Making Bird Feeders At Scouts

Last week I ran a session at scouts where they all got to make a little bird feeder. I designed something very simple, a little triangle feeder with two little pieces of clear perspex at the front so the birds could see the feed.

I'm enjoying being able to tackle slightly trickier projects since moving up from beavers to scouts, this one fits the bill really as lots they can do themselves. 

I left it so each scout had to cut two pieces of wood and then they had to nail it all together. 

Her First Commission

 Middlest is always saying she wants to be a baker. Well this weekend she got her first taste of it. She had a commission to make a birthday cake for a friend of hers. 

they requested a chocolate cake with chocolate butter icing on top. Butter icing in the middle and homemade jam. 

Fair play to her as she baked it after spending the day with me at the craft fair and decorated it that evening. She was super pleased to be asked to make it though and you could tell she was proud as she dropped it off on Sunday morning (where they were having a D&D party with a professional dungeon master! 

Second Craft Fair

Yesterday I went to my second craft fair to sell my wares. 

My Middlest came with me to help all day, she was great, wrote me lots of great price labels, helped me set up and pack away, as well as being great company. 

She did had to listen to my sales patter all day though! I took two types of tomato seeds that I'd saved this year with me to give away, all my children helped me package them up on Friday night - over 120 packets in the end. Having something like seeds to give away is a great way of drawing people in, and starting a conversation with them. I also had a lot of my monthly newsletters printed out and I hope people will sign up to that as well as people seemed to be enjoying them. 

I sold enough to make it worth while, my only problem with giving my time to go to these fairs is just how much I could make hourly as a carpenter on site or as a jointer in my workshop and just sell online. It certainly boosts sales for this month a little bit, but it was time away from the workshop not making things. That said I do enjoy going out and talking to people, and it's lovely to receive face to face feedback about the products I make. 

I did love having my gooseberry scoops on display and had quite a lot of conversations about them, I think I sold three during the day. Something a bit different and a great present for a gardener that might be tricky to buy for. 

I need to do one of these a year to remind myself that although they're fun they're probably not the best use of my time. My daughter had a great day though and it was lovely to share it with her. 

 

A New Cat

For a long time now my middle daughter has been on about getting an inside cat. 

We've had an outdoor, feral cat, for about 4 years now. I feed it daily, but generally that's our only interaction with it. It was given to us by someone having to leave their farm, and seems to do the job of keeping on top of some of the mice and rats around the place. 

I've never had a cat as a proper pet before, but I wasn't against the idea, I mentioned it to a friend and she said she knew just the person. 

We got put in contact with the lady that helped us with the rescue hedgehog from earlier in the summer. they had a cat that had come in with a broken leg, it was still quite young, but very calm and friendly. Apparently it had come from a house that had 30 cats, but they couldn't afford to put it's leg right. The Vets did the job for free but decided that maybe it needed to be rehomed. 

So we visited this cat in the vets and all the children fell in love with it. He's very friendly, and the children enjoyed interacting with him. As his leg is pretty much better now we've got him back at home and he's settled in pretty much straight away. He won't be allowed outside for a good while yet and due to his leg we're trying to keep him in rooms he won't jump too high in. 

Show's how not used to cats that I am because I just can't get over how lazy he is! He does very little, considering I'm in and out the house all day. He does play with the children, and has his mad moments, but most of the time he's happy to lie around.  

 I love how much the children love him already and they've split up the jobs associated with him, so far I've only picked up one poo out the litter box, they've done all the rest! 

And his name? Varjak Paw. After the book about the Kung Fu cat with the same name (a favourite in this house), I'm sure he'll have lots of adventures on the smallholding. 

Cinder Toffee

 A couple of weeks ago we drove up to York to see some friends. With a long drive I do quite like something sweet to nibble on. 

So I decided to make some cinder toffee. The easiest, cheapest and sweetest snack you could ever make.