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 :-)

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS - course at Perth Community Farm - 10th August

This course covers the real basics to get you started on your gardening adventures, whether you're starting with a windswept concrete slab or acres of overgrown jungle. Find out about sowing seeds, potting up seedlings, propagating from roots and shoots, growing in tunnels and outside, compost making and much more - we'll also look at the basic woodwork you need to make raised beds etc. These are small classes, so we can look at plans and photos from your own gardens and hopefully give you the sort of advice that might save you hours of labour...

Sowing seeds

MORE ABOUT THE COURSE AND BOOKINGS HERE: GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 

Bit of Gardening News...

A VISITOR FROM THE GARDENING COURSE IN MARCH

It was brilliant to see Sian from the gardening course in March, she's helping on a couple of our volunteer Wednesdays. Here she is with the tatties and onions they planted on the course, now almost fully grown. That's a picture of her own flourishing garden on her phone, of which she is rightly proud :-)
 

KEEPING ON TOP OF THE WEEDS...

Everything's growing like mad at Perth Community Farm... including the weeds of course. We have various non-chemical ways of keeping a bit of a check on them with mulching and cover crops etc but at the end of the day there's always some hand weeding to do. Still the farm has probably never had such a big area in production before and there's some great crops coming along.

MORE WOODINESS AT INVERQUIECH FARM

It's great to be set up and running courses for the Summer and Autumn with Kate at Inverquiech Farm again. (Perth Community Farm is also a brilliant venue - especially for the Winter and Spring months when using the bigger polytunnel as a workshop gives us plenty of light and even warmth if there's any sun at all - and I'm planning to move operations back there come the shorter, colder days again. It's fascinating to work at the two places, one right in the city and the other right out in the woods).

THE BIGGER SUSTAINABLE PICTURE

Inverquiech is a lovely place to visit, perched well off the beaten track where the Alyth burn meets the River Isla. People can see many of the aspects of sustainable living happening there, food growing as well as our woodwork, all in a beautiful woodland setting. I firmly believe that it's small projects like this, with a bit of land and woodland, where we'll be able to develop and show people the ideas, designs and techniques that will help people all over the world to adapt to whatever is around the corner...

CUURENT COURSES AT INVERQUIECH

I have lots of woodworking courses coming up, including some new ideas, of course... ALL CURRENT COURSES HERE.

Another class on the popular Basic Woodwork One course, I'm always delighted to see how much fun everyone has and how they often surprise themselves by making something from scratch with very little or no experience.

NEW AGE PENSIONER DEFIES WORLD GLOOM !!

At the grand old age of 71, I find that all the experience and skills I have gathered during a working life of guitar-making, kitchen design and fitting, property development, eco-adventuring, farm joinery and complementary therapy are now most satisfyingly relevant to our crazy times...

I've built up a business over the last six or seven years running courses in skills for sustainable living - simple woodwork with hand tools only and organic gardening. It's inspiring and heartening to see people with no previous experience make something from scratch or take those first vital steps in their own gardens.

In spite of the awful news from around the world I feel hopeful about the future. My business is part of a growing network of small holders, farmers, gardeners, healthcare workers and many others, working away out of the mainstream media spotlight, people getting together at a local level, building up food security and resilience, making friends, helping each other, developing and exploring how to live a more Earth-friendly and people-friendly way of life… or just getting out and having fun.

ANOTHER BATCH OF COURSES HATCHES OUT :-)

PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS FOR CRAZY TIMES
It's brilliant that our courses - all centred around the nuts and bolts of everyday sustainable living - have been so busy, building up over the last couple of years. It's great for me too that pretty much all the practical experience I've picked up over the years is now so relevant in our crazy times.

SHED MAKING SKILLS COURSE

There's obviously not enough sheds in the area... this course sold out twice really quickly so I've set up another date for it SHED MAKING SKILLS 22nd/23rd FEB 25

** BRAND NEW COURSE ** MAKE YOUR OWN WORKTABLE **
This is another whole weekend course, students will make their own worktable to take home with them, all materials supplied, an improved version of the 2x trestle and top set up which has been so versatile and useful over the years at Perth Community Farm and at Inverquiech, strong but light enough to pop in the back of the car. Course cost of £279 includes all new quality wood for everyone: WORKTABLES 8th/9th MARCH 25

SHED MAKING SKILLS - LINKS AND STUFF

SHED MAKING SKILLS - new course at Perth Community Farm

This was a brilliant weekend - great to see people without much experience working together to make a sound structure - then feeling competent to start planning and building their own sheds and extra rooms. Well done everyone!