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Debra Kayn is visiting today. While she’s discussing farms, bull riders and handy-dandy items with multiple uses, I’ve going to sit back in the winter sun and continue reading her new release, Rodeo Rebel. I left Florentine and Cole at an impasse and need to learn what happens next. Over to Debra!
Thirteen things you can find around the farm or ranch that come in handy for other things.
1. Twine – Typically used to secure hay bales. We use twine to stake plants, hang bird feeders, make gate latches, and tie items on the back of the quad as we’re working around the property. If you have long hair, you can quickly braid and tie when you get caught without a rubberband.
2. Laundry detergent buckets – Used to haul feed and water. Used to organize bolts and hand tools in the barn or garage. Also great to use when washing cars and tractors to hold your soapy water.
3. Vinegar – We also wash our windows with a mix of vinegar and water in a spray bottom. Then scrub the glass dry with wadded up newspaper for a streak-free shine.
4. Dog nail clippers – Work great for clipping off the thorns of a rose bush when you want to gather a bunch for in the house.
5. Horse brushes – Work great as a boot brush to knock off the mud and dirt before coming in the house.
6. Cattle or Hog panels – Arched and staked in the ground make a wonderful archway to grow peas, green beans, or grapes on, and will last forever.
7. Mane & Tail Shampoo and Conditioner – Made for horses, and safe enough for human use. If you suffer from tangles, it’s wonderful.
8. Tractor inner tubes – When inflated it makes a great trampoline for kids and adults in the yard, or if you want to try to curl inside and go for a ride downhill.
9. Rake heads – When the handle breaks on your rake, you can still use the rake head in your country chic décor! Nailed to the wall, they make a great coat rack. You can also hang dog leases, belts, necklaces, and umbrellas from the many prongs.
10. Egg shells – Crush and sprinkle into the ground around plants to help them grow. It’s a great source of calcium, which plants need.
11. Plastic Milk Jugs – If you cut “flaps” around the sides (along the length) and stick them on a fence post beside your garden, the wind makes a howling sound and rattles the plastic…scaring the deer and rabbits away from the garden.
12. Chicken hook – Typically used to catch chicken. They are great for hooking apples off the tree that are too far out of reach.
13. Chicken wire – Have outside deck steps that get slick in the winter? Cover the step with chicken wire and tack the edges underneath the step. It makes a nifty non-skid surface and you can easily remove it during the summer.
Can you think of anything around your house that you use for something else besides the real purpose of the item?
Rodeo Rebel
Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Blurb
When widower and land baron Cole Reardon acquired the Turner Grain Corporation, he didn’t know the company sponsored a bull rider. He refuses to support thrill-seekers dumb enough to get on the back of a crazed animal. He’s not willing to risk his fortune and livelihood when he has his daughter’s well-being to consider. Not even when the bull rider is the sexiest woman he’s ever seen.
Bull rider Florentine McDougal plans to turn pro after the season championship, fulfilling her lifelong dream of succeeding in a man’s world. That is, until Cole Reardon shows up and threatens to break his sponsorship contract with her. Now everything she’s worked for is less than eight seconds away from being destroyed.
Cole distracts Florentine with his sexy mouth and unreasonable demands, and he’s not going to compromise his integrity. But she’s not going to let him loose until she has pro status. And neither will come away from this dust-up unscathed.
Multi-published Romance Author, Debra Kayn, lives with her family in the beautiful coastal mountains of Oregon on a hobby farm. During the summer, she enjoys riding motorcycles, gardening, playing tennis, and fishing. During the winter, you’ll find her outside playing in the snow. A cold weather nut, she lives for the days she’s snowbound and fighting with the woodstove to keep the house warm when the power goes out. A huge animal lover, she always has a dog under her desk when she writes and chickens standing at the front door looking for a treat. She’s famous in her family for teaching a 270 lb pig named Harley to jog with her every morning.
Her love of family ties and laughter makes her a natural to write heartwarming contemporary stories to the delight of her readers. As someone who met her husband on a blind date when she was nineteen years old, she’s a believer of love at first sight and happily ever after.
Nice to meet you, Debra. I homestead in Texas.
I cannot have enough 5 gallon buckets! I use them for everything, including growing potatoes.
