Pest Control Formula HOS Pome News Winter 2011

I've had this in my physical inbox for awhile because I wasn't sure what to do with it. I want to use it in the future, but didn't know where to put it. Then, VOILA! the answer came to me. I'll just type it in here and come back later to retrieve it when I need it.

Pest Control Formula
Mai Schreiber, HOS Member

Mai got this formula from a Seventh Day Adventist family who had used it for two generations. Mai has had extremely clean fruit in her ancient orchard that had been neglected for some years.

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 banana peel, chopped
1/2 gallon water
Also add chopped, withered, or even partly rotten apples

Mix all ingredients. Divide into half gallon milk jugs or other containers to hang in fruit trees. Mixture should be about three inches or more deep in bottom of container. Leave cap off so insects can enter. Insects are attracted by the odor of the mixture.

Hang containers in orchard (3 in a standard tree) on other branches in early March. Check regularly an replace when filled with insects. Dump on weeds--vinegar will help kill weeds.

Clean or replace containers filled with new mixture. Keep containers in trees all summer and fall until leaves fall off.

Calm Coat Closet

Behind this door used to be a whirlwind of chaos: guitar sitting on the ground, gym bag and game bag thrown haphazardly, DDR (Dance, Dance Revolution) pad on top of everything.

Now there is calm. The guitar is now hanging on a hook, the winter hats have their own hooks, the gym bag and the game bag have their own spaces and the DDR pad is cleverly suspended above it all.

To do this I used two spring-loaded curtain rods. The DDR pad sits on top of the fray, but below the coats.

Peace of mind for $8.00.

Recipe Holder

BEFORE: I stuck the recipe I needed to reference to the wall with ticky-tack.

AFTER: I installed a magnetic knife holder vertically and now can post the recipes with magnets.

Drying Laundry Indoors

I like hanging my laundry to dry, but not outside during the three seasons it rains and is cold all the time. So I've purchased these drying racks and have mounted them on the wall. They lay flat when not in use.

But pop out when it's time to hang the laundry.

A full rack will stick out fairly far, but I can still get by.

I've also got an Octopus dryer in the closet for my underwear and socks.

It's handy because the clips are built in. I also think that things will dry more quickly in there because of the heat from the hot water heater. The pipes are insulated, but I can feel a temperature difference.

My goal is to use the dryer to dry my sheets (during the winter only) and let the air air-dry the rest. The dryer is typically the second biggest energy hog after the refrigerator, according to some quick googling. Our washer leaves a fair amount of water in our clothing, despite a second time through the spin cycle, and the dryer is becoming less efficient, even though we keep it clean of excess lint. So air drying is my attempt to save us some energy. I'll report back how the experiment works.

Brother projects

Chris came over and we accomplished so much:
A compost sifter.

Planting of the contorted quince and three blueberries.

Framework for the Belgian fence. The trees will be planted and then the branches trained to grow along the bamboo supports. I can now just show people this picture to give them a visual rather than ineffectively throwing my hands into a "Y" shape and then an "X" shape.

The rain garden in Ryan and Emilia's yard is officially in operation. Now I just need it to rain so I can see how it does.

Saved from the faulty shoe rack.

Here is my "before" picture of the unfortunate shoe rack I've been living with for ten (!) years. The large space between the two bars mean that the shoes always fall through. Happily, Linda, Matt's mom gave me an Ikea gift card for Christmas and I purchased a much better option.

The famous Ikea assembly.

A good helper.

More of an onlooker than a helper.

The finished product.

It holds eight pairs of shoes.

If I want to put my laundry basket in the closet, I can't access the bottom drawer easily, but I rarely need the shoes in the bottom drawer.

What could it be?

A landing pad for a very small helicopter?

Nope, it's for my fancy leather bag.

It's a rain guard!

I had an old shower curtain and I cut it to fit.