Uses of Vinegar in the Shop and Working Area

Uses of Vinegar in the Shop and Working Area

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Unclog steam iron. Pour equal amounts of vinegar and water into the iron’s water chamber. Turn to steam and leave the iron on for five minutes in an upright position. Then unplug and allow to cool. Any loose particles should come out when you empty the water.
2. Clean a scorched iron plate. Heat equal parts vinegar and salt in a small pan. Rub solution on the cooled iron surface to remove dark or burned stains.
3. Keep colors from running. Immerse clothes in full strength vinegar before washing.
4. Get rid of lint in clothes. Add ½ cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle.
5. Freshen up the washing machine. Periodically, pour a cup of vinegar in the machine and let in run through a regular cycle (no clothes added). Will dissolve soap residue.
6. Brighten fabric colors. Add a ½ cup vinegar to the rinse cycle.
7. Take grease off suede. Dip a toothbrush in vinegar and gently brush over grease spot.
8. Remove tough stains. Gently rub on fruit, jam, mustard, coffee, tea. Then was as usual.
9. Get smoke smell out of clothes. Add a cup of vinegar to a bath tub of hot water. Hang clothes above the steam.
10. Remove decals. Brush with a couple coats of vinegar. Allow to soak in. Wash off.
11. Clean eyeglasses. Wipe each lens with a drop of vinegar.
12. Freshen cut flowers. Add 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar for each quart of water.
13. Polish car chrome. Apply full strength vinegar with a soft cloth.
14. Dissolve rust from bolts and other metals. Soak in full strength vinegar.
15. Clean windows with vinegar and water.
16. Rub vinegar on the cut end of uncooked ham to prevent mold. It will not change the taste of your ham.
17. Add vinegar to laundry rinse water. This will remove all soap and prevent yellowing.
18. Remove hairspray and other p[product buildups from your hair. Massage one ounce of full strength vinegar into hair and leave on for about 20 minutes. Rinse with warm water. The shampoo and rinse your hair as usual.
19. Boil vinegar and water in pots to remove stains.
20. Pour undiluted vinegar in coffee maker to remove sediments. Run through like you are brewing coffee. Let cool and run through again if your coffee maker is full of sediment. When done, run in plain water through to rinse a few times.
21. Remove berry stains from hands with vinegar.
22. Wash hands with diluted vinegar after working with cement. This will restore smoothness and color of your hands.
23. Artists use vinegar for etching and blending paint materials.
24. Soak your fingernails in vinegar for 20 minutes two times a week to strengthen them. They will grow longer a lot faster than normal.
25. Bring vinegar to a boil in an old saucepan. Reduce to shimmer and place paint brushes with hardened paint on them in the pan. Leave until you see paint loosen. Wash brushes with soapy water to soften the brushes.
26. Dampen a cloth with vinegar and wipe counters, canisters and other containers to keep them smelling fresh and clean.
27. Place small containers of vinegar all around the house to take out cigarette smoke smell. Or wave a cloth you soaked in vinegar around the house to clean the air odors.
28. Pour baking soda down clogged drain. Add boiling vinegar to it and your drain should unclog. If not, your clog is needing a commercial drain opener.
29. To tighten cane bottom or caneback chairs sponge them with a hot solution of half vinegar and half water. Place the chairs out in the hot sun to dry. They will tighten back into shape.
30. To eliminate mildew. Dust and odors. Wipe down walls with vinegar-soaked cloth.

Home with Nature, AVR

Pangasius fish: How it is made into fillet

Abe V Rotor


From top: holding tank for Pangasius of harvestable size; fins are cut off, gills removed to bleed fish; fish is deftly cut with fillet knife; entrails are removed; choice cut. The remaining bony part which includes head is cut for paksiw, or for animal food.

It is called iridescent shark, Pangasius hypophthalmus, but it is not a shark, it is a catfish related to our hito or paltat (Ilk). It is also known as Siamese shark or sutchi catfish, or striped catfish, and dory fish. The species is found in Southeast Asia, in the Mekong (Vietnam) basin as well as the Chap Phraya (Thailand) where and is commercially raised for food. It has also been introduced into other river basins as a food source and is common in the fish keeping hobby. It is named for its glow or iridescence exhibited in juveniles. It is omnivorous, feeding on algae, plants, crustaceans and other fish.

The fins are dark grey or black. Juveniles have a black stripe along the lateral line and a second black stripe below the lateral line; they have a shiny, iridescent color that gives these fish their name. However, large adults are uniformly grey and lack the striping. Adults reach up to 130 cm (4 ft) in length and can weigh up to a maximum of 44 kg (97 lb).

Acknowledgment: Coronel Farms ) Florida Blanca, Pampanga); Wikepedia

Don't play with the toad. It is poisonous.

