It's been a while since my last post....

During Spring I have been working mainly on the four back gardens and trying to decorate the stairs and landing. This work will be on other future posts.

 Today however, I needed to tackle the garden at the front of the house or the field it had turned into. There were weeds and thistles the size of plants which required removed by the roots. As well as clearing the weeds from the front and sides of the house.

 Then once you start one outside project a new one rises from the weeds. It took a few hours to get it turned around but I've managed to get it looking a lot better. Manual labour from kids under 3 is always a useful tool. 😁

Follow pictures and other bits on our Instagram and Twitter accounts- @homemadedad 

Homemade dad's......Learning tower

In recent weeks Finley and I have been doing a bit of baking. I would set him on a kitchen chair and let him play with ingredients and help me bake some cakes and buns. But, I would be restless because I would always have to be keeping an I on Finley as well as the food, to make sure he wasn't standing to close to the edge of the chair.

I had seen this hack online and had wanted to get one built once I was off work for a few weeks holiday. Once I started my first week off, I wanted to make this one of my first projects to get completed, so that he could cook along side me from the get go.

So on my last day at work I picked up a few pieces to get the job done.

I picked up two stair spindles, a piece of 3 by 1/4 inch ply and a 18mm dowel from B&Q. Then across to IKEA to pick up a wooden stepstool.

First thing to is to build the step part of the stool, this is relatively easy to do, as you're just following the IKEA instructions. Once you get yo this part leave off the top step.

This is were it gets a little tricky. The two wooden spindles are cut in half. The middle supports, I drilled out two holes either side and fitted wooden towels. The top supports, I drilled straight through and uses long support screw which I already had from an old wardrobe that we had in our old home. This has given it a great strength. I drilled through the top step in each corner to attach the spindles, (with the same furniture screws) then attached the middle supports and then finishing with the top support.

Master Finley testing out the tower. He loved being able to get up and down all on his own.

I didn't have a 20mm drill bit, so I had to wait a few days till my mum and dad (AKA Granny & Grandad) cane up to visit. I would definitely recommend drilling out the back dowel support before fitting as it was a bit of a pain to get sorted. I took Finley a wee while to get used to the adjustment but after he did, he was up and down in no time. This is ideal for getting the wee ones involved with cooking in the kitchen and we are looking forward to using it many times in the coming months.

Follow pictures and other bits on our Instagram and Twitter accounts- @homemadedad 

Homemade Dad......Smile

Its back to our more traditional Northern Ireland summer of rain. Althou when I say summer we are fast approaching Autumntime and "scarf season"! This is a wonderful time of the year, the fog and mist starts to come in and slight chill hits the air. I have started with the light scarves to get me slowly into the season.

I took the pups out for a walk the other night to the old abandoned salt mines, which is local to me and the Blackberries are out in force now. So I went for a bit of a forage and got a bumper crop of first berries. To freeze ready to get some jam made.

In the next few days when I take Finley to visit his Granny and Grandad, I'll be looking to collect a pile of crab apples, to make crab Apple and lavender jelly. This year's crop are looking good.

Apart from my other drawn work, I am currently working through my Christmas countdown comic strip, which will start from the First of December and countdown till Christmas Eve.

So if you would like to visit the page and add a like, please do. 

https://www.facebook.com/SantaandRuudy/

If you enjoy Christmas and a good laugh. My comicstrip begins again on the 1st December. Click now, so not to miss any. TY! 😊

As always you can catch me at all time of the day on Twitter - @homemadedad 

Homemade Dad......We must find time

Follow me on Twitter- @homemadedad 

Homemade Dad......Open Tabs

Hey all, I definitely have been slacking with the blog posts off late, and it's not even as if I've been overly busy either.

I have been noticing that I am struggling to get viewers and I suppose that has knocked the confidence of the blog, as I put a lot of myself into each post without that many people getting to see it. I would get somewhere between 30 and 40 viewers and I had thought this would grow with daily posts but it never seemed to help. I know that my blog won't be everyone's cup of tea but I had thought that after a few years it may have grown into a few more followers.

None the less, I will endeavour to keep on trucking with the blog, cause someone needs to spend a few minutes each day reading what I have to think about live.

Twitter- @homemadedad

Coffee Break sketch......To my Son

A day off spent with my son, out in the country at mum & dad's aka Granny & Grandads.

The sun is shining, the coffee is never far away and I'm sitting outside relaxing.

@homemadedad 

Homemade Dad......the front garden clear up (at last)

The small garden at the front of our home has be neglected since we've moved in, the inside was the main concern over the later Autumn, winter and much of the Spring months getting everywhere decorated and the way we want it (still many wee things still to be finished off 🙄).

So when I have had a chance to get into the gardens, I have mostly be working on developing the back ones. Starting on the vegetable garden and building a pagoda which also needs finishing but is well on its way to completion. Leaving the front garden to get the occasion grass cut and that was about it.

It was starting to get really unsightly, so on Sunday I decided it was time to face the issue head on and to get it looking at least respectable. 

We had a few near misses with major pile ups, but they managed to survive.

My very keen helper hard at work.

Getting the ground work done, amazing how a few hrs can make a difference to the way the garden looks. 

Now you may not notice the difference from before I started the days graft but this has been a good tidy up. I have finally managed to get the Christmas tree planted that we brought with us last year when we moved here. That was planted three days ago and fresh buds are already growing, so that move from pot to earth looks to have worked.

These bushes have been trans-planted (like that pun?) from what is turning into the vegetable garden to the front garden, to hopefully grow and give some coverage to the right side of the garden, which is open to the elements.

I managed to save a few Lavenders from being skipped. They are at this moment, looking a bit worse for wares but I am hopeful that by being planted here they will start to flourish. 

The Christmas tree from the pathway.

The machinery from the building squad.

Hope you have enjoyed todays blog and if you would like to leave a message that would be awesome. All links and shares help the blog grow!

@homemadedad