Category: Forest schools

Children, Firewood, Forest schools, Life with a toddler, Podcast, Woodland, Woodwork, Working the land

What we do Wednesday!

Ellie

How to process firewood!! Well how we collect and process it!! 😂

You can find a short video here of what we do!!!

Someone LOVES the chainsaw helmet!!!

Especially the visor!!! 😂

And whilst the chain saw was out!! Himself chopped me up some logs to make a log circle in the littlie’s forest school area!

baby, Children, Forest schools, Garden, Life with a toddler, Working the land

Building play areas!

Ellie

So in order to get anything done with Mr Whirlwind around he has to have things to occupy him!!! So gradually using and repurposing things around the farm and planting and making etc I am building a play area…. or lots of bits of play area

Inadvertently with some of the digger work that has been done we have created areas he enjoys playing in already… like the one wet muddy ditch!!!

Anyway what we’ve managed so far!!

A water play wall…

Car ramps and the dry ditch!!

We’ve made space for some outdoors toys…. started planting willow to make some structures….

A teepee, a tunnel etc etc…. maybe eventually a maze given time after seeing the small maze at the Welsh Wildlife centre! They will all be made from a range of basketry willows so hopefully will all provide an additional crop for the farm for an income eventually or raw materials for me to make things with!!

And the tractor tyres we acquired are positioned… now I just need to fill them and make some mini play zones!! For example a dinosaur swamp…. a digger/construction site… the possibilities are endless for the small world play!!

I have so many more ideas and I have created a Pinterest board or two of ideas which I plan to use about the place…. some close to the vegetable and fruit gardens some near to the flower gardens and orchard and some maybe for the wetter areas!! I plan to try to have something at all points to occupy and entertain and inspire the boys to explore, play and create!!

Here’s the links to the Pinterest boards if you want to look!!

Forest school board

Kids toys board

Gardening board

Craftiness, Firewood, Forest schools, Life with a toddler, Woodland, Working the land

What a week!!

Ellie

Well this week has been a whirlwind after our usual more sedate pace round here!!

Monday we were at the hospital for another growth scan and clinic….

Not a great photo but he is a larger baby than his brother and running out of space!!! (7 weeks till due date!)

Tuesday we caught up on some jobs here…. James collecting wood, helping a neighbour who is unwell, me sorting house cleaning/laundry etc!!

Wednesday James had some more wood collecting time and I had to race through a metric crap tonne of paperwork ready for a meeting with the FUW to help me fill in claims forms and field maintenance sheets…. AND for ANOTHER farm inspection…. We have had our SAF and maintenance payments for Glastir held up by the Welsh Government, both because we have been included in their audit…. where the inspectors get inspected!!! Yes total bad luck on our first year!!!!! Joy and because they had questions about some satellite imagery which again is a new thing this year…. well done us getting the double whammy!!!

So Thursday I trooped off to Carmarthen with folders worth of paperwork and completed a capital works claim, a field maintenance new online thing to alter my field boundaries now we have added the new hedgerows!! Plus take advice on becoming VAT registered etc etc!!

Raced home to grab some lunch…. then back out to the midwife!! (Now at the we want to see you every other week stage!) who bless her was running a smidge Kate and then I hotfooted it back to holding for the inspectors!!!

Well thankfully they were late and wanted to look at activity diaries first!! So I had time to get togged up for the field portion of their trip!! Thankfully everything was all good and to quote one of them “if only all inspections were this simple and straightforward!” Phew!!!

William and I then had Forest School on Friday which we both love!!

Then after lunch we collected my car from the garage all mot’d and driving like a dream again!!!

So we have had a week of interrupted naps….. short naps….. naps in the car…… and only one nap in his big boy bed!!

So no real crafty time *sob*

Managed a bit of spinning and a bit of sewing earlier in the week…

But it’s been scarily productive paperwork wise and farm wise…..

Now to spend today and tomorrow catching up with all the other jobs we need to get sorted!!!

Craftiness, Forest schools, Woodland, Woodwork, Working the land

A first try!!

Ellie

So a different sort of weaving has been happening here…..

A hazel hurdle is in the making!!!

We have decided to have a go to make some prettier panels to make the gaps into what was the old slurry pit and will be our fruit and vegetable garden, safe!! Hopefully child safe!!!!

James and I selected an old beam which was big and heavy enough to form the jig…..

Then whittled the ends of some larger hazel rods to make the uprights….. lots of our hazel is very overgrown so we are working with some very bobbly bits of wood, but using what we have!!

This took ages to sort…. the beam was OLD and rather solid to drill the holes into!! And some of the uprights, in order to get the straighter bits were a tad large in diameter!!

I’ve even found a use for the ash mallet I made on my forest school leader course!!! Fantastic for bashing down the hazel whips!!!

We are at the stage of weaving in the thinner whippier bits of hazel now and over half way up the panel!!

And I’m surprised how pleased I am with it!!! We both predicted this first go would be a disaster but no….. totally a usable panel!!!

Forest schools, knitting, Patterns, Woodwork, yarn

A little crafty update and a teaser for some shop updates this week!!

Ellie

So I have been knitting on Some Christmas socks and the wool is working out ok!

Then I’ve finished a project from the WIP wall of shame!!!! Yay!!!

Meet the leaf babies!!

So more about them later this week!!

Then I’ve been out in the workshop working on some wood crafts and pyrography….

Then for little Sirs Forest school group I’ve been asked to knit some elf clothes so the children can make some little elves!!

I finished proto elf last evening!! Along with a few other projects to be revealed later this week!!

So stay tuned this week for lots of shop updates and FO posts!!!

Building work, Craftiness, Forest schools, Woodwork

Crafty happenings

Ellie

Busy times again here as always it seems but now the workshop is nigh on finished and now functional!!!!! 

So I decided to crack on with a few jobs I’ve been planning for a while…..

Firstly, I made something to occupy the small human whilst we are in the work shop and to stop him porcupining all the available holes in workbenches etc with screws!!! 

A work bench!!


Then I decided it would be a good idea our home had a name sign!!! 

So I cleaned up a lovely chunk of hard wood, which incidentally used to be part of the old barn roof itself….


I marked out the lettering with a pencil and a stencil I printed off from the computer and cut out using a craft knife…. Then using my pyrography tool I burnt the name into the wood…. Currently I’m on the second coat of varnish of about seven!!!

So whilst I’m varnishing I’ve started another project for the boys!!! (As will be come March, bump two is a little boy!!) I am turning a dolls house Dad made and I roofed and painted…..


I used in my classroom for a few years as both a teaching resource and as a choice time activity/play resource…..

Now it starts its journey to being a barn for the boys to keep their toy tractors and farm animals in!!


Lots of craftiness, though not of my usual ilk!!!

Craftiness, Forest schools, Knitting and Crochet, Patterns, Sewing, Tyddyn Bryn on Etsy, yarn

The long time coming shop reopening!!!

Ellie

This Friday I will be reopening the shop with the yarns and patterns!!!!

I have done a yarny stock take…..


I have revamped my patterns…..

And have decided that Cheeky is 9 months!!!!! So it MUST be reopened come hell or high water!!!

So Friday!!!!!! Friday the 20th of January!!!!! 

Head over to Tyddyn Bryn on Etsy

And use the discount code 9monthsalready for 15% off until Friday 27th January

Then over the coming weeks I will be adding to the other shop sections….. 


Here is a sneaky peek at one of those sections