some at home so I don’t need to pay so much for the classes. I’m planning what kind of pots I’ll make. If square shaped, I might try some box joints / dove tails which is a nice technique, and more manual. Or I might look into getting one of those saw guides, I forget the name, but you can cut specific angles in it, and potentially bevel edges. Any wood working I do at home needs to be more manual since I don’t have the tools. But that’s fine too for practice. I can buy the wood from a pre cut place, so they’ll cut all the pieces for me, I just need to bevel it or carve it to join them together. That’s going to be really exciting. I’m trying to plan all the home tools I’d need and how I would organise my mini home workshop…

On Thursday I really needed to get some work done after all my playing around. I went to a coffee shop to remove the home distractions, it did the trick.

In the knitting space, I finished my blue bunny, knit with spare alpaca wool. So now my next project is to remake my partner’s cardigan which is too big and slightly lopsided. So I’ve psyched myself out enough to unravel the whole thing and start again! This will be a good project to bring on holiday next week. That’s all folks! 

My garden’s current state before i go away for two weeks.

 

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