It’s a really nice spring day here in the fens. Sun out, any hint of the mild chill of a couple of days ago gone.
To give Diogo a little chill time in the “garden” which he loves I decided to brew up outside.
While they were chillin in the sun I was making a coffee on my Nano with the firebox wood flame gas burner and Keith titanium cup. Then used a pajak flat v60 pour over with my kupilka 21 cup to make the coffee.
Firebox Nano g2 with the firebox wood flame gas burner and Keith titanium cuppajak flat v60 pour over with my kupilka 21 cup
The Pajak is new and something I’m trying out. But more on that in a future post.
As I take a small break from painting minis, and transferring the contents of Twilight Imperium 4 and the Prophecy of Kings expansion into a single box using the 3D printed insert Colin has printed for me (still need the final pieces to finish off the transfer, there are rather a lot to print). I continue to do or play around with some outdoors related stuff.
This morning I decided to brew up using two stones from the Pillbottle stones stove and the Keith titanium canteen and cup.
I do like this stove. It’s genius really. Soak the stones in meths. Wait until all has been absorbed. Remove. Stack on top of each other. Light. Balance pot on top.
The simplicity. No spills while cooking. You don’t even need a pot stand. Although I do use these with a Fire Maple Lotus Titanium Solid Fuel Stove.
I also using an altoid style tin (which I can’t remember what came with it) create a char cloth tin. Which is basically putting a small hole in the lid and storing char cloth in it.
I also tested the char cloth (not created by me – that’s a future project) with the BCB ferro rod. Just to check if this char cloth was as advertised. It did indeed take a spark to create an ember.
At some point I’m going to have to go all Ray Mears and buahcrafty and try starting a fire this way.
Which reminds me I do have a flint and steel on the way! And yes I will be playing with that too.
This is the totally utterly last resort for me on starting a fire.
None of that friction bow crap for starting a fire. That’s all well and good when playing at shit hits the fan, I’m super stunt man survivalist.
But in reality it’s not practical in real life situations that most people want a fire.
For me it’s lighter first, matches, ferro rod. If with whatever tinder I have to hand can’t get a fire started with those then the friction stuff isn’t going to make any difference at all.
This morning decided to try making my own fire starters using the guidance of Coalcracker Bushcraft via their YouTube video on the subject.
Basically using a 1:1 ratio of wax to lighter fluid and 100% cotton, cotton pads. I spent a relaxing few minutes melting wax, mixing in lighter fluid, and then dunking the cotton pads.
The recycled baked bean tin Testing
I used a recycled baked bean tin to melt the wax in. And a pot gripper to lift the tin on and off the stove, and to pour the melted wax. The actual dunking was done in a recycled soft cheese container.
I did test them once dry by tearing one to open it up, and using a ferro got it to light first time.
Not gaming on a Tuesday has had an impact for sure. Who knows if that will start up again.
So here are the handful of games I’ve played up to this midpoint of the month.
Subastral: an interesting quick set collection game. It was ok, I was left a bit cold about our first play, despite winning. I don’t think I was feeling much more positive about it after the second game.
Root: once again Jeff managed to snatch victory from within my grubby mitts. We used the expert setup to select our factions. We used the Exiles and Partisans deck, and the Landmarks expansion (selected the Tower because I thought it would encourage more conflict!)
Viticulture: basically an all in game using the Bordeaux board, expert workers, and the structures modules. I think it’s taken as read we were using the Visit from the Rhine Valley decks. I won by a point. This was the first time ever playing with the structures modules. And during this game I was the only one drawing the structure cards. I actually liked this module.
Tokaido: yeah I’m really glad that the reprint by Stonemaier games was the excuse needed to get this to the table on what is proving to be a regular basis.
At long last the NEC is allowing visitors to prebook their parking ticket for the expo.
Unlike the expo itself there is a benefit of prebooking. You save money. Granted it’s about a fiver. But still that’s better than nothing.
I had planned to go for the express parking that is nearer to the halls of the NEC, and guarantees you a parking spot. But at £84 for three days compared to £27. I found it very hard to justify the huge increase for the sake of a bit of convenience.
Besides the bus service is pretty good from the halls to the car parks, and not very long waits between buses.
So I went with the cheaper option. Besides get there earlier enough you can get reasonably close and use the E1 car park. But you need to be there damn early.
Yep it’s another one of these made up days using the incorrect way to write dates.
However it does give us an excuse to play some Mario, build some Lego, even watch some Mario (including the latest trailer for the new Mario movie out next month).
It would appear that Ace is with what I think can best be described as a foster home while he recovers.
Anyway this is the latest:
“The girl spent all day yesterday buying the antibiotics, the other medicines, and the medicated and adhesive bandages to do the daily dressings.
On Saturday he will have to return to the veterinarian for his checkup. The doctor wants to see how Aces is progressing with his paw. He is very loving, like any young dog, and very playful. Tomorrow the girl who takes care of him will also go buy his bed, blankets, and more bandages to continue with his daily wound care.”
