May 17, 2025

At the start of the week I dismantled the cabinet that I built a few months ago. I learned a lot from making it, it was relatively good at storing all my tools, but I just thought it was super ugly and I didn’t like hanging the tools on the doors; they moved around a lot as I opened and closed them. I wanted drawer storage instead. Initally I thought I’d try to make the drawers myself again, but was worried that I wouldn’t like the look of that either… And drawers are just as large and difficult a project as the cabinet. So in the end I bought a bureau with a chest of drawers off facebook marketplace that I could use as storage and a much needed study/laptop desk. I love it and it fits 80% of my tools. The rest I’ve managed to fit in the workbench. Love it. 

I kept all the plywood from the dismanteled cabinet, I’ll be reusing it to make other smaller projects. I already made a harvest basket with a crocheted netting. I painted the inside to hide some flaws, but overall I think it looks great. I’ll probably make a second one with a slightly different design. So far so good! It only took about two days to make it.

The other wood-make of the week is a ring toss game that was on my to do list. Very simple, two planks joined with a half lap joint, no glue as needs to be disassembled to pack away. I cut some bamboo sticks and made hemp rings. I also bought a pyrography pen, which I’ve been thinking about for a while, to etch in the scores for each pin. There’s definitely a lot of skills involved in wood burning, and I did a very crude job, but not a bad start!

I wove a few more obelisks with willow sticks and bamboo for the tomatoes growing in the garden. They take about 20 minutes each, pretty easy. I’ll wait until the tomato plants are a bit bigger before I install the obelisks. 

Of course, I visited the field, after a week away. I went twice this week. The grass and weeds were getting very long and that stressed me out. I bought a push lawn mower (no power) and tried that out. It was… difficult. It would work quite well probably on a nice flat lawn, but on a bumpy field its very hard to push and if it loses momentum the blades stop spinning. It also doesn’t work on grass longer than say 20cm. I then quickly went to the garden centre and bought a strimmer - battery powered. This has worked out excellently. It cuts through long grass and weeds no problem. I have two batteries that last about 30 minutes each and then I need to charge it at home, but I much prefer this to petrol powered.

At first I was still a bit overwhelmed with how to go about cutting the grass. There’s no way I can cut a whole field with a strimmer. I needed to create pathways and just focus on keeping those clear. But how do I begin mapping it out when it’s hard to walk in any direction? I eventually figured it out after the first visit and some pondering, using these constraints: 

• create pathways that are most direct for common routes e.g. car to storage bins, or storage to campsite area. 
• create pathways that can access each tree in a more organic shape i.e. curved pathways.

Once I started with the obvious path, it all started coming together. On my second visit, I fished out loads of cardboard boxes from the bin of the local pub (next time I’ll ask permission as I got some comments), and usde that to lay down the path, then topped it with wood chips. My tree surgeon came with another delivery at some point when I was away. So awesome. I’ll need to gift him a harvest basket as his woodchips have been instrumental! The paths are looking so cool and it’s really starting to beautify the space and giving it structure for people to walk through. I’ll need to do a few more days work collecting more cardboard and builing the paths. Very happy to have found a system.

The other problem that I’m trying not to give up on is the water collection. It still hasn’t rained! The trees are hanging on so far, but some recently planted plants haven’t made it, and some berry plants I now see haven’t made it either. I put it down to watering. The trees are more important to not fail though. I had started on my upside-down umbrella idea; it’s still in the field unfinished, but the willow sticks have now dried out and I don’t have a way to soak them anywhere. I need a large tub, like 6-10ft long, filled with water. They need to be soaked to get supple enough to weave. 

After a few nights of pondering, I have a new plan. Make a trough for willow sticks to soak. This is something I definietely want on the field at some point as I want to do lots of willow weaving and basket making from the willow trees I’m growing. So the plan is to make a trough and then make a flat woven panel - with bamboo and willow, and position it on a decline to funnel rainwater into the trough. The flat panel will be much easier to make than an umbrella, and I can position it much lower to the ground, which minimises the wind bashing it around, instead of having to sit an umbrella on top of the water butts about 1.5 metres off the ground. It’s not solving my water butts, but it will hopefully collect a bit of rain water I can use for both willow soaking and plant watering. I feel like that’s a better place to start. I need to first make the trough out of timber and line it with tarp, then make the panel and fix it in place. 

Next week I’ll probably be doing more wood working and path making.

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