Cut-down casks

Another glorious day spent around the house. The kids had a great time playing in a wee paddling pool and generally running around in their underwear and bare feet.

While they played and enjoyed the sunshine, I was hard at work - I finally got round to painting these half-casks the other day with wood preserver, and today it was the turn of the black paint for those bands round the outside. They've only been stashed in my garage for THREE years waiting to be spruced up - I got them from the cooperage at the distillery I used to work in while I was off on maternity leave with wee D!

The apprentice coopers would practice making or rejuvenating casks, and these would then be swiftly sliced in half (or with the fat bit in the middle removed, otherwise they'd be GINORMOUS!) to make pretty planters for the staff... But you had to take them as they came - scruffy and used and bashed about, but then I guess you couldn't really complain at a fiver donation for a massive solid oak planter. It takes two of us to lift them...

I also de-weeded the majority of the monoblock and swept it all out - looking good. Got a bit of a sore back now though...