A plastic jug hung from your belt makes a nifty nail carrier

Lots of do-it-yourselfers carry nails in their pants' pockets,jeans' pockets and even their mouth. There's a better way.

Rescue a small plastic jug from the trash pile. A householdcleaner bottle, drink bottle or some other small bottle will workbest. Cut the top half off to leave yourself with about a 4" tallholder. Make two parallel slits on one of the sides that areside-by-side and running vertically. Your belt will run throughthese slits to keep the handy holster always at your side. Pack itfull of nails the next time you are making roof repairs or whateverelse requires a bunch of fasteners.

A SUPER HINT: If the power to your meat freezer is turned offlong enough for foodstuffs to go bad, you might not know it and youcould get sick from eating the meat. A simple way to detect aproblem like this is to put an ice cube in a glass jar, seal the jarand set it in your deep freezer. If the power should go off, the icecube would melt and then re-freeze in the shape of the jar. A quickglance will tell you whether the power had failed.

DEAR AL: We really tried to be neat campers our last trip out.To do the dishes, we dug a small pit, spread a plastic trash bag init and filled it with water. After doing the dishes, I pulled thebag out, let the water sink into the soil and used the trash bag forgarbage. M.L.N.

DEAR AL: I'm such a klutz, I hate to put a gallon of paint onthe top step of my ladder when I'm painting, but holding it is tootough for me, too. I have found a fool-proof way of hanging it onthe ladder. I hang the bucket from a C-clamp that is then fastenedto the ladder. Once the clamp is on there tight, the paint can can'tfall. I've used it on several occasions, and it's worked real well. V.N.