COUNTRY LORE

Sally Charles uses pepper to plug a leaky radiator; Rhonda Dodson uses fingernail polish to remove pine sap; Russell Mercer sprinkles kitty litter on the driveway for traction; Timothy Inboden glued carpet to the bottom corners of heavy appliances for easy moving; K.C. Drefke coats metal garden tools with paste wax to prevent rusting; Wynell Whitaker cleans his microwave by zapping a cup of baking soda and water for 20 minutes; Mark Mitchell fills a paper sack with yellow sawdust to cover up the scent when cleaning up after an urban dog walk; Pat Juenermann adds glycerine to the load when washing plastic shower curtains; W.E. Frye plugs holes in his birdhouse with corncobs until bluebirds arrive; Bobbie Mae Cooley makes scare sparrows from feathers and cork to keep birds away from the garden; Lois Klein-Miller lets children divide clothes based on color to teach them fashion coordination; Jerome Knapp lights a newspaper in the back of the fireplace while cleaning to prevent ashes from spreading throughout the room; Fred Race forces glue into hairline cracks in woodworking and sands it smooth; Sharon Fritchlery glues field corn to a mouse trap for repeated kills; Lakshmi Tache vacuums sluggish files and releases them outdoors; Allen Mader smears dark grease on a hardhat to keep flies away; Earl and Barbara Hodel trap flies in a jar with chicken liver.

November/December 1990
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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Help for the Handy

RELATED CONTENT

Useful tips from down—home readers

Through the years we've all discovered a few practical, time-tested solutions to some of the frustrating little problems of everyday life. Here are some of our readers' favorites. Send Mother your own suggestions.

Car Kerchoo!

The radiator in my car had a small leak, so my father told me to put in one or two teaspoons of pepper while the car was running. Sure enough, it plugged up the hole and lasted almost six months until I could afford another radiator.

—Sally Charles
West Springfield, Pennsylvania

Sap Zapper

Rather than using smelly kerosene or harsh gasoline to remove pine sap from your skin, try fingernail-polish remover. It does not burn or irritate the skin, and the sap comes off in a single wipe.

—Rhonda Dodson
Lynchburg, Virginia

Winter Wonderlitter

During bad winter weather, I carry a bag of kitty litter in the car along with a shovel. Litter sprinkled under the drive wheels for traction has helped get me out of a number of slick spots.

—Russell W Mercer, Jr.
Bismarck, Missouri

Carpet Slippers

Many large appliances, especially older models, are not equipped with casters. When my wife and I were getting ready to install a new kitchen floor, we had to pull the refrigerator, washer and dryer into the hallway, and while doing so noticed that the metal feet on the appliances made gouges in the linoleum. Wanting to protect our new flooring, I cut little pieces of carpet scrap, just slightly larger than the appliances' feet, and glued them on, backing side to the metal. I used a hot-glue gun, but any multipurpose adhesive ought to do. It worked perfectly, and we easily slid the heavy equipment into place with no damage to the new floor. Better yet, when we want to clean behind and underneath them, these metal monsters-weighing several hundred pounds each—can now be moved with very little effort.

—Timothy A. Inboden
Robinson, Illinois

Slick Trick

If your garden tools' storage spot is prone to dampness, the implements' metal will rust. To prevent this, some people oil their tools, but I give mine—once they're clean—a coat of paste wax. It keeps them rust-free longer, and they're easier to clean up, too.

—K. C Drefke
Las Vegas, Nevada

Maxiclean the Microwave

To clean, deodorize and sanitize my microwave oven in one easy process, I add three-fourths of a cup of baking soda to a large plastic bowl filled with water. After "cooking" this in the oven for 20 minutes, I simply wipe the interior with paper towels. This solution leaves the oven smelling fresh.

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