Insect Indigestion
Don Wood kills wasps with a bucket filled with water and a buoyant piece of fruit; Thomas Champion keeps onions fresh by storing them in pantyhose; Woody Morgan shares a late-fall and early-spring procedure for keeping the garden fresh; Gary Gerken baits mousetraps with pumpkin seeds; Rob Sporgell fills a cup with kerosene and keeps it in his grandfather clock to naturally lubricate the parts; Marcella Matthews rakes leaves into an old drapery with lining; Larry Prissel shares an easier way to shell popping corn; Joyce Mason uses the patients' home address as the return address when sending a card to someone in the hospital; Jeremiah Pierce scrubs aluminum pans with a ball of foil.
September/October 1988
By the Mother Earth News editors
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Illustrations By Meryl Sklut
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Summer's over, winter's coming. Autumn chores
keep homesteads humming.
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HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT YOU ARE more annoyed by pesky wasps, bees and hornets in the fall? Here's a good way to lure them away from wherever you're working or playing or picnicking outdoors. Just fill a pail with water, and across the top tie a piece of fruit coated with lard or grease. Place the pail about 15 feet from the area you want the insects to steer clear of. They'll eat their fill of your snack, be too heavy to fly and will fall into the bucket and drown.
-Don Wood
Elyria, Ohio
Onion Hang-Up
As a native of Georgia, I'm especially partial to that state's famous Vidalia onions. When I stored them the usual way, in a mesh bag, they often spoiled quickly because of high humidity. I found the solution to this was to store them in old, clean hose or pantyhose. You drop the first onion into the toe, and tie a knot right above it. Keep putting in the onions, one at a time and with a knot between each one, till the stocking leg is full. Hang the onions in a cool, dry place, and simply cut one off right below the knot anytime you want one. Onions will keep for a year this way, and they hardly ever sprout.
-Thomas Champion
Radcliff, Ohio
Start Now for Carefree Tomatoes
The work my wife and I do takes us out of town a lot during the warmer months. We particularly enjoy growing tomatoes, but our hot Oklahoma summers make this difficult for those who aren't around to keep the garden watered and weeded. We came up with a system, though, that works great.
In November we till the garden both lengthwise and crosswise. Then we carefully break up bales of field hay so that we end up with two-foot squares about six inches thick. We completely cover the garden with these. In late spring we hand-dig down through the hay and plant the tomato seedlings. The soil stays weed-free and moist, even through 100° days, with only occasional care. In the fall, the hay is tilled under to enrich the soil. Our tomatoes are beautiful, and our neighbors are jealous!
-Woody Morgan
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Snapping Seeds
The next time you cut open a pumpkin, save a few seeds to bait your mousetraps. Mice seem to prefer these over any other food, and they can't nibble at a well-secured seed without springing the trap.
