Dadventures: Amazing Outdoor Adventures for Daring Dads and Fearless Kids. Alex Gregory
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Название: Dadventures: Amazing Outdoor Adventures for Daring Dads and Fearless Kids
Автор: Alex Gregory
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Кулинария
isbn: 9780008283711
isbn:
A piece of fine gauze around 4cm square. Any fine material that allows air to flow freely through can be used.
Tape. Electrical, duct tape or Sellotape all work well.
What to do
1 Cut the plastic tube into two equal lengths.
2 Very carefully pierce a hole in the lid of the plastic container. The hole needs to allow one end of the tube to fit in without gaps around the aperture. Push one length of the tube through, leaving approximately 15cm of tube protruding from the lid of the container.
3 Pierce another hole in the lid, in exactly the same way, next to the first.
4 Wrap the piece of gauze around the end of the second length of tube and secure with tape. You should be able to freely suck on the non-gauze end of the tube.
5 Push the second tube, gauze first, in through the second hole you made in the container lid, ensuring there are no gaps around the tube. Again, approximately 15cm of tube should protrude from the lid of the container.
6 Take your aspirator outside and go insect hunting.
7 Using an aspirator is simple, but do make sure you help your child remember which tube is the correct tube to suck by marking the suck tube with a piece of tape. You must always suck in through the tube with the gauze covering one end, otherwise you’re likely to get a mouthful of insects!
8 When you uncover a rock or part the grass to find an interesting-looking insect, take the aspirator down to the ground.
9 Holding the tube (without the gauze) over the insect, suck through the other tube (with gauze). As long as you’re close enough to the insect, it will be sucked up through the tube into the container and left to rest at the bottom. It will be trapped until you let it out.
You can collect insects easily, quickly and safely by this method. It’s great fun but quite nerve-wracking, as it takes a little bit of time to get used to the fact that you won’t suck the insects up into your mouth. Together, you can quickly amass a wonderful collection of small insects without harming them, and if your container is clear you can inspect them easily.
Challenge
As with the insect trap, it’s worth taking a white bowl or tray outside with you so that viewing your insects is easier once they’ve been collected in the aspirator. We always try to identify the insects we find together and read a little bit about them, in this way slowly developing our knowledge of insects.
Once you have inspected, photographed, identified and studied the collected insects, make sure you always return them to the place from were they were collected. It’s important to show we don’t have ownership over the life around us, and that includes looking after what we find and returning it to where it belongs.
I clearly remember the first aspirator that was bought for me as a child. I was incredibly excited – but nervous about using it. I guess I didn’t take enough care, so a couple of times I ended up with beetles and ants in the back of my throat. It gives you a shock, but they are little more than a taste of protein!
Make string
Creating something with your own hands is extremely rewarding. Of course, in times past there was no choice but to make everything you needed, but no one can realistically do so now. With this activity it’s not so much about the product you make – let’s be honest, the string you make simply isn’t going to be as good as any you can buy in a shop – but the process of making it from material you find is rewarding and great fun. When sitting there making it, watching the string grow longer, you really feel a great sense of satisfaction.
What you need
A good supply of strong, natural fibres. Raffia is the best and easiest to use. It’s a very strong fibre that’s been prepared perfectly, ready for you to create your string. Garden centres, florists and craft shops often sell packets very cheaply for tying up plants and displaying flowers, and one packet is sufficient for you to make metres of thin string. Flax fibres are ideal, too.
It’s also possible to make string with stinging-nettle stems, very fine tree roots or the bark of certain species of tree, such as willow, cut into thin strips. All these will take a little extra processing to get into the thin strands required.
Strong fingers and patience.
What to do
1 Find a comfortable place to sit.
2 Gather a few long fibres together between your fingers and find the middle point of all the fibres.
3 Bend them in half to get to the starting point of your string.
4 Hold the bend of the fibres firmly between the fingers of one hand and in the fingers of your other hand twist the top fibres together.
5 As you twist, pull them around and underneath the bottom fibres, and hold in position.
6 Take the fibres that are now at the top and repeat the movement, twisting and pulling around the back. These first few moves are the most tricky. From here on the process is simple and you’ll find yourself developing an easy rhythm.
7 You’ll be alternating which group of fibres are at the top. Each time twist them tightly, then move them around the back and repeat.
8 It’s important to keep the strands tight and the twists close together. This will make your string much stronger and more useable. In no time at all you’ll see your skills working and a piece of string will form.
9 Nature does a pretty good job but, unfortunately, it doesn’t produce never-ending fibres, so you’ll soon get to the end of your fibres. When this happens it’s a really simple process to add in more fibres so you can continue to make a longer piece of string.
10 Take two more long fibres, bend them in half and at the bend push them into the point where your string is coming together.
11 As tightly as you can, continue the process, now twisting and turning these new fibres as well as the old.
12 It’s important to keep the new pieces tight in, with no gaps where they meet the original fibres.
13 Continue until you have made the length of string you want.
14 Once you have made as much as you want to, simply gather all the strands together and tie a knot in the end. Cut away the remaining strands of fibre past the knot to neaten it up.
Ropes for ships used to be made out of hemp like this in times past. It must have been painstaking work, but the twisting and turning back on itself produces an incredibly strong cord. The tighter the twists you make, the stronger the string will be.
I was first taught how to make string by a relative of mine. He and his wife turned up at our house one afternoon in a battered, old red postal van that had been converted inside to become СКАЧАТЬ