Sisters, as you know, I am the Provident Living Sister for our Ward, and this month I thought I would share a couple of VERY providential tips!!
One is how to get GUM out of clothing, hair, furniture, rugs, and just about anything. If you like to scrape off most of the gum be very careful indeed with that ice cube and knife because you can actually nick the fibers of the surface and then it will lead to a hole later. I don't bother much with scraping anything. If I can pull off the 'largest amount' fine, if not I just go into the Peanut Butter routine. I take an appropriate amount of peanut butter and gently rub it into the offending gum. It shrinks and disintegrates the gum so that finally all you need to do is use some liquid dish detergent and hand-hot water to wash out the oiliness of the peanut butter. It truly works, and has saved me a lot of grief over the years. It really works, too on gum-in-hair problems!!!
Two is how to get motor oil/grease out of a carpet. This really happened to me a few years ago!!!! I used UNDILUTED dish detergent and an old washcloth. I rubbed at the motor oil with the washcloth (best if you can rub from the outside of the stain to the inside of it to avoid spreading the stain.) You may have to use more than one washcloth (old towel, etc) to avoid rubbing dirt back into the cleaned area. When the oil/grease is all up use ammonia on a cloth to get up the residue of the detergent. Water is hopeless, you'll be swamped in bubbles. Just be careful with the ammonia, open the window or door if possible to avoid breathing the fumes. If you don't get up the detergent it will attract dust and dirt to that spot.
Sisters, if anyone is interested in canning just let me know (301)884-2349. I have extra equipment and more than one pressure canner, so I could show anyone how to do fruits and veg, or meats. Just be aware that the ONLY method the USDA recommends for non-acid foods is pressure canning, because the water bath method (boiling water bath) doesn't reach a high enough temperature to kill off all the bacteria that may be lurking in our non-acid foods. Meat, for example, could be very dangerous if not properly preserved.
Sisters, if I can help with anything at all, please give me a call.
Sincerly,
Heather
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2 comments:
Colleen,
I love the blog! It is a great way to share information with many people. We use them at work at the library and keep each other informed about what is happening, share photos and other websites. Yours looks really nice!
Jeanette Edward
Sisters, I'm Heather Kearns and I am the Provident Living person for Relief Society. I am so glad for this blog because I can use it for provident living ideas etc.
If anyone has any really good tips about 72-hour emergency kits please let me know. I do have kits made up for our family, but the "battery operated radio" in one is fairly big and takes up quite a lot of the backpack space.
It's not a bad idea to have a few bottles of drinking water handy because storms often mean electrical outages. For us that means "nothing working at all."
As far as drinking water goes, by the way, there is a place online where 55-gallon water barrels (pump and siphon kit, too) can be purchased. The problem with large storage like that is how to get the stuff out from the very bottom. Using 5-gallon food-grade plastic buckets is a good idea because they could be stacked (watch for the weight because water is heavy, about 1-lb per pint, 8lbs to the gallon.) Also, water could be poured directly from the bucket without the need for a spigot, pump, or siphon.
To rotate water supply that is not "sealed" the washing machine is a good place to pour it, then clean and refill the bucket. Water can be purified with household bleach, too, and I can give specifics if anyone wants to know further about it.
When storms are on the way it seems that the stores run out of bread, water, milk, and toilet tissue. Yesterday I was told that the stores were packed with shoppers buying emergency items. It is a good idea to have water, bread, milk, toilet tissue, and some "eat cold" type of foods on hand to cope with storm conditions.
A working flashlight is essential for power failures, and a few spare batteries are useful. Rechargeable lanterns are so handy but check how long the light lasts for each charge. If it has a device for charging from the lighter slot in the car, can it be used while it is charging? Candles are useful too, but flashlights and battery-lanterns don't have the same fire risk.
Sisters, if you have any comments or questions, or if I can help with any aspect of provident living please call me 301-884-2349 or email at heatherkearns@hotmail.com or
kearns1@mstar.net
I am enthusastic about being the provident living sister because I like to feel we can be independent (to a degree) and provide for ourselves and not be victims of what President Kimball called, "seductive advertising."
Years ago there was a line of "waterless cookware" doing the rounds. The demonstrator said, "You can throw away your oven with this wonderful cookware." One participant said, "Well, can you cook a turkey in that stuff?" and the demonstrator had to admit, you couldn't. Sometimes, I think the advertisers try to buffalo us in the same way over lots of things.
There are some new things that are practically a necessity, and sorting out the wheat from the chaff is what's going to make us "provident!!!!" Who would want to go back to hauling water, when we have wonderful electric power? Who wants to go back to ironing everything when we have no-iron fabrics? Well, not me. So we have to be our own detectives to sort out what is going to be useful and productive for OUR needs, and what is just going to tempt the pennies out of our purses for no real value.
It took me years to agree to have a microwave oven, but now that I have one I wonder however I managed without it!!!! I'll probably find there are lots of
17th Century things I do that could be upgraded, but I'm willing to learn.
My background is Scottish/English, and my thrifty Scots ancestors have passed down their views on "waste" (Wicked waste brings woeful want.) However, I am a firm believer in the divine properties of paper plates!!!!!!!
One of my sons (about 1/8inch of hair length off the scalp at most) was going through shampoo at an alarming rate so I enquired how he washed his hair. He said, "Well mom, it says to wet the hair, shampoo, rinse and repeat, and that's what I do." I explained that if he had hair 2 feet long that might be ok, but in his situation with a crew-cut, he could get away with just one shampooing, and use about a dim-sized amount of it.
Please contact me if I can help you or if you have something to share with the rest of us.
Thanks, Heather.
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