Seanography

So Leesa’s new toy is finished – an evil cat-o-nine-tails with ball chain woven into the plaits.

Standard large handle with weighted end (though not as much as it needed – the plaits turned out quite heavy).

Plaits are 4 strands of 6mm x 80cm kangaroo string woven over 60cm of silver ball chain, trimmed to make them the same length when finishing.

Attached the plaits to the handle core with pins, then filled the gaps with Araldite (?) glue for extra strength.

My fear is that the plaits will still fly off if swung hard enough, but by then someone should have broken ribs so it might be OK.

This toy was a complete pain in the arse (not to mention the fingers) and I won’t be attempting it again soon.

Material cost – over$100, so retail would need to be closer to $300 to make it worthwhile.

OK, so we broke out the home brew kit last week and started the first fermentation.

Using the ingredients out of the box, but after trying to boil the water (to clean out some of the crap) I gave up and ended up just pouring it all in – a little too hot! Will be interesting to see if it makes a difference.

Started the ferementation on Wednesday, and bottled on Monday (26/10) night with SG at 1006. Many hands make light work – Kath on the filling and me with the carbonisation and capping. Used the carbonisation drops for this brew (in the kit) and got a full 30 bottles from 23 litres of water (approx).

2 weeks of rest before the first batch goes in the fridge.