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Try This:  Make Do Tools  |
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TwoWildflowers
Farmgirl in Training
25 Posts
Kathleen
Penn Valley
Ca
USA
25 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 06 2005 : 12:31:19 PM
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How many of us have quick fix tools we "made do" all the time?
I have a couple I use often, maybe you have some that we could all appreciate learning about.
Here are 2 I use lots.
1. Those reading glasses that have no arms anymore. Tuck a pair into your junk drawer in the kitchen when you're cooking. They help you set the oven or read a recipe and you don't have to wear glasses that steam up all the time! That second broken pair, put in your car glove box, great for map reading in a hurry.
2. Need a funnel in a hurry to fill something that is dry? Take an empty envelope you were going to throw away, cut an angel off one corner about 3 inches deep. Then snip off the point, and voila when you open the wide top end you have a funnel. If you don't need a funnel, don't snip the point and use it as a bookmark to slip over a page corner in a book.
Friends are my flowers in the garden of life |
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lirene
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Irene
WA
16 Posts |
Posted - Aug 26 2005 : 11:08:54 PM
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My tip is about how to use all those little slivers of soap that are 'too good to toss', but too small to use.
Put a handful of them into a plastic mesh bag like the ones supermarkets sell garlic in. Tuck the ends inside and then put a rubber band around the middle to keep the soap from squirming out.
Voila! A useful hand-scrubber to keep wherever you need it: in the laundry room, next to a faucet in the garden...
The plastic mesh scrubs your hands clean while it keeps the soap bits under control.
Trillium Woods
Latitude 46.905, Longitude -122.316 |
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realme52
True Blue Farmgirl
106 Posts
Klara
Gatesville
Texas
USA
106 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2005 : 09:17:43 AM
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What great idea to bring this up! I love tips like that.
I use dull kitchen knives for all kind of purposes in the garden. They loosen the dirt around plants, dig whole to plant seedlings, pry up root clumps of weeds. They also make plant markers when you write on the handle with one of those metal-marking paint pens.
I recently started to keep plastic jugs (as in laundry detergent, gallon jug from milk, etc.) I used the idea in MJ's book to make a protable container filled with water to carry around when cutting flowers. Works great. I made a smaller one (quart size plastic jug) for when I gather herbs.
A great "tool" for me are bamboo skewers. You buy a big bunch of them for 90cents or so. They make great stakes for smll plants (seedlings), they also are nice "tillers" for very small areas. When my chickens were still roaming freely, I stuck skewers pointed end up around plants I wanted the chickens to stay away from (they were a pretty reckless bunch and respected nothing, but the skewers kept them away.
From this hour on I ordain myself loss'd of limits and immaginary lines. Walt Whitman |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2006 : 3:39:48 PM
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Spring might just be the time to revive this topic! I was reading through, and these are some great ideas! I tie cheesecloth around lemon halves when I serve them with fish, etc. so you can squeeze the lemon and get the juice, not the seeds.
I also use an old serving fork with tines bent at a 90-degree angle down to "rake in" new soil and fertilizer to houseplants and other potted plants.
What does everyone else "make-do" with?
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2006 : 7:27:48 PM
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hank and i both love those international coffees that come in cans .. and we end up with LOTS of cans .. hate to toss them .. soooo .. i've poked holes in the bottom (for drainage) to start 'seeds' in .. and i've filled them with NAILS .. then i glue or tape a nail to the top of the plastic cover .. shows me what size nails are in the tin. those little tins are great for keeping all kinds of doo-dads in. just put a lable on the plastic top.
True Friends, Frannie |
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blueroses
True Blue Farmgirl
1323 Posts
Debbie
in the Pandhandle of
Idaho
USA
1323 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2006 : 10:52:11 AM
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I save the gallon jugs from vinegar, etc. to use for homemade laundry detergent and cleaners. I save the big used coffee cans from work to use for storing grains, seeds, and beans in ( I leave them in the packaging they came in but keep on shelves in garage). Wish I had a root cellar.
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
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realme52
True Blue Farmgirl
106 Posts
Klara
Gatesville
Texas
USA
106 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2006 : 4:29:39 PM
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I use bamboo skewers, too, for different purposes. But my favorite use is to stick them -pointy end up- around my flowers and decorative plants to keep the chickens from sitting down there too comfortably.
I save gallon jugs, too. I fill them with water and put them next to newly planted broccoli, early planted tomatoes, and other plants,which can use protection from temperature changes. The water in the jugs warms up from the sunlight during the day, and then gives off warmth during the cooler nights. Voila'! Your micro-greenhouse effect!
From this hour I ordain myself loss'd of limits and immaginary lines. Walt Whitman |
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rabbithorns
True Blue Farmgirl
544 Posts
Allison
Fort Scott
KS
USA
544 Posts |
Posted - Apr 07 2006 : 9:19:37 PM
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| I also inserted skewers into flower beds, but to keep the neighborhood cats from using them as a cat box. That and a layer of ground white pepper for when they scratched! It worked....Oh, and it also works against javelinas who root up young plants. They look like small wild pigs but are actually crazy-looking rodents. |
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Duchess
True Blue Farmgirl
109 Posts
Iowa
USA
109 Posts |
Posted - May 19 2006 : 06:01:29 AM
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| I save all our pill bottles and use them for seeds I collect. Also good for pins in my sewing box. I saved old spice jars with screw off tops and put the holders for corn in them. I save the bags the garlic and onions come in and use them to scrup pots with and also put one under sink to put sponges,etc in so they can dry and be accessible. I save interesting jars and put beans, rice etc in them. Also love thrift shops for all kinds of things that I would like but won't pay full price for. |
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owwlady
True Blue Farmgirl
899 Posts
Jan
Tomahawk
WI
USA
899 Posts |
Posted - May 19 2006 : 08:02:00 AM
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| Save your gal size laundry bottles, rinse out thouroughly, drill holes in the cap and you have a watering can. |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2007 : 11:04:31 PM
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Reviving the topic for yet another spring! I just can't wait to dig out all of my garden tools and implements. For now, it's been limited to a shovel and rake... but one of my best make-do tools as of late is a piece of baling twine - I use it every day - for a million things, but the neatest, in my opinion, use for the stuff is cutting other baling twine off of bales of straw or hay. You just slip a little piece of twine under a wrap of it that's still on the bale, hold on to both ends of the little piece and push/pull it under the twine still on the bale while pulling up, and VOILA! It's cut!!! Very handy when you forget your pocket knife!
XOXO, Libbie
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar..." - Helen Hayes |
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Try This: Make Do Tools |
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Make Do Tools
