Category Archives: Homesteading & DIY

Father’s Day Weekend

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I hope you and your family had a wonderful Father’s Day.  Seems dad’s just don’t get enough special days though out the year.  I heard recently some folks are trying to do away with calling it Father’s Day and have put forth legislation to change the name to “Parents Day” so it is more “inclusive”.  Such a shame though to take the focus away from Father’s.

We spent the whole weekend celebrating Father’s Day.  Why not?  He works so hard to care for the needs of our family.  Dedicating this entire weekend just to him pales in comparison.

Father God is also a good father and He spends our entire lifetime caring for our needs.  He is amazing!  He can do anything!  I want to encourage you to not forget him.  Don’t forget to thank him.  Don’t forget to celebrate him.  He is good and his mercy endures forever.

On Saturday, Daddy opened a couple of gifts we had picked out and some that were made for him.  One of the special gifts this year we have been focusing on has been learning “skills” from outdoor survivalist Creek Stewart.  For Dad’s birthday a few months ago, we got him a bimonthly subscription to Apocabox, and he will get six of these boxes during the year.  So for Father’s Day, we stayed with that theme and we ordered him a bow drill from Creek Stewart, so he can learn to make friction fire, also a folding saw for cutting tree limbs, and a Special Edition Apocabox.   However, the Apocabox had not yet arrived before he opened his gifts Saturday morning so I figured the box might be here by Monday.   We told him it would be coming, and we gave him his other gifts and he was quite pleased.  We gave him the Creek Stewart bow drill, a collection of some fire tinders that were hand collected by one our boys including homemade charcloth he made, an extra large coffee cup that says “make it happen”, a swiss army military style clipper set, and his favorite chocolate pecan turtles.  One of our sons is working on a special paracord bracelet that is still in progress, but not finished yet.  Another one of our son’s made him a beautiful leather bag.  I will post a story soon about him creating the bag.

We got ready to leave to take Dad to lunch.  We had a few plans including taking him to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then take him to Cabela’s to get a new fishing pole.  To round out the special weekend, we planned to take him fishing on Sunday afternoon.

Just as we were planning to leave the house Saturday, the mailman brought a package.  My husband met the mailman in the driveway and he was beaming ear to ear when he got back in the house with his box.  It was the Special Edition Apocabox from Creek Stewart, and he (and our boys) couldn’t wait to open it.  I will post a story soon about this box.

After looking through his Father’s Day gifts and spending the morning together, we went to lunch.  We ate at a place we have eaten at a few times for special occasions such as birthdays.  We had actually been there two weeks earlier to celebrate our oldest son’s eighteenth birthday.  They make delicious tasting Mexican food and our whole family enjoys it.

After lunch we took Daddy to Cabela’s to look around and see if he would like a new fishing pole and gear.  Our family has some fishing gear, but with eight people in the family, and with little ones, some things get broke and we all share what we have, and sometimes Dad is so busy fixing the poles, lost gear, tangled gear, or re-baiting them etc, that he doesn’t even get to fish.  We thought it would be nice to get a new pole just for him.

Cabela’s is a very interesting sporting goods store.  On this day, they had set up a pool in the parking lot and were giving Kayak lessons.

Another cool feature inside the store are the wildlife animal displays and the huge aquarium.

But at the end of our time at the store, the only thing he really wanted was a tee shirt and a flashlight.  So we came home without a fishing pole, but we enjoyed spending time with him anyway.

After we got back home Saturday, we ate some Father’s Day cake our daughter made.  Then we spent time in our back yard trying to make a fire by hand with Dad’s bow drill. 

My husband had our 13 year old son assemble the Creek Stewart Take Down Bow Drill.  He was thrilled to get to assemble it. These bow drills are custom made by hand.  They are made so you can disassemble “take down” the bow and put it into your backpack to carry with you on camping trips.

My son had also made a tinder “nest” for this special occasion.  He is learning so many skills and I am very proud of his efforts.

After it was assembled, they headed to the back yard to practice.

The two of them worked together to run the bow drill.

They had smoke coming from the friction several times.

But each time they would check for a “coal” from the smoke, there was not a coal.

But they did have lots of ground up and smoking wood dust, created by the friction of the two sticks, that could become a coal in the right conditions.

I don’t know if you have ever tried to make a fire by rubbing sticks together, but it is not easy.  They tried for a long time.  They tried up on a table so it was easier on my husband’s 50 year old back.  But when that wasn’t successful, they moved it to the ground.  They also tried making it on a flat rock.  But it proved to be too difficult this evening to get a friction fire going.  We plan to re-watch Creek Stewart’s video about how to use the bow drill to create a fire and then “make it happen”.

Later after dark, the family all went back outside and played with flashlights. Dad got out his new flashlight, and the boys got out their flashlights and they all played around seeing who’s light could shine the brightest out into the yard and go the farthest down the driveway.  As they get bigger and older, it seems Dad might be feeling a bit challenged.  But Dad’s new light won the “farthest” competition with the flashlights and he felt very proud to still be the top dog!

Sunday morning, we got up and made coffee and pancakes.  Knowing we had plans to take Dad fishing later, we played around the house for a bit, and we watched a few videos together.  There are some really good weekly videos on youtube that show current events each week.  There are also some wonderful bible teachings.  When we have time, if we are home on a Saturday or Sunday, we watch some of these bible teachings, and videos that show current events worldwide, including world wide weather events (hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, mudslides, etc), and some that focus on events in the USA.  It is a good way to catch up on the news from a Christian worldview, something you don’t get on regular TV.  It helps to see what is happening in current events, and understand from a Christian worldview what is happening and how it lines up with bible prophesy.  We are told in the scriptures to watch and to understand.  We are living in the end times, and though we don’t know the day or hour it will all take place, I would encourage everyone to try to keep a watchful eye however they can and learn as much as they can.

