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THE
FAMILY
CORNER'S "HELPS
& HINTS"
By
Jim Davis
Microwave
Heating Pad
Take a cotton sock
and put enough rice in it to make the size pad you need. I made one
small enough for my wife to use on the bridge of her nose, and it
worked fine. Of course, the larger you make it, the longer it will
stay hot. The small one I made stays hot about 15 minutes. Just tie
the sock with a piece of string to keep the rice from spilling. Heat
it in the microwave on the high setting for anywhere from 30 seconds
for a small pad to two minutes for a larger one. If you aren't sure
how much time to heat it, just stop and check to see how hot it is.
Getting
Rid of Dog Odor
Once in a while,
my "inside dog," Winnie, comes back from her trips outside
smelling like she "rolled in something dead." One day this
happened when I absolutely did not have time to bathe her
immediately. I filled an empty spray bottle about half-full of water
and dissolved about 3 heaping teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda in it.
I sprayed her and worked it in (with rubber gloves on, of course.) I
had hoped it would just help reduce the odor, but it was completely
gone. (Winnie still got her bath later on.)
Potato
and Apple deodorizer
When the air
conditioner in the office next to mine malfunctioned, it
"flooded" my office floor over about a third of the room.
Since this happened over a "long weekend" the room was
smelling pretty rotten by the time I discovered the problem. Even
after the room was dried out the odor hung on. My neighbor in the
suite next door told me to quarter an apple and a potato and put the
pieces in the corners of the room to get rid of the odor. I did and
it worked. My neighbor told me that he had learned the trick when his
car had gotten caught in a flood, and an elderly lady had told him
about this remedy.
Coat
hanger wire "drill"
If you need to run
a phone or TV cable through an interior wall of your house, and you
don't have a drill long enough to reach through the wall, here's what
you can do. Using wire cutters, cut a straight piece of a sturdy coat
hanger long enough to reach through the wall. Pick a point well away
from any electrical outlet (be sure to check both sides of the wall.)
Make sure the wall is hollow at that point (by knocking on it or
using a stud finder) at the point where you are about to drill. Drill
through the sheetrock on one side, at least three inches from the
floor. As soon as you are through that side, stop drilling and poke
around to be sure there are no obstacles (such as an electric wire.)
When you feel the "drill" meet the resistance of the other
side of the wall, then drill the hole in that side. You will then
have matching holes on both sides of the wall, and you can use
shorter drills to enlarge them as needed.
Boiled
eggs will spin
If you're not sure
whether an egg is boiled or not, just try to spin it (lying on its
"side".) A boiled egg will twirl around, but a raw one won't.
When
you're helping your kids learn to drive . . .
It's hard for them
to learn to judge where the front wheels are. I used a small piece of
wood (a 2X4 about five or six inches long) and had my sons learn to
run over it. Once in a while they would talk me into using empty soda
cans so they could crunch them. Of course, we did this on a private
road out in the country, but an empty parking lot or even your
driveway will work.
Poison
Ivy
The best remedy I
have found for poison ivy or poison oak is a product called "Tecnu
POISON OAK-N-IVY Cleanser." You should be able to find it
at your drug store (or click above for their web site.) It is made to
be used immediately after you come in contact with poison ivy/oak,
but it will also help even after the rash appears. I find that the
rash goes away in a couple of days, usually. And if it works for me,
it should work for most anybody, because I'm very allergic to
poison ivy/oak.
Buttermilk
substitute
This is one I
learned from my mother-in-law. You can add lemon juice to regular
milk to make a buttermilk substitute for cooking. I use about one
part lemon juice to eight parts milk for use in recipes. I've never
tried drinking it, so I don't know if it actually tastes like
buttermilk or not. It does make great buttermilk pancakes, though.
And it doesn't give me the blood pressure problem I usually have if I
use real buttermilk.
Saving
Hot Water
I recently
realized how much hot water I was wasting when I make hot cocoa. (See
the recipe for home-made hot cocoa below.) I was turning on the hot
water and waiting until it got hot, which wastes almost three quarts
of hot water out of the water heater just to get to the faucet. Then
I was actually using only a few teaspoons of hot water. I realized
that I could heat about a fourth cup of water in the microwave, instead.
Delicious
Hot Cocoa (not instant)
This is easy, and
it's delicious. Just put one tablespoon of baking cocoa and one
tablespoon of sugar in a 10 ounce mug. Add enough hot water
to make a syrupy mixture. Then add milk to fill the
cup, and stir well. Heat in the microwave for about 2 minutes. (Be
careful not to heat too long, or it will bubble up and make a mess.)
Then stir it again, and if you like, add a marshmallow.
If
you have any tips or helpful information you would like me to add to
this page, please send
me an e-mail.
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