What kind of chickens do you have? We currently raise Americaunas, black australorps, and buff orphingtons, but I think we will get rid of australorps and orphingtons and start Marans next year.
Maria – Currently we have buff orps, Americaunas, and one turken (the naked neck chicken). We have our farm for sale, so have downsized to the minimum. But, once we move and regrow, I get to start raising more…can’t wait!
Thank you, Countrydew!
Ciara – When I started thinking up the list, I wasn’t sure I’d find 13 uses but they’re out there!
Novroz – You can smell the vinegar when you’re doing the windows, but it quickly dries with no smell. It’s an old-timers tip, and there’s something in vinegar that also sterilizes the surface…bonus!
Hi Savannah *waves* – I thought of a weird one when I was doing the list, but it doesn’t involve an item, really. I mix mayonnaise and milk together, and dip a cotton ball in the mixture, then I rub it on my household plant leaves. It takes the dust off the leaves and makes them shiny. It almost makes the plant look fake when you’re done, and it’s healthy for the plant.
Hi Debra, I live on a farm in Virginia! Great list of reuse! We raise cows.
Congrats on the book!
Nice to meet you, Debra. I had no idea there were so many uses for these items.
You washed your window with vinegar? isn’t that a bit smelly?
That one really caught my attention
It is a pleasure to meet you. I’ve used a few of these things. I’ve never had a farm but growing up we had some animals.
These are awesome. We use plastic bags from the store for everything!
Jennifer – Yes! In our area they are trying to ban the plastic bags from stores and urge us to use paper or recyclable cloth bags. I understand the concern over the littering problem from plastic bags, but I use and reuse them all the time.
I’m the “undomestic” goddess, so I don’t know much about any of that stuff! LOL! Interesting TT, though!
*hugs*
Paige
My TT is at http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com/
lol Most days I feel very undomesticated.
Some great and interesting ideas–thanks for sharing with us!
My Thursday Thirteen
We always used bailing wire on hay bails. At least that’s what everyone did when I was a kid. Now they’ve got these machines that turn the hay into these huge roles, and I’m not sure what they use.
Alice – I don’t know what they use on the round bales. In our area, nobody bales hay that way because it’s too wet and we have to store the bales inside so they don’t mold. If our farm sells, we’ll be moving to North Dakota…they round bale their hay, so it’ll be interesting to learn how it’s done.
Very handy tips. I love the plastic coated floral wire for tying, organizing cords, hanging christmas ornaments.
Vicki – Oh, that’s a good one! That is handy for everything…including the tying bread bags. The plastic clips always end up breaking with my kids always in it.
Where were you with the detangler when my kids were little. What an ordeal we went through with my one daughter and tangles. Very interesting list. Thanks for sharing. Happy T13!
Adelle – I didn’t know about Mane and Tail when my daughter was young. I wish I had! I swear, if anyone came to our house when I was trying to comb her long hair they thought I was murdering her. She hated to have her hair combed.
One item that has multiple uses is insulation tape. You can use it on leaking hoses for one and it can be used in a hundred other ways. I think it’s one thing you should never leave home without.
Good for fixing broken suitcases, stopping up a draft in a hotel, sticking over zips when there are light-fingered pickpockets around. The possiblities are endless.
Welcome again, Debra. I finished reading Rodeo Rebel yesterday and loved it. Love the McDougal family. :)
I’m so glad you enjoyed Rodeo Rebel. :) Thank you for having me here today. I always have a blast, and you have THE best visitors to your blog. A huge thank you to you all!
I reuse the plastic butter tubs for food storage.
I used the dental floss to slide under my dough for rolls and cinnamon buns and bring it up over the dough in a criss cross pattern to cut the dough into rolls, it doesn’t squish the dough like slicing with a knife would.
I also used the dental floss to make my dream catchers, it works better than twine or thread.
Mary – I learned something today! I never thought of using floss to cut dough. That’s brilliant, and I’ll make sure I try it.
I live on a farm and I concur with all of your multi uses for these items!
And vinegar is wonderful to use. Not smelly at all. It’s safe for pets and humans which is a huge plus!
Some of thoses are so cool. Especially about the rake and milk jug. Thanks for sharing.