Gnome is always doing, fixing, repairing and figuring out anything from plumbing, electrical wiring, solar to mowing. Plus he’s the soap-maker and coconut oil presser. Oh, and a Doctor too. To add to his endless repertoire, he also draws (pen and ink) and he is a tattooist. I have probably missed many, many things but he basically tries to do everything. This goes along with our self-sufficient life-style and he likes to learn new things. However, the bottom line is that somebody has to do the work!!

So, just to update you on a few of his projects. We have been for sometime trying to breed soldier fly larvae as a protein source for our duckies. We watched some u-tube videos and came up with a few of our own breeding contraptions. This is a ‘Black Fly Love Cage’ where hatching takes place and then they are supposed to breed and lay more eggs. The love cage is for the procurement of eggs. Well, this one didn’t work despite Gnome’s best efforts. We caught flies inside and they didn’t breed…or they just sneaked out somehow!!

This was another attempt to breed and feed the pupae. Sturdy piece of work but rain got into it!

Well, after all these efforts, you will not believe worked in the end. Just a simple plastic container filled with fermenting food stuffs; the large plastic tub is set on jars on the 4 corners and is placed on a metal tray filled with sand.

Once the larvae are mature, they crawl out of the plastic box and drop into the tray of sand …they crawl round and round in circles until they find a card-board ramp (made by Gnome) and inevitably travel through the entirety of the ramp to fall down into a collection container with smooth walls.

So, there you go. The black fly project was a success after all but there was a lot of sweat, tears and failures!

Gnome has given me the option to cook on coals…yes, we have coals…lots and lots of it because we have plenty of wood to burn…

And he has equipped me with a coal stove which is modeled from a blast furnace project that is for forging knives! He said that the fact that I got first dibs on the blast furnace for cooking meant that he loved me dearly….

As you can imagine, the fire that comes out of this is very strong…so it’s good for soup making and steaming food. Oh, and great for a real, authentic stir fry! You just have to watch your eyebrows so they don’t get singed with the blast of heat…just joking…but it is HOT!

I have plenty of other projects to talk about but let’s leave it at that for now. Here is a tattoo that Gnome designed (with collaboration with da Munchkin). The arm belongs to a friend who has since left Belize (for Scotland incidentally) and wanted to take a reminder of Belize.

This is a picture of Ixchel, Goddess of Medicine in Mayan culture. This is the outline…I can’t find a picture of the completed tattoo. But, look at the smoothness of the lines. One pass only and this is Gnome’s first tattoo. Well Done!!

0