Then we headed outside to load our fishing gear and cooler into the van and headed out to find a fishing spot and to enjoy the rest of the day with Dad.  We stopped along the way to get a bag of ice, bread, lunch meat, chips, bottled waters and Gatorade.  We planned to have a lunch picnic.  It was 95 degrees out today and we wanted everyone to stay hydrated.  We drove around for about two hours looking for just the right fishing spot.

Finally we found a nice little spot along the water that faced away from the sun, and it had some shade trees.  This seemed like a good spot to put our fishing lines in.  Shade trees can be a blessing, but you can also get your lines tangled in them when casting.

But it was so hot outside, we were sweating while just standing still, and having that little bit of shade from the trees was important.  Eventually we realized the fish don’t like the heat either and we were not catching anything.  After several hours of trying on our part, the fish were just not biting on our lines, other than an occasional nibble.  Then, not long before dark, we had a Father’s Day miracle.

We didn’t get home until very late, and we were all tired, but it was a great day.  Despite the heat, we had fun just spending time together as a family and we enjoyed each other’s company and enjoyed the special day and our special Father’s Day Weekend with Dad.

Be sure to read the next post for an amazing outcome to our Father’s Day weekend:  A Father’s Day Miracle.

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Apocabox Special Offers From Creek Stewart June 2018

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I recently found out that Creek Stewart from Apocabox was offering a few specials and I wanted to let you know about them right away.  I am not affiliated with Apocabox or Creek Stewart.  I simply believe in his mission to teach others about survival and life skills.  I believe in the idea that “if you give a man a fish then he will eat for a day, and if you teach a man to fish then he will eat for a lifetime”.  I want to encourage other families to check out the life skills and survival skills challenges that he teaches.  My family has been blessed to learn from him and all of these skills are useful and could help you in a survival situation someday.

Anyway, the free offer was for a folding survival saw that fits in your back pack.  I watched his video about the saw and ordered one to put into my husband’s Father’s Day gift.  The saw is FREE, but you do pay $3.95 for shipping and handling through the offer on his website, and he will send it out to you.  If the offer is not posted on the front page of his website, then it is over.

After placing that order, there was another notice for a Special Edition Apocabox ONE TIME OFFER. If you decide you want it too, then both orders will be billed and shipped together.  Creek Stewart has loaded a box with almost $200 worth of leftover gear from previous boxes and he will send it out for the standard $50 Apocabox price.  He is hoping that after folks get this and try out the gear, they will want to join.  But there is no commitment needed, it is a one time offer.  One other offer pops up after that for the entire collection of Creek’s pocket survival guides at a huge discount.

I watched two of his videos he made, one is about the knife and one is about the gear he included in the One Time Offer Special Edition Apocabox, and I thought both of these would make a nice addition to my husband’s Father’s Day gift.  He will have some really nice items to use for camping, hunting, fishing, and to keep some gear in his vehicle if he ever needs it.

I am waiting for my order to arrive and I am hoping it arrives today or tomorrow so the kids and I can give it to my husband for Father’s Day.  I was sent an email yesterday that it has shipped.

I wanted to get this note out to other homeschool families and other folks who might be interested.  Creek Stewart said this is a One Time Offer.  It won’t last long and supply will run out soon. It is a first come first serve basis.  So once the supplies are gone, the offer will be over.  I will post a story about the contents of this box after it arrives.

More about Apocabox:

Apocabox by survival instructor Creek Stewart, is a DIY Survival Skills or you could think of it as a Survival School In A Box.  It is shipped bimonthly to your door (Feb, April, June, Aug, Oct, and Dec) for a cost of $50.  Each box has a different theme for the skills being taught.

We joined the bimonthly subscription at the beginning of this year and have received the Feb 2018 Mass Exodus and April 2018 Silent Hunter boxes so far.  We are waiting for the June 2018 Flat Line box to arrive.  Flat Line is a first aid theme and we are looking forward to learning more.  I had researched the Apocabox service months before joining and watched several of Creek Stewart’s videos.  Then we joined when it fit best into our budget.

We are using Apocabox for a life skills curriculum with our kids.  There are 8 of us in the family, and we are all learning together.  All of us have enjoyed learning, and when you work on these projects together as a family, it draws you closer.  I would also say my husband and our teenage boys have been really challenged and motivated with this learning adventure.

Within the boxes we’ve received so far, there have been around 10-12 skills to learn in a pocket survival guide, one or two special skills that are sent with raw materials and templates and instructions in the main newsletter, plus links to exclusive training videos, and 5-10 survival gear items.  To do the other skills in the pocket guide you will need to source your own materials, or the skill being learned might involve practicing with one of the gear items in the box, or it might involve making something like a survival kit for your backpack or vehicle with the gear that is included.  For our family the cost equals out to be about $50 box / 10 lessons (average) = $5 per new skill lesson / 8 people = 0.625 per lesson per person every other month.  So it has been a very affordable learning program for us so far.  However, I don’t think his boxes always include the pocket survival guides and when they don’t, there is less instruction / guidance to learn from.  I do wish he would include a pocket guide in every box, but it is what it is.  It is possible to find enough instruction in other places to make up the difference.

Anyway, I have shared 3 stories about these boxes so far, and if you want to learn more about it, see these posts:

Apocabox: About & Forager

Apocabox: Mass Exodus

Apocabox: Silent Hunter

Creek Stewart has several services where he shares his knowledge and skills with others:

Outdoor Survival School called Willow Haven

Author of several books and survival guides available on his website and amazon.

