Handy Hints for Wednesday ~ 24
Today I begin with an answer to an email request:
Any advice on how to get rid of mice?!
Thankfully I have not had trouble with mice for years. A brother of mine grills bacon and puts a tiny bit in a trap while it is still warm. Another friend suggests a tiny slice of Mars Bar.
I am beginning to wonder if I am a mouse since I can’t resist either of the above!
Do you grow Tomatoes?
Well an addition of crushed eggshells will give extra calcium to the soil & help prevent blossom end rot.
Remove the membrane from inside the shell of raw eggs (no need on boiled ones), wash them out well with warm water, and then leave them to air dry. When dry to the touch, put them into a see-through plastic then use the rolling pin to crush them. Once your shells are reduced to pieces as small as grains of salt, it is ready for working into you soil or sprinkling over your compost heap.
Wisewebwoman uses them instead of pebbles at the bottom of flowerpots for drainage and nutrition.
Judy had some suggestions last week that she had not tested, I have and they work.
In a pinch for a long match, use a piece of spaghetti. Just light the end. It’s great for lighting water heater pilot lights, etc. Please be careful as the spaghetti will bend as it heats.
Use glow-in-the-dark paint to dab dots on your light switches and doorknobs. This way you can easily find your way when the lights are off at night.
Oil a metal tape measure with WD-40. It will remove rust and help it slide more easily.
An extra tip this week
NB: NB: NB: NB: NB: NB: NB: NB:
When you turn the key in the back door to lock it…. REMOVE the key!
Come back on Friday and I will tell you why! 
Primal Sneeze said,
April 22, 2009 at 8:06 am
Use glow-in-the-dark paint to dab dots on your light switches and doorknobs. This way you can easily find your way when the lights are off at night.
Excellent! Now that’ll solve my issues from yesterday - the switch and knob ones.
Grannymar said,
April 22, 2009 at 8:26 am
Primal,
I like to take care of all my toyboys needs!
steph said,
April 22, 2009 at 11:15 am
@ Primal
@ glow-in-the-dark knobs
In answer to whoever has the problem with mice… get a cat!
Grannymar,
You’re teasing us again! I want to know why today
Grannymar said,
April 22, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Steph,
I love teasing you! Now be a good girl and wait until Friday
kenju said,
April 22, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Thanks for testing the tips, Grannymar. I’m glad to know they work. I like the tip about eggshells in the soil of tomatoes, too.
Grannymar said,
April 22, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Judy,
I have another one on test at the moment!
Annb said,
April 22, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Thanks for the tips - really looking forward to testing the tomato eggshell diet - my crop last year was a disaster - hope this will turn the tide!
Grannymar said,
April 22, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Annb,
I’ll be expecting a vine of tomatoes so!
Baino said,
April 22, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Not sure about over there but tomatoes grow very well in pots too, especially the little cherry tomb thumbs and mini romas. I haven’t got mice but I do have RATS! and poison them as I do, another brood appears . . .I can’t sleep with all the lights off so no need for GID splotches on my light switches . . you’d think I was too old to be afraid of the dark!
Grannymar said,
April 22, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Baino,
My sister grows her toms in pots in Dublin and they taste well. My garden faces north and far to cold to attempt them.
Yesterday you wanted one of my toyboys, I think you need the pied piper!
Darlene said,
April 22, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Squeak, squeak - I’m a mouse, too. However, I prefer Heath bar so maybe I’m only half mouse. (Don’t ask what the other half is.)
Grannymar said,
April 22, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Darlene,
You would make a very pretty little mouse with a great big bow!
wisewebwoman said,
April 23, 2009 at 12:50 am
I have an awful mouse story. I got those humane traps where the mice saunter in and get trapped and then you cart them off miles away to a field.
Well I laid those traps out and forgot and went off on vacation and came back and you know the rest.
The most inhumane way ever to kill mice, starve them to death for 3 weeks.
I felt terrible.
XO
WWW
Grannymar said,
April 23, 2009 at 1:29 pm
WWW,
Sadist!
Bill La Foe said,
June 29, 2009 at 1:51 am
I liked your website. It has some great information and comments.
Grannymar said,
June 29, 2009 at 7:58 am
Bill La Foe,
Welcome to the fun and games here. I share the tips I have learned over a long lifetime spent in the kitchen with my mother.
Having visited your site just now I realise I have a very long way to go to be as professional as you are with hints and tips on your blog