I remember my younger days in my hometown back in the Philippines when I was still in elementary. Our house is about half a kilometer away from the school and I used to walk that distance with my friends. Walking to school was never a tiresome task as adventure of some sort is always waiting along the way. Fruits are in abundance such as guava, cashew, duhat, camachile, siniguelas whatever is in season and the owner would not mind you taking some as long as you ask for permission first. Of course sometimes we don't ask permission and we would scamper as fast as we can when the owner comes out shouting invectives at us.
On our way home in the afternoon, my friends and I would stop by the town plaza and catch grasshoppers in the grassy area of the plaza or play at the monument of Rizal or Bonifacio. Come to think of it, all plazas I have been to always have a Rizal and Bonifacio monument.
Even the weather fails to dampen our spirit. During rainy days, we would play at the puddles that formed on the road splashing water at each other with our feet. Other times we would play with the tadpoles. There are lots of them in puddles during the rainy season. They look like a moving solid black mass when the puddles are drying up. Meron pa kayang butete sa mga probinsiya?
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I went to work overnight on November 19 and during lunch we had chicken, coleslaw, mashed potato, pasta and apple pie for dessert courtesy of the store. Not so much shoppers came in during the Black Friday sale unlike the previous years where there is along line of shoppers who are really aggressive in getting the items they want. Maybe people do get tired of TVs and laptops and it's not every year you buy them anyway.
One thing I cay say is, the food this year is really good.
Happy Thanksgiving and keep safe. Don't drink too much.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
The latest request from my grandson is to make him a Kylo Ren wood figure. Being a doting grandfather that I am, I grabbed my whittling knife and a piece of basswood and went to work. And here's the result.
My grandson enjoyed playing with Kylo Ren. I had a lot of fun making it.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I've often seen this primitive fish hook in blogs and in YouTube but I never got to making it. One day when I was walking in the park I saw a tree with a lot of thorns. I don't know what kind of tree it was but I thought I can use the thorns to make a primitive fish hook. So I picked up a dead twig lying on the ground and brought it home.
I used the inner strands of 550 cord to tie the thorn down on the wood stem. The knot itself is easy to make once you learn how to do it.
Will it catch a fish? Maybe or maybe not, who knows, but I've some fun making it.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I thought it was easy to carve a pumpkin just like our local kalabasa. But the skin was so thick and hard my Schrade knife almost closed on my fingers while trying to carve a Jack-O-Lantern. The solution was to use the locking blade of my SAK Trekker to make a cut on the skin and finish it off with the saw blade.
I cleaned the inside of the pumpkin with a spoon and left it on a newspaper to dry.
My grandson is fascinated with it and volunteered to light the candle.
P.S. Happy Halloween!
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After carving my grandson a few battle tanks, he requested me to make him a wooden airplane. I should have made him a fighter plane like the F15 but for somehow I made a commercial plane instead.
The plane ready to for painting.
Maybe it's just me but this photo gives me the creeps. First, I painted the airplane black when it should have been white or silver. Second, it looks like a downed airplane. There's a third reason but I wouldn't mention it.
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Some people think Altoids kits (tin can kits) are useless or inadequate. I won't argue with that because a PSK should be tailored according to your needs, skills and environment. I won't go into the jungle without a machete and a big pack but for just a casual hike on a high volume traffic trail in the suburb, I just carry a mini kit. As always my kit contains somethings to make fire because the greatest threat if you get lost where I usually hike is hypothermia. Remember the rule of 3's - 3 hours of exposure to elements, you die.
Altoids Tin (small) - PJ coated cotton balls, Firesteel
Leatherman Squirt PS4.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I am officially a Trail Watch Volunteer of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.
The following are excerpts from the Forest Preserve Blog:
"At its core, the Trail Watch program is a group of volunteers that patrol the preserves and act as extra eyes and ears for the Forest Preserves Police, reporting suspicious or illegal activity with a phone call. But it’s also so much more than that—for both volunteers and preserve visitors."
Members of the program are outfitted with a neon green t-shirt, whistle, Trail Watch ID and maps and encouraged to use the preserves as much as possible.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
Songs remind you of certain parts of your life. I remember times or events in the past when I hear a song associated with them. Just like songs, things also bring back memories. Let me tell you a short story.