Creator of numerous survival skills videos on Youtube

Host of S.O.S. How To Survive (on the weather channel)

Host of Fat Guys In The Woods (on the weather channel)

Apocabox bimonthly service

Wild Edible of the Month Club

Surivival Skill of the Month Club

And he has a couple of online stores where he sells various survival products from books to knives to camping and survival equipment and more.  You can find all of this information including the special offers on his main website for CreekStewart.com and also learn more about the Apocabox subscription membership on myapocabox.com

Bottom line:  there is a special time limited opportunity to get a Free Folding Survival Saw offer and if you order the saw, there is an additional opportunity that will appear on your computer dashboard to get the One Time Offer Special Edition Apocabox from Creek Stewart if you are interested.  I want to encourage homeschool families to check out the services Creek Stewart has to offer and see if it might be a good fit for your family.

Be blessed!

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Apocabox Feburary 2018: DIY Survival Skills

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February was our first box we received from our Apocabox subscription. Apocabox is a survival school in a box that teaches various survival skills and project challenges.  Apocabox is a bi-monthly subscription and is shipped six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, December.

Each shipment of Apocabox has a different theme.  The box contains a few survival gear items, has a main survival kill challenge kit, sometimes a second challenge kit, and also several additional skill challenges to master through various written challenges such as in the pocket field guides and exclusive subscriber videos.

To learn more about Apocabox and how it works, please check out my first story and review of Creek Stewart’s Apocabox where I went into more detail about Creek Stewart as a survival instructor and details about the Forager box from the 2017 themes.

Mass Exodus

The theme of the February 2018 box was “Mass Exodus”.  This box was all about learning skills that could help you survive in a mass evacuation situation.

A few questions to think through in a Mass Exodus situation:

  1. If you suddenly needed to evacuate from home, school, or you office, what have you prepared ahead of time (food, clothing, first aid, navigation and plans) and what skills have you mastered, that could help you in that situation?
  2. Also if everyone was leaving a specific area at the same time, and the roads were bogged down with traffic and wasn’t moving very fast (or at all), and your vehicle got stranded on the road, what skills do you have to get your car going again?
  3. If you had to live in your vehicle until you were rescued, what resources do you have with you to facilitate shelter, water, fire, and food?
  4. If you had to leave your vehicle and start walking, what skills have you learned that could help you stay alive?

Contents:

  • Mora 511 Knife and Sheath (useful for multiple tasks and food prep).
  • Pocket Field Guide: How To Survive Being Stranded In Your Vehicle.  Includes 12 Vehicle Survival Skills
  • Exodus Stowaway Backpack (folding backpack). Easily pack food and a change of clothes or other gear in this light weight backpack.  Folds down small enough to fit into your glove compartment when not in use.  
  • Exodus Necker Wallet (wallet with a strap and is worn like a necklace under your clothes): store valuables, ID, money, etc inside your shirt.
  • Last Ditch Ankle Stash (wallet worn around your ankle): store valuables inside your pant leg on your ankle if you need to leave your vehicle.
  • Exodus Hammer (cuts seat belts, breaks glass, etc).
  • Go Cubes (chewable coffee cubes)
  • Apocabox Newsletter (large, high gloss pages, you can whole punch and put into a binder): with a complete contents list and full explanations, detailed skills challenges, pictures of other subscribers completed December Apocabox knife skills challenge, and more.

Mass Exodus Skill Challenges:

There were two specific skill challenges in the Mass Exodus Apocabox, and both of these skills were described in detail with great illustrations in the Pocket Field Guide.

  1. Make a Roycroft Pack: improvised Canadian military backpack made from three sticks, cordage, and a tarp to carry your belongings in if you had to take off on foot.
  2. Build Bug Out Gas Siphoning Kit

We completed both skill challenges.

Skill Challenge #1 We learned how to lash three poles or sticks together and attach the tarp and fold it with our belongings inside to create the Roycroft Pack style backpack.

Skill Challenge #2 We also made the gas siphoning kit.

  • Gas tank funnel
  • Siphon with tubing
  • 1 gallon gas can.
  • 36″ tubing
  • 72″ tubing

We purchased two different siphons with tubing for this kit.  One is a small squeeze ball siphon like Creek Stewart suggested in the field guide, and the other is a pump siphon similar to a bicycle pump.

Pocket Field Guide: How To Survive Being Stranded In Your Vehicle

This pocket guide contains 12 survival skills to master:

  1. Turn Your Vehicle Into A Super Shelter
  2. Start A Fire Using Battery and Pencil
  3. Get Unstuck With A Tank Tire: Make tracks for tires.
  4. Car Mat Muklucks: Upcycled Snow Boots
  5. Avoid Suffocation: Automotive CO
  6. A Modern Day Fire Horn: How to safely transport a burning coal to a new location to transfer fire.
  7. Improvised Signal Mirror
  8. Parabolic Fire Start: Using the bowls of headlamp reflectors (or a parabolic lens) to start a fire.
  9. Make a Roycroft Pack: improvised Canadian military backpack made from three sticks, cordage, and a tarp.
  10. Build Bug Out Gas Siphoning Kit
  11. Reflective Vehicle Dash Shade
  12. Two Pole Flip Wench
  13. Vehicle Emergency Kit

In addition to the two skill challenges mentioned earlier, we also completed some of the other skills from Pocket Field Guide:

  • Created a Vehicle Emergency Kit. All of the items in the Mass Exodus Apocabox can be added to the vehicle emergency kit, plus you will want to add many other items too.  Our kit contains gloves, hat, socks, blanket, water, food, cook stove, metal bowl to boil water, food prep knife and cutting board, tarp and plastic sheeting for super shelter, paracord, emergency whistle, first aid kit, lighter, fero rod and striker, candles, flash light, tow rope, duck tape, and the gas siphoning kit skills challenge we made.  There are several more items we still want to add such as back up charger for cell phones, portable toilet, flares, road cones, etc.
  • Purchased items to turn the vehicle into a super shelter if needed.  We haven’t yet completed the task of creating the actual super shelter in the vehicle.  But we have the resources on hand if needed. Essentially what we will do is use clear plastic sheeting, and a mylar blanket to create walls that capture the heat from a campfire outside on the ground and retain the heat inside the shelter.
  • practiced fire starting skills to make a campfire,
  • learned how to transport a fire tinder coal to move a campfire and start the next fire from the coal,
  • purchased a reflective dash shade and added it to the vehicle emergency kit for multiple uses: heat reflector, sleeping liner, ground pad, solar stove, signalling tool.

