Category Archives: Projects

A home-made steam wax extractor

Posted on January 10, 2012 by james

In those years where we have a proper summer (not since about 2006 now), I put “waste” beeswax and old combs into my solar extractor to melt down the wax. In 2011 we didn’t really get that much decent wax-melting … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Projects, Smallholding | 1 Comment

Clearer Boards

Posted on September 14, 2011 by james

Back in the Spring when I wanted to take the OSR honey off some hives I had a real problem getting the bees to vacate the supers. Up until now I’ve always used a crown board fitted with Porter bee … Continue reading →

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Pier Tube Deliberations

Posted on September 13, 2011 by james

Before construction on the main structure of the observatory can start, I need to get the pier in place because this will be set into a concrete block in the ground under the floor. As I’ve said before, my aim … Continue reading →

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Observatory Build. The Big Idea.

Posted on September 12, 2011 by james

Since I’ve had my telescopes I’ve been very tempted to build an observatory. My preferred viewing site is some forty metres from the house which is a long way to carry kit (not to mention to trail power leads if … Continue reading →

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Solar PV Installation

Posted on September 12, 2011 by james

For a long time I’ve been tempted by a solar photovoltaic (PV) installation, but been unable to convince myself that it would be financially worthwhile. A couple of months ago however a friend was telling me about his new installation … Continue reading →

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DIY Small-Scale Anaerobic Digestion (part one)

Posted on February 28, 2011 by james

Fans of the 1970’s BBC comedy series “The Good Life” will remember that Tom and Barbara had an electricity generator in the cellar that was powered using pig manure. What may be surprising is that it’s based on a fundamentally … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Projects, Smallholding | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Solar wax melter

Posted on February 28, 2011 by james

Solar wax melters are available commercially and there are a fair few designs about on the web. Here’s one I made a couple of years ago. I started with the tray that the frames would sit in. I had some … Continue reading →

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The Tree House Project

Posted on February 11, 2011 by james

(Apologies in advance if you’re confused by the feet-and-inches measurements. I was brought up with metric at school and imperial at home and tend to use whichever comes to mind first. 6′ is near enough 1.8m and 8′ is 2.4m) … Continue reading →

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