artifacts and artifacts
Premonition about olive oil in scrambled eggs? really?
At 7:31 am on Saturday, the sun gave a quick glimpse of its power by reflecting its rays through an olive oil bottle on to our tile kitchen wall through the bottle onto the tile wall.
I took three photos of this and only one showed what was happening because of the speed at which this happened. At 7:33 am it was gone. Look above the bottle’s shadow and you can see a double refection of the bottle sitting in the window.
Grab the right tool for the job
When the weather gets cold it is a good time to get chopping. I really enjoy going out in cold weather and splitting wood for a fire. We heat our house probably 65% wood 35% gas. I estimate that to the time the heater is running and when we aren’t around. Anyway, I like wood heat much better than forced-air heat. Believe me there is a difference!
I mainly use an axe (big guy on top) and a hatchet. I also have an eight-pound maul but it rarely gets used. Funny thing is the axe head was found by a friend in his field and was totally rusty. I cleaned it up with a rotary-wheel brush and oil and added a handle and it works fine. The hatched was a found item in Giant City State Park south of Carbondale. Good for making kindling.
Thank you Derecho of May 8, 2009
The splitting log is made of cypress and came from a nearby street where someone had a huge cypress tree on their front lawn fall due to the 2009 derecho storm that blew threw Southern Illinois. If you chop wood, I recommend a large log that is at least equal to your waist in height. It is much easier on your back.
Burn baby, burn!
While chopping, I made a small outdoor stove to not only help burn up the small splinters and bark chips but to keep my hands warm (I chop bare handed). I made this simple stove out of a quart can of V-8 juice. It has a very basic function of burning wood with plenty of ventilation. I used tin snips to form the base and legs and a drill with a 1/4 inch bit to drill holes to let air in. It works OK but not great. I feel it works better on slightly winder days than anything. maybe I’ll do a post on the construction of the stove. It’s a piece of cake to make.
Heads
I was at a store a few months back (Westroad Liquors, to be exact) and at the register I received this odd, gold-colored quarter. I asked the cashier about it, and he said the bank gave him an entire roll of them, all dated to 1991. The coin looks to have never have been put into circulation and is in mint condition. I was so intrigued that I went back the next day hoping to get more quarters (and some more beer, of course) and they were all gone.
The quarter isn’t gold but may be enameled with something to appear as such. My friend weighed it on a digital scale and it matched the weight of a regular quarter.
Any information about this let me know. I did many searches and nothing turned up. Although I have to say it is much more interesting to me than all of the lame state quarters the Treasury Department is cranking out right now.
Tails
Large invisible vampire bat
My son just turned five so this is probably the last of his three imaginary friends. Chonky Tonky is giant invisible vampire bat “that sucks the blood of bad guys and strangers.”
MODOK = Mobile Organism Designed Only for Computing
My paper mache master piece, MODOK, soon to be destroyed by an army of little kids at my son’s super hero themed 5th birthday party.
MODOK is 12″ in diameter and holds several pounds of toys and candy.
Drink up!
This is a tiny little tea set my daughter plays with. A nice little ceramic set no wider than 3 inches across. Her favorite game is to serve me tea that is too hot that burns my tongue. Funny stuff.
My four (soon to be five) year old art directed me into creating this “Chameleon Super”. The drawing started as a gecko’s head and evolved into a “dragon” of sorts. He choose the features and described it’s powers and colored it with crayon and markers.
The way he says it “Chameleon Super” almost sounds like a Latin taxonomy. I think he is imitating something from a nature show on PBS.
Piece of cake!
I’ve been practicing my Parkour skills and thought I’d give it a shot jumping off a two-story building in Carbondale’s square. Overall it was pretty easy. The worst part was landing in the rose bush though, ouch!
late pickin's
How does a pepper survive hanging on a dead plant for weeks with several nights of frost? This pepper was picked yesterday after my wife spotted it behind a dead pepper plant in out garden. It was protected I think by the thick leaves that surrounded it. The funny thing is it is by far the biggest pepper we got off that miserable plant.
The first duck that spots us
On this Thanksgiving, lets remember the other birds that are lucky enough not to be baked at 350 degrees for 2 ½ hours. I took a stroll with my family to SIU’s Campus Lake to feed the ducks. Here are a few pics of what’s floating around there.
Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and the domesticated white duck (also Anas platyrhynchos)
Hmm...yummy white bread