So pretty!

On October 25, 2022October 22, 2022 By CarynIn Craft

Step three in my 3D print design process has yielded a beautiful result! I was fascinated with a spindle printed in flexible filament I found at the fiber festival and asked my printer if he had flexible filament. He had a better idea: PETG. This is a plastic used for water bottles and is very sturdy and impact resistant. Done in clear it also has a sheen almost like calcite. So pretty! It is easy to sand and shape as well. I sent a new design to be printed.

I took some Shetland wool roving with me to pick up the spindle, then sat at my favorite coffee shop and spun while sipping a gingerbread latte. Yum.

The cop of yarn I spun slid off the spindle easily. I did use some 400 grit sand paper to take down some of the printing artifacts inside the channel and holes. The spindle is very light, so my printer suggested putting weights in the cavity I designed. Brilliant. I found some long square tube beads that fit down inside. The little bit of extra weight helped it spin better, and is adjustable! Nice. I prefer square weighs, so if they escape they don’t go rolling everywhere.

Spindle with beads inside the cavity for weight

I like this version, but I have some tweaks to the design for the next round. Eventually I will have to do a destructive test, and drop my pretty spindle on the ground. But I’ll wait a bit.

A shout out to my printer, X of all Trades, and the best coffee shop out there, The Full Cup, without whom I wouldn’t have found someone to make 3D prints!

Found an egg

On October 24, 2022 By CarynIn eggs

I keep a jacket by the back door in case I need it to go see the chickens. It was a little chilly, so I grabbed it and headed out. About half way through checking chickens, I felt something in the pocket. An egg. Already in the pocket. Hm. There were two more in the nest boxes, so those went in the other pocket and I headed back in. I weighed and recorded all three eggs, then subjected the suspect egg (how long had it been in that pocket?!?) to the float test.

The egg didn’t sink to the bottom, so it wasn’t a fresh egg, but it didn’t float to the top (indicating a very old egg). Since it is floating slightly off the bottom, I estimate it was in my pocket for a few days, maybe a week. Hm. I broke it open to check the validity of the float test, and the egg looked and smelled just fine.

The dogs enjoyed their treat, so it was not a wasted egg.

In case you are wondering how the egg test works, it has to do with water loss through the shell of the egg, which is semi-permeable. A fresh egg hasn’t had time to have significant water loss so is denser than water, so sinks. A month old egg has experienced considerable evaporation, and is less dense than water, so it floats. And is more likely to have gone bad.

Basil

On October 23, 2022October 20, 2022 By CarynIn Garden

Usually when the temperature dips below 40 my basil hands in its resignation papers. Seeing the upcoming cold snap (for Texas), I attempted to cover my little garden with a clear shower curtain.

Stock tank raised garden covered in a clear shower curtain

It worked! The weather app (oh Dark Sky, how can you leave me?!?), reported 38 degrees in the wee hours of the morning (6am). I took the cover off in the afternoon and the basil was all still green! No dark browning anywhere!

I don’t think this will work when we get a more serious Texas winter (I know my northern friends just laughed), but at least I have some reprieve on harvesting. In case you’re wondering, no fruit have set on the winter squash vines. But at least I have basil.

Sophie

On October 22, 2022 By CarynIn Cats

Even though Sophie is now about 90% an inside cat, she still retains her outside skills. Like climbing onto the chicken runs.

And climbing up and down trees. No rescue needed here, she knows how to handle Post Oak.

Ashes, ashes

On October 21, 2022 By CarynIn chickens

Our area has been on a burn ban for about five months because of drought conditions. One of the smaller consequences of this is that I have not been able to make ash for the chicken’s dust bath. They dug down the area inside their tire well below the base of the tire, bathing in the scratched up dirt and carrying it off in their feathers, but I didn’t have the means to refill.

My folks visited and the RV park where they stayed had metal fire pits. Fire pits with stacks of Post Oak wood piled up near by. Fire pits that hadn’t been cleaned out in a long time, so were full of hardwood ash. Jackpot. I hauled off a garbage bag full of ash to put in the hens’ dust bath.

Empty dust bath, bag of ash, container of DE

I mixed the ash with diatomaceous earth (DE) and dirt inside the tire, and stirred it with a stick.

I wasn’t able to entirely fill the tire, but it is a sight better than the negative value of dust bathing material that was in there before. My chickens tend to eat chunks of charcoal when I give them new ash, turning their droppings black. I need to remember not to panic when I see that again. It has been awhile.