A storm hit Chicago area and Northern Suburbs after 7:00 pm of June 22, 2011 which downed trees and knocked out power lines. It also caused 250 flight cancellations at O'hare International Airport.
Branches of trees are scattered along the streets in our neighborhood. Luckily, only one or two branches fell from the big tree in our backyard.
The branch that broke off from the cottonwood tree. Good material for a wooden spoon.
I cut off a piece of the branch and split it with my Mora Clipper.
I shaped the spoon with the Mora Clipper and did fine detail with Mora 120.
The Mora 120 was so sharp. I wasn't careful and I cut myself - it's good it was just a small knick.
Carving the face with the crooked knife.
The finished product. Wooden spoon with my folding cup.
It's been more than a month into the summer and I haven't gone biking, hiking or camping yet. That's what happens when your work schedule is overnight - you just want to sleep during the day. I also have some catching up to do with my blog posts. At least 4 blog posts a month is my quota and it's already the 3rd week of July and I haven't posted one yet. Well, for the meantime, I'll just make a post on the gadgets I have especially on my EDC or PSK. Here's one of the them.
Coghlan's 4-function whistle. I bought it from Walmart for $3.75 maybe 2 years ago.
It has a pretty accurate compass and a fairly loud whistle.
On the back it has a thermometer. But you need a magnifying glass to read the temperature. The graduations on the thermometer are just too small for me to read.
And a small magnifying glass that you can use to start a fire on a sunny day. You can use it to start an ember on a char cloth or you can use it to help you remove a sliver stuck somewhere in your body. It won't work with petroleum jelly coated cotton balls though. I tried but I wasn't successful.
It's a nice little gadget that can provide you with your navigation, signalling and fire lighting needs.
Last summer I noticed a lot of birds in a shaded area of our backyard. Robins, house finches are hopping and pecking at a bushy part under the hedges. I came down to investigate and found wild strawberries to be the object of the bird's excitement. So this summer when I saw a group of birds in that area, I knew that the wild strawberries are flourishing.
These wild strawberries taste sweet. Its diameter is about the size of a dime.
Aside from that, birds where darting in and out of the hedges. I thought maybe the birds are finding a lot insects in the hedges but when I look closely - there are berries there too - although a different kind.
I tried to look it up in the Internet but I can't identify these black berries. I hope one of the readers can help me on this.
