Handy Garage Tips-

Do you have a smaller garage or do you have a garage that needs some straightening up? Here are some good ideas to get your shop in order and some ideas to re-use scrap and trash and save money.

1. Save your baby food jars and other small jars with screw on lids. These come in handy for holding screws and small nails or anything else that will fit in them. If you have any wooden shelves, using a wood screw, screw the lid of the jar right to the underside of the shelf. Then fill your jar with whatever you desire and screw the jar to the lid.

2. Save all your sawdust. Saw dust is free and it works well as a sweeping compound and as oil dry. Just sprinkle it on oil or a wet spill and let it soak up the moisture then just sweep it up.

3. Buy a 120v AC output thermostat for your multi-fuel forced air heater (salamander). If you add a thermostat to your salamander it will make a tank of fuel last at least twice as long by not running the heater once a comfortable temperature is reached. This will also save you from worrying about unplugging and plugging in the heater all the time.

4. Save all your old laundry soap containers, these are great for getting rid of all your old oil. Just fill them up and take them to your local place of oil disposal. Most auto parts stores will take it and most auto repair shops love to take it because, they usually have an oil burning furnace that they can burn it in. They will filter it and burn it up as a free fuel source.

5. Save an old oil bottle for use as a funnel in a pinch.

6. If you happen to get gasoline on your hands and want to get the smell off of you, wash your hands with Listerine. It will take the smell completely away.

7. Save your old toothbrushes. Old toothbrushes are great as parts cleaners and for cleaning hard to reach crevices in projects.

8. Save an old serpentine belt for making a handy strap wrench. A strap wrench comes in handy for a lot of things, namely round hard to grip objects like an oil filter. Just take an old belt and a pair of vise grips or channel lock pliers, wrap the belt around the object you are trying to loosen and grab it with the pliers and turn.

9. I f you are going to have to mess around with fiberglass insulation or any thing with fibrous fiberglass, coat your arms and hands with baby powder. The baby powder will prevent the fiberglass form getting into your skin.

10. If you have a hard to turn screw, use a pair of pliers to turn the screw driver while applying downward pressure.

11. If you happen to strip the screw file the round edges into two flat edges on the head of the screw and use an adjustable wrench to remove the screw.

12. For extra leverage when using a standard open and box end wrench use a slightly larger wrench and lock the box end of it into the open end of the wrench you are trying to turn.

CHARCOAL LIGHTER

A Chimney Charcoal Grill Starter

Using an old piece of steel dryer vent or a piece of wood burning stove pipe you can create a charcoal starter and start your grill without using any heart burn causing charcoal lighter fluid.

Cut off a piece of at least 4" (6 inch works best but 4 inch will work as well) diameter steel dryer vent tube or stove pipe about 15* inches long or so. In the bottom 3 inches of the tube, drill about 4 or 5 one inch holes around the tube spaced evenly.

Put two or three sheets of newspaper wadded up in the bottom of the tube. Pour your charcoal on top of the newspaper and through the holes in the perimeter of bottom light the newspaper. In about ten or fifteen minutes your charcoal will be ready to use.

Using a pair of pliers lift off the tube and usually the charcoal falls into perfect position in the grill.


* If using the 4 inch tube make the tube a few inches longer to hold more charcoal.

CHARCOAL LIGHTER

A Chimney Charcoal Grill Starter

Using an old piece of steel dryer vent or a piece of wood burning stove pipe you can create a charcoal starter and start your grill without using any heart burn causing charcoal lighter fluid.

Cut off a piece of at least 4" (6 inch works best but 4 inch will work as well) diameter steel dryer vent tube or stove pipe about 15* inches long or so. In the bottom 3 inches of the tube, drill about 4 or 5 one inch holes around the tube spaced evenly.

Put two or three sheets of newspaper wadded up in the bottom of the tube. Pour your charcoal on top of the newspaper and through the holes in the perimeter of bottom light the newspaper. In about ten or fifteen minutes your charcoal will be ready to use.

* If using the 4 inch tube make the tube a few inches longer to hold more charcoal.

Whitetail Woods: Autumn Day on the Mount Hope

Whitetail Woods: Autumn Day on the Mount Hope

USES FOR STEEL WOOL

Steel wool is an amazing product. There are many uses for steel wool, it can be used for several things from survival to pest control. I am not sure of it's original purpose but it is made of very fine mild steel very close in nature to raw iron. It comes in many grades from very course to very fine. There are also different types of metal made into wool, there is stainless steel, copper, and bronze. These do not rust of course but do not have as many uses as ORDINARY steel wool.

Wood workers used steel wool for polishing all kinds of finishes including varnishes and paint. It shouldn't be used on oak because it reacts with what is called the tannins in the wood and may stain it an undesirable color.

Steel wool can be used for scouring in the kitchen as well, and is marketed under many different brand names with soap added to it. This works well but it rusts after the first use. However, if you put in it a sandwich baggy and put it in the freezer until it's next use it will last a lot longer.

Steel wool can be used as a fire starter in survival situations or for everyday fire starting. It lights very easily with a spark or flame but the best way to light it is using a nine volt battery and a spring from a pen or a small piece of wire. To light it using a spring from a pen and a battery, disassemble a click pen and remove the spring. Put one side of the spring into the center of one terminal of the battery and when you have your tender bundle ready insert the other side of the spring into the top of the battery, the spring will get cherry red and will light the steel wool. To use a piece of wire you do pretty much the same thing except using the wire instead.

Steel wool can also be used for rodent control. Placing steel wool around openings where rodents frequent will deter them. They cannot chew through it and if they try it inflicts major pain in their mouth and major stomach problems, if ingested it will kill them.

Steel wool is very good for polishing aluminum. Try it out on your rims, of course use the finer grade not the course stuff for this application.

Steel wool can also be used to tighten up a loose screw. If a screw is stripped out just add a little steel wool into the hole before inserting the screw. The steel wool will take up the extra space and act as new threads as the screw goes into the hole.

Food From The Wild

There are very many varieties of plants, nuts and berries that can be consumed raw. I will cover some of the varieties here and how to use them in your culinary creations. I have researched these and have been eating them for years in salads and other dishes I have come to crave.

There are also many animals that are good to eat from the wild. There are mammals, fish, insects, amphibians, birds, and even reptiles if you so desire. We will cover most of these over the next few articles and how to harvest, clean, and prepare them for a delicious meal.

We have become a society that needs fast easy food, and in turn we have become dependant, obese, and weight related-diseased people. We need to get back to our roots and work for our food and use less, to almost no, processed sweeteners. The sweets and the lack of work are killing us and we are letting them win. All we need as a human, is all around us in the wild and it takes a little effort, sure, but it is worth it. For the sheer gratification of knowing that we got our food on our own by dispatching or harvesting it is a feeling undescribable. Follow along and try some of these tried and true ways of being self reliant and serving yourself and loved ones up a dish that can't be matched at any fast food resturaunt, by taste or content.

OLOE.