Brain storm, or.......

[bassboogieman]

Brain fart? Yesterday, before I cut my grass I had to pick up a few hundred walnuts. The rear of my yard abuts a wooded area and the edge is full of black walnut trees. Squirrels love them, to me they are a nusance (yeah, the squirrels too). Then the thought occurs to me that walnuts are tasty. So I pick a few up and remove the hulls and I have them drying in the garage, so I'll see how good they may be.

But then the light bulb goes on! I like tinkering with stuff, so I get the idea of how great it would be to make my own wood stain. Yeah, the black (actually decomposing) hulls are what "walnut stain" is made from. I think I have a little linseed oil in the basement, let's I see what I can come up with. Man, my own stain - I could become rich if this works.

So, I get a couple dozen of the black hulls, peel off the soft, juicy hull and put them in a bucket. Mashed the hulls with a piece of 4x4 (left over from my home made trailer modifications - I don't waste nuttin'). Then I strain the mash through some cheesecloth (well it was actually a tee shirt, nobody hase cheesecloth laying around anymore). Mixed it with the linseed oil and I gotta say - it turned out great. First thing I stained was the handle of the knife I used to cut the hulls. It now has a beautiful dark wooden handle. Looks brand new, it's 15 years old, I have hit my peak of ingenuity.

Except, I forgot one thing rubber gloves. But after I peeled the first couple hulls the damage was done, so why bother.................


I think my IDIOT Card has been renewed for the next year.