ChaMpion

the horse

All photos © Mike Abbott, except main picture above © Penny Rose. Mike Abbott describes how to make a modern from recycled , so you can ride off into the sunset and get green !

fter thirty years or more spent a few hours that summer Above: has stuck. It consists mainly of using shaving horses, chatting to Owen Jones, a Here’s one we of four 2.4 metre (8ft) lengths of A the occasion arose to swill-basketmaker, while he was made earlier. sawn, seasoned 100mm x 40mm have a total rethink of their sitting astride his shaving horse Champion the (4 x 2in) . The only design. I had always based my designed for gripping thin lumber horse other ingredients are a 50cm shaving horses on a 1.2 metre slivers of . It had a central in use at the (20in) length of roofing batten, (4ft) length of log, about 30cm arm slotted through a horizontal Sustainability a 40cm (16in) length of (1ft) in diameter, but I was platform and I had been inter- Centre. rod and 35 M6 turbo coach aware this is not the sort of ested in exploring this design. screws, 90mm long (although thing that most people have Despite my lifelong mission ordinary screws or nails would lying around the workshop. to persuade people of the be possible but far less fun). For some time I had wanted advantages of cleft, unseasoned Below: It can be made in less than a to come up with a design that , I ended up with Mike Abbott. couple of hours by almost used easily obtainable materials a design made out sawn soft- anybody, as can be seen by the – for people without access wood beams. It needed a name photos taken at a session of to woodlands. While recently and when I used the term our youth club in our local erecting a new workshop I ‘lumber horse’, it rung a village, Bishops Frome. discovered the effectiveness of bell from my childhood TV In future, I intend to use using cordless to drive viewing – Champion the locally grown Western Red modern coachscrews into Wonder Horse – and the name Cedar, which should work as softwood beams. I had also ‘Champion the Lumber Horse’ well, if not better than the stock

40 Permaculture Magazine No. 61 www.permaculture.co.uk www.permaculture.co.uk No. 61 Permaculture Magazine 41 Stage 1: Fix a bed section to front leg, riser and spacer. Stage 5: Fix the rear leg brace to the rear spacer.

Stage 2: Fix the first part of the platform. Stage 6: Fix the rear leg brace to the rear legs. from the timber yard. My which is fairly easily done with assistant Tom assures me that an electric , a brace and bit a ten minute sortie through the or a bar auger. skips along most urban streets would easily yield sufficient Assembling the main body: raw materials for the job. There 1. Fix one section of the bed to are no precise joints needed the front leg, the central riser and the only woodworking and the back spacer, using just skills involved are the ability to one screw at each joint. wield a hand- and a drill. I suggest you use the sequence 2. Fix one of the platform illustrated but there’s no reason sections to the tops of the front why you shouldn’t assemble it leg and the riser so that it is any way that takes your fancy. about parallel with the body Stage 3: Fix second part of the bed and platform. section. The holes in the platform Stage 7: Fix the rear legs to the seat. Making Champion should be positioned as illustrated. the Lumber Horse Pre-drilling the holes: 3. Turn the whole assembly over You are going to need several and lay it down with the riser 25mm (1in) holes in the plat- about to the bed and with form and arms of the horse. the front leg sloping. Fix If you have the use of a pillar the other sides of the bed and the drill and/or a bench vice, you will platform with a couple of screws probably find it easier to drill the at each joint. Take care that the holes before assembly, in which screws are not right at the end case drill two holes in each of any components, as they section of the platform and three would be likely to split the wood. in each arm as illustrated. You may rather drill these holes once 4. Fix the rear seat component Stage 4: Fix the rear seat section. the horse has been assembled, to the back of the body. Stage 8: Fix the remaining seat sections.

42 Permaculture Magazine No. 61 www.permaculture.co.uk www.permaculture.co.uk No. 61 Permaculture Magazine 43 8. Fix the remaining seat comp- and the arms should be smaller onents into place. than 25mm.

