sutton046

Sometimes it is a nice change to leave behind the workshop environment and the making of fine furniture to indulge in a bit of carpentry. You know, the rough stuff... I was recently in Violet Town, two hours north east of Melbourne, Victoria, building extensive decking, pergolas, and a verandah for some good friends, Kaye and Ro. From the ground up, the task would be completed with the laying of nearly a kilometre of decking! With just over two weeks to do the job, my plan was to tell the story on this posting as I go. However the problem was I was often so busy I forgot to take pictures! It was an ambitioous task in many ways....... Straight into it! I flew into Melbourne arriving at 11.30am, and was picked up by Ro. We drove the 2.5 hours to Violet Town, arriving on site just in time to help unload the big truck delivering the timber, concrete stumps, and other hardware I had ordered a few days beforehand using my copy of the plans. What timing! After the truck had...

I recently spent a whole Sunday doing woodwork with both kids and adults concurrently at "The Great Re-skilling" which was held at CityFarm in Perth Western Australia. It was a big day, and heaps of fun. Organised jointly by Permaculture WA, Transition Towns WA and Perth City Farm, the Great Re-Skilling was a day dedicated to reclaiming sustainable lifestyles, creating resourcefulness for a low carbon future, building community and shared vision and celebrating 30-plus years of Permaculture in WA. Why “Eco-woodwork”? (not my term, but it fitted pretty well.) I guess it relates to the fact that all of the timber we used was waste – recycled and pre-used, offcuts from building sites (the pine), plywood from old drawer bottoms and packing boxes, jarrah from old pergolas and wall framing, etc. Also most of my benches are made from recycled materials (mostly jarrah), and all of the work at the event was done using hand tools and good old fashioned hand skills. No electricity, just...

A recent job I had was to recycle some church pews. This church has more long straight pews than they need, as the front of the church and the sanctuary area are soon to be modernised somewhat. Shorter pews will enable the front half of the church to be arranged more into curves and be able to be put back into straight rows as required for traditional weddings etc. Improved flexibility and versatility are the aim. So my task was to make three smaller pews from longer ones, as a trial run. The congregation may have many more recycled in this way if they feel it will suit their requirements. With my Mum's 80th birthday on 8th May, our home is pretty full. My parents are up from Augusta for the gathering, and my daughter-in-law with two of our grand kids from Tasmania are staying with us too. Dad and I worked on the pews together, with some help from the grand kids. So we had 3 out of 4  generations involved, aged from 80 to 52 to 4 and 2 and a half. You ...