Storm

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.

That's all folks! Thanks for reading.

Four Function Whistle

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.

That's all folks! Thanks for reading.

Berries

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.



That's all folks! Thanks for reading.

Boker Plus Tom Krein Grasshopper

In my continuing fascination with small knives, I bought this one to add to my collection.


The Grasshopper is designed by Tom Krein and manufactured by Boker Plus. It is made from 440C stainless steel with a titanium coat that gives it a tactical finish.


Overall Length: 4.75", Blade Length: 2", Cutting Edge: 1.75"


Thin edge with nice hollow grind in the Krein tradition. Three finger grip and very sharp out of the box.


Includes a Kydex neck sheath and ball chain.

That's all folks! Thanks for reading.

Sunpak 620-786 Mini-Spider Tripod

I've got a new spider tripod from Amazon for $3.23 + free shipping. I bought this tripod so I can make videos of my stuff conveniently. Its really hard to do videos with your one hand holding the camera while the other hand is holding your stuff.


Only 5 inches long and weighs less than two ounces.


Features individually adjustable, flexible legs.


Tripod holds compact 35mm and digital cameras. Holds your camera steady at any angle, indoors or out, on virtually any terrain. I don't have another camera so I can't take a picture of the tripod with a camera mounted on it. Good buy!

That's all folks! Thanks for reading.

Boker Subcom

First of all this knife is not the real Boker Subcom folder. The website where I bought this knife from does not claim it to be but when I received my order I knew that it was a knock off of the Boker Subcom folder not to mention that the very cheap price is a dead giveaway.


$4.82 from www.dealextreme.com + free shipping.


Dimensions: 2.76 in x 1.5 in x 0.35 in. Weight: 2.72 oz. It actually weighs 2.03 oz only as you can see from my previous post titled Digital Scale.


It's very handy and quite sharp. I use it for opening boxes at work - better than the company issued box cutter. It can be used as a money clip too. Not a big problem but I have to adjust the screws to make it open with one hand smoothly.


It's quite small that I'm sure it's legal to carry anywhere. I put an orange digi-camo paracord lanyard so I can easily find it among my clutter of gadgets.

That's all folks! Thanks for reading.

Digital Scale

I have a knife that feels a little bit heavy on my hand compared with my other knives. To find out how much the knife weighs, I bought a digital scale. I thought I could use the scale to weigh my other gadgets too in as much as I've been reading a lot about ultralight backpacking.


I bought it from eBay for $7.49 + free shipping.


Size: 4.48 x 3 x 0.77 inches (114 x 76 x 19.5mm). Capacity: 2lb (1000g), Detail up to 1/10 g. 5 units selections: g / oz / ozt / dwt / ct.


It comes with a carry case.


The scale in action: weighing my knock off boker.

That's all folks! Thanks for reading.