Mr. Basketmaker’s Redneck Bootcamp: Day Three (More Camo)

Lots of activities going on during Day 3. Our nephew Ben started the day with pancakes and bacon, his favorite breakfast, which happened to be made by one of his most favorite people who is also his “BB Twin.” That of course, is his grandfather, who is my dad. His name is Bob and they share the same birthday, but six decades apart. So our family saying is “They are the BB twins, separated by 60 years.” If you met them both, you would see they are in fact very “twin-like.” All I can say is that if Ben turns out to be the man my Dad is, then he will be truly lucky.

So after his giant breakfast of a stack of pancakes and a pound of bacon (as Eric keeps reminding us) he’s off to the workshop for his next mission: Constructing a birdhouse.

Now this isn’t from an ordinary readymade kit. Before our student’s arrival, Mr. Basketmaker made a plan and then cut out the “pieces” for the entire birdhouse, including all its little porch spindles. (Yes, the birdhouse has a porch! I mean it is Eric after all, who is also known as Mr. Perfectionist… what did you expect?)

Here is Ben applying some wood putty into the holes where he screwed the pieces together. In the background, there is a license plate from the state of New Hampshire which was going to be the roof. However, we decided that it really should be a Tennessee plate. So I bought one on ebay last week and it should be arriving any day now (hopefully). We did give him the option of using the NH plate, but after we told him the Tennessee plate was “white” and had the word “semi” on the bottom, he said he definitely wants the plate with Uncle Si’s favorite color. (For those non-Duck Dynasty fans, Uncle Si’s favorite color is white. We did not know this until Ben educated us.)

Before getting to the next step, which was painting the birdhouse, we finally were able to convince Ben to take off the camo clothes he has worn for three days straight. How’d we do it? We told him paint would ruin them. So while the putty dried, he followed me to my studio to take care of this dire situation. As a result, he’s wearing some of my painting clothes – a brown polo and junky green pants. (However, I swore that I wouldn’t tell anyone he was wearing MY clothes, so don’t tell him I told y’all!)

So he got busy painting his birdhouse. I love his color choices! And the blending affects he did. There’s a few more things that he needs to do to complete this project. Will show the final house in a couple days.

So after that was done, he decided to check out the frog pond, again. Shortly thereafter, I told him Mr. Basketmaker needed some help with the fire pit. Of course, he dropped what he was doing, and ran, thinking it most likely had to do with starting a fire. But when he got there, his excitement dropped a few points because his task was to shovel out a layer of ashes!

But we reminded him that his older brother, Sam, was in New Hampshire with Aunt Michele and Uncle Tripp for his vacation doing all kinds of yard work and household chores. Would he rather be doing that or cleaning out some ashes for 15 minutes? I’m guessing you know what he answered.

So after Mr. Basketmaker put him to work with a “chore” I thought it was a good time to tell him to get his knife and meet me out back. I had my own little “mission” to do with Ben that involved collecting “specimens” from the woods (which I will talk about later on since there was more involved to this task). Here he collected some bright green moss.

The next thing that caught his eye was a fallen tree covered with mushrooms. His first statement was “Auntie Kiki, I need to use my big knife to remove these.”

I have to admit I was a little nervous watching him handle that new big knife of his but it appears Mr. Basketmaker taught him well. He was very careful and methodical.

After that, my dad decided to go buy some ingredients for tonight’s dinner and to find some more camo clothes for Ben. So off to the store the BB-Twins went. After an hour, or two, they returned with a brand new camo belt and a Mossy Oak shirt which we learned was his favorite camo pattern. No luck in finding more pants since they were either too small or too big or not the right pattern. Who knew there were specific patterns in camo that a child would be so picky about! LOL.

Here he is showing Jackson his new shirt and his new belt and how it now holds not only his hunting knife securely in place, but also his flint fire-starter and swiss army knife. Not sure if the dog is really interested in that flint Ben is showing him or if his hands simply smell a little different. I’m thinking it’s the latter.

So now that he’s all decked out in head to toe camo, he said he was ready to get in the kitchen and cook us all a dinner.

He grabbed one of our aprons and went right to work making his own bread crumbs and then dipping the chicken in his prepared ingredients. I’m definitely sure about one thing regarding his cooking abilities… he knows more than me when it comes to preparing food! And did you remember that I mentioned he’s only ten? How is that possible? I’m sure Mr. Basketmaker would say I’m that bad of a cook! That’s how its possible.

Look at that focus! And doesn’t that fried chicken look good? I was amazed and in awe when I took this pic. He even has a towel over his shoulder like the chefs on TV. However, the utensil he is using is a little too big for the job. But he wanted to use those which happen to be part of Mr. Basketmaker’s grilling set that he got as a gift from very dear friends of ours, Jud and Suzanne. They appeared to be a little cumbersome but he refused to use anything else but those. I’m assuming it was because they were Uncle Eric’s and he was bragging how awesome his grilling tools are.

Since Ben didn’t want Eric and I in the kitchen and wanted to do most of this himself, he recruited my dad to do some assisting, like taking the first batch of fried chicken out of the pan and into the dish so he could do the next batch. This kid had everything under control in front of that stove. It was so cool to watch.

I wish I could show you pics of the final meal but I was so eager to taste it that when I sat down at the table to eat, I totally forgot about getting the camera! But trust me, it was fabulous.

Another productive day at Mr. Basketmaker’s Redneck Bootcamp!

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