Are you a fan of PAC-MAN, well let me introduce you to PAC-MAN Championship Editon DX+ by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
Lets just say it’s PAC-MAN on acid and steroids….for 2015, it’s brilliant…
Pay what you want, and Support Charity, over at Humble Bundle, time is running out, you’ve only got 5 hours before the deal runs out….
and it’s not honey….it takes 7kg of honey to produce 1kg of bees wax! Bees wax burns clean with no soot, so that’s why it was favored in Churches and Monasteries, because it does not stain the ceilings! and many say that’s why Monks kept bees! Wax candles are usually made from paraffin!
You can see Sheldon’s support of beeswax candles here:-
As the season, winds down, I’ve started to tidy up and render this years bees wax down for wax exchange. This is from bees wax, I’ve been collecting all year, after inspections, e.g. removed from hives, queen excluders, and other bits of brace comb. Later in the year, I’ll take this wax and exchange it for foundation at Thorne. Foundation is the starter strips we use for bees to use as a template to draw out their comb. Thorne just add this and blend this with their other sources to create the foundation, so no waste, and completely recycled!
Here are some fantastic pictures of the process at Thorne, when I was lucky enough to visit, and have a tour around the factory by Gill Smith (Director and Owner of Thorne), in their Centenary year (2013).
Don’t forget Thorne Rand Open and Sale Day – Saturday 17th October, 10am.
I returned to my childhood whilst watching the Punakha Tsechu. Watching stories unfold before my eyes, I started to believe in magic again, in demons and monsters, in angels and saints, casting away my cynical view on life. Bhutan is like that … it opens up the mind and soul!
by Lindsey
(PS Help Lindsey win her Holiday to Jordon, click here to vote: – http://www.onthegotours.com/feelgood/entry/Childlike-with-my-eyes-and-mind-wide-op)
Over five years ago, I purchased my first Dyson, and blogged here – I Thought My Carpets Were Clean Until I purchased a Dyson.
The big problem with the Dyson DC20, cylinder vacuum cleaner, it has a cord, and it’s very heavy, awkward to clean stairs, and very heavy to carry upstairs to clean the bedrooms, and landing….nothing wrong with it, and it’s just gone out of guarantee.
Honey sales have been good, so time for a new gadget, to help me (my new contract is to do the vacuum-ing around the house!).
After watching the TV Adverts, and reading all the reviews, I’ve decided to purchase a Gtech AirRAM K9 and Gtech Multi.
Gtech AirRAM K9 Cordless vacuum cleaner and Gtech Multi handheld
Gtech AirRAM K9 Cordless vacuum cleaner and Gtech Multi handheld
I placed the order with Gtech’s website on Sunday 19th July, and I was surprised it was not as automated as some websites, what I mean is, the email confirming your order, I never got one, one was never sent…and the Order Online, when I track it, is still sitting in Processing…..my other niggle, Gtech charge Credit Card holders 2% – this is a bit old fashioned! but they do not charge anything for Paypal, after a recent discussion by Martin Lewis about Paypal, Credit Cards and Losing your Section 75 Rights – this here Warning! Don’t use PayPal to pay on a credit card – I thought stuff Paypal on this one! But hey come on Gtech 2%, are you not making enough cash, to re-negotiate with the credit card companies!
yesterday, I was surprised to get an email from Interlink (sister company of DPD – I didn’t know this until today!) advising me I would get a delivery today from Gtech, and early this morning, as was advised Interlink would deliver between 13:57 – 14:57, and at 14:05 I was the proud owner of a Gtech AirRAM K9 and Gtech Multi.
So logistics and 2% CC charge aside –
Gtech AirRAM K9
Gtech Multi
WOW – these are fantastic – cordless, light, powerful, Dyson move over, there is a New Hoover King – Gtech! I’ve been vacuuming everywhere, until the charge they come with ran out, so both are on charge for four hours!
and they’ve got a fantastic new advert featuring music by Queen. (Freddie Mercury).
