Month: November 2023

My 3D printer finally arrived. It was brought down here for us by Rod and Sue and we are very grateful.

After unpacking it I set it up and printed my first test piece. It’s called a benchy but is really a small tug boat. After that, I was off and running. I had two rolls of filament from when we bought the last printer so we were fine for a while. Also, the new printer came with a roll of green.

I keep getting asked, “What do you make, it seems to be so impractical.” Well, so far I’ve designed and printed several prototype pieces for the hydroponics setup when we get back to Canada as well as some other pieces.

Not all of the prints are a success for various reasons. I tried three different prints with the green filament I got from Bambu Labs and all but one was a disaster and the one that did print wasn’t very good. I contacted them and they sent me a test cube which turned out perfect. It was only some of the stuff I designed that wasn’t right so I thought I goofed up somewhere. When I did the same designs in a different colour they were fine, so I don’t know.

All the following are my designs except the Benchy, the cutter holder and the jewel box.

The printer has four speeds, quiet (slow), normal, sport mode and ludicrous. I have tried them all. Normal of course is the best. A print I did with sport mode survived but the quality wasn’t very good. Ludicrous is just that. It was very fast and shook the whole table. I had to slow it down to save the print. I’m sure these fast speeds are helpful in some instances but for now, I’ll stick to normal.

Rosalie has been printing up a storm with her new 3D pen. She’s having a lot of fun and I’ve only had to help minimally.

I love the minion. Her 3D pen takes the same filament as my printer so I have to watch her as she likes to steal some from time to time. If I have some left on the roll when I’m done I give it to her, but I do make her beg.

Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and lot.

I grew up with that little verse. To us kids it was as important as “Jingle Bells.”

It celebrates the burning of Guy Fawkes, (actually, he was hung) for the attempt by him and his buddies to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London.

Close to the 5th of November, we kids would make a ‘Guy’ to be burned on our local community bonfire. We used old clothes and stuffed them with newspaper and whatever we could lay our hands on. Then we took him out and sat him in a prominent position so that we could ask passersby to give us a “penny for the Guy.” We managed to collect a fair amount of cash this way; then we had to spend it on fireworks.

We would sit the Guy outside the local store while we went inside to buy the goodies. I don’t know why, (Yes I do) but we always bought bundles of ‘bangers’ (firecrackers, not sausages). These little guys gave us a lot of pleasure even though we were in danger of losing a finger or two. We would build bridges and dams and blow the heck out of them. It was very satisfying.

Later when we got older someone found out that if you dropped one down a piece of blocked-off pipe and added a rock they made a pretty dangerous rifle. My buddies and I didn’t go there but I knew several kids who did.

The community bonfire was awesome! Everybody contributed with old furniture, books, cardboard boxes as well as wooden boxes from the local market. We even went around the furniture stores asking for old stuff. The branches of local trees were a little nervous too. One year someone came across some railway ties so we added them to the heap.

While at the market looking for more stuff to add, one of the council clean-up guys told us that they were going to come the next day and take down the bonfire as it was getting too big. Panic plan!

When the community heard the news everyone helped. The railway ties and a lot of the old furniture disappeared into various basements and when the council came the next morning, there was just a tiny bonfire left. The truck they used backed up to the site and a wheel sunk into the road. It was later discovered that there was an old Roman tunnel that went to the river right under where we lived.

On the day we bought all the stuff out and built a great bonfire. I have a souvenir, as a lump of coal got into my shoe and left a nasty burn on my ankle.

Today, in England, you can’t buy fireworks from the local store like we used to, but you can go to an authorized community site to see the show. It can’t be as much fun as we used to have, but I’m sure it’s a lot safer. I sometimes shudder to think what damage we ten-year-old kids could have done with a bag full of explosives.

About a week ago we were a little restless so decided to take a trip over to Barra, we dropped in on John and Ronda for a quick coffee then had to leave as Rosalie had a Dentist appointment that afternoon. She arrived only to find out that the dentist, ‘whom she had made an appointment with‘, was out of town until the next month.

It was decided to go back to Barra for a margarita at Nacho’s bar. This place is becoming a favourite of ours. Rosalie made a quick call to Peggy and Don inviting them to join us. Peggy didn’t sound up for it so we decided to go alone.

After about ten minutes Peggy did show up but by herself. We shared a plate of nachos and did our usual chit-chat. Then it started to rain. And it rained! And rained! Eventually, the gauntlet had to be run, so in a break, the three of us went for it. We got soaked!

On the way back to the car a vendor tried to sell us an umbrella; his timing was right but the location was off as it was only fifty feet from the car.

Our spycam caught a pair of miscreants trying to steal gas from our electric car the other day. Thanks for checking the place Jim and Ylda.

Another picture arrived the other day from the spycam with a guy in it that we didn’t recognize. After contacting security at Spidey we found out that it was Brian, the park manager so all was well.

As well as Jim and Ylda we had an interloper here. I call it Adrian. It was a big green iguana. It walked back and forth in front of our gate for a few minutes but couldn’t get in. I had put up chicken wire last year to keep dogs, cats, chickens, goats and small children out. It wasn’t deterred though as it soon found that it could get claw holds and in no time it was over into our yard. It was assisted by a young girl somewhat, who startled it. I have no idea where he went once he was in as he got lost in the foliage.

Jim and Ylda like to taunt us with their fire pit as they know we can’t have one. Ylda said she was taking off a layer of clothes as it was getting too hot. Rosalie wanted to do the same as it was another hot day here. The only difference was that Rosalie would have either been arrested for indecent exposure or gotten a round of applause.