Final Thoughts:

I found the Mass Exodus theme to be very thought provoking.  Due to the condition of our world, mass exodus from various locations within the USA and around the world have become common place.  Fires, economic crisis, bad weather, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, droughts, food shortages, unclean water, riots that block city streets, riots that block highways and interstate roads, and in many places around the world there is war and rumors of war.  I truly believe we are living in the latter days the bible mentioned.  Even now, many people have become homeless and displaced just in the past few years after these major events, and too many don’t survive mainly due to lack of safe shelter, clean water, fire, and food.  If you have to leave your house or office, and can’t go back to the house to get things you normally use in everyday life for a while, having a few survival items in your vehicle, and knowing a few basic survival skills could make a huge difference for many people in the days of tribulation that are soon coming upon the earth.

Mark 13: 5-8 “And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.  And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.”

Mark 13:14-27  “But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains: And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house: And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things. But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.”

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Creek Stewart Apocabox: DIY Survival Skills

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A few months ago, for my husband’s birthday, I purchased a subscription to Apocabox from Creek Stewart.  It turned out that our whole family has enjoyed learning with this unique box of challenges.  I would like to encourage other homeschool families to check into doing these DIY suvival skills learning kits with their kids.

Creek Stewart is a well known survivalist teacher.  He has been featured over the past 20 years in countless articles, magazines, TV shows, talk shows, news, and more.  He previously hosted a show called Fat Guys in the Woods where he helped “guys” get off the couch and learn knew skills in the woods such as camping, bushcrafting, survival, and mastering personal skills that helped change their lives.  He has a survival school called Willow Haven Outdoor located in Indiana.  He has his own signature line of knives and tools called “Whisky” where the handles are made from the oak wood of whisky barrels.  He is the current host of a TV show called S.O.S. How To Survive that airs on the Weather Channel that showcases true stories of people who found themselves in survival situations and what skills saved their lives.

Creek Stewart is also an author of lots of books including suvival guides, magazine articles, as well as fiction and non-fiction books.  He has several websites and youtube channels and he is well known and well liked by many.

Apocabox

Apocabox is a survival school in a box.  It comes to your door every other month.  It is filled with skill challenges, at least 1 or more survival skill challenge kits, sometimes one of Creek Stewart’s pocket survival guides, and always includes about 5 to 7 gear items that can benefit you in a survival situation.

Each Apocabox has a unique theme, special gear, and skill challenges.  Apocabox has been going for several years.  Here is an example of the 2017 themes and related gear for the past year.

2017 Themes:

  • Ignis (Fire)(Febuary): Whisky Flint and Steel Kit, Whisky Ferro Rod, Fire Scratcher, Friction Fire Chucks, Ignis Tinder Tubes, Pocket Wick, Fresnel Lens
  • Forager (April): Canvas Foraging Bag, Foraging Knife with Sheath, Fruit and Nut Grapple, Sprouting Kit, Tree Finder Guide, Arbor Day Foundation Tree Guide, Chirps Chips, Forager Patch, Pocket Field Guide
  • Hydro (Water)(June): 3 Dry Gear Bags, Tarp and Drain Water Harvester, Gear Guard Wax, Folding Filet & Food Prep Knife, Life Raft Knife, Frog and Fish Gig, Collapsible Minnow Trap, Pocket Field Guide, Build a Coal Burned Wooden Container Skill
  • Bushcraft Dump Pouch (August): Canvas and Leather Pouch, Whisky Burr Knife, Sharpening Brick, Trout Line Fishing Kit, Bone Feather, Beeswax Bar
  • Camp Cookery (October): Stainless Steel Pack Grill, Fold Down Cooking Tripod, 5Litter Dry Bag, Whisky Scoop (wooden spoon carver tool), Chicory Coffee
  • Tool & Maintenance (December): Knife Kit, Multi-function Sharpener, Double Edged Bench Strop, 4-Way Rasp, Rock and Roll Sharpener, Diamond Paste Syringe, Buffalo Bone Whistle, Lincoln Patch, Tool Maintenance Desk Mat, Field Maintenance Bag

Each box includes at least 1 or more theme specific survival skill challenges that include the complete project plus templates and raw materials and special videos for you to learn to make the survival product yourself and master using it.  Each box also includes up to 10-12 additional survival skills for you to master.  These additional skills are related to the gear in the box and written about in the newsletter, pocket survival guides, and exclusive subscriber videos, and you can resource your own materials and learn these skills right from the comfort of your home or backyard.

Apocabox Example: Forager

With the Forager edition of Apocabox, folks learned how to forage and gather food and resources from trees, plants, roots, fish from streams, and sprout their own seeds into nutritious greens too.

