Lasius colony update (island outworld)

Since the colony moved into the nest in February, it has grown quite a bit. It is even more difficult to estimate the number of individuals but I would guess between 600 and 800. They are also currently occupying 5 chambers in the nest but will sometimes move into a 6th just for a few hours.

Front view of nest (5 chambers occupied)

Recent move to this chamber

Complete setup

In the main out-world there is a permanent search party and I decided to make an island out-world. This makes it easier to experiment with food types or give them a quick snack. It is a Ytong platform stuck on a pillar with a tube passing under it. The whole structure is placed in a ramekin filled with water and works quite well to keep the ants from escaping.

Island out-world (egg and honey water for lunch)

View from top

Closeup of yesterday's snack - fruit flies

I still have the descendants of the original fruit flies I caught last summer and this seems an adequate protein for a growing colony.

Fruit flies in medium

I expect that at this rate the colony may by next summer move into the other side of the nest, assuming they will continue at this rate after winter.

R&C

Carving chess pieces (part 1)

Cycling home a few weeks ago I passed a tree that fell over. The municipality cleared most of the debris but left the majority of the tree in the woods next to the path (presumably to decompose and continue with the circle of life). I was struck by an idea to carve a chess set and thought it would be OK to take one of the broken branches.

I have almost no experience in wood carving and the following is a bit of the process I followed to create half a chess set. The whole process from finding the wood to the current stage took approximately 10 days working on it leisurely during the holiday.

I started by buying some equipment: A figure saw, a whittling knife, a whetstone and carving gloves (highly recommended). In addition I used gouges (which required sharpening after my previous project in Ytong) and sandpaper. This is the only tools I used and, although tempted I, decided not to use my Dremel for this project.

Next, sawed the branch into three manageable pieces and removed the bark. I think the wood is Beech but I am not completely sure.

Removing bark

Probably Beech wood

At this stage the amount of debris became problematic. Luckily, we were also cleaning our closets and I found a use for all the broken jeans that we accumulated over the last 5 years. Using the newly acquired whittling knife I removed the stitches along the seams and re-stitched the pieces together to make a nice big denim sheet. Carving on this makes it very easy to clean up afterwards.

Extremely durable sheet to work on (made from 6 denims)

The first two pieces I carved was a bishop and a rook. I was very happy with the rustic look and how easy it was make these in such a short time (each piece took approximately 2 hours).

First pieces and whittling knife 

However, there are 16 pawns in a chess set and I decided that I should start making some. Pawns are very easy to make and after the first I started to cut two from one piece as it is slightly easier to handle a larger piece of wood.

First and second pawns 

Two pawns from one piece

The second bishop turned out much better than the first and I started to reconsider the amount of "rustic" that I wanted. I, however continued without measuring anything and merely eyeballing the sizes and shapes of wood to use.

2nd bishop

I found a nicely shaped piece for the queen and a knotted piece for the second rook. My plan is to lightly stain all the knotted pieces to make the dark pieces. To make up the full dark set I will also stain some of the pieces that have no knots/marks, but will stain them slightly darker. I have already made some stain that I am happy with (steel-wool, coffee and vinegar) and tested this on a piece of scrap wood (but more on this in in another post).

Queen in progress

Completed queen and partly completed 2nd rook 

Nice naturally colored pieces

I knew the biggest challenge would be the knight and decided it was time to attempt one. A few times during the process I was tempted to start over. I however continued with this one and below is the end product.

Piece used for knight

Completed knight

To keep or not to keep...

This piece of course took the longest to make (I would guess between 5 and 6 hours). I am not sure if I will keep this one or even this design, depending on how the other knights turn out...

And this is the current stage of the project, almost half a chess set. I have 9 pawns but lack one knight and one king (I have a clear design in mind) to complete half the set. Also some of the current pieces have been selected to be stained. But I have mixed feelings about the pieces. I am very happy with some but may want to redo others. I will however not redo any until I have a complete set and by this time my enthusiasm to stain and finish the ones I have may prevent me from re-carving any piece.

Current design of pieces

Current state of set (one pawn wandered out of shot)

Since my vacation is at an end I will not be able to carve as much. However, "winter is coming" and the number of days left to work outside is limited. I will try to complete the carving before it gets too cold. I also need to research finishing techniques and are leaning towards shellac (let me know in the comments if anyone has an opinion on this). I think a rustic look but with a high gloss finish may be quite nice. There are however some issues with Sweden and their extreme fear of anything alcohol (this include denatured alcohol, methanol and isopropanol), even to use as solvent in wood finishing procedures (but more on this later).

I will have more in a following post and maybe, in the future, try to make a chess board.

R&C

Glassblowing

Recently, Carina took me to Ulven, where we could try our hand at glass blowing. During the process, we were guided by Stefan Erlandsson, who provided us with a lot of interesting information about the art of making glass and the processes of shaping this amazing material.

Each of us made three items. 1. A paperweight where we used metal shears to cut the glass. 2 A drinking glass and 3. a decorative bowl. The last two items was shaped with a variety of tools as well as blowing the glass into a metal mold. More shaping is performed after the shaping in the mold.

Shaping the drinking glass

Shaping the drinking glass after mold-blowing

Mold-blowing

Shaping a bowl

After the items are shaped it is slowly cooled down to room temperature. We thus returned the next day and was extremely pleased with the end products.

Self made glass products

The glassblowing workshop is located at Ulva Kvarn in an old watermill approximately 7km from the city centre. There are a number of hand craft shops, galleries and resturants at Ulva Kvarn and spending a bit of time just outside the city is very refreshing.

