DIY hacks

Epiphany of the weekend...diy hacks are potentially fabulous.

I've been doing a lot of canning this fall.  And the last couple batches I did in my hot water bath caner struggled with rust, which I finally discovered was coming from the jar holder that sits in the bottom.  It was a short investigation time; I pretty much just needed to turn on the light.

I digress, yes, the rust.  I don't remember it happening in previous years, but sometimes my memory is not so perfect.  So I googled it.  And then I googled it again and added 'diy' to the search.  Wow.  Just wow.  I found out that I'm not the only one who thinks the thing is crap and nearly useless, especially for small jars, which I did a lot with this year.   So why replace it with same thing - I'm not!  I'm excited to try out a diy hack that I already have all the supplies for at home and if it doesn't work I'm no worse off than I was before.

Now to find a recycled use for my rusty piece.  I refuse to subscribe to pintrest but I might have to re-think diy hacks.  As long as they actually work.  I'll keep you posted.  I suspect the rusty useless piece will end up in recycling.  I don't want to spend a lot of time hunting for a re-use. Previously I found most diy hacks to be cheesy and useless.

Half a box

I opened a box from the trailer last weekend with my darling man.  I was excited to see the electric wok, which took up half the box.  He said 'are you kidding?  that thing sucks!  have you used it recently?  the temperature control is horrible'.  I'm not exaggerating, those were his exact words.  It was a breath of fresh air to put it and a non-functional glass container into the donation box.  Which is now full.  We also pulled out a kiddie sled we picked up along the way and decided we don't need.

The bad news: a good friend is heading overseas for six months.  We are temporary keepers of some of her stuff.  And....my darling husband has a shop.  Which on the surface sounds fabulous and I'm very excited for him to finally have a place to put all his tools and be able to run his businesses from.  However, the slope can be slippery.  I had been debating what to do about a litter box.  Don't get me wrong here, the idea is to purge the life of stuff I no longer need and not buy things on credit.  Ahem.  That does not mean I just put stuff in the trash can when I decide I don't want it anymore.  The friend heading overseas had the same problem - actually taking time to find the right place for your no longer wanted stuff can be a time suck.  It's certainly not the two second answer that the trash can claims to be.

Back to the litter box.....I have a cat.  He's very special.  He has clearly communicated to me that he is no longer interested in using the 'world's best litter box' that I bought him and that he has faithfully used for years.  Which is a huge bummer because I also have dogs.  I can't imagine anyone paying money for a used litter box nor can I imagine a local shelter or donation shop accepting a used litter box.  So it sat.  And got moved around the house and finally found it's way to the front door.  And now it has gone to the shop.  Where there is lots of room......  I tried to suggest that the shop needed a cat.   The idea was not well received.