Forgotten old timers tricks

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Tempstar, Jul 31, 2017.


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  1. Tempstar

    Tempstar Monkey+++

    This evening I was adding rear work lights to my Abrams (OK, Ford Bronco) and the gnats had formed a strike team with the mosquitos, with random flies acting as forward observers. I quickly resorted to chemical attacks, both a Tiki torch and mosquito repellant, neither of which penetrated their lines. These guys were out for victory and I was trying to get finished when an old trick popped into my head that I remembered my Grandpa using. I grabbed a white cotton towel that I used for wiping hands, etc, and dropped it into an old coffee can and lit it on fire. Once a bit was consumed I covered the can until the rag was just smoldering and uncovered. Magic! The flying blood sucking insect squadron was on the run and I was able to finish what I started. For some reason I had forgotten this old trick, though as a kid I watched Dad and Gramps use it a lot when we were fishing or something. It seems most insects hate that smell. So, I thought of a few others to post here. Kerosene, in a small container placed under the workings of a grandfather or mantle clock keeps the gears coated with a light film of lubricant, just enough for a clock. Kerosene also will take the soreness away from a cut or when jabbed by a catfish.
    Anyone else?
     
  2. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Axle grease rubbed into fairly significant cuts lets the skin heal without the hard callus like edges to the wound.
     
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  3. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Good info @Tempstar .

    Use the weed plantain to relieve itching from bug bites.
    [​IMG]

    mash up a leaf or 2 and place of the itchy spot. It's also edible, though I've never eaten it.
     
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  4. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    I've not had the chance to try it yet, but I saw were you can burn used coffee grounds like incense, and it keeps the mosquitos away.
    I used to go fishing back in the swamps with my grandfather, they had these yellow flies that would buzz your head like an armed Apache helo, and bite like hell. Pretty much like a horsefly. He would smear a little Vicks Vapo Rub under the bill of his hat , he said that kept them away. I don't remember ever trying that either.
     
  5. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    My mother kepta potted Aloe Vera on her front porch. If we got a minor cut or burn, it came in handy.
    A vitaman E gelcap squeased onto a small wound speeds healing.
     
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  6. Altoidfishfins

    Altoidfishfins Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

    Heard of some old timers putting Listerine in a spray bottle and spraying themselves to keep bugs off. I tried it for keeping those springtime Arizona biting gnats away. Didn't work worth a damn.Got chewed to pieces anyway.
    Probably would've been better off with the smoldering rag idea.
     
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  7. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    Electrical tape for quick wound closure and burn relief till you can care for said injury properly. The old trick of vaper rub on the hat brim does work, and if you mix in a dollop with your tin cloth wax, will not only keep the bugs off, but keep them from getting mould when not in use. Run a potato on your leather boots to remove sweat stains and salt build up! Use bear tallow on top of an iron cook top to clean and preserve, will prevent rust and remove coffee stains from using a percolator on it. Sprinkle coffee grounds around the garden to help fertilize and prevent slugs and snails. Use cedar shavings around Windows and door thresholds to keep bugs and spiders from entering the home. Burning cedar chips in the camp fire will keep flying bugs away from you! Vinager in a dish covered with plastic wrap and a few tooth pick holes will catch fruit flys and keep them out of your foods.
     
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  8. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    2 table spoons of Cider vinegar and 2 of honey in a cup of hot water will help cure a cold and regular doses seem to improve one's circulation during the winter . I could work shoveling snow in a T shirt and levis and boots in 20 degree weather, and every one else is bundled up like a flat lander. Any stomach issues like botulism, at first suspicion things were wrong ,first evacuated my stomach, and then drank about 3 good shots of cider vinegar . Never suffered any ill effects.
    Now that I've discovered colloidal silver ,it has no taste and is probably more effective in killing bacteria than vinegar.
    For any external injuries of any sort, I use colloidal silver ,although honey and other of time remedies have some effect ,if the injury is serious and your going to the ER they really don't want you putting any thing there but saline or water, seeing they will have to scrub it out, to use their own prescribed treatments.
    Colloidal silver kills bacteria without killing the skin tissue, alcohol or peroxide does.
     
  9. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    A moist teabag on a small cut will help stop the bleeding.

    I love the old time remedies that didn't require a trip to the pharmacy.
     
  10. Hanzo

    Hanzo Monkey+++

    A friend of mine got Montezuma's revenge in Mexico. He said it was really bad and nothing helped, until a local told him to take two shots of tequila. Friend said it was like flipping a switch. It instantly stopped all the bad effects for him.

