Have you ever heard of Lava Buns? If not, you need to check it out. It’s basically a seat cushion that you can either heat up in the microwave or cool in the freezer. The internal microcore element holds the hot or cold for up to six hours. It’s great for the deer stand, the football stadium bleachers or the Fourth of July picnic. The name is kind of weird, but the product works. You can find it at your local outdoors store or Google it online. It comes in red, navy, black and camo and costs about $30.

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I have to give kudos to my sister-in-law for the great way she’s raised her kids. They’re well behaved, do well in school and they laugh at their uncle’s jokes. Recently my nephew, who is in the eighth grade, let his grades slip from A’s to B’s. His mother warned him that if he didn’t bring them up, she’d go to the school and spend a whole day with him. She told him that she’d make sure she sat next to him in every class. For an eighth-grader, this is equivalent to having hot pokers stuck in your eyes. Well, my nephew didn’t take his mother’s threat seriously and didn’t bring his grades up. My sister-in-law followed through on the threat. I understand that my nephew is now working hard to avoid a repeat appearance.

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Here’s another way you can keep the rabbits, squirrels and mice out of your garden. Gemplers.com has a new product called the Red Fox Two Dimensional Decoy. It’s basically a high-resolution picture of a red fox that you stick in your garden. The picture is weatherproof and looks pretty life-like. By the way, if you’ve never checked out Gemplers, you need to. They have all kinds of neat stuff for the outdoors person. (Contributed by Ricky Moore).

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If you want to keep the fizz in your soda bottle longer, try this trick. Squeeze in the sides of the bottle before you put the lid back on. The negative pressure that you create by doing this will help keep the carbonation in the drink.

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There are a lot of Web sites that offer coupons for grocery shopping. However, there’s only one that does a good job of reporting on unadvertised sales at your local store. The Web site is www.thegrocerygame.com. Rachael Reksten told me she was skeptical at first, but now she’s a believer. She and her friends save more than 40 percent on their groceries using this site.

Tim Thompson lives in Gainesville. E-mail Tim your ideas for tips, tools or tricks.