[mini-marcoms]

Title: Removing Broken Bulbs

Safely remove broken light bulbs! Unplug the lamp or cut power to the ceiling or wall light. Wearing protective gloves, use pliers to break out the remaining light bulb glass over a wastebasket. Keep your work at a distance.

Use the pliers to pry the male light bulb socket away from the female socket. Grip the male socket and screw it out. If you can't pry away the metal, center the pliers inside the socket and separate them with both hands. Applying pressure from inside, screw out the socket. If this doesn't work, wedge a dowel tightly in the socket to screw it out.

Title: Up On The Roof

Finding moss on your roof? Pour bleach on it. Cover moss in cracks, crevices and shaded areas with ordinary bleach. On slanted roofs, pour bleach from the high end of the moss. It will trickle down to the rest, preventing waste. Avoid treating just before or after a rain so the bleach won't dilute or wash away.

Apply once every several days to rid the moss completely. Three applications a month should take care of it. Overhanging trees and birds may be dropping the moss. Unless you plan on removing trees or have found a foolproof scarecrow, you may find moss returning during summer months.

Title: How to find a stud

Are you having trouble locating wall joints and studs? Use a stud and joint locator. This handy device glides across the wall, flashing lights and sounding alarms when centered on solid wood.

Use a pencil to mark the wall at the center of the stud. If your mark is higher or lower than where you want to nail, a plumb and yardstick will help. Level the plumb where the mark is and draw a short line across. Align the end of the yardstick with the line. Mark the point along the yardstick where you want to hammer in your nail.

Title: What's it good for?

Have you ever wondered why the Phillips screw was invented? Do you know which jobs are best for Phillips screws? Henry Phillips invented the Phillips screw to meet demands for screws that could be turned quickly by power screwdrivers. A Phillips screwdriver finds the slots in a Phillips screw quicker than a flathead driver and screw. The powered Phillips screwdriver releases quickly when the screw is tight so as not to damage the screw.

Now this may be obvious, but the next time the job at hand requires a power screwdriver, remember, the Phillips driver and screw were made for it.

Title: My Sediments Exactly

Clogged drain? Get two pipe wrenches, a pan and gloves with a firm grip. If you have plastic pipes, the job should be easier. Lay the pan under the pipe directly connected to the one that runs up to the sink.

With plastic pipes, see if you can loosen and remove that second pipe using only the gloves. If not, use the wrenches to secure the first pipe or pipe joint while turning the second pipe loose. The clog and sediment will likely be in the pipe running down from the sink and in the second pipe. Clean out the gunk and replace the pipe.

Title: Planting Time

Time to ready the ground for planting? Plow the ground with a tractor and plow. Till the ground with a rotor-tiller. Spread lime over the whole area. Walk up and down the tilled soil. Leaving several feet to the left and right, throw the lime out and away from yourself all around you. Cover but don't completely whiten the ground. Spread ground peatmoss over the whole area but not so as to completely hide the lime or soil.

Till the ground again to draw the fertilizers under. Then use a hand plow to make rows. Plant your seed according to the best advice from your local farm supply.

Title: Easy Steelhead Fishing

Steelhead fishing is a great pastime. A creek, stream or inlet is a good place to find them. Use a 20lb test line and Mr. Twisties. These are short, rubbery yellow lures. They look like a worm on one end with a tail on the other. You might try applying a little power bait to the hook if you have some.

Where the water is about four to eight feet deep, let the Mr. Twisty sink straight down to about three to six feet deep. Bob it up and down once in a while to provide movement. On a good day you can catch your limit of good-sized eating fish.

Title: Oh, Deer

To enjoy wildlife up close, make them feel at home by following these simple steps. For Deer, plant deer clover and set out salt blocks. Twenty to 50 yards out from the house is good. You can still see them but they won't be scared off by you.

Deer also like oats and some occasional corn. For Turkeys and other critters, put out ears of feed corn, bought cheaply from the Amish or your local farm supply. Nail spikes in the tops of a couple stakes of about one yard each. Saw off the heads and sharpen them. Pound them into the ground, spikes up. Spike the corn on those for your wild friends' enjoyment.

Title: Ceiling Storage

Don't have enough room for all those parts and tools in your shed or workshop? Ceiling storage is the answer. Nail up a board or 2x4 lengthways, wedged between any two ceiling beams or walls, a few inches from the top or within reach. About a foot or so from that nail up another parallel to the last. Add a third in the same way and then a fourth if needed.

You can now store shovels, rakes, hoes, boards and other long parts and tools overhead, crossways above the new framework. If there are no ceiling beams, nail up some hanging wooden supports. Make these of equal length 2x4s.

Title: Tooth, Head, and Stomach

Here's a home remedy sure to work fast on that head and stomachache. Drop two aspirin tablets and a teaspoon of baking soda into a glass. Fill with cold water. Let fizz for a minute and drink it all down. This may remind you of another fizzing head and stomach remedy and the ingredients are much the same. If it's just your stomach giving you trouble ? heartburn or indigestion - leave out the aspirin.

Baking soda and water can also help with irregularity and gas pains. If you have a toothache, an aspirin between your cheek and gum near the tooth should ease the pain.