spring flowers and good food

[chuck123wapati]

On 3/8/2026 at 2:26 PM, Darren8306 said:

I've tried it several times, but the key failure seems to be prep. Though when I clean it VERY well, it still fails if used incorrectly. So soap is bad, scrubbies are bad, and cooking some sticky things seems to be bad.

It isn't that hard to recondition, so I just do that every year or three. It's more fun to use, now that I've made leather handles.

We have four cast-iron skillets and a couple of really old cast iron dutch ovens, oh, and a griddle. We use the Dutch ovens and griddle outside mostly for open fire cooking. 

Once you have a good seasoning, the secret is how you use it. Don't cook on high is #1, preheat it and cook on a lower heat. Don't wash it with soap. I use butter with our eggs, then simply heat it and wipe it out with a paper towel, and it's good to go. If I get food stuck, I make gravy or sauce just like those fancy chefs. 

Do you know you can season all cast iron? In fact, the old-timers used to season their wood-burning stoves.

[chuck123wapati]

8 hours ago, Handstitched said:

G'day everyone, still here, hope all is well with you and yours  

Just survived some extreme heat 🥵 🔥  , mid to high 40's + (c) , so we've just been hibernating inside, much cooler today though. Markets have been really slow lately,  much to do with the heat mostly, but also economics.

Just been doing odd jobs in the workshop, in the mornings,  while it's cooler -ish .

@chuck123wapati that breakfast  looks yummo , it just needs a bit of black pudding,  thats  just me, its an aquired taste.

That 'ol 4 burner  barby is a little bit closer to getting restored.  Been fixing up an old garden table of mums ( mostly  sentimental ), it was a complete wreck,  once that is finished, onto the barby  

Take care,

HS

going good here. Its been a warm, dry winter but our wet season has come. We had a good storm that started out as quarter-sized hail, then rain, then heavy wet snow to almost a foot of standing slush. It was a wet mess for a couple of days. We need some good bbq pics, man. I'm looking forward to spring and summer. 

My daughter just opened up a new tattoo shop and vape store, so I have a place to sell if I want. The perfect place to find people with more money than brains, errrr I mean a quality niche market with positive cash flow potential lol. I can't believe how much money she makes.

[Sheilajeanne]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

My daughter just opened up a new tattoo shop and vape store, so I have a place to sell if I want. The perfect place to find people with more money than brains, errrr I mean a quality niche market with positive cash flow potential lol. I can't believe how much money she makes.

  That's great you now have somewhere to sell your stuff!  

[chuck123wapati]

Here is my first design; it takes about 15 minutes to make. I'll make them with real buckskin and without the fringe, also. Plain jane quick and easy to keep the price down.

Edited 11 hours ago by chuck123wapati

[Darren8306]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

going good here. Its been a warm, dry winter but our wet season has come. We had a good storm that started out as quarter-sized hail, then rain, then heavy wet snow to almost a foot of standing slush. It was a wet mess for a couple of days. We need some good bbq pics, man. I'm looking forward to spring and summer. 

My daughter just opened up a new tattoo shop and vape store, so I have a place to sell if I want. The perfect place to find people with more money than brains, errrr I mean a quality niche market with positive cash flow potential lol. I can't believe how much money she makes.

vapes are very popular, and maybe you'll design a good leather wrap for it, that allows some flourish. 
Looking forward to seeing what this inspires.

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Darren8306 said:

vapes are very popular, and maybe you'll design a good leather wrap for it, that allows some flourish. 
Looking forward to seeing what this inspires.

If I knew what shape they were, it would be a good item for sure.  Here is my first leather one, made from Deer hide.  Out here in the wilds of Wyoming, you can make cavemanish stuff lol. I'll make a few to give out. Make some classier ones, as well as some from brain-tanned hides, too.

[Darren8306]

I have used a vape, but am not enough of an enthusiast to know which type/format is most popular. Your tattooist should know her market for that.

I made one for a pal who uses a vape. She liked it well enough, but it didn't stick. I had added too much size, to fit in her life lol (had added a bit of sealhide to remind her of home)

My adventure today was fun, and maybe a bit different for those of you who live in the deep south, like @Sheilajeanne or yourself.
 

Woke to a stopped kitchen sink drain. Since it was -32C outside, I started by placing a sheet of paper under each heat register, as a baffle. This redirects the furnace heat under the skirting of our mobile home, to thaw such problems. Anyway, I placed the baffles, then made coffee, in the bathroom sink,

Got the coffee into me and thought it through a bit, so grabbed the cleanout to check. It didn't give. Even hurt my hand trying ( grip strength measured at 137lbs via dynamometer). 

I asked a more experienced dude if more force was the answer. He said yes, and recommended I be ready to buy all the parts I break.

Got more force applied, and it turns out it was clogged, not frozen.

Now all my water is running again, nothing at all was frozen, and it has warmed up to almost -25C, so I think I'll get ready and go run a trail. Might even bring Ethyl.

Pic unrelated, just some ice cubes sitting on my railing.