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!

Wild Edibles: Spiderwort

Spiderwort can be found all over. This picture is of the yard next door (having an abandoned house next door does have benefits). It's covered in this very pretty and fully edible plant.

You can prepare the stems like you would asparagus. My Mom steamed them then added lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Yum!!! Here's a photo of our steamed Spiderwort stems with spaghetti. Even my sisters thought it tasted good.


My sister Lily got involved with removing the flowers and my Mom made a candied flower with it. She coated it with egg whites then sprinkled sugar on them and let them dry. They were good too!



Even the chickens enjoyed the Spiderwort! Hey, waste not, want not!

Enjoying the Outdoors

I love the outdoors! Here I am fishing at Clam Lake which is across from McFaddin Beach. We took the kayaks out for a spin which was awesome. Here I am with my Mom and my brother, Joseph.

Wild Edibles - Onions

Finding wild edibles can be fun & can save money. Above is a picture of a batch my Dad & I picked. We ended up pickling these at the end of the day. Wild onions can be hard to identify because they look just like regular rye grass or wild garlic.


You can find wild onions all year, but they are harder to locate in the winter. Once you realize what you're looking for, you'll notice them everywhere. They are in open fields, your own backyard, in the woods, and just about everywhere that grass grows.



The bulb is edible and you can use it like any regular bulb onion. As always, be sure you have correctly identified the plant you are about to eat. There are many poisonous plants with bulbs. You will want to get a Wild Edible Identification book to help. And remember, never eat a wild mushroom - NEVER!

Starting Kaden's Survival Blog

I'm Kaden and I'm 8 years old. My family has been into homesteading for a while now which is what got me ineterested in Bushcrafting and Survivial Techniques. I want to share my knowledge of these skills with you. (My Mom is my secretary typer, by the way). I hope you enjoy this blog - see you in the bush!