Featured Post - Landing Page

Landing Page

Eventbrite Link

CO2 levels

PRACTICAL SKILLS - COURSES SPRING 24

I've been developing a range of courses over the last few years to show people the practical skills that are really helpful whether you want to live more sustainably, be more self-sufficient, grow some food or just generally want to live life with a closer connection to the natural world. I pack a lot into these courses and make them light-hearted and fun too :-) They're all at great venues where you can see many different aspects of sustainable living in action. Coming up soon:

DRAWING SCALE PLANS made easy - and fun :-) 
at Cottage Three, Bridge of Earn, Saturday 11th May, 10.30am to 2.30pm

BASIC WOODWORK for complete beginners, women and men welcome
at Inverquiech Farm, Sunday 12th May, 10.30am to 2.30pm

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS at Perth Community Farm, Sunday 19th May, 10.30am - 2.00pm

LOTS MORE COURSES coming up, including a second level of woodwork and woodcarving:
FULL COLLECTION HERE

We pack in as much practical stuff as we can...

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM - March and April 2024

Charlotte Arno and I are putting on two gardening courses at Perth Community Farm - they really are for complete beginners! We'll go over everything you need to know to get started on your gardening adventure, growing healthy tasty food, reducing food miles and waste, and opening up a little window into the wonderful workings of Nature on your back door step.

MORE WOODINESS AT INVERQUIECH

FINALLY!.... after all the recent rain and flooding, and having to cancel one day and postpone another, we were able to put on a couple of brilliant woodworking courses at Inverquiech - a Basic Level One and a Woodcarving and Shaping course. 

Inverqueich is a great venue for our sustainable living events as people can see how all the stuff they learn fits into the bigger practical picture of living more lightly on our dear old planet home. 

A simple frame - but with nicely square-cut corners - great work for more or less beginners

AN AMAZING SMALL HOLDING PROJECT NEAR BRIDGE OF EARN

Here's a few photos I took at Chrissie's brilliant sustainable living/permaculture project the other day, a small holding near Bridge of Earn. (By the way, Chrissie is another woodworking student friend of mine). If ever there was an amazing demonstration of what's possible with a bit of observation and insight, lots of passion and energy, and access to land, this is it. The photos don't do Chrissie's work justice at all but I hope they'll give you a flavour of the place. 

Polytunnel, orchard/forest garden and tiny house in the background

ACCESS TO LAND

Chrissie and I chatted a lot about the issue of Access to Land. It's being discussed a lot at all levels here in Scotland and rightly so. We have a very strange situation in this country where a lot of our land is owned by just a handful of people, so where do we go from there if, like me, you feel that access to land is one of the keys to living sustainably? SEE PAGE: ACCESS TO LAND.

 YOU DON'T NECCESSARILY NEED TO OWN IT

Chrissie rents her small holding from a larger estate, they have a really good working relationship. In fact, she has been making such a great job of the area she currently manages that the estate are giving her the use of part of another field. Ruth and I have lived on two different projects in a work-in-lieu-of-rent arrangement with the farmers in both cases, more about all that here: THE LOG CABAVAN WAY

WOODWORK STUDENT BUILDS BRILLIANT SHELTER!

I always love to see how people can pick up a few new skills and not just run with them but go off at a gallop...

Charlotte did the first and second level woodwork courses with me and helped us to build the new shelter at Perth Community Farm. Now, with help from partner Chris, she's gone on to build her own brilliant outdoor woodworking space... Fantastic stuff!

Charlotte's garden workspace...