Bee House and Swedish Fishing Boat.

Eva has worked long and hard to make our gardens lush and attractive.  I would hazard to say that our garden is among the best in the neighbourhood. To have a good garden you need to have sun, water, good soil and bees.  Recently studies have shown that there are many solitary bees that need good places to live.  Yesterday K  finished his Swedish Fishing Boat and I started a bee house.

 If you are looking for a project that is low, low tech to do with a work shop learner this is it. The log is about 17 inches long and features holes of four different diameters.  This bee house is going to the family farm. I plan to make  more for our garden and various friend's gardens. I used the drill press for the bigger holes but used my corded hand drill for the other ones.  I have cordless drills, but when I am planning to drill that many holes in one place it is worth plugging the drill in. ( I like non fading power).

  Yesterday was also spent finishing the most recent boat.

  K opted for Swedish National Colours. His cousins live in Sweden and recently visited. This boat was our most complex project.  When we shaped the hull it under went sea trials to ensure that it floated evenly. This boar involved in all,  two control panels, controlling five separate lines, bow, stern, port,starboard and the boom. The lines are connected by string from the control panels to the two sunken pylons and then the boat.  It works in theory and in the mind of the eight year old inventor that designed it.  We spent three hard hours building the string control system, every time we got one thing working he wanted to add something else.  It makes me thing of "A Big Ball Of String"

 Without a shop filled with bits of wood, hooks, screws, sting, saws, drills,chisels, awls and all sorts of hand tools this project could not have happened.  

 cheers, ianw