!! 50 YEARS LATER !!

In 2026, it will be an amazing FIFTY YEARS since my best friend, John Yellowlees, and I set up in business together. John, aka "Stone" or "Man", doing leather work while I, aka confusingly, "Man", or sometimes, "Other Man", made and repaired guitars. We shared a workshop and also a cottage at Gannochy Farm just outside Perth. I'm happy to say it all worked really well and we both got busy quite quickly with our trades, learned the nuts and bolts of business and had a lot of fun. Somewhere or other there are a lot of very silly photos from that time... although it was before the days of peoples' whole lives being photographed and broadcast every ten seconds... probably just as well in our case...

FIFTY YEARS AGO! We will have to celebrate with a mug of peppermint tea or something...

I mostly fixed guitars but other instruments came my way too

1976 was a restless year for me but one in which I picked up loads of the experience that has set me up in my working life.

At the beginning of the year I was working at John Birch Guitars in Birmingham. At the time, Birch's was the top custom guitar maker in the UK, making guitars for the rock and pop players of the day such as Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and Dave Hill of Slade.

John Diggins, the guy who actually made these guitars rather than  John Birch, was one of the most amazing craftsmen, I've worked alongside. Birch was responsible more for the pickups - which have a particular powerful chunky-clangy kind of sound that's still much in demand

 
I found working at Birch's really heavy going... it was a dis-organised, unhealthy kind of place and I liked Birmingham even less. So I left in the Summer of '76 to live and work with some hippy friends from university on an organic small holding near Aylesbury. What a breath of fresh air that was...

... to be continued...

 WOODWORK TWO - MORE HAND SKILLS - INLAYING AND SHAPING

It was really nice to pass on some skills I've hardly used since my guitar making days some forty years ago. John got in touch wanting to try inlaying as a potential decoration for brilliant little boxes he makes. I'm happy to say I remember the tricks as if no time had passed at all. I used to work with ebony and mother of pearl - here we were working with reclaimed hardwood skirting board and sheet plastic from re-formed bottle tops (a legacy of working with Fiona McBain and Zero Waste Perth).

A great fit, well done John! The reformed plastic makes an amazing pattern

Me busy making a guitar sometime in the 80's - a bit more hair then...

SHEDS, VANS & TINY HOUSES COURSE

TINY HOUSE ON A SALVAGED CARAVAN CHASSIS

One of my big themes is that it's possible to make really useful stuff with just a simple set of woodworking tools (mostly hand tools) and some basic skills. Here's progress so far on a tiny house we've been building on two of my Sheds, Vans and Tiny Houses courses - courses which are open to complete beginners by the way, we go over all the basic stuff you need to know, and you get plenty of practice.

We started with a salvaged caravan chassis then built a frame to fit over it. The frame rests on oak posts, charred for rot resistance, so the chassis isn't really taking any weight. Then we made the wall frames for two of the sides. It's brilliant to see these participants making something together and gaining confidence all the time!

THE BEFORE PHOTO... the caravan chassis stripped bare. It was awful to see how little decent material we could salvage from the whole thing. Just the chassis and a good bit of plywood, the rest was complete rubbish - what a waste of time and materials to make things that way...

REGENERATION AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

THE WAY OF THE WOODS

Here in Perthshire we're very fortunate to have lots of wonderful woodland around us. These photos are from Kinnoull Hill, a large wooded area just a short walk from our flat, with a wonderful range of trees, including some very old ones. It's especially nice to walk in because it's given minimal management and allowed to be in its natural state as much as possible.

THE FOREST BENEATH OUR FEET

Much of the countryside around Perth has been taken over by industrial agriculture, huge fields of one crop managed by a few people with lumbering, factory-on-wheels machinery. All the same, if it's left to do its own thing it will revert in not many years to woodland... The forest is waiting beneath our feet, ready to return.

REGENERATION AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

There's an area to the back of the part of the Westbank site that we manage which was cut down to the ground about ten years ago. We've left part of it just to do its own thing and it has indeed flourished into a very diverse area with trees, including some oaks, bushes, herbs and climbers of all sorts - with almost no management, other than making paths through it so we can see what's happening.