Old mill-house

This was an excellent experience and I highly recommend it.

 R&C

Ghostbusters

Thanks to everyone who shares 50% of my genome (or are married to such an individual) for this awesome gift. The Ectomobile is one of the most famous cars from a movie and it is a really nice Lego model.

When encountering a paranormal entity.

Note this is the 30 year anniversary of the Ghostbusters movie, read more at here.

R&C

Crete

Unlike our previous post appears to suggest, we did not only give ourselves over to gluttony and wine during our vacation on Crete. We saw quite a lot of the islands' northwest coast and also explored the surroundings extensively on foot. According to my WiiFit step-counter, we walked an average of 7 km each day. This might be an explanation of why this gluttonous breakout did not cause that much of a BMI disaster when we got back.

But more about our adventures on Crete...
Below I will detail more of our pursuits on foot; our visit to Chania; and the two trips we took on the tourist train.

We walked a lot in the surroundings area of the Chania suburb, Agia Marina, where our hotel was. This included the nice beaches with crystal clear water, a small hill with an awesome view of Thodorou island on the one side and the White Mountains on the other, and picturesque buildings, which is an interesting mix of old and new. Below are some photos with more info.

The view from our hotel room. The sea and Thodorou island. The island is uninhabited and no humans are allowed on the island. It was declared a nature reserve, where the endangered Kri-kri mountain goats can procreate and live undisturbed. A myth about the island is that it is the leftover of a sea monster that wanted to attack the small sea side village but was turned into a rock by the gods in answer to the prayers of the villagers. Today you can still see the open mouth of the monster - ready to engulf the village.

Nice beaches along the coast

Crystal clear water

Nice view of the sea and island from a small hill. (An olive orchard in the foreground)

The view of the White mountains on the other side of the hill

Interestingly, on Crete the bottom parts of many things are painted white, houses, streetlamps and  trees (note also the legs of the animal/s :). The white is supposed to keep things cool and protects the trees against a certain tree disease. This tree grew right in the middle of a road... 

Obviously we got a bit of sun on the beach ...

Everywhere in this coastal tourist town, one could see traces of a bygone era of a small harbor town

The third day on Crete we took the bus to Chania, the second largest city on Crete after the capital, Heraklion. The history of Chania stretches into the mists of time. It was already an important city in Minoan times (27 centuries BC) when it was called Kydonia. It has a beautiful historic harbor and old town.

Lighthouse of Chania harbor

The harbor water was exceptionally clean and one could see schools of fish swimming underneath the boats

The snow capped "White mountains" form the backdrop to the historic Chania harbor

Wall of an old fort in the harbor

Chania - a mix of old and new

Chania old town

Small streets with eateries

Always time to look for interesting ants. Ronnie on the historic Kasteli hill in Chania, which has been inhabited since Neolithic times

We also visited the Archeological museum in Chania, which hold artifacts from excavations in the region. The museum building itself is very old and acted as a Franciscan church in the past. The exact date of building is unknown, but it is mentioned to
 have survived the great earthquake of 1595. In this photo various artifacts from graves are featured, including toys from a child burial.

Apparently the idea of shot glasses is very old :)

We also took two very pleasant outings on the "The Little Fun Train". This small tourist train/tractor is an interesting concept, a small tractor with passenger wagons that go on tours of the surroundings. There are multiple trips you can choose from with around 2-4 hours duration. We took the "Orange Valley" tour into the mountains and the "Pleasures of Crete" tour along the west coast. The Orange valley tour took us through rolling valleys of orange orchards with small towns (each with its own beautiful Greek Orthodox church building). We approached the White Mountains through small ravines in which Maple Trees were growing that reached ages of hundreds of years. At the foot of the White Mountains we had a rest stop at the small village of Meskla, while we enjoyed a glass of freshly pressed orange juice. The village of Meskla has a very old church. According to legends, this old church was built from stones that came from the temple of Artemis, which was built at this same site in ancient times. The old church is not used anymore and a new church was built just behind the old building. Below are some photos from the "Orange Valley" tour.

The old historic church in front of the new church

A very old Maple tree at the tea garden where we had our rest stop

The Little Fun Train

The tour along the west coast was very nice as well and had awesome views, a visit to a monastery with real monks and a guided tour of an olive factory. The tour started out following the coastal road along the northwest coast, passing traditional fishing villages and climbing over the Spatha Penisula. We visited the 14th century monastery of Gonia, which is still active today and then winded further up the narrow roads of Spatha Penissula with magnifiscent views of the Aegaen Sea. Reaching the top of the mountainous peninsula, we drove more inland through the olive plantations and small towns. We stopped at an olive oil factory (see more in our previous post here). Below are some pictures of our west coast tour.

Driving along the west coast - these small churches are found all over Crete and are memorials on places where people either lost their lives, or were saved

Winding road on the Spatha peninsula and breathtaking views over the Aegean sea. Thodorou island on the horizon

Enjoying the sun at a rest stop

I wondered who lived in that house on top of the hill and if they knew that their everyday view is probably one of the best views in the world. In the middle of olive orchards, surrounded by views of the Aegean sea coast and the White Mountains

In the heart of the Spatha Peninsula - rolling hills of olive orchards

Something very beautiful, and a common theme on Crete, that I thought I should mention, are the vines. You see them everywhere, old mature vines growing as "trees" outside, on porches, inside houses along the inner roofs, and even on top of roofs. A very beautiful and unique feature I thought.

Overall, both of us had a wonderful vacation and a delightful breakaway - we would really not mind going back to this island of treasures

Loot brought back from Crete, including cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some small mementos

C&R