• Craft

    Woodturning Course

    Last week gave me a chance to get in the workshop and enjoy the reduced drafts and improved natural light, and I should mention the newly installed wood stove. I had a booking for a five day woodturning course with Walter who had little experience and wanted to rectify that. We started the week with spindle turning, in the morning getting to grips with rough turning square sections in to cylinders and then moving on to cutting beads and coves on the cylinders. In the afternoon we moved on to making the legs and a seat for a milking stool, this gets students working on the discipline of reproducing spindles…

  • Building & Renovation

    Workshop Renovation

    The first part of last week was spent installing windows in my workshop; I have a large workshop for Woodwork and more specifically Woodturning. I have been woodturning for 17 years now and teaching woodturning for more than 15 years, before moving to France I had purpose build workshop and gallery. We have always intended to convert what was the storage area in the barn for carts and stabling and a portion of the calf shed in to my workshop here.

  • Food

    Persimmon Tree

    Back in September a previous Permaculture design student and now loved and valued friend Erin helped out on our second Permaculture Design Certificate course here at Permaculture Eden. On departing Erin gave us 50€ as a donation to use as we wished, firstly we considered buying something practical like fencing wire, but later thought something more fitting for a gift of love would be more appropriate.

  • Movies

    Movie The Yes Men Fix the World

    Tonight Fiona & I watched” The Yes Men Fix the World” movie, whether you want to be more informed about global issues or you want to be entertained this movie will do it. I could give a quick synopsis of the story but it would just spoil all the surprises in store, suffice to say this movie highlight some of big issues we face in the world today.  The movie shows us how “The Yes Men” go about highlighting these issues and brining them to a global audience. Get more information about “The Yes Men” from their website www.theyesmen.org I hope you download and enjoy the film.

  • Animals

    New Pig feeding regimen

    We have been trying a little experiment here with our pig feed; we are not changing the feed just how we feed it to the pigs. We buy organic grain from one of our farming neighbours this is sometimes Barley and at other times Triticale (a hybrid of wheat & rye) both are used extensively for feeding pigs and one or the other is the largest component of most proprietary pig feeds. When you feed pellet feed to pigs most recommend a plentiful; supply of fresh water and this is important to help the pigs absorb their food and as much of its available nutrition as possible. We found just…

  • Animals

    Combining the Flock

    Today is the time to put the sheep back in to one flock the ram has been separated now for a couple of months to avoid lambs birthing in the depth of our winter. An old idea which persists to this day is that if you put the rams with the ewes on November 5th you will get your first lambs on April 1st this is a sensible idea the lambs are born at the time when the grass is in full flush of early spring growth. This way the lambs grow with the rising productivity of the grass on your land and are ready for sale or killing before…