16 Comments
User's avatar
Jamie's avatar

I love foot powered stuff - I dream of a pole lathe in the woodland, but some twat would 100% thieve it.

Walter Egon's avatar

Luke Clawson built one that’s not too bulky:

https://substack.com/@clawsonwoodworking/note/c-258187286

Maybe you could roll it in and out of your workshop and use it in your garden?

Jamie's avatar
4dEdited

If I had more space at home that would be excellent but I basically have three foot of functional space in there and one foot is being taken up with sheet goods for cabinets I need to build (and should have build three months ago) for this office. The shame stares at me every time I go to get my saws out.

Walter Egon's avatar

I was thinking ...

Turning greenwood on a treadle-lathe makes no dust and hardly any noise. I'm sure your wife would let you do that in your living room. And the scent of freshly cut wood would imbue a certain ambiance ... she'd love that :-)

Jamie's avatar

and the cats can chase the shavings. It's a win win. I'll get cracking on that tonight.

Vivian Evans's avatar

Neo-Luddite: yep, count me in! I can offer sewing/dressmaking - knitting - crochet - gardening (organic, no pesticides) and cooking ... sorry, my baking isn't quite up to scratch. All skills learned and honed over decades. So in a pinch we can sit on Walter's chairs, at his table, and I can clothe and feed y'all, and never mind my arthritis.

Walter Egon's avatar

That sounds lovely! I suggest we relocate to a wide valley full of oak, beech and walnut trees, with a lazy river wending its way through it. We should have an orchard with apples and pears (so I can make cider and Calvados), and beehives and a sizeable kitchen garden. The flower-garden shall be your domain. A woodshop, of course … and we better have a small sawmill too, while we’re at it. And the house must have a proper working kitchen. In fact, we’ll need a whole village full of useful people :-)

Vivian Evans's avatar

You forgot a couple of cows (Jersey, if possible) and pigs (life without bacon is impossible) and hens and a cockerel. Also sheep ...

I'll do the flower garden, of course, but also the herb garden - also good for various medicines - and the veggie garden. After all, I did plant and grow potatoes, leeks, beans, peas, cabbages when I had my allotment ... Oh, and some berry bushes, like gooseberries and raspberries, You can make wine from them.

You can make rakes, spades, hoes and seed drills ...

Yes, we definitely need a village of useful people. A blacksmith, some spinners and weavers ... and someone to deal with the bees - I'm not touching them!

Walter Egon's avatar

We might as well found a colony or establish a new republic somewhere :-)

Dreamlandia?

Vivian Evans's avatar

Nah - establishing a republic means politics which are time consuming. A small colony in some valley would be better. As for a name - something descriptive, like 'Oak Valley' or 'Forest Vale' ... of course there'd be a mountain at the end of the valley from which that river springs, so perhaps 'River Forest'...

Walter Egon's avatar

Wise counsel ... we're better off without politics.

As for a name, I'll have to sleep on it :-)

Brennan Wierzba's avatar

Guilty as charged

Rob Nichols's avatar

Cripes - I thought you'd made Neo-Luddite up, but there's a Wikipedia page (so it must be true https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism).

Walter Egon's avatar

Hehe ... I seldom make stuff up (but I sometimes grant myself a modicum of poetic license)

If you found the Luddites interesting, you might want to check out the Saboteurs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabotage