Cheap dirt mover—I have trouble carrying a lot of dirt in a bucket or even carrying a load of weeds from the corner to where I can dispose of them. But I have discovered a much easier way to move “stuff.” I took an old ripped shower curtain out to the flower bed and put all the old dried stems, etc., from last year’s growth on it and dragged it to the compost heap. It was a lot easier than carrying that heavy bucket. Then, I used the same shower curtain to move some of the compost to the garden and to the flower beds. I can put on the amount I can drag easily and not have tracks all over the yard. Cheap fix for an aging gardener.
Skeeter-free ditches—Summer means mosquitoes and lots of them. One cheap way to clean standing water such as road ditches and low spots of the larvae is to use a little bit of cooking oil—maybe 1/4 cup in a road ditch. Just drizzle it on top of the water and it spreads to cover the surface and smothers the larvae so they cannot hatch into more skeeters. A reader says this does work. Their kids used to take a squirt bottle and put a few drops into any old buckets or tires that had water in them—sure cut down on the buggers!
Mouse and rat getter—Get yourself some instant mashed potato flakes and put them in a flat plastic dish with a pan of water next to the potato flakes. The mice and rats will eat all they can hold of the potato flakes and then drink a bunch of water. The taters swell in their stomachs and since they can’t upchuck, the flakes swell up and they die.
I think if I was going to try this, I’d do it in the barn or a shed because nothing stinks worse in a house than a dead mouse-type critter and naturally, they are going to go hide if they are sick. The barn cats could find ‘em easy.
Cut and scrape soother—If you get a small scrape or nick working in the house or yard, an easy soother is simply a dry tea bag soaked in cold water for a few seconds and placed over the cut/scraped area. The tea will stop the bleeding.
School supply timing—I start saving a few dollars in a jar (usually change) as soon as school lets out for the summer break By the time it rolls around again, I have enough saved to pay for all of the children’s school supplies at the back to school sales. I can get big packages of pencils, pens, notebooks, crayons and even markers for them at bargain basement prices. I save a lot of money this way because the prices always double as soon as the sales are over with for the year.
(You can’t buy a new backpack with the change, but you can get a lot of stuff to fill it!)
If you have hints or ideas to share, send them to PennyWise, Box 518, Kadoka, South Dakota 57543; or email them to [email protected]. If you send me your name and address, I’ll send you a free copy of the PennyWise Newsletter. Please mention High Plains Journal when you write.
