Jan. 25, 2025

This week, I’ve been working a lot on the blog website; making it more mobile-friendly, updating the homepage and adding a new Projects page. I also added loads of projects I completed before the start of this blog. So have a look at the new Project Page and check out the stuff I’ve made in the past - mainly lots of knitting and sewing projects.

Much of my focus this week has been on making progress on the storage box. I made two frames last weekend by simply dowelling and glueing the ends together. However, I realised I’d done a shoddy job, not one worthy of a woodworker… So I took it apart (much too easily) and started again by making half-lap joints with a saw and chisel. This worked much better, I was able to create tight-fitting joints for all the non-end pieces. It’s so satisfying when you gently hammer in the joint fitting with a little bit of glue. I'm sure they probably didn’t put any glue in traditionally, but I do for more stability… I will say the wood I’m working with is probably very low quality; it's very soft and still a bit wet… Even so, it's much better to chisel with than plywood. The softness also gives a lot of leeway when fitting the joints as it can squeeze in there more easily.

So the first two frames have been rebuilt. Much better. I went back to Wickes with my homemade pallet trolley on wheels. That was a big fail. Two wheels came off just on the journey there. Should have known. The wheels are tiny. Not very robust. I then calculated the wood I’d need to buy enough to finish the first box… It came to around £190. It’s silly. And this is the cheapest wood available. So I didn’t do that. I carried my broken pallet back home, a bit embarrassed. I went online and found a different website called Materials Market. Here they sell basically the exact same timber at less than half the price. I ordered enough to finish the box and to make the entire second one (hopefully) for £140 total. Wickes is officially on my no thank you list. Except for quick convenience things, like nails or something. Anyways, that wood is arriving Monday, so that will be next week’s project, which I’m really excited about. 

In other news, I  applied for a food saftey certificate (to be a food business operator) last summer when I wanted to start selling herbal tea leaves like mint, nettle, chamomile… and some foraged jams. You need to pass an inspection to do this, so I applied for it last year and the council finally came around to inspect… I passed inspection :) So I am officially allowed to sell teas and jams. I don’t have immediate plans, but maybe in the summer during the growing seasons. 

Knitting has progressed quite a bit. Have been spinning a ball of well then knitting it up straight away. I’m onto the chest area, almost ready to work the main body. Still really enjoying it and have the pattern memorised well.

Finally, I only went to the field on Friday this week, the storm had bent over a few of my trees so I righted them again, and continued working on the hedge by adding the tree guards all the way along. I didn’t get to do much else. Still to do - more staking and guarding of a few more hedges, 10kg of onions to plant, and I want to mulch around every plant. I’ve been doing this a bit with cardboard, but I’m now going to try with the dried long grasses that have been growing along one edge of the field. I think I could cut these (with a sickle I’ve ordered) and lay them around my hedges. That’ll hopefully keep it a bit warmer, suppress weeds and cover up the bare soil. That’s the next block of work. After that, I’ll be acquiring berry bushes as another plant layer in the forest, which will be very exciting.

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