Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Making a "buddy burner" and a Coffee Can Stove

DH is working on his "Quals" for his PHD while Blaze and I have Spring break next week. Blaze and I are planning our first camping trip of the year as a way of getting out of the apartment and not being distractions to him.

To prepare for this trip, we've been learning some new ways to start a fire and some fire safety.




Buddy Burners:
First we made "buddy burners". I'm not sure where the name came from originally, I just know that's what they were called when I learned how to make these at a 4-H day camp when I was about twelve years old. They are a bit like homemade cans of Sterno.

Start by melting wax in a double boiler. Wax should never be melted directly on the stove, because it can get too hot and catch fire. An easy double boiler can be made by placing a tall can in a pot of water or, in this case, I placed an old coffee pot in a pan of water ( be careful removing the can from the water; the can will be very hot and steam burns can happen around boiling water).

The wax that you use for this project can be paraffin, beeswax (although that's more expensive), melted down candle stubs, or even old crayons with the paper labels removed. We used mostly paraffin, with a little beeswax that was left in the bottom of the pot from our last wax project.

Remove the labels from cleaned, shallow cans (we used tuna cans).

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Cut strips of corrugated cardboard as wide as the can is tall and roll the strips up tightly. If you come to the end of one strip of cardboard, grab another and continue until you have enough to fill a can.

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Using corrugated cardboard, instead of smooth cardboard, is very important because melted wax will need to fill the little holes to the corrugation.

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Place the cans on news paper, because it is very hard to pour the melted wax neatly. I use an old coffee pot for melting wax, because it's easy to pour from it, but there was still a lot of splashing and dripping.

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Fill the cans to the top edge with the melted wax, leaving just a little cardboard sticking up out of the wax, so that it can be used as a wick to start the fire. Then, let the buddy burners sit until the wax has hardened.

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Pack the buddy burners to take along on your next camping trip.


The Hobo Stove:
Now that we had our heat source, it was time to make the stove that the buddy burner would fit into. A clean coffee can, with no paper label is perfect for this. Use a hammer and a nail to put holes all the way around the can, near the solid bottom of the can. This will provide ventilation for your fire (fire needs plenty of oxygen in order to burn).

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This next part is a little more difficult and should be done by a grown-up.

Cut a door in the can, big enough for the buddy burner to slide in and out of. I had trouble finding the proper tool for this job. I broke a pair of scissors. Wire cutters were good for cutting through the rim of the can, but they aren't good for cutting out the whole door. I think tin-snips would probably be best, but we don't seem to have any, so I ended up using kitchen shears.


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To use, place the coffee can upside-down (open side down) on a flat surface and place the buddy burner inside the coffee can stove ( this will protect your flame from wind). Light the burner with a long lighter.

The coffee can will get hot very quickly, so do not touch it while you are cooking.

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The Smoky the Bear song:
Eddy Arnold singing "Smokey the Bear" in 1952

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Corner View: Spring

There are signs of Spring everywhere! The dogwood trees are in bloom, as are the redbuds. A couple weeks ago I took this picture of the blackberry brambles in bloom near the garden.

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Yesterday, I stopped by the same brambles to show you that tiny fruits are forming.

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We have just started putting plants in the ground, for our Spring garden.

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A sure sign that it's early in the planting season, is my little assistant's cheerful willingness to help garden. I'm taking advantage of this helpfulness for as long as it lasts, because I know that it will melt away as soon as the temperatures rise.

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Gotta love those stubborn perennials! Even though the garden was tilled, the chives from last year are already back and doing well.

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Corner View is hosted by Jane from Spain Daily, every Wednesday, so that bloggers all over the world can share a little bit about what their corner of the World is like.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

A Day All About The Earth

We followed the music of G Love and Special Sauce to Flavet Field on the U.F. campus last night, and found this free concert going on:

Save My Oceans Tour



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After G Love, the local band Third Stone played:



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My bouncing boy in the free bounce house:

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We returned home with only about 10 minutes to spare before Earth Hour began. That gave me just enough time to find a snack and some candles, so that Blaze and I could play cards by candle light, while DH read for that hour.

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Earth Hour 2010

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Today, March 27th, 2010, is the day of Earth Hour. People all over the world are asked to turn off their lights for a single hour, between 8:30 p.m. local time and 9:30 p.m., to show that we can all work together to fight climate change.

If you would like to learn more, here is the link to the official Earth Hour website:


I have added a candle sconce to the footboard of Blaze's bed and plan to spend the hour teaching him to play card games and reading.

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Friday, March 26, 2010

Dinosaur Train at the Florida Museum of Natural History

Blaze was so excited to go to the museum today to see Dr. Scott, the paleontologist from the PBS series Dinosaur Train.

There were several other dinosaur activities going on at the museum, as well, but Blaze wasn't really interested in doing any of those. He just kept talking about seeing Dr. Scott in real life.

He wasn't the only child excited about this. The room was packed.

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The children were shown an episode of Dinosaur Train about feathered dinosaurs who lived in the far north.
Here are a couple short clips from that episode:





After Dr. Scott talked some more about how birds are dinosaurs, the children got to meet Buddy, the young T-Rex from the show.

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After the Dinosaur Train show, we did a little exploring around the museum.

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PBS also has on-line activities to go with Dinosaur Train:
PBSkids Dinosaur Train

Thursday, March 25, 2010

A Couple Little Plant Projects

We have been doing a few little plant project to get ready for this year's garden.

We sprouted this piece of a sweet potato, after eating the rest of it:

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We also made a couple planters out of news papers, so we could start some basil seeds.

This would make a good Earth Day project, since it is a way of recycling news papers and growing new plants.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Corner View: Typical Architecture

This week, I'm bringing you a small sampling of the architecture of the University of Florida Campus.

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I thought this was a good representation of what the current economy has done to the construction industry around here. This building was started, but then abandoned before it was ever finished. This eye-sore now sits on a corner right across the street from the University.

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A couple blocks away, a developer was going to build a luxury condo complex which would include shops and restaurants. They tore down two city blocks worth of businesses, including a church, and then went broke. The church is rebuilding and is looking close to completion, but the rest of the land still sits empty.

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To see typical architecture around the world, be sure to visit Spain Daily, the host of Corner View, along with the sites listed on the Spain Daily side bar.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Riverside Arts Market, Jacksonville

We spent Friday night in a motel near the airport in Jacksonville, so we could attempt to get some sleep before getting Ula and her boyfriend to the airport at 4 a.m. Saturday.

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We didn't really have any plans for what to do before returning home from Jacksonville, except that I wanted to do something outside because the weather was going to be so beautiful (76 degrees and sunny). Then DH found an article in a news paper he was reading at breakfast, that told about the Riverside Arts Market that is held every Saturday from March until December, so that's where we went.

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The Riverside Arts Market is part arts and craft fair, part farmers market, and part venue for live entertainment. It's held directly under the Fuller Warren Bridge, which I think is a wonderful use of urban space. It is also on the banks of the St. Johns River, so after you've tried all the wonderful foods offered at the market, you can take a lovely riverside walk to burn off the calories.

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An escape artist, Michael Patrick, getting help from an audience member.

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He was wrapped in two straightjackets and chains,

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then suspended upside down.

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A little lunch from one of the many food venders

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and then a riverside walk.

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baby alligator
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Crafty Crow