9. Screw the top bar onto the ◗ If you need to transport the arms so that the gap between horse, the rear leg assembly can the arms is about a couple of be easily removed by simply centimetres wider than the removing the few screws that LES PORCS width of the platform. Now hold the tops of the legs to fix the footrest (which could the seat and the leg brace to the be another 50cm length of rear spacer. 4 x 2in, a strong length of 2 x IN PERMACULTURE 1in or anything in between). ◗ You could trim the angles off the tops and bottoms of the legs 10. Lift up the front of the horse, but the tops of the back legs can slide the frame into place and be very handy as a bench-stop pivot it with a short hazel when the horse is in use. rod, a length of dowelling, a length of broom-handle or a tooLs neeDeD: specially made 21mm (7/8in) ◗ An electric drill, mains or cord- wooden pin. This should be less (or a brace or a bar auger) tapered at one end to make it ◗ 25mm (1in) easier to poke in when adjusting the gap. ◗ 8mm (5/16in) hex nut driver (or a hammer if using nails) And now you can ride off into ◗ Handsaw 5. Fix the leg brace to the rear Previous page: the sunset, ready to make a whole ◗ Tape measure spacer against the underside Main lumber host of wooden artefacts. ◗ Pencil of the body. horse frame construction notes ◗ An accomplice (Roy Rogers) 6. Stand the horse up in the air diagram and ◗ An alternative is to use a single to hold things, or a good cramp onto the two back legs with the standard twin arm ( see illustration top left), ◗ A couple of low benches tops of the legs just protruding swinging arm best held together with strong All photos © S & G Anderson above the seat and fix the leg diagram. bolts partly for strength and Mike Abbott runs regular green brace to the legs with one screw also so that it can be taken to woodworking and chairmaking Stuart and Gabrielle Anderson share their experience of raising pigs at each joint. bits to fit into the platform. The courses (see advert page 64). arm will also need to be planed He is the author of ‘Living and how you too can be as happy as pigs in permaculture. 7. Stand the horse on its feet a few millimetres thinner to Wood’, a book which details and fix the top of each leg to Above: move freely. many of his improved wood- ave you a place for pigs in your GETTING STARTED animals. These two provide a conduit the end of the seat component. Alternative working devices and projects. permaculture plan? As meat As permaculture pigs, they’ll be out for dispensing official advice and infor- Then making sure the legs are single swing- ◗ Another alternative is to pivot It is available from The Green Heaters ourselves, we want our working the land, rather than cooped mation and coordinating action; absolutely splaying equally, drive another ing arm the arms with a metal pin or Shopping Catalogue, price food to have been as ethically, sustainably up in concrete barns, so they will need essential when you consider epidemics screw through each leg into the construction large coach screws, in which £16.95 + p&p. 01730 823 311 and humanely raised and slaughtered a bit of rough pasture, which could be like foot and mouth. There are some good leg brace. diagram. case the holes in the platform www.green-shopping.co.uk as possible. Whilst local organic and rented, rather than owned. You must books, such as Starting With Pigs by Andy free-range meat is available we’ve taken have a minimum of two as they are Case and Black’s Veterinary Dictionary the next step and now keep our own social creatures and need company. but we have still been faced with many animals. As well as enabling us to be res- To their list of other essentials add questions and we’ve benefited from ponsible for their raising and slaughter, housing, fencing, shelter and shade from forging friendships with other local it’s given us a deeper understanding wind and sun, drinking water and a pig keepers, including farmers. of all that’s involved in putting meat place to wallow. Stock fencing can be on the table and learning how their expensive and hard work but many of INPUTS & OUTPUTS needs, habits and outputs fit into our the other items are easily created with To justify including pigs in our perma- permaculture design. a bit of imagination and improvisation. culture design, we should analyse their Raising animals doesn’t inevitably In return, you will get some of the best inputs and outputs honestly. The most require acres of land. Both chickens pork you’ve ever tasted. difficult aspect is their diet, as pigs and rabbits can be humanely kept in a Assembling a network of knowledge are conventionally fattened up eating town garden and the responsibility for and assistance is invaluable and a good cultivated cereals. As we enjoy pork and larger animals could be shared with vet essential. In Europe, it’s obligatory bacon, our challenge is to reduce the others in terms of both time and space. to register with the local office of the pig’s reliance on such food. Stage 9: Fix the top bar and footrest to the arms. Pigs are the archetypal smallholders’ animal health and welfare organisation For beginners, buying weaners is beast – could you imagine yourself (DEFRA in the UK) even for a private the way to go. We take delivery of ours Stage 10: Pin the arm in place and you’re done. going the whole hog? person keeping just a couple of farm in the spring, so over the months that

44 Permaculture Magazine No. 61 www.permaculture.co.uk www.permaculture.co.uk No. 61 Permaculture Magazine 45