shared food

The boys at the Shed shared some food with me on Saturday -  Ben brought in a bootload of puha, Robin gave me a slice of his home-made fruit cake, and William gave me some curry and rice - courtesy of the Hare Krishnas next door to him.

portable picnic wine table

The images of John's with his "around-to-it" created a lot of interest on the MSNS facebook page, and several people requested a copy of the plan. So here we go.....

(John’s top is about 50mm thick)
As below in Picture 1:
A (diameter of the table) = 340mm
B (diameter of the glass holders) = 50mm
C (distance from the rim of the table to the hole) = 25mm
D (diameter of the bottle holder) = 75-80mm - check the size of the bottles you will use
E (length of the handle slot) = 115mm
F (width of the handle slot) = 25mm

 

picture 1

Picture 2:
G (from the bottom of the table to the of of the bottle support) = 140mm
H (the length of the hinge-block) = 80mm (30mm high & 20mm wide)
I (distance of the hinge screw from the bottle end) =  35mm

picture 2

The dimensions for the leg are:
Length = 50cm
Width = 30mm
The upper end of the leg behind the scres at "I" will have to be rounded off to allow the leg to swing upwards.

Picture 3
J (distance of the screw from the bottom of the table) = 20mm

picture 3

Picture 4
K (length of the metal rod) = 160mm or more
L (length of hole for the rod) = 80mm

 Further images of another version of this table cane be found at
www.goodshomedesign.com/portable-picnic-wine-table

road trip to whangarei

Last week I went up to visit chums at Waipu - I found a tasty piece of road-kill on the way...

...which made a delicious roast dinner with fruit gravy:

I spent a day at the Whangarei Community Mens Shed. They have just purchased the old goods railway station from the Council for 0ne dollar, and are in the process of moving in. The place has been knocked around after being vacant for 15 years, but will make a great venue in time. I plan to get up there again later this month to help with the move....

making home brew - easy!

With vast improvements in brewing yeasts and a wide range of sophisticated brew kits available, home brewing has lost its "bathtub beer' reputation of last century. Today one can make excellent largers, ales, stouts and more from around $15 upwards.

 Watch my brewing demonstration on youtube

 Here on the North Shore I get my brewing supplies from the Hauraki Home Brew Company: