Cicada Launch!

Woke up this morning and found this fella about to launch on my back porch! What a show!

Blackberries

Took my son Daniel and the hounds for a little trek today in the East Texas Timber. We did'nt take any food with us but we found a nice snack at Tonkawa Creek! A Blackberry Vine and a Grape Vine appear to have grown together at the head of the creek and we feasted on the Blackberries that were ripe. We marked the spot and we will go back later when the grapes are ripe. I would like to attempt making a Wild Blackberry Fruit Leather as posted here by Laplander: http://naturallore.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/fruit-leather/. We had to share the Blackberry Bush with what looked like a Monarch Caterpillar. He was getting quite fat off that bush.... We will check back on him later when we gather berries for the Fruit Leather.



Mac Wiseman Jimmie Brown The Newsboy

Firewood Rack

I saw a kit in Home Depot for a Firewood Rack from a company called 2x4 Basics. Made of a PVC type plastic. All you provide is the 2x4's and some labor, and you can make it as big or small as you like. It looked like a fun project, and I badly needed a place to store some of my split hardwood. I went with a 4 wide 4 high config so that I could get the most out of eight foot 2x4's. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and how affordable and fun the project was. They have kits for storage shelves and benches as well. I may try another kit real soon!



Swamp Rat Knives Chopweiler Knife in Green/Black Micarta

I have blogged in previous posts on the Busse Family of Knives. The Scrapper 6 was covered in a previous post, and this week I will talk a bit on the Scrap Yard offering called the Chopweiler. I don't really know where to start on this knife other than to say it's a handful. Made of Swamp Rat's SR101 Steel, Chopweilers  feature a differential heat treat. Differential Heat Treating is an interesting feature not often found in commercially made blades because of the extra time and expense required. In a nutshell the the bottom half of the blade is quenched to a different hardness than the top half of the blade allowing for good edge retention at the bottom with a tougher spine on the top. Blade Width on the knife is 1-3/4" and around 7.5" long with a massive 1" choil included, leaving the usable blade length at 6.5". Overall Blade length is 13.25" with a spine thickness of a quarter inch! I would put the weight of this chopper at over a pound! The Carved  Micarta Handles are curved to fit the hand perfectly for chopping and are right around 5.5" long. I did not have any trouble with hot spots on my hands that I typically get with carved micarta. The handles are striking in appearance, and really add a bunch to the character of the knife. I put the blade through it's paces on pin oak and holly a couple weekends back and was very impressed. The knife really performs more like a hatchet than a blade when chopping heavy brush and limbs. The heat treat on the steel was exceptional and it needed little touch up after several hours of chopping. The over sized choil allowed for me to choke way up on the blade safely for smaller work around the camp when I needed to. This blade could no doubt fill the role of a "1 Blade Only" type camping, hunting or survival scenario. I intend to take it Hog Hunting this fall and will be interested to see how it does on skinning and boning out an entire boar without sharpening. I continue to be impressed by all the Busse Kin Knife Offerings and look forward to doing more short reviews on them in the future.



Salmon Oleander

Finally gave up on my Azaleas and planted Oleander at the homestead today. The Azaleas just could not handle the Texas Heat and required constant water. The Oleander is very drought tolerant and blooms constantly. We had a light breeze today in Leon County and it was a wonderful morning to plant. We dove hunted in the early morning and then I planted these around 10AM. I am looking forward to less watering, and the nice salmon colored blooms throughout the Texas Fall.



Grape Vine Cordage

While watching wildlife today I grabbed a very green muskadine vine and peeled the bark off, which came off in very long strips. I proceeded to make an eight inch section of reverse wrap cordage with it as watched the woods around me come to life this morning. I went to pull it apart as I got up to leave, and was amazed that I could not break it between my thumbs and index fingers, even when wrapped! Grape vines do really well in East Texas even during drought (massive root systems), so this will be a good cordage source for me. I have never used green grape vine bark for cordage before, but this thin little piece has made me a believer!