WOODLAND YIELDS

Though there's an abundance of plants, there's not that many edibles. So if we humans want to get more of what we need to survive locally and sustainably we'll probably need to tweak our woodland. At the farm, we've planted some nut trees and fruit bushes in part of this regenerating area with this in mind.

COME AND VISIT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM ...VOLUNTEERING...

All welcome to come along to our regular volunteering day, Wednesday's 11 to 3 (March through to November depending on the weather) - help, share, learn and have fun.

... AND COURSES...

I run gardening and fruit tree pruning/woodland courses at the farm - it's a brilliant venue for these with such a range of stuff to see:

FRUIT TREE PRUNING/WOODLAND CARE - SATURDAY 31st JANUARY 26

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS - SUNDAY 1st MARCH 26

See you soon, Ian

...NEW AGE PENSIONER ECO NEWS

My own New Age Pensioner response to these bonkers times is to keep busy, running classes in simple living skills and helping out at two of the most inspiring projects I've ever worked on in all my 72 years - Perth Community Farm and Inverquiech.

 PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

The fruit and veg harvest at the farm has been spectacular this year - we've had the heat and also the rain (and being in town have a mains water supply too). We divide up the produce amongst us volunteers and give away surpluses to local food charities. You're welcome to drop in on our regular volunteer day - Wednesdays 11 to 3 - through into November depending on weather.

Pretty much everything has done well at Perth Community Farm this year and we're growing a wider range of crops than ever before

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS CLASS - 1st March 2026

Come and find out how to grow lots of stuff as easily as possible - this class really is for complete beginners - covers fruit and veg and also the principles of working with natural processes - fascinating and fun. More details and tickets for all my classes via Eventbrite link below.

FRUIT TREE PRUNING - coming up Saturday 31st January 2026, also covers basic principles of forest gardening and permaculture.

WOODWORKING NEWS

...NEW...EVENING CLASS...

Our first date went really well, it's just a two hour class but that's time to show lots of different techniques and for people to get in some useful practice. I'll run these regularly, next date is Thursday 2nd October - 5pm to 7pm

...SPECIAL OFFER...REPEAT DISCOUNT...

FOR BASIC WOODWORK CLASSES ON 18TH OCTOBER AND 7TH DECEMBER

I'd like to encourage people to do my Basic Woodwork class more than once - they're small classes so I can set you up with something else to make to suit your experience, and give you plenty of support as ever. This class is now £118.80 but I'd like to offer a special price of £99 for repeaters for either these two classes - please email me directly if you'd like to take up the offer: ianecowatt@gmail.com

...ALSO... HEALTHCARE AT INVERQUIECH

I'd like to pass on some of the experience I picked up from my complementary healthcare career - come and learn about gently effective Craniosacral Energy Therapy at Inverquiech, near Alyth, Sunday 5th October. Inverquiech is a magical setting for this, we also run retreats there alongside all our permaculture activity.

Kate's yurt - a brilliant setting for all sorts of healthcare events

MORE DETAILS AND BOOKINGS VIA THE LINK

IAN'S PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS ON EVENTBRITE 

See you soon! Very best wishes, Ian

GARDEN MAGIC AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM

Right from the start, we thought that teaching would be a major role for us at Perth Community Farm, and that's exactly how things have turned out. We don't try to grow tons of stuff to sell, but we do grow as wide a range of fruit and veg as we can and focus on showing people how to do the same in their own gardens. (We share out the produce among us volunteers - there's a lot at the moment! - and give away any surpluses to various charities).

We teach in an informal way - people are welcome to drop in on our regular volunteers' day, Wednesdays 11 to 3, to look round, and lend a hand. There's always loads of different things at various stages of growth to see. I also run more formal courses in gardening (also fruit tree pruning/small scale woodland management and more):

NEXT GARDENING COURSE 10TH AUGUST

Woodwork for Beginners - using more greenwood

 A few photos from a Basic Woodwork course back in July and a few new ideas we've been playing with at Inverquiech.

It's always brilliant helping beginners to make something from scratch they can take home. We've been using more greenwood, hazel, willow, sycamore and oak, it's fun exploring ways of jointing it and combining it with plywood and other machined wood.

A big part of my sustainable living philosophy is thinking up ways to produce the things we need with what's growing or lying unused locally. Learning the skills for that makes us more resilient - and it's fun too :-)