Gardening in februari - 1

This is a good time to give the plants which are kept in large pots a new pot and new soil.
Be careful, only pot over the plants which are not in frozen soil and those which are not standing too wet. These last ones can wait a while.

You can also give another place to shrubs that lose leaves during the winter
and plants which are longer in your garden than a few years.
Again: only those plants without froozen roots which are not standing too wet.

Compost in the garden

When the temperatures are below zero don't do it, but when they are above zero, you can take the compost and mix it with the topsoil of the garden. Be careful not to harm bulbs or plants.

Only use the compost that is ready, which means that it's sandy and doesn't smell.

Stains on vacation

When you're on vacation you won't spend hours to get rid of stains.
Take a stain pretreatment stick with you and when you've got a stain use the stick well.
Some stains will disappear, others will be more easy to remove at home.

Iron containing foods

Upon request here a list with foods that contain iren.
When you take vitamin c with them, the iron is absorbed better.
broccoli,
raisins,
prunes,
figs,
dates,
lean beef,
lean pork,
skinned poultry,
shellfish,
fish,
liver,
organ meats,
egg yolks,
pinto,
kidney,
lima,
navy,
chick peas,
black-eyed peas,
lentils,
split peas,
green peas,
spinach,
kale,
collards,
beet greens,
chard,
dried peaches,
dried apricots,
nuts,
peanut butter,
whole grain breads.

Bruises and union

Do you know you can treat bruises with union?

Just slice an union and apply it to the skin.
When there's a wound, don't use it.

To keep the union in place you can use an old sock after you've cut the toes off.

To quit smoking

I don't know if it's of help, but there's a natural remedy against the urge to smoke.

Whenever you feel like taking a cigarette, get some salt and put it on the tip of your tongue.
The urge will go away.

let me know if you've been cured. It takes about a month.

Insect poison

My gram always had a small pot of cornstarch in the kitchendrawer and she took it with her during the summer.
When an insect had bitten her she would get a bit of cornstarch in her hand, wet it with water and apply it to the spot.

According to her it soaks up the poison.

Chewing gum in hair

One of my daughters was bullied by a boy. He threw chewing gum in her hair and thought she would have to cut her beautiful long hair to get rid of it.

He didn't know where to look when she appeared an hour later with wonderful hair.

The chewing gum was removed by the real brand cola. I just soaked the hair in it and took the chewing gum away.

Clean silver

I hated to clean silver when I was young. The smell of the stuff in the bottle. Ugh.

Cleaning silver is a lot easier.

take a heatproof glass bowl and line it with aluminimum foil.
Make a solution of 2 cups of water on 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Add this as many times as needed.
Heat it to 150 degrees.
Then put the silver on the foil. It should touch the foil.

Watch.

Rinse well after.

Smelly shoes

With boys and their desire to buy their own shoes I've been faced quite a couple of times weith the results of shoes which were not made of leather.

The smell!!
Arghhhh!!

Take a washcloth or an old sock when you don't want to use your best lace of roses fabric and fill it with either baking soda, tea leaves or kitty litter, close it and put it in the shoes during the night.

These small bags can be used over and over again.

Ink stains

Long ago we used real ink in fountainpains to write.
My uncle kept in in a topdrawer.
One day I had to fetch the ink and when taking the bottle out of the drawer it turned out the lid wasn't closed well.
A few drops fell on my new dress.

I feared the anger of my mother and went to the kitchen and poured milk on my dress, put kitchen paper to absorb the coloured milk and repeated it often until the stains were gone.

When I came home my mom asked me what smelled so sour. LOL!

Some people use alcohol to remove ink stains.

On some surfaces and fabric bleach will do too.

Wax and candle holders

When you don't want the candle to melt at the bottom, just pour a bit of water in the holder and put the candle on top.

You can also use an old aluminium cup of a candle or make one from a tealight.

Marble

Marble need careful treatment.

It's best not to dust with a cloth but to use a feather duster.

Never ever use soap!!!

Best use a soft wet cloth and wipe away the dust and dirt and immediately dry it with a soft dry cloth.

Grease can't be removed from marble. So prevent it.
All you can do is wipe it away as soon as possible and then use a damp cloth that is emerged in water with a little bit of ammonia, a dry cloth, a damp cloth with water only and a dry soft cloth.

Broken glass

We've got a strange tradition here according to some friends, but last week I saw one of them using the trick my gram taught me to take up broken glass.

Take a slice of white bread and make it into a ball.
You can take the broken glass up with it without hurting yourself.

When as much glass is in it, slice it off and you have a clean patch to take up the rest.

Shoebags

Shoebags are perfect oprganisers all over the house.

In the kitchen: for kitchen utensils that don't fity in the drawer.
In the bathroom: for underwear, towels, etc etc.

I can go on, but you'll get the idea.

Weed killer

It gives life to your laundry and home, and it takes life on your gardenpath.

Yep, it's vinegar.

Use it pure on weeds and you'll see that they can't cope with the acid.

That's another clean gardenpath.

Mildew

Best is to prevent mildew, but when you've got it you need to get rid of it.
You can do so with vinegar.

When the mildew is very bad, use plain white vinegar, otherwise use vinegar and water.


Do you know you can use vinegar too when you want to get rid of the black stains in aluminium?

Birthday presents and visitors

In the past I've been invited for coffee and it turned out I was at a birthday.
It was an awful experience to be without a gift. I really didn't know the hostess would be celebrating her birthday.

Since then I keep in the hall a few packages with a towel, washingcloth and soap.
In case someone lands in the middle of a birthday celebration I slip the package in their bag, explain the situation in a few words and the visitor won't feel embarrassed at all.

Don't be a jojo

Some women keep going up and down to fetch things.

Why not keep certain things upstairs ànd downstairs?
Cleaning cloths, cleaner and some othet much used household items can be found upstairs and downstairs in our house since I got this wise advice from the mother of a friend.
It has saved me a lot of time and energy when the children were small.

Pineapples

We've been dealing with painful lips and a swollen mouth due to eating pineapples until
we were told not to use the knife that's used for peeling the pineapple anymore.
One should use a new knife for slicing the pineapple, because the ill effects are caused by an acid in the peel.

In case your mouth hurts or is swollen because of a pineapple, use salt.