Slice of Onion help make bee stings wound feel better

I have heard about homespun apply-onion-to-a-bee-sting remedy from friends this year. I am just wondering if it does really work. Some of my friends said that because of the onion, it does take the pain away almost right away. I am very curious but didn't want to try to get stung myself. Until then I can't confirm its effectiveness.

Today my little girl ran into the house with tears and told me that she got stung by a bee. Here's my chance to try this remedy out. So I walked right up to my onion pile, cut the end off and gave her the piece. I told her to put it on and hold it where she got stung for a while. Within the first 5 minutes, she said she felt better already and by 10 minutes, she ran in with smile and said all the pain had gone. I told her to keep it on a little longer (Just in case.). But she didn't want to hold it on anymore. Well, I guess, it works!

What about you? Have you applied cut onions to your bee stings? If so, did it do the trick? Share your experience with us.

How to take care of sleeping bag

Ok since we spent our money on our good camping gears, let's take a look how can we take care of them.
Let's talk about our sleeping bag first.

When you go camping, try to keep your sleeping bag clean and dry. Your sweat and dirty clothes, etc can ruin it's insulation power.

I know, you are going to say "Are you crazy? It's camping and I have no shower. How can I keep it clean?"

You could change your clothes before you go to bed. Try to use the clothes that cover all over your body such as pants, long sleeves shirt, socks, etc. Or you can try to use a sleeping bag liner which you can wash it when you come home.

If you are thinking about cleaning your bag, you should aware that every time you wash it, you risk your bag to tear and might decrease the loft. Dry cleaning is not recommended. Cleaning only the tiny spot that dirty is the best way to do instead of washing the whole bag.

If you want to wash the whole bag still, you can get a professionally laundered by REI. Then you know that your bag is safe.


If you want to wash it yourself, use a gentle, non-detergent soap such as Nikwax Down Wash 2.0 which is made for washing down and synthetic-filled items. Hand-washing in a bathtub. Use warm water with soap. Leave it soak for about 15 minutes. Then press out any water. Rise in cold water. And leave your bag sit for another 15 minutes. Drain and press out any water. Repeat until there is no more soap come out.

Air drying is the best way to dry your bag. You can use dryer but use very low heat or a no-heat setting. You have to keep checking your bag. If you add a few clean tennis balls when the bag is almost dry will help break up any clumps of insulation and help restore the loft.

After the trip, air out the bag inside-out for a few days. Make sure your bag dry. Store in a large cotton storage sack that usually comes with when you buy your sleeping bag.

Don't store your bag compressed in its stuff sack as this will eventually damage the fill. My husband and his best friend did not know about this for many years. Now when we come home, we never leave our sleeping bags in our compression stuff sacks anymore.

Cat's Meow North Face sleeping bag review

Disclosure of Material Connection: Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. I received no financial compensation or any product for writing my review. This is my completely honest opinion and may be different from yours. 

Last week, I wrote about our camping trip that we do every year in May. (You can read more about it here.) Our family is a backpacking camper. We hike, we camp, we cook a real camping food. We have to have everything with us to survive. That's why very single pounds is important. And to be able to survive, you need a good quality gear.

Before this trip, I decided to purchase a new sleeping bag. I borrowed my friend's sleeping bag last few years because we were planning to move to Thailand every year. So sleeping bags that I use in north America will be too hot to camp in Thailand. (That's why I never have a really good one before.) Since we decided to live in Canada, I think it's time for me to purchase a right camping gears.

My husband is a professional camper. We went to the store. The staff showed us many sleeping bags. Our budget is not really big. So we have about 6 options to choose from.

The Cat's Meow North Face is the one that I like the most after I tried them in the store. I actually really like the color. (Blue is my favorite color.) The staff told me that the zipper glow in the dark too. That did not make me really "Wow" at that time. But when we were in the jungle, "Wow" I can see that zipper even when I woke up during the night! Seriously.


Here's the feathers that show from the North face website:

• Buttery soft fabrics
• Climashield® Prism shingled construction with Climashield® Apex layered against the body
• Glow-in-the-dark pull-loop on zipper
• Inspired fit and function
• Internal draft tube pockets keep essentials warm and within reach
• Light compression stuff sack
• Tip: Get a bag 15-20 degrees cooler than what you are using it for if you are a cold sleeper
• EN Tested 13537

Product Specifications:

Style: ASKF Stuffsack 
Size: 6.5" x 21" (16.5 cm x 53 cm) 
Temp Rating: 20°F 
Total Weight: reg: 2 lbs 12 oz (1258 g)  lng: 2 lbs 15 oz (1340 g)   

The price of Cat's Meow is varies between $179 - $209 which I think it's not too much for a good quality gear. Good sleeping bag can go up to $600 or more. The weight is not too bad. It's a lot better than many sleeping bags in the market. I like that it comes with light compression stuff sack    

We slept with our 19 months old daughter and she slept through out the night. We checked and make sure that she was not cold. Our friend who came with us this year, he didn't have the right gear. He said he kept waking up all night because he felt cold.   So if you are looking for one good affordable sleeping bag. I do recommended the Cat's Meow to you.

May long weekend annual campout

 "We are going away this weekend. Hiking, camping and eating camping food. Not really sure if we are coming back home sick or not. Hopefully our 19 months old will have a blast!"

That is what I wrote before we left last week.

Every May long weekend, our family goes camping as a traditional with our friends. This time, there were our family, 5 friends and a dog.

Usually, we go to the beach that close to French beach on Victoria Island. But this year, we changed the plan. We searched internet, Google map and found a new place close to Tofino. My husband's friend went to scout the area for us a few weeks before. He said it was awesome.

He told us that it will be about 30 minutes walk in and another 20 minutes down the ravine. The walking part doesn't scare us but the ravine part made me hesitate at first. We have a 19 months old that still can't help herself yet.

But here we are!

Knowing us, we want to try. So we all went. It was raining when we arrived. I was hoping that the weather would be nicer. My husband decided to use the stroller to help us carry our daughter and some of our stuffs. This is not usual for us to use a stroller. lol

We started hiking in. It was already rough but it didn't feel like 30 minutes as our friends mentioned. Next was the ravine, that we have to hike down. This wasn't easy. We could not find the trail. Our friend, Jon, thought there are more trees on the ground compare to a few weeks ago when he came.

We got to the camp site before dark. Thanks goodness that it doesn't get dark too early. The camp site was really beautiful, worth the trip.

We saw the "poop" aka scat but no bear! 

(not necessarily a bad thing, but from the vehicle would have been good!)

We had awesome weather on Sunday. It was nice and sunny. The tide went out. We got the whole beach to ourselves. Our daughter had so much fun on the beach. We heated up our food and ate there.

Oh, there are 3 recipes that I posted last week, Blueberry Scones , Cream Cheese cookies, and Filled cookies. I actually used all of them to plan our food for this trip. Man! They are heavy! Don't pack those for your backpacking trip. (They are good recipes though. Our friends love them!)

These are better and easier. One package come with main, desert and drink! Only $5.00 per package. It's light and easy!

We found a garden snake on the way back. Our daughter really interested in him.

On the way back to the ferry, we were the last second car that made to the ferry! We were so thankful for that. Even though we have to miss our Dairy Queen ice cream because of the rush to the ferry. :(

More about this trip, I got a new sleeping bag, The North Face Cat's Meow Sleeping Bag and new Thermarest that I will write another post to review them.