Relaunched newsletter now I am a Professional Trustee

Welcome to the re-launched Droids Puppies and Plants. If you are not interested in either:

1) How to build a full size robot

2) Gardening

3) Pets

Then this is not for you and we can catch up to discuss Pensions at another time:)

Droids

For those of you who have seen photos over the last few months then the photo of the dome for my R2 D2 doesn't look much different. It is a slow burn to get the dome, which has been 3d printed in a number of parts, to the quality needed to then paint it. The latest is that it has been primed and then sanded back and is now waiting some fine filling, before another coat of primer. I am hoping that is the last coat and then after a little sanding I can then paint it the colour that I am finishing it off in.

In the meantime I have been busy getting all the electronics ready for the dome. Once the panels and dome are painted I will start to install the electronics.

I have also started printing the body. And I am making a lot of progress here.

I am particularly pleased with the tyres on the left hand side above. These are for the legs. They had to be printed in a flexible plastic and I had to spend time completely recalibrating one of the printers to be able to print with that material. So I was glad that both tyres printed first time and are will fit the legs fine.

I estimate that I will finish all of the printing by the end of September. I am also planning to start on the electronics for the body before them. The dome may be fully active around the same time, with a bit of luck. I expect the whole build though to take another couple of years. I have already started to think about what I may 3D print after R2D2 - as don't expect to leave the printers quiet while I spend a couple of years finishing the construction of the droid.

PLANTS

Winter was a bit of a disaster. The greenhouse panels were blown off when it was very cold and as they stayed off for a few days, the lemon and lime plants withered. I thought that they had died but I left them in the greenhouse and cut them back. The lime has just this week sprouted up from the roots.

As i has grown so quickly I know the roots are fine. So I am going to plant it out in the garden, in a relatively sheltered place, and see if it survives. I have done that with the lemon as well. My plan is to let them establish themselves in the garden this summer and see if they are then hardy enough to survive the winter. If not, I will put them down to experience and try something else next time.

I grew so many chillies last year that I don't need any this year. They will probably run out in the winter. So I have started a small number of plants this year and they are doing well.

The grapevine is continuing to do well and wasn't damaged in the winter. After experimenting with wine last year, I am now going to see if we can just eat them this year, and maybe make some grape juice. The wine wasn't nice and I am still debating whether to try to use it as cooking wine.

Finally, the roses are going from strength to strength. It has taken a few years for them to establish themselves properly and to fight it out over space. But they have matured well and we are very pleased with them.

PUPPIES

Will she or won't she? Lyla will be three next month and the plan is to potentially breed her this summer when we get back from holiday. That all depends on if she has come into season or not before we return. Or does it?

We are not sure that she will let any other dog near her. She keeps away from other dogs on walks - occasionally letting them come close to her when she is off her lead. But she is very much a dog that keep herself to herself. Given that she does let dogs come close to her occasionally, I am thinking that she may be ok as her chemicals at the time should persuade her to want to be near another dog.

If we are going to breed her then I need to have her checked out in the next month or so. I will say more on that next month.

So that is all for this revised newsletter. I would be grateful on your comments and if you find this interesting/ useful or would want to hear about anything else.