it was time for Men in Sheds again today and I managed to make it this time, avoiding the need for dentists and car mechanics. Hopefully this situation will continue, though with an intermittent fault in the car and a mouth full of ageing teeth nothing is guaranteed.

One of the members brought his lathe in today – he says it’s been gathering dust for the last twenty years so it looks like we’re already doing some good by enthusing people to take action. Once it was going he soon got back into the swing of things and turned out a replacement hammer shaft for one of the farm’s impressive stash of defective tools.

Later we covered the basics of bowl turning (is there no end to our ambitions?), spoke of mahogany, shellac and long case clocks.

There’s not been a dull day in the shed yet!