"Mother" of inventions, a b-b-b-baby.... my baby, my bagel holder, my bike rack, perfected

Update:  November 21, 2012   Couldn't believe our good luck today, the Canadian Department of National Defense came visiting, again, this time for:       3 hours 56 mins 9 secs   ... however, their interest seemed more to do with the 1964 Chevrolet Malibu than the Bagel Holder or the Bike Rack.  That's the pitfall when you click on one our links... we have it set up so that it opens in it's own Window so that you DON'T lose track of where you got the idea from in the first place.... the latest POST is  HERE!

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Maybe the title is just a little bit over the top today, but, "Babies" come in many forms... like:

"how yah doing Baby!"

"this here Robin Egg Blue, 1964 Chevrolet Malibu, is my Baby"

"Oh what a cute Baby"   the real ones  "Kitchy Kitchy Koo"

With each, there are "growing" pains, achievements and dilemmas that need to be conquered, solved, but it's the latter Baby, that really challenges the mind to keep up with his daily developments.   Our family encourages the youngsters, the toddlers too, to do their fare share of the preparations for our meals. Salad making is a great treat because the vegetable seeds were planted by "them", weeded and watered by "them", harvested by "them", to then have "them" prepare the vegetables as a a salad..... or desserts like carrot cake, or COOKIES, gluten free cookies, vegan cookies.

There's the actual preparation, getting out the necessary mixing equipment, like Large spoons, Measuring Cups, large mixing pots, Sheets to cook the cookies upon, flour to be ground, or ground already.  Occasionally there's the BC version of a Mount Everest, not insurmountable, with the Baby crawling, not quite toddling, not quite ready to stand, but is quite ready to be propped up in the highchair while his older sibling, by four, knows all the ins and outs, of cooking...... and cleaning up by .... DOING THE DISHES.  It's better than being IN a bathtub, splashing around, keeps the children's attention too, while the adults daily chores are somewhat accomplished.

Real cookies are oh so more delightful than relying upon one's imagination of a sandbox cookie or the Internet's Cookie.


Each "proving ground" comes with it's own challenges.

Households have these cabinets with plenty of doors and cupboards, and there are numerous safety devices to keep the children out, doors and drawers locked.  However, in our household, there is one "invention" that .... is somewhat akin to the development of the Steam Engine.  We all "know" that James Watt "invented the steam engine", when if fact the Steam Engine was invented long before James Watt came along.  What Mr. Watts did, was PERFECT his Baby, by making the Steam engine much more efficient.

On a BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) documentary from 1978 there emerged The Connection,  John Burke was the narrator.  A Great series, it was HIS Baby.  In one of the series, it touched upon the motor engine, which has gone onto be such a great asset for the world today and possibly the demise of the world tomorrow ......   The point here is, where one Man invented his Baby, the Perfume bottle.... for spraying it unto one self, ..... Benz, as of Mercedes-Benz, saw it as something quite different, something that was missing from his Baby, perfecting the motor engine, with an atomizer      "perfume bottle = the carburetor" ......    think cars, think aircraft, think LawnMowers, think Tanks, think compressing LNG to be shipped out of Kitimat for China......with a motor.

We, here, in our household, have done something that is an improvement upon a product that has been around for years.  The Bagel Holder for slicing safely..... which one of us, not me, saw it as something that would allow the Crawler, the Toddler to be involved with cooking.... and not in a pinch.

Right Side up, the Bagel Holder is a Bagel Holder

Upside Down, the Bagel Holder STOPS the drawer from closing, on fingers

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My Baby, is the perfection of the bicycle storage in the garage.   All those cars traveling with their bike racks firmly mounted in the trailer hitch, made me stop and think... where am I going to find a place in the garage to hang MY Bike rack carrier, when space within is already at a premium.  Takes up a lot of space, and then I would have to hang the bikes from hooks from the ceiling which is Nine Feet high.  There are always those moments when one goes Hmmmmm!  Like maybe a "Watts" or a "Benz", where they still own the patent, whereas in this day and age of the internet, it's so simple to get a patent, and then share the idea.

What I wanted was just the right achievable height for lifting, horizontally.   One drawback, was the handle grip of the first bike against the wall, is fourteen inches long from the centre.  I wanted the bike as close as maybe the pedal... which didn't happen, the wall is made from 2 X 6.  I cut out a square of Gyproc,  ...... it's only a garage, not a living space.

As to the strength to hold the bike carrier in place, we "back framed" the wall and recreated the trailer hitch, out of sight, out of mind.  We added a 2 X 4, for added support, that is resting on the foundation.

The distance from the floor to the bottom of the wheel "hoops", is five feet, which leaves plenty of room to ... park a car's front hood, under, or as in our case, a table saw and it's outfeed table.

From a commercial point of view, one could make up a metal "cross" to fasten directly to the stud (vertically) and a horizontal bar to straddle the studs on either side, for stability from twisting..... oh, and weld the "trailer" hitch square tubing to the "Cross" dead centre.