Here are some before and after pictures of my chili plants in the porch, where temperatures in the sun, get up to 58 degrees C!
June 14th
July 9th - Almost 4 weeks later
This is a picture of one of our tame Collared doves in the garden!
Collared Dove on bee hive
Not quite feeding out of my hand, but I’m sure it will soon. This was without zoom, I was that close, when I took the picture.
Last Saturday, I did my first honey stall, at a Local Produce Market at the local village hall, to support the local community. Lets just say it was a great success, and I will be ordering my new honey extractor in due course, with the proceeds! I also sold eggs, and plants from the Allotments.
Honey Stall at Yapham Village Hall
Honey Stall at Yapham Village Hall
Despite the slow start to spring, and the cold high winds we have experienced this spring, and lack of bees flying, I was surprised by the number of honey boxes or ‘honey supers’, I collected at the weekend for extraction. I’ve still go to go back to remove 4 honey supers, that the bees are not wanting to give up easily!!!
here’s a 1 minute video, of the extracted filtered honey, flowing into rectangular honey buckets to settle, before processing (creaming!) or jarring. None of the pollen is removed from my honey, only the wax bits, and bee parts. The water content of the honey in the comb and extracted was 16.5%, tested with my calibrated refractometer.
Selling Honey in the UK, is subject to the The Honey (England) Regulations 2003, an easier version is here The British Beekeepers Association Selling Honey Complying with the Law. Yes there is a Honey Law, and monitored by the Honey Police!
and it states “The water content of the honey must be not more than 20%.The higher the water content the more likely the honey is to ferment.”
So that’s what work goes into a jar of local honey from a British Beekeeper, spare a thought for that the next time, you pick-up a jar of “honey-syrup” from a supermarket! If you have never tasted honey from a local British Beekeeper, I’m afraid you have never tasted real honey.
The analogy I like to use is the difference, between a 21 years old single Scottish malt whiskey and a blended whiskey! The malt whiskey is the local honey, and the blended whiskey is the honey syrup from the supermarket, in this comparison.
So support British Beekeepers, and purchase a jar from your local Beek today!
6 'honey-supers' on my bee barrow!
Andy's Hives
Andy's Hives
Now that I have my new Catering Certificate, see this blog post, I’m scaling up the Honey Selling activities…first I purchased a ‘A Pavement board”, to replace my smaller Local Honey sign, and Lindsey kindly did the artwork. The artwork is Copyright (c) Andysworld! (well Lindseyworld!) 2015. So be warned anyone that downloads it, and uses it!
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Online Ordering coming soon….to a website near you!
I’ve been trying to get this blogged for a while, so here goes…
Here are the Cluster of 3D Printers – Ultimaker 2, now networked…, and they’ve been breeding…
Cluster of 3D Printers - Ultimaker 2
There was a Health and Safety issues, with the use of PLA (Polylactic acid), which is the filament we use in these printers, which I believe is derived from corn starch. The health and saftey issue, is possibly due to ultra fine particles in the air, and it suggests using 3D printers with PLA, be used in a room with high ventilation, so the printers were banned, from being used in individual offices, and all moved to a print room, with a high air change rate, e.g. extractor fan in the window, changing the air in the room.
So now the 3D Printers, we in another room, we needed to find a method to print remotely via the network, and also check the print job!
Enter OctoPrint, this is a networked web interface for a 3D Printer, print anything from anywhere, and also has the ability for us to view the print job in process via a webcam (all from a Raspberry Pi).
OctoPrint connected to Ultimaker 2, Priting a single Apidea Queen Excluder.
OctoPrint connected to Ultimaker 2, Priting Apidea 15 Queen Excluders
Photograph of the 15 Apidea Queen Excluders printing in progress
OctoPrint connected to Ultimaker 2, Priting a Number 3
OctoPrint connected to Ultimaker 2, Priting a Number 2
So this is how we now print, unattended with a 3D printer, we are now working on the robot, which needs to remove the printed object, and walks down to my office to deliver it!
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