Long, long time ago, during the Vietnam war era the Americans came to my hometown in the island of Mindoro to participate in a joint military exercise called "Exercise Tulungan". I was told then that my hometown San Jose was chosen for Exercise Tulungan because the outline of its beaches are similar to that of Vietnam.
But it was not just a military exercise really, it was also a RR for the Americans. And the entrepreneurs knew about it. Beer houses and soda fountains sprung up like mushroom and even the famed Luisa and Sons came for the green bucks.
The Americans thirsty for good times was on spending spree. Soon their money was exhausted and they began selling their C-Rations composed mostly of canned goods and cigarettes. Cigarettes were being sold by the boxes, Viceroy, Pall Mall, Lucky Strike, Winston, Salem, Camel, to name the most popular ones.
My childhood friend and I, have a flourishing shoe shine business too. We would go out at night with our shoe boxes and shine shoes for $1 (P3.50 = $1.00). We usually earn about $3 each which at that time is a lot of money. The Americans were very generous too and would give us chocolates as tip which we would share as we walk our way home. And these old lighters emblazoned with Salem and Winston always remind me of that time in my life when I earned my first dollar.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I visited my favorite forest preserve on my way home and it looks like in a few days the snow will be gone. Spring is almost here and soon the trees will be green again.
Snow is slowly disappearing from the ground.
This is how this place looks like during one of my winter walk.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
This whittling thing is just a hobby, for fun but it has other benefits. First of all, it enabled me to improve my knife skills, doing stop cut, push cut, paring cut, etc. Secondly, it has improved my sharpening, honing and stropping skills because I have to maintain my blades razor sharp. I learned how to re-grind the blades of an ordinary pocket knife to make it suitable for whittling.
From top to bottom: Schrade 34OT, SAK Recruit, and a RR Whittler.
And most of all, it somehow enabled me to do the things I love the most when I was a kid - making my own "toys". It is not an expensive pursuit, all you need is a sharp knife and a piece of wood and you're good to go. Try it, it's a lot of fun and it will make your kids or grandkids happy. But don't cut yourself.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
Accidents are bound to happen especially when you don't take precautions. The knife (Schrade 34OT) slipped and cut the side of my thumb. I was whittling at around 3:00 am and maybe I was sleepy. You need 100% concentration when doing this thing.
My first whittling cut.
Lesson learned the hard way. Always wear your carving gloves.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
Twice I bought my grandson a fish for his small aquarium and both of them died. So I thought I just made him a wooden fish. He liked it very much.
I used a piece of basswood for this one.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
Every winter for the past 4 years I made my grandson a snowman in the backyard. This winter I am not able to make him one since my wife and I have move out and just rent an apartment nearby my daughter's house. Instead, I made my grandson a wooden snowman which I hope he will like just the same.
This snowman is made from a tree branch. I used an x-acto knife to carve this figure.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
A co-worker friend gave me a Sheffield brand box cutter. It works great, better than my EDC knife for cutting boxes, string and whatever need to be cut at work.
It has a pocket clip and quite inconspicuous.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
Wooden chains are one of the fun and simple trick project of old timer whittling and are also called whimsies. I thought it was an easy project, much easier than the ball in a cage but it is not, at least for me. It took me 6 hours to finish this simple 3 link wood chain. There should have been 4 links but I broke one link when I forced to free it due to lack of patience.
3 link wooden chain and Schrade 108OT.
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There is a guy in YouTube named Gene Messer who has tons of video tutorial on woodcarving. He got a video on how to carve a face in wood that is quite easy to follow. I learned a lot about wood carving from his instructional videos.
I used white pine wood 1" x 1" square dowel for this one. Not so bad I think.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I got a book on old time whittling and will be doing the projects in it. I don't have the wood materials yet although I already ordered online for a box of different sizes basswood. For the meantime I just buy white pine wood from the hardware store.
I also reground an old Barlow knife and a Lipic pen knife for use as whittling knives. In the photo you can also see a piece of white pine wood square dowel 1" x 1" x 24" and the book Complete Starter Guide to Whittling.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
This is my second Ball in Cage whittling or carving, whatever you may call it. It's a little bit harder that a 1 ball in a cage but I know I can do even a 3 ball in cage. That I gonna surely do soon.
I used a 1" x 4" block of pinewood and a small Schrade Old Timer Stockman knife.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
What's for lunch on New Year's Day.
Happy New Year to All!
