Pitcher Plants

I made an amazing discovery in my back woods (otherwise known as, "The Bush"). This is a pitcher plant. They are common to the Big Thicket, which is where we live. They are carniverous, which means they eat bugs. It makes a sweet smelling liquid inside which traps the bugs and they fall inside. If you want to see these for yourself, go to the Pitcher Plant trail at the Big Thicket. Lucky for me, I can look at them in my back woods.

Making a Canteen

I was given a dried canteen gourd so decided to make my very own water canteen.



You will need to sand the gourd with a fine sand paper or steel wool.





Cut a hole in the top. I used my pocket knife. Make sure your hole is the size of your stopper. I used a stick I whittled for my top, but you could use a dried corn cob if your gourd is big enough. Remove the seeds then melt beeswax to coat the inside. I used beeswax from my Dad's hives and melted it with a solar oven. That's pretty much all you do! You can see how I decorated mine from the picture with me and my brother. If you're a girl, you could paint it. I use this on hikes and it holds water very good. Hope you enjoy this project!

Fresh Orange Juice

Making freshly squeezed orange juice is super easy. My Mom has one of those electric ones for her big mixer, but I'm using the hand squeezer one here. You take a fresh juicy orange (not satsumas), cut it in half, push it on the squeezer and twist it down until all the juice is out. Keep doing this until you get enough juice and enjoy! Note - there's alot of pulp in the juice, so you can strain it if you want. This will make you a hit in your house!




Enjoy!