Size Matters!

I bought a spokeshave on ebay to carve hunting bows, but it wasn't exactly what I expected. Today, it came in the mail. My mom hollered from the computer in the kitchen  that a box came in the mail for me and when she did I thought, "Yes, my shoveshave is here." When I went to the dining room to retrieve it, I saw this small box sitting on the table for me. I lifted the box up, and it was very light. I took it to my room to open it and pulled out this ity bitty little spokeshave. It would be great if I was carving a mini bow for a figurine or something. After I discovered that the spokeshave was the wrong size, I went to the ebay page where I purchased the item and sure enough the description stated a length of 3 1/2 inches. I should have checked the size! I guess you can say I was expecting something a little bigger?

Lesson: The next time you go on ebay to buy something, make sure it is the right size. Even if you are certain about the size, still check. I was certain the spokeshave I bought was going to be as larger and didn't bother to check the size and look what happened! Don't make this mistake!

This is the picture that represented the item. The item looks like this, but...

the picture doesn't show the size!

Yum!

I recently started eating these chocolate snack pies from JJ's. They are delicious with a dunkin stix like outer crust and and a creamy chocolate pudding like inner fiiling. They're cheap too. You can buy them 2 for a dollar from Quality Foods which is where I got these. You have too watch how many you're eating though. Just one of these pies has 430 calories. I am trying to figure out how to make these at home. I already found a pudding recipe you can make from scratch in an old cook book in the kitchen. Now if I can just find a good recipe for the crust.

Pancakes

I finally got the hang of making pancakes. The trick is to heat the flame to the right amount. Of course I already knew that, but this time I got it right. The first pancakes of this particular batch were burnt, but the rest came out right after I got the flame right. Also, I didn't use oil on the later ones. I think the oil was part of the problem with burning the pancakes. Anyways, my mom always smells the stink whenever I cook pancakes because I usually burn a pancake or two whenever I'm making them. My mom came in when she smelled the burnt pancakes and said I should give up making them. I mumbled, "Practice makes perfect," and it did today. However, I was making them to eat not to practice. Now if I can just remember the right flame amount next time.

Soup's On!

My mom made this pumpkin soup one time. Even though it didn't look very appetizing, it tasted delicious. I ate it Japanese style with the soup poured over a mound of brown rice in a bowl.

What's That Bug!

I was in the gargage one night working on a project and saw this bug crawling around on the ground. I never came across a bug like this before so I captured it and took pictures of it. It looked unusual and scary like it could sting me or something so i never touched it. I looked it up and found out this bug is called an american oil beetle. It's scientific name is meloe americanus. It's named the american oil beetle because when it's disturbed or feels threatened it pretends to be dead and secretes oil from it joints. That's what I think happened with this bug. I was moving the container around to take some pictures from different angles. The bug was completely motionless with it legs frozen in place as if dead. I saw this yellowish liquid coming from it and thought I killed the bug by banging it around too much. I emptied the jar with the bug in it outside. I was tricked into thinking it was dead!

Drawer Makeover

The top two drawers of my dresser where I store my hygiene items have been a mess for a while now. I been planning on starting an after shower hygiene routine where I use skin care products. I have been putting it off though because I didn't want to go through the stress of rummaging through the drawers to find what I need.  I have been wanting to organize them for along time now and today decided to do it. I figured the sooner I organized the drawers the sooner I get to start my routine. I put my makeup in a new bag that doesn't interfere with the drawers opening. Now after I get out of the shower tonight, I can start.

Owwwww!

Last month, I was trying to carve a hunting bow in the garage one night and badly cut myself accidentally with my Excel Hobby Blade Corp 16007 Wood Carving Knife that I was using. I was holding one end of the stick with my left hand and carving towards it. Blood drops splattered on the floor and I immediately stopped what I was doing to take care of the cut.

First I ran it under some water and after a few seconds decided I should first stop the bleeding. I got a paper towel to tie around my finger and when the bleeding slowed down, I applied some New Skin first aid antiseptic liquid bandage. After the liquid bandage dried, I secured some gauze around my cut finger with first aid tape. To prevent the bandage from getting wet while I was taking a shower, I covered it with some saran wrap. Whenever I removed the old bandage to put on a new one, I had to be careful so that the skin didn’t peel off with the bandage.

After two days of covering the cut, I decided to keep the cut exposed to the air. The cut didn’t appear to be healing while it was bandaged. I suspect that’s because the bandage traps in the moisture so that the damaged skin or cut can’t dry out and make way for new skin cells. Now the cut is almost healed!

Dinner Time

My mom and I decided the week before last that for four days of the week, Saturday through Tuesday, I would make dinner and she would clean up the mess as long as I didn't make a big one.We started this regime last weekend. On Saturday, I made hotdogs with baked beans, and on Sunday, I made tuna pasta with sour cream. My mom instructed me to add peas to the pasta as well, but I couldn't find any peas in the cabinet so I had to make the tuna pasta without peas. Today, we had barley soup with saltine crackers and salad. The instructions on the can of soup says to add one can of water to the soup since the soup is condensed. I'm usually hesitant to add the full can of water because before canned condensed soups always came out watery. I like my soups with a little thickness. In the end I decided to add the full cup of water because I was afraid without it the soup would taste to strong. The soup turned out okay and the thickness was alright.

Insect Eggs

Today I was in the woods behind my back yard searching for dead tree branches I could use to carve hunting bows out of. I found a cluster of insect eggs laid on a branch at the rotted end that was underneath the dead leaf mulch that covers the ground in the forest. I contemplated sawing off the section of the branch with the insect eggs to keep in a container until the eggs hatched for observation but decided to leave the section on there. After I finished searching, I carried the branches back home, laid them next to the back wall of the house on the mulch bed and took pictures of the insect eggs. I think they are stink beetle eggs.

Let It Snow!

It has been three days since it snowed, and the snow has begun to melt. I went outside to build a snow man to post on my blog before the snow melts, but I got tired before I finished it. The snow man I was going to post is just a  huge snow ball. I had trouble getting the snow to stick when I fist started rolling the then tiny snow ball around in the ground to create the bottom of my unfinished snow man. Also, I made some more snow angels too.

Hello World!

This is my very first blog post, and this is the perfect week for me to start blogging because it snowed. I live in Georgia so it snows only occasionally so this is a great blogging opportunity. Two days ago, we got a winter storm watch.  My mom was going to work that night and was worried about me at home alone in the storm. She showed me what precautions to take once the storm hit. Since the flurries were expected to turn into sleet, she was worried about the power going out on me. So in case the power went out and the heating system in the house stopped working, she wanted me to know how to turn on the gas fireplace. So she showed me how to do that. She also told me to turn on all the faucets in the house so the water is at slow constant drip to prevent the pipes from freezing. 

The power was still working the next morning when I woke up so I assumed there was no storm. I had planned to drive over to the park for an hour to jog, so I looked outside for my mom's car. Instead of my mom's car I found everything covered in about 3 inches of snow! I wasn't too surprised because I knew there might be a snow storm but since the power was still working, I figured nothing had happened. My mom, who is a police dispatcher, had told me that her job had reserved rooms at an inn for employees working that night in case the storm prevented them from returning home the following morning. Since I didn't see her car outside, I figured she was staying at an inn near her job. So I donned my coat and went outside to take some pictures for my blog.