*Make a Heat Pack from Dry Corn*
Have you ever used one of those microwavable heat packs designed to sooth and relieve muscle pain? Not the liquid ones, but the nice ones that have a powder inside them? How would you like to make one in about 15 minutes at a cost of less than a dollar?
Get about a pound and a half of corn and an athletic sock. (This is a great use for those socks that always seem to turn up without a mate). I used cracked corn that I buy in 50 pound bags as animal feed from the local farm store but whole grain corn will work fine too, just make sure it’s completely dry. Grind it up in your grain mill or blender. The object is to make small chunks approaching very coarse meal, don’t make it as fine as corn flour or very fine meal or it might leak out of the sock.
Pour the ground corn into the sock and tie the open end closed. I found it works well to use a canning funnel to load the corn into the sock.
Pop the pack in the microwave and heat it up. In my microwave, a good place to start is a minute and a half on high power but yours might be different. Start low and work your way up to whatever works for you. CAUTION: This thing can get hot enough to burn you if you heat it too long. Once heated, the pack will stay hot for nearly ½ hour and then can then be heated up again and again. The pack can be stored on a shelf without any covering but make sure you let it cool completely first.
Spitfire
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