sui's New Writeups

Sealing wax (thing)

2005-01-12T05:27:50Z

How to make this from 1573:

To make red sealyng wax.

Take one pound of Wax . iii ounces of cleare Tyrpentyne in Sommer, in Winter take fowre: melte them together with a soft fyre: Then take it from the fire and let it coole: Then put in Uermylion berye fynely grounde, and Salet Oyle, of each an ounce, and mix them well together, and it is perfect good.

The redaction of this recipe is fairly easy:

Take 1 pound of wax.
add 3 ounces of turpentine (4 if it's winter).
melt and mix in a double boiler.
allow it to cool, but not harden.
add 1 ounce of a dark red berry (blackberry, red current, etc) which has been dried and ground into a fine powder.
add 1 ounce of cooking oil.
mix well and it should be good!

Partrige, John "The Treasurie of Commodious Conceipts and hidden Secrets" 1573

The smoking of bees (thing)

2005-01-11T05:06:45Z

Smoke, caused by smoldering: leaves, dried dung, or decayed wood, is a well known way to pacify and calm bees. It is used by man to help us gather honey and wax, check hives, and is still in modern use as the simplest and most effective way to handle bees, and their hives.

It affects the bees by making them engorge themselves with honey - which can be regarded as them taking on a full load, ready to flee a fire. This is helpful because a full bee is much less likely to sting than a hungry empty bee.

Whatever is burnt in a smoker, or chafing dish, should produce a thick cool smoke (preferably white, for some reason) with little deposit. For many centuries the hives where smoked only once, when the honey and wax was collected, using smoke that contained substances which narcotized (and at higher concentrations killed) the bees. These included tobacco, puffball, and in one example brimstone.

Our earliest example of a smoker is Egyptian, and dates 2400 BC. There is…

Protection against bees (thing)

2005-01-11T03:26:44Z

When collecting honey from bees, as has been noted in bee sting, a bee will do its utmost to protect the hive. A sharp barb with two (or more) lancets can hurt a lot, and unless a person is covered adequately, a bee sting is painful and often causes swelling and severe irritation for a few days.

Today modern beekeepers have a number of suits and types of protective options, that range from full body, to simple face netting. But the history of protective clothing is relatively modern, when one considers that bees and honey have been gathered throughout man's history.

Romans give us some of the first written examples of protection, when Nonnus (an Egyptian who lived in Egypt, AD 431) describes a mythical discovery of beekeeping by Aristaeus:

He covered every limb from toenail to hair with a close-woven wrap of linen, to defend him form the formidable stings of the battling (armed) bees.
(Dionysiaca V.247-249)

The earliest known…

January 13, 2004 (idea)

2004-01-13T02:01:57Z

My skep.

The story as I see it.

I had gathered the straw - hand scythed from 'Wilde Oats' - Somehow I thought that strangely appropriate. In 3 large armfuls I took them home. I had cleverly purchased a Ute for this instance, which had also had many previous uses, but that was one of those 'moments' that make ute owning what it should be.

The straw dried in many hanging bundles, under my crappy green 'outdoor area.' I had made sure the bundles where about (my) largish wrist size, and then tided them up with other pieces of the straw, in mini hay bales before they hung.

This amount of work had me thinking about 'period' farming and the jobs around farms. How labour intensive some must be, how slow and easy other are, how everything runs in seasons, and that life must have passed consistently, but slowly.

The straw then dried for a bit - I left it about a month - in December. I got heyfever that month.

Having…

August 11, 2003 (thing)

2003-08-11T11:12:14Z

Dear E2,

Although I left you some time ago, and am still very cross at how our relationship turned out - I remember you, and the pasion and excitement that you brought to my life.

February 28, 2003 (thing)

2003-02-28T05:00:38Z

wot a week i have had.

my father just rang...

I don't know if I've ever FULLY communicated to anyone how little, small, worthless, and inept he made me feel as a teenager.

He made me feel like shit because i didn't care about school. I think he thought when he said 'well if u get a job, you can leave' he thought i would abandoned the challenge.

When i got the job at the newsagency and left.. literally he got off my case. other things started, but.. yeah.. the world got slightly brighter..

I know he always thought i was a bit of a failure for not having attended uni, and i think that's y i feel that i missed out on something by NOT going..

but i also feel that pretty much i achieved the life in computers i DID want.. all be it through a WEIRD path..

SO you will see the BITING IRONY that I feel when he calls me up in the middle of the day and says, "with work, we are speaking to young school kids yr 10 and telling them that they…