A DIY Fish Scaler

Expensive item, a fish scaler, unless you have an old wooden spoon, a few beer bottle tops and the same number of screws/nuts & bolts as beer bottle tops.
It could not be easier... Drill the bottle tops to fit the screws or nuts and bolts and screw or drill and fit them to the spoon. Cut the spoon to your chosen length and there you have it, an almost free fish scaler.

A DIY Chimney Baloon

If you have a chimney that you don’t use, as we do, then it needs to be draft proofed in some way. You can buy a ‘Chimney balloon’, an expensive item that you place in the chimney and inflate, or, you can do what I have done. This is to simply fill two black sacks with that fibreglass insulation you were saving, (and didn’t know why) and push it up into the opening to fill it.

If you are worried about ventilation (I’m not) you can always leave a space at the side and if by chance you ever forget it’s there and do light the fire, the plastic bag will open with the heat and the fibreglass insulation will fall down and should put the fire out.

The images are, I hope, self explanatory, the top one shows the 'baloon' in place up the chimney. One point I must make is that when you are on your back, fitting the thing, wear safety goggles, from experience, glasses are not enough!