Helpful hints: One thing that has helped me when using my posthole digger is that I have marked a one foot and a two foot line on the handles. No more guessing as to how deep you’ve dug. Something I saw recently was a unique way to keep your leaf bag from slipping down into the trash container. Cut four 9-inch sections from an old garden hose, then slit them lengthwise and place them over the trash container rim. No more slipping.
When you wash a plastic shower curtain or tablecloth, add a cup of vinegar to the rinse water. The plastic will dry soft and supple. I love this hint.
Is the showerhead clogged again? Unscrew it, and soak it in a solution of equal parts of vinegar and warm water for 15 minutes or so. Your showerhead will flow like Niagara Falls.
Kudos: For any of you who shop and bank on Butler Avenue in Midway, you had to have noticed that Mayor Emmons is getting all those awful bumps and bad spots repaved. Hurray! And the overhanging limbs near the power lines down Highway 17 in Midway are getting cut back. Another hurray! If the Butler family is also involved in all this, a big hug to you also.
Unusual dishes: What’s the most unusual dish you’ve ever been brave enough to try, calamari, escargot, fried alligator tail, chocolate-covered ants? Well, my Uncle Bobby, a commercial fisherman in South Carolina, recently gave me a bag of what looked like fish. Was I surprised when he told me it was butterfly ray. I was game to try it. I cut the pieces in “fingers,” then rolled them in Old Bay Seasoning and garlic salt, then dipped them in egg and finally shook them in a bag of corn meal and flour. Next came the test. I deep fried them in oil and drained the fingers on paper towels. When I cut into the first piece, I could not believe the flavor. The consistency was like chicken, but tasted like pork chop. There was no fishy taste at all. This definitely should be on the menus in seafood restaurants.
Planting time: I know a lot of people swear by the Farmer’s Almanac. I just go by my gut feeling. I have a row of potatoes, a row of garlic, a row of multiplying onions and three rows of carrots already up and thriving. This week I planted three rows of okra, six hills of cucumbers, a yellow sweet banana pepper, six hills of cucumbers, a sweet 100 cherry tomato, an Early Girl and Big Boy tomato and still have Rutger tomatoes to plant and two rows of white corn. My garden is 16 feet by 24 feet and produces so much food every summer.
Be watchful: Remember, spiders and snakes are in your yards looking for food. Be extra careful when weeding your flowerbeds. I have a black racer that loves my yard and he scares me when he appears. But I think he knows he has a non-ending food source around all my plants. So I leave him alone and he watches me carefully. Again be warned that if you have a small dog or cat, now is feeding time for red tailed hawks, peregrine falcons and owls. They are looking for food for their young. Do not allow your small animal out without you being there beside them.
Mark your calendars
March 30-April 1: Garden and Antique show at Roundhouse Railroad Museum in Savannah. Call 236-4795 for details
Saturday: Great American Clean Up of St. Catherine’s Island
When you wash a plastic shower curtain or tablecloth, add a cup of vinegar to the rinse water. The plastic will dry soft and supple. I love this hint.
Is the showerhead clogged again? Unscrew it, and soak it in a solution of equal parts of vinegar and warm water for 15 minutes or so. Your showerhead will flow like Niagara Falls.
Kudos: For any of you who shop and bank on Butler Avenue in Midway, you had to have noticed that Mayor Emmons is getting all those awful bumps and bad spots repaved. Hurray! And the overhanging limbs near the power lines down Highway 17 in Midway are getting cut back. Another hurray! If the Butler family is also involved in all this, a big hug to you also.
Unusual dishes: What’s the most unusual dish you’ve ever been brave enough to try, calamari, escargot, fried alligator tail, chocolate-covered ants? Well, my Uncle Bobby, a commercial fisherman in South Carolina, recently gave me a bag of what looked like fish. Was I surprised when he told me it was butterfly ray. I was game to try it. I cut the pieces in “fingers,” then rolled them in Old Bay Seasoning and garlic salt, then dipped them in egg and finally shook them in a bag of corn meal and flour. Next came the test. I deep fried them in oil and drained the fingers on paper towels. When I cut into the first piece, I could not believe the flavor. The consistency was like chicken, but tasted like pork chop. There was no fishy taste at all. This definitely should be on the menus in seafood restaurants.
Planting time: I know a lot of people swear by the Farmer’s Almanac. I just go by my gut feeling. I have a row of potatoes, a row of garlic, a row of multiplying onions and three rows of carrots already up and thriving. This week I planted three rows of okra, six hills of cucumbers, a yellow sweet banana pepper, six hills of cucumbers, a sweet 100 cherry tomato, an Early Girl and Big Boy tomato and still have Rutger tomatoes to plant and two rows of white corn. My garden is 16 feet by 24 feet and produces so much food every summer.
Be watchful: Remember, spiders and snakes are in your yards looking for food. Be extra careful when weeding your flowerbeds. I have a black racer that loves my yard and he scares me when he appears. But I think he knows he has a non-ending food source around all my plants. So I leave him alone and he watches me carefully. Again be warned that if you have a small dog or cat, now is feeding time for red tailed hawks, peregrine falcons and owls. They are looking for food for their young. Do not allow your small animal out without you being there beside them.
Mark your calendars
March 30-April 1: Garden and Antique show at Roundhouse Railroad Museum in Savannah. Call 236-4795 for details
Saturday: Great American Clean Up of St. Catherine’s Island