YEAR-END CLEANING

Today's the day I purge some detritus off my hard drive.  In a file labeled "Bobby Personal" I found a Word document titled "Good Ideas."  I had no recollection of what it contained, not suprising since the date I put it there was 6/7/2007.  I find the best way to get rid of things is to delete them sight unseen;  if I look at each item, I will find a dozen reasons why I should keep it.

However, "Good Ideas" got looked at and just maybe if I pass it on to you, I can safely let delete it.  I would certainly give credit to the person who came up with these good ideas if I could, but unfortunately I didn't save that part.  Nevertheless, good ideas always should be passed on, don't you think?

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Easy Deviled Eggs - Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, and cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done.  It's an easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting - When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar/calories per serving.

Newspaper Weeds-Away – When you start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil.  Then wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go, cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get
through some gardening plastic, but they will not get through wet newspapers.

Squirrel Away - To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum - To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Measuring Cups - Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Good-bye Fruit Flies - To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small
glass fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants - If you use chalk lines where the ants are coming in, they won't cross it, so I think this is even BETTER - as we need ants to aerate the soil and clean up dead bugs as they are great scavengers!!  Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it and carry pieces home, but because they can't digest it, it kills them.  It may take a week or so to stop the ants, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!