Contents:

  • Apocabox Newsletter: filled with skills challenges and detailed content descriptions. (These have been updated to 4 page high gloss magazine style pages and now also contain photos of other subscribers who sent in pictures of their finished challenges and projects)
  • POCKET FIELD GUIDE: Survival Trees : Vol I
    70 page 4×6 pocket sized field guide filled with DIY Skills Challenges to Master such as gleaning survival resources such as food, water, shelter, fire, cordage, tools, containers and adhesives from 8 different trees.
  • Canvas Foraging Bag
  • Foraging Knife and Sheath
    Multi use tool designed to dig up roots and tubers, and use as a trowel for digging fire pits, and more.
  • Fruit & Nut Grapple Kit
  • Bone Sliver Fishing Kit
  • TREE FINDER GUIDE:
    How to identify 161 species of trees.
  • Arbor Day Foundation Tree Guide:
    250 trees of North America
  • Sprouting Kit:
    Sprouting seeds, instructions, and prortable sprouting container.  Seeds vary and might include: Black Turtle Beans, Navy bean, Red field peas (these are beans also), Lentils, Mung Beans and Alfalfa.
  • Chirps Chips
    Chips made from cricket flour.
  • “FORAGER” Velcro Leaf Patch

The Forager Apocabox contained instructions, templates, and materials for 3 Specific DIY Skills Challenges:

  1. Bone Sliver Kit: includes instructions and materials to make a bone sliver fishing hook, and a bone sliver fishing gorge.
  2. Fruit and Nut Grapple Kit includes instructions and materials (except paracord) to make the grapple and you add the paracord and then practice harvesting from trees.
  3. Sprout Kit:  includes seeds and container for nutritious food.

Subscribers also have access to exclusive videos that walk you step by step from beginning all the way through mastering these skills.  Some videos are about 5 minutes long, some 10 minutes, and some videos are 30 minutes long depending on the skill being learned.  Creek is a very good teacher and is easy to understand in these videos. Plus there are lots more optional skills to practice and master in the Pocket Field Guide.  The Forager Apocabox came with links to 3 online teaching videos to watch.

Here is a short 1 minute video clip about resources found in Pine Trees:

Apocabox is truly a super-duty DIY survival skills training box and is a perfect match with the self motivated learning styles of many homeschool families as well as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4 -H clubs, after school programs, summer camps, and many other groups.

2018 Themes (so far):

  • Exodus (Febuary)
  • Silent Hunter (April)
  • Flatline (June)

Apocabox costs $50 plus shipping every two months. The box is shipped 6 times a year (Feburary, April, June, August, October, December) and contains enough materials and information to keep you learning and mastering at least 1 or more survivals skills each week for the full two months while you wait for your next box to arrive.  So that is about $6.25 a week if you only learn 1 knew skill.  But there is likely enough challenges in the boxes, pamphlets, booklets, and exclusive linked videos to do 2 skills a week, which would translate to a cost of about $3.13 per knew skill learned.

Apocabox is cheaper than any survival school or life skills curriculum I have found and even cheaper than a fancy cup of coffee.  This is very reasonable for all the cool things you get to learn. I wish I had these kits when I was teaching the Build It Learn It Workshops and Take Action Tuesdays a few years ago.  These truly are a wonderful resource!

However, if the Apocabox skills challenges sound like more than you can do at this time (either time or money or both), Creek Stewart also offers a Survival Skill of the Month Club where he teaches 1 knew skill for the current price $7.95 a month.  For that price, he will mail you a binder, plus 1 illustrated skill per month in high gloss magazine style pages that you can add to the binder.

He has also recently added a Wild Edibles Skill of the Month Club that looks fantastic too.

Sharing through Facebook and Instagram and being part of an online community of people who are also learning these skills is another special feature Creek offers to his subscribers. It is truly amazing what some people do while learning these skills and see the outcomes.

For example, this past December, in the “Tools and Maintenance” theme, folks created their own custom knives and custom handles and sheaths, and learned how to properly care for knives, and axes, etc.  The 2017 December box and theme is what actually inspired me to subscribe.  I just knew my husband and older sons would love it, so we subscribed and our first box was the Feb 2018 and it turns out we have all loved this learning journey so far!

With Father’s Day right around the corner, if you are looking for a really nice gift for the father’s, sons (or daughters) in your life, the life skills and survival skills learned from these boxes will be a gift that keeps on giving. Like the old saying goes “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” The knowledge and skills one gains to care for themselves, and the needs of others, to help them survive is priceless.

I will post future stories about each box and the skills we learn.  If you think this might be a good fit for your family, please join us on this new learning adventure!

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How To Make DIY Art Journals

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My daughter made some lovely art journals recently.  She made some to give as gifts and some to use for herself.  She watched a few tutorials online and then wanted to make her own.

How To Make DIY Art Journals

First, she gathered the materials and tools needed.  She used resources we had on hand.  She used recycled cereal boxes and granola bar boxes, glue, paper, decorative ribbons, foam stickers, pen, pencil, ruler, scissors, hole punch, cotton swabs, and markers for this project.   She has plans to make more varieties of art journals using different fabric covers, beads, and sequins too.

Next she cut different sizes of boxes open, laid them flat and trimmed off what she did not need.  Then she laid them flat on the paper to measure and leave a ledge of paper for folding over and cut off any excess paper.  Then she glued the cardboard to the paper. Then folded over the ledge, creased the paper ledge, and glued the folded over portion to the cardboard.

She tried two different applications for glue.  She tried using liquid glue spread with a q-tip on some of her projects, and she used an extra strength glue stick on another projects.  She said both types of glue worked fine, but the glue stick dried a little nicer than the liquid glue as it tended to leave a wrinkle if she applied too much.

Next she cut different lined and colored papers to the desired size.  She used a variety of plain, colored, and lined paper to create lots of opportunities for sketches, water color paintings, doodle art, and areas to write her thoughts on.

She hole punched the papers, and the outside covers.

Then she attached the papers to the cover with ribbon.

She inserted the ribbon through the holes and lined up the papers and repeated this a couple of times.

After several times of inserting the ribbon with her fingers, she found it was much easier to insert the ribbon with a large sewing needle.