Dr Abe V Rotor
Toads (Bufo marinus) are nocturnal, they rest in crevices or under the shade during the day. The toad is a friend of the farmer because it preys on insect pest. But in Australia it turned maverick soon after it was introduced to control sugarcane pests. Because it is poisonous, the toad has been responsible for the death of dogs, cats, fowls, reptiles, as well as other predators to the point of decimating their populations and disturbing ecological balance.

Raintree - the Graceful Acacia (Samanea saman)

Raintree - the Graceful Acacia (Samanea saman)

"Lying under an acacia tree with the sound of the dawn around me, I realized more clearly the facts that man should never overlook: that the construction of an airplane, for instance, is simple when compared [with] a bird; that airplanes depend on an advanced civilization, and that were civilization is most advanced, few birds exist. I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes." - Charles Lindbergh

        Acacia Tree - a Miniature Ecosystem 

Closeup of the crown of an acacia tree revealing rich biodiversity and homeostasis (dynamic balance), painting in acrylic by AV Rotor 2025

 “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

Part 1 - Where have all our heritage acacia trees gone?

Photographs taken by the author on a running car all the way from Vigan to Laoag,  a stretch of 90 kilometers.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Empty landscape meets the traveler

Emptiness is simplicity, purity, peace and order.

No.  Nothing exists in nothing - or least,

 emptiness denies happiness and meaning of life;

leading many to solitude and loneliness.

                                    - A. V. Rotor

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." ― William Shakespeare

"Love is like a tree, it grows of its own accord, it puts down deep roots into our whole being." ― Victor Hugo

 

A Cross on the Roadside

(A Cross in the Sky*)

Dr Abe V Rotor

I have lost you forever,

Now a silhouette in the sky,

Spreading a gospel to remember,

For the mindless passerby.

You live half of your life,

Yet fullest at the Throne,

Earning it well with strife,

Where every seed is sown.

The birds now a flock,

The child a man;

You bid them all the luck,

And now they are gone.

In youth you sheltered me,

A thought I can't be free,

I atone for your brevity,

With a thousand and one tree.

"I feel a great regard for trees; they represent age and beauty and the miracles of life and growth." ― Louise Dickinson Rich

 

The Highway Conquers All

The highway conquers all:

Trees on its shoulder, lawn between lanes;

in rich diversity now thinned out;

wildlife pedestrians crossing;

breeze swept into cyclone and dust;

bright, pure colors into kaleidoscope,

landscapes into haze and maze;

whisper and lull into sudden boom;

leaves fall in any season;

Give way to the king of the road;

now you see him, now you don't -

the Janus' god of the Good Life.

- A,V, Rotor

 

"All our wisdom is stored in the trees." ― Santosh Kalwar

"On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree." ― W.S. Merwin 

 

"I think I shall finally see,

A kind-hearted man plant a tree,

For he who truly loves thee

Shall love others through a tree."

- A V Rotor, Light in the Woods

  “Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” – Gerard De Nerval

 

"Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking." ― Wangari Maathai

 

"When trees burn, they leave the smell of heartbreak in the air." ― Jodi Thomas

 

"Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come." ― Karen Joy Fowler

 

"Trees do not preach learning and precepts. They preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life." ― Herman Hesse

"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky." ― Kahlil Gebran

 

 “Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”   John Muir

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” – E. O. Wilson

                            * Reprint from Light in the Woods by Dr A.V. Rotor 1995

Part 2 - Trees for Peace 

Symbiosis of Drynaria Fern and Acacia Tree - More than Commensalism

Dr Abe V Rotor

Drynaria fern covers the limbs of an acacia tree. Tagudin, Ilocos Sur

Photo by the author.

I like the Drynaria

I like Drynaria for her feathery foliage in the distance like the proud peacock and the turkey trotting to win favors of their flock;

I like Drynaria for her sturdiness in the wind, cooling the summer air and keeping the coolness of the Amihan in December;

I like Drynaria for her resiliency, bending with the limbs and branches, turning upside down and up again the next season;

I like Drynaria for sleeping through the dry months while her host takes the show, verdant green, robust and free;

I like Drynaria for resurrecting from a state of torpor, as if she defies death and perpetuates life while others simply die;

I like Drynaria for her economy in sustenance, living on captured dirt and rain, yet discreet of such austere living;

I like Drynaria for touching the clouds with her host taming it to fall as rain and shared by all creatures around;

I like Drynaria for her ability to multiply fast through invisible spores, in one sweep of the wind are sown in far places;

I like Drynaria for its benevolence to many creatures, tenant and transient, keeping their brood in her bosom;

I like Drynaria giving the martines birds a home, where it sings in joy and praise and thanksgiving for a beautiful world;

I like Drynaria for keeping company to passersby, to tired souls in the shadow with her host, in dark and unlikely hours;

I like Drynaria for giving off oxygen and taking in carbon that poisons the earth and living things, among them no less than I;

I like Drynaria, for caring its host and vice versa through symbiosis - a perfect bond that humans have yet to learn someday. ~

Martines birds, long thought to be extinct locally, find shelter

                             and home with the Drynaria, and the host acacia tree. 

