I had to work this Fridge Inventory Tip video when the wife was asleep. Not everyone can use this, and to be honest, I would only do this on my freezer (but since my freezer is covered with half completed projects, this was easier than cleaning up my workshop for a quick video.
Anyway, if you want an easy fridge inventory tip, a dry erase marker will work on many freezer finishes, and this may be a good way to keep track of what is in your freezer.
Just be sure you use a dry erase marker or your wife may cut you.
This fridge inventory tip can work for other refrigerator colors other than white, but be sure to test the finish in an area that you have a hard time seeing, as you don’t want to write a bunch of stuff on the fridge door and not be able to clean it off.
I have to be careful with this, you see I have a 4 year old that if he saw me writing on the fridge with dry erase markers he would think he could do it with sharpies.
FIY here is another tip, if your child writes on your fridge with permanent marker, you can write over his art with a dry erase and it will lift off the first marks…..
I had an interesting childhood – my Dad and I were a lot alike, and when I was growing up he jumped with both feet into the world of rope courses – he single-handedly built several small courses in Tennessee which, coupled with his work as a Park Ranger fed my infatuation with survival techniques and self-reliance.
I spent a lot of time as a pre-teen and teenage years tying knots and lighting fires and I want to spend more time getting back to that as I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and want to refresh my skills with you so I am ready when Tell gets big enough to keep the rope ends out of the dirt long enough for me to teach him.
I am going to start with the bowline, the bowline is one of the four basic maritime knots (along with the figure eight, reef knot, and clove hitch) and is a very simple knot used to form a fixed loop in the “bitter end” of a rope (the working end). It is an essential knot for an outdoorsman to know, especially if you climb or sail.
Like the majority of “good” knots, it is easy to tie and untie. Also like many good knots, if tied improperly it can collapse (capsize).
Anytime you tie a knot in a rope you reduce its strength through bending, the better the knot the less strength you lose, and a properly tied bowline retains about 65% of it’s strength. Because of this the FFA recommends to tie down light aircraft. More importantly, the bowline is commonly used as a rescue knot for conscious individuals that fell into holes or off cliffs. (because of this I will show you how to tie one using a single hand in-case you are injured or want to show off)
Procedure for Tying
Most people learn to tie a bowline using a mnemonic aid.
If you think of the end of the rope as a rabbit, the loop as the rabbit’s hole, and the standing end of the rope above the loop as a tree…
The rabbit comes up through the hole, round the tree from the right, and back down the hole.
It is very important that the loop is formed correctly, with the bitter end on the top of the loop.
If you reverse the loop (shown in the video) you will make an Eskimo bowline, then when the bowline is put under pressure the bowline will slip.
One Handed
If you have the rope secured so you can make it taut, you can tie this knot one handed.
Simply hold the bitter end in your hand.
Lay your palm on the top of the rope (the tendency is to use your wrist which is easier, but will probably trap your hand)
Twist your hand down on the left side of the rope, down, under and back up on the right side of the rope. This makes the loop.
Use your fingers to pass the rabbit around the tree from right to left.
While still holding the end of the rope, pull it and your hand through the loop
Tighten.
With practice you can do this easier than you can tie the rope one handed.
Let me know if you want to see more knot videos, I am probably going to do some anyway, but the detail and amount of will depend on you.
This is a very simple tip. My wife loves cooking homemade brownies. She uses it as a teaching tool in her special education class to teach cause/effect, math, and life skills.
Unfortunately if you are not careful a homemade brownie will stick to the pan. Luckily pinterest showed me a better way.
If you grease your pan normally, but then spread parchment paper over it, and then pour the mix over the mix the brownies are very simple to remove.
The paper will not stick to the pan, nor the brownies.
This homemade brownie tip is short and simple, but that does not mean it is not useful. I know that it saves me a lot of time cleaning out the pan because I don’t have to scrape out little burnt bits of brownies from the pan.
I will understand if you need to practice this tip over and over to ensure you get it right. You may have to make several brownie batches to ensure you get it just right. I have a homemade brownie mix that may make this even better.
Making homemade caramel is something I have been meaning to try for several months, but could not quite decide what to make to put it ON, but once I made it, I realized, that a spoon is the perfect thing to douse liberally with this golden condiment.It is a simple thing to make simple simmer an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in water f0r 2-3 hours.
Just keep this in mind – do not let the pot boil dry, and do not open until the can is completely cooled. Failure to do those things can be similar in scope to getting the mogwai wet or feeding it after midnight….
I have heard that you can do this for 8 hours in a crock pot, or 15 minutes in a pressure cooker (but only if you use a steamer basket to prevent the can from touching the bottom or sides of the cooker).
I will say that this Homemade Caramel is the precursor to some really good recipes, but I like eating it on apple slices.
Whatever you use this caramel on, you will enjoy it – and with the two different ways I show you – you will find it pretty easy to make also.
Today I offer you an improvised knife sharpening tip. Improvised means it is not as good as a normal method of using a whetstone or other sharpener, but that it will work in a pinch.
If you take a ceramic coffee mug or bowl and flip it upside down you will notice a ring where there is no glaze.
It is possible to use this ring to sharpen your knife blade just as you would use a ceramic sharpening rod.
I have tried this, and it does leave residue on the ceramic ring, and it does sharpen the blade.
I would not use this for one of my high quality knives, but when out camping and I have to sharpen my knife “Right Now”, then this is a good idea to keep in the back of your mind.
The ability to break down a need into its component parts and see resources by potential function will allow you to always be able to improvise. Since the unglazed bottom ring of the mug can slowly act as sandpaper to wear metal it works to sharpen a knife.
Again improvised solutions are rarely efficient, but they do work in a pinch.
Hopefully this can help you in the future. If you have time, a purpose made knife sharpener does work much better.
I had an interesting childhood – my Dad and I were a lot alike, and when I was growing up he jumped with both feet into the world of rope courses – he single-handedly built several small courses in Tennessee which, coupled with his work as a Park Ranger fed my infatuation with survival techniques and self-reliance.
