From plant to oil

Yet again! A little marihuana plant!I grew two small marihuana plants and it looks like they are already done growing. Their bigger leaves are starting to dehydrate, so I will turn these plants into oil. The theory is that the active ingredients of the marihuana plant will dissolve in oil, and will repel water, so all we need to do is break open all the plants cells (with hot water) so the active ingredients can get out of the plant material and into the oil. I will follow the next steps:

Step 1: (optional) Dry your plant. This is normally the first step, and for smoking the plant it is required, but for extracting the active ingredients to oil it is not needed.
Step 2: Cut the plant into small pieces. Remove big leaves and the stem. Mix these pieces with water and oil and put this mix including the container in a big pan with hot water (bain-marie). Stir every now and then. Keep the water hot, but avoid boiling it. Leave the plant material in the hot water for a couple of hours. The hot water will destroy the plants cells so the active ingredients can dissolve into the oil.
Step 3: Filter the mix to remove all the plant material. Clean the solid residues with some additional hot water.
Step 4: You should now have a container with oil and water. Let it rest for while so the liquids can separate. Put the container in the freezer until the next day
Step 5: The water is frozen, so you can simply pour the oil off. The water is not needed anymore. All the active ingredients are in the oil.
Step 6: Try it! It might be a very strong mix, so first try it with a tiny drop below your tongue, before going to sleep. If the oil works you should notice in your dreams, or by changes in your sleep patterns. If you notice/feel the effects are too strong you can dilute the mix with more oil, until you reach the desired strength. If the effects are to weak you can simply use a higher dosage.

I sometimes use a drop of oil because I noticed my dreams get a lot more interesting. Some people use it sleep better or to help with chronic pain.

This is a 100% natural product but you still need to be careful and use your mind. Don’t take to much. Be patient for the effects to appear, sometimes it will take a few hours. Don’t drive, don’t do anything dangerous. Don’t start cleaning with all kinds of chemicals, don’t go into the kitchen to cut unions with a sharp knife or to boil hot water. Avoid fire. Do not combine with alcohol, drugs or medicines. Really use your mind and avoid any problems.

Optional: If you hate the texture of the oil you can mix it with some honey
Optional: Use (part of) the oil for baking a cake!

Super-easy cake recipe

Ingredient and measuring cup!A couple of days ago I made another cake and I wanted to share this extremely easy recipe. You use one yogurt cup for all the measurements, so there are almost no dishes to clean!

Ingredients:
– One small cup with yogurt (lemon or vanilla taste, or whatever taste you like)
– 2 eggs
Use the empty yogurt cup (no need to clean it) to measure the next items:
– about one cup of sugar
– about 3 cups of flour
– about half a cup of olive oil

Steps:
Throw everything together and mix with a spoon until it is a somewhat smooth mass. Afterwards you can optionally add some extra ingredients like:
– extra pieces of apple
– extra pieces of chocolate
– extra pieces of walnut
– extra pieces of banana
– extra pieces of rasped lemon peel

Put everything in the desired shape. Put in a preheated oven around 180 degrees for 45 minutes. Let cool, and you’re done.

Insect hotel

Our birdhouse showed us we that we had set our goals way to high. Our objectives were unobtainable. Maybe it was caused by the heat, or the general lack of birds in our area. We don’t know, but it is clear that after more than half a year we haven’t seen a single bird getting near the birdhouse we placed outside of Alex’ room.
We needed to refocus to something a bit more realistic. There are lots of insects, so why not make them a home, and see if we can get some results here. An insect home should be easier to make, and insects are probably less picky compared to birds.

Step one: With a couple of pieces of wood we made the basic frame
Step two: We pained the basic frame the same color as the wall, so it will not stick out so much
Step three: We collected a couple of sticks and some bamboo, which we cut in lots of pieces of 3 centimeters
Step four: All the pieces were glued inside the frame.
Step five: Leave to dry, and hang outside.

Now we only need to be patient. Maybe some insect will find the hotel and visit it for a while. We shall see.

Another Alex film

Alex made another movie. This time it is not a stopmotion but a scary movie. Alex was the camera man, and the actors are myself and Alex’ little brother Alan who plays the main part. The plot is straightforward and leaves you with a catchy open end. A scream is heard in the living room and the protagonist sets out to investigate. During the following investigation he finds writing on the wall… blood stains, and a corpse on the floor. Then he is relieved find himself together with his little brother, but things are not as they seem. A short film shot as a home movie which will leave you thinking. What happened? What is going to happen? Is everybody OK (except for the corpse)? Who did the killing?

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Recognizable game

As a test/hobby project I have been building a game similar to minesweeper, but with a completely different theme. Instead of looking for mines you will need to look for mushrooms. The game logic was easy because it is shared lots of times online. The entire app structure was for me, and was basically what I wanted to learn/achieve. What I was missing was the assets. Images and sounds to make it all look perfect. For this I used fiverr and I hired an indonesian guy to make around 20 images for me. Great to have such a huge international marketplace. What I am still missing it some soundeffects. I will probably try and convince the kids to help me with this, because Alex has already showed me he does this very well, like the shooting effect in our stopmotion.

Good cop, bad guy


The cops are dispatched to retrieve a case full of gold, but some bad guy also wants a piece of the action. A shootout is the result, and the bad guy bites the dust. After the cops depart the scene a stray dog checks out the aftermath.

A combination of playmobil toys, the Stop Motion app, some ketchup and lots of patience we made our very first very short film. Enjoy!

Lose yourself

Lose Yourself to Dance
Daft Punk

I know you don’t get a chance to take a break this often
I know your life is speeding and it isn’t stopping
You take my shirt and just go ahead and wipe up all the
Sweat, sweat, sweat

Lose yourself to dance

Painting

Alan is a source for inspiration for all of us. Every day he inspires us to be the best we can possibly be and to work for a better future.

Even without being physically present his image has inspired an artist, who made this beautiful painting.
Alan in paint!

The painting was inspired by this image:
Alan inspiratie!