!! RETIREMENT !! ... sort of ...

Yes, at the grand old age of 73, with creaking brain and joints - being a hippy has a different meaning for me now - I've decided to finish up my current Eventbrite teaching business. It's the last in the line of businesses I've had going right back to 1976 and includes guitar making and repairing, property development, a furniture and kitchen business, complementary healthcare, and loads and loads of voluntary work on eco projects all over the place, all leading up to running classes - 137 classes and 504 students through Eventbrite alone.

SO MUCH FUN

The best bit of the classes has been meeting all these wonderful people and showing them some useful stuff - very empowering for them, they're kind enough to say. I've met so many amazing people in the course of 50 years of work - including hundreds of crazy guitar players.... what a great bunch! 
It is a bit of a wrench to finish up, being self-employed all that time becomes part of your identity. However... I'm just packing up formal teaching and not hanging up my machete completely...

TINY HOUSE TWO - DOOR AND WINDOWS

In between storms and rain, we've got Tiny House Two at Inverquiech fitted with its door and windows. I had to reduce the height of the door, (because I'd forgotten to allow for the fascia boards and gutters), so made it into a stable door while I was about it.

Tiny House Two is becoming a very pleasant space! and it's been great to work away in the better weather.

SHED BUILDING SKILLS - DUCK HOUSE - 29TH/30TH AUGUST 2026

I've just set up another shed building course at Perth Community Farm, for the weekend of 29th/30th August 2026. Cost is £199 per place - max 5 places so plenty of individual attention and everyone can learn at their own speed. Our practice piece for this will be a duck house - which is a bit of a memory lane venture for me as this was one of the first eco projects I made way back in 2008 with Sue and Tober at Tombreck Farm on Loch Tay. SHEDS AUG 26 ON EVENTBRITE HERE 

My duck house for Tombreck Farm, Ben Lawers in the background

THOUSANDS OF BABY TREES

I remember thinking, long long ago in my guitar making days, that it would be wonderful to have a tree nursery.... and that's as far as the idea got. So it's wonderful, after all these years, to be helping out on a very special project growing native tree species from seed gathered in the wild: DARROCH NURSERIES.

Moving seedlings outside to get used to the weather - they still have some protection from the wind though

TINY HOUSE NEWS

 We grabbed the opportunity in some of the very few dry days in Jan/Feb to crack on with getting Tiny House Two at Inverquiech wind and water tight. Here it is with all its roof sheets, door and the last of the charred oak supporting posts:

I was very glad to have Mary's help with the roof sheets - definitely a two person job!

GARDENING AND WOODWORK CLASSES COMING UP...

I've set up some classes for the first few months of 2026 - they're all ideal for people with little or no experience. My big mission is to help beginners to take those first steps - it's never as complicated as it can seem and I make it all as simple and fun as possible :-) All these classes are at Perth Community Farm, an excellent teaching venue if ever there was one.

HERE'S THE DATES, MORE DETAILS AND BOOKINGS VIA THE LINKS: 

FRUIT TREE PRUNING The basic why's and how's of fruit tree pruning - looking after trees and woodland generally - insight into working with natural processes.
Saturday 31st Jan 2026, £39 per place

POLYTUNNELS  Let you grow a much wider range of food  AND are excellent as workshop, teaching and meeting spaces.

Saturday 7th Feb 2026, £39 per place

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS Everything you need to know to get started in growing your own healthy, fresh, delicious, local food and general garden management.

1st March 2026, £39 per place

WOODWORK TWO Go over basic skills and learn some more advanced ones - from inlay and fretwork to using greenwood poles and wood finishing. 

Saturday 7th March 2026, £118.80 per place

COMPOST MAKING Find out how to convert household waste into useful material for your garden. Sunday 8th March 2026, £25 per place

BASIC WOODWORK  learn to use simple, versatile hand tools for home and garden projects.
Sunday 22nd March 2026, £109 per place

TINY HOUSE TWO - PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

We've been making this second tiny house for Inverquiech over three shed making courses, two at Kate's and one at Perth Community Farm, so it was a bit of a relief when it all fitted together so snugly. 

Brilliant volunteer, Resourceful Dave, and I were lucky to get a three day gap in the recent storms. We made the last bits for it, the trusses and purlins, then put the whole lot together.

I'm smiling because however much I draw plans and check and recheck measurements its always a bit of a relief when things work in real life.

!! 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 :-)

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!