Low Rent Kids

I'm sure the expensive phase of children is get to start but at the moment they seem very easy to keep happy. 

 We're lucky as our three play together as a pack all the time, very rarely to they leave one out of any games unless they want to - our eldest will take herself off to do some sewing now and again. 

The half term has been filled with hours of playdough, painting and making potions outside (which i tend to find months later when they smell far from their best!). 

the other day I had a little fire on the patio and they spent two hours feeding it and poking it (all face painted up as well), simple pleasures! 

What low effort thing did you enjoy as a child?

Kev The King!

So after going to the same playgroup for 6 years and helping to run it for 4, I've finally left as my youngest started school. It's mixed emotions as I've loved it but life moves on and children grow too fast! It was a tie each week but then I was lucky to run it with some of my best friends and each week we'd laugh and joke as we got everything ready and stay for ages afterwards just chatting as the kids played. I have no negative memories of this experience that I can think of.

My lovely friends put on a beautiful lunch for me on Friday, as well as a lovely card of messages from the mums and dads that normally go (in a pre covid world). And one wrote me this incredibly brilliant and witty poem:-

Kev the king of Colwall!

 

Black Country Museum - Socially Distanced Family Day Out

 It's fair to say we haven't had that many days out this year. We're lucky to live in such a beautiful place it doesn't feel like a huge need of ours. 

But with parties being a firm no at the moment we wanted to celebrate our middle child's birthday in some way. 

All the days out at the moment have to be booked in advance, so we drew up a short list and tried to pick something we thought wouldn't be too affected by the new rules. 

I booked some tickets for the Black Country Museum, a place I've never visited but have driven past hundreds of times when I used to work up that way. Think I was more excited than the kids to be honest! 

Drawknife With the Children

We haven't yet moved on to our next project since making the shave horse, but I have found my drawknife and decided it would be a good tool they could use safely. 

We went into our coppice and picked a willow to take a branch from. Quite nice as the girls helped plant these trees five years ago. 

Lego Birthday Cake (okay maybe megablocks...)

 Okay, if you squint your eyes you can see it for what it is, although I'd say it's more Megablocks than Lego - for our middle child's 7th birthday! Where does time go?

Six years have past since my infamous "Philippa" pig cake (Peppa's pigs drug addled cousin who had fell on hard times) http://englishhomestead.com/2014/12/nailed-it-on-pinterst.html… and it still gets brought up at every birthday...

The Man Who made things Out Of Trees

 I think I might be a little late to the party with this book, but the last few weeks I've been working my way through it. 

This is a book that is, pretty obviously, going to appeal to me. The premise is that Robert Penn has an Ash tree cut down than tries to use as much of the timber as he can to make as many things as he can from it. 

The author writes brilliantly and his affection for trees, wood and things of beauty is apparent from the first page. 

I love his zero waste approach to this tree and how he gets so many things from it. At the end of the book there is a list of all the items and it's impressive. I also like how rather than trying to make the things himself he seeks out the true master crafts people to make them for him, while he witnesses the work. Each comes with it's own story and memory then and I love how the items he collects aren't just for decoration - they are to be used. Something I think we should do more in this country, beautiful items enrich our lives and using them daily gives a reason to own them. 

From a carpenters point of view it's great to learn more about ash and it's uses, a wood I have only used a few times, other than in tools handles.  I did use ash many years ago to make some legs on a stool on a pole lathe, something I'd love to do again when we get round to building a pole lathe here (there's a link to a blog post on the course I took here)

I love this book for it's simple promotion of craft in so many different forms and the fact that we have just a few of some of these traditional and very specific trades left in the world (fletcher, wheelwright, etc) and how they need to be looked after as much as any historic building or monument.

If you enjoy craft and wood then you'll enjoy this book. 

Horse Chestnut Soap? Part One...

 The weekend was wet and windy, it finally cleared up on Sunday afternoon so I took the kids out to hunt for conkers and to blow off some steam. 

The tree in a field near us had none on them so we went to a friends to see what we could find.  

Making A Shave Horse With My Daughter

 I have an axe head I bought a while back that still needs a handle. I've looked at buying one online to match but can't find anything that I think will fit or that I like. So I want to make my own. Now I have plenty of tools that I can make one with but I know from experience that a shave horse is the easiest way to hold and work it. 

Now I have made a couple over the years (one for my brother and one for myself) but I sold mine when I had nowhere to store it after we moved here. I've decided that even if I just chuck a sheet over it it'll be worth having it outside. I also had a few lengths of less than straight 4x2 so this seemed a good use of them. 

Wood Chipped

 I forgot to post this the other day about dealing with the oak branches that fell from one of our big trees. 

My brother came back with his big chipper to deal with all the brash. 

I know we could have burnt it but decided that this was a better use as we get the wood chip to use around the place instead.