These little books are so fun to make.  Besides using these for art journals or writing journals and giving them as gifts, they would also make wonderful ABC books for younger kids, or use to write a story book, or make them into prayer journals too.

Next she decorated the outside of the art journals.  On some of the journals she used foam stickers and ribbons, and on others she also used Magic Stix Markers by The Pencil Grip to make her designs.

Be sure to read the post about our experience using these markers to find out more.

She added in mini-pockets and mini-envelopes to the inside covers of some of the journals.

In some of those she plans to store special items like admission tickets to museums or pictures from flyers from she visits and in others she wants to put a pencil and eraser for sketching.

We also cut out some one time use watercolor paint pallets from unused activity books.  You can find these at most stores in the dollar or coloring book section.

With these one time use paint pallets, all she needs is a dab of water and either a cotton swab or a paint brush.  She can paint lovely watercolor pictures with the six colors that are included, and then throw away the little slip of paper and swab when the paint is used up.

We eventually plan to make reusable watercolor paint pallets with up cycled Altoid Tins and various lids, gum containers, and pill boxes.  These are so cute!

These portable paint kits could be held in place inside her art journal with a rubber band or elastic ribbon.

In the future, she would like to add stamps, fabric and lace, buttons, beads, and sequins too.  She will use her hot glue gun for embellishing the journals with these things.

 I am sure she will have a lot of fun filling these books with colorful thoughts and art projects.

These DIY portable art journals were simple to make and turned out so cute!

Below are a few videos that might give you more ideas in creating your own DIY journals.

and

and

Have fun making your journal and be blessed!

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Making Leather Crafts

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My kids and their daddy, have had so much fun making leather crafts over the past few months.  They have made knife sheaths, wallets, leather bracelets, and leather bushcraft bags so far.  I will share future posts in Homesteading & DIY: Leather Crafts with some of the various projects they have created.

My Grandfather and Dad enjoyed creating things with leather.  I have enjoyed watching my family learn how to work leather, and it brings back lots of memories of time spent watching and helping with leather projects when I was a kid.  I am so thankful to see my kids pick up these skills and enjoy making projects like this.

After a couple of our older boys expressed interest in learning how to make a custom knife sheath, my husband also realized he was interested in this hobby too.  He took the older three boys on a field trip to a leather supply store.  There they found different kinds of leather, tools, supplies, sewing needles, and books with tutorials.  They also took another field trip to an army surplus supply store and found several ideas of things they could learn to make.  They also watched some video tutorials to get a better understanding of how to use, create, and care for leather.

What they have discovered over the past few months is that they truly enjoy working with leather.  They enjoy working and creating many things with their hands as well including materials such as braiding and weaving cordage and woodcarving, etc.  So the next thing we plan to do build a workbench especially for hand crafting with leather and other materials so they can make even more projects.

One of they books they purchaced is called Making Leather Knife Sheaths Volume 1 by David Holter and Peter Fronteddu.  It is very hands on with step by step instructions and lots of pictures of each step of four different sheath projects.

I thought it would be fun to review this book for other Homeschool families who might be interested in teaching their kids about Leather crafts.  This is a valuable life skill to have and this book covers some very good information that applies to all leather making crafts and the care of leather in general.

Here is some of the great information I found inside.

Making Leather Knife Sheaths Volume 1 

Hardback illustrated book.  Contains 144 spiral bound pages divided into 6 chapters.  Covers 4 complete projects plus various tools, general leather care, and resources.

If using this as a life skills curriculum, your students will complete 4 projects, plus two additional chapters that pertain to all leather products.  You could stretch this learning project into 4 – 6 months, doing 1 chapter / project per month or complete it faster.   If you plan on using this for general knowledge, you could plan on covering this material in 6 weeks, completing 1 chapter per week.

The book covers all the basics of leather care, tools, and how to build four different knife sheaths and these same principles apply to all leather crafts.

CHAPTERS

1. Basics

This chapter covers things like various leather crafting tools, methods, sewing, how to choose different kinds of leather for different kinds of projects.

2. Project l: Quiver-Like Sheath with Integrated Belt Loop

This chapter covers planning and design, creating templates, prepping, creating the belt loop, sewing, cleaning edges, dying, shaping, sealing edges, etc.

This is the perfect project to start out with.  This is the biggest chapter in the book and all of the following projects repeat the steps learned in this chapter and project.

3. Project ll: Quiver-like Sheath with Leather Lining and Riveted Belt Loop with Snap Fastener

This chapter covers planning and design, creating templates, prepping, creating belt loops, gluing, sewing, cleaning edges, sealing, etc.

Each project gets slightly more complicated with a few additional steps added and a little fancier end product.

4. Project lll: Quiver-Like Sheath with Protective Strap and Sewed On Belt Loop

This chapter covers planning and design, creating templates, prepping, embossing the sheath blade, dying and varnishing the leather, creating belt loops, creating protective straps, attaching loops and straps, gluing, sewing, cleaning edges, sealing, etc.

5. Project lV: Quiver-Like Sheath with Flap and Sewed on Belt Clip

This chapter covers planning and design, creating templates, prepping and constructing parts, positioning the flap, fitting the welt, sewing, sealing, etc.

6. Tips for Cleaning and Leather Care

This chapter covers caring for leather projects such as cleaning leather with Saddle Soap, impregnating leather twice a year with grease or polish to maintain water proof,

This is the most valuable chapter in the entire book because it covers how to care for leather.  So whether you make a sheath or not, this information will apply to everything you own that is made out of leather.  This information is good for men and women.  Guys if you have leather shoes or boots, or a leather wallet or belt, here is the info you need to take care of them so they will last for a long long time.  Laddies if you have a leather purse or belt or wallet or shoes, here is the information you need to take care of them too.

