Feb. 8, 2025

I'm very aware of the creative cycle that is as follows:

- Excited, inspired energy during the initial creative design and ideas phase. The energetic starting of a project.
- The middle period that is sometimes long and needs perserverance and discipline to get through.
- The high of the finish line. Look what I made!
- Then the low / calm that it's ended, while you reflect and find inspiration for the next thing. This can feel tired and unmotivating.

So the cycle goes, generally. This week has felt up, then down, then back up again. Starting with the highs of finished-object-satisfication, followed by a mini low-energy slump post project-finish, and ending back on a high, excited for next week's progress.

I finished my storage box early this week, including a few coats of weather protection. It all came together really nicely, except the lid… Which weighed a lot on its own and I couldn’t figure out how to attach it to the box… How do you hold at least a 10kg lid in the air at the perfect position while drilling in screws? The lid also doesn’t open the whole 180 degrees because the trim isblocking it, so I couldn’t balance the lid on a flat surface; it had to be held up at an angle. In the end, I disassembled the whole box to transport to the field and then first attached the lid to the side panel before adding it to the rest of the box. It worked awesome. I re-assembled fully on site. It’s looking sturdy. I elevated the legs slightly onto rocks to keep it out of the mud, but it’s not very stable. Would be better if I had some bricks to put it on… Will be on the look out for spare bricks. 

flat pack to fit it all in the car and rebuild on site

looking good

looking full

In the end, I think the look is awesome. I like the panel detail I was able to put on top of the lid to cover the chipboard a bit. I plan on nailing down some kind of plastic tarp over the lid to give it more rain protection. Once in place, I immediately filled it with all my extra tree guards and bamboo sticks. It’s completely full. All in all super happy with it! 

storage friends

I immediately started thinking about the second box I need to make, an identical one. I have already cut all the pieces. But instead of starting that straight away and having a mini repetitive burnout, I decided to think of something to make with the extra timber I have and landed on a frame for stick/stake/rod storage. Kind of an outdoor timber shelter that doesn’t have walls but can store rods off the ground and maybe has a roof cover. I drew a design and set to work.

I managed to make this in about two days, there were only a few joints to do, and I did these with easy lap joints. My brother has recommended I try mortise and tenon joints. I think that would be even better in terms of technique and durability… So that’s something for next time. This frame went pretty smoothly, all except for the cross braces, which I realised didn’t have much strength in the gravity direction. So I changed their position to be on the inside of the frame and that seems to work much better. I haven’t fully finished it, I still need to do weather protection coats and maybe a wood stain. I hope to bring it to the field next week to install it. Currently, my larger tree stakes are lying in the mud and are constantly soaking wet and probably getting mouldy. So this should fix that. I’m also planning on re-re-purposing that pallet on wheels, that was a big fail, into a makeshift chair for the field. Might be nice with some wood stain on it.

That’s that. In the end, I made two trips to the field this week, the first mainly to install the box. Then on Friday, I spent all morning on the field in the rain and hail, not a single dog walker was out. I finished up all the tree stakes and plastic guards. Everything is covered now. Next step is putting mulch around every single tree. I was thinking of doing this with cardboard… But it blows around a lot and doesn’t stay in place very well and is not visually appealing. So have been taking inspiration from my neighbour’s plot, who has long, dead grass on his field that he cuts and places around his trees. I don’t have any long grass as it was all cut in the summer before I bought the land. But… I have some along my Northern brambled edge border. I didn’t think I could harvest much from that, but actually turns out I can and its working really well. I think it’s perfect timing because the grass and plants are so dead I can just snap or pull it out easily. I had ordered a sickle, but Amazon said they couldn’t deliver it. So pulling and snapping with my hands is my best option. At the same time… I’d like to prune the brambles to keep it more under control and looking good. I think I could claim back 3 metres of width if I prune it properly and keep the border accessible. It would make blackberry picking better in the summer as well. AND I can use the bramble vines to weave baskets; first taking off all the spikes, and storing the vines in my new timber frame! Oh the synergies. So that’s the next plan.

Back at home I’ve started an online bread making course. I got influenced by some BBC Maestro ads. It’s this French man called Richard Bertinet. It’s really good; he’s teaching me how to make all the types of bread. I got myself a bread scraper and some linen cloths for the job. This week I started with the simple tin loaf and tiger bread. So good. The way he teaches to handle and prepare the dough is completely different to what I was doing before with the simple stretch and folds. I do think there is a difference in output. The resulting bread was perfect, soft and spongy on the inside… The perfect crust on the outside. Yes please. Once I’ve gone through that bread, I’ll start on the baguette lesson, which I’m most excited to compare with my previous bread making. High hopes for this journey. 

For some reason I had a lull in creative energy this week after the storage box was finished. I think it was a temporary come down for the high excitement from doing the box. I wasn’t so inspired in knitting this week. Was doing the main body the whole time and maybe I just got fatigued by it… Well, I just managed to finish the main section of the body by the end of the week, with just the bottom ribbing to do. I think the mojo is coming back now after just a few days lull, so let’s hope it’s better progress next week. 

dagmar marathon

This week I also started seeds for the home garden. I think I am a few weeks late for the peppers, but not too late. I planted peppers and beans/peas/brassicas on Tuesday, and by Friday most of the beans and broccoli are already waking up! The peppers take 10-20 days to germinate, under a heat map, so they’ll be up later. I have WAY over planted the number of seeds comparing to space availabe in the gardem. I’ll have a big space problem once they grow a bit bigger, but I guess that’s a later problem.

sproutings

The creative lull is back now and wait can’t to get back to the field to prune some brambles and harvest some mulch. :)

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