Grass Needs Mowing

It's a long and narrow garden. Straight lines, squared off. No imagination, easy maintenance. I really like gardens with secret corners and surprises to draw your interest. It was a quick and simple thing to mow the grass.

Coming out of retirement

The new house presents additional work but it's a mix of work I have always enjoyed. But then I enjoy all work. I ripped out some plywood shelving from one part and was thinking, well, it's a low grade shuttering plywood, looks 25 years old, I should just get rid of it.

Dismantling each part, I found great difficulty parting off the parts because the plies were holding so well. This shelving stood seven feet high and seven wide, had a zillion screws holding it together with those ugly angle brackets and was anchored to the wall with a zillion more 2" 10's screws into plastic rawlplugs. But the important thing was that the plywood plies were still in full adhesion with no bubbling and no apparent degrade.

I took out the belt sander, ideal for scrubbing off rough surfaces, and belt sanded through the 25 years of crud, grime and black dust and cobwebs down to clear wood. Now I have ten perfectly good pieces for shelving the storage shed I have yet to build when I get to it.

More gardening

Gardening begins. I like growing vegetables and having chickens. I also like a burn barrel, a compost pile and a garden bench which I now have.

Double digging my first of four veg beds in my new garden turned out better than I could have hoped for. It was clear virgin soil with none of the usual bricks and half bricks, concrete and mortar so typical from builders who always bury over their discarded rubble at the end of the the original build of the house. Monday I bought my onion sets and seed potatoes to get them in first. Weather permitting I will get them in this week. I also mowed the grass at the weekend, but knowing this part of the UK it will need doing again in a week or so.

The house needs work too

Now, what you really want to know! There is a lot to do to the house but remedial work on the building proper is not really part of my remit. Structural building work, building improvements, rewires, replumbs and structural maintenance and such, even decorating will be contracted out, mostly. My work is really the furniture and different areas of woodworking; items most people would not leave behind if they moved house. I think over half of our followers live in rented accommodation, so it's important that what we build will be removable so that they can take it with them. That said, I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve to impress you (I hope).

Questions for you

From here on my blog and vlog will include the new opening developments as I design and make the first pieces of furniture. To that end we are putting together questions we feel need answers to from different woodworkers in different parts of the world. Compiling these will help us in the campaign for real woodworking.

I'm currently working on a simple yet sturdy moveable support table. I have used two of them for about 8 years now and see no need to change anything. It's a great Woodworking Masterclasses project and some might prefer it to the workbench build because of its simplicity as it would make a good bench too. I use mine in two ways. One I use it to extend the narrow bench to a wide one and then as a support for my material and tools should I need extra or want to clear my workbench to use the whole top for supporting a larger piece I'm working on. I can also use it as an out-feed for my bandsaw as my bandsaw table, workbench and moving support table are all at 38". My two current models are set up differently but a combination of functional options can be incorporated into one support table. The combination comprises, drill-driver holders, clamp racks, socket outlet and cable. The lower shelf will hold a wood lathe, tools and equipment.