Mother's Down-Home Country Lore

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"After spending two fruitless hours trying to restrain my ornery, worm-ridden goats, I decided to quit giving pills to the animals and try the squirtable paste wormers instead," recalls Sharon Carpenter of Sheridan, Oregon. "Sure enough, the gluey healers were a cinch to administer—just squirt 'em in the critters' mouths and the goats smack their lips—but the medicines were too Banged expensive! So now I crush one of the inexpensive tablets into a tablespoon of peanut butter . . . and use that tasty paste instead. I get the best of both worlds: relief from goat-gnawed fingers ... and a onetenth-the-cost bargain!"

Lots of folks know the trick of covering your keg of homemade sauerkraut with a large plastic bag full of water . . . but Everett Schisler of Rio, Illinois has miniaturized the same principle and applied it to the kitchen sink. So, the next time you lose—or your dog chews up—your drain plug, says Everett, just put a little water in a plastic sandwich bag and tie the container shut. Such an improvised sink stopper—complete with its own handle—will plug your basin or tub just fine.

Roy Millsap's father was tired of trying to catch scampering chickens, so the Oakdale, Connecticut homesteader devised his very own "elusive-egglayer nabber". He simply took a sixfoot length of stiff wire and bent it into this shape:

The bird's scrawny leg slips easily into the hook's opening . . but the fowl's long toes keep it from pulling free. So nowadays, when the senior Millsap wants a "Sunday dinner special", he just grabs his nabber, traipses out to the flock . . . and snares his meal.

What? You haven't filled the woodshed yet? Well, brighten up, bunky ... we've got three tree-cutting tips to help with your chore:

[1] Glenn Scalise of East Springfield, Pennsylvania had a chain saw that used to sputter and fume (and so did he!) every time he went out acuttin' in the woods. Glenn wasted a lot of his "sawing time" cleaning the machine's carburetor and sparkplug . .. until he realized that his problem was caused by dirty fuel. The Keystone Stater decided then and there to lug his "firewater" in a clear plastic jug so he could see—and throw out—any fuel that became contaminated with water or sediment.

Because Mr. Scalise always keeps the jug shaded when he's out cutting—and pours the "saw starter" back into a metal container when he's done—he's had no problems with his in-the-field fuel holder. He's also had no more problems with his tree trimmer coughing or quitting. "And the exhaust ain't so blue now, either," Glenn adds.