Appendix

There are Appendix at the back of the book that cover all 4 project templates, plus a list of reputable leather suppliers around the country and additional books and life skill training recommendations.

 

Homeschool Life Skills Course:

If you plan to use this book and projects as a Life Skills Curriculum, I would plan on doing 1 chapter per month.  That gives you and your student (s) plenty of time for planning out what is discussed in each chapter and the projects it contains.  Working on leather crafts can be expensive.  Spend the first month locating affordable resources to make your projects.

Go over Chapter 1 and sourcing a few leather tools.  Set up a general workspace where you will make your leather projects.  Also acquire the kind of leather you want to make your projects with.

During month one, go on a field trip and visit a leather store, or visit a leather dealer at a vendor product fair.  Take some time to watch a few leather making videos.

Set up a notebook binder for taking notes and jotting down ideas, plans, design templates, etc.  Come up with a few general questions to quiz kids on, depending on the age of your students.  Ask them about the animals that provided the leather.  Ask what different kinds of leather are used to make different projects.  For example, soft leathers are usually made into gloves or soft bags and vests or clothing items, where thicker and tougher leathers are made into sturdier products such as saddles, belts, bags, etc.

Have your student label each tool on a print out or one you have copied.  Have kids write out an essay of how leather goods have been useful in history and how they are used now.  Have them make a graph and evaluate the current market value of leather goods too.  Create a lapbook to put into your leather craft / life skills binder with various mini book pages on various topics relating to leather crafts is another great idea.

During the following months, set aside a couple of hours each week and take your time to create a project design using the tips in the corresponding chapter.  Have your student put their design into their notebook binder when they are thru using it as a template.  You could also have them right out each step they do, and put a picture of their finished project in their notebook binder.

You could also incorporate this learning into other schoolwork your students are doing.  For example, our kids have completed unit studies about Native American Indians, the Pioneers, the Minute Men, the Revolutionary War, and more recently Daniel Boone, and they currently working on a unit study about Davy Crockett this school year.  You could also add this learning project into curriculum about sewing, or design, or leather upholstery, metal working, history of weaponry, jewelry, horses saddles and tack, owning a small handcraft business, etc.  There are many wonderful opportunities to incorporate these skills.

Learning about leather crafts and how to care for leather is fun and is a perfect subject to add homeschool studies.

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DIY Candle Holder From Recycled Milk Jug

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This project is really simple and affordable.  You can recycle or upcycle a used milk jug into a fun craft to decorate your home and also have a special gift to give away.

You will need:

  • Empty clean milk jug
  • Scissors
  • Ruler
  • Pencil or pen
  • candel
  • hot glue or super glue
  • Paint of your choice. (we used Thin Stix tempera paints. See info below to enter our Giveaway!)

Cut out random size flower petal shapes from milk jug.

We cut about 7 small, 10 medium, and 8 large.  Cut as many as you desire.

Paint the petals in the color (s) of your choice.  Let the petals dry.  If you desire a white flower, then leave the petals unpainted.  The painted petals will give off a lovely reflection of light.   The unpainted flower will glow with a beautiful soft light allowing you to almost see through the layers of the flower.  It is up to you if you desire to paint them or leave them unpainted.

Glue the base of the petals together.

We found it easiest to start with the larger petals and then glue on the medium and we glued the small petals on last.  Then place a dot of glue to attach the base of the candle to the flower.

If you want to use a candle version without a flame, then instead of using real candles, use battery operated candles.  They look just like the real thing but are safer because there is an LED light instead of an open flame.  You can find these at most big box retail stores and online.  You can even find inexpensive ones at the Dollar Store for $1.   The Dollar Store also carries the tea candles in packs of 8 for $1.  These flower candles are not expensive to make, especially if you can make 8 of them with real candles for only $1.

Whether you choose to use a regular candle or a battery operated candle, either way they will look beautiful and be something homemade with a personal touch.  They also help the environment by recycling or repurposing milk jugs that otherwise would have been thrown into the land fill.  These lovely flower candles will become a special gift to give to loved ones and friends.

 

GIVEAWAY

Be sure to ENTER the GIVEAWAY for a set of THIN STIX !

Thin Stix Giveway

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Garden 2017 Update July

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Thought I would share some pictures from our garden projects from July.

This is part of my Garden 2017 series of posts.  You can see the earlier posts at:

Garden 2017 Update June

Garden 2017 Update February Through May

Garden 2017 Aquaponics

Garden 2017 A New Beginning

 

This has been the hottest summer we have ever seen.  The temperatures have been in the 90’s everyday and though we had a wet spring, and the plants put on a lot of stems and leaves, they didn’t produce much actual fruit.  We haven’t seen any rain for several weeks and have had intense heat and the garden isn’t producing as much fruit and vegetables as I had hoped. The heat has really taken it’s toll.

July 8, 2017

Garden Bed A

Garden Bed B

Romano tomatoes are still mostly green.

But some starting to turn orange and we have had a few of them turn red. The rest of them should be ready for harvest soon.  With the heat we are having, I don’t know how long the plants can handle the intense sun and heat and if they will put on any more blooms or not.

Butternut squash.

We think these could be a kind of pumpkins, but not sure.  We have not grown these before.

Zucchini

The sunflowers are almost ready to bloom.

July 12, 2017

Okra is on its second set of blooms.

Okra is a delicious food!

Pink petunias in the garden.

Romano tomatoes in the garden are ready to harvest. So far, only a few have been ready every couple of days.

The kids take turns mowing the grass.

July 13, 2017

Zucchini ready for harvest.

We had a cookout and grilled some of our garden veggies including zucchini, yellow squash, red onions, Romano tomatoes, okra, and we cut up fresh cucumbers and later we made smores.

All of the fresh food was delicious and it was a beautiful summer evening to enjoy spending time together.

