Crafty As Mr L!

 

My right arm has continued to be troublesome and achy so I’ve still been unable to craft this week.  It has been driving me crazy not being able to create!!  The physio has given me different exercises this week and I think they are slowly starting to make a difference. Instead of crafting, I’ve been focused on ‘eating clean’ and getting at least 30 minutes of exercise every day (spurred on by my latest read, The Exercise Cure by Jordan Metzl, MD).  I have an auto-immune based arthritis and changing to a Paleo diet a few years ago put my symptoms into remission.  You know what it’s like though – I started to feel better so being as strict with my diet slipped a little…. then a little more.  The physio has determined that the pain in my wrist is arthritic so that’s made me focus on what I can do to help myself again.  We’ve upped our fruit and vegetable intake to about 8-9 portions a day and I’ve been very strict about no dairy as I know that my body doesn’t tolerate it very well.  Mr L has been doing a modified Paleo diet; his includes bread, peanuts and beer!

Focusing more on veg has meant making the most of the tail end of the growing season in our veg patch.  We’ve not been quite so organised with successional sowing this year, so we’re down to beetroot, tomatoes, chillies and cucumber now.  And the squashes!  They are currently sunbathing on the swing seat to harden their skins to improve their storage time.

We’ve tried storing the squashes in the garage but I think it was too warm and lots rotted.  Last year we stored them in the cold frame but since it was down the bottom of the garden, it was harder to keep an eye out for rotting fruits and we also forgot to use them.  We’ve done a lot of work in our garden in the 5 years we’ve been here and had many deliveries which arrived on pallets, which got stacked up on the front lawn.  I think our record was 27 at one time!!  Mr L has been using them to build compost heaps and he made a very study log store with them a few years ago so I asked if he’d be able to make a pumpkin storage rack that we could keep by the back door.  He was up for the challenge!

He began with the sturdiest pallet for the base and cut it to size using his chain saw.  Boys and their toys!!

 

Next, he removed some long slats from another pallet for the uprights.  These were joined lengthways in readiness for the roof.

He cut sections from other pallets to make the roof.

Next, he added some shelves….

…and a coat of timber preservative.  The sides and back were lined with some sacking, some damp-proof membrane was stapled onto the roof and a piece of scaffold netting was secured to the top to keep out the worst of the rain.  Here’s the finished rack.

Top job, Mr L!