                                                    Photo by the author.

The Mystery Child

 The Mystery Child 

"But there are no neighbors! There are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river!"

Dr Abe V Rotor

In a workshop for adult leaders, the instructor asked the participants to draw on the blackboard a beautiful house, one's dream house ideal to raise a family.

It was of course, an exercise, which in the minds of the participants was as easy as copying a model, or recalling experience and memory. Besides it is a universal dream to own such a house, and its concept allows free interplay of both reason and imagination.

Child with a Dove is one of the classic oil paintings of Pablo Picasso painted in 1901. The painting is now loaned to the National Gallery, London.

The participants formed a queue to allow everyone to contribute his own idea on the blackboard.

The first in the queue drew the posts of the house, on which the succeeding members made the roof and floor. The rest proceeded in making the walls and windows.

In the second round the participants added garage, porch, veranda, staircase, gate, fence, swimming pool, TV antennae, and other amenities.

Finally the drawing was completed and the participants returned to their seats to discuss, What make a dream house, an ideal house? A lively “sharing session” followed and everyone was happy with the outcome, and none was happier than the teacher who learned this exercise in an international forum. Now it works on the village level.

Just then a child was passing by and peeped through the open door. He saw the drawing of the house on the blackboard. He entered the classroom and went close to the drawing and stood staring at it for quite a time. The teacher approached him and the participants turned to see the unexpected visitor.

The child pointed at the drawing and exclaimed, “But there are no neighbors!”

In the same village there was a similar workshop exercise, but this time the participants were to draw a community, aerial view. The participants made a queue towards the blackboard and after an hour of working together, they came up with a beautiful drawing of a community.

In the drawing there are houses. There is a plaza, around it are a church, a school, a village hall. A network of roads and bridges shows the sections of the village. People are busy doing their chores, especially in the market area. Indeed it is a typical village.

The participants discussed, “What constitute a community.” It was a lively discussion and everyone was so delighted with their “masterpiece” that the teacher even wrote at the corner of the blackboard “Save.”

Just then a child was passing by. When he saw the drawing on the backboard through the open door, he entered the classroom. He went close to the drawing and looked at it seriously for quite a time. The teacher and participants fell silent looking at their very young unexpected guest.

The child exclaimed, “But there are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river!”

Some days had passed since the graduation of the participants in the two workshops. Because it was not unusual to see a child in the village, no one really bothered finding out who the child was or where he lived.

Then one day, the whole village realized and began to search for the child, but they never found him – not in the village, not in the neighboring village, not in the capital, and not in any known place.

Who was the child? Everyone who saw him in the workshops never forgot his kind and innocent face. They pondered on his words which became two great lessons in life:

• But there are no neighbors!
• But there are no trees, no birds; there are no mountains, no fields, no river!” ~

Classical Adventure and Science Fiction Writers

World's greatest science fiction writer. Although considered fiction, his writings vividly described machines too advanced in his time, the products of a rich mind, that became the forerunners of today's submarine, dirigible, rocket, spaceship, and the like.

Abe V Rotor

Adventure is an inevitable part of childhood. Scientists believe that early exposure to adventure - real and imaginary - contributes immensely to a happy childhood, and enhances a better chance to face successfully the realities of adult life in a fast changing world.

I recommend these fiction novels for reading and viewing.

1. Jules Verne – Around the World in 80 Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth
2. Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea, Snows of Kilimanjaro
3. Johann Wyss – Swiss Family Robinson
4. Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe
5. Anna Sewell – Black Beauty
6. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World
7. Mark Twain – Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn
8. Rudyard Kipling – Jungle Book
9. Herman Merville – Moby Dick
10. Robert Louis Stevenson – Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
11. Frances Burnett – The Secret Garden
12. Edgar Rice Burrows - Tarzan
13. Creators of Flash Gordon, etc.

Take hold of these novels - in print or CD, or both - and you will realize the transformation of your life. Parental guidance may be needed for some works, or parts of a certain story.

Based on lessons on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's school-on-air)

Are you aspiring to be a journalist?

This article is dedicated to the father and pillar of Philippine journalism: Teodoro or "Ka Doroy" Valencia (center). His column Over a Cup of Coffee shaped the thinking of his readers, and influenced the decisions of leaders in his time and beyond.

Like "Ka Doroy" an aspiring journalist must -

1. Be inquisitive
2. Be constant in his purpose
3. Be fair and balanced
4. Be genuinely interested in people
5. Seek the truth
6. Be resourceful
7. Have guts
8. Master his grammar
9. Know his medium
10. Read, read and read.

Above all, he must be God-fearing, compassionate, and true to his country and fellowmen. And uphold journalism as a profession and institution.

Based on the lecture by Dr Abe V Rotor on journalism, UST Faculty of Arts and Letters