July 27, 2017

We are still thinking these could be a kind of pumpkin.  I am used to a pumpkin that starts out green and then turns orange.  However, these start out as smooth yellow balls and then turn a peach color.

Zinnias in the garden.

Red Romano tomatoes.

Bees hiding out on the squash blossoms.

Small watermellons.  Several have already been eaten by something before they get any bigger than a baseball.  The plants are struggling in the heat and many of the leaves and stems have died.

A few of the sunflowers in Garden B have bloomed.

The sweet potatoes in the corner of Garden B are not doing much.  I think it has been too hot for them.

More of the round yellow orbs that might become pumpkins.  I have never seen a plant send out so many runners and then every foot or so it has another set of roots it sends into the ground.  Some of these runners are 30 foot long and loaded with blossoms, yet seem to only produce 1 actual fruit ball.  I don’t know if it is behaving this way because of the extreme heat or if this is normal for this plant because I have not grown this species before.

It is lovely to listen to the frogs and cicadas even though it has been so hot.

Found these wild grapes had dropped on the ground, just below the garden. They are growing 30 feet up in the trees, so I wont be able to harvest them.   We saw about 50 grapes had dropped.  Some of the grapes were green.

Some of the grapes were purple.  We accidentally stepped on some too.

Our tomato harvest!  The harvest is small, but not too bad from our small garden.

Found a cricket hiding upside down on the cucumber plants.

Harvesting cucumbers.

I am thankful we have had several cucumbers ripen daily all summer long. There hasn’t been a day go by this summer that we didn’t have lots of cucumbers on the kitchen counter and sliced up for supper.

Mint is in bloom.

The kids decided we needed to give a few plants some water.  We planted some Brandywine Heirloom tomatoes and bell peppers where the onions and lettuce used to be.  We hope they make it through this heat and put on some fruit soon before it is too late.

The kids found a baby lizard and spent some time holding it and letting it crawl up their arms before setting it free on a tree trunk.

The petunia plants in the barrel planters are almost dead.  Most of the green of the plants is gone or turned to brown.  But this week it put on new blooms almost to say to the heat, “I’m not done yet!”  A butterfly had stopped in for a drink of the nectar in this photo.

Pink lilacs that are 20 feet tall put on blooms this week at the very top.  They bloomed earlier this year and I was surprised to see them bloom again.

Pink petunias in the garden are still blooming.

Sunflowers along the driveway.

Today’s harvest is small.  This is the last of the Romano tomatoes.  The plants looked brown and nearly dead from the heat when we picked these. But I was thrilled to bring in this harvest.

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Garden 2017 Update June

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This is part of my Garden 2017 series of posts.  You can see the earlier posts at:

Garden 2017 Update February Through May

Garden 2017 Aquaponics

Garden 2017 A New Beginning

 

June 2017

After tons of rain, the garden (plants and weeds) is growing like CRAZY!  The plants put on tons of growth and blossoms.  Some flowers are missing their petals and are leaning over due to too much rain.

However, many of the garden plants are finally producing fruits and vegetables!

We have two garden beds, plus a few planters growing produce and flowers. Garden Bed A is 12 x 16. We planted it with the square foot method of intense planting. It grew like crazy with all the rain. We need to tweak how we plant this garden bed next year. Though I am thankful for the abundance, we are not able to de-weed it at this stage and it looks like a mess.

Garden Bed A: Harvesting Green Beans!

The garden has been invaded by Japanese Beetle Bugs. They are quickly devouring the bean leaves.

The cucumbers have taken over the lavender. The lavender is in bloom too.

Harvesting cucumbers and green beans.

Bountiful harvest of green and yellow beans.

Dalia starting to bloom.

We often remove old blooms from petunias and they continue to produce beautiful flowers with bright colors.

Carrot tops are growing nicely.

We have had an abundance of leaf lettuce.  We had a lot of rain and the lettuce seemed to really appreciate it.

Marigolds are in bloom.

Removing dead blooms from the geraniums will encourage new blooms.

Hanging basket with leaf lettuce.

This basked of lettuce has produced several harvests already.

Heirloom tomato plants.

I started several more heirloom tomato plants in milk jugs.  Milk jugs are like mini greenhouses and it is a great way to start seedlings.

Petunias in barrel planters.

Garden Bed A: Small spinach patch is going to seed.

The spinach has produced an abundance and I have harvested it daily for several months.

Sweet potato vines and romaine lettuce growing in the aquaponics barrel. The romaine lettuce is about to go to seed.  It has produced a lot of lettuce since we transplanted them months ago from lettuce we had already used during the winter and regrew.  Lettuce is amazing!

Potato Bins are just about finished growing.  Two have stopped sending out new plants, but this one still has new growth emerging.  We can’t wait to open up these bins and see how they produced under all that straw and dirt. Hopefully we will have a nice potato harvest.

Garden Bed B

Garden bed B gets more shade than garden bed A.  We built this one because we ran out of room in the first one for plants that like to spread out. In this one we planted different kinds of squash and watermelon, sweet potatoes, and a second planting of radish, and a few flowers and sunflowers to attract pollinators and to enjoy the flowers.  So far there is nothing to harvest in this bed yet, but it is producing a lot of vines and leaves and blooms.

The cucumbers from Garden bed A are growing past the garden now.  They are traveling out into the yard and growing the nicest cucumbers.  They might think the garden bed is too crowded!

Though our garden project this year is small, the garden beds are producing some wonderful foods for our family.

I am thankful for these harvests.  Summer harvests taste delicious and have so much more flavor than food from the store.  I enjoy the beautiful flowers too and all of the variety of insects they attract that help pollinate the plants. This process of a summer garden is even more special when family spends time together planting the food, then watching it grow, and then brings in the harvest together.  Enjoying time together is the best part!

Be blessed!

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