    Seems two shots of tequila works for many things... :whistle:
     
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  11. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Decades ago when camping with Dad, he'd use Citronella Oil. He wore by it. I don't recall it working very well.
     
  12. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Smear soap on the bottom of your camp frying pan and pots, soot washes right off. (Bar soap like Pop taught me gets pretty thick if you smear it on directly. Dish soap works better, thinner coat.)
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2017
  13. hot diggity

    hot diggity Monkey+++ Site Supporter+++

    Dad used a bunch of old trick to defeat pests in the garden. Beer bottle caps full of beer attracted and drowned slugs, dried blood from the slaughter house kept deer away, and rabbits didn't care for red pepper juice sprayed on plants. This was mixed up with water and dish soap to make it cling better.
    He'd lay cigar butts along the rows of plants as well, but I never saw his cigars repel anything but people.

    The old time solution for tomato worms was a nickel bounty on each one and two little boys with jars with a little gasoline in the bottom. Quite an incentive for a 10 year old, especially when a box of .22 long rifle cost only 15 tomato worms.

    @Tempstar, I really enjoy this topic. (I hit that @ like I was 15...okay, maybe 25.)
    My trouble now is that I live an old timey life. Is it an old timers trick to hang a cast iron frying pan, sharpen a kitchen knife on the bottom of a porcelin coffe mug, or know just when to take the skittle off the burner?
    When I was showing a new kid some of my old carburetor tools the other day I started to think I was an old timer. Gas rag starts have been replaced by noid lights, you don't have to turn your Evenrude outboard around backwards to go in reverse, and it sure doesn't have separate throttle and spark advance levers.
    Don't even get me started on gas pressure appliances. Pressurized gasoline in a hand held container that's on fire! Everybody needs to know how to preheat a blowtorch!

    Fireplace "front log." This is a large log set in front of the fireplace grate to restrict the draft and keep a low fire going all night.

    My Great Aunt, who lived in central Michigan with only heat from a fireplace (built for heating, with a heat exchanger and outside ash box) used this technique. She would select a front log, then stack wood so high behind it that it was almost up the chimney.
    She seldom had to get up at night to add wood this way.
    One more quick observation. The wood we used heat homes in Michigan was what we called go-fer wood. It was the bark and outside slabs of logs from the local saw mill. Delivered by the truck load to a tough old lady who lived alone for most of her later years.
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2017
  14. hot diggity

    hot diggity Monkey+++ Site Supporter+++

    I don't know if this is an old timers trick, but it works on old jars, and used to drive Mom nuts.

    After she had gotten frustrated with a jar lid that wouldn't budge she would call Dad to get it off. He never struggled with the lid, but would just set his palm on top of it and wait...and wait...and wait. About the time Mom was about to boil over he'd twist the now warmed up and expanded cap right off for her.
     
  15. hot diggity

    hot diggity Monkey+++ Site Supporter+++

    There are lots of things that can't be done with cars anymore, but they worked like a champ.

    I'd pop the cowl vent screen out on old cars and pour ice into the cavity. Later cars required removing the wipers, but a Datsun 510 cowl would hold 10 pounds of ice and cool for almost 20 miles of summer driving. Cars with wind wings could be wired wide open with coat hanger hooks to provide added blasting air while moving.

    Can't crank a manual transmission car in gear anymore without depressing the clutch. That's depressing, because it was the best granny low, get you out of the sand-trap gear going. My '70 C20 would climb out of holes nearly axle deep like that. Everybody that used this trick knew a way to prevent the engine from starting when they didn't want it to. My truck wouldn't start with the throttle to the floor. Others could be choked out with the manual choke.

    Do they even make a tire iron that can be used to dismount and mount a tubeless tire anymore? I've done more than my share like that. No wonder my back hurts nowadays.
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2017
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  16. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Yep, that works on metal lids, so does holding it under hot water for a couple seconds. Not so good on plastics, but if you get lucky, sometimes it will.
     
  17. hot diggity

    hot diggity Monkey+++ Site Supporter+++

    Oh, but you can't put Granny's preserves under the hot water for fear of the steam making the hand written and glued on labels run or fall off.
    Could make things interesting if you got the Jalapeno jelly mixed up with something else. :sick:
     
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  18. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Jeez. Don't put the one you don't want under the hot water--- :lol:
     
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  19. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon

    Tiki Torches don't work for a damn.
     
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  20. Bishop

    Bishop Monkey+++

    Tea bags in bath water for sun burn warm drop of Olive oil in the ear for a ear ack cob webs in a deep cut to stop bleeding honey in cuts to stop infection throat punch to some one bothering you will make them go away
     
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