Cold Winds, Warm Fire

Jan Cunningham cleans smoke stains on her fireplace bricks with whitewall tire spray-on cleaner; Jere Koons turns an old tire into a log carrier; J.A. Gehrer uses a stake and chain to keep trash barrels from knocking over; Ronald Roman shares candle making advice; Marti Bradley finds that wood is easier to split in cold weather; George Tutterow tucks a ribbon on the mailbox door to signal if the box is full; Jean Schneider coats the bottom of his snow blower with no-stick kitchen spray; Nanette Blanchard uses a cider/water mixture to soothe sunburn, rinse hair and cleanser; Maureen Fuller let her baby son play in the bath safely inside a laundry basket; Dean Olsen, April Anderson and John Carlin share cures for clogged sinks; Ruben Pauly used a pop can pull tab as a picture hanger; Terry Fenwick places a fabric softener sheet under the car seat for a fresh scent; Dennis Ouellette uses a potato to remove the broken socket of a light bulb.

January/February 1988
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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COUNTRY LORE

RELATED CONTENT

We can't ignore the curse of winter chores.

I love sitting in front of a fireplace and was delighted that the house we'd just bought had one. Not so delightful, though, were the dark smoke stains on the brick and stone surrounding the opening. We found, however, that the stains could be removed with a spray-on cleaner for whitewall tires. Scrubbing with a brush got the cleaner into crevices. When used on the glass doors of our fireplace, the same product dissolves creosote and smoke deposits like magic. I just spray it on, wipe it off with newspaper and polish off the remaining streaks with window cleaner.

— Jan Cunningham
Crossville, Tennessee

Tire Tote

I made a handy log carrier out of an old car tire. Using a utility knife, I cut away all but about 18 inches of the tread and the side walls, leaving an inch and a half or so of rubber around each rim. This gave me two full circles as handles, joined at the bottom with enough tire to support four or five splits at a time. An even better carrier can be made by using a 1" X 8" X 24" board as the bottom of the tote and cutting the rubber off in a straight line under each handle. Then screw each straight edge onto one long edge of the board. The board is longer, of course, than the diameter of the handles, so be sure to center it so your load will be balanced.

— Jere A. Koons
Newmanstown, Pennsylvania

Unturned at the Stake

I attach our garbage can to a stake with a short piece of chain and a snap hook like those used on dog leashes. This keeps the can from blowing away or being turned over by animals, but still allows me to remove it easily for cleaning.

— J.A. Gehrer
Milton, Pennsylvania

Tips on Drips

Here's some advice from a candlemaker. Before lighting a used candle, retaper the burnt-down end with a knife. Extinguish a candle by dipping the wick into the melted wax in the well (be sure to straighten it again). Both these tricks will help prevent dripping wax, but if some should get on your tablecloth, place a paper towel over the spot and use a warm iron to draw the wax up into the towel. Any candle dye that remains can usually be removed by soaking that part of the cloth in acetone.

— Ronald Roman
 Lysekloster, Norway

The Alaska Advantage

As a single mother of two, I've had to learn how to get hard jobs done as efficiently as possible. Take firewood, for example. Did you know that the colder it gets, the easier wood is to split? When I'm tired and that maul feels almost too heavy to lift, I wait till the temperature drops to around 20 below; the wood practically falls apart on its own.

— Marti Bradley
Fairbanks, Alaska

A Snazzy Signal

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