As it has been a while - 5 years or so - I figured I may as well do the update!

Unchanging bits first: Still an antique restorer, still married to 
the same long suffering wife, still making a living using hand tools and sweat.

Changes: Back in April 2005, as some of you may recall, we bought a 
small farm in the south of Italy. I spent most of 2005 and all of 
2006 getting it habitable, learning more than I ever really wanted to 
know about stonework, septic tanks and cisterns ( we have 5 as there 
is no rain between end of March and end of September, so we catch all 
the rain we can and store grey water for garden use). Nearly all hand 
tool and grunt work as the power wasn't laid on for 6 months. Got the 
garden going, raising chickens, pheasant, quail and olives, plus a 
couple of fattening hogs per year. Once the farm was ticking over 
nicely, with a good friend basically running the farm side of things, 
I came back to London to carry on work here, the plan being one month 
on and one month off in the summer, winters in Italy. Unfortunately........

I am (now was) a reservist (Technically an OTC reserve, but never 
mind - if they can find you they will use you). Yep, you guessed it, 
6 weeks before I would be safe for all time, I got called up. A few 
weeks retraining, a few months in wonderful, sunny, cheerful Helmand 
province, and several months hospital time (and a rather interesting 
set of abdominal scars that look like a 3D map of the Alps) later, I 
make it back to the Porch.

Glad to get back to restoration, and luckily a lot of my previous 
clients have kept in touch with the missus and have been giving me 
contracts as fast as I can accept them. Apparently the farm needs 
some work, so I'll spend the winter here and get a little cash behind 
me, then head back and start the serious business of having fun again!

Been shopping on That Site a lot, as many of my tools seem to have 
vanished while I wasn't looking - unfortunately the rust hunting 
season is pretty much over here. Scored a nice infill a couple of 
days ago and a hollow auger tenon cutter (been after one for ages!) 
so looking forward to them arriving.

Many thanks for the kind messages welcoming me back and I hope to get 
back into the posting swing soon.

Mark

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