Uahhhh… 🙁 I went to the basement today and discovered this. Seems I’ll have to defrost the fridge (actually, both of my fridges) to make sure they work properly again. Here’s how to do it (this is a manly hint):
How to Defrost Your Freezer
Wooden Mallet
I made the simplest wooden mallet I could think of 🙂 And it’s made exactly for that: For knocking on wood with wood. Its a 40-cm-piece of homegrown oakwood with about 8-9 cm in diameter. Briefly carried alongside the bandsaw and heartily treated with a rasp. Attached a leather loop, done. I hope I’ll be able to start the project I made it for in may – god willing.
Mealworm Farm DIY
Chickens like mealworms, I like my chickens. So I’m going to do them a favor and supply them with some fresh, chrunchy and delicious protein snacks from time to time. A mealworm farm is an easy to maintain and cheap means of making the girls happy.
Sandblasting Booth DIY
Since I have discovered lately that I have fun salvaging and restoring miscellaneous old and neglected items, I realized that sandblasting might be a convenient solution for me to clean smaller parts instead of doing it all by hand.
From Potato- to Cheese Press
Here is another recovery/upcycling project which I finished yesterday. I found an old and dirty potato press on eBay that I was able to restore sufficiently to fulfill my needs. Now it won’t crush any potatoes anymore, but serve as a larger vessel for pressing homemade cheese instead 🙂
First Burn of the Backyard Rocket
Unexpectedly, we had two days of good weather here and I took the chance to try the backyard rocket for real for the first time. It’s a real litlle devil, burning hot and vigorously (I assume because of the chimney effect) and radiating a lot of heat. When it’s hot enough and the lid is on it even burns almost smokeless!
1950’s Bread Cutter Restored
Since we’re baking lot of bread ourselves I was glad to stumble upon an interesting recycling project. It’s a hand cranked bread cutter from some time in the 1950s (as far as I could determine) that required just a little love and effort. It’s doing service again in my kitchen now.
Old Pepper Grinder Refurbishing
I got hands on a beautiful small antique pepper grinder, made from brass and with beautiful decorations. It was not in a too desolate condition, but it needed some cleaning, some polishing and the grinding gear was stuck.
Japanning
I wanted to recreate a traditional and well-proven method of coating metal – destinctively not using simple oil nor lacquer or other modern substances. The solution is the so-called “Japanning“. I found a very interesting and informative YouTube Video from this guy (he’s somewhat crazy and absolutely cool!) and I recreated it. It’s a lot more time-consuming than modern coating methods, but it’s fun, it works and it gives me a feeling of “traditionalism”.
New “Codsworth” Cheese
I made a new round of my Codsworth-Cheese that is now sitting in the fridge at the moment to cure. Seasoned with a little oregano and painstakingly washed daily with cheese brine for 5 days it was then left to dry.