Tag: diy

Jan 12 2013

Rory the Rhino

I’m super late writing about this cool project I received and completed in November.  In May, I found out about the Kickstarter campaign for Kinetic Creatures.  Kinetic Creatures are three different animals created out of cardboard that have the capability to “walk” either via a hand crank or a motor kit that was also available.  When one of these animals happened to be a rhino…I had to contribute (and receive my reward of one of the first kits).

As the Kickstarter campaign was meant to raise funds for larger (and cost effective) production, my kit didn’t arrive until mid October.  The packaging was nicely designed:

Kinetic Creatures - Rory

The first part I decided to put together was the motor kit:

Kinetic Creatures Motor Kit 1 Kinetic Creatures Motor Kit 2

Here is the kit put together (ready to go in Rory once he is put together):

Kinetic Creaturs Motor Kit

As for Rory…he came in pieces.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of the cardboard sheets before I punched them out.  But here is a picture of all of the pieces before I put them together:

Rory the Rhino

And here he is put together:

Rory the Rhino

Now that both the motor kit and Rory was put together, it was time to let him take a little walk around the apartment.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2013/rory-the-rhino/

Dec 01 2011

Mmm…Coffee (aka…So I Did This)

A few months ago, I finally took the lead of my friend Elizabeth and began to dabble in the practice of home coffee roasting.  I ordered a started kit from Sweet Marias and one of the leading books on home coffee roasting from Amazon.  After reading the book, I dove in and made a few batches of coffee.  They were all drinkable but at the same time, I wasn’t completely sure what I was doing.  Its one thing to read about how to do something, and another to actually be doing it.  When I saw that the Institute for Domestic Technology was going to offer a class in Home Coffee Roasting led by one of the roasters from LAMill Coffee, I was intrigued.

The Institute for Domestic Technology grew out of the now defunct (on temporary hiatus) Altadena Urban Farmer’s Market (a rogue farmer’s market) and offers classes mainly at the historic Zane Grey estate in Altadena.  They offer classes in cheese making, bread making, food preservation and other domestic arts that are less practiced these days.

The class began with a tasting of a tea (known as cáscara) in Spanish) made from the dried fruit of the coffee cherry.  It’s rarely exported outside of the coffee producing countries and most notably drank in Bolivia.

Coffee Fruit

Underneath the fruit, the bean still has a hull coating that needs to be removed before roasting:

Once the hull is removed, you can roast the green beans.  I’ll let that story be told in this LA Times Piece:

The next DIY frontier: roasting coffee beans at home by Betty Hallock

In the end…I ended up with these:

Fresh Roasted Coffee Beans

Freshly Roasted Costa Rican Blend (Blend courtesy of LAMill Coffee)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/mmm%e2%80%a6coffee-aka-so-i-did-this/

Oct 24 2011

Some things I’ve been up to in October

Sweet Pickled PumpkinSweet Pickled Pumpkin

Pepper MashPepper Mash (future Hot Sauce)

Fresh Roasted Coffee BeansFreshly Home Roasted Coffee Beans
(more to come on this soon)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/some-things-